4th of July

Probably my next favorite holiday after Christmas and Halloween. I LOVE the 4th. We head up to NJ to spend time with my brother and his family. On Saturday, they have a lake picnic for the entire neighborhood. It is incredible how many people go.

The day usually starts at 7am with a fishing contest and a Fun Run. Then there is a parade, a sand castle contest, grease the watermelon for the kids, horse rides, kids games, adult games and we can't forget about the all the food and beer. The night even ends with a firework show.

Henry is going to have a blast this year. He is finally going to be able to run with all his cousins and their cousins. Play in the lake and just be a kid with everyone. He has actually been talking about it all week. Everyday he asks if we are going to Jack's house.

We do have to remember that all this would not be possible if it was not for all the men and women that fight for our freedom each day. Thank you to everyone out there that serves and protects our country.

I hope everyone has a happy and safe July 4th!

GAME......COCKS!

I can't tell you how proud I am to be a Gamecock today. Those two games were unreal, well actually all the games in Omaha, were incredible.

I tried to watch as much of the games as I could. I have a sleep problem ( I need it.) and when the games go after 10:30pm, I can't keep my eyes open. Luckily Monday, nights game was replayed yesterday and I was able to pick up in the 9th inning and see those amazing plays and watch us win.

I was determined last night to stay up, but again, 10:30pm rolled around and my eyes rolled closed. I was getting really stressed, so it was probably better that I took a little nap. Charlie woke me up for the last out (reason 7697 why I love him) and I was so happy.

Is it not the best thing to see that dog pile? What other sport can you do that in. I don't think football would be a good dog pile sport and I think in basketball dog piling on the hardwood would probably hurt, a lot!

This year we had a bat boy named Charlie, and if you watch the dog pile you see him trying to find the best time to jump in. It just brought tears to my eyes, that this 13 year old boy who is in remission from cancer was able to jump into the dog pile and celebrate with the boys! In the picture you can see him off to the left.

This morning we told Henry about the Gamecock win and he asked to watch it on the T. Charlie told him we can try and find a replay of it, tonight. Henry was so excited he just started shouting GO GAMECOCKS!

Great Win, Great Game, Great day to be a GAMECOCK!

Bubble Guppies

Bubble Bubble, Bubble Bubble Guppies......

OMG - have you seen this show? Henry is obsessed with it. He saw it advertised when he was watching Dora and kept asking for it. I was able to find it on demand but there are only two episodes. I think we have seen them both 100 times.

It is actually the only show Henry will sit on the couch and watch and not talk or move around for. In the mornings when he comes into our room and it is still early, I just put this on and he sits and watches it. What amazes me, is how they watch the same two episodes over and over and over again.

I finally found it this week and have recorded some new episodes. Saving grace for us, because I think have the other two melted into my brain.

The show is cute, I like to call it a new age Snorks. I say Snorks and Henry laughs. It is on Nickelodeon in the mornings most days. They sing and there is always some type of music involved. The colors are great and so are the stories for a 2 year old. I like that Henry can participate in the show and he likes to scream out the answers.

Bubble Bubble, Bubble Bubble Guppies!

Swim Class

This past Monday, Henry started swim class. It is thee days for two weeks, 30 min sessions. I had no idea how he was going to react but he LOVES it!

I took him on Monday and Charlie took him yesterday and will continue to take him because he seems more fearless with Charlie in the water then me.

The class is cute. They sing songs and then have stations around the pool so they can learn different things. The class is all about getting them to enjoy the water and go under the water. Henry's favorite station is when he gets to jump from the side of the pool.

He also loves to lay on his belly while we hold him and he kicks and sometimes will move his arms. I'm impressed bc this child usually hates getting in the bathtub. He actually asked Charlie yesterday if he could swim by himself.

Charlie was able to get Henry to go under water. He held his breath and even closed his eyes. I was so proud and now I am even happier that we signed him up for these classes!

GO GAMECOCKS!

Thanks to Grandpa, ( or should I say...thanks to Coach) for getting Henry this bag. I had it hidden in a closet but Henry found it again this morning. I think I have listened to this song 100 times today.

I told Henry there was a big Gamecock game tonight - I just hope we can tell him tomorrow that they won!

GO GAMECOCKS!

Happy Father's Day - 26 Years Later

In our house growing up we pull out this picture I made of my Dad for Father's Day in 2nd grade. My mom actually still pulls out the picture and hangs it on the fridge. Every year we chuckle a little more about the picture and what I wrote inside the card.

We can't figure out what the best part of the card is. The quirky smile, the coke bottle glasses, the neck tie that looks like a baseball or the uneven hair.

On the inside, the card reads: Dear Dad, Happy Father's Day. I remember when you took the family out to eat. I love you. Love, Amy. To this day these words still hold true.

I know my Dad is getting orange juice out of the fridge right now and shaking his head as he looks at this self portrait of himself ;)

Happy Father's Day to my wonderful loving husband, my Dad and my Father In Law. Thank you for everything that you all do for us, we love you!

Father's Day Photo Shoot Gone Bad

This will be the 3rd year of the "DAD" photos and probably the hardest year yet. Currently I only have 1 good D and one good A. Not sure how I am going to get another D because the subject just does not like to cooperate.

Here are few take outs from the session.

I will try again the next few days and see what happens.

Really, Really?

Every Friday we get a newsletter from our community about activites that are planned for the upcoming weeks. We have a lot of great activites, too bad I am working parent and I CAN'T ATTEND ANY OF THEM!!!!

Come enjoy a free swim class for your child - oh yeah it's on Wednesday from 4pm-5pm. Want to be on the swim team - well practice is from 8am-10am once school gets out during the week. How about you come meet other local parents whose kids will graduate in 2024 (yes that is not us but it bothered me), they are having a GTG on Wednesday afternoon from 12pm to 2pm. Don't forget the free kid movies at the theater at 10am on Wednesday!

Really? Really?

There are working parents out there that would love to attend events with their kids. Don't get me wrong, I would love to stay home but it is not in the cards for us. Maybe just scheduling a few activities on weekends or maybe just after six for working parents would be nice.

Rant over.

What did you say?

I may be over reacting but I just can't believe it has already happened. I mean I knew it would happen eventually but this is just way too soon.

Henry has started calling me MOM!!!!!!!! No more Mommy, just Mom. How could my little boy do this to me. He is only 2.5 years old, shouldn't he still be calling me Mommy? It's breaking my heart that he is calling me mom. It makes me think that he is like 13 not 2.5 years old.

Just tonight he was like Mom, I need this...Mom, help with this, Mom, can I have this?

Who is this Mom person, I am Mommy not Mom.

Maybe it won't last and he will go back to calling me Mommy - I can dream right?

First Night was a success

So, the score still might be Henry 3752, Mommy and Daddy 1, but I will take it!

If you have been reading, you all know Henry has been on a sleep strike lately. It was like a switch went off and he just decided he didn't want to sleep anymore. This causing nighttime to be a dreaded nightmare. His usual bedtime of 8pm was out the door. Sunday, was his latest night yet....10:45pm and he was up at 6:15am on Monday!!!!

Yesterday, I decided to do a little research and see what we can do to get him back to his regular routine. I found some articles on Baby Center and I sent them over to Charlie. He picked one of the ways they suggested and kind of modified it a little bit. We decided together we will make this work and Charlie took the initivitive last night (reason 7658 of why I love him).

We started up our routine, dinner at 6:30pm, play, jams on around 7:15pm, Wheel of Fortune and then Charlie took him up at 7:30pm. They read books, Charlie tucked him in and walked out. Henry didn't want Daddy to leave, so he opened the door and came down, Charlie stopped him on the steps and put him back in his room. Tucked him in and said good night. Henry then started crying, Charlie sat outside the door and waited 3mins and then went back in, same thing, tucked him in said good night. Henry got up and cried for 5 mins, Charlie went back in but this time laid with him.

Henry was out by 8:20pm!!!! You know what time he got up this morning - 7:30am!!!!!!!! It was bliss, absolute bliss.

Wish us luck tonight! Since Henry got a good night sleep last night, Charlie is going to do the same method but this time not lay with him. It might take a little longer but we are committed to making this work!

Weekend Update

This past weekend we were up in NJ. It was a quick trip but we loved every minute of it!

Here are some pictures from the weekend. The first two are pictures of Henry with my very best friends children.

This was the best we could do. That is Henry, Zachary and Ava.

They loved playing at the water table Andrea had set up for the party.

We went to an airport by my brothers house and Henry was in heaven. That is him pointing at the plane landing.

This is the beach at the lake by my brother's house. It was pretty funny watching Henry walking in the sand. He finally got the hang of it and was loving it. He is going to have a blast when we go back for the 4th.

Five for Friday

Happy Friday!!! For a short week it sure was a long one. We are headed up to New Jersey this weekend to celebrate baby Z's first birhtday! Of course there will also be lots of family time with the Bolka's.  Henry will be in heaven, playing with Jack and going down to the lake!

Henry has been changing so much lately so I thought I would write about five new things he has been doing.

1.  He still loves all things transportaion and his newest love are helicopters. Charlie taught him to hit his chest to make the helicopter sound. It is so cute when Henry does it bc he still wants to hold the "copter" but he can't figure out to how old it and make the noise at the same time!

2. He REMEMBERS EVERYTHING and I mean EVERYTHING! You can't tell him at 9am that he can have ice cream for dinner because you are bribing him to eat breakfast. As soon as you would pick him up for school he would tell you he was going to have ice cream for dinner. He is still talking about the circus we went to in March and the train that we saw at the Birds game on Mother's Day weekend.

3. The sleeping has not gottne any better but we are still working on it. He will however get up in the morning, shut his door and sneak down to play in his playroom. The kid is so quiet going down the stairs, I don't hear him until he is banging his trains around. I wonder if he thinks if he shuts the door that he is trying to trick us?

4. He loves to sing. His top songs are Take Me Out to the Ballgame, The Chuggington theme song and the last one is toss up between Twinkle, Twinkle and Old McDonald. He will say Old McDonald had a farm e i e i o, on his farm he had a cow, with an oink, oink here??? Then when you correct him he starts laughing so we know he is doing it on purpose.

5. If Henry says a turle flies, then a turtle flies. Just ask Grandf how that conversation goes.

Enjoy the weekend!