It's a Bit of an Obsession..

Wyatt is obsessed with hockey.  Brian has taken him to a few minor league games and Wyatt also loves watching the games on TV.  I actually had to take his hockey stick away and relegate it to outside play because he gets really into it and wants to play all the time.  He asked to go outside to play hockey Saturday and Sunday and he just has such a good time.  The other kids in the court were out playing on their power wheels and on their bikes and Wyatt was knocking his puck around the driveway.  On Saturday he had Brian out playing with him and would not let him do anything else.

He constantly tells me to look at his slapshot, and he even tries skating around the foyer in his socks.  He can not stand to have anything on his feet, but now he always tells me that he's too cold and needs to wear socks in the house.  That boy is too smart for his own good!

What to do on a Rainy Day...

Friday wasn't necessarily a rainy day, but it did rain enough to leave the ground wet and I wasn't particularly interested in taking the kids out in it!  I knew early that it was going to be a hang around the house kind of day, so we set up "dog houses" with the floor mats in the play room. Wyatt started doing this with Mimi and he thinks it is so fun.  Reese wanted her own dog house too - a purple one - so we made two dog houses with a yard between them.  They had such a good time that I let them eat their snacks there - like dogs of course.



School Updates!

We love Wyatt's school.  We knew it would be amazing because we know several people who send their kids to sister schools and everyone has given the curriculum rave reviews.  I know I've said it a million times, but he has learned so much and we have seen great strides in his social skills since he started - he's still shy sometimes, but he has really come out of his shell.

His class studies different subjects each month.  For example, in October he studied Community Helpers, November was Nutrition, this month is Nursery Tales (last month was Nursery Rhymes).  He has learned a ton just from his little lessons, and he comes home and tells me all about them.  With Nursery Tales this month he learned about Jack and the Beanstalk and actually grew a beanstalk in class.  The other day he made this little storyboard of Little Red Riding Hood -

 and then he told me all about the story and each part.

He also colored this awesome picture - he does his best to stay in  the lines.

Each day that he has school he sits down for one on one instructional time with his teacher and either does the story board that was above, or he works on his letters.  They start with his name (naming all the letters) and having him trace just the first letter.  He also reviews a letter of the alphabet and started counting in January.  Here is a worksheet from last week.

And here is today's worksheet - he mastered his name today!  It was the first time they let him trace his whole name!  After his progress with his Magna Doodle this weekend I thought they might let him start with "y", but he did the whole thing!



I asked him about the sound the letter T makes and he told me and then referred to the TV in the picture as an "alien TV" because of the rabbit ears.  I guess it's a sign of the times that my children will never see a TV with an antenna!

 This is something that we started doing a few months ago when Wyatt refused to actually tell his teacher the sound the letter B makes and stayed stuck on it for a few weeks.  We post the worksheets on the kitchen cabinet so he can see them from the table.  Reese can also see them and reviews them with us, so she's learning alongside her big brother (we keep joking that she's going to end up skipping a grade and they'll end up in the same class)!

I really can't say enough wonderful things about his school - it really is great.  It's going to be a lot of work to get the kids there every day next year (3 kids out of the house every morning - yikes), but I'm excited about getting more one on one time with each of the big kids and Hudson.  Plus, it is so worth it!

A Few Late* Valentines

*I'm blogging about them late - they were here on time!*

Made at school:

From Brian:

Excuse the greenhouse on the table.  We're trying to bring these two plants back to life (Wyatt's beanstalk is also next to them).

Zoo Day!

Monday was a pretty warm day, so Shannon and I decided to take the kids (all 5 of them!) to the zoo in the morning.  Wyatt and Reese were both super excited to go because we haven't been to the zoo in months!  Seriously - it was six months to the day since I last blogged about going to the zoo - that might be a record for us!

Wyatt was really excited to see Tyler.  The boys don't get many playdates these days because Tyler goes to pre school 5 days a week and they both (should) still take naps every day.  When we have gotten them together at our houses they're just way more interested in each other's toys than actually playing together.  At the zoo they walked every where together and talked about all the animals.

Wyatt and Tyler



Checking out the giraffes

 

The four big kids looking for turtles

Lions

 

Hudson's first zoo trip - and he spent most of it sleeping!

I was a little worried about this outing on my own with all three kids.  Fortunately I knew Shannon was there for back up in case one of them ran off, but they were all amazingly good.  Hudson slept his way through his first trip to the zoo, and Wyatt walked with us the entire time.  He didn't even run a little bit ahead, he just followed along and did a great job listening.  Reese was being so good that I let her out of the stroller, and she did just as good of a job listening as Wyatt.  Hopefully these two just kind of learn that we get to do more fun things if they listen.  Any trip that it easy for me is pretty much a guarantee that we'll be able to try it again!

Our Weekend

This weekend was just beautiful.  Saturday was super windy, but the sun was shining and it was warm (when we weren't dodging massive wind gusts).  We took the kids to Toys R Us because we wanted to find an alphabet book that Reese would like and also her own magna doodle.  She has been using Wyatt's, but it's also something that he's gotten more into lately.  Fortunately we were able to find a Dora ABC book with the magna doodle attached, so she has been using that all weekend!  Wyatt also used his to make letters - free hand, no tracing.  We were just sitting on the couch and he would hold it up and say "Look I made a big T and a little T," and then he would erase it and make an R or a P.  We had no idea he could do that until this weekend!

Brian also read a lot of books - and somehow found a way to accommodate all three children around him.



Wyatt joked around with Hudson on his playmat.



Hudson got excited for baseball season - until he found out that Cano showed up to spring training a day late because he had the "dates mixed up."



Wyatt wants to be around his little brother all the time - unless he's crying.  Then he asks me to "turn him down."




And apparently Reese got ready for Mardi Gras.

 On Sunday we ran errands, and after naps we all went outside.  Wyatt and Brian played hockey for a long time while I cleaned the garage and Reese pushed her stroller around the sidewalk.  Wyatt is seriously obsessed with hockey.  He wants to watch it and play it - either actually play or play with his  hockey guys.  This is just another dream come true for Brian, who apparently spent a significant portion of his youth not only idolizing Ryne Sandberg and Dan Marino, but also Wayne Gretzky.  We had to have a few conversations with Wyatt about bad attitudes while he played with Brian.  Yeah, I don't know where he gets that from...

Welcome Baby Mason!

My nephew Mason Edward was born Friday night at 11:58pm! He is adorable and already a Jimmie Johnson fan. Wyatt has been talking about Baby Mason all weekend (though he keeps reminding me that his name is Brick). He also had an apple for a snack on Friday and said "Hey, that's like my Aunt Apple who's going to have Baby Mason today!" We can't wait to meet him (though a trip to Charlotte would probably just be best for me, Brian and Hudson to take without the two big kids)!
Congratulations Marc and April, and welcome to the family Mason! We love you!

Odds & Ends

• Hudson slept from 7 to 6 last night - only waking up once to eat. It was amazing. I think I got more sleep than I have since August. He's also taking some good naps during the day today I would love for him to keep this up!


• Wyatt and Brian went to a hockey game last night. Wyatt told me this morning that he said "Boooooo!" every time he saw the opposing team.


• Wyatt had his Valentine's Day party at school yesterday. It was a rough morning (drop off was terrible. He screamed "Mooommmmmmmmy Nooooooooo!" when I left), but he seemed to have a better day. I really think that snow days just stink. I'm sure part of the problem was that he hadn't had school in a week because of snow!


• Reese has been taking much better naps lately. We've been going into her room and singing songs together before I put her down - she likes Taylor Swift, Imagination Movers and Kiss' Beth. She knows all the words and her little voice is precious!


• I am super excited because Survivor starts tonight! It looks like we've got a big night of TV according to the DVR (Survivor, Idol, Modern Family, SVU) , which is okay because we really don't have that many shows recording the other nights of the week - except Thursday. Idol, Bones and Grey's Anatomy are on Thursday nights - fortunately Idol will take up much less time once the results shows are on. Ugh.


• We just found out that we can sign Wyatt up for T ball this year, which we are very excited about. He barely makes the cut off, but he is going to love playing. He's probably going to play soccer too, so it looks like we'll have a busy spring!

And that's about all I've got right now. The kids are about to wake up and I'm taking them outside because it is beautiful out!

Valentine's Day!

My Valentines :)!

Reese's window clings
Wyatt's decorations (they picked them out themselves)

And their Valentine's Day Crafts...
Wyatt cut his list of people he loves short because he wanted to go play hockey (in the living room). He stopped at his cousins - but he named Baby Mason twice (counting down the days until my little nephew is born)! He also included himself in his list!

Reese concentrated very hard when thinking of people she wanted to include. The first people she named were her Great Grammy, Gigi and Great Grandma! I was completely shocked that her great grandmother's came first! She also included her grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins (she left herself off though), as well as all the dogs she knows - Bella, Jeannie, Honey (Michele, you made her list too - not just your dog!), Charlie, Tiki, Diamond and Cody-, Handy Manny, Minnie Mouse, her stuffed animals Clarice and Ruby and her friends Audrey and Natalie rounded out her list!

Reese also took full advantage of stacking the heart stickers together to make her masterpiece!

Brian and I kept Valentine's Day low key this year (especially since Valentine's Day is mostly for me anyway and my birthday is in 2 weeks). On Sunday we went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner and then went to see Just Go With It - which was hilarious. It was the best Adam Sandler movie I've seen in awhile (Funny People was good for the first hour, but I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry was hysterical! Grown Ups - not so much). I love Jennifer Aniston though, and she was awesome in this movie. The whole cast was really good - except Nicole Kidman. Ugh, I can't stand that her face doesn't move!

For Valentine's Day we exchanged cards and Brian got me Red Robin Fuzzy Lemonade cupcakes, a rose and sushi for dinner! Delicious. We thought about getting a heart shaped pizza from Papa John's, but we'll be eating pizza tomorrow night when Survivor starts up again, so we decided sushi would be better! The kids got presents too - Wyatt got a Toy Story train the we got for $9 after Christmas at Target and Reese got a set of princesses that we got her from Disney World (even though I really am trying to keep her interest in princesses even keeled with all the other things she loves). Brian also got a rose for Reese, which she promptly offered to me.

This week is supposed to be beautiful, so we are really looking forward to some outside time! We spent over an hour outside yesterday and we can't wait to fit in some more playtime. Fortunately Hudson loves his stroller and Reese's big activity outside is pushing her little stroller around the court, so we just walk around together while Wyatt plays baseball or hockey or football or drives his Jeep around. I can't wait until it's gorgeous all the time so we can get out there every day!

Reading Together

I can't remember when we got Wyatt this Star Wars by Letter book, but he just loves it. He has done so well with learning his letters from reading it with Brian (sometimes me, but this really is more of a Daddy and Wyatt thing). The other night Reese grabbed the book and said she wanted to read it - so Wyatt offered to read it to her!

Fun with Daddy!

We woke up Saturday and it was so gross out. Brian wasn't feeling well on Friday, but he felt better on Saturday. He decided to take the big kids to a bounce house with his parents and sister and cousins while I stayed home with Hudson. We were planning to have a Super Bowl party Sunday, so I stayed home to clean and get ready. The only problem was that after Brian spent the day with the kids he came home even sicker - so we ended up cancelling the party! I was able to get some cleaning done and get a little rest!

Here are some (craptastic and grainy) pictures of the kids' day - what can I say - they're adorable, but our camera really, really sucks!

Happy Birthday Uncle Marc!

Hudson is Three Months Old!

Hudson turned 3 months old yesterday. I can't believe how quickly the last three months have gone by (I feel like I say that all the time, but it really does feel that way!). He is getting so big and he is just a dream. Last month I said that he is sweet and patient and precious - and he is still all of those things. I am so grateful that I get to be home everyday with him and watch him grow!

In the last week he has really started "talking." He'll wait for us to talk and then "respond" back. He gives us tons of sweet smiles all day.

Here is what Hudson is up to this month:

• Weighs at least 13 pounds. I feel like he is HUGE right now!
• Wears size 2 diapers.
• He is really tight in his newborn sleepers and is now MUCH more comfortable in his 3 month clothes. I worry that he is going to breeze through the three month sizes and end up in 6 months before we know it!
• Still exclusively breast fed. He probably eats 7 or 8 times a day (and two of those are in the middle of the night). He still gets bottles but sometimes feeding him myself is just easier!
• He still sleeps swaddled, but I don't think he likes it as much. He doesn't want to be swaddled around the clock anymore. In fact, he loves to wave his arms and feet around!
• He's definitely awake and alert more during the day! He's staying up for most of the morning (between taking Wyatt to school and picking him up and running errands in between, he's usually exhausted by the afternoon and sleeps until the evening). Fortunately he loves his car seat!
• He spends a lot of his time in his swing - I really suck at breaking this habit.
• He "talks" and smiles and I think he's on the verge of laughing. He cracks me up because he is so serious when we have little "conversations."
• He is definitely showing more of an interest in his siblings. When they're not around he even stares at a picture of the two of them and "talks" to it!
• He is really starting to enjoy his toys! He likes his Bumbo more this year and he's also starting to get the hang of his exersaucer.
• He LOVES baths. I don't give him many because his skin gets incredibly dry and cracks after baths, but he just loves kicking the water!

Hudson at Two Months

Hudson at Six Weeks/One Month

Watch Out Fashion Week

When Reese plays dress up she goes all out. And she takes it seriously. Just look at that face.

What a Picture of Three Kids Looks Like

And this is the best one. At least the boys are actually looking at the camera.