I had been seeing on Pintrest for the longest time Growth Charts that mimicked rulers. A lot of them were customizable with the child's name and birth "stats" on them. I loved the idea and thought it would be awesome to have- especially with how fast Jonathan has grown up! The $60+ price tag on them, however, was not awesome!
For Christmas, Joseph gave me this amazing cutting machine! After reading some diy tutorials, I got to thinking that this growth chart got a whole lot more doable!
Unfortunately, I didn't think ahead and take pictures of the step-by-step project. The hardest part of the whole project was setting up the "ruler" in the cutting machine. After that I stained the wood, cut the vinyl, then placed it onto the wood. It was a little tricky lining it all up evenly and straight. I had never cut anything that long with the vinyl though. Every project I'm just more and more amazed of the capabilities of this machine! We ended up putting them up on the basement wall. I would have loved to put them in the boys' rooms but we couldn't with the chair rail that we have there. This wall in the basement is long and I would eventually love to put some of the professional pictures of the boys as babies up next to the rulers.
Unfortunately the light in the hallway makes it a little hard to see Jonathan's growth chart.
38+ inches and growing!
And this little guy is trying to catch up to his brother!!
Zachary turned 6 months old a little over a week ago. He is growing like a weed! At six months he is trying to crawl- but does successfully scoot to whatever he wants- remote controls, water bottles, his brother's toys. :) He is sitting by himself. He absolutely loves watching and playing with his big brother. His favorite toys are probably his brother's trains. He is a happy baby, loves being held (especially while sleeping), and is a horrible sleeper.
To "celebrate" turning six months- we decided to head to the Howard County Fair. It was the last Friday of the fair so it was packed! I took Jonathan to see the animals last year, but he was too little for the rides. This year he was a little over 36 inches so he was able to ride some of the smaller rides!
As much as I love fair food, we ate dinner before we left to save some money. Like I said earlier, the fair was packed when we first got there. Joe was awesome and went to stand in line for ride tickets. While Daddy was waiting in line, I took Jonathan and Zachary to see all the animals and to the petting zoo area.
Wearing the Hawaiian shirt was his idea. Jonathan got to "milk" a cow and "drive" a tractor on our way to see the animals. We saw all kinds of animals- cows, pigs, goats, ducks, chickens, and many more. In the kids area he got to feed a baby goat, and pet a baby duck and chicken.
Here we met up with Tomas and Nicolas. Daddy finally had our tickets, so we headed over to the ride section. The first ride the boys wanted to go on was the Swinging Ship. This was the first time Jonathan ever rode a ride by himself. Him and Nicolas rode together and held hands. Jonathan was all smiles most of the time. When he got off the ride I asked him if he had fun and he said yes. I asked him if he wanted to ride again and he said no.
Even though Jonathan was tall enough to go on a lot of the rides, I didn't quite trust him to go by himself. Some of the rides went pretty fast, and I wasn't sure what he would do if he got scared. He insisted on going on a fast "roller coaster" type ride that went around in a circle. We watched it go around a couple times pretty fast and he still wanted to go on it- so Jonathan and Daddy rode together. Joe said Jonathan was laughing the whole time.
For us to ride with Jonathan, we have to "pay" with tickets too, so I think next time we'll get Jonathan the pass to ride all the rides and a couple extra tickets if we need to ride with him. He had a blast on the rides, so now we are looking forward to going to Dutch Wonderland where there are a lot of rides his size!
Of course no fair is complete without playing a couple of game! We played the get the ball in the goldfish bowl- the gentleman working heard Jonathan say "goal" every time he threw the ball, so he gave us a coupon for a goldfish (which we decided against taking home). Then we played a game where you pick up a duck and get a prize. Jonathan won a dolphin, which he was super excited about!
Afterwards, both kids were absolutely pooped. What a perfect ending to a great week.
Howard County offers many really nice parks that are a quick drive from our house. This summer weather has been awesome for spending time outdoors. One of our favorite parks, however, is located in Montgomery County in Wheaton, Maryland. Wheaton Regional Park is a huge park where you can take a ride on the train, go horseback riding, have a picnic, go fishing, ice skate or play ball, relax and tour Brookside Gardens' grounds and conservatory, attend a nature program, or walk the many miles of shaded trails. I found the park last year- and though I can't remember exactly how I stumbled across it- it has become one of our favorite treats for Jonathan. He is always asking to go to the Choo Choo Park. We even celebrated his second birthday here!
With my mom staying the weekend with me and babysitting my nephew, I thought it would be fun to go to the park- and maybe explore the trails and the gardens the park had to offer. It was a beautiful day so it would be great for the boys (and us!) to be outside. Of course- we had to stop by the train and carousel first!
After the train and carousel we walked along the path towards Brookside Gardens. It was less than a ten minute walk. We have never been here and the first part of the gardens we happened upon was the Kid's Garden! Perfect!
This garden is great for kids of all ages! It had fun places to explore, areas to learn, and even a tree house to climb up! I know they offer many education opportunities throughout the year here. Jonathan had a blast.
On our way back to towards the car we stopped by the play area because Jonathan wanted to swing and go down the slide. The playground is separated into two areas- one for big kids and one for little kids. The big kids play area is not like any park I went to growing up- with climbing walls, climbing mounds, climbing nets, and tall twisty slides- and looks like lots of fun. The little playground is perfect for Jonathan's age with just the right size slides and climbing gyms. It also has concrete animals to climb on and a giant sandbox to play in!
We always have so much fun at this park and with so much to do we keep coming back!! :)
Gosh! I can't believe how fast the time has been going! Its been a few weeks since I posted so I have some catching up to do! With both Joe and I working during the week, we try to take advantage of our weekends and do an "adventure" a few times a month. An adventure can be anything-- a train ride at the local park or a train ride on a big steam engine up in Pennsylvania, a trip to the aquarium or museum, or even a hike. The important part of our "adventures" is it is something special that we don't get to do everyday.
A few weekends ago we were trying to decide what to do. I have been wanting to go to the National Harbor in DC and check out the Children's Museum and new Carousel there, but there are very mixed reviews on the Children's museum and it was a little drizzly out- so probably wouldn't get the best views from the carousel... so we decided to go to the National Zoo in DC (thinking that since it was a drizzly day, maybe it wouldn't be that crowded on a Saturday in the Summer... we were wrong :) heh). One of the biggest perks of the DC Zoo is it is FREE!!
We hadn't been to the Zoo this year yet, and the last time that Jonathan went, he was a little over one year old. We had a blast and it wore him out, so we were looking forward to going again.
As you can see, Jonathan was most looking forward to seeing Zebras. We debated whether or not to take the Metro in (parking at the zoo is very limited and VERY expensive) or just find street parking. Since parking is free on weekends we decided to try to find street parking. Luckily I have a husband who is very familiar with that area and we were able to find a spot only a few blocks from the Zoo. The zoo opens pretty early (6:00am!), but a lot of the animals aren't out and the buildings don't open until 10:00am, so that is about the time we arrived.
When we first got there we decided to head to the Pandas so we could see the new baby Panda. As we were making our way there we stopped by the first animal we saw. As Jonathan was pointing out all the birds (not even part of the exhibit) a bee flew into his sandal and stung him!! Poor Jonathan started crying immediately. I took his shoe off and the bee was still in there. This being his first bee sting I of course initially worried about allergies, but luckily that was not the case. His foot got real red and a little swollen so we decided to head to the First Aid area to get an ice pack and make sure the stinger wasn't still in his foot and to see if there was anything else we could do. Unfortunately the First Aid Station is at the VERY END of the park!! It seemed to take FOREVER to get there. We got there and medic lady was real nice. Cleaned his foot and made sure the stinger wasn't in there. Then she put some numbing medicine there and gave us an ice pack. As we were leaving another little girl was coming in with bee sting. By the time we finished that adventure I felt like it was time to leave!!
Just down from the First Aid Station was the Kid's Farm where they can see- and even touch- cows, donkeys, goats, alpacas, and hogs.
After the Kid Farm we headed to American Trail. This was our favorite area of the zoo from last year. We loved watching the California Sea Lions and Jonathan LOVED the little tide pool area where you can play in the water and watch the "tide" go in and out.
Even Zachary enjoyed himself a little bit! He loved splashing in the water.
Unlike last year, though, Jonathan seemed a little scared of the "tidal wave" that would come and fill the area with water (you can see last year's video here. It was much more crowded this year and lots of the kids would scream when the water came out so I think that freaked him out just a little bit.
As we were leaving we stopped to see the lions, elephants, zebras, monkeys, birds, and of course the carousel. We were a little rushed since it had taken so long to get down to the First Aid station and now it was WAAAAYY past nap time and the kiddos were reaching their limit!
By the time we got back to the car, mom, dad, and the kids were pooped from such a fun and long morning at the zoo!
You can tell how tired he is as I'm trying to keep him awake. I was unsuccessful and he fell asleep within minutes of me filming that video! ;)
I feel very blessed that my sister lives so close to me (probably about 35min with no traffic). Unfortunately with both of us having babies, working full time, and the HORRIBLE DC/NoVA/MD traffic, it makes it very hard to see each other. I was super excited when she texted me the other day wanting to hang out. Her husband was out of town on business so I suggested she and baby Ben spend the night (especially since we haven't quite moved Zachary into his crib yet). She battled traffic and came up Friday late afternoon. The boys got right down to playing with each other (Zachary mostly watched), with Jonathan excitingly showing Baby Ben all his toys. After dinner we had the fun crazy idea of giving all the boys a bath. It probably would have been much better if they were just a LITTLE bit older, but it was still an adventure. Have I mentioned before how hard it is to get these kids to all look at the camera at the same time???
After bath time the boys played train for a bit. It was more like Jonathan played train while the two younger ones chewed on them, but it was still fun watching them play and interact together.
We had such a fun weekend - but went by way too quickly! Hopefully it won't be too much longer until the boys can all play again. These boys are going to be best buds!
Whew. I can't believe that it is already the middle of July!! Over the Fourth of July holiday we headed up to Mimi and Pop's house in Ohio so we could meet our new (born in January) niece who lives in Iowa. It was great catching up with my brother and his wife and I'm so glad we could spend some time with baby Jessie Mae. She's a cutie!
Last weekend we went to the annual Maple Lawn Street Festival. We are so lucky that we live walking distance from such a wonderful little area full of little shops and good places to eat! This is the third year we've been to the festival and we have had a great time each year!
Zachary was excited to be riding like a "big boy" in his stroller!
And it really is VERY difficult to to get two kids under two to smile for the camera at the same time!!
The festival always ends with fireworks at the end. Zachary seemed to enjoy was unfazed by the fireworks. Jonathan on the other hand was really quite unsure whether he liked them or not. He was excited about them... until they started. Then he cried a bit... Then towards the middle seemed to enjoy them... then at the end, was a little unsure. He was trying to hide and watch them at the same time.
The Terror or Excitement of a Two Year Old and Fireworks.
Overall, we had a great night of good weather, hamburgers, ice cream, and fireworks. It's definitely a tradition we'll keep doing.
