A couple weeks ago (on January 19th), Brady and Aiden’s preschool did their Christmas concert (yes, in January – because December is madness so they do it in January – I approve!). It was super cute – 90 preschool-aged kids singing (and signing) 8 songs about baby Jesus, angels and camels…among other things. I could tell Aiden had his stuff down…he was doing all the hand movements as they sang each song. Brady, on the other hand, was purely following the music teacher – which was just as stinkin adorable as knowing it by heart because he kept looking surprised like, “oh yeah – we do the baby cradling thing now! I totally got this one!” Brian was originally going to be out of town, but some last minute schedule changes had him, and his camera, in the sanctuary, snapping away like the proud papa he is. Meanwhile, Logan, who is following in his daddy’s footsteps, tried to videotape the whole thing on his Nintendo DS. He didn’t have much luck as we ended up literally in the WORST possible place to see the boys…somehow they were positioned directly behind our view of the music teacher as she stood and conducted. I finally went to stand in the back with Memaw so we had a decent view. Brian….was wandering all over the place behind the pews as you can see from…. (drum roll)….

 

PICTURES!

Before the concert: Aiden is standing next to his sweetie, Julianna (to the left in this picture, in pink)

Brady was in the very front, bottom row…right below Aiden (convenient for pics!)

They told all the kids to wave to mom and dad before the singing began. Brady SUPER ENTHUSIASTICALLY waved….at someone on the opposite side of the sanctuary from where we were (I was standing up trying to get him to see me, but he didn’t)

Something about a manger…

Sleeping baby Brad, do the sleeping baby one! ;)

“Ok…what’s next…”

“Um..no…I’m totally confused at this point”

“Wait! I got it now! We’re counting on our fingers!”

Yes, big brother knows…there are TEN angels in the band (I heard this one a lot at home…possibly the only song either of them could remember outside the walls of school")

Memaw and Mom standing in the back for a decent view

Me and Logan after the show (GG – that’s the webkinz you guys got him for Christmas – it’s his SUPER favorite animal!)

Ah…young love!

Mommy and Bear

Brady was too focused on the cookies and hot chocolate room where everyone ELSE got to go after the concert – see him pointing at his preferred destination?! But, the paparazzi would NOT be stopped!

That’s better – stars of the show! Now go get your cookies!

The kids are playing their favorite, favorite video game right now, Skylanders. Aiden is, as always, the video game pro. Sounds like Brady is currently trying to play with him. I’m in the office looking at some sports registration stuff for the Spring (yes…in January….that’s how it goes!) Anyway, Logan just went into the kitchen and I could hear some ruckus in the living room. I heard Logan shout over, “Aiden – don’t yell at Brady – he’s FOUR! You should help him learn!” It’s nice when they take care of each other.

Gotta go make Logan do his homework. He started an after-school art program today so we’re getting a late start. Oh – I’ll go snap a quick picture of his…um…picture!

 

They learned about using basic shapes to create the big pieces of a drawing and then filling in with little shapes and details. They also discussed proportion. He had fun!

We just recently decided to completely remove the child-proofing cabinet clips we’ve had on for….well, the past 6 years. They were only there for show anyway, given that all three boys could take them off so they were practically useless. With the exception of the knife drawer, all kitchen cabinets and drawers are now accessible. It’s actually been really cool. The kids can help me get the necessary things ready for each meal and start being a bit more independent. However, Logan is starting to get REAL independent and trying some things that are just a tad out of his reach. For example, he tried to carbonate water using our soda machine yesterday morning. He ended up spraying the kitchen with water because he didn’t have the bottle fully attached. I happened to be drying my hair when that incident went down. He came up right away to let me know what he had done and that he was cleaning it up. This morning, again while I was drying my hair, Logan decided to try a snack I had suggested, but did not prepare for him yesterday afternoon – melted cheese on crackers. He got out crackers, sprinkled them with cheese, put the plate in the microwave and set it for 3 minutes. After THAT failed, he immediately ran up to tell me that he accidentally made, “the microwave smoke” which was really more like, “made the whole house fill up with smoke”! That was at 7:30am. It’s currently 4:00 PM and I still feel like I’m living literally INSIDE a bowl of burnt popcorn. I could even smell it on my cloths at Brady’s soccer class this morning. I had a box fan blowing out the patio door for a while until we all decided it was too cold and we could deal with the odor.

 

I thought I was past the days where I had to get ready in spurts, constantly looking over the balcony, in the playroom and downstairs to make sure everyone was still alive. I guess it’s time for a little “big boy child proofing”. I didn’t get mad at either of the above-mentioned incidents, but I did have a little talk with the boys over breakfast today. First, I felt it necessary to commend Logan on his desire to help and be more independent, but there is a need to address safety. I’m sure I have to give this some more thought, but my current rules include:

 

1. If you haven’t used something before, ask mommy or daddy to give you a lesson (and obviously, permission)

2. The first few times you use something new, mommy or daddy have to be standing with you to make sure you remember all the right steps

3. Never, ever, ever put metal in the microwave (that didn’t happen yet, but I felt it worth mentioning….and I mentioned it at least 3 times)

4. Ask before you help yourself to food and drinks (Logan has also tried to help his brothers get milk…that didn’t go so well either)

After our talk, Aiden was asking how the coffee maker worked. Hum….now that’s a skill I don’t mind teaching (and Brian, if you read this, I will teach him to measure coffee for me and then add at least twice as many scoops if you’re home – gross!)

;)

Aiden is currently on an “improvement plan” for goofiness at school (better than an improvement plan for being a bully, but still…it’s cause for concern). According to his teacher and the preschool director, Aiden’s class is…um…a handful. Aiden happens to be the leader of the silly brigade. I’m happy to report that he’s been doing much better lately. One day I tied a piece of string around his finger before school to help him remember to pay attention and be a good example. That day, he got a rave review from his teacher and, bless his heart, actually said, “thank you for the string mommy – it really helped me today”. We’ve been doing the string for about a week…sadly, the results are not always the same. So…..we had a long talk yesterday about what to do. He was afraid that he wouldn’t be able contain his laughter if his friends did funny things. We talked about how he won’t get in trouble for laughing, but maybe he could tell his friends, “let’s pay attention now and we’ll tell jokes later”. Every day, his teacher draws either a smiley face, a straight face or a sad face on the top of his hand so that he and I both see exactly how the day went. He’s never received a sad face, but he frequently gets “small” smiley faces and he got one straight face. Yesterday, after our morning talk (which lasted all morning…off and on….as we were running errands and going to gymnastics class), he got a BIG smiley face and a thumbs-up from his teacher. He was very proud – he didn’t want to wash it off!! When he woke up this morning, I took one look at him and told him he should go check out his face in the mirror. We had a good laugh…he obviously rested his face on the top of his hand while sleeping last night

Happy face face!

This next picture is from a playdate we had last Friday with Aiden’s “girl friend” from school. Now this is what I call Modern Love: borrow your mom’s phone, lay side-by-side on the floor and play games. Ahhhh….how schweeet!

The other little boy in the picture is Joey, Julianna’s brother and Brady’s classmate – it was quite the perfect double playdate!

I had to snap a picture of this: just another of Aiden’s tinker toy creations. With his love of math and love of building things, I say future engineer (he says future video game designer….I guess that’s in the ballpark)

 

 

Yesterday, the new coats I ordered for the boys came in the mail. The old ones were difficult to get on and off because they have a fleece part that zips in. It always turns inside-out when they remove their coats and no one (save for me) can get them “right side out again”, plus they were all one size too small. Coats are on sale right now and these ones should last at least 2 more years – I ordered them big! I LOVE them (Land’s End) because the sleeves can extend 1&1/2 inches when the arms get too short plus they have built-in fingerless gloves and lots of cool pockets (ok…the boys love the pockets….I like the sleeves and glove thing). They HAD to try them on as soon as they came out of the box (and yes…same coat, different colors…just can’t shake that whole used-to-be-a-cheerleader-and-matching-is-fun mentality!)

Later, as Aiden was designing his tinker-toy creation, Brady did one of his own (he already put on his “PJs” which is a pair of pants and no shirt – sigh). He told me to take a picture of him “doing exercise”

Anyone else freaked by the fact that it’s January 10th and the high today was in the 50ies? Don’t get me wrong, it’s very nice….just unsettling. Last Friday, for example, was pretty cool. All the kids in the neighborhood got to do a little roller blading. Several of them, including my boys, got to try out their new skates…which is usually impossible during the first week of January when it’s typical to have a couple feet of accumulated snow on the ground.

 

 

 

Now on to other happenings:

1. A birthday card I made for cousin Jack. I’ve been wanting to try this one for a while!

 

2. “Tis a happy thing to be a father to many sons” – William Shakespeare (Brian was trying to sit for a couple minutes after work last night, but the boys realized he was home and jumped him!)

 

3. Hoarding, aka: working on “my books”. I’m a mom who can’t bring herself to throw anything away….well, not the stuff the kids make. It’s a serious problem. I have piles of their stuff stashed everywhere waiting to be photographed and put into books. My goal over Christmas break was to take pictures of all the things the three of them have done/brought home/drawn/made etc. for the 1st half of this school year. (I got Brady’s done, but 2 other piles are still lurking in various hiding spots!) Then, of course, I get an email with a notice that Shutterfly.com photo books are on sale through tomorrow. I figured I would try to do at least 1 of the boy’s school books. Logan is the farthest behind. I haven’t done his pre-K book, let alone his kindergarten book! I worked on it in earnest today, but I ran out of good lighting and my camera battery died so I’ll have to finish it tomorrow. Here are some pictures of my up-hill battle!

 

Here are piles of stuff that I organized in the kitchen today – this is all Logan’s Pre-K stuff from 2009-2010

His teacher had a share site with pictures from the year. Thinking I was going to get this done much sooner, I ordered a bunch of the prints last summer. Here they are divided by month and classroom activity

Despite the crazy look of it all, the organization usually takes me less than 1/2 an hour because I have a system of saving things. When the boys come home from school every day, I take out their work (ooooh and aaaahhhh…show it to Brian blah blah) and then immediately file it in their folder, newest stuff in the back so it ends up in chronological order)

Here are some pictures of the current problem (not counting what’s all over my kitchen counters right now): this is Aiden’s work from the 1st 1/2 of this year. It’s currently being kept in between two filing cabinets in the office.

This is the drawer of 1 filing cabinet pulled open – that’s some actual files and Logan’s stuff from the 1st 1/2 of 1st grade. Brady’s stuff from this year was in there too, but I took pictures of it over the break and threw it all away! I have now started filing his new stuff behind Logan’s.

This is a cabinet in the dining room area. That’s Brady’s stuff from “I’m not 2 Young To Learn” and “Little Learners” from last year plus Logan’s Kindergarten….I think….

This is a shelf in the pantry – that’s Aiden’s stuff from the brief amount of time I had him in 3’s preschool at the end of 2010 (I wanted to put him in 3’s last year and 4’s this year, but I ended up having to put him in 4’s last year and pre-k this year so I just had him in a class for the last part of the school year 2010 with our wonderful friend Jen….so it wasn’t a “real” year of preschool….don’t tell him, but this stuff might just get pitched instead of making it into a book)

Here are a few examples of what my piles of stuff become: beautiful, hard-bound books that are no more than 1/2-an-inch thick! See….there is a solution to hoarding! (although seriously, which of my boys is going to look through these in years to come!?) It makes me feel better though, therefore I continue :)

Here are a bunch of my books: on the far left, the big ones, the blog books! Yes, I just ordered my 2011 blog….250+ pages of non-sense written by yours truly! Then we have the school year books followed by birthday books, various vacation books and other non-sense. I’m gonna need to get more shelf space…these kids are only 4, 5 and 6! Ok fine…maybe I need to chill on the books (but it’s mother-guilt I tell ya….I’m compelled!!)

And….speaking of art work, check out this totally cool (and SO super easy) art kit that Logan got from Auntie Denna and Uncle Tom for Christmas. We did it one afternoon over the break:

This is Logan’s version of “The Tree of Life” by Gustav Klimt. It’s a giant stencil with different colors of paint and a bunch of funky stickers. He did a good job though and it was a lot of fun! This came from a “Kidsaw Master Kitz”…they have this one, Monet’s Water Lilies and Van Gogh’s Starry Night (Amazon – $25.00)

I need to get it a frame I think. Doesn’t it look nice up on the office shelves?? Ok, now see that pile of paper, sitting way up on the the top, far to the right, kind of covering up one of my fun pictures? That’s some stuff from Logan’s kindergarten last year. SEE!??! I have a problem!

K, gotta run…I have a birthday book for Brady 1/2 done on Shutterfly!

We celebrated New Year’s Eve at Joel and Kristin’s this year. Last year we started the party a little earlier and most of the kids fell asleep by midnight. This year we started at 7, did a “kid celebration” at 10 and hoped for the best. The best was that a handful of the kids actually fell asleep in the basement watching movies. Among those were Aiden and Brady (score!) The rest of the kiddo crew kept sneaking upstairs to spy on the adults (and were caught red-handed….then invited to join the count down at midnight). Logan, for some reason, sat on his sleeping bag neither falling asleep nor joining the spy-kids. I went and got him around 11:55 and told him to get his booty upstairs. And that, my friends, is how I got 2 super sweet guys to kiss me at midnight!

For most of the night, Brian had everyone pick songs by either genre, decade or some other category. He played them over Joel and Kristin’s sonos speaker via Spotify (get both of these if you do not have them….Sonos = electronic equipment available at Target, Best Buy etc etc. Spotify = iphone, ipad, smart phone ap that lets you play virtually any song at any time….and can be played through Sonos). Annnnyway, it was pretty much a dance party before and DEFINITELY after midnight. So fun!!!!

Brady and Logan model some of the party decorations – giant hats!

Someone was sleepy….no wonder he was one of the few who dozed off!

Dang paparazzi!!

The kid’s celebration: they sat in a circle, said what the liked best about 2011 and what they were looking forward to in 2012. Bad mom me didn’t hear any of it except Logan wasn’t sure what he should look forward to.

Look who got ahold of the camera after midnight (not Brian…pictured here with Logan and the whole crew party-rockin’ it out!). The spot on Brian’s shirt is champagne from Anne’s “happy new year’s” hug…just in case you were wondering :) Logan is in the blue tee shirt and shark pj bottoms (not that you can see the sharks)

I count 8 kids in this picture….total in attendance: 15