Tummy Time

Preschool Tidbits

Bailey LOVES preschool and we love that she loves it!

Her school is 4 minutes away if you are walking, so my favorite thing to do is walk to and from school with her. She has gotten good at holding hand and looking for cars in the road. One of our favorite things is to play chase on the way home, and I can't try to help her catch me because she knows I am being easy and will tell me "No mommy, run fast!". Here she's ready to go, but waitin' on mom.

If for some reason she hasn't gotten all of her energy out at school then, we have been going on longer and longer bike rides afterwards. She has gotten really fast and often lifts her feet off the ground to glide for long stretches. We don't think she is going to have any trouble one day transitioning to a real bike with pedals. Her favorite place to ride her bike is to the ducks. These were taken right before Blake was born.

As mentioned before her favorite thing to play with right now is her Cars collection. She loves to line them up on the couch and tell me they are off to the race. She also likes to hide them behind the couch cushion because they are hiding from Frank the mean combine. She often requests to take them with her in the car and even sleep with them. Last week I caved and let her bring some of her new Easter cars to show Mrs. Jerri her teacher. Mrs. Jerri then saw Lighting McQueen at the store and got it just for Bailey to play with at school. Here we are with the "real" Mater who lives right off the road on the way to Gigi and Pa's house.


She is learning all kinds of new things. She doesn't always like to tell you what she did at school, but it usually comes out sooner or later. Music is something she really enjoys and new songs are being added to her repertoire (even if she doesn't know all the words). Favorite songs would be Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star; Where is Thumkin?, The B-L-U-E song; Pop Goes the Weasel; Jesus Loves Me; Happy Birthday; and Jingle Bells. Happy Birthday is the only song she knows the full version of and it even comes with her pretending to blow out the candles at the end. If she doesn't know all the words she will just bob her head or ask someone to sing it for her. Her biggest accomplishment lately is that she finally knows all of her colors! Although I still think gets green and yellow confused a little.

The school's curriculum is theme based and this week's theme is rodeo. The school brought in all kinds of small animals like rabbits, pigs, and baby sheep for kids to pet, and even Sheltlon ponies to ride for those kids brave enough. Bailey was of course fearless! Other activities were a chuckwagon type meal and wagon rides.

Just recently they took school pictures. I am pretty sure twenty years done the road the shirt she is wearing will easily date the picture to 2010ish.

We are so sad that there are only a few weeks left this year. I am going to have to put my teacher hat back on and get creative for the summer. Ideas welcomed!

Bluebonnets

Thanks to Ms. Jerri, Bailey's preschool teacher, Bailey knows all about bluebonnets. Well almost... Yesterday I figured we needed to get out of the house and that it was time to get the yearly bluebonnet pictures. Once we got there Bailey told me that Bluebonnets are Blue's flower (our dog) and they are purple... hum. So, these aren't the best pictures, but I'll take what I can get with a 2 year old and a newborn.






Oh, and I just thought I would throw this one in of Blake and I from Easter.

Labor of Love

This special handmade quilt arrived for Blake

Made by the very talented Rose Marie Hanks (on right)

THANK YOU!!!

How does she know?

Late last week we had to put Bailey into time out. When she was done we did hugs and kisses, but afterwards she ran to her room and did this. I quickly called Luke to come see and then grabbed the camera.

Just in case you can't tell she has her nose in the corner. We have never told her to go to her room when in trouble. We have never told her to put her nose or anything else in the corner. To our knowledge she has never seen or heard someone tell her to do this. How does a 2 1/2 year old know this?

Easter Pictures Galore!!!

It was another wonderful Easter! This year we loaded 4 adults, 2 kids, and a dog into Robby's truck and headed up to Santo. We meet up with my parents, Tori and Andrew, my Nana, My Aunt Kathy and Uncle Phil, my cousin Stephanie and her boyfriend, Robby's mom and her husband, and Robby's brother. It was a full house! We attended my parent's church for a small town Baptist Easter Cantata, which brought back many memories from my childhood. We then had a fun filled day of eating good food, visiting, taking alot of pictures and of course the big egg hunt. Speaking of pictures-

My Nana's getting to meet Blake for the first time

Our first picture as a family of four

A sister picture

Luke, Bailey, and Robby

Me and Blake


Bailey

Gigi with the Grandkids



My Aunt Kathy getting to hold Blake for the first time



Hunting Eggs




Tara, Andrew, Robby, and David (Robby's brother) at the Loot Table


This Was Cute When I Took It, but She Paid For It Later

Bailey and Her New Cars That Gigi Got Her

Oh Blake

All you need is a 2 year old to know what words and phrases you say alot. Apparently "Oh, Blake" is what I say most when it comes to Blake because that's what Bailey has started saying to him and she says it in the same situations I would. For example, Blake was crying in the swing and I need to finish what I was doing before getting him. Well, I look over and Bailey is leaning on the swing rubbing his head saying Oh Blake.

Well, we survived the first month! We have had some good days and some tough days, and on the tough days I have just had to remind myself that the newborn phase doesn't last that long. I have also had to remind myself that just like in teaching where no two students (even if they are siblings) are the same, my two kids are not going to be the same. Tricks that worked with Bailey don't work with Blake and I have had to do some experimenting to figure him out. The picture below is the result of that experimenting. I would title it

Content and It Only Took A Swing, a Pacifier, Being Swaddled, and Some Vacuum Noise.

Normally it doesn't take quite this much to make him happy, but he does love to be held and bounced around. If only I could hold him all the time. The sling or baby bjorn have been life savers to getting stuff done around the house, and when he will let me I use the swing and bouncy chair. Two other things that I have learned that he really likes are baths and going for walks, so we have been doing alot of both. He are some pictures of him in the swing and bouncy chair. He is really hard to get pictures of because his hands are so busy and are usually up by his face.

One of the best things lately is that he is sleeping longer and longer stretches at night. The last couple of night he has actually sleep 5 consecutive hours! One unique thing about him is that he likes to smile in the first few minutes after falling asleep. My mom commented that he must be having good dreams. In other sleep news I think I have remastered the nurse, burp, and try to move him as little as possible when laying him back down trick. This also took some experimenting this time around. Aren't newborns sweet when they are sleeping!

The only thing harder than getting a picture of Blake might be getting one of him with his sister and two cousins. Thanks to Franny we have had two family dinners at her house this month to celebrate Luke and I's 30th birthdays. I love this picture and of course when I went to take it they were all smiling. I also love the next one of him and Becca.

Besides getting in some good time with his cousins, Blake has also gotten in some good time with daddy since I have gone back to work. Luke had both kids this past Friday night, and Blake all day Saturday. To say that Luke did great would be an understatement. He had the house picked up, all the laundry done and a happy baby when I came home on Saturday!!!

I think that's all I got. Easter pictures coming soon!