12/15 - Yes we are alive

I've never been away from the blog for this long. Brad has been extended out in San Diego and things got really crazy here and I'm just now recovering. Recovering isn't even the correct word. I can breathe now at least. Recovery will happen once Brad is and the holidays are over. So what has happened in the last month?

Well, my mom and I took the boys to the fair. We went on Veteran's Day around 1pm and got in free and then we also bought some wristbands and then just went wild. Aiden loves the fun house with mirrors and did a great job navigating us through it. We all went on the giant ferris wheel which was great because then the boys could see all the other rides and we knew where to go. Eli just made the cut-off for many of the rides so his world was great. He needs to grow really fast next year so I don't have to go on so many rides. The boys had a ton of fun but we left around 5:30ish because it was starting to get completely crazy with hundreds of people showing up and we were tired.

Aiden has had a few events at his school over the past couple weeks that I've been able to go in and help with. He is doing so great in school. His teacher just told me he has a few first grades sight words to work on and then he can go to second grade. I had no idea he knew so many words. My mom and I were able to go to Aiden's class one day and help make rice krispie treats which I had never actually made before. It was fun and the kids did a good job following the recipe. Aiden really wanted Nana to help at his table and that was cute to watch. Aiden's teacher invited the parents in for Thanksgiving for Pumpkin Pie which was fun. Aiden started off crying because someone gave him a slice and I ate a little bite and then convinced him to try a bite and he liked it. He then proceeded to have a second piece of pie. They even sang a few songs for us and they looked adorable in the attire they made for themselves. Aiden has earned a V (very good) for his behavior everyday this year. His teacher said an 'E' would be extremely hard to get and if you saw one or two during the year then that was really good. Aiden finally got an 'E'! He was so excited and had no idea. I called him over and then took his picture when I showed it to him (middle right picture) and he was so excited and then held up his paper to show me. 

Eli's daycare invited the parents to come and have Thanksgiving lunch. We signed up to bring mac and cheese and green beans. It was cute and the kids made their own place settings. Eli ate a ton of food which doesn't really surprise me. We were able to read a few books together while the rest of the parents showed up. Nana and I didn't get the memo that we would be almost the only women because all the dad's came (there was one more mom). It was a bit shocking but warmed by heart too. Eli's daycare is going okay. It was touch and go for a while but we are just trusting in God that he is in the right place and with the right teacher. I used to get things from his folder almost everyday and when he moved teachers, there was nothing in his folder ... for weeks so I eventually stopped checking it. I finally did check it last week I realized that they have started to doing things which is great and that he missed a birthday party (boo on mommy for not checking his folder). 

Brad was able to take leave and come have Thanksgiving with us which was great. We did a low-key dinner here and were just excited to be together. The night that Brad came home, a group of guys from church came over and helped do a bunch of random stuff like change lightbulbs, get all my christmas stuff out of the closet and put a ton of boxes in a closet, trimmed a hedge, and then put chrismtas lights around our house on the roof. It was so helpful because they did almost everything on my to-do list for Brad which enabled us to have family time together instead of Brad is here to work. I actually had A TON of grading to do so Brad played with the boys quite often so I could grade. I did take a solid couple hours off and we went to Wild Adventures in Georgia. It was about 2 hours away and I was nervous after driving that far and not seeing one sign for it. You then pull up and it looks like it's in someone's backyard and I got really nervous. It ended up being awesome for the ages of the boys. They were able to go on about 70% of the rides which was great. Military got in free which is why we went in the first place. We had a blast there and it was much colder than we were hoping. We were there for 6 hours I think and I was certainly worn out. 

 After church on Sunday, we made a stop to Home Depot on the way home to get a Christmas Tree. I wouldn't be able to get one without Brad so if we were going to have a tree we needed to get it now. We even put it in the stand and in the house before Brad left. I put lights on it after a few nights and then the boys wanted to put ornaments on it so we did that for a bit one night. I never actually went back to "fix" anything so we have a ton of ornaments from hip height and down and few from me that are up higher. I also added a few lights on the house as well. It's not in the picture below but we also have our blow-up train and my 3 spiral christmas trees. Our house looks quite nice. I blew the circuit the first night so I had do some creative plugging in so that everything wasn't going to the same circuit (the garage and outside outlet are on the same circuit). I haven't really decorated inside because well, I would have to take it down and if I don't have time to put it up, I surely won't have time to take it down. :)  It can stay in the box and hopefully next year will be less hectic and I can properly decorate.

We were on base twice last weekend for Christmas stuff. Last weekend the squadron that Brad is checking in to had their children's christmas party and I took the boys to it. They had blast watching Santa fly in on a helo and then just playing in the bounce house and watching a magician/comic for a bit. Aiden was obsessed about participating in a cake walk (I didn't even know what it was). Well, he had a complete breakdown after his second time walking because he still didn't win. They let him participate in the last one (they had 4) and surprise, he won. They totally let him win because he was crying after the other one from not winning. My kids seems to do that alot and I told them I am tired of it. I told them I will be a better mommy and make sure they are disappointed more often because clearly they need practice in how to deal with disappointment and loosing. So, we have been practicing that lately :)  

So the rest of this is just some randomness that I wanted to include: 

I never thought I would see the day where Aiden would peel an orange but here it is. I'm so thankful for all the therapy he has gotten and how much it has transformed him. He hasn't received any on-going therapy since we have been here in FL and is doing great and his food choices are coming along so well. 

Little Eli had some testing done the other day and we had to stop by the store so I could get some cold medicine. We found these santa ears and Eli tried them on. He' facial expressions just crack me up most of the time. He did well on his testing but is very weak in fine motor skills but also scored much higher in cognitive thinking skills than I thought which is sorta troubling for me. He can be smart if you make it fun and a game but usually doesn't want to put in the effort to have to think. I think this child is going to test me so much when it comes to school and academics.

 We were able to help a friend celebrate her birthday a few weeks ago. The day before this and the day after this had highs in the 60's and this one day it was about 80 degrees in Florida at the end of November. It was crazy warm at the park and the boys were seriously sweating. They had lots of fun celebrating Jordyn's birthday and seeing some of their friends again though.

 This is Brad and I when I dropped him off the the airport after Thanksgiving. He really does balance me out which is why it's so hard on me and us when he is gone.

We did do our Thanksgiving tree again this year. It wasn't the same without Brad here though. I have a before and after picture but Blogger isn't letting me access to those so I'll have to post them next time. I love our Thanksgiving Tree and it's so neat to see what the kids have come up with every night. It's great when I've had a stressful day where everything seems to have gone wrong because it also puts everything back into perspective for me and I realize how truly fortunate and blessed we are.

In mid-November I was blessed with tickets to see Toby Mac in concert. I invited Arin along we had a great time. We were shocked to find out our tickets were floor tickets, just one section back from the stage. There were lots of awesome artists there too. Our friend from Maryland, Cindy, sent the tickets to me about 2 months before the concert just for fun. How awesomely nice that was. 

Things are going to be busy here over the holidays as Brad's parents come to visit us. It will be great to see them and it will be an awesome Christmas present to get Brad home before (or on) Christmas Day. Merry Christmas everyone!!

11/1 - Did Halloween just pass?

I've gotten quite behind on everything to be honest. I had quite a hiccup with my new medication and it took me out for a bit. It does a great job of giving me a good nights sleep and condensing my REM sleep into alot at night BUT there is one minor  major problem - it makes me nauseous. I'm not talking a little bit either. I'm talking I wasn't able to eat for days. Literally. I couldn't touch a bit of food (usually a cracker) until mid-day and then it was a handful of crackers and a few bites for dinner. So I have this amazing medication that has sorta given me my life back it makes me really nauseous and then to further complicate things, the medicine that I take during the day to help me stay awake makes me dizzy. Needless to say, I've had to play with my medications a lot and figure out the right combination for me. Oh yeah. During all this, my awesome doctor has stopped practicing medicine in Florida and is moving to NC and my primary doctor (her nurse actually) can't understand how to write a referral to get me to another sleep doctor. After weeks of playing with my medication myself and medical personnel having no idea how to write referrals, I have switched my insurance so that I don't need referrals anymore, and I'm down about 15 lbs. On the upside, I just got an appt for next week with my new sleep doctor and the nauseous is finally starting to subside (so thankful for this) and I haven't been dizzy in almost 2 weeks which has felt AMAZING!!

Eli had to get a few vaccinations a few weeks ago and he had a reaction for the first time. He got the shots on Friday (Brad had to take him which was a first for him and Eli - he visited at just the right time) and on Sunday evening I noticed his arm getting all blotchy and red and very warm. After talking with a few friends and reading up on it, I took it as a mild reaction but definitely something I need to tell the doctor about next time. I'm not even sure what shot caused it because they gave him all 3 shots in the same arm (great idea for quickness, horrible for reactions). It took a little over a week to go away but thankfully all was fine.

My mom got really sick after Brad left and was out of commission for a few days. She literally slept almost the entire day for a few days. That said, Aiden had an in-service day on a Friday but I knew my mom couldn't stay awake to watch him so I had to bring him to work. I made him a little corner but at the last minute moved him to the back of the class. He did pretty good. He started standing up and making noises towards the end of class which was really distracting to me but thankfully most of the kids didn't even know he was there until I pointed it out. I was in a bind this day because Eli had testing through the school system and I wasn't allowed to bring Aiden. Thankfully Kia was also out of school and she watched Aiden for an hour while Eli did his assessment. Eli is being referred on through the system for further evaluation because .... he's just so inconsistent. When the woman tested him on his colors he only got 4 right. She asked him again mid testing and got 7 right and then asked him again at the end and he got the same 4 right he did the first time. Very bizzare. That and he won't hold a pencil, marker, crayon, etc in anyway resembling the correct way to hold something. It doesn't help that he keeps switching back and forth from a lefty to a righty and then lefty again. Mrs. Jen had made the boys pumpkins and they were pretty excited about it.

I decided to take the boys to a pumpkin patch and found one not too far away. It was definitely aimed at their age group which was good. There was a tractor ride, a mini barrel ride, a maze (man I miss the Maryland corn mazes), bounce houses, playgrounds, and even a mini petting zoo which the boys wouldn't go near because it smelled too bad. Even though it was the 2nd week in October, it was HOT!! Man I was sweating to death and the boys' faces were all red from running around and jumping in the bounce houses. After 2 hours we left and got a bite to eat on the way home.

The boys don't get much time together at home anymore it seems since we started Tae Kwon Do so I think they are appreciating it a bit more when they do get it. Here they are wrestling and being silly. For the last 2 weeks almost we had a cold front (in Florida it's considered that) and the day temperatures have been in the 70's and low 80's. It was awesome!!!

Rusty, Aiden's former therapist, suggested I try something with Eli and I was all for it. I recorded each segment and then sent it to her so she could see for herself. I asked Eli about his colors and shapes in a book that we have by quizzing him. He got the majority wrong the first time. I then put him in the swing and twisted him all up and let him go a couple times. He was laughing and loving it. We did that for a while and then I re-tested him (I never told him the correct answers before) and he did SO MUCH better. It was quite amazing. Not only did he get most of the answers correct, but he was actually sitting still and attentive when I was asking him which was not what happened the first time I asked him. So now I will let Eli "play and swing" some before I work with him and he actually does better. So amazing.

The boys decided bike riding was how they would get their exercise last weekend and said that was great. I was just following them around everywhere and remembered/realized a few things. They love hidden sidewalks and secret paths. They really do enjoy nature and ask awesome questions about things. They are getting very fast and I can take them out jogging now!!! And finally, I think Eli is ready for those training wheels to come off.





My friend Sue has a Halloween party every year and this is her last year throwing it. I invited Grace and Mike (and Arin when she got off work) to meet us there. I grabbed dinner for the boys on the way over and they ate it once we got there. Aiden wanted to be a bat (not batman) for Halloween and Eli's was Superman. It took three tries to make those bat wings for Aiden using different materials and different measurements because he's so sensory overloaded and many things bother him. The boys had a blast with Grace. Once it got dark and they needed their finger lights, they really started to have fun. They jumped in the bounce house with their lights too. Once it got pretty dark (7:00ish), we watched a Shrek Halloween movie. It was too loud for Aiden so we ended up missing most of it because we had to find Sue and see if she had any headphones Aiden could use to block out the sound. Eli, Grace, and Mike had fun watching it though. It was a fun outing for all of us.

On Thursday, Aiden had to dress up as a book character for a Character Parade his school hosts for the K-1. He went as a pirate. His teacher asked me to come help and that was a lot of fun. I actually didn't get done until he did (it was a half day) so I just brought him back home. My mom took Eli to daycare and then stayed there to help with Eli's school Halloween festivities. I'm not excited about his teacher right now at daycare. He really enjoyed his other teacher but the class was so big that they divided the kids up and Eli needed to be separated from this other little boy that would kick, hit, bully him everyday. Please send a prayer up for me to do the right thing for Eli and his daycare situation. We've never had problems like this before at a daycare and I just don't know what to do. I'm paying a lot of money right now for what feels like babysitting, not teaching. We'll see. I'll continue to go in at random times to check to see what is going on. I went this morning and was totally not impressed with what I saw for 30 minutes!!!

Nana was pretty tired from working outside all day at Eli's daycare so she rested at home some while I took them to Chick-fil-a to trunk or treat and get some dinner. here are my silly boys. We came home and went out around our neighborhood. This is what I posted on Facebook when we got home later that night: "Call me old fashioned but here are my rules for trick-or-treating: walk to the houses (not ride golf carts or piles in trucks when the houses are all close together), don't walk in other people's grass (use the driveway and entry path), when people offer you a bowl of candy you take ONE piece unless they say you can take more, you politely take what you are given and don't ask for a specific kind of candy, and finally, say thank you. What are your expectations on Halloween? Man I'm getting old apparently."

I was exhausted from running around with them but they had a great time. There favorite time was trying to chase people down to give candy to once we got home. They love it when trick-or-treaters come and really like to give them candy. It's just too cute to watch. I will plan better for them to be able to give out more candy next year by getting home a little earlier. I never put a decoration this year and usually I do. I just didn't have time. I even got a pumpkin but didn't carve it ... until tonight. The day after Halloween. I even got all the tools for 50% off!! Better late than never. I've just been burnt out and feel like I'm just always playing catch up. Brad was supposed to be home 2.5 weeks ago but we knew that wasn't going to happen. We are praying he comes home in mid-November but we will have to see. 

9/23 - Eli's 4th birthday

Wednesday was Eli's actual birthday. On Tuesday afternoon I brought a balloon and playdoh (little containers for all his class) so that he would have something to share with is daycare friends. I only get to see the boys for about 15-20 minutes in the morning so it made me feel slightly better planning ahead and leaving something at daycare. My mom cooked a yummy dinner made up of spaghetti and meatballs, garlic bread, and green beans (all his favorite). We then skyped with daddy to sing Happy Birthday to Eli and he got to have a big cupcake that Nana made.

On Thursday Aiden and Nana help me put up the Cars scene. This thing is about 9 ft tall and about 15 feet long. It's huge and takes up the entire kitchen wall space.

We had Eli's birthday party at our house on Saturday. We invited his daycare friends (12) to help celebrate. Most of the kid friends that we have at church are Aiden's age so I felt like it wouldn't really be Eli's party so I invited his class. So I must ask - what is the problem with RSVP's these days? In Alabama I had almost no RSVP's for Aiden and a ton of people came. For Eli's party, I did have 3 RSVP by wednesday (the please RSVP by date) and then another 1 on Thursday evening and 2 on Friday morning. Needless to say, I had already made the goodie bags and bought stuff for the party on Wednesday and then went back out on Friday and had to buy more stuff to make sure we had enough.

I went to set up the backyard in the morning (the party was at 10am) and saw how wet the grass was so I decided to try and blow it dry. That wasn't working out so well so then I decide to just quickly mow it. Well, that didn't work out so well either because it was so wet that the grass wouldn't shoot to the bag of the bag so I was having to empty the bag every lap. On the bright side, our backyard looked great!! :) Our first guest arrived promptly at 10am. I had a trampoline set out, a bean bag toss game, and little race track boards I made earlier in the week (which I found on Pinterest).

After it seemed like most of the kids were here, I asked if anyone wanted to make a race car to eat. I got a few strange looks and then showed them mine and then a bunch of them wanted to make it. I was actually going to make these ahead of time and have for snacks and then Aiden suggest we make it a craft. Great idea. It's just an apple slice, with 2 tooth picks in it and 1/2 grape stuck on the end of the tooth pick to act as tires. Here is Aiden sowing me his. It was fun meeting the other mom's and dad's from the class although I really didn't get a chance to talk to anyone since I was running around do random stuff.

Mike and Arin (and Grace) came as well and they showed up and Arin iced a bunch of mini cupcakes so they would match the awesome car cake she made, and Mike just went out to the backyard and picked up a ball and started playing with some of the kids. That was awesome.

There was one other daddy there too and he was playing ball with the kids too which was great. The little race car track things turned out pretty good. I just spray painted 2 pieces of wood that Brad said I could use and then glued pipe cleaners down the side and middles so that the cars wouldn't fall off the track or crash into each other. I then propped one side up on a stool and brought out a small basket of cars and we were in business.

Arin used a cake mold that we had and made Eli a really cool race car cake. I think the funniest part is that when I was trying to find the pictures of when we used the mold before (and Grandma Jo decorated it) I found out it was for Eli's 3rd birthday. Haha. He didn't care and was excited about it. We were going to do Mr. Potato Head theme and then he changed his mind a few weeks before his party. Now he's says he will do Mr. Potato Head when he turns 5 but I keep telling him he has a while and he might change his mind before then. The cake turned out awesome!!

Here are Eli (left, green shirt), Aiden, Grace (far right, purple shirt), and Reagan eating some cake. My mom even bought little ice cream bowls for them too.

It was getting a little hot outside and I already moved all the tables from under the patio out to the grass since there was more shade out in the yard than under the patio but now it was just getting hot. Change of plans. We brought everyone inside after they were done eating, and let Eli open gifts inside. Eli was taking his sweet time eating so he was the last one done so Mr. Mike gave him first class service by bringing him inside in while still sitting in his chair.

We let the kids come over and take pictures in front of the giant Lighting McQueen/Cars scene and most of them did. I'll return those pictures in the thank you cards!

Aiden was an awesome helper and opened the front door to all our guests and then showed them to the back yard and put their presents on the table for Eli.

This was Eli's first party with kids his own age and he was a little overwhelmed a few times. Other kids were opening his presents and he didn't care too much. He would open it, someone would take it and look at it and it was all good.

 He actually even came up to me at one point and just gave me a hug and stood by me because he was so overwhelmed. There ended up being 9 kids including Aiden and Eli.

 Overall he had a great time. My mom, Arin, and Mike were a huge help. Oh yeah. Let me comment on that a little more. Mike was helping hand presents to Eli and was taking the old paper to throw it away and stuff and someone says, "doing a good job dad." I didn't think much of it but then I realized someone really did think he was Eli's dad. Another woman starts looking up at the huge family picture over the fire place and is seeing that Mike is not the guy in the picture. We finally had to clarify that Eli and Aiden's daddy was gone but they Mr. Mike was doing a great job of filling in for a few hours. It was too funny.

 I was so glad Eli was letting the other kids play with all his stuff although he was (and still is) possessive about a Cars 2 car.

After he was all done opening present Eli comes to me and says, "can I open one of my presents?" I say sure what do you want to open? My new nap mat. This kid got cool Superman outfit stuff, a musical guitar thing, and a few Cars and Planes toys and he wants to open the nap mat.

 Thankfully Mike and the other daddy (John I believe) helped put all the toys together.

And this toy by Eli is the winner. It's his favorite (and Aiden's) toy. Eli had a blast and his friends had fun too. I think I am making a deal with myself though and anymore birthdays that daddy is not around, I give myself permission to go have them hosted at some other place so I don't stress as much.

I meant to take a picture of the goodie bags. We had mainly food in them Luigi's Tires (oreo cookies), Mater's Tow Cables (red twizzlers), Cars gummies, and Red Light, Green Light Playdoh (the home made stuff). At least it's stuff that kids will eat and won't be thrown away.

2/28 - Roller skating, monster trucks & therapy

I need to start doing better on the blog. It's just that I've been so tired and I always seem to have so much to do. Let's do a quick rehash of the last couple weeks. Aiden went to his very first roller skating party. His friend, John Britton (JB), just turned 5 and Aiden went to celebrate with him. Here he is playing games with JB's older sister. She was so sweet with Aiden.

It was pizza time and of course Aiden will not eat Pizza. He had a granola bar I had in my purse. He also got to try Sprite for the first time. He knew it was a kind of soda so he wanted so bad to like it but his face screamed "This is sour but I will love it because big kids like soda." It was too funny.

I was not sure if Aiden would even try roller skating. He said he wanted to try so we just got some of the skates that go over your shoes. The picture below is the first time he stood up. I was taking a gamble because I literally helped him stand up, told him not to move, and then stepped back for a minute to take a picture.

He did much better than I ever thought he would. He said he really liked it and "wanted to get some skates for home." The only thing he doesn't realize is there are no smooth surfaces near home and it will only be that smooth in the roller rink. This poor child will not even ride his bike on the road because it is "too bumpy." He would let go of my hand and do short sections by himself. I was really thankful that it was a small enough place that they let me go out in my shoes on the rink and hold Aiden's hand.

Here is a quick picture with the birthday boy! John Britton tried the next step up from Aiden's skates. Aiden asked why his were a different color and when I explained it to Aiden, he said he would rather be safe in the orange skates. The kid cracks me up. He said he didn't want to "go too fast" in black beginner skates.  

After Aiden decided he had enough skating, he played a few more games. Did I mention they have tickets with all these games? Needless to say, he counted up all his tickets and was only off by one!! That's pretty shocking. He told me had 86 tickets and he ended up having 87. Not too shabby for a 4 yr old.

We have found a game that Eli really enjoys. It's a story-telling game. He's got such a fun imagination that he enjoys coming up with stories and taking turns with us sometimes.

Therapy is going well for Aiden. He is getting so much stronger now and the focus has shifted from fine motor control/strength to more gross motor control and sensory stuff. Here he is below pinning crabs onto his shirt. The pinning is great fine motor control but the fact that he didn't mind pinning those to his shirt was quite amazing to me. He normally doesn't like stuff pulling/tugging on him so I was quite surprised when he loaded his shirt up with crabs.

He had to find the crabs before he could pin them on and he had to do that by digging through some beans (sensory).

Of course Mrs. Rusty turns everything into a fun game and adventure so Aiden doesn't realize he's doing all the these things that make him work and be uncomfortable (which is awesome). Here he is looking out a periscope. He thought that was pretty cool.

Once he had collected all the crabs he needed and then the rocks he needed to build a campfire, it was time to start a fire by rubbing the fire sticks together (they were rhythm sticks with lots of grooves in them; sensory again). He had fun doing that. As always, he had a fun adventure with Mrs. Rusty being a pirate for the morning.

And then there is Eli. Poor Eli. He's been a tad emotional lately. Here he is in the van after a complete breakdown before I failed to exit his door at daycare first. Both of the boys were holding open a door and due to logistics of the building and what doors you can enter/exit through, I needed to go out Aiden's door so I could come back in Eli's door and then go out Eli's door again. Well, Eli wanted me to go out his door first. Wow. You would have thought I had tortured the kid. He screamed the whole block home. I tried to rationalize with him (for some odd reason, that didn't work) and also promised he I would go out his door first the next day but that didn't do anything. He refused to get out of the van when we got home. I would unclip his seatbelt and he would buckle back up and scream that he wanted to go back to daycare. This went on for a while. Brad came out and we tried switching places/roles for a bit. Needless to say, Brad finally kinda convinced Eli to come in after about 30 minutes of screaming outside (and eventually getting him out of the van and locking him out so that he would have to come inside). He is a persistent little booger. A few weeks ago he did something similar about getting a piggy back ride to bed. He pitched a huge fit and had a breakdown before bed about not getting a piggy back ride. We explained he chose that option (we are heavily focusing on giving the boys options and making them realize they are in control of the outcome because they know what it is going to be) and maybe next time he should chose a different option. Needless to say, he put up a great fight and cried himself to bed that night. Well, he also woke up at 3:00am crying so I run into his room. I ask him what is wrong and he says, "I want a piggy back ride." Are you kidding me?????  Nope, he was not kidding.

While Eli has his rough moments, he also has his great moments. He LOVES bath. We had a great time together the other night playing. I played with him for about 30-40 min in the bath and it was great for both of us. He does fine playing by himself so I just let him do that often forgetting that playing with me could actually be fun. Um. I have no fun pictures to post of Aiden. He is still crying/screaming through a good portion of his bath time. Sometimes his bath lasts 15 min and it's all screaming and sometimes is lasts 40 min (with about 10-15 min screaming).

God blessed us with a neat opportunity to go see a monster truck a few weeks ago. We were literally on our way to dinner and there was a giant monster truck parked by a business a few blocks down from our house. The boys thought it was amazing and had never seen one this close up. They were letting them even climb up in it.

Aiden thought sitting on the tire was pretty fun. It was so huge. Eli was scared to death for me to try and lift him up on the tire. Brad lifted Aiden up so he could see inside/underneath the monster truck.

Aiden really wanted to get up in the drivers seat. Eli was way too scared but once he saw Aiden up there, he decided it would be okay ... for about 2 minutes. 

We got them down and then Eli just wanted to play with the spinner wheels on the monster truck and Aiden wanted to go eat dinner.

I picked up the boys early from daycare the other day and had their bikes in the back of the van. We went to park down the street and rode around for a while. Eli is really starting to get the hang of using the pedals!! We ran around the playground for a while putting pretend fires out and getting some exercise.

In the academic world, we have a huge breakthrough: Eli can write his name. It's pretty crazy to watch because he switches between his right and left hand. On this one he wrote the first two letters with his left hand and then switched to the right. On the paper he did after this one, he wrote his name using his right hand for the first two letters and then switching to the left. Crazy. He doesn't want to hold the pencil/crayon/chalk the "right" way yet but at least he's making some letters. 

Aiden has learned all about logos and started getting a little obsessed with Fords (those who know Brad know he LOVES Ford trucks). So, I taught Aiden Toyota (our minivan). Well, he also knows Chevy ("short for Chevrolet" he will tell you) and he follows that up with "daddy doesn't like Chevy's." It's too funny to hear him say it.