we like to party

On Saturday we had two birthday parties to go to, one right after the other.

Andrew made cards for his friends - he made this one on his own. I had no idea he knew how to spell Sam, but apparently he does.

The second party was a drop-your-kids-off kind of party, and since Andrew and Mason were both invited, we ended up with a few free hours to fill. This is a restaurant called Stone House that we went to for dessert. I thought the place was cute so I made Matt take my picture. : ) It ended up being the only picture we got to remember our fun date night.

graduation

Andrew has officially graduated preschool!

These two are just a week or so apart in age and have been going to daycare together since they were babies.

These three are pretty good buddies. Sam has also gone since he was a baby, but he is about 6 months younger.

After the little ceremony they had a carnival for all the kids.

Andrew asked to have his name on his forehead so that he could see it in the mirror. Nice work Miss Marissa! : )

I always thought preschool graduations were kind of silly. But now that I have a preschool graduate of my own, I understand they are actually the cutest thing in the whole world. And Andrew couldn't be more excited!

There you have it folks - the cutest kindergartner I know!

another day, another change

I have a love/hate relationship with the month before my boys' birthdays. I swear Mason is doing something new or different every single day. Mostly it's awesome, like this...

That's a pull-up free bum right there! Mason went a few days using the toilet 100% so when he asked to wear underwear to bed last night we went with it. He woke up dry! Then today he asked to wear underwear to school. And when I picked him up, he was still dry!! The difference this time is that it was all him. He just all of a sudden really wants to wear underwear and seems to finally understand that if he wears underwear he has to use the toilet.

Today was also the first day that the boys got to bring their lunch to school. They were very excited. I put a little note in there for them and when I picked them up, Mason's teacher told me he asked to keep the note with him during nap. So sweet.

39 clean teeth

Today was Mason's first trip to the dentist. They confirmed he only has 19 teeth (and confirmed it's my fault - I had weird teeth and the thing he has is a hereditary thing). Other than that, all was good.

I told them that I had Andrew brush his teeth on his own so we could see how well he's doing. I'm not sure if that's why they did this, or if they would've anyway, but this was the first time they painted his teeth with that stuff that changes color to show where he missed. This was before it was rinsed off, but the dark areas are basically the areas he missed. She said he's doing good for his age but that he should still have some help occasionally. Not a big deal, he actually likes me to brush them. It's Mason who thinks he's got it covered on his own...

Their dentist does a really good job making them feel comfortable. She let Mason help her count Andrew's teeth and look in his mouth with the little mirror so he wouldn't be worried about his turn.

Mason did great. And to be fair, she let Andrew help with Mason's teeth, too.

family picture

I love it when Andrew explains his drawings. It's always rad.

This one is a family picture, but Andrew and Mason are inside. : )

This is an alien and a shark. It's not really a funny drawing, I just love his alien so I thought I'd include it.

I kinda love these boys!

We went to Redhook for dinner tonight. We thought that'd be an easy restaurant to get in on Mother's Day but we were wrong! We got there a few minutes before 5 and had to sit inside because there was a 50 minute wait for the patio! The whole world biked there today - I guess I'm not the only mom who likes a good beer...

No chance of a normal picture with these two. : ) I'm just glad Matt got the picture before Mason started crying because they bonked heads while he was hurrying to copy what Andrew was doing.

We also went on a bike ride today. Andrew was excited to try out his new two-wheel skills on the road, and Mason was excited to be able to ride in the trailer (he's been asking for a few days).

This is Andrew's expression when Matt told him he was going to be able to bike to the park. : )

sleep over

Andrew had his first sleep over on Friday. His friend's mom picked him up from school so he got to bring his suitcase with him (he was very excited about that part).

I put a little surprise in his suitcase and told him if he got sad that he could pull it out. I thought it was funny when the first picture I got was the boys doing their eraser puzzles (the surprise). I guess it was basically the first thing he said when he got there.

In the morning they made tinfoil boats and tested to see how many coins they could hold before sinking. Cute!!

I got a call from Andrew wanting to say goodnight. Other than that he had a great time and said he'd like to do it again. Yay!

big kid update

Mason can spell his name! He is learning and changing and growing up so fast right now. It's pretty fun around here!

Tonight is the 4th night being paci-free. And tonight he didn't even ask for it and went to bed without crying. Sweet! The last two nights he asked, in a being-funny voice, "hey, where's my paci?"  It was funny, but when it really came time to go to sleep, he got pretty sad. Here's hoping he's over it for good!

As far as potty training goes, he's really trying. He does great until late afternoon and then it's like he just doesn't want to do it anymore. We're not going back this time though. We'll keep trying underwear and working on using the toilet, even after 3pm...

holy milestones batman

What is going on in my house right now?!

This morning, Mason told me he didn't need his paci anymore. Out of the blue, no real talk about how we need to get rid of it soon or anything. So I asked him if he meant he was all the way done with it and wanted to throw it away and he actually said yes!! I thought about pretending to throw it away so we'd still have it (assuming he'd change his mind at bedtime) but then I realized this was as good a time as any and we went for it.

It happened so fast... I grabbed my phone on the way to at least get a picture. : ) Then, after he threw it out he told me he wanted to wear underwear and that he'd use the toilet.

I was trying to make a deal out of his decision to be a big kid and he showed me how big was. That's as big as he could get his arms - he was trying to show that he is very big!

And. On Friday, Andrew will be going to his first (non-family) slumber party.

And just in case you missed it, Andrew learned to ride without training wheels yesterday! It's too much for one week. Don't they know I can only take so much...

2 wheels!!!

On the way to school this morning, Andrew asked if he could learn how to ride his bike without training wheels when we got home. We've been waiting for a good day to do it so it was perfect timing. I was a little worried that he would give up if he couldn't do it right away and Matt was worried that if he fell and got a little scratched that he might be too nervous to try again. We both gave him our pep talks to try to convince him he can do it and then headed out. He hopped on, and after Matt explained balance, he literally got it on his first try. Matt pushed him and let go and Andrew kept going. Crazy. After he got a little more comfortable we headed to a park so he could have more room to work on starting on his own and turning, etc. He's officially a two wheeling machine. It was a pretty exciting day.

To make sure Mason's life rocked too, we brought Andrew's scooter for him to try out for the first time. It's not that he couldn't do it before, he just never seemed to want to. We figured by making it a big deal, he might be more into it. Our plan totally worked. He loved it!

booster

Andrew is down to just his booster seat. I took the back part off - the part he used to need to make sure his seat belt was positioned right. But now he's tall and doesn't need it. And just like that, he got a little bit older...

no more tiny toilets!

He did it! He earned his Build-a-Bear for giving up his tiny toilet!

He picked this dog - a dark brown version of what Andrew has.

He was very excited (and hopefully proud of himself) when his dog was all fluffed and put together. He didn't quite get the concept of giving him a name and kept saying he wanted to name him Rock, which is Andrew's dog, so we tried to help him out a bit. Then it sounded like he said Rocket, so we went with it. The boys now have brother dogs named Rock and Rocket. : )

we have a boat!!

Other than the quick trip he took back in January (in the snow) today was our first time out on Matt's new fishing boat. It was a perfect day.

Mason wasn't sold on the whole deal. He was fine as long as he was on my lap, but he was still a little nervous and didn't care for the life jacket. By the end he was laughing, so hopefully we start at that point next time.

The sun was out and it was fairly warm (for a March morning). We had hats and warm boots on and it made it very comfortable for the 2+ hours we were out there!!

Matt taught Andrew how to drive the boat.

Just a little proof that I was there too. : )

What a fun day!! I hope this makes for some great memories for our boys!!