Follower

Today, on the playground:
Alexander: Mommy, this is my new friend. He's four. He is in charge of me. **runs off to follow friend**

My baby lion?

Alexander: I wonder what the new baby is going to be.
Me: It's a boy, remember?
Alexander: Yeah. I wonder if it is going to be a boy lion or giraffe or cat or....
Me: I'm pretty sure he's going to be human.
Alexander: Yeah, or maybe human.

(Just for the record, I am 99.9% sure he was just being silly.)

Nature Study

Alexander's preschool has a program called, "Read to me; Talk to Me," where the kids get to choose a book from the Bookmobile and bring it home for a few days. Each book will have questions and projects that the parents and kids can do together. This week, Alexander brought home a book about trees. His project was to take a walk through his neighborhood and choose his favorite tree. So, we packed up some supplies and set out for a nature study.

Alexander decided before setting out that his favorite tree would be a "conifers" tree, and he quickly found one that appealed to him. It was basically the first one he saw from our house; we walked all of 2 minutes. Silly kid.

We talked about where the roots, trunk, bark, and branches were on the tree and whether it had needles or leaves. He and Jack each drew a picture of the tree, and then we snacked on some goldfish, having worked up our appetites from all that walking. I can only hope that his enthusiasm for homework holds strong!

No-no Jack and the yellow shirt

Me: Jack, that is Alexander's shirt.
Jack: Oh. (Wipes his nose on shirt and hands it to his brother)

*Shrug* I get it. I'm a little sibling, too. ;)

A new name!

During Alexander's field trip to Fountain Rock Park, each of the kids was asked to choose a Native American name. Later, I told Justin about it, so he asked Alexander, "What is your Native American name?"

Alexander responded,"My Made In America name is Little Bee."

Floor turned Fort

We have these great interlocking blue mats in our "playroom" area, since we have hardwood floors on the main level. The other day I gave in and helped the kids turn the mats into a pretty nifty fort (usually I say, "That's the FLOOR! Leave it down!" when they try to play with it). They were very pleased with their fort and managed not to destroy it for maybe two hours. This is, in fact, noteworthy. These are two and four-year-old boys we're talking about! ;)

Field trip to Fountain Rock Park

I was excited to chaperon Alexander on his second field trip of the year on Monday, and once he realized that we were not going to a field, he was excited, too.

We went to nearby Fountain Rock Park, for a demonstration to coincide with the unit the kids had just finished on Native Americans. The presenter showed them a video about a family of Native Americans going on a turkey hunt, "took them back in time" to when Native Americans lived here, and talked about how life had been different for them. The kids got to try on various Native American garb, and Alexander modeled the boys' clothing. They also learned how the Native Americans used clay on their skin as a bug repellent and sunscreen and got to try some out. They each made a bead necklace, got to grind corn, play Native American instruments, and use a Native American drill. As a special treat, they also got to meet the Nature Center's 6-foot snake, and every one of the kids was brave enough to touch it. Alexander also examined the beehive. Last, we all went on our own turkey hunt. Fortunately, we didn't find any turkeys, but did locate the playground. I love getting the opportunity to do special things like this with Alexander!

He remembers!

Alexander: I liked your belly when it was flatter. That felt better.
Me: I know. It will be flatter again after the baby is born.
Alexander: Yeah, but then it will be crazy around here again.

This one made me a little sad. :(

Confession of a Lazy Mom

We buy frozen juice concentrate. Occasionally I am so lazy that I don't bother to mix the concentrate with water in a pitcher. I just open the concentrate and put it in the fridge. When the kids want juice, I just pour some concentrate into their cup and then eyeball the added water.

Aren't you glad I'm around to make you feel better about yourself? ;)

Progress!

Today Jack spontaneously said, "Help me," and "Thank you, Mama." This would not be a big deal for most two-year-olds, but for Jack this is a big milestone! One of the reasons why he qualified for speech therapy was because he had never put two words together until very recently. In the past week or so, he has finally said, "Juice, please," and "Bye-bye, Dada." Those were awesome, but they were phrases that I had been specifically working on with him. Every time he would say "juice," I would say, "Juice please?" and I specifically modeled "Bye-bye, Dada," repeatedly to him. "Help me," and "Thank you, Mama," are especially awesome because they are not phrases that I have specifically been working on with him. I think the combination of the methods we've been learning in speech therapy and just the fact that he seems to finally be ready to speak are the reasons for his "speech spurt," but I am just really glad that he's starting to finally speak more. Yay, Jack!

World According to Xander

Justin: Have fun at school today!
Me: Yeah, we are going on a field trip today!
Alexander: But I don't even like fields!

I am sooo outnumbered!

For those of you who may not be my "Facebook friends," and for posterity, I would like to announce that we found out on Tuesday that our third child will also be our third BOY. Trust me, it was pretty obvious in the ultrasound even to my untrained eye. ;) I've requested the immediate installation of urinals in every bathroom. We are not at all disappointed, and are very excited to meet our third son. We will likely name him Kai (rhymes with sky) Davon (David+Vernon/ combo of our dads' names/ prounounced like David but with an "n" at the end). Maybe I'll change my blog name to "4+1=Me Outnumbered!"

Big Silly Picture Post!

Obligatory Halloween Post

We had a VERY happy Halloween!

We started the festivities last week with our MOMs Club Halloween party. Alexander wore his Batman suit... for about five minutes. Jack simply wore a skeleton shirt. They made crafts, practiced trick-or-treating, and played Halloween themed games.

Next came Alexander's preschool Halloween party. He wore his Superman costume tee-shirt. He really had a wonderful day and his teachers even sent home a note about how well he had done that day. I was bursting with pride!

And then came the real, true Halloween. Even though we had bought Alexander a new Batman costume, he decided that he would rather wear his dragon suit from two years ago. We decided not to fight him. Jack wore Alexander's old lion costume minus the legs... which seemed to have walked off on their own. While I wasn't super pleased with the quantity or quality of pictures I took while trick-or-treating, or of them in costume this year, I WAS super pleased with our night. Alexander can be quite the charmer when he wants to. He had many of our neighbors laughing at his antics as he sang and skipped and shouted, "yahoo," and "yay," all throughout the neighborhood. I've very rarely seen him that excited. Here's two conversations from our night:

Alexander: Mommy, I am dressed as a dragon, but everyone still knows it's me.
Me: They do? Did someone call you Alexander?
Alexander: No, they all called me Sweetie.

Neighbor: Oooooh, are you a dragon?
Alexander: Oh, no. Don't worry. I am just dressed like one.

Jack quite enjoyed himself as well, although he had a bit of trouble with all the steps and with holding his bag open! He never did manage a "trick-or-treat," but he did get the hang of "thank you," or in Jack-ese, "Dit-doo." He was really excited to be collecting candy! He did get called a girl several times, which is strange because I was just saying to a friend that while Alexander often got mistaken for a girl as a baby, Jack never did that I can remember. I guess it was his turn. He is rather pretty. ;)

As is our tradition, we came home and put on "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" while we ate candy and answered the door. It was a good night, one to remember! =)

We've still got one more Halloween celebration to go- tomorrow we'll party with the Tot Lot!