The Haircut

Cannon's hair kept covering his goggles every time he swam so we decided it was time for a trim.  I've been cutting his hair for four years and so I thought I could do it myself.

Well, it ended up good in the front and sides, but after he woke up the next morning it looked really choppy in the back. 

I tried to fix it and it ended up like this:

I thought I would quit while he still had any hair left and we booked it to the nearest kids haircut place!

 She cut it really short around the sides and back, but left it quite long on top and it looked kind of funny.  So we went home and I cut it again!  What is wrong with me?!

So after three days of haircuts, here's what we ended up with:   

It's a darling cut and looks really good on him, but it's going to take some getting used to on my part!  

How We Fill Our Days

I love, love, love this time of year!  I feel like we get the best of everything!  The beach is perfect and the weather is perfect!  There are hot days for swimming, warm days for just being outside, and rainy days for playing in the rain. 



Blueberry picking with friends at Owen's blueberry farm in Hudson.  With Jodi and her kids: Anna, Kate, and baby Rachel; Maisy and her son Grey; Liz with Peyton; and Elisabeth with Altazara.  We picked 2.2lbs so far we've only made blueberry muffins, but I think we've eaten a pound!

We like to ride our bikes down to Eagle Lake Park.  You never know what kind of animals you might see there! 

This is an endangered Fox Squirrel!  Really cool!



Cannon likes to feed bread to the turtles and fish.  Sometimes there are ducks and other exotic birds.

Going to the beach with friends is a regular pastime.  The beach is gorgeous right now with turquoise water!  And the water temp is just right for a warm day. 



Peyton and Ella

Cannon loves to play around the Banyan trees in downtown St. Pete.  Sorry, I forgot to get a picture of that majestic tree, but we did get a pic of the friendly squirrels.  We also took a trolley ride just for the fun of it. 

The rainy season is almost upon us, so we make the most of it!

Here is Cannon's newly arranged play area.  There's still some tweaking to do, but it seems suitable for now.  There's all sorts of make-believe and inventing that goes on here!

"Mom, can we play with the vinegar and baking soda?"  Yes!  

This is another favorite activity of Cannon's!  This time we added funnels to "see what happens," as he would say.

And sometimes you just get so tired that you fall asleep on the cedar chest. 

Grandma and Papa Visit!

Our visit with Ryan's parents was so fun, but too short!  On Monday we went to MOSI (Museum of Science and Industry) and stayed until closing.  We ALL had fun and we are looking forward to going back again with our new season pass. 

There was so much to do and see! It was actually really quiet in the children's area, with only a few visitors there. Cannon was really fascinated by the human skeleton.  We put it on the floor and he identified the parts he knew.  He started to talk to its head and have a conversation with it.  Then he told it, "I'm going to show you the cloud."  He then proceeded to take the skull off and walk it over to the cloud (bottom right hand corner picture) and he put it through the cloud and then brought it back!  It was hilarious!  He also really liked the bounce house and the airplane cockpit.  Ryan and his dad enjoyed a game of large chess!  And we all tried the bed of nails (except for Dad).

 

 

Afterwards we headed to Datz for dinner in South Tampa.  I guess you could call it elevated comfort food.  Delicious!  And their desserts were fantastic!  Then we parted ways.  Ryan and I headed to Orlando to stay in a hotel for the night and then to the temple the next day.  Mom and Dad kept Cannon for us and the next day took him to Mote Aquarium in Sarasota and then to Siesta Key Beach.  We met back at our place later on Tuesday.  After dinner Ryan gave Cannon a father's priesthood blessing which is our tradition on his birthday each year and also at the beginning of each new school year when that time comes.  We meant to do it on Sunday night, his actual birthday, but I completely forgot.  It was wonderful for Cannon to hear how much his Heavenly Father loves him and to offer guidance to him in a way that a four-year-old can understand.  It was a really special moment. 

 

Sadly, Mom and Dad had to leave early the next morning, but not without playing some Settlers of Catan!  They ended up leaving at the same time Ryan left for work and both Cannon and I felt a little deserted.  They drove up to North Carolina to visit with Rick and Kristina and the kids before heading back to Texas.  It's a piece of heaven to be able to spend time with your family!

 

After breakfast



A Four-Year-Old Boy

I can't believe my baby's four!  It all happened so fast!  I love watching his personality develop and I love his curiosity.  He wants to know why for everything and he's always asking me what certain words mean.  At his four-year well-check he was 40lbs and 41.5" (70% for weight and 81% for height). 

I tried to do a birthday interview with him, asking him about his favorite things, but I could only get a few answers out of him over the course of several days.  He told me his favorite food is banana bread and he likes to play with cars and trains and play outside.  That is all very true!  Oh, and his new favorite color is green (although it changes from time to time).  I would add that he LOVES to swim and we swim four or five days a week.  He is also getting pretty good on his bike.  We like to ride together and he can go about three or four miles himself on an easy path.  A few mornings a week we like to ride to the park, either Largo Central Park or Eagle Lake.   Or we'll just ride around our complex.  He's into collecting large pine cones right now, so we usually pick up one (or four!) along the way.  Right now the weather is perfect, warm enough for swimming, but not too hot for playing outside.  We try and spend most of our day outside. 

Indoors he's also into hats and make-believe.  Currently his favorites are: doctor, restaurant, and fireman.  He is still a book lover and will often just sit down and "read" books to himself.  I don't know if he has a favorite because he likes so many of them!  We recently finished our first chapter book together, Charlotte's Web!  That was a favorite of mine growing up and I knew he would like it.  The first three chapters are his favorite and he asked me to read them to him again after we had finished the book.  He is such an animal lover which made this book perfect for him. 

Cannon is super social!  He makes friends easily and wherever he goes.  He tends to gravitate towards kids a little bit older than him, but he also likes younger kids and toddlers.  Whatever the age of the kid, he is able to play with them on their level.  We recently had to set up some friends house rules since he was wanting to play with some neighborhood kids all the time.  I decided that I'm going to have to get used to having his friends over often because they somehow always end up over here.  I thought I had at least another year or so before we got into the friends stuff, but it's here now!  The rules are that he can have his friends here all he wants, but they have to go home when dinner's ready.  I would rather him play here so I can keep an eye on things and he is not allowed to go into some family's homes around our area. So far he is fine with the rules and he hasn't had any problems. 

Cannon is getting to be independent for a lot of things.  He gets himself dressed in the morning, can make his own cereal, and brush his teeth.  Most of the time we eat breakfast together, but a couple of times he has made his own cereal and ate by himself.  We keep two small glass pitchers in the fridge for him, water and milk, so he can get himself a drink when he's thirsty.  I also got some small containers for his cereal and a lazy susan for his sandwich and chocolate milk making supplies.  He used to not like to help me cook, but lately he's been interested in it.  He can crack eggs without getting the shells into the batter and I've been helping him learn how to flip the pancakes and cook scrambled eggs.  Although he's less inclined to work around the heat and he is super cautious not to burn himself.  He also loves to use appliances and remembers which buttons to push.  He loves to use the microwave and will put bagels in for 10 seconds.  The toaster he can do, but it makes him nervous.  He loves to put the soap in the dishwasher and start it.  In fact, he gets upset with me if I start the dishwasher!  We're working on the laundry too.  He likes to throw his clothes in and he knows where to turn the dial and how much soap to add.  I've been trying to get him to help put his clean clothes away by putting the hangers on the shirts and then into his closet.  That's still an emerging skill. 

This birthday was special because we got to celebrate with family and friends.  A few months ago out of the blue he told me he wanted a race track cake with white flags.  And he wanted four balloons, two red, one green, and one blue.  Sure!  His birthday fell on a Sunday this year, so we had his party the Saturday before.  Ryan's parents flew in that afternoon so they could attend his birthday party.  This was our first time inviting friends too.  Since everyone is his friend, he wanted to invite everyone!  But I tried to keep in low key this time.  We had a swim party and of course it was the one "cold" and cloudy day of the whole month, but we all still had a fun time. Only a few of the kids ended up swimming and one or two brave dads. 



He helped me make his cake and added his own decorations too!

Chocolate Texas sheet cake, homemade buttercream frosting, and oreos!



Micah and Savannah

He loved everything he got: cash register, paints, stepping stone kit, Thomas book, gift card, and beach toys!  I have to give a shout out to Aunt Meg for getting birthday gifts for Cannon (the beach toys and Thomas book) even though we've never met her yet, and for Ryan for picking them up in New Jersey and enduring some mild harassment for bringing toys as his carry-on.   

We tried to get a good group photo! From the left: Christopher, Isaac, Cannon, Nathan, Savannah, Micah, and Isla.

Cannon and Nathan playing chase with their balloons.

This is SO classic!  Always asleep!

Isla!



A birthday ride in the wagon?

After everyone went home we spent a nice evening visiting with Ryan's parents.  On Sunday we had church and Cannon was excited that they sang to him in Primary.  And his teacher made the class mini cupcakes too.  I asked Cannon what he wanted for his birthday dinner and he chose pizza.  So after church we made homemade pizzas and ate left over cake.  Grandma and Papa saved two gifts for him to open that day (a Longhorns t-shirt and a Thomas DVD) and he got his scooter from Ryan and me.  The weather was lovely so we took a family walk to the playground. 

He's not really into the scooter yet. 

My dad sent Cannon a birthday package too.  It had fake teeth, slime, magnets, a robot (Cannon calls it Rocket Ship Man), and a sticky hand.  Let me tell you that Cannon is so much like my dad and he loved everything in the box!

I've had my eye on a wooden play stand, but they are pretty expensive.  I was going to try and make one myself to save money, but it was going to be more work than I anticipated.  My mom helped us get this and so.  It's big and I've had to rearrange our play area a bit, but I am really liking it, as is Cannon.  So far it's been a restaurant, grocery store, house, and doctor's office.  I'm looking forward to our many adventures with it!

Easter

We were so happy to be able to spend Easter at home rather than in the hospital!  Now that Cannon is getting older, Ryan and I have been conscious of the details of our family traditions.  Ryan is not that into holidays anyway, but enjoys simple traditions.  I like that about him and so we are trying to keep our celebrations simple, but memorable.  Cannon doesn't know what the Easter Bunny is, so we decided to keep it that way. 

Like Christmas, I really wanted our Easter celebration to be Christ centered.  But with some fun too.  We were totally going to color Easter eggs on Saturday, but we completely ran out of time.  And we never did an egg hunt either.  Oh well, next year! 

The Monday previous to Easter, we did a family home evening lesson using our resurrection eggs that my friend gave me.  Cannon was really into it and he kept the eggs and pieces in his play area for the whole week.  I didn't have any meetings on Sunday morning and it was wonderful to be together and not have to rush out the door!  We enjoyed apple pie oatmeal for breakfast and read from the scriptures.  Cannon did have an Easter basket with one cadbury egg.  I know, that sounds so lame, but Cannon was delighted to get a piece of candy!  I have been knitting some bunnies for him and they're not done yet.  I wanted them ready to put in his basket, but ran out of time.  But don't feel bad for him.  He got candy and stuff galore from church! 

After church we had a lovely lunch/dinner complete with resurrection biscuits.  Cannon helped me make them.  Then after dinner we read the Living Christ and shared our testimonies of the Savior.  This was an invitation from our stake presidency, but I think it will be a new tradition for us.  We also watched the He is Risen video.  We called our families and then took a nice walk outside. 

And I only got two pictures from the whole day!  

Lowry Park Zoo

My friend Jodi invited us to join them for a day at the zoo.  I was super excited because this was our first time at the zoo in Tampa, which was voted best family zoo in the US.  I have to say that it did not disappoint!

Carousel

 This next part was my favorite I think!  The kids got feed the giraffes lettuce!  Cannon needed no prep and went right up like he knew what he was doing.  I was worried that he would get nervous since their big faces are right there, but he loved it!

 

They have a little petting zoo area where you can pet the goats.  As soon as we walked in Cannon went right to this fella (or fellow, not sure how to tell).  He stayed with the goat the whole time.  He said it was his goat and told any kid that came near that it was his goat.  It was so sweet to see him so loving and gentle.  Now he says he wants a goat for home.  

Cannon and Kate waiting in line for the flying bananas!

 

A long time ago Cannon and I got onto the topic of bumper boats.  Even since then he has been wanting to ride one and today was the day!  He was thrilled!  Especially since he got to drive it himself.  

 

Lastly, Cannon was able to ride the pony.  We had to wait in line a long time for this one, but I think it was worth it to him.  

We had a wonderful day at the zoo!  I also enjoyed seeing the penguins and the meerkats.  We actually didn't have time to see all the animals, so we'll have to go back another day.  Cannon felt right at home with the animals.  I think he would have done well living on a farm. 

Where the Forest Meets the Sea

Cannon's new favorite book is called Where the Forest Meets the Sea.  The book is simple and the pictures are beautiful!  There is a part in the book where the boy plays in a big tree that has vines.  Well we found that tree in downtown St. Pete.  Cannon was thrilled!





He was pretending he was a lizard in a cave

 We also found this exquisite tree in front of the Museum of Fine Arts!  It really was breathtaking! 

Love  :)