My awesome three

• I love all the little drawings Carter has been leaving around the house.  He makes treasure maps with pictures of people and dotted lines to the treasure.  I've also been finding lots of cards and letters.  Usually he likes to write the same three letters {t, e, r} over and over in different orders.  I also found out today he knows how to spell Ava's name. 
• Tonight after we put Ava to bed, we heard her up in her bedroom singing at the TOP OF HER LUNGS.  At first we thought she was yelling for us, but nope, she was singing her ABC's.  I think she may be following in her cousin Riley's footsteps.  {Riley girl LOVES to sing.}
• Everyday Dawson surprises me with new words and ways to communicate with us.  He loves listening to music when we are playing in the toy room and will point fiercely at the CD player and sing little made up tunes until I turn it on for him.  {This makes me so happy, studies have shown that children who enjoy music have a head start when learning to read.}  He is also becoming a huge scavenger.  If I slack off a little and leave dishes with food on the table, he climbs up onto the chairs and starts eating the remaining food.  I'm still finding him sitting on the table on a regular basis.

Not too much else is going on right now.  Ava has been feeling under the weather today, but I'm hoping she won't pass it on to her brothers.  

Butterflies

Lately we have been watching the butterfly life cycle.  We started with three caterpillars:  Dragon Ka Kragon, Jen and Nemo.  Nemo unfortunately never grew and never made a chrysalis.  Jen is in her chrysalis right now.  Dragon Ka Kragon just left her chrysalis, but we have some problems.  Her leg and wing on one side of her body are deformed and she really can't fly.  For a period of time we thought she was dead, now it's pretty clear that she is going to be bird bait as soon as she is released.

This has made for some interesting conversations, including genetics, death and  predators.  My little Carter boy wants to fix it and scoured the backyard for butterfly medicine.  He came back with a piece of clover, which we did put into the butterfly garden, but there have not been any miracle fixes as of yet.  He has also discussed making a new wing for our butterfly out of paper and tape.  It's pretty hard to explain to him that this won't fix the butterfly.  

Jen should be leaving her chrysalis any time now, so I'm really hoping we'll get at least one decent butterfly!

Memorial Day Parade

Today we went to a Memorial Day Parade.  We were lucky enough to have Grandma join us, and the kids had a blast.  It was a wonderful parade, the kids were able to see military vehicles, fire engines, police cars, horses, Shriner's cars, motorcycles, bands, the works!  I hope that by taking the kids to events such as these, they realize the importance of honoring our military servicemen.

Dawson's language interpreted:

wee-oo wee-oo = sirens {usually a fire truck or police car}

boom boom = vroom vroom {usually a big truck or tractor} 

Carter wore his cousin Brendan's hand me down military flight suit.  Despite the heat he wore it, and received many compliments and even special candy. 

Baby Dewey stayed on my hip most of the time.  His second favorite word right now is Dewey, so we have decided it's a new nickname.

Our little Roover girl

In the car, Mike told me how cute Ava is at parades.  She is very focused on waving and saying Hi to everyone.

Carter's favorite?  The candy.  But I wouldn't accept this as his favorite, so his second favorite was the Humvee.

Ava's favorite?  The princesses {pageant girls}

Dawson's favorite?  The boom boom's  

Happy Memorial Day!

Happy Memorial Day!

We made sure to start it off right, by grilling out.

Dirt can't hurt. Right?

Yesterday we had a load of dirt delivered for my garden.  You would have thought the kids died and went to dirt heaven.  Seriously, a pile of dirt is the best baby-sitter we could have asked for!

Ava was digging and scooping.

This boy had a ball.  We all know he is a mountain climber, and it was so much fun to have a mountain he was allowed to climb!

Then he started smearing dirt in his hair.

Then some dirt may or may not have been consumed.  Total sensory experience!

Dirt is a boy's best friend.

Hunting Pictures

Hey guys, do you want to go up and play in the woods for awhile?

OF COURSE!  But, we have to get our hunting gear on first.

Mom, these aren't snow boots, they are hunting boots.

Hunting vest, check.  

Nerf blaster, check.

hunting {snow} boots, check.

Another picture from a totally different day.

Mom, come quick, Dawson looks like a cave baby.

What?

Ok, now that makes sense.

Note to self: time to do laundry when husband starts putting baby in 4 year old's shirt.

May Birthdays

Thank you to Meme and Grandpap Bob for the wonderful weekend.  We spent time in Sidney to celebrate all the May birthdays in our family {Meme, Grandpap Bob and Uncle Patrick.} 

Uncle Patrick picked us up an extra special palm tree sprinkler.

After a short walk in Tawawa Park we stopped at Sidney's main attraction:  the big rock.

Cute baby.  But oh so clingy lately.  Not even Daddy can suffice.

Don't worry if you knew Uncle Patrick, you wouldn't be worried about this.

Happy Birthday dear Bob Bob....and Meme....and Uncle Patrick

I love ice cream cones!!

Dawson, I have photographic proof of the fact that you can be happy with people other than me.  Thanks Sara for all your help this weekend!

Just a little boost.

Nana told me a funny story..... Carter came to her and said "Nana, this book ripped, but I didn't do it.  It was just my hand."

Thank you everyone for the wonderful weekend, and Happy Birthday everyone!

A day in the life

I have been meaning to type this out for awhile, but have never gotten around to it.  I wanted to document a "day in the life" at our house.  When they are older, I think I will like to remember how we spent the majority of our time.  This "schedule" is obviously fluid and subject to change, but I also truly believe that children need schedules in their lives to provide stability and predictability.  They thrive on that need to know "what happens next." Even Dawson at only 17 months knows he gets a cup of juice on the couch in the morning, and will run to put his shoes on after lunch or dinner to go outside.  

• 7 am:  Carter and Ava wake up, say good-bye to Mike and settle in on the couch with some juice.  Dawson has been waking up between 7:30 and 8:00.
• 8 am:  Breakfast!  Favorites right now include homemade bread with sunbutter, oatmeal flavored with a maple syrup and a little cocoa powder, ninja {mixed} berries and bananas.  We have also been graphing the weather this month using tally marks and using a ruler to measure the length of our caterpillars, they are about 3 cm now!
• 9 am: Clean up kitchen while kids play, then "morning chores."  We go upstairs and everyone gets dressed, brushes their teeth, cleans up their room and we look at our calendars.  
• 10 am:  Play time!  Our favorites lately have been: doctor, Candyland, dominoes, coloring and cutting, legos and going hunting.  I pretended to surgery on Ava the other day, and so everyone has been cut open lately to fix bones, hearts, you name it!  We regularly have to pack our backpacks and gear up to go black gopher hunting.
• 11 am:  Usually kids are getting hungry at this time so we make lunch.  Usually this consists of some combination of leftovers, sunbutter sandwiches, grilled cheese, carrots and apples.  We are really in a lunch rut.  Does anyone have any suggestions?
• 12 pm:  Outside to play for awhile if it is nice, or I try to do a dance party or something like that to burn a little energy.
• 1 pm:  Reading time.  We all go into Dawson's room and read books from his shelves.  This can last anywhere from half an hour to an hour, depending on Dawson!  
• 2pm:  Rest.  I'll admit it, I regularly lay down with both kids on our bed.  Ava usually falls asleep, but Carter does not.
• 2:30:  Carter and I sneak out of the bedroom while Ava continues to sleep.  Then the two of us read together for awhile.  We also started doing educational computer games.  He is starting to use the touch pad on the lap top really well!
• 4 pm:  Everyone is awake and we eat our snack.  Then more outside time or play time. 
• 5 pm:  Time to make dinner.  Dawson hangs on my leg until I feed him a second snack while we are making dinner and the big kids play.
• 5:45:  Dinner time and Daddy is home!  As soon as we eat, I clean up the kitchen while Mike plays with the kids.  This time of the year they are outside every night.
• 7 pm:  Clean up toy room, then bath, books and bed!
• 8 pm:  Lights out

So I apologize for the boring post.  This is our life, and I'm sure it will change in the fall with Carter in school again.  I've actually really been enjoying this time alone with my three little guys.  It's going to be the last time I won't have to worry about rushing out the door in the morning, getting someone to school.  But for now, this is our life with swimming classes, library excursions and some errand running thrown in.    

CASTOFF Day!

This morning we went back up to Akron Children's Hospital.  Dawson had his cast removed and one final X-ray.  Of course he screamed the entire time.  He wouldn't even stand on the scale to take his weight!  Funny thing:  we need to keep his feet firmly on the ground for the next two weeks.  No playgrounds, couches or beds.  His arm could be easily re-injured if he were to fall again.  I'm going to add to the list no toliets or kitchen tables.  Apparently his doctor does not read my blog, ha ha.  

Conversation with Ava today:

Ava:  Big girls don't wet their pants.

Mommy:  yes Ava that's true.

Ava:  Big girls don't cry either.

Mommy:  Big girls do cry.  It's ok to cry if you feel sad or upset.

Ava:  Mommy, don't cry when I leave you.  It will only be a little while and then I'll be home soon. 

Mommy:  Ok Ava, I won't.

Although let's be honest, I'm usually doing a happy dance when I have a little time away from the crew!  But then again, I start missing them in twenty minutes or so!

Mom, take my picture.  I'm a monster, Dad won't even know me. 

Can we go black gopher hunting?

Happy Friday!

Monkey boy and my sweet girl

Dawson Robert, this boy keeps me on my toes.  I caught him in some situations today, boy oh boy.  First, I heard him fussing and I came around the corner to see him STANDING with both feet inside the downstairs toilet.  I really have no idea how he managed to get into the toilet, but he definitely could not get out.   So it was off to the bathtub for a little soap and water scrubbing.  NOTE TO EVERYONE:  the bathroom door MUST be closed, I'm looking at you Ava!


After Dawson's impromptu morning bath, I decided to get Ava dressed for the day.  Then I went to check on Carter and Dawson.  They were in Carter's room, which had been painted this weekend so all the furniture was pushed to the center of the room.  Carter was sitting in the doorway and as I walked around the corner of the furniture to the back of the room I saw paint. all. over. the. floor.  There was little Dawson who had picked up the paint roller and was using it to roll the carpet blue.  Yes, I know this was totally my fault for leaving the paint roller in the room.  But I had asked the kids to stay out of the room until it was finished.  Anyways, as you can imagine I was seeing red but locking myself in the room with carpet cleaner and a bucket of hot water helped.  Thankfully I caught it immediately and all the paint came off the carpet easily.  After 30 minutes of scrubbing.


Thankfully we had a couple of uneventful hours.  Then came the 5 o'clock hour, which remains to this day a witching hour for Dawson.  As I was making dinner I heard silence, which is incredibly unusual.  Usually he spends the entire time I am making dinner under my legs, fussing.  This is where I found my little boy:

Yes, he had climbed up on top of the table.  

Seriously, I need your prayers to keep this kid safe.  He regularly falls off my bed, and unfortunately he is able to climb onto it by himself.  He is a seriously obnoxious climbing monkey right now.

Three cheers for Ava!  She wrote the letter A for the first time today without any help!  Also, three cheers for Mommy!  I french braided her hair today for the first time!

      

Water balloons

Last night as I was returning from getting my hair cut, I stopped and picked up some water balloons for the kids.  I know that it was supposed to be really hot and humid today, and Carter has been begging to play with water balloons ever since seeing them on a commercial.

I made the mistake of mentioning the water balloons to the kids last night before they went to bed.

7:30 am  Can we do water balloons now?

No. Not yet.

Finally, go time.  I swear it took me about 30 minutes to blow up the water balloons.  And another 30 minutes to clean up after them.

They had fun with the water balloons for approximately 3 minutes.

But I also set up our little baby pool and that was also very well received.

I bet this little boy is going to get really light hair this summer.

Now?  They are pooped.  We went out around 9:30 this morning and didn't come in until after 12.  We even ate our lunch outside.  I'm so happy that summer decided to make an early appearance!

Little Memories

Here are some of the little memories that I wanted to write down.  I'm sure when they are teenagers and adults I'm going to love reading these little stories.

• Carter my four year old puppy love, is growing so big every day.  We have even been allowing him to play in the woods behind our house with other kids by himself for short periods of time.  It is amazing how long he can occupy himself by digging and scooping dirt in the garden.
• Ava my three year old storyteller is hilarious!  One day during dinner she busted out a story that had everyone rolling on the ground laughing.  Right now you love to play "Train to Abba-buh-blab-uh" with your brother.  We sit on rocks in the garden, while your brother the train conductor hands us tickets and drives the train.  When we arrive there is some sight-seeing before we get back on the train and drive back home.  I think that I played "Train to Abba-buh-blab-uh" for approximately 32 hours yesterday.  Swimming class is going well, you are becoming so brave.  I have seen you jumping off the edge of the pool to the instructor, which you have never done for me!  I must say I love swimming class days because you and your brother come home and eat a HUGE lunch and then pass out.  It is incredibly rare for both of you to nap, but it happens every time on swim class day.  
• Dawson, you are my little one year old disaster waiting to happen.  Falling down is the name of the game and you have first place in that game.  Recently I ducked inside the house to grab a napkin while you were on the porch with your siblings.  When I returned 1 minute later you had face planted and are now sporting a scab on your chin and elbow in addition to the broken arm.  You love books with DOORS, aka books with flaps.  I have read Dear Zoo at least 1,000 times in the last three days.
• This past weekend was Healthy kids day at the Y.  We happened to be there due to soccer and enjoyed this event as well.  The kids got to jump in a bouncy castle, play with a lemur, collect various treasures and finally  Ava and I got to attend a kids Yoga class.  It was a blast.  Ava loved every second of it and it was so cute to see her trying the various poses.