Wordless Wednesday

Crazy hairdo's and sleeping with pizza

Saturday, we had tons of fun at the pool... before heading out there, sunscreen was a necessity... the great hairdo's were just the icing on the cake...

After the pool, we toyed with the idea of saying our goodbyes and putting the kids straight to bed, they'd been swimming all morning and were up until 11pm the night before... They demanded to eat and were starving, so a warm bath and pizza followed the swim - per request of the kiddos. Izzy didn't make it through the first piece...

My wild child on the other hand...

Has your kiddo ever fallen asleep in the high chair like Izzy or my friend Caroline's little one?

Pray for Stellan

Please, please be on your knees for this sweet little one and his family.

Tot School

Nathan is currently 20 months old

After looking at our pictures of tot school, we really need to clean up our playroom! I could see all the junk in the pictures that I'm blind to in real life. Saturday night project - CHECK!

We had a great week of tot school and I think the pictures will do most of the talking.

Notice how many pictures you can find Bailey laying right behind or beside Nathan. She loves this baby boy!
Lots of time walking up and down the stairs on just his feet, holding onto the wall or rail, like a big boy!


He's got this thing mastered. He sorted the colors, named the shapes, and even learned how to pick up two like blocks at a time and put them on the peg at once. :)
I've been looking for the hard plastic peg board and finally found it. He LOVED this!

I love this... he's decided it's fun to lay on his tummy and do things. So cute!
Okay, so this surprised me. I removed all of the parts from Mr Potato Head and set them in a bucket beside Nathan. While I folded laundry, Nathan put in all the pieces...
in the right spots!!! At first (see above) the eyes and nose were in the wrong place. He fixed them and then didn't like that nose, so he used the tongue as a nose and told me it was a nose. We only had one arm for Mr P, but it's in the right place! I think it's cute that he put the hat on backwards. I was proud of him for placing the pieces in the right place and putting so much thought into it... INDEPENDENTLY! :)
Music anyone? How about a harmonica?
Tambourine?
Building with magnetos.
Cute story... Nathan has been reallllllllly into trucks, diggers, and big machines for a few weeks. He found an old book (That's not my truck) and it has shaped a theme for Tot school... trucks, diggers, mini loaders, etc. Well, he was reading the book with me and said, "show bailey. show not my truck?" I said yes, and he walked to her and showed her the book. Then he sat down to read it to her. Proud momma moment!

Building cement mixers and other trucks. Usually he just throws the pieces around the playroom. This time, he built the trucks and then actually played with them!



More reading, more trucks, more sweet boy!


To finish the truck theme, working on identifying his name, spelling it, and of course, identifying the trucks. Thank you Carissa for this folder idea and the rest of the ones pictured here!
Identifying letters
shapes
matching the colored egg with the dinosaur
matching paint chips
I found a Bilibo at a consignment sale, and these are picture of Nathan's first few moments with this giant orange thing...
(yes that's my foot he's holding on to for stabilization)

Hard hat, turtle shell, or just plain cute?


Check out what other folks are doing in their tot schools this week by clicking here.

Playdate with Emily and Emma

On Tuesday, Nathan and I loaded up the car and headed to Raleigh, to hang out with a friend of mine from high school. It's been over 10 years, but we've reconnected shortly after our kiddos were born, both of them in November 2007. It was so much fun to hang out with Emma and Emily and it was an incredibly relaxing day. I've drooled over the pictures of Emma on Emily's blog, there are always so many wooded scenes with tons of huge old trees. I couldn't wait to feast my eyes on them! We drive up in the driveway, and I spot the beautiful landscape of a wooooooded, private lot on the outskirts of Raleigh. As I'm eyeing the trees, Nathan spots... ready? "Mommeeeee boat, see stick, see stroller push, yes, out yes, Emily house." He was in heaven too!

The kiddos played inside for a little bit and we marveled at their differences and similarities. Boys and girls are so different in their styles of play, it was really fun to watch them knowing they are only 11 days apart.

After playing indoors, we headed out the back door, across a lovely and lush lawn, over a creek (yes, OVER a creek - you could see the mommy athletics coming out as we jumped from bank to bank, each with a kiddo on one hip), over a barbed wire fence, and into the wilderness. It felt like we were in the middle of a huge forest walking on these horse trails. Nathan LOVED the freedom and really enjoyed exploring - and always had a stick in hand.

Emma's body language says she's terrified of the toddler with the big stick - so were we - back to small sticks little man!

Isn't this sweet brown eyed babe adorable?

Checking out pine cones.

These two logs were fascinating to our toddlers. Nathan climbed back and forth over it a hundred times, without a bit of caution. Emma crawled over it ever so cautiously and planned her every step.

Nathan even tried to step up on it and balance. You can see the action in the shot... the balance didn't last long.

I love this pic... and the fun editing software I discovered tonight.

So sweet! :)

See the action in the stick? See the baby girl with eyes TIGHTLY shut? About a millisecond after I snapped this picture, Nathan accidentally whapped Emma in the head. Poor thing. Thank goodness it was an accident. I could tell Nathan wasn't sure what happened, and he sweetly told Emma he was sorry (even though I doubt he knows what that meant).

Back at Emily's house, the kiddos played while we made lunch - no my child has not just stepped out of a bath, he's just that sweaty... and yes, he is sitting in a pink stroller, one made for dolls, and yes, he did it numerous times. He has a thing for strollers, especially small pink ones.

After a delicious lunch, we jumped in the pool. Nathan surprised me with his fearlessness... which is why there are no pictures. He jumped right off the side into the pool without anyone to catch him a bunch of times (he was in a float). Then, he watched mommy go off the diving behold and would you believe that while I was on the steps in the shallow end, he walked to the diving board, looked to me as if to ask permission, and I said, "go ahead buddy, jump in like mommy"... and would you believe that kiddo crawled up on the diving board (mind you I'm at the other end of the pool) and walked right off the end and came up laughing? FEARLESS - that's why we've started high octane swimming lessons 2 hours from home at a "submersion swim school". No fear. Boy must learn to swim! :) He never ceases to amaze me. After our fabulous dip in the pool, we all enjoyed popscicles and then headed inside. That's when the calm left and the frenzy began. I discovered a tick on my back, which led us to check the kiddos. It was then we discovered we'd all gotten into a nest of baby ticks... and they were all over. Thanks to Emily's calm and incredibly proficient tick removal skills, the calm quickly returned and the drama ended. :) Next time we go hiking, we will hose ourselves with some bug repellent! The deet free kind of course. :)

Thank you Emma and Emily for a fabulous day!

Here is my favorite picture... and a few versions using various editing tools. Which version is your favorite?