Beating the Heat

We've had some pretty hot weather this summer and Ryker is a hot kid as it is. You can thank your Dad for that, buddy.   You have many years of soaked Tshirts to look forward too.

Ryker chose the bowl of the watermelon, probably because it was the biggest.  He had a few "triangles" too though.  He loves to point out the shapes of everything now.

He knows how to get all the juice out.

He played with this cool eye mask for about an hour.  It has been in my closet for years since I got it free at a store.  I put it in the fridge the other day thinking that I might use it once I start retaining water from this pregnancy and my face starts to swell up to twice it's size.  Ryker pulls it out of the fridge all the time and plays with it. 

He loves the octopus sprinkler, but he calls it a crab.  He likes to catch the individual legs and spray the dogs.  He also likes to chase them around the yard with his squirt guns.

He waters the yard most nights for at least a little while.  He really likes to drink from the hose and have the dogs drink too.  There are usually two of them drinking from it at the same time.  At one point Cosmos was drinking closest to the nozzle, then Ryker, then Chacon.  Yep, Ryker was downstream from Cosmos.  Utterly disgusting, but he was very pleased with them all drinking at the same time.  He's tried to get them all in there at the same time again, but it hasn't worked out for him. 

Painting outside in the shade.  He's realized that outside, I let him paint anything.  Rocks, paper, the table, the batting tee, leaves, trees.....you name it, it's fair game.  We did have a talk about the house and dogs being off limits though.  The dogs because he attempted to paint on Chacon and the house because I'm sure he would have thought of it sooner or later.

One last story regarding the hot weather.  Ryker now knows the word naked.  He tells a lot of stories, but they are lacking some key pieces and are sometimes hard to follow if you aren't seeing what he is seeing.  A few weeks ago he comes running into the shop and says "Steve naked."  I started laughing, but went out to see why he would say that.  Our neighbor was mowing his lawn with his shirt off.  There is a gradual hill that divides our properties and he could only see him from the chest up going by on his riding lawn mower.  I explained that Steve just had his shirt off and was probably wearing pants.  When we went in the house later, he looked out the window, which is a birds eye view into their yard and said "Steve shorts, no shirt."  Yep, buddy, that sounds a lot more accurate.

To Run or Not to Run?

We decided to attempt another track meet because he had so much fun last time, until the actual races started.  I decided beforehand that I would gage whether or not to actually enter him in a race once it was closer to starting time.  We went an hour early and met Audrey and Abby there.  Ryker was immediately drawn to the sprinklers and it was 90 so I figured, have at it kid.

You're shorts get a little saggy when they are soaked!

After he was good and wet, we decided to do a little bleacher climbing and listen to the music.

He liked the very top row and yelled "Mom come" and "Abby come" until we all joined him.

They turned the sprinklers off, but don't worry, Ryker found another water playland.

Other kids kept coming over trying to get in the water and their parents would grab them and tell them no.  Guess I was setting a bad example.   

Final verdict: he didn't run.  He was having such a good time that I couldn't take the chance again.  He even sat and watched a few of the races while he ate Abby's snacks.  Next year he'll be smokin' fast and understand how to wait in line.

Kids are Best Fest

The City of Anacortes puts on a fabulous kids day.  Ryker loved every minute of it. 

I think he could have been a strong contender in the watermelon eating contest, but we just had a couple samples pieces instead.

This guy was on Seseme Street and Ryker actually sat down to watch him so I got a little rest from running after him.  The assistant is one of our friends.  He was less than thrilled to be picked from the audience, but it was highly entertaining for his wife and I.

Pleased with our second run to the watermelon table.

Our Farm

Okay so it isn't our farm, but we treat it like it is.  The owner's let us cruise freely and spend as much time as we'd like.  Every Friday we go pick up our produce from our CSA, check out the animals, and cut flowers.  Ryker used to cut flowers, but now he cuts the dirt clumps.  Much more of a challenge as some are really hard.  At least he's not thowing them.  We spend at least an hour there each week and sometimes go for the special events.  We haven't made it to a "work party" but do attend the events like the ice cream making day!  Ryker loved the home made raspberry ice cream. 

This is a 14 year old pig.  It might be Ryker's favorite farm animal.  He always wants to give it "treats" because one day another member of the CSA fed it some raspberries.  It is more of a pet pig and it will eat from your hands, but I really don't want him to think it's okay to stick your hand in a pig pen.  The lambs and sheep, perfectly fine.  Heck even let the turkey peck you; not the end of the world, but I've seen some pretty mean pigs and that's not an animal I want him interacting with unless we know it is nice.

He loved the lambs when they were little, but now that they are grown, they aren't as interested in him and don't come to eat the grass he puts through the fence as often.

The ducks often roam freely and he loves to follow them around, but he really loves it when they are swimming in their tank.

Liz, Colton, and Ryker cutting flowers.

Colton getting a good wiff of the sweet peas.

Ryker digging in to the peas.

Now lets talk about the food....Delicious!  We get a wide variety of stuff and it has been awesome, especially since I'm pregnant.  I'm eating things that I normally woudn't buy (kale, rainbow chard, fava beans, currants, kohlrabi) or take the time to prepare.  I'm still pretty short on time but they gave us a cookbook on how to prepare everything and I have a friend at work that is quite a chef that gives me the scoop on the easiest, fastest way to prepare things.  I don't think anything will top the strawberries as Ryker's favorite, but he is rather fond of the sugar snap peas that we are getting now.  I haven't had them since my Grandma's garden and they are GOOD!  I haven't had kohlrabi since the days of good ol' Marj either, but she always grew the green variety, where the ones we get here are purple.  I don't think I'll be able to go back to store bought califlower.  The califlower is spetacular and I never thought I'd be saying that about califlower.  It's not like it is one of my favorite vegetables or anything, but it tastes so much better FRESH from the garden.  Yes, I've tried to grow a garden, but I'm just not dedicated enough to care for it properly (or organically like the crazy hard workers at Riversong Farms) and I would never plant the variety of produce I can get there.  For $13 a week, it is well worth it.  I was spending more than that on boring sub par produce from the store each week.  Plus, we get to have an outing at the farm each week where Ryker has been learning a lot and meeting lots of new people.  When he's older he'll be able to attend the work days which I think will be a valuable learning experience for him.  For right now though, we're sticking with the cider and ice cream making days. 

What am I going to do when winter comes?  I've frozen some things, but nothing close to what we'll need.  Maybe Seth will can some stuff when he gets home. Oh wait, Seth only cans pickled beans that are so hot that no one can even eat them!

4th of July Parades

Ryker having a little snack before we headed to the parade in Anacortes.

Oh the anticipation.....What's a parade? 

Still in their matching sweatshirts!

He caught on to the candy thing right away.  We had a sweet spot at the start of the parade with no competition on our side of the street!

Some of Ryker's favorite floats

Who doesn't love the mini ponies?

Dancing and singing....right up Ryker's alley.

Of course, the big tanks were a hit.  There was a whole caravan of army vehicles.  Probably about 15-20.

He also loved the fire trucks which there were plenty of and at the end of the parade a street sweeper came out to clean up and he was loving that too.  I'm pretty sure he thought it was part of the parade.

Flags, ducks, beads, candy, a shirt.....he was loaded up. 

Samish Island parade

I think he had an enjoyable 4th!  He was up until 10:30 (regular bedtime: 8) talking about the fireworks and going saying "BOOM, pop, pop, pop!"  He didn't even get to watch any but he could hear them all night.  He still talks about fireworks when we drive by the stands that sell them.

A Day with Grandma

My Mom came to visit over the 4th of July weekend.  I worked on Friday so she hung with the little man all day.  They had a great time.  It sounds like they spent the whole day outside and I'm sure he showed her every inch of our yard.   He's a man on the move when it comes to the outdoors.

I pulled this picture off her camera from the last time she was here in April.  What a pudge!  He's going to love this picture when he's older......at least I can blame it on Grandma since I didn't take it!

Aahhh, the sandpile.  He's quite the foreman when it comes to divying up the work.  Apparently, Grandma didn't get a break since she was a guest.  She needed to fill the trailers with sand too.  She had to use the small shovel too while he got the big one.  I always take the big one!

This kid ran the show so snacks and meals were eaten outside.  Ryker requested brocolli for one of his snacks.  My Mom asked me what we were doing to him...what kid requests brocolli?  I have yet to find something he won't eat, besides green olives.

Popsicles were my newest trick for mowing the lawn.   Ryker likes to "drive" the lawn mower now, so it is hard to mow with him turning the wheel one way while I'm trying to go another.  I give him a popsicle now and he licks it and basically lets it melt all over both of us and the mower, but it keeps his hands occupied for about 40 minutes.  Grandma taught him how to bite the popsicle so I'm sure he can put one away much faster now.  I either need to come up with a new trick or buy lots more popsicles. 

Sucessful Track Meet? The Jury is Still Out

About a month ago we went to an All Comers track meet in Burlington. We got to the track an hour early and they had music playing and all kinds of cool stuff for Ryker to check out.  He ran around like a crazy man, loving every minute of it.  I didn't get very good pics of him practicing the hurdles because I took a video instead and have yet to freeze any frames for still pics to post.

I had to force him to stop running for a minute and drink some water.  He was all over that football field and track, sweaty and red faced.

Chillin in the stands with Audrey and Abby.  This is his serious for pre-race expression.

So now for the whole story.  He was in heaven at this track meet.  Playing for an hour, climbing the bleachers, practicing the hurdles.....then came race time.  We lined up with tons of other kids.  They were calling under 2 kids so we got up toward the front of the line.  The girls were first and Ryker was excited, clapping and cheering as they ran.  He really wanted to run and I thought the under 2 boys would be next so I was telling him he was next.  Well he wasn't....they went through all age groups of the girls first.  Ryker was mad, sad, freaking out.  Some other under 2 year old boys started crying and screaming too, but they didn't finish with a tantrum like Ryker did.  FINALLY they called for under 2 boys.  He lined up behind the line and was ready to run.  Then they decided there were too many lined up so they were going to have two heats.  Guess who got bumped to the second heat?  Yep, Ryker.  He was MAD!  He kept saying, "Ryker run, Ryker turn."  Another little boy that had been crying dropped out at this point and his Mom took him off the track.  We waited.  It was again Ryker's turn.  Ready....Set....Go!  Ryker slowly walked from the starting line to the first hurdle, kicked it over, picked it up, and began dismantling it.  I couldn't figure out why he was walking and I was encouraging him to run like he had for the hour prior to the actual race, but he had one thing on his mind.  Apparently he was going to take his frustration out on that micro hurdle.  Anyway, I scooped him off the track as everyone was laughing and drug him out of there.  After that, all he wanted to do was get back to the track and run in every race.  Every time I put him down, he took off toward the starting line.  We finally just left and he was whaling all the way home.  He rarely cries and doesn't ever throw tantrums.  He had so much fun in the beginning, but the grand finale trumped that so we haven't been back.  We're going to the last one tonight though, so wish me luck. We're going an hour early again to play, run freely, and listen to the music.  I'll gage if I think he (or me) can handle waiting in line for the races.  Now that I know how they do it, we'll stay toward the back until the girls are done and maybe we'll make it out without hurt feelings!