Skip to main content

Firetrucks and Waffles

Image
By

What a fun and busy week! I had plans every night this week, which means I was pretty tired by Friday, but it was such a blast catching up with so many friends. I love that everyone is beginning to gather again...it's such a blessing to be able to meet in person. 

We had a wonderful visit with my parents last Saturday evening...great food and very interesting conversations about UFOs! That was the first time we had been back (as a family) to their house since Christmas 2019, so it was fantastic to be able to gather.

Ava had her last-ever visit from the Tooth Fairy on Wednesday night. She had an appointment on Wednesday morning to get her last two baby teeth pulled, in order to prep her mouth for her Invisalign. She was a trooper, followed instructions, and barely had any pain whatsoever. Ava was even more surprised when she realized the TF left her $20 instead of the traditional gold dollar coin. I'm sure the TF thought that it was an appropriate farewell gift...how generous!

G had a super awesome week! He's been running into challenges with a few activities we've wanted him to learn, so we set up a rewards chart at the beginning of the summer with some pretty big goals on them. He was able to check THREE things off the list this week! 

  • He's been enjoying his tumbling class but he's at the beginner level. I just wanted him to master summersaults...and once he did, he got an ice cream date as a reward. He was summersaulting all around the yard and house on Tuesday night, so he earned the ice cream! ✅
  • G was a bit more motivated to pass the test for this 3rd stripe in Taekwondo, once I told him we'd buy him an Among Us plush. He and Ava practiced this past week, and...he succeeded! ✅
  • And by the far, the biggest accomplishment for the week (and maybe even the summer), was to learn how to ride a bike. It's been a really big struggle for him, but a few weeks ago, I decided to break it down into steps. 1st he learned how to balance while pushing himself with his feet. 2nd he learned how to do a few pedal revolutions, and 3rd he figured out how to put it all together...and now he's cruising all around! He thinks he's ready for a long bike ride now, but...no. We'll keep him close to home and practicing for a bit. And for that accomplishment, he earned a new Lego set! ✅

Apparently this is what motivates him. And by successfully learning the activity, it helps him build confidence, which makes him ready to tackle the next things on the list. So proud of him!

Ava just let us know that she would also like a rewards chart...but she always learns things without too much fuss, so I'm not sure what we'd put on there. She did master her Taekwondo creed, so she has earned a trip to McDonald's. But, I think we need to come up with something bigger for her.

We kicked off the weekend with a fun Friday night outside with the neighbors. The kids rode their bikes (yay!) and had a ton of fun playing together. The weather and conversation were a perfect way to start the weekend. 

Scott, G, and I went to the waffle and sausage breakfast at the Rosemount Fire Department on Saturday morning (Ava didn't want to go...she really missed out!) The food was yummy and G had a blast exploring all of the firetrucks.





After a really busy week, it's awesome to have a few days with very light and loose plans. What a fun way to kick off Leprechaun Days! And we're wishing my dad/Grandpa Doug a very happy birthday on Sunday, July 18! 🎂🥳🎉

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Goodbye Sweet Spanky

By
This is a post that I'm not very excited to write.  As you probably know, our oldest dog, Spanky, had struggled with health issues (ear infections, seizures) his whole life, and recently, his health had severely deteriorated.  He hadn't been eating, his ear infection was so severe his face was swollen, he had a hard time getting up the stairs, and he very rarely wanted to play.  Last week we got a few tail wags from him, and he ate a few bowls of food, but it was a 50-50 chance that he would actually keep the food down. On Thursday, we made the decision that if he wasn't any better by this weekend, we were going to put him down.  I know Scott didn't want to make that decision as Spanky was a very special dog to him - he truly was his little buddy, following him around everywhere, wanting to be wherever Scott was, and howling his sadness whenever Scott would leave him. Throughout Friday night, it became clear that Spanky wasn't going to have a miraculous recovery...
2 comments
Read more

Happily Ever After?

By
Lately, I've been adding to the Disney Princess movies in our collection.  Last week I bought Beauty and the Beast for Ava.  That was never a favorite movie of mine, but now that I've seen it several times in the last week, it's growing on me.  I figure this is a good chance for me to catch up on some of the stories that I missed out on! Watching all of these princess movies has me thinking about fairy tales...why is it that it's always the evil stepMOTHER?  Or the mom is dead, and no one has taken her place?  Very rarely is it the father who is evil, or dead.  This has actually come up as a topic in more than one conversation lately, and has me a bit intrigued.  Fairy tales are often not very happy - and usually someone dies at some point.  I was a giving an overview of Snow White to a friend of mine, and as I was going through the story, both of us were horrified at the message - mom dies, evil stepmother wants to murder her pretty stepdaugh...
3 comments
Read more

26 Hours in a Day

By
Just yesterday morning, I was thinking to myself that I could really use a few more hours each day.  We don't sleep a whole lot, both work long hours at our jobs, try to play with Ava as much as we can at night and on the weekends, and then we have to do all of the adult-stuff...paying bills, grocery shopping, cleaning, work on side jobs, house projects, etc.  If there were only 26 hours in a day, we could: *Sleep just an extra 30 minutes - we need it since the dogs have been waking us up each weekend day at 5:30am.  What could be SO urgent that they need to get us up then?!?  You'd think we only feed them once a week, or something. *Spend an extra hour with Ava...we could go to the park every night, take an extra long bath, read a few extra stories, and just enjoy the giggles and chattiness. *Take 30 minutes to talk to each other about how things are going.  With Scott leaving for work each day before 5am, and then all of the craziness that ensues wh...
4 comments
Read more