Mr. Boy

Mr. Boy is now a happy, healthy 3 1/2 years old. He's a ray of sunshine as bright as the curls on his head and he has been busy growing and changing the past 6 months. We have learned that Mr. Boy may be a member of the Asperger's Syndrome club, and we've got a super nice Miss Teacher who comes to our house once a week to play games and help Mr. Boy get ready for preschool in the fall. He has some doctors and special helpers to visit with in August and September to help us learn more about how to help Mr. Boy use his Great Brain and enthusiasm to his best advantages.

Things Mr. Boy is currently loving:

swimming! He took swimming lessons with Papa at the pool for 2 weeks and graduated with a certificate full of stickers and a coupon for a free pizza.

cookbooks! Mr. Boy loves to find a type of book he likes and indulge--he is currently obsessed with looking at Mama's Sandra Lee and Pampered Chef cookbooks and has all the pictures memorized by the recipe titles. His favorite picture is of the Tamale Pie in the Sandra Lee book.

Presidents! We have a book with pictures of the presidents and Mr. Boy loves to read through it and tell us who each picture represents. Millard Fillmore is a favorite but with his little guy way of talking, it sounds more like Miwward Fiwwmowe. But we know who he's talking about!

Tigers! Mr. Boy loves books that have pictures of tigers, a DVD we have about Swamp Tigers and the tigers in the movie 'Kung Fu Panda'.

Mr. Boy is planning to join a pre-school class 2 mornings a week in September and it is going to be a whole new world of making friends and learning in a new environment.

Update on the Team Captains

Mama and Big J have been busy helming the Bowling Team lately but we've had some time to get more settled, too.

Big J had a nice break from his job for a few months during the slow business months and we all got spoiled rotten having him home--could be why Mama let the blog get ignored?

Now Big J is back to work and we are enjoying the return to our 'real routine.'

Mama has joined the DAR and the missions committee at church to give her some outside projects that aren't career or kid related. The two groups meet often enough to make friends, but not so much that it is a stress to be involved--perfect!

Now that the kids are bigger and older, Mama has had a little more time in the kitchen, rediscovering the love of entertaining she had before Mr. Boy-related morning sickness kicked in about 4 years ago. We had an Asian-themed Father's Day dinner for Papa and Big J in June and last weekend Mama channeled her inner Martha and hosted a tea party for Grammy and her friends. Check out the yummy goods!

what have we missed?

Gonna try to hit a few highlights of the past un-blogged months here.

So here we go!

Christmas 2009 was our first Kansas Christmas and it was super. We had about 2 feet of snow and it was bitter cold, but Aunt Haley and Uncle Mike came from North Carolina, Uncle Raymond from Seattle, and we had a really fun week of celebrations.

The kids got a new kitchen! It was a big hit, and Princess Baby got a new dolly which was a favorite surprise, too.

We didn't do much by way of vacation this year but we did spend a fantastic day in Wichita on Good Friday with our cousins there. Princess Baby and Mr. Boy especially loved the Children's Exploration Place museum where everything was touchable and there was a special Mr. Potato head exhibit the kids loved.


We also celebrated a very happy Easter here for the 2nd year in a row! Easter is such a wonderful time of year both as it relates to our faith in God and as the earth wakes up from a winter nap! Easter egg hunts at church and at Grammy and Papa's back yard were conducted in full sunshine!

Time for a Revival of the Team Blog!

Whew, I last posted around Thanksgiving. That's certainly lame, isn't it?

What has happened since then? About 11 billion things, give or take.

But the team is doing excellent, as a group and individually.

We passed our Sunflower State 1 year residency anniversary back in April. That first year flew by super quick. But moving here was a really great decision and we're so happy it has worked out so well.

A great blessing, to be sure.

The blog needs a revival so that I can get my act together and share more of the day to day cuteness, hilarity, and joys we as a team experience together!

I think it would be a self-set up for failure to promise a post a day but 3 a week is my minimum goal.

Princess Baby Is Wigging me OUT!

I've written many times about how Mr. Boy loves letters and words and sounding things out. And how we have the Leapfrog ABC magnet set.

Mr. Boy has loved to bring us the letters for months telling us what they are and what they sound like.

A couple weeks ago, when Princess Baby started talking a lot, she started carrying around letter magnets and calling them all "D's" because that is a letter she apparently liked.

Tonight after work I was distractedly talking to the sitter before she left and Princess Baby came up to me and handed me a letter and said K. It was a K! So I think, must be a fluke, or Mr. Boy told her. But no, in the course of the next hour, she brought me over a dozen different letters, all with the correct designation. Then I tested her further and sent her to find the N or the O and she brought back the right ones!

Princess Baby isn't just a pretty face, ya'll!

Mr. Boy on Animal Diets

Mr. Boy has a new library book with baby animals in it and on the last page there is a tiger cub and the final line says something about him playing hard and needing a snack. The following conversation ensued:

Mama: "What snacks does the tiger eat?"
Mr. Boy: "Tiger eats peanuts."
Mr. Boy then takes the book from me and starts paging back through to the other animals.
Mama: "What does the goat eat?" (The picture is of a lamb but Mr. Boy is obsessed with goats, so he has declared this particular goat-ish looking lamb a goat.)
Mr. Boy: "Goat eats smarshmallows (sic)."
Mama: "What does the Duck eat?"
Mr. Boy: "Duck eats duck food."
Mama: "What does the bunny eat?"
Mr. Boy: "Vegetables and pops. Bunny says pop."
Mama: "What does Mr. Boy eat?"
Mr. Boy: "Mr. Boy eats smarshmallows, peanuts, goldfish, and Mr. Boy no like vegetables."

Maybe Mr. Boy should change his name to Mr. Healthy??

Proud and a little sad

Today we took Mr. Boy to visit his new preschool. I'm so excited that he's nearly 3 and ready for 2 afternoons a week of big boy school. It's really great.

But I'm sad. My first little baby is growing so fast. He's so tall and smart and talks a blue streak. I cannot believe he's old enough for school. I know it is only pre-school, but here it is. I'm now a mom who has a class list. A mom who will have a kid invited to birthday parties or play dates (assuming he learns to socialize like I hope!). A mom who will talk about spring break and back to school clothes. A mom on the list to help with classroom parties.

This is the beginning of an era in parenting that will last in one form or another for 15 more years. And I thought the baby stage was lasting forever, but I am coming to terms with the fact that everybody saying 'they're only babies for a minute' is so true and suddenly I'm going to be sharing my sweet Mr. Boy with people from all over the place. First it'll be these few half days a month and the next thing I know he'll be borrowing my keys to drive himself to his own school and begging me NOT to attend a class party or social event.

For now I'm choosing to be very excited that Mr. Boy is a strong, healthy kid who is getting a great opportunity to go to a nice Christian pre-school where he'll meet more adults who teach him about love and respect and venture into the wonderful world of friends and learning.

And I'm also going to be secretly rejoicing that Princess Baby is an end-of-spring Birthday girl and won't be old enough for this particular pre-school for another year and a half!!