End of summer adventures! (Part 1)

The middle of the summer was somewhat unproductive as far as adventures go because it was so hot and dry.  We did a lot of swimming but mostly we stayed inside for most of the day to avoid the strongest rays of the sun.  Finally in the last week of summer we did two of the things that we had planned all along: hiking and Thomasland.

Excited for Thomasland

Riding on Thomas the Train was too much for poor tired Vivi!

Enjoying our picnic

A ride made for Ryder!

On the little train

Flying on the rockets

All kinds of things to do

The gravity drop!

Janda regretted the teacups

A streamliner like in the book "Choo choo"

41 months!

Terrible three's pushing forward around here!  We're still working on listening and following directions and Ryder is definitely getting a lot better.  It's not 100% of the time yet, but when we ask him not to do something, he has gotten a lot better at not ignoring us and doing it anyway!  He is very headstrong (are there any three year olds who aren't?) and when what he wants and what we want aren't the same, he gets frustrated.  This still mostly happens before nap and before bed when he is tired/overtired.

Ryder has been back on his bike a lot this month.  There are some kids in the neighborhood who come up for the weekends with their bikes, so the whole group of them tear around.  Ryder really enjoys it when there are other kids to play with.  Since he's not in pre-school yet, he doesn't quite know what to do in a big group of kids, but he still has fun.  They are all older than him, and they are pretty good with him and Vivi.

We did a few art projects this month, some inspired by Curious George and another inspired by a rainy day!  Curious George makes Valentine's Day cards for his friends in one of the episodes, so Ryder wanted to make some cards too.  We got out a bunch of cards and Ryder started painting.  After I showed him that you can paint on one side, close the card and make a neat mirrored pattern, he was all about that!  He would paint one side of his card and then say "Watch this trick Daddy!" He must have painted 40 cards that way.  He gave several of them out already.

Ryder continues to be very involved in the garden.  He picks the tomatoes but hat he really loves now are the peppers.  When we come in he sorts the different veggies into baskets, puts them into the fridge and then helps cook them later.  He loves to pull the stems off the tomatoes as I am getting ready to roast them, but his favorite is grilling peppers.  The other day he put all of the peppers we picked in the grill, which was off. Later when Janda turned it on he found a bunch of cooked peppers when he opened the grill after it warmed up!

Sitting with Daddy

A little slouchy but still smiley

Sitting up and saying cheese

On the go of course

Running around

Eventually all of the jumping ended up in a pig pile

Goofy face

The action photos are his favorite part

20 months!

Vivien has been talking up a storm this month.  There are times when she quietly watches things, especially when strangers are around, but mostly she is chattering constantly, or screaming.  She has a high pitched scream of joy and amusement that would shatter fine crystal if we had any!  She is picking up words much more quickly now and seems to have a new word practically every day.  My favorite words of the month have been her new phrases: "I did it!" "Here you go" and "I got it!"  Every time Vivien does anything she excitedly exclaims "I did it!"  It's really cute how proud she is of doing things herself.

Speaking of doing things herself, Vivien wants to do everything herself.  She likes to pull on her own clothes, eat her own food and do every little task.  If we try to do something that she wants to do herself, she tells us
"No!" with her cute little scrunched up face.

So far Vivien loves to play with trucks, which Ryder is still not a fan of, and the musical toys the most.  Everything else she just likes to dump out and walk away!  Her favorite things to play with though, are things that are not toys.  She is constantly going through drawers and pulling everything out to choose the most baby-inappropriate things to carry around.

She likes to help in the garden, but she doesn't quite understand which things are ready to pick!  She is sort of getting the idea now, but mostly she picks whatever she wants and then says "Ready!" A lot of the time it is something green!  We have a lot of tomatoes and peppers, so I don't mind too much and would rather encourage her to be part of the gardening.  It does upset Ryder though- he keeps trying to explain to her what is ready.

Vivien has been eating and sleeping well.  We cut back on the milk a little bit, but on the hot days we give her more.  She still likes her few certain fruits and veggies, but hasn't really found any more that she likes.  She definitely likes dinner foods the most.  She is still doing two naps a day most days, but I can see the slow transition to one is coming.  It might have to come when we go back to school.  Most nights she still goes to bed easily and sleeps through the night.  Both she and Ryder had fevers this past month, so that night was a bit trying, but the rest of the time she has been great.

Most of the pictures were her looking sideways- note to self, next time have Ryder over with me!

Big smile!

Cutie!

I love that sweet face!

Always dumping stuff out

Who me?  I would never make a mess...