Preston has 23 days of Kindergarten left! We got a note home from school with an alphabet count down and I almost cried. Kindergarten has been an incredible year for Preston. His teacher is so wonderful, and I want to keep her forever. I can hardly wait until Luke goes to Kindergarten so we can have her all over again. Preston is starting to be able to read all sorts of things and is interested in sounding things out and using clues to figure out things like cereal boxes and signs. We love to watch him learn and grow! He’s very excited to go on a Field Trip to a natural conservancy on Monday to explore nature and “find some creatures.”
Last weekend Grandma and Grandpa took both boys to the lake to open things up. It was a rainy, muddy weekend, but they didn’t even notice. They had their new rain boots and lots of changes of socks. Luke’s FAVORITE thing of the weekend was climbing the ladder to the loft. Our family rule is 3 years old to be able to climb, and boy was he ready. Grandma says he is over confident at climbing up and down. The other rule is that, as a 3 year old, you must have a grown up with you to climb up or down the ladder. He ever got to sleep up there with Preston and Debbie!
Preston’s highlight of the trip was going to the nature center for a junior explorer program and finding 11 salamanders! There was one other little boys there, and they each got a mesh screen on a pole to skim the little pond. All of the creatures don’t stand a chance against a mesh screen!
Preston also loved fishing and digging for worms, and Luke got to ride down the mountain with Grandpa to run some errands and chase trains.
We are all excited to return to the lake on Memorial Day weekend to start the season!
Luke is still working on potty training. This is the longest most drawn out process….. I don’t know if it was the change of scenery, or the change of grown-up, or what, but at the lake last weekend he pooped on the potty! It was so exciting!!!!!!! He’s been doing pretty well with it all this week. We are just slowly moving along – there is no turning back now.
Lukey also has some pretty cute words as a 3 year old:
Gabloon = Balloon
Gorilla = Umbrella
Gramote = Remote
He’s still in a phase where he has to do everything himself, and he changes his mind almost constantly. Breakfast goes something like this:
Preston: I want an English Muffin with Apricot Jelly and Grape Jelly
Me: Ok! Luke, what do you want on your English Muffin
Luke: UMMMMM…. Peanut Butter and Jelly
Me: What kind of jelly, apricot or grape
Luke: Apricot
Me: Ok! (John makes English muffins and slathers them with requested spreads and as he finishes putting peanut butter on one muffin Luke begins to shriek and cry)
Me: LUKE!! What’s the problem
Luke: (Sobbing and almost unintelligible) I waaanntnned elllllleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Me: We gave you jelly! Apricot Jelly! Can you use your words?
Luke: I wanted GRAPE JELLY! DATS PEANUT BUTTER
Me: (Referring to conversation above) Pretty sure you requested Peanut butter and jelly.
And then I got to eat the peanut butter half of the English muffin while we toasted another one to solve this problem that shouldn’t have happened in the first place. And the thing is, I could have predicted this happening. He always wants exactly what Preston wants in the end. But we literally cannot skip to the end, because then he would manage to have a double tantrum: first about us giving him grape jelly instead of peanut butter like he requested, and second because he actually really wants grape jelly. It’s exhausting. But the good news, so far, is that these particular meltdowns tend to not happen while Preston is in school. But Preston is done in 23 school days!
Luke is very cute, though. He loves pretending to write his name, and he can recognize his written name, which I think is pretty cool! When Preston does homework he has to be doing “homework,” too. He LOVES Daniel Tiger, and I find myself singing Daniel Tiger jingles to him all day long: Stop! And listen to stay safe. – If you have to go potty, stop and go right away – There’s so much to explore when your outside. There are many!
Alyssa is naughty…. But SOOOOOOO cute! She has taken off with her walking, and she is everywhere all at once. I remember this with the boys, but she just seems so much naughtier than them. She knows exactly what she is not allowed to do:
- Take the fancy dishes out of the china closet
- Take all of the chemicals out from under the sink
- Climb the stairs
- Take all of the qtips out of the box
- Take all of the clean clothes out of her dresser and throw them in the hamper
- Throw away the remote/toys/plates/cups/spoons/anything on the floor that isn’t particularly interesting
- Throw items listed above down the stairs
- Stand up in the bathtub
- While outside march straight down the driveway and into the street because it’s super fun to make Mom run to the rescue and then get scolded… but still do it again 4 seconds later
- Throw all of her food on the floor
- Dump her plate and throw all the food on the floor
- Bothering Luke while he plays nicely
- Taking toys away from Luke
- Climbing into Mommy’s lap if Luke is already in it
On Thursday night I had to take all 3 kids to a Germany meeting because John had a work dinner. Thankfully they were well behaved for most of the meeting. The boys did some projects out in the hall while Grandpa played defense, and Alyssa was in and out of my lap 42 times, but quietly so that was as much as I could ask for. Eventually she grew tired of using me as her jungle gym, so she toddled off down the hallway with Grandpa in tow. 15 minutes later as we were nearing the end of our agenda, she toddled back into the room, climbed into my lap, snuggled down into my arms, looked right at me and said loudly “NA NA.” Yes, Alyssa, it was time for night night! She certainly makes herself known!
We went to the pediatrician on Wednesday for her 15 month checkup. She is 22lbs, 30 inches, and 50-60% for both. She even stood on the scale to get weighted. 15 months is a major record for that for my kids. Preston wouldn’t stand on the scale until he was 4!! She also got 2 shots, which she took like a champ. I think she was more mad about them than hurt.
She is already showing her independence. She doesn’t want anyone to feed her or hold her hand, and she will wander off in whatever way pleases her without a care.
She has a few words and silly sounds:
Kitties say “HHHHHRRRRRRKKKKKK” (Like a cat hissing)
Lemurs (her current favorite animal) howl – OOOOOO
Birdies say “Ee ee”
Na na – Night night or banana
Ba ba – Bottle or blueberries
MommEE – Mommy
Hi
Bye
A La la - I think this is a version of “I love you” but realize that’s probably wishful thinking
She also loves to give kisses and gets super jealous when Daddy gives Mommy kisses. She doesn’t like when Daddy touches Mommy’s nose either.