Growing Baby

Jonathan is getting bigger every day! None of our babies have ever been roly-poly babies, but he is growing well. He loves all his solid foods, with the exception of bananas. His favorite meal is breakfast with oatmeal cereal and pears. Here are a few pics of his eating adventures of late.


One afternoon I was feeding Jonathan when the phone rang. Andrew and Coleman came to the rescue and helped him eat his lunch while I was talking. He seemed really tickled that his big brother was driving the spoon.



giving that spoon thing a try




When Andrew and Coleman were little, we didn't have room for a high chair, so we used a little booster seat for them. It was perfect, and I'm so glad we have one for when we travel places. Now that we can spread out a little more, I got Jonathan a high chair. Here he is watching Brent put it together. . .


and trying it out.

This week he got to try those dissolvable baby foods called "puffs". I broke them into smaller pieces and put them in his mouth. He made the funniest faces, and looked even funnier gumming them around. But he did eventually decide he liked them, and now gets excited when he sees one heading for his mouth.

Not such a hit at first.

Looks like he decided they're not too bad after all!

A Running Start

Our first week of summer has been very busy and very fun! Coleman is potty training, which is another post in itself. He's doing very well with it, so we'll leave it at that. We stayed home Monday and Tuesday so he could work on his new skills, but yesterday we headed out for a few adventures.

We have worked all year and kept up with our reading logs from the library. Each month we had to document five books that we read and then take our log in for the librarians to give the boys a sticker. The program ran from Labor Day until Memorial Day. So yesterday we took our completed logs and got their gold seals! Andrew was very excited and proud. Coleman was excited too, but he was ready to find a book on jellyfish. We can't wait to start the summer reading program in a few weeks!



To prevent those "summertime blues" where the boys get bored and think there's nothing to do, I am borrowing an idea from Gigi. When I was little, she made me a "What can I do now?" box. Inside were lots of ideas for boredom busters. So we have a summertime "Bag of Tricks". Neither yahoo is really old enough to be truly bored, but I thought this would be a fun idea to go ahead and implement. The bag is filled with fun activities written on note cards. Some are things to do at home, and some are things away from home. Several days a week, we'll draw something out and see what we get to do that day. I showed it to the boys yesterday for the first time, and they were super excited!

Andrew got to do the first drawing and drew out fingerpainting. I was ready to get set up on the driveway, but he almost cried. He said he only likes to paint with a brush, not his fingers. Well, we couldn't have the Bag of Tricks be a flop on the first day, so we drew again. This time, he drew a picnic supper. They were so excited! I called Brent and had him meet us at the lake on his way home from work. Andrew talked about it all day long. We were afraid we might get rained out, but the showers held out for us. We took our picnic basket, blanket, and had a super time. Next time, I will be taking a much bigger quilt. I misremembered how big/small this beach blanket was. Several of us were sitting in the grass!

A couple of boats drove by and we got to watch one drive up on its trailer. Coleman was very intrigued by this process.

Jonathan really enjoyed his first picnic.

We ate sandwiches, chips, grapes, carrot sticks, and watermelon. Andrew loves watermelon. I think he liked it even better than our chocolate peanut butter cupcakes! He ate two pieces and asked for a third.

After they ate, the boys threw rocks in the lake.

Then we walked over to the dock and fed the fish. And yes, Coleman is barefooted. When I told them to load up at the house, he couldn't find his shoes. He had taken them off in the car on the way home from the library. I thought I remembered leaving them in the car. So I told him to get in his seat and we'd put his shoes on at the lake. We arrived to find no shoes in the car. They were on the stairs when we got home.

It was a great way to start out our summer!

Not Quite Wordless Wednesday

These pictures could have been a true Wordless Wednesday, but then Coleman's words would not have been recorded. Most nights in warm weather, after supper, the boys get to enjoy some sort of popsicle treat on the deck. Lots of times it's a freezer pop/pop-ice thing, but we have some push-ups in the freezer this week. So last night after supper, they asked for their push-ups (push-pops according to Coleman). They headed out to the deck and had a fun time eating their treat. When he finished, Coleman was covered in push-up, as he is most every night. But last night, it was his commentary that made us laugh. He looked down and said, "It's awl ober me!"

And then it was straight into the tub!

Butterflies

A few weeks ago, we ordered some caterpillars from an insect company. The company makes habitats you can purchase and then send in an order for the insect to watch the life cycle take place. Our caterpillars came by mail and were in a little cup with a lid. Their food was inside the cup, so we watched them for a few days as they ate and grew, and grew and grew. We could not believe how fat they got! It was just like The Very Hungry Caterpillar!

Somehow, we missed pictures of them before they made their cocoons. These were very stealthy caterpillars. I thought for sure we'd be able to watch them get in their cocoons, but we woke up one morning to find them all closed up inside. If you look very closely, you can see the cocoons hanging from the lid of the cup.

So now we had to transfer the cocoons from the cup to the habitat. The instructions said to very carefully peel off the inside of the lid and then saftey pin it to the inside of the habitat.

Look closely and you can see the paper and cocoons on the left side of the cage. There was one caterpillar who made his cocoon attached to some webbing in the cup, so the directions said to just lay the cocoon on a paper towel in the bottom of the habitat, and that he'd probably hatch just fine.

Much to my dismay, the first four butterflies were hatched and flying around one morning when we woke up for breakfast! I was so looking forward to Andrew and Coleman seeing the cocoons open and the butterfly emerge. Oh well. Maybe next year our butterflies will time their escape a little better.

We had a lot of fun watching them flutter around for a few days. We had a dropper and a recipe for some sugar water to use to feed them. We dripped the sugar water all over a few yellow flowers. Andrew did get to see one use its proboscis and drink some of the food, so that was pretty neat.

Here they are in the habitat. The red stuff on the paper isn't blood. It's meconium from the hatching. Brent and I were both very surprised to learn that, as there is another definition for meconium that we are more familiar with!

watching the butterflies at breakfast one morning

We kept them for two days and then released them after supper one night. It was hard to get them to fly away, and even harder to get a picture of their departure.

Andrew is asking if I got a picture of that one. He had just finished his popsicle.

Finally! A partial success! The black, orange, and pink blur at the bottom right of the picture is one of the butterflies leaving. They were painted lady butterflies, which live in all of the continental states, as long as the weather is above 55 degrees.

Painted lady butterflies live for about two weeks. I'm pretty sure I saw one flying in Horseshoe Park the other day. This will be a fun spring tradition around our house for many more years!

An Early Start

It's only 8:30 am and I'm already posting for the day before I forget this.

Andrew has been pretending to be a policeman this week. Today, Brent heard him come down the hall around 7:15. He was already dressed for the day. He had on shorts, a shirt, one of Brent's ties around his neck, his Mayberry cap which doubles as his police hat, his (water) gun in his holster (pocket) and his sabre (plastic sword). When he's pretending to be a policeman, we call him Officer Andrew. He also likes to be known as the Sherriff. Those episodes of Andy and Barney have made quite an impression.

So when I saw him, I said, "Good morning, Officer Andrew. Glad to see you're protecting me this morning and keeping the peace." He replied, "Yes. I'm keeping the peace. Keeping it a secret from the bad guys."

And so our day begins.

Surprise!

Today was our last MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) for the year. Andrew got to go with us since he's finished with preschool. One of the girls sent an email to the whole group last week saying this week's program would be about learning to give great baby showers. She's a super creative, crafty mommy so I knew this would be a fun meeting! Then, she sent another email saying that we'd actually be giving a shower for Mandi who is expecting a baby in August. We'd still do the fun things she had planned, but to bring a gift for Mandi and keep it a secret. So off I went to Target to find a little happy for Mandi. We packed up this morning and headed off to the "secret" shower.

When we got there I took my gift for Mandi over to the table and placed it with the others, noticing there were a LOT of gifts ~ more gifts than people. It was still early, and my Dr. Pepper hadn't kicked in yet, so I didn't think much about it. So the meeting starts with a yummy breakfast from Chick-fil-A (my favorite!) and a sweet devotion. Then, Stepahine gets up to start the baby shower presentation and announces that not only is this meeting about fun things to do when hosting a shower, but it's actually a shower for Mandi AND Paige! Before you could blink, I hollered out, "But I'm NOT pregnant!" Everyone laughed, and then Stephanie said it was a shower for Jonathan. Whew!

It was such a sweet surprise for a Thursday morning! We played a lot of fun games, got some great hosting tips from Stephaine, and opened some fun gifts. This morning I saw my camera sitting on the counter and almost grabbed it to make some pictures for Mandi, but got interrupted and didn't remember it before we left. So I have no pictures to show from the actual shower, but when the yahoos laid down for their naps, I spread everything out to make a picture.


And this little fella was the party favor for everyone. Isn't he cute? We all laughed and said his hair looks a lot like Jonathan's!

Thank you sweet friends. It was so fun to celebrate our baby with you today!

The First Last Day

Yesterday was Andrew's first Last Day of School! It was a sunny, warm day and his class had a party to celebrate. I was a party mom, but had to miss the party because Coleman was sick that morning. He made a quick recovery, so I was able to run in and snap a few pictures during the party. Here's Andrew getting ready to head off for the day.



Andrew and Ms. Sharon. She has been the best teacher for him this year. So kind and patient and loving. We will miss her next year, but we know our teachers in 2010-2011 will be excellent too!

Here's Andrew's table enjoying their pizza, grapes, and lemonade lunch. After lunch they went outside and played with waterguns, sidewalk chalk, bubbles, and had popsicles.

He brought home a bag full of end of the year artifacts. Here he is with his silhouette. Last night I told him to go get the silhouette so I could make his picture with it. He said, "What are you talking about? I'm not wet."

My favorite thing is the binder of his art projects and pictures from the year that Ms. Sharon put together for each child. He brought home lots of fun projects during the year, but she kept out the best samples and placed them in plastic sleeves in this scrapbook for us. I can't imagine how long she worked on these this year, but I am so thankful she did. Andrew was very proud getting to show us his work. Here are some pictures of him telling Brent about the different pages.

We are so thankful for the great start he's had in preschool. He loves going, and it was so great this year for him to get to do fun things while I was home with Jonathan and Coleman. I know it would have been very difficult to keep him challenged and learning every day all year long. Even though he only went to school on Tuesdays and Thursdays, it will be nice for a break this summer. We have tons of fun things planned, and can't wait to get started!

Strawberry Picking

Saturday morning, Brent and Papack headed over to do some yardwork at the lake house. While they were gone, we took Gigi with us to the strawberry patch in Dahlonega. It was very hot, so she kept Jonathan in the stroller in the shade while Andrew, Coleman, and I picked the berries. We had a fun time, and filled our buckets to the brim!

There were a lot of old tractors sitting around, so we had to stop and make a picture. The boys couldn't take their eyes off the tractor long enough to look at the camera.

Since Gigi didn't get to pick any, Andrew chose a really red one for her to try. I tried to get a picture of him handing it to her, but the camera took a little longer than the handoff.

Sitting with their haul.

On the way home, Coleman said, "I'm ready for some strawberries!" We had eaten a bunch in the patch, but I guess you can never get enough of them when they taste that good! For dessert that night we had yummy strawberry shortcakes!