Playdate for Lilly and field trip for Shawn

Lilly had a playdate with Bill, Shelley, and Abby today. They played at a park and wore her out so much that she was falling asleep in the wagon on their way home! She ended up taking an hour and a half (or so) nap... with Bill... LOL
While Lilly was busy, I accompanied Shawn on the first kindergarten field trip. We went to Norton Farm, a local farm that's only a couple miles away from school.  The kids learned about gourds, corn, and pumpkins. We went through an easy version of a corn maze and bawked at some chickens.  The students each got to select a mini ear of decorative corn, mini gourd, and a mini pumpkin. Once they use them in class tomorrow for some activities, they'll be able to bring them home to keep. The popular favorite at the farm was the play area, in which the kids ran loose for a few minutes in lieu of recess. While we waited for the bus to eventually retrieve us, Ms. Johnsen led her class in singing "Tony Chestnut" and "Wheels on the Bus." (They added some very creative verses: the teenagers on the bus keep te-e-xting...)

Party, raisins, and restaurant manners

Shawn was able to get himself dressed before Lilly and I were, so he was able to have screen time while I got ready. He thought that was a pretty cool perk. I wonder if it will stick...
Abby's 5th birthday party was this afternoon at Pump It Up in Schaumburg, an indoor bounce house center. Yesterday and this morning, Shawn was concerned and commented that he didn't want her to be 5. I didn't an explanation out of him, but I think he wants them to always be the same age & doesn't like the idea of her not being 4 with him anymore. But, that's just a guess.
Shawn had a great time though the inflatable contraptions make me more than a bit nervous. There were a handful of minor collisions among the kiddy party-ers, but no injuries that'll be visible tomorrow. (Phew!) Shawn jumped, climbed, slid... and most importantly, burned energy. Perhaps he should've saved a little for the rest of the day, but the setting sun shining in his eyes on the way home just knocked him out.
While he napped, Raj had some IDA business to take care of and Lilly and I were anxious to eat. (A late lunch of cake & ice cream, while tasty, wasn't very filling!) I love that Lilly can eat table food without needing it to be liquified first. I still test her/my limits with bite sizes & textures, but I love the food experimentation stage. Anyway, I started her with raisins that I cut... not much larger than a few molecules - they ARE choking hazards! But she handled them with grace and loved them, so I conceded to slightly larger slivers.
Before long, I was giving her carefully selected WHOLE raisins (under a very cautious eye). I've been trying to use the sign language signs for 'more' and 'all done' any time we eat.  Lilly seems to understand what 'all done' means because when I see her turn away from food and I say/make the sign, she gets reeeeally excited. It's still hard to tell if she tries to sign it herself because her arms move so much when she's excited. (If she likes something a lot, her arms flail and her fingers wiggle and she clearly is NOT done!)
Today, she seemed to understand 'more.' I think she tried to sign it to me by clapping. But, clapping is also a new skill that's about a week or two old, so she might have just been excited about the sweet raisins and clapping. Hard to tell.

Monkey Toes

I hadn't noticed her nice pincer grasp until today! (I always mispronounce it as 'pincher grasp.') I'm sure the sticky raisins helped, but there was definitely a difference in her success when she used her index finger & thumb vs a raisin sticking to the palm of her hand. She'd get frustrated when they'd stick to her hand and she'd give up on them faster when they were harder to coordinate to her mouth. I love watching her figure these things out.

Shawn woke up refreshed and we played around until Raj got home.

When Raj came home, we went out to La Hacienda for dinner. (I was in the mood for Mexican food.) We've had to have a few talks with Shawn regarding appropriate restaurant behavior lately (ie not laying down in the booth, etc.). After our last meal out, I mentioned how people used to stop by our table to compliment how nicely he behaved - and it happened often! Yet, nothing like that has happened for a while. He was able to identify that his behavior probably hasn't been all that remarkable when we've gone out lately. I made sure to point out that we don't expect compliments every time we go out - sometimes people might not be able to stop or might just think it to themselves. Plus, people don't generally give compliments for things that are expected. Daddy and I don't get compliments on our behavior because it's just expected that we know how to act. If we weren't acting like we should, somebody, like the manager, might come over to talk to us instead! I think our talk made an impact because I briefly mentioned it tonight when he started to sway and he quickly straightened up. No one stopped by our table with compliments, but the waiter did bring out fried plantains for 3, rather than just 2 for us to share. (We told Shawn he must have earned his own.) Plus, since it didn't take us an eternity to get through dinner, we even had time to watch Toy Story 2 before bed. Another perk Shawn thought was pretty cool.

Mom & Tot Wore 'Em Out!

We had a Mom & Tot Outing with our Mothers & More friends this morning.  It was simply free play time in a multi-purpose room in a church basement, but the kids had a great time with friends they don’t see often, different toys, and a new location.  There were cones set up for an indoor-obstacle course, a plethora of balls to shoot hoops (or whatever), a variety of tricycles, scooters, and cozy coupes, as well as a variety of other toys (a pretend grill, cash register, gas pump, grocery carts…) to encourage interactive play. There was also a craft project for kids to do, as well as a light snack for the kids.  I was shocked that Abby wasn’t interested in doing the craft project (it was just decorating cut-out hearts with markers and stickers), but she was much too busy playing to want to sit at the table.  She did manage to snag a sticker heart before we left, so that made her happy.  Shawn’s lack of interest in the project didn’t surprise me at all.  I knew he wouldn’t want to tear away from the toys.  Some friends from the playgroup invited us to join them at All Aboard Diner for lunch – how could we turn that down?!  On the way home, both Shawn and Abby fell asleep. 

My FaceBook post:

   A fun and playful morning with Mothers & More friends+ exciting meal at All Aboard Diner+ Full bellies+ Cozy winter coats+ Car ride in the warm sun= Not a fighting chance!

I was able to pick up Freecycled coupons for K-cups for my new Keurig and then across town to Raj’s Wood Dale office to pick up a giant box that he needed to take to his Bartlett office, but couldn’t fit into his own car.  The whole time, the kids were sound asleep.  They eventually woke while I was telling Bill about our day when he came to pick up Abby.  She’ll be well rested for fun a night with her Papa Rock, but I’m a little nervous about how late Shawn will be up tonight (and Raj has a late meeting, so I’m on my own to wear him out)!

Gymnastics & Gymboree

After not seeing Abby for four days, Shawn was thrilled to have Abby back!

Shawn must have really missed Abby- he didn't seem to mind when she sidled up next to him & 'got in his space' in Gymnastics today!  During warm-ups, it looked like they were working hard when asked to hop backwards and crab-crawl.  They were tricky!  In small group with Coach Enrique, they started at the obstacle course.  They also worked on handstands, the ladder wall, foam pit, jump track, rings and bars, and balance beams.

After a lunch/snack in the car, Shawn walked into Gymboree and wasn't being very cooperative for some reason. He was fine all morning!  When Music Class started, he hid behind me and wouldn't participate. Arg.  Anyway, we started a jazz & swing unit.  We LOVE the song Boogily Woogily Piggy and look forward to singing it each time this unit comes up!  Suddenly, a pair of hands and feet appeared from behind my waist so Shawn could 'boogy woogy all the way home!'  When the jingle bells came out, I received an impromptu back rub as Shawn used them as props! (Hmm... maybe it's not so bad he's back there!)  Abby had a great time dancing with other girls in a circle to It Don't Mean a Thing, If It Ain't Got That Swing!  Shawn danced along too, but only from behind me.  Shawn also started answering vocab questions from his hiding spot.  In addition to knowing ‘crescendo’ and ‘decrescendo,’ Shawn and Abby did a great job answering questions about ‘forte’ and ‘piano.’  By the time the instrument box came out, he was more than ready!  We also sang Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree, Three Little Fishies, and a few others.  During another swing dance, I kneeled on the floor and swung Shawn and Abby around with (fake) swing dance moves, including spins and (their favorite) backward dips!  Finally, Shawn had lots of smiles, though I don’t know what the issue was earlier!  Finally, Ms. Michelle read/sang What a Wonderful World by Ashley Bryan (one of my all time favorite songs).

During Open Gym, Shawn played with friends on the equipment while Abby tried to poop again.  (She had tried earlier this morning, but was unsuccessful.  She hasn’t gone since she was at our house on Friday, so… it was time.)  At one point, she asked for some privacy, which was great because I could stand outside the door to see if anyone else needed to use the bathroom – she was in there for a verrrrrry loooooong time!  (I actually did bring her out once so another family could go!)  At one point, when I checked on her, she had taken off all of her clothes “to make it easier!” LOL  Whatever works!  Eventually, she did it!  PHEW!

In School Skills, they worked on letters X, Y, and Z today.  They played Hide & Seek (Abby’s favorite part) and with play dough.  For their science lesson, they talked about ‘evaporation’ (Shawn’s favorite part).  They learned that it means ‘drying’ and watched the process by drawing with water-color markers on a paper towel, wetting it, watching the colors spread out, and checking on them throughout class as they dried.  They also watched a puddle of water on the floor as it dried throughout class.  Plus, they felt hand sanitizer evaporate on their hands.  They had to be careful listeners during a ‘sneaky song’ and change from tiptoeing to hiding places around the gym during quiet music to running around in circles during loud music.  In a similar game, they listened as the teachers called out “Giants awake!” and stomped around the room or “Giants asleep!” and pretended to drop to the floor asleep.  For their art project, they decorated hearts in honor of Valentine’s Day, which lead to a few discussions about their heart beat (or ‘heart BEEP,’ as Abby called it). Finally, they read the book How Do Dinosaurs Clean Their Rooms by Jane Yolen and Mark Teague.

A Day of Rest - in Theory

Abby was feeling better today, so she joined us again. We originally had plans to go to the Children’s Garden at the Morton Arboretum with Melissa and Blake, but they had something come up and cancelled. We contemplated going anyway, but it was a nice change of pace not to have any plans today. So, we stayed home!


After breakfast, we played with play dough and a box of tools and molds. They really got into it today! We played with it all for over an hour! Abby really liked smashing the dough into molds and making play dough balls of every color, too. Shawn stayed busy pushing dough through his Play Dough Factory and conveyor belt. He liked using the molds too, but kept asking me to make them for him. I collected the pieces of dough that were drying out and crumbling, added some water and kneaded them back to life. We don’t have the same variety of colors that we once had (blue, green, yellow, and mud!), but at least we have more useable dough to work with.

Next, they changed into swimming suits and played outside in the kiddy pool and sprinkler. I brought a tunnel outside too. They had fun pretending there was a rain storm coming and taking cover in the tunnel and under the shade of the kiddy pool. Shawn and Abby were able to tolerate the +90°F temperature more than I could. Grant it, they were playing in the cool water much more than I was. Since they were having so much fun, I served lunch outside, too. Naptime was a good excuse to come inside and cool off.

They'd hide under the pool canopy when the oscillating sprinkler would shower over them.

 

While Abby napped, Shawn had quiet time. He asked if he could do a project with his paints and I was all too happy to get out the supplies for it. He started with some watercolors and then transferred to washable paints instead. I only got 2 paintings out of him this time, but he was very serious about blending the colors with his brush and watching them swirl into new colors.

After naptime, we played inside. Things got a little wild and very loud for no particular reason, but they had fun playing with airplanes, Legos, and calling each of the Disney princesses on the phone! When Bill came to pick up Abby, Shawn invited himself to play at their house until dinner time.  Bill sent us this video of Shawn and Abby's basement rock concert.

Raj later retrieved him and we ate dinner while we watched Zoo Keeper in the cool basement. It's not exactly an excellent movie, but Shawn had fun seeing animals talk. 

It was an easy and relaxing evening to a fun filled, yet still partially relaxing day!

Brilliant! (Toes)

Abby had a rough night and wasn’t feeling well this morning, so Shelley kept her home to recuperate. So, Shawn and I went to Gymboree on our own.

Today was our first day without Play & Learn Level 6. It felt strange, but I know it’s the right thing to do. Instead, we started with a Hawaiian theme in Music 3. We stayed to play in Open Gym and then Shawn attended School Skills class. I contemplated accomplishing a few things while he was in class, but opted for a manicure and pedicure down the block instead! I missed eavesdropping on what he did in class, but I’m convinced that this was a perfectly wonderful way to spend the time. I know this won’t be a weekly routine, but since I can’t even remember the last time I pampered myself like this, it was a brilliant treat.

Shawn and I snacked on our way home, but I think I over did it. It’s the first time in either pregnancy that I remember feeling a bit queasy. I think I’ll take it easy with food the rest of the day…

A Full Day of Gymnastics, Gymboree, and Biting My Tongue

At the beginning of gymnastics, Abby stopped Coach Vali with a rush of urgency - to show off her painted fingernails! On the balance beam, Abby hopped across without holding anyone's hands! After months of working on boosting her confidence to walk across on her own, she’s suddenly hopping across without a second thought?!?! When I asked her about it after class, she just brushed it off and said she was a big girl now. Well, ok then!

Abby's
(turn 90` left)

Shawn's
(turn 90` left)

Ms. Michelle subbed for Ms. LouAnn today in Art. The theme was 'Fish.' The first project was to make an aquarium. It started by putting glue on the bottom of a page and then covering it with green sand. (It was very hard for the kids to keep the glue/sand on the 'floor' on their tank.)  Then, Ms. Michelle gave them various sponge stamps of sea creatures, a few colors of paint, foam brushes, and glitter glue. The kids got very excited about their projects, but the more they put on their pieces of paper, the more they covered up their fish, and the less they looked like aquariums! Oh, well... they had fun.


They also got to make a play dough octopus with pipe-cleaner tentacles. Abby was able to copy Ms. Michelle by wrapping the pipe-cleaners around a crayon to make the legs curl at the ends. We re-read Big Al by Andrew Clements, which Shawn and Abby have really gotten to like a lot. Finally, they made their own ugly Big Al fish with finger paints on a large fish cut-out and taped to the wall. Abby kept asking for more and more paint! Hers was thoroughly covered and it may take a few days to really dry! Shawn started strong with the finger paints, but it lost its appeal quickly. (Finger painting has never been much of his interest.)

 

 

After class, I transferred the kids from Art 3 to School Skills class starting tomorrow. So, we will no longer be going to Play & Learn Level 6. Otherwise, we’d start Gymboree be at 11:00 am until about 4:00 pm! That makes the day really long. (We did it last week.  It was a lot of fun, but saying that it was too much is a gross understatement!)  While they/I still enjoy the Play & Learn Level 6 class a lot, they really have outgrown it now. (I’ve mostly come to terms with that fact.) I joked with Ms. MaryBeth about missing out on her class, but it backfired. She reminded me, “You know, there’s a way to solve this problem! You just need to have another baby so you can enroll in the classes again!” DOH! I bit my tongue and replied, “I know, I’ll keep you posted!” (I should’ve known better since this has been an ongoing banter between me and the staff for a very long time.)
 
Moving on...

I hadn't anticipated continuing Art 3 because I didn't want to pay for both Art and School Skills classes. However, as we were leaving today, Ms. Michelle realized that Shawn and Abby were the only two students that are actually enrolled in Art 3 right now, while a few others come on a more inconsistent basis. She said that there's a possibility that Ms. LouAnn (and the owner, Melissa) might invite us to stay in Art 3 to keep the class going and entice others to join - free of charge! Therefore, we'll go to Art 3 next week either as our last week or as our first free week! Good deal!


We came home for lunch and naptime. Abby woke up about half way through her usual nap, crying and obviously upset. I eventually got her to calm down and got her to reveal that she had a bad dream about lightning. She eventually did go back to sleep, but I don't think it was very restful. She is normally a fairly sound sleeper, so this was a big surprise.

When Abby went home later, Shawn wanted to play outside.  I was expecting him to pull out his bike, gardening tools, baseball, football, or something along those lines.  Instead, he asked for the push-broom hanging on the garage wall!

Really? Why would I say no or discourage you when you ask if you can sweep out the garage?!


In the evening, I left Shawn and Raj to get an awfully needed haircut. I hope I didn’t give myself away, but I have a feeling Becca sensed something. When we were catching up with events in our lives since my last haircut (Shawn’s birthday, our trip to Disney… NOTHING about a positive pregnancy test!), I mentioned that we were looking at preschools and my nervousness about the concept. Her first question: “So, are you knocked up yet?” AHHHHHH!!! I could only get out “I’ll keep you posted!” (Thank goodness I had said it earlier at Gymboree, so I didn’t have to sputter too much!)

Oh, man.

This is going to be hard.

I Want to SCREAM! (in a very good way)

I anxiously called my doctor’s office to make schedule my first prenatal appointment, but got their answering service. Too early. ARGH!! Another ten minutes later, I got through. I have to wait until I’m eight weeks pregnant before they’ll see me… August 30th may as well be an eternity from now! I remember having to wait when we found out we were pregnant with Shawn, but I didn’t remember it being so long. Luckily, according to an online Pregnancy Calendar , I’m already three weeks pregnant, so just 5 more to go… Will I make it?

It’s so hard not to announce our news to everyone I see!


I dropped Shawn and Abby off at Spanish class and had to leave the center in order to stop myself from talking too much to the staff. I camped at Panera a few blocks away instead. While I had a list of things I should have been doing, I browsed pregnancy websites and tried to remind myself of what to do while pregnant – what types of foods to eat (and not), etc. I downloaded pregnancy apps to my iPhone…

I’m pregnant!!

 

I can’t concentrate on anything else!

Ok, I'll try.

 

After having a few weeks of inclement weather, Shawn and Abby were thrilled that class was outside at the park today. They were excited to tell me that they put bandaids on a stuffed teddy bear and a kitty cat coloring page because they were pretending the animals had 'ouchies.' They learned words about being sick or hurt, though they couldn’t tell me what they were. (It's a good thing they brought home a sheet explaining different vocabulary, so I can attemp to help them practice.)

While Abby napped, Shawn and I spied on a baby rabbit. He looked about palm size and grateful to have found shade behind some planters in the backyard. I wanted to offer him cool water and greens, but I knew that opening the door would startle him away. Still, it was sweet to watch the little bunny rest.

Eeek! I’m pregnant!!

Happy Birthday, Shawn!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SHAWN!

Again, there was no rush to get out of the house this morning. I did think ahead last night and left the blinds and curtains in Shawn's room open so the sun could wake him naturally rather than me doing it. It worked nicely. Even though he had a very hard time going to sleep last night knowing that today was his birthday, he woke an hour earlier than normal and, most importantly, smiling and in a great mood! He was even awake early enough to see Raj off to work. Shawn's breakfast wasn't photo worthy this morning, but he was thrilled to have blue eggs and muffins (fudge and chocolate chip).


Once everyone was fed and ready to go, we headed to the Children's Garden at Morton Arboretum.  After coming almost half a dozen times already this year, I went ahead and got a membership to the Arboretum. If I had gotten it earlier, it would've almost paid for itself by now! Oh, well. We'll keep coming back. Maybe one day, we'll actually see what else is there besides the Children's Garden! Not today, though.


Shawn and Abby knew exactly where they wanted to go (usually together), while Opa and I tried to keep track of them. They worked their way through the Backyard Discovery Gardens and the Adventure Woods. In the Discovery Gardens, I think their favorites are the Curiosity Garden with a small waterfall and polished bronze frogs spitting water into a pool of smooth rocks as well as a tunnel and bridge that leads to two log cabin play houses and Every Which Way which is a playground looking area with a mass of cement tree roots to hide beneath, steep slides with a mulched cork wall to climb, a water pump to operate and guide the water down multi-tiered canals (though the pump has been removed), and a play structure with rain sticks to spin and a Plexiglas dome to ogle through. Of course, every single garden area also had a bright red water pump that was irresistible. They had no hesitation to stand directly under the spout while the other pumped the handle - possible trying to get a drink, but get doused in the process! (It's a good thing it was warm and dry today. I'm sure the water pumps helped cool them off.) In the Adventure Woods, their favorites were the Wonder Pond, which is swarming with tadpoles (and people trying to get a closer look at them), the tree house / rope net bridges that make up Under the Trees, the man-made Grotto and Secret Stream (though Opa and I would cringe every time a child would splash a small boulder into the water, hoping that no toes or fingers would be squashed in the process), and the Evergreen Walk and Lookout with another tree house / rope net bridge that led to view finders and staged critters in the trees. We stopped for a snack and drink break at the Lookout point before working our way back out of the Children's Garden. We did stop at the Central Plaza to marvel at the giant ball of granite (approximately three feet in diameter) with various leaves carved into the sides and spinning on a fountain of water. The kids had fun trying to change its rotation and felt very strong when they were successful.

Back at the car, we had another snack and changed the kids into clean, dry clothes. I was absolutely certain that they would be snoring by the time we drove out of the parking lot, but they were still chatting away when I made a detour to pick up some newsletters for Mothers & More. Abby was fast asleep minutes later, while Shawn somehow stayed awake the entire drive home! I was even able to transfer Abby to bed without waking her at all. An hour later, I let Shelley know that Abby probably wouldn't be waking on her own at her usual time because of the extensive outdoor playing we had done, so unless she needed to be awake, there was no reason to rush home to pick her up by 4:00 pm. Shelley agreed and said to let her sleep. Bill came to get her at 5:30 pm and she reluctantly woke from her three hour nap.


In the evening, we walked to our local Frontier League baseball game to see the Schaumburg Boomers play the River City Rascals.  We picked a spot to sit on our picnic blanket at the top of a hill in the lawn.  Nearby was a kids’ area that had a bouncy tent obstacle course and inflatable slides.  Shawn ran through the course dozens of times and used a Boomer’s blanket to add some slip to his his slide.  While he was burning some energy, the New Jersey Hardwicks called to sing him Happy Birthday.  Raj arranged for the announcer to broadcast that it’s Shawn’s third birthday today.  We didn’t catch it displayed on the scoreboard, but we definitely heard it.  The game didn’t end in our favor (L 12-3), but the fireworks show made up for it.  Too bad that Shawn fell asleep moments before the pyrotechnics began.  The incredibly full day exhausted him to the point that he slept through all of the booms and bangs and half of our walk home.  I had hoped he’d stay asleep to I could put him directly to bed, but I knew better.  Shawn had just enough of a rest to keep him up well into the night.

On the plus side, he got to open a few birthday cards when we got home.  One card revealed that we are going to Disney World in a few weeks!

Happy Birthday, Shawn!

Posted on FaceBook:

Having a wonderful day celebrating my little man's 3rd birthday! Happy Birthday, Shawn! We love you so very much! — with Paul Demmert and Rajiv Puri at Schaumburg Boomers.

Mandy Nye, Sara Bellini Pandolfi, Mona Mann, Kristen Weller, Katie Stump Holt, Nicole Roof Robinson, Gina Kawell Snow, Edward Demmert, Reena Uppal, Leslie Demmert, Melissa Rubalcaba Riske, Kenny Thor, Carolyn Wilke Wojtal, Toni Marcinowski LoVerde, Jonathan Demmert, and Evelia Krzysik like this.

Shelley Veloz Powell Happy Birthday Shawn! Hope you guys are having fun!

Leslie Demmert Go Boomers Go doesn't quite ring like go Cubs Go, but I hope they win for you.

Joni Demmert Anderson Happy Birthday Shawn! (PS I like your shirt!)

Melissa Bujak Dresen Happy Birthday little guy

Lorinda Oertel Anderson Happy happy birthday Shawn! Have a fun filled evening ♥ Conrad & Miss Lorinda

Deborah Johnson Clemons Happy Birthday Shawn!!

Sara Bellini Pandolfi happy birthday!

Liz Ri Many sweet Happy Birthday wishes!

Edward Demmert A big happy birthday to Shawn from the CA Demmert's!

Hema Puri Happy Birthday Shawn, God Bless You. We will see you soon.

Bm Bär Happy Birthday, Shawn! Greetings from Germany!

Stacey 'Dunlap' Porter Happy Birthday Shawn! Congrats Shannon -sounds like a lovely time

Debbie Fairbairn-White Happy birthday Shawn. Hope you had a great day.

Mona Mann Hi Shannon wouild u please give Shawn a big hug & some kisses from me tell him I wish him a day fill w/ fun, balloons & a big cake to taste Happy Birthday Shawn I love u bye baby

Cantigny Park with Opa

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SHELLEY!
The morning started off very slowly. Shawn moped and whined about waking up at all and had a hard time getting going. Abby was in a fine mod, but she wasn't interested in eating more than a few bites at breakfast. Meanwhile, Shawn's breakfast inadvertantly greeted him back!

English muffin, cherries, &
scrambled eggs dyed blue

Once we finally got moving, we successfully wore out both kids fairly quickly.

We spent almost four hours walking through gardens at Cantigny Park, admiring flowers, plants, and trees. Shawn and Abby had a fantastic time dodging (well, not really) sprinklers and fountains, following different paths made from rocks, stones, pavement, grass, wood chips… you name it. Opa was an amazing guide through the gardens.  He found wild strawberries that we sampled (though they weren’t very flavorful).  He also introduced the kids to the characters inside the snap dragon flowers.  Abby loved roaring and snapping the flower, but Shawn didn’t like the idea of a dragon biting his finger and kept a watchful distance instead. We found a crabapple tree whose branches formed an almost perfect dome to the ground.  Shawn and Abby called it their ‘Tree Tent’ and could have played in its shade for hours. When we eventually coaxed them out, we found the Idea Garden with all kinds of fun things: a person made out of flower pots, a Big 10 container garden with flowers that matched the schools’ colors, areas designated to the four seasons as well as others planted with the five senses in mind. After all the gardens that we did see, I can only imagine how much of the property we didn’t get to!

The dangling bandaid on Abby's knee couldn't hold on any longer as her pants rubbed passed during a potty break - she was upset for a millisecond, but wasn't concerned about it any other time throughout the day. In fact, she ran and played as much as she did before her fall and did so with no limping, favoring, or even tip-toe walking! There were plenty of distractions to keep her occupied.


We took a break back at the car and enjoyed a picnic lunch under a shadey tree. Even a snooping ant joined us - typical! We used grapes to perfect our chipmunk cheeks.

 

 

Afterwards, we strolled through a an outdoor exhibit of tanks and artillery cannons that Abby and Shawn got to climb all over. Abby was more interested in the pictures on the informational signs and the clovers, sticks, and rocks she collected from the ground than the actual tanks and guns, but she found plenty to captivate her attention. Shawn liked exploring the military machines as if they were playground equipment, in addition to the clovers, sticks, and rocks along the way.

While they were both drained from our walks through the gardens early on, they were thoroughly exhausted on the ride home. Shawn was fast asleep and transferred to bed without batting an eye. Abby opened her eyes as we opened her car door, but just long enough to change her diaper and wipe off some of the dirt that she had magnetized during our adventure.

Meanwhile, Opa treated Baron to a short walk, which he was grateful for on such a nice day. While the kids napped, Opa and I enjoyed our own (well-deserved) 'quiet time' and snack.

When Raj got home, we took Opa to Shawn’s favorite restaurant – Pilot Pete’s. We pointed out the comedic ‘$100 hamburger’ on the menu, though none of us ordered it.

A $100 hamburger trip typically involves
flying a short distance (less than two hours),
eating at an airport restaurant, and flying home.
"$100" originally referred to the approximate
cost of renting or operating a light general aviation aircraft
for the time it took to fly round-trip to a nearby airport.

- Wikipedia

Shawn pointed out the variety of aircraft hanging over our heads and displayed in glass cases. Even when we don’t have a view of the runway, there’s always something to see at Pilot Pete’s, which possibly makes up for the so-so food that they serve!

Look Who's Growing Up!

In the past few weeks, we have had a lot of changes. I already wrote about how Shawn transitioned from a toddler bed to a full sized big boy bed. Since then, he has also dropped his nap in exchange for having a much, much earlier bedtime. It’s been wonderful - instead of going to bed at 11:30 pm, he's not going to bed closer to 8:30 pm! The whole family is happier with his more reasonable bedtime!


We also got to put on his new bed sheets with cars, trucks, and roads on them. They go really well with the mural on his walls!

Plus, Shawn has figured out how to put his own shoes on. He and Raj went to Meijer and got new Toy Story shoes with characters Woody and Buzz Lightyear on them. These new sneakers even flash when he walks. Sometimes I catch him stomping just to see them flicker! He is very excited about putting them on by himself. Thank goodness for Velcro!


Every once in a while, Shawn wants to wear underwear instead of diapers / pull-ups. Potty training is proving to be a very, very slow process. But, he's getting better at it.  He understands that babies wear diapers and big kids wear underwear, that kids in diapers don’t get to do as many fun things as big kids in underwear do (like preschool, the kids’ land at Ikea, etc.). He’s staying dry a lot longer in between changes is asking to wear underwear more often. Now, that it's not every day, but it's happening more often than it used to. Sure wish he was one of the ‘trained in a weekend’ types, but everyone reminds me that this isn’t something that can be rushed… sigh.


Shawn has even had his first activity without me involved! He and Abby went to a ‘Dora and Diego's Super Scavenger Hunt’ Spanish class at Language Stars. (The class description was, "Oh no! A group of baby animals is lost in the jungle, and they need help! Can you help Dora and Diego find them? Come join the super scavenger hunt to make a super rescue!") It was a Kids Only class for 3-5 year olds. (Technically, he didn't qualify for the class because he’s too young, but because he knows the center, the routines, many of the teachers, and has been attending classes for so long, the director invited him in anyway. Plus, it didn’t hurt that Abby was going to be there, too.)

When they arrived, the students each got a name tag and drawstring backpack. Inside the backpack was a pair of binoculars, a map, and vocabulary page to bring home.

 

They got to draw on their backpacks with crayons. I think their favorite part was wearing the binoculars as they searched the center for hidden animals. Very cute!

 

They had so much fun at this special Spring Break class that we've agreed to sign them up for the Kids Only class this summer. Another bonus about the summer class is that they take the children outside to a park - not to have recess outside, but to have an outdoor classroom. This allows the students to learn new vocabulary about the world around them and extend the lessons beyond the confines of the classroom. The Kids Only classes are also a longer time. They've been used to having classes last about an hour, while their new classes will be 85 minutes. Many exciting changes! However, I'm torn about moving them up to the next level because I'm certainly going to miss my Spanish lessons in the Parent and Tots classes… but I guess it's not reeeeeeeally my class. Shawn and Abby are doing very well and are ready to do some things on their and learn some independence. I'll just have to figure out another way to learn a few extra words here and there!


So we've had many changes in the last few weeks! It's been very exciting. Shawn is making it very obvious to me that he's not my little baby anymore.

…I’m not sure if I’m ready for that!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

In the wee hours this morning, Shawn woke up and joined Raj and me in bed. Luckily, he went right back to sleep and there was minimal tossing, turning, or kicking involved (at least that I’m aware of)! Recently, Shawn’s been waking up and wanting to come into our bed or not wanting to go to sleep in his bed at all. We haven’t made a big deal about it, but we don’t exactly welcome him in either. Since this didn’t used to be an issue and, in the last week or so, it’s been a frequent request, I wanted to talk to Shawn about what was going on.

So, later in the morning, when Shawn was fully awake, I asked him why he didn’t want to sleep in his own bed ‘last night’ (since it was still dark out). “Because my bed’s too small!” he explained, “I need a bigger bed!” Huh – well, then! That sounds simple enough! I’ll make sure he tells Raj himself tonight! Meanwhile, I have no idea how he got this idea or even knew a bigger bed was a possibility. We’ve never talked about it. There really is still plenty of room in the toddler bed for him – it’s not like he’s bumping his head and feet on the ends. As far as he knows, all kids have beds like his (cribs converted with a toddler railing)! Weird. When I told the teachers at Gymboree this afternoon, Ms. Mary Beth suggested maybe tying a ‘big boy’ bed to potty training… hmmmm...

We attended Art Class this afternoon and I felt like we got a little more ‘bang for our buck’ today. After a few minutes of free paint, the kids colored a cut-out heart with chunky shaped red crayons, glued it to a larger piece of construction paper, and then added glittery foam hearts to it. Shawn was engrossed with the new crayons that were about the size of his whole hand and shaped as hearts, bowls, and simply over-sized crayons. On the other hand, after a few seconds of scratching them across his paper, he lost interest in the actual project. I got him to glue the large heart to his construction paper when I showed him that he could pour the glue from his dixie cup and then spread it around, rather than neatly apply the glue with Q-tips, like the rest of the class. The foam hearts were lost on him entirely. In contrast, Abby went to town! She colored all over her heart cut-out, used her Q-tip to carefully cover the back with glue, and then did the same to add the foam hearts. All. Completely. Independently.

Abby's

Shawn's (sort of)

Once the Valentines were made, we returned to the ‘Circus’ theme that we’ve been doing for a few weeks. The next project was more fun (even to me). The kids covered the back of a paper plate with yellow, brown, and orange paint using a sponge brush. Then, they glued on eyes, a nose, a mouth (a piece of foam that looked like a packing peanut - ??), and a yarn mane to create a lion. Shawn didn’t care for the painting (so I did that part), but he really got into it when we started added the other features. Again, Abby needed little to no help. She did a great job thoroughly covering the plate with paint, leaving barely any white showing even around the edges. She added facial features on her own, but needed a little help with the mane because the yarn stuck more to her fingers than it did to the plate! I think the final products are among my favorites of all their art projects so far!

Abby's

Shawn's

Then, Ms. LouAnn gave the grownups a choice of either doing a third art project, which she explained may be more challenging than our typical projects, or having more time to play with the toys in the sand/water table. Almost unanimously, we opted for the third project. (I’ve never really understood why there’s so much time at the end of class for play time – we could easily do more projects, or better projects, with that time!) The kids were to use colored foam peanuts to make an elephant on black construction paper. (What? How?) Ms. LouAnn handed out sea sponges and explained that if the peanuts got a little damp, they’d get sticky. (Ooookay…? Still, not understanding what we’re supposed to do.) She also gave us glue. (Alrighty, not sure about this one, but he we go!) Shawn was completely lost, so while he played with the peanuts, I worked with Abby. We arranged the peanuts on her paper trying to shape the body of an elephant, but we weren’t being very successful. Instead, we started over and focused on just an elephant head. We made a long trunk (highlighted with a strip of aluminum foil), big ears, and hopefully, the rest of the head would just emerge as we went. As Ms. LouAnn explained, “The important thing is that the children know it’s an elephant and can tell you about it.” Then, it’s perfect! She knew exactly what it was and could tell me where the ears, nose, eyes, mouth, etc. were. Great job, Kiddo – better than what I would’ve done on my own! It turned out that Ms. LouAnn took the opportunity to help Shawn make his elephant… though the few times I glanced over, it looked like she was doing most of the work. (That made me feel better, since sometimes I wonder if I’m doing too much of the project for him, leading to his disinterest. But, it looked like he was already aloof about it and she just didn’t want him to go home empty handed!)

Abby's

Shawn's

There was still time for Ms. LouAnn to read See the Circus, by M. A. Rey, while the kids had a snack. Rather than our typical Winnie the Pooh cookies, one of the other children brought in Valentine’s Day cookies for everyone. The kids even still had time to play in the toys in the sand/water table, which just turned out to be red air bean bags that they pretended were “Valentines” to exchange with each other…  Glad we did the third project!

Raj and I agreed that we weren’t going to exchange Valentine’s gifts this year. However, I knew he’d still bring something, so I made a present for him – without spending a penny. I took a verse from ‘our’ song (Wonderful Tonight, by Eric Clapton), printed it on velum, layered with some fancy scrapbooking papers, and framed it. I’m glad I did it – it was fun to watch him realize what the verse was.

Raj brought me a lovely bouquet of roses and a very sweet card. He also had a Mylar heart balloon and a box of chocolate turtles, but Shawn claimed them for himself right away. I gave Shawn new toys for the bath tub: a basketball hoop with squirting balls, a motorboat, and a waterproof bath book about opposites. Then, we went out to an incredible dinner at Redstone American Grill (courtesy of a gift card from the team at Artistic Smiles). YUM!  However, as cliche as it may sound, the best part was spending the evening with two of my favorite men.  Cupid's arrows have struck me hard!  (Wish I had captured my two incredibly handsome Valentines on camera, but it didn't occur to me until it was too late!)

I did have Shawn tell Raj what he thought about his bed and why he didn’t want to sleep in it lately. Though a little surprised, Raj agreed that if it’s something Shawn thought he was ready for, then we may as well go for it! Looks like we have a project for this weekend…