Ben's Triathlon

This past weekend Ben participated in his very first Sprint Triathlon. We left Lila with Aunt Janina and took Wyatt with us. We decided we'd get more sleep if we stayed overnight in a hotel near the park where the triathlon would be held. Well, that turned out to not be true! Our little guy decided to wake up around 11:30 and not go back to sleep until about 2. Of course, we were getting up at 4:30... yes, 4:30!! Fortunately, Wyatt transferred to the car easily and he slept until 6 (of course, right?). Here are some pictures I took of our morning.

All the participants listening to last minute instructions. Can you find Ben? He's in the middle wearing a yellow swim cap.

Wyatt at 6:15 or so... it was still pretty dark outside. He's a little dazed, probably b/c he has no idea where he is!

But he was pretty excited to find a little stick to hold! At this point, we are still waiting for the race to begin.

Here he is sitting on the blanket with our friend, Denise (whose husband was also racing). He's pointing to all the swimmers. "Look, there's Daddy!"

Watching the swimmers come back out of the water... the sun was starting to come up now.

After some time had passed where we hung out on the blanket, we walked (strolled) over to the finish line to wait for Ben and Matt. Wyatt had decided that he was tired of the stroller after about 10 minutes.

Waiting for Daddy. 

"I think I'll just rest my head here for a minute."

And he's out. Of course, 2 minutes later Ben finished his race! I guess the next time Ben will have a new goal... finish before Wyatt passes out! :)

Ten Months

Wyatt

Lila

It is hard for me to believe Wyatt is already 10 months old! It seems like the first 6 months went by much slower somehow (maybe those sleepless nights??). Our little guy continues to delight everyone around him with big grins. His new skills this month include clapping and pointing. He is getting much better at standing; I don't think it will be long before he tries to stand without holding on to anything. He is also getting better at taking steps along the furniture. We have been working with him - especially in the past week - to try and get him to feed himself finger foods. He eats really well... he just doesn't want to feed himself anything! Well, I think I finally found something he will feed himself. I got some Gerber Graduates Lil' Crunchies (basically baby cheese puffs). He will pick those up and eat them on his own! He will also eat a Biter Biscuit, so maybe Cheerios are just too small? He picks them up but they do kind of get lost in his fist. Lila would just open her hand up once she got it to her mouth, but Wyatt doesn't seem interested in that. Oh well. We are thankful to have such a smiley, happy, healthy child.

Sweet Home Alabama

Last week my sister and I took the 2 kids and 3 dogs and drove to Alabama to visit my parents while Ben was in Guatemala on a Missions trip. The drive to and back went very well. Lila did a great job keeping herself entertained, and she did a great job eating in the car. We had to make several stops so we ate in the car to keep the trip to 12 hours! We had a nice relaxing week, just hanging out at home. My parents live just north of the city so it kind of feels like they're in the country. Here's a picture of their house (just for you, Keri!)

Of course, I didn't think to take a picture of it when I was there, so this is from a couple years ago in the fall.

Lila and Grandma Brandt on the front porch.

One great thing about coming to Grandma and Grandpa's house is playing with all the "old" toys... or at least that was something I always enjoyed when I visited my grandparents! This doll I'm pretty sure was my mother's.

Another picture of them on the porch swing.

The weather was SO nice while we were there - in the 80s all week! We enjoyed being outside.

Lila and Grandpa B going to water some plants.

Aunt Janina holding Wyatt.

Wyatt playing with a toy. For some reason, he liked to play with the stacking pole rather than the rings.

One day, Lila, Janina and I walked down the street to a house that had a goat pasture.

There were old goats with long horns, baby goats and every age in between!

The goats made lots of funny noises and would butt each other in the heads.

Both Lila and Wyatt were excited when Grandpa came home from work!

Lila liked to play the "pinano" with Aunt Janina.

Here's Lila and Grandpa playing with our (Janina and I) old dollhouse, which we brought down from the attic. She also played with our old toy kitchen.

Here they are both playing with the toy food. They played very nicely together (which means Lila tolerated Wyatt playing with "her" toys!).

One evening we went down to the duck pond (which is back behind a neighbor's house). The ducks are raised in a large aviary (is that the right term?) and then sold. So we got to see several varieties of ducks and some baby ducklings too.

Wyatt was interested in the mesh walls.

"What are those ducks doing now?"

A picture of me with Wyatt.

And one day we went down to my Dad's office so all the office ladies could see the kids. Wyatt was a big hit since he was so snuggly. Lila liked to draw on Grandpa's white board.

Wyatt's first trip to the office.

Lila and Rachel

As I said in an earlier post, Lila's cousin Rachel flew down with Grandma and Grandpa Amey for Lila's birthday. Here are a few pictures of the two of them enjoying the backyard pool in the evening.

A rare picture where I got both of them to look - and smile - at the camera!

A future in Riverdance, perhaps?

Who knew Rachel could walk on water?!

Reading books with Grandpa and Grandma before bedtime.

Enjoying the glider on the swingset. You can swing on this by yourself, but it is so much more fun with a friend!

Grillin' and Chillin'

Our Small Group got together for supper (grilled hotdogs and bratwurst) a few weeks ago. The kids also enjoyed some backyard pool time before we had cake for dessert. Lila is always very excited to see her friends, Claire and Evan. (It amazes me how accepting children are of other people... she is oblivious to the fact that they are much younger than she is...she's still excited!) Anyway, they are old enough now that they CAN kind of play together which is neat. They had great fun chasing each other around in the house and did well playing in the pool too!

Here's Wyatt enjoying Evan's lawn chair while watching the "big kids" in the pool.

A little size perspective :)

Claire with her super-cute pigtails. I love that girls can wear pigtails!

Evan lets Mr. Paul know he is ready for another bite of cake!

Random Pictures from this Summer

In my attempt to catch up on this blog, I am lumping several pictures together that aren't related...

Once Wyatt started to sit up on his own, he could take a bath with his big sister... something they both really enjoy! Lila likes to help wash Wyatt and give him toys; Wyatt likes anything Lila does!

I took these pictures during my intensive potty training days when she was going without anything on her bottom. Because she went #2 in the toilet, she got to have a popsicle. I took her shirt off to avoid stains, and thus she is sitting on the back porch enjoying her popsicle in the nude. Now I will digress a little and talk about our potty training experience... by far, the most difficult parenting task I have had so far I think. (I am sure I will look back on this when she is 13 and wish for these days back!) I want to write what worked for me so that I can come back to this when it gets to be Wyatt's turn. If it helps any of you out there, all the better.

Around the age of 2, Lila started to indicate that she was ready to try potty-training. She would tell us that she was poopy and ask to be changed. So we started trying to work with her on going. We offered rewards (a sticker chart and m&m's). Finally we offered a BIG reward, which was a doll, when she filled out her sticker chart. As she got closer to finishing her chart she did very well at telling me she needed to go potty. But once she earned the doll, she stopped doing as well and I started to get frustrated. Up to this point she was still wearing diapers which meant that I had to take it off/put it on each time. If she went in her diaper, it was easy to clean up but also not as motivating for her to go on the toilet. Anyway, when I started to get frustrated, we took a few months off. Then when the weather got warmer, we did a few days in a row of PTITN (as pictured above!). This really worked great to get her to recognize that she needed to go... and then go! In fact by the end of the 3 days, she would go potty without even telling me she needed to go. She did go #2 a couple of times, but more often than not she would just hold it until bedtime (when she would wear a diaper). Again, we tried rewards with a chart. I tried taping a diaper to the underside of her potty seat for her to go #2 (which worked one time but not again). But in the past 2 weeks, she has had NO accidents and has gone #1 and #2 in the toilet! During this time she has been wearing pull-ups. I tried putting underwear on her after her PTITN days, but she had a couple accidents so we switched to pull-ups. I think we are ready to switch to underwear now. Such a simple thing... going potty in the toilet... but what an accomplishment. It has been a major rollercoaster of forward and backward steps, and I'm sure she will probably still have a couple of accidents in the next few months. I have been greatly encouraged by family and friends who are/were also potty-training their kids at the same time. Just to have someone to share in the frustration and triumphs! For those who are still working on it - and to my future self - hang in there!! Eventually your child will figure it out! Ok, on to something else...

Wyatt still doesn't crawl even though he is starting to walk along furniture. If it's open carpet, he does his worm technique to get around. So how on earth he got INTO this excersaucer, I have no idea! I'm not sure he knew either because he couldn't figure out how to get out!

There is something so fun about a clothes basket... especially when 2 can get in there!

How is this comfortable? Anyone?

A rare shot of me with my two kids who look nothing like me.

Lila "reading" to Wyatt... a glimpse into the future perhaps?

Enjoying the birthday cake frosting before the birthday!