My Valentine

Valentine's Day is one of those holidays that I have grown to not pay much attention to.  Don't get me wrong, I will always make sure the boys have lots of fun crafts, goodies for school, etc.  But I think that I have come to realize that I'd rather get flowers one a random day when I know that Chuck has a random reason for thinking of me and showering me with nice things.  However, it was a very nice surprise to get the sweetest card for Chuck.  I don't think he could have picked a better card.  Heart!

But this year was super fun cause Holden got to participate in his first "Valentine's Day" party at school.  They made little bags to hold all their goodies, had juice and cupcakes and got to take home 2 goody bags full of treats.  In addition, he made Mommy and Daddy a Valentine's day card, a homemade gift with his hand print and Bible versus they have been studying and Mommy bought a "Color Me Mine" holiday plate that Holden got help making for us to keep as a momentum of his first Valentine's day at Castle Creek.

The best gift of all this year, was knowing that I have the sweetest little boy who has the biggest heart for a 2 year old. He is just the most loving and caring little boy. Even all his new teachers and the director say that his demeanor is so sweet and calm. I'm so proud of the little man that he is becoming and cannot wait to see him interact with his baby brother.

We like to have fun too.  Can you tell Holden is in the phase of mimicking everything that someone else is doing??

Busy Bee's

The past few weeks have been pretty busy for us.  First, we received Holden's big boy furniture for his room, so that we could use the baby furniture for Hayes.  This seemed to get the ball rolling on my "nesting" kicking in.  We had ordered Hayes' bedding a few weeks back (pics to come once everything is all together in the nursery) but it really didn't dawn on me then that we had a TON of work to do before we could even start getting Hayes' room ready.

So, fortunately, I was on a work trip to Boston when Holden's new bedroom furniture was delivered.  It just so happened that Chuck happened to have a day off that week, so he and a friend planned on moving all of our guest bedroom furniture into the garage, moved all the boxes that I had previously packed, up into the attic for storage and moved our treadmill into the office.  Because I was out of town and hadn't washed the big boy bedding that I bought for Holden, Daddy decided it was probably best to leave Holden in his toddler bed until I got home versus trying to get him to go to bed, while his toddler bed was relocated to baby brother's room.  So I came home to having to wash bedding, help Daddy build Holden's bunk beds and get him re-adjusted to sleeping in his new, cool, big boy bed.

Did I mentioned that Holden would need to "adjust" to his big boy bed????

 

I don't know about you, but it doesn't look like he needed to "adjust."  With the exception of us having to rig something to keep him from climbing from the lower bunk to the stairs of the bed, which is NOT how it was intended to be done, he has done awesome.  We installed the toddler railing just to be sure he doesn't fall out until he is comfortable with the new bed too.  And he does climb the stairs, but has not tried to get on the second bunk and we still have it blocked so he can't get to it anyway.  I haven't taken any pics of the new set up yet, as it is still a work in progress. We still need to hang is new valance, mount the TV on the wall and move around his toys/toy box once we get everything situated.  But we no longer have any of the nursery furniture in the room, the glider is out and things are coming along.

This past weekend I cleaned Hayes' room, painted the accent wall behind his crib and placed the furniture where I want it.  I also had a friend come over and we played "amateur photographers" for the afternoon.  Much to our surprise the maternity photos turned out awesome and I am very happy with them.  I'll post those in a few weeks after the baby shower, gotta keep some things a surprise.

Despite all the work going on inside the house, we have found a little time to enjoy the beautiful weather that we have been having here and there.  Daddy put Holden's baseball tee together a few weeks ago, and not that I'm bragging, but I think we have an All-Star/Pro baseball player on our hands.  He's pretty good for a 2 year old.  Makes contact with the ball every time and hits it hard too.  Daddy is also very proud of the fact that Holden, although does everything right-handed, picked up the bat and has been hitting left-handed.

We've also enjoyed some other activities indoors, its not all nesting 24/7.

 And we have to go have breakfast at Old West Cafe when Daddy is off on Saturday's.  He LOVES their pancakes!

First week of Preschool

Holden started Preschool this past week and I have to say, I don't know who it was harder on; me, Daddy or Holden.  We've all been adjusting to a new schedule.  Before, Holden would eat breakfast at Ms. Linda's, not that he cant get once he gets to school, but it has to be something that doesn't need to be heated or prepared.  This will be fine sometimes, but I also want him to have a good breakfast most days.  So this week we have had cereal, fruit and yogurt, waffles and bagel with PB.  We've also been trying to get him in bed no later than 8:00, since we get up a little earlier to make sure we have time to get him ready, let him potty and eat breakfast before we head out the door.  I do like that I don't have to drive on the highway anymore, a few more read lights, but still less miles and time from dropping him off until I get to the office.

Monday he did so good at drop off.  One of the things that I like best about his school (Castle Creek Christian), among other things, is that you actually take your child to their classroom, get them settled and get to tell them good bye, kiss, hug, whatever before you leave.  Same thing in the afternoon at pick-up.  Holden walked right in the first day and wasted no time at all going straight to the toys.

Although I was cautions, we decided to go ahead and put him in his big boy underwear since he had been wearing them all day, with no accidents, at Ms. Linda's for going on 3 weeks.  I guess given his new surroundings, transition into a new school, new people, distraction, etc, potty training was the last thing from his mind.  Despite his teachers efforts (Ms. Dallas and Ms. Amy), Holden would not go pee-pee on the potty, but not 10 minutes later would go in his pants. So by the time Wednesday had rolled around, he had gone through 7 pairs of pants.  Daddy and I talked it over and figured we would continue to potty train at home and his teachers would still help him at school, but we would go back to pull-ups for a little while.  I think this was a good idea, cause Thursday Holden went on the potty and kept his pull-ups dry most of the day.  AND he is still doing a good job in the evenings and then this weekend of staying dry and going on the potty.  So we'll wait a few weeks to let him get comfortable with being on a new schedule, new place, etc and try big boy underwear again.

So, back to the good stuff about Preschool.  Holden loves it!  On the first day his report sheet said, "He was great!  It's like he has been here all along!"  This made me feel so happy and confident that we made the right decision in going ahead and starting him in school before the baby is born.  The next few mornings were a little tougher, he cried on mommy at drop off, but Ms. Dallas is so great with him. She always holds him and immediately gets him interested in a book, or blocks so that I can walk out.  BUT, Mommy stays in the hallway, peeking through the window to make sure that he is OK before I leave.  And he is, he stops crying the minute I am out the door.  He is also doing great at nap time, sleeping from 1.5-2 hours each day.  Only cried a little on Tuesday, but they rubbed his back and he went right on to sleep.  I think it's the cool nap mat that Mommy and Daddy got for him!

He is eating well at morning and afternoon snack and has done pretty well wit lunch.  Let me tell you, the snacks and lunch menu make me want to stay just to eat with the kids each day.  Love that he is getting a variety of different foods, some of them new too.

Each day they have different activities.  He has had Spanish, reading, the color red, the #2, yoga and who knows what else this week!  They also have outdoor play each day, with I'm thinking is Holden's favorite cause all he wants to do when we get home is go outside and play.  Even without anyone else.  Before, he only wanted to go outside and play if we had people over or Mommy or Daddy was out there.

Its funny, cause this week Holden has said more words than he was before.  Not that he didn't know what things were before, and I'm not saying he learned these new words in one week, but he definitely has surprised us.  He now says "two," "geen (green),"  and "boo (blue)."  And he said green when I asked him which jammies he wanted to wear one night. He kept saying over and over "geen, geen, geen" and I'll be honest it took me a minute to realize what he was saying until I picked up the green jammies and held them up and he grabbed them and said, "geen."  OK, OK.  You can wear the green ones.

All and all, it has been a good week.  There are a few things that we're hoping get better (like him getting more comfortable at school so that he poops (TMI) and that way isn't such a fussy butt in the evenings until he does go poop.  But we feel very fortunate and blessed that we were able to find a place that we like and Holden seems to be growing and developing at.  Let's see how he does next week!