Back to School

Nolan has been back to school for a month now.  He seems pretty happy to be back.  The transition to kindergarten has been easy for him.  His day isn’t that much different than it was when he was in Pre-K.  They do get to go to the big playground now though!  

There are a few kids in his class that were with him last year.  All three kinder classes get together on the playground and in the gym so he gets to see his friends in the other classes during those times.  

He really enjoys Tuesday and Thursday afternoons when I pick him up.  He tells me that he wants to be a “walker” every day.  

Kevin likes to comment on how young his teacher is.  She is pretty young...I think it is her second year of teaching.  She seems to be good though and I have heard that she really knows how to keep her class in line. 

 

Hopefully Henry will get into Pre-K next year because he asks every time we drop Nolan off “when do I get to go to Nolan’s school.”  

 

The Rest of our Summer

Even though Florida was our only “big” adventure this summer we still had some fun during the rest of it.

We went to the Laird’s beach house for the 4^th of July.  Galveston has been hit with a ton of seaweed this summer.  It was really funny because when we first got to the beach Nolan did not want to put his feet down.  He finally loosened up and had a good time.  The kids found a bunch of hermit crabs, built sand castles, and had fun riding on the golf cart.  We thought about sticking around for fireworks but headed home before that.  One of these days we will actually take the kids to see some!

 

Mid-July we (my sisters and parents) hosted the Neville family reunion.  We had a really good turn out and it was great to see most of the cousins and aunts and uncles.  The next generation has sure grown since the last time we all got together!  There was a welcome party, a BBQ night, swim party, Mexican night, parent’s night out to the bar, and finally a farewell brunch.

 

At the beginning of August Kevin was going to be out of town for most of the week.  First for work to Denver, and then for a bachelor party close to where we had been in FL back in June.  During the weekend that Kevin was going to be gone my office was having a day at the beach in Galveston.  I decided to brave taking all three boys by myself.  The trip actually went pretty well.  Nolan loved playing in the water.  Grant loved eating the sand.  Henry didn’t really want to do much else than sit under the tent but he seemed happy too.  The only part that wasn’t the best was I decided to take them to the Strand for ice cream before heading home.  They were pretty good but it was hard to find parking and Henry and Grant were falling asleep.  It just wasn’t really worth the hassle!

 

 

The week before Nolan was to go back to school we decided to take the older boys to Crystal Beach at Moody Gardens.  The boys had fun going down the slides and around the lazy river.  I think their favorite thing was the wave pool though. 

During the week we did a few fun things too.  Nolan and Henry were home with me every Tuesday and Thursday so we tried to do some different things on those days.  We did a movie, Noah’s Ark, the Children’s Museum with Nanna, lots of swimming, and lots of trips to the mall/Target where the boys loved to look at Lego sets. 

 

14 Months

Grant is 14 months old now.  He is now a full time walker.  He started taking some independent steps at the beginning of July but much preferred crawling.  Each week that went by he would add a few more steps but still wasn’t ready to commit.  Finally about 2 weeks ago he decided he was ready.  He is pretty steady on his feet.  If he does fall he pops back up. 

A week ago he moved up to the toddler class at daycare.  With the new class comes outside playtime.  When he was outside walking he fell and busted his chin.  I got a call from the director that he might need his chin to be glued.  When I picked him up he was happy as could be.  They said that he barely cried when he fell.  He had some blood on his shirt but the actual cut was kind of hard to see.  When the doctor came in she said that our options were to get some stitches from a plastic surgeon or she could do dermabond.  She said if it was her child she would just do the dermabond because it was on the chin and not the face.  She did say that it will scar.  She cleaned up the cut and that was the first time I got a really good look at it.  The cut was bigger/deeper than I originally thought.  She thought she might need the nurses to help with the gluing but he was so calm on my lap she just let me hold him.  She said that he was her patient of the quarter.

Grant babbles constantly but I am still not sure how many true words he has.  Over the past few days I think I have started to pick up on a few though.  I am pretty positive he says “snack” because he makes the same noise over and over when he sees food that he wants.  It sounds like nack.  He also smacks his lips when he sees some food that he wants.  I am pretty sure he said “ball” a few days ago too.  He has one of those first word books with pictures and he can successfully point out the cat and dog. 

He really loves to dance.  There is nothing cuter than when babies start to move to the music.  There is a little boom box toy that we have that plays a few songs and he just loves to grove to that music.  We also have a Grover microphone that he likes to play with.  When standing he has started to bend his knees to get even more into it.

Grant is already a climber.  He has a little piano toy that he climbed on top of the other day.  He will also climb from the anywhere chair onto the coffee table if it is right in front of it.  Then he does a nose dive back off the table onto the chair.  He likes to stand on the step stool in the bathroom and reach up to the counter.  He likes to play with the toy kitchen and he will stand on any toy available to get a better position.  Luckily he can’t climb onto the couch yet but now that I have said that I am sure he will any day now. 

Bedtime is a breeze (knock on wood).  He is generally ready for bed no later than 7:30.  We look at books / play in his room.  Then I turn off his light and sit with him in the rocking chair for a minute.  He snuggles for a few seconds and then points to his crib.  I lay him down with his lovies and turn on the noise maker and that is all.  He has been waking up around 4:30 though.  Generally all he needs is his paci (usually it has fallen out of the crib) and his noisemaker back on and he will go back to sleep for a while. 

He is roughly 24 pounds.  He is a decent eater but he is definitely starting to have opinions on what he does and doesn't want to eat.  Some of the fruits/vegs he was loving a few weeks ago he will toss to the floor now.  He still has pretty much no interest in cheese which I find funny.  He likes milk and has no issues with any type of sippy

30A

At the beginning of June we went back to the beaches of FL for the 3^rd time with the Gray family.  The first time was just Nolan.  The second time added in Henry.  Now this time we had Grant!  That made a total of 6 boys aged 6 and under!  We went back to Blue Tide in Seacrest.  It was the same complex as 2 years ago but a different unit.  The drive went pretty well.  We left Friday afternoon and drove to Baton Rouge.  We had just barely made it out of Houston when Henry asked “when are we going to be at the beach” for the first time.  We heard variations of that question about 100 more times before we finally arrived.  On Saturday we stopped for lunch in Mobile.  Luckily all three boys fell asleep after lunch and slept for a majority of the final leg of the trip.  It was around 3 when we arrived but we couldn’t go in until 4 because the cleaning crew was still there.  Nolan and Henry were begging to swim so we just changed them in the parking lot and let them swim. 

The condo has several flights of stairs so we had to block one with a bench and the other with our baby gate we brought from home.  Grant and Toby didn’t seem to play on the stairs quite as much as Henry and Ryan did 2 years ago.  Grant would just crawl right under the bench and try to get on the stairs though.  The four older boys all stayed in the loft together.  The first few nights were pretty crazy at bed time but it got better towards the end of the week. 

The boys enjoyed the beach but I think they were more interested in the pool at times.  We spent each day doing a mixture of both.  Grant really enjoyed the beach.  He didn’t necessarily try to eat handfuls of sand, but he did get quite a bit in his mouth.  A few times he just face planted in the sand but was so happy about it.  He loved it when either of us would put his feet in the water and then pull him out when a wave came.  Henry enjoyed doing that too.  He was a lot heavier though so it wasn’t as easy!  Nolan was pretty comfortable with the water.  Two years ago he took several days to warm up to it. 

 

We were very lucky to have nice weather once again.  We only got one storm and it only lasted about an hour. We went on walks most mornings but the heat and bright sun was so bad even early in the morning so it wasn’t always that pleasant.  It is so nice being just a staircase away from the water but the stairs were no joke.  I think I counted 55 stairs.  It was quite the climb with all the kids and our gear.  Most mornings we just set up our tent first thing in the morning and leave everything out there until the end of the day. 

We didn’t do much else than the pool and beach but we did go out one night for ice cream.  We also went out to lunch one day.  Nolan and Kyle even got to play golf one morning with Kevin and Russ.  We did go for midafternoon drives on a few occasions to get Nolan and Henry to take a little nap. Later nights and early mornings made for sometimes grumpy boys! We also had cupcakes on Grant’s birthday.

The drive home went pretty well too.  We drove straight back the next Saturday.  We were on the road by about 7:30 in the morning.  We did have quite a few more potty breaks than I would like but when your 3 year old says they have to go to the potty right that second you stop!  All in all we survived and look forward to going again in the future.  I think it will be even better when the boys are all a little older because then it might be a little more relaxing for mom and dad!

Grant is 1!

Grant is 1!  He had his first birthday while we were on vacation in FL.  We waited until we got back to have his party but I did buy some cupcakes to celebrate the big day.  When the cupcake was set down in front of him he knew exactly what to do.  I guess he has been observing his brothers when they get sweets!

At one year old Grant is eating and sleeping pretty well!  He goes down to bed like a dream and sleeps through the night.  He goes to bed between 7 and 7:30 depending on how fussy he seems.  He will occasionally wake up around 4:30 but if you give him some milk he will go right back to sleep.  He is a bit of an early bird though so 6:30 is sleeping late.  At daycare he usually only takes one mid-day nap but at home he still likes a morning and an afternoon one. He still gags on some foods (which makes me so nervous!) but he is basically doing all self-feeding at this point.  We still give him a puree from time to time and we feed him yogurt.   He is now eating school breakfast and lunch.  They tell us that he gets very envious still if someone else is eating and he isn’t.  If the boys have food out on the coffee table he will try to steal it.  He used to start smacking his lips if he saw some food he wanted but now I am pretty sure he is saying some version of “more” when he sees food.

He isn’t walking yet but is getting close.  He stands on his own and can stand without using anything to pull up on.  He likes to walk behind his push toys or holding hands.  He also cruises around the furniture with no issues.  This past weekend he started to take a few independent steps.  Most times he will lower to the ground and crawl if you try to get him to come to you but he has started to take about 2 steps before crawling. 

One of the most common comments we continue to get is about his fuzzy head!  He got his first haircut a few days after his birthday.  I was a little sad about losing the fuzz, but it is still there!  His hair was shorter at this age than his brothers so he wasn’t in desperate need of a cut but it was long over his ears and in the back.  He did pretty well during the cut.  Got a little antsy a few times but his first taste of a lollipop helped that! 

He did well with his one year checkup.  Dr. CS said that he is growing well and looks good.  He got 2 shots but barely cried.  Such a tough guy!



Grant @12 months:
Weight:  21lb 14oz (58%)
Height:  30in (53%)
Head:  47cm (75%)

Henry @ 12 months
Weight:  21 lbs 8 oz (27%)
Height:  30 1/2" (75%)
Head:  48cm (90%)

Nolan @ 12 months
Weight: 20 lbs 5 oz (15%)
Height:  29 1/2" (25%)
Head: 47cm (75%)

Swim Team

Nolan did swim team this year.  Whenever we would see people at the pool or in the neighborhood we would be asked if we had done or would be doing swim team.  Kids can start pre-swim at age 4.  We didn’t do it last year because of being busy with a brand new baby but knew we would do it this year.  We had heard what a great program they had and how pre-swim would teach them how to swim if they weren’t swimming yet.  At the very first practice there was a little skills test to see what section of the pre-swimmers Nolan would be grouped with.  He was placed in the “better” group and practiced with the 6 and unders.  Within a short period of time he was swimming so well.  We were out of town for the first swim meet but had a few once we returned.  We were told that the beauty of pre-swim was that he would swim at the very beginning of the meet and we could go home after that.

At his first meet he jumped in and swam the entire length of the pool by himself with no help! During pre-swim there is a coach in each lane to help if needed. The coach said since he was doing so well he would be swimming an actual event at the next meet. This was great but meant we actually had to stick around the meet! He was in event 19 which was 25m freestyle. He swam in the last heat and came in dead 3^rd out of 3 swimmers in his heat. We were so proud of him for swimming all by himself though. The last meet of the season he once again swam the 25m freestyle. This time he was the second to last heat and came in 4^th out of 5 swimmers so he already improved by so much in just one week. Swim season is over now and I can’t say that I will miss the daily practices. He loved it so much though. I’m sure he will continue to practice his skills throughout the summer.

 

Disney

This has been written for a while, I just hadn't gotten around to adding pictures!

For Valentine’s Day this year Kevin surprised me with a trip to Disney World.  We had discussed going to Disney at some point in the future and the boys even had a money jar that was our “Disney Fund” but I was thinking it was still a few years away.

I had mentioned to Kevin at one point that the Carrigan’s were going for a week so that put the thought in his head to move the trip up.  Well that and the fact that Nolan is Star Wars obsessed and he thought it was the perfect age for Nolan to do the Star Wars stuff that Disney has.  The one catch was that we wouldn’t be bringing Grant with us.  I knew that it would make the trip much easier to not have him there but we had never both been away from the kids before so it was going to be hard!

We didn’t tell the boys about the trip until Nolan’s birthday, which was 2 weeks before the trip.  We didn’t want to hear for weeks on end “when are we going” we also didn’t want to threaten to take any part of the trip away if they misbehaved.

The big day finally arrived.  We dropped Grant off at daycare and headed to the airport.  My dad had booked my ticket so I was in a primo seat up front while Kevin and the boys were way in the back.  It is only a two hour flight though so I had faith he would survive!  Once we arrived in Orlando we found the shuttle to our hotel.  Even though we were there before check in time we were lucky that our room was ready.  The boys really wanted to go to the pool but instead we got on the little water taxi outside of our hotel and went to Downtown Disney.  We meet up with the Carrigan’s but they were in an arcade that we didn’t plan on going in so we just visited for a few minutes and then went to check out the Lego store.  This place was huge!  The boys both enjoyed it because they had bins of loose Legos out that you could build with.  We also checked out the huge Disney store.  The boys had fun looking around and were good about not asking for every little thing.  Rain was coming and they shut down the ferry so we took the shuttle back to the hotel.  That night we met the Carrigan clan for dinner at their hotel, which was next door.

Thursday morning we were out the door bright and early waiting on the bus to take us to the Magic Kingdom.  Kristin had informed us the night before that it was a magic hour day meaning that they were open, to the people staying on site, one hour early.  That meant doors open at 8.  By the time we actually made it to the park and inside it was probably about 8:15 or so.  We snapped a few pictures in front of the castle and then set out to do some rides.  Too bad we didn’t plan our picture a little better because that was probably the only time that there really weren’t many people in front of the castle.  We could have had an unobstructed view!  The first thing we came upon was a carousel so we rode that.  After that we did the famous “It’s a Small World” ride.  I don’t think we did anymore before it was time for our character breakfast.  We had breakfast with the Winnie the Pooh gang and then went back out.  We rode the tea cups first (and met Alice in Wonderland and White Rabbit).  The tea cups were a big hit but made me feel a bit dizzy!  I don’t remember every ride we did that day nor will I list them but we rode a few more rides and met a few more characters.  One thing we did happen upon was the 3:00 parade.  We were riding the train and when we got to the Main Street station the announcement said they were on parade hold and you could stay on or get off.  Not knowing how long the hold would be we decided to get off.  There were lots of people sitting around waiting for the parade so we decided to do the same.  We had an excellent viewing spot and the parade was really good!  After it ended we decided to head back to the hotel and let the boys swim. 

The next day we were going to Disney Hollywood Studio.  This is where they have the Star Wars attractions.  There are several Jedi Training performances a day that children can be in but space is limited so Kevin and Nolan took off running as soon as we made it in the park.  Nolan did make a spot in a show but it wouldn’t be until 1:00.  We went to ride the Star Wars ride but were told that Henry was too small.  Kevin went with Nolan and I waited with Henry.  After they were finished Nolan came out loving it so I went and rode it with him.  It was 3D and pretty cool but I was quickly realizing that I didn’t love rides as much as I did when I was younger!  After that the boys built their own R2D2’s in the gift shop.  After that we went to ride the popular Toy Story ride.  Before that we met Buzz and Woody.  We had a really tight schedule with our fast passes and lunch reservation but we made it.  Lunch was another character meal with the Disney Junior characters.  After lunch the 100% chance of rain that was being predicted was starting.  We were really hoping that the rain would hold off so that Nolan could do his Jedi Training.  They had told Kevin that morning to still come to the meeting spot and even if they couldn’t do the performance they would still do something with the kids.   Nolan did get to put on a Jedi robe and hold a lightsaber and learn a few moves.  He was happy with that, but it was a little disappointing to us that one of the big things we were looking forward to for him was rained out.  The rain was no joke.  Very heavy with lightning and thunder too.  Luckily a lot of the stuff at Hollywood studio is indoor shows so we just watched a lot of those! 

Saturday was going to be another rainy day.  The chances of having some dry time did seem a little better than the day before though.  We were going to do another day at the Magic Kingdom.  It was raining that morning but it wasn’t too heavy.  It actually was kind of nice because there were no lines for rides.  We knocked out quite a few in a very short period of time.  We should have done Splash Mountain because we were already wet but the boys didn’t want to.  That probably wasn’t such a bad thing though because the drop looked kind of scary.  As the day went on the rain pretty much stopped and the park became more crowded.  We rode The Barnstormer and Henry loved that!  Nolan and Kevin rode Space Mountain.  Technically Nolan was just a little too small for the ride but they didn’t stop him from riding.  He thought the ride was awesome.  We watched the 3:00 parade again, this time in front of the castle.  Our spot wasn’t as good as the time before but it was neat to have that as the background.  We left the park around 6:00 to eat dinner but planned to return again for the nighttime parade and fireworks.  We arrived back at the Magic Kingdom around 8:45.  The electric parade begins at 9:00.  It was starting to get rainy again and the temperature was quite cool.  We decided to head back to the hotel immediately after the parade.  The boys asked a little about why we weren’t seeing fireworks  but weren’t too upset about it.  We had been gone for 12 hours so they were tired.

The next day was going home day.  Of course the weather was gorgeous!  We had a few hours to kill so we just ate breakfast and walked around the hotel.  There is a small playscape and also an arcade that occupied the boys.  Finally we let them each pick out a little momento from the gift shop.  Nolan got a Star Wars pin and Henry got a little Toy Story toy that looked just like the ride we went on.   I flew at the front of the plane by myself again but checked on the boy’s mid-flight.  There were acting a little crazy but luckily it is a short flight and there were lots of kids on the plane!  We have already decided that we will make another trip there once Grant is old enough to go and have fun.