The latest

Sam is now officially 4 years old! Where has the time gone? We had his party last week, and at his request it was a digger theme. I made hart hats for all the kids with their names on them, and the favors were excavation equipment related. Sam had fun looking at all the things that we bought to prep for the party and prepped the favor bags himself! The cake was easy…we stuck with our MO of doing a rectangular cake and decorating it with toys. It came out very cute, was cheap, and most importantly, we didn’t have to worry about Sam’s peanut allergy, since we made it ourselves. We gave Sam a ride-on back hoe digger for the party. A bit indulgent, since his birthday gift was a bike, but since the party was so cheap, I felt like I could indulge in a party prop that the boys will play with for years to come. And, no surprise, he LOVES it! And, he loves his bike. It’s nice that he’s able to ride it before the weather gets too cold.

Sam can write his own name and draw a picture of himself. He knows all his letters as well. He’s got an amazing vocabulary! We’re really proud of how smart he is. Sam’s doing awesome at Pre-K. His canned response, when I ask him what he did at school, is “I don’t know” but usually with a little prodding, we can get some details out of him. He has made a good friend, Lucas, and Pete (of course) has befriended the mom, so the boys are going to have a play date this week at our house. And, the best part is that Lucas also has a nut allergy, so she gets us. I wasn’t too busy with work today, so I picked Sam up at school, as a surprise. You should have seen his eyes light up when he saw me come into the room! He was very excited. I do enjoy my rock star status.

Parker is 18 months old, and retains his title of “Captain Chaos.” He had been getting into Pete’s poker chips, so we moved them to another room, in a closed cabinet. Pete made the mistake of letting Parker see him put them away this weekend, and now Parker will go to that room and open the cabinet to find and play with them. So, we have to move them yet again. He’s still not talking, although he does say “ma ma ma ma ma” a lot. I’m pretty sure he knows that is me. He’s still learning more signs and knows monkey and apple now. Still only knows that the snake says “ssss” and the cow says “moo.” We’re pretty sure he knows where his head and nose are now, and has known belly, hands, and feet for a while. He gets it all though. When he whines for something and I say to him “how do you ask?” he does the sign for please. When I tell him it’s time to go wash hands, he scoots to the bathroom, and after washing hands, when I tell him to show Daddy his clean hands, he goes to Pete and shows him his hands. He still squeals at everything and points at me when I enter the room. Like I said, Rock Star status is nice. Unfortunately, Parker has been waking up at night frequently. The only thing that will get him back down is a bottle. Since we’re thinking it might be teething, we haven’t let him cry it out. Once we see a new tooth, we may try that again. It’s heartbreaking to hear him cry though!

We're done camping for the season (have been for quite some time, actually!) and we had the camper winterized. Luckily, Pete was there that day, and not me, so he was able to dispose of the three baby mice that the guy found hiding inside. Thank heavens we got them when they were young, so they didn't grow up and eat their way out through the canvas, which would have been an expensive fix.