they call him "no fear" Syphr

Syphr is proving to be my most daring child. He is the only one of the three to jump off the side of the pool, or the couch with the blind faith that you will catch him. Just this morning he dove down, from the top of the stairs, assuming I would catch him. Luckily, I was only 2 steps ahead of him, and turned his way so we avoided a hospital trip today.

The kid climbed to the top of this strange structure with no help. Talan only made it up 4 bars and screamed that he was going to fall.

It is slightly fun to have an adventurous little guy.

De-brace face

 Remember this kid a year ago with his newly acquired metal mouth?:

These days he is looking like this:

Goodbye for a while braces. We won't miss you. Phase one is complete. Now we must wait for a few baby teeth to fall out on the bottom and we begin phase two, which will be much more traumatizing since we have maxed out Ashton's life time orthodontic allowance. Hey, at least his smile is excellent.

courtyard coasting

24 hours ago I stumbled upon, and picked up, a can't-pass-it-up bike on craigslist for Ashton. Now that he has his own set of wheels, he isn't totally embarrassed to be riding Talan's training wheel clad bike in front of his friends. It did not matter if it was like a sauna outside today, he was on that bike. He would come in occasionally to refill his water bottle looking as if he had just taken a shower, dab a towel on his face, and head back out. 

This evening, 24 hours after the bike excitement he unveiled what he had apparently been working on. His first trick:

This kid

I like the evenings when,

No nap + Staying up past bed time = overtired hilarious Syphr

Syphr is screaming, "COME BACK ASHTON!", after Ashton disappeared into the world of cub scouts. This went on for a good 10 minutes until he moved on to the next best thing.  

The next best thing just happens to be wearing two pairs of sunglasses and saying, "Look mom!"

I hope this rare occurrence starts happening more frequently.

Beginner no more

Ashton is officially graduated from beginner band. I'm so impressed by his teacher, who, not only taught these kids to read music, and play their instruments, but also to play the same notes at the same time. After a pre sax playing peanut infested treat, and sanitizing bath before we got back in the car, Ashton was ready. He did a pretty great job, and even kept up with the advanced band on a couple songs. I am looking forward to many more years of band concerts, and hopefully Five Guys trips before the band concerts. 

Toddlers have interesting friendships

Meet Cash:

Cash is Syphr's best friend. It might not be noticeable when he is screaming "NO CASH!!!" in his angry voice, but he really does love his friend. They like to play together, yet know exactly what to do to make the other crazy. It wasn't until recently that Cash really figured out what would make Syphr the most angry, and he was spot on. The thing that steams Syphr up most is when Cash touches his babies. Often, Cash will wait until Syphr turns his back, grab a baby and run while periodically looking back, waiting for Syphr to notice and chase him down. Sy regains possession of his baby and all is well again. 

On this particular day, I told Syphr at snack time that Cash was coming over to play. His eyes grew wide and he said, "yay! Cash!!" as he looked out the window to see if he could spot him toddling down the sidewalk. Then, his head made a very sharp shift to the right, he got out of his chair almost in a panic and ran to the slide where his babies were taking a nap. He grabbed all four babies in his arms, climbed up the rock wall to the top of the slide, still clinging to all babies, and still with wide eyes. The top of the slide is the perfect spot to watch out the open window. He gave me a quick glance, and must have been worried I was not as on guard as he was, because, at that moment, Syphr said his first complete two sentence exclamation. 

"HURRY MOMMY!! CASH IS COMING!!"