Winter Energy

One thing I really hate is winter. We are all stuck inside (way to cold outside) and the activity level goes way down. However little kids still have a lot of that energy that they really do need to burn.

Grandma bought the boys this adventure game for the Wii at Christmas time. It comes with 25 activities and a play mat that they have to run and jump on to do the activities. They have so much fun and it really does get that energy out that they have all built up.

Have a look and tell me this doesn't look like lots of fun.



If you noticed someone thinks he is Indiana Jones. He has a hat, whip and everything, hence the singing with the adventure. I love it!!!

The only bad thing about the game is the mat walks all over the room and the boys never reposition it until I make them, so someone is always jumping right next to a piece of furniture.

Oh and we do have the occasional melt down when someone doesn't win. Oh well they have to learn someday.

SOMETHING OLD HAS NEW LIFE AGAIN

A long, long time ago my sweet little Luke had a huge love for Thomas the Train. We had lots of different types of Thomas trains including these motorized ones.

(Luke age 3)

Living in a small house requires us to keep life simple and not hold onto to many things. We had lots of these trains and I just did not have the heart to get rid of such a wonderful collection of trains. So I boxed them up into two large totes and they made their way to the garage a few years ago.
Packed up long before a second child, long before any thought of another boy finding joy in such a fun set of trains.
Yesterday, we pulled those totes from the garage shelves and the playing began.
(Also, note the Bob the Builder computer that had been tucked away also.)
Now, little brother has a whole lot of new toys to play with. The best part, big brother still wants to play and he is now big enough that he can build the tracks and mom doesn't have to.
Now, if I can just figure out how to get them to play nice together. Oh yes after a few hours of play and a little one who skipped his nap, the playing wasn't so nice anymore. Even still with the disagreements it was so wonderful to pull out a little bit of the past and share it with the present.

Have you passed down anything special from one child to the next?

Gone Fishing

We have a big fishing trip planned for the near future.
We will be going out on grandpa's boat fishing, tubing, and swimming.

Someone can not wait!

VACATION 2010

Summer vacation is one of those things we just love. This year the weather was extra hot but we still managed to get out every single day and enjoy the sun and water.

Here are some pictures that just bring a smile to my face.

This watering whole slowly filled up as the tides came in. The little ones had a blast with this one.

We jumped off the side of the pool so many times my poor arms hurt from all the catching and lifting to do it again.
Botany Bay is this beautiful run of beach that is preserved by the State of South Carolina. It is covered with lots of beautiful shells that are protected by the state. You can't take any from the beach. I think it is OK because it makes the beach so beautiful.

This child climbed every fallen try along our beach front walk.

My youngest wanted nothing more than to see Dolphins in the Ocean. Every trip to the beach the question was raised. So a trip on a boat tour was a must and yes we got to see Dolphins. See this smile, it was because he saw them.
Luke got to go fishing in the ocean with his grandpa and daddy this year.
I really don't want to say much. I think the photo's tell a great story of our vacation and all the fun we had.

WATER FUN

While on vacation it is the water that we seem to love and enjoy so much. My husband and I both would love to relax in on the sand in the sun with a good book but we have come to the reality that this is not going to be an option for many years, unless we take a vacation with out the boys.

My boys truly love the water. Last summer by the end of summer Luke was just getting a little comfortable with putting his head in the water. He went to Latchkey all summer and once a week he got to go swimming. It literally took all summer for him to get comfortable in the water.

This summer our vacation was the second time he was in a pool. This child blew us away. First with going under water, second taking a little instruction from us and he was swimming around the pool by day 2. AMAZING!!!!

Here is a little video clip of him enjoying the pool.



Now it is time for swimming lessons. No more waiting around....

The bad part about his new found love for swimming is he doesn't want to go to the sitters with his little brother for the summer. He wants to go to latchkey so he can go to the pool all summer. I don't blame him but it will cost me more money. I told him he had to give the sitter a try for 3 weeks and then if he doesn't like it I will consider switching him back. Now all I am hearing is "has it been three weeks yet", throw in a little 7 year old attitude with that and you get the idea.

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Now my little guy was all about the ocean. Forget the pool, lets go to the ocean. You couldn't call it the beach either, it was the ocean and had dolphins and whales.

Anyway here is a little clip of him enjoying the waves with his daddy.




He would crack us up when he would say in Spanish "salto" as the waves would come. This word means jump, thank you Dora the Explorer for teaching my two year old a little Spanish. The funny part is I always have to ask my seven year old what that meant. I don't think he say's "salto" here on this video.

It continues...

Last week was truly a nightmare.

Last week my little guy went for 4 days and did not eat anything. I mean nothing... the only thing we could get in him was popsicles. The child ate a lot of them as I was so stressed that he was not eating.

Finally on Thursday we made a trip to the children's hospital because I couldn't take it anymore. Not a lot of resolve from the hospital but they pinpointed that his mouth was riddled with sores. I am guessing it was a side effect of the antibiotics. So on top of a sore throat we also had a mouth that was just covered in open sores. Finally, after applying some orajel to his mouth we were able to get a little food in him.

The hospital assured me he can go a long time with out food and he was hydrated so he was OK.

Can I just say it is very scary when you see your child not eating and they can't tell you anything and they don't understand how much you want them to eat.

Yesterday he went back to the preschool only to have a lot of loose stool all day. At this point they inform me that they recently had a positive case of C-diff. in the preschool. Looking this up really causes me worry. I have taken all the loose stool as antibiotic side effects. However he has had random days of throwing up. For no reason he will cry about his tummy and then throw up. After that he seems fine until the next incident. This part really concerns me.

I was also really mad that the preschool only told me because he had so much loose stool yesterday. They have not informed or notified parents that this was in the school.

Today I called the doctors office because I wasn't making another trip with out being told they should see him. I argued on the phone for 10 minutes as it is all just antibiotic side effects. This very well may be but how can they be 100% sure with out testing him? So again I am angry...

My baby has been way to sick in the month of May. This goes back to May 5th as the start date to all this. My baby has literally lost all of his baby fat as he has lost way to much weight. First from the 10 days of stomach virus and now this. I cried last week when I gave him his bath because he has sagging skin on his little butt cheeks that use to be full of baby fat. I cried again last night when I could see his ribs on his back. He is just way to thin right now.

First Photo, two months ago, second photo I took today.

With my frustrations up I looked into another option and considered taking him out of the preschool daycare. I interviewed someone today who has started a daycare in her home. She use to be the director at the preschool where my little guy goes right now. She has all the background, I know her but when I went it feels like a home environment, not a school environment. She says they have learning time, TV is very limited (less than an hour early in the morning) and she has a structured day. Along with all of this she has hired an assistant. Cost would go from paying $50 a day to $25 a day and I really like that part but I don't want to make this about the money.

I am just afraid to take him from this wonderful learning environment that did so much for Luke and I am already seeing some great things in Thomas, just from the two months he has been in the school. However how much more sickness can we really handle? He can't loose anymore weight and the risk of illness is way up if we stay where we are at.

I really must apologize as I seem to be talking about nothing but sick people these days.

ITS ALL ABOUT THE HATS

Hats, Thomas just loves them. They don't have to fit, they don't have to be his but he will gladly wear just about any hat.

When I say he will wear just about any hat. I am not speaking just of the cute little ball cap type hats. It is rear we wear this type of hat. Oh no, this is not the preferred type of hat.

Instead, he really loves sock hats.
This one actually belongs to him.

It makes lots of sense to wear a sock hat
outside in the winter time to keep warm.

It doesn't make as much sense to wear them indoors
even though we do often because we love sock hats.

Did I mention, they don't have to fit
and they don't have to belong to him.

He loves his brothers hats!
That is OK because big brother hated this hat
because of the bill on it.

Personally, I think it is cute!

It can be 20 degrees outside or it can be 70 degrees outside.
I can't usually get out of the house without Thomas putting on some type of hat.

Most kids have a favorite stuffed toy or blanket, not Thomas it is all about the hats.
Have your kids been obsessed over something?

Early Preschool

Can someone tell me how, what seems like yesterday, I was holding this cute little thing in my arms.
How is it he is now this strong and very independent little guy who is in preschool.


We are well into week three of Thomas's Early Pre-school program so today I thought it would be fitting to give you a bit of an update as to how things are going.

First his class is made up of boys and girls ages 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 years old. Thomas technically isn't 2 1/2 yet but he will be in another month. I pushed for him to be in this class because they have curriculum that they learn from everyday with a weekly lesson plan.

They let me put him in this class because he is doing well on potty training. Let me re-phrase that, he is doing well potting everywhere except at home. That's right, he will potty all day long in a toilet if he isn't at home. I don't get it but I am being patient and waiting for him to come around and he will.

He cried the first week every morning, the second week not once and this morning once I got him settled in with a book he was fine.

He seems to really like his teachers and seems to be having lots of fun.

While I love having an in home baby sitter when my children are babies, I also love what a preschool program does for them once they are a little older.

First off, since starting preschool this child has slept all night every night like a dream. What is the difference you ask, it is getting him away from the television and mentally and physically wearing him out every day. I had a great sitter don't get me wrong but the TV was on all day long and my child never would sleep all night long. Just two months ago I was often getting up twice a night with him. I had the same experience with Luke when I put him in early preschool at 2 also. So I expected it, and looking back at my lack of sleep not sure why I didn't do it sooner.

The third day at preschool one of his teachers asked me if I considered putting him in underwear. I like the idea but told her we should wait a few weeks to see how he does. I don't want to get to far ahead of things. Pull-ups are good for now.

I haven't heard much about new friends yet but it will come with time. Luke made lots of wonderful friends in this very class room, some of those boys are still his friends today. So I am looking forward to the friendships that will develop.

Never Cease to Amaze Me

Sometimes my kids cease to amaze me in the things they know and I often wonder where they have learned some of the things they know.

Here are just a couple of those fun moment that I have recently experienced with my kids.

Last week I was watching Dancing with the Stars (a show I sometimes watch/sometime don't), anyway out comes one of the professional dancers and my husband says, who is she, she is smoking....

Luke says to me: Mommy, I know the second part of that.
Me: What are you talking about?
Luke: I know the second part of what daddy said.
Me: What do you mean? (obviously I am clueless)
Luke: She is smoking, smoking hot!

Yes, my seven year old knows the phrase smoking hot. Seriously, where did he learn this.


Luke loves to play with my scanner. He can scan and print things with out ever accessing the computer. This is a killer on my ink since he will scan just about anything. The other day he tells his dad he can print money. Daddy explains to him that no he can't.

Luke: I can scan it and print it.
Daddy: No you can't, that is illegal. You will get in trouble.
Luke: Money doesn't have a TM on it so I can.

How does a seven year old know and understand Trade Marks? Like I said, they never cease to amaze me. Side note, I think he now understand that he can not make money.


Daddy turns on the TV for Thomas to watch cartoons and an exercise program is on.

Daddy: Do you want to watch this? (daddy teasing him)
Thomas: No that is a mommy show.

I guess this child has seen me working out a few to many times. I am just shocked he is paying this much attention.

I have to say I never know what to expect in my house. I will say my kids can always bring a laugh or two.


Side note: for all you mommies with little ones. I get a parenting newsletter via email and this week has to do with this past years baby product recalls. If you want to see the current list (long list) and keep yourself informed follow this link to Baby Center.

I MISSED IT

This has been an awful week for me. I woke up Monday morning with a sore throat, went to work and by 3 in the afternoon my entire body ached and I was miserable and left early for the day. Came home and went to bed, spent all day yesterday in bed also. Finally, my fever has passed along with the aches but my throat is a nightmare. My glands are so swollen and it hurts so much. I did get up and go to work today and since I only work 4 hours today it wasn't so bad. I just wish I could eat and drink with out so much pain. Oh and don't forget the sleeping.... I never new a person swallowed so much in their sleep until you can't. This is keeping me up all night long.

The worst part about me getting so sick.... I missed Thomas's first day of preschool. I was so heart broken to let my husband take him on his first day. I had been looking forward to this moment for weeks and it was taken from me.

Instead my husband got to take him and pick him up. He came home so happy and seemed to really like school.

I will also note that mom's and dad's are so different. If I would have picked him up I would have asked 20 questions, my husband asks none. Figures!

Now I did take him this morning and he did cry when it was time for me to leave. Luke went to this same preschool and started at 2 years old. He cried every morning I left even at the age of 4 so this is something I am use too. Oh and don't think this is a bad place because he cried every single day. When it was time to go home he never wanted to leave.

I do think Thomas will only cry the first couple times he is dropped off and then he will be fine.

Many of you might remember my struggle with my choice of do I put him in early preschool or keep him with the sitter. My sitters family had a lot of things going on and the writing was on the wall. I feared she was going to up and move away and sure enough two weeks after I scheduled Thomas for preschool she announced she was moving. She did give everyone 4 weeks notice which was good but I had 6 weeks before the start date at the preschool. So we had a week of juggling and a week of vacation/spring break.

Needless to say this choice was forced on me and honestly I am glad it was. It cost me twice as much but I can deal with it and I think Thomas is going to really blossom from this experience.

LETS PLAY

Welcome to our day of discovery at the local kids museum. I have never been here but Luke has been a few times with his grandma. I must say I was so glad grandma went with us yesterday because my kids divided often leaving me chasing after one and my mom chasing after the other. It was a really fun yet exhausting day. So exhausting that I scrapped the work out yesterday because I got plenty of exercise running through this place chasing my kids.

Upon entry we took a picture in front of this giant wall that above has dinosaur bones in it. My 2 year old pointed out the dinosaur almost instantly.

Off to dig a few of those dinosaur bones ourselves. It was fun to watch them brush away the ground up rubber that was used to cover the bones.

Next we found a few tunnels to crawl through.

And stick our heads out of. Such a silly kid!

Every child's dream, one giant water table with spraying water everywhere.
Oh and a side note this is also every mom's nightmare. LOL...

The space ship was by far Thomas's favorite thing to play on. We went back to the space ship many times through out the day. He just loved it!

If you could hear them it was all "mission control, prepare for take off" and then to listen to them counting down. Hysterical!

A little slide that Thomas went up and checked out the slide and then came back down the steps.

It requires a little brotherly love to help take that first step going down the tunnel and then we did it several times all on our own.

I got a great joy watching this child pull the rope that moved a bag from the second floor down to the first. He was having a blast pulling on this thing.


Here is a short video of him pulling on the rope.

Also please forgive my video skills. Often I rotate the camera for pictures and can't get it in my head that I can't rotate the camera for video's.

Lots of tunnels to climb up high.

If you were a small child a parent had to go with you.
Let me say squeezing in these little tunnels pushing a 36 pound 2 year old up to the next level was exhausting.

I thought these guys slept during the day?
I guess not....

We had a garage to play in....

We put ourselves in jail!
It was missing the lock because I could have used a break.

Driving the garbage truck. Had a great horn to beep!
You could also recycle lots of different items in in the back of the truck.

Digging in the land fill.

A little hard for Thomas to do.

Finally the end of the day came and the museum was getting way to crowded for my liking and we called it a day. Thomas was asleep before we left the parking lot.

This brings me to today!

We are starting off the day with a giant fort in my living room.
Not my favorite thing but they are having a good time.

Hope you are all having fun this week. I am not off to do a few household projects. Trying to keep them to just a few things each day.

Crazy about Hat's

Someone has a new found interest in hats.

Especially the kind that are way to big for his little head.

Bye-Bye Bottle

Right now I really have nothing new to share or post about. Since I can't seem to think of anything new and exciting I will share some good news that happened last month but I never found the time to post about it.

As you all remember my husband and I took our weekend trip to Nashville, TN.

(Side note: I still owe you all pictures for that but can't find my adapter to get the pictures out of my old camera. This is why I don't like to use that camera but we did so until I find the adapter they are stuck inside my camera.)

Anyway we took our trip and my parents watched my boys. My wonderful mother decided she was going to try and break my son of his bottle habit. This was one of those things that I needed to do but I was so afraid to do. His habit was strong and I wasn' t up for that all night fight, the crying and the saying no.

Well my mom took a bottle to her house but hid it and anytime Thomas asked she said it had gone bye-bye. He went for three days and had no bottle. I was so impressed and thrilled but I also new that he would push me harder for it when I came home.

Sunday night we return home and he instantly asks me for his ba-ba. I tell him it went bye-bye and we had a 45 minute melt down but I new I had to hold strong.

He still asks me almost every day for a ba-ba and I have to tell him it went bye-bye. He has come to accept this and the ba-ba is no long in the picture thanks to my mom. The best part was we actually broke him of the bottle before he turned two. I thought for sure I was going to have a two year old walking around with a bottle.

My biggest issue with taking it away is he will not drink milk from a cup for me. He still refused to drink milk for me in a cup. The good news is he will drink milk in a cup at the sitters and at grandma's houses.

Have you had a hard time breaking your kids of something?

Ladybug I am So Sorry

I am sitting here catching up on blogs and Thomas starts beating his train table with a toy hammer. He is beating it and beating it! Then he comes to me holding out his hand to give me something. My child has decided to beat an innocent little ladybug into a flat pancake.

So I ask him, did you smash the bug with your hammer. He just gives me this huge smile like, I took care of the problem.

I guess the ladybugs currently hanging out in my house need to take note that they are not allowed to crawl around on the train table.

Party Time!

We had a great birthday party for Thomas on Sunday. It was a great party even with all the stress we had before the party began. I was up at 7 AM Sunday morning, skipped Church to try and get everything done I needed to do before the party at 4. Top priority was the cake and second on the list was keeping the house clean and finish someone of the cleaning things I had not done on Saturday. Let me just say nothing ever goes as planned especially with kids. But even with all the craziness before the party we did it and were putting the final touches on when everyone arrived.

An here is the cake, the cake that I am so proud of yet it took me 8 hours to put it together but Thomas loved it. Once we stuck the ears on he knew it was Mickey Mouse.
Dad was in charge of the pictures so I have no real great pictures of Thomas's huge smile's. But trust me they were their.
He loved trying to blow out his candles. He made me so nervous as he leaned in so close to try and blow them out. I had to help!
I should have taken an after picture of my cake all cut up. It was hard to put that much time and effort into something to watch it get chopped up in 5 minutes. Everyone did say it was very yummy! My cake was from a box mix but I made my icing from scratch and loved it. My husband even thought it was good and he is a cake snob so it is hard to get his approval but we did.

Now onto presents. Thomas wasn't to interested in opening gifts. The kids had a couple character balloons they were using to smack my brother with. They were having more fun doing that than opening presents.
This years big gift was a train set. I spent very little on Thomas's Birthday. The table is actually a train table we bought for Luke years ago. It has been in the garage for probably three years now, so it was brand new to Thomas. I then bought a new wooden train set, 70 pieces for $27 at Target. It was a great deal and fit the table perfect. Then other people bought a few trains and add on pieces to make it a great set. We had wooded trains from before but over the years my dogs have enjoyed them as chew toys so I only had a few things left. Plus when Luke was big into Thomas the Train we had a lot of motorized and die cast ones and only a few wood ones.
Finally the train set is open and Thomas got about 2 minutes of play before all the party kids were around the table playing and having a good time.

Interstingly enough Thomas's older brother who hasn't played with Trains for years is really enjoying this train table. I see several fights over this thing in the near future.

I look back and find it funny that both my boys at the age of two were big into Thomas the Train. Luke's big birthday present when he turned two was a Thomas the Train Toddler bed. I just recently sold that Thomas bed to someone else because we couldn't use it because we have bunk beds in the boys room. Thomas was so upset when someone drove off with that bed.