Monday, January 5, 2015

2015

I have lacked on my posting. My husband is the first to point out. It’s just so hard to keep up with everything the kids are doing! We have a lot going on!
Over the summer we took a family vacation to Suttons Bay, Michigan again with Grandma and Grandpa Wood and some of our cousins. It’s becoming the kids’ favorite week! We were able to stay at the same house that we did the previous trip. It was a great week of going to the beach, swimming in the pool, riding bikes and playing games. We were there for 4th of July and the Cherry Festival. Mommy and Auntie Kylie took advantage of a couple wine tours during nap time. It was a win-win all around!

The rest of the summer was full of swimming lessons, Legoland trips, museums, T-ball and picnics at the park. We spent a week in Ohio with grandma and grandpa and got to spend time with our Ohio cousins. Mommy and daddy even got away for a couple of weekends, a night downtown and a trip to New York. Mommy came back rested and relaxed, kids weren’t really sure why? :)

Brett is in 1st grade. He is doing great. His confidence in reading has really improved and he blows us away with what he can read. He still loves manipulating numbers and constantly surprises me in how he plays with them in his head. At his parent teacher conference, his teacher remarked about what a kind, good kid he is. Wonderful to hear, you never know how your child acts when you are not around! Brett played floor hockey at the park district during the fall and is doing wrestling again with Daddy as the coach with the Maine Eagles. Brett loves playing football during recess, putting together Legos, learning Chess from grandpa and Star Wars.

Bailey is in Pre-K. She goes 5 days a week for the morning. A big change for her but she is doing well. She is making friends and I love hearing what she is learning in school. She has an incredible memory for songs and remembering lines verbatim. Which has come to kick me in the butt a few times, I have to be mindful how I say things! Not only does she take things literal, she remembers them exactly! She participated in tumbling again and took an Arts and Crafts class at the park this fall. She still loves the movie Frozen (Elsa specifically), dancing, drawing (hundreds of papers around my house!), American Girl dolls and pink dresses.

Brayden is now 20 months and is hysterical. He is OBSESSED with football and tackling. You may think I’m exaggerating; his first words were ‘Mama’ and ‘football’ in that order. We didn’t hear anything else for months! He has about 10 footballs around the house. When daddy walks in the door, Brayden gives him a tackle/hug and then runs to get a football. He constantly asks for football to be on the tv…that or Mickey. He is still very dependent on his pacifiers. He prefers to sleep with 1 in his month and multiple in each hand. He loves Mickey Mouse, apples, dinosaur books, trains, Olaf from Frozen, and running! Any chance he gets loose, he runs straight for Brett’s room to get his legos off the desk, especially the cars Brett has built. Brayden will play with it, drop it or throw it, say uh oh and then give it back to Brett to fix. Over and over. Brett is so good about not getting upset and just plays along.

Biggest news probably for the children - We took our first trip to Disney in October! After months of planning and despite Daddy’s skepticism, we had an awesome time! There was brunch at Cinderella’s Royal Castle, meeting all the princesses (ELSA!!), Star Wars Jedi Training, Space mountain and Splash mountain with Grandpa and Grandma, dinner at Chef Mickey, Frozen sing along show at Hollywood Studios, staying with our friends the Shemlucks, swimming with cousins, and topped off with Mickey’s not so Scary Halloween party and fireworks! It was so much fun! Seeing your children so happy truly outweighs any planning or financial stress!! Bailey is already asking when we are going next. Daddy did not say no….so I guess that means we should start planning and saving for the next trip!!


Kiddos Short Stories

Brett – “Bailey can you stop singing?”
Bailey – “But I HAVE to practice!”
Brett – “Then do it in your head.”

I was asking Brett if he was excited to start 1st grade. He said, “Yeah I am! It means I’m that much closer to being able to play dodgeball, you can do that in 3rd grade!”

I was so anxious the kids’ first day of school. I was thinking all the things I should tell them before they were off. “Be kind, do good listening, follow the rules, introduce yourself to new kids, etc.” I was running around packing lunches, finding shoes, and chasing Brayden. I came back, “ok, remember to be kind…”
Brett – “Mom, is this the same conversation again or were you not done with the last one?” I guess I need to add, do not smart your Mama!

Bailey came to me with pen marks all up and down her arms. She said she was decorating.

Apparently Brett checks out his lunchbox when he gets to school to see what he’s having. Another mom overheard him yell “yes!! She packed broccoli salad!” I’ll take that as a win!

Bailey told me I looked like President Business because I was so big. (Please refer to Lego Movie, but still kind of mean!)

Listening to kids..
Brett – “1 more”
Bailey – “No I want 2500 more”
Brett – “That’s not even possible”
Bailey – “Watch me”
Brett – “I am watching you, you aren’t doing anything”

I asked if Brayden was stinky.
Brett – after checking “He smells like bacon. I’m not kidding, he smells like my salami sandwich” EW!

Brayden kept running into Bailey’s room, I hear her say “Brayden you are getting on my last nerds!” Oh Bailey I think you mean nerves. “That too!”

Bailey was totally decked out in princess awesomeness for her first day at Magic Kingdom. We were having a girls’ brunch with grandma at Cinderella’s Royal Castle. She got to meet Cinderella first, get a picture taken with her and then meet lots of other princesses while we were eating. In the car on the way, I caught Bailey with her finger up her nose! Bailey stop picking your nose! “I’m doing it now, so when I meet Cinderella she won’t see any boogers!”

Brett was really excited for Jedi Training at Hollywood Studios the next day. Finally something non-princess for him to enjoy. Bailey asked to do it too, we thought it would be cute for them to do together. They put on training robes, practiced moves and then went to the stage. For some reason they were on opposite sides of the stage, this probably didn’t help. The ‘mentor’ gave them all light sabers and was showing them the sequence of moves to do when the enemies tried to strike. I could see Bailey getting a little anxious...one of the moves was to duck. The mentor asked why would you need to duck…an eager student yelled so you don’t get your head cut off! Bailey looked terrified. Not a minute later, a door opens and Darth Vader walks out in all his glory. Bailey literally yelled NO, ran towards me and just jumped. I left the baby (mom of the year), crossed the forbidden yellow line and caught her in mid-air. She is in hysterics. Rob had to leave with her and bought her a storm troopers gun to protect her. Even after we left and getting into the car…”What if they know where our car is?!”

John Legend's All of me comes on the radio...Bailey 'oh is this my jam?'
Yes honey, this is your jam

It took a couple days to get kids back into normal routine. Bailey in particular struggled going to school one morning and was being very dramatic about it. So I was trying to come up with happy things to talk about. Remember the castle, and meeting Elsa and how fun the fireworks were? Bailey responded with, "yeah but that Jedi Training was HORRIBLE! Brett liked it. That was probably the best 15 minutes of his life!"

With our last night of Christmas break, I asked the kids what their favorite thing we did and their favorite thing they got,
Brett says – “Ice skating and nerf gun.” Plain and simple and he goes to bed.
Bailey says – “Well I want 3 questions. 1st the favorite thing I SAW was the up and down hills. Grandma’s driveway has the big hill. Every time I go down a big hill I think WHOA I’m going to fall off my horse and fall into the road and get hit by a car and die. BUT, that didn’t happen. THANKFULLY!"

This is what it’s like having a conversation with my children.

Here’s to more fun and adventure in 2015!

Pictures

Bailey's Story - "The Mean Monster and Jenny the Scared Knight"

Click the link to be directed to the blog that featured Bailey's story.  To view the text, you can click on the workshop link
The Mean Monster and Jenny the Scared Knight

Wow, has it really been almost 2 years since I’ve updated the Harman blog?! Rob has been not so subtly dropping hints that I have neglected ...