Wednesday, July 23, 2014

In SUMMMMERRR!

Summer has been fun for us so far.  And going by so fast.  Although I know Mikey is ready to get back to school, and I think it helps that James has had Summer School for the month of July.  It is so nice and cool here compared to New Mexico that we have had a blast this summer, just hanging out and being outside. Here are some things we have done this summer so far: 
James lost his first 2 teeth.  He has been super excited about this all summer. 
Lost a tooth!
James' letter to the Tooth Fairy
Lots of parks.  All kinds of parks.
The Sports park splash pad is the best, it is right in the middle
of the playground so I don't have to chase kids back and forth. 

Brooke loves parks and everything about them.  She is way to
independent for her age!
Mikey showing off how strong he is.
 All kinds of water activities. We have been to splash parks, swimming pools, and had lots of fun with water in the back yard.  It's not summer without water!

Brooke found her brothers bath after he got out!
Snuggled up after some time at the Dinosaur park.
A snack after swimming!
Hanging out at the lake, "fishing" with a friend.
He may be part reptile!  Soaking up some heat from the rocks.
General silliness!  Everyone in this house is silly.  Brooke is one of the most.
Playing Peak-a-boo with Mom.  As soon as the camera turns
on we are in cheesy mode.
Reading buddies!  We have spent a lot of time at the library and James' reading skills are coming a long.  It is fun to listen to him sound words out and read whole books to us.
James reading a book to Mikey
Building forts and tree houses.  James really wants a tree house.  Two problems, we are just renting, and we don't have a tree that would hold a tree house.  That has not stopped him from putting the "kid ladder" next to a small tree and "climbing" the tree a lot.  We also made this awesome fort which we called a tree house.  James was convinced...for a minute.
Our make-shift treehosue
Riding bikes!  Billy wanted a bike for his birthday.  None of our kids can ride a two-wheeler yet so I was torn between a balance bike or another training wheel bike.  So Doug came up with the idea of make balance bikes out of thrift store bikes.  We made each of the kids one for a total of $15 including a can of spray paint to pair a very girly Barbie bike orange.  The boys have spent hours and hours on these bikes and I bet by the end of the summer we have at least one actual bike rider.

 Camping and camp firing.  James has been really really excited about camping this summer.  The boys have slept out in the back yard a few times and we have a few camping trips scheduled.  We have done a few camp fires in the fire pit and lots and lots of s'mores.
Look a picture of Mom!  It's a miracle.

Mikey relaxing at the fire.

Billy just chillin'!
A few other things:

  • Golf lessons.  Mikey has been taking golf lessons during July.  He is learning a lot, but has a hard time with such a slow paced game!  
  • Zoo!  Billy loves and zoo and now so does Brooke.  Last time we went we actually took her out of the stroller and let her see the animals.  She seemed to like it more when she realized we weren't just walking around looking at fences. 
  • Mountains.  We got to go to Doug's family's cabin for Memorial Day.  The boys always love it up there.  We went on a 4 mile hike around Monarch Lake and James practically ran the whole thing with me right behind him.  He loved playing temple run.  They also went fishing several times and everyone caught a fish.
  • Utah.  Mikey got to go to Utah with Grandma and Grandpa and Scott.  He loved spending time with his cousins and especially loved the trampoline place.  He now wishes we had a place with "hundreds of trampolines".


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Bills is 3!

 Billy is now 3!  It is crazy how fast they grow, he does not seem old enough to be 3 yet.  He has really added so much to our family these past 3 years and I love him so much.  Usually just around the time the kids turn 18 months Doug says he wished he could pause time because they are really so much fun, and haven't hit any terribleness yet.  Well for the first time Doug has declared for a second time on a single child that he would like to pause time.  Billy is FUN!  He is mostly pleasant, he does have a few temper tantrums and can scream with the best of them, but for the most part he is just sweet and awesome.  He is still always looking out for "Fwa" (Brooke) and is concerned when she is doing something he doesn't think she should be doing.  He LOVES playing with his brothers and can hold his own when they get playing pretty rough.  I would even say he typically isn't the first to leave their wrestling sessions crying.  He is usually pretty easy going and kind of gets the short end of the stick a lot because he just doesn't care, he's just happy to be included.
I think my favorite time I spend with Billy is when I am putting him down for nap or bed.  He happily runs to bed himself.  Then after we read a story he asks me to sing songs.  "Sing ABCD" (his favorite) then if I sing too fast (according to him) he takes his index finger and gently runs it down my cheek and whispers "Sloow".  Then we have to sing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Sloow" then "I am a Child of God" and finally my favorite, "I Love You"  during which he hugs me tight during the entire song and I get a kiss at the end.  Then once I am done singing he says, "I love you too".  Seriously, this is happiness.
I think his birthday was the easiest to plan.  This kid has things that he absolutely loves, and he gets really excited about everything.  Mikey got him Blades the helicopter Rescue Bot.  Rescue Bot's is like Transformers for preschoolers. I think it was love at first sight.  He has not been without his Rescue Bot since.  They do everything together.
Billy watching "Rescue Bots" with his Rescue Bot
Billy eating breakfast with his Rescue Bot
Sleeping with his Rescue Bot
About 2 or 3 months before his birthday Billy for some reason decided he wanted a "He Man cake!"  And the way he said it was so cute we asked him often what kind of cake he wanted.  As his birthday drew closer it was obvious what kind of cake he would really like...and Airplane cake.  He LOVES airplanes.  I tried several times to see if he would change his mind but he didn't.  The week of his birthday he finally changed to "He man cake, robot cake, airplane cake, spiderman cake, ninja cake... all those cakes."  So I had a plan of a hodge lodge cake to incorporate all the things he loved.  Finally the day before his birthday I was mixing the cake and was about to pour it into the pans when I asked him once more what kind of cake he wanted.  He replied "AIRPLANE cake!"  Talk about waiting until the last second.  When I showed him his cake the next morning he LOVED it. 

It may have ended up with a few more airplanes by the time we ate it.

Silly Billy! 
Some other things he got for his birthday, a planes sleeping bag and backpack (which is perfect because his favorite color is orange and he loves planes) an airport and racetrack play mat, Ninjago legos, Planes the movie, a remote control Dusty airplane (this may have stole the show for awhile), a pillow pet and a pirate ship with some Jake and the Neverland pirates figures (this show is now watched often in our house).  Billy gets so excited about things that it was fun to watch him open everything and play with it all.

Billy playing with Dusty.  This airplane also sometimes
sleeps with him. 
Our interview with Billy this year was a little hard because he hasn't even given much thought to many of these questions. 
  • When he grows up he wants to be a city builder like Dad
  • Likes to play airplanes with Dad and eat dinner with Mom
  • Favorite:
    • Color: Orange
    • Show: Rescue Bots
    • Movie: Cars
    • Book: "Let's Paint the Garage"
    • Song: ABCD's
    • Candy: M&M's
    • Animal: Lion
    • Food: Nachos
    • Toy: Cars
    • Game: Football


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Everything is Awesome!

(We may or may not have watched the Lego Movie a few times this past month....)
The other day James' teacher called me just to give me an update on how summer school has been going.  She had nothing but good things to say and I LOVE when that happens.  It seems like James has been making so much progress lately that it is even easy for us to see the difference.  I think if anyone from New Mexico were to see James now they wouldn't even recognize him.  We are so proud of him and all the hard work he has done to get to this point.
James has been playing dress-ups all the time.
I never know who is going to come up from
the basement once he has been down there.
The other day I even caught him sitting at my
sewing machine trying to sew himself a new costume.
Some fun things we talked about:
  • James and Angel.  James has always loved Angel and he really missed her while he was on break.  Once he went back to school he attached himself to her again.  His teacher says before he would say "Hi" and hang around her a little bit, but there wasn't much interaction.  Now he actually plays with her, and they play dolls.  James is not a big fan of dolls so it is pretty big for him to choose a non-prefered activity in order to hang out with his best buddy.  The other day they were making clothes pin butterflies.  Angel was taking a nap, so when James finished his he asked if he could make one for Angel.  He then put it next to her pillow for when she woke up.  
  • James is WORKING!  She says she doesn't have to really redirect him as much.  He has his awesome stool (similar to this), which he loves, and will sit and work for 20 minutes at a time. She even hasn't had to offer him the iPad as much as a reward. 
  • He is getting really good at math.  He does his work and loves it.  The other day she had him try to help another boy with his math and he sure tried hard but couldn't get past "the answer is 5".  He just could not figure out how to explain how he got the answer. 
  • He has had almost 0 temper tantrums and is really learning to self-regulate.  One time he started getting angry and went to run out of the room.  She just said "think about it James. It's almost recess time" (she never takes recess away, but will take away a preferred activity at recess) and that was enough for him to stop himself and get back on task.    One day there was a boy in another classroom having a meltdown. For about 2 hours.  After awhile James calmly asked for his headphones.  
  • He is learning to follow the directions and do what he is asked.  One time he and another boy were playing marble run.  It was time to clean up so James did.  The other boy did not.  After a few minutes his teacher said "OK James you are done let's let him finish cleaning up his stuff"  James left, but did not take his eyes off the boy.  After a little while he said "She's going to put it up."  Meaning up where they could not play with it anymore.  He was really concerned this boy was going to loose his favorite toy for them. 
  • He is really good at arts and crafts.  They have the day set up by stations and make sure that James always goes to the craft station last because it is such a good motivation for him.  She says he is the best in the class and draws great faces on all his creations, put the parts on correctly and spaces things just how he should.  
  • He is trying lots of new foods...as long as they are brown. 
  • He is playing on all the equipment at recess rather than just walking around on the perimeter. He is climbing and using his whole body. 
  • He isn't quite as obsessed with blue. 
  • He has learned to control his temper.  She mentioned to the assistant teachers that James had a temper.  Their response was "James?  Really?"
  • He is getting a sense of humor close to what typical kids his age would have.  She said she was having a conversation with the kids about farting at circle time.  She said everyone farts, it happens, but you can leave and do it somewhere else.  I guess James thought this conversation was pretty funny and said, "the principal farts?"  yes.  Then he raised his hand and giggling said "Do you fart?"  I guess farts are funny. 

Our little mad scientist.  He loves to get his
science kit out and make different mixtures.
This particular time he make a "zombie" in
his flask. 
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