Mom still has great moves!

She said she was awesome at hula hooping in elementary school. Luke really wants to learn, but he has some practice to do.

Columbus OH trip

Luke's meet this weekend was a big improvement - by far the best he's looked and scored. Dad says he's gotten past the plateau of the past few months. Overall he was 4 out of 8 in his age for Level 4s, and his highest place on event was a 2nd - we think rings. Event scores: floor - 13.3, pommel horse - 11.7 (much better than before), rings - 13.6, vault - 13.5, parallel bars - 13.3, high bars - 12.9.

We also went to the Columbus Science Center for much of Saturday. The dinosaur IMAX was amazing and the boys had fun at the exhibits.

Also went to our first college gymnastics meet, Penn State vs. Ohio State. The college men were amazing and one of the Penn State gymnastics came from Luke's gym. Unfortunately Luke was less impressed that my parents and I......he was much more interested in assembling a robotic pet we bought at the museum. Aaron gave me the best laugh of the weekend. He took a nap on Dad's lap during the meet and peed in his sleep, soaking Dad's leg and dripping on the floor. Dad's expression was priceless.

Cool writing

Biting

Aaron has bitten the same boy two days in a row at daycare. Today he leaned over and bit him during storytime. We don't know if it is agressive biting or if it is mis-guided T-Rex role playing. Either way, daycare will kick him out if he makes this into a habit.

Another new 'do

This one was created by the hairdresser, fortunately. Luke decided to get a short haircut. His head looks proportional to his body now! Here he's dressed in his new Star Wars jammies that we bought for PJ day at school.

New 'do

Aaron has moved up from paper and paintbrushes. If it isn't obvious from the photos, Rich is holding a handful of Aaron's hair. He has a nice bald spot on the left side of his head, self inflicted.

Happy Snow Day

It's amazing out here in deep, frozen.....Kentucky? Two major snowstorms in several days have buried us. Our parent-teacher conferences for school are cancelled and the boys are both home goofing off. Aaron is happy cutting paper and dropping the scraps on the floor and playing (yikes!) with the dino pop-up book. Luke has done some lazy play on the couch, math on Dreambox, leggo Star Wars on the Wii, and he's avoiding piano practice. Rich is thrilled that he gets to cross counry ski.

How much more snow can we possibly get this year?

Daddy gets Lost

Heather went to her yoga class today. I was outside modifying the dog kennel fence to prevent Charlie from escaping so Luke and Aaron were alone inside by themselves. About a half-hour to 45 minutes past when I heard Aaron crying and screaming so I ran inside to see what was the matter. When I found him he said, "Daddy, I lost you!"

Luke says....

Luke wanted me to get out of my comfy chair to go turn on the Wii for him. When I told him to go get a chair, stand on it, and turn it on himself, he said, "You're not working as a team, you know."

More weird Aaron

Mom and Dad took care of the boys tonight so Rich and I could go to the Valentine's Dance at church. Aaron was at his best at bedtime.....he tried to go to sleep wearing a Star Wars Storm Trooper helmet - he finally gave up and snuggled it instead.

For Valentines Luke's present was a new Star Wars themed Trouble game (it makes terrible noises) and a 100 piece Star Wars puzzle. For Aaron, a cherry tree counting game and a 24 piece Cars puzzle. Aaron did great with the game. I didn't realize that he could count to 9. I also talked to his Sunday school teacher, a woman who teaches classes in early childhood education. She also said that he seems very developmentally appropriate to her - good news.

Hard plastic, metal

Ok, the kids are weird.

Aaron went to bed with 5 metal dinosaur cookie cutters - his choice. Normally it's hard plastic dinos, or a couple of books.

Rich reminded me that Luke snuggled a plastic spray bottle to sleep one night, but it was usually construction vehicles.

Luke can put together (an expensive!) leggo set in a couple of hours. Unfortunately he wants a new one all the time. I haven't figured out how to inspire him to create his own ships and machines instead of using the pre-made sets, but I'm glad that he is systematic & logical.

Dino pancakes & snow

The dino pancakes were great in theory - inspired by Kristi's heart cake, but I found out that blueberries and goopy pancacke batter do NOT fit well in little cookie molds. Circles were still tasty.

Both boys are thrilled by the snow - and so is the big boy (inspires fantasies of moving to Colorado for him). The little ones kept trying to catch snowflakes with their tongues on the way out the door. Aaron is off to daycare for a few hours of playing with friends, and Luke is going to Sammy's house to build a snow fort. I'm going to enjoy (genuinely!) a couple hours of focus on UL homework - a projectt I'm excited about, plus the gift of time to work on it.

PTA Reflections

Luke's collage "Transformers are beautiful, and cool!" won an honorary mention at the PTA district art awards today. He likes his ribbons, but thought the ceremony was boring.

For some reason I can't get the photo to upload tonight. The picture is in the slideshow "Luke's Artwork." I also photographed a bunch of Luke's drawings and writing from the fall from school -- a way to keep the giant stacks of papers from overwhelming the house!

Aaron's First Parent-Teacher Conference

I had a conference with Aaron's teacher yesterday. I asked her about all the behaviors that Aaron demonstrates at home. The answers were very interesting. I spoke about how Aaron screams at home - for food, for a movie, for just about everything. When I asked her how often he screams at day care, the answer was "never". Then I asked her if she has seen Aaron demonstrate sensory issues like when he asks for a napkin the second he gets a spot of jelly or someting on his finger. She said "never". She was told by Aaron's former teacher for the 2 year old class how he didn't like his food touching each other on his plate. But she told me that she has "never" seen it. In other words at day care - he's an angel. He brings home a daily report of his day. Almost without fail it says that he he ate well, slept soundly and was happy.

Now that we know all that, his grace period for screaming and crying has been drastically reduced. Time-outs are now a regular occuring event. That little booger has been working us!
-Rich

Aaron's got a future in Hollywood

He re-named "Jurassic Park." It's called "Drastic Park" in our house. For a guy who's only been talking for a year it seems pretty perceptive.

Room Re-dos

Aaron intuitively knew that the top bunk is the cool bunk. He says, "gotta get bigger."

Lots of shelves - one more big set that aren't in a photo yet.... plenty of room for leggos. Comfy couch, in love with the big fabric panels rather than traditional curtains.
Making changes and updates to the house as been a gradual process - my office & the boys' room are the most recent changes. Really pleased with the boys's room because it was so ugly and cluttered. I did the painting, and we still need to stain the bed, but it's finally inviting and comfortable for them. Luke went to Ikea with us to pick everything out and he helped put together all of the furniture. It's still cluttered!

Cooties, cooties

everywhere! Last night Aaron woke up in the middle of the night and wanted medicine. I was so sleep deprived and out of it that I gave him another dose of antibiotic. Rich woke up and gave him tylenol not long after, and the two doses of antibiotic plus tylenol didn't agree with him. He threw up everywhere and screamed for quite awhile. Notice that I'm not sure how long he was awake..... I slept through all of the commotion. Pretty amazing, pretty exhausted.

This afternoon Luke's teacher called because he was teary and said his ears hurt. Rich took him to the doctor and he has strep. Really it seems like he feels ok, just icky and low energy. Dad's taking care of him tomorrow. Thank heavens he's in town and is willing to help.

I'm tired, achy, and probably just need a good night of sleep. Paranoid that I've caught a bug from the boys right before flying to LA for a conference.

Inventory

Did a quick inventory of Aaron's bed when I kissed him goodnight.... 2 t-rex, 1 triceratops, 1 velociraptor, 1 shark, and some other dino I can't spell. Good thing it's a big bed. Luke used to sleep with construction vehicles.