All tuckered out!!

Gee, I don't know, do you think we should try naps again?!? :)

I hadn't been making Bradley take a nap and he generally does pretty well. But, today he barely made it through his corndog before he fell asleep at the table at 6:00!!! I'm not sure what that means for us in the morning as to whether or not he'll be up at 4am, but oh well! I decided I'd rather let him continue to sleep than make him wake up just to put him back to bed at 7:45. Poor little boy was just pooped today!

Friends and s'mores

A couple of weeks ago, we had our dear friends, Jen, Micah, Angie and Brian over for the evening. We had a mexican theme dinner and everyone brought their favorite mexican stuff. It was sooooooooooo yummy and very filling! After that, we made s'mores even though no one was very hungry for them. This fun part was mostly for Rachel since she loves campfires and the whole s'more experience. Bradley loved holding his little coathanger over the fire, but didn't care anything about eating a marshmallow...he mostly rubbed his all over the ground. He did hold onto a piece of chocolate long enough for it to melt all over his little hands and make a huge mess, though! It was a great evening with great friends!!

Bathtime fun

Silly faces!
wow, a boat!

gettin' sleepy

lovin' on bub

ready for bed

picking out a bedtime story

reading Berenstain Bears

Most days, bathtime and bedtime are still a fun time of day for the kids. So, here are a few pictures of all the fun!

Bradley the gymnast

Bradley and I have now been to 3 mommy/toddler gymnastics classes and things are looking up! The first week, I had very serious doubts about whether we would continue or not. Bradley was unimpressed by every aspect of the class: he fought me when we had to sit in a circle, wouldn't jump on the trampoline (just like the one we have at home), didn't want to try somersaults or walking on the beam (because it was requested of him and not his idea), and was very grumpy the whole morning. I felt like the class was a huge workout for me and not really that fun for Bradley. But, we have since been back twice and Bradley is doing much better! It's still a good workout for me, but Bradley is loving the activities now. He actually is getting the hang of doing a somersault and loves walking on the beam and running/jumping on the long trampoline. Today when we walked into class, he willingly sat down in the circle and performed each "request" quite nicely. I am very proud of how much he has adapted in just 3 weeks and can't wait to see what else he learns. There are only 4 other 2 year olds in the class and they all have their share of melt-downs and disagreements. That's the main thing that kept me going back was seeing that the other kids were just as unsure and sometimes unwilling as Bradley. It's funny watching them, though, they are and act like 2 year olds. I'm very impressed with the teacher, she has a great amount of patience and understanding of their capabilities.

A day at home

Little climber
2 little monkeys

sweet little flower girl

sweet, little tough guy

Today we stayed home and cleaned and decluttered and played and rested! I tell you, I'm not used to having to be somewhere 3 days a week. I know it doesn't seem like much, but on MWF, we get up early, eat breakfast, get dressed and take Rachel to school. On Mondays, Bradley and I have a gymnastics class that is actually quite a work-out for me! And, it's scheduled right smack in the middle of the morning, so we usually don't have time to go home before or after...we end up killing time until Rachel gets out of school. Wednesdays and Fridays, we usually come home and play or clean, but still, I'm just not quite adjusted yet. Rachel and Bradley are doing great with it and haven't complained at all about our new schedule. But, we all enjoy our day(s) at home. It's so nice to be able to lounge a little, clean a little and play a little at whatever pace we want! And, I know this is the last year for it since Rachel starts Kindergarten next year and will go EVERY day ALL day long!!! So, we had a great time today at home! The nice break in the heat was so refreshing and we had a blast outside. Bradley decided to try to climb a river birch and Rachel collected as many yellow wild flowers/weeds as she could. Fun, fun, fun!

Playdate

Raquel and Rachel
giggling as they swing "high"

The other day, after a long morning, I volunteered for Rachel's friend Raquel, to come over and play. The girls hadn't seen each other in a long time since they go to different schools and Rachel doesn't do gymnastics anymore. So, the girls had a great time playing and making a mess everywhere they went!

Crafts from School

One of my favorite things about picking Rachel up from school (aside from seeing her beautiful face and hearing her precious stories) is seeing what crafts and other info. is in her bookbag. I can hardly wait to unzip her bag and look in her folder for all the goodies. So far, she has brought home some adorable artwork. She made a cut-out picture of herself complete with a pink, flowery fabric shirt and yellow yarn for her hair and her hands. She's done a handprint with a cute poem about the first day of school, a vase with flowers and all of her family member's names on a flower and a couple of other things. But, Friday when I picked her up, she was holding a rectangular piece of orange construction paper with pink and green marshmallows glued to it. They have been working on patterns, and this was the ABAB pattern. Like, pink, green, pink, what comes next? type of pattern. Anyway, she was very proud of this craft and said not to bend it and that we couldn't eat the marshmallows because they had glue on them. She also told me a funny story about while they were making their patterns, Ms. Kim had the bag of marshmallows next to Rachel and she kept sneaking out marshmallows to eat. She said, "I try not to let her see me, but then she did and moved the bag away." I thought that was pretty funny. So, when we got home, I put the beautiful ABAB marshmallow craft on the counter. Then, I thought it might get wet or splattered, so I put it in the window in between the den and kitchen. I guess I wasn't thinking about how often Bradley stands on the couch and looks through that window. About an hour later, I saw Bradley sucking on a piece of paper and I couldn't remember where the paper had come from. I went to get it and then noticed that it was Rachel's craft and there wasn't a single marshmallow on it. There were 9 glue spots where the marshmallows had been. I grabbed the paper, but there wasn't anything else I could do. I figured the teachers had used non-toxic glue for the crafts so hopefully Bradley wouldn't get sick. (he didn't!) But, Rachel was so upset and started crying when she saw that Bradley had ruined her craft. Of course, it really wasn't Bradley's fault. He just seized the opportunity of a poorly placed craft...good job, mommy!! I tried to console Rachel and told her we would re-do the craft with new marshmallows, but ours were white. So, as we did crafts later that day, I painted some marshmallows with kid's craft paint and left them to dry on the table. We figured we would glue them in the ABAB pattern today. But, another poor plan by mommy, Bradley found them this morning and ate 6 of them. So, we gave up on the ever-tempting marshmallows and opted for colored, spiral, uncooked noodles. Rachel glued an ABAB pattern out of the green and orange noodles. She was finally satisfied that we had sort of redone her craft. And, I learned a valuable lesson: If Rachel brings home a "tasty-looking" craft, keep it WAY out of reach of Bradley!! So far, he's shown no sign of getting sick from ingesting glue or paint, so I think he's fine! Thank goodness!