Mini Summer Break

Wes has been working very hard these days. He started preschool in February, four mornings a week, and also gets one on one in home therapy 18 hours each week. The regular preschool session ended last week and summer school starts next week (they highly recommend it so that there's not a regression of skills) so Wes got one week off, woohoo. We kept up the in home therapy, which left us with three free mornings to enjoy "summer break". We have lived up our week off. First, we have thoroughly enjoyed a more relaxed morning, sleeping in a few minutes and not having to get ready for school the second we wake up. Second, we have enjoyed some fun activities.  A local theater plays past season movies for $1 during the summer, so we enjoyed Happy Feet II with our friends Katherine and Ethan. We also had fun at the zoo with Auntie Dawn. Wes has been several times, but it was Bri's first time. Wes was most looking forward to seeing the giraffes. 

 We spent the most time watching the monkeys, even got to see a baby. It was probably Wes' favorite, although while eating lunch I asked him what he liked most so far and he said "the mouse," referring to the dead rat we saw in a bowl to be later fed to a snake. Oy, he's a true boy.

 Lastly, we got to go to Travel Town, a train museum with lots of out of commission trains, with Aunt Jenny and cousin Noah.  Wes and Bri have been multiple times but it was my first, as well as Jenny and Noah's.

Its always tricky trying to get three little ones to pose for a picture without an adult, this picture just makes me laugh.

Most of the trains are closed, but they let you climb into a few. Cuties. 

The whole time Wes kept saying, "go play with the small trains." Silly boy, we come all this way and see real trains and he just wants to go to the gift shop and play with the toy ones. But it sure was sweet watching all three of them play on the giant toy train track.

After Travel Town we went down the road to a small train ride and pony ride.

 Wes has ridden the ponies several times and really enjoys it. Noah was a trooper and enjoyed his first time. Bri not so much, she cried, so I had to half hold her for the entire ride and shush in her ear to keep her calm (while also holding Wes with my other arm because he specifically wanted the black horse, which another kid already had, that boy knows what he wants).

Go Dodgers!

 Kurt has become quite the Dodger fan this year. With this means attending many more games, as well as a little boy who loves to yell, "go Dodgers!". Wes actually calls baseball "go Dodgers," and proudly wears their gear. At our last game as a family the kids got to run the bases.

Brielle is 1!!!

 Our girl, too, is growing up oh so fast. I can easily recall the day we found out the baby growing in my abdomen was a girl. I cried tears of joy, what a blessing to have two sweet children, one a boy and one a girl. And she has proven to be a blessing. She is such a sweetheart, very social, loves to be held and around everyone. She is brave yet cautious, taking one step then waiting a week until doing it again, and continuing that process for a couple of months before she finally began to really walk at 11 months. She is very stubborn, just like her brother. She was truly a piece of cake for 11 months. She's still good, but we have seen the stubborn streak come out, even throwing a few tantrums when she doesn't get what she wants (three months earlier than my firstborn) and almost always refusing to sign, preferring to whine for what she wants instead. Im certain she understands, though. Today she was holding her Jessie doll and when told to pull the string she found it and obliged. I don't think I've ever told her that was the string before, yet she seems to have strong receptive language. She is also already starting to talk. The two words she uses frequently and discriminately are "lala" for Bella and "baba" for baby. She loves babies, anytime I pull out a doll she takes it and quickly hugs it to her saying "baba." She also adores her older brother, frequently trying to join him in play and kiss him. If he wants to, he can easily make her laugh. And she also adores Daddy, running to him when he gets home from work. She's a great sleeper, taking two naps a day and sleeping 11 hours each night. She's never used a pacifier, preferring her index and middle fingers, and recently also has a little pillow she likes to snuggle with. She has six teeth and is working on the next two. Her hair seems to have settled in at a very light brown, some even say blonde, although not as blonde as Wes. It is also becoming increasingly curly. Today I noticed that when wet it actually reaches her shoulders, but the bottom is now so curly that it rests up near her ears. She is also a very big girl, at her last check up she was in the 97% for height and 95% for weight, still holding on to her adorable leg rolls. And she has stunning eyes, I frequently get comments from strangers when we are out. (In her one year pictures you'll notice a mark on her nose, in typical child fashion she scraped herself up two days before the picture appointment). She is one happy little girl. Her favorites right now: giving kisses, bananas, grapes, eating in general, Wes, reading books, music and dancing, grandparents, baby dolls, crawl chase, necklaces and the pool.  We absolutely love our sweet little girl.

Weston is 3!!!

As every parent says, "I just dont know where the time has gone." In many ways these last three years have flown by, my life before kids seems very distant, yet at the same time it has been a long road to get to this point. My little guy has turned three. He sure is a treasure to us. When we recently took him to get pictures I hesitated at choosing my favorite because I thought it looked too much like his 2 year picture, then I pulled it up and boy oh boy has he grown and changed in the last year. He now weighs in at 35 pounds and it just over three feet tall, he'll pass me up before I know it. In the last year his vocabulary has exploded. He started speech services just before his second birthday and had one word, "yeah." Now he has too many words to count. He still gets speech services, but instead of his toddler, one on one therapies, he is now a big boy who goes to preschool! And he seems to love it, he even takes the bus home from school. He also gets 18 hours of in home behavioral therapy a week, which I can already see making a difference. Im not going to lie, it can be hard, but its paying off, in the last couple weeks alone we have seen his imagination take off. It seems like every hour he is coming to us playing a new character... "Im Peter Pan, Mickey Mouse, Dinosaur," etc. Brielle gets jealous of all the playtime attention he gets from the therapy, but its also hard work for him, they push him so that we will see the growth. In recent months he has also given up sleeping with a pacifier. Occasionally he tells me he's sad without it, but he seems to have adjusted well to it. He also seems to be mastering potty training, after nine months of hard work we are seeing the payoff. Another big boy step, he is learning to dress and undress himself, and has really stepped up in the last week with a token system we've set up where he earns minutes of his favorite tv show by doing these things on his own. Speaking of favorites, here are some of his currently: Chuggington, anything trains, corn dogs, fruit snacks, grandparents, running around, hide and seek, tea parties, pretending, going to Ethan's house, reading comic books with Daddy, riding the bus, going to the cabin, fountains, and being a big boy. We are thankful to God for the blessing He has given us in this little boy.