Rainy Weekend

Since we had a very rainy weekend we stayed in-stayed up very late-and got a bit silly.

Some of our zany activities:

*Skyler breakdanced while Shayna and I danced around him (and not to music I must add)
*Shayna and I played the "BLAH" game while watching Al Roker's show on food channel. Everytime someone said "nuts" you say "BLAH!" Then we changed it to "jerky" for the next segment.
*Said "hubbub" and "hullabaloo" a lot (well hubbub was last weekend's word, hullabaloo was this weekends silly word)
* we discovered and solidified the fact that Skyler has indeed inherited the LOUD gene. This boy has a very LOUD VOICE. We envision him as the one either getting his teammates riled up or the loud guy having the most fun at the frat party. I think when he is older I will have fun taking him to concerts. He will also be good yelling "Get OUT! FIRE!" if ever that emergency does arise in his presence.

Luckily our friends had thier sons graduation party last weekend and luckily Father's Day fell on the non-rainy weekend as well.

Sadly, we had to throw out the corn balls Manny made to use as bait to go fishing on the Neshaminy Creek with Shayna...since it rained every day. RIP corn balls!

The Y

We decided to join the Lower Bucks YMCA as a family. So now we can exercise while Skyler gets to socialize in the child care room (which has one of those HUGE climb on things like they have at fast food places or chuck E cheese). Shayna is taking a once-a-week swim class and is in the "Minnows." She is learning to perfect her backstroke and freestyle right now, when the session is over she can test into the next level and become a "fish." There are 2 branches but only the bigger one has babysitting. There are only 2 classes/week I like for aerobics but if I told you how much cheaper this place is compared to both LA Fitness and all the other places we looked into you would see why I don't mind just using the exercise bike the other days.

We were also planning to swim in OUR own pool but since we got it nice and clean all we have gotten is rain rain rain...so hopefully the rain will clear so I can get in my kickboard workouts I had planned.

Birthday card for Sprout

Here is the birthday card we made for Skyler to submit to the Sprout TV channel (on our digital cable its channel 128). They have a special birthday segment where they read about 5 homemade cards on the air that are sent in. If they read your card on the air the birthday child also gets a prize/present. Since you need to send in your card 6-8 weeks* in advance, we made a card for Skyler which I will mail to Sprout tomorrow. Hopefully they pick it!

Go to www.sproutletsgrow.com and click on "birthdays" to see some of the current featured cards.

*Skyler will be 2 on August 13th.

Where is Skyler?

See if you can find Skyler in this photo:

Father's Day

We went to Nockamixon Park/Lake Nockamixon for Father's Day. First we went to the pool. Skyler loved the shallow area which is as big as most pools and has three different "water park" areas: a giant mushroom, water spill-poor onto your head-buckets, and water sprayers. It had 2 water slides in the "deep end" which was really 4'7."

After the pool (we stayed in the pool the entire time since it was 90+ degrees out) we went to the boat rental at the marina and rented a 14' motor boat aka motor skiff. Manny & Shayna fished while I hung out with Skyler. The first 15-20 minutes he cried & kvetched because he didn't like the lifevest and god knows what else annoyed him. He did like when the boat moved but then we had to stop so they could fish. Eventually he got his sea legs and was enjoying peering over the side and climbing on and off the seat.

We went ashore around 7pm and then had a relaxing picnic in the shade right by the lake beach- there was a perfect picnic table spot only feet from the water. After eating Shayna & Skyler had a blast feeding the ducks!


1. Skyler enjoys the view while Shayna fishes using her own rod:
2. Shayna drives the boat!!!
3 and 4. Shayna and Skyler feeding the ducks. Skyler would have walked right into the water if we let him.

Fathers Day: preview

For Fathers Day this year, we decided to go fishing. We did some research on places to fish in Bucks County, and found Nockamixon State Park. From the website, it looks great. We can rent a boat (they have everything from motor, pontoons, rowboats to kayaks) and even go swimming in thier gorgeous pool. As an early father's day present, Manny and Shayna got fishing rods & reels (Manny has salt water rods which you can't use for fresh water because they are too big). So Sunday after going to the pool we will rent a motor boat and they will try thier luck fishing on the lake from the boat! The park also has cabins you can rent. We may go back off season in September when its just $27/night to stay in one of thier "rustic cabins."

Here is a link to the park's website:
http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/stateparks/parks/nockamixon.aspx#recreation


Skyler using his fishing rod

Roses

I was trying to take posed photos of Shayna and Skyler but it was getting too dark and Skyler wouldn't stay in one place...so here is what I got. I wanted to show the roses on the arbor- which about a week before were about 50% more, covering the entire top.

Skyler's new word this week: out. He uses it correctly and also when he wants you to get off a chair, or move out of his way.

Jewish Cowboy

Skyler eating matzoh while wearing the cowboy hat-he's a bagel boy:

Dance Recital

This was Shayna's 6th dance recital with the Bucks County Dance Center. She did really well and was in 2 numbers: tap and jazz/hip-hop. It was a western theme. I really enjoyed the show this year and Skyler was even enthralled by it- he actually watched about the first 4-5 numbers until ballet (slow) came on. Then he slept through the entire second half of the show. The highlights for me (besides Shayna's) were Seasons of Love and the finale. For SOL they had the movie showing taking up the entire background and at the very end the dancers sang and one girl did an amazing acapello solo. At the very end of the finale both Lorilei and Rex (the owners of the school and sister/brother) came out and danced with the ensemble programs A,B,C and the Company. As you can see, Skyler took ownership of Shayna's cowboy hat from her tap number!

The latest News

1. Skyler's new word today: apple

2. Smaller baby bird is missing from nest after Wed. storm

3. Dance Recital time for Shayna: shows Thursday June 8, Friday June 9th and Saturday June 10th ---- tap and jazz/hip-hop

4. Shayna's last day of school is Friday June 9th!

Birds

There is a birds nest in the apple tree right on the side of the pool. The birds got a poolside condo- from thier nest you can see directly into the pool. I have been watching it and there were 3 blue eggs with brown spots in it. Two of the eggs have hatched and there are these 2 adorable cute little baby birds.



There is one other nest near the pool, along the side of the deck in the evergreens but no eggs.

Today a beautiful red Cardinal got stuck inside our sunroom. He did eventualy get out. The photo came out dark but he was actually a very pretty red color.

Talking

The latest on Skyler's talking:

1. He loves to say uh-oh and he uses it correctly most of the time. We were watching "Cheaper by the Dozen 2" and during a chaotic scene he said "uh-oh!" We didn't even think he was actually watching let alone comprehending or paying attention.

2. He started to say "doe" the other day and we have NO idea what it means. Any ideas? He said it both while looking out the back window and while holding a container of play dough (coincidence or does he actually know its play-dough?).

3. He will mimic what you say but randomly. He likes to say sounds like "ooooo" or "eeeee." He said "football" after I said "futbol" while going through the Digital TV guide screen. He also said "boo" after Shayna said it. We will see where this progresses.

4. He also has his first word: ball and he says ma ma of course.


Skyler also has commandeered Shayna's chair/seat at the kitchen table. Forget the highchair (I am trying to sell it on craigs list), sometimes he will sit at his little table but he has started demanding his place at the regular table. The 4th place setting has always been a temporary depository for random papers (school, mail, work stuff, etc.) so now I will have to find other places for those items so we can all sit at a moments notice.

Legos

I took out the bin of Legos the other day after seeing that Skyler liked playing with the Gears so much. He LOVES the legos! He mostly likes to build towers going up as high as possible. This is what he did also with blocks, gears, and anything he could find to stack. Its so endearing watching him develop and start to do more each week. Also, legos is something Shayna and Skyler can do together. Shayna will build something more complex and then Skyler will add his tower on top of it. if you follow the chronological photos below, you can see the progression and changes in thier building collaboratively. Look for the full cube Shayna made which then morphed into a house. I think it somewhat resembles a DEVO hat but thats way before Shayna's time so she didn't get the reference.