Earth Day: Getting All Philosophical

Well Earth day was last week, and it has got me thinking about the ideals that we would like to instill in our children. Liam is at that impressionable age now that what he learns now will form and shape who he will become when he is grown. One of the main lessons in life that we hope both our children learn is the importance of the Golden Rule; do to others what you would like to be done to you. I think this is one of the most important ethical codes that everyone should try to live by. I also believe that it should go beyond 'others' and extend to the Earth, and other living creatures. Teaching children to have respect for other living 'things' whether it is another person, a dog, a tree or even an insect is the first step in teaching that child to have empathy. In celebration of Earth day last week, I ordered a handful of 'Be Kind to the Earth' books as well as a book on bugs, so he can learn about the different kinds of bugs. Liam LOVES to be read to, and we look forward to teaching him some valuable lessons.

Tulip Festival 2010

Last year we bought a membership for Thanksgiving point at the first of May, and we missed the Tulip Festival by just a week. So I have been waiting for an entire year to go and take some pictures. My new found hobby is taking macro pictures of plant life. Here are a few of my favorites.

And the most beautiful of all! I love her eyes in this one.

I was not able to get any pictures of Liam because he is a very fast 2-year old, and now thinks it's a fun game to run away from mom and dad! Seriously, I think that kid will end up doing some kind of sport that involves running, he is just too fast. How do you train your kid to stick by you? It just isn't safe to be running off like that, especially in big crowds. And the harness/backpack thing does not work because he just pulls on it till he falls over. Anyway, training him to stick by us is going to be a work in progress, and we are open to ideas.

20 Week Mom and Me pics

Family Dinner

In our family Mike does most of the cooking, and even 2 nights a week his mom is nice enough to send us home with a prepared meal. I get home now around 3:30pm, and I try to get something done around the house; dishes, laundry, take the garbage out, pump milk for Rowan and/or I will tend to Rowan if she is awake. On very rare occasions if both the kids are sleeping, I will try to get a nap in. Mike usually gets home around 6-6:30pm and I'm usually trying to feed Liam at this time as well. Then he gets play time sometime around 7pm, and then we try to get him in bed by 8pm. At this time, Mike goes downstairs and prepares our meal and we usually eat around 9pm. We really would like to start eating as a family, but we are just unsure how we can pull off having dinner ready around 6 o'clock when Liam is needing to eat? Yesterday for example, which by the way was Sunday, we attempted to have a family dinner and it turned out to be a complete disaster! I don't even remember when Mike started cooking, I think it was around 6 pm, Rowan was sleeping and I took Liam outside to entertain him. All he wants to do is run in the backyard, but unfortunately he also likes to run on the concrete patio which makes me very nervous, so I took him on a walk. Then we went on another very long walk in the stroller, and by then I needed to kill another 30 minutes, so I took him in the backyard again...unfortunately, this is when he fell in the garden onto some dead weeds. He cried for a bit, I checked his hands, and he seemed OK. We got the bubble machine out, and shortly after is when I noticed his shin was all scratched up, and once he noticed it as well is when it started to really hurt him. By this time dinner was ready, so we cleaned up his boo-boo and put some neosporin on, but he was a wreck by this time, and didn't want to sit down for dinner. Partly, I think he was really tired, and partly he was in pain. So, I plated up dinner and we ate in the playroom. Having kids you just need to adjust your plans around them, and improvise, but I just find it so sad that the one time we really try to have dinner as a family, it blows up in our face! I often wonder just how other families that have two working parents do it?! I guess we will have to keep trying and improvising.

Gym Class

So since Liam will be starting preschool in the fall, we decided that he needs to get some practice socializing with kids his own age. He tends to run wild and just wants to do his 'own thing' in new situations, and that does not make for a good student, so we took him to a couple of free trial classes at some local kid's gyms. The first one we went to was Gymcats. We got a coupon flyer in the mail announcing their new location. They are VERY close to our house, about a 10 minute drive. He had a great time! He got to try a bunch of new stuff like walk on a balance beam, and slide into a foam pit, and climb a rock wall! Then we went into the larger gym area and he got to hang from some rings, and a rope and jump on a trampoline. The second week we took him to Little Gym. He had a great time there too, running and jumping! Each place had their own benefits, but in the end we decided to sign up with Gymcats because they are closer, and they also offer a shorter 7-week class commitment, which we like because summer is coming, and we'd like to do other things on Saturday. I wasn't able to get any pictures of his trial class at Gymcats because Rowan was awake and needing my attention, but I was able to get a bunch of ones at the Little Gym.

Jumping!


Running...


Jumping some more...Notice in the above picture, all the parents are holding their kid, and Liam is bouncing around like Tigger! That is his personality to a 'T'. He bounced so much he went off the side at least once!


Climbing on bars...


More jumping!

Rowan's 4 Month Pictures

Our sis-in-law is nice enough to have us over to her families house to take pictures with their equipment...here are a few of our favorites. Thanks Tiffany!