Raymond Family 2011 Bucket List (to be cont.)

Visit Milwaukee Zoo

Visit Madison Children's Museum

Build a sand box

Go to Green Bay Packer Training Camp

-at least 1 full pads practice

-Curly's Pub

-Hall of Fame

-Family Night

Enroll both boys in swim lessons

Get fishing licenses

Go to Rock River Thresheree

Attend 4th of July Fireworks

Attend Rock County Fair

Attend Edgerton Tobacco Days
Teach Sean uppercase letter recognition
Teach Ian lowercase letter recognition
Attend Moos & Blues
Visit Madison Zoo
Spend a day at Devil's Lake State Park

My Son, the Future Doctor!

Ever since Ian's preschool class talked about skeletons at Halloween, his interest in the human body has continued to grow. He found two of my childhood books, The Magic School Bus Goes Into the Human Body, and The Skeleton Inside You, and asks us to read at least one of them almost every night.

He is so interested in it that we put this Beleduc 5 Layer Puzzle on his Christmas List and his Tita Elizabeth (the physical therapist, go figure! :)) got it for him!

He knows all about bones, cartilage and joints from The Skeleton Inside You, and has a pretty good grip on the concepts of digestion thanks to The Magic School Busy Goes Into The Human Body. I mean, the kid knows what villi are. Seriously? A three year old? I'm pretty sure I learned that word in Medical Terminology my senior year in COLLEGE! Ok, maybe it was Anat & Phys my sophomore year, but I was no A&P whiz and things seemed to fly out on my brain as fast as they went in.

I had the boys at the pediatrician today to check on Ian's ears (he's been battling an EI for who knows how long) and he had his Magic School Bus book with him. He started talking to the nurse about, you're never believe this... BLOOD VESSELS. She was floored, as was I, I haven't heard him talk about them before!

So now here is my wondering... do I encourage this and keep searching for new (age appropriate) books to expand his knowledge? I don't want him to be some super weird Dugie Howser when he's 10, but it's probably just a passing phase, don't you think? He's doing very well with knowing all his letters and we're now working on writing letters. He's great at counting and just starting to graps the concept of adding really small numbers together when we're counting objects. So I think if I just make sure he's not falling behind on normal stuff like that, it should be ok. Or maybe I should really push it and then I can retire early and he can support his parents! HAHA, I can dream, ;-)

Fall!

The leaves are now all on the ground (and at the curb), and the brisk wind is reminding me that winter is just around the corner. However, just a few short weeks ago, we were in the prime of fall! I think fall is my favorite season. There is something so nice about leaving the dog days of summer behind and being able to layer on the hooded sweatshirts and comfy pants :)

All of these pictures of the boys were taken at the farm. We went outside to play in the leave and take a walk in the woods and I knew the scenery would be beautiful. We're still deciding if we'll use the picture of the two boys sitting in the woods on our Christmas card. It's nearly impossible to get a picture of both of them smiling at the same time so we may not get another picture before then!

Halloween

Trying to catch up (in every aspect of life!). We carved pumpkins a few days before Halloween. Sean was very much into reaching into the pumpkin and pulling the guts out. In fact, he was very much into trying to eat the pumpkin guts. Ian thought it was interesting in there but preferred that I do it for him. I think both pumpkins turned out pretty cute and the boys loved seeing them lit up!

This Halloween Ian really wanted to be a tractor, John Deere, of course! I looked up a few different costumes online and decided several months ago that I could make it pretty inexpensively. I had a box from work 2 or 3 months before Halloween. I even spray painted the box a month or so before! Well, life got in the way and Halloween morning I started the long project of finishing it before Trick or Treat started at 5pm!

With the help of a lot of duct tape, his costume was finished in time to Trick or Treat at Charles' cousins' houses (Kay & Todd and Audry & Dale) before making it back to Janesville at 6:30pm. Mind you, ToT ended at 7pm! Sean was appropriately enough a cow. It was pretty cold so we only went to a few houses in our neighborhood. Ian's costume was fairly heavy and it was difficult for him to walk with so I ended up carrying it between houses. It was nice to have the real working headlights on it to light our way!

Sean's vocab at 16 months...

For my own reference (and because I'm sure I'll forget someday!), these are the words Sean can say at 16 months:

• mama
• dada
• EEE (for Ian)
• Penny (sounds like baby)
• book
• Papa
• gama (for Grandma)
• LoLo (sounds like waa waa)
• hot
• up
• down
• on
• off
• bug
• nose
• eye
• hair
• hand
• bonk (when he bumps something)
• elmo
• Go Pack Go!
• uh oh!
• woah!
• roll
• dada work (for Daddy's at work)
• bye
• hi
• pease (please)
• tank coo (thank you)
• no
• yes
• ball
• what's dat
• milk
• nack (snack)
• teat (treat for Penny)
• tractor
• Percy (the train)
• I'm the map
• truck
• bus
• mess
• clean
• all done
• eat
• yucky
• dance
• rock
• apple
• animal
• meat
• banana
• hotdog (refers both to the food and Micky Mouse)
• animal sounds-
• moo
• baa
• oink
• meow
• woof
• bawk bawk
• rar
• quack

Thresheree Weekend

Every Labor Day Weekend we make a point to go to the Rock River Thresheree. Now for me, this is a new thing. I mean, never as a child did I attend a single event with so many adults wearing overalls. Charles has been going to the Thresheree as long as he can remember! He has many memories of camping there and using his own money he saved up to buy the perfect toy tractor. Now that the boys are a little older, they could really enjoy looking at all the tractors and machines.

The day before we went as a family, Ian rode on Lolo's tractor to bring some logs down there to be cut into boards. It was pretty cold but he loved being on the tractor for the long ride!

At the Thersheree, Ian and Sean were each able to pick out one toy. Ian picked a skid loader and Sean picked a John Deere tractor. It always amazes me how much they love these tiny little toys and just how much they play with them! Sean gets down on the carpeting in the living room and pushes them around, making tractor noises.

We rode the steam train that is fueled with coal. It's a little bit of a stinky ride in my opinion, but the boys love waving at everyone and hear the train whistle blow!

While riding the train, Ian saw this little kiddie train pulled by a tractor and begged to go on it! The guy who owns it just waits till kids come and sit in the cars and then drives it around, no charge! What a nice guy! Ian, of course, picked the John Deere car.

It was a long and enjoyable day and we look forward to taking them to it next year when I think they will love it even more!

Since it's still July...

I can still post this video from the 4th, right?