He did it!

Tyson earned his Blue Ribbon tonight at swim lessons, just one lesson behind his big sister! We are so proud of our little floaters!

Speaking of floating... here is a picture of Riley practicing her Blue Ribbon-worthy floating after getting a chance to go down the slide!

Arranged Marriage

Cooper meeting his future wife, Halzie, for the very first time!

It's all figure out, Cooper will be marrying Halzie, Riley will marry her brother Hayden, and Tyson will marry their sister Kylee. (All of this according to Kylee!) It will be nice to have only one set of in-laws to worry about!

Blue Ribbon Girl!

Tonight at swim lessons, Riley earned her Blue Ribbon- and a cool t-shirt!

By Swimbabes standards, Riley earned a Blue Ribbon tonight by sitting on the edge of the pool, jumping into the water, and turning onto her back to float- and boy can she float well! We are so proud of how far she has come in the few weeks since starting lessons! We're hoping Tyson isn't too far behind in getting his Blue Ribbon... maybe Wednesday night!

A few photos

Cooper had a great time trying out the Bumbo for the first time today, he was smiling and talking up a storm!

Our handsome little man, Tyson, enjoying some playtime in the bathtub!

Riley "needed" her sunglasses at bedtime because the nightlight was "too bright"... this is how we found her a couple of hours later!

"Much room!"

"Lay right here Tyson, there is much room!"
I truly enjoy watching the kids playing together. If Cooper is anywhere on the floor in the playroom, the kids want to be there too! Sibling love is so much fun!

More funny things from Riley

I know I've been writing a lot lately about the funny things Riley and Tyson say and do, but my plan is to make a book out of my first year's blog entries and I want to capture as many memories of their cuteness as possible! They both talk so much and have so many fun things to say. Here are just a few from today!

This morning I was trying to sneak a muffin in for breakfast while feeding Cooper. Riley came in the room, took one look at the muffin and said:

"Mommy, I try some. It's probably berry yummy!"

While playing with mega blocks with Tyson, he got up and ran across the room saying, "Come here, Riley!" Her response:

"Hold on a minute. Can't you see I'm busy!" (something I must have said sometime... how sad!)

I asked Riley what she wanted for lunch today and she said peanut butter and jelly and I told her we were out of bread, so we would have to have something else. She walked away and came back a couple of minutes later:

Riley: "Mommy, don't talk at me that way, it makes me berry sad."
Me: "What did I say to make you sad?"
Riley: "Saying we hab no bread. It makes me berry sad."
I had to explain that I wasn't saying we had no bread to be mean, I just needed to go to the store and buy some later. I think she understood...

That smile

"Tyson Guy Thames!"

"Riley Ann!"

Unfortunately, I have fallen right into the parental stereotype of using first, middle, and sometimes last names on the kids when they have gotten into or done something they know they're not suppose to. Where does this come from? Like they're really going to listen to me more because I've used more names or something. Well, yesterday after Riley spent her much needed nap/quiet time playing rather than sleeping, she was in rare form. Acting out, whining, and blatantly not listening to me... very frustrating. I was trying to stay cool about it, until she tried to climb into Cooper's little vibrating chair as I was trying to put him in it at the same time...

Me: "Riley Ann Thames!"
Riley: "Mommy Ann Thames!" *
*Complete with a smart-alecky smile/smirk, just daring me to do something about it... Ooh, I hate that smile!

Sadly, my very first thought was, "Well, that is my middle name...", followed by Riley being put into timeout for talking back to Mommy... She's not even 3 yet and I already see trouble in the years to come, wrapped up in that little smile.