listening to rock makes your ears hurt

Dennis has a fascination with putting things in his ears. Around Valentine's Day we found a foam sticker in his ear. With some water and wiggling of the ear it floated out. Unfortunately, rocks don't float.

At school a couple of weeks ago, Dennis woke up from his nap crying. He said that his ear hurt because he put a rock in it. 

We took him to the doctor to try to get it out. Our doctor was not in that day so we saw one of his partners. She tried to get it out with a probe... ha ya right. She just pushed it in further and scratched the inside of his ear. Then she gave us a list of ENTs that she suggests. So, we made an appointment and the ENT said that it was too far in. He would have to go under. Dennis has an appointment next week. Hopefully that will be the end of it. This is a very expensive rock. Already $50 and that's just the beginning. 

breezy like sunday morning

Sometimes, I really like having afternoon church. This morning was beautiful. It was about 70 deg outside and it was so quiet. It seemed as if the whole neighborhood slept in including all the dogs. Dennis occupied himself for a while with the hose.
Ryan joined the neighbors in their dreams.
Zola was happy in her crib admiring the mobile.

And, me? I was just enjoying the moment, trying to finish one of the two quilts that I started for Zola. I feel so blessed to have such a wonderful family.

Dennis woke up at 6am crying hard. He came into our room and said, "I want to go to Florida." What a precious kid. He climbed in bed with us and finally fell back asleep. There is something wonderful about having your kid snuggle up to you in bed. I remember snuggling up to my parents and feeling so safe and comfortable. Now, I am on the other end of that relationship and it is just as wonderful. I just have to remember this when he comes in at 2am.

2 months is dangerous

I didn't get a great picture but as you can tell Ryan got a black eye. Frisbee is a dangerous sport especially when you have a 2 month old at home. As it turns out- the last time he had a black eye was when Dennis was 2 months old. Ryan should probably avoid the sport for the second month of the next baby.Funny thing is - he got the black eye right before taking his picture for his passport and his medical license! We will get stopped through security on every international trip we go on... haha

swimming lessons

We signed up for swimming lessons on Tuesday nights. But our first experience was pretty disappointing for all of us. Dennis was signed up to be with a class that is at his swimming ability however, they were all kids that had been in swimming lessons for years together. They were comfortable with the system, the pool, each other and the teachers. Dennis was comfortable with swimming but that is about it. Everything else scared him a bit. They made him put on a floating backpack, the teacher wasn't very nice, the pool was super loud and unfamiliar, and he didn't know anyone. He got in the water once in the 45 minutes and that was because the teacher pulled him out into the middle of the pool by force (never works with D).

We switched classes to a group that is new to the program, Ryan took D swimming the day before just to have fun in the new pool. We got there and he had a different teacher that was not intimidating. Dennis' best friend from school, Ella, was in the neighboring class, and a friend from church was in his class. Things were already tons better. With a little encouragement and a bribe of sprinkle donuts, he really enjoyed his swim lessons.

We got to the donut place just in time to get the last donuts so, she gave us a couple extra. Dennis got his sprinkle donut and one with "butter and cheese" (coconut on white frosting).

stylin

4/14 - Such an adorable outfit that my mom made! It was so cute that she couldn't help but make two. One for this summer and one for next. :)4/9 - I love this jacket. She got it as a gift from a friend who said that it screamed me. :)
4/12 - Here is a super cute sweater that I got at the clearance rack of Gap. I love it when that happens. In this picture she was trying to eat the pacifier. She was nudging it into her mouth while picking up her head. She is getting quite talented.
More super cute outfits to come.

first tennis lesson

Dennis is casually taking tennis lessons from his daddy. He is pretty good at it...for a 3.5 year old playing for the first time. I might also be biased.

Conversation between friends

D: Why are you Eloise?

E: Because when I was little, someone said that I should be Eloise or Ella and then I was Eloise.

D: No, that is not why. I am not Eloise and so you are.

easter

I just love this boy. He is growing up so fast!

The other day we had this conversation:

D: Mommy, are bad guys nice?

R: no, bad guys are not nice.

D: Then I will shoot them.

R: Well, we want to be nice to everyone.

He is looking older and older. I couldn't decide which picture I liked best of the following 3 so I just included them all. :) He dyed eggs with his daddy this year. I wasn't even there to take the pictures. But, we got some good shots afterwards. Apparently, he didn't want to get his hands dirty- so he dyed the eggs the normal way and they all got just one color on them. I was impressed that none of the eggs were broken! I will be eating a lot of egg salad since I am the only one who liked hard boiled eggs.

The Easter bunny did not disappoint this year. Dennis woke up and found that the Easter bunny hid candy all over our living room. He found them all with a few hints. For example - "I bet the Easter bunny likes music" So Dennis ran into his bedroom to look at the boombox (yes we still own one). With a few more hints he finally found the egg in the piano. "How did the Easter bunny get into our house?" After looking in the door and windows he found it in the mailbox. It was fun. Then Dennis found his Easter basket behind the closet door. He was super excited about the tennis racket and the puzzle that he got. You can tell he is related to his daddy. :)

Here is the best picture that I got of our family this year. I had our neighbor take the picture with my old camera. She took it from really far away. I cropped the picture a lot to get it this zoomed in. All that added up makes for not such a good picture.
I couldn't stand the thought of just having our little family for dinner on EASTER! So we invited a couple of friends over. Dennis had a lot of fun with his friend, Stella. They were enjoying their desserts when we over heard their conversation:

S: When I grow up I am going to marry you.

D: No you are not. I am going to fight you.
good bye hugs

easter party at uccc

Some high school aged volunteers put on a party for the kids at Dennis' school. They had different stations where you could play games or do other easter stuff. Here Dennis touched a baby chick.
He blew some really nice bubbles
It was located at his school playground. The decorations were limited so when Dennis saw the yellow streamer on this playground spiral he asked me why it was closed. He thought it was caution tape. haha
Here is Mr. Z, the coordinator at school. He is explaining the rules of the Easter egg hunt.

Cosima, One of Dennis' classmates, told her mom that Dennis was her favorite! :) I guess she has a group of boys at school that she classifies as being "mean". I am sure glad that Dennis isn't in that group. My sweet boy.

Dennis was happy with his eggs. Here he is eating some candy with his classmate Zoe.
Zola slept the entire time snug in my coat. Some people didn't even realize that she was there.
We are sure going to miss UCCC. We have been really blessed with the opportunity to go to that school. Ryan will be done with Medical school at the end of next week and so we don't have any need for a full time daycare for Dennis. We will be sad to leave.

movin' up in the world

We finally put up Zola's crib in Dennis' room. They both seem to like it. They love each other. I feel pretty lucky.
Don't you love this outfit from Nonnie?

Zola has been sleeping really well. Last night she slept from 10pm to 6am! I wish I could say that I slept through the night but Dennis crawled into my bed around 3am.... ah, the joys of being a mother.

birthday party

Zola went to her first birthday party with Dennis to Chuckee Cheese. She wasn't too excited about getting dressed up.
She had her 2 month doctor's appointment and is growing like crazy. She has almost doubled her birth weight. She is now 9 lbs 6 oz and 21 3/4 in long. That is almost as much as I weighed when I was born!

the beginning of spring break

Yep... I wasn't done posting pictures with that last post. I took so many pictures! Believe it or not, I have picked out my favorites.On our second day we went to the state park where Ryan proposed to me 5 years ago. Though we didn't go the actual spot, we did enjoy the wild life of the beautiful park. We went in search for some alligators and found 2! I unfortunately didn't have my camera with when we got out of our car at that spot. First we just saw a female and then a male came swimming up and they both went off into the marsh. A lady told us that they were going to their nest full of babies (we could hear them).

Then we went to the dock where the fisherman dock their boats and clean their fish. We got there just at the right time- the end of the day when the boats come in. The pelicans have it on their schedule. They come for the cleaning scraps. You can see the trail of birds swimming in this picture.
my mom, the Hollywood star.
Here you see my dad at the cleaning table faking the birds out. They gathered all around the table- right up close to us.

We can never pass a playground up.
Dennis is so strong and agile. We should really get him into gymnastics.
Dennis went from standing on the ledge above the bar that he is hanging from (in the next picture) straight to hanging from the bar. He just reached down and stepped off the ledge. I was shocked! He even did it again. I was impressed with the strength it required to lower his whole body down without dropping from the bar.

We went to another children's play which ended up being the same play! Dennis still loved it the second time.
We had a picnic again while watching "the cat and the river rat".

best pals







Thanks Grandma and Grandpa! We had a great time.