Yesterday we took the boys to the aquarium down on the river. We had been wanting to go for a while now, but we finally got the time yesterday. Dylan was so excited to go. They said they don't allow strollers during the day, just in the evening, so I had Ethan in a front facing carrier that I was able to wear. Once we got there, Ryan had Dylan's hand and Dylan was pulling Ryan around looking at the tanks. I had told Ryan that he needed to slow down because we are moving too fast, but Ryan pointed out that it wasn't his fault, that it was Dylan who was in control. So he really enjoyed himself. Dylan said he wanted to see sharks and penguins. He got excited seeing all of the different turtles. There was this one area that had a glass bottom, so you could look under your feet and see the animals. Dylan was freaked out. He shuffled his feet along the edge to avoid walking on it! At the next one, Ryan basically dragged Dylan across it. Dylan had a hold of Ryan's hand pretty tightly there. It was funny.

These fish were weird. They had themselves buried in the sand, and were just sticking out of the sand sitting there. They were some sort of eels.

Dylan looking at the clown fish. At least I think that's what they are.

These were odd. Japanese Spider Crabs. They were huge!

Here Ryan lifted Dylan up to reach into a pool to touch a horseshoe crab.

So we finally got to the penguin exhibit, and it is so disappointing. It basically made me think of a small stage setup. That was it. So small, so disappointing. What you see in this picture is all there was of the exhibit.

Today, I finally got the highchair back out for Ethan and put it together. Here he is. Growing up!

Ethan had another tooth show up yesterday. You can just see the white poking through. This one is on the top, and off to the right. I'm not sure what that tooth is called. But you get the idea. Right now it doesn't seem to bother him right now. He woke up once last night though. Could be because of the tooth, or not, who knows, but I gave him the pacifier and rubbed his face and he was out again.
Dylan had a good day at school yesterday. When I went to pick him up he was filthy! I asked him if he rolled around in a dirt pile, and he said 'no' but I swear he did. He had dirt all over his face, up his arms, under his nails, and he feet were almost black. So shower for him right away. I asked him how he got so dirty and he said he was cooking hot dogs in the dirt. No idea where that came from! Where do kids get these things?

So Ethan finally slept all night last night. It could have been a fluke though, so we'll see how tonight goes. I put a fan in his room by his bed for some noise. So I don't know if that is what did it, but I am so thankful for a nice all night sleep. About a month ago, we got the jumperoo out of the attic for Ethan. For about a week or so, he hated it and would cry when we put him in it. But he learned to like it and now enjoys bouncing in it. Its so cute!
Ryan's fire department burn went fine. He said it was unbelievably hot between the heat of the day and then the heat from the fire. I could only imagine how miserable it was. But everything went well. He had a long day yesterday.
Just a quick update!

Tired.
I have been putting Ethan to bed in his crib the last few nights. He naps in there all the time, and has for months. He isn't sleeping well at all. Really it doesn't make sense to me. If he's never slept in there, fine I'd understand that, but that's not the case. He wakes quite a bit whining or crying. I went down the stairs twice last night before I slept on the couch. I wish I knew what was causing him to sleep so poorly. He didn't wake like that when he was in the pack and play in our room. So yeah, I'm tired. One short nap during the day would do wonders. But the boys' naps are not timed together this week. Ethan is switching his nap times up a bit.
Not a whole lot else going on. Tried bananas with Ethan. Not going well. I don't know why this kid doesn't like anything yet. The first day I gave him bananas he would shudder like he had a cold chill after I would get the spoon in his mouth. I guess to him, it tasted pretty bad.
Today and tomorrow, I guess the heat is supposed to get pretty bad. At 7 am this morning, it was already 79 degrees. Yuck! Heat index in the 100 supposedly later today. Same thing for tomorrow. The fire department is supposed to have a training burn and burn down an old house and barn. It seems a little crazy that these guys are voluntarily going to be in full fire gear and around a raging fire. But I guess its something that isn't easily cancelled. Permits and permission and red tape. That kind of thing. I'm sure they will be fine though.
I am kind of all over the place but hey, I'm sleepy still.

There are times when I sit down with Dylan, trying to get him to focus and do things, or listen to things and hopefully retain the information from what we are doing. Obviously some times go better than others. He knows his letters. He doesn't know their order yet, but I don't see that as important at this age at all. He knows the sounds that some letters make. He can count, when he wants too. Among other things, but I will get to my point here. When I was sitting with him today looking at letters it didn't go well. He wasn't having the patience to sit and listen. So of course insecurities set in. And I have to say that I often get insecure about being a parent. I always wonder if I do enough, or if I am good enough. So during one of my "am I a good mom" episodes, I started looking around on the internet for what a 4 year old should be doing. Dylan will be 4 in October. I've done this before at his younger ages and seem to forget the result of my research. I get conflicting information all over the net. There seems to be a huge range of "should be doings." I do get caught up in what other parents say their kids are doing. That seems to be where most of my fuel for this fire comes from. So while looking today I came across this one website, and it made me breathe again. It was nice. www.magicalchildhood.com/articles/4yo.htm
The text of the article was pleasant to see. I haven't gone to the other links that the article provided, so I am only talking about what is written on the page.
I still have insecurities on my parenting ability, but I guess that's normal. At least I hope it is. I certainly don't think Dylan is stupid. That's not what I am saying. The problem is whats in my head, and my thinking. There are times when Dylan surprises me with what he says or knows or does. I am sure that I will do the same thing with Ethan. Its hard sometimes not to compare yourself to others. I just have to be careful that my insecurities don't come off on the boys. It is not easy being a parent, but I love that I can be a parent. I wouldn't trade it for the world. Even if it does drive me batty at times.

Well, we had a decent weekend. Saturday, I took Dylan to spend the night with my mom. He was thrilled. He drove me nuts from the moment he woke up that day until we got there. He was ready to go spend the day with Mamaw Meese. That's what he calls her, and I'm guessing that's how you would spell it! Haha. Ryan's mom and dad kept Ethan for a few hours then while Ryan and I went out. It was nice to have sometime together. We picked Ethan up that evening, and went and picked Dylan up on Sunday.
Took Dylan to school this morning, then got groceries and then took Ethan to his 6 month check up. Ryan's mom picked Dylan up from school for me. Ethan's appointment went fine. He got a few shots. He cried for the second and third shots, but calmed down quickly. He weighs 16 pounds 3 ounces, and is 27 inches long. His weight puts him in the 45th-50th percentile and his height is in the 75th percentile. It was a quick visit because there were no problems, thankfully. He will go back once he is 9 months. That puts us into October. That is also when Dylan will need to be seen for his 4 year checkup. Not sure how I am going to handle that. I imagine it will have to be separate appointments. I'm not sure if they will even do joint visits like that. Im sure there is more, but I can't think of it right now. Its been a long day already.

We haven't been up to much lately. Hanging out. The boys are both good. Ethan has had a couple of off days. It happens. I am still working on giving him solids. Hit and miss really. He seems ok with the rice cereal, and doesn't seem to care for sweet potatoes. I will get a fruit next time I am out and see how that goes. Really though, he still pushes most of it back out with his tongue. So he may not be physically ready for it yet. He has his 6 month check up on Monday so I will run it by his doc then. I'm honestly not all that worried about it right now. He is getting anywhere from 5-6 bottles a day, no more than 6 ounces a bottle, and most of the time, he doesn't take the whole 6 ounces. So obviously he is being fed enough. So I'm just hanging back with the whole solids thing. He will eat it in time. I can't believe that he will be 6 months old this weekend! He won't be my baby for long and that is so sad! I got the jumperoo out and up a couple of weeks ago, and until yesterday he hated it. He would cry as soon as I put him in it. Yesterday he finally figured out what to do in it, and he loves it. He smiles as big as he can and just bounces and bounces. Its adorable. Dylan loved that thing too.
Dylan had a good day at school on monday. Sometimes when he says things I swear he is older than 3. He has moments where he is too smart for his own good! It gets him in trouble! haha.

Since it wasn't 100 degrees outside this morning, I went out and put Ethan's swing on the play set. He didn't seem thrilled, but he didn't seem to mind either. He was just along for the ride. He sat there very contently for a while, even though it still felt miserable out there. I swear the humidity was near 100%.
Before we went outside, Dylan was going though some of his toys, and found a small bad. He took the bag and put his toy coins from a piggy bank in it, and told me he was going on vacation. When I asked him where he was going, he said "Word World" which is a PBS show...then he went to his room for his vacation. Funny. When it was time to go out, I asked him if he could come back from vacation to go outside. He brought his bag back and said, yeah I guess. That's about all for now!
I took the pictures with my cell phone, so they aren't the best, but I didn't feel like coming back in for the camera.

I had to take down one of the swings to put Ethan's up. When I put that one back into the barn, I opened the door, and a giant toad jumped in front of me. I almost peed my pants. It scared me to death. Did not expect something to be there at my feet.

Here are some pictures finally. They start with this one from May.


Ethan with his first taste of Rice cereal. From June.

This was just a funny picture of Ethan. Thought I would share.

Here is Dylan playing in the little pool on Saturday. I have more, but with other kids in them. So this was the only picture I managed to get with just Dylan.

Dylan enjoying a popsicle on Saturday.

Dylan with his first sparkler.

I told him to look at me and smile, and this was the look I got, haha!

Thats all for right now. It takes a while for pictures to upload, so I'm done for now!

We have been busy ever since Friday. Finally now, on Tuesday we are done. Friday we went to my grandparents for dinner, and stayed since it was a 2 hour trip. Dylan was bouncing off of the walls from his missed nap. He could have slept in the car on the way there, but he hasn't done that for way too long. He says he had fun though. I was about to pull my hair out though. I hate when he acts that way. Ethan was happy to just be. He was wonderful.
Saturday morning we came home. That evening, friends of ours were having a cookout. So Dylan napped that day, and he was good. No major problems at all. There were 2 little girls there as well. Both were younger than he was, but it all went well. He ate wonderfully too. I was surprised at how much he ate. We stayed late there because they always buy a bunch of fireworks and set them off. They never disappoint. We don't get to hang out with our friends as much as we'd like, so it was nice. Ethan did well too. It was hot, so he was a bit cranky, but once he had a bottle I rocked him and he fell asleep, and slept for a couple of hours. He slept through the fireworks. I actually got a little bit of down time that night.
Sunday we didn't do anything. Ryan worked, the boys and I just stayed home that day. I got a few things done.
Monday evening we went to Ryan's sisters for a cookout. Dylan was...ok. He barely ate, because he refused to take the time to sit down. So he had a hot dog without the bun and that was about it. Again, it was very hot, so Ethan wasn't all that happy. He had a bottle and then took a half hour nap and then did better.
Dylan had his first experience with sparklers on Saturday. He did good. He was careful. I took a few pictures this weekend, although not as many as I had planned on. My camera took a crap on Friday. I got it working on Saturday. I will try to get them on here as soon as I can. Maybe tomorrow. We'll see. I have a lot to post from the last month or so. I don't know how many I will actually get on here though.
No plans for the week. Ethan is fine on the bottle. No problems there.