Seattle Vacation

This week we decided to take a mini-vacation down to Seattle. The kids were so excited to stay in a hotel and Braden had been counting down for about a week. We stayed at Lake Union and they had a pool that was shallow enough they could both touch the bottom which made swimming a lot of fun for them. Braden can swim pretty good now and Conner is getting pretty comfortable in the water also.

Monday morning we went down to the Woodland Park Zoo with Aunt Julie and the cousins and Grandma and Grandpa Thomas. We spent most of the day at the zoo. The highlights were the dancing elephant (you can see in the picture how his foot is picked up a little). He was crossing his feet in front of him in a dancing motion and bobbing his head in the same pattern over and over again. We also saw a bear doing a similar thing with his head. The kids (and Jeff) thought it was very funny. Another highlight was the otters and the penguins. Everyone had a great time. Then we went back to the hotel to swim and out to dinner at the Spaghetti Factory. The next day we went to Gameworks and played video games for 1 1/2 hours (Braden was in heaven). Then lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. Afterwards we went to a place in Bellevue called Sky High Sports. It is a giant building filled with trampolines. They jumped and jumped and jumped. Braden's favorite spot was the trampolines that you could jump into a large foam pit and Conner liked to race in the 8 and under area. Dad liked to jump high and far. He was the sweatiest one at the end. Then we got ice cream cones on the way home. It was a great mini vacation.

Last Day

This year marked the end of several things for my kids. Braden had his last day in Pre-K and will be moving on to be a Kindergarten next year at his daddy's school. He is very excited for the change and couldn't get older fast enough. According to Braden, he is already pretty much a grown up. He is so independent and would like to do everything himself. His first day of Pre-K this year all the parents were asked to attend and introduce the school to the kids. As I sat down in the classroom, Braden looked up at me and asked me why I was still there? I told him that all the parents were supposed to stay and he looked around to make sure I was telling him the truth. Then as the year progressed he kept asking to do more and more by himself. His grandparents take him to school during the week. Tuesdays and Thursdays I drop him down at Grandma and Grandpa Thomas' house. I started off walking him in and saying goodbye. Then, I was asked (by Braden) if I would stay in the car and let him go in the house by himself. I agreed and waited in the car each day until I saw Grandpa wave at me. Then after a few weeks of this he got out of the car and told me to drive off before he went inside. This is where I drew the line. I told him I would not leave before I knew Grandpa was there. Geez....he's growing up quickly!

This June also marked the end of a very important person in our lives. Sandy, our daycare provider, left her position as a daycare. Last week was the last day and I cried my eyes out on that last day. We have been going there since Braden was 8 months old. Braden, the independent child, seems totally fine with the idea of not seeing Sandy any more. He is ready to start Kindergarten and move on. Conner, however, is a little sad. He loves Sandy like a grandma. Luckily, he is starting an am Pre-K program next fall so he would not need as much daycare anyway. We hope our new provider, Miss Andrea, will be just as wonderful as Sandy.

t-ball

Braden played his first year of t-ball this year. Jeff and I ended up helping coach the team and this worked out well for Conner. He decided a few practices into the season that he wanted to play. Since both Jeff and I were helping coach, Conner was allowed to play just like all the other kids at all the practices (we had one practice and one game a week). He was very good about understanding he couldn't play during the games (you have to be 5 to play t-ball legally). He even got his own jersey at the end of the season.

Braden really enjoyed t-ball at first. He loves playing "pitcher" and first base because that is where all the action is. Most balls are only hit between these two positions in our league. He was all over fielding those balls and he has a pretty good arm. His batting on the tee could use some work but he is a lot better about hitting a pitched ball. We think we will try putting him in coach pitch next year. He enjoyed the season but it was a long 2+ months. By the end he would tell me that he was glad we got rained out because he needed to rest his arm. He would say he still enjoyed the game but his arm needed rest. He still loves sports and we are interested to see which ones he will decide are his favorites once he is in school sports and has to make some decisions. Hopefully his sports enthusiasm will stay with him until then!

Row, Row, Row your boat

Conner was singing Row, Row, Row Your Boat and trying to think of the right words. This is what he came up with:

row, row, row your boat
carefully down the lake
merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily
it's a piece of cake...

Hey it made sense and it rhymed. I think I like it. I also like the replaced gently with carefully....

Language

I think Braden has started to tell me in his own way that it is time to start correcting Conner's language and speech. I will tell you there is a lot of things about motherhood I never expected until I had these little munchkins. One thing is that I am almost heartbroken every time we pass a stage that I loved. It has been harder for me with Conner since I don't have another baby to fill that stage in another year or two. One last thread of baby we are hanging on to is the cute things he says. I know I only have a little while longer before he just sounds like a regular grown boy (and yes that makes me sad). He still says some things like the word them instead of they "Where them going? or What are them doing?" Wrong but I love it. He also says some words incorrectly like buffalo is pronounced fuffalo to him. He can probably say the word buffalo just fine but he thinks the word is fuffalo. The other day we were talking about the buffalo and Braden piped in that we were not saying the word correctly. Apparently we were irritating him. I guess I will have to let Braden tell him the correct words but until then I will enjoy the cute words.

Commercialism

Braden sporting the scared ninja look with the birthday present ribbon....

Braden is so funny about things he sees in commercials. We really do not let him watch much TV and he is only allowed Nick or Disney Channel. However, he always pulls these products from commercials out of his pocket of knowledge and tells us we need to buy them for various reasons. A while back it was a conversation about why we couldn't buy just anything we want all the time because it costs too much money. Braden quickly comes back with "Yes, we can't even afford to buy a Sunsetter retractable awning with a $200 certificate". A conversation was then had about what he was watching on TV. Then one night when we were brushing out teeth he informed us that we needed to buy one of those no touch toothpaste dispensers to help with our toothpaste needs. My favorite though was tonight. Braden was in his spring concert for preschool. On the way home it was just Braden and myself because Conner rode home with dad. I was telling Braden how proud I was of him and what a good job he did at singing. I told him how much I loved him. He asked me if I loved Conner more than him. I said no, I love you both the same. Since he didn't seem convinced for some reason, I told him that I even loved him first because he was my first baby and I loved him and Conner more than anything in the world. He then responds by telling me the following: "Yeah, I knew that even when I was a baby and couldn't talk. You know mom, you should have bought me that thing that helps babies to talk and read (I think he was referring to Your Baby Can Read DVDs) because then I could have told you how much I loved you too even before I could talk. It was so sweet and yet so funny at the same time. What did I do before them?

Funny words from cute boys....

Conner was playing trains with me last night and he took my train and said "uh oh mom, your train just chooched away." He must have decided he really liked his new word chooched because he kept using it again and again. "Look at how them go mom, watch them chooch." Oh yes, also he never uses the word they, he uses them like to say "What are them doing?". He has other funny grammar issues still too like saying "Mom, where you are?" Could I correct him and teach him the correct way to say it? Yes. But am I desperately trying to hold onto to his babyhood with his cute language? Yes. Don't judge me too quickly. I teach him many things: he can count to 100, he knows all his letters and there sounds, he can spell his name and his brothers name. But for some reason, I can't bring myself to correct his grammar. I just love it too much.

Braden really wants to go see Iron Man. It is PG 13 so I was fairly certain this would be inappropriate for a 5 year old. Jeff and I went to the movie and I told him we would see if it was ok for him to watch. Afterwards when I told him it was not appropriate for kids I was shocked that he didn't try to argue. He just said "Ok, mom, does it have lots of stupid words in it?" (Stupid is a word that both of my boys have declared to be a REALLY bad word.) I love to see their minds work. The only bad thing that could possibly be in a movie is the word stupid.