stats

I totally forgot to post The Mayor and Love Bug's stats from their well visits.

The Mayor's stats at his 4 year well visit:
weight: 42 pounds (90th percentile)
height: 41 1/2 inches (75th percentile)

Love Bug's stats at her 18 month well visit:
weight: 25.2 pounds (70th percentile)
length: 32 1/2 inches (75th percentile)
head: 19 1/4 inches (90th percentile)

The Mayor isn't officially 4 until the end of this month, but we went ahead and did all of the doctor's appointments on the same day.

The Mayor is solid.  He actually has definition in his abs.  I am seriously jealous of the abs on my almost 4 year old (I have got to get to the gym).  I was shocked his height was only the 75th percentile.  He is so tall.  People are surprised when they find out he is only 3 because he is so tall.

Love Bug is still a peanut.  I know her weight is in the 70th percentile but she somehow is so dainty.  She has always been this way.  From her first second of life when our midwife said she looked like she only weighed 6 pounds (and we were shocked when the scale read 7 lbs 10 oz) through most of her doctor's visits, the nurses are always guessing her weight is much lower than the scale reads.  I am seriously jealous of my daughter looking smaller than she actually weighs (I mean really, I need to get to the gym).

Today's weather was gorgeous.  Sunny and 70s.  We spent the evening outside enjoying the backyard.  We were only out there for 45 minutes and I took 140 pictures.  I love today.

don't want to forget this picture...The Mayor was talking to himself about trains and was passionately "pulling the train whistle" and saying choo-choo

miss independent

another tri bites the dust

Today marks the one year anniversary of D's first triathlon, and what better way to celebrate then with another triathlon.  It has been an amazing race year for him.  He has pushed himself and completed races I thought he would have to be insane to do in his first year.  But he did them and exceeded his goal for every race he competed in.  We are so proud of him...and in the words of The Mayor today "daddy, I'm so proud of you swimming and riding your bike and running.  I want you to do it again"!  We all do buddy, we all do.

We had an awesome cheering section again this year.  Mamie, PopPop, J, Meega and Bennett joined The Mayor, Love Bug and I in cheering on D.  His goal was to beat his time from last year and he did it...with a bum calf.  Way to go D!

another great day

The Dawgs won and the weather was perfect.  Tomorrow we wake up bright and early for D's triathlon.  Going to be awesome!

picasso

Today was an amazing day.  The weather was beyond perfect...temperatures in the 70s, not one cloud in the sky and a breeze that allowed one 3 year old to run around for hours and not drip one drop of sweat.

Love Bug and I were hanging with one of my besties, Hayley, when I got a call from The Mayor's school.  My heart stopped while the voicemail asking me to pick up The Mayor got interrupted by another phone call from his school.  My mind was racing thinking what did The Mayor do to warrant two phone calls.  Thankfully nothing.  There were two cases of active LICE in his classroom.....GROSS!!!!!  They needed every child in his class to be picked up so the room could be cleaned.  I immediately started itching.  And praying.  Please do not let my child have these critters.

Thankfully, we are in the clear.  But I did strip his bed and washed everything in the sanitary wash cycle just to be on the safe side.

After I picked The Mayor up from school, we met up with some friends for lunch at Chick-fil-a and then they came over to play in our new backyard.  The Mayor loved having his friend over to the "playground" and they had a blast playing and having races back and forth in our yard.  It made me so happy seeing him just run around in the grass and loving this new space of ours.  

After our impromptu play date, we ran a few errands.  While we were at the grocery store picking up a few items, The Mayor said "I want to paint a picture for daddy".  He asked this two more times and I told him absolutely, you can paint a picture for daddy.

As soon as we got home and I unloaded the groceries, I set him up.  I put his little painting smock on him, gave him his brushes and stamps and a plate of paint.  And he went to town.  It was so sweet seeing him paint and then he started painting his hand and pressing his hand on the paper.  Seeing his little handprints on that page made me smile and appreciate this short lived time of having my sweet boy here with me during the day.  I am so blessed.

We finished the day with more time outside playing...the weather was too beautiful not to be outside.  I am really looking forward to this weekend.  It is actually going to be chilly.  D's last triathlon of the season is Sunday and the high is 64 and the lows will be in the 40s!  Considering the 7:30 AM start time, I will have to break out the fall clothing for me and the kiddos...can't wait.

put your sister in a cage

The Mayor and Love Bug really are best buds.  She just adores her older brother and he thinks it is pretty awesome having a little person following him around all day.  And at this age, they just love playing together and interacting.  Today while we waited for dinner to finish cooking, The Mayor took one of our hampers and decided to put his sister in a cage.  I am not quite sure which one had more fun but they were both quite entertained.  Once he realized how much she enjoyed being in the "cage" then he decided to put himself into it as well.

Love Bug has just learned to say "cheese" when taking a picture.  

She is mid "cheese" in this picture.

the backyard reveal

Our backyard has changed a lot in the past 8 years.  When we bought this house, almost our entire backyard was wooded.  The smallest amount of "grass" was growing towards the back of the house but since it rarely got sun, the grass hardly grew.  Over the past 8 years, we have slowly worked on the backyard.  We had about 15 trees cut down and the stumps ground.  But the biggest changes have occurred over the past month.  One month ago our entire backyard was a dirt field.  Then we had a fence put in.  So the dirt field became a fenced in dirt field.  Then the next week we had a play set installed...and last week, the grass was put in.  I am in love.  The backyard looks amazing...I never knew our yard could look this amazing.  The Mayor in particular is thrilled.  So without further ado, here is the transformation:

before 

(after the trees had been cut down and the stumps ground - 

I wish I had taken pictures before the trees had been cut)

fence installation

fence complete...play set installed

seven pallets of sod delivered

sprinkler system extended to backyard and new sod being laid

outlining where sod will go

complete!

cedar mulch under play set

ahhh...love!  D is building a firepit in the bed to the far left of this picture

before and after

I can't stand clutter.  And when you have two kids under the age of 4, clutter is going to happen.  The Mayor and Love Bug have their main playroom upstairs and then we set up a play space in the basement. Now, please don't think my kids are inundated with toys to fill two playrooms...we simply split the toys that used to occupy the upstairs playroom and put half of those toys in the basement.  This also helps with the clutter...less toys in one space equals less clutter.  There are days I am psycho and don't let us leave those playrooms until every toy is picked up and in its place.  And then there are days when I pretend the mess doesn't exist and simply shut the door.  But the beauty about those playrooms is they are closed off and if there is a mess, I don't have to see it.

Now...the clutter makes me twitch when we are on the main level of the house...where there is no defined play area and one thousand trains are lying on the floor like little land mines and baby dolls are strewn about.  I had a bin where the dolls and cars and trucks and blocks and whatever would be placed in at the end of the day, and a few clear tupperware containers that would house The Mayor's Thomas trains to go under the train table.  The problem was even when the toys were cleaned up I could still see them.  The bin started busting at the seams and overflowing and I could see the toys peeking out from behind the chair.  The room never felt clean.  Two days ago the bin fell completely apart...and so did my nerves.

Today I went on a mission...a mission to de-clutter and put the toys away.  We do spend a lot of time in this area so they do need some toys but they needed to be organized.  I cleaned out one of our built-in cabinets, went to Target to purchase some new bins and got to organizing.

Oh man does it feel good!  I feel like I can breath!

before (not all of this junk is toys...some of this is from the built-ins)

before

before (the dreaded pile...after the bin literally busted at the seams)

after (ahhhh, one little wooden ride-on toy for Love Bug)

after...organized bliss

after 

(just the train table and its two bins of trains under the table...

no more using the floor under the table as storage)