Cracking Peanuts

What do you do when you need some peace and quiet and the FedEx man just dropped off a box full of Styrofoam peanuts? You ask your four year old to break all the "S's" into little pieces and be prepared to clean up a mess when quiet time is over :)

Words from AJ

We have noticed recently that AJ is eating more - and that's a good thing :)

While having dinner one evening, AJ asked for more food than what was on his plate.

He said, "I need more food because my appetite has changed - to BIG!!"

We gladly gave him a second helping. Maybe he will break the 10th percentile on the growth chart by his next birthday.

Our Thanksgiving Weekend

Do you remember last year's Preschool Thanksgiving Pow Wow?

I was hoping we would not have a repeat performance this year. Especially when I was informed by JJ & his carpool buddy that their class would AGAIN be pilgrims. I was careful to ask the more easy going friend what he thought of the pilgrim costumes before I got JJ's opinion :) He was eager to be a pilgrim because the pilgrims shoot the turkeys and eat them for dinner! JJ agreed that pilgrims were pretty cool - whew!

As you can see, the Pow Wow was a success!

Our Thanksgiving weekend was fun. JJ loved the olives from the relish tray, eating them off each finger like Mama Fern taught him to :) AJ's dinner plate looked much like it did last year with the addition of a few carrots. I thought JJ would try my apple pie, but he decided instead to have a slice of the pumpkin pie cookie cake I made for the kids.

When the boys were asked what they were thankful for,
AJ said "God - because He made us."
JJ's response was "My boogers!"
Got to love my boys!

We finished the weekend with decorating our home for Christmas. JJ enjoyed putting ornaments on the tree getting excited about each one he remembered from last year. AJ preferred watching the football game on TV.

Hope your holiday was great!

AJ's First Day of First Grade

It's hard to believe that summer is over and a new school year has begun. AJ is officially a 1st grader! He was so excited for the first day of school. He woke up at the crack of dawn, got dressed and made his bed (which he hadn't been very disciplined about over the summer).
Daddy took the day off from work so we could all walk AJ into school that morning and wait in the FOREVER long row of cars at pick up time (I don't think anyone is riding the bus this year :)

AJ really likes his teacher, Mrs. H. And he is excited to sit at a real desk this year. It makes me think of the school desks in my 1st grade class. I recall a certain glue-eating classmate with such a messy desk that he once lost his shoe inside somewhere. Hopefully AJ will keep his space neat and clean and not eat glue anytime soon :)

Nine Months & One Week

I wondered how long it would be before

we made a warranty claim on AJ's glasses -

Nine Months & One Week.

Thanks to JJ wanting to be helpful and clean AJ's
lenses for him, we will be making a trip to the
vision clinic in the morning.
Hopefully they will have a replacement pair available
for AJ to wear over the weekend :)

Thank goodness for warranties!

AJ lost his first tooth!

AJ's front lower tooth has been "wiggly" for 2 weeks and finally came out this evening! He had been pushing it around in his mouth all day. It was obvious it wouldn't stay in much longer. I told him to give it a little twist and out it came - he was so proud!

The tooth fairy will be visiting our house tonight. I wonder what will be under AJ's pillow in the morning.

Now the tooth next to the empty space is loose and a new phase in AJ's life begins!

JJ "The Leaf Eater"

This weekend we went to my mom's house for dinner to celebrate Mother's Day. Watching us make a spinach salad, JJ said he wanted to try the leaves. "You want to eat one of these?" I asked (trying not to sound too surprised or doubtful). JJ has never eaten a 'salad', only a few separate ingredients like carrots and red peppers - never anything green and leafy. "Yes!" he replied, "I want to eat that." So I handed him a spinach leaf and watched him take a bite. HE LOVED IT! By the end of dinner he had eaten about 10 spinach leaves. My picky eater continues to surprise me!

So can you guess what I purchased at the grocery store today? Hopefully JJ's leaf eating wasn't a one time thing. But even if it was, I'm glad he ate his veggies at his grandmother's house.

What have I been up to?

Been doin' alota cleanin' lately.

It is obvious to me (but not to JJ) that he is not yet tall enough to "go" standing up.

0 for 2

Christmas and Easter Christians we are not. We love our church and we hardly ever miss a Sunday. But in the last year we were not able to attend Christmas Eve services due to a blizzard and today we missed Easter services because I've been sick. I feel terrible that we didn't get to visit family or participate in all the events that were planned this weekend. But that terrible feeling doesn't compare to how terrible I felt early Saturday morning after passing out on the bathroom floor then vomiting and having diarrhea. Today I'm on the mend. I have a bruised nose and a swollen lip from my fall. My energy is slowly returning as I'm able to eat something other than crackers and toast.

The weekend wasn't a total bust. The boys have had fun playing outside in (what I'm told) has been beautiful weather. Our super sweet neighbors hid Easter eggs and invited them over for a hunt. A big THANK YOU to Dan & Renee!!

We say in our family that "plans are subject to change". That doesn't always sit well with me because of my planning nature and slight control issues :) but we must play the hand we are dealt. We will be wearing our "Easter Best" outfits next week. And even though we weren't in church on Easter, we celebrate the risen Lord today.

Happy Easter!

What is Worse?

What is worse.......

1. Your child throwing up

2. Your child throwing up in his car seat

3. Your child throwing up in his BRAND NEW car seat

4. Your child throwing up in his brand new car seat that was purchased to replace the one from daddy's wrecked car

As much as I hate for my children to be sick, cleaning vomit out of car seats just adds insult to injury! I hope JJ's stomach bug will be short lived and we won't have any more car seat up-chucks!

The Story of My Life

After AJ refused to eat the leftover pizza I had warmed up for him, it sat on the table for about 2.5 hours.
He then decided that he was hungry and warmed up (for a 2nd time) pizza really hit the spot!

Words from AJ

"Daddy makes money by going to work. Mommy makes money by getting coupons."

Side note: I saved $21.50 at Target yesterday and had at least one coupon for every item I bought (Target lets you "stack" coupons which means you can use a store coupon and a manufacturer's coupon for each item purchased). I could sense the other shoppers gawking as the checker scanned my mountain of coupons. I love saving $$!

Words from JJ

JJ told me today that "Laffy Taffy doesn't make me laugh."

He also made a funny inquiry after we picked out

Scooby Doo fruit snacks at the grocery store -

"Mommy, when you were a little boy did you like Scooby Doo?"