Ten on Tuesday

1. Rowan had his 18 month appointment this week and remains a little peanut. I think he weighed in at 24 and a half pounds. He is kicking along at 40th percentile in everything. He randomly had terrible stranger anxiety at the appointment, which I've never really seen him have before. He did insist on bringing his Cardinals hat which acted as his shield between him and the doctor and the nurse. It worked well and I'm pretty sure he never made eye contact with anyone. He did get a shot and handled it like a trooper. Ro is one hundred percent an 18 month old with random fits of screaming about things he desperately wants or wants to do, but can't because they are windly irrational. Such as going outside, with his blanket, in his diaper, at 8pm. Not happening, but it was the end of Rowan's world.

 

 Me and my little Cardinal boy!!

2. Speaking of outside, I had bought a new umbrella when we moved into this house because there are zero trees in our yard which means zero shade. Well the lovely Oklahoma wind blew the umbrella (which was in aweighted stand) and our glass top table completely over, breaking both. Yes there are shards of glass all over our backyard just in time for the weather to cool off. Somehow Zane managed to fall down while taking the trash out and scratched up his leg. We have yet to figure out the best way to clean up this mess, but I'm thinking we might have to dig up large portions of grass. Fantastic!!! I can't win for loosing.

 

3. Rowan and Zane seem to being having lots of fun together this week. At one point I was distracted for a few minutes and found Zane having a grand time giving Rowan shopping cart rides. They also spend lots of time chasing each other, falling face first on to the couch, and yelling at the top of their lungs. I love to see them actually starting to play together, with it ending in tears, bites, or fights possibly a little bit less. 

 

 This was Rowan later in the day, in a tiny wagon that he found at Aunt Abbey's.

 

4. One day this week Rowan randomly woke up before Zane at nap time. This never happens and usually means Rowan's afternoon is going to be a disaster (that was true on this occasion). But before things went down hill he is initially super stoked for some one on one mommy time with me. This particular day he decided he wanted to try on brother's underwear, all of his underwear, at once. He couldn't figure out why he couldn't walk around with them all on, very disappointing, but oh so cute!!

 

That's right people, he has Ninja Turtles and Minions

5. This year Maggie is getting to stay home an extra year before starting kindergarten, which I highly support since I myself was a 6 year old kindergartener. This means that some days Maggie gets to go do fun things with Zane and I during the day. This week, on Thursday morning, Grandma happened to be in town so we took all the littles out to the park and lunch together. It was lots of fun, complete with Rowan and Everett starting to figure out how to play with each other and not try to kill each other. They were stinking cute. Everett was climbing all over the playground with Rowan following close behind.

 

 Yes, Rowan brought his duck whistle with him, which made him easier to locate so I was ok with it.

 I know this was about Maggie getting to hang out with us, but somehow I have no pictures of Maggie and Zane, just Rowan and Everett, who are equally adorable.

6. This past weeks big activity was the celebration of Zach's birthday. Rowan and Zane made adorable cards, outside, prior to our table breaking. We had a great birthday celebration Sunday evening, at Aunt Abbey's house. The entire party was planned by Maggie, who is five. It was a book theme complete with book covers hanging from the ceilings, a book shaped cake, and a party 

outside. Maggie lined her hallway with books and so nicely labeled all the rooms of her house, just incase we forgot where things were. It was really adorable and we had a great time. Thanks Maggie. 

 

 

 The party planner and the birthday boy by the party tree.

 Yes, Zach and I both had personalized crowns made for us. We were obviously the king and queen of the party!

 Here is the cowboy dance crew. They were the entertainment and were actually much happier than this picture portrays.

Book cake, obviously the decorating was done by the party planner herself.

 

7. I made a point to take a family photo at this party after being asked to send my mother in law family pictures and realizing that we NEVER take pictures as a family. When we do they obviously involve one of my children looking away or being crazy, but we need to make a better effort at it. So here we  are, yes, Rowan does have a huge cheesy puff in his mouth, but it's the best we can do at this point. 

 

 Love this picture of Zach and his mini me, again with a cheesy puff.

 

8.There was lots of baseball played at the birthday party, since Brendan is playing little league this fall. Brendan has gotten pretty good at hitting of hit T, to the point that it might have become a little dangerous in the backyard for little kids. There is one helmet, but five kids, so things got a little interesting and I think he might have switched over to a softer ball by the end of the night. 

 Rowan chilling with Aunt Abbey in the out field.

 9. Here is yet another, hysterical photo of Rowan. This is Rowan in my swim cape, looking like Mikey P!

10. One of our new, semi regular, activities is going to meet Uncle Able for breakfast or coffee before he goes to work and before we head out for our daily errands. The last time we did it I took this adorable pictures of Zane with Uncle Able. This particular day Zane was reading a news paper for the first time and asking Able and I what a news paper was. It was pretty comical trying to explain news papers to a four year old who had never seen one before, because all my news is on my phone of course. How crazy is that? However, there are few things as cute as Zane in Uncle Able's hat.