You gotta love end-of-the-season 50% off sales at the dollar store! Without further ado—Katie’s first sprinkler!
Category Archives: Playing
Morning at the playground
I told Owen we could go to the playground this morning, thinking he would pick the one we’ve gone to a few times (the one we stopped at on the way back from seeing Tom off) that’s closest to us…but no…he requested the “baseball playground” (obviously, the one next to the ball fields we went to after playing baseball).
He also requested “socks like grannie’s at the hotel” so he could slide down the slides better. So I gave him some of mine (no pics, unfortunately)…and they stayed on pretty long, until he saw a girl in bare feet and then he wanted bare feet, too!
It was a nice, cool, fall-ish morning so we were all in long pants and long sleeves (which felt like heaven!)…but Katie just couldn’t quite understand the long sleeves and kept trying to pull them off.
This is how she sometimes goes down stairs.
Unlike Owen, she doesn’t mind sand at all.
Owen with Connor, one of the kids from my mommy group.
Katie had her first skinned-lip/chin fall on the sidewalk moments before this (she just stumbled). She cried for about 15 seconds while I brushed the sand off her face…and then she was fine.
She likes the playset, too!
Having a ball outside
Katie was having a ball outside.
They found the flower!
Owen found this in Katie’s room and had fun dancing around in it.
He wore it downstairs where he left it…then Katie found it.
Water!
You can kind of see how she floats around…legs just trailing along behind her!
Game day!
Well, this morning was the first Special Needs Baseball game day! We drove around a bit until we found it (I’d never been to that complex before), picked up Owen’s shirt, and then it was a waiting game before all the registration stuff ended and volunteers got everything ready. And speaking of volunteers, there were a TON of them—a church group and a biker group along with friends and family—enough for a few on each base, ones to run with each batter, ones to have fun in the outfield, and many to just stand and cheer! (They told me later that there usually aren’t that many until later in the season.)
I had only brought my telephoto lens so I had to make Owen stand about 10 feet away to get a shot. Yes, he’s wearing it over his regular shirt—that was his choice. And I could kick myself for not taking more to have one with better lighting. Oh well. And yes, he had to go potty at that moment—that’s where we headed next. 🙂
Katie wasn’t really enjoying being strapped into the stroller, but since I wanted to take pics, I didn’t really have any other options. (In the future I likely won’t be taking as many pics so I can let her wander.) But she wasn’t really that bad (it could have been much worse) and she enjoyed everyone stopping to talk to her or wave at her. And I tried to keep her placated with milk, snacks, and toys.
He found a ball right away!
Lining up to be divided into teams. He was on the Crushers and they were in the outfield first. They even had a parent sing the national anthem!
Owen’s buddy in the outfield.
There was a lot of this in the outfield.
Bowling?
I think he was going for the fumble recovery. 🙂
Waiting for his turn at bat.
Picking a bat!
On second base!
Third base!
Running for home!
Back in the outfield.
I’m not sure why, but there was spinning.
Back up to bat!
He started running the wrong way, so the volunteers helped direct him! This is one of my favorite pics—even though it’s definitely not the best pic—because it shows how awesome and supportive the volunteers are!
Running to second base!
Coming in to a high-five!
Game over! High-fiving everyone!
You can’t really get a good feeling for how crazy it was. There were so many people around, the game being announced play-by-play on loudspeakers, lots of not-playing going on, no scoring, kids running to whatever bases they want, two or more kids running at the same time, some older kids actually hitting the ball and adults in the outfield taking care of those balls, some kids refusing to bat/run, etc. But it was fun and Owen had a good time…so yes, there will be more weeks of this.
Then they announced that lunch would be served at the pavilion, and Owen was hungry…so we went. Thankfully there was just a prayer before eating—which is just fine with me. They had hot dogs and popcorn—and if you can believe it, Owen ate an entire hot dog, bun and all! For the first time ever! WOOHOO! Then he wanted to play on the playground which was very close…so we went. And I finally got to let Katie out of the stroller and she had A BALL!
As we were leaving, Owen said “That was awesome”…and I’m guessing he meant the baseball, though I guess he could have also been referring to the playground as well. But it was a good day that gave me 428 photos to edit down to 58. 🙂 Next time I won’t take nearly as many!
Post-nap play time
FedEx delivery rang the doorbell and woke Katie up early which was annoying since I was desperately trying to grab a 10-minute catnap…but they were so cute I couldn’t be mad. Some of the pics are a little blurry, but I think they show the action well. 🙂
Also, I tried her hair up today…it’s super cute but hard to do since she obviously doesn’t sit still and therefore it’s hard to wrap the teeny bands multiple times.
Recliner Siblings
I got the old recliner out of the garage (that Owen rarely used) and of course, he wanted to sit in it right away…and then as soon as she saw it…watch out. She LOVES sitting in it.
Peeking in!
Introducing Boppy the Bear
Owen has been through two dollar store punching bags, so this time I went premium with the Eco-Bonk Grizzly Bear. Since it cost 10x as much, I expect it to last 10x as long…and seeing as how the other ones lasted about a month, I think we’ll be good. 🙂
Technically the bear’s name is Jackson (he’s wearing a name tag) but Owen has named him Boppy, like the similar inflatable punching bag on Doc McStuffins.
And introducing him to Katie…
What the…?? How did she…??
Katie got a hold of my laptop and I have NO idea how she did this.
She also managed to turn the wifi off and screw up my N key so that every time I typed an N it opened a new Evernote window. Thankfully rebooting fixed that.
The scary thing is how FAST she did it. Normally I turn on a program I have called “Toddler Keys” which renders the keyboard useless…but I was just stepping away for two seconds. And I turned around and she was SITTING ON MY LAPTOP KEYBOARD. Oh, HELL NO, little girl. So now I have to physically put it away if she’s in the same room. Stinker!
In the curtains
Playing TiVo
I sent Owen upstairs to get something for me and he wasn’t coming back…wasn’t coming back…wasn’t coming back. I yelled up asking what he was doing. He finally comes down the stairs and says:
Owen: I was playing TiVo!
Me: [A little scared.] What does that mean?
Owen: I’m playing with the TiVo antennae.
Me: Ahhhh. [I introduced him to them a few days ago.]
Backyard Fun
The weather was cool enough today to actually want to go outside…so we did! The kids managed to stay on the deck for awhile, but then Owen got interested in the hose and wanted water…
He’s helping her put on his shoes. 🙂
My little builder
Or at least dressed like one in Owen’s Lowe’s apron and goggles!
A booby trap!
Mama! I made a booby trap to protect us from the bad guys!
Ninjaman? Superjago?
Half Ninjago, half Superman…plus he’s still loving his new shoes.
Umbrella and running fun
Owen wanted to play in the front yard and Katie was napping so we went out. He originally wanted to run in his new shoes, but then he saw the umbrella that was on the front porch and got sidetracked.
Then it was off and running!
Owen’s first day of school!
After being excited about school being today, he actually started the morning with a mini meltdown because he didn’t want to put clean underwear on because his weren’t dirty (“See? There’s no poop in there!”)—which he was right, there were no poop stains (which is, honestly, fairly new) so I tried explaining that we change our underwear every day but he wasn’t having it. It wasn’t a battle I really cared about, so he got to wear his ninja underwear again.
Then the outfit he had picked out was a little too small. It’s been on the verge for awhile now, and of course this morning was the morning it was too tight…so he wasn’t happy about that and I had to make other outfits look appealing. He wasn’t thrilled, but picked another. While he was getting dressed, he came up to me with sad eyes and said “I don’t want to go to school because I will miss you!” Awwww. I told him he would be so busy and be having so much fun that before he knew it it would be time to come home…and I couldn’t wait to hear ALL about it!
Socks still proved difficult to get on so I had to help with that…and he got frustrated with the tennis shoes, too. Poor kid. But he was still VERY excited for school!
Ready to go!
He was the first one to arrive!
He found his cubby! The poor picture quality is because I only had my phone plus I was holding Katie plus he wouldn’t stand still!
Playing with the other kids before class started.
Then it was time for me to leave so I actually had to get his attention to come over and say goodbye. Yeah, he couldn’t have cared less. 🙂
As I was out in the parking lot talking to another mom friend (from mommy group) asking about our other mom friend, she texted saying she wouldn’t be coming to school because her husband took both sets of keys. I told her I’d be right over (she only lives five minutes away). She’s the one who has volunteered to bring Owen home now and again, so I figured it was karma at work!
Un-bear-ably Cute
Lucky shot!
Katie has no fear about crawling up on the table. Thankfully she’s already pretty good at it and can also get down on her own.
I’m amazed they were both looking at me!
Wine Cooler Goggles
We had people over for pool and dinner (the friend who said she’d grill for me) and Katie was up on my lap. She reached for Owen’s goggles and wanted them on so I put them on. Then she reached for my empty bottle. And amused herself for MANY minutes just like this:
He’s good at building cars!
I have had magnatiles on Owen’s wishlist for quite some time but have never bought them because A) he has so many toys already and B) they are damn EXPENSIVE. So when I saw these Magformers available on Amazon Vine (the program where I get to pick items for free and then I just have to write a review on it), I snatched them up!
Owen picked them as his weekly Chore reward this week. (Normally expensive toys aren’t options, but since they didn’t cost me anything—and mostly because he saw them before I could hide them!—I let him choose them.)
As it happened, Tom Skyped in right as Owen was wanting to open them, so Tom got to watch the fun for about 20 minutes! Even though the age said 3+ I wasn’t sure if he’d be able to follow the patterns to make the cars without getting frustrated—but he jumped right in and before I knew it, he had laid out all the pieces for the spaceship with no problem!
Then he made two cars (with a little of my help since the pieces kept snapping together) and then he was making his own shapes and vehicles without the patterns.
Of course, now I want at least one or two more sets so he can build bigger and better things…I’ll be adding some to his wishlist. 🙂 The other good thing about these is that the pieces are big enough AND the magnets are enclosed so they are fine for Katie to grab and play with (though it tends to make Owen melt down when she does that).
I think we’re gonna need a bigger box.
Pool work and fun collide
It was one of those days when both kids were trying my patience (even though the morning was fun at the playground) so I just decided we were all going to go out in the pool. I was hot and cranky, the kids were cranky, and the pool needed attention because I’ve been neglecting it. (It doesn’t ever need a lot of work, but it does need to be cleaned out now and again.)
Katie’s new (used) size 2T suit (which is none too big). (I can never seem to find both pieces of her suit when I want them and I don’t always want her to go nekkid, so I just bought a $3 suit from the resale shop.)
So I stepped in the pool and started cleaning out grass and bugs and whatnot when I realized WOW the water level was REALLY low—like below my knees low (it’s usually quite above my knees). By the time all was said and done, I had put about 5″ of water back in! FIVE INCHES! I’m sure some loss was due to evaporation, but I’m sure the majority of loss was from all the kids playing in it, hanging over the edge and letting water pour out, using squirt water toys outside the pool, etc. (We have rules, but honestly they’re somewhat hard to enforce when there are six kids under six running wild—though we do try!)
So while I was “working” (skimming the whatnot out), the kids had fun, too…
After an hour or so in her floaty, Katie wanted OUT. She did pretty good walking by herself (and only slipped under once—which barely phased her) but I was a nervous wreck so we didn’t do that for too long. It would have been better to let her do that when we first got in and the water was 5″ shallower!
Playground Morning
After we had to leave the park yesterday since it was SO F’ING HOT, I promised Owen we could go back when it was cooler. It was cooler this morning, so I told him we could go as soon as he pooped. Instantly: “Mama! I have to go poop!” And he did! After a quick breakfast, it was off to the park. Some of the mommy group met us there.
Katie has no fear of the steps and climbs right up!
The slides were still wet and had some standing water. Katie thought that was great fun!
These are the same bars he couldn’t reach a few weeks ago! (This is the same park we stopped at one the way home from seeing Tom off.)
Katie getting ready to go down the slide.
This is how she went down the whole way…which was just fine because it was more of a sticking/scooching/slow-motion trip (and easier on my nerves).
The other way she goes down the slide.
Reaching to play with Emily’s shoes.
Owen (4), Emily (4), and Olivia (6)
Post Preschool Park
Since Owen really wanted to play, I took them to the closest playground…but it was SOOO hot that we couldn’t stay long (I hadn’t planned on stopping so had no diaper bag, no sunscreen, no drinks, etc.). But the kids still had fun during their 15 minutes.
Well, she didn’t LOVE the swing…
Up the stairs…
Down the stairs…
Someone conked out.
Play Group Morning
Today we just had to drive a few streets over!
He loved the pirate boat, even if it didn’t have water in it!
Testing out a cool chair! She liked it because it was bouncy!
The host said Katie was great to have there since his baby is only 4mo—so the house wasn’t really baby proofed at all—and she certainly showed him everything that could be gotten into from hot wax to dog food bowls to toilets to cupboards to candles to decorative shells to lamps… 🙂
She loves mama’s shoes!
As soon as I kicked them off, she was RIGHT THERE. Trying them on, then throwing them up on the couch to play with them.
