Swim Banquet....

Last swim team entry for at least 11 months!  ;)

So last night was the awards banquet. It did not disappoint.  Like every year, the coach said a little something about each and every kid and they were all just so spot-on and well thought out.

I missed video of Simon's because I was focusing on trying to take a picture and it came up faster than I was expecting. It was a funny little bit about how many times he would tell him to use his arms and he'd stop moving his legs.... and his legs and then stop moving his arms but how someday it will come together for him. (trust me, it was cute) And then he got his trophy, which he had LITERALLY been counting down the minutes for.

He didn't even stay with the team on the floor after that, he came running back to the table and spent the rest of the evening polishing the top of it with his dinner napkin.  

Ben's was adorable and funny too.  I'll put the video here later when I get it off of my phone.

There was a slideshow and special awards. The little girl who swam the five-minute backstroke two strokes at a time got a special determination award. Love love love. 

Ben was surprised to get two third place ribbons from the last meet of the regular season with his trophy. We thought he had placed 4th! YAY!

With Coach Doug (blurry pic... I was trying to hurry because people were waiting)

Most of the 2014 team. A few kids couldn't make it. :)

Swim Meet #5!

I think I may have possibly exhibited some bad form last night when I freaked out on Ben for stopping in the middle of a relay that he was WINNING to grab the lane line and adjust his goggles. But seriously. What the ever loving heck, kid?! As they say in Nemo, "JUST KEEP SWIMMING!!!"

What a great night though! Ben was SO determined to get that 1st or 2nd place ribbon-- he worked on getting his dive start out further in the water all week and spent part of the weekend watching videos of Michael Phelps YouTube videos. (if you haven't seen 11-year-old Michael swim, go google it.... it's jaw-droppingly amazing) The race was SO close. If this had been the other night's team and he had swam this 23-second butterfly he pulled out of nowhere, he would have won... but last night's kids were faster. As it was 1st-4th were SO close. I don't even know if he got 3rd or 4th because it looked liked they touched the wall at the same time!

He rocked the backstroke earlier in the evening.... also a dead heat. 4th in that.

Simon swam heat 2 of freestyle and was AWESOME! Best I ever seen him swim. It helped that the pool was deep all the way across... wish they were all like that. He was IN the race this time for the first time ever and beat at least one kid, maybe two.  He was also in backstroke and USED HIS ARMS!!!  So proud.

It's amazing how there is measurable progress every single time they swim. Ben was mad at himself again (he always is), but also proud of his time and Simon was proud of all the new things he accomplished! Nobody loses in swim team! 

(Oh and I assisted with Clerk of Course for the first time and survived. Whew. No one swam out of order, at least for the first half. LOL. )

July 4th!

Despite it being a little bit unseasonably chilly thanks to Hurricane Arthur to the east, we headed to the pool for July 4th. It was a last-minute decision and I"m glad we went because the boys had a blast! We stayed for almost five hours.  They had all sorts of fun games planned for the kids and great food! 

Afterward, we had Tom's parents over for wine and cheese on the deck in the evening and the boys did their second round of sparklers. Jonathan has yet to last long enough to see fireworks or sparklers. LOL. Oh well... maybe next year. ;)

Easter 2014....

We kicked off Easter with our traditional Good Friday dinner and egg hunt at Grandmom and Poppy's house.


The picture of the boys turned out fabulously, as usual...

After J's front yard hunt, the big boys had a hunt out back where they had to find special eggs that contained the combination to safe!  Aunt Debbie is awesome. ;)

This is Simon telling my mom that he just hasn't found the right egg.... 

They eventually found their way to some pretty cool loot!

Here is J's egghunt book Aunt Debbie made for him. All the boys have one from when they were little. Well, actually, Ben has two. Shhh....

Here's our "before church" shot.... not too bad this year!

After church, we went to Nanee and Pap's house for their egg hunt. 

 Here, J was ticked because Simon took an egg he saw.... ay ay ay....

Simon counting his eggs....

Found one!

The boys and two of their cousins after the hunt.  Ben got to hold the new one. :) He was so excited. (this is just a bad picture of him... but I promise, he was psyched!)

This is right after Ben lost a molar to a tootsie roll. LOL!

SImon didn't lose any teeth, but smiled anyway... ;)

All in all Easter was busy, but wonderful. We also went to a birthday party in there on Saturday for our niece who turned three. Crazy weekend! The kids love being with their cousins though, so it was the good kind of chaos. :)

Happy Easter!

In Limbo....

When I went to pick up Jonathan from preschool this afternoon, his teacher told me he had been a little "off" all day... low-energy, easily frustrated. She said two kids in the class were out sick. One has a stomach bug, the other has a cold/fever thing. She wondered if maybe he was getting sick too. GAHHHHH... I hope not.

I brought him home and he honestly seems completely fine. I took his temperature. We snuggled and watched Super Why, which is what we usually do right after school so he can kind of decompress a little. He said he was hungry and asked for noodles, which he wolfed down in no time flat.

I guess if I had to choose, I'd go with the cough/fever bug. But who knows what, if anything it will turn into. Hoping he was just having an off day for no reason whatsoever. LOL.

Oddly, I was also in Simon's library class today and he seemed SUPER spacey, quiet, and out of it. I asked him if he was feeling okay and he said he was. I hope he's not like that all the time at school.... this was actually the first time I have actually seen him in a class. It was a little disturbing, to be honest!
They had a sub for library and I'm hoping that just threw him off or something.... he's always pretty shy/anxious/quiet in new situations or with new people... so maybe that was it.

I asked his teacher at pickup how he was today and she volunteered that he was, in fact, a little quiet and isn't always like that. She added that the kids in her class are dropping like flies from both the stomach bug and the cough/fever thing.

Sigh. He seemed okay when I picked HIM up too....

Ah well.... all I can do it wait and see!

Oh, in other news, Jonathan's teacher did tell me that he read "Goodnight Moon" to his class today and they all high-fived him. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall for that. So sweet. :)

Hello, Cello!

Simon is two weeks into the cello lessons at school and he LOVES it. He saws away on that thing up in his room for an hour at a time only to come back to it an hour later and play some more.  He will play one note over and over again in the rhythm of a song -- "Listen! I'm playing 'Let it Go' from Frozen!!" ;) Cracks me up. 

So far in class, they have only learned pizzicato (plucking the strings), so I am making him practice that too. 

He didn't bat an eye when I told him it was time to go the first week. Up to school we went and I walked him in. He ran right into the unfamiliar classroom with the teacher he didn't really know and sat right down like he had been doing it all year long. LOL! This kind of thing continually surprises me with Simon because his big brother would do no such thing.  I should stop being surprised and just go with it, but I truly may never get used to this difference in my kids. HA!

He came out of the parent pickup line that day with his cello and he was beaming from ear to ear.

Came right home and posed for this picture. 

There was a bit of a mixup with his book, where the teacher thought he gave him one and Simon just assumed that was true and he had lost it (poor kid, how sad that he just assumed that!!). In actuality he never got one. But we have straightened that out now and he is in possession of both cello and book. ;) 

I'm excited for him to learn how to hold the bow and play a couple little songs. They have a recital in June and I think it's going to be adorable. His little class is basically all first graders,  maybe a couple of second graders, which is SO cute. There are two other cellos and the rest violins. :)

If he really likes it, I was thinking of signing him up for lessons over the summer at the music store near our house. So we'll see.... :) Otherwise, school will offer lessons again starting in the fall. 

Will this be his thing? I'm hoping so! :) 

Again.

Another snow day. On the bright side, we have Tom here today, which is kind of a fun twist.
Ben has taken to yelling at the sky when it snows now. He wants summer back more than anyone.

In other news, Ben's winless basketball team won their last game of the season and THEN won the first game of the playoffs! They play again Wednesday night against the league's #1 team. It likely will be quite ugly, but, at least they got there. :) This is the year they stop giving participation trophies (huzzah!)... only the teams who come in 1st  and 2nd get trophies.... I wonder how that will go over after four years of getting one for just playing?  (stupid participation trophies!)

Simon started with a new swim teacher on Saturday and that went well.  We'll be paying out the nose for two sets of private lessons from now until summer, but it's an investment that is well worth it to have competent swimmers as Jonathan will require at least 95% of my pool attention this summer, for certain.  Would love for him to get back in and do lessons with Simon's new teacher too, but not sure that will happen.

Jonathan.... he spends a lot of time in timeout these days. Oddly, when he is not in timeout or doing something to get himself put there, he is seriously amazingly sweet and wonderful and possibly my most affectionate and effusive kid. No one outside of my house would probably believe this because they hardly ever see this Jonathan. When we leave the house (or bring other people into the house) he becomes crabby, anti-social and contrary.

He is definitely QUITE strong-willed and tests boundaries like no other child of mine ever has. For example, when in timeout, the rule is, he may not get down from his bed. (or move up and down on the steps, depending on where we do the timeout) So instead, he will hover his feet as close to the floor as he possibly can. (or hover himself over the next step) In the picture below, he had thrown his sleeping bag on the floor and was putting his feet on that and saying, "See? My feet are NOT on the floor, they are on the sleeping bag." Yes. He exhausts me and he is way too smart for his own good...  but we are consistent and hoping to work out the really tough stuff in the next months ahead before his 4th birthday. He just needs to know we mean business.... not that he will ever stop testing limits, it's part of who he is.... but at least he'll have begun to really understand consequences and perhaps make better choices.

Simon! He lost his third tooth last weekend. We were out to dinner and he said his tooth hurt. Turned out it was just loose (suddenly!). It came out the next evening before bed, just in time for the tooth fairy to pay a visit. :)  It was a bottom one next to his two new ones.  I'm guessing the one on the other side will not be far behind.

Other things happening --
* working on a possible August Disney trip. I'm kind of meh about the idea, but the rest of the family is into it, so we'll see....

* we've used a new chore chart system for about a month now that has had amazing success, will share about that in a future post!

Update....

In the time since my last post --
In no particular order...

There was an ice storm. We didn't lose power, thankfully. Still, ice is awful.

Simon had a med check at the pediatrician, which is essentially an extra well-visit. So for record-keeping purposes -- he was 54 pounds and 48-1/2 inches. He is starting to grow taller, but not heavier... he looks like he has been stretched out!

Report cards came home.... Ben's was stellar, Simon's was kind of worthless and didn't communicate a whole lot (except for the comments, which were helpful, detailed and very good!), which is why I was glad I had a conference with his teacher, at her request. She reports he is doing SO well these days. She had samples of his work all laid out for me to see and it's really amazing how far he has come. He gets pulled for tests so he can take them with minimal distractions and she says he LOVES this. Two of his good friends go too and apparently they are the envy of their classmates. She says he is a great reader and has very high-level comprehension. (?!) She also said is amazed by the ways in which he goes about solving math problems. Now, if we could only get his desk organized and get him to  stay consistent with getting right to work in class. LOL.  VERY positive conference though! Proud of him!

This is one of his recent papers. The teacher was so excited about it, she brought me a copy after school one day while I was waiting to get the boys. I love that his teacher is as proud of him as I am. :)

I came down with what started out as a chest cold type thing and turned into what I'm fairly sure was the downsized, flu-shot version of the flu. Oddly, no one else got it.  I was okay a couple days later, but am still ultra-tired and this was over a week ago!

Tom left town for a meeting in Florida. No surprise that he got snowed in there... or rather, snowed OUT of here.

It was just the kids and me Wednesday, Thursday and half of Friday. The day he came home, I went to bed at 6p.m.

We have had a lot of fun with this last snow... it was excellent sledding snow and the boys have been in and out. Only positive I have found so far.

I found this one in the side yard saying, "Mommy! The snow won't let me go!!!" It was over a foot and he had a hard time walking. Over the course of a few days, we carved out a path for him to walk to the sledding hill and back.  LOL!

Ben had a meds check/well visit at the pediatrician two days after Simon. He is 49 inches tall and weighs 49-1/2 pounds. Like Simon, he also grew heightwise but not weightwise. Unlike Simon, he did not have pounds to spare, so he got a lecture about how he needs to eat lots of healthy snacks and indulge in some milkshakes here and there. Enviable problem to have....

The boys had a sleepover at Grandmom and Poppy's house last night. Frozen theme. They watched the movie (a screener my dad got from somewhere) and had all kinds of ice-themed treats! Well done, as usual Grandmom and Aunt Deb. The kids get so spoiled over there!!! Tom and I went out for sushi for a belated Valentine's date and then went back and got Jonathan, who is not quite ready to spend the night... or rather... grandmom is not quite ready for Jonathan to spend the night. HA! (and neither is mommy... )

Ben has been keeping busy with basketball. His team hasn't won a single game this year though they play well. There are some major issues with the draft system the rec council uses and the way the teams are formed... it's annoying and kind of a bummer for these kids who play SO hard.  They seem to be having fun anyway but I do wish they could win a game.

Both older boys are still swimming on Saturdays. Simon hasn't made a whole lot of progress with this new teacher, though Ben seems to excel with her. We're going to make a change in March and put Simon with a different teacher and hopefully Jonathan too. He won't even get in the water with the new teacher unless I get in too. I am really looking forward to the end of May when the pool opens and June when swim team starts. It can't come soon enough!!! There's a chance we actually participate in two swim teams this year.... not sure if that will work, but we'll see. Hoping Simon will participate this year!

Jonathan...  that kid is TOUGH lately. Lots of meltdowns and challenging behavior. We've taken a hard line with it and thus, he spends a lot of time in timeouts lately. I think maybe we're getting through to him though... we have won a couple really tough battles in the last two days. One step at a time....

Oh and he also has taken to randomly removing his pants lately... so that's fun. 

He does like his new playgroup "school". Hasn't had much of regular preschool lately thanks to snow and ice. No school tomorrow because of the holiday... maybe Wednesday will be the start of some real routine? Maybe?

OH and the boys finally met their new baby boy cousin this morning.  (He's about two weeks old now) Jonathan didn't care at all, Simon wasn't quite sure how to react, but Ben was ALL over it. He even held Baby W. So sweet....

I think that's all the updates I have for now... I'll add some photos to this post later! :)

Christmas 2013....

As I say year after year.... we came. We saw. We Christmased.

Christmas Eve we went to church at 3:30 in the afternoon at the church where we have been members since Simon was born, but haven't gone to in forever. The church closest to us which have tried a few times wasn't having their service until 5:30 or 6 and we had plans at 6 with Tom's grandparents, so 3:30 it was.  Turned out to be a perfect service for the kids, complete with electric candles for them for the candlelight part, cute videos about Christmas the kids had mad and kids leading the singing. They loved it... even Jonathan. The music and the candle kept him entertained the entire time.  REALLY have to try to get back in the new year. (It's hard when you have three kids in a row with debilitating separation anxiety.... but we're seeing the light at the end of the tunnel there....)

We stopped at Panera to kill some time afterward.... the boys each had a cookie and a drink... then we headed over to Tom's grandparents' house.

Babby had set up a light-up bowling set for the kids and they went nuts over it. I love how she keeps a few little toys at her house for when they visit. They remember and look forward to this too. :)

Eventually, Tom's aunt showed up with cousin Rachel.... and Nanee, Pap, Uncle Taylor, Aunt Sarah and Cousin A.

Rachel showing the boys funny cat videos.... LOL. 

Babby gave Simon a "Simon" and it was the hit of the evening.....

Attempt at a cousins pic...

We got home around 8 and everyone got in bed and fell asleep in record time!  After they were asleep, Santa came!

Everyone on the bridge upstairs Christmas morning....

And here's the running down the stairs pic!

Gift opening ensued....

Poppy helped Ben put together his telescope and get his microscope up and running....

There was a concert.....

Davey Jones got a present from Jonathan....

More Simon was played....

Pictures were taken....

Simon got a desk from Grandmom, Poppy and Aunt Deb..... and I think it's his favorite gift ever....

A mess was left....

And we left the mess there and headed over to Nanee and Pap's for more Christmas!

The family is getting HUGE. And there is another cousin on the way anytime now!

Ben hung with the toddlers some more...  he is going to make an awesome babysitter in the next few years!

Hard to tell these two apart from the top and the back... LOL! Lots of blondies in this family....

Lots more gifting happened.... food was eaten... kids melted down. 

In the end, it was a lovely day.... we all went home and crashed! And another Christmas has come and gone.... on to 2014!