WARNING! Jessica can now open doors (sometimes)

This week Jessica and I were playing in the kitchen and all of a sudden she reaches up and opens the door to the basement. Yikes! I scooped her up, headed to Walmart and bought safety knobs for the door. Crisis averted.

Today, I was vacuuming the house and Jess was running around wanting me to chase her with the vacuum and playing with the cord. I must of been really focused on my task at hand because after a while I realized she was longer anywhere to be seen. I turned off the vacuum and hear a faint "Mommmmmmy!" I couldn't figure out where it came from so I called "Jess, where are you?" I then hear a small knocking on the closet door where I keep the vacuum. I open the door and there is Jessica in the dark closet and all she says is "Hi". I guess she can't quite open all the doors yet :)
That kid sure keeps me on my toes.

My Little Girl

Jessica is different from Ristow is sooooo many ways. Ristow has always been more of an observer at first and then will try something, Jess dives in head first. Ristow never liked to get dirty, Jessica LOVES mud, dirt, water and pretty much anything messy. When Ristow was little he never climbed things he wasn't supposed to or jumped off furniture (nowadays he does), Jessica yells "Parkour!" as she jumps from the ottoman to the couch!

Today we went to the playground and of course Jess wasn't content playing on the little kids playground, she headed right for the big playground suggested for ages 5-12 :) She climbs the ladders like a pro and slides down the big slides with no fear. She amazes me. It is hard to remember at times that she isn't even two yet.
At home she wanted to play outside more and found her special dirt spot under the climbing wall of our little playground. She loves to dig and explore!
She would play outside all day long if she could. Thank goodness for nap time or I would never get anything done inside :)

Warrior Dash

A number of months back I saw pictures of my cousin Carrie dressed in some crazy costume covered in mud. I thought to myself "what in the world is she doing?" Then I read about the race she competed in and how much fun she had and I thought "I want to do that too!"

As soon as I saw that the Warrior Dash was coming to Tennessee, I signed up. I was so very excited about it but wasn't really in shape for it. I hadn't been running in a while and definitely didn't feel strong. So in July I started training with one of Christopher's personal trainers Jason to work on my running and getting stronger. Wow, what a difference. Just in the month of August alone I knocked my fastest 5K time down by almost 4minutes! And, I could actually start seeing the outline of muscles in my arms and back!

By the time Saturday came around I felt super ready (besides the head and chest cold that I got Thursday) I suited up my costume, mostly donated by Ristow's costume bin :), braided my hair for the first time ever and was ready to face the challenge.
The atmosphere was energetic and there was great people watching to be done at the race. Christopher, Ristow and my Dad came to cheer me on (mom was kind enough to watch my sick little girl). The race started off and we faced everything from hale bales to barbed wire to junk cars to climb and giant cargo nets. Crawling on our hands and knees in the dirt to using ropes to pull up over walls. After each obstacle I got more and more excited proving to myself that I actually could do this! As you round the turn for the finish you jump over two rows of fire logs and then dive into the mud pit and crawl across to the finish line! It was AWESOME.
They had a few fire hoses to rinse off in but there were so many people crowding the hoses like a herd of cattle I barely got my face rinsed off. So we threw a towel over the seat of the car and headed home. Of course I was still wearing my fuzzy warrior helmet I got for doing the race :)

I am a still a bit sore today and I have a big bruise on my leg but both of those serve to remind me of what I accomplished and how hard I have worked over the last few months. My training has given me confidence and a more positive view of who I am and for that I am grateful!

I highly recommend the Warrior Dash!

Thankful for Famly Time

This past week we were lucky enough to have Christopher's sister Amy and her little 11month old daughter Alma visit us here in Nashville. We loved having them here! Here are a few pics from their visit.

We went on Saturday to Centennial Park to feed the geese and ducks. Ristow and Jessica had a blast throwing crackers to the geese. Jess wanted to grab them. As we were feeding the geese in the pond, we look behind us and a giant army of geese are closing in from the rear. It was a crazy parade of them. Once they got right up to us we decided it was better to take the kids to the other side of the pond for a while :)

This is what Alma did while we fed the ducks...

Even though Jess and Alma whined and cried and tried to hit each other more than play together, we still loved having that time together. Ristow on the other hand LOVED playing with Alma and making her laugh and was absolutely great with her.

Thanks for making the trip Ames. We love you guys tons!

First Day of School & Jazz Hands

Thursday was the first day of 1st Grade for Ristow. He was super excited. He had his new light up shoes, his new Ironman belt, his new backpack, a cool shark fin haircut and he was reading to go!
I took some pictures of him before he headed to the bus stop and he said "wait mom, I've got to do one with Jazz Hands!"
Ristow has all of sudden been doing Jazz hands all the time. Not sure where he got it from or why he thinks it is so funny, no, ok, I get the funny part. But he even wanted to take a picture of Christopher and I but wouldn't take it unless we did Jazz Hands. That kid cracks me up.

So the first day of school went great for him, he loves his teacher and all looks to be headed in the right direction. As long as he doesn't make all the other kids do Jazz Hands ;)

Freedom in Swimming

For the past three weeks Ristow has been taking swim lessons. They are only 10 minutes long 5 days a week. Now you may wonder what anyone can learn in only 10 minutes and I thought the same thing at first. These swim lessons are basically survival swimming. Teaching babies and kids the basics of how to survive if they fall in a pool.
Ristow has always been afraid of getting his face wet and for years I have been trying to get him to just stick his face IN the water let alone under it. Now that he is 6 1/2 yrs old, we decided it was time. Christopher knew of a woman who did these survival swim lessons and we thought we would give it a try. She is amazing! Ristow went under the water the first day (to my amazement) and took off from there! He swims under water, floats on his back, does jumps off the side and is learning the specific strokes now. He has loved swim lessons but more importantly he has loved what learning to swim has given him... Independence!

This summer we swam at the camp pool when we were up visiting my brother in PA. There were lots of other bigger kids in the pool and Ristow didn't want to swim because he didn't want to have to wear his arm floaties. That is when I understood that he was finally ready to make a change.

Today I took Ristow and Jessica to the community rec center for a last day of summer vacation swim. It was awesome. Ristow was playing in the water and doing Cannonballs like he had been doing it his whole life. I actually was able to take Jessica to the kiddie pool and watch Ristow from there while he played we some other kids his age in the big pool. He LOVED it! He jumped and swam and played just like all the other kids.
Today, as we left the pool Ristow walked with his head a little higher and a big smile on his face. He said "Mom, that was a great time, wasn't it?!"

Dinosaur World!

For years we have seen this dinosaur as we drove up Interstate 65 on our way through Kentucky to Ohio and for years Ristow has begged to stop at Dinosaur World. Well this past Saturday we finally made the trip he has been waiting for!
It was pouring rain as we stopped and had breakfast on our way out of town with the kids. ( An amazing breakfast by the way at a new restaurant in Brentwood) We drove north through crazy downpours praying that it wasn't raining in Kentucky. When we cross the state line the clouds parted and it looked like we were going to finally see the Dinos.

It was a fun place. It has over 100 lifesize dinosaurs throughout the park, a museum with fossils, a playground and a fossil dig where you actually get to keep 3 of the fossils you find. Ristow dug and found 2 sharks teeth and a sea creature fossil. Christopher and Ristow had fun pretending to fight the dinosaurs.They had a mammoth area that Jessica loved because she got to touch the "elephant" and made tons of elephant noises.
It turned out to be a hot and sunny day with no rain. Definitely worth the trip.
After Dinosaur World we hit Onyx cave. Ristow had never been in a cave before and we thought it would be cool. It was a little intimidating for him but in the end he liked it.

Then we hit a local restaurant that unlike breakfast left much to be desired. We did get to meet the local funeral director who was sitting in the next booth initiating some interesting conversation :)

All in all it was a fun family day! Then Christopher and I actually got to go on a date that night at a great restaurant and then to see Captain America. So thankful for a fun day together.