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| Bailey with the banded leg (8 years old & still going strong - she loves this time of year!) |
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
A banded bird!
Goose hunting season is upon us and last weekend Cory was lucky enough to shoot a banded goose on his morning hunting venture. In the bird hunting world, that’s a big deal!
Friday, September 19, 2014
4 year checkup
We went in this morning for the boys' 4 year well child checkups. Our clinic is still running on a shortage of pediatricians (no improvement from last year) so again this year I called to make the appointments back in July but didn't get into until now. I can't stress enough how much we LOVE our pediatrician, so he is worth the wait & we had no outstanding issues that needed to be addressed sooner than this.
The boys & I took the opportunity of the morning together & grabbed breakfast at one of the local Starbucks before heading over to the appointment. I've never been to Starbucks, as I'm not a coffee drinker and there aren't any on my morning commute. I had several gift cards to use up (I always seem to win the Starbucks gift cards at our work Christmas drawings) so it ended up being a "free" breakfast out. (I do love that they had quite a few organic choices.) Wyatt chose apple juice, an applesauce squeezie & a pumpkin muffin. Colton chose chocolate milk, an applesauce squeezie & a blueberry muffin. I brought bananas for us all & just shared in their leftovers. It was a fun treat.
They were a little nervous again leading up to the appointment, even with the reminder that there were going to be no shots at this appointment.
Colton went first and did pretty good, although he didn't cooperate the best with the doctor's requests. He weighed 35 lbs 15 oz (42%) & was 3‘ 5” (46%). He was in a pretty silly mood, which was great to see. He would try what the doctor ask him to do just once & then refuse and say "Psssst, nope!". I even got down on the floor with him on the final "duck walking" test the doctor had him try & was doing it myself, with little cooperation from him.
Wyatt was next. He weighed 36 lbs 13 oz (50%) & was 3’ 4” (35%). He also did great. He did good cooperating with everything the doctor requested and even showed the doctor what a "story-teller" he is. His silliest answer of the day..."What do you put on your toothbrush when you brush your teeth?"..."Mustard!".
This is the biggest difference between the two yet! They are almost a pound different now; but still only within 1 inch of each other – it’s crazy how close they’ve stayed measurement-wise up to this point.
Wyatt
Birth: 4 lbs 11 oz | 17.5"
1 week: 4 lbs 8 oz | 17.72"
2 weeks: 5 lbs 1 oz | 17.72"
1 month: 6 lbs 8 oz | 19.29"
2 months: 8 lbs 6 oz | 20.47"
4 months: 13 lbs 4 oz | 23.62"
5 months: 16 lbs (35%) | 25.59" (32%)
6 months: 17 lbs 1 oz (34%) | 26.18" (29%)
9 months: 20 lbs 3 oz (43%) | 28.25" (49%)
12 months: 22 lbs 13 oz (48%) | 29.75" (46%)
18 months: 25 lbs 4 oz (41%) | 31.5" (26%)
2 years: 28 lbs 7 oz (50%) | 32.87" (10%)
3 years: 32 lbs 14 oz (54%) | 3' 1/2" (14.5%)
4 years: 36 lbs 13 oz (50%) | 3' 4" (35%)
Colton
Birth: 4 lbs 15 oz | 18"
1 week: 4 lbs 14 oz | 17.91"
2 weeks: 5 lbs 5 oz | 18.11"
1 month: 6 lbs 5 oz | 19.49"
2 months: 8 lbs 4 oz | 20.28"
4 months: 12 lbs 11 oz | 23.43"
5 months: 15 lbs 9 oz (27%) | 24.80" (9%)
6 months: 16 lbs 10 oz (26%) | 26.18" (29%)
9 months: 19 lbs 10 oz (33%) | 28.13" (45%)
12 months: 22 lbs 10 oz (44%) | 29.75" (46%)
18 months: 25 lbs (38%) | 31.9" (37%)
2 years: 28 lbs 4 oz (33%) | 33.19" (50%)
3 years: 32 lbs 10 oz (52%) | 3' 1 1/2" (39%)
4 years: 35 lbs 15 oz (42%) | 3' 5" (46%)
The second part of the appointment was a vision & hearing test. Last year, they did it more for an "introduction of the test" & didn't take the results too seriously. Colton did great & Wyatt didn't cooperate. What a difference a year makes! This year, they both did great. Cory went with each of them when they did the tests. Colton came back with excellent results - he did great on both the vision & hearing parts (although Colton was a little sad when he came back from the test & told me that he didn't think he did the vision test right). I didn't get a chance to get Wyatt's results before we left, so I'll have to ask Cory tonight.
They both checked out happy & healthy!
This was our last well child checkup before the "big" kindergarten checkup next summer...and I'm really going to try to remember to call in late-spring to schedule that one so we can get in during early summer months & beat the "back-to-school" rush!
The boys & I took the opportunity of the morning together & grabbed breakfast at one of the local Starbucks before heading over to the appointment. I've never been to Starbucks, as I'm not a coffee drinker and there aren't any on my morning commute. I had several gift cards to use up (I always seem to win the Starbucks gift cards at our work Christmas drawings) so it ended up being a "free" breakfast out. (I do love that they had quite a few organic choices.) Wyatt chose apple juice, an applesauce squeezie & a pumpkin muffin. Colton chose chocolate milk, an applesauce squeezie & a blueberry muffin. I brought bananas for us all & just shared in their leftovers. It was a fun treat.
They were a little nervous again leading up to the appointment, even with the reminder that there were going to be no shots at this appointment.
Colton went first and did pretty good, although he didn't cooperate the best with the doctor's requests. He weighed 35 lbs 15 oz (42%) & was 3‘ 5” (46%). He was in a pretty silly mood, which was great to see. He would try what the doctor ask him to do just once & then refuse and say "Psssst, nope!". I even got down on the floor with him on the final "duck walking" test the doctor had him try & was doing it myself, with little cooperation from him.
Wyatt was next. He weighed 36 lbs 13 oz (50%) & was 3’ 4” (35%). He also did great. He did good cooperating with everything the doctor requested and even showed the doctor what a "story-teller" he is. His silliest answer of the day..."What do you put on your toothbrush when you brush your teeth?"..."Mustard!".
This is the biggest difference between the two yet! They are almost a pound different now; but still only within 1 inch of each other – it’s crazy how close they’ve stayed measurement-wise up to this point.
Wyatt
Birth: 4 lbs 11 oz | 17.5"
1 week: 4 lbs 8 oz | 17.72"
2 weeks: 5 lbs 1 oz | 17.72"
1 month: 6 lbs 8 oz | 19.29"
2 months: 8 lbs 6 oz | 20.47"
4 months: 13 lbs 4 oz | 23.62"
5 months: 16 lbs (35%) | 25.59" (32%)
6 months: 17 lbs 1 oz (34%) | 26.18" (29%)
9 months: 20 lbs 3 oz (43%) | 28.25" (49%)
12 months: 22 lbs 13 oz (48%) | 29.75" (46%)
18 months: 25 lbs 4 oz (41%) | 31.5" (26%)
2 years: 28 lbs 7 oz (50%) | 32.87" (10%)
3 years: 32 lbs 14 oz (54%) | 3' 1/2" (14.5%)
4 years: 36 lbs 13 oz (50%) | 3' 4" (35%)
Colton
Birth: 4 lbs 15 oz | 18"
1 week: 4 lbs 14 oz | 17.91"
2 weeks: 5 lbs 5 oz | 18.11"
1 month: 6 lbs 5 oz | 19.49"
2 months: 8 lbs 4 oz | 20.28"
4 months: 12 lbs 11 oz | 23.43"
5 months: 15 lbs 9 oz (27%) | 24.80" (9%)
6 months: 16 lbs 10 oz (26%) | 26.18" (29%)
9 months: 19 lbs 10 oz (33%) | 28.13" (45%)
12 months: 22 lbs 10 oz (44%) | 29.75" (46%)
18 months: 25 lbs (38%) | 31.9" (37%)
2 years: 28 lbs 4 oz (33%) | 33.19" (50%)
3 years: 32 lbs 10 oz (52%) | 3' 1 1/2" (39%)
4 years: 35 lbs 15 oz (42%) | 3' 5" (46%)
The second part of the appointment was a vision & hearing test. Last year, they did it more for an "introduction of the test" & didn't take the results too seriously. Colton did great & Wyatt didn't cooperate. What a difference a year makes! This year, they both did great. Cory went with each of them when they did the tests. Colton came back with excellent results - he did great on both the vision & hearing parts (although Colton was a little sad when he came back from the test & told me that he didn't think he did the vision test right). I didn't get a chance to get Wyatt's results before we left, so I'll have to ask Cory tonight.
They both checked out happy & healthy!
This was our last well child checkup before the "big" kindergarten checkup next summer...and I'm really going to try to remember to call in late-spring to schedule that one so we can get in during early summer months & beat the "back-to-school" rush!
Thursday, September 18, 2014
Cooking class – a free intro!
My boys love helping me in the kitchen – whether it’s cooking or baking. I try to relax and let them help without worry about the mess we are making, but sometimes…it’s hard.
When I saw a free kids’ cooking class sponsored by our local hospital – I was excited to sign up! (It turns out it was good idea to plan ahead on this one, as the class filled up quickly. I also mentioned it to my sister, who signed up my two nephews as well.) This class was geared for ages 3-7 and was advertised as making healthy snacks with kid-friendly tools. The class was at a local kids’ activity center that offers a variety of kid-centered classes from music, to Spanish, to science-themed to cooking! The boys were excited to go and I was too.
Our first intro project was peeling hard boiled eggs – great for working on those fine motor skills. They were welcome to cut up or eat the egg after that – but my boys surprisingly did not (they actually love hard boiled eggs!). The class had three other “food projects” planned for the rest of the hour-long session.
The first project was a breakfast kabob – made with whole wheat waffles, sausage, watermelon & banana (with maple syrup for dipping & powdered sugar for powdering). The kids got to choose what they put on their kabob and started out with whole pieces of each. They were each provided a kid-friendly knife, to work on their cutting skills & to cut each ingredient up into bite size pieces to assemble together on the skewer. This was definitely a learning experience for my boys, but all four of them did great. I helped get Wyatt & Colton started with their knives (holding the food with one hand, running the knife back & forth) & I saw improvement in each’s skill level just between the first & last project!
The second project was a veggie/hummus roll up – made with whole wheat tortillas, spinach, cucumbers, shredded carrots, peppers, ranch & hummus. They kids also got to choose what they put on their roll up (yes, Colton only took the tortilla on this one!) and also got to use their knives to cut up the veggies (or tortilla, in Colton’s case). Wyatt declared this project his favorite of the day, which actually surprised me. Cucumbers were his favorite ingredient to cut & eat, he said. He also started snacking on the spinach, slightly dipped into his cup of ranch and even went back for a second helping of spinach!
The last project of the morning was a mini “fruit pizza” – made with a cookie base, home-made frosting, strawberries, blueberries & kiwi. This was a fun idea but the boys actually enjoyed all the ingredients separately. They did have good cutting practice cutting off the tops of the strawberries though. Neither of my boys were fond of the home-made frosting (it was cream cheese based & oh, so yummy!) and only ate about half of their cookie (which was fine by me, as they had eaten a lot of food at this point).
We cleaned everything up, played a little bit, said thank you to the owner/director…& now can’t wait to go back!
(The center also offers a 3 week paid class coming up at the end of September that I signed the boys up for. It meets one time a week for about an hour. After this fun Saturday morning, we are very excited for class to start & have more cooking/baking adventures!)
When I saw a free kids’ cooking class sponsored by our local hospital – I was excited to sign up! (It turns out it was good idea to plan ahead on this one, as the class filled up quickly. I also mentioned it to my sister, who signed up my two nephews as well.) This class was geared for ages 3-7 and was advertised as making healthy snacks with kid-friendly tools. The class was at a local kids’ activity center that offers a variety of kid-centered classes from music, to Spanish, to science-themed to cooking! The boys were excited to go and I was too.
Our first intro project was peeling hard boiled eggs – great for working on those fine motor skills. They were welcome to cut up or eat the egg after that – but my boys surprisingly did not (they actually love hard boiled eggs!). The class had three other “food projects” planned for the rest of the hour-long session.
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| All four boys, ready to begin! |
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| Wyatt cutting his egg. |
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| Colton cutting his egg. |
The first project was a breakfast kabob – made with whole wheat waffles, sausage, watermelon & banana (with maple syrup for dipping & powdered sugar for powdering). The kids got to choose what they put on their kabob and started out with whole pieces of each. They were each provided a kid-friendly knife, to work on their cutting skills & to cut each ingredient up into bite size pieces to assemble together on the skewer. This was definitely a learning experience for my boys, but all four of them did great. I helped get Wyatt & Colton started with their knives (holding the food with one hand, running the knife back & forth) & I saw improvement in each’s skill level just between the first & last project!
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| Colton assembling his kabob. |
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| Wyatt cutting up his waffle. |
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| Cousin "N" cutting up his banana & sausage. |
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| Cousin "I" cutting up his watermelon. |
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| "N"'s kabob! |
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| "I"'s kabob! |
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| Colton's kabob! |
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| Wyatt assembling his kabob. |
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| Wyatt's kabob! |
The second project was a veggie/hummus roll up – made with whole wheat tortillas, spinach, cucumbers, shredded carrots, peppers, ranch & hummus. They kids also got to choose what they put on their roll up (yes, Colton only took the tortilla on this one!) and also got to use their knives to cut up the veggies (or tortilla, in Colton’s case). Wyatt declared this project his favorite of the day, which actually surprised me. Cucumbers were his favorite ingredient to cut & eat, he said. He also started snacking on the spinach, slightly dipped into his cup of ranch and even went back for a second helping of spinach!
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| Colton cutting up his tortilla. |
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| Wyatt cutting up cucumbers. |
The last project of the morning was a mini “fruit pizza” – made with a cookie base, home-made frosting, strawberries, blueberries & kiwi. This was a fun idea but the boys actually enjoyed all the ingredients separately. They did have good cutting practice cutting off the tops of the strawberries though. Neither of my boys were fond of the home-made frosting (it was cream cheese based & oh, so yummy!) and only ate about half of their cookie (which was fine by me, as they had eaten a lot of food at this point).
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| Cousin "N" spreading his frosting on. |
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| Wyatt cutting the tops off of his strawberries...and eating them right after! |
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| Colton enjoying his plain cookie. |
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| "N"'s "finished" cookie! |
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| Wyatt enjoying his molasses cookie. |
We cleaned everything up, played a little bit, said thank you to the owner/director…& now can’t wait to go back!
(The center also offers a 3 week paid class coming up at the end of September that I signed the boys up for. It meets one time a week for about an hour. After this fun Saturday morning, we are very excited for class to start & have more cooking/baking adventures!)
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
United Way Day
Our city held a family fun day down at our local park to help support the United Way & build community awareness. The weather was beautiful & we had no plans for the day, so the boys & I, along with my sister & two nephews, packed into her minivan (I really think this was the boys’ favorite part of the day!) and headed down to enjoy the event’s activities.
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| Colton taking a target shot with a "cross bow". |
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| Wyatt's turn to try! |
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| Bean bag toss star Wyatt - he made 2 of the 3 bags in. (He got in 2 of 2 bean bags at a kid's expo last winter too!) |
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| Hula-hoop time! (Wyatt, Colton & cousin "I") |
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| Wyatt trying to walk inside the hula hoop! |
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| Colton showing me his hula hoop skills! |
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| Taking in the rest of the park...the hyenas. |
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| The tigers. |
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| A fun day! (cousin "I", Wyatt, Colton, cousin "N") |
Tuesday, September 9, 2014
First day of 4K!
The boys started 4K this week & are loving it so far!
The 4 year old kindergarten program is taught by certified teachers right at their current daycare site. They attend it 4 days a week for 3 hours each day.
We chose to put them in the morning session to try to preserve that afternoon nap just a little bit longer (although Colton has really been showing signs of not needing it some days by not falling asleep at all…even if mommy does!).
We also chose to split them up into separate classrooms since there were two morning sessions offered. I would like them each to have their own separate time to grow & develop as an individual and found this to be the perfect opportunity to try that out. I’m also hoping the separated time might help out their relationship at home because lately they just can’t seem to get along.
Each of their classes is made up of part daycare kids & part non-daycare kids. This keeps them comfortable with some friends they already know with adding in an opportunity to make more/new friends with kids they don’t know.
This was the best transition yet! I was expecting tears on the first day at drop off (especially from Wyatt, as he’s had a history of tearful goodbyes for a week or so after moving to a new classroom, the poor guy just hasn’t done well with change in the past) but I got two smiling faces, waving to me out the window…it was great! It helps that I drop them off before the 4K program starts, so they are in the same room to play for a bit & have breakfast before the class split up happens but after talking to one of their teachers, she said they had no problem during the split up time either.
I am so glad they are loving 4K so far. It’s hard to believe that at this time next year, they will be off to kindergarten…where do the years go??
The 4 year old kindergarten program is taught by certified teachers right at their current daycare site. They attend it 4 days a week for 3 hours each day.
We chose to put them in the morning session to try to preserve that afternoon nap just a little bit longer (although Colton has really been showing signs of not needing it some days by not falling asleep at all…even if mommy does!).
We also chose to split them up into separate classrooms since there were two morning sessions offered. I would like them each to have their own separate time to grow & develop as an individual and found this to be the perfect opportunity to try that out. I’m also hoping the separated time might help out their relationship at home because lately they just can’t seem to get along.
Each of their classes is made up of part daycare kids & part non-daycare kids. This keeps them comfortable with some friends they already know with adding in an opportunity to make more/new friends with kids they don’t know.
This was the best transition yet! I was expecting tears on the first day at drop off (especially from Wyatt, as he’s had a history of tearful goodbyes for a week or so after moving to a new classroom, the poor guy just hasn’t done well with change in the past) but I got two smiling faces, waving to me out the window…it was great! It helps that I drop them off before the 4K program starts, so they are in the same room to play for a bit & have breakfast before the class split up happens but after talking to one of their teachers, she said they had no problem during the split up time either.
I am so glad they are loving 4K so far. It’s hard to believe that at this time next year, they will be off to kindergarten…where do the years go??
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| Wyatt |
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| Colton |
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| We took pictures inside first because I thought it was going to be too dark out...so these were round #1. |
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| Colton |
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| Wyatt |
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| Big boys...ready to go! |
Friday, September 5, 2014
Wrapping up the camping season with friends!
The weekend before Labor Day we took an extended weekend camping trip with a big group of friends at a near-by campground resort. The kids had a blast & the parents got to relax (well, as much as you can relax with 8 kids buzzing around). We enjoyed all the amenities including the pool, playground, jumping pillow, train ride & DJ.
Colton & I went to visit my youngest sister & my two, new littlest nephews on Friday evening. Colton didn’t want to hold them at all but helped out in nuk replacement & removal! He also was happy to open up each of their Fisher Price sea horses we got them & show them how they worked – so cute!
Saturday, my other sister & my other two nephews came to the campground to visit & swim, so we enjoyed that time with them as well as celebrating my sister’s birthday!
The only “bad” part of the weekend was on Saturday night when 4 of the kids (2 of them, mine) stumbled upon a ground hive and were each stung at least once. It was a scary thing for them, since they are used to bees coming out of bee hives that they can see. A little bit of love & snuggles from mommy and Wyatt was good as new & back out playing again. Colton took a little bit more convincing to get settled down & to come back out of the camper. We had no bad reactions though & that is what I was ultimately worried about. We’ve had many “bee talks” since the incident & have a bit of lingering fear that we’re working through.
It was a great weekend to end a great summer camping season. We did go camping up at Cory’s dad’s land over the Labor Day weekend but the weather was rainy & very fall-like, so this really was our last “summer weather” camping weekend.
Colton & I went to visit my youngest sister & my two, new littlest nephews on Friday evening. Colton didn’t want to hold them at all but helped out in nuk replacement & removal! He also was happy to open up each of their Fisher Price sea horses we got them & show them how they worked – so cute!
Saturday, my other sister & my other two nephews came to the campground to visit & swim, so we enjoyed that time with them as well as celebrating my sister’s birthday!
The only “bad” part of the weekend was on Saturday night when 4 of the kids (2 of them, mine) stumbled upon a ground hive and were each stung at least once. It was a scary thing for them, since they are used to bees coming out of bee hives that they can see. A little bit of love & snuggles from mommy and Wyatt was good as new & back out playing again. Colton took a little bit more convincing to get settled down & to come back out of the camper. We had no bad reactions though & that is what I was ultimately worried about. We’ve had many “bee talks” since the incident & have a bit of lingering fear that we’re working through.
It was a great weekend to end a great summer camping season. We did go camping up at Cory’s dad’s land over the Labor Day weekend but the weather was rainy & very fall-like, so this really was our last “summer weather” camping weekend.
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| Climbing up the jumping pillow with "P" |
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| Jumping! |
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| Boys a runnin' |
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| Pool time with Wyatt! |
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| Sliding... |
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| ...down! |
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| Pool time with friends. |
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| Wyatt jumping in! |
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| Colton jumping in! |
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| Mommy & Colton (Colton was getting cold & wanted a snack.) |
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| Bucket dumping time Wyatt! |
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| He made it! |
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| Mommy & Wyatt |
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| Our godson "J" trying to swim with 3 tubes! |
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| Ice bucket challenge for one of our friends - the kids loved it! |
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| Baby visit time - "W" |
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| Colton & his two newest cousins! |
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| Bug catching time! |
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| My little buddy while we're camping together - "R" |
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| Finding the ants! |
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| Colton & his bug gear! |
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| This was a popular activity that really kept all their attention for awhile! |
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| Triple trouble! |
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