Window Watching

The windows in our house are really tall with nice window sills under each window. Incidentally, they are "Kylie height". She just loves to crawl over to them and pull herself up to check out the view. When it was raining yesterday and today, Will and Kylie loved looking out the windows at the rain and the trees blowing in the wind.

Surprise!

On Sunday, we packed the kids and the visitors up and went on a special surprise trip. Will fell asleep on the way there, and he was so surprised and delighted to find out we were at a "puppy place" when he woke up. This breeder has a litter of 13 lab puppies; black and yellow. We went to visit and check it out to decide if we might be adding a member to our family in a month or so.




Looks like we'll be choosing one of these guys or girls to join us in the spring at our house. Will has a name picked out and had his eyes set on the dog with the blue collar, but we're going to visit a few more times to get to know the puppies as they develop personalities.

3.5

Our little boy is three and a half today. He's growing up so fast, it's hard to believe. His vocabulary and ability to make connections and remember things is amazing. He often brings up things from books or from the past that he connects to something he's seeing at the time. For example, the other day, he asked, "Do we live in the woods like Hansel and Gretel?" He also mentioned how he liked playing basketball with a nice girl when he was waiting for Daddy to come back from being on the boat and then he waved a flag and Daddy came off of a big airplane. That was an entire year ago. He frequently asks about the time Mommy was in the hospital getting Kylie out and she got to eat ice. The memory is amazing.



His new favorite TV shows are Dora and Diego, and he knows more about animals than most adults. His favorite foods (besides cookies) are Special K, cheese and lettuce sandwiches, sugar snap peas, macaroni and cheese, yogurt, and blueberry nutra-grain bars. He keeps asking when he can go to kindergarten and has said, on more than one occasion, "I will go on the big school bus with all the kids and I will not miss you all day long." (sniff sniff)


He loves his sister and especially loves that she is getting bigger. He tells Mommy that he loves her at least once an hour. He's moving into the little boy section of clothing in stores now, which is a bit sad. He wants a dog more than anything and we're discussing the best time to add that layer to our family. The dog's name changes daily but rotates between "Tank" and "Scout" fairly frequently. We haven't decided about his preschool plans for next year (two or three days a week?), but he's sure to rock his new teacher's world and continue to bring laughter and smiles to our family every day.

Park Time

After a little secret trip on Sunday afternoon, we took the kids over to the elementary school nearby to run off some energy. Will and Brielle loved climbing and sliding on everything and Kylie showed off her slide skills to Daddy. Kylie also led Daddy all over the playground by one hand (yes, she's getting that good at walking).

In the evening, there's time for a little television show and jammie time on the couch.

but not before a quick dance in the kitchen...

The Girl

She's quickly becoming a toddler and losing her "baby-ness". It's so sad. She's such a big girl, crawling and cruising and basically walking now. She rides her ride on toy (backwards) like a champ. She only wants big kid foods and she's starting to mimic the sounds of words. She LOVES the playground, leading Mom and Dad all over to touch everything and try everything. She giggles in the swings and can go down the little slides by herself if someone catches her.

She's motivated to crawl to shoes, phones, and books. She's a girl, what can we say?

Weekend Guests!

Look who came to visit us! Caitlin, Al, and Brielle made us their destination/stop over on their way to South Carolina for their week long vacation....which changed into a vacation to Virginia followed by a return to Massachusetts with a brief vacation somewhere in between since Southern bound traffic isn't Al's cup of tea. Anyway...we are SO GLAD they came to visit us for the long weekend! Will and Kylie have loved having Brielle here to play with. We've been very busy swimming at the YMCA, playing in the basement and using Al as a horse. We have tons more pictures but, well, we're very busy.

big boy, little boy

Will is at such a great age lately, but it's also bittersweet. Most of the time, he's this big kid, doing big kid things like running and playing sports and talking up a storm. He loves to read to himself before bed and he's very thoughtful and sweet with his sister. He even gave her his "Mister Bear" over the weekend, telling her, "You can have Mister Bear, Kylie, he will keep you safe when you sleep."

Thankfully, though, he's still a little boy at heart. He loves his Mommy. He needs his Snuggles when he's tired or hurt. And he woke up at 11:30pm and very sadly asked if maybe he could have Mister Bear back for a little bit.

He's growing up so fast, so we just love to see those "little boy" moments linger a bit longer.