Preschool

Warner loves preschool. He wakes up most mornings asking if he has school that day. He's learning academically, but also in other important areas such as socially and emotionally. And of course he comes home with at least one craft each day, which he normally insists we hang on the refrigerator. Here is his Cat in the Hat craft from Dr. Seuss's birthday week:The hat wouldn't stay put on the fridge so it was tossed around for a few days (before it found it's way to the trash. I know, terrible mother). Maren enjoyed it as well.Maren will be joining her brother at Lakeside Presbyterian Preschool next year for one day a week. Every time we drop Warner off at school, she throws and absolute fit, wanting to stay and play in his classroom. She will be 2 in July and thus makes the age cut-off for the 2 year-old program, so we decided to let her go one day a week. Warner will be going three days a week next year, instead of the two he's doing this year. Which means they will be there at the same time one day a week. I will have THREE hours to myself each week next fall. What in the world will I do with myself?Now, don't get me wrong. I love my children to pieces and am so thankful for the opportunity to stay home with them each day. But the thought of this time alone is very exciting. Yay for preschool.

Florida

We just returned from our annual trip to Florida to visit my grandparents who spend January through April there. Since it's tax season, Kevin wasn't able to get away from work. So, my mom and I packed up the old minivan (and packed it was) and drove there with the kids. We had a blast. Two of my cousins were there as well with their families the entire week we were there. So, Warner and Maren had five other kids to play with, which they loved. I took a zillion pictures so narrowing them down for this post was difficult. Here are a few of my favorites.Warner and two of my cousin's kids - Luke and Trey.
Watching Cars with the kids.Ice cream and sugar were large parts of our trip. Nearly every night, we visited the Candy Kitchen for candy and/or ice cream. Warner got a Pez each time we went, and Maren chose either a Dum Dum sucker or Smarties. We also took one trip to the Orange Blossom, where they have the BEST orange ice cream. I think this was the first time the kids had ice cream cones, and Warner told me he liked the "hard part" of the ice cream (the cone).The rest of the trip was spent at the pool and beach. The kids couldn't get enough of either. Watching the smiles on their faces as they played in the sand, fed the birds, and swam in the pool was priceless. Both kids were quite the fish in the pool. Maren is now swimming on her own (well, with the assistance of the puddle jumper floatie) and even jumping in the pool by herself. My dad came in for a few days. We enjoyed our time with him as well. One night we had dinner at Gators on the water. It's next to a draw bridge and we got to see two boats go through the bridge during dinner. Warner thought it was so cool. We had a wonderful trip. But now I'm ready for summer!

A few random pictures ...

The kids did this themselves without my prompting. Aren't they talented?
I'm borrowing my friend's sewing/embroidery machine and Maren wants so badly to play with it herself. I found her here yesterday, pretending to sew. She was pretty proud of herself.
My favorite people, all on one couch. You can't see it very well here, but Warner is sporting a new haircut. He had been telling us for a while that "mine hair look funny in the morning. I want get haircut with Daddy". God love him. So, he went to the barber shop with Kevin and is all set now. He looks so handsome.

Preschool

Parent teacher conferences were held at preschool last week. So, I met with Mrs. Eubanks to talk about Warner's progress in the 2 year old class. He received mostly A's (meaning age-appropriate) on his student evaluation form. His social, physical, musical, and cognitive development are all on track. Well, again, for preschool.

His evaluation form is priceless. Mrs. Eubanks had this to say about Warner:

"Warner is totally focused when he applies himself to a task. His social skills are developing and I can see a leader being born. If there is not full cooperation during transitions, Warner reminds his classmates to get in line. His physical development and coordination are evident as he pedals various bikes during gym (with speed and sometimes passengers)."

The last part is my favorite. I can just picture him chauffeuring his classmates around the gym in the tricycle with the wagon attached to it. Warner loves school and can't wait to go three days a week next year.

Perfect.

Patent leather shoes placed over footed pajamas without assistance: Check.
Cliff bar and fruit rope for breakfast: Check.
Food placed on Warner's plate instead of Maren's to ignite sibling quarreling first thing in the morning: Check.
What a great start to the day.

Is it Spring yet?

I should preface this post by stating that I enjoy and appreciate all of the seasons God created. And this does include winter. I'm a sucker for snow, fireplaces, and sweaters. But this time of year I get the winter blues and am so itchy for Spring I can hardly stand it. So, I am very thankful for our recent warm weather. Very thankful. Here are a few pictures of the kids enjoying the afternoon outside.
Fresh air. What a concept. I know winter isn't over, and this warm weather won't last. But we'll take what we can get - and enjoy it while we can.

Favorite Things

It amazes me how the kids have developed such strong, distinct personalities at their young ages. They are pretty fanatic about a few things in particular.

Warner is my creature of habit. Everything must be done the same way, every time, with no exceptions - or a fit ensues. Food is no exception. The dinner in this picture is served once a week at our house (at least), because both kids love it: salmon, mashed potatoes, and asparagus or broccoli.
Nearly every day he eats the same thing for lunch: hot dog (with ketchup. Ketchup is a big deal at our house), broccoli, cheese, and some sort of fruit. In fact, when I asked him what he wanted to grow in our garden this year, he said "hot dogs, broccoli, cheese, ketchup, and orange juice". Nice.
More habits include our weekly trip to the library. Warner insists on getting two Clifford books, even if he's read them already. Seeing as we go once a week, we've just about exhausted Norman Bridwell's collection of Clifford books, but this has not deterred Warner from getting them. We've tried branching out to include the five little monkeys, Thomas, Bob the Builder, etc. but nothing comes close to Clifford. We also rent DVDs at the library. For a while it was the Wiggles (thank goodness we're past that stage), then Veggie Tales, and lately it's been Clifford. So, in addition to ketchup, Clifford is also a big deal at our house.

The library trip itself is also completed exactly the same way each time. First, we return our old books/DVDs. Then, Warner and Maren race to the elevator to push the button to go up. Once inside, they both press a button (Warner knows which one is the 2nd floor, Maren pushes whichever one strikes her fancy that day). Then, they both run to the back of the elevator for the ride up. Not sure why exactly, but they do it every time. When the doors open, they run to pick out their books and DVDs. Then, we hit up the community room filled with toys and play and make a mess that we don't have to clean up (very nice use of my tax dollars, thank you very much). Finally, we check out our books and DVDs. Warner uses a step stool to do everything himself (including unlocking the DVDs and printing the receipt), and lately Maren has been checking out "her" books by herself (board books. She chooses the most randoms ones).
Warner is also a collector. He loves loves loves his Cars - all from the movie Cars. Matchbox cars will just not do right now. He wants to know their name and where they fit into the movie. He has a running list of all the cars he does not have but "needs".

With the Cars theme, he wants all things he owns to be Cars. Shoes, umbrella, swim trunks, blankets, towels, etc. That or Toy Story. Like our Mr. Potato head collection - Toy Story, of course.
One of Maren's favorite things is shoes. She spends a lot of time mastering the art of putting on shoes, and not necessarily her own. In fact, when we go to the mall play area, she usually hangs out by the shoe cubbies, trying on everyone else's shoes. These pictured below are Warner's.
She also loves soft things. Mostly that means her blanket and lovie, but it often includes stuffed animals, or anything she can find. Today while I was washing her blanket and lovie, she found an extra changing table cover in her room that's soft and carried it around until the laundry was finished.
The paci is another favorite. We try to limit paci use to bedtime and naptime only, but I give in quite frequently. I've told myself that I'll worry about that tomorrow. I have enough to worry about today.
She also loves portable snacks. Because really, who has time to sit in their highchair to eat? Her current favorites are Cliff bars for kids, and fruit ropes (also made by Cliff, if you're interested. Organic, 100% fruit, so it makes me feel a bit better about it).

And let's not forget about books for miss Maren Mae. Her attention span when it comes to reading amazes me. She will sit in someone's lap forever, reading books. The length or subject don't really matter, as long as there are plenty of pictures and pages to turn.

So, these are their favorite things today. It sure is a wild ride with these kids.

18 Months

Maren is 18 months old. I'm not sure how this has happened because I swear she was an infant last week. Suddenly she's a toddler. First, her stats: 34 inches tall (95th percentile) and 24 pounds (25th percentile). She has met all of her milestones including running, imaginative play, identifying objects by pointing, knowing body parts, etc. She has also started eating much better lately and we are nearly off of baby food altogether. She has always liked meat, cheese, carbs, and more carbs ... but lately she will eat broccoli and asparagus like crazy. Anything mixed with mashed potatoes is a hit too. And although she isn't fond of a ton of raw fruit, I've been making smoothies with bananas, strawberries, blueberries, and homemade plain yogurt that she devours. So, I'm pleased with the eating progress we've made.

And technically she is up to speed on her speech ... but I'm a bit concerned about it. She rarely uses words. Don't get me wrong, she communicates very well: pointing, making noises repeatedly, etc. And she understands words spoken to her frighteningly well. It just doesn't come out of her mouth in words.

So, the pediatrician has referred us to audiology for a hearing test. Since she has had 5 ear infections since last spring her hearing might be impaired. This is what I'm hoping, in all honesty, and that they'll recommend tubes in her ears. She has suffered from allergies, asthma, and ear infections most of her life and I can't help but think tubes would help. So, we'll see where the audiology thing goes.

Other than that, Maren is a happy, healthy little girl. With a lot of spunk. Unfortunately she's taken to biting and/or hitting Warner on occasion to get her point across - perhaps because she doesn't have the words to express her feelings. Or perhaps it's just because that's what she wants to do. At any rate, it's concerning and frustrating as I begin disciplining this behavior. She also pushed some poor unsuspecting girl down at the mall play area last week and pulled a girl's hair at the YMCA. Whew.

Warner has been kind enough to "help" me with parenting Maren in this area and tells me whenever she misbehaves. So nice of him, right? Well as we left the Y after the hair-pulling incident, I hear Warner say: "Maren, it's not nice to pull someone's hair. We really mispointed in you". Mispointed, indeed. Ah, the joys of parenting.

Quirky kids.

Warner's Cars scooter is definitely on his short list of favorite Christmas gifts received this year. Since we have snow on the ground, the scooter has been an indoor toy thus far, and I must say Warner has learned to maneuver it pretty well around the house. The funny part is how he often insists on riding the scooter from room to room, instead of walking there. For instance, he rode his scooter to the door this afternoon before we left to go to the library and grocery store. When we got home, he needed to go to the bathroom immediately, so he hopped on the scooter and "rode" it to the bathroom. The best part about this is that it's about 4 feet from the door to the bathroom.
As Warner was using the restroom and I was unloading groceries, Maren was hard at work mastering her new favorite skill: putting on shoes. She adores two specific pairs she owns - both black, with a strap. I think she likes them because they're easy to put on. So, after about 5 minutes she emerges from the basement with a very proud smile on her face ...
... and a different shoe on each foot. At least she got the right/left thing correct.
Warner is funny about getting his hands dirty. He's not so fond of it. So when I did a craft I saw in Family Fun magazine with the kids last week that involved homemade cornstarch glue, my sweet son was less than thrilled about the mess it created. Maren, on the other hand, loved the mess. However, Warner doesn't mind overlooking a mess when it involves baking. The kid can have brownie batter caked on his hands, arms, and face, and not be upset at all. I suppose the chocolate is worth the mess in his opinion. I tend to agree.

You might have noticed that my children are in there jammies in these pictures, once again. We wear our jammies a lot around here, especially in the winter. That's just how I roll, so my kids are forced to go along with it. Perhaps it's not the kids then who are quirky, but their mother, and all of my quirkiness is rubbing off on them. Poor kids. They don't stand a chance.