Preschool Man

Here's my big man eating breakfast before his first day of preschool yesterday (September 8th). My mom took him to school and they managed to get out of the car and into the school during a lull in the torrential downpour that lasted almost all morning. Huston didn't seem all that nervous leading up to school starting. I expected him to be saying "No, Mommy, Huston doesn't want to go to preschool," but every time we talked about it, he would just say, "You're going to preschool. Grandma's going to take you." He didn't cry when Grandma dropped him off. She said he just walked in nervously, kind of chewing his shirt. But when she picked him up the teachers did suggest that he bring something special next time because he was kind of whimpering for awhile. So Bear Bear might get to go to school next week.

Here he is standing in front of the door to Saint Stephen's. I loved the little snippets I got from him about school. He has a cubby hole with his name on it. I asked him what he put in his cubby hole and he said, "Oh, your backpack." (Almost every sentences starts with "oh" these days). He said, "Did they turn the lights off," and indeed they did turn the lights off for nap time and my mom said Huston was still sleeping when she came to pick him up (he was one of three kids still dead asleep on the floor while they other kids played). Never would I have expected that!

He came home with a heart sticker on his hand and based on the little "recipe" cooking activity he brought home, I deduced that they read The Kissing Hand, a sweet story about starting school. The little heart sticker is supposed to represent a mom's kiss that stays with you all day at school. He got really upset when his heart sticker fell off at home, and this from a kid that never wants to wear stickers for more than 3 seconds.

He told me they had circle time and he also told us "The music didn't work. Did it go 'mmmmmmmm'," so there must have been some kind of technological mishap that made an impression on him. And then late last night he suddenly bust out with, "At your preschool did they sing 'Days of the Week, Days of the Week.'" I found the Dr. Jean song on my ipod that I think they might have sung and he got really happy listening to it.

So, a fortuitous start to the school year. I hope he loves school and I can't wait to go up there and meet his teachers and see his little class.

Random Updates

I just had to record, so I don't forget, that Arden waved for the first time yesterday, September 4th. Clarke and I took the kids to the park because the weather was so nice in the morning and Arden saw a lady walking three dogs and she got so excited. (Her first real interaction with a dog was at Huston's birthday party with my brother's dog, Pup. She loved Pup and followed her around making happy sounds during the whole party). Anyway, she stretched out her little hand and started waving it up and down while she kicked her legs and strained to go see the little doggies. The rest of the day she would occasionally move her hand up and down or open and close it while she watched it, as if she was thinking, "Oh, so that's how you do it."

Although she's not walking yet, she took her first steps about a week ago, on August 26th. It is so fun to set her a few feet away from me and let her toddle over. She looks just like Frankenstein with her arms outstretched and her lurching, lunging motions. She can easily take 5 or 6 steps in a row, but usually lunges towards you at the end and still doesn't really try to walk by herself.

Huston and Arden both had check ups last week (Arden's 9 month and Huston's 3 year). Arden is now 29 inches tall, which is 90th percentile, and 18 pounds, 12 ounces, which is 50th percentile. Huston is 38 and a half inches tall, which is in the 75th percentile, and he weighed 31 pounds, which I think is 50th percentile.

Okay, that's all the updates for now.

THREE!

Happy 3rd Birthday, my sweet boy! I can't believe you're already three! You're an adorable, hilarious mess of a kid. You love windshield wipers and garage doors and are never happier than when you're allowed to push all of the buttons in a car or open and close a garage door. Today at your party you got to play with lots of windshield wipers and you told me, "Did you get to do Grandpa's wipers and Mimi's wipers and Uncle Jay's wipers!" You were not interested in opening your presents and, in fact, only opened them all because you were told you could play with windshield wipers after you opened gifts. You're so silly! Everything in the world is either a garage door or a windshield wiper to you. You use combs and straws from Chick-Fil-A as wipers, and the little "roll-top-esque" door on our hutch as a garage door.

You are afraid of the "knobs" on the end of your bed and always have to be reassured at night that they won't do anything to you. We cover all four of the posts up with blankets and you say, "The knobs don't have faces. The knobs can't talk to you. Bear Bear will help you. Jesus will not let the knobs talk to you." You sleep with Bear Bear, Blankie, and three real windshield wipers (two front and one back) every night.

Your favorite book of late is "Blue Goes to School" (as in Blue's Clues). You'll be starting preschool in two weeks and Mimi bought it for you to help you get ready. You have the whole thing memorized and can recite it.

You love the video "It's a Dad's Life" on You Tube and always ask to watch it on my ipod. You can sing almost the whole thing from memory and Daddy just told me today that when he gets you down out of your car seat you start to sing the part that says "my whole entourage hops out the minivan." You are fascinated by minivans and think that the dryer lint trap is just like a minivan door. I think you wish we had one so you could push the button to open and close the door. You love the way it slides closed.

You are completely dependent upon your little white chair that you push around the house that allows you to reach all the switches for the lights and the fans. The other day you turned our thermostat up into the 80's and almost sweat Grandma out of the house while she was watching you. You also knocked over our new computer while you were trying to "plug it in" as you said. You're a little more mischievous lately.

Here's some pictures from your party today. Happy birthday, Huston!

You had a great time at your party and loved the train cake Grandma made for you. You only freaked out when we sang the first few words of "happy birthday" and then you started screaming and crying so we had to stop. Still hate that song, I guess. Maybe next year...

You parked yourself by the Chick-Fil-A nugget tray and helped yourself to them. You had fun seeing all of our sweet friends and family and playing with everyone.

Comic Relief

Some days are just harder than others. On those days when I want to simultaneously pull my hair out and hide under the bed, I am grateful for the little things that make me laugh. These adorable pictures of Huston and Arden playing the piano provided me with just such relief the day they were taken (this past week). They are both without clothes in these pictures because during the course of the day, Huston had peed in his underwear while sitting in time out for pushing Arden and taken his pullup off during nap time and peed on the floor. Arden, in turn, had peed and pooped all over herself and the floor while sitting in her high chair because (it turns out) her diaper wasn't fastened well and had come undone. Huston clued me into this catastrophe by yelling, "Mommy! Is there water on the floor!" Unfortunately, it was not water.

I had about had it with poop and pee by the time the day was over.

The pictures below were taken Sunday, after our sweet friends, the Browns, came over to spend the afternoon with us. During the course of playing with Ezra, Enoch, and Marta in his room, Huston pooped (and peed) in his underwear twice. He broke the lightbulb in our new lamp after having been told two times not to touch it. And he took his pullup off again during nap time and peed on the floor again.

Thank goodness these kids are hilarious and I love them so much, or some days I really might buy a one way ticket to a deserted tropical island.

Arden at 8 months

My sweet little Arden is 8 months old now. Here's what she's been up to lately:

Her two favorite toys in the house are this piano that Huston got from his Great-Granny and Papaw and the "Elmo's Restaurant" play kitchen that Huston got for Christmas one year. The piano is a recent discovery, and she gets practically giddy with excitement when she crawls over and starts banging the keys and singing along with her high-pitched squeals. Other than these two things, no other toy can really hold her interest for long. She'd much rather be crawling around, pulling up on things, looking for scraps of paper or crumbs on the floor to eat, trying to crawl into toilets or rummage through garbage cans, or otherwise get into mischief. She is a little explorer.

Arden is eating Gerber puffs and cheerios, along with baby food. She gets pretty mad when I feed her baby food, though, and tries to grab the spoon out of my hand with every bite I give her. This makes for some incredibly messy meal times. It's obvious she'd much rather be feeding herself, but so far she hasn't liked the bananas and avocados I've offered her. I'll have to get more creative with the food choices soon. She started formula at her 11 o'clock feeding (in preparation for me returning to teaching this fall - a post for another day) and has taken to it beautifully. I am so grateful that she has not refused the bottle or formula.

She continues to think her big brother is awesome, and no one can amuse her more than he can. By far the sweetest sound I have ever heard is the two of them playing in the back seat of the car. Huston will do something silly and she will crack up with the most adorable laugh, and then Huston will laugh and do it again. It is precious and wonderful.

Arden loves splashing in the bathtub with Huston, playing in Huston's room, roaming around and exploring, playing peek-a-boo, snuggling stuffed animals (like her stuffed lamb and the stuffed monkeys and big dog in Huston's room), and grabbing her daddy's nose so he'll make a funny sound. She hates having scraps of paper and other forbidden things taken away from her, and will sometimes throw herself backwards onto the floor with her maddest scream when you take some such thing away from her. She uses her pacifier at naptime and bedtime, but doesn't love it like Huston loved his. She still only has her two lower front teeth and she still has the beginnings of some curls in her hair. In general she is an incredibly easy going baby and not hard to keep happy - just hard to keep out of trouble. :)

Fourth of July, Part 2

I never thought it would take this long to complete the second part of this post! Our computer got infected with a nasty virus and we had to get a new one. I'm still learning my way around this new mac, and I'm missing my windows live writer. I can't do photo albums anymore, which makes it kind of tedious to post a lot of pictures. So here are just a few from our Fourth of July.

We ate dinner at Palio's in Mansfield, followed by ice cream at Braum's, followed by some fireworks viewed from a random field (with lots of bugs) with our dear friends, the Browns and Masons. One of Huston's favorite parts of the evening was getting to pee in the grass. After Clarke took him, he came back and announced to everyone, "Did you pee in the grass!" Arden stayed awake and seemed to enjoy the fireworks - she occasionally babbled things at them. Huston liked the fireworks too, but wanted to make sure they weren't going to "get him." He kept saying things like "They're not going to get you. They're not going to come get your head."

Happy Fourth! (just a month or so late)

Fourth of July Weekend, Part I

Our fourth of July weekend started with an impromptu trip to the zoo on Saturday.  Clarke thought the overcast weather would mean smaller crowds and a more pleasant experience for us, and he was right.  Aside from a few “toddler moments” we had a great time, even if Huston was more interested in playing with the doors, telephones (inside the MOLA), and souvenir machines than in seeing the animals.

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This is Clarke, talking to the birds.  He’s a bird-talker.  I don’t know if you knew that about him.

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Huston playing with the souvenir machine.

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Running through the waters misters to cool off.  Not really sure why he’s covering his ears.

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The obligatory “asleep on the way home” shot.  Huston briefly woke up to tell us, “Is it too sunny.  You close your eyes for it’s too sunny.”  He wanted to make sure we didn’t think he had fallen asleep.