T-1 till baby's birthday or a regular Friday night! (2-25-11)

Friday! I love coming home to remind Cash that mommy gets to stay home two days on Fridays. As I ascended the stairs to the living room I could hear giggling, lots of giggling. That usually means someone is hiding and waiting for me to turn the corner. Sure enough......

They were trying to hide together under the blanket but baby kept trying to escape causing a lot of laughter. Too cute, my 3 boys all together in a huddle.

And even though we had below average freezing temps, Cash continued his commonplace practice of playing the Wii in as few clothes as possible. If we look back over this year-long blog I am fairly sure that this will be his usual routine for most activities.

SNOW DAY!! (2-24-11)

I am the first to admit I am worse than the kids when it comes to wanting a snow day. It isn't the time off from work that prompts me to entertain the thought of a day off, but rather a day with the boys where we can stay in, drink hot chocolate, an unexpected wonderful day together.

A few weeks ago I started looking at the weather and saw a hint of possibility we may see snow again before spring. I waited to pack this year's snow gear, and that was a wise decision. Baby and I woke up first, of course, and I couldn't wait for Cash to come downstairs and see the white blanket. He was as excited as I thought.

First, a bowl of oatmeal to warm your tummy.

Next, dance around in excitement! Love the red socks!

Last, figure out which end the snow bibs go on. And after looking at this picture a few times I just noticed baby trying to get into the rice tub again. 

We started our snow fun with a wagon ride.

Baby tries his first snowball (I was careful where I took the snow from).

We finished up with a snowball fight. Cash remembers his first snowball fight with dad a year ago.

Had to add this pic in, Cash loved making this little snowman and the next day it was still freezing so he lasted, but by Saturday Cash would wake up to a pile of sticks and rocks. :( It did however lead us to get the book "What Snowmen Do a Night" from the library, definitely a must add to the Berry Library.

Baby Ryan adds a new word and Cash sleeps in (2-23-11)

This morning was an early morning, the kind where I am not sure how much sleep I actually got and the baby was awake before Ryan left to go to work. Ryan leaves at 5. Even though I dislike early rises, I absolutely love the quiet mornings with baby. I watch him play and try to show him new things. He always seems ready to go even if I'm not.

Last night baby was in the bath and he stood up and leaned over the side yelling out what sounded like "ette, eeeeeettttttteeeee" and he had the exact same inflections as I have heard Butters (his cousin) use when calling for Nana Nette. This morning I tried to get him to add the "N" for Nette and sure enough....

And of course a jaunt on the pony before breakfast is always a must! Cash slept in until the last minute and when I woke him he said "I need to sleep longer." There was a day, when he used to sleep like his brother, and I never thought I would hear such words. :)

Angry Birds! (2-22-11)

Cash (and the rest of America apparently) is obsessed with Angry Birds! I didn't understand this preoccupation with a slingshot, variously sized birds and "Are they smiling at me because I didn't beat this level?" pigs until last night, but that's a future blog. (3-11) A few years ago Ryan and I went to a Parent Forum and the keynote speaker spoke on the challenges our newest generation will face with all the new technology bombarding them, the media in front of them, and so on. He gave some ideas on how to stay "connected" and raise children minus the "gimme" effect.

Idea #1: Have children "earn" things like their computer or t.v. time, you don't even have to say that is what's happening, and it can be the smallest thing, "Let's pick up those toys and then watch some t.v." or in our case "Let's go poop in the potty, and then you can play "Angry Birds" the goal being that you instill into your child with a little work we get rewards, so can you guess who went poop?

I'll cut the suspense, it was Cash, dad just has to remember how to share! :)

Idea #2: Sooooo excited to try this starting this year when Cash turns 4. For your child's birthday you give a list of activities to do, say once a month, and they check them off as the year goes on. You also put on one DU, destination unknown, a surprise place to take your child. The speaker said when he went to visit his son in college his son planned a DU for him.

Baby on the other hand is going to be the unfortunate recipient of 2nd time around parents. Where some say with the second one they can eat off the floor, stay up late. Um, sorry baby Ryan but not true. Not only is he not going to be in on the Angry Birds scene for many years to come, he will wait longer for t.v., waited longer then child #1 to try juice, and so on. At least he has 101 toys to keep him occupied!

A Teacher in Training (2-21-11)

Cash has always liked to explain how his toys work. Now with baby Ryan around he has more of an audience. Today we brought up the "Open when baby turns one" tub that had a bunch of Cash's old toys.

The Drop and Roll Dinosaur was truly a favorite for Cash on his first Christmas! Now we had resurrected him and Cash wasn't exactly sure he wanted baby to be right next to him. I asked if he could explain how to play with the toy hoping that would help facilitate the sharing process.

Well, maybe not such a helpful idea?

Baby Ryan says his first animal sound & surprising sleeping positions (2-20-11)

You always have to wonder when someone starts out with "You gotta see this" and in our house we say that a lot. This time it was Ryan who said it and I followed him upstairs to see what was going on in Cash's room. Once in a while we let Cash stay up and read books in his bed for a while, and he takes it upon himself to do so even when we don't tell him he can so I expected to find him in his bed covered in books. Not exactly.......

Yes, that is Cash's head at the top right of your screen with his Cars bed flipped over on top of him.

Earlier today Baby Ryan surprised me by saying "Moo" and so I grabbed the camera and tried to get it on tape. Notice how he completely ignores me and goes about his business at first, hmmmm reminds me of someone else I know. 

The sensory table experience or "Stop eating the rice baby Ryan!" (2-19-11)

It took about 2+ months after we received the sensory table from grandma and my brother so easily built a table for it that I finally tried putting something other than toys in it. Water or rice? That was the question. Rice can be vacuumed, and water might cause enough damage to need a deductible of some sort so rice it is! Baby Ryan was getting observed and I wanted Cash to be occupied so I started with a small amount of rice to get our feet wet so to speak. Little did I know baby Ryan would stop at nothing, hurtling his chubby little legs over mountains of pillows, crawling through and quickly thereafter crying out in frustration as he became stuck in between the legs of a child rocking chair, and even pushing his brother a good foot and a half taller out of the way to get to that table. Once he "made it" to his destination things always started the same. First he may wrinkle his nose and make some snorting sounds, a sign he is being silly or gotten away with something. Then, he may pick up a tool and play around in the rice a while. But, inevitably he always goes in for the kill, he is quick and he is precise, and in a matter of seconds his mouth is full of dry rice. You'd think one bite and he'd be done with it, but alas we are on day 4 of rice in the sensory table and I just may be asking Ryan about that deductible tonight.