I See You

I See You!

Swimming

Splashing

Pouting

Building

Floating

And just being cute!

A Sand Sandwich

Cracker and Sand Sandwich anyone? It is a Peanut special! Papa Bear caught this seconds before Peanut tried to devour it. But I guess since everything is better when we are at our family beach vacation, Peanut thought that crackers with sand might be just the thing for a mid-morning snack!

We are a little over 24 hours into our 2011 OBX vacation and life just couldn't get any better. We woke up this morning and hit the beach by 8:30. The boys played in the ocean and sand all morning. They dug in the sand, let the water roll over them in the ocean, played games and ate a lot of sand (well, just Peanut). Sweet Pea loved the sand and amazingly enough didn't even try to put it in her mouth. We are thinking that she saw Peanut's cracker and sand sandwich and didn't find it appealing. She loved splashing in the baby pool of ocean water that we dragged over to her and when she wasn't making a mess in the sand and water, she happily played with her toys in the beach tent. She also snuck in a short nap in the tent allowing us to prolong our morning in the sun.

After our beach time we got cleaned up, had lunch and the kids passed out. We have never seen the kids so zonked. I mean they had to be woken up....twice because the first time didn't stick. Fun in the sun will do that to growing boys. But they rallied once we got them up and we headed to the pool where Little Man is practically swimming and Peanut has absolutely no fear whatsoever. Luckily the monitor works well at the pool so Sweet Pea could nap and we could enjoy family time at the pool.

Tomorrow we are doing more of the same thing. This is as close to heaven as it gets.

Last Day of 3's Preschool

Little Man is growing despite my request that he stay little forever. Today was his last day of pre-school in the 3's class. He learned so much this year and has really grown socially. He had his first girlfriend/crush on a sweet little girl in his class. He learned how to play games like tag and bingo and what a scavenger hunt is. He played dinosaurs and painted, was the Prince to his little girlfriend's Snow White (but did refuse to kiss her to wake her up. Good Boy!) He can write all of his letters and loves to practice writing letters to me, his friends and Santa. He was told that he set the tone in the class for manners (Proud Mama!) and honestly formed true friendships. He is disappointed that he doesn't start his next school until after the summer but was slightly appeased when I told him he gets to go 5 days a week. I love how much he adores school, but it is still hard to see how big and mature he is getting.

Here is the post from the last day of school last year if you really want to see how much he has changed over 2 years.




September 2010 May 2011

Sweet Pea - 7 Month Update

Sweet Pea is on the go and causing trouble. She is army crawling/boot scootin' everywhere! She is getting faster and constantly going after the one thing that she shouldn't have. To date she has eaten one of Little Man's play dollars and a blue crayon.

She is still enthralling us with her ability to roll on her back and grab her foot. She has even started grabbing her foot and holding onto it while nursing which just adorable and already proving she is going to be a multi-tasker.

Sweet Pea is enjoying eating and gets two meals a day and we have introduced peas, squash or sweet potatoes. When she is done with eating she politely blows raspberries with her food spitting it all over the place.

She sits up well for longer and longer periods of time but still likes to try to eat her foot and lose her balance. She never seems to care when she fall as long as she can reach whatever it is that she lunged for in the first place.

Sweet Pea is so laid back and easy going. She is happy to take 3 naps a day and will happily only take 1 nap too. Her favorite thing is still watching and playing with her big brothers and loves all of attention that they give her. She is starting to have some stranger anxiety and separation anxiety that usually comes with learning to crawl. She protests when I walk out of a room but is pacified if Little Man stays with her. She is growing and changing every day and we just all love our perfect little princess!

Life Lesson for Little Man

Little Man is growing up and playing with peers and having to learn some tough life lessons; like he won't always be invited on every playdate and outing. The other day he came running out of his class jumping and excited asking me if we could go to the park with I, R and S from his class. I didn't know what he was talking about and had to field these questions as I herded my crew outside. I asked R's mom if she knew was Little Man was talking about and she said that we were welcome to join them and that a few of them were going to a nearby park for playing and a picnic. Little Man was jumping out of his pants excited about going because the kids had been talking about it at school and I had to be the bad guy and explain that I didn't have a picnic lunch packed like the other moms did and that Peanut and Sweet Pea were going to need naps and I didn't plan accordingly for a picnic playdate with his friends. The poor boy literally cried all the way home from school but it did give me a great chance to talk to him about a couple of life lessons. We talked about how it felt to not be included and how it made him sad and the best thing to do is to make sure he doesn't make other people feel that way. We also talked about the fact that we don't always get to do the things we want to do and sometimes we just have to say "oh well" and move on. I made up for it by having a carpet picnic in the living room and letting him watch a tv show while eating which is a huge treat to him. In the grand scheme of things it was just a blip on his radar but it was a prelude of things to come as we all know, life isn't fair and we all have good days and bad days. I struggle with letting my kids have bad days because I want to protect them from anything that might make them sad but at the same time I know there will be a ton of things I can't protect them from. All I can hope for is that they come to me and share with me so that I can make a carpet picnic for them with some gummy penguins for dessert to make it all better!

Good Night Sweet Prince

Good night sweet prince

Another day is done

You laughed and you played

Now sleep little one

You need your rest

The morning draws near

Close your eyes baby boy

You have nothing to fear

Good night my son

Have the sweetest of dreams There's no telling what pleasures Tomorrow will bring!

by Crystal Cook

My little Peanut is in his own big boy bed. It was getting beyond ridiculous that he was still in a crib but Papa Bear and I didn't see a good enough reason to make the change. Since he is a bit vertically challenged due to his less than peanut-like stature he wasn't trying to climb out and he has really been happy squished up like he has been. But we have a vacation coming up and there is no way we could get away with putting him in a pack 'n play so it was either transition now or transition on vacation. That was a no-brainer. So we used a part of a bunk bed that was given to us over a year ago and went out and bought a mattress, strapped it to the roof of our van and made it all happen. He didn't get excited or really even seem to care. Little Man was more excited for Peanut and was hoping that he could sneak out of his room at night and go and sleep with Peanut. One day we might allow that, but we told him that was not allowed for now.

So far so good! He got out of his bed twice, but quickly got back in bed when he opened the door and saw me standing in the hallway. The question we will be asking all night is what will happen if he wakes up at night or early in the morning. Will my sweet prince stay in bed or make a guest appearance in our room?

Either way, my baby boy is not a baby anymore. He is sleeping in a regular bed, talking and playing like a big kid....dare we take on potty training?

UPDATE: We just heard a big crash and rushed into Peanut's room. He fell out of bed but was sound asleep on the floor. We put him back in bed and hopefully made it so that he won't fall out again tonight.

Boot Scootin' Baby!

Proud Love

Little Man ran a 1/2 mile race this past weekend. I was so proud of him. I don't think he got how far the race was going to be but once he started he never stopped running. I ran with him and he made me hold his hand for a while and then he got more comfortable and let go. He is so fast that I honestly had a hard time keeping up with him. He got a medal for completing the race and we had to convince him that he couldn't sleep with the medal on. He understood that he wasn't the fastest (he was racing with kids 3 and 4 years older than him) but he get how important it was that he kept running and didn't give up even when it was longer than he wanted. My heart was overflowing with pride and it was just a lot of fun to run with him!

Peanut had the most successful speech therapy session in a while this past Friday. Right before the speech therapist arrived Peanut was sitting next to me reading a book. Sweet Pea, being a super grabby little lady, kept trying to grab the book from him. Peanut was incensed. He looked at Sweet Pea and said "No no no Baby. My Book! No no no! Book back!" I think it was the most words he has ever strung together at one time. Part of my heart breaks because when I told a friend of mine her response was to be a little shocked at how behind he is. But most of me celebrates because despite being a bit delayed he has just come so so far. We are having back and forth conversations and he is getting so proud of himself with each advancement. Right now we are really working on ending words with the front sounds of n or t. I know he can do it and then we will take on whatever the next challenge is for him.

I have to mention my amazingly thoughtful mother's day gift from Papa Bear and the boys. Papa Bear printed off the first two years of blog posts and had them bound in a book for me. I just keep reading old posts of the kids and am so glad I take the time to write these little memories down.

And last by not least I have to wax poetic about the awesomeness of being a mom to my sweet kids. They are good kids, no they are amazing kids and words just don't to them justice. I am so proud to be their mom.

Bunnyland

Each season there are the certain events that we try to get to with the kids and this weekend we definitely started something we will continue with each year. Butler's Orchard has a 3 day Bunnyland festival complete with egg hunts, moonbounces, wooden play castles, trains, barns, live chicks and bunny's to be held and petted, burlap sack slides, hayrides, food and goodie bags for the trip home. The boy had a blast and we literally had to carry Peanut out kicking and screaming even though it was raining, 58 degrees and had been there for 3 hours already. Little Man said that his favorite part was everything and the castle. Peanut's favorite part was probably the slides. Each time he came out of the tube he had a petrified look on his face from the speed but as he came to a stop he would immediately get up and try to go again and again. My favorite part was the hayride. I sat with both of my boys on my lap, hugging them close to keep them warm and soak them in. Peanut's adorable hand never let go of mine and they both sat still for 10 minutes which is rare and so I ate up every single second that their sweet heads rested on me. Little Man jabbered on and on about every single thing that he saw and Peanut just took it all in silently. Papa Bear and Sweet Pea were hanging out together while waiting for us. Sweet Pea was amazing. She is such a trooper and was in a great mood the entire time forgoing her nap to keep an eye on her big brother's and making sure she doesn't miss a thing. After 3 fun hours we headed home excited to go back next year!

Soccer - Lamentably a Team Sport

Little Man is playing his first team sport and it seems that all of the lessons we have taught him about how to treat people well are working against us when it comes to soccer. Always share with your friends vs. don't let them take the ball from you; We do not take things from others vs. steal the ball, take the ball, go go go! I had to bribe Little Man to get him to stay through his entire first game because he didn't want to play with the other kids there. He kept saying that he wished they each got their own ball and later he told us that he didn't want to have to take the ball from "all of his people". He is just much to polite on the field, not wanting to steal the ball from anyone but being conflicted because he wants to be able to kick the ball into the goal. I think he is hopeful someone will just give him the ball and let him score. I have to admit that I really don't mind that my 4 year old doesn't it in him to steal the ball and is concerned about how everyone feels. We will continue to work on being happy at the games and understanding that it is just a game and on the soccer field it is ok to take the ball from someone's feet and not be quite as polite but maybe next year we will give baseball a try. I have a feeling that when it is Peanut's turn to try soccer, we aren't going to face the same difficulties. I think that post will be titled Peanut Bulldozes Kids on Soccer field or Kick the Ball, Not the Kids!