Landon learns to swim

So for those of you that know Landon, he is a bit cautious....He likes to see what others are doing and if they like it and are having fun, then he will do it.  Well not when it came to swimming.  Landon HATED to swim....I could not get him near a swimming pool and if I did, he would get so incredibly upset.  All he wanted to do was be near the baby pool.  So this year I was determined to get him some great swimming lessons and he was going to be more comfortable near the pool.  Thank goodness for The Day School moms who all have older kids and are full of great advice.  One mom gave me a name and this woman and she is a miracle worker...and she has the patience of a flipping saint...she has 4 kids of her own under the age of 6 I think, teaches swimming and Zumba and manages to have a life in between..not sure how she does it, but remarkable nonetheless :)

Anyway, she had specific rules...first few lessons, there are NO PARENTS allowed. I was to drop him off and go.  It was a lesson every day for 5 days and then again the next week for 5 more straight days.  The first day was pretty bad.  He cried and screamed and thank God she didn't drown him for screaming in her face the whole time...but by the next day he was doing better and by the end of the first week, he was jumping in and having a blast.

Here he is at the end of the week!

On your mark...

Get set....

GO!!!!

Swimming to her

We are members of a neighborhood pool and we are going to try and spend a lot more time at my parents  beach house now that it has been renovated, so swimming is a must.  Now every time we go to the pool, he jumps right in and now it is him kicking and screaming when it is time to get out!

I was a bit skeptical of the lessons at first as we did tons last year and they didn't really help, but here is the actual end proof....GO LANDON!!!

Amazing to me how fast my baby is growing up!!!

China

Can you tell work has been a bit slower for me these days?  I am on a roll posting :)

So after our Memorial Day weekend, we headed home and it was back to work for me.  I had been working non-stop before this trip to prepare for a big meeting that was being held in Beijing, China (i.e. in my 70 hour pay period, I worked 189 hours)...thank God for overtime!  I had 2 more days or work and then I was off to Beijing.  Gabe and I coordinate things so that we never travel at the same time, so he would be home with the boys and plus we have our au pair.  This time however, our au pair was gone for 4 days straight and Gabe's mom was out of town as well, so he was really on his own in the beginning!  He did great, though...needless to say, it most likely squashed any thoughts of having a 3rd baby :)

I left Thursday night for 11 very long days away from my family.  The flight over was really not bad at all.  I am very fortunate that my work flies me business class, so I got on the plane, had my nice BIG glass of wine and fell asleep the whole flight until I landed in Amsterdam. NOTE TO PARENTS - If you want a nice uninterrupted sleep - flying to Asia is the key :)  I wasn't in Amsterdam long enough to see anything which was a bummer. 3.5 hours after I landed it was back on the plane to Beijing. Again, slept most of the way!!

When I landed in Beijing, I was honestly in shock. I know it is a different culture, but it is VERY different. It was so amazing to really see how the other side of the world lives!  I met one of my very close work friends, Rebecca at the airport, and we set off to check into the hotel and spend the day sight seeing...and shopping!

Shopping there is like New York on speed...they will haggle with you like nobodies business, but they want your money, so you can get great deals. We went on one shopping adventure to a "market". Once they realized we knew about good bags and shoes, they took us across the street to a basically abandoned building, knocked on a locked door with a curtain in front, and in we went to the most beautifully light room with every designer bag and shoe you could imagine. It was a bit scary, but very fascinating at the same time.

One of the most interesting things to me about China is that children there do not wear diapers starting at about 10 months old. Most children are potty trained by 15 months old (at the oldest I have been told).  In doing so, they wear pants that have a slit right up the back so they can stop and go whenever and wherever they want. You have to see it to believe it.

You can see the slit here..the first time I saw this, I just couldn't figure it out...

 After a day of sight seeing and a fun party local style, it was straight to work the next day. However, there were some perks.  I got some great massages and got the opportunity to see sights I never would.  One thing I could have done without is the food.  For those of you that know me...I am the pickiest eater ON EARTH...if you are picky, China is not you.  Some of the options consist of ox tongue, duck feet, cow liver, raw chicken and barely cooked beef...needless to say it was a great way to kick start a diet.  I ate fruit the entire time I was there!

Duck with the feet cut off...no thanks!

Once the meeting was over, we had a day and a half left to pack and relax, so we went and saw more and shopped more of course!

Beautiful gardens

A view from dinner

A different view

Part of the Great Wall of China - YES, it is really that steep

Making our way up

We went to see the Olympic area

The "Birds Nest"

The trip was absolutely a great and a once in a lifetime experience, but by the last day, I was really missing my family. It was hard to stay connected because of the 12 hour time difference, so I was ready to go home.

I left on what was Saturday afternoon around 3 pm and I walked into my house at 5 pm on Sunday. It was a very long trip back, but well worth it.

Gabe and the boys were great...can't say as much for my house, but it was still standing which is all I could really ask for, right?

Dylan in his authentic pj's with his new remote car

Landon loves his pj's as well!

Now I am home until my next trip away...Athens, Greece in October!

Dylan's clothes - - - or lack of!

Dylan has started the obsession with being naked...at first we thought it was funny and cute, but now we have a stripper on our hands.  He used to just take his diaper off before baths and take off down the hall.  Now he will take off EVERYTHING anytime of the day....for a while trying to keep his dressed was a challenge.  So for now, I have started dressing him in things that are a bit harder to get off.

One night, I went to go and check on him before I went to bed and this is what I found:

Guess he gave up and getting them it all the way off

Still covered in stamps

He constantly keeps us laughing!!!

Memorial Day - Strawberry Picking, Aunt Hadley, Train, and River

I am still trying to catch up from not posting for months of being so busy, but I am at the end of May - writing in July...go figure...

Each Memorial Day weekend we always go up to our house in Blue Ridge to be together as a family. The boys LOVE it. They can be outside all day, play in the dirt, go over to the pond and go fishing on the boat and they also get to see the train. We are right on the river and across the river the Blue Ridge Scenic Railway has a train that comes by 4 times a day....of course one of them is right in the middle of nap time which is quite annoying, but the other times the boys just love it.

This year was an extra special one. We took Landon on the train for his first ride and he loved it and Aunt Hadley came in town from Colorado so it was an extra special weekend. We even took the boys strawberry and blackberry picking at Mercier Orchards with our close friends the Nichols family.

Here we are picking berries...YUMMY!!!

Landon taking his job very seriously

 

 

Showing off his strawberry

Dylan picking with Tink

He is so serious

Dylan looking with Daddy

Gabe testing one out

Dylan was dedicated :)

Landon having so much fun!

Best family shot we could get...you try and keep 2 young boys still long enough for a photo!

Landon still looking...

After you are done, you get to take a tractor ride back down the hill which of course they loved as well. Once we finished picking, we decided to go into town and check out the festival. We didn't get too far as it was super hot and all the boys were rather hungry. It was hot dogs and chips all around...

They LOVE Aunt Hadley!

That afternoon went over to the pond for Dylan's first boat ride and fishing adventure. Landon has been before but was super excited. Poppa was already there...waiting for us.

Getting ready to go

So far so good

The boys did great...Dylan didn't love the boat but he was fine and Landon caught a fish, so he was thrilled. My dad caught a catfish as well so landon was ready to go back and check it out...

He was wondering where the cat was :)

Isn't he cute?

Dylan loving on his Poppa

Needless to say after this day, the boys were exhausted.

The day day was the day Landon had looked forward to all week. He kept asking how many more sleeps until we ride the train. He was so well behaved as he was not going to miss out on the train. Tink treated Landon and I to the train so Gabe could stay back with Dylan, but Landon made Gabe promise to wave when we went by the house. The majority of the ride he kept asking how much longer to our house...He loved it!  When we got to our house, the whole train knew it as my dad and Gabe ran down to the edge of the water and were jumping around like banchies (sp)...the passengers thought they were nuts, but Landon just laughed and loved it!

Waiting to go

Tink loving Landon

So excited!!!

The rest of the weekend was just spent relaxing and having a good time. One big feat for Landon was that he walked across the river to the other side. Landon until recently had been a bit timid to try new things so this was a HUGE deal for him to trust Gabe enough to walk in the water. GO LANDON!!!

About to get started

Making his way across

He made it!!!

 We are so fortunate to have a wonderful getaway house....Thanks Tink and Poppa!!!

End of school for Landon and Dylan

I had put Landon at Holy Innocents' MMO when he was 2 for a 2 day a week program...mainly just because I went there and I was biased. Unfortunately, the church lost their MMO funding so I had to put him at a different school this past year. I had to decide very fast due to the timing of when we found out MMO was cancelled. We decided on a private preschool right on the corner of our street which we have LOVED. We like it so much we will plan to stay there until Landon cannot go any longer.

Landon was a Busy Bee this year and he learned so much. He especially LOVED his teachers Ms. Lynne and Ms. Marion. We had an end of the school year party at one of the mom's clubhouses and it was perfect. Great weather, not too hot and a bit of a breeze, and wonderful food for the little guys. One of the dads even came and played his guitar and sang which the kids just loved!!!

Ms. Marion on left and Ms. Lynne on right - Landon was just ready to play so no smiles for him

I waited to put Dylan in the MMO class there at the end of January because of his speech delay. I didn't help with his speech as much as just socialized him with other kids. I think because we started in the middle of the year, I never really got to know the teachers. I only knew one for him, Ms. Patty and she was one tough cookie. Let's just say I wouldn't want to upset her :) She was great for Dylan because he knows how to manipulate and push people's buttons and she didn't let that happen.

Here is Dylan at the end of the school year with the 3 teachers in his class.

Ms. Patty on the right

I promised they really did love school, but you would never know from the pictures where I can't get them to smile to save my life!!

Next year Landon will be a Teddy Bear and Dylan will be a Lucky Duck...too cute!

Now to get ready for summer!!!

Gabe's TriPathalon

Gabe decided that he wanted to do a mini-triathlon this year and the one he found was on Mother's Day! It was actually something that I wanted to do for myself, but I could never get my act around to training. I would not be ready for the swimming portion at all. Anyway, for those of you that know Gabe, he is good at EVERY SINGLE SPORT....I mean it is really annoying at times. He is good at everything and I think I have only beat him in a card game once. So he signed up to do the race and it gave him 6 weeks to train....did he?? Barely? He maybe swam 4 times in the 6 weeks and never once rode a bike or ran.

It came to the weekend of the race and things had changed for my plan to see him. Remember, Dylan had surgery the Friday before and this day was his worst day yet. Thanks to the BEST sister EVER!!! Landon and I got to see Gabe. Gabe met one of our best friends Jen and they went together. The plan was that Landon and I would park on the top of my mom's street as the bike portion was going to pass right by. Then after he passed on the bike, we would go park and watch him run by. I knew there was no way we would make the swimming and plus there were just too many people. My sister came over, hopped in the bed with D and Landon and I were on the way. He was so incredibly excited to go and find Daddy running his race.

We got to my moms around 8:00 am and I started to get worried that we had missed him because he was #224 and I was seeing numbers 50 and 8 come by and I knew they should have started highest to lowest. This was the first Chaistain Park TriPathalon so there are still some kinks. After waiting about 30 minutes and Tink coming to the top of the street to hang out with us, Landon screams....HERE COMES DADDY!!!! It was so cute.

Luckily I knew he had a white helmet

Waving to Landon

And then he was gone

It was super quick and then he was gone...His Godmother, Jen, however, stopped at the car to give Landon a big high five an to say hello. She has the cutest helmet you had ever seen with cat ears on top...no postings allowed though :)

After we saw Jen, we drove down and parked and within a few minutes Gabe had already run almost the entire loop and we caught him right at the end! It is really quite disgusting how athletic he is!

Getting ready to give Landon a high five

Landon was ready and waiting

And then he was off again!!!

He did so well and Landon was so proud of his Daddy and told everyone that day that his daddy ran the best race ever!!! Good job Gabe!