Happy Feet Soccer League

Brady has been participating in various soccer programs since he was just over two.  He has done really well in his indoor soccer classes and seeems to enjoy them alot.  A couple of months ago he told us he wanted to play outdoor soccer on a team this summer.  I looked really hard for a outdoor program for 3 year olds and finally found a league that starts that young.   The other programs Brady has done have been more skills based and haven't had true games.  We signed up for Happy Feet outdoor soccer with the understanding that games would be between 8:30 - 12:30.   The first 30 minutes is a practice and the second 30 minutes is a 3 on 3 game.   One week before we started we were notified that Brady was going to be on the Orange Orangutan team and that our games would be every Saturday morning at 8:30.   This was not good for Brady who likes to sleep in on the weekends and who regularly doesn't wake up until after 9.  Since the soccer fields are about 25 minutes away this means that we have to leave the house by 8am at the latest to make it to the game. 

Week 1 we were optimistic since Brady was so excited, but he was still half asleep when we got there and didn't participate much.  Week 2 we had alot of the same, but after some bribing he decided to participate in the last game, ran in and scored a goal.  Week 3 he did not participate in the skills practice part, but played for all 30 minutes of the game and scored 3 goals.  He's getting more excited about playing every week so hopefuly next week he'll participate the entire time.  I'm not sure how the other parents feel about him not participating in the practice part and then running in and playing in the game portion.  I think if we a later start time this would go alot smoother, but unfortunately we don't get to pick.  The competitive side of me is thinking that at least he's participating in the game and one of the two kids on the team who scores goals, but then I have to remind myself that they are 3, they don't keep score and the point is learning about teamwork, listening to the coach, etc.  We have lots of years to score goals and win ahead of us. 

Brady Swimming Lessons

Brady took swimming lessons through the City of Shawnee the weeks of June 18^th & 25^th.  He’s not a swimmer yet, but LOVES the water and likes to jump in and go under.   I was pretty impressed by how efficiently the City of Shawnee ran their lessons.  I always thought I did a pretty good job back in the day when I taught lessons at Country Acres for the City of Wichita, but man I would have loved to have had a coordinator in charge of getting kids organized and keeping everyone to a schedule.  The other things I loved was that they had an instructional pool, multiple lifeguards watching and the class size was very small (Only 3 kids in Brady’s class).  I hate to knock Wichita, but I have to say we ran a fairly ghetto operation in comparison to Shawnee.  I thought the lessons were well worth the money and we’re going to do another session later this summer.   Brady needs to grow about another inch to reach the bottom of the pool, but that did not bother him one little bit.

Ellie Pictures Weeks 2 - 3

More pictures of our sweet baby girl and one of our sweet baby boy who won't let me call him a baby!

Happy Father's Day!

Since Ellie was only a week old we had a very low key Father's Day!  I asked Brady what he thought would be a good gift for his Daddy and he very decisively said that his Daddy wanted a Chumpa Lumpa.  I looked at him with a puzzled look and asked him what a Chumpa Lumpa was and he explained to me that it is a REALLY big water gun!  I have tried so hard to have a no weapon rule in our house and we have succeeded until this summer when every little boy I think I know has surfaced with a water gun.  We have since gone from no guns, swords, etc to having a whole arensal of 'water soakers' as I like to call them.  Despite the fact that there are plenty for Cory to use Brady thought he would want his own for Father's Day so off to Target we went on a search. 

Sadly Target did not have the Chumpa Lumpa that he was looking for so we settled on a 'Collasus' since it was the biggest one we could find.  Doesn't every dad need a 10 lb water soaker that shoots 40 feet?

After we picked out Cory's new water soaker we decided he should have some snack mixes for the bar and a new Sporting KC shirt. 

Brady and Cory had lots of fun playing in the backyard with their soakers, but I failed to take pictures.  I was trying my hardest to avoid the heat and getting wet.

That evening we had steaks which Cory had to make himself.  Poor Cory, but I know he wanted to be able to eat his steak and I tend to cook everything well done.

Ellie - Week 1

Everyone always says the second is easier and I would have to say I agree at this point.  I'm sure most of it has to do with the fact that you know what to expect going into it.  We feel very fortunate that she is sleeping in 3 - 4 hour stretches at night and eating is going very well.  Ellie went in for a 5 day check on Thursday and she was only 1 oz shy of her birth weight.  Dr. Tyson says the goal is to be back at your birth weight by 2 weeks so she is definitely on the right track with gaining weight. 

Brady is doing pretty well so far adjusting to his baby sister.  He likes to touch her with 1 finger, but at least he's been gentle with his 'poking'.  We keep telling him that his baby sister wants him to talk to her and he reminds us that she does not know how to talk yet.  He is already showing signs of being protective as on several occasions he has mentioned that Ellie should not do what he is doing because she is too little and we do not want her to get hurt.  If anyone asks him about his sister he refers to her as 'my baby'. 

We're Home

We got discharged on Monday morning!  Nothing like having a welcoming crew waiting for you at your house.  Silly me for thinking that our basement would be finished before she arrived.  Hopefully only a few more weeks.

Hospital Photos

The first couple days have gone really well.  Ellie is a good eater and sleeper!  Hope the trend continues.  Here are some photos from the hospital.

Ellie Marie

We welcomed Ellie Marie Woods into the world at 4:27 pm on Saturday, June 9th.  She was 7lbs 5 oz and is absolutely perfect!  Everything went very smoothly with delivery and her and I are both doing well.

The Wait

Today was supposed to be the big day.  Once again I am overdue and this time rather than waiting it out an extra week we decided to schedule an induction for the day after my due date.   I have had a complication free pregnancy, but I'm ready to be done.  I am looking forward to being able to easily put on my shoes and not having to use the restroom every hour.  The family had arrived and we are ready for the most part.  We went to bed Thursday night eager to meet our precious little girl. 

However, things did not go exactly to plan.  The day started with a 5am wake up call from the hospital.  The delivery rooms were full and they decided to delay scheduled inductions.  Shawnee Mission is a pretty big hospital, but they deliver over 300 babies a month so there are days when things get pretty crazy.  I would later learn that they had 6 moms who were not delivering, but being monitored in the hospital which was taking up many of the labor and delivery rooms. 

They told me to call back at 9am for a status and we would hopefully get in later that morning.  I called at 9am and they were still unsure whether they would get me in.  I was instructed to not eat and wait it out a little longer.  11am still waiting on news.  12 came so I called for an update.  It wasn't looking good.  Finally around 1:30 after multiple conversations with my doctor we decided to call it off for the day.  My choices were to either go in the next day, but have a different doctor or wait until Tuesday as my doctor was going out of town for the weekend.  Since we had a house full of guests we went ahead and scheduled for the next day.  Hopefully we don't get another early morning wake up call.  I was told that the inductions do sometimes get delayed, but they almost never get cancelled.  Lucky me I guess.

When I was pregnant with Brady I took looks of pictures documenting the pregnancy.  This go around I hardly took any photos.  I decided I better get a least one picture.