Conner's hat

Once upon a time there was a little boy named Conner who loved hats. One day he got a super cool brown hat and they became inseparable. I don't remember exactly when we got it, but here's one of the earliest pictures I found of it circa October 2010. He would have been 2 yrs, 9 months.

Conner and his hat had many memories together. They rode on Thomas the Tank engine and climbed trees.


March 2011- they hunted Easter eggs together.

Then it started getting small, for Conner was growing.

The hat even made it until 2012 and helped Conner blow out four candles on his birthday cake. You can see it's very small now.

Then one day, the hat got lost (it's still lost, but I keep thinking we'll find it one day). It was too small, but Conner loved it. His mommy had gotten him a new hat, but it just wasn't the same. He wore the new hat once, but said it hurt his ears and he refused to wear it.

So, then he found his mater hat and decided that would be the new hat. Oh, well. Maybe he'll decide to give the blue hat another chance someday. He keeps saying he'll wear it on Saturday, but then when it's Saturday, he says he'll try it on Tuesday. His mommy likes the blue hat, but I guess Mater it will be for now:) I just read this to him and now he said he'll try the blue hat again this summer.

matching

When I was younger I always thought I'd be a "matchey" Mom with my kids and I did match them sometimes when they were really little, but rarely do anymore. Mostly because it's not economical. Shep just wears all Conner's clothes from the year before (they're almost the same size now, so not sure how much longer that will work!) Also, because Shep refuses to wear anything I suggest. Shep and getting dressed don't get along very well.

They were actually sort of matching the yesterday, so I tried to snap some pictures. Good ol' $5 Old Navy shirts. Love that place.

Does anyone eles' kids get really silly when you pull the camera out??? Not exactly the shots I was going for, but hey, they capture the moment.

The boys and I went to a big consignment sale this morning. I didn't find what I was looking for, but did score a Super Man costume for $2. Here is one happy little boy. You can't call him Shep anymore, he's Super Man and will only answer to that.

No, I don't make my bed...pretty pointless. The covers and pillows just end up on the floor anyway. When I do make it, it's even more incentive to mess up.

Oh, we watched Downton Abbey for the first time last night. Think I'm hooked.

wigs and a log cabin

The boys and I have been doing a little unit study on presidents, particularly Washington and Lincoln the last two days. We've read books, colored and done some simple crafts. This Mom is grateful for the internet and all the ideas out there for uncreative people like me!

Conner loves word games. Here he is cracking an alphabet code to solve a puzzle about George Washington. The answer: "George Washington was the first US president."


Yesterday, we talked about George Washington and made wigs.

Today was Lincoln and we made a log cabin. Conner was very intrigued by the book recounting how when Lincoln was 7 years old he helped his father build the family a new log cabin when they moved to Indiana. He said he wants to do that when he's 7.

You can see from the picture there was quite a bit of peanut butter licking going on.

Zack's been out of town, so it's been a fun project for us. Tomorrow we're going to make a top hat like Lincoln and do a money sorting game since most of our coins have presidents on them.

Happy President's Day!

v-day fun!

I love Valentine's day. Warning: the following pictures contain large amounts of chocolate.

Last night the apartment office had a chocolate fountain. Of course, we had to check it out. Like the little pajama biker?


Conner with all the loot from his v-day party at school.

Opening their card and candy box this morning.

Yummy pink wheat pancakes with a little whipped cream and fruit.

This morning the boys made chocolate covered strawberries. We were going to give them out to some friends, but I caught Shep lapping up the chocolate.

Serious little strawberry dipper.

We still had some chocolate left, so we dipped some pretzels next.

Oh, so yummy.

It took great restraint, but I only had two.

31 wks, 2 days. Oh the joy of being pregnant for all the major eating holidays. Lately, I've hit the "I feel like I've been pregnant forever" stage. I was thinking about something we're doing next month and the next thought was, "And I'll still be pregnant." Anyone relate??

It was such a gorgeous day. After rest time we headed to Amy's for some ice cream and park time. The boys got their usual: chocolate ice cream with m&m's and gummy bears. Doesn't that sound good? I didn't get anything, but did steal a bite or two from Conner's.

Happy Valentine's Day!

100 hundred books

My mom sent me this list of 100 books for kindergartners. I love check-lists and Conne does, too. He was quite excited when I showed him the list. We had several of the books on the list and he loved checking them off. Shep brought a different book to me to read and Conner asked, "Is it on the list, Mom? We need to read books on the list." I think this will be a fun project for us over the next few months.

Here's the list in case you want to check it out for your preschooler!

http://www.woodbridge.lib.nj.us/100books.htm

best gift ever

I got the best gift every this afternoon. After working on his dissertation all day, Zack needed to run to school to print a few things and get his books to prep for teaching next week. He loaded up the boys and I got one-and-a-half-whole hours ALONE...at my house. Unfortunately, I had to run to the grocery store for a few things to last us over the week-end, but I got out of there as quick as possible and just got to enjoy being home alone. When your kids don't nap, this is especially amazing. I went for a short walk, made some pumpkin bread, finished putting the laundry away and uploaded some pictures. Crazy how many things you can fit into 1 1/2 hrs when there are no kiddos around. Thank you to my wonderful husband.

We had a fun, busy week! In addition to our weekly activities, we got together with 3 different friends. It was fun to catch up. We road bikes, played at the park and picnicked. I feel like I can finally have an actual conversation with the other mom when we do play dates. Before it was mostly chase your kids around and try to say a word or two here or there. I like this new stage of having a 4 year old and almost 3 year old!

When we took a meal to a friend last Monday, the boys got to practice being big brothers! They each got a turn holding our friend's 3 wk old. They were so excited. They loved it. I knew Conner would want to hold the baby. He washed his hands ahead of time. Shep surprised me and asked to have a turn holding the baby. Maybe there is hope! I'm thinking it might be a little different though, when it's our baby and not someone else's Lately, he's been saying, "I'm going to kiss the baby and then I'm going to throw him." Yep, that's Shep.

Here are a few pictures from today. Conner has started having "homework" at school. He was so proud. He's doing a colors homework page. He actually read most the color words on his own. I didn't know he could do that.

Next, we got all his valentines ready to take to class on Monday for the V-Day party. He had to sign his name twelve times. Hard work for a 4 year old!

Shep wanted the Yoda card and wanted it taped onto his shirt.

Always trying to think of rest time games that might keep them occupied enough that I get more than 10 minutes of uninterrupted time to myself. They were excited about the puppet show idea, but it didn't work out as well as I had hoped. Shep kept pretending to shoot Conner's puppets as they acted. That didn't go over real well. My boys are so different.



Happy Saturday!

fun with words

Saw a fun word/sentence structure game in a magazine. I took the boys' duplo blocks and wrote simple words on them. It was a big hit. Conner, like most little boys, loves anything with a silly element and wasn't too concerned that is "sentences" made any sense.

Shep didn't quite get the concept and just built things. He ended up taking most the blocks that said, "a", "an" and "the", which made it a little difficult for Conner and I. He said he built an "ant cave".

Saturdays can get pretty long for me with Zack working most the day and evening. I've enjoyed the boys being at the age where we can do fun little games like this. It breaks up the day a little and adds some variety!

Any fun game ideas you've done recently?

random

A few random phone pictures

Here are the boys at Amy's ice cream for Conner's 4th birthday.


Shep discovered a pretty awesome hiding spot while riding bikes the other day. It's just perfect for little boys. He called it his jungle.



I'm not one to get many pregnancy cravings, but I always (pregnant or not) have a bit of a sweet tooth. I'd been wanting one of these for quite awhile. I ate extra healthy all day, so I wouldn't feel quite as guilty:) We even got one for daddy and dropped it off at school for a surprise.

Oh, P. Terry's I will miss you when we leave Austin. I was parked at a light, by the way. I promise I didn't take this while driving.

Random thoughts:

-Shep has pink eye and I'm starting to suspect it's spreading to his other eye. Pink eye really stinks because we can't really go anywhere while he's contagious and since he doesn't feel sick, the boys are getting pretty wild. We played outside this morning when there would be no kids around.

-We had a talk about how super important it is to wash our hands right now and not touch our faces. Conner came running in from the back porch area last night exclaiming, "Mom, Shep got too close to me. Is my eye purple now?"

-We're wearing short sleeves and shorts today and it's February 1st.

-I really want to find a good place to take the boys hiking. We haven't really done that before. Lately, I've been thinking up quite a list of things I want to do with them before baby comes and life gets even crazier. If you live in the Austin area, any kid-friendly hiking spots you can recommend?

-Shep can do flips. I caught him doing real flips on the bed recently. Not a fan of that. He's only 2 1/2.

-The boys have gotten bored with just riding their bikes, so they try to do tricks now. Why can't they just ride their bikes?? Why do boys always have to add an element of danger?

-I will be full-term next month. This baby is sneaking up on me. April 15th still seems pretty far away to me because of all that has to happen between now and then, but I know it's going to be here before I know it!

Happy Tuesday!