Oh Those Wildwood Days

Phil took the older 2 boys to the beach for a quick 3 day getaway. Based on the pictures, it looks like the trip included lots of pooltime, sand, boardwalk, rides, and ice cream (as evidenced by the first picture below).

It can definitely be considered a job well done when you get both kids to pass out at naptime. Three snores and a hip hip for Daddy days at the shore!

One Sings, The Other Pees

I had one of "those moments" this morning. The story is below - you out there in blog land may not find it that interesting - but with my forgetful pregnant mind I wanted to make sure to capture the memory for myself.

We joined a Fellowship in our town and go there each week. Sunday School is on a break for the summer, so until September Ry hangs with us during the service (Cole and Charlie are quietly tucked away in the nursery).

Today was a hymn ceremony. Basically people called out numbers of hymns from the song book and we sang them. Simple concept.

A quick but relevant back story: Ry has been reading for around a year and a half. He doesn't like to advertise it and gets embarassed when we ask him to read out loud. So to encourage him, we give him a point for every book he finishes. We keep a log and 10 points equals a dollar...he's saving up for a Nerf gun.

I told him this morning that following along with the hymns would earn him a point...talk about divine inspiration.

In the beginning of the service he just read along in a quiet whisper while we sang. But by the end he was totally into it, and belted out the tunes (and by that I mean singing at the top of his lungs) while he clapped along to the music. It was so nice to watch him let go, and he picked up on it so naturally. That's my memory frozen in time.

Of course I need to wrap this up with the Cole icing on this cake. Phil snuck out early to get the younger boys in the nursery. We had just finished our last song and someone was giving the closing words. Cole ran into the sanctuary to give me a hug, and during a moment of complete silence he screamed (seriously, it was the opposite of a whisper), "MOMMY I WENT PEE ON THE POTTY!!"

Hallelujah!

Lazy Days Of Summer

The scene at the swim club this afternoon: Cannonballs, splashing, basketball, screaming. In the middle of all this hubub Charlie fell asleep on Phil's shoulder in the pool.

I guess living in our house trains you to ignore chaos and go with the flow, as evidenced here by our snoozing swimmer.

School's Out For Summer

Like the swollen ankles of a pregnant woman in June, my heart swells with pride. I was totally stressing about Ry starting summer camp...new kids, new routine, new backpack, new experiences, new locker!! He reminded me once again how adaptable kids can be and dove right in.

Despite my desperate attempts to micro-manage everything in my life, I know that he's ready to start figuring things out on his own. It may be small, but the fact that they make their own lunches and put on their own suntan lotion just seems so grown up to me.

Today was their first field trip and he also had his first bus ride. Stop one, summer camp. Stop two, college. Sigh.

Daddio

Happy Father's Day to all you rad Dad's out there. We really pulled out all the stops for the guest of honor - Phil got to sleep in (a.k.a. slept off a hangover), had a pizza party with Poppy, hung at the pool, and wrapped it all up with some late-night laundry folding. Ah, the luxurious life of a suburban dad!

When I was sitting by the pool, a woman was asking me about my pregnancy. She told me that she had 2 kids close together...it was hard...then she nodded towards the pool and said, "But it looks like your husband has your back."

I turned around to see Phil in the pool holding Charlie in one arm, shooting baskets with Cole on the other arm, and cheering on Ry as he swam laps. Has my back, indeed!

Gift from Cole:

Who's the world's greatest Dad? YOU ARE!

Gift from Ry:

Cute little magnet in that adorable chicken scratch handwriting

Gift from Charlie:

A book of pictures...that one on the right shows a twinkle in his eye that I just may need to keep an eye on...

Happy Father's Day to Phil, my Dad, my Dad-In-Law, and all you other Big Poppas!!

Random

Phil downloaded all the pics from his phone and I wanted to share some of the goodies. It's a random compilation of stuff but you know the drill: Charlie is cute and smiley, Ry is reflective, Cole is _______ (I left that blank because I kept writing an adjective...erasing it...putting in another one...erasing it...so please feel free to fill it in on your own depending on the day and the way the wind is blowing).

The pool is open and Cha is dressed to kill

Haircut


Chillin' at Smith Playground

Showing off the fact that his pancake is bigger than his head

Peekaboo

Playing lifeguard at the hot tub

Spelling...Ry-style (mei = my)

Fly, Coley Fly

Boys, Boys, Everywhere

In the 2 block radius of our alley there are 24 kids under the age of 12. And out of that crowd, 18 of them are boys.

To help wrangle the energy of our feisty young friends, our neighbor started a summer soccer team. He's the coach and the boys are his proteges - this past week was their first practice and it was quite a sight to behold.

Cole had his game face on despite the fact that he was playing the wrong sport. I guess practice makes perfect!

Lots Of Smiles, Just A Few Tears

I was going through some pictures to start catching up on here, and it struck me that every place we go there are pictures of Charlie showing off that adorable grin.

I have so many pics of his pearly white (still just one little tooth) and it makes me stop and thank my lucky stars to have such a happy baby.

Just tonight - he and Cole had a collision and Cha cried for a few seconds and moved on. Cole, on the other hand, milked it for all he could and then ended the drama by saying, "I'm wiping the crying water off my face by licking it with my tongue."

You just can't make this stuff up - kids really do say the darndest things.

Caught

Phil found Charlie in this compromising position earlier today. It reminded me of a similar shot of Cole circa 2008 (the second picture below).

These two really have it down - despite their rebellion they've perfected that look of total innocence. Well played boys!

Aloha

Sniff sniff - Ryan graduated from preschool today. To celebrate, his class held a luau and followed it up with an awards ceremony. Here's what Ry's certificate said:

The award for
BEST MEMORY
Is presented to Ryan Kerper
Ryan sure knows a lot about all different things (especially countries). He must read a lot of books. We are always amazed at what Ryan remembers and shares. We hope he remembers that we think he is pretty funny!

The cute part: When he received his certificate in front of the crowd and shook the teacher's hand after her speech

The not so cute part: When he walked back to his seat, waved the paper at his friend, and shouted, "In your FACE!"

Clearly, he won't be winning an award for humility anytime soon.

Boom

The boys recently hit up Boomers for some family fun (at least that's what the slogan on their website says). Charlie is navigating his way through the big boy toys and seems to be holding his own on the bounce.



Since I was absent from all the family fun (having to work and all), looking at this picture pretty much summed it all up for me.

Cole: It was me...I did it...I'm proud of it...and now I'm outta here so I can go do it again
Charlie: Why?! WHY?!?
Ry: I'm so over this. Let's go hit up the snack bar. Peace out.

Army Of One

When you have 3 young kids and another on the way, you quickly learn there are some battles that aren't worth fighting (Translation: we're tired and don't feel like negotiating).

With that in mind, the story.

Ryan claims he wants to be in the Army. He loves wearing camouflage, lines up his little soldier guys for battle, and has been writing back and forth with our cousin who is serving in Iraq.

So imagine his delight when our friends dropped off some hand-me-downs for the boys, and buried in the bag were a few Halloween costumes. He was "that kid" in Lowes stomping down the aisles in his full get-up chanting, "Hut, 2, 3, 4...hut, 2, 3, 4..." Awesome.

Feelin' Fine

It’s been a crazy week in Kerperville. Our little Charlie had to be admitted to the hospital for 3 days, but he’s been discharged and is doing great. His time away has taught me many things:

• We’re extremely lucky to live 30 short miles away from the #1 pediatric hospital in the country
• The boys are even more lucky to have a dad who happens to work at said hospital
• Phil is a saint for camping out in Charlie’s room for 3 days and sleeping on a tiny plastic couch

Cha was his usual smiling and happy self most of the time – I know this because I made Phil send me a picture approximately every 5 seconds so I could see with my own two eyes that he was okay. Three cheers for for smart phones!

The best thing I learned this week is that the boys have complete and total trust in their dad. When I first told them what was going on, this was the conversation I had with Ry:

Me: Guys, I have news. Charlie is sick and had to go to the hospital
Ry: Did he go to the Children’s Hospital?
Me: He sure did
Ry: Is Daddy taking care of him?
Me: He sure is
Ry: Okay, so Daddy’s got it

Here are some pics of the patient (the thing on his arm was just a brace to keep him from pulling out the IV that he had in his hand). As you can see he was all smiles – we’re just glad to have him home!

I Am Not Quick Enough To Answer All Of These Questions

The other day in the car, Ry was quizically studying a harmoncia he had been playing with. He asked me in a concerned voice, "Why do a lot of the toys that Santa brought me say 'Made In China'?"

Really?

Mess

One of Charlie's teachers sent me this pic. As she put it, "I turned around for one second to get more paper and this is what happened."

Atta boy, Cha...true artistes do not depend on conventional techniques. I'm sure that at one point Pollack covered himself in paint and threw himself against a canvas, only to generate a gazillion dollars.

I'll wait patiently for my cut of this particular masterpiece.

Spidey

We had a community yard sale last weekend, and our neighbor was painting faces for the kids.


The pros: Ry looked totally cool and spent the first few minutes hamming it up and shooting his pretend web blasters.

The cons: After those first few minutes were up and the mirror was put away, he started to forget that he had paint on his face. This eventually led to him spreading the red mark of Spidey all over himself, others, and most notably, the couches.

It didn’t take too long for me to burst his bubble and force him to wash it off. Call me cruel, but in the end my couches thanked me. At least I got a picture!

Silly

Last week Ry came home from school cradling a package. He told me I couldn't see it until Mother's Day and ran inside to hide it.

He came flying out of the house about 5 minutes later, saying that he found the perfect place for my present and no matter what, "Don't look between the fish tank and the typewriter."

Finally the big day came and I was sent on a hunt for my gift...Ry was shocked to find that I was able to quickly pinpoint its location. Inside the bag I found a bracelet buried underneath mounds of tissue paper:



He told me that his teacher had each kid in class think of a word that describes their Mommy. I like to think that his interpretation of "silly" means I'm fun and that I don't take life too seriously. I was truly touched by his sentiment - much more meaningful and personal than if my bracelet said "happy" or "loving".

A perfect present from a silly son to his silly Mom. Happy Mother's Day!

Sicko

Cole recently came down with a bug - I didn't realize how bad he looked until I compared a sick pic to a healthy pic. Yowsa!

The problem with a sick Cole is that he goes into absolute denial about his condition. He still tries to run at full throttle, only to eventually crash and burn and beg us for a nap.

Luckily he’s feeling better and back to tearing it up Cole-style. Batten down the hatches!

Heartbreaker

This morning Ry landed himself in time out for some offense I've since forgotten. I told him to go sit on the step and he said "Aw, c'mon. You're breaking my heart."

Happy Third To Cole

It was just three short years ago that we became a family of four. Cole's birthday was last week and his besties gathered at the Bouncehouse to burn off some energy and celebrate.

I made the fatal parenting mistake of telling him about the party when we booked it (about a month in advance) and of course, I paid the price. Every day I heard, "Are we going to my party?" or "My birthday is tomorrow!" Lesson learned.

Everyone had a good time - even poor Charlie (who learned the harsh reality of what happens when you catch a ball with your face instead of your hands).

Just for old time's sake, here's something I dug up from the archives. In true Cole fashion, he learned to run before he learned to walk.

To my spunky little fireball on your third birthday, you may exhaust me, but I love your energy...I love your zest for life...I love that twinkle in your eye...I love that you live with passion...I love it all!