We Made It!

I feel like I am going to jinx myself by writing this post but I am going to write it and hope that by writing it I unjinx myself.  Does that make sense?  Double fingers crossed, legs crossed, here we go!

Day 1 of the 2s class! 

1st day of Toddlers!

Yes, I spelled it wrong!  You think Shook had that figured out here already...I didn't until I just went to post this picture!  Haha!  I'm actually surprised by how well these pictures turned out.  We intended to get to daycare later than normal because Shook is generally okay if we get there during breakfast.  This morning, however, he was running around literally pouring his milk all over the floor and rolling around in it.  I refused to change his outfit because I was so mad at the time!  I mean, he should live with the pigs!  We were later than we imagined, to say the least.  Anyway, looking back on it, this is pretty funny :)

And now, I really think he might have been trying to tell me something!

Best I could do --- you see the milk stains?  Yeah, entire front and back of the outfit.  I'm sure his teachers were wondering what in the world was going on. 

Jules has 4 new friends in her class for a total of 14 kids, one of which was screaming so hard Monday morning that I thought Michael was going to lose it (yes, we both went...between the two of them, I would have had to make 5 trips out to my car!)  Her teacher was literally having to hold the child down so he wouldn't get out the door.  1 of her new friends (all are boys, by the way, bizarre...) hasn't shown up this week yet so she may end up with someone else. 

Her class is centered around potty training right now - every 2 hours, etc. etc., no diapers....Jules has been going to school in undies for about 2 - 3 weeks now so we are good there (although I keep waiting for a regression phase).  They said that she doesn't even get a chance to tell them she has to go because they go so often.  One other difference is they have to pick a center for playtime.  During transition and so far this week, Jules will only pick homeliving and if it is full by the time they get to her, she picks math & science (that's my girl!)  She has had great days.  Pretty soon they start having a 'job' of the day so they get to be the leader in a certain area.  I'm sure she is going to LOVE that!  She also sleeps by the door now because they said she can sleep through anything.  WHAT?  I was like, are you sure you got that right?  Weird!  Never would have thought that!  She's having a blast.  Talks about her helmet (sounds like hammock when she says it) all the time!  We now have to get one for home because she wants to bring it home with her everyday.  To avoid the whining and crying, we said we'd take her to pick one out this weekend.  She wants PURPLE!  Her favorite color!  Shook is her Favorite Friend (so she pointed out to us this weekend very matter of factly)!  She is sweet when she isn't sassy!  She is on a new big playground now too.  She fell the first day and busted up her knee.  Poor girl.  She looks like she has been to a war zone lately!  Today she had a coloring page in her folder and at the bottom they said she told them she didn't do a drawing, she colored in red! 

Shook has so many changes I cannot even begin to name them all.  I think he got 3 new friends for a total of 10 kids because they had 1 leave in the middle of last year and she was never replaced.  His 3 friends are all girls I think.  Hence, Bizarre!  And they have all been there for a year but in a different classroom.  They were the oldest in the next room over so they all know each other.  One mom stopped me today to tell me that her little girl has been saying Shook all the time since they started together.  Her little girl was saying it for me....too cute!  He LOVES the ladies.  He gets the breakfast seat by his girlfriend!  He fell the first day too and busted his lip!  They sleep on cot mats, eat at tables, bigger playground, etc.  He is loving it so far and I have my fingers crossed for the rest of the week!

I'll have to apologize to him one day about messing up his first day of school sign!

Here is Jules in her helmet this weekend that she just had to have in the car and at the store....OBSESSED!

Oh, she is also OBSESSED with dresses right now.  Occasionally (see first day picture above) I can talk her into a skirt but most of the time she says "NO" and goes in her room and comes out with a dress of some sort.  I'm not sure what we are going to do come fall/winter.  I'm not sure she is going to go for the tights under the dress thing. I'm starting to think its because her teachers may have said something about wearing dresses for pottying when she was in the other room and now she can't let it go!

Splash, Splash

This weekend we headed to the free splash pad for some fun!  I think we succeeded!

My Little Toddler

We had Shook's 15 Month Old Check-up this week.  He is 31 3/4 inches (75%) and 27.8 lbs (75-90%).  He's started to close the gap!  His head is 20 inches (still greater than 100%).  The nurse measured 21 1/2 and Dr. McCain was about to have a stroke when she came in so we had to remeasure it a couple of times.  Apparently 21 1/2 is off the charts and way off of his growth pattern so we would have been going to the ER immediately!  Thank God the nurse was wrong! 

We looked at Shook's duck feet too.  She said back in our days of growing up they would have slapped braces on him so fast we wouldn't even have time to think about it (so at least I was right to be concerned).  But, these days the orthopedic doctors won't see kids until they are 2.  So, until then little Shook will be going barefoot a lot so that he can have a better chance of doing the correcting himself.  I wouldn't expect him to run and jump as quickly as the other kids but I might be surprised.  He moves around pretty good and he has been trying to run so that he can keep up with Jules.  He is doing gymnastics this fall too so that might help him with mobility.

Dr. McCain and I were talking about what kinds of things he likes, talking, etc. and we were just chatting about the differences between Jules at this age and Shook.  It's very interesting to me because they not only have the boy/girl differences but apparently there are a lot of differences just from first to second born no matter what the age difference that are just typical.  For instance, Jules babbled a lot faster and had more words at 15 months, I think.  He has probaby 4-6 (bye, bye, ball, book, banana, etc.) words he uses regularly and he will babble some but not nearly as much as her.  I remember the daycare teachers saying that when she finally started to really talk we wouldn't be able to stop her because she tried to talk so much.  Well, obviously, this is a boy/girl thing but it is even more a first kid/second kid thing. 

And, apparently, second born children like to climb a lot earlier, etc.  HELLLOOOO Chick-Fil-A play area!  Shook climbed up that slide at like 12 months old and stayed up there until Jules brought him down (face first!).  Jules would have never done that.

I really think I need a good book on birth order differences.  Any suggestions?

Here is the 15 month old looker!  He was a champ at the doctor this time; stood on the scale by himself, barely wimpered after the shots.  They say at daycare when he falls that he often just gets up and starts laughing.  Told you guys he thinks everything is hilarious!  He does like to say OH, My Noggin!  And hold his head!  (and laugh!) And, he loves to do "Ahhhh" after a drink and "MMMMM" with ice cream (then laugh!).  I really thought I heard him try to say Jules the other day too but not since then. 

Yep, he has all but the 2 year old molars.  We were talking about it at the end of the year party and the other parents (first time parents) were mesmerized.  We had to go through a lesson on how many teeth kids get!!  I was telling them that it seemed like I didn't have the Shook I knew for about 3 months so I am so glad that part is over!

I absolutely love my happy playful little buddy (with his teeth)!

Here he is showing us some climbing/sliding skills.

He is not afraid to go where mommy wishes he would not!

We'll be back to visit the doctor in 3 months and then we finally get a break!  [Knock on wood that the sickness this fall/winter isn't too bad!]

Old Friends and New Friends

Last weekend we did a lot of visiting with friends, old and new.  We hung out with TayTay Saturday morning at Alabama Adventure.  Jules talks about TayTay at the most random times.  I'll be telling her about what we are going to do on the weekend and who we are going to see and she says "Annnnddd, TayTay?  I LOOOVEEE her!"  So, we just had to get together.

They are too funny.  TayTay is having a little sister come the end of January so its going to be a 4-pack crazy house when we get together pretty soon!

So, Shook filled up TayTay's shoe with water and put it in this cone for a good 30 minutes. 

Over and over...

Not especially entertaining but it did give me a good break and at least he can entertain himself.  He thought it was hilarious (see my previous posts on how he thinks pretty much anything is hilarious these days)!

That night we went to see Jules' friend from school Kathryn.  No pictures from there but we had an ice cream social (after Shook broke their dog bowl and Jules had an accident on their floor [her last since then for both days and nights thank goodness]).  Delicous!  Jules ate mostly ice cream toppings, I think.  They were pretty sugared up and we stayed up way too late!

Sunday morning was my Sunday school teaching debut.  Whoo Hoo!  I've been wanting to get more involved in church but I really needed something to make myself go.  Getting up and getting ready with 2 kids everyday of the week is hard and sometimes I just want a day off but I know that I need to get myself and them in the habit of going.  I know they will enjoy it!  So, I decided to volunteer to teach Sunday School 2 times a month.  You know me though, I can't do anything half-way and it bothers me when others do or when things are not completely organized, so now I'm the lead teacher for Jules' class.  Yeah, I'm crazy but at least I know my weaknesses! :) 

I had a blast though and it went really well considering there were about 12 kids that came and it was my first time teaching.  We had a lot of help in the room too, which was good because Jules wouldn't leave my side.  I was kind of afraid of that when I signed up for her room but I'm hoping it gets better because I really do want to spend the time with her.  I got some cute pictures of the kids in the class but not of Jules :(  Maybe I'll get some this week for the blog.  We are starting our "course work" on Moses!  I'm going to have to brush up on my Bible stories!

Sunday afternoon we went over to my friend Natalie's house for a cookout.  She has a 1 year old little boy (who hopefully will be in Shook's daycare next year).  He and Shook had not met yet but they had a great time (for 1 year olds)!  The Decker family got them ready for all the things they will either have to put up or get ready to get on to their sweet boy about!!  We do that for many people (and/or provide a good form of second child birth control) and I'm thinking we might start charging for it! :)  I think its an excellent pitch!!  But, its probably more like start paying our friends to actually have us over again (see above regarding our Saturday night outing)!

My kids love some hugs!  They love them so much that they try to chase their friends down for hugs!

Our friends have great toys for us all to fight over!

I didn't get any pictures of our sweet friend John Michael.  He is 9 weeks old now and he and his parents were there too.  I got to hold him for a second - right up until Shook got really jealous and Jules had to potty for the upteeth time!  I was really surprised at how much Shook loved him.  He gave him tons of kisses on his forehead but he did not want mom holding him.  Surprise!  I can't believe Jules was only 1 month older than Shook when Shook was born.  Man, if she had had a mom attachment like Shook does, we would have been in trouble!  BAD trouble!

We were some tired people after this weekend but we had a BLAST!

Moving On Up

Wednesday was Shook's end of year party in the infant class and Thursday was his last day :(  It is a sad day because we loved his teachers this year.  I think it is going to be a good year though.  Apparently he had a great time with transitioning.  Here's some pictures his new teachers sent me:

More about his climbing and adventurous nature later...

By Wednesday night around 6:30, he was lying straight on the floor acting like he was sleeping.  He is going to be one tired pup next week for sure seeing as how he was that sleepy and they only spent about 2 hours in the room each day and they didn't start sleeping on cot mats yet!

So, for the party, the kids got to do water play on the big playground.  I think for most of the summer their water play was on the infant playground in a kiddie pool so this was a real treat for them.

If you know Shook, you know he loves to splash in the water.  This is where he sat from beginning to end of water play, right under the waterfall!

Other kids came and went....but not Shook!

He was trying to drink the waterfall, poor water on his head, you name it!  He had a blast!

 

 

 

Time for popscicles!  I'm still not moving!

 



Sure, I'll get up for real food!

So much fun!

This is poor AnnaBelle (AKA Shook's first girlfriend) sitting by Shook.  You might notice that she is the only girl with 6 boys!  Lucky for her, I think they are adding at least 2 more girls to the mix for the toddler class. 

My understanding of lately is that AnnaBelle and Shook still spend a lot of time together.  They often have a love to love you/love to hate you relationship where they get mad at each other over a toy but they just cannot stand to be away from each other!

The other day AnnaBelle's dad was picking her up from school and Shook was wrestling AnnaBelle and he was on top of her.  Her dad walked in and said "Shook, what are you doing to my daughter!"  He said they both shot straight up and looked at him like "uh, oh, we weren't doing anything at all!"  Ahhh....young love!  Shook gave her a kiss before we all went home :)

You might also notice that they eat out of their "troughs" during snack time...not a bad idea!

Shook did not want to go home after the party so I stayed a little while longer and let him ride in the car.  This is mult-tasking...riding in the car while pushing the lawn-mower!

Let us not forget Jules.  She had a great week moving up too.  Here she is hugging it out with Kathryn.

Whew!  She was tired this week too...real tired!  She actually agreed to go to bed early a couple of nights this week.  Yesterday she didn't want to take a nap so of course Michael did not make her and she was a pill!  She actually said "I don't love you anymore" after getting in trouble!  She really is 2 1/2 going on 15!  Lord, please help me!