Friday Five

"Mom, my throat hurts." I have to say that these words send a chill straight to my core. Noooo...

You guessed it. We are sick again. Sigh.

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This was an exceptionally good week at school for the big boys. It's pretty awesome to hear such great things about our boys. Makes me so proud!

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One of Jack's favorite things to do on mommy is hang upside down. (I am a human set of monkey bars apparently.) Then, by accident, Jack discovered the thrill of flipping over. Now he can't get enough of it.

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Shawn has become a reading fiend. I love, love, love watching him get so much enjoyment out of reading. He has chosen to read instead of playing the iPad, and reading is his go-to activity at school when he finishes early. So cool!

And, and, AND, it is so awesome that he is one of the kids who finishes his work early! Go Shawn!

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Jason continues to impress me with how much he can do. There is no more "fooling" him when it comes to anything written. This evening, he asked Siri about the weather. An article popped up, and Jason immediately went to work reading what it said. Amazing. It's interesting that Jason isn't as eager to read actual books like his brother is, even though he can consistently read first and second grade books. He will read books, it just isn't something he would do without encouragement.

I tell you, these two continually find new ways to show just how different (although similar) they are!

Throwback Thursday

Shawn's turn being all cute and tiny. :)

July 2009 - 18 months adjusted

Mostly Wordless Wednesday

You just never know where or how you'll find him.

Conversations With 6 Year Olds - Deep Thoughts

Conversation on the way to school:

"Dad, what if everyone is a robot? And the cars are all remote control? What if the houses are just a big play set? And the sky is repainted each and every day and night. What if all of this is controlled by a giant?"

Um...yeah. People, it isn't even a three minute ride to school. I hate to imagine what he would come up with if he had more time! lol

Epiphany

Shocking as this may seem to you, I just had a realization. Let's call it an epiphany, of sorts.

What is this revelation, you ask?

Are you ready?

Well, I realized we have a real, live, throw yourself to the floor because of who knows why toddler in the house.

A TWO year old toddler of the TERRIBLE kind.

And my, oh my, this boy has quite the dramatic flair.

While I am somewhat happy, if you could call it that, that this TWO of the TERRIBLE kind didn't actually appear until well at the end of this said year, he is making up for lost time.

Don't move fast enough to do what he wants?

Drama ensues.

Talk to him when he didn't want you to talk to him?

He can dissolve into a fit of hysterics.

Don't talk to him (because the last time you did merited disastrous results) when he did want you to?

To the floor he drops, tearing and screaming.

It's been interesting around these parts.

We are 34 short days away from this boy turning THREE. Here's hoping that the switch is flipped and he leaves all of this craziness behind him!

~~~

OMG, he's turning THREE in 34 days! Be still my heart!

Future Weatherman?

Another glimpse into the classroom. Here is Jason's journal...

 

 

In case you didn't get it from the picture, that's Jason and behind him is the television screen with the weather report. :)

Cute Big Boy Saturday

A glimpse into the world of school...

here's Shawn working on a phonics pocket chart activity!

Homework Assignment

Part of the boys' homework this week was to dictate a story and then read it back. Like everything else that happens around these parts, the boys couldn't have been any more different in their stories if they tried.

First I asked Shawn:

"Once upon a time, there was a princess living in a castle. I'm all done with my story now."

Cute, right? To be fair, this was the last homework page we did, so his patience for working was nearing its end. Still I think this is a pretty good indication of his personality--straight to the point. The end. I love that about my guy!

Jason took his story to a whole other extreme. (written exactly as he told it and punctuated as close to how he told it as I could get)

"Once upon a time a little boy named Jason went out for a walk to see the world and his family are cleaning up his house. Jason found a little girl name Layla and decided to marry her. Then they went to a ball and danced around and then at the end of the ball they went home together and mom and dad went, 'Oh my gosh! Who is that new girl?' And Jason said, 'This is Layla.' The end."

Um...I don't even know where to begin with this story! I cannot wait to see what the teacher has to say about this one.

And yes, I totally know we are in big trouble with this kid. I'm already sweating.

Like Shawn's story matched his personality, this story definitely matches Jason's. He has a love for words, that's for sure!

Throwback Thursday

This is from April 2009. He was about 18 months actual, 15 months adjusted. :)

Mostly Wordless Wednesday

"Look, mom! It's American cheese!"

Can't argue with that, now can you?

Ours Not to Reason Why

Ours is just to roll with it. ;)

It's Jason in a box on the naughty chair. Silly boy!

P.S. This was Tuesday's post that didn't publish on my phone! I'm still counting that I've posted every day--technology difficulties don't count!! I'll go back and fix it later. ;)

Second Verse

Wait. We're waaaaay beyond a second verse at this stage. Maybe verse 20ish? I'm afraid to go back and look. I think the real number would make me cry.

 

Anyway, my point is that the Sick has invaded our house again. It started with Jason saying he was congested and his throat hurt Friday afternoon. He's now got a nasty cough. Fingers crossed that the cough doesn't progress to something nastier.

 

Last night, after a normal day, Jack woke up crying and spent the entire night sleeping on my chest like this...

 

He was so congested he couldn't breathe, and the slightest move from this position sent him into another gagging/crying fit. Today he played, but he also did a lot of snuggling on mommy and daddy. (Mommy and daddy, on the other hand, were far less chipper than he was today.)

This evening, Shawn started sneezing and coughing. Hold me.

And you know what?

I am almost at the point of surrender. These mutant kinder germs are kicking our rear ends...then they keep coming back around to kick us some more. It's been brutal. Apparently the mutant kinder germs we get haven't heard that expression about not kicking someone when they're down.

The end of our cold season is March/April. Here's hoping we make it!

Conversations With 6 Year Old

From the backseat while driving in the car:

J: I just thought of something.

Isaac: What's that?

J: I'm going to have to marry mom because I don't have a wife yet.

Isaac: Um, Jay, you have plenty of time for that. Right now you need to play and have fun and school. You're only in kindergarten.

J: Yeah. And next year I'll be in first grade. And then I'll be in second grade. Then third grade!

Isaac: See? You still have some time before you start worrying about getting married.

J: Then I'll be in fourth grade...

~~~

When leaving the bathroom...

S: Mom, will you close the door?

Me: Okay.

S: And say, "poon-ja."

Me: What?

S: Say, "poon-ja."

Me: What does that mean?

S (sighing): Never mind.

And I still have no idea what that means!

Cute Baby Saturday

So he leaves for a minute and disappears into his brothers' room.  Two minutes later, I hear him saying, "Goo nigh." I go in to find this...

Happy Valentiine's Day!

One of the best things about the boys being this age is that they write notes and cards. It's pretty awesome.

The front and back of the card Jason made for daddy. (top)
The inside of Shawn's card for daddy. Love the people! (bottom)

 

The inside of the card Jason made. (top)
The front and back of the card Shawn made. (bottom)

We gave the boys Beanie Babies as our gifts to them. They were a hit!

 

Jason with his red and white doggy.

Shawn kissing his monkey beanie baby.

Jack and his chocolate bear.
Does he not look so old here? OMG!

Hope you had a fantastic Valentine's Day! We sure did!

Throwback Thursday

Time to show Jason when he was all itty bitty ...

The boy's got moves. :)

Mostly Wordless Wednesday

He does like his books...

A Quiet Week

Things have been quiet on the home front.

The boys have had no homework this week (YEA!), probably because we had the 100th day project to do over the weekend. I don't really care what the reason behind this reprieve, I'm happy about it anyway. (Yes, I am aware that this is ironic to say for a teacher.) The boys are, too, which is funny because they don't have any problems actually doing the work. I think it is just the idea of having to do the work that is already old. They're only a 100 days into their school careers, so it is a bit nerve wracking to hear them already hope for no homework days!

They are, however, working on their first set of Valentines to hand out to their friends. How exciting is that? Shawn's cards are Cars characters and tattoos. Jason's cards are planets with glow in the dark stickers. We also got pencils to give from Shawn and candy to give from Jason. They both have diligently worked on writing their names on the 30 cards for their classmates. I can't wait to hear what they think about the whole giving and receiving of Valentine's cards. :)

Jack, on the other hand, has been everything but quiet. The boy is in perpetual motion from the moment he wakes until the moment he loses his showdown with sleep at night. If I had even a fourth of this boy's energy, I'd be happy (and a lot more productive).

100th Day of School!

Today was the boys' 100th day of school. They worked hard on their presentations and were very proud of taking them to school.

 

The kinder classes celebrated the day by creating a museum of all the kids' projects. They also had centers and fun activities related to counting to 100. The boys had so much fun, they told the teacher, "Today was the best day ever!"

 

I have to say I'm really pleased at how the boys' projects came out!

 

painting the background

Making an orca thumbprint.

Painting his thumb for the next fish.

What color should we use now?

 

 

His ocean scene has 10 of each: crabs, starfish, shells, turtles, jellyfish,
orcas, yellow fish, purple fish, sharks, and seahorses.

painting the edges of his terrarium

A red thumbprint to make his butterfly.

Thumbs up for a fun project!

Adding in his plants with a Q-tip

 

His terrarium has 10 of each: spiders, red butterflies, orange butterflies,
dragonflies, bumble bees, ladybugs, snails, ants, frogs, and plants.

Me: Jay, did you like any projects today?

 

Jason: Yeah. I liked mine and Shawn's.

 

Me: Did you like anyone else's?

 

Jason: Not really.

 

Got to love a guy with confidence!

Sneaky Boy

Someone found an unused iPad.

It's amazing how good he really is at this thing, especially seeing how I rarely let him play it!

Cute Big Boy Saturday

Monday will be the boys' 100th day of school. To celebrate, the boys were assigned the task of creating a poster of 100 things.

Shawn painting the water for his ocean scene.

Jason is painting the edges of his terrarium.

So Badly

He wants so badly to do what his big brothers are doing...

 

I had to laugh when a few minutes after this picture was taken he had somehow managed to sit in this little tiny chair with Jason. :)

Throwback Thursday - It's Not a Phone

I could just die from the cuteness! (He's not quite 2 years adjusted here.)

Mostly Wordless Wednesday

Daddy and his littlest boy