Skiing and Peeing

Reilly had is ski lesson today. There are a couple little guys in his class - as everyone readied themselves for the upcoming hour, I helped Reilly get his skis on. We started moving toward the lift and he said:
"I have to go the bathroom." Oh man... I was ready to ring his neck b/c we had already gone. I said "Are you serious" which is really a dumb question because with children it usually doesn't come out of their mouth unless it's true. So the next 7 minutes went like this:

Okay, hurry, come on.
scamper scamper (tough in ski boots)
into the ladies room
Mom, can you take off my mittens?
No, I'm going to help you.
I take down his ski pants and two pair of long underwear and the SpongeBob boxers, I line him up and expect him to just go.
Mom, I can't concentrate like this.

delay.... delay....

Phew, with that short delay we were back out on the slopes in just a few minutes.

Honesty from the Innocent

Sounds like a dirty word, doesn't it? It's actually the little ski place down the street where Reilly is in a preschool program. Today was his first day, I wasn't sure how he would do since he's only really skied with Shad and last year was when he broke his leg skiing at this mountain. However, his sister, Kate that is, positively reinforced him on the way over:
Kate: Rye, you are going skiing
Reilly: Yah
Kate: You falled last time
Reilly: Yah
Me: That's okay people fall all the time when they are learning to ski.
Reilly: Yah Kate Mom falls when she skis.
Kate: Yah, but Rye, you fall A LOT.
silence and frost heaves... more silence and more frost heaves...

He skied for an hour with other kids his age. It went well. They stayed on the magic carpet the whole time and Reilly was "assisted" by the instructor most of the time. But, whatever works, we don't want him to be intimidated by skiing since he got hurt doing it.

Afterward he had a BIG smile on his face, rosey cheeks and was thrilled. He was also so excited to be able to wear his ski jacket with his lift ticket on it to school.

NOTE: Thankfully Nannie could help me today, I'm not sure how I would have done it with a stroller/infant, a toddler and Reilly that needed help with all his equipment.

Hands and Feet

As Kate and I lay in bed today with Shea - we discussed what the day held in store for us.
Me: Today we're going to clean this room. said in a high pitch to make it sound fun and exciting
Kate: Can I help?
Me: Of course, that would be great!
Kate: Shea has hands, but she can't help.
pause
She has feet but she can't walk.
She can't walk down the stairs.
Shea can't help us.

You've got to appreciate such thoughtfulness.

How many toes does a fish have?

says Tacky the penguin.

Reilly asked where which restaurant we were going to for dinner, I asked him to guess (since we only go to four different ones that the kids will eat at AND that are kid friendly). He began guessing then had this to say: "I know it's Sunshine on the Iceberg".

Shad and I looked at one another, wondered what the heck he was talking about and he broke into a story about Tacky the penguin, apparently one of the books he is reading at school.

We're still in the dark, but he's got us curious now.

Fascinated

It's fun to watch Kate and Reilly since the birth of Shea. They were close before since they share a room but they seem to actually be friends now - playmates. Shad and I love to watch them talk, play, share, veg and more. Kate has a maternal way about her, even at two. She's constantly checking on Reilly, repeating what we say (as though he didn't hear), correcting him, and generally watching over him. He adores her and compliments her on things she does. They are also the first to tattle on one another - specifically at bed time. Some nights they spend two hours tattling on each other, playing, reading, giggling, playing flashlight tag and more things that get them into trouble.

All that being said it's been so great to watch them grow closer to one another and growing in general. With Shea part of our family now, the two of them seem much older and appear to grow inches each day!

17-0... and he knows it... thanks to his peers

He spends most of his free time at school making books, here is a photo of him and his latest:

Reilly just told Shad that he loves Tom Brady as much as he loves Shad. Shad replied with "is it the same kind of love?" (total set-up in my opinion) and Reilly replied with a "yes, the same kind of love".

Happy Birthday Shea

Okay, well Happy First Month of life in the outside world. For her birthday, she went on her first run with Daddy. Here she is all bundled up and ready to go. Apparently she slept the entire time, when she got home, she got placed on the ottoman and did not move for another thirty minutes. I think she likes the fresh air, and like most other newborns motion is good too!

Huffin and Puffin

I played soccer twice this week. I wanted to get out and do something that brought me back to what I thought of as "my old self" - just so I knew it was still there... somewhere. Shea and the kiddos hung with Dad for the two and a half hours while I was out. Shea was challenged with a bottle during these times, thankfully, she did okay.

I played with my "chick" team on Monday and the coed team on Tuesday. I found that my head really knew what to do but my body could not keep up. Three weeks after her birth, it's about what I expected. What I didn't fully expect but got a chuckle out of - in hindsight of course - was the loss of bodily fluid during exercise. Not only was it feeding time, I was reminded of why kegels are important and how pelvic floor muscles are more important than I gave them credit for. Oh... not even forty yet and dealing with the issues of my mother and grandmother. How sad...

Regardless, of my premature exercise, it felt soooo good to be running around again. It makes me so happy to run around not to mention being able to do it with friends.