We recently took our first bike ride as a family of four. We rode to the swimming pool, with John on the back of my bike and with Carter on the trail-a-bike attached to Thomas' bike (we're working on teaching him to ride his own bike, but we aren't there yet).
Carter was a couple of months older when we took him for his first ride, and he seemed to enjoy it a bit more than John did. On the way to the swimming pool, John was okay with the moving part, but did not care for stopping. On the way back, John didn't care about the bike at all. Tired out from splashing at the pool, he just wanted to snooze.
Almost ready to head out, just need the dreaded helmet
Last week, we had Bring Your Kids to Work day at my office. This was the first year that Carter was old enough to attend. There were lots of games and activities for the kids, and Carter had a good time. His favorite part was "all of it."
Sight word relay for the 6-7yr olds
Tricycle racing (Have you seen the Razor tricycles? They are super cool!)
I managed to get a whole hour of work done. And this is how...
The week after Carter got out of school, I took both boys for a trip to Philadelphia to visit Patrick, Kirstin and Eavan. We played inside, played outside, visited the Franklin Institute, and (as always) ate very well!
We also took a side trip to NYC to visit Joo. Carter decided that Joo is his #1 BFF, and I don't think that it was totally due to the fact that she got him a cookie cake for a belated birthday treat. At first, Carter seemed a bit overwhelmed by the city of his birth, but he warmed up to it quickly. He walked a couple of miles the first day, and he definitely walked over a mile and a half without stopping or complaint the next morning.
Traveling with both boys on my own was tiring, but fun. It would have been a little more fun and a little less tiring if I hadn't gotten sick part way through.
I couldn't decide on just a few shots to share, so here's a slideshow of our week.
And here's a video of bubble-making in Central Park.
When John first started crawling, he had a really weird way of doing it. He still does this sometimes, but it's becoming less frequent, so I wanted to post a video so we never forget his original style!
I've blogged before about Carter's great after school music program. To end the year, they did a performance of Mary Poppins. Carter was in the chorus, playing a chimney sweep and an English park bystander. He seemed to really enjoy the process, and he's still walking around the house singing Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, Chim Chim Cheree and Let's Go Fly a Kite. He's toward the right side in the photos below.
[Elizabeth: I blogged previously about Carter's sixth birthday party, but needed to post on his actual birthday. Since he's a big 6-year-old now, I invited Carter to compose this post. He dictated and I typed. We'll let him do this on occasion going forward -- and hopefully he'll take over the typing sooner rather than later.]
I am six. I had cupcakes at school for my birthday. I ate them on the wall close to the field and close to the playground. After all that, I went back to learning.
John and I had a good time at Fellini's Pizza
I liked having my picture taken close to the wishing well
Mama Helen is watching me open my presents
I found my bicycle below the back deck. I had a good time sitting on it and rolling it into the garage
I like my tight rope that I got for my real birthday
Carter turns 6 on Wednesday, and we had his party at a park this afternoon. The weather was perfect!
At one point, we found that the boys had banded together to carry most of a tree onto the playground. Here, they are marching it back to the woods where they found it (we presume).
His cake!
To go along with the baseball theme, we had hotdogs and crackerjacks.
So John had his 9 month check up yesterday and he is right on schedule developmentally, i.e. extra clingy and unhappy about getting shots. Now for the stats: Weight 19.95 lbs (50th percentile), Head Circumference 17.5in (just under 50th percentile), Height 30in (95th percentile). While he's no Carter at 9 months, he's still pretty freakin' tall! The doctor was very pleased with everything and our little baby is growing up really fast.
