Morning Noise

This morning I was sitting downstairs with Tommy and Owen. Tommy is usually the first one up these days. I get him up, change his diaper (or if Chris is here he does that part while I put in my contacts) and we bring him downstairs. One by one, the big boys eventually roll out of bed and slowly scoot down the stairs.

Today it was a bit different. Tommy was with me, Owen had made his way down the stairs, "baby" aka his lovey in hand. And then we started hearing banging.

The whole ceiling was shaking a bit. Colin was up. And doing something. Loudly.

It lasted a good five minutes. Bang, crash, bang bang, jump, jump. I sat on the couch thinking about whether or not to get up and be mad at him for starting the morning doing whatever in God's name he was doing.

Eventually he made it downstairs and I asked him what he was doing, trying not to be mad.

His answer? He was getting ready for field day. Yes, he woke up and decided to do jumping jacks, push ups, run in place and practice his jogging skills. For five minutes.

He takes field day seriously. And I learned a good lesson in not getting upset before I actually know what's going on. Because after I realized what he got up to do, I couldn't stop smiling.

Morning Math

When we are waiting for Colin's kindergarten bus some days, we do math fun. It's either watch Colin bounce all over the car bothering his brothers or have a quiz! He loves doing math quizzes. My only issue is pretty soon I'm going to need a calculator to give him problems because his mental math ability is quickly surpassing my own.

School Days!

The radio silence on the blog has been due to a few things. Mainly my inability to create a few extra hours in every day. But I been lodging some serious complaints about the lack of updates on here, so here goes!

School started! This was huge in our house since it meant Colin started kindergarten. So far, he's loving it. His teacher is extremely nice and he seems to be adjusting well. Despite a few hiccups (including one that resulted in me running two blocks carrying Tommy and dragging Owen when Colin was dropped off at the wrong bus stop), we have all fallen into a new and actually very nice routine.

Here are some obligatory first day photos.

Colin on his first day!



Owen helped walk him to the bus stop.



*Gulp*



Owen on his first day! (He needs his cell of course in case someone important calls...like Luigi or Princess Peach)





Here's to a great year at kindergarten and Pre-K-3!

Weird Clothes

This morning as I was getting the boys dressed, Colin asked me "Mom, why do you make us wear such weird clothes?"

I don't think I do make them wear weird clothes. In fact, I think they look rather spiffy most of the time. I questioned Colin a bit more and he told me "my friends all have better shirts". I asked him what kind of shirts he likes and he told me his Super Mario Bros. and Star Wars shirts were nice.

I can't do it. They have a few shirts like that, but I try to save them for naps and outside play. I just can't wrap my head around them dressing in character shirts every day for school. So for now they will keep wearing "weird clothes" as long as I can convince them.

Here are their "weird clothes" from this morning...

Goodbye, Little Friends

On Wednesday Colin had his final school show at his preschool. This is his third year at his little school, so it was so strange for me to have it be his last show. On Tuesday night he was practicing singing all his songs for me and I started to cry when he started singing "Goodbye, Little Friends". It's the song they sing every day at his school before they run out the door to us, but it has more meaning when it's an actual goodbye.

He did great. I don't remember what he did his first year, but I know he didn't sing. I think he sort of stood there like a deer in headlights. His second year he sang a few words, did some hand motions and tried. But this year he sang all the words, did all the hand motions and was a star.

Some pictures...(And, yes, they are horrible pictures. They were taken over three rows of parents with Owen wiggling like a crazy person on my lap...)









Colin knows that it's almost the end of pre-school. This morning I picked him up from school and he told me he had a bad dream the night before (to understand it, you have to know one of his friends takes the school bus already to afternoon preschool at another school). Here's how I remember how he told me his dream...

"Mom, I had a bad dream last night. I dreamed that I got on P's school bus and you were here in your car. But the doors closed and you drove away and I was on the bus by myself. And I was scared."

We had a long talk about how maybe he was getting a little nervous about kindergarten and I think he felt better after the talk. But the dream just broke my heart. Growing up and saying goodbye to little friends is hard...even for mommies.

Accomplishment

It's amazing how accomplished I feel just getting three little boys dressed and out the door in time to bring Colin and Owen to school. It takes more prep-work than I could have possibly imagined, but it hasn't been as stressful as I thought it would be. It's actually really nice being back to running the boys to preschool. It's much nicer than doing it when hugely pregnant. The infant carseat is heavy, but at least I can put it down for a second.

Halloween Parade

Colin and Owen had their school Halloween parties and parade at school today. They've been ready and looking forward to Halloween for weeks. They picked out their costumes themselves after a lot of thought and deliberation. Colin is Obi Wan Kenobi and Owen wanted to be an elephant. So, of course, that's what they are.

Here they are before leaving for school.



And marching in the parade.





And now it's on to the next Halloween celebration!

Young Love

Colin has been interested in the concept of marriage for about a year. It all started when a little girl in his class asked him to marry her. So he came home and asked all about marriage, decided it was a good idea and went in the next day to tell her he would marry her.

This year he's developed quite the little crush on a girl who goes to his school, but isn't in his class (she's a year younger). He is very excited for lunch and for time on the playground because he tells me when he gets to see her and he makes sure to sit next to her at lunch.

So today he came home from school and said "Mom, I've decided not to marry _____, I'm going to marry Mary". We'll call her Mary (not her name). So I said that was great and then we started a very long and very dramatic conversation.

I asked him why he wanted to marry Mary and he said because she's his friend and he loves her. And because he likes sitting next to her at lunch. But he doesn't play with her during play time because she doesn't like dinosaurs. "And mom, want to hear something terrible? She likes HANNAH MONTANA! Isn't that terrible!?!"

But apparently the relationship isn't just conflict between Hannah Montana and dinosaurs. It seems like Mary also talks to another boy at lunch. Which has Colin very upset. He told me she shouldn't talk to the other boy "because what if he wants to marry her too?" and "What if they get married". He asked it with tears forming in his eyes. "She's not supposed to talk to him, she's supposed to talk to ME". I asked why and he answered "because she loves me".

I told him he was still little and he had lots and lots of time to decide who he wants to marry. We also talked about how he and Mary need to make lots of different friends and talk to everyone. He seemed okay with that idea until he thought about it for a minute and said "But next year I have to go to kindergarten when I'm five and I will leave her all alone. I'm never going to kindergarten!"

And so starts the drama of young love.

Blog Slacker

I've been a blog slacker lately. In my defense I have had a lot going on. Most importantly I've been purging the house of rarely used toys to sell at a consignment sale. Now that they are packed up, tagged and in my car I feel so much better!

Here's a couple pictures of what the boys have been doing.

Their first "official" day of school. The pictures from last week were from orientation and this is from their first day without me there with them. Owen cried the first week for about five minutes at drop off, but this morning he gave me a hug and marched right into the classroom saying "Hi!" to all his friends.



Colin had soccer on Saturday. He made it through the entire practice and even played red light/green light while dribbling the ball. It was excellent! Unfortunately, no pictures of Colin, but Chris got some pictures of Owen playing on the sidelines on the playground.





As for boy #3, he's busy kicking away and growing quickly. I'm now 23 weeks and according to my pregnancy updates he is now the size of a large mango. A very cute mango, of course.

Firsts

I guess this time of year will always be a time for "firsts".

Thursday and Friday, Colin and Owen had their "first" day of school. Really it was their orientation day which meant I went with them. But they were stil VERY excited for their first days. Colin is an old pro and Owen figured out snack time immediately. Monday is Owen's first day at school without mommy, so hopefully he handles it okay.

And as a bonus on Friday it rained which meant they got to wear their raincoats for the first time!





And today Colin has his first day at soccer! He is very excited. Chris and I got to experience the joy of buying sports equipment for the first time. Wow. We're going to have to start saving now for three boys in sports.

My Great Dad

This is was part of the card Colin made for Chris at school for Father's Day. I thought it was pretty funny. The parts in italics are what Colin filled in.

My Great Dad

My daddy is 54 years old.

He weighs 10 lbs and is 10 inches tall.

His hair is dark and his eyes are brown.

He loves to relax by closes his eye and he likes to wear work clothes.

He loves to cook hot dogs.

His favorite household chore is vacuum.

His favorite TV show is Daddy & Mommy Shows and his favorite song is with the girls singing.

Daddy always tells me Colin.

He loves to buy me hot dogs.

If he could go on a trip he would go to work.

I love you Dad! You are the best!



Although Chris loved it, he was not too thrilled about Colin aging him by twenty years.

Time Capsule

Colin had his last day of school yesterday (Pre-K 3). He came home with a time capsule showing how much he has grown and changed over the past school year. It is quite remarkable how much he has grown up.

First two pictures to show how much he has grown.

Colin in September:



Colin in June:



Two drawings to show how much his drawing has changed.

His family portrait in September:



His family portrait in June:



As a side note, I think it's remarkable how UN-self-centered Colin is. He doesn't even put himself in family portraits.

But some things haven't changed all that much as evidenced by Colin's Time Capsule questionaires:

This is a record of my life on 9/18/08
My name - Colin
My favorite color - Blue
My favorite food - hot dogs
My favorite song - Old MacDonald
My favorite toy - Dinosaurs
My favorite animal - Elephant
My favorite book - Elephant book
When I grow up I want to be - Just like daddy

This is a record of my life on 6/4/09
My name - Colin
My favorite color - Blue
My favorite food - hot dogs
My favorite song - Green Alligator Song (aka the Irish song called "The Unicorn Song")
My favorite toy - Dinosaurs
My favorite animal - Elephant
My favorite book - Dinosaurs
When I grow up I want to be - A fireman like my grandpa

Congratulations on a wonderful year at school, Colin! We are so proud of you!

School Show

Colin had his school show on Wednesday. His class sang a variety of songs about weather. "Rain Rain Go Away", "It's Raining, It's Pouring", "What's the Weather?", etc. Colin did a fantastic job. He sang quietly, but nailed the arm and hand movements. Here are a few pictures from his show.

The decorations, the all blue bear was Colin's contribution.



Waving on his walk into the room (how old does he look?!?)



The hello song:



Singing the weather songs:







Great job, Colin!

Colin and Ruby, Ruby and Colin

Colin had "Favorite Character Day" yesterday at his school. When I asked him to name his favorite character to he could dress up with it for school, he asked "Mom, what's a character?" I told him it was his favorite person or thing he liked to see on tv or read about in books. He then said "My favorite character is Barack Obama".

After I explained to him that Barack Obama was not a character because he is a real person and he needed to think of someone else, he said "Max!" So Max it was.

Colin's Birthday Celebrations - Part One

I have WAY too many pictures of Colin and all his birthday celebrations to do it in one sitting, so I will split it up into a few entries.

First up, his school cupcakes! He asked for blue cupcakes (of course) with dinosaurs. He was pretty satisfied with my cupcakes, although he told me they were more of green-blue.

He was really excited before school that morning:

And he came home with two extra cupcakes that he happily shared with his brother:

More pictures to come...

Pajama Day!

Colin's school had pajama day yesterday. They wore their jammies to school and ate breakfast for lunch. He thought it was absolutely hilarious and kept talking about what a "silly day" he had. Here are some pictures of him getting ready to leave for school. You can see he's just a tad excited.

A Valentine Only Colin Could Make

To make Colin's Valentine make sense, I have to give a bit of context. Forever ago for some reason, Chris started naming Colin's animals. Not any particular animal, just random animals. Colin embraced the idea and we've gotten to the point that any horse is named "Herbert", any hippo is "Harry", any shark is "My", any giraffe is "Gerry", African Elephants are "Ella" and Asian Elephants are "Henri" (said with the French pronunciation). Which is why we go to the aquarium to see "My" the shark, "Harry" the hippo, "Hammy" the hammerhead, etc etc etc.

So today I got to school and Colin came running out as usual. His teacher walked out smiling and grabbed something out of his backpack and said "I just have to ask you a question. Who are Harry, Larry, Zach and Ella?" She hands me the Valentine Colin made and I immediately start laughing and explain that Harry is a hippo, Larry is a lion, Zach is a zebra and Ella is an elephant. She starts laughing and explains to the other teacher that they are the names of Colin's animals. I had to correct her and said "oh, no any random hippo is Harry and any zebra is Zach". She said she was trying to write down exactly what he said and couldn't wait to find out what it meant.

I walked out of school holding Colin's hand and his Valentine laughing. How AWESOME is this Valentine?



Note that he only used blue hearts. Classic.

It's "K" Week

This week our family has gone back to the grind. Chris is back at work, Colin is back at school, Owen is back climbing the walls and I’m back to managing the chaos.

Colin was very excited to get back to school and to get back to his routine. When I told him on Sunday that he was going back to school the next day, he immediately started asking me for words that start with “K”. He somehow remembered that his last week before Christmas was “J” week and then somehow knew that K came next (I’ve found it’s best not to dwell too long on how Colin knows these things).

Anyway, so we went over all the words I could think of that start with K. In case you’re wondering, it’s actually hard each week to come up with enough words that start with a particular letter to satisfy Colin. Some weeks are easy (like “A” because we have Allasaurus and “E” for Elephant), but weeks without a type of shark or obscure dinosaur are a little harder for Colin to get excited about. But, Chris saved the day when he remembered that Komodo Dragon starts with “K”. After they looked up some pictures on the internet, Colin was satisfied that a Komodo Dragon was a cool animal and worth talking about at school.

When he came home on Monday, he proudly told me that he told everyone that Komodo Dragon starts with “K” and the only other kid who thought of a word that starts with “K” only came up with a kangaroo. He apparently told the class that a Komodo Dragon is a “FIERCE LIZARD”, that lives in a cave and scares people. Hey, at least he got some of it right.

But, he then wanted some more words that start with “K” for Tuesday. I sat for a second and told him that “krill” starts with “k”. He asked “what’s that?” and I explained that krill are a teeny tiny kind of shrimp and that whale sharks eat krill.

He looked at me and said “So, krill are a type of plankton?”

I’m starting to find it’s impossible to answer Colin’s questions without a laptop handy at all times. And, I googled it and apparently krill ARE a type of plankton. Who knew?

Giganotosauras Conference

Chris, Owen and I went to Colin's parent/teacher conference today. I'm happy to report that it was VERY positive. His teacher said what a joy he is to have in the class and how he is the ringleader in a lot of the play between the kids. She said he is always one of the first to answer questions in circle time and plays well with all the other kids.

The things he has to work on are very typical Colin. He has to work on waiting for his turn to talk during circle time. I can imagine he does a wee bit of interrupting when he's excited. He also doesn't like to sing with his class very much. We know he knows all the songs by heart, but doesn't always like singing. I think he gets a tiny bit embarrassed or maybe he's too cool.

We also learned that in very typical Colin fashion he's always the first to think of an animal/dinosaur that starts with each letter of the week. She said she was a little surprised last week when they were talking about the letter G. Colin pipped in that "Giganotosauras starts with G". She said she was more thinking of something like giraffe, but hey, Giganotosauras works too!

First Day of School

Today was Colin's first day of school. It was actually a partial day (just 1.5 hours) and I went to school with him to get him used to his new teacher and classroom. Here are a few pictures of Colin getting ready to leave for his big day:









He asked his favorite little friend from last year to be his friend and the little boy answered "yes!" Colin also told his whole class that "in August, I got to go to the beach" and that on "Saturdays, my dad comes home" as they learned about the months and days of the week. During the singing time, Colin picked the song "Old MacDonald" and suggested each animal during the verses. He was the life of the classroom and had all the other parents laughing.

He sat nicely during circle time, asked to go potty when he needed to go, washed his hands, helped clean up the toys (he even pointed out a toy they forgot to pick up during snack), participated in all the singing and finger play and made a craft.

I think he is going to have a great year!