The Long Bob

No, I'm not talking about the @nzyte commercial. I'm incredibly anxious for June when I no longer have a 3 year old. I am so incredibly tired of the incessant questions. Why? What's that for? What's that called? I know, he's 3, it comes with the territory, but it's the same question over and over and over and over and over and over again. The kid has a phenomenal memory, but only when it has to do with useless information. For example, he can remember that my Uncle R~ was wearing a hat at my sister's wedding in June, without looking at pictures. But he can't remember at bed time where he put his jammies that very same morning even though he's been putting his jammies in the very same spot every morning since we've lived in this house. He's driving me bonkers. We get so tired of the questions that we start to make up answers. The most common answer is boogers. I have no idea why. At least he recognizes that answer as silly. However, it's the other answers that he doesn't quite pick up on. For instance, back before Christmas, I had bought a package of long johns. We have a mom and pop type bakery near by and occasionally our local grocery store has their long johns. Donuts are expensive, so I don't by them often, but I picked up a package since they looked really good. So I get home and Cole asks "what's that?" I tell him it's a long john. Pat convinces him it's a long bob. A few days later he's at Grandma's house for coffee and guess what she has? Long bobs! I think they were pretty confused, but just let it go. I bought some yesterday and once again, they are long bobs. Why can't he forget the useless crap and remember something important, like where his stinking jammies are?!?

My Funny Valentines

Duplo Tate

Cole had his friendship party at school today. Valentines must be offensive or maybe it's love, I don't know, but at any rate it's a friendship party. I decided to be creative and make heart crayons instead of giving out candy. It would have been fine if I hadn't waited until last night to do it. At any rate, they turned out nice. I spent the morning at school with him, and affirmed my decision to teach high school over preschool. He did fine, but everything is more tragic when mom is there and it's sooooo annoying.

At any rate, the boys are doing fine. They love pushing each other's buttons and in turn push mine. I used to get a break in the middle of the day 3 times a week. I still get a break 3 times a week, but now it's during chores time which is normally my daily break anyway. It's starting to show. My nerves are fried by about 9 AM. I need a get away. Pat and I were supposed to get that Sunday-Tuesday, but the lovely snow ruined that. We are going to try again this Sunday, but this time we're taking the kids. I'm not sure if that will be nice or not!

Cole is finally getting the potty training down. Tate loves to be in or on anything he can. They are fun. I just have to remind myself to enjoy them once in a while!

Since I don't have class on Mondays and Cole didn't have school today, I'm still calling it the weekend. So as promised, here is an update on my boys.

The weather, until today, had been relatively warm, for January anyway. We had fog every day, all day last week and rain the last couple of days. We did get a little break long enough to make this snowman. That's the first peek of sun we'd seen for a week.

Cole had a blast being outside. He likes to go help Grandpa during chores and usually tells me "I don't want to help you." How nice?
Tate is quickly becoming a little stinker. He knows exactly how to set his brother off. His new favorite thing to do is squeal every time he sees the cat, or just for fun. He's not quiet about it either. He's been busy playing in the toy wonderland downstairs now that he's figured out how to go down them without falling, for the most part.

This is what happens when you fall asleep with Daddy and then Daddy leaves. Kinda reminds me of this picture:

Tate also had his 18 month check up last week. He weighs 24 lbs 11 oz and is 31 3/4 inches tall, which is about 5 inches shorter than his brother. He is in about the 35% for both height and weight. Can you believe he was ever that small?

Merry Christmas Eve

I lied. It's snowing. A LOT and it's still coming down. Granted so far it's only been about 6 inches, but that's plenty. Normally we do Christmas Eve with my in-laws after church. This year, there will be no church and we were going to do gifts at lunch time instead so my sister-in-law could make it here and home again before the wind picked up. Instead Pat and his dad are hauling snow before we get another foot and it makes things a whole lot harder to clean up. So Christmas this year certainly won't be what I had planned.

On a positive note, it really is pretty and the boys, Cole in particular, have had a blast playing in it. Cole likes to go shoveling. It's not good snowman snow but we should have a really nice pile for sledding when it's all over with!

Cole going shoveling, as he says.

Tate enjoying the snowflakes.

He's standing, not sitting.

Tate showing me how he feels about having to put on all his snow gear.

Moving snow.

Cole going down the slide.

Have a merry Christmas! Sing some carols for me because I doubt there will be church around here tomorrow either. At least the world will look clean and new for Jesus' birthday!

Potty Training - Take 312

Cole has been in underwear for a while now. We ran out of candy rewards a couple of weeks ago. I don't know if that is it, but he has been having "accidents" left and right. He does fine at school. He's fine when we aren't home, but get him home and we go through a minimum of 4 pairs of underwear a day. I need to buy some more rewards and see if that makes a difference. I am at my wits end. I do not know what to do with the kid. He's obviously ready. He obviously knows when he needs to go. Is he just lazy? How do I cure laziness? Ugh! I need help!

Life With Boys

I don't remember these things happening when I grew up...

Yes, that is a real gun. It was only a pellet gun and they were shooting a pumpkin. You learn to choose your battles when guns are involved.

Tractor soup anyone?

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.

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!

NICU Reunion

Every year in October the NICU where Cole stayed as a newborn does a reunion. We've never gone. It's always been something. First, it's in October, which is harvest so I'd have to go by myself. The first year it meant traveling with a newborn. The second year I don't remember what it was, but it probably involved harvest. Last year meant traveling with a newborn again, but this year I decided I was going. So I left after breakfast with the boys and started our 2 hour journey. We had snow the night before so the roads weren't great, but after about 20 miles they cleared up and except for the occasional waaay overly cautious driver, it was smooth sailing. We met my college roommate for lunch then headed to Toys R Us for a costume for Cole. Do you know the selection of costumes for a 3 year old boy is? Nada. We ended up buying a dress up outfit, which worked out fine.

We finally headed over to the reunion. It went ok. Cole was not a memorable baby, which was probably a good thing, but it made the reunion less fun for me. Cole enjoyed it. They had some carnival games, a bouncy house, an inflatable slide, and another inflatable climbing wall/slide thingy. He went down the slide by himself and even tried the thingy. I was nervous about that. He did the short wall fine, it was the big wall that he had trouble with. It started out ok but then a bunch of kids came in after him and that made him nervous. He finished it though and he was so proud and Mommy was too, of course. As for me, there was only one nurse I remembered and I didn't like her. She was loud and obnoxious. One of the doctors was there. I think he recognized me, but that's probably about it. A couple of the nurses recognized the name, but he didn't stick out in any one's memory. There were a couple of other kids there that were there at the same time. One was about 10 months at the time Cole was born, the other was there about a week before we left. The 10 month old was born at 24 or 26 weeks and she had a lot of problems, but from the look of her, she hasn't seemed to suffer any major issues. I of course forgot my camera, so here is the only picture we got.

Chid Labor

Odd coming from the child who used to tear up at the word vacuum.

Stepping Out

Tate has decided to attempt walking. He took his first uncoerced step on Tuesday, but I thought it was a fluke. Today he proved otherwise. While he hasn't managed more than 2 steps in a row, he doesn't go straight down to a crawl anymore. I'm not sure how I feel about this. Granted it will be nice when he can walk outside on his own since that's what he wants to do, but he is already into everything and now there will be more things within reach. Although he really doesn't crawl now if he doesn't have to. He cruises and then pushes anything he can, chairs, trash cans, boxes, large toys, to get across the room.

Earlier this week, the weather was gorgeous, so we took an opportunity to play outside. Tate had a blast going in and out of the playhouse. This was also when he decided to attempt his first solo step.
Other than that, this week has mostly been recovering. I ended up with a migraine on Monday and Cole has been sick since Tuesday. It was kind of nice having a 3 year old with laryngitis. He could still squeak and he didn't understand the concept of resting his voice, so it wasn't total peace. He did miss his preschool screening on Wednesday because of it though. He's been waking up every morning this week telling me he needs medicine because he's old. This morning he proceeded to tell me he was 3 and that when he was 4 he could go to church camp. Maybe I should tell him he has to wear underwear first...

First Day of Preschool

Cole started preschool yesterday. He wasn't terribly excited to go. He wanted me to go with him, then he wanted to stay at GG's house with Tate, but he went. I dropped him off and he did fine. When I picked him up and asked him what he did at school, he told me "I don't know." Then he told me how they had goldfish at snack time and he went pee in the potty. So all in all, I guess it was a good day.

A Little Too Quiet

Yesterday I was attempting to do some homework. Cole had gone outside to play so it was a chance for me to do something question-free. Tate had slept in, so there was no morning nap to be had, but he usually plays pretty well when big brother isn't around to boss him around. So I was thoroughly enjoying the silence. Suddenly it hit me. It was a little too quiet. So I headed straight to the bathroom where I discovered this:
At least he left all the sticker backs on!

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In other Tate news, he is getting oh so close to walking. He's starting to pull himself up and let go and the other day he actually went from the coffee table to the couch . It was more of a lunge than a step, but we're getting closer. Last night he was trying to stand up without pulling up. It was actually pretty funny watching himself try to lunge himself upwards.

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One more story for today and then I'm done! Last night I was on FB and the boys were playing. Tate was in his usual spot by the toy box pulling out all the toys one by one. Cole walked over, pointed, and said "Can I have that tractor please?" Tate kept right one pulling out toys and now was handing them to Cole who would take them, say "nope," and throw them on the floor. He was being pretty patient waiting for Tate to get the tractor for him. Finally he says "I said that tractor I want." Tate pulls out a few more toys, then gets to the tractor, hands it to Cole who says "Thank you Tater Tate" and walks away.

The Sound of Silence

I'm down to just one child so I thought I'd hammer out a post for you all. Unfortunately the child I am down to is Tate, so this may be short lived. The gates are all up and the bathroom door is closed, so hopefully I'll have more than 2 minutes for an update.

Potty training is. We had 2 dry days, followed by a one accident day, followed by yesterday. Yesterday involved wet pants in the morning. We did fine through the afternoon, mostly because he was sleeping in a pull-up. In the evening, he pooped and of course he had boxers on which meant the poop went down his pants. A little while later he peed on the dining room floor, not just a little pee, a big pee. That was followed up with some more pee on my coffee table (his new game is jumping from the coffee table to the couch). It wasn't a good day. Today he's out in the tractor with Daddy, in a pull-up, so I don't have to worry about it. Maybe he's not ready, but he knows when he has to go. Our hardest part of the day is during chores. We run a pretty tight time schedule so I don't have a lot of time to stop and take him potty. He usually pees outside, but yesterday I knew he had to poop so I took him inside. He didn't poop and he threw of my chores so I sent him to play in the yard so I wouldn't have to drag around 2 kids. I guess I should have known better.

Tate is doing fine. He's cruising furniture now. His favorite game is the trust fall. I stand him up and he falls into me. He thinks it's hilarious. He's discovered the fun of going up stairs so I now have 3 gates up in my house on the main level. He loves unrolling toilet paper and playing in the potty. Right now he's busy with his brother's tractors since his brother isn't there to yell at him and take them away.

School is going ok for me. I have 2 classes. One is Differential Equations. Nuff said there. The other is an ed class. It's going to be a lot of busy work, but should be an ok class.

The farm is much the same. We have another nutritionist coming tomorrow to see if he has any advice for us. We've had three heifer calves, alive, which is an improvement although they aren't terribly smart. Typically heifers are smarter than bulls when it comes to pail breaking, but I've got a couple of dumb ones that don't like drinking from a pail. It's really annoying. Anyway, we are hoping to get some answers from this guy and hopefully we can get things turned around. It only takes a couple of months for things to go really bad and usually takes years to get it back where it was. Here's hoping!

A Dry Day

Coley finally made it an entire day, wearing underwear, staying dry! I'm so proud. He did very well. He spent the morning with Grandma and Daddy, which is usually when he has his first accident, because he's not at home. But he made it all day, including supper out! So when baby brother went to bed, he got to go play with his new Lego farm set.

He was busy analyzing all the little pieces, most of which I don't even have out yet. His favorite part is the grain bin which you can empty into the dump trailer. I'm so excited we are making progress. After he peed on a kitchen chair yesterday, I thought we'd never get here! I'm not sure what to do with him tomorrow as we are going to be gone all afternoon to look at a rotary dairy, but I guess we'll decide tomorrow! For now I'm enjoying the moment.

I Can't Leave My Children

alone with their father for a second. My sister called the other night and while I was talking to her, Cole came in and said "Daddy's cutting Tate's hair." Wha???
Tate didn't seem to mind. The top was getting a little long, but I was going to let it go. His hair isn't terribly thick. It apparently bothered Pat enough that he decided to cut it. After he cut Tate's hair, and Cole's hair, the boys turned on him.

Yes, we are trying to potty train. Again.

VBS

Last week was VBS. It was incredibly busy, but it went pretty well. The kids seemed to have fun anyway. We had 16 kids, 12 of them under age 8, 4 of them were age 3. Cole did pretty well. He loved the games and even did some singing, which is odd for him. He didn't cling to me, which was very nice. I am glad it is over. Now we are focusing on the youth gathering, confirmation, and Sunday School. Oh the joys of not having a pastor!

Cole enjoying his ice cream cone.

The group, minus 2

My Budding Artist

Cole brought this home from school last week. I think we have a budding artist in our midst! Look at the simplicity of it. The bold stroke of color in the lone piece of orange tape. Pure genius I tell you! Pure genius!

Coming Home Days

So last weekend was one of the local "festivals." I took the boys to the kiddie parade as goat farmers. Creative, I know. They won 7th place, which was the last of the cash prizes. Benny was a little less than cooperative. Turns out he was getting too much "chickie" feed and not enough forages in his diet and was a little backed up. He's doing much better now, but he wasn't in the mood to be drug around a parking lot. At one point he flopped over and was being drug sideways. The next morning we went in for the kiddie carnival so Cole could spend his $3 prize. He had a good time playing games and jumping in the inflatable thing.

Walking with Benny.

Putting with Daddy.

Bean bag toss. At one point he walked up and pretty much dropped it in the bucket.

Beautiful Legs

Aren't those legs gorgeous?

Especially since they looked like this a year ago!