Rainy Day

 Spring is finally here!  And that means our snow precipitation has turned to rain.

Anna picked her outfit for school today.  Very colorful and rain appropriate...sort of.

 We did a little rain walk in the yard.

Matthew found some leaves growing on our trees.

 Looking for worms

 Finding dandelions

The kids wanted to see if it was rainy in our neighbors yard too.

Hooray for rain!

Tiny Town

A couple weeks ago we drove up into the mountains to visit Tiny Town.  It's a little town in the mountains made up of tiny houses and a tiny railroad.  Here's Matthew by the Tiny Town Library.

 Scott and Johnny on the Tiny Town railroad.

 And Grant and I

 The train drove up around to see some of the outlying parts of Tiny Town.  Here are some farms.

 The Air Force Academy Chapel

 A lighthouse

 Matthew and Anna got to ride in the caboose.

 A lot of the buildings had displays to see inside.

 Here's nursery and greenhouse (this one is for Grandma Keeler).

Grant found this windmill and decided he was the King of it.  He wouldn't let any other kids come in.  I finally had to depose him - pull him away screaming.  He was not a benevolent dictator.

 He felt better when we found the playground.

 Even Johnny got to swing on the swings.  See how much he loves it.

 Johnny had to terrorize a few buildings on the way out of Tiny Town.  King Kong style.

Goodbye Tiny Town!

John Sitting

John is 9 months old now.  He is about 30th percentile in weight, but still has a big head (90th %).  He is a little bit behind on some of his gross motor skills, namely sitting and standing.  He can sit but he's not very stable and he arches his back a lot and tips over.  He doesn't try to stand much or pull up on things.  I like to think he's like Ferdinand the bull.  He can stand up when you hold his hands, he just doesn't like to do it.  :)  Our doctor recommended taking him in to the pediatrician again once we get to Illinois and if he is still behind she recommended getting some preventative physical therapy for him.  So I'm hoping we can encourage him to sit and stand a bit more before then.  I put him in double boppies to help practice sitting after our appointment today.

 Ferdinand liked to sit and smell the flowers...quietly

He's not behind in cuteness.  He's our gentle Johnny.

Mother's Day Picnic

Matthew's kindergarten class hosted a Mother's picnic this week.  I had to take all the kids with me, even Anna, since she doesn't have school on Fridays.  We were all very excited to attend!  It was threatening rain, so we had the picnic in Matthew's classroom.  It was a bit crowded.

 We spread out our blanket and opened up our picnic basket.

The much beloved music teacher came in to lead the kids in a couple mother's day songs they had been working on.

 They did a great job!

 We had a dance party at the end of our visit.  Lots of fun.

I tried to take a quick picture of the two of us before the picnic was over.

It was a very fun day!!

Meet Grant

 This is Grant.  He is two now.  He has opinions.  

He is making great strides with his talking, but there is still a significant communication gap between us sometimes.  I do try.

 He tries not to nap...if he can help it.  I try to encourage the nap, but he has to think its his own idea.

And he often has schmutz on his face (it's a thing!) because he can get messy again faster than I can catch and wipe him.

 He doesn't like getting dressed or getting his diaper changed.

And he doesn't always like getting his picture taken...

 ...except on his terms.

But he definitely doesn't want to be left out of any big person activities

  He's also recently discovered gum

He's a big boy, after all

 He doesn't like being told how to do things, and sometimes he must be stern about it.

He has also, on occasion, been forced to endure serious indignities 

(a mitten duct taped to his hand to help a cut heal)

 But overall he is a happy guy, and loves to laugh and have fun

He is excited to be big.  He climbed up on this stool and pronounced that he was "big as daddy."  He actually said "Mine big as daddy!"  He uses the term "mine" (or "mein") in place of my, I, mine and I'm.  He might be a little bit German.  We're so happy he's in our family!