Lowes, Soccer, Florida

We had a busy weekend! It started off Friday when I worked as a parent helper for the second time at Jacob's school. I was pretty excited to see that he has made some advancements as far as talking and interacting with the other kids at school, but he is still such a quiet, shy little guy! I also learned that one little girl can already read! Great, just when I get writing your own name down, someone has to go and do this! The little boys did really good at home. I didn't even leave milk for Austin because in the past he prefers to go hungry rather than have that bottle shoved in his face thankyouverymuch. After school, we came home for a few hours and then I was off for a massage! I've been experiencing headaches 3-4x/week since having Austin and both my ob and family doctor recommended frequent massages to help with all the tension I have in my neck and shoulders from nursing and carrying/lifting heavy toddlers and preschoolers. Aaron was not pleased with their recommended prescription, but I'll take it! :) After my massage I picked up a few last minute things for our trip and headed home to pack.

Saturday I finished packing and loading the car while Aaron took Jacob to Lowes for another Build and Grow workshop. This week they made a bird feeder and enjoyed some father-son bonding. They left Lowes and headed straight to the soccer field for Jacob's first soccer game! I'm ticked I had already packed the camera and didn't get a picture of Jacob in his cute little shin guards and soccer cleats, but I guess there will be plenty of time for that! The outdoor soccer field complex is HUGE and was a total zoo on Saturday! Aaron was walking up to the field not really sure if he was at the right one when two of Jacob's classmates ran up to him and gave him big hugs! They were all "JACOB, JACOB, HI JACOB!" while Jacob stood there mute. Aaron said, "why don't you say hi to your friends?" and one of the little girls replied "it's okay, he doesn't talk much at school either", lol. Aaron said the soccer practice was a little chaotic and most of the kids cried at some point (gotta love 4 year old sports!), but that Jacob didn't shed any tears. Jacob really enjoyed himself with the skill training, but when it came to the actual playing he was not to thrilled with the giant scrum around the ball... so Jacob played goalie. It worked out well, he enjoyes playing goalie at home and I guess none of the other kids were interested. After the game the little boys and I picked him up at the field to head to Florida! We also met my mom there.

We left for Florida about 12:45 and had a rough start. Jacob needed two potty breaks within the first hour (of a 21hr trip), but Aaron said he drank a whole capri sun so what can you do? I think it was more nerves than anything else, but sheesh I thought we would never get there! We made another stop in Reed City for a late lunch and potty break and then we were able to get a big chunk of driving done and made it past South Bend where we had dinner. We ate inside at a Cracker Barrel so the kids could move their legs a bit and pick something fun out from the store. That was our last stop until Manchester, just beyond Nashville where we stopped driving at 3am and spent the night. The kids didn't fall asleep in the car until midnight (!), but they were being really good so it worked out fine. Once we arrived at our hotel, they all woke up and were super pumped to be somewhere. They ran around the hotel room like crazy and I thought we would never be able to get them back to sleep but once the lights were out they crashed hard. We woke up at 8am and after showers and breakfast we were back on the road by 10am. I did all the driving on Saturday and mom drove until 6pm on Sunday. The kids did much better on Sunday. We were able to make it past Atlanta and Macon before our first stop! We ended up going to a McDonalds for lunch and they had a fenced in outdoor section that was perfect for the kids to burn off some energy before our next leg of the trip. Our next stop was just before the GA/FL stateline and I took over driving at that point. Boy was that a mistake! About an hour into our drive (and 2hrs from our destination) we encountered a major storm. Torrential downpour and crazy Florida lightning! It was a stressful two hours! Additionally, there was construction which made it especially scary since the water had nowhere to go between the concrete dividers. We made it to our hotel at 8:30pm and ordered pizza and life was good again! The kids love our two bedroom unit and we have a great view of the pool with a pirate ship in it! Today will be a relaxing pool day and tomorrow Magic Kingdom!

The kids were great troopers in the car. Especially Austin, who pushed a few feedings to 4hrs. Jacob and Brody were entertained by lots of movies, including a few new ones, games and snacks (but not many drinks!). I picked up a bunch of little things from the dollar section at Michaels and those went over pretty well. Additionally, I picked up a dry erase/chalk board for Jacob to practice writing his name. He made a map of our route instead and thank goodness we didn't go that way! Then he gave the board/marker to Brody and Brody drew all over his sock, all over his car seat and all over his face. Jacob told him he looked like a cat with whiskers. The picture doesn't do it justice since most of the art was on his right cheek. Gotta love how Brody always keeps it interesting! I'll update again while we are down here... hope everyone has a good week!

My first thumb sucker?!

This is how I found Austin earlier today (I was putting Brody down for a nap):




Could he be my first thumb sucker? Brody sucked his thumb for like a day and then gave it up, it will be interesting to see if Austin makes a habit of this. He looks so adorable, but I would prefer that he took a pacifier instead since that is easier to remove once he is too old for it! ;)


Here are pics from the Lowes workshop. Here is the link if you are interested. It says the ideal age is 1st grade, but there were a lot of younger kids there. You just need a mom/dad that can help out a bit more, like Uncle Mark....
He was pretty darn proud of it! He even wants to bring it for Show and Tell on Friday.
I don't trust Brody around a hammer and nails yet... he would probably try to eat both. But I did let him play with a black marker and crayon!

Jacob story...

Lately Jacob and I have been working a lot on writing his own name. Unfortunately, it has not been going well and I began to get a little concerned. I belong to a message board with some very bright mommies and even brighter little kiddos who I've learned have been able to write their name since about three. While I believe that kids in this area are not really at that level yet, I do realize that most four year olds can write their own name (based on my time I spent in Jacob's last preschool that had 3 & 4's mixed). So, I asked the other moms for some pointers on how I can help Jacob achieve this and got some great tips. Unfortunately, we still weren't getting anyway.

Fastforward to yesterday. Jacob and I were playing a little Farmville on Facebook and trying to collect 10 items in different categories. While checking to see what we still needed Jacob informed me with perfect accuracy the number of items missing (ie - we have 8 of these so we need 2... we have 5 of these, so we need 5 more). He's done something similar before, but not with such accuracy so I had assumed his correct responses were just lucky. However, getting 5 out of 5 correct on this day I realized he must really know his stuff! Aaron came home for lunch (he had to work this past weekend) and Jacob showed his math skills to his daddy and then watched tv with Brody while Aaron and I started talking in the kitchen and making lunch. I told Aaron that seeing Jacob do so well with math made me less concerned with his inability to write his name. Aaron's response was "Well, what 4 year old can really write their own name though?" and then I reminded him of the valentine's that were personally signed and what I had seen at the old preschool. Aaron then responded "I guess we just need to work with him more" and I was like uhhhh, where have you been? So while I'm explaining the things I've been doing to work with Jacob (writing with fingers using shaving cream on a cookie sheet, spelling out his name in dots for him to fill in, etc.), Jacob comes in the room and says "look what I did mommy!". I look down and in his little hands is the magnadoodle with a perfect "J", a perfect "o", a "d" (instead of "b", but clearly legible) and then two other scribbles... it was his FIRST attempt at writing his name ever! Without even having it written out for him somewhere to copy! My first thought was feeling awful that he was paying attention to our conversation when I thought he was distracted. My second thought was utter excitement that HE DID IT!!!! I cried. I still cry thinking about it. Poor Jacob... I think my sweet little guy was thinking GEEZ mom, writing my own name is LAME but if it's that important to you FINE!

So anyways... this proud mom moment is brought to you by Facebook ;) Well, it's a proud moment in that my baby wrote his name! But it's not a proud moment that we had that conversation within an earshot of Jacob. We are ALL learning here...

What else is going on around here....
Aaron found a deceased bald eagle last week. It was a full size eagle with no sign of trauma. It was on the ground in the wooded section right by the weir, for those familiar with the hatchery. They called the wildlife division of the DNR and they sent someone out to collect the eagle for an autopsy. After the autopsy the eagle will go to the Feds and then they are hoping they will get a report and the eagle mounted for the visitors center, but they will have to wait and see. Fingers crossed! Interesting the bird had tags on both legs, so I'm sure they have a lot of history on this eagle.

Last weekend we celebrated a 4th birthday party for Andrew Rysberg. It was especially fun because we did a few things that we don't normally do. First thing was a build and grow workshop by Lowes. I have a few pics I'll post tomorrow. The kids received a kit to build a little flower box that came complete with a little apron and safety glasses. Despite the fact that most kids didn't wear either, it was still cute! The best part about it? It was completely free! We will definitely be checking out another one of these workshops again. We then had a great lunch at a local restaurant and then went swimming! Andrew's Grandma arranged for us to have the pool all to ourselves for an hour and everyone had a blast! The water was warm and it felt great. The boys haven't been swimming in a loooong time, so it was fun to see them splashing around again and loving it. Definitely makes me excited for Florida - we leave on Saturday after Jacob's first soccer game.

Brody's 2 year well child appt

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The above pictures are Brody at a few days old and one year - awwww :)

We had Brody's two year well child visit and the doctor said he is a healthy little guy. He showed his age/attitude well for Dr. Kuhn by answering the question "Hi Brody, how are you today?" with a stern "NO!". I think he recalled his last visit there and remembered his antibiotic injection because immediately when we walked into the room he started crying :( He calmed down by the time the doctor came in and I was hoping that he didn't need any vaccinations today so that he could learn that a visit to the doctor doesn't always mean pain, but unfortunately he was due for two - Hep A and Pnemococcal. Earlier in the day he took a nasty spill when the chair he was standing and throwing a tantrum on tipped over. He received a terrible looking swollen lip and his top two teeth had some blood at the gum line. The pediatrician referred us to a pediatric dentist who we saw today.

The pediatric dentist appointment went surprisingly well. They had me hold Brody on my lap as though I were giving him a hug and then they laid him back with his head on the doctors knees while he poked around in there. Brody was the perfect patient - he screamed the entire time allowing the doctor a fabulous view of all his teeth. I did feel bad for the other kids in there wondering WHAT the heck was going on in room two! The good news is that his teeth do not appear to be damaged at all from the fall, he has great oral hygiene and his spare tooth gives him magical powers. Unless we noticed a bump in his gums suggesting infection or any discoloration of the teeth, we are cleared for another year :) Brody left the office happy with a lei, a giraffe balloon animal and his very own CARS toothbrush. Jacob cried as we pulled away because HE wanted to go to the dentist too - ahhh, the innocence of a child ;) (His appointment is on May 5th).

On to Brody's stats...
Height - 33 3/4" - 50th
Weight - 28 1/2# - 50th
Head - didn't get the measurement, but his percentile was over 100th/off the charts.

In comparison to his 18 month stats, his percentiles were:
Height - 75th %
Weight - 25th %
and Head was 97th %

And as for Mr. Jacob at two he was...
Height - almost 33" - 10th
Weight - 25lbs (with clothes on!) - 10th

Easter 2010

Pics from around the house...

Austin loves his Sea Horse (Thanks Kim & Peg!):


Sherry sent us some goodies so the boys can support their favorite NASCAR driver! Here they are modeling their new shirts...


I told Sherry that Austin looks sad in this photo because they don't make any Martin Truex onesies yet!

Sweet Brody giving Austin a kiss:
We have cute little deer twins that hang out around the house, here is one of them:
Please vote for Martin Truex Jr #56 in the All Star Race here! He is on the bottom right. You can vote once every hour until May 22nd (the day of the race)! I bookmarked it so it's easy to remember. Thanks for your support :)

Rock star kids

I'm loving our bunk beds way more than I thought I would because it has transformed my kids into rock star sleepers!!

When Brody was in his crib/toddler bed he would usually sleep until 5-6am and then join us in our bed and sleep until about 7/8am and then watch tv in there until Jacob woke up. Now, he sleeps through the night until 8/8:30.

Jacob used to play in his room at bedtime for a bit and then go to bed when he was sleepy and wake about 8/9am. Now, he goes to sleep right at bedtime (8:30pm) and sleeps till 8/9.

And drumroll.... When Austin slept in his bedside bassinet he would wake about every 3hrs and sporadically give us a good night here and there. Now, Austin has been sleeping 8 even 9 hour stretches at a time in his crib!! We've only had one night where he woke up every 3hrs since moving him. His bedtime is a little off though, we usually don't lay him down until 10/11pm, but then he stays asleep unitl 10/11am (with a feeding around 7am).

I'm sure it won't last. The novelty of the bunkbeds is sure to wear off. And eventually Austin will start teething or going through some growth spurts and start waking frequently. But in the meantime... I'm loving it :) Who cares if bunk beds are impossible to make... I only have to make them every 3-4 months anyway, right? ;)

The other funny thing is how much Jacob loves sharing his room so far. Anytime I say "It's in your room" or say "Jacob's room" he ALWAYS corrects me and says "Jacob AND Brody's room"!