My kids love summer. They love being outside, and they especially love being in the water. This summer, Kylee and Tyler both did a session of swimming lessons. Kylee is becoming quite the swimmer, and has decided she wants to do indoor swimming lessons this fall/winter, and possibly join swim team next summer. It is nice to have a proficient swimmer - I know I need to still watch her, but it makes taking the kids to the pool by myself (without Matt) a little less stressful!
I loved watching Tyler in his lessons. I was proud of him for finally feeling comfortable putting his entire face in the water.
He especially loved the "horsey rides", haha.
I'm hoping to do lessons with Bradley starting next year. In the mean time, he had fun at our neighborhood pool and enjoyed going to the splash pad!
As has become tradition, the boys and I headed down to Merrill Park on Memorial Day to check out the flag display and then headed up to the cemetery to visit the grave sites for Grandma and Grandpa Rich.
I had visions in my mind of getting a cute picture of the boys in the middle of the flags. Yeah, that was never going to happen. I felt a little bit bad as my boys took off chasing each other through the field. Oops...
They were so good and respectful at the cemetery that it made up for their craziness at the park!
Both Kylee and Tyler played soccer again this spring - Kylee with FC Nova and Tyler with Soccer Tots. It is fun to see them enjoying this sport so much!
Tyler lucked out in having Coach Steve again. He really made learning the basics of soccer so fun for Tyler. Tyler's favorite games were "Don't Wake the Dragon" (where you had to dribble the ball to the goal, but put your foot on top of the ball when the dragon woke up) and "Stinky Diapers" (where you tried to kick all the "stinky diapers" into the parents' bedroom, but the parents kicked them right back into the kids' bedroom).
My boys are a handful! I'm sure that is the case with most little boys, but Tyler and Bradley sure keep me on my toes. Bradley is full of energy and has turned into a little climber. Nothing is safe around him. Our stools currently reside on top of our counter if we aren't sitting on them, and the dining room chair are locked in the craft room. This doesn't deter Bradley too much... he finds ways to climb even without stools and chairs! I also have to keep my garage door locked so Bradley doesn't wander out into the garage on his own.
Bradley is almost always happy. He has the biggest, cutest smile. He has started throwing fits lately, though. I try not to laugh as he throws himself on the floor. He's usually upset that I won't let him climb on the stool and crawl on the kitchen counter.
Even though he's only 16 months, Bradley has turned into a good little helper. He loves emptying the silverware from the dishwasher and he helps pick up toys when we sing the "clean up song". Speaking of singing, Bradley loves to sing. It is so adorable. He doesn't really say any words, but he thinks he does. Listening to him sing is one of my favorite things.
Bradley loves to eat. He especially loves snacks. All day long he goes into the pantry and brings me snacks... usually fruit snacks, but sometimes he pulls out entire boxes of granola bars or the big Costco bag of pretzels and brings them to me. He also constantly brings me cups to fill up so he can have a drink (he loves water).
He loves playing with toys, friends, and his siblings. He is good at stacking blocks (or jars from the pantry) and loves playing hide and go seek with his brother. He wants to be one of the big kids and loves movie nights with popcorn. He is such a bright spot in our family.
Bradley and Tyler are finally starting to play well together... on occasion. Usually Bradley will just want to take the toys Tyler is playing with (or vice versa) or knock over the tower of blocks Tyler has built, but every once in a while they play so well together. I hope they can become good little buddies.
Besides dressing up and playing with friends, Tyler's other favorite things include playing "school" with Kylee and hanging out with his dad. I love watching Tyler and Matt together.
This last picture is sweet to me. Yesterday when Matt woke up, he got ready to head out on a run. Tyler got all excited and said, "Let's go dad!" Matt thought a minute and finally told Tyler he could go with him, but he would need to sit in the stroller. Tyler told him that he didn't need to sit in the stroller because he was the fastest man in the world (he had been pretending to be Flash all afternoon). The next thing that happened melted my heart - Matt agreed that Tyler could go with him and helped him get on his shoes. I am so thankful for a husband who loves his family!
I had no idea that boys liked to play "dress-up". I guess I kind of assumed it was a girl thing.... ya know, princess dresses, jewelry, and purses. Boy was I wrong. Tyler's favorite thing to do lately is dress up. There hasn't been a day in months where he hasn't worn at least one costume. He insists on wearing them to the store, to a friend's house, to the Discovery Center, when we are out on walks, etc. He loves it, and honestly, I love it too (for the most part... except when I have to help him take his costumes on and off a million times a day for bathroom runs or costume changes). Here are a few of his favorites.
Fall is such a fun time of the year... we have birthdays for all three kids, football season, Halloween, and fun fall family activities.
I'm not sure if we did any raking last year :-) I don't think that the leaves on our maple tree fell until like January or February! This year, they fell early enough that we needed to do some fall cleanup. The kids loved playing in the leaves!
As is typical, November is a month that we focused on what we were thankful for. Kylee loves making a "thankful tree", so we hung the tree in our entryway and then added leaves daily with what we were thankful for.
I loved seeing what the kids decided they were thankful for each day. Here is a sampling of what they were thankful for this month:
It's kind of fun having Kylee's and Tyler's birthdays so close together. We have celebrated each year with a family get together. Kylee gets a "friend" party every year, alternating between us and her mom for who organizes it. I don't think we will do a party every year with Tyler... in fact, I wasn't really planning on starting friend parties this young at all! But with Tyler's obsession with superheroes and his love of playing with friends, I decided to do a little superhero play date. We made invitations and invited a couple of his neighbor friends. We only did a couple small activities (i.e. pin the web on spiderman), and then the kids just ate pizza and played. It was fun to have everyone over... Tyler has missed his friends since it's no longer "scooter weather"!
A quick update on Tyler:
It is rare that we have a day where he doesn't wear some type of superhero costume. He insists on wearing them to the store, to the doctor's office, to grandma's house, etc. He knows every superhero by name and we have made up a little superhero song about any superhero imaginable.
Tyler still has a hard time sharing with his little brother, but then at times he is so sweet, offering hugs and kisses freely. Tyler still throws fits (usually when we leave somewhere that he doesn't want to leave), but they aren't as frequent and don't last as long.
He has the BEST imagination of any toddler you'll ever meet.
Tyler is one smart kid. He knows all his shapes and colors and can name any vegetable or animal or anything else you ask. He does VERY well with staying in the lines when he is coloring. He has started to recognize some of his letters and can tell you a couple of their sounds. We will be working more on letters this next year.
He wishes he could ride his scooter year round, even if it's raining or freezing cold outside. He also LOVES friends and adores his big sister.
Something happened this summer that may have forever changed us! Our cute neighbor boys started coming over (usually after dinner) and asking if Tyler (and Kylee when she was home) could come out and play. The kids would ride their scooters and bikes up and down the sidewalks in front of our house. They became cute little friends... and we became better friends with their parents! It started to be as enjoyable for me as it was for Tyler - the adults would sit out front and talk while the kids played. The "scooter gang" expanded down the street, and more and more kids and parents began hanging out together, several evenings a week. We all love the memories we created this summer, and I am thankful for the friendships that we have all created and strengthened. I LOVE the street we live on, but that is because we have the best neighbors. I am hopeful that we have created some lifelong friendships :-)
On a side note, Tyler has become an excellent scooter rider this summer. He can go super fast, steer, stop, etc. He is a natural!
Putting Tyler in Soccer Tots this fall was the BEST decision. He absolutely loved everything about it. He loved learning the different soccer skills, he loved being around a bunch of kids his age, and he LOVED Coach Steve.
Coach Steve really was fantastic. He was amazing with the kids and taught them soccer skills in a way that really worked for these 2-3 year old kids. They played silly games like:
Don't Wake the Dinosaur: The "dinosaur" (Coach Steve) would be sleeping by all his eggs (balls) and the kids had to go get a ball and kick it back to the castle (net) using their "little kicks". If the dinosaur woke up, they had to stop, put their foot on top of the ball, and say "go to sleep". They could only continue on their journey to the castle when the dinosaur had gone back to sleep.
Building "ice cream cones" with cones and a ball, and then kicking just the ice cream part.
Kicking balls through hula hoops.
Follow the leader through obstacle courses.
Feeding the whale (net) fishes (jerseys) and meatballs (balls).
Coach Steve also had a song that he sang with the kids each week that Tyler thought was pretty amazing. He loved singing it at home during the week. It was so cute. It is sung to the tune "If You're Happy and You Know It"
We all love to play soccer with our friends.
We all love to play soccer with our friends.
We all love to get together.
We all love to get much better.
We all love to play soccer with our friends.
But we NEVER touch the ball with our hands!
We never touch the ball with our hands!
We can kick it, we can head it,
We can chest it, we can knee it,
But we never touch the ball with our hands!
Whenever they got to the word "hands" in the song, the kids would raise their hands in the air and would say "hands" really loudly. Tyler especially loved that part, haha.
I will definitely sign Tyler up again. It was so good to get out of the house, have an organized activity led by an adult other than myself, and let Tyler burn some energy while he was doing something he loved, while at the same time learning skills for a sport I'm sure he will enjoy throughout his youth and maybe even beyond.
