Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Movie Night... & Underpants!!!

A while back I took the boys to Movie Night at church where they were showing a Veggie Tales movie, The League of Incredible Vegetables. Lydia stayed home because she hadn't napped that day and she was in desparate need of an early bedtime.
Lincoln w/ PopcornHenry @ Movie
The boys did great, enjoying the fun that was set up for all of the kids, and most importantly the popcorn!

And then, for a little fun, the diaper-wearing kids got a break and tried out some underpants for a few minutes.
Underpants

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Great Wolf Lodge

Mommy & Lincoln @ GWLWatching over the Waterpark
This past Tuesday we left Lydia and Henry at Grandpa & Grandma's house for the night and Jenn and I took Lincoln to Great Wolf Lodge. We arrived in the evening, ate at Applebee's (a rarity for Lincoln), and scoped out the place in anticipation of our big day on Wednesday.
CargonetLincoln in Waterfall
Jenn
Lincoln Pumping WaterLincoln on Snake
Lincoln isn't a terribly outgoing kid with things like this, so we took it slow on the slides and the pools. As time passed, he figured out that all of this was pretty fun! From riding on the big slides with me, to the little slides by himself, to the pool, to the big bucket, we all wore ourselves out and went home very tired.

"What's the big bucket?" you ask. It's a 700 gallon shower that dumps down about every 7 to 10 minutes. Just prior, a bell rings to signal it's coming, and all day long Lincoln stopped what he was doing as soon as he heard the bell. At the end of our day, we stood beneath it...
Big Bucket 1

Friday, March 15, 2013

Henry Gets Ready For A Change

I've been meaning to get some video of Henry talking for a while now. This is what I took yesterday. It makes it a bit tougher to understand him with his fingers in his mouth, but when he's got his dog, he's sucking his fingers. Oh, well. He also sort of played along with me as I prompted him to do some of the things he likes to do and say and have close at hand during diaper changes. Anyway, this is a good look into his verbal development, which has exploded since late January.

Thursday, March 14, 2013

Freezing Morning at the Beaver Pond

bear with sock
While Jenn went for a run on the Towpath yesterday, I took a walk with the kids to the beaver pond. It. Was. Cold.
beaver pond, 3/13
Jenn and I have been talking recently about how Henry's hand is going to be more and more of an issue as he shows initiatve in getting dressed, playing with more complext toys, etc. Of course he'll figure out ways to do these things, but it'll still be some kind of ordeal during the learning process. He continues to surprise us at how well he adapts, and one of those areas is with Legos.
Henry legosLincoln legos
Jenn is not on Pintrest, but if she were, this photo would be posted. Yesterday she made little scrambled egg men for the kids.
egg man
YMCA Pool
Lincoln @ swimming lesson

Sunday, March 10, 2013

Photo Catch-Up

Two posts within a week! What is this, 2012?!!!

I had a bunch of photos stuck on my camera that couldn't go to Picasa because Google decided to do some crazy stuff with merging Picasa & Google+... it's a fiasco, if you ask me. So I found a convenient place to store photos for the time being, and here's to catching up.
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Lydia @ zooIMG_3619
One other thing I forgot to mention: Jenn has been on a fitness and running craze. She's been racking up a bunch of miles per week, and her goal is to run in the Towpath 1/2 Marathon this coming October 13. It's darn impressive to hear her pounding the treadmill in the basement for nearly an hour at a fast pace for her short runs. Right now she's on the Towpath doing her long run for the week, something like 7 or 9 miles... holy cow! The other day, Jenn went running on the Towpath when it was snowing, and we agreed that, as we recalled watching runners in the Clintonville snow and looking at them like they were crazy and "running for fun," Jenn is one of those crazy people that runs for fun.
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Friday, March 8, 2013

Early March

We are now eagerly anticipating our trip to the Outer Banks with Auntie Em & Uncle Jeremy and crew along with Grandma Paulette and Grandpa Doug. Jenn's been looking for swimsuits and SPF shirts for the kids, and I've been telling Lincoln about climbing up the Currituck Lighthouse and other fun beach stories.

Henry is starting to put sentences together, and watching his mind work is really, really neat. While he still does a fair bit of crying and some screaming for Jenn during the day, he is much more responsive to her telling him why, for instance, he needs his hands wiped after lunch. Just last night Jenn and I were talking about how his receptive language picked up very quickly last summer, but while he may have heard the words and known a bit what we were talking about, it's clear that he's know understanding concepts much better and emotionally responding better in many situations.

He continues to be a champ at Sunday School, and when Jenn takes the kids out. This past Wednesday she took the kids to the Stow Library for story time and to meet with a new friend from church. This new friend said, "Whenever I see Henry he's always happy!" And he usually is. She also said, after they'd been there about 30 minutes, "Is there something up with his hand?" Henry just does life.

Lydia is staying in her crib during the night and after naps. It helps that I give her an almond as her "special treat" as a reward. She's so darn cute about it, too. And her cuteness is saving her lately because she simply doesn't listen or obey. Lincoln and Henry are a lot alike in that they're obedient and responsive. Lydia is just different, and she's going to try our patience as we go along.

Just the other evening, in the midst of a crying fit, she ran to her playhouse and sat inside. I crawled in after her and sat beside her, not saying anything. Mid-cry, she belted out, "I want some money!" Yeah. That's my daughter.

On another occasion, she was crying very dramatically in the middle of the night, and when Jenn asked what she wanted, she said, as the sobs continued to flow, "Where's my....... where's my....... where's my crown?" Well, isn't that the truth?! Jenn thought.

Lincoln is tearing it up in preschool. One of their worksheets dealt with money and he had to write how many cents were represented by various combinations of coins. He got them all correct, and when he told Jenn about it, he said, "Lots of the kids had to try a couple of times, but I just got it right the first time." Similarly, they had a very simple graphing exercise, and he worked out the graph correctly the first time. He then described to me how he did it, in a very matter-of-fact way, as though he'd been doing those exercises for some time now. Preschool has been a very good thing.

He started up his swimming lessons again this Wednesday. No crying this time, even after being away from the routine for a while, and I'm sure we can chalk his comfort and confidence up to preschool and general maturing. It remains to be seen how good of a swimmer he'll be by the time we're at the pool on vacation, but he'll be comfortable playing with us, at least.

Lincoln went to Leesville Lake again last Wednesday, and Grandpa had pirate ships for him to paint, pancakes for him to mix and eat, and a sundae for him to cover with chocolate syrup. It was a good day!