Preschool III Wrap Up

Timmy's last day of preschool, ever, was yesterday.  I was glad that the teacher invited the parents in for lunch bunch.  I brought Timmy a big treat, McDonald's.  (He was beyond excited, but as all the other kids had their regular home made meals, I did feel like I might be a little judged as the working mom who didn't find time to make lunch... but oh well!)  I got there in time to see show and tell.  Timmy brought Snuggle Puppy, and I was happy to see him jump onto his teacher's lap as he talked about him.  Timmy's teachers didn't have a prayer with me to compare with last year's amazing teacher... so I was happy to see Timmy did clearly enjoy having them as teacher's.

We all ate at the big tables in the art room and then the kids ran around playing and taking pictures with each other.  Timmy grabbed Takemi and Nate to take pictures with them, but when I suggested he ask Sophia he got very shy and said no.  Finally he suggested that I ask Sophia to take a picture with him, so I did. One of the other girls jumped into their picture immediately too, but Sophia is the one next to Timmy.

The kids got a little wild so we all headed to the playground.  They wanted to play past car-line, so Nate's mom offered to take Timmy home when they were ready to leave.  Timmy ended up getting to go to Nate's new house for the first time to play afterwards too.

When we got home Tim and I gave Timmy his graduation card and a box of Donut Holes.  I told him how proud of him we were and he gave me the cutest smile I've ever seen and a big hug around the neck.

And just so you can see how much he has grown since his first day of preschool, here you go:

Timmy at 59 months - or Love Letter Response and the last day of Preschool, ever.

Timmy is one month shy of his 5th birthday now!  Today is his last day of preschool.  His teacher is having the parents come in to eat lunch with the kids, but there is no graduation or anything like that.  I always thought preschool graduations were kind of silly, but I listened to some other mom's talk about how upset they are that the school doesn't do it, and I've seen some pretty cute pictures of 5 year olds in caps and gowns recently, and now I kind of feel like we're missing something.  I did buy Timmy a graduation card though, "If you thought preschool was fun... just wait until Kindergarten!"  Oh my.  Time sure flies!

Timmy brought home a ton of art on Tuesday.  The pile included two more pictures for him signed with a million hearts from Sophia.  Then there was this: Timmy's love letter back!  When he saw it he told me it was supposed to go to Sophia.  I am an incredibly happy mommy that it came home first.  I will be taking it to school at lunch today to make sure it gets to Sophia.

At the bottom of Timmy's bag there was a bunch of sand and glitter, so I dumped it over the toilet to empty it, and noticed two little dried up white flowers fell in too.  Timmy came in just as I flushed and he asked if I had flushed some flowers.  I said, "Yes honey, I'm so sorry, I didn't see them.  They were very pretty, were they for me?"  He answered, "No.  They were from Sophia for me."  I apologized profusely and he told me it was okay, he'd seen where she got them, he would get some more.  I asked if he'd given her any and he said no, but he would.  Last week Timmy also made a beaded bracelet that he brought home and gave to me, but it was too small.  We decided this morning that he would give that to Sophia too.  I think I better talk to Sophia's mom today and see if she's interested in having some play dates this summer!

Timmy has started going to speech therapy weekly.  His third of six sessions will be tomorrow.  His intelligibility is lower then we would like because of s-combination words and he has trouble with the g and k sounds too.  In kindergarten he will get pulled from class during language arts time to work in small groups with other kids with similar speech issues.  He was making big improvements on his own, but I'm glad we were able to get him additional help through the county so it will clear up faster.  I just explained to him that he was going to play games with another teacher now and he's enjoying it.  We were playing the "what letter does this word start with" game the other day and he started telling me how you say the g and k sounds with the back of your tongue... so he's definitely taking it all in!

Tim also started having Timmy practice his handwriting, they call it Kindergarten Practice.  It hasn't turned into a daily activity, but any evening that we are just relaxing downstairs one of us will think of it and he'll sit and do his letters.  All of the last bunch were done very nicely and he was rightfully proud of them.  We'll definitely have to keep it up now that it's summer time!

Timmy is one extreme or the other with Tyler recently.  One moment he's playing nicely, kissing him, introducing him to friends, or getting him a snack, the next minute he's teasing and tormenting him.  The sweet moments seem to be getting sweeter and more frequent... I just hope the sour moments don't follow that trend!

And one last recent Timmy gem (while talking about how we had to be extra calm and quiet one evening because PawPaw had a tooth pulled) "How come my PawPaw gets so many booboo's?"  "Well hunny, sometimes when we get older we get more booboo's."  "I think it's better to be a newer person then an older person."

Love Letter

Timmy has had a little girl friend each year of preschool.  While he has always been friends with all of the kids in the class, there's always been one girl who he would talk about more then the rest.  He does not like to be teased about them though, and has never let anyone get away with calling them his girlfriend or anything like that.  His first year it was Maddie, she was especially adorable and Timmy talked about her often.  A few months into the school year Maddie's grandmother told me that her nightly prayers ended with, "and thank you for Timmy."  His second year of preschool Reagan was the stand out girl.  They even had nicknames for each other, Pooh Bear and Monkey, which I wrote about here.  This year, Timmy started talking about Sophia really early on.  He would say, "Sophia is always sitting right next to me" and similar things like that.  Well last week, Sophia sent Timmy a love letter:

It is the sweetest thing I've ever seen, and when I ooh'd and ahh'd at it, Timmy did look a little embarrassed  but he did not get upset or tell me to be quiet, so I think he thought it was sweet too.  :)

Tyler's Birthday Celebrations

We celebrated Tyler's birthday three days in a row this year which gave him lots of practice with the Happy Birthday song and blowing out his candles.  This was a good thing, because he was not a fan of the birthday song the first time!  When we sang his name and he realized it was for him, he got embarrassed and cried for several minutes.  Timmy didn't miss a beat though, blowing out the candles for his little brother!  Grammy and Pawpaw were there to celebrate with us on Thursday night.

On Friday, which was his actual birthday, Uncle Joe and Aunt Becky were there for presents and cake.  My Aunt Marleen sent him a microphone with a stand and it was the big hit of all of the presents.  He has natural rock star moves!.

 We skyped with Baba and Grandpa while he played with some of the new toys he had just opened.

He had a better hang of the cake and candles thing the second time around!

Tyler's birthday party was Saturday and he had a blast!

He loved all the decorations and ran around pointing and saying "Mickey Mouse!" every time he saw him!  

It was so nice having the party in a fenced in back yard!  The beloved moon bounce made it's regular appearance and was a hit like always.

The playground was also a big hit!

The guest list was family and our friends who have kids.  It was great to visit with high school and college friends as well as our newer friends!  All of the kids played well together too.

Grandad and Susan made some amazing food and Tim did his famous pulled pork, as well as home brewed beer and hard cider!  I did lots and lots of baking.  The rice crispy treat was sent from Disney World from Baba and Grandpa.  Everything was delicious!

Brayden and Timmy were very enthusiastic while singing Tyler Happy Birthday and I love the look of anticipation in their eyes staring at the cake!

Happy Birthday to our Tyler!

To Tyler at Two Years Old

Tyler,

I can not believe that you are two years old today.  In some ways the time has gone by so quickly, but in other ways, it's felt like you've been with us forever!  I remember the instant I saw Timmy was life changing in a shocking way.  My exact thoughts, as I briefly saw him being lifted through the air in an arch on his way to the scale were, "Holy shit."  You changed our lives forever too, but the moment I saw you felt more like coming home, "Oh, there you are, you've finally joined us."  You joined our family with such ease and instantaneous love.  You were such an easy baby and are still so loving and snuggly.  You did manage to start your "terrible two's" at about 18 months though.  You try very hard to be the boss, and Daddy and I are trying just as hard to maintain that position!  Timmy will even tell you, "You think you're the boss Tyler, but you aren't the boss."  A few months back you had just had a fit over something and a few minutes later you were happy and giving us big smiles from across the room.  I said to your Dad, "He's so handsome."  Daddy kind of whispered back, "Yeah, but he's either happy or he's pissed off..."  Daddy also said you get that from me.  I will take credit for any part of you that I can though my sweet boy, especially your beautiful eyes, that seem to be getting browner by the day.

You are still such a mama's boy.  I don't mind at all, but I do wish you'd be nicer to other people who offer to hold you or love on you when you're in a Mama Only mood!  A polite, "No Thank You" wouldn't hurt feelings as much as your, "No! My Mommy!" with an accompanying swat at them!  But I will continue accepting all the loving and cuddling you will give me!

You are Timmy's shadow.  If Timmy is doing something or says something or goes somewhere, you fall right in line.  You do put your own flare on everything that you do though.

You are pretty much tortured going to Timmy's T-ball practices and games.  You want to play so badly, and honestly, you could almost keep up with those bigger kids.  You keep putting the batting helmet on backwards though, and you're at least two feet shorter then anyone on the team.  At the games, we sit behind a metal fence, and you will play with Stella pretty happily most of the time.  At least once a game you have wandered to the bench, put on your backwards helmet, grabbed a bat, turned to me to say, "bye," and tried to get through the gate.  You are too cute.

Daddy adores you.  Timmy regularly asks to sleep in our room and sometimes we let him, and sometimes we let you too.  One night you had gone to sleep on Daddy's side, and in the middle of the night he tried to scoot you over to me because his arm was asleep.  It woke you up and you started to cry.  Daddy told you that you were going to Mommy.  You stated, "No, here!" and pointed back at the pillow where you had been.  Daddy was very happy to be your first choice for snuggling and brought it up repeatedly the next day.  Every time you've slept in our room since, you've snuggled with him too.

Daddy and Uncle Billy put in a playground for you and Timmy both for your birthday presents this year.  You love it and it makes me so happy!  I am looking forward to many evenings outside playing, but I am teaching you and Timmy how to pump your legs to swing as soon as possible!

When Timmy was turning two, we were ready and trying for you.  Now that you are turning two, it makes me want another baby!  We know that we aren't ready right now though, and we don't know if we ever will be ready.  Take your time growing up for me Tyler, just in case you are our youngest!  We love you so much Tyler!  Happy Birthday!

Yikes

Yikes... I knew that I had missed a few monthly updates and it had been a while since I blogged... but I did not realize it has been almost two months!  It has been a very busy two months, at home and at work, so I will excuse myself that way, and try to get back on track with the kids real birthday's quickly approaching!  As a quick catch up, since my last blog post we have moved, vacationed in Florida, and have been settling in to our new house.  Each of those things needs at least one post of it's own.  Not to mention Christmas (and now Easter!) is still missing!  For today I just want to share a few stories, and a few pictures of my boys, and get back into the habit of blogging and then will try to catch up!

Timmy and Tyler are both changing in front of our eyes.  Timmy is too smart for his own damn good, and it is going to start getting him in trouble.  A few days ago Grammy was outside with the boys and told them that they needed to go in because she needed to go to the grocery store.  Timmy asked if they could go with her, and she told him that she didn't have a car seat.  Timmy came inside and ran up to me telling me, "Grammy needs your keys so she can take your car and take us to the grocery store with her."  I walked out and handed her my keys.  She had no idea why!  Timmy had tricked me.  The next day at Miss Suzanne's house, Timmy wanted more hot dog, but the rule at lunch is that you have to finish everything on your plate, and then you can have seconds of anything you want.  Timmy apparently did not want his celery with peanut butter on it, and mid bite said he had to go to the bathroom.  When he came back Suzanne gave him more hot dog since his plate was empty, but when she went to the bathroom, she discovered the celery with peanut butter floating in the toilet!  He may just be "working the system" which could be in his Jones genes... but I think I need to explain the concept of lying a little more thoroughly, or sternly!

Tyler is starting to find his independence and his words.  He now says "I help!" when he wants to do something for himself, without assistance.  Also, when someone announces they are going somewhere and start to walk away, he yells, "I too! I too!" He is also getting to be interested in using the toilet.  He tells me when he has just gone to the bathroom, he always says, "I pee" but which side of his diaper he is patting tells you what he actually did!  I have put him on the toilet a few times, right after Timmy has gone he'll announce, "I turn!" but once he's up there he just shrugs and says no, nothing has made it's way to the toilet yet!  Tyler says "I love you too" even if he's the first one to say it, which usually happens at bed time.  Tyler will make an attempt to copy almost anything you tell him to say at this point, and will parrot Timmy on his own!

We have been thoroughly enjoying our new home, especially the yard!  They enjoy driving Bumblebee whenever they want, and Tyler even likes going fast this year, so Timmy doesn't mind driving with him now.  I enjoy sending them out back, watching them through the screen door, and catching up on my reality shows.  They mostly play with balls, sticks, and bubbles, and only need me to referee disagreements from time to time!  The yard also makes for great T Ball practice!

In our room we decided to keep the movie projector and not put another tv in the room.  Timmy loves it.  He keeps asking for family movie nights, and as we all settle into the bed he says, "This is awesome."  with a true feeling of awe!  As we unpacked, the basement was our first priority and their room was secondary.  When I did get to unbox their toys I'm pretty sure Tyler felt like it was Christmas!  He would say, "Wow." with each toy as he rediscovered it!  We are pretty well settled in at this point with just a little reorganization of the storage stuff needed, and we need to hang up shelves and pictures.  I will take pictures after that!