Zoo

It was a little cold today but we wanted to get out so we took the boys to the zoo.

Carter was very adamant about where we went. When we were leaving, he looked at his map and told us that we missed some animals (which we had - we didn't stay too long).


On the path to the giraffes ...


We usually skip the carousel when we are on playdates so the boys hadn't been on it in awhile. They both thoroughly enjoyed it. Rylan's been on them before but this was the first time he seemed to really get what was going on.





Hopefully the weather will warm up and we can go again this week with some friends!

Consignment Sale

I did my first children's consignment sale this week. I just got rid of some of the stuff we never used for the boys and some things we had duplicates of. I got rid of some of my maternity clothes I never really liked. I also tried to sell Carter's original crib bedding and some nursery decorations. The one big thing I sold was our travel system since car seats are only good for 5 to 6 years and ours was manufactured almost 4 years ago.

I sold a total of 56 items for $377. The sale organizers take 30% and a $12 participation fee which left me with $251.90.

Since some of the big stuff that I just don't want to store anymore didn't sell, I signed up to do another consignment sale next week. I priced things a little lower this time so hopefully they sell!

Playdates are Hard Work

We had a few friends over for a playdate yesterday. Rylan usually gets a morning nap in the car on the way to somewhere or in the stroller while running errands in the morning. But when we stay home, he usually skips it.

After everyone left, I went upstairs for a few minutes to pick up and left the boys downstairs. When I came back down, I found Rylan passed out on the family room rug.



On Wednesday we met Missy and her kids at Monkey Joe's. Right before we left, Rylan tripped and fell right into the bottom step (which is wood). He smacked the edge right above his nose. Then at Monkey Joe's, Rylan and Carter collided and Rylan got another big bump on his forehead. I didn't get a good picture, but you an see how swollen Rylan's face was in this photo ...

Girlfriend

If you share a pillow with a girl during naptime, is she then your girlfriend?

When I picked Carter up from school on Tuesday, he was still asleep and sleeping on a Pillow Pet. Apparently he and Sophie shared it during naptime. She had already gone home but left her pillow there for Carter. One of the teachers even took a few pictures and showed them to me. She said that Carter was giving Sophie hugs all day. Whenever I mention Sophie, Carter brings up that she has the same color hair as him. He seems to recognize that they are unique.

So this morning when we were watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, the song "Shake Your Peanuts" came on. I've seen this episode a couple times and it makes me laugh because I saw a blog post before about a woman whose son was dancing and singing this in the post office but the word "peanuts" sounded like a different body part. They got a lot of stares. Anyway, I was putting a diaper on Carter when this song came on this morning. He proceeded to grab his boy part and say "Here's my peanut".

On to a completely different subject ... Carter told me yesterday that he wants to be a fireman when he grows up.

Speech

Carter had his first speech therapy session today. He was super excited to go to "big boy school" (he calls it that because it's at a local elementary school).

I dropped Carter off and Rylan and I went to the park for a little bit. Carter did fine with me leaving him but Rylan was quite upset that he didn't get to stay and play with the toys.

We came back after 30 minutes. Ms. Judy said Carter did great. They worked on final t sounds. We got a little homework which involves Carter saying 4 words that end with the t sound. And then we also have to say a set of words to him and have him listen so he realizes that words end with the t sound.


Carter worked on these words with Ms. Judy and got to put a dot next to each when he said them correctly.


He also decorated Spot with dots.


While working with Carter today, he did great with all his words.

Before speech, Carter had gymnastics and then we all went to Granny White Park because it was beautiful outside.

Rylan, Will, and Carter making silly faces ...


Judah, Carter, Ryder, and Rylan on the dinosaurs ...


Rylan did a bunch of slides all by himself with no encouragement from me. The first one he went down was long with three big bumps and then Rylan landed on his butt on the ground. But he was happy. Here's a video of him going down one. (Carter is yelling in the background that the playset is a boat and that Rylan is going into the water.)

Catching Up

We've been staying busy around here and I've been too tired to blog in the evenings. But here is a quick update on what we've been up to ...

On Wednesday we met Missy, Heather, and Elizabeth with all the boys at Monkey Joe's.

Carter was line leader on Thursday at Parents' Day Out so he got to bring in something for Show and Tell. When I first asked him what he wanted to bring, he said a drum. The next time I asked him he said a picture of all of us working on the house (not sure what that is). Finally he decided that he wanted to bring one of his animals. He kept telling me he wanted me to pick and since the kids were working on the letter S this week, I suggested his shark. He quickly agreed. Carter got this from my Dad and he slept with it for a couple of months after getting it (it only took up about half his crib).


While Carter was in school, I took Rylan for a run in the jogging stroller. I'm still trying to train for a marathon at the end of April so I did 9 miles. That was definitely the longest run I've ever done while pushing one of the kids. I'm still a bit sore (it didn't help that it was super windy and running into the wind with the stroller is almost impossible).

After picking up Carter, we went to the park for a couple of hours because it reached the mid-70s and we had to take advantage of the warm weather.


On Friday, Elizabeth brought the boys over to our house for a playdate. We had lots of fun getting out just about every toy we own!

Today we took the boys to Lowe's in the morning for the Build and Grow workshop to build racecars and then we went out to lunch. This afternoon Brian and I finally started organizing the garage. We made a lot of progress but still need to figure out how to hang our kayaks. The boys joined us outside after their naps until it got too cold.

Tomorrow I'm going to try to do another long run and we'll probably work on the garage some more. I'm also doing a children's consignment sale and have to drop off my stuff tomorrow. I'm trying to get rid of some of the big stuff we didn't use much since we don't have quite as much storage in this house. Hopefully a lot of it will sell and we'll make a little money to buy more stuff for the kids, of course!

Adding

I discovered last week that Carter can add (as long as it's not more than 5+5!) ...

Now if I can just get him to stop skipping the middle of the teens when counting!

Today's Activities

Carter had gymnastics again today. It was with his normal class and coaches (which are so much better than the weekend coach he had that was lazy and rough with him - Carter complained that his neck hurt all day Saturday).

I was only able to get one little video of him today. After doing this, the coach helped them to a back flip on the bar ...

After gymnastics we went to Missy's house and met up with Heather (Missy's twin sister) and her kids (Hannah and Dowden). We had lunch there and then let the kids play outside for a little bit since it finally warmed up enough.


I took the kids home for a nap then. Unfortunately only Rylan napped. He was up pretty early so we then went over to Crockett where I ran and then took the kids over to the playground. Carter finally took a nap the last mile of my run.

Carter was making some cute faces at me through the playground walls but by the time I got out my camera, this was all he was doing ...


Not so cute.

More Valentines

I forgot to post about a couple more things Carter made at PDO for Valentine's Day.

Carter's teachers get the best pictures of him!


This is the very cute card Carter decorated for Brian and me ...



It says: "Even though I'm only three, this Valentine was made by me. It comes to say in a special way, I love you! Happy Valentine's Day!"

Ring Around the Rosie

Luckily no one was hurt in this Ring Around the Rosie ...

In case you're wondering why Carter isn't wearing pants, we are still working on potty training and Carter remembers he's not wearing a diaper much better if he's not wearing pants!