Summer Haircuts

Harvey did NOT want his hair cut today. I think he was just scared because he didn't really know what to expect and he doesn't like the clippers. After a few minutes of screaming and fighting, he settled down.

He even gave us a little smile.

Almost done....

You'll have a better shot of the final product at the end of the blog post. I was surprised at just how much hair he had on the floor.

Next it was Rowan's turn.

Rowan acted extremely well. She knew she was getting a haircut and that it would be shorter than it had been.
Since this was her first official cut, I saved a few locks of hair in a plastic baggie. She had only ever had her bangs trimmed before.

We are still planning on growing out the bangs this time.

And here they are! I love how soft and fuzzy Harvey's head feels against my cheek. Rowan is also happy that it doesn't hurt when I comb her hair.
We are now ready for summer!

Fun Summer Sunday

Yesterday, we decided to do something different...mix things up a bit. It was a very nice day (78 degrees, slightly humid, no wind) so we decided to go to a petting zoo and our local park. I had heard about a free petting zoo that was nearby from one of my friends.

The kids seemed pretty excited, but Andy and I didn't get our hopes too high. After all, this was only a free petting zoo located behind a BP gas station.

One of the first things we saw was a pen with Silky Chickens. They were very cute and Rowan really wanted to pet them. There were many other "regular" chickens roaming about freely. We even saw some unusual geese and a peacock.

There were also many pens with goats. They were pretty friendly.

This chicken was making herself comfortable in a little sink hole in the ground. I didn't see any eggs, but she might still have been nesting there.

There were 3 small donkeys that were extremely nice. I think that they really wanted us to feed them the ground corn from the vending machine. We didn't have any quarters, so we couldn't help them. Sorry donkeys.

More goats. A few Shetland sheep next door.

There were 4 little play houses there in a kids play area. They were cute on the outside, but very bare on the inside. The sand box had not been attended in a long time and was more like a "land" box instead.

The pen next to this green house had some rabbits, most of which were snoozing. Overall, it was a so-so little petting zoo. We thought that the water provided for the animals should have been a little cleaner and the pens could have been cleaner as well. But this zoo was free and only relies on donations.

After the petting zoo, we went to our local park. This is the biggest park in our city. There is a lot of water, an island, ducks, geese, a band shell, many shelters, and a huge playground.
The first thing we did was unload all of our bits of bread on the ducks.
When my kids refuse to eat their bread crusts, I just save them in a bag in the freezer and then we feed it to the ducks at the park.

And finally.....

Rowan would like to show you one of her many "talents"!

Not my life....

I need to post an update as to what has been happening around our house.
Yesterday, the kids both got into some big trouble. I mistakenly left a bottle of Lansinoh lanolin cream out on the side table while I was in the computer room reading an email. Next thing I see is Rowan. She comes to me with a shiny face and hands. I knew that this was the lanolin because the kids have done this before. You would think that I would have learned my lesson the first time and keep the lanolin up and out of their reach. For the most part, I have been doing very good keeping it away. This slip up was somewhat rare. The wasted cream spread onto their faces and hands was really the minor issue.
When I walked into the living room, I found much more lanolin smeared all over the tv and the tv center. I was now very upset. I attempted to put both kids into "time-out" by setting them on opposite ends of the couch. This worked for about 1 minute and then Harvey kept playing around and hopping off the couch. I supposed that is to be expected from a 22 month kid.
So I wiped and wiped and wiped and wiped.....and the tv finally seemed okay. But I was still mad. So I placed the kids on "restriction". This meant there was to be no tv and no computer for the rest of the day. This really had more of an effect on Rowan than Harvey. But I'm quite sure she instigated the cream smearing to begin with.

Fast forward to today. I woke up and went to the bathroom. While I'm in there, Rowan comes to me and says, "Mom, come see our birthday party." When I finish, I follow her to her room (she and Harvey are currently sharing a bedroom). I open the door and what do I see?
Rowan had pulled all the tape out of a cassette. It was a Winnie the Pooh story cassette that accompanies a book. Now it was shiny black tape all over the floor. I couldn't blame Harvey as he was standing in his crib and Rowan fessed up to it. So I grab a pen from my bedroom and spend about 5 minutes trying to wind the tape back into the cassette. I nearly have it finished when I see the tape has been broken. Ugh! All that winding just to find that the tape was broken. So I had Rowan throw it away in the garbage can. I also made her aware that she had broken the tape and essentially broken the story. She apologized. I said, "thank you for apologizing." To which she replied, "your welcome."

And just now, Rowan was outside playing. I was unaware of this as she did not ask permission to go out. I made her come back in. I told her she had to wait 10 minutes before she could go out since she failed to gain authorization the first time. She cried and screamed. I told her that this was how you learn....how you learn to ask permission. More crying. Then I went on to say how life was all about learning and got an interesting response. Here's how it went:

Mom: "Everything is about learning. All your life is learning."

Rowan: "Not my life. I don't have one because I'm sad."

I got a chuckle out of that.
And it's only 9:50 am. Let's see what the rest of the day will bring!

Memorial Weekend up in Green Bay

This past weekend, we drove up to Green Bay and spent some time with Grandma and Grandpa Weisensel. On Saturday, we had dinner with Jenny, Luke and Violet Stadler. After dinner, we spent a little time at Bay Beach Amusement Park. Rowan loved the rides. Harvey was unsure of the rides and then he progressed into being afraid of the rides. We were going to take him on the helicopter in the photos above, but he flipped out when I tried to put him in. Consequently, he is not in that photo. We didn't get any photos of him being upset, and I'm sure he would probably thank us for that.

This is Rowan waiting for the gate to open so she can climb into the helicopter.

Rowan and Mom on the train. I think they need to put some money into their train or their tracks. The rattles and squeaks that I heard on the trip put me "on edge" and I was happy to finish the ride safely.

The purple boat was the most popular. One little girl in the back kept whining about how she wanted to sit in the front. Rowan did great, she kept her hands in the boat at all times.

Rowan and Harvey on the ladybug car. He kept looking around for his parents and wasn't too sure he liked this ride.

Notice Harvey's smile.....it's because this was the first ride he went on. He actually seemed to enjoy this ride and smiled for us. It went downhill after that.

Rowan is riding a tricycle in Grandma and Grandpa's driveway.

Harvey didn't seem very happy after his nap. He must have got up on the wrong side of the crib. He just wanted to be held.

Ursula enjoyed being held by Grandma.

Andy, talking about something.

All three kids had a good time up in Green Bay. Grandma and Grandpa had good food and fun toys/activities. They all look forward to spending time with their grandparents again.

Finally, a warm day!

It was finally in the 80's last week. We brought out the pool one day and had a bit of fun.

Rowan loved dumping water onto Harvey. She didn't really appreciate it when she was on the receiving end of the water dumping.

Ursula is doing very well with her head lifting.

She can tolerate a few minutes of tummy time.

2 Months for Ursula

Here is Ursula in her new swing. She likes it pretty well. There is a mirror at the top that she was looking at the other night. She was smiling and cooing to her reflection. I have video of it, but I am not able to put it on the blog right now. Hopefully soon.

Rowan is trying to pout without smiling. She is showing off her first shiner. It's hard to tell in a photo, but I think it looks darker today than it did yesterday.

After getting out of the bathtub, Rowan decided to dance up in the bathroom. Next thing we know, she fell on her face. I guess slippery little girls and linoleum don't always mix.

This is Harvey inspecting a dandelion that he just picked.

Rowan is doing a dance in her new outfit she got from a friend.

Shake that bootay!

One weekend it was raining and the kids were sad that they couldn't go outside to play. Andy brought up his little Hero Clix action figures and tried to help the kids simulate a battle. They didn't quite get the battle part, but they enjoyed playing with the figures and their dad.