Bear Hunt...

Jonathan doesn't often do the motions to songs at school, usually preferring to sit back and just listen or have me move his hands around for him.

This is actually one of his IFSP goals for this year... to independently do finger plays. LOL.  The thinking is that maybe he has trouble focusing on two things at once. I think it's probably partially this and partially because he's two... none of my kids have done the finger-play participation thing 100% of the time at this age. 

At any rate, I was amused that we JUST wrote it into the IFSP goals on Monday and then on Friday, this is what happened at school. LOL!

Super cute! :o) 

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Well, yeah, it's actually on Sunday. But today was the day for green at school! So here they are... Ben's outfit cracks me up. Simon was wary of putting on the doodleboppers on his head. Seems he has gotten a self-conscious streak all of a sudden. "People will laugh at me!!" 

"Dude. Of course they will laugh at you. You're FUNNY!!! It's like your THING!" 

 Anyway, so  I told him his friends would all have silly things on and he got into it. 

Haven't caught up with the little one yet to take his green shirt picture.  There was a very funny photo op at school today where he was leaned over headfirst into the trashcan lamenting that I threw away his uneaten snack and it looked like he'd had a little too much green beer... wasn't fast enough to get the pic though.  ;)

Ohhhhh Yeah....

Jonathan is currently obsessed with the Oh Yeah song from Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Thank you to Tom for this.

He calls it the "Boom Boom" song and he'll sing it for you, complete with whispered, "Chick Chicka Chickahhhhhhh". He also likes to hear it over and over again on every electronic device we own.

He has it somehow bookmarked on my phone, which he is often carrying around as we run errands during the day. SO... my life now has this constant Ferris Bueller soundtrack.

I'm walking through the produce section at Safeway picking out produce to this.



I'm walking around Target to this.



Pulling up to the drive-through at the bank?



And perhaps my most favorite inappropriate timing -- I'm walking in the front doors of the elementary school and THIS is what everyone standing there hears.



Because I am not dorky enough, now I have a soundtrack. Thanks Jonathan... thanks for that.

Potty Countdown...

The way I figure it I have five, six months MAX left of diapers being in my life. I could not be happier about this countdown.

Jonathan has approximately zero interest in the potty though, currently. I ask half-heartedly every so often.

For the last few weeks, he has woken up completely dry every morning... which tells me the time of readiness is fast approaching and I can't avoid it for much longer.

"Hey, you want to sit on the potty?!" I ask on these days, enthusiastically selling the benefits of being like big brothers and getting to flush! OH how he loves to flush. And flush. And flush. And Flush.  Bye, bye gallons and gallons of well water...

His answer when I ask though is generally an emphatic, "NO!"

At some point, I need to just ignore the protest and get this party started, so to speak... preferably before August. I don't want to. I hear people hire this sort of thing out now? A friend of mine is sending her son to be potty trained by his daycare lady. The daycare lady told her if she sent him in with 30 pairs of underwear on Wednesday, she'd have him potty trained by Thursday.

Where do I sign up?

Kidding... it's a rite of passage. I did it with the other two and we'll get through it together. I just... oh how I hate that stage where you have 5.5 seconds to find a bathroom in whatever store you are in or ELSE.

As I type this, he is, in fact, sitting on the potty...happily flushing away and talking about pee pee and poo poo,  so maybe we're making some mental progress. Or maybe he just likes flushing.

Sigh.

Threefer Update -- school stuff

Ben:
Two days of MSA down, two to go.  "It's way better than I thought it would be, mom." he says. Still liking the extra recess, snack, and no homework aspect, of course. (I think I'm loving the no homework even more than he is!!)  He was annoyed yesterday that they gave out the teddy grahams snack to the class instead of the one we sent in, which apparently got saved for today. (We sent kids Clif Bars with assorted baked chips ... I think he really just wanted the Cheetos more than anything)

They are reading The Borrowers in reading class right now. I LOVE that book. LOVE LOVE LOVE! I need to find time to sit down and reread it along with him. Have I mentioned I love third grade? It ranks up there with first grade for my favorite elementary school year with him so far. They just do so many interesting things and things I remember from when I was in school.

He seems to me like he has gotten a little more social lately and I like that. Wish I could be a fly on the wall of his classroom sometimes...

Still no sign of the winter coat. I think it's gone for good. (sigh)

Simon:
I've started paying him off in Minecraft minutes for every sight word he can rattle off without help. Wish I'd done it months ago. He knows 57 out of 60 all of a sudden. He also brought home his first "Little Book" from kindergarten yesterday. It was called "Look" and he read it all the way through without help and without even stopping to sound words out.  YAY! Where has THIS been?! I had been a little concerned about his reading progress lately, but maybe it was all for naught.

He has been doing a little better with handwriting too -- mostly his issue is not wanting to put forth ANY effort whatsoever... but when you stand over him and make him do and redo, his writing is actually pretty age appropriate. His teacher has been tightening the reigns lately too and some papers are coming home with "second attempts" stapled to them. Hopefully we can get him whipped into shape for first grade.

The idea of Simon and first grade right now is a little bit ... um... daunting to me. I'm saying a little prayer that he gets a teacher next year who a) gets him and thinks he's funny and b) has a little boy or two of her own and c) is patient, but also has high expectations and isn't going let him get away with being lazy. I know, it sounds like a Mary Poppins request list... but  that will be the best combination for his success next year, I think. We've had good luck so far with teacher fits... so hopefully that continues.  As a mom, I live in constant fear of my kids getting the teachers who don't like/get little boys... and they are definitely out there!!

Jonathan:
I hesitate to write this, but he hasn't had a meltdown in two weeks. He has been pleasant and adorable and relatively easy. Yikes! We're coming up on one full year of our time with Infants and Toddlers and it's amazing to look back and see how far he's come in that time.

When he started with Ms. Cindy last March, he had basically NO language.  Crazy! We are opting to stay with them because why mess with what's working? He has his one-year evaluation coming up Monday and then something about Child Find coming to talk about the options when he turns three in August. We can either go to the elementary school for speech, if he still needs it. Or we can stick with services in our house. Probably going to go with the latter.

And now I need to end this because Jonathan is climbing into my lap to steal my computer. I really miss having my computer to myself... now they ALL play on it. GRRR....

Fort McHenry...

60 degrees? Oh how I love this weather... today was the most gorgeous day and we spent much of it outside enjoying the preview of spring!  We took the boys to Fort McHenry this morning and they had a blast!

My three little dudes... 

This one kept threatening to jump from the walls...

Simon with the flag behind him

SO wish Jonathan had gotten in this photo... 

Action shot!

The Star Spangled Banner and the most beautiful blue sky!!!

What's in here?

Simon wanted me to take his picture with the cannon

"Look! It's a brick hole!!"

Simon and a British cannonball

Frosty...

There was a little snow leftover today from the blizzard that wasn't...   so we went outside this morning after being inspired by my sister-in-law's snowman post yesterday! I needed a good winter
pic for the calendar! Not really a snow fan, but I put on a good front for my snow-deprived last-born.

In this picture, he's eating one of the extra carrots we brought out while staring hungrily at Frosty's nose... ;) LOL!

He Really Does Think He is Five...

Tonight, we went out to dinner... you know, since the blizzard thing kind of didn't actually happen.

Now, I should preface by saying that we have worked really hard on teaching the boys how to act in restaurants from the time they were very small,  and, if I do say so myself, we've somehow managed to get through to them.  (most of the time... there are exceptions.... oh BOY are there exceptions...)

At any rate, the big boys ordered their food first, speaking in lovely, polite, complete sentences and ending with "please" without having to be reminded. (Yes! Score for good parenting!!)

Then, just as Tom was getting ready to order for Jonathan, he looked right at the waitress and said, without missing a beat: "I will have da grilled cheeeeeeeeese please!"

Even the waitress coudn't help but laugh. It was really pretty darn cute.

It's awesome the stuff he picks up from his big brothers! (sometimes)

Twilight Zone...

Jonathan had some kind of brain re-wiring overnight four days ago that seems to have left him a different child. He has taken the verbosity to a whole new level, now saying things are "my favorite" that he "loves them!" and comparing things to other things and asking people questions about themselves and inviting people into his play. He's happy ALL day long, taking great naps, sleeping great at night, hugging, kissing and snuggling constantly. "Mommy, please read dis book to me. It's my FAVORITE." The sweetness is unbearable. It's also downright WEIRD. He's always been silly and affectionate, but with a healthy dose of crankiness to keep us on our toes.

I thought it was my imagination until Miss Cindy showed up today to work with him and wondered aloud who this child was and where Jonathan went. LOL.

So there's that.

Then, I was driving the boys home from school today and, while sitting at the red light, I realized the silence in the car was deafening. I turned around and Simon was just leaning his head on the window, staring off into space. (Ben's usually fairly quiet on the ride home, but SImon chats up a storm)

I briefly thought perhaps he had choked on the candy treat from school that he had been eating and I had a moment of total panic. But when I called his name he picked his head up. "You okay, buddy?"
He said quietly that his head hurt, his cheek hurt because he had bitten it and his knee, where he skinned it yesterday also hurt. Overall just NOT his chipper Simon self. Not usually a complainer, that one.

I am fully aware of a stomach virus epidemic at school right now so to say I am on red alert tonight would be an understatement. He got into jammies right away when we got home, spent the next hour or so in bed playing Minecraft,  didn't want dinner... but then, a little while ago, he came down and said he was hungry and had a bowl of oatmeal and a banana... sooooo... hopefully he was just tired or something. Gosh, I hope so.

As for Ben? He's just in a easy phase at the moment. This changes from week to week lately, but he seems happy. Is doing what he's supposed to do in school, isn't complaining about going and is bringing home what he needs.  So... I guess all is well there.

The snow thing is looking more and more likely... like LOTS of snow. Bleh. And with 40-mile-an-hour winds it doesn't even sound like it will be fun to play in! Yick. Spring needs to come SOON.

Fun New Quirk...

Last week, Jonathan started with a fantastically annoying new quirk.

He will not let us take his plate away. Even if he says he is finished, you can't put it in the sink, throw anything in the trash or even remove it from the table. This has carried over to snack time at school too.

The only way to do it is to completely distract him with something else (not foolproof... he will still sometimes come back to check on it ) or wait until he's in bed.

It's always something!

Jonathan is 30 Months Old!

Dear Jonathan,

Today you are 30 months old. That's halfway to three!

You are, to put it mildly, kind of a handful these days. Sorry, but it's true. You lose your "stuff" at the drop of a hat, although daddy and I seem to be slowly cracking the code on that and learning how to catch it before it spirals out of control.

What does out of control mean? Oh, dear child... someday you can show this to your girlfriend so she can laugh and laugh. When you lose it, you LOSE it. You throw yourself facedown on the floor to start. I mean flat-out, face plant, whenever you are. Then you roll around and kick the floor, screaming and crying. It escalates into you standing back up and throwing your whole body all around... sometimes into walls, furniture or the floor again. You like to throw things and knock things over. We can't offer you anything because you throw them back at us. We can't rock or cuddle you because you kick and scream harder. We just have to put you on the floor in a wide-open room and let you go until eventually go calm down, ask for your binky and pull it back together again.

Yep. It's about as fun as it sounds.

In other news, you are talking nonstop these days. You ask questions, you say "I love you", you show us things you like. You went along to Ben's doctor's appointment last week and talked the entire time, asking Dr. B about this "Compeer" (computer) and talking about our "compeer." And on and on and on. I looked at Dr. B and said, "Yeah, in case I didn't mention, this one talks now." He chuckled.
I actually had to shush you, which, a year ago, is something I never thought I'd have to do. LOL!

You are growing quickly! I just put away all the 18-24 month pants and shirts and dragged out the 2T stuff. The pants are still big around the waist, so we have to roll them, but you finally don't look like you are waiting for a flood and your belly is not hanging out. I weighed you for the first time in months and months last night and you are 29-1/2 pounds. :) Not sure how tall, but you can reach some buttons and things you couldn't reach six months ago, so you must have grown!

You have gone right along with your brothers in their latest Star Wars phase and can handle a light saber like a pro. If people come over, you will often go get them one, hand it to them and say, "Here. You take dis one." and then, without any other warning, you'll start battling them.  HA!

School is going well. You like your teachers and you know your friends' names now. You'll sit through the story most of the time, although music has become difficult because you only care about pushing the button on Miss Sally's CD player.

Speaking of which, you are obsessed with CDs/DVDs and CD/DVD players these days. It's like deja vu. Ben used to love them too. We have all kinds of scratches on our kids' DVDs to prove it. Open close open close in and out in and out. All day long you'd do it if I didn't distract you. It's a full-time job!

You are funny and you love to sing and dance. Your favorites these days are Disney songs from Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast. This is well-timed since we are going to Disney  in a few months! Hope this phase lasts until August! :)

The big question everyone asks is if I plan on starting to potty train you soon. Yeah. NO. You have no interest. So for both of our sanity,  our plan is to start in June or July. Hopefully something will change by then. :)

So that's you at 2-1/2! I know it has been a few months since I have actually written one of these monthly updates. So hopefully that gets us all caught up!

Love,
Mommy