Weekend Gettaway

       I began work last week with new teacher orientation. I was off on Friday, so we headed out to spend the 3-day weekend with my parents and Mary and Bailey. We had such an great time. It felt really good to get away and spend some time with my family.

       We got there just in time for lunch on Friday. After lunch, Rylee laid down for a nap and my dad and Mary each had to head to work. After Rylee got up from her nap, my mom took Bailey, Rylee, Ryan, and I to a local park. The girls had SO much fun together. We ended up staying at the park for 2 hours! They just ran around and played and played until they could play no more. It was so much fun watching them play together, and we all played with them, too. After we finished playing at the park, we headed to the restaurant where Mary works and had dinner. They were pretty busy, and it was fun to see her in action. I was pretty impressed. The food was good, of course the service was GREAT, and the girls even behaved themselves.

     Saturday, Mary, Bailey, my mom, Ryan, Rylee, and I headed to a nearby state park that has a beach and swimming area. The girls had a lot of fun playing in the sand, and even more fun in the water. After we swam, we had a lunchable picnic at the park. It was a lot of fun. Both girls passed out on the way home. When we got home, Mary had to go to work and my dad was already at work, so we had a quiet night in and watched some TV while the girls played and played. They played so well together this whole trip.

      Sunday morning, my Aunt Shannon and Uncle Rod arrived from New York. It was their first time meeting the girls. They came bearing gifts, so the kids warmed up pretty quickly. We spent the morning catching up, and the girls played some more. After lunch, it was time for us to head home. We were sad to go, but we had a great time.

     Today I started teacher inservice. I am so excited about meeting my class next week! I cannot wait to see what this school year has in store. I know my kids are going to do great, and I know that even if I don't do great at first, I will learn! :)

End of Summer Review

      Tomorrow I begin new teacher orientation, and my summer break officially comes to an end. I feel like this summer has FLOWN by, but I also feel like so much has changed over the summer, that I need a review just to keep track of it all. Rylee has changed so much over these few short months. She's grown some physically, but her personality has changed much more drastically.

       Here are a few ways in which Rylee has changed from the beginning of May to the end of July:

• She will let me leave her side without a huge meltdown. She will even stay in the church nursery with complete strangers without getting the least bit upset.
• She stands up for herself. She always let Kaden be the boss when they played, but now if she wants something, she will fight for it.
• She willingly interacts with other children. She is becoming more social and more affectionate all the time.
• She will drink from a hard spout sippy cup and give it to herself. We've always struggled to keep her hydrated, but now she will drink about 3-4 full sippys each day, and she will hold them herself.
• She is becoming slightly less anxious about trying new foods.
• She no longer sucks her fingers to go to sleep.
• She has learned to more often use her words than throw a tantrum or cry.
• She is becoming increasingly fearless. She will try new things, climb, run and experiment in ways that she was too timid to before.
• She is so amazingly intelligent! Okay that hasn't changed, but she blows me away with all the things she knows. She talks in sentences and has something to say about everything. She notices so much about the world around her, and she picks up on things extremely quickly. She knows her alphabet, she can count to 10, she is learning letter sounds (she knows sounds for s, c, k, t, and h), she speaks a few words of Mandarin, she knows most of her colors and shapes, she knows and can verbally label almost any animal or food that she sees, she can label several of her body parts and can specifically tell me where something hurts if she is in pain, she labels her emotions (happy, sad, mad, scared, and excited), she can sing pretty much in tune, and so much more. Like I said, she blows me away!

      I love having breaks where I can be a stay-at-home-mom with my Rylee. I am going to miss spending all my time with her, but this year it is not nearly as hard going back as it was last year. Last year, I had to be in Memphis 4 nights a week, I'd much rather work 5 days a week and get to be home with her at night. I am thankful that I have a job to go to and a sweet family to come home to. It also makes it easier for me to go back right now knowing Rylee will be home with Ryan while I work. I think it is a blessing in disguise that he hasn't yet found a new job. The right one will come along in God's perfect timing. When Ryan does find a new job, Rylee will probably have to go to daycare, and that will be a whole new adventure in itself. I am just a little relieved that I don't have the added stress of her starting daycare right now as I start this new adventure of being a teacher. I have faith that Ryan will find a good job soon, and everything will work out fine.

Rylee's First Haircut

      Today we took Rylee to get her first haircut. She just needed a trim to cut off the thin little baby hairs at her ends. I have been putting this off because Rylee used to be horrible with new situation, but lately she has been better about it, so we thought it'd be a good time to go get it done. Plus, her hair really needed it.

       Her hair looks a million times better after the trim. It looks so healthy now! Kaden went and got his first cut today, too. Liz was tired of his hair always being in his eyes. Both kids did pretty well. Rylee had to be held by me the entire time, but she was god about staying still and she didn't cry or pitch a fit or anything. Kaden didn't want to be still, so Mrs. Amanda had to chase after him to get his cut done, but it turned out fine.

     After their haircuts, we treated the kids to lunch at McDonald's for being such good, big kids. I am so proud of them. And doesn't their hair look fabulous?!

Rylee the Picky Eater

      Ever since Rylee first started eating table foods, she has been a picky eater. When we introduced baby foods, we never had a problem. She would eat all her fruits and veggies and anything that was offered to her. We introduced table foods slowly, just giving her bites here and there at first. She would try anything. Then she slowly began to turn down more and more foods. Foods that she had eaten and seemed to enjoy several times before, like green beans, were suddenly "Yucky!" It just kept getting worse.

       We tried to keep encouraging her to eat a variety of foods, but she just became more and more adamant that she was not going to eat anything she didn't want to. When her growth started to suffer, we decided we would feed her whatever she would eat just to keep her growing strong, and we'd stop trying to force her to eat normally for a while. The foods she would eat were micro mini ravioli (they had to be micro mini and not just mini or she wouldn't eat them), biscuits, garlic Texas toast, tomato soup, grilled cheese, fries, baby food sweet potatoes or squash, apple sauce, yogurt, chocolate pop tarts, and a variety of snacks such as teddy grahams, goldfish, or animal crackers. That's it. She wouldn't even try anything else. We fed her what she liked to keep her growing strong until she turned 2.

     Around the age of 2, every child's growth slows. They just don't grow as quickly as they did as infants. Therefore, their caloric needs decline. This led us to believe that now is the right time to start being hard on Rylee about eating. We put a new policy in place shortly after her 2nd birthday. If we are at home at night, we have a family dinner and we all eat the same thing. Rylee is offered what we are eating and if she doesn't want to eat it, that's fine. We don't make a fuss over it. We let her down from the table without trying to force feed her, but she is not given any other options. I place her dinner on her small table where she can eat if she changes her mind. The progress hasn't been miraculous or anything, she is still picky, but she has not gone to bed hungry yet. We have tried this same strategy before when she was younger and she would literally starve herself. I think it is working better this time because she can communicate with us better and she understands what is going on. I don't know if she will always be a picky eater, but at least now her diet is becoming slightly more well-rounded. :)

Rylee and Her Silky

      I haven't written a post about Rylee and her love for her silky yet. Since the whole reason I even have a blog is to record our family memories, I thought I definitely should record this memory. Rylee LOVES her silky. She will not sleep without it. She carries it around with her most of the day, and she definitely has to have it with her in unfamiliar or uncomfortable situations like the church nursery or a doctor's office. It is her security blanket. She has 3: a pink one, and off-white one, and a white minky one. She doesn't like them as much just after it's been washed, she likes them best when they are a little dirty. Haha. I like that she has something that can comfort her in pretty much any situation. I don't let her carry it everywhere, but I want her to have it when she might be scared or unsure.

     This is Rylee this morning. This is how she eats her breakfast every morning. She has to have that silky. :)

4th of July

      Happy Independence Day! We had a marvelous holiday with lots of people we love!

      We started out the day by swimming over at Nonna's and Granddaddy's. Liz and Kaden came to swim, too, and Brandon even stopped by for a minute. We had lots of fun in the sun! Then Liz and Kaden went home, we laid Rylee down for a nap, had some lunch, and got back in the pool until Rylee woke up. It was a blast.

      Once Rylee got up from her nap, we headed home to freshen up, and then we headed over to Granny's and Paw Paw's for a family BBQ! We has way too much delicious food. Afterwards, we were entertained by Rylee who was being a little ham as usual.

      Once it got dark Ryan, Rylee, and I headed back over to Nonna's and Granddaddy's to shoot off a few little fireworks. We had fun, but Rylee really didn't like them, so she went inside to lie down and watch cartoons as we finished up outside.

      We really had the best kind of day. I love spending so much time with family. I am incredibly grateful to have so many wonderful people who love us and sweet Rylee Love unconditionally. It is so valuable to me.
     By the way, did you notice that I am a brunette? I just decided it was time for a change. So many things are changing in our lives right now, I thought. "why not?" I have dyed my hair darker before two other times, but I lightened it back to blonde within a few months each time. I don't know if I will go back blonde anytime soon, I am liking this new color. It just seems right. :)