Moments to remember

I'm going to completely ignore the fact that I haven't posted in months. Today several things happened that I wanted to remember. So what better way than blogging about them right? So here they are.

1st: I woke up to little voices on our landing. It took just a moment to realize that Ian was reading jokes from his library book "The Substitute Teacher from the Black Lagoon." Ian does very well with reading. It's getting him motivated to read out load. The fact he was reading to his brothers without any prompting made me smile. He later read the jokes to me as the boys were getting dressed

2nd: Aiden decides he "needs choices" before he could decide what to wear to church. He proceeds to lay out at least 10 shirts in a row on the floor. After I told him he had enough choices (it took some motivation as he thought he needed more), he walked up and down the row. All the while he is tapping his chin with his finger going "hmm, hmm." He finally picks his Easter suit. This is the conversation that followed
              Me: You will be the best dressed young man ever
             Aiden: Yes, I be beautiful.
             Me: Yes you are very handsome
             Aiden: Mommy I don't like you clothes, but I LOVE you shoes

He than ended the conversation and started to put away all the rejected shirt back in his closet. Oh that boy!

Friday also had many fun moments with Aiden. Aiden decided to bring along our X-Men early reader book on our errands. In that car he stated this
               Aiden: "Wolverine can't have a tattoo
               Me: "Why not?"
               Aiden: "His arms are too hairy."
I laughed. Most likely this came from the fact that Cai can't keep temporary tattoos for more than 30 mins. The hair on his arms causes them to rub off very easily. Still the very fact that he boldly told me that Wolverine couldn't have tattoos cause he is too hairy still makes me smile. The way these boys' brains work is simply amazing.

Later, still carrying his X-Men book, Aiden had a long conversation with our pastor about X-men, snakes, cats, and dogs. He jumped from one subject to the next as if it was the obvious conclusion. When our pastor asked if he would come back another day to talk, Aiden responds with an energetic "YES!" Our pastor then asked what book he will bring to talk about and Aiden tells him "Sonic, but we don't have the book anymore" We had checked out "Sonic the hedgehog" comic books a month ago and he still asks for them.

I'm sitting here trying to think if Cai has done anything to remember these last few days. Sadly I'm drawing a blank. He is reading a few words. His preschool is working on letter sounds, so he is learning to sound out words. If he keeps picking up our cats I swear he is going to come crying with a bloody hand from a claw or tooth. Personally I wish the cats would just scratch or bite him, maybe he would learn to be nicer to them. Cai has decided to be Wolverine for Halloween because he has claws. I was told I had to include the claws in the costume. Thank you internet searches. But I'll post closer to Halloween about costumes.

So there you have it. A few moments to remember. If I can remember to continue recording them, maybe I won't have to rely on my shading member to remember these awesome times. But for today I'm thankful for little boys reading, silly jokes, fashion styles all their  own, and out of the blue comments that make me smile.

Family and Life updates

It's been almost a month since my last post. And the last few posts were menu posts, so I thought I would post a general update and such. Time is always marching, even when I don't sit down to write. So life happenings.

 This winter the boys have all been in an activity of some sort. Ian has been taking tennis lessons. He will have his last lesson next week. Ian seems to really love these lessons and always looks forward to them. In fact he already told Mark he wants to take more again this summer when they are offered again. I took him to his few few. It was fun to watch him do the drills. Of course this means he bring these drills home. Lately he has been setting up chairs or other large objects across the floor. He and his brothers then run through them, weaving around them in what every way Ian determines. If they are not sitting they see to be running. Mark has been taking him these last several weeks. Leaving me to take Cai and Aiden to their dance classes

Aiden is in a creative dance class for 3 year old. He is the only boy but doesn't seem to mind. It he fun to watch how his own dance movement at home has changed due to the class. This week was watch week. Meaning parents could sit and watch the whole class (rather than just the last 10min normally allowed). It was really fun to watch him. I was surprised he stayed focus on his teacher and not me. But he did great.

Cai also has a dance class following Aiden's. His is called Dance Sampler and is for 4-5 year olds. He too is the only boy but for the most part doesn't seem to mind. Cai had a lot harder time focusing in class with me there. I'm not sure if his lack of focus is normal, but I know I was the distraction this time as he was constantly waving and looking at me. It was cute even as I felt bad for his teacher. He too was fun to watch, when he was actually focused on what he was doing. :)

March 2nd was Dr. Seuss' birthday. Ian's class celebrated on the 1st (Friday) by watching the newest Lorax movie. Neither Mark nor I have seen it yet. In fact I had not even thought it an option to watch with the boys as I figured they would get scared. So I was nervous when Ian told me that watched it in class. Last time they watched a feature length film he had to walk out and stay in another room. But he told me that while he was scared at first he stayed for the whole movie. And HE ENOYED IT! I'm so proud of him. He stayed despite being afraid. This is one of those times that I'm grateful they don't stay little forever. It's nice to see Ian learning to face his fears and conquer them.

Cai got to celebrate his 1/2 Birthday (since he is a summer birthday) at preschool on the 1st. We decided to bring Dr. Seuss themed snack. I searched Pinterest and found lots of ideas. I pinned a few but this website gave us the ideas for our snack. We made One Fish Two Fish jello. Next time I will add the Swedish Fish right before serving instead of the night before. They got alittle soggy. And I made Marshmellow and Strawberry Cat in the Hat hats. Cai loved it. And it seemed to go over well with the class.

Our Dr. Seuss kick has continued into this week. I think we brought home 8 or so Dr. Seuss books from the library yesterday. And less than half of those I picked out. We also got 4 Star Wars easy reader books. The Lego one has Ian's name in it. The character is actually Han Solo but the H on his name tag gets turned to look like an I, so until the last page you think this the boy is named Ian. Cai loves it. Ian has not had me read it yet. But something tells me that as soon as he figures it out it will become the most demanded book of the week.

Since homework is one of Ian's afternoon chores and he doesn't not always bring homework home (only about 3 out of the 5 days does he have any), we recently decided that on non-homework days he gets to read to us for Book-It. This week he has read Green Eggs and Ham, The Foot Book and I Can Read With My Eyes Shut. This last one caused him a few problems in places but really he is flying though these books. I'm constantly amazed at his reading abilities. I guess one could probably guess we are a book loving family. Last night while he was reading I Can Read With My Eyes Shut, he was struggling with a word and Cai read it. I'm not sure if he picked it up from the picture or the rhyming scheme or just recognized the word. Either way it was impressive. He will probably start reading soon too. Fun things are happening at our house.

He Lost a Tooth!

Ian's front teeth have started to wiggle just alittle bit for the last several months. They barely moved but they moved and that was exciting enough for Ian. The past several weeks he has been working on wiggling on of the front teeth on the bottom. We told him that if he kept wiggling it would eventually come out. The past couple of days he started to be able to wiggle it with his tongue. The joy and excitement in his eyes when this happened was awesome. At night when I lay in bed cuddling him he would show me how much it wiggled. It was so close! Today he races into the van as I pick him up from school smiling widely at me. As I am in the pick up line and other cars are behind us I quickly tell him to get in his seat so we can go. "Mom, Look!"

The tooth was gone. He proudly told me that it came out at lunch. He had been wiggling it with his finger and pulled his hand away and there it was. "Right in my hand" Apparently he then got to go to the school nurse, who put the tooth into a plastic tooth shaped box and hung it around his neck. So very very exciting.

 Of course then we had to skype with Grandma Cindy to show her the gap. And we had to tell Dad (who being in meetings just got a message on google talk. And as soon as we saw Uncle Tex and cousin Josiah we had to show them. Growing up. Ian is growing up. My big 6 year old, kindergarten boy has lost his first tooth. And he is very very proud of the fact.

 So proud that he refused to put said tooth under his pillow. Another night he told me. He is not ready to part with this new treasure. Not even for the joy of  a special gift from the tooth fairy. Which he has already told me is money. It's okay though. I'm not sure I'm ready for him to be so big. So if he wants to hold onto that tooth for awhile longer, I think I'm okay with that. Maybe I too can hold onto him being little. Surely he won't grow up too fast. Please.