Celebration

Our little Micah-Man turned 2 a few weeks ago!  I'm still kind of coming to terms with this milestone...wasn't he just born?!?!  Every year for the boys' birthdays I make them a special photo book with pictures from the entire year and a nice long note to them at the end.  We just received Micah's book today and he is having so much fun going through it and pointing out himself over and over again in all the pictures.  Here are a couple samples of what the pages look like.  It's a 12x12 book, so the pages are nice and big and doesn't seem too cramped...

And here's the recap of Micah's year from the end of his book...

Oh little Micah-Man!  What a joy you are.  You have brought so much happiness to our family these last two years.  Your smile can light up a room and everyone loves that little blonde head of yours.  You have such a funny little sense of humor and love to make us laugh.  You refuse to say the name, Micah, and think it's hilarious to refer to yourself as "Ba-boop" instead.  You make the silliest little face and do the cutest thing with your fingers when you just want a "teensey, tinsey" little bit of something.  You are forever trying to keep up with Camden.  You guys usually play very well together, putting on "plays," playing with trucks, riding your "blue bike", reading books and chasing each other around the house, but there have been a few occasions where you get very mad and bite your big brother.  Despite your charm, you have a very strong will and haven't quite learned how to properly show your frustration.  Instead of trying to use your words, you generally throw all of the items near you across the room, throw your food on the floor, knock over chairs and just generally throw a major fit.  I'm hoping that this stage won't last forever!  
You are quickly growing up from a little baby to a big boy!  You can count up to about 14 and then start repeating random numbers again from that point on.  You know many of your letters and when we read books you often have to flip back and forth between pages showing us matching letters or similar pictures.  You are a very picky eater and would probably live only on yogurt, frozen berries, puffs and spaghetti if we let you!  You just stopped nursing this month and even though it seemed like you would nurse forever if I let you, you made a very smooth transition away from it.  You go pee on the potty often, but aren't yet showing much consistent interest in potty training.  You are still sleeping in your crib and finally just this summer started sleeping longer stretches.  You love to push your dolls and stuffed animals around in your stroller and sing them lullabies and you seem to be very excited about "Baby Goose" growing in my belly.  Every day you put your head on my belly then pop up saying, "Baby Goose Hi!" with the biggest smile on your face.  I think you'll be a wonderful big brother, especially since Camden has been such a great one for you.  We are so proud of you and love you more than you will ever know.  Happy 2nd Birthday, Micah Gray!
Love, Mama and Dada

We had a fun, low-key family party to celebrate. Here's my masterpiece...

 Birthday boy...

 We were even able to get my Dad into our house for the first time since he got sick in March!  Here's part of our nifty ramp...

 Dad was such a trooper...it's not easy for him to be moved around like this (and it was after a long day in the hospital) but he did great and I'm so glad we made it work.  Thanks, Daddy!

 "How old are you?"

 We Skyped with Caren, Dave and Clara for a few minutes.  It was kind of strange to have a family event without them here!

 Wish my Dad's hand wasn't blocking his face because this was a very cute moment after Micah unwrapped his dinosaur from Bepa.  He loved it and ran up to show him his new toy!   My Grandparents were here visiting from the Cape as well, which was another wonderful part of the evening...

 Micah LOVED his new fire station dollhouse from Nan and Pop!

 

 So glad he could be there!

Happy Birthday, Micah Gray!  Thanks for making the world a better place!  We love you!

Another Successful Project!

The three boys in my life love to do projects.  Scott is bored if he has to sit around for more than 20 minutes with nothing to do, so we often spontaneously start weekend projects just for fun.  We had a little plastic turtle sandbox that was sufficient while the boys were really little, but we decided as a family that we wanted to make a bigger sandbox that they could both comfortably play in along with their friends.  After a little research online and a trip to the hardware store, we were ready to go!

Here the boys are explaining what we're up to to our neighbor...

 A good little builder helping Daddy...

 Once it was all made, we ordered some sand to be delivered it was SOOO much cheaper to do it this way than to buy individual bags of sand.  For all of you out there wanting to build your own sandbox...remember this advice!
The boys watched the truck back up into our yard from the safety of the swingset. 

 Well, we ordered a little too much sand (it was only a yard, but the guy said he put a little extra in the truck!)  I think we had enough!

 We spent the next day taking loads of sand behind the shed to save a pile for the future...

 Lots of helpers makes for light work!  I even picked up a shovel a few times...I swear!

We are now thoroughly enjoying the fruits of our labor!  We even have had friends over, like these pictures of our boys playing with our two adorable visitors from North Carolina (Many of you probably know Kelcey either personally or through her incredible artwork and jewelry that I pretty much wear every single day.  She blogs over at Sweet Mess and is my sister's childhood best friend. She also grew up in the house we now live next door to and we're neighbors with her Dad!  I played with her and her sister when we were little and now our kids are playing together on the same little dead end road...pretty crazy!)  Anyway, the sandbox handled these four just beautifully! 

Thanks to my handyman husband for making this little idea a reality!  I love you! 

Montessori Preschool

My little Camden is all grown up!  He is attending preschool this year for the very first time.  After four years of being home with Mama full-time, he now goes to a little Montessori school two mornings a week from 8:00-11:30!  We are so happy that we found such a wonderful, safe, challenging environment for him (we just wish it wasn't 20 minutes away!  Ugh!) and he really seems to be loving it so far.  Unfortunately, after happily being dropped off for the first two weeks, this past week brought major tears and yelling - He's not really sad, he's just being stubborn and acting angry and making my life, and his teachers lives, much more difficult for about 7 minutes.  Then he's completely fine.  His teachers call me or text me within 10 minutes to assure me that he's fine, and I continually feel thankful that we have found a school with such a personal touch.  When I pick him up he's happy and talking a mile-a-minute about his day.  But he told me tonight he's still going to scream when I drop him off...it's like it's a decision he's made and he's sticking to it.  I'm telling you, this is one stubborn kid.  Overall, though, we are loving our experience and are so excited to see our little man learning new things every day.

Here are the boys with their special breakfast before the first day of Preschool in September...

 We needed to take a few pictures before loading into the car!

 Micah totally cracks me up in this picture...

 He was a little nervous!

 What studs!  :)

 Showing off his new backpack!  Such a big boy!

 Standing in front of his cubby on Day #1...

 I may have shed a tear...

 Here are some pictures of his classroom.  Montessori is such a unique and amazing opportunity and he is really loving it!

 Behind that little fence is the snack/lunch area.  Camden is allowed to go to his cubby and get his snack at any point throughout the day if he's hungry and sit in that little area with friends to eat.  

 Micah wishes he could go here too!

 We joined the class for International Day of Peace even though it wasn't on our regularly scheduled day.  The kids made pinwheels and we all sang a song that they sing together in circle time.  It was pretty cute. 

 "Light a Candle for Peace"

A couple of the other Mom's and kids...Camden is buddies with the little girl in the purple shirt.  Isn't she adorable?!?!

Hopefully we won't get too burned out on the drive because this seems to be a great fit for Camden.  Here's to hoping I drop him off to no tears this week.  yeah right...