Mike the Tiger

Last Friday, when Stephen, Mel, Kyle, and Ryan were here, we took a trip to see Mike the Tiger. (And for those of you who aren't familiar with LSU and its traditions - because I certainly didn't know this before we lived here - LSU has a real tiger as its real-life mascot. And his name is Mike. He lives in a nice facility!)

We got a family photo with the statue of Mike.



Kyle had fun climbing and playing on the statue of Mike.

And Kyle loved watching Mike pace back and forth.


Claire's first trip to see Mike. I'm sure we'll see him again and again!

Then, Kyle was Uncle Bando's personal trainer as they ran up and down the ramps.

After seeing Mike, we went to City Park. (Thanks, Dana and Stacy, for telling me about this park! It's very nice!) Kyle played for a little while on the little kid playground, but he was running circles around the other kids. He soon headed to the big kid playground, (which was recommended for kids 5 and up. - And Kyle's 3!) He had fun playing with the bigger kids.

Ryan stayed awake,

and Claire went to sleep.

And then the most thrilling moment of the day came - to those who are observant. While Jordan, Stephen, Mel, Kyle, and some other kids played frisbee, Jordan noticed a hawk fly and land in a tree. We all saw it and thought it was cool. Then I didn't think much more about it. Okay, I didn't think about it at all. Well, Jordan kept his eye on the hawk, and later he watched as the hawk dove for a squirrel! Let's just say the hawk won! (And the hawk scared one of the little boys who was playing with Kyle. He ran and hid behind Stephen and asked if the hawk was going to eat them, too). It's safe to say that seeing that predator-prey encounter definitely made Jordan's day!

Claire and Ryan

We certainly enjoyed having Aunt Mel, Uncle Stephen, Kyle, and Ryan here this weekend!!! I'll post more about our fun outings later, but for now, I'll just show how Mel and I had fun getting Claire and Ryan together!!

They have matching pajamas, so we just had to get some pictures of them matching! - And look how much different they are in size! I really couldn't get over how small Ryan is compared to Claire. He's such a cute little guy!


Kyle was around, too, but he just didn't usually stay still long enough for us to get a picture of him with Claire and Ryan.

While Claire and Ryan were matching, Kyle saw me changing Claire's diaper. I said something to Claire, and I called her by name, and Kyle told me that wasn't Claire - it was Ryan. I had to explain that it was Claire, she was a girl, and she and Ryan were just wearing matching pj's.

Did Ryan spot something in Claire's nose???

As I have explained previously, I think it's difficult at times to get good pictures of Claire - with her looking at or towards the camera and smiling. So it was definitely harder to get good pictures of both Claire and Ryan at the same time. We took LOTS of pictures, and these are some of the best!

Mel (finally) successfully coaxed Kyle into sitting on the couch with us and smiling for the picture. But that didn't last too long, so this is one of the best pictures we got of these 3 kiddos! I actually really, really like it. I think it's hilarious! It looks like Ryan is familiar with Kyle and his antics, and he's a bit weary of them! And Claire is just looking on with simple, maybe even naive, curiosity. I love it!

And then Claire and Ryan took a bath together.

Ryan moved around,

rolled over,

and even reached for Claire (or maybe her toy).
Claire, however, stayed in the same spot and ate her toy duck the entire time!

It was fun seeing Claire and Ryan together! And I know it'll continue to be fun as they grow up, especially since they're only two weeks apart!

Cousins!

Claire got to meet two of her cousins on her dad's side of the family yesterday. She wasn't too sure what to do with Ryan around. So she took some of her toys away from Ryan while he was playing with them. (We'll have to work on sharing later!)


These guys are only two weeks apart, but they are definitely different sizes! Ryan is such a little guy compared to Claire. He's so light when I pick him up!
We're glad Stephen, Mel, Kyle, and Ryan are here for the weekend!

Big Girl

Claire can get herself into a semi-sitting up position by herself now. She'll crawl around (army style, of course) and then sit herself up and look around. She looks so big to me when she does that!



She's getting closer to crawling, too. After getting up on her hands and knees, she sometimes moves one knee forward - or backward - and then she usually does a nose dive!

Also, I forgot to report Claire's new stats. As of last Wednesday, Claire weighed 18 and a half pounds, and she was 28 inches long.

Family Photos

Some family photos from last weekend. - Thanks, Steve, for taking these!




Claire started touching the leaves, and Jordan began acting like she was Eve taking the fruit off the tree to eat it and said she needed to wear some fig leaves!


And my favorite one of all!