Pool Fun

Here is a cute video of Ryan enjoying his pool on this beautiful Pittsburgh day.

Ryan's First Field Trip

Ryan went on his first field trip this past week. They went to see "Seussical". It is a musical based on the famous Dr. Seuss stories. (I actually took my kindergarten students to see it last week.) He rode in the school bus and sat next to his teacher and a little girl. He really seemed to enjoy the special event and his teachers said he was very well behaved.

Lots of Good News

Today was the day of good news!

-Travis went to court to battle the raising of our property taxes. They could've been raised by several hundred dollars a month. Thanks to Trav's good work, we will now only pay an extra $50 a month.

-Our lawyer contacted our current tenant in our NC condo. He was trying to move out, thus breaking the lease, and leaving us to start paying an extra mortgage each month. Thankfully our lawyers kind words persuaded our tenant to stay and continue paying.

-Ryan stayed dry all night in his underwear! An Oreo was waiting for him downstairs!

Wish us luck!

Warning- Potty Talk!

Ryan has been potty trained for nearly a year. Wahoo! That being said he still wears a diaper/pull up at night. He's gone a night here or there with keeping it dry. For the past week he has kept his diaper dry every night. I promised him when he kept his diaper dry for a week at night he could start wearing undies. Well tonight's the night. He is so excited! I've bribed him with Oreo cookies too!

I am sure I am jinxing the whole situation by writing about it. Say a little prayer tonight because I don't want to start off my Tuesday morning wet!

Stay tuned for an update tomorrow.


UPDATE- We struck out! Go figure when I write about it. It was only slightly wet, but enough to not earn an Oreo. We'll keep trying!

Wet Weekend

Well this weekend was very wet in Pittsburgh. Thankfully I was still able to get in lots of outdoor gardening. I began a big gardening project that involves ripping up grass on the side of the house to put in plantings. This weekend I was able to get most of the grass out including a huge root still left from the previous owners when the cut down a plants/bush/tree/something!

Ry was a great help and loved digging in the dirt with me. He used his gardening tools from Nana and his dump truck from Uncle Pete and family to haul the dirt away! He kept asking to go wash his hands though because they were getting dirty. (Anyone who knows my child well knows he doesn't like things on his hands.) While out for a tenth trip to Lowes we bought Ry a pair of gardening gloves. When we got home he put them on and continued to help us outside amazed that his hands weren't dirty. He loved them!

Enjoy the picture of Ry mowing the lawn with Trav!

Dinosaurs

We took Ry to the Museum of Natural History tonight. I went yesterday with my class on a field trip and found out that tonight they were open for free. Since it's such an expensive museum we figured lets try it out since he's never been to a "real" museum. We got there around 4:30 to beat the typical rush. It wasn't crowded at all and it was nice to have it empty. (It certainly was a zoo for my field trip!) Our basic goal was simply to look at the dinosaurs since Ry has been fascinated by them lately since his class recently studied them. At first he was scared but then he warmed up. He didn't have a long attention span but still really enjoyed it. After looking at all the animals he got to go dig in the fossil room. It was pretty cool!

Our Weekend

This weekend Travis traveled out of town to attend his brother's law school graduation. That left Ry and I to have a nice weekend together and thankfully the weather cooperated beautifully!

Friday night was spent as our weekly movie night. We popped popcorn and watched "The Jungle Book". Ry laughed the whole time!

Saturday was spent running numerous errands including getting Ry a backless booster seat. We then visited a community yard sale event where I had a wonderful former student whose family was selling items to help raise money for my walk. We then bought Ry some Keens and had ice cream- all before 11am!

We managed to do lots of gardening together in the afternoon and then headed out to Chick-Fil-A for dinner!

Sunday was spent gardening and playing. We were very thankful to see Trav return home!

Congratulations Joe!

Congratulations to Joe!!! Travis's younger brother is graduating from law school this weekend. Ry and I are not able to make the celebration but Travis went in our place.

Good to know we will now have a lawyer in the family!

Mother's Day 2010

This weekend I celebrated Mother's Day with Ry. I have to say I think he slightly understood the holiday. We braved the cold and wind to take part in the Race for the Cure. We walked the 5k event with my friend Catherine. It was nice to celebrate the event with him. Due to the long trek Ry had to make 2 potty stops along the way. Needless to say with around 35,000 people, the lines were long and he learned how to pee in the bushes!

We had a yummy steak dinner that night and I enjoyed a beautiful hand made gift from Ryan and flowers from Travis.

Learning Machine

Ry lately has been soaking up information. I've learned one of the best ways to teach him something is through song. He loves when I sing songs with him, even despite my bad voice! I taught him how to spell his first name, spell his last name, and recite his address.

Yesterday he even wrote a word using his magnetic letters. He wrote the word mama. He spelled it wawa though which is typical for children his age. Of course we didn't think to take a picture though!

Can't wait to see what else he soaks up!