Let The Adventures Begin!

So, now that we've gone  back in time for a couple of posts, we're ready to keep going with present day.  Some of you may remember that last summer I made an "Adventure List" for us.  The purpose was to give us fun things to do during the summer outdoors, or at least out of the house.  We spend a good 6 months indoors here with the Colorado winter, so I wanted to make sure we capitalized on our good weather.  Well, this year the list has been made again and we are looking forward to a great summer!  One of the places on my list was the Denver Botanical Gardens, so when we saw that they were having a free day last Friday (May 6th), we jumped on it.  We headed up with friends and had a good time there playing, having a picnic, and walking through the gardens a bit.

Most of our time was spent at the Children's garden.  There was a mountain named "Pika Peak" that the kids could "hike", a dirt pit to dig in, a stream to wade in, and picnic tables for lunch.  The kids loved it all!  From there we crossed the street to the main gardens where we found a large ampitheatre with steep grassy hills.  There were kids all over it rolling down the hills, so we joined in!  Finally, we walked back to the Japenese gardens and enjoyed walking through them.  There was even a marker dedicating the gardens to a Kai Yamahara (I think that was his last name) who had tended the gardens for years.  Kai is now convinced that he is going to be a gardener and a paleontologist.  On our way out we grabbed drinks and popsicles at a stand and enjoyed them as we walked back to the car.  It was a hot day and the kids held up pretty well.  Both of them fell asleep on the way home, and a few hours after getting home I discovered I even got a bit of a sunburn.  It was a fun day!

Finn thought the dirt hill that one kid had dug was a great slide.

There was a next at the top of Pika Peak.  Both boys loved the eggs.

Kai built a castle with the wood blocks.

Walking on Daddy's Shoes

Over Easter weekend Reid was in charge of our Wal-Mart run.  While he was out, he picked up some new shoes.  While we still can't figure out the fascination with standing on Daddy's new shoes, it did make for some good laughs.  Here are both kids trying to walk on Daddy's shoes at the same time.  They both loved it!  (especially Finn)

Easter 2011

This year Easter happened to fall on the same weekend as our 6th anniversary.  We had lined up a babysitter for mid-day and were going to go out to eat by ourselves and then come home and dye eggs with the kids.  Unfortunately, Finn and I were pretty sick and I knew I wasn't going to enjoy lunch.  So we cancelled the sitter and stayed home with the kids.

After Finn's nap we began the egg-dying process. It's so funny to me how dying only a dozen eggs can take hours! But in the end, Kai had some pretty awesome eggs.

Waiting....there's always some waiting involved.

More waiting.

Sometimes waiting can get tough.

This is how Finn says a prayer.  It's SO cute!  All you have to say is "Prayer, Finn" and he'll strike a pose.

Eater morning was exciting for the kids.  Kai was very good at finding the eggs and so he made sure to only find the pink, purple, and blue eggs.  He kindly left the green, yellow, and orange eggs for Finn.  Finn was really good at getting excited when he found an egg and then picking it up and shaking it real hard to make sure that the jellybeans were there.  (Kai had given him a jellybean at the top of the stairs from one of the eggs there, and so Finn figured it out quickly.)  It didn't take long for all of the eggs to be found and then they hunted for their basket.  It took a hint from daddy, but they found them.  The Easter Bunny brought a good mix of candy and toys this year and the kids seemed quite happy with their loot.  After we were all done Kai asked to watch an Easter show.  So, we found two Easter VeggieTales on Netflix and had the kids watch those.  Since we were all still feeling sick, we stayed home from church and just enjoyed a lazy Sunday.  For dinner we had a pot roast and yummy veggies.  It really was a good day.  (I'm sorry we have no egg hunt pictures as Reid took video the whole time instead.)

Urgent Care (times two!)

**So, I'm slowly trying to catch-up on the blog.  I had planned on doing Easter next, but I'm going to skip ahead for this.**

Sigh.  Finn is going to give me gray hair really fast.  I can't quite get over how Kai just doesn't want to grow up, and Finn thinks he's already grown up.  They are so different in that respect.  Good grief, Kai was begging me to "help him eat" his dinner last night.  He wanted me to hold his food and feed it to him.  I'm not kidding.  Finn on the other hand wants nothing to do with that.  If he can't feed himself, he doesn't want to eat.  Anyway, my point is that Finn has no use for slowing down or being cautious.  He laughs if you tell him not to do something, so I guess it's inevitable that he's going to have a whole lot of scares.

On Saturday, we were having a good morning.  The boys were happy and playing well together.  I stepped into the bathroom real quick while the boys were laughing in Kai's room.  Kai was being silly and putting his underwear on his head, and Finn loved it.  I guess Kai decided to chase Finn (with the underwear on his head) and Finn ran towards the bathroom (and me) laughing with glee.  At the last second he tripped.  His forehead hit the door frame of the bathroom with a very loud, and bad sounding, thud.  I instantly knew it was not a good fall.  He cried and buried his head into my shoulder, and so I had Reid take a look at it.  It wasn't bleeding too badly and so our first inspection seemed ok.  When I was finally able to get him to calm down and lay on my bed, I saw a deep cut that appeared to be a bit agape.  I thought we were borderline on needing stitches.  It wasn't even 8am on Saturday.  So, I showered and dressed super-fast, and we were out the door to the Urgent Care just a mile down the street.  It was my first trip there, ever.  Honestly, for an "urgent" care center, it seemed very slow.  But we finally saw a doctor and were told we didn't need stitches, just some Derma Bond (aka Superglue).  Finn sported a very nice Bolt Band aid (which made him look like Harry Potter) over his superglue for the next few days.  His wound seems to be healing nicely, although his superglue will be there for another 5 days or so.

Fast forward to this afternoon.  The weather was beautiful, so we went to the park.  We were at the newer playground at the park which has bigger slides and no swings.  It was where Kai wanted to go, as he's getting tired of our normal playground.  We had played for a good hour and I had given the boys their 10 minute warning before we were to go home and get dinner ready.  At that point, Finn had gotten more comfortable climbing and had found the tall, windy slide.  I was up with him and was not about to let him slide by himself, so we decided to ride together.  The first time down the slide he was in front of me and was a bit out of control.  So, on our second time down the slide, I put him on my lap.  As we went around a curve, his leg got stuck and was jammed into the side of the slide totally stopping our sliding.  He instantly started crying.  We got to the bottom of the slide and I held him until he stopped crying and then went to put him down on the ground to see if he was ok.  His legs just buckled under him.  I stood him up again and once again he crumpled like a rag doll.  So, we loaded into the car and drove the 10 minutes home.  At home, we tried again.  Still he couldn't support any weight and he was getting frustrated.  I called the pediatrician and found that the after hours clinic was on the other side of town.  So, we decided to go to Urgent Care--again.  We got to office and he was still not bearing weight or walking.  That lasted until we got to the check-in room with the male nurse.  I put him down to show the nurse and he cried as he took some wobbly steps toward me.  He was not about to be left on the ground in a doctor's office.  After getting checked-in, we played in the room until the doctor arrived.  When it was me and the boys Finn was not walking.  In fact, the weekend before he had been running around the office, up and down the halls while we waited.  Today he just sat on the floor and played with a toy.  However, when the doctor came in, he was pretty quick to limp his way back to me.  The doctor looked him over and then sent us home with a paper that said "No sign of injury."  Talk about making me look bad!  The doctor had concluded that he must have sprained his hip and that kids recover from that within an hour or so.  Um....ok.

So, this evening we arrive home and I try to put Finn down and once again, he wouldn't walk.  He started to slide himself around the kitchen on his bum.  He would occasionally move to a chair and try to pull himself up (like a newby cruiser does) and then once he stood he would take a ginger step, and plop back down on his bum while taking care not to bend his leg.  He definitely had me concerned.  As the evening progressed, though, he slowly took more and more steps and within 3 hours after his "accident", I saw him run again.  Thank goodness!  I'm hoping that tomorrow he'll continue to improve and not be sore or have any lingering injury.

And I still can't believe that we've been to Urgent Care twice in five days after having avoided it for nearly 4 years. I'm really hoping we're done with that for a while.  I don't know that we can handle all of these scares.  Finn seriously will be the cause of any gray hair I may have.  I'm so glad that I only have one boy that's so crazy, and I'm grateful for my cautious Kai.  Hopefully, he'll rub off on Finn soon.

Talking With Kai

Me:  Ok, go get a plate and I'll get you a biscuit and jam.

Kai:  NO, not jam.  It's a biscuit and JELLY.

Me:  Ok, you're right.  A biscuit and jelly.

Kai:  Say you're sorry.

Me:  What?  Why do I need to say sorry?

Kai:  For the wrong word.

Ummmm.......yeah.  He's 3 and he sure thinks he's the boss!

Kids' Activity Day at the YMCA

A few weeks back our local YMCA chapter had a kids' activity day.  It was open to everyone and ran from noon to 2pm.  Since we live right across the street from our nearest YMCA, I thought it would be fun to take Kai.  Reid stayed home with Finn while he napped and Kai and I went out for some Mommy-Kai time.

The first thing we saw when we arrived were the bounce houses set-up on the soccer field.  Kai was so excited to see the big castle!  We ran down and he got in line.  When it was his turn, he put one foot in and ran back out exclaiming that it was "too bouncy".  So, we chatted and then he got back in line.  At his next turn, he went in a little further and came back out proclaiming the bounce house "too dirty".  This time I took him aside and we went over to the smaller, more simple bounce house.  I sent him with the group of little kids (the 2ish crowd).  Once again, he wouldn't do it.  Finally, we went back for a third try at the castle.  This time he went in for about 5 seconds and then came back out proclaiming that it was "too windy."  Yep, I was done.

From there we wandered over to the face painting table.  He watched the other kids and when we saw they were doing dinosaurs, I thought I almost had him.  But still he asked if he could just watch.  He would have been content to watch all of the kids around him having fun.

So, we decided to go up to the Y.  We saw the firetruck parked out front and took a quick peek at that before going in.  Inside the Y were the volunteer dogs from our local library's "Paws to Read" program.  They also had books.  So, Kai read some books to the dogs and colored a picture.  There was also a refreshment table from Sam's Club.  They had fruit and granola bars.  Kai had a little of everything.  Also inside was the Home Depot with projects that the kids could build themselves.  Kai and I built a planter and then headed back to the dogs and food.

Finally, we decided it was time to head home.  We walked back out and there was the fire truck, but this time they had kids inside of it.  Kai was thrilled!  He loved the truck and he charmed the firefighters.  He lingered at that truck for nearly a half an hour asking to see everything.  One particular firefighter took to him and they were best buddies.  Kai got to do things on that truck that no one else had done.  They even put the headsets on him and talked to him from the front.  He ate it up!  They were impressed by how curious and smart he was and they were convinced he is going to be a firefighter!

After the event Kai said his favorite part was the food (!!!!what??!!) and the firetruck.  I asked him if he wanted to be a firefighter to which he said no.  He still wants to be a palaeontologist.  Ask him, I dare you.  You'd be impressed.  But he'll still always be interested in what you do and want to learn all about it.  That's just Kai, he LOVES to learn!

Kai with his firefighter friend.  The firefighter has even asked that Kai come visit him at the station.  We'll have to try to do that sometime soon.

Blue Bell Ice Cream

About a month back Blue Bell Ice Cream arrived in Colorado.  We had heard a lot about this particular ice cream from Reid's sister's family, and so I was curious to try it.  Now I must confess, I love it.  It really is some yummy ice cream and I don't know that I can go back to cheap-o Safeway brand.  We've gone through 2 half gallons already and only have one left.  I don't know what I'll do when it's gone.

Finn enjoying his first bowl of Blue Bell ice cream