Rainbow Graduate

Last night was the awards ceremony at church and Brooks was awarded a certificate honoring his first year completed of the Rainbows program.  And it's kind of a big deal.  Yes he's only three.  Yes he'll have many more years of club program awards nights ahead of him, but this was his FIRST.  It was OUR first.  My "baby" is three (almost four) and he finished his first year of Rainbows, which by the way is the same program I went through when I was three.

So to kick of the whole ceremony, he and his 20+ Rainbow compadres marched onto stage, stood in a "line" and were surprisingly cooperative as their teachers handed out the certificates.  My favorite part of it all?  This ....

He stood backwards nearly the whole time.  20 children standing shoulder to shoulder, looking at the teacher leading their songs and then there's Brooks.  Backwards.  The kid next to him, so kind, kept trying to turn him around.  To no avail.  Kind of a repeat of the Christmas program.  I just giggled.  (We learned later that he was looking at the drum set on stage.  I guess that makes sense.  It is really cool.)

He did eventually get the hint to turn around (and I know Aric isn't fist pumping because of that, but it kinda looks like it :)

 Brooks' favorite part by far was the cupcake that boasted just as much frosting as actual cake.

My little Rainbow earned all eight of his badges this year.  Yep, I'm one proud mama!

Snowmageddon

On Saturday, the temperature reached near 60 degrees.  We played outside for hours, took walks around the block, played baseball, grilled out.

Fast forward five days to today, Thursday.  This is our neighborhood.

 

Those would be power lines drooping down over our neighbor's yard.  Yikes!

We have been stuck in our house for three days straight due to high winds, frigid temps, raining ice (yes, raining ice) and now snow.  And it's the ice that's really wreaking havoc in this city.  Ice is covering streets and sidewalks, power lines, trees and everything else in town.  We lie in bed at night and listen to the creaking, groaning and eventual snapping of giant tree limbs, followed by what sounds like glass shattering as the ice covered branches crash to the ground.  Roads are closed because of downed trees, businesses are shut down and school has been closed for two days.  (Remember we live in South Dakota.  School NEVER closes in South Dakota)  Thousands are without power.  Sirens are constant all throughout town as firefighters and police officers are working around the clock putting out fires and removing tree branches from on top of people's homes.  We, thankfully, still have power, heat and food (I did all my grocery shopping on Monday before the storm hit.  Whew!).   We're just going a little stir crazy, that's all!

Chris was home all day yesterday.  The power was out at his office and considering 90% of his job involves a computer, there wasn't much he could do.  Having him home made the day go by way faster.

This is the craziest April weather and I am unbelievably ready for SPRING!!!

Brooks & Carter: an update

My boys are growing and changing so much I can hardly keep track of what's new, who's doing what, what new words Carter has, etc.  So I'm just gonna jot down a few notes, really for my own personal sake.

Carter - 19 months

He's chewed all the corners off his blanket.  It's disgusting & slimy.  He loves it.

loves putting his hands in his pockets

hates being told "no"

can throw a really big tantrum when the above happens
tantrums may involve any (or all) of the following: throwing things, hitting things, throwing himself on the floor, burying his face into a wall and crying, screaming

tantrums kind of make me laugh.  they probably shouldn't

will eat anything I give him

bananas are his favorite.  he would eat them for every meal if I let him.  

I don't let him.

is talking up a storm.  can say several multi-syllable words.  so smart.

is good at stacking blocks

tries to dribble a basketball like his big brother.  does pretty good
is good at putting away toys

is surprisingly OCD.  proof he's my kid

has a smile and laugh that lights up a room.  it's infectious

loves bath time

still loves anything with a wheel

loves to go for rides in the wagon

will give me random hugs and kisses.  that's my favorite

is shy when meeting new people

new people think he doesn't ever cry

he does
is very opinionated
knows all the animal sounds

can climb onto the couch and chairs

loves to look out the window

will clap at the end of a song

has little interest in watching TV.  I'm ok with that

is well behaved in public.  not always the case at home

is not very patient

out-eats Brooks at most meals.  sometimes out-eats me

likes to wear Daddy's shoes around the house

will wear mittens in the house but refuses them when we go out

Brooks - 3.5 years

 loves music

I mean, really really loves music

every surface in our home is a potential drum

watches cello videos as a reward

loves things to be orderly

doesn't like change

is not always good at sharing with his little brother

doesn't like time-outs

still cheers for the Vikings

 sometimes plays really great with Carter
he's a good big brother
loves to make Carter laugh

likes to clean the bathroom.  cries if I won't let him

was excited to share his room with Carter

is a hard sleeper

likes to sleep with a stuffed animal.  not any one in particular

loves to read books

enjoys playing basketball, baseball, football or whatever sport is in season

adores his Daddy

likes to snuggle
loves his family to be all together

likes watching Elmo

has a great memory

knows all the letters of the alphabet and their sounds

will be reading soon, I'm convinced

will do just about anything for a piece of cheese

we always have cheese in our house

likes to ride his bike

has no concept of time. doesn't do a lot of things in hurry

eats slow

teaches me to eat slow

is sensitive to loud noises

doesn't like mannequins. they make him cry 

loves to play outside

has a tender heart toward people
doesn't like to see anyone hurt or sad

doesn't take naps anymore

likes to choose his own clothes in the morning

asks about 4,593 questions a day

I answer every.single.one of them

Carter moved out!

After 19 months, Carter finally moved out .......... of our room.

When our babies our little, it so much easier to just have them sleep in our room.  We're not really bed-sharing folks (I can share the bed, my children cannot share anything), but I do like them in my room.  Nursing is much simpler when I can just pick them up from their crib, plunk them in bed, lay down & nurse them and return them to their bed.  Easy.  And so that was Carter's first room ..... our room.  We didn't have a time frame as to how long he would be in our room, we just kind of let it be.

Well, letting it be led us to 19 months later.  He's still in our room.  And I'm really ok with that.  He mostly sleeps through the night, but when he wakes up at 5 or 6am to nurse, it's still just easier to reach over and pull him into bed with me.  We have a huge room so his crib really didn't overwhelm the space.  Plus, in our two bedroom house, the only other option is for him to sleep is in Brook's room, and I didn't want Carter waking him up in the night.  But that all changed this last week.

Carter caught some kind of icky head cold/virus thing that really wiped him out last week Sunday.  And then on Monday, the stuffy nose & cough followed.  Translate that into sleeping terms: he did not.  He couldn't breathe well and that meant he didn't sleep well.  When we'd put him to bed at 8pm he'd sleep for about an hour, wake and cry for a minute or so, then fall back asleep.  He'd do this at least once every hour.  But that changed when we went to bed.  He'd still wake every hour, but instead of just going back to sleep, he'd see me lying in the bed next to him and scream even louder.  And louder!  Then he'd start screeching.  (This kid's got lungs).  He'd keep screaming until I woke up to rock or nurse him back to sleep.  This happened every.hour.  I was so exhausted by morning I could hardly see straight.  And I had zero patience with him or even Brooks.

He kept this up all week.  He'd sleep fine until I was in the room.  I know I need to be attentive to my kids needs, but I just couldn't keep this pace.  It was definitely time for a change.  So we decided to move him into the next room over.  Brooks was more than happy to have his little brother in his room.  In fact, totally separate from all the above mentioned events, Brooks asked if Carter could sleep in his room.  Now seemed like the right time.

So last night Chris disassembled the crib and moved it out!

taking the bed apart

Carter saw Daddy putting his crib together in his new room and offered a hug.  Not sure he really knew what was going on, but it was sweet anyway :) 

Brooks AND Carter's room

And within an hour, we had everything moved over.  This room is a good size too, so it easily fit the crib, rocking chair and Carter's little dresser with room to spare.  I was bit nervous how the first night would go with them sleeping together, but we put them both in bed, prayed and left.  And they both fell asleep.  No playing, crying, or fussing.  Just sleep.  And Carter slept straight through until 5am!  I can't tell you how good it felt to have six hours of continuous sleep!!  Tonight was more of the same (well, besides Brooks' insisting he needs one.more.drink of water before bed.  That's a whole 'nother story).  I'd say it was a good change for us all.

And now Chris and I have our room back, which now seems HUGE without all of Carter's stuff in there.  We don't have to tiptoe and whisper when we're going to bed.  We even turned on the light!  (Hey, we're parents.  These things excite us, ok?)  I'm hoping things continue to go well and hopefully, someday, just maybe Carter will sleep all the way until 7am.   One can dream, right??

3 year olds are the worst at keeping secrets

Today we celebrated Chris' 31st birthday!  And considering how last year's "celebration" went, we decided to keep it low key ... just us.  It was great.

We started the morning with french toast topped with fried bananas for breakfast.  And let me just say, bananas fried in coconut oil are, um, amazing!  Then we surprised Daddy at work late morning and took him out to lunch at Qdoba.  This evening we celebrated with Chicago style deep dish pizza and ice cream cake.  Whew!  Let's just say mama needed to change into her stretchy pants to finish out the evening.

That is the mother of all pizza servers.  Seriously.  It's the size of my hand.

And in the midst of all the food binging, Chris opened presents.  Which is the funny part.  Yesterday the boys and I went shopping for Chris' gifts.  Brooks decided that Daddy wanted a squirt gun.  So that's what we bought him.  Then to have a few more things to wrap, we also bought him a candy bar (definitely a rarity in our home).  When Chis came home for lunch that day, the first thing out of Brooks' mouth was "Daddy!  We bought you a CANDY BAR!!"

(::slaps forehead::)

Brooks, sweetheart.  We want Daddy's presents to be a surprise.  We can't tell him what we bought for his birthday.

Brooks:  Oh, ok.  So I won't tell him about the squirt guns we got him.

Right.  Don't do that.

I had also made Chris some of his favorite granola for his birthday.  I was pretty excited the he would have at least one surprise gift.  Before Chris even opened any presents tonight, Brooks made sure to remind him that there was a candy bar and a squirt gun wrapped up.  But then I, proudly yet foolishly, declared "But you don't know what's in this one".

To which Brooks replied, "That's granola.  Mama made you granola and put it in a jar!  I helped wrap the jar with Mama.

(sigh)  Moral of the story?  If you want to keep anything a secret ... DON'T tell a three year old!  We both had some really good laughs and Chris still liked his gifts, spoiled surprise and all!

my boys

Strap some cymbals between his knees and this kid's a "one man band".  Let's just hope he goes farther than playing on a street corner with an open guitar case.

In other news .....

Carter discovered pockets!  He was thrilled.

Music Man

I've always told Chris that I want at least one of my children to be musical.  I don't care if they play an instrument, piano, or sing, but I want music in my house!  Well, I think Brooks just might be that kid.  My music man ... in a lot of different ways.

He loves to listen to music.  All kinds.  Hawk Nelson and other punk rock varieties. Classical (or violin music as Brooks calls it). Marching bands (Wisconsin, of course!)  The wiggles (yes, we listen to the Wiggles).  And he has an amazing ear to hear the different instruments in the music too.  Kid can pick out an oboe out of an entire orchestral piece.

He loves to learn about music.  I picked up a book from the library that describes all the various instruments in the orchestra as well as several composers (or "confusers" as Brooks calls them :)  I can't even count how many times we've read through that book and listened to the CD that came with it.  And I know all kids have their different interests, but folks are a little taken back when he can tell you the difference between a violin and a viola, which instruments are in the wind and brass sections and, most impressively, can pronounce "glockenspiel" correctly!

He loves to play music.  Chris set up his keyboard a few weeks ago and Brooks "plays" it almost daily.  He'll plunk around, playing with the different sounds for sometimes over an hour.  He even figured out how to play "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" all by himself.  He makes instruments out of anything he can find - a kitchen funnel is a horn, the kitchen table is his drum, and his sunglasses are his tuba.  Not sure how that last one works, but ... whatever.

So because he obviously loves music so much, I decided to surprise him and take him to the orchestra!  The South Dakota Symphony has a youth orchestra and their spring concert was this last Sunday.  I bought tickets, we dressed in our "fancy" clothes and headed to the orchestra.  He loved it!  My only regret was that  since everyone was sitting on the same level, we couldn't see all the different instruments in the orchestra - just he violins sitting up front.  But he still enjoyed the music and he was particularly thrilled to see the double bases (his newest obsession) in the back.  I wasn't sure if he'd make it through the whole concert,  but with a small intermission and a bag of snacks, he did great and sat the whole hour and a half!

And to remind me that he's still just a three year old boy, the first thing he told Daddy about when we got home was the cookie he ate at the reception afterward! :)

My handsome date and I