Taking it easy

We took it pretty easy this weekend. We did swim lessons, a little shopping (the boys needed shoes, and diapers!), visited the mall play area for the first time, had a small and quiet celebration of Kevin's birthday with his family, found a new favorite park, and had a little cake. And that was just Saturday. :)

Not that this surprises me in any way, but like lots of things in life the boys just couldn't be more different in the pool. Ryan reaches, kicks, pulls up, pushes off and just basically tries to swim and do all the activities at swim lessons. Connor on the other hand is content to just let you shuttle him around the pool where ever you think he needs to go with the exception of on his back. They really do seem to be enjoying lessons and are much more comfortable in the pool than when we first started.

Speaking of differences, I think we are going to have a Mutt and Jeff. Hopefully some day Ryan will grow into the boats for feet he has. He has really LONG feet. When we went shoe shopping on Saturday I had them measure his feet. He is currently measuring a size 5. Connor's feet are thicker, but shorter. Despite Connor's recent foot growth spurt even stretching he barely makes it to a size 4. I did find some cool new shoes for Ryan that should have enough room to grow for at least a few days at the rate he is going.

The mall play area was an interesting place to visit. There were lots and lots of kids there, and despite it being for the 42" and under crowd there were sure a lot of tall looking 42 inchers in the play area. The boys didn't seem to mind though. They watched the big kids and tried to do some of the suicidal things they were doing like climbing on top of the equipment. Ryan was in hog heaven - he flitted from one near death experience to the next surprisingly escaping more or less unscathed. Connor's feet remained a bit more firmly planted to the ground for the most part which helped to keep him from getting run over. Though we didn't stay terribly long the boys seemed to have a good time and were really thrilled when I pointed out a butterfly hanging over head.

Speaking of playing the boys really tuckered themselves out at one of the parks in Kingwood after dinner. It was clearly their favorite play ground yet by far. They both picked out a slide and kept going up the stairs and down the slide, then off to do it all over again. Ryan's slide was hugely tall and spiraled down. He did amazingly well. Other than one minor incident where he tried to walk down the slide instead of sitting down to slide he did really well. Connor picked a somewhat smaller, straight slide that a little on the slick and fast side. They must have gone up and down the slides at least 2 dozen times before we took a water break and ended up heading off to the swings.

Afterwards the boys got to play with a few new toys at Kevin's parent's house and we enjoyed a little cake and ice cream.