She's Baaa-aaack!

I just cannot seem to make time for this blog lately! Actually, I THINK about it all the time...I think "Oh poop, I really need to update the blog!!"...and then I do nothing about it.

I swear that I had more free time before the boys were each in school for a couple of hours, three days per week. Now, on MTW, we leave here around 8:40, drive to Keaton's school and drop him off right out front (he's MUCH too grown-up to have his parents walk him in, don't ya know!), then head straight to Melina's so Sullivan can go to school. We usually get there around 9:05 and I never seem to get out until maybe 9:20. Then I drive home and have a whopping 90 minutes until I have to go get Keats. I walk to get Keats at 11:20 (he's out at 11:30) and then we come home, I fix him lunch, and we go pick up Sully around 12:15 or 12:30. I learned early on that I need to let Sullivan eat lunch at Melina's. He gets SOOOOO mad if I pick him up before she's served lunch! Then we come home, getting here around 1:00 or so. Melina is stuck home with kids all day long so we usually end up talking quite a while...we both need adult conversation!

So, during the 90 minutes I have, I end up doing things like the budget, laundry, surfing for Christmas gifts, or sometimes I actually go shopping. 90 minutes isn't a lot of shopping time, at least for me, so I prefer to wait until I have more time. If Sullivan doesn't nap, we usually head out. It is very very very very very very VERY nice not to be Nap Trapped, as I have dubbed the situation of being stuck home while little ones nap. Today we went straight from Melina's to the mall downtown. Thursday is Oregon's "Civil War" football game against University of Oregon and Oregon State University, and Keaton's school is having a Spirit Day. The kids are supposed to wear the colors of their favorite team. We're more Ducks (UofO) than Beaver (OSU) fans, so we went shopping for a shirt. He would be so crushed to not get to dress up for Spirit Day so Daddy told us to go get a shirt today. What a sweet daddy!

Anyhoo, we shopped around, they got some frozen yogurt, and we didn't get home until almost 4 pm. Then it was dinner, dancing, and baths. The days are an absolute blur...meaning one blends in to the other which blends into another....

Tuesdays are Mike's "night off" and he's out to a movie. I had the boys in bed---ASLEEP---by 8 pm. Amazing. I'm not sure how I did it but I'm happy to have some "real" free time!

Here are some pics from the past few days:

I spent about 5 hours on Saturday organizing the garage. I really want a play area out there (since we lost the playroom by adding Mike's office) and realized the new play area wasn't going to just magically appear. It isn't complete- not safe enough yet for them to play out there without some supervision, but they are really having fun out there. Mike added the tv in front of the treadmill so we can watch it while we work out & while the boys play.

The next pics are just the boys and I messing around last night....

Sully would NOT cooperate!

And when he DID look at the camera, silly Mama had the zoom in to close. But I love how blue his eye is in the above shot, and how clear blue they are in the shot below...

The above shot is the closest Sullivan came to actually cooperating.

Neither of us knew the other were making silly faces above; below is some sort of superhero expression. Of course it is.

The above shot requires plenty of explanation. I had Keaton's parent/teacher conference last week. Academically, he is doing great. Kids in the Spanish immersion program are expected to be at least somewhat behind their English-only peers until 3rd grade. Apparently by Winter Break of 1st grade the kids are supposed to have some huge "Aha!" moments, but if they were tested in English they would be behind. Keaton's teacher, Senora Stewart, told me that he does GREAT academically, even though he's in the Spanish program. His handwriting is some of the best she's seen for a five-year-old boy. He can sing the Spanish alphabet and can count to 39 in Spanish. She said he is very close to reading, even though they aren't teaching that until next year. So, we are happy that he is doing fine with that side of school.

But....he spends a great deal of his day talking with is friends, goofing off, giggling, not doing the projects he is supposed to be doing, etc. She said he had spent the first 5 minutes of many a recess on the bench in time-out for not listening in class. Once, he even spent the entire recess inside because he'd had too many warnings. Oddly, Keats never once mentioned these time-outs, so we had absolutely no idea.

There are four or five boys who just get along great and they are causing problems in the class. Keats has a seat right next to the teacher for circle time because she can't trust him to sit by his friends. Sra. Stewart told me that Keaton is delightful, bright, and has never been outright rude or disrespectful...but I think his talking during class IS disrespectful.

We decided to do a thumbs-up/thumbs-down daily report, and every Friday he will come home with a written narrative of how his week went.

The jar above is filled with bits & pieces of Legos. Keaton dreams of the little Lego people, especially Star Wars but he'll take any of them, so I bought some, put them in a jar, and told him he could choose one every day he gets a thumbs-up from Sra. Stewart. At least until we run out of Legos. ;o)

Yesterday and today he got the thumbs-up sign, and I am happy about that! He's chosen Darth Vader, Chewbakka, and Anakin Skywalker. The first day I let him choose two so he'd be excited about the system we set up for him.

I'm happy that he loves Reuben AND Moose =^..^=

New hairdo that was just done yesterday.

Sully is getting good at playing an Elmo game on the internet. It is so cute to see him doing this!! He looks like such a big kid.

The day before Thanksgiving, Sully came home from preschool with this feather band/hat. He also had a very cute cornucopia: a waffle cone, vanilla yogurt, chocolate ships, and fruit snacks to sprinkle on top. He had a lot of fun eating it!

Just some funny shots of Moose. The day after these pics were taken Moose's bottom lip swelled up HUGE...you can actually see the start of the reaction here; usually his bottom lip isn't so pink, especially that far down his chin. On his right is where the swelling originated. He required an urgent vet visit (which surprisingly only cost about $60) and shot of steroids. He was okay a couple of days later. Poor baby! He is allergic to something he is eating...he is such a scavenger and he is always looking for leftovers from the boys.

Sully absolutely LOVES Devo. Mike bought the video for the song "Whip It" and Sully just wants to watch it over & over. Here is is wearing his version of the hat the band is wearing. I'm not exactly sure why Sullivan is nude but I suspect it has something to do with his being age three.