Fall Has Arrived!

Fall has arrived here even though it's still technically Summer for a couple weeks. The rain has been pouring for the past two weeks. As the first field trip of the school year, my moms' group met at Lattin's Cider Mill. It's just not Fall (er...the end of Summer) without a visit to Lattin's.

All three kids were home this Friday since it was a teacher inservice day. After sleeping to the sound of rain pounding on our roof, we donned our boots (or puddle jumpers as my son calls them) and headed on our way. Brother Bear insisted I start our adventure with a photo of his face in the apple. This is a yearly tradition. I have photos of each child every season since before Sister was one-year-old.
This isn't the best of the pictures of Sister, but I loved that Baby Bear joined her.
Sorry this shot is so blurry. There was quite a lot of action taking place with small children running in front of my shot.

Baby Bear finally posed nicely for me in front of the pig. She was actually a really nice pig and danced around her pen for us. In years past there was always a sign that the pig was known to bite, so we appreciated a nice one this year.

Sister enjoyed feeding the animals (here she is feeding the spoiled goats).

Brother makes the goats upset by giving some of his food to the lambs. They

were so sweet and made the neatest music. Can you find all three kids in this picture?

Baby Bear races a friend.

Baby Bear finally pets a goat. He didn't like them much at first since they tended to be really exuberant.

Yes, they went through EVERY puddle. Next time I need to make sure their pants are tucked inside their boots.

Welcome back Fall!

Brother's First Day of Kindergarten

After three days of torture taking Sister to school and having to return home with Mom and Baby Bear, Brother finally started Kindergarten on Monday. Brother had no problem waving goodbye to Mom at the door. See you this afternoon!
Brother waiting for prayer to begin on his lily pad. My little man off to the big kids' school.

He's loving every moment of it!

Sister Starts School

Last Wednesday Sister started the 3rd grade. While it was the first morning in a long time that I'd had to wake her up, she was pretty excited. Brother had a harder time getting up, but he was excited for Sister too.
Baby Bear, who is normally up at that time, had to be woken up. Crazy boy!

The students are welcomed to school by our parish priest.

Sister at her new desk. As you can tell, she's done with the picture taking by now.

Sister after school, still smiling. It was a grrrrrrreat day!!!

Meet me at Skateland!

Brother's kindergarten class had a summer meet up at Skateland. We couldn't believe how busy it was that night! Brother had a great time skating around without help.Even Baby Bear got some skates on to try this sport out. Sister brought a friend with her (who also spent the night at our house) and she made some new friends too.
The third grade girls taking a rest from all that skating!
It was a fun evening for all the kids.

Parade Time!

The theme this year was: "Once Upon a Time".

We got together with some friends to make our float.
My knight, princess, and dragon ready for the parade.
Here's the group we walked with in the parade. It was lots of fun going with friends this year rather than just by ourselves, though we ran out of candy to throw much more quickly.

Sister made this cute dog collar, leash, and crown for our friend. She loved that he was her Royal Dog for the parade.

Great Wolf Lodge

Cousin R came to Great Wolf Lodge to celebrate her 4th birthday. The kids and I couldn't wait to join them for the day. There aren't very many photos since the whole place has water shooting out everywhere. My camera was soaked after just a couple minutes of photos. Here the kids are at the entrance. I had them walk in sans clothing since I didn't know what the setup would be for storing clothing at this giant water park.
Sister coming out of the Canyon River Run with the cousins. Brother went down many of the water slides hundreds of times.
Baby Bear playing with Cousin R in the water.

Bowling

In August I took the kids bowling. We don't go very often and I'm not even sure if Brother had been before. I know Baby Bear never had and Sister doesn't remember going. Thus, it was a "new" experience for all three of them.Sister did well beating both the boys and a couple of our friend's kids who were there. (She was the oldest on her lane, though). Her fingers hurt afterwards and she probably would have been better off just rolling it with her hands like the boys did.Brother tried to do the finger, but was much more successful when he rolled it. He enjoyed himself and almost tied Sister. Baby Bear insisted on playing. He only ended up bowling a couple times. Then, he spilled orange juice all over himself and me. He spent the rest of our time there complaining about being wet. Oh well. At least he looks cute in the shoes!Next time we go, I'll make my dh go with me and it probably wont be for quite a while. That was an exhausting experience! (=

Celebrating My Loves

Crazy Baby Bear with a wand.Crazy Baby Bear finds a new way to wear a helmet.My dh fancy new transportation to ride to and from work.Sister shows off her bike too.Brother prefers his scooter when riding in the loop.Baby Bear hangs out with Grandpa L.

Baby Bear Turns Two!

My Baby Boy is Two-Years-Old! I just can't believe it. He's a little man now. He walks, runs, skips, hops, jumps, and climbs (sometimes all within the same trip from the bedroom to the kitchen). For quite a while he's been able to understand commands that we give him really well. He is finally talking more than "screeching".

His vocabulary is pretty impressive. We weren't sure if he'd ever stop calling everything a car. Now he can verbally identify cars, trucks, buses, boats, trains (or Choo Choos), helicopters, airplanes, bikes, and motorcycles (motorbikes). He calls other things by name too like: book, door, shoes, socks, cup, bed, blanket (blah blah), ball, and more. He can also say some animal sounds without us telling him first such as: dog-woof woof, cat-meow or yow, cow-moo moo, duck-quack quack.

He calls us correctly: Momma, Dada, Papa, Memere, (Grandpa and Grandma...though they haven't actually had him call him that to them yet...he'll say it to photos), Sissy, Bro, Dog, and Kitty. He also knows some characters mainly from his books such as: Elmo, Buzz Lightyear, Woody, and Big Bird.

He can say commands such as: move, kiss, go, read, tv (which means he wants to watch his Letter Factory video), shhhh, more, up, now, mine, and catch.

The most common phrases I hear are, "More milk, please." "This a car?" (It's part of a game we sometimes play where he asks me about every car and I have to respond yes, or he'll correct me). "Where's Dada?" (He'll ask where lots of people and things are throughout the day). "Momma come see." "See ya. Bye bye." "Poop poo, Momma." (Which means he has poop in his diaper and wants it changed). "Shoes on, please." (Which is normally due to him wanting to go with whoever is leaving). "Go outside, please."

He is still not into present opening. He tends toss them around and hit them with things before he actually gets around to opening them much later. He'll also stop to play with each item for quite a while.

One of his favorite things to do was blowing out his candles. He got to do it many times because he kept blowing them out too quickly so I couldn't get a photo. He now will blow on lights and play candles often. At his Two-Year-Old well-child check with his doctor his stats were:

weight: 30lbs 12.8oz (76th percentile)

height: 3ft 1inch (95th percentile)

He's still growing tall, but is doing great about putting weight on. He loves to eat food. He especially likes fruit (apples, watermelon, pears, grapes, raisins, and blueberries) and vegetables (carrots are his favorite). We do have to be careful because he'll overeat fruit and veggies and get diarrhea.

He's working on dressing himself. He can take his shoes, socks, and pants off really well. Unfortunately, often in the worst places like the middle of the aisle at the grocery store or in the car while I'm driving (not the pants in the car, of course). Most of the time, he'll take his shoes and socks off when we ask him to. He sometimes takes his shirt off, but rarely. He rarely attempts to put anything on again. Normally he just laughs and runs around naked.

He moved onto the bottom bunk at the end of June. I would have left him in his crib longer, but he was constantly jumping on it in the mornings. I would wake up between 6:30 and 7 AM to the sounds of "boing, boing, boing." I was worried he'd break the bottom or the rail. He's has done really well about going to sleep and staying in bed. We had a few nights of him climbing out of bed and knocking on the bedroom door the first week. Now, I am woken every morning between 6:30 and 7 AM to sound of knocking on the boys' bedroom door (he can't open it for some reason). If I don't come quickly, he adds, "Momma (knock...knock) Momma (knock...knock)." When I open the door I have to do it slowly since he is behind it with his large blue blanket. He says, "Hi, Momma." Picks up his blanket (which takes some time as it is bigger than he is) and walks out humming or singing down the hall.

The past two weeks he's been taking swim lessons. I'll update you on that in a later blog along with the big kids. I hope this gives all of you a better idea of what he's doing at two.

P.S. His birthday was August 1. I'm just late in posting this and his well-check wasn't until this past Monday.

Update: I had to add that just a couple days after I finally published this blog, Baby Bear began using a new phrase, "It broke." All day long he brought the same motorcycle toy up to me and would state, "It broke." He'd hand it to me. I'd fix it. Off he'd run/skip/hop and within a couple minutes he'd be back again. "It broke." I think tonight that motorcycle may disappear, but I'm sure this new phrase wont as we have many toys too big for Baby Bear that frequently break when he plays with them. (=