A Day at Work with Daddy

Today was "Take Your Kids to Work Day," so we all joined Ryan for the day at his office.

His company had the whole day set up with activities.  When we first arrived they gave each

of the kids a t-shirt and a small purple drawstring bag filled with snacks to eat throughout the

day.  Then we had some breakfast before going on a tour of Ryan's office.  

After the tour there was a karate class to stress the importance of health and wellness.

The boys loved it and had tons of fun.

 

Once the kids worked up their appetites, we went to the "family room" to grab lunch.

The room was just as amazing as I imagined it.  Tall towers of cereal, lunch catered in every

day...Ryan's company definitely knows how to take care of their employees.

 The boys played some post-lunch ping pong in the game room,

while Miles took a much needed nap.

Then it was time to get to work!

 

  

When the boys needed a little break from all of the activities, they hung out in the

conference room where there were piles of Legos, markers and movies playing.

And if that wasn't enough, they could always stop by the coffee bar for a midday pick me up.

The barista was entertaining Joe with the steam shooting out of the milk frother. 

 We all had such a great day!  Ryan's company did a great job hosting all of the families.

Thanks Ryan and Outcome Health!!

Kalita Cousins' Bike Gang

Painting Date with Joe

In the spirit of doing fun activities just for Joe while Owen is at school,

I decided to take him to a painting class today at Creativita.  He loved it.

And his painting turned out really cute.

I'm really enjoying having these special dates with Joe, and it seems he is too. :)

 

Easter in Wausau

This weekend we drove to Wausau to celebrate Easter with my family.  

One of the highlights was meeting my mom's new dog, Lola.  The boys were more than

happy to take her and Bella for a walk, or rather have the dogs take them for a walk.  It was

infuriating at the time, but kind of funny looking back at it now.  They didn't get the concept

that you walk on the sidewalk and the dogs follow you.  They would let the dog walk

wherever it wanted and follow behind it, whether that was all the way into someone's yard

or in the middle of the street.  

My mom lives on the top of a hill at a "T" intersection so we had to cross the street right

away to get to the sidewalk.  Joe started walking in one direction down the middle of the

street and Owen took off in the other, each following their own dog.  Meanwhile I had Miles

strapped to my chest in the Bjorn and was trying to chase both of them down and get them

to the sidewalk.  They didn't realize they could pull the dogs to lead them where they

needed them to go, so I had to do it for them.  I was going crazy, but I'm sure the neighbors

enjoyed the entertainment.  Thankfully for all parties involved, they got the hang of it.

 Other than that, Owen spent a lot of time playing basketball with the older boys.  He loves

basketball and loves his cousins even more.  As soon as Aiden's shirt came off, Owen's

came off right along with it.  He definitely looks up to them and I'm so thankful he has them.

 We rested up,

 so we were all ready to go for "Easter".  We had an egg hunt for the boys,

and as always my mom made sure everyone had plenty of candy to go home with.  The

highlights were the ever popular candy bar filled with all sorts of goodies that we got to load

up our bags with, and the Easter baskets my mom made for the kids.  The baskets

themselves were made out of candy boxes with a Laffy Taffy rope handle.  They were really

cute and creative and the boys loved them!  Thanks for a fun Easter Mom and Larry!

Happy 10 Months Miles!

I'm not sure how it happened, but Miles is already 10 months old.

Growth Stats

Weight - 18.25 lbs (17th percentile)

Height - 29 in (57th percentile)

He's becoming less of a baby and more of a toddler every single day.  He's pretty much
sitting up on his own now, and more importantly, much more sturdy while doing so.  He
transitions from sitting to the crawling position and back again.  He'll rock back and forth on
all fours and is so close to crawling.  It is honestly going to be any day now.  I'm really
excited, but also terrified because then I'll have three on the move.

In other big news, Miles is up to 7 teeth!!  He has four on the top and three on the bottom,
with another ready to pop out really soon.  Surprisingly, teething doesn't seem to bother him
much.  He drools a little, but it doesn't really alter his mood.  And he must love it because
now it's opened him up to so many more food choices.  I'm enjoying being able to give him
all sorts of fun and new things.  It makes him seem so much more grown up.

Favorite foods - Waffles, goldfish, graham crackers, baked oatmeal, chicken fingers, bananas, veggie straws

Normally I would list out his dislikes, but he will pretty much try anything I give him.  Whether
or not he eats is all depends on the day and how hungry he is.  There really isn't one thing
in particular that he's turned his nose up at.  Let's hope these adventurous
eating habits continue.

In other Miles news, sadly he's still waking up once or twice per night.  After waking up with
him at night and then chasing after the boys all day, I'm exhausted by the end of the day.
Hopefully he and I figure out how to kick these middle of the night feedings soon.

 Despite his nighttime waking habits, he has been such an easy baby that I can hardly even
complain.  He still hardly ever fusses, unless he is hungry or tired, and is content simply
being where the action is.  He gives Ryan and I huge smiles any time we enter the room.
And I love when he gets excited because he does the cutest things to let us know.  The first
is he'll open his eyes and mouth real wide, wave his arms up and down and rock or hop up
and down on his butt.  The other is perhaps my favorite.  It's hard to describe, but he'll close
his mouth in this cute little tight lipped smile and breath in and out of his nose very quick
and deliberately.  It sounds silly but it always makes me smile.

He's not the most vocal baby, but in all fairness there are not many quiet moments in our

house for him to get a word in.  He babbles and make noises, but no real words yet. The

way he sits back and observes everything makes me think he's just soaking it all in. 

I'm confident he'll find his voice in no time.  

I love this little guy so much and am having so much fun watching him master all his new

skills. I'm excited to see what new things he'll conquer next month.  Happy 10 months Miles!

Garbage Walk

With this week being Earth Week, the boys are learning all about taking care of the earth in

school.  On Monday I went with Owen's class for a walk around the block to pick up litter.

Owen enjoyed it so much that he requested we go on our own walk to pick up garbage near

our house.  So after naps we got our rubber gloves on and set off to clean up our block.

 Per usual, Miles was happy just going along for the ride.

 Look at all the litter we found!!  

Way to go Owen and Joe!

Thanks for caring and for making our earth a little more beautiful today.

Happy Easter!!

We were supposed to be in Wausau for Easter this year, but Larry had a heart

catheterization on Wednesday and still wasn't feeling the greatest.  We figured it was best

if we gave him a little time to recover and pushed our trip back to next weekend.

Lucky for us we have lots of people who love the boys and were happy to help us celebrate.

We started off the day with our own baskets and egg hunt when the boys woke up.

Then our neighbor Jerry and his son Jeremiah had an egg hunt in their yard for the boys

and another neighbor.  They hid tons of eggs filled with candy and the boys loved it.

We took a little break and the boys were able to get a much needed nap in before we

headed out to Ryan's Aunt Jennifer and Uncle Dan's house for dinner.

  

They had their 3rd Easter egg hunt of the day...they're becoming pros!

Before the day was over I set the boys on a chair to try to get a picture of the three of them.

While I normally love the pics where I can get them all smiling, this one made me the

happiest.  I love how happy Owen and Miles look, and what I love even more is how Joe is

giving Miles a huge hug.  It's such a cute picture and one of my new favorites of the boys. 

 Happy Easter!!