Wednesday, September 3, 2008

a day in the park ~

After a rough day yesterday, I decided I wanted Ryan to have as much time outside as possible today. (I will not be creating a post about what Ryan did...all I will say is that it tops anything he has done in the past and if you are curious, please email me and I will give you the gross details) We took our daily walk and also stopped by the playground to burn some energy.

Ryan had fun running around and trying out all the different equipment. He is old enough now to climb everything without help and slide down tunnels without having someone there to catch him. It was neat to watch him explore everything and question what they were. He was very interested in the monkey bars and was sad to find out that there were no monkeys that climbed it! He seriously was bummed that he wasn't going to see a monkey today...he cracks me up! After we played and "exercised" at the park, we headed home.

It was a fairly warm day and he insisted on walking most of the way (except going up hills!). This was fine by me because the more I could tire him out the better! He soon started to sweat and said, "Mommy I hot! I want cold." I thought he wanted a drink and tried to give him his water but he pushed it away and said, "no I want cold house now!" Oh...you want to be in the air conditioning at the house. "wes (yes in Ryan's language)." I love that he is using his words more and creates longer sentences. Now if we can only get him to speak clearer, life would be grand!

Enjoy the following pictures of our day in the park and Ryan's narration. :)


"I touch da trees, mama!"

"No monkey! BOO!"

A very cautious Ryan kept saying..."Hold on! Hold on!" as he crossed the bridge!

"Look out mama!"

"I climb high, huh mama!"

"peek-a-boo"

and as we enjoyed our time in the park burning off energy, Kara was close by getting her beauty sleep!

2 comments:

christy | brides to booties said...

Great playground Bobbi! T and I will have to come over and check it out. I like the miniature rock climbing wall! So cute. It was great seeing 3 out of 4 of you the other day!!

Anonymous said...

Bobbi-
Hello from the belly blog! I thought I'd come here to comment on the antics of children since the other one is for our workouts more. I read through several of your postings and it was so fun! Your son is adorable and a handful all in one-I can tell! Welcome to my world-only multiply it by 3! My oldest has a lot of health issues and so with our other 2 closer in age we have our hands really full.
When we had our #2 son we had waited 5 long years for him to come-so it was very exciting. We knew we wanted another so thinking it might take the same amount of time AGAIN we started trying when #2 was at 14 months. I got pregnant that week. Yeah, I cried for the first trimester. :) After my #3 was born we found he had some severe allergies and so our first couple of years was getting him healthy. Now that he is...he is a whirling dervish. The only time he ever rests is at naptimes-thank goodness for those! So when he came along and #2 was still so small we encountered many of the same things you are now dealing with.
So things that helped...Have some special things just for your little guy. Things your daughter obviously can't do-like a date just with mom or dad. Make a big deal out of the fact that little sis has to stay home. Have special books just for big boys, toys, games and so on. Right now he thinks being the baby is the best since the baby gets all the attention but show him how cool it is to be the big boy-different from being the big brother. It will take some time but it helps. Also make sure you are getting time for yourself without any kids each week. This was AMAZING for me (we started when my youngest was 8 months old.) I went out once a week with my girlfriends or by myself for a couple of hours and my hubbie took care of the kids and I tell you it made all the difference. I was more patient and much nicer overall. He would even do dinner-so it was great. And the last thing is to remember it takes time-read your scriptures and pray for inspiration to help him with the adjustment. Little things would come to me when I would do that-words of encouragement I could say, ways I could help modify his behavior, etc. I also realized the way my children behave is not a reflection on me. I am seperate from my kids-I am earnestly trying to teach them right from wrong and they have their free agency to choose to behave the way they want no matter how much I want them to behave another way, on the same hand when they choose to behave in a way they know is wrong we try as often as we can to let them suffer the natural consequences.
It really just takes time and constant tweaking. Plus it is different for each child. Knowing their love language makes a huge difference too.
Anyway, I promise it all will wash out. My 10 year old is a great kid with a firm head on his shoulders even though I was wanting to rip my hair out some days when he was a toddler too! I hope this "book" helps. LOL :) And I can't wait to hear more about your progress on the belly blog! Love, Noelle