Here are a few stories from our household that I don't want to forget. Figured I would write them here, since I haven't updated at all in ages.
This morning, when asked why he wasn't wearing his Clemson shirt, Scott (our 4 yr old who dresses himself), responded with, "I'm wearing McQueen, because I want them to run fast." Okay, I suppose I can't argue with that reasoning. Go Tigers! Beat Auburn.
Recently Blaise has coined the term "Beat-beat." This basically means it was a tie game. You see, Scott and Blaise insist on racing all the time to see who can dress the fastest, put sandals on the fastest, pick up the fastest, etc... this generally ends in someone victoriously shouting, "I'm the winner!" And someone else, throwing themselves on the floor crying, because they didn't win. One happy day, instead of doing that, they finished at about the same time and declared that they had had a "Beat-beat." I really like this new term :)
Michael has gone and gotten very dramatic... no really. If Grandma says, in a very sweet grandmotherly voice, "No, no, Michael, don't touch the oven." He throws himself on the floor and kicks and cries. Somewhat annoying and somewhat amusing at the same time. Generally, I have a hard time not laughing at him.
A quick update from the past 2 months... we officially started home-preschool with Scott and Blaise the last couple of days of July. (I know we'll be slowing down a lot in a few months for a new baby, so wanted to get a head start.) They are both doing really well. For now, we do a little bit in the morning while Michael naps and a little bit in the afternoon while Michael naps. Here's hoping he keeps napping... it's much harder to accomplish anything with him walking around trying to steal and eat crayons :) Scott likes math, quite a lot. We are doing Singapore Essential Math K, and he could probably complete the book in a week if I let him... I let him do 6 pages one day this week. It seems to just make sense to him right now, which I can totally relate to. I'm sure it will get more challenging and hope he continues to like it. He still loves to be read to, but isn't a really big fan of reading himself- though he's gotten quite good at it. Blaise likes to be read to (depending on what we're reading) and likes to talk- ALL THE TIME. He's quite the distraction and we are adjusting to working through the distraction. He's learning his letters very quickly and I wonder how much he already knows that I just don't know he knows. So far, I'm pretty sure he can do all of the math stuff we've done with Scott, but his fine motor skills, attention span, and desire to follow directions are not to the place where he wants to do a lot of workbook work. He might be almost as much of a perfectionist as Scott... if he circles something in a workbook and the circle touches something else, he can't circle the other thing, even if it's the right answer, because it's got writing on it. I still have NOT found a format for record keeping that I like... but we're having a good time with it and they seem to be learning quite a lot.
They really enjoyed a visit from their cousins back in August. It really made me wish we lived closer, the kids had so much fun playing together. Then Scott got to spend a week with his grandparents... he was supposed to get to go overnight on their boat, but that fell through (thank you Earl, for saving Grandma from having to clean major messes on the boat, since Scott wasn't feeling well that particular night.)
Settling back into the routine at home has been really really busy and feels very chaotic to me. Perhaps it's just that I'm feeling more tired and big (which means moving around takes more effort.) Scott has started soccer and seems to like it (everyday he asks when he gets to go to soccer again), though so far, it takes him a while to get into it... he likes to be "shy." It should be amusing to see how a game goes here in another week or so. Blaise would really like to be on the team too and I'll be looking forward to seeing how he does next year when he's old enough to play.
Maybe I'll update again, before November... no promises though :)
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
"Baby" Michael Turns 1
Well, you might be aware that I am actually posting this not just a few days, but almost 2 weeks late. At least I am posting it!
It's hard to believe it's already been a year, since baby Michael joined our family. I've been told I need to stop calling him "Baby" Michael... There are lots of things I will never forget from that night a year ago, when he was born. The whole water breaking in my sleep thing is a big one, along with a few other details of his birth that I'll refrain from elaborating on right now. Scott's excitement to hold HIS baby. How much screaming Michael did in his first 10 minutes of life. The little head full of black hair. All our visitors arriving at the same time at the hospital... we had a room full! A very good friend who let Scott and Blaise sleep-over twice.
That was last year... this year, the little man is walking (he took his first steps around June 24, then really took off around July 19) and he's trying hard to keep up with his brothers. He "runs" the loop with them, not noticing he gets lapped about 4 times each trip around. He has 5 teeth and eats more than his brothers (they're picky, and he eats everything... except scrambled eggs.) Michael is quite the independent little dude. He already insists on self-feeding, everything, including his morning yogurt. That makes a big mess, but he is surprisingly (or not considering he's practicing daily) good at it. He also tries (harder than his brothers) to put on his own shoes when asked. No, I don't ask him to put on his own shoes, just Scott and Blaise, but he tries anyway. I'm glad he likes his shoes... I was a bit nervous, since he'd been barefoot all spring and summer until after the 4th of July, that he would refuse to wear them once we finally bought them. He babbles a lot. We think he has 3 words... Yeah, Scott, and Hi. He thinks he speaks in perfect English... if you ask him something, he will turn, look at you, and say a bunch of jibberish with perfect sentence intonation.
In the size department, well, he's right at 20 lbs and somewhere between 29 and 30 inches. I have no idea where that is on the chart, because I'm too lazy to go look. He'll finally go for his 1 yr old checkup in another 2 weeks and they'll tell me what percentiles he is and give me more "precise" measurements. We postponed his 1 yr checkup, because everyone got sick on the 24th and there's no point in going for a well-check when you're sick... especially when you still need the 3rd dose of vaccine that you've managed to avoid at both your 6 and 9 month checkups.
For his birthday celebration, we started the day with cinnamon rolls for breakfast and watermelon. He was a happy boy!
We had to cancel his party though, because Scott and Blaise were both feverish. He didn't mind, staying home and playing with Daddy is just as much fun.
I made him a soccer ball cake... which he enjoyed, but in my opinion (and Cullen's) didn't really do a great job of efficiently devouring it. He did stick his thumb all the way into the center of it and cleaned the icing off of it though.
He opened his presents after getting cleaned up from the cake experience.
Being a 3rd child, he had a lot of help... and didn't mind until after the fact, when his big brothers also wanted to play with his new toys. We got him a couple of new cars and a soft soccer ball (from Ikea.) He's still learning that you aren't supposed to use your hands in soccer and can often be caught throwing his soccer ball (chase it, pick it up, repeat...) or any other ball for that matter. He does like to play catch, whenever he can get someone interested. Unfortunately, by bedtime the birthday boy was also feverish... at least this isn't a birthday he will remember for years to come. And on the plus side, he got to celebrate his birthday for 2 weekends in a row, rather than just one.
It's hard to believe it's already been a year, since baby Michael joined our family. I've been told I need to stop calling him "Baby" Michael... There are lots of things I will never forget from that night a year ago, when he was born. The whole water breaking in my sleep thing is a big one, along with a few other details of his birth that I'll refrain from elaborating on right now. Scott's excitement to hold HIS baby. How much screaming Michael did in his first 10 minutes of life. The little head full of black hair. All our visitors arriving at the same time at the hospital... we had a room full! A very good friend who let Scott and Blaise sleep-over twice.
That was last year... this year, the little man is walking (he took his first steps around June 24, then really took off around July 19) and he's trying hard to keep up with his brothers. He "runs" the loop with them, not noticing he gets lapped about 4 times each trip around. He has 5 teeth and eats more than his brothers (they're picky, and he eats everything... except scrambled eggs.) Michael is quite the independent little dude. He already insists on self-feeding, everything, including his morning yogurt. That makes a big mess, but he is surprisingly (or not considering he's practicing daily) good at it. He also tries (harder than his brothers) to put on his own shoes when asked. No, I don't ask him to put on his own shoes, just Scott and Blaise, but he tries anyway. I'm glad he likes his shoes... I was a bit nervous, since he'd been barefoot all spring and summer until after the 4th of July, that he would refuse to wear them once we finally bought them. He babbles a lot. We think he has 3 words... Yeah, Scott, and Hi. He thinks he speaks in perfect English... if you ask him something, he will turn, look at you, and say a bunch of jibberish with perfect sentence intonation.
In the size department, well, he's right at 20 lbs and somewhere between 29 and 30 inches. I have no idea where that is on the chart, because I'm too lazy to go look. He'll finally go for his 1 yr old checkup in another 2 weeks and they'll tell me what percentiles he is and give me more "precise" measurements. We postponed his 1 yr checkup, because everyone got sick on the 24th and there's no point in going for a well-check when you're sick... especially when you still need the 3rd dose of vaccine that you've managed to avoid at both your 6 and 9 month checkups.
For his birthday celebration, we started the day with cinnamon rolls for breakfast and watermelon. He was a happy boy!
We had to cancel his party though, because Scott and Blaise were both feverish. He didn't mind, staying home and playing with Daddy is just as much fun.
I made him a soccer ball cake... which he enjoyed, but in my opinion (and Cullen's) didn't really do a great job of efficiently devouring it. He did stick his thumb all the way into the center of it and cleaned the icing off of it though.
He opened his presents after getting cleaned up from the cake experience.
Being a 3rd child, he had a lot of help... and didn't mind until after the fact, when his big brothers also wanted to play with his new toys. We got him a couple of new cars and a soft soccer ball (from Ikea.) He's still learning that you aren't supposed to use your hands in soccer and can often be caught throwing his soccer ball (chase it, pick it up, repeat...) or any other ball for that matter. He does like to play catch, whenever he can get someone interested. Unfortunately, by bedtime the birthday boy was also feverish... at least this isn't a birthday he will remember for years to come. And on the plus side, he got to celebrate his birthday for 2 weekends in a row, rather than just one.
Monday, July 19, 2010
Walking
There you have it. This little man is on the move on 2 legs on a regular basis now. He took his first steps back around June 25th at Uncle Mike's pool. He's been looking for windows of opportunity between the chaos created by his 2 big brothers to practice. He'd hit 8 steps by the end of the 4th of July weekend. Apparently on Saturday, he decided to overcome the chaos and walk anyway. I came home from a book fair on Saturday to a Michael who favors walking over crawling and I've seen him walk across rooms and even (repeatedly) attempt to walk over our somewhat bulky transition strips.
The Saturday book fair was wonderful. I went with a friend and I found everything I was looking for. The plan is to start a somewhat structured homeschool with Scott and Blaise in August, so I can experiment and practice with the daily log requirement before we actually have to report to anyone. We are all excited about it and intend to have fun with it.
We officially have 2 cars that will seat our whole family after the baby comes in November. We bought a new Mazda 5 on Friday. Scott got to go test drive it with Cullen the weekend before that, so that was a really special thing for them.
Blaise has promoted himself from the kid-sized potty seat to the regular seat.
I have the opportunity this month to teach swimming lessons at a friends pool. My class of preschoolers includes my big boys and we are all having a blast... and learning that God controls the weather. We can pray and ask God to give us good weather... and sometimes he says "Yes," but sometimes he says, "No." So far, 2 out of 4 days have been postponed due to thunder and lightening.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
I figured it was time to add a few videos again, so here goes. Michael is on the move on 2 legs now. Well... he's not really moving to walking exclusively yet, crawling is still much faster. He took 3 steps at the pool on Friday. On Saturday he was playing quietly behind me and I turned around to check on him and witnessed 5 steps across the living room (he didn't see me watching him.) He's been taking 2 or 3 steps more frequently since then and I expect he'll take off by the end of the week. Of course, the little man knows what a camera is and there's virtually no chance of catching any walking with one of those yet. However, he's also quite the proficient climber. Already capable of climbing onto the slide on the back porch, the top of the kids plastic picnic table, the couch (and safely back off)... and I got him mastering the old beach chair on video. Sorry, it's mostly of his backside :)
In other Michael news, he also likes to feed himself with a spoon now. He still needs quite a lot of practice with this new skill.
Scott and Blaise are still keeping busy entertaining me too. Blaise constantly says the most amusing things. 2 examples...
#1- While getting ready for bed a few weeks ago, Cullen had "encouraged" him to hurry up with an exasperated, "Come on, Blaise, get your pajamas on." Blaise looks over at me, dressing Michael, and says, "I'm coming on, because Daddy told me to come on."
#2- After dinner tonight, the boys are all playing in the living room, while I was putting things away. Blaise says to Scott, "Scott, let's do that thing where we hug each other and make us dead." Scott responds, "Okay." And for those that are wondering... here's the video of that thing.
We had our ultrasound yesterday... I guess you could say it went well. It's a baby! What we could see of the baby was perfect and actually measuring a few days ahead (we are 19 weeks now.) The parts of the ultrasound that didn't go so well... oh, the screaming 11 month old big brother who would have rather been actually taking his morning nap, and also the uncooperative baby who was basically folded in half with both legs and both arms up over his head... we have to return for a follow-up in 4 weeks, since they couldn't see everything they needed to see. This is our 3rd uncooperative baby in utero, for the record. (Anyone local want to keep the big brothers for the next one?)
For those that want to play the guessing game with us I started a new game at www.expectnet.com called "chipmunkkeen" Yes... this baby's nickname is chipmunk, as in Chip & Dale and we even have authentic Disney World Chipmunks for the baby's first stuffed toy (since we decided to start trying for this one in Disney World.)
In other Michael news, he also likes to feed himself with a spoon now. He still needs quite a lot of practice with this new skill.
Scott and Blaise are still keeping busy entertaining me too. Blaise constantly says the most amusing things. 2 examples...
#1- While getting ready for bed a few weeks ago, Cullen had "encouraged" him to hurry up with an exasperated, "Come on, Blaise, get your pajamas on." Blaise looks over at me, dressing Michael, and says, "I'm coming on, because Daddy told me to come on."
#2- After dinner tonight, the boys are all playing in the living room, while I was putting things away. Blaise says to Scott, "Scott, let's do that thing where we hug each other and make us dead." Scott responds, "Okay." And for those that are wondering... here's the video of that thing.
We had our ultrasound yesterday... I guess you could say it went well. It's a baby! What we could see of the baby was perfect and actually measuring a few days ahead (we are 19 weeks now.) The parts of the ultrasound that didn't go so well... oh, the screaming 11 month old big brother who would have rather been actually taking his morning nap, and also the uncooperative baby who was basically folded in half with both legs and both arms up over his head... we have to return for a follow-up in 4 weeks, since they couldn't see everything they needed to see. This is our 3rd uncooperative baby in utero, for the record. (Anyone local want to keep the big brothers for the next one?)
For those that want to play the guessing game with us I started a new game at www.expectnet.com called "chipmunkkeen" Yes... this baby's nickname is chipmunk, as in Chip & Dale and we even have authentic Disney World Chipmunks for the baby's first stuffed toy (since we decided to start trying for this one in Disney World.)
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
It's June!
Can't say I'm sad to see the end of May. May was a long hard month for us... with a celebration on either end. First B's birthday... then sickness... then more sickness... then bad news... then worse news... then a wedding :)
Okay, here are a few details, but just a few. All 5 of us, yes, even baby Michael at just over 9 months old, had strep throat. Cullen missed several days of work that week. The following week he was out of town and I started a major head cold/sinus infection that I've been dealing with for more than 2 weeks now. While Cullen was out of town, we found out that my dad has a 2 inch tumor on his pancreas. More than a week later, he finally had a biopsy and they confirmed the tumor is cancer. They are still trying to work out details of a treatment plan, but have an oncologist who is setting up chemo and radiation, at the same time as they are meeting with a surgeon to determine if/when surgery will be possible (which would be best case.) PS- if you're not familiar with pancreatic cancer, it's not a good thing, the life expectancy is 2 years at best.
Ah, the fun stuff... the wedding. My brother got married on Saturday. We had a fun weekend with lots of family in town. Scott got to meet his birthday buddy for the first time. He and my cousin Rachael (who lives in Texas) share a birthday. Blaise slept through the wedding. He fell asleep in the car on the way there, we put him down on a pew inside the church and he didn't wake up until the very end of the wedding. Michael enjoyed eating watermelon with my cousins Rachael and Laura... in fact he basically stole Rachael's watermelon, rind and all, and chewed mercilessly on it. He cut a top tooth on Friday and I'm sure watermelon felt great. I got to visit with my cousin Somer, who I haven't seen since Blaise was a newborn. According to Somer, we haven't seen each other since, "I don't know, there were only 2." :)
Sunday morning the boys had a performance at church, for the end of our Sunday school class for the year. They have been doing and ABC Bible Verse class, learning a verse for every letter of the alphabet. Blaise opted out of the performance, but Scott was in rare form. He did interpretive dance the entire time. Never doing what everyone else was doing. Stamping his feet, standing when everyone else was ducking down... it was quite entertaining. I'll be trying to get a copy of a friends video of that one.
One more funny... yesterday Blaise was playing with a toy airplane. It was going down the runway (arm of the couch) and then taking off. After about the 5th take-off, he looks up and says, "Off to Neverland!"
Maybe I'll add pictures later... I'm waiting for them to finish uploading from the memory card.
Okay, here are a few details, but just a few. All 5 of us, yes, even baby Michael at just over 9 months old, had strep throat. Cullen missed several days of work that week. The following week he was out of town and I started a major head cold/sinus infection that I've been dealing with for more than 2 weeks now. While Cullen was out of town, we found out that my dad has a 2 inch tumor on his pancreas. More than a week later, he finally had a biopsy and they confirmed the tumor is cancer. They are still trying to work out details of a treatment plan, but have an oncologist who is setting up chemo and radiation, at the same time as they are meeting with a surgeon to determine if/when surgery will be possible (which would be best case.) PS- if you're not familiar with pancreatic cancer, it's not a good thing, the life expectancy is 2 years at best.
Ah, the fun stuff... the wedding. My brother got married on Saturday. We had a fun weekend with lots of family in town. Scott got to meet his birthday buddy for the first time. He and my cousin Rachael (who lives in Texas) share a birthday. Blaise slept through the wedding. He fell asleep in the car on the way there, we put him down on a pew inside the church and he didn't wake up until the very end of the wedding. Michael enjoyed eating watermelon with my cousins Rachael and Laura... in fact he basically stole Rachael's watermelon, rind and all, and chewed mercilessly on it. He cut a top tooth on Friday and I'm sure watermelon felt great. I got to visit with my cousin Somer, who I haven't seen since Blaise was a newborn. According to Somer, we haven't seen each other since, "I don't know, there were only 2." :)
Sunday morning the boys had a performance at church, for the end of our Sunday school class for the year. They have been doing and ABC Bible Verse class, learning a verse for every letter of the alphabet. Blaise opted out of the performance, but Scott was in rare form. He did interpretive dance the entire time. Never doing what everyone else was doing. Stamping his feet, standing when everyone else was ducking down... it was quite entertaining. I'll be trying to get a copy of a friends video of that one.
One more funny... yesterday Blaise was playing with a toy airplane. It was going down the runway (arm of the couch) and then taking off. After about the 5th take-off, he looks up and says, "Off to Neverland!"
Maybe I'll add pictures later... I'm waiting for them to finish uploading from the memory card.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
4
And then there were 4...
Happy Thanksgiving :) This years holiday season is looking to be quite a bit different than years past!
Happy Thanksgiving :) This years holiday season is looking to be quite a bit different than years past!
Friday, May 7, 2010
When Blaise Turns 3
What a day! Blaise turned 3... wow, where did the time go? We had a very busy day of celebrating. At his request we spent the morning filling the kiddie swimming pool on the back deck. We'll see how long it lasts this year before breaking. With another year behind each of them, they seem quite a bit rougher this year. They had a blast. Giving each other "baths" with the hose. Blaise wasn't quite as interested as Scott, so mostly Blaise hosed Scott- which I thought was a nice change :) And the water was COLD, but the weather was nice and warm.
Then we went to Carowinds. The boys wanted to go and a friend of mine I hadn't seen in a very long time was going to be there. Yes, I know, I'm crazy to take 3 kids by myself to Carowinds (before the water park is even open.) We managed. We only stayed for about 2 hours, at least 40 minutes of which was walking back and forth from the parking lot. Blaise insisted he didn't need the stroller, so I wore Michael and got to carry Blaise on too on the way back. We did get to see my friend- which was really neat. We rode the carousel. Scott rode the airplanes, kind of like Dumbo only much smaller, lower, and slower. Blaise said they were too fast. We all rode the little train and the sky tower. Blaise was pretty worried when the sky tower first started up, but he calmed down, when he realized it wasn't going to do anything fast and enjoyed the view.
Grandma and Grandpa were here when we got home, but Blaise and Michael were completely asleep in the car (after the whopping 5 minute drive.) They napped and we played. Then we all went out to Cheesecake Factory for dinner. Blaise had requested a "cheese birthday cake," and when presented with the option he was quite excited about dinner at Cheesecake Factory. He ended up with a hot fudge sundae with 3 candles and waitresses singing Happy Birthday to him- which he thought was really cool. (We did share some cheesecake with him too.)
He's still fairly small for his age... 36 inches with shoes, and just under 30 lbs. But he is growing and eating well. He's 99% potty trained day and night, only occasionally needs to be reminded. He still has an amazing vocabulary for his age and is very quick with words. He loves to play with Scott and with Michael. We're not 100% certain that he really knows his shapes and colors, but we think he does (at least for the most part.) Probably 50% of the time he will answer all color questions correctly and the other 50% of the time he will say, "purple." "Green" was Scott's go to color, when he couldn't remember the name of the color he was looking at, so maybe it's just that, or maybe he's just pulling out leg, or maybe he really is still a little confused- who knows, but we're not worried. He can spell his name, but isn't into writing much of anything. Although, recently I handed him Scott's dry-erase maze book and he spent a long time just doing the mazes (and erasing them) over and over again. He's so independent- so different from Scott.
He's gotten a lot faster at running, better at jumping, and was even galloping a little and experimenting with standing on one foot recently. He has a blast every time he gets his scooter out and is remarkably good at that too. (Too bad for him, our driveway is gravel and we only have a short sidewalk to scoot on.)
Then we went to Carowinds. The boys wanted to go and a friend of mine I hadn't seen in a very long time was going to be there. Yes, I know, I'm crazy to take 3 kids by myself to Carowinds (before the water park is even open.) We managed. We only stayed for about 2 hours, at least 40 minutes of which was walking back and forth from the parking lot. Blaise insisted he didn't need the stroller, so I wore Michael and got to carry Blaise on too on the way back. We did get to see my friend- which was really neat. We rode the carousel. Scott rode the airplanes, kind of like Dumbo only much smaller, lower, and slower. Blaise said they were too fast. We all rode the little train and the sky tower. Blaise was pretty worried when the sky tower first started up, but he calmed down, when he realized it wasn't going to do anything fast and enjoyed the view.
Grandma and Grandpa were here when we got home, but Blaise and Michael were completely asleep in the car (after the whopping 5 minute drive.) They napped and we played. Then we all went out to Cheesecake Factory for dinner. Blaise had requested a "cheese birthday cake," and when presented with the option he was quite excited about dinner at Cheesecake Factory. He ended up with a hot fudge sundae with 3 candles and waitresses singing Happy Birthday to him- which he thought was really cool. (We did share some cheesecake with him too.)
He's still fairly small for his age... 36 inches with shoes, and just under 30 lbs. But he is growing and eating well. He's 99% potty trained day and night, only occasionally needs to be reminded. He still has an amazing vocabulary for his age and is very quick with words. He loves to play with Scott and with Michael. We're not 100% certain that he really knows his shapes and colors, but we think he does (at least for the most part.) Probably 50% of the time he will answer all color questions correctly and the other 50% of the time he will say, "purple." "Green" was Scott's go to color, when he couldn't remember the name of the color he was looking at, so maybe it's just that, or maybe he's just pulling out leg, or maybe he really is still a little confused- who knows, but we're not worried. He can spell his name, but isn't into writing much of anything. Although, recently I handed him Scott's dry-erase maze book and he spent a long time just doing the mazes (and erasing them) over and over again. He's so independent- so different from Scott.
He's gotten a lot faster at running, better at jumping, and was even galloping a little and experimenting with standing on one foot recently. He has a blast every time he gets his scooter out and is remarkably good at that too. (Too bad for him, our driveway is gravel and we only have a short sidewalk to scoot on.)
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Just Add Water
It's officially strawberry season! The strawberry patch up the road opened on Friday and we were there that day picking our first 2 gallons. They're almost gone. How many gallons do you think we'll pick this year?
Michael is getting quicker with this walking thing. He definitely still needs some hands or a walk-behind toy to hold onto, but he's cruising faster everyday. It seems to come with being the littlest, he's good at holding on tightly to things he's playing with and getting around (or over in some cases) obstacles (like Blaise, or anyone else) that are in his way.
Other Michael news... he seems to be changing so fast these days. Babies never cease to amaze me in that regard. In the past week, he's significantly increased his speed with his walking toy, he's started waving (mostly to that incredibly cute baby in the mirror), he finally cut his 2nd tooth, and he started clapping a couple of nights ago at dinner. Busy guy. They learn so much so fast in their first year. Amazing.
We are gearing up to celebrate Blaise's 3rd birthday on Friday. Actually his 3 friend play-date (party, but so named to discourage gifts, we have plenty), is tomorrow. In getting ready for that, we've been cleaning up the porch and that included cleaning out the sand table.
Now the question is... how many minutes til they ask me to get the pool out again? Oh wait, they just asked at dinner tonight.
Friday, April 23, 2010
On The Road Again and Home Again
We've had a busy month... Cullen has started a new project at work and he's been out of town for a couple of LONG trips lately. It made our Easter Basket devotion, well, not quite the same, since he was out of town the whole week leading up to Easter. Thankfully, he was home for Easter and we had a nice celebration. We welcomed him home with peanut butter Easter egg candies (his Grandma's recipe). Then we made "Resurrection Cookies" on Saturday night that you leave in the oven overnight. (Everything is all about dessert here!)
We had a nice morning in worship, did our own little Easter egg hunt at home, and then headed over to my mom's for Easter dinner. It was a nice day. And gorgeous weather too. Scott, Blaise and I went out with Mom to walk the dog and found a little turtle on the way. Scott was kind enough to pick it up and move it from the road to the grass- he loves touching wild animals. When we got back to the house, Kelly and Joseph (Mike's fiance and her son) were there, so the boys were very excited to play with Joseph... and dig in the sand pile in the driveway together.
Then the pollen came... and my oh my did it come. Scott has bad allergies, by the way, and couldn't sleep from the cough and congestion. Well, until I caved and gave him Benedryl... I just hate to see the kid start his lifelong daily dosages of allergy medicine at age 4.
Michael in addition to cutting his first tooth, had learned the all important skill for all little boys- pushing a car...
... oh, and fighting off Blaise at the same time!
For Cullen's 2nd long trip, we took a long trip of our own. We stopped in MD and dropped off Blaise with Grandma and Grandpa for his first solo visit. Then Scott, Michael, and I headed up to CT to visit with Jessica. Ah, relief from the allergies! (There's still pollen up north, but it's not as bad yet as it is here.) The driving was killer... but otherwise we all had a blast!
Blaise had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa... he demonstrated how sneaky and quick he is and why he manages to get into so many things. In Grandpa's words, "We figured out you can't blink too long with him." He got to do lots of fun things while he was there, go to the Marine Museum, see the airplanes, the playground, eat a Dunkin Doughnut for snack (the powdered sugar covered, creme filled variety) without making a mess, go to work with Grandma, go to Chic-Fil-A with Grandpa. Yeah, he had a good week. To top it off, he got to go pick out part of his birthday present... he wanted a skateboard. He picked a really cool Toy Story scooter, just his speed and matching helmet. It even has a bell, which makes him quite happy.
In CT, we got to see Aunt Jesse's house. We approve. It's big, and feels a little empty, especially without Uncle Darrell, but it's very nice and she's got an amazing backyard (even if we didn't go out there.) We went to the Mystic Aquarium. It was nice and we had a great time, but if you're planning a trip to CT, it's a little overpriced for what it is. We stayed for 4 hours or so, but easily could have seen everything in 2. Scott liked petting a shark and seeing the sea lions. Michael just wanted to walk... a bit annoying, since he doesn't know how and that means that I have to bend over and hold both his hands. On the other side of the coin, I mastered the art of folding Michael in order to buckle him into the stroller (he likes to arch his back and fight the process.)
We also went to the beach while we were there. Technically, it was a beach on Long Island Sound, but it was very nice. The water was blue, there were lots of little stones, and seashells to look at and plenty of sand. Things look promising for the beach this summer... Scott got wet up to his knees (and it was FREEZING) and ran all over the place playing in the sand, Michael again wanting to walk, tried walking out to sea, and tried (very hard) to eat large mouthfuls of sand- he was mad when we wouldn't let him.
This week... we've been home... without a car... with a sick Scott... with a couple of guys in the backyard building us a fence. This week is almost over. The fence is finished! Scott feels better! The transmission in the car should be ready this afternoon or tomorrow... things are starting to look up. Oh, and CJ Spiller is going to play for the Buffalo Bills. (Probably not the most exciting place for him, but you can't be disappointed about a #9 overall draft pick, and if you know me- this means I don't even have to get a new NFL team, I've been a Bills fan since 6th grade, though much less interested since I discovered college football at Clemson.)
And a random picture of Blaise wearing my sneakers on the porch. He's actually quite coordinated in them.
We had a nice morning in worship, did our own little Easter egg hunt at home, and then headed over to my mom's for Easter dinner. It was a nice day. And gorgeous weather too. Scott, Blaise and I went out with Mom to walk the dog and found a little turtle on the way. Scott was kind enough to pick it up and move it from the road to the grass- he loves touching wild animals. When we got back to the house, Kelly and Joseph (Mike's fiance and her son) were there, so the boys were very excited to play with Joseph... and dig in the sand pile in the driveway together.
Then the pollen came... and my oh my did it come. Scott has bad allergies, by the way, and couldn't sleep from the cough and congestion. Well, until I caved and gave him Benedryl... I just hate to see the kid start his lifelong daily dosages of allergy medicine at age 4.Michael in addition to cutting his first tooth, had learned the all important skill for all little boys- pushing a car...
... oh, and fighting off Blaise at the same time!
For Cullen's 2nd long trip, we took a long trip of our own. We stopped in MD and dropped off Blaise with Grandma and Grandpa for his first solo visit. Then Scott, Michael, and I headed up to CT to visit with Jessica. Ah, relief from the allergies! (There's still pollen up north, but it's not as bad yet as it is here.) The driving was killer... but otherwise we all had a blast!
Blaise had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa... he demonstrated how sneaky and quick he is and why he manages to get into so many things. In Grandpa's words, "We figured out you can't blink too long with him." He got to do lots of fun things while he was there, go to the Marine Museum, see the airplanes, the playground, eat a Dunkin Doughnut for snack (the powdered sugar covered, creme filled variety) without making a mess, go to work with Grandma, go to Chic-Fil-A with Grandpa. Yeah, he had a good week. To top it off, he got to go pick out part of his birthday present... he wanted a skateboard. He picked a really cool Toy Story scooter, just his speed and matching helmet. It even has a bell, which makes him quite happy.
In CT, we got to see Aunt Jesse's house. We approve. It's big, and feels a little empty, especially without Uncle Darrell, but it's very nice and she's got an amazing backyard (even if we didn't go out there.) We went to the Mystic Aquarium. It was nice and we had a great time, but if you're planning a trip to CT, it's a little overpriced for what it is. We stayed for 4 hours or so, but easily could have seen everything in 2. Scott liked petting a shark and seeing the sea lions. Michael just wanted to walk... a bit annoying, since he doesn't know how and that means that I have to bend over and hold both his hands. On the other side of the coin, I mastered the art of folding Michael in order to buckle him into the stroller (he likes to arch his back and fight the process.)
We also went to the beach while we were there. Technically, it was a beach on Long Island Sound, but it was very nice. The water was blue, there were lots of little stones, and seashells to look at and plenty of sand. Things look promising for the beach this summer... Scott got wet up to his knees (and it was FREEZING) and ran all over the place playing in the sand, Michael again wanting to walk, tried walking out to sea, and tried (very hard) to eat large mouthfuls of sand- he was mad when we wouldn't let him.
This week... we've been home... without a car... with a sick Scott... with a couple of guys in the backyard building us a fence. This week is almost over. The fence is finished! Scott feels better! The transmission in the car should be ready this afternoon or tomorrow... things are starting to look up. Oh, and CJ Spiller is going to play for the Buffalo Bills. (Probably not the most exciting place for him, but you can't be disappointed about a #9 overall draft pick, and if you know me- this means I don't even have to get a new NFL team, I've been a Bills fan since 6th grade, though much less interested since I discovered college football at Clemson.)
And a random picture of Blaise wearing my sneakers on the porch. He's actually quite coordinated in them.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Bi-Weekly Maybe?
Okay, so now that I've already failed at the weekly thing... who was I kidding anyway? Here's an update on what we've been up to.
Well, first thing's first... we celebrated Cullen's birthday! Scott and I baked him a "super-chocolate" cake. Which is basically a two-layer chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. I really liked the recipe I found in Cullen's chocolate lover's cookbook, and was surprised we hadn't used it before. Cullen liked his cake... which of course, had to have candles. What luck! The only number candles we have are the #1 and the #3, which is perfect when you're turning 31... unless you really want 31 candles on the cake. The boys did an excellent job of singing Happy Birthday (they wanted the cake.) For the record, Cullen did not interrupt the song by blowing out the candles, they had already sung that line about 13 times... it's the latest "song that never-ends."
Still loving the nice weather and looking forward to another warm week. I think we'll be living on the porch through the rest of the summer. The boys are really loving their sand table, despite the fact that there's not much left of last year's sand and we really need to get a new bag for them. Our major "house" projects for this year are getting the backyard into a really sweet play-able place. We've already made major strides - if you'd seen our backyard when we bought the house 6 years ago (wow, we've been here awhile!) Our hopes for the summer include getting a load of dirt into the backyard to try and level it out some and putting in a fence. Volunteers to come help are welcome... let us know when you want to come and we can plan to have said dirt dropped off then :) We'll see how it progresses. Actually, the boys already have a nice track around the trees they like to run, it's just a bit hilly.
Michael enjoys the porch for standing up... yes, he's mastered pulling up on things. All kinds of things. Even pulling up on things he shouldn't and falling face-forward into them (toy bins, laundry baskets, etc...) No fear! Today he even mastered pulling up in the crib, oh joy. Today, it hasn't hindered his sleep, it was just when he woke up this morning and he was quite pleased with himself and again at bedtime when I came in to tell the big boys to be quiet. He loves it if someone will hold his hands and let him walk all over the place. He's taken a few steps behind his push toy and done a little bit of cruising along furniture (a couple of steps towards something he wants) and quite likely by the end of the week will be cruising all around the house.
We spent this past weekend up in Maryland visiting with Cullen's parents and grandparents... a bit of a change of plans, as we were supposed to go for Easter, but Cullen has business out of town all this week and next weekend just wouldn't work for traveling. Nice to be free to switch things up on short notice as needed!
We had a delightful visit, though short. Michael cut his first tooth! The video is of Grandma trying to catch a glimpse of the tooth... as soon as anything gets near his lip, he sticks his tongue out and completely blocks the view. Funny boy. Anyway, we played Wii, watched a movie and had popcorn, hung-out at the house and then headed up to the beach to see Great Grandma and Papapa. The boys were wonderful at their house- didn't touch the clock once! It's usually a great temptation- they must have forgotten it was there. We went for a short walk on the boardwalk and brought Papa some Fischer's Popcorn... but it was frigid, so it was a short walk.
I was actually quite surprised that Papa managed to read this book to Scott. It's Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel (which I'd heard a lot of good things about and finally gotten from the library... we would love to have this book and will probably renew it a few times.) Anyway, Papa isn't breathing well. He gets out of breath after about 3 words and has to stop and pant a little to catch his breath. It didn't bother Scott... maybe he appreciated the slower reading pace? Please pray for Papa's health.
Among Papa's other tricks... he managed to pick up a squirmy Michael and hold him for a few minutes, before helping him practice standing and then leaning all the way over to put him back on the floor.
Grandma seems quite tired too lately and older. It's part of life, but it's hard to watch them age. Blaise enjoyed a "drink" (of water) with Great Grandma before dinner. We enjoyed visiting and I'm sure they enjoyed having us, but I'm also sure we wore them out in less than 24 hours... busy boys!
Now we are back home and getting ready for Easter. We are hoping to make some of Great Grandma's peanut butter eggs for Easter and will be celebrating the resurrection with my parents and soon to be sister-in-law and nephew (Mike can't come because he has to work on Sunday.)
He is Risen!
Well, first thing's first... we celebrated Cullen's birthday! Scott and I baked him a "super-chocolate" cake. Which is basically a two-layer chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. I really liked the recipe I found in Cullen's chocolate lover's cookbook, and was surprised we hadn't used it before. Cullen liked his cake... which of course, had to have candles. What luck! The only number candles we have are the #1 and the #3, which is perfect when you're turning 31... unless you really want 31 candles on the cake. The boys did an excellent job of singing Happy Birthday (they wanted the cake.) For the record, Cullen did not interrupt the song by blowing out the candles, they had already sung that line about 13 times... it's the latest "song that never-ends."
Still loving the nice weather and looking forward to another warm week. I think we'll be living on the porch through the rest of the summer. The boys are really loving their sand table, despite the fact that there's not much left of last year's sand and we really need to get a new bag for them. Our major "house" projects for this year are getting the backyard into a really sweet play-able place. We've already made major strides - if you'd seen our backyard when we bought the house 6 years ago (wow, we've been here awhile!) Our hopes for the summer include getting a load of dirt into the backyard to try and level it out some and putting in a fence. Volunteers to come help are welcome... let us know when you want to come and we can plan to have said dirt dropped off then :) We'll see how it progresses. Actually, the boys already have a nice track around the trees they like to run, it's just a bit hilly. 
Michael enjoys the porch for standing up... yes, he's mastered pulling up on things. All kinds of things. Even pulling up on things he shouldn't and falling face-forward into them (toy bins, laundry baskets, etc...) No fear! Today he even mastered pulling up in the crib, oh joy. Today, it hasn't hindered his sleep, it was just when he woke up this morning and he was quite pleased with himself and again at bedtime when I came in to tell the big boys to be quiet. He loves it if someone will hold his hands and let him walk all over the place. He's taken a few steps behind his push toy and done a little bit of cruising along furniture (a couple of steps towards something he wants) and quite likely by the end of the week will be cruising all around the house.
We spent this past weekend up in Maryland visiting with Cullen's parents and grandparents... a bit of a change of plans, as we were supposed to go for Easter, but Cullen has business out of town all this week and next weekend just wouldn't work for traveling. Nice to be free to switch things up on short notice as needed!
We had a delightful visit, though short. Michael cut his first tooth! The video is of Grandma trying to catch a glimpse of the tooth... as soon as anything gets near his lip, he sticks his tongue out and completely blocks the view. Funny boy. Anyway, we played Wii, watched a movie and had popcorn, hung-out at the house and then headed up to the beach to see Great Grandma and Papapa. The boys were wonderful at their house- didn't touch the clock once! It's usually a great temptation- they must have forgotten it was there. We went for a short walk on the boardwalk and brought Papa some Fischer's Popcorn... but it was frigid, so it was a short walk.
I was actually quite surprised that Papa managed to read this book to Scott. It's Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel (which I'd heard a lot of good things about and finally gotten from the library... we would love to have this book and will probably renew it a few times.) Anyway, Papa isn't breathing well. He gets out of breath after about 3 words and has to stop and pant a little to catch his breath. It didn't bother Scott... maybe he appreciated the slower reading pace? Please pray for Papa's health.
Among Papa's other tricks... he managed to pick up a squirmy Michael and hold him for a few minutes, before helping him practice standing and then leaning all the way over to put him back on the floor.
Grandma seems quite tired too lately and older. It's part of life, but it's hard to watch them age. Blaise enjoyed a "drink" (of water) with Great Grandma before dinner. We enjoyed visiting and I'm sure they enjoyed having us, but I'm also sure we wore them out in less than 24 hours... busy boys!
Now we are back home and getting ready for Easter. We are hoping to make some of Great Grandma's peanut butter eggs for Easter and will be celebrating the resurrection with my parents and soon to be sister-in-law and nephew (Mike can't come because he has to work on Sunday.)
He is Risen!
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Visit with Aunt Jesse
Aunt Jesse went back to CT on Friday. We had a great and very eventful visit with her. I already posted the part where Michael started crawling for her. Wore him out!
The weather finally warmed up while Jessica was here and we were able to take lots of hikes. While she was with my parents on Sunday, the 5 of us went out to Crowder's Mountain State Park and got to wait in the car for 30 minutes because the park was at capacity and the ranger was letting people in one at a time as others left. We waited it out. It was a nice day and worth the wait. Scott was very excited about hiking.
And tree climbing... he wanted to touch all the trail markers, once we pointed them out to him. I don't think he'll get lost in the woods. I also think he needs to find a better method for climbing trees!
We hiked the "Fern" Trail, which was about a mile and had this cute little stream where it crossed the "Lake" Trail. Scott and Blaise both did a really great job hiking on their own and didn't really want to leave... I didn't either. What a fun family day we had!
Then we took Aunt Jesse to a park I used to take Patience to back in the day. That was really nice too. A little walk around a pond, where we got to see a turtle and a lot of time on the playground... where Aunt Jesse got some great pictures of the boys that we'll be hanging on the wall. It's nice to have a budding photographer in the family :)
Another day another hike. We revisited Landsford Canal State Park with Aunt Jesse for a picnic lunch and hike along the river. The boys absolutely LOVE it there. Throwing sticks into the water is the name of the game:
We didn't actually hike very far, they were having too much fun throwing sticks into the water.
Then we went home and after naps spent the rest of the afternoon outside at home... Michael got to play in the sand for the first time. I think he enjoyed it!
He also discovered gumballs. Joy. I think they're nasty things and don't like them at all, but every time we go on the porch he crawls over and picks one up and tastes it of course. The funny part is the whole time he's doing this he has this awful look on his face. Funny dude.
That afternoon turned a bit scary. My brother Mike came over for dinner and on his way over he started feeling badly. As we were sitting out on the porch chatting and the boys were playing (I was feeding baby Michael,) Mike got sick and passed out. He's a big guy. It was scary. The paramedics came and he got to spend the night at the hospital. I'm not sure how much he wants here for the whole world to read, but it turns out it was just a bad stomach bug that triggered convulsive fainting. It scared Blaise and he had a hard time getting to sleep that night (despite it being late by the time they got to bed.) Scott on the other hand... could be a doctor someday, he's just so fascinated by all things related to medical practice. Baby Michael was a little annoyed that his dinner got interrupted. The rest of our visit with Jessica was kind of back and forth between here and the hospital... we settled a little bit back into our normal routine, since she spent a lot of time with Mike. The boys were sad when she left... they had come to believe that this was her new home. "When is Aunt Jesse coming home?" they asked. I tried to convince them that her home was far away in CT... maybe they believe it now?
Michael has made strides with his coordination crawling since last week:
It seems the greatest motivation for him is getting to me or getting to something that belongs to the big brothers. They are getting used to it already- don't like it, but are getting used to it.
I've decided to "attempt" to post here on a more weekly basis, with more pictures and videos. I'm trying to record the little things elsewhere. We'll see how that works.
The weather finally warmed up while Jessica was here and we were able to take lots of hikes. While she was with my parents on Sunday, the 5 of us went out to Crowder's Mountain State Park and got to wait in the car for 30 minutes because the park was at capacity and the ranger was letting people in one at a time as others left. We waited it out. It was a nice day and worth the wait. Scott was very excited about hiking.
And tree climbing... he wanted to touch all the trail markers, once we pointed them out to him. I don't think he'll get lost in the woods. I also think he needs to find a better method for climbing trees!
We hiked the "Fern" Trail, which was about a mile and had this cute little stream where it crossed the "Lake" Trail. Scott and Blaise both did a really great job hiking on their own and didn't really want to leave... I didn't either. What a fun family day we had!
Then we took Aunt Jesse to a park I used to take Patience to back in the day. That was really nice too. A little walk around a pond, where we got to see a turtle and a lot of time on the playground... where Aunt Jesse got some great pictures of the boys that we'll be hanging on the wall. It's nice to have a budding photographer in the family :)
Another day another hike. We revisited Landsford Canal State Park with Aunt Jesse for a picnic lunch and hike along the river. The boys absolutely LOVE it there. Throwing sticks into the water is the name of the game:
We didn't actually hike very far, they were having too much fun throwing sticks into the water.
Then we went home and after naps spent the rest of the afternoon outside at home... Michael got to play in the sand for the first time. I think he enjoyed it!
He also discovered gumballs. Joy. I think they're nasty things and don't like them at all, but every time we go on the porch he crawls over and picks one up and tastes it of course. The funny part is the whole time he's doing this he has this awful look on his face. Funny dude.
That afternoon turned a bit scary. My brother Mike came over for dinner and on his way over he started feeling badly. As we were sitting out on the porch chatting and the boys were playing (I was feeding baby Michael,) Mike got sick and passed out. He's a big guy. It was scary. The paramedics came and he got to spend the night at the hospital. I'm not sure how much he wants here for the whole world to read, but it turns out it was just a bad stomach bug that triggered convulsive fainting. It scared Blaise and he had a hard time getting to sleep that night (despite it being late by the time they got to bed.) Scott on the other hand... could be a doctor someday, he's just so fascinated by all things related to medical practice. Baby Michael was a little annoyed that his dinner got interrupted. The rest of our visit with Jessica was kind of back and forth between here and the hospital... we settled a little bit back into our normal routine, since she spent a lot of time with Mike. The boys were sad when she left... they had come to believe that this was her new home. "When is Aunt Jesse coming home?" they asked. I tried to convince them that her home was far away in CT... maybe they believe it now?
Michael has made strides with his coordination crawling since last week:
It seems the greatest motivation for him is getting to me or getting to something that belongs to the big brothers. They are getting used to it already- don't like it, but are getting used to it.
I've decided to "attempt" to post here on a more weekly basis, with more pictures and videos. I'm trying to record the little things elsewhere. We'll see how that works.
Saturday, March 6, 2010
Mobility Calls for Video...
I've been told I haven't posted enough videos lately... I already knew that, but thanks for pointing it out Jessica :)
Here are videos from all of 2010 so far...
Not the most exciting video ever, but it was one of Michael's playdates with his friend RJ (back in January.) They like to just chill together! The video is a little deceptive... RJ could already move... fast. Michael couldn't. (Rj is about 4 months older than Michael.)
This is how the big boys entertain themselves during the baby playdates :) Notice that Kitty Cat is playing drums too.
Scott wanted to play with Play-Doh on his birthday... so we played Play-Doh for well over an hour. Have I mentioned he has an incredible attention span?! So serious, all the time.
And since Michael couldn't play with Play-Doh (you know, all he'd do is eat it,) he played in the jumpy jump. No surprise here, he stopped jumping every time I turned the camera on. At least he was happy the whole time.
The final video for today... taken last night. Michael on the move! Forward this time. That's right, Michael figured out the whole crawling with forward motion thing on Wednesday night and has been fine-tuning since. Still a long way to go with that. It's very spastic and rather slow... but if he sees it and wants it, he can now move forward and grab it. Watch out big brothers, hide your favorite toys and keep the books and choke hazards off the floor!
Here are videos from all of 2010 so far...
Not the most exciting video ever, but it was one of Michael's playdates with his friend RJ (back in January.) They like to just chill together! The video is a little deceptive... RJ could already move... fast. Michael couldn't. (Rj is about 4 months older than Michael.)
This is how the big boys entertain themselves during the baby playdates :) Notice that Kitty Cat is playing drums too.
Scott wanted to play with Play-Doh on his birthday... so we played Play-Doh for well over an hour. Have I mentioned he has an incredible attention span?! So serious, all the time.
And since Michael couldn't play with Play-Doh (you know, all he'd do is eat it,) he played in the jumpy jump. No surprise here, he stopped jumping every time I turned the camera on. At least he was happy the whole time.
The final video for today... taken last night. Michael on the move! Forward this time. That's right, Michael figured out the whole crawling with forward motion thing on Wednesday night and has been fine-tuning since. Still a long way to go with that. It's very spastic and rather slow... but if he sees it and wants it, he can now move forward and grab it. Watch out big brothers, hide your favorite toys and keep the books and choke hazards off the floor!
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Dinner in Epcot...
With a rat?!
This was just cool... Remy joined us for dinner. Well, he stopped by anyway.
This was just cool... Remy joined us for dinner. Well, he stopped by anyway.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
The Happiest Place on Earth...
Oh, we love Disney World!
This year's trip was a bit more chaotic than past years... you know, something about being away from home with a 6 month old for a week and walking all day long as a group of 7.
We started our vacation with a fun car ride. Scott rode with Grandma and Grandpa the first part of the drive, then we switched and Blaise rode with them. Scott and Blaise both took naps while they were in our car and stayed awake (even though Rush was on talk radio the whole drive) to entertain the grandparents the whole time they were in their car. As we first drove into Orlando, Michael woke up from a nap and I expected a grumpy baby the rest of the drive... but Scott also woke up from his nap and the two of them laughed and laughed and laughed at each other and had a grand ole time. In my opinion, they could not have picked a better way to start our trip :)
Once in Disney, we started in Epcot... Michael was completely overwhelmed within 3 hours of being in the park, so rather than stay for the fireworks, I fed him and sent him back to the hotel with the grandparents (they offered.) He went to bed wonderfully for them and the rest of us stayed for dessert in Norway in then the fireworks. The boys said they didn't like the fireworks, so we left probably half way through.
The next day we were off to Animal Kingdom. We headed straight to the Safari and got to see lots of animals. The boys favorite's are giraffes and there were 2 baby giraffes out, so they were excited about that. Grandma was sure Scott would like It's Tough to be a Bug, which terrified him last year... I told her she could take him in. As soon as we walked into the theater, he had a total panic attack and she walked out with him and waited for us outside. Blaise was pretty scared too and covered his eyes for the 2nd half of the show. Michael was oblivious. He had what he wanted, which was lunch! After that we headed over towards the Festival of the Lion King. We got there early enough for a couple of character greetings before the show. We met Donald Duck and Chip and Dale. Michael liked them, Scott loved them, and Blaise warmed up quickly (though he never got quite as comfortable this year as he did last year.) Then we saw the show, which is basically a circus. Blaise, for the 3rd year in a row, fell asleep! I don't get it. Since Blaise was asleep, Scott got to meet the rabbit's from Bambi after the show. It always amuses me when he meets characters he doesn't know at all and gets all excited about it.
We had our first character meal at the Garden Grill in Epcot after the day in Animal Kingdom. It was a good character meal. It's in my top 2 for favorite character meals. The blueberry buckle was unbeatable- it's making me drool thinking about it a month later (and the rest of the food was good too.) We got to see all the characters (Mickey and pals) at least twice and didn't feel rushed at all.
On to Magic Kingdom... oh wait, first we should note that Scott woke up with a fever in the middle of the night... so, yes, for the 2nd year in a row we got to spend our Disney vacation keeping track of when the last dose of children's tylenol/ibuprofen had been administered. Scott was a trooper and had fun anyway, of course... not going to let some silly fever ruin his trip to see Mickey. (And after last year, we were prepared and already had everything for just such an event packed.) Anyway... Magic Kingdom. Easily Scott and Blaise's favorite place. The most waiting we did all week was the waiting at the gate for 30 minutes plus for the opening show. Blaise's reaction to the opening show (if you've ever seen it, you might be like me and have, "Good morning, good morning..." running through your head at first mention of it) was priceless. Could not be captured with words. He watched intently as the townspeople and the mayor come out and sing, he clapped his hands, he pointed. Then, they pointed out the steam train coming with Mickey and his friends. He looked. He waited. He looked. He SAW them!!!! He kicked, clapped, otherwise flipped out in pure excitement. Totally PRICELESS.
Then we were off to the races... literally.
Such amazing speed walking skills will earn you Dumbo's first flight of the day. Scott was pleased. Blaise was too, though once on Dumbo, it's really not his favorite thing. We figured out by the end of the week (yes, we're that slow) that it might be the height that makes him nervous... at least moving the elephant up increased the anxiety. And we discovered that carousel's are okay, as long as he is sitting on the bench waving to everyone standing around and not up on a horse. Scott on the other hand, still loves being up on the horse and the bigger, the higher the better.
Fast-forward to later in the day... lollipops to entertain, while we wait for the parade... oh, wait, they eat lollipops slowly, so they had them for the whole parade too.
The parade was fun... we were greeted by 3 cheerful characters from the parade. First the Genie came right up to Blaise. To B's credit... he was looking at something else, Genie saw him, Genie (you know, regular man body, with BIG BLUE head, who B doesn't know at all) came running right up to him. I've never seen him move so quickly backward up over a curb in his life. He was a bit scared, to say the least. He watched the rest of the parade from the safety of my arms. Then one of Cinderella's step sisters came up to Scott and asked him to share his lollipop with her... or if he had another one for her... he looked at her like she was crazy. (I wonder what he would have done if she'd reached for it?!) Then Tweedle Dee, or was it Tweedle Dum, came and shook hands with Scott. He was a little unsure of that one, but hey, it's a character right?
Okay, we'll speed up the summary with what I uploaded pictures of, because it's getting late...
In Epcot we got to meet a face character that the boys know! They were quite excited to see her. Mary Poppins asked about Scott's Nemo sticker and Scott of course, wouldn't say anything, but Blaise- have I mentioned that Blaise has learned how to jump well with both feet off the ground in the past couple of months? Blaise got very excited and jumped down the street away from Mary Poppins, saying something like, "Yes, we did find Nemo..." Mary Poppins said, "And how many spoonfuls of sugar have you had today?" They were very cute with her... Mary Poppins is a movie we've watched (multiple times.)
Characters are still the highlight... obviously. Here's a picture of our whole group from our favorite character meal: breakfast at the Cape May Cafe.
What happens when you take a 3 year old, a 2 year old, and a 6 month old to Disney World? They get tired. Blaise fell asleep on the bus between parks. We managed to get him into the stroller without waking him up. Michael woke up when we got off the bus. Scott was riding on the back of the stroller. Minutes later, he was tipping over! By the way, he weighs a ton... I got to carry him like this for about an hour. I really like this carrier and I'm so glad I made it and brought it with us- totally worth it.
Now I'm tired and haven't told probably half the stories from our trip, but it was Disney World. It was fun and we're already asking ourselves when we'll go back. Scott says, when he's 5... we'll see.
This year's trip was a bit more chaotic than past years... you know, something about being away from home with a 6 month old for a week and walking all day long as a group of 7.
We started our vacation with a fun car ride. Scott rode with Grandma and Grandpa the first part of the drive, then we switched and Blaise rode with them. Scott and Blaise both took naps while they were in our car and stayed awake (even though Rush was on talk radio the whole drive) to entertain the grandparents the whole time they were in their car. As we first drove into Orlando, Michael woke up from a nap and I expected a grumpy baby the rest of the drive... but Scott also woke up from his nap and the two of them laughed and laughed and laughed at each other and had a grand ole time. In my opinion, they could not have picked a better way to start our trip :)
Once in Disney, we started in Epcot... Michael was completely overwhelmed within 3 hours of being in the park, so rather than stay for the fireworks, I fed him and sent him back to the hotel with the grandparents (they offered.) He went to bed wonderfully for them and the rest of us stayed for dessert in Norway in then the fireworks. The boys said they didn't like the fireworks, so we left probably half way through.
The next day we were off to Animal Kingdom. We headed straight to the Safari and got to see lots of animals. The boys favorite's are giraffes and there were 2 baby giraffes out, so they were excited about that. Grandma was sure Scott would like It's Tough to be a Bug, which terrified him last year... I told her she could take him in. As soon as we walked into the theater, he had a total panic attack and she walked out with him and waited for us outside. Blaise was pretty scared too and covered his eyes for the 2nd half of the show. Michael was oblivious. He had what he wanted, which was lunch! After that we headed over towards the Festival of the Lion King. We got there early enough for a couple of character greetings before the show. We met Donald Duck and Chip and Dale. Michael liked them, Scott loved them, and Blaise warmed up quickly (though he never got quite as comfortable this year as he did last year.) Then we saw the show, which is basically a circus. Blaise, for the 3rd year in a row, fell asleep! I don't get it. Since Blaise was asleep, Scott got to meet the rabbit's from Bambi after the show. It always amuses me when he meets characters he doesn't know at all and gets all excited about it.
We had our first character meal at the Garden Grill in Epcot after the day in Animal Kingdom. It was a good character meal. It's in my top 2 for favorite character meals. The blueberry buckle was unbeatable- it's making me drool thinking about it a month later (and the rest of the food was good too.) We got to see all the characters (Mickey and pals) at least twice and didn't feel rushed at all.
On to Magic Kingdom... oh wait, first we should note that Scott woke up with a fever in the middle of the night... so, yes, for the 2nd year in a row we got to spend our Disney vacation keeping track of when the last dose of children's tylenol/ibuprofen had been administered. Scott was a trooper and had fun anyway, of course... not going to let some silly fever ruin his trip to see Mickey. (And after last year, we were prepared and already had everything for just such an event packed.) Anyway... Magic Kingdom. Easily Scott and Blaise's favorite place. The most waiting we did all week was the waiting at the gate for 30 minutes plus for the opening show. Blaise's reaction to the opening show (if you've ever seen it, you might be like me and have, "Good morning, good morning..." running through your head at first mention of it) was priceless. Could not be captured with words. He watched intently as the townspeople and the mayor come out and sing, he clapped his hands, he pointed. Then, they pointed out the steam train coming with Mickey and his friends. He looked. He waited. He looked. He SAW them!!!! He kicked, clapped, otherwise flipped out in pure excitement. Totally PRICELESS.
Then we were off to the races... literally.
Such amazing speed walking skills will earn you Dumbo's first flight of the day. Scott was pleased. Blaise was too, though once on Dumbo, it's really not his favorite thing. We figured out by the end of the week (yes, we're that slow) that it might be the height that makes him nervous... at least moving the elephant up increased the anxiety. And we discovered that carousel's are okay, as long as he is sitting on the bench waving to everyone standing around and not up on a horse. Scott on the other hand, still loves being up on the horse and the bigger, the higher the better.
Fast-forward to later in the day... lollipops to entertain, while we wait for the parade... oh, wait, they eat lollipops slowly, so they had them for the whole parade too.
The parade was fun... we were greeted by 3 cheerful characters from the parade. First the Genie came right up to Blaise. To B's credit... he was looking at something else, Genie saw him, Genie (you know, regular man body, with BIG BLUE head, who B doesn't know at all) came running right up to him. I've never seen him move so quickly backward up over a curb in his life. He was a bit scared, to say the least. He watched the rest of the parade from the safety of my arms. Then one of Cinderella's step sisters came up to Scott and asked him to share his lollipop with her... or if he had another one for her... he looked at her like she was crazy. (I wonder what he would have done if she'd reached for it?!) Then Tweedle Dee, or was it Tweedle Dum, came and shook hands with Scott. He was a little unsure of that one, but hey, it's a character right?
Okay, we'll speed up the summary with what I uploaded pictures of, because it's getting late...
In Epcot we got to meet a face character that the boys know! They were quite excited to see her. Mary Poppins asked about Scott's Nemo sticker and Scott of course, wouldn't say anything, but Blaise- have I mentioned that Blaise has learned how to jump well with both feet off the ground in the past couple of months? Blaise got very excited and jumped down the street away from Mary Poppins, saying something like, "Yes, we did find Nemo..." Mary Poppins said, "And how many spoonfuls of sugar have you had today?" They were very cute with her... Mary Poppins is a movie we've watched (multiple times.)
Characters are still the highlight... obviously. Here's a picture of our whole group from our favorite character meal: breakfast at the Cape May Cafe.
What happens when you take a 3 year old, a 2 year old, and a 6 month old to Disney World? They get tired. Blaise fell asleep on the bus between parks. We managed to get him into the stroller without waking him up. Michael woke up when we got off the bus. Scott was riding on the back of the stroller. Minutes later, he was tipping over! By the way, he weighs a ton... I got to carry him like this for about an hour. I really like this carrier and I'm so glad I made it and brought it with us- totally worth it.
Now I'm tired and haven't told probably half the stories from our trip, but it was Disney World. It was fun and we're already asking ourselves when we'll go back. Scott says, when he's 5... we'll see.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Worth a Chuckle
We are spending the afternoon playing in the living room. I don't know exactly what Scott and Blaise, or should I say Peter Pan and Peter Pan, as they've christened themselves, are doing exactly, but I just heard Blaise say, "No! I'm not dumb!" Well, that's what I heard, upon further consideration, what he actually said was, "No! I'm not done!" My misinterpretations of his speech never cease to amuse.
Meanwhile, Michael is busy playing on his tummy. Which he does often and enjoys, even though he rarely lets anyone outside our immediate family know. When we have company or are away from home, he's much more interested in just being held constantly. So I put him close to the middle of the blanket with a handful of toys, just out of reach...
And before long he's reached a toy one way or another...
And he's doing some serious pushups! Check out the tongue action, he's trying as hard as he possibly can to look like Blaise (not that he really needs to try much at all.)
But alas... still no FORWARD progress. Though if I don't say so myself, a good deal of backward progress. Yes, we're still working on that crawling thing... one of these days.
Oh, and for those who are waiting... I have NOT forgotten about posting about Disney World, it's coming, um, someday, hopefully within the next week or so.
Meanwhile, Michael is busy playing on his tummy. Which he does often and enjoys, even though he rarely lets anyone outside our immediate family know. When we have company or are away from home, he's much more interested in just being held constantly. So I put him close to the middle of the blanket with a handful of toys, just out of reach...
And before long he's reached a toy one way or another...
And he's doing some serious pushups! Check out the tongue action, he's trying as hard as he possibly can to look like Blaise (not that he really needs to try much at all.)
But alas... still no FORWARD progress. Though if I don't say so myself, a good deal of backward progress. Yes, we're still working on that crawling thing... one of these days.
Oh, and for those who are waiting... I have NOT forgotten about posting about Disney World, it's coming, um, someday, hopefully within the next week or so.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Happy Birthday Dear Scott...
Scott turned 4 today. All day yesterday as we were talking about "tomorrow" being his birthday, I was remembering where I was 4 years ago. Oh the memories :)
Our 4 year old boy is still a big guy... weighing in at 39lbs (76%) and standing 42 inches high (85%). He had his check-up last week and did get one shot. He was quite a trooper. I think the nurse was a bit impressed. He decided he wanted it in his leg, tensed up big time as she gave it to him and relaxed completely instantly, when she was finished. Never said a word about it. Until we got home and he reminded me that I said he could have his last Winnie-the-Pooh lollipop from Disney World.
Scott still loves to be outside... sometimes he just wants to run like crazy all over the backyard, sometimes he sits and draws with chalk, or plays with his trucks, but usually he wants to play ball, and frequently it's baseball. We are now progressing towards running the bases after batting (which is why he got a set of bases for his birthday... a story in itself) and playing catch (with his glove he got for Christmas.) He's getting better at batting and is doing more tracking the ball than swinging and counting on the pitcher to make contact. He still gets totally stressed out after a few misses or after something doesn't go his way- still the same Scotty Boy we love. He has gotten much better at handling himself, when he gets frustrated, but he's still got a long way to go. His other motor skills this year are running and using his arms, rather than running with his arms out flapping in the wind and hopping on one foot, which he's improved to hopping on either foot (he's especially proud of these skills.)
He's also been working on small motor skills and in the past 3 months has really gotten into writing. Yes, the boy who would spell his name for anyone, but would NOT even attempt to write it will now write his name... and just about anything else you ask him to write (letter by letter.) Waiting for meals in Disney World he spent a lot of time just writing letters all over the kids menus with Grandma (she's probably a biased reference, but she was impressed.) Now that he can write letters (or rather, is willing to write letters) he's been writing all his own Thank You notes and sometimes can copy what I have written, which is a lot easier on me than sitting there and telling him after every letter what comes next.
Scott is still a book-worm. He keeps very busy most of the day, but does love to be read to. He's started doing some reading. Mostly memorization at this stage. I've been having him help me read, which means he gets to read 2 or 3 words... so he knows a handful of sight words well (the, and, I, a, big.) He knows all the letter sounds and is starting to try and figure out phonics some. I've got a book from the library we are starting to work through. He's very interested right now, so we'll go with it. Meanwhile, my brain is occupied trying to figure out his learning patterns and what will work for him for homeschooling, when the time comes (what an abundance of materials to choose from!)
He's a sweet little boy most of the time. He went through a very aggressive stage for a few weeks in the fall, but seems to have come out of it for the most part. He likes to take care of people... yes, he's a firstborn, he likes to be in charge and boss people around (particularly Blaise.) He has an imaginary friend, Picky, he tests a lot of things out on her. Her parents both work all the time, so he has to fill in for her daddy sometimes. When she's not here, Scott makes frequent phone-calls to Picky to say I love you. He always talks in this really cute, matter-of-fact, I'm important, tone of voice. Oh to hang on to these cute days forever.
This morning, when he woke up and I told him, "Happy Birthday!" He told me that no, it wasn't his birthday yet- he didn't have any cake :) He's had his cake and is asleep after informing Blaise and Daddy that he's 4 now and he still can sleep in this bed and, "even though I'm 4 now, this shirt still fits on me." Wow, I love that 4 year old boy and I thank God everyday for the blessing his is in our lives... our helper, our joy, and yes, the source of plenty of struggles :) We love you Scott.
Our 4 year old boy is still a big guy... weighing in at 39lbs (76%) and standing 42 inches high (85%). He had his check-up last week and did get one shot. He was quite a trooper. I think the nurse was a bit impressed. He decided he wanted it in his leg, tensed up big time as she gave it to him and relaxed completely instantly, when she was finished. Never said a word about it. Until we got home and he reminded me that I said he could have his last Winnie-the-Pooh lollipop from Disney World.
Scott still loves to be outside... sometimes he just wants to run like crazy all over the backyard, sometimes he sits and draws with chalk, or plays with his trucks, but usually he wants to play ball, and frequently it's baseball. We are now progressing towards running the bases after batting (which is why he got a set of bases for his birthday... a story in itself) and playing catch (with his glove he got for Christmas.) He's getting better at batting and is doing more tracking the ball than swinging and counting on the pitcher to make contact. He still gets totally stressed out after a few misses or after something doesn't go his way- still the same Scotty Boy we love. He has gotten much better at handling himself, when he gets frustrated, but he's still got a long way to go. His other motor skills this year are running and using his arms, rather than running with his arms out flapping in the wind and hopping on one foot, which he's improved to hopping on either foot (he's especially proud of these skills.)
He's also been working on small motor skills and in the past 3 months has really gotten into writing. Yes, the boy who would spell his name for anyone, but would NOT even attempt to write it will now write his name... and just about anything else you ask him to write (letter by letter.) Waiting for meals in Disney World he spent a lot of time just writing letters all over the kids menus with Grandma (she's probably a biased reference, but she was impressed.) Now that he can write letters (or rather, is willing to write letters) he's been writing all his own Thank You notes and sometimes can copy what I have written, which is a lot easier on me than sitting there and telling him after every letter what comes next.
Scott is still a book-worm. He keeps very busy most of the day, but does love to be read to. He's started doing some reading. Mostly memorization at this stage. I've been having him help me read, which means he gets to read 2 or 3 words... so he knows a handful of sight words well (the, and, I, a, big.) He knows all the letter sounds and is starting to try and figure out phonics some. I've got a book from the library we are starting to work through. He's very interested right now, so we'll go with it. Meanwhile, my brain is occupied trying to figure out his learning patterns and what will work for him for homeschooling, when the time comes (what an abundance of materials to choose from!)
He's a sweet little boy most of the time. He went through a very aggressive stage for a few weeks in the fall, but seems to have come out of it for the most part. He likes to take care of people... yes, he's a firstborn, he likes to be in charge and boss people around (particularly Blaise.) He has an imaginary friend, Picky, he tests a lot of things out on her. Her parents both work all the time, so he has to fill in for her daddy sometimes. When she's not here, Scott makes frequent phone-calls to Picky to say I love you. He always talks in this really cute, matter-of-fact, I'm important, tone of voice. Oh to hang on to these cute days forever.
This morning, when he woke up and I told him, "Happy Birthday!" He told me that no, it wasn't his birthday yet- he didn't have any cake :) He's had his cake and is asleep after informing Blaise and Daddy that he's 4 now and he still can sleep in this bed and, "even though I'm 4 now, this shirt still fits on me." Wow, I love that 4 year old boy and I thank God everyday for the blessing his is in our lives... our helper, our joy, and yes, the source of plenty of struggles :) We love you Scott.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
6 Months!
Baby Michael is 6 months old already! Can you believe it?
We were actually in Disney World for his 6 month birthday... so I'm going to write this now, about a week later than the date stamp says it is :) But here's a picture from the day he turned 6 months (and I suppose this will have to serve as his Sunday picture for that week too.)
He's grown up so much already! We won't know his official stats until next week, when we go for his check-up, but I'm guessing he's taller than his brothers were and weighs less than Scott did and more than Blaise. He's a big boy, already wearing 12 month clothes, comfortably (which was nice, since the Mickey outfits we had fit him for Disney.)
Physically, he's a strong little guy, like his brothers were. He can sit up and play for a long time. He enjoys being on his tummy and is close to crawling... but not yet. He scoots around a little bit and sometimes uses his head and knees. He can get up on his knees... he's just got a little coordinating to figure out before he "crawls away!" He can roll from tummy to back, but hasn't figured out how to roll back yet (he's close there too... he stretches and arches his back way way back when he's on his back and it's just a matter of time before he accidentally flips himself back onto his tummy and realizes what he's done.)
Oh, and he grows a ton of hair... fast. Here it was a week before our Disney trip...
And then we cut it... he looks like a whole different boy now. We've gotten pretty used to it already though and it grows so fast, it's already back over his ears and needing another trim!
Michael is a happy boy... most of the time. He loves people and wants attention. It was amazing in Disney how he wanted to interact with whoever happened to be beside him (unless he was tired or hungry.) He made friends on EVERY bus and in EVERY line. He doesn't really like to play by himself and wants to be entertained much more than either of his brothers did. Fortunately, he doesn't care too much who does the entertaining, me or the brothers... as long as the brothers aren't being completely wild!
Food... he reminds me of Scott with his passion for food. He's very good at eating Cheerios. That was all I would let him have before Disney... baby food is just not convenient enough for me to want to have to have it in Disney World. He survived and got to try a few new things in Disney. We suspect his rash back in November was from milk. After I cut milk out, it cleared up and it doesn't seem to flair up with cheese or anything. I was thinking about having a little cereal and milk just to see if the whole thing had passed yet, but... some unnamed grandparent and daddy types gave him some of a napoleon and a taste of cheesecake and probably a few other delicacies behind my back in Disney and he did develop some minor spots... so I'll hold off on my bowl of cold cereal for a while longer. That said, Grandma did buy him some banana puffs, which he loves. And now that we are home he's into the sweet potato and the apples that I cooked before we left in our fancy new babyfood machine Michael (I mean I) got for Christmas. Yes, he's going to be a good eater.
We are so thankful that this little man has joined our family and for all the ways he challenges us and helps us all grow with him. Thank you Jesus for baby Michael :)
We were actually in Disney World for his 6 month birthday... so I'm going to write this now, about a week later than the date stamp says it is :) But here's a picture from the day he turned 6 months (and I suppose this will have to serve as his Sunday picture for that week too.)
He's grown up so much already! We won't know his official stats until next week, when we go for his check-up, but I'm guessing he's taller than his brothers were and weighs less than Scott did and more than Blaise. He's a big boy, already wearing 12 month clothes, comfortably (which was nice, since the Mickey outfits we had fit him for Disney.)
Physically, he's a strong little guy, like his brothers were. He can sit up and play for a long time. He enjoys being on his tummy and is close to crawling... but not yet. He scoots around a little bit and sometimes uses his head and knees. He can get up on his knees... he's just got a little coordinating to figure out before he "crawls away!" He can roll from tummy to back, but hasn't figured out how to roll back yet (he's close there too... he stretches and arches his back way way back when he's on his back and it's just a matter of time before he accidentally flips himself back onto his tummy and realizes what he's done.) Oh, and he grows a ton of hair... fast. Here it was a week before our Disney trip...
And then we cut it... he looks like a whole different boy now. We've gotten pretty used to it already though and it grows so fast, it's already back over his ears and needing another trim!
Michael is a happy boy... most of the time. He loves people and wants attention. It was amazing in Disney how he wanted to interact with whoever happened to be beside him (unless he was tired or hungry.) He made friends on EVERY bus and in EVERY line. He doesn't really like to play by himself and wants to be entertained much more than either of his brothers did. Fortunately, he doesn't care too much who does the entertaining, me or the brothers... as long as the brothers aren't being completely wild!
Food... he reminds me of Scott with his passion for food. He's very good at eating Cheerios. That was all I would let him have before Disney... baby food is just not convenient enough for me to want to have to have it in Disney World. He survived and got to try a few new things in Disney. We suspect his rash back in November was from milk. After I cut milk out, it cleared up and it doesn't seem to flair up with cheese or anything. I was thinking about having a little cereal and milk just to see if the whole thing had passed yet, but... some unnamed grandparent and daddy types gave him some of a napoleon and a taste of cheesecake and probably a few other delicacies behind my back in Disney and he did develop some minor spots... so I'll hold off on my bowl of cold cereal for a while longer. That said, Grandma did buy him some banana puffs, which he loves. And now that we are home he's into the sweet potato and the apples that I cooked before we left in our fancy new babyfood machine Michael (I mean I) got for Christmas. Yes, he's going to be a good eater.
We are so thankful that this little man has joined our family and for all the ways he challenges us and helps us all grow with him. Thank you Jesus for baby Michael :)
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Out Of and Into
Michael is finally growing out of 3 naps a day. You would think having a baby who sleeps 3 times a day would be a good thing, but for whatever reason, I've always preferred the 2 nap stage- I can never remember to put them down for the third nap anyway. He's growing up so fast! He's even eaten 3 Cheerios now- seems to me like a very weird first food, but we're going to skip cereal altogether this time (oh, I'll probably make him some oatmeal, but it'll be the real thing, not baby cereal) and we're trying to hold him off on solid food until post-Disney World. I figured he could play with the Cheerios (I only give him 4) and then he wouldn't feel so left out at meal times. It's worked like a charm so far- he was the last one at the table at dinner tonight and still happy! Plus, he's getting to work on figuring out his pincher grasp.
Scott is growing into the "why?" stage. I think it actually started a week or 2 ago, but I only picked up on it a couple of days ago. Why are there a lot of days until Disney World? Why did Daddy help setup at church today? Why does Michael go poop in his diaper? Why? Why? Why? I usually turn it into a question back to him and then he says, "I don't remember." For the record though... there are not a lot of days until Disney World- 13 and counting. Cullen started packing today.
Scott is growing into the "why?" stage. I think it actually started a week or 2 ago, but I only picked up on it a couple of days ago. Why are there a lot of days until Disney World? Why did Daddy help setup at church today? Why does Michael go poop in his diaper? Why? Why? Why? I usually turn it into a question back to him and then he says, "I don't remember." For the record though... there are not a lot of days until Disney World- 13 and counting. Cullen started packing today.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Christmastime is Here
Okay, so it's actually already past. Which Scott is quick to point out... yesterday as we were driving in the evening he saw some Christmas lights still up, and informed us that they needed to put their Christmas tree away because Christmas is over. I told him all about how I used to leave up the decorations until the end of January, just because I like them so much it's hard to put them away after such a short time. Now we have lots more stuff in our house and little hands to try to keep away from things... January 1st is a good time to put everything away.
So backtracking... we had a nice December. Had our birthday party for Jesus... but didn't take enough pictures (it was busy). We had initially had 16 preschoolers RSVP for our party (that's a lot by the way.) Sadly, a bunch of them got sick that week and a couple ended up heading out of town a little early... so we had 7 at our party and it was perfect. The kids had a great time and it was easy to give them each a candle on their cupcake. Cullen (the architect) made a really sweet stable scene so we could play pin the star in the sky over the stable (okay, now I'm hitting myself in the head, I can't believe I didn't take a picture of it!) The game was fun. The first little guy pretty much got the star dead center over the stable where I had said was the goal. We think he could see through the hat. Our ground rule was that those under 2 didn't need to be blindfolded... but Sarah wanted to wear the hat. Blaise refused to play at all- no idea why? Scott, not surprisingly refused to wear the blindfold (it was just a winter hat, southerners would call it a tobogan) as did one other boy. We collected birthday presents, in the form of food items, for a local children's home. The boys and I might start volunteering there regularly soon, we had a nice time delivering the gifts the following Monday (see the blog about Monk-chips.)
After the party, we had an empty stable, with an empty manger, and lots of stars in the sky (well mostly strung along the top of the stable like Christmas lights.) We spent the rest of the days leading up to Christmas making people to fill the stable out of footprints. We made angels, shepherds, sheep, Mary and Joseph, and we used Michael's footprint to make the baby Jesus. It was really cute... and I'm mad at myself for not taking a picture... hopefully it will survive the summer in the attic and I can get a picture next year.
We took a road trip one night to Riverbanks Zoo to see the lights before Christmas. It was fun, but we're not sure it was really worth the drive there and back. The lights were nice, Scott got to ride the carousel and the boys got to see Santa. It was really funny, because they are used to Disney Character greetings, who don't talk to you... they just wave, give high-fives, hugs and blow kisses. Scott and Blaise were both a little startled and confused when Santa wanted to talk to them, and actually expected them to talk back. Scott wouldn't even tell Santa that the thing he most wanted for Christmas, the only thing he asked us for, was cookies. (Apparently he has an obsession with cookies.) The trip to the zoo was kind of odd, because most of the animals were not out. We saw the lions. They were sleeping. Then we also got to see the bears, they weren't sleeping, but it was kind of dark. Next year, assuming we don't have a zoo membership, we'll find a neighborhood much closer and just drive through and look at lights.
Cullen's parents arrived on the 23rd and we had a very relaxing, pleasant visit with them. Grandpa took Scott and Blaise, by himself to Harbor Freight (a cheap hardware store). They came home with real tape measures and spent the rest of the day on Christmas Eve measuring everything... Blaise said, "20 pounds" every time he measured anything. The tape measures have now been removed to the shed for when they work out there with Daddy... Blaise cut his hand on his somehow... and for some reason, he doesn't notice when he's dripping blood all over the house (he's a boy?) For the record, it was 2 minor cuts, but they bled a fair amount until I saw them and put bandaids on them. We went to church for Christmas Eve and although things ran a little late the boys all did well.
Christmas day, they woke bright and early, they rushed for their toys... no, just kidding. Michael woke bright and early (he was adjusting to the crib,) and disturbed his big brothers who were excited enough they actually woke up. We brought them into the living room and Scott observed that there was stuff in his stocking... not sure he was really pleased about it at that point. After reading the real story of Christmas and remembering what the real gift is, Scott and Blaise both enjoyed opening their presents this year... no one had to chase Blaise around and "help" him open presents. Michael... well most of his presents got opened in his sleep... and I don't think he minded. I finally got my wish and we slowed down and opened things one at a time. I like the chance to see what everyone is getting and to get excited about handing out gifts.
We had a quiet day at home testing out all the new things and just having fun playing together. Then we made a really nice dinner for ourselves. Yum.
Saturday we headed over to my parents new house for Christmas with my family. It's funny how we tend to fight over who gets to pass out gifts first. Dinner was yummy there too and I was impressed with how unpacked my parents managed to get in less than a week.
All in all, Christmas was a wonderful time with family this year... the only ones we missed were Cullen's brother and family. (And I missed my Grandma lots.)
So backtracking... we had a nice December. Had our birthday party for Jesus... but didn't take enough pictures (it was busy). We had initially had 16 preschoolers RSVP for our party (that's a lot by the way.) Sadly, a bunch of them got sick that week and a couple ended up heading out of town a little early... so we had 7 at our party and it was perfect. The kids had a great time and it was easy to give them each a candle on their cupcake. Cullen (the architect) made a really sweet stable scene so we could play pin the star in the sky over the stable (okay, now I'm hitting myself in the head, I can't believe I didn't take a picture of it!) The game was fun. The first little guy pretty much got the star dead center over the stable where I had said was the goal. We think he could see through the hat. Our ground rule was that those under 2 didn't need to be blindfolded... but Sarah wanted to wear the hat. Blaise refused to play at all- no idea why? Scott, not surprisingly refused to wear the blindfold (it was just a winter hat, southerners would call it a tobogan) as did one other boy. We collected birthday presents, in the form of food items, for a local children's home. The boys and I might start volunteering there regularly soon, we had a nice time delivering the gifts the following Monday (see the blog about Monk-chips.)
After the party, we had an empty stable, with an empty manger, and lots of stars in the sky (well mostly strung along the top of the stable like Christmas lights.) We spent the rest of the days leading up to Christmas making people to fill the stable out of footprints. We made angels, shepherds, sheep, Mary and Joseph, and we used Michael's footprint to make the baby Jesus. It was really cute... and I'm mad at myself for not taking a picture... hopefully it will survive the summer in the attic and I can get a picture next year.
We took a road trip one night to Riverbanks Zoo to see the lights before Christmas. It was fun, but we're not sure it was really worth the drive there and back. The lights were nice, Scott got to ride the carousel and the boys got to see Santa. It was really funny, because they are used to Disney Character greetings, who don't talk to you... they just wave, give high-fives, hugs and blow kisses. Scott and Blaise were both a little startled and confused when Santa wanted to talk to them, and actually expected them to talk back. Scott wouldn't even tell Santa that the thing he most wanted for Christmas, the only thing he asked us for, was cookies. (Apparently he has an obsession with cookies.) The trip to the zoo was kind of odd, because most of the animals were not out. We saw the lions. They were sleeping. Then we also got to see the bears, they weren't sleeping, but it was kind of dark. Next year, assuming we don't have a zoo membership, we'll find a neighborhood much closer and just drive through and look at lights.
Cullen's parents arrived on the 23rd and we had a very relaxing, pleasant visit with them. Grandpa took Scott and Blaise, by himself to Harbor Freight (a cheap hardware store). They came home with real tape measures and spent the rest of the day on Christmas Eve measuring everything... Blaise said, "20 pounds" every time he measured anything. The tape measures have now been removed to the shed for when they work out there with Daddy... Blaise cut his hand on his somehow... and for some reason, he doesn't notice when he's dripping blood all over the house (he's a boy?) For the record, it was 2 minor cuts, but they bled a fair amount until I saw them and put bandaids on them. We went to church for Christmas Eve and although things ran a little late the boys all did well.
Christmas day, they woke bright and early, they rushed for their toys... no, just kidding. Michael woke bright and early (he was adjusting to the crib,) and disturbed his big brothers who were excited enough they actually woke up. We brought them into the living room and Scott observed that there was stuff in his stocking... not sure he was really pleased about it at that point. After reading the real story of Christmas and remembering what the real gift is, Scott and Blaise both enjoyed opening their presents this year... no one had to chase Blaise around and "help" him open presents. Michael... well most of his presents got opened in his sleep... and I don't think he minded. I finally got my wish and we slowed down and opened things one at a time. I like the chance to see what everyone is getting and to get excited about handing out gifts.
We had a quiet day at home testing out all the new things and just having fun playing together. Then we made a really nice dinner for ourselves. Yum.
Saturday we headed over to my parents new house for Christmas with my family. It's funny how we tend to fight over who gets to pass out gifts first. Dinner was yummy there too and I was impressed with how unpacked my parents managed to get in less than a week.
All in all, Christmas was a wonderful time with family this year... the only ones we missed were Cullen's brother and family. (And I missed my Grandma lots.)
Our Christmas Card
Merry Christmas
Luke 2:4-20 “... she gave birth to her firstborn...”
Happy Birthday Jesus
We are having a birthday party for Jesus, complete with cake and presents this year. Wonder how you can give a
present to Jesus? After our party, we’ll be taking all the gifts to a children’s home nearby. As Jesus says “A new
command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” (John 13:34)
To celebrate his birthday and bring a smile to the face of our God who came to us as a little baby and really did have a
birthday just like we do, think of a way you can love others as Jesus loves you this Christmas. We wish you a very
joyful celebration and pray that the guest of honor blesses you abundantly in 2010!
(On the back)
2009 News from Fort Mill, SC
· We are officially “Mouse-heads!” ~Disney World January 2009~
· Scott turned 3 - February 16, 2009
· There was a big birthday celebration (for Cullen) with the Keen’s- the boys love their cousins.
· Cullen is now a licensed architect, still with RPA and enjoying the work.
· Blaise turned 2 - May 7, 2009
· Our 5th Anniversary - June 12, 2009, was spent in Maryland with family.
· Introducing MICHAEL JUSTICE KEEN Born July 24, 2009
· October- more travel for a long over-due visit to NY. Fall in NY = apples!
· Now we’re in the midst of memory making with our 3 little boys this holiday season.
For more detailed updates, see our blog - http://thekeens.blogspot.com
Cookie
Lately Scott has been giving out nicknames. He calls Grandma "Marshmallow," and himself, "Cookie." Blaise is also "Cookie." Suddenly Cullen and I found ourselves being called "Peanut." Oh, and Michael is "Peanut" too. Then when he was talking to Grandpa they added, "Cheerio" to the list of names, so that's Grandpa. At Jesus' birthday party he called one of his friend "Cookie" and I had to reassure the little guy that that was a good thing.
This morning as we were eating breakfast I was talking to Michael and called him something silly (I forget what) and Scott said, "No. He's Peanut." This whole conversation reminded me of when I was little. Jessica was "Peanut" and I was always quite jealous of her for having a fun nickname. I think officially my nickname was Dingbat and Mike was Wingnut (though really Mike was Mikey Boy.)
We have a few fun names we use for our little Michael on occasion. I started out calling him "boo." It happened because I often play peek-a-boo with him during diaper changes (even from the first week)- he's just so happy and sweet during diaper changes. Being Disney fans, "Boo" doesn't really work for a nickname for a little boy. Cullen was quick to point out that "Boo" is a girl. My opinion on that one- whatever, "Boo" is a very neutral nickname. Anyway, "Boo" has evolved into "Bug-a-boo." And I also call him "Buck-a-roo" occasionally... I guess I have a thing for the "oo" sound? From the beginning (beginning being the day we decided we would name our next son Michael) we were set on avoiding Mikey Boy as a nickname, though we do catch ourselves calling him Michael Boy sometimes... it just slips out, you know we have Scotty Boy, and then it happened that we also have Blaisey Boy (okay, that one is just a little odd, but we do use it.) It is also our intention to avoid Mike... we know it's inevitable, but we don't have to call him that. It will be fun to see what we're calling him a couple of years from now. Anyway, here's a picture of Peanut. This was actually before Christmas, he was helping me with laundry... originally he was sitting up in the corner of the basket talking to me, but he was playing and managed to wiggle into the bottom.
Scott and Blaise started out with many nicknames too... I know I've posted about it before and maybe I'll find the post and link it (but realistically, probably not.) The ones that have stuck for Scott are Scotty Boy, and his Grandma calls him Charlie Brown (and sometimes just Charlie.) The ones that have stuck for Blaise are B and we do call him Blaisey Boy sometimes. Buddy and Dude (with the prefix little or big) are used interchangeably for all 3 of them. Here the the 2 big dudes.
Now on to try and post at least some of our December adventures... we'll see how far I get.
This morning as we were eating breakfast I was talking to Michael and called him something silly (I forget what) and Scott said, "No. He's Peanut." This whole conversation reminded me of when I was little. Jessica was "Peanut" and I was always quite jealous of her for having a fun nickname. I think officially my nickname was Dingbat and Mike was Wingnut (though really Mike was Mikey Boy.)
We have a few fun names we use for our little Michael on occasion. I started out calling him "boo." It happened because I often play peek-a-boo with him during diaper changes (even from the first week)- he's just so happy and sweet during diaper changes. Being Disney fans, "Boo" doesn't really work for a nickname for a little boy. Cullen was quick to point out that "Boo" is a girl. My opinion on that one- whatever, "Boo" is a very neutral nickname. Anyway, "Boo" has evolved into "Bug-a-boo." And I also call him "Buck-a-roo" occasionally... I guess I have a thing for the "oo" sound? From the beginning (beginning being the day we decided we would name our next son Michael) we were set on avoiding Mikey Boy as a nickname, though we do catch ourselves calling him Michael Boy sometimes... it just slips out, you know we have Scotty Boy, and then it happened that we also have Blaisey Boy (okay, that one is just a little odd, but we do use it.) It is also our intention to avoid Mike... we know it's inevitable, but we don't have to call him that. It will be fun to see what we're calling him a couple of years from now. Anyway, here's a picture of Peanut. This was actually before Christmas, he was helping me with laundry... originally he was sitting up in the corner of the basket talking to me, but he was playing and managed to wiggle into the bottom.
Scott and Blaise started out with many nicknames too... I know I've posted about it before and maybe I'll find the post and link it (but realistically, probably not.) The ones that have stuck for Scott are Scotty Boy, and his Grandma calls him Charlie Brown (and sometimes just Charlie.) The ones that have stuck for Blaise are B and we do call him Blaisey Boy sometimes. Buddy and Dude (with the prefix little or big) are used interchangeably for all 3 of them. Here the the 2 big dudes.
Now on to try and post at least some of our December adventures... we'll see how far I get.
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