The boys and I had a real treat this morning…we got to go to the zoo with Aunt Beans (who was on vacation from work this week)!!! We rode the carousel, checked out the creatures in the Unseen New World exhibit, brushed the goats, and fed the lorikeets. Yay for family fun!!!
After Roman woke up from his morning nap, we all went out for a quick sanity break to feed the ducks. I decided it was time to take the boys home and feed them when they started eating more bread than they were throwing to the ducks. Ha!
We had so much fun hanging out at MeMe and PaPa’s on Memorial Day. The boys loved shooting water guns, running in the sprinkler, and playing tee ball with Sam. And it was such a great sight to see the family play baseball on the field Dad made (it made me think of “Field of Dreams”…”if you build it, they will come”…haha). There’s nothing that can compare to being outside on a beautiful day, surrounded by green space, and to getting to spend quality time with family and old friends.
My dear friend, Julie Lee, surprised us with a visit this afternoon. It was SO good to see her and to catch up over dinner with the kids. Thank God for true friends who, no matter how much time or space has passed between, always pick up right where they left off. I love this fun shot of her sitting on the front porch with the boys.
The boys and I had a treat today and got to spend the day with Cousin Jordan. She came with us to the Hatcher Family Dairy for a tour, played with Homemade Gak and Do-A-Dot markers with the boys, went for a walk with us around the neighborhood, and helped us cheer Jonas on at his last t-ball game of the season. I was so thankful for her help wrangling the boys at the dairy farm and the ball field. And I loved getting to spend time with my niece and catch up with her (we even had a few minutes of quiet time to play a few rounds of Boggle)!!! We look forward to hanging out with her again this summer.
Today was Jonas’ last day of preschool (this year…it’s hard to believe he’ll be in the 4/5’s in just a few short months).
It was a special morning, as Tom and I and Xander and Roman joined him in his classroom, along with the parents and siblings of his classmates. His teachers gave each child a little photo book, chronicling their school year in pictures. It is SO priceless being able to look through Jonas’ and to not only see how much he’s changed and grown from the beginning of the school year to the end but to have a window into his preschool world.
Xander and Roman enjoyed kicking around the classroom. Here’s a picture of them checking things out and of Jonas with his fun teachers, Mrs. Patti and Mrs. Angela.
Aunt Beans came over for a visit this weekend which just delighted our hearts!!!
Roman had his first haircut today!!! He did such a good job. He sat by himself while I held on to him a little to make sure he didn’t fall out of his seat. I was surprised he didn’t start wiggling sooner than he did (but he was totally into watching his brothers play with Mrs. Leann’s kids while she cut his hair in her kitchen.) I’m not going to lie…I got a little teary-eyed watching his sweet baby curls fall to the floor. But he’s still got some upstarts of curls left that can’t help but wing out, so that just delights my heart (I’ve never had a curly headed baby before…hehe!). Sweet baby Ro!!!
The boys and I went strawberry picking this morning with our mom’s group…something we’ve all been looking forward to since last year…with an added bonus…Daddy surprised us and walked in the door just before we were about to leave to let us know that he took the afternoon off from work to go with us!!! We had a big time picking strawberries, ate a picnic lunch afterwards, and enjoyed some homemade strawberry-honey popsicles for dessert.
In his fourteenth month, Roman is: doing the signs for light and up; nodding yes with much deliberation; saying “up”, “ut” for “out”, “ap” for “apple”, and “ope” for “open”; using “ah-guh” and passionate grunts and gestures as his main mode of communication (“oatmeal” is more like “oh-guh”, “cheese” sounds like a very nasal “ch”, and “JoJo” is “guh-guh”); waving to us at meal times and kicking off the prayer by putting both hands up in the air; going to sleep awake for naps and bed time; learning how to sleep through the night FINALLY; getting a kick out of throwing away his own diaper; becoming very fascinated with Jonas’ tricycle; breathing a sigh like mommy at nursing times and cracking up about it; and loving his favorite book “Five Silly Monkeys”.
Jonas and Xander and I went for a walk this morning and enjoyed splashing in the puddles and checking out all the things that wash up after a rainy night (worms, slugs, caterpillars, and snails). We had fun playing in the garage this afternoon too…Jonas was all about the rocket ship Tom made for him out of a cardboard box, Xander loved riding his tricycle around and around in circles, and Roman liked toting around his plastic shovel.
We’re trying to resurrect our evening walks now that it’s warmed up a bit. Roman loves to get out of the stroller and blaze a trail. Here he is with a dandelion that caught his eye and made him break out into a big smile…so precious. And here are Jonas and Xander, fascinated with a dead snake that Daddy picked up with a stick for them (don’t you love Jonas’ head-to-toe camo, backwards shirt, and swim shoes?).
The boys and I LOVE going to storytime every week at the library. It’s always interesting with my three little wild men…they all pretty much act their age (haha). Jonas has gotten to where he sits quietly, pays attention, and responds to Mrs. Karen’s questions. Xander usually goes and gets a book and sits in my lap and then gets frustrated with Roman for trying to get into his space. And Roman likes to toodle around, giving moms and kids alike pats, looking in diaper bags, and pulling books off the shelf. We’re so thankful for our sweet and understanding librarian, Mrs. Karen. I snapped this picture of her with the boys today after story, craft, and snack time and after the boys had picked out their books. She’s been reading to them since Jonas was younger than Xander and Xander was in the Bjorn!!! Yay for our community and yay for the library!!!
It felt like summer today, so I busted out the water table and the baby pool for the boys this afternoon. They had a blast…especially when Daddy came home and created a sprinkler effect with the garden hose for them to run in (I was so happy to see that Xander was still just as much of a water dog as he was last year.)
The boys and I (to the exception of Roman) are feeling a little bit under the weather today, so we decided to just take it easy at home. While Roman was taking his morning nap, I loaded up my arms with snacks, drinks, paint, and paintbrushes and headed out into the front yard with Jonas and Xander to soak up a little sun. I saw a cute idea in passing on Pinterest the other day of painting rocks to look like Easter eggs instead of dyeing them. So, desperate for something to engage the boys in this morning, I grabbed some bark mulch and rocks from our flower bed and tossed them onto a cookie sheet with paint, a paintbrush, a sponge, and a wet wipe. They had a blast…I love how the differences in their personalities and in their ages come out in their artwork (check out their cookie sheet palettes…ha!). After the big boys went down for their afternoon nap, I took Roman out into the front yard so he could have some fun in the sun too…his favorite thing is the tricycle.
In his thirteenth month, Roman is: saying “dada”, “mama”, “hi”, “bye bye”, “uh oh”, “gah” for “dog”, “ah ah” for his favorite monkey friend, and trying his darnedest to say “cheese” and “cracker”; doing the sign for “light” and his own version of the sign for “phone” (holding his hand to his ear) and “vacuum” (rubbing his hand back and forth on the carpet); cutting four teeth on top; holding steady at taking two naps a day, wanting to go to bed around 630 pm and wake up around 630 am, waking up once in the night to nurse, and nursing about four times a day; taking right to whole milk and enjoying it in a sippy at meals; and continuing to be a joyful little wild man.
The boys and I went to Lucky Ladd this morning with our mom’s group and had SO much fun!!! (I’m not going to lie…the logistics of managing three little boys under the age of four…running and toddling in three different, spirited, I-can’t-hear-you directions…for four hours added up to be a bit much for me at the end of the day…the boys were fried too because they wore themselves out but still didn’t nap on the way home…even still we had a BLAST.) We ate a picnic lunch, petted and fed the farm animals, rode the tractor train, played in the corn box, went down the big slides, scooped sand in the sand box, pumped water into the egg run, played on the tires and with the balls, wrote on the chalkboard, and even hunted Easter eggs. It was a HUGE blessing to meet up with several of the moms and children from our mom’s group (I never would have braved it by myself)…it totally made it doable and so much more fun for all of us in the sharing. Jonas was all about pumping water into the egg run and figuring out how to work the sand scoopers. Xander could not get enough of running up the hill and going down the slides…I was amazed by his tirelessness with it…he did it over and over again. Roman loved checking out the animals…feeling the soft sheep and putting his finger in the pig’s mouth…and really just visibly delighted in exploring everything. It was equally fun and exhausting, and we’re looking forward to going back again.
Pops and Maw came out for a visit this morning. Pops read books to the boys and showed them how to measure with the measuring tape. Maw gave out lots of hugs and kisses. We had lunch together, complete with Jonas talking a lot and loudly…Xander climbing up on Pops’ lap to finish his lunch…and Roman passing out messy waves and sweet “hi”s. We all laughed at the boys and had fun watching them do their most recent favorite thing…an indoor Easter egg hunt.
We enjoyed getting to spend the week hanging out with Grandpa and Grandma!!! Highlights of our time together included: going to a pizza making play date with our mom’s group; taking a walk around the neighborhood; going to story time and hunting Easter eggs afterwards; eating lots of snacks and meals together (including one delicious dinner out); enjoying a little quiet time (one morning Grandpa and Grandma gave me a big treat and took Jonas to school and then Xander to the mall for a long walk…I REALLY enjoyed my quiet time at home while Roman took his morning nap and forgot, as a mother of three boys under the age of four, how much of a healer silence is for the introverted soul); and heading to the ball field to watch Jonas’ t-ball practice. We said goodbye this morning after breakfast and are very much looking forward to our summer adventure together at the lake!!!
We all loaded up, picnic lunch and all, and headed to the ball field for Jonas’ t-ball practice this morning. What a great way to spend a spring morning!
