Little Reader

The little guy is turning into such an avid reader. Santa brought him a clip-on reading light for Christmas. I think he likes it!

He's reading Captain Underpants and the Perilous Plot of Professor Poopypants-- it's classic literature only at our house. 

So Big

I ordered birthday shirts for the kids today-- with a 3 and a 6! Can you believe it? Even though he's a big old kindergartener, sometimes he just needs me to hold him.

Unfortunately for me it looks ridiculous, even though it's pretty cuddly.

Keeping Score

The little guy kept score (sort of) during the softball game tonight. Who stole my toddler and replaced him with this kid?

We'll have to get him a real score-keeping book.

Yikes!

I think I'm glad the little guy will be walking to school next year-- look at what he made with Legos after breakfast today! It's a wreck on the interstate. A plane hit a car and the police and a tow truck are on the scene.

There are even traffic cones!

Kind of cool, kind of scary.

To the Park!

We went to the park tonight. The baby LOVES riding in the stroller (the little guy hated the stroller). As long as there are cheerios in the tray, she's happy. Even when she's not in the stroller, she always heads to it for a snack or drink.

Anyway, the little dude is getting to be pretty fast on his bike. After spending one too many evenings running behind him in work clothes and flip flops, I'm wearing tennis shoes on our 'walks' now so that I can keep up with him!

Nosy Nosy Nosy

There are some new houses going up by the playground in our neighborhood. I was curious to see how the construction was coming along, so the little guy and I walked over while the baby took a bath (Eric supervised bath time).

We had a very nice walk-- we even heard two woodpeckers! A couple blocks from our house, the little guy pretended to be asleep so I could carry him home. Lucky me!

Superman!

The little guy and I walked to the grocery store today to get a few things for chocolate-cake-making. He was super stylish!

In addition to cocoa and powdered sugar, we bought some new nail polish for him. The random dad that was also in the cosmetics aisle was cracking up watching my little Superman pick out glittery nail polish.

Anyway, we made a chocolate layer cake and six cupcakes with pink Valentines' Day frosting and sprinkles! I definitely didn't get my money's worth out of the cake decorating class I took five years ago, but we had a blast.

Four!

The little guy turned four today!  

Let me repeat myself, because it's hard to believe. The little guy turned four today!

Seriously, this little baby turned FOUR!!!

It's funny-- it feels like just yesterday we were brand new parents, but at the same time, it feels like he's been part of our family forever.

This one was taken by a professional.

Clothing Makes the Man?

The little guy LOVES to dress himself. He'll change clothes five or six times in a day, and he's very particular about what he wears. Sometimes, we don't let him leave the house:

This was a TERRIBLE outfit.
He was thrilled with himself.

Other times, we do:

He's wearing pants, shorts, long sleeves, short sleeves,
knee socks, boots, and kneepads. It was 65 degrees out.
When it's in the 30s, he'll wear shorts and flip-flops.

We went to two hardware stores today because we're going to make a magnetic chalkboard to cover the fireplace for now. The little guy didn't like how loud the saw was. The baby had a great time smiling at people and chewing on a package of 3M velcro.

Say What?

So, this video is apparently THE BIG THING in pre-kindergarten. The other big thing is wearing your shirt backwards (reminds me of Kris Kross).

Back to the video-- it's amazing, and I love it. I'm thinking we could make some awesome family Halloween costumes from it, too. We were watching it tonight after dinner, and Eric filmed us. I'll go ahead and quote him here-- "Enjoy the amazing cinematography."

Kites!

The little guy got to fly a kite for the first time this weekend. It was REALLY windy, so although most of the time he looked like this...

... he did occasionally get to do this!

Here's one snapshot of the kids and Eric playing on the beach. My camera died early the first morning of our trip (boo), so this is what I have.

Softball!

Eric had another softball game tonight, but since this one was at 6:30 we got the little guy dinner at McD's on the way to the field. He insisted on sitting all by himself while he ate his dinner.

Then he played catch by himself. I'm really glad that he enjoys playing alone. I think it's a nice break for him, actually, after a full day of school.

So, the toy in his happy meal was a smurf. He let the baby play with it for a bit (very sweet of him).

Then he threw it around for a while. Despite my telling him several times to not throw things at the field, he threw the smurf at the fence. Look at what happened!

I left him hanging there (about five feet off the ground) for a while, but we remembered to get him down before heading home.

Even More Baseball!

So, Eric is watching two baseball games at the same time right now... one on the iPad and one on the TV. I might go sew some more.

The little guy is still really into baseball, too. Sometimes we coat ourselves in bug spray and head to the park with the bat, ball, and batter's helmet.

The baby is standing up all the time now, and she's starting to cruise along the furniture. I'm definitely not ready for that. She's already nine months old! Where has the time gone?

California Dreaming?

It was a gorgeous evening, which was a nice change after the last couple of rainy ones. Yesterday the little guy asked if it was going to rain. When I said yes, he started to cry and said he wanted to live in California where it doesn't rain. Here's my question: How did California get its propaganda to him at such a tender age? Yikes! We took a short walk/bike ride this evening, and he is cruising on his balance bike now.

The baby and I got to snuggle a bit while she had a bottle tonight. She's teething, so she's a bit grumpy. Look at that face!

Balance

The little guy is getting pretty good at riding his balance bike-- except he holds his legs out absurdly far.

We went around the entire block tonight, and eventually it was just too much for him. What a ham! Don't you love how completely unconcerned Beau is?

Babies

The little guy has been pretending to be a baby since, well, since we had another baby. It drives Eric nuts, but I think it's kind of funny-- mostly because it's always short-lived. ("Can I please have a cookie?" "Babies can't eat cookies." "I'm not a baby anymore!") Anyway, the little dude insisted on getting a bath tonight (just like a baby), and I was able to sneak in some snuggles before plopping him in the tub.

The actual baby got a couple of vaccines today, so she's sacked out in her crib with a low fever, poor little thing. It can be hard being a baby!

Skating lessons!

Hockey Player Baseball Player Football Player Silly Goose (which seems to be what he wants us to call him these days) had his first of four skating lessons today.  It was a sweet little class and all the instructors have the patience of saints.  There were two other boys Goose's age in the class and all the other kids were older.  Sadly, he was the worst.  He survived without any aches or pains though, but that's mostly because he was doing this the whole time.

However, because of his reluctance to stand, he monopolized the time of the college girl who was helping teach the class.  Here she is (lower right) trying to get him to stand up the way they taught them.  (Like a puppy, one foot here, now stand!)  Maybe I should add "Sly Devil" to his ever growing monicker.

He did get standing a few times (albeit with someone's help) so not all was lost.

Three more lessons to go so we'll keep you updated.

Baby Girl just slept the whole time bundled up in a fluffy blanket.  She was probably the warmest of anybody there.

Tummy Time!

Tummy time for the baby has turned into a family affair.

When the big one got bored, he put his policeman action figure down on his tummy. The big brother, the policeman, and the baby can all turn their heads from side-to-side while on their stomachs, in case you were wondering.

Blur?

This is the bestonly picture I got of the big one today. He was remarkably well-behaved all day-- and we did a lot of stuff! I'm very pleased.

So pleased, in fact, that we let him have chocolate frozen yogurt with m&ms for dinner.

Manly-Man

The little dude and his dad sometimes take a shower together after softball games. The other night, they came downstairs in matching towels. I've cropped most of Eric out of the picture (you're welcome, E).