Pull Scoot Pull Scoot

Bryson isn't crawling yet, but he is scooting all around. We found himself scooting over to the hearth and trying to pull himself up to get to some of Ellery's puzzle goodies. I wasn't able to snap the camera fast enough to capture to the moment. Nor can I get the video to upload, oh well!

E-L-L-E-R-Y writing

Ellery's first response in trying to do something new is met with "I can't do it." Yet, she will keep trying with coaxing and encouragement. I was encouraging her to write her name for some thank you notes that we are behind on for her birthday and she surprised even me in her ability.

Stroller Laps

I know these strollers weren't meant to be pushed miles, but we push them about .5-1 miles a day. I think I should find out how to test kid toys, because we are testing these strollers to their limits. Grandma Ellen sent up the double blue stroller that is a huge hit. Ellery doesn't have any interest in riding her bike around, she would rather push her baby dolls. I have even caught her walking with a little sway in her hips. Help us now! Mason requests to push a stroller every so often or carry Double in the baby carrier. He is excited to do it because we usually don't let Double out of the house. I am sure we are quite the sight coming around the corner.

Bryson 8 Months

Happy would be the word to sum up Bryson. He is starting to move a bit more and thinking about pulling up. He usually is very content to sit where you put him as long as someone is within eye shot and he has something to put in his mouth. He coos and talks, Rob is convinced he is saying dada. He is correct he has his dadadas down, but I don't think they are to him. His first word is going to be mama. He is still breastfeeding and starting to ween down quite a bit. He is working on drinking out of a cup. He still needs to work on it. I tried a straw and he sucked up a huge gulp the first few times and now he is leery. He loves stacking cups and chewing on anything he can get his hands on. He also will eat anything you put in front of him regardless if he likes it or not. He isn't a big fan of bananas, but he still attempts to shovel the tiny pieces in making a funny face every time he takes a bite. He has determination. We can get him giggling a lot easier than we could the others. He thinks a lot of things are funny, and I am happy to finally have an audience that thinks I am funny! He is a great sleeper, and taking two great naps a day. The morning nap is tricky with Mason going to school 5 mornings a week, but we try. Funny how the third has to roll with everyone else's schedules and is turning out just fine. I was such a schedule freak with Mason. We have four teeth, the front tops and bottoms and working on some more. I could ramble on and on about my children, but I will stop with these highlights!

Gardening Fun

We had such a huge success with the garden last year, that I thought we would start early this year with seeds. I have never started anything from seeds, so we will see how this goes. By the end, I will have three of these big black seed/plant holders. The kids had a great time helping me plant the seeds and then checking them everyday for signs of growth. They were thrilled to see them start growing. I might have to invest in some grow lights for next year!

Super Hero Sitting

Mason has recently hit a Batman phase. It all started with Santa bringing him the Batcave. He has yet to actually see a cartoon or any Batman related items on TV, until he spotted a commercial with a Batman lego creation. He is now requesting that toy. Oh the joys of TV, it was only a matter of time for advertisements to lure him in.

It has been warming up here and I can hardly keep the kids inside. We do have a great yard for the kids, and the house is set up really nice for me to watch them from inside. We have tons of windows in our kitchen and we call it the "fishbowl". As I approached the "fishbowl" to check on our children I am greeted by these fine babysitters. Mason and Ellery set them up on the windowsill so they could watch them jump!

Twirling Lessons

It has started. I was a huge twirler when I was little and Nana got Ellery a baton for her birthday. We have found a twirling center and it is bigger and better than I ever could imagine. Ellery is warming up to the idea and we are slowly easing in. I do have a good friend here in Omaha who grew up on the east coast. She almost shattered my dreams by telling me that the twirlers aren't very respected out east. They are lower on the totum pole than the flag staff. Ugggg I am not letting this sway my decision, but sad to hear that it has such a bad rep on the east coast!
http://www.stepperettestudios.com/

March Madness

I just love March Madness for the obvious reason of non stop basketball on TV, but it also brings me joy to dress up my three little Jayhawks!

Happy St. Pats Day

Oh what a lucky day! The kids wanted to draw rainbows, because Mason learned that one could find a pot of gold at the end of it. I served up some green milk in the am and no one spilled it this year! We took Mason to school and a leprechaun had visited the room. He left green foot prints all over the room, turned over chairs, played in the toys, and left chocolate gold coins all over. Ellery was even into looking at all the things the leprechaun did. The kids had also made leprechaun traps at school in hopes of catching him. His teacher this year is wonderful.
When our kids got home we thought we could play off what happened at school and colored the toilet water green in their bathrooms and left a few quarters around their rooms. I thought we were being creative and fun. I had no idea I was scarring the kids and mass chaos broke out. We flushed the green away before Ellery saw it in her bathroom because she was screaming and crying hysterically because a leprechaun had been in the house. Mason refused to flush down the green leprechaun pee, but was happy he left some silver coins for him. After a long long process Ellery finally calmed down, and we learned she isn't a fan of people being in her room or our house for that matter. Thank goodness I didn't pull over toys or do anything else!

Ellery 3 Year Check-Up

We went to Ellery's three year check-up and she is growing and developing appropriately.
My tiny peanut stats come in as:

Weight: 29lbs 6 oz (33%)

Height: 36.5 inches (33%)

I did have some questions about her speech, so we followed up with a speech therapist. Her articulation isn't as clear as we would like and she struggles with the f, s, and t sounds that we have noticed. We had her screened and she is doing some backing with words and stopping. She really struggles with her s's although she can do a snake sound without any problem. She doesn't qualify for speech therapy at this point, but if she continues to articulate and her speech patterns don't improve, she will qualify at 3.5 years. So we are working with her at home and will take her in for another evaluation when the time comes. They did ask for us to have her hearing checked, but I am certain she hears fine when she wants to!

I forgot to mention in her 3 year post how much she loves puzzles. We do puzzles everyday. She

can put together a 25 piece puzzle all by herself without any help. She will start the 55 piece puzzle, but she requests assistance to finish it. I think she has my patience, which is none, so she wants the help and puzzle company. She likes to do them on the hearth and leave them together to show Mason and daddy!

Bunny Ears

We were taking pictures of Bryson trying to crawl and Mason wanted me to take a picture of myself. He wanted to give me bunny ears. Where they learn these things is beyond me, but we had a few good laughs giving bunny ears to each other.

Ellery wanted to play the game as well. Not so sure she has the whole concept down, but we still had some fun.

Some Things

Some things we will never understand. Luckily they are clean.

I want to crawl

This little man wants to get moving and almost has it figured out!

Eating like a Dragon

Oh the thank yous we could send daily to Papaw and Grandma Debbie for giving us the movie How to Train Your Dragon. It has a had a profound impact on our children. Ellery spilled some milk on the table, I am not sure it was an accident? I think she wanted to eat and drink like Toothless does. Mason didn't want to lick the table, but he liked licking his lips like Toothless.

Worn Out

Everyone had a great weekend in KC, but everyone was worn out from all of our fun activities. One would think that it was freezing cold in the car. Rob does keep it cooler in the car, but not so cold you need all the accessories Ellery put on!

Dressing Fun

These pants are not meant to be pulled so high, but this is what came walking around the corner ready for the day!

Post Bachelorette Party Fun

Oh, the phallic cookies somehow ended up in the back of my car and made it home to Omaha. The kids had no idea and just wanted a cookie. I wouldn't want to disappoint my children, so I gave them one. Rob told them they were beans and franks cookies. Mason just gave him a "huh?"

T-Rex Dinner

My friend Kim came out to visit us at the Lodge and we took the kids out to dinner to T-Rex Cafe. It is close to going to the Rainforest Cafe, but imagine it being on steroids. The kids loved it, but who ever designed it had a crazy imagination. It is a dinosaur cafe, but has an under water theme as well. We didn't have the pleasure sitting under the jelly fish, but they made a nice back drop to the picture of Mason and Cora. We did get to sit next to the giant salt water tank and watch interesting fish watch us eat. Thank goodness I didn't order fish to eat or I would have felt awkward.

Just stamp "sucker" on our foreheads. The marketing strategy is brilliant at T-Rex Cafe. We also had a dinner conversation with Kim and Cora regarding her new green dinosaur that she made at Build a Bear with her uncle. She told me her name was Wendy and I heard Green Tea. So it was only fitting when Ellery picked out the pink dinosaur "to build" that we name her Pink-T. Mason picked out the saber tooth tiger and named him Orangie. Pink-T and Orangie are our new favorite pals.

Great Wolf Lodge

While I had "other things" to do while in KC, it didn't stop me from bringing the whole famdamily! We made it a road trip to the Great Wolf Lodge and great it is! Rob was a trooper and kept all three kids while I went to my parties. I think everyone had a great time!

Bryson even enjoyed the water.

They met scoops one evening for a bedtime story.

These are the mini slides that the kids loved going down. They also had a huge indoor play structure that had big slides at the top. Rob took them up and went down the slide first and waited for the kids to come down. They never came. He had to go back up the play structure to get them, and found then crying at the top. That didn't stop me from making them go down the slides. I crawled to the top with them and basically pushed them down the slide crying. I was hoping they would enjoy it and do it again and again. It worked for Mason doing it again and again and again, but not so much on Ellery. I though it would be the other way around. I think it had to do with the first slide I took them down. Being the adventurous mom I set out with Mason and Ellery to see what the water park had to offer while Rob was still up in the room with Bryson. They have 3 large slides that are 3 stories high, a yellow one you don't need a raft for and three people can ride, a blue one you carry a raft up and only two people can ride, and a green one that was explained the ride is like a toilet bowl flushing that we didn't meet the requirements to ride. Our only option was to ride the yellow slide and ohhh what a ride. We had to ride smallest to biggest. Ellery was in the front, Mason in the middle, and me in the back. Ellery was holding onto the tube with her hands and I was basically holding onto her with my feet. We get on the raft without any problems, I did ask if it was appropriate for the kids to go down and I was assured it was ok with a big warming smile. I am confident the attendant helping us go down doesn't have any young siblings at home or doesn't like children in general. The ride itself wasn't too bad, what was bad that it goes into a tunnel and goes pitch black. I couldn't see my hand in front of my face. I give a "ohhh my" scream, while Mason is dead silent, and Ellery is screaming "I don't like it" over and over. Thank goodness she was talking and I had hold of her with my feet or I wouldn't have known she was still hanging on. I think this is why they weren't so thrilled to try the easier slides after the big slide excitement. My friend Kim and her daughter Cora came for an afternoon so we all took turns watching the kids so the adults could try the green toilet bowl slide. It was a good time. We also took the older kids down the blue slide with us and everyone had a fantastic time!

We do have three little fishes that love the water! The slide experience didn't scare them out of the water. We still enjoyed floating around the lazy river, going down the blue slide with just two people, climbing the big play structure, the kiddie pool/slide area, and the big swimming pool.

Showers of Fun

The real reason I came back to KC was to attend KP's shower. It was fun catching up with a few of her friends and her mom. Although, we were all able to catch up the night before at the surprise party.

On one of our date nights Rob and I stopped at Williams Sonoma for her bridal shower gift. I was meandering around the store peeking at things I'd love to "register for" while Rob had her registry printed. Before I knew it he had already decided upon the gift. His interest was peeked with the word pop and maker on the list. They had registered for a Zoku Quick Pop Maker. Rob was enthralled, you could have a popsicle in 7 min with this gadget. I was against it at first and then decided what the heck, it is much more exciting than a platter. It was also quite the conversation piece at the shower as well! I think Rob is going to get one for Fathers Day from the kids!

KP's Bachelorette Partry

My dear old friend Kristin is getting married in May and we had a surprise bachelorette party for her in KC. I say old because we realized we have been friends for 20+ years! I don't think anyone wants to have a phallic symbol around, but it is a rite of passage. My favorite phallic gift were these pink maracas. Rob and I found them at the store and laughed. We both remember looking up at our wedding and seeing KP leading a congo line of dancers with a funny hat on her head while shaking maracas. We thought they were fitting for this event!

Bath Time Fun

Bryson is sitting up so good we got out the bath tub apparatus. At first the other two wouldn't leave him alone and were up in his personal space. They quickly tired of him and moved onto playing in their own personal space. He is just happy to be apart of anything they are doing!