Runnin' for Fun

Ryan's school hosts one fundraiser a year - a Fun Run. The kids are encouraged to get pledges and raise money based on how many laps they run. I love it because it's a healthy activity and I don't actually have to do anything - OR SO I THOUGHT. 

The kids all got these ridiculously adorable head bands.  The PE teacher outlined the basics, and they were off! The kindergartners' course ran 1/8 of a mile around the baseball field. 

To help the kids keep track of how many laps they ran, older students and parents were handing out Silly Bandz rubber band bracelets. Ryan finished his first lap, got his band, and said, "Whew! I'm TIRED! Let's go get a drink!" I explained to him that he needed to keep running, and the whining started immediately. 

Finally I suggested that he could walk a lap, and I would accompany him. That, of course, turned into running (I was NOT dressed for running, and it was HOT!) and we managed to run 7 laps together. 

At one point David grabbed my hand to run with us too, but obviously our pace was too slow because he was soon far ahead of us.

On the next lap, Andrew ran out and joined us, which was a pace I was happier to maintain.

Finally our time was up, and despite the physical exertion, Ryan was all smiles.

We went into the classroom to cool off and the kids posed for a group picture. 

Jena and I joined the boys for lunch in the cafeteria, which was fun.

Everybody was pretty tired from the running...

...except Andrew, who never stops being so cute.

Grandma Nancy pledged $1/lap for Ryan, and then she added $7 for the laps I ran, which Aunt Sarah matched. Sam doubled those pledges at $2/lap, so Ryan turned in $60 to support the PTA. The school ultimately raised $34,000, so I guess it was a successful fundraiser!

Introducing Ryan Fleming (SO MANY WORDS)

Ryan's teacher sent home a survey for the parents to fill out about their children - what they like/don't like, siblings, languages spoken in the home, etc. At the bottom she asked us to write about our kids, in "one million word or less, and feel free to brag". There were only five lines printed at the bottom of the page, but she said we could use the back if we needed to - but with an upper limit of 1M words, I had to type it up.

Ladies and Gentlemen, here's the Ryan Fleming I wanted Mrs. Eppard to know:

Ryan is, quite frankly, the brightest kid I know, and I'm not saying that just because I'm his mother! He shows an unwavering interest in how things are made, how they operate, and how quickly he can take them apart and put them back together. He is my little engineer, always constructing something – usually out of unorthodox materials. This morning he figured out how to build a marble run using a length of curtain rod, the stair case banister, and some cardboard bricks. Even though he got frustrated a number of times, he kept at it until he successfully built it the way he wanted it.

Over the summer we transitioned from Duplo blocks to Legos and Ryan has come up with really elaborate constructions. He still plays Duplos with his brother but is starting to enjoy figuring out how to manipulate the tiny Lego pieces (and I'm quick to reinforce the importance of storing all those tiny pieces properly!).

He follows his dad around as they work on projects around the house – last summer our sprinkler system needed extensive repairs and Ryan was right there, leaning over Dad's shoulder and absorbing all the details of sprinkler maintenance. Sam gave him his own bucket of spare sprinkler parts and he delighted in arranging the pieces this way and that until he assembled his own working sprinkler head.

Dad is also a big “train geek” and Ryan is following in his footsteps. Our guest bedroom has been turned over to the “control train”, an electric train Grandpa gave us that has quickly expanded to fill the room. Ryan knows how to operate all of the controls, how to make the various whistles blow and how to return the cars to the tracks when they invariably get knocked over. Much to my husband's dismay, the official train accessories have been joined by plastic counting bears, cardboard bricks, miniature palm trees and other items the children view as essential to the train's environment.

Ryan is also quite helpful around the house, and he enjoys helping me cook and work in our garden. We're big on healthy eating and making food fun; my little sous-chef is quite the baker (he'll tell you that the secret ingredient is always LOVE). He is an adventuresome eater in some respects – he loves tekka maki (ahi tuna sushi) and seaweed salad, but won't eat eggs or the tomatoes and zucchini he was so eager to help me plant in the garden. I did get him to eat a lemon cucumber yesterday – he picked them out at the farmer's market and was intrigued by the color and shape.

We don't watch TV – an episode of Dinosaur Train now and again, and Ryan loves to get John Deere kid documentaries from the library. He can tell you the difference between a forest harvester and a feller buncher, and don't you mix up the two of them! We also watch train videos and he really enjoyed one about garbage trucks he picked out at the library. I heard all about side loaders and rear loaders for a week...

Ryan is also interested in music – Dad plays guitar and I am a classically trained singer, so there's always music playing or being made in our house. Ryan received an electric guitar, microphone and amplifier for Christmas last year and he likes to use the Thomas train table as a stage. His latest “composition” went like this: “BEER! TRUCKS! GIRLS! DIRT!” (we listen to a lot of country music, obviously!). We attended Music Together classes when he was younger and we still listen to the CDs in the car.

We are all avid readers – Grandma works for Scholastic book fairs so our bookshelves are well stocked. Ryan enjoys picture books with interesting stories or elaborate rhyming structures. We've read through most of the Berenstain Bears stories and he's a fan of SkippyJon Jones, Pete the Cat and Splat the Cat. We've started reading the Magic Tree House series, but Ryan finds many of the plot lines “scary.”

For that reason we haven't watched many feature films. The boys were terrified by Finding Nemo, Frozen, Despicable Me and the Incredibles; I had to turn off Toy Story after a few minutes because I didn't appreciate how Woody spoke to his friends (telling them to shut up and calling people stupid – we don't talk to our friends that way). They do, however, love Disney's Planes and we went to see Planes: Fire and Rescue a few weeks ago as their first trip to a movie theater. They've been playing “wildland firefighter” ever since (we drove through the Hayman burn area on a recent camping trip so they've seen first hand what a forest fire can do). He is not terribly interested in superheroes, Ninja Turtles and the like as those are not something we watch/buy/play with

.

You met “old Honu” last week – that turtle has been his constant companion since his brother was born – it goes EVERYWHERE with him. Ryan scratches the turtle's eyes when he's nervous; we've been talking about how Honu doesn't get to go to Kindergarten so we'll see how that separation goes!

Speaking of honus (which, as Ryan told you, is the Hawaiian word for green sea turtles), Ryan has been to the Hawaiian island of Kauai three times now. He taught himself how to snorkel in our hot tub last summer and enjoyed seeing what lurked beneath the waves last September in Hanalei. We have an 11-day trip to Maui planned in February that we're all very excited about (it's prime whale season!).

Ryan took swim lessons this summer and did very well. He prefers to swim with a snorkel mask on (don't we all?) but started to pick up the concept of kicking his legs and moving his arms in tandem to move through the water. He also took rock climbing lessons and just scooted right up to the top of the wall at Link Rec Center.

Ryan is THISCLOSE to riding his bike without pedals (we have two pedal bikes, one with training wheels and one without, that he alternates between), but we have not put much emphasis on organized sports. Neither of his parents is terribly athletically gifted and we're not keen on giving up our Saturday mornings for peewee anything... Ryan did have his first ski lesson last March and enjoyed it, so we'll enroll him and his brother in lessons again this winter.

We like to spend our weekends having adventures as a family – we enjoy hiking and geocaching and we've been camping four times this summer - the boys really enjoyed it. It's so great to watch them go “free-range” with our friends' kids in the campground – we figured out if we gave them headlamps we could keep track of them more easily after dark!

On these outings with groups of familiar kids we've seen how other children just seem naturally intrigued by whatever Ryan is doing, and join in his scenarios. He is still learning the difference between being a leader and being bossy (as are many adults I know...) but he seems very capable in a variety of social settings. He is not as physical as some boys his age, usually preferring to walk around a big rock, fence, etc rather than climb over or through it. I have told him “be gentle” with our cat, with his baby brother, with friends' babies since he was very small, and I think that has resulted in a pretty gentle child! That's not to say he won't let loose with an ear-piercing shriek and a feeble punch when extraordinarily annoyed or frustrated with another child, but it's usually a rare occurrence. Ryan loves to be around people so the greatest punishment for him is to send him to his room for a cooling off period.  

***

I meant to write more about his preschool experience at Red Rocks Children's Center but even I realize that going over two pages would have just been nutso. I did, however, also give her a copy of Ryan's last assessment from Anita. 

Ryan has since learned to ride his bike without pedals. 

Mrs. Eppard told me that once she had time to read the essay all the way through, she really enjoyed learning so much about him so quickly. I realize that she'll see a side of him that we don't get to see and that he'll develop into a big kid with different interests soon enough, but this is the Ryan we know and love at this exact moment in time. 

The First Day of the Rest of Your Life, Ryan

Well, the inevitable has arrived - Ryan is off to kindergarten!  We've had a busy week of pre-school (not to be confused with preschool) activities like the parent's meeting and family ice cream social and shopping for school supplies, and Ryan seemed pretty jazzed about the idea of going to a new school. It certainly helps that our neighbors Ali and Brayden and our friend David will also be in kindergarten this year, and we learned today that a boy from his preschool class is also at our school. 

Our whole family's schedule is rearranged now - Sam will leave later in the morning and take Jack to preschool while I will drop Ryan off at school, head into work for 5 hours, and then pick him up after school before picking Jack up at preschool.  Previously the boys went to preschool 3 days a week while I worked, but I was able to change my schedule to line up with the school hours. 

Each day we went to pick Ryan up from preschool another teacher came up to us to tell us how much they were going to miss Ryan - I'm more emotional about him leaving this great school with its wonderful, caring staff than I am about him moving up to kindergarten. 

Anyway, yesterday the kids only went for a 45 minute block with just a few of their classmates (there are 32 - THIRTY-TWO - kids in his class... hello public school system!) so Sam and Ryan hopped on their bikes to pedal down to the school (I walked). 

Once there, we had to learn the important task of locking up the bike (the smallest one in the bike corral!) and making sure the key got clipped to his backpack.

Ryan had gotten this backpack at the preschool field day back in June but it was plain black so we headed to Hobby Lobby a few weeks ago for some patches and other decorative items. We were both thrilled to find the guitar patch.

Here's Sam, Ryan's friend from preschool. They were excited to see each other again (seriously, I did brush Ryan's hair before we left the house!).

My biggest concern for Ryan was having to leave Honu behind, so we've been talking about it for a few weeks now. Ryan decided to make a bed for Honu with the other stuffed turtles (and Casey dog) so that he wouldn't be lonely while Ryan was at school.

After 45 minutes we returned to the school, where Ryan emerged all smiles. Sam left for work and Ryan and I went to lunch at Noodles & Co. with Jena, David and Andrew (who was really confused that Jack wasn't with us).

I had asked Ryan what he wanted to do as a special "Mom and Me" activity and he picked the Downtown Aquarium. We don't go there often because it is EXPENSIVE and the exhibits aren't that great, but Ryan really enjoyed spotting sea life.  He was really impressed by these upside-down jellyfish.

We spent some time with the anemones and clownfish (aka Nemo, not that Ryan has ever seen that movie)...

...caught the mermaid show ("Mom, mermaids aren't real. Those are just girls wearing costumes")...

...and introduced Honu to some of his cousins.

We then headed over to the big REI downtown to see if someone could help us fit his bike helmet better - they did, by recommending a new helmet that was actually the proper size for his head (imagine that). It's not green, surprisingly!

We hit Costco for some lunchbox items and then picked Jack up at preschool. The teachers were all happy to see Ryan and they fawned over the "big kindergartner".

Jack had a surprisingly hard time at drop off when he realized that his brother was not coming with him. I would have expected that he has such a tight group of friends at preschool that the loss of Ryan would affect him minimally, but I was quite wrong.  However, he was still cranky when we picked him up and the boys continued to bicker and harp on one another once we got home.

Finally Sam got home (leaving later in the morning means he'll now get home later at night) and the neighbor boy Brayden came over to ride bikes. Ryan saw that Brayden didn't have training wheels on his bike and he ran to get Sam, saying, "Dad, would you care to take the training wheels off my bike?"  Sam obliged and a cyclist was born.

Sam and I had tickets to see Jack Johnson at Red Rocks so we hustled out as soon as the babysitter arrived. She told us on our return that the boys had a really hard time settling down to go to sleep, but what else is new? I'm hoping the sheer exertion of kindergarten knocks Ryan right out over the next few days!

So this morning was the REAL first day as Ryan would be going for the full day, 9am - 3:30 pm. The first thing I did was pack his lunch - I bought this Yumbox lunchbox earlier this summer and we just love it. The compartments are labeled Dairy, Fruit, Veg, Grains, Protein so it's pretty mindless to figure out what to pack, and the variety means Ryan will find something he likes.

We pick up the titanium spork at REI to replace one we lost camping at Jackson Lake - I'm hoping the fact that it is green (his favorite color) will inspire him to keep track of it.

It was quite obvious when Ryan woke up that he had not gotten enough sleep last night - he was slow to eat breakfast and adamantly insisted that he couldn't ride his bike to school because it didn't have training wheels but he didn't want me to put the training wheels back on because he can ride a bike without training wheels. He didn't want to ride his scooter or walk either, so into the car we climbed.

He was just feeling cranky as we walked to school, and the thought of making new friends was not cheering him up.

We had a few last snuggles and then his teacher, Mrs. Eppard, met him at the door. She pressed a name tag to his shirt and he embarked on his new school journey. Wisely on the part of the teachers, the parents are expected to remain outside the classroom!

I peeked through the door to see him getting settled in. I think he will do just fine once he meets all the kids and figures out the new routine.

Beachin' it at Jackson Lake

We went camping at Jackson Lake to celebrate James' birthday and to spend yet another weekend sleeping (poorly) on the ground. Jena picked out a great campsite that was just a short walk to a perfect little beach.

We arrived Friday evening in time to set up camp, eat dinner, and roast marshmallows over the fire. We had brought the boys' bikes and they raced around the campground even after dark fell (we attached headlamps to their handlebars so they were somewhat easy to keep track of).  The fresh air hit the boys hard and after snuggling fireside we were able to tuck them into their sleeping bags easily.

On Saturday morning we made breakfast and lounged around camp while the boys rode bikes again. Finally we dug out the swimsuits and towels and headed for the beach.

We brought snorkel gear, sand toys and pool noodles, but the star of the beach was the little inflatable boat Jena brought. Once Ryan saw that, it was all he could focus on.

Jack spent some time in the boat (and ferrying his brother around) but he was also excited to practice his new-found snorkeling skills.

 David, Andrew and Jena enjoyed playing in the sand.

Finally the younger brothers conned the dads into securing the boat for their use and serving as their outboard motor. 

I wasn't sure how Jack would do nap-wise, but I shouldn't have been surprised when he got really cranky and then climbed on my lap for a snuggle. I held him tight and sang almost every lullaby I could think of; eventually he fell asleep and I was able to lay him down under our sun shade.

Heidi, John and their boys Sebastian and Oscar rolled into the campsite and joined us at the beach.

Unfortunately, after about 30 minutes the sun disappeared and a pretty hefty storm blew up. The other families high-tailed it back to camp while I gathered up beach supplies. Eventually Sam came back and scooped Jack up in an attempt to transfer him to his sleeping bag (which worked, amazingly, and he slept for another hour). I pulled down the sun shade (really fun with lightening flickering in the sky!), piled everything into the boat, and hauled it back to camp.

It was pretty awesome watching the storm blow across the lake, particularly as we had our easy up shade... though it turned into a projectile in a particularly strong gust of wind and just about took off Ryan's head as it flew across the hood of Heidi's car!

We wrestled it back into place and anchored it much more securely. The rain eventually subsided and the boys hopped back on their bikes while we pulled out snacks and started to work on dinner.

Ryan and Sebastian really wanted to go back to the beach but the temperature had dropped and it was getting late.

We had a huge meal followed by birthday cake for James. Of course the boys insisted that was not enough dessert for the kids (Jack said to me sweetly, "Mom, I haven't had enough sugar today!") so we pulled out the marshmallows and roasting sticks. The moon was huge and beautiful over the lake but it had been a long day and we were all pretty beat.

The next morning dawned far too early with the sounds of jet skis, chopping wood, and a very unhappy baby coming from the surrounding campsites. The boys were very excited to go back to the beach; the grown-ups were less excited about having to pack up camp. 

Sam packed up the gear while I hung out at the beach with the boys (it's a rough life, I tell ya) for a few hours, but eventually it was time to load up and head home. Ryan and Jack have another great camping trip under their belts and we're looking forward to our last scheduled trip of the summer, Labor Day weekend at Arapaho Bay on Lake Granby. 

Swimming and Rock Climbing

I signed the boys up for swimming lessons and rock climbing classes this month. I wasn't quite sure how they would like it, but they were pretty excited to do both - we had a lot of fun and they did great!