No Mason?

When Connor got home from school on Tuesday we had our usual conversation.... what did you have for snack?, what books did the teacher read?, did you poop?, how was lunch?

Well, he told me that he didn't get to eat his squeeze yogurt because Mason took it. This of course upset me. I had a talk with him about not letting other people take his food and letting the teacher know if someone did. While on the ride to school this morning I asked him to tell me what happened at school. He had the exact same story. So, I pulled the teacher aside & asked if she would keep an eye on Mason & Connor during lunch. She said "we don't have a Mason in this class". I went over to the name list and there isn't even a name that sounds like Mason. Plus she told me that they have a no sharing food policy due to allergies. So, hopefully we will be able to get to the bottom of it.

Scary

I ordered Connor's Halloween costume. I know it is early, but I got the exact costume I wanted for half price on EBay, so I went for it!. Well, it was hanging on the bar in the kitchen & the head just happened to be propped perfectly on the counter. When I got up to make Brandon's lunch this morning (at 6:30am) I looked to my left and jumped about 3 feet in the air. Yes, I scared myself with a Halloween Costume!

What happens while I get the mail

My mailbox is 12 steps from my front door. My front door is about 10 steps from the dining room table. That is 44 steps total. The whole trip takes under 1 minute. I ran out to get the mail the other day while the boys were happily eating their lunch. This is what I returned to:

Please note the yogurt splatter made its way 3 feet up the wall....

If I had yogurt, peas, corn & grapes for lunch the yogurt would have been my last choice for the wall, but that's just me.

Update

This past weekend Brandon's parents came over so Brandon & I could get out for some alone time. We went out to dinner & then did some shopping. On Sunday we went to church where Connor had a great time in Sunday school. He learned a new song and then proceeded to sing it the rest of the day. This would have been fine except that he only remembers 2 lines & sings them over and over. I need to call the teacher to get the lyrics. We spent some time at the swimming pool & then made a stop to the horse stables to visit Connor's favorite horse, Kobe. He was very excited as Kobe was in his stall so we could see him up close. The woman working at the stable took Kobe out of the stable and let Connor get even closer. Both boys were so excited.

On Monday I took the boys to the pediatrician. Hudson had 102 fever. Turned out to be an ear infection. Luckily Connor was clear. The Dr. said that if Hudson has 1 more infection in the next 2 months we are going to talk about ear tubes. When we left the Dr. I told Connor that Hudson had a little cold and he said "I've got a little warm". Cute.

Tuesday was back to school for Connor. He told me that he had a great day and that he listened. Teacher #2 was busy with another parent so I didn't get any reports on his behavior. He did tell me that another kid took his yogurt at lunch, so we will need to get to the bottom of that.

Here is Connor patiently waiting for dinner....with a peanut butter spoon.

The dentist

This morning we got up bright & early and headed to the dentist. It was Hudson's first visit. Before they are 3 years old the dental exam is done in Mommy's lap. Hudson sat in my lap facing me, the dentist & I then sit knee to knee & I lay Hudson down. He did great He opened his mouth for the dentist without a fight. The dentist said that besides an overbite Hudson's teeth look great and whoever is brushing them gets an A+. That would be Brandon.

Since Connor is now 3 he gets to go see the dentist all alone. Actually he gets to go to a room with a bunch of other kids. No parents allowed. I love this. Kids are so much braver when we aren't there. They cleaned his teeth, took x-rays and gave him a fluoride treatment. Actually they took 1 x-ray to be exact. The technician came out to me & said "we could only get one x-ray, Connor has a really bad gag reflex". I said "you should try feeding him broccoli".

They were both very well behaved. I was thrilled. If you live in the Orlando area and need a dentist for your kids, drop me a line. This dentist is amazing!

I had a Dr.'s appointment that afternoon and Pop's was busy and Erin was working and all of the kids went back to school so I was stuck without a sitter. So, I dropped the boys off at Monkey Joe's & Brandon met us there & stayed with the kids to play. The new MJ's is very close to the shop so he didn't have to be gone very long. It is nice to have a husband who can leave work at a moments notice. Especially when his wife has known about her Dr.'s appointment for a week and forgot to get a sitter until the day before.

Rebel without a cause

Connor was at school again today. I can't believe how much I miss him. I knew I would miss him, but I thought I would enjoy the alone time a little more. I actually laid down in his bed today for a while & cuddled with his favorite stuffed animal. When I dropped him off he put his lunch in his cubby, kissed me goodbye and like a good little conformist went to the table to play with puzzles. When I picked him up I watched him on the secret camera for a while. He was playing duck, duck, goose. He was actually sitting & waiting his turn. He gave teacher #2 a hug goodbye, which she seemed surprised by. She told me that at craft time he mixed the playdough and she didn't like that. Then she told my why they couldn't mix the playdough. Like she thinks I don't have 8 cans of "brown" playdough at my house. I told her that we let him mix the playdough. I thought she might fall over. I think I am going to have some fun messing with her this year.

When we went out to the car he said "Mom, I had a great day at school. I followed the rules."

So, part of me is happy to see Connor following the rules and part of me is a little sad. If you tell him this when he is 15 I will DENY it! I love his free spirit. Yes, it makes my job harder, but infinitely more fun. I can't imagine having a kid who just sat & played "nice" all the time. Connor keeps me on my toes and we always have fun together. But, I don't want the teacher to label him as a trouble maker. So, I am teaching him to conform. But, just between you and me... when he got up from his nap today we had craft time and you better believe we mixed the playdough.

Reasons....

Reasons why Connor has woken us up at 2am:

I am in the bathroom, peed on the floor & now I am trapped on my step-stool

I fell out of bed

I'm hungry

I bit my tongue (that was last night)

My all time favorite reason:

I am naked from the waste down standing up & peeing in my bed, I am also still asleep!

So, on most nights I would totally be a team player & help out with the night owl. But, the Dr. gave me ambien so I can sleep when I have a migraine. Wow. I love the stuff. I take it anytime I know I have a big day the next day or have stuff on my mind. Only problem is I can sleep through anything when I take it. Last night Brandon had to deal with the tongue biting incident. I didn't even know about it until I this morning. Ah... Ambien! I should do a commercial. You would see me sleeping peacefully and then they show a shot of Brandon shampooing pee off the carpet & Connor screaming into the baby monitor. Mom's everywhere would rush to get a prescription.

Hudson on the other hand is a rock. He has only woken up once in the middle of the night since he was 10 weeks old. Even when he had that apnea monitor & it would go off in the middle of the night he would sleep through it. He has slept through the smoke alarm & the burglar alarm. When we check on him part of his body is usually hanging out of the crib. We pick him up, move him & he has no idea. I have felt him before & noticed that his diaper was pretty full. I know if I leave him until morning it will leak. So, I have taken off his PJ's changed his diaper & redressed him all while he sleeps. He truly is our rock.

Booger

Lately the boys have been obsessed with a movie called Open Season. It is an animated movie and the main characters are voiced by Ashton Kutcher and Martin Lawrence. It is adorable. Connor has been repeating lines from the movie for weeks now. He totally gets this from me as I am a movie quoter. The Godfather, The Waterboy, Lost Boys, there are tons of movie I quote on a regular basis. I have noticed that my brother does this as well.

Why am I telling you this? Well, the main character's name is Boog. At one point another character says "Boog, is that short for Booger?". That was all it took. Connor was rolling. Let's face it, I was not surprised that a 3 year old thought the word booger was funny. Say poop or fart & the kid falls over. It is just something boys are born with & I have learned to deal with it. I know they are born with it though because Hudson picked up on it immediately. Now, my adorable 17 month old runs around the house screaming "booger". He has put his own spin on the word and raises his voice a bit at the end. It sounds a bit more like "Boogaaah". Then he falls on the floor from laughing so hard. I really need to get this on video.

Worst haircut ever!

Last night before bath time I decided that Hudson's hair was out of control. I have been putting off cutting his hair. But it is so thick the poor kid has been sweating like crazy with this heat. Brandon started the bath water. I started the clippers. I was only going to cut the sides short and leave some length on top. Everything was fine until Connor decided to jump into the tub. Hudson of course wanted to follow and began to jerk around. The clippers went across part of the top of his head and that was the end of his haircut. From that point on it was a wrestling match / buzz cut. I finally told Brandon that I was done and he stepped in to help. He grabbed the clippers and I held Hudson's head and we buzzed the whole thing the same length. However he was still jerking around so we missed a bunch of spots. It isn't pretty, but you can really only tell from up close. Brandon said he would tell his Mom that he did the cut as she hates the boys hair short.

First day of school

Connor had his first day at his new preschool. Of course I forgot to take a the ceremonial picture of him with his back pack on. So, here is a picture of the guy he decorated for his classroom. We had fun decorating it. I do not believe in doing a kids work for them just to make it look better. So, I made the eyes to give him a place to start and then off he went. I squirted the glitter glue for him, but he choose the colors and spread it out by himself. Clean up was an adventure and I am just glad that Hudson was asleep while we took on this project.

Connor has 2 teachers. Let's call them teacher 1 and teacher 2. I love teacher 1. You can just tell she is made to be a preschool teacher. And lets face it, it takes a special person to have that kind of love and patience with children...especially 10 of them! She remembered Connor's name on the first day and when I picked him up she stopped what she was doing to give him a hug goodbye. I love her! Then there is teacher 2. Let's just say I don't love her quite as much. I am guessing she does not have kids and thought that early childhood ed sounded like a good major. I hope I am jumping to conclusions. I hope I am overreacting. I brought Connor to his room and he happily ran off to play. So, I took his lunch and put it in his cubby. She scolded me and told me that he was supposed to do it. Nice start. When I picked him up she told me that Connor was spitting. I was shocked as he has never done this at home. I told her I would talk with him and that I was very concerned. I asked who he had spit on and she told me that he wasn't really spitting, but blowing bubbles. That's a bit different than spitting, but I talked to him anyway. Then she said that he wouldn't sit still. I told her we would work on that as well. I'm not overly concerned as it was the first day back at school and he is 3! It took a while last year to get used to "the rules". I have a feeling that I am not going to warm up to teacher #2. First impressions are hard to erase, but time will tell.

According to Connor he had a good day at school. He wants to go back and that is a good sign. He also told me that he really likes teacher #1. He played with a girl named Amelia and outside time is his favorite.

I thought I would get a bunch of stuff done, but I really just missed the little guy so I didn't get much done at all. Hudson kept hanging on the front door saying "school, school". He missed Connor. I was pretty happy to see that.

firsts

On Friday we headed over to the new Monkey Joe's play place. They just built one in our town. We went with Brett, Ryan & Olivia. That morning we picked up Amelia and she spent the day with us. Amelia is 12 and she is a great mother's helper. It was so nice to have an extra hand for running errands.

Saturday morning Connor had orientation for his new preschool. He got to meet his teachers and some kids in his class. He is very excited to start school. Saturday afternoon we headed to the zoo for a little while. But it was so hot! I can't wait for the temperature to calm down. I am not a hot weather person.

On Sunday we went to church. Connor is old enough now to come to services with us. About 10 minutes into the service the minister tells the kids a story & then the 3-7 year old get to go to their own service. They get a snack & do crafts and hear stories. The teacher said Connor did a great job. After services our church has Sunday school. Brandon teaches the 7Th & 8Th grade class. Connor has always gone with him, but this year he got to go to his own class. We got a great report from that teacher as well. Hudson still goes to nursery during services and I am sure it will be a transition for him to be without Connor. During Sunday school Hudson and I took a drive. Maybe next week I will take him out for breakfast.

Ryan & Olivia here

Today Erin needed someone to watch Ryan & Olivia for a couple of hours and we were happy to help. The boys played together and Hudson & Olivia basically took turns taking toys away from each other & saying "mine". Everything went very smooth. It was a bit difficult to get lunch ready for 4 children and clean it up. I think if I had 4 kids my house would not be quite as clean. Luckily Ryan & Olivia are very well behaved and we had a good time.

Blog withdrawal

My Aunt Betty wrote me yesterday that she was going through "blog withdrawal". Sorry if I have been a slacker lately. I had some medical stuff going on & my mind was not clear. But everything turned out OK & I am back in business! Connor starts school next week so I will have time to blog at least once a week.

Happy birthday to me

Last week was my birthday. My Boys took great care of me. Friday night Brandon brought me home beautiful roses. They turned out to be the biggest roses I have ever seen.

On Saturday night Brandon and i went to a great restaurant called The Goblin Market. Don't let the name fool you it was wonderful. I had one of the best meals I have EVER had. One of my least favorite things about the area we live in is the lack of small privately owned restaurants. I am not a fan of chain restaurants. This place was so great. High end food in a casual setting. The crab bisque was so good I was tempted to lick the bowl!

Then on Sunday night the boys surprised me one day early with a cake & some gifts. Connor had a very specific idea of what my cake should look like. It had to be a heart cake & he even told the bakery how to decorate it. The boys dug into the cake before dinner. They pushed a chair over and Connor figured out he could keep Hudson away if he fed him a little at a time.

Connor finally got tired of feeding Hudson ( I understand the feeling!). So, Hudson took matters into his own hands. He looks so guilty in this picture.

I took this picture right after we told Hudson "no more cake"

Brandon let Connor pick out his own gifts for me. I know the picture is dark. If you can't see.. I received 2 spoons, 2 spatulas, 3 lipsticks & a bunch of hair clips. I love when he pics out his own gifts. I also got speakers for my ipod, but Connor didn't pick those out.

Our new fun

Our newest time killer with the kids is building forts. Brandon is much better at this than I am. I will take a picture next time he builds a fort. I swear he covers the entire family room.
Hudson loves to walk on top of the fort. Here is Connor enjoying the fort & little does he know that his "little" brother is about to walk all over him.