January and February

Well, it's May, about time to post the photos from January and February! I know a lot has happened, it's hard to remember everything.

January and February were really cold and snowy. So was March. We took a fun little trip to Mexico with Ema at the end of February and did take a lot of photos, but you will not see them here. Sadly, Damon's computer had a little breakdown sometime in March or April and the Mexico pictures disappeared. We're still working on recovering them...hopefully by the next post (in October at this rate) they'll be here.

One big thing that has happened is Edison started preschool. He's a chipmunk at the YMCA program and goes twice a week, and is (thankfully) loving it now. The first couple of days were rough, but he stuck it out and eventually realized that 3 hours of snacks, stories, crafts, and playing with hula hoops (and swimming on Tuesdays) is actually kind of fun. Yay! He's been leader twice - where he brings a snack, show and tell item, and a book. The first time he brought his firefighter gas mask, and apparently the teachers ask for clues before they reveal the item. Edison's clues were - I wear this during diaper changes, this protects me from Adlai's poop, it helps me breathe.... I can only imagine what everyone was expecting.

Damon and I discovered that flying with two small (fully) ambulatory children is exponentially more difficult than flying with one small child. Especially when both of them are sick and one has an ear infection. And yes - Edison had his first ear infection at the end of the Mexico trip :(  That made for an interesting flight home and urgent trip to the office as soon as we got home.

In April we had a fun little visit from uncles Clint and Jamie. They came on Easter weekend and even with the easter egg and basket hunt, I still felt like the highlight was the unique wild animal show at the Children's museum.  They had some pretty neat animals to pet - like a crocodile, armadillo, and some kind of large cat that I can't remember exactly. Oh, and this weird rabbit looking rodent thing - apparently I'll never see one again - I wish I could remember what it was called!

We also had Edison's fourth birthday. The day started with pancakes, followed by story time at the library (which happens every Wednesday).  After story time, we headed to a pizza buffet (Edison's request), followed by a trip to Target to choose 4 gifts. And what did Edison choose? Superhero socks, superhero underwear, and two superhero themed Lego sets. After that we headed to Bounceland at the mall, then home to bake a cake and have dinner with Aunt Sam. The last, and possibly funniest part of the day was Edison's refusal to have us sing "happy birthday" to him. Instead, we had to play the Superman theme music while he stood in front of his cake (and '4' candle), dressed like Superman, with his Superman Lego standing next to him. It was pretty amazing.

Pictures (and video?) from the birthday will hopefully appear on the next blog, although we had yet another mishap with the birthday photos being deleted from the phone before they were downloaded. Soooo, we'll see.

You will see a definite superhero theme in the pictures below though. Damon spent many afternoons crafting various superhero masks out of cardboard and construction paper. He did a pretty good job, as you can see below. I can't remember the last day that Edison left the house without a cape on (one of Damon's t-shirts clipped on with a paper clamp). He does get a lot of attention as Superman.

In the last week, we've had Adlai's 18-month and Edison's 4 yr-old physicals. They both did fine - even Edison with his 4 shots. I think I was more worried about it than he was!

Ok, and not to leave the little guy out, we had kind of a rough January and February of weaning off nursing, but now that we're over that hump, he's a funny, interactive little person. He's picking up lots of words, and has started signing two words together - like "want more". He's working on peeing in the potty instead of all over the floor - which he's been good at as long as we remind him before he starts to pee on the carpet.... Damon's not particularly fond of this method of potty training though  :)

What else is Adlai up to these days? He knows my routine, he knows which clothes to pick out for me when I get home, or finds my keys when I'm leaving for work. There are generally (generally...) a lot fewer tears in the morning when I leave than with Edison at this age, so I'm thankful for that.

So I guess that's all I can think of for now. Hopefully we'll track down all of those missing photos and get another blog update up in the next month.

Happy Spring!

E: Mom, I think Adlai looks more like Lauren.
M: Oh really? Who told you that?
E: Ema.
M: And who do you look more like?
E: Batman.

(telling me about his 2nd day at preschool)
E: Mom, that kid Youssef, he's just loud.
M: Really? He was pretty quiet the other day. I'm surprised.
E: Yes, he just talked and talked and talked.
M: Oh? And did you talk?
E: No. I was just a cry monster.

E: Mom, my two poops are a mom poop and a dad poop.
M: Oh? Which is which?
E: The long poop is the mom poop.

(while Edison is in the bathroom)
D: Do you want to get a massage tomorrow for your birthday?
M: I don't know, I would really just like 10 minutes with no one touching me.
E: (shouting from the bathroom) 10 minutes is a long time, mom!

E: I’m Snowman

D: What does Snowman do?

E: He throws snowballs at people’s mouths and makes them eat them.

D: And what does that do?

E: It makes their mouths cold.

E: Don’t let me drop this poop bomb, or there’ll be poop all over this place.

E: I want someone to take a nap for me.

E: You know what I saw at the store?

D: What?

E: An incredible hulk mask. It was incredible! 

E: Pshhew, pshhew.

D: Who are you? What are you doing?

E: I’m Ironman. I’m shooting things from my hands.

D: How do you know Ironman shoots things from his hands.

E: Because I am Ironman. I know what he can do.

M: What’s this supposed to be (holding up a painting Edison did at school).

E: Paper with paint on it.

January:

Edison gets Adlai ready for a hike.

Baby yoga.

Edison's first baseball lesson.

Who doesn't love doing dishes?!

We gotta start em young around here.

Adlai working on his first cutting board. 

Edison's Planes: Fire and Rescue set-up.

Edison crossing our creek. Zeke in the creek.

Humidity: 5%

Demonstrating the food chain. 

Little Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle.

Big Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle.

February:

It's Batman!

Edison watching John Denver in concert.

It's snowing. Again.

Now it's Spiderman!

Now Batman again!

Ah, the REAL Batman!

Adlai loves TRACTORS!

Edison's FIRST day of pre-school (take 2).

Nothing like a comfortable pair of jeans. 

Swim time at the Y.