This Little Piggy

I picked Cole up from preschool today. I always get the same rundown of his day. "I played, had snack and water." Today the answer was slightly different. Today he "played, had snack and I was a pig!" At first I was wondering who told him he was a pig, then I asked if he was a pig because he had a lot of snack or if he pretended to be a pig. Turns out they did the 3 Little Pigs today and he even brought home piggy ears.

Wordless Wednesday

A Day Without Rain

We've finally had some beautiful fall weather. I took the boys outside to play the other day to enjoy it while it lasts. I raked some leaves while the boys played. Tate wasn't too interested in the leaves, but finally got a shot at the cozy coupe without his brother interfering.
Tate is walking pretty good now. He loves to climb. He was in and out of that car for a good hour without a peep. Cole would have sat and cried every time he wanted in and out because he wanted someone to help. I just can't get over how completely different they are.

Cole had a blast in the leaves. He made a little course. He would count to five, run from the swing set and jump in the leaves. I have some video that maybe I will post later.

My Car Seat Lecture

Cole's new car seat came today. We were in the market for a second car seat as he is almost at the height limit for the standard convertible seat. If we had been smart when we purchased our convertibles, we would have bought the Britax marathon instead of the Roundabout. However, Tate is using both our Roundabouts, still rear-facing, so we would have needed a new seat for Cole anyhow. Anywho, the new seat came today after 3 weeks of waiting for Target to do free shipping on baby gear. We purchased a Sunshine Kids Radian 80. I was very hesitant to stray from the Britax brand. I love our Roundabouts. They install easy. The straps tighten easy, and they have a fun cow print! What's not to love? I purchased a Britax Frontier earlier this year. The thing is a monster. It's huge. Installation wasn't quick, but it wasn't horrible. However, the problem with the seat was Honda's. Most vehicles have the belt latch located where the seat back and the seat bottom meet. Honda puts there's in the seat bottom. Not a problem, except when installing a car seat. The Frontier is so huge that installing it with latch isn't easy so I tried the belt, only because of our belt latch location, that too didn't get the seat as tight as I would like it to be. I chose the Radian 80 because it's a much narrower profile. I wasn't impressed when I pulled it out of the box. It's not nearly as padded and comfy looking as the frontier. However, after I installed it, I decided it's staying. It installs about the same as the Frontier, only since it is narrower I can install it with the belt or with latch and both ways keep the seat snug.

In short, if I didn't drive a Honda, I'd stick with the Britax, purely for comfort reasons. I know there are other car seats on the market that are a whole lot cheaper, but both Britax and Sunshine Kids are the highest rated and keep kids in a 5 point harness longer. If it keeps my kids safer longer, it's worth every penny.

We're Famous!

Check this out! Remember the camel picture? The one that's going to be in a book? Well, it made Rachel Ray today. Not just made Rachel Ray, but was the 1st picture in the interview! How crazy is that!?!

The Last Two Weeks in Review

So I know I've been incredibly lazy about updating. So in the spirit of always wanting to be like my big sister, I am using her post idea and bulleting our last couple of weeks.

• I started subbing at our local school. I've only done it twice and I actually enjoyed it. It wasn't nearly as hard to be away from my kiddos and home as I thought it would be. I am only available 2 days a week and usually one of those is full of appointments, so it's not much, but the little bit of income will be nice. It might even pay for groceries!
• I also picked up 3 extra credits. I am doing an internship at said school. I'm helping out in a high school math classroom. There are 29 kids in the class. This is the smarter group so they are not as challenging, but 29 kids is a lot for one classroom, math or not!
• Speaking of school, I got an 85% on my latest differential equations test! Whoo hoo! I was pumped.
• Cole is loving school. I still get the same "I played, had snack and water" when I asked what he did at school, but he seems to really like going. He's even mentioned a couple of kids from his class.
• Cole is also in underwear. Potty training since June, we finally made the switch just over a week ago. We still have occasional accidents, but he's been doing really well.
• Tate is walking! He finally gave it a go a couple of weeks ago and now is a full blown walker.
• Being a walker means he was also released from all PT and special ed services!
• He also had his 15 month check and is 22 lbs and 30.5 inches (only about 4.5" shorter than his big brother).
• We did manage to get our soybeans out, but still have about 160 acres of corn. It's finally sunny and windy today, good drying conditions, but they are predicting rain and snow for the end of the week. Should be great trick or treating!

That about sums it up. I do have some post ideas, including a toy review of Tate's Christmas present. Today, however, I have to get my lesson plan for class done!

Noisy Kids

For those of you who think my kids are always quiet...