It's Hutta Time!: February 2009

After seeing Tasha off to visit her sick mother in Washington and helping to sheet-rock and repair a house my brother hoped to own, we took my nephew home with us. Both the boys were excited about this extended visit. It held a promise of fun and adventure.

The week started off with a picnic with Hanah and our Life Group!

Ryan was eager to read his new dinosaur book to his cousin before bedtime that night!

The next Mom's Group get together found the boys inseparable and exclusive.

Rather than play with the other children, they choose to hang with one another and watch the others play. This was THEIR time and no one (at least on that day) was going to interfere with it!

But the reality was that this was Ryan's first week of pre-school which left Rocky home with Ryleigh and I on Tuesday and Thursday. However, after school on Thursday there was a karate class offered by Master Erickson. Ryan was not at all interested... whose boy is he anyway? Cant be mine!!... but Rocky was totally engaged. Here is learns an upper block.

Here he is demonstrating the lower block. Although much younger than the other kids.. Rocky paid better attention and was more purposeful in his movements. Because of this focus, he was picked to demonstrate the moves more often. He had a definite talent and he did shine!

Here he was picked to demonstrate how to get out of a hold. Go Rockmosis!

Rocky was once again picked to show a move.

Rocky's first sparring match.

Go Rock-Star! It took him a few rounds... he wasn't really sure he was allowed to hit another kid on purpose.. but once he was confident there was going to be no reprise in this environment.. he was on fire!

Rocky did such a great job with kumite, that he was able to do his first kata too! I hope you can hear the dialogue despite Ryleigh's little grunts and coos!

It was here that Ryan's interest was at last peeked. We sat down to learn about stranger danger and Ryan finally understood why we were learning all the things we were learning. Here he passes a little stranger litmus test! But why did it take over an hour to warm up to this activity???? AGHHH!! Lest you think it was the karate activity that was the reason it took Ryan so long to warm up to the class.. read on. He was even afraid of a simple music class too!

Not everything we did that week was sports oriented... We also had us some cultural activities too! Here we are at a children's music class. Roderick ate this up too!

He was front and center. He played every instrument and danced every dance. He was in heaven when the teacher brought out the drums. He was the student in the front row when it came to other instruments too. He was attentive while other children were following Ryan in doing Sportacus flips in the back of the room!

And, once again, my son didn't want to participate at all! Here he is in my lap with Ryleigh. Now you can understand why there are not as many pictures for this event! It's thanks to Lisa and little Hazel that these three pictures existed at all! We continued meeting Lisa and Hazel at this music class for the rest of the spring. We had a great time and Ryan was in love with little Hazel.

We also had a wonderful time running around in the beautiful February weather. Hayden was happy to join our fray with some of his Hulk costumes. We first had to have a great conversation about how we cant be like the Hulk who uses his anger to get powerful. But the boys had a great time together.

They chased each other pretending to be dinosaurs...

... they tackled one another and even rode motorcycles together. Literally.

Like I said, literally. They rode the SAME motorcycle, even though there were more than one on the street! They were best buddies!

Rocky also connected with the children in our Life Group as well. In fact, Mikele shared stories of her children setting aside their toys to share with Rocky the next time he came over for a visit. They were so excited about this new friend.. they were motivated for weeks to share certain toys they thought he would like! Wow! Talk about a glimpse into their hearts.. how did the Wallaces build such sweet characters in their children? I need to take lessons. Actually, this story also shows what a good friend Roderick must have been too. Other kids couldn't wait to play with him again. I am so impressed with the children and families surrounding us right now. We have some great influences for our kids. This, of course, is all thanks to God for His divine mercy and sweet blessings He gives us.

Another fun family activity we did was visit an open style karate tournament. Guess who enjoyed that the most? Yup, Rocky and I did! We had a wonderful time watching all the rings. The boys were wonderfully behaved. Rocky was fascinated, for sure.

The morning Rocky had to go home, he and Ryan had an epic sword fight. They each had a mask to protect their eyes. Rock had the first choice in which mask he wished to wear.. he chose the one with the most coverage. Smart boy!

And then the fight was on! They actually did rather well. But, it was time for Rocky to go home. Ryan was so sad. He moped around for hours.

Pop-pop and Grandma Dor were merciful enough to come help distract their melancholy grandson. Ryan's mood always improves with them around!

We even were able to catch and memorialize a smile! Who would a thunk that day?

But just as soon as the grandparents left... Ryan found some mischief. Thinking it was sugar..(which he not allowed to play with anyway...) Ryan pulled out a jar of salt. "It was an accident, Momma.. it's okay, it was an accident," was the chorus that alerted me to the problem. I, of course, was taking a break in the bathroom when this "accident" occurred. Funny.

So we changed clothes... grabbed an apple (a better snack than pure sugar) and played with Ryleigh.

Sad that his buddy was taken back to Tucson, Ryan quickly connected to another buddy when we were next at the park with the Mom's & Ministry Group. Collin and he got cozy in the new swing. They both thought they were rather cute!

Of Course, once Ryan adjusted to our normal family routine again.. he found he still could have fun without all the extra stimulus.. it just took him a while to come to terms with having just Ryleigh and I as house companions. :) Here we play his game of Velociraptor/Crocodile. Ryleigh looks good in a mask!

But Ryan definitely looks better! Notice the T-Rex T-shirt.. we have to wear one of his two dino shirts when playing dinosaur. So its up to me to rotate them through the wash correctly. err.

We resumed our fun play dates with Josie. Here Ryleigh bonds with Miss. Robin under her brother's watchful eye. (He was very protective.)

Although protective of other people's handling of HIS sister.. he himself was a bit clumsy in his loving. oops. :)

At the end of the month we had some family birthday parties to celebrate.. so we all gathered at Aunt Patti's for some birthday cake. She is so good about staying on top of this for all of us. What would we do with out her organization?

Before showing this next picture.. let me just ask, does the age three bother anyone else as it does me? Allow me to share a dialogue with you that I had with my son: