Lilly 'reading' Sandra Boynton's "Blue Hat, Green Hat"

In case you need a bedtime story tonight, Lilly will share hers.  

3rd place at the spring National Karate tournament and some baseball

Unfortunately, Shawn didn't earn a sticker this morning, but he still had a pretty amazing day.

Warming up

He started the day by earning 3rd place at the spring National Karate tournament! His final score was 9.94/10.00.

See the action here.	Hear the yell!
Third place	The judges present scores.

All the hard work left Shawn with a severe calcium deficiency. We made an emergency stop to Culver's for lunch & frozen custard. Crisis averted. Phew!

Lilly was quickly running out of steam. So, while I took her home for a nap, Raj and Shawn got haircuts together.

Later in the afternoon, Lilly and I found new robin's eggs in a nest by our dining room window. Then, we were invited across the street to see our neighbors' daughter, who has babysat for us a couple of times, get ready to go to her Senior Prom. So many sparkles on her dress and shoes!

Lilly entertaining herself (& me) while the boys went off to play

Then, we were off to a Kane County Cougars baseball game. Though we didn't come prepared, it was "Half Way to Halloween" night and some came in costumes. (We joked about Shawn trying to squeeze into his seat wearing his S'mores costume.) The first few innings were a bit painful to watch, so Shawn and Raj disappeared to the Kid Zone filled with inflatable bounce houses and obstacle courses. Lilly and I entertained ourselves at our seats, when there wasn't some silly event on the field between innings. She tried really hard to get a baseball and/or a T-shirt thrown to her. Luckily,  the game picked up and we ended up winning 9-7. To top it off there were fireworks and we got to run the bases afterwards. Shawn took some batting practice.

View from our seats

Shawn and some Ghost Busters

Spanish Class for Lilly

Raj special ordered Shawn a Star Wars calendar and some stickers. The plan for the month of May is that Shawn will earn stickers for getting ready in the morning and for bed at night with 2 or fewer prompts to stay on task. If he reaches his goal of 40 stickers by the end of May, we'll go to LegoLand. (Shawn got a free year pass from his 5th birthday party that we didn't activate until this winter!) This morning he earned his first sticker and he got another at bed time - a great start.

Lilly, on the other hand, had a rough morning. She had two meltdowns before 9:30 am and I'm not really sure what triggered either of them. I was ready to call it a day and go back to bed! Luckily, dragging her kicking and screaming (literally) to Spanish class was what we both needed. We studied modes of transportation, sang "The Wheels on the Bus," colored a steering wheel that we 'drove' around the room, played with some vehicle puzzles, and bounced plush vehicles on a parachute. Though she didn't care a whole lot about the topic, she does love class!

We were able to leave Tiger Lilly behind and enjoyed the rest of the day. We spent the afternoon in the backyard getting some much needed Vitamin D - from the sun & 'D'irt 😎. (I got a little more color than I had intended, but it's not too bad.)  Lilly practiced swinging (hanging by her tummy and the usual sitting position) and has mastered, "Mommy push more, please!" We laid in the grass and sang songs. We checked on the residents of our bird house. Someone's moving in!
And Lilly helped me repot a few house plants. I'm sure they were happy to be outside, too. We giggled when a big, juicy worm surprised us in one of the pots! We moved him to a box Shawn set up for his 'pet' worms. He was thrilled to see it after school.

Lilly fell asleep in time for a quick nap before I got a call from Ferson explaining that Shawn's bus broke down before getting the kids from school and a new bus was on its way, but kids would be 15-30 minutes late being dropped off. No big deal.

Lilly was excited to show Shawn that the little bubbling water fountain was turned back on in the garden outside of the church where their Spanish classes are. Lilly and I would've loved to spend Shawn's class time back outside, but as the official bathroom chaperone in exchange for a tuition break, we settled into our usual seats in the hallway with a bag of crayons and paper as we listened to beginners' music lessons (piano, guitar, violin, etc.) screeching from one room and Spanish class echoing from another.

Not a bad day to start the month of May.

Stroller Strides

Lilly and I had Stroller Strides this morning. I'm still a bit sore from Monday's lunges & squats (which we do often, but somehow did a number in me last time). It's awesome to be having class outside now! I try to remember to dress us in layers because the first couple of minutes can be a little chilly still, more so if it's windy. By the end of class today, everyone was shedding layers! (I may consider actually having Lilly in a stroller instead of wearing her when it gets hot...)

	Lilly and I just enjoyed the calm of blowing bubbles while the boys were a blur around us. Springtime and bubbles just go together like...

Shawn was beyond excited to have 2 neighbor boys come over after school. He's been asking them to come over since the new play set arrived, but they've been busy, sick, or the weather's been crummy. They tossed their backpacks to their mom and came running over right off the bus when she said it was okay. In the hour they played before the brothers had to leave for lacrosse practice, they played on the play set, climbed a tree, explored nature-made 'forts' under trees and shrubs, played a few rounds of hide & seek.

First stripe on double blue belt

See his test here.

Double blue belt

See his test here.  Unfortunately the video cut off before the end of the test, but you can get te idea.

First tooth fairy visit to Shawn

Shawn lost his first tooth today! I was convinced that it still had a few days (or even weeks!) before it would come out - boy, was I wrong!

We were eating dinner and Shawn started playing with his wiggly tooth. All of a sudden it popped out! I think it scared him a little. He put it on the table and just stared at it for a minute while I was cheering & clapping! When it finally sunk in what had happened, he got excited and yelled for Raj, who had gone to the kitchen for something. He came rushing back to the dining room to find a slightly bloody gap in Shawn's nervous smile. He shoved a bit of paper towel into the hole and told Shawn to bite down on it. He cleaned off the tooth and put it in a ziploc bag so it wouldn't get lost before the transaction with the Tooth Fairy. Shawn carried around the ziplock bag for the rest of the night.

Shawn was very concerned that tonight's tornado watch was going to interfere with Tooth Fairy's arrival or that a tornado might blow away his tooth! (I can't imagine where he gets his worrying from!) In an effort to distract him from the severe weather outside, Raj told him a story of his first lost tooth:

At school recess, Raj wasn't getting along with a girl in his class. In fact, she smacked him across the face with her gloves! His tooth came out and he was so terrified that he ran home! His mom was surprised when he walked in the door and then school called to see if he had shown up there. It turns out that no one had told Raj that permanent teeth would replace the baby teeth and he thought his teeth were all just going to all fall out. Luckily, someone at school found his tooth and saved it for him in a mini-manilla envelope.  

Shawn thought that was pretty funny.

We also thanked him for his timing: yesterday Raj would have missed it, tomorrow I'd miss it. During the school day, we'd both miss it. Tonight at dinner worked out well! (Plus it was a good excuse for mint chocolate chip ice cream.)

Raj helped him set up a trap to try to catch Tooth Fairy in action. (They tied floss all over the foyer.) After that, Shawn and I read a story called, You Think It's Easy Being the Tooth Fairy? by Sheri Bell-Rehwoldt. It's a very cute story from her point of view. (Maybe next time he won't try to make her job more difficult!) He carefully put his tooth in a special tooth container, put it under his pillow, and reluctantly went to sleep.

Raj said the tooth is officially identified as tooth O. (Baby teeth are lettered & adult teeth are numbered.) Tooth Fairy marked it on a certificate and wrote a tiny letter (1/16 of a sheet of paper!). Both were stamped with an official tooth-shaped hole punch, rolled up into a scroll, and tied with floss. She also left money covered in gold glitter glue rolled & tied with floss - and a business card to her favorite dentist. Shawn woke up 30 minutes before his alarm went off to see if she had gotten the message to come!

Hard to believe my baby is growing up, but things like this won't let me deny it