Update!

I have a little bit of time right now, so I thought I'd write a quick update while I have the chance! Our summer is winding down (Oliver and Buttercup start school on Monday, eek!), and we have had a lot of fun adventures that we will remember for years to come. Here's what the kids are up to these days!

Oliver:
At the beginning of the summer, he decided that his goal was to learn how to write in cursive, ha ha! It took him two days to learn how to write all of the letters, and he's been writing everything in cursive ever since. :-) 

Oliver still loves building with Legos and has built several dioramas this summer. My favorite was a mad scientist's laboratory, that was very amazing with all of the details that Oliver added to it. I wish I had remembered to take a picture of it before Oliver destroyed it to build something else! He also built a city with a few different scenes (a park, a beach, a gatehouse with a tower behind it), and is currently working on a diorama of Blue Hole in Wemberley (a swimming hole). :-) I love seeing what he comes up with; he is so creative! 

One last thing about Oliver is that he is continuing to do great with swimming! He loves it, and his swim coach has moved him up to the next level of swim team, which he'll start in a couple of weeks. So proud of him! 



Buttercup:   
She decided that she wanted to learn how to read better this summer, but she refused to let me help her. (Not surprising for anyone who knows her!) It took her a bit longer, but she never gave up, and she is reading pretty well now! She has memorized about 75 sight words, and is pretty good at blending sounds together and sounding new words out. I love this new stage of her life, where I can see her strong will working toward a positive goal. :-) 

Buttercup has also become more of a girly girl this summer. She still likes to roughhouse and wrestle with the boys, but she's more inclined to go in her room to read or play quietly with her babies or Calico Critters dollhouse. She also likes to build her own Lego creations like Oliver, but now she is getting better at putting the pre-made sets together! She used to not have the patience for sitting and following the instructions, but over the summer she put two sets together all by herself! 

And Buttercup is also still swimming, and she's doing really well! She has been on the entry level swim team for 3 or 4 months, and she is doing great. She's one of the only 5 year olds, and she keeps up with (and is usually faster than) the 7 and 8 year olds. She had her first swim meet in May, and she won three of her four heats and even beat a 10 year old!  :-)  

Theodore:
He is still a cute little stinker! He tries to do everything the other kids are doing, sometimes with disastrous results. But he is super fun and he says so many funny things every day! He also likes building with Legos like his big brother and sister, although now we have to watch him very closely when he's building with the little Legos because he ate a small green brick one day when he and Oliver were alone in their room. (Out of our three kids, I definitely pegged him as the one who would eat a Lego.) Theodore is also working on riding his bike, and learning how to swim. He has been stuck on the same level for several weeks at his swim lesson because he refuses to float on his back, but we go swimming 3 or 4 times a week, and he has taught himself how to do an underwater somersault, dive down to the bottom to retrieve a toy, and do his version of freestyle. 

Here's a funny story about Theodore!  He loves to say potty words (which we're working on), and after church last Sunday, he climbed out of the car, hopped on his scooter, and rode up and down the sidewalk, saying as many potty words as he could. It was like he had held it in all morning at church, and just had to let it out!  I had to go in the garage so he wouldn't see me laughing! It was so funny.  :-)    

Update!

Well, summer is over, and now we're back into the school routine. This school year has started off much more easily for me since I knew what to expect, and Buttercup has also been doing better this year with her Oliver gone all day. :-) Theodore, on the other hand, doesn't understand yet why Oliver is gone all day. He's doing okay though, and hopefully he'll continue to do okay after his big sister starts preschool next month!

Here are some updates! 

Oliver: 

Well, the biggest news is that Oliver has accepted Jesus as his Savior! We talked about it for months, and at the beginning of the summer, I finally started to think that it was "real" and not just Oliver repeating what we've been teaching him and what he's learned at church.  I made an appointment for him to talk to our pastor, and the pastor agreed with me -- that Oliver really has accepted Christ into his heart! He was baptized at our church a couple of weeks ago and it was such a happy, joyful moment!!!  We are so proud of him!  

Oliver also started first grade about 2 weeks ago, and he's enjoying it so far. The first day wasn't nearly as emotional for me as kindergarten was! All of last year's kindergarten classes were rearranged into new classes for first grade, so he doesn't have all of his old classmates with him in his new class, but he still gets to see his kindergarten buddies on the playground at recess. :-)  There is another Oliver in his grade, and this year they're both in the same class! 

Oliver has been moved up to the next level of swim team and he'll have his first swim meet at the end of next month! He's not nearly as excited about it as his sister is, ha ha.  She really wants him to win "all" of the medals. :-)  Since the new swim team practices 3 times per week, Oliver decided to quit gymnastics team so he'll have time to do fun stuff after school, too. 

Buttercup:

She is really turning into a big girl right before our eyes! She's able to ride her bike without training wheels, run next to me on the trail, and she's also a big helper in the kitchen! She loves to cook and help me stir, and chop ingredients whenever she can. She also loves to watch The Pioneer Woman (a cooking show). :-)

Buttercup is continuing to do really well at swimming. She is really close to graduating from swim school -- she's in the second level, at station 8 (there are 10 stations).  Right now she's working on butterfly, and she was so excited to start learning it last week! It was the first time in almost 2 years that she was able to learn something other than freestyle or backstroke. :-)  She is really excited about getting to be on the swim team like Oliver! 

She is also still taking dance classes and she loves it. It's so funny how she is so much a tomboy, but also kind of a girly-girl, too. :-)   

Theodore:

Mr. T is still adorable and funny and such a little ham. His latest phrase is, "Why not?" And the really funny part is that he uses it appropriately, too!!  It kills me when he says it. This morning we were on the way home from a playdate at the park, and he asked if he could have a hot dog for lunch. I said, "No," and he said, "Why not? Why not, Mama?"  LOL!  It's just super cute coming from the cute little baby boy. :-)  

Theodore can also count to 10, and pedal his bicycle forward a little bit! Another really cute thing he does is that he'll tell you that he's 6 if you ask him how old he is. Oliver and Buttercup think it's hilarious, and one afternoon they spent about 15 minutes trying (in vain) to get him to say that he's 2. He's pretty convinced that he's 6.  :-)   

One not-so-cute thing that happened recently was that Theodore went through a sleep regression. It happened for about a week and a half, but thankfully now he's sleeping just as well as he was before it started -- only difference now is that he has to sleep with his favorite song on repeat and with his favorite cars in his hands. But at least he's sleeping!!!!  :-) 

Reading on the floor during Buttercup's dance class:

Hey, it's an update!

Okay, I started this blog post about 4 weeks ago, and today I'm finally going to publish it. :-)

Here are some updates!

Oliver:
He's having a really good year. Just like when he started preschool and he gained confidence from that, kindergarten has been even more of a confidence-builder for him. He's just grown and matured so much in the previous 6 months! He's not as shy as he used to be, and most of the time he jumps into new and different situations with gusto instead of being too cautious to try.

He's doing really well at school. We've gotten 2 progress reports so far, and the 3rd progress report is due some time this week. The first progress report was very complimentary, and I think he was doing mostly "average" in everything, except for reading and math. The second progress report also had a good report, and he got mostly "high" marks in everything, including math. For reading, he is at almost a 3rd grade reading level! I think he's mostly quiet in class, and he seems to have quite a big group of friends! When I pick him up from his art class on Wednesdays, we pass a group of kindergartners on our way out, and just about all of the kids wave excitedly at him and some even jump up to hug him as he walks by. It's pretty funny! Another big thing about school is that he and another classmate were chosen to be the class representatives to talk to the other kindergarten classes about the Living and Learning Lab. He was bummed that he had to miss reading time that day, but he was pretty excited about talking to the other classes. :-)

Oliver is still swimming and doing very well at it! He finally mastered the breast stroke kick, which he had been working on for about 2 months, and he graduated from swim school a couple of weeks ago! Now he's on the wait list for a swim team. He also loves riding his bike on the trail with me while I run. We've only gone a handful of times, but it's always fun and it's nice to have him riding next to me to talk to while I run. :-)

Buttercup:
She is also having a good year. She loves her preschool class, and all of her friends. She has definitely become more of a girly girl recently, and I think it's all due to her classmates. It's fun buying dresses for her, but she definitely still is a tomboy. She always has a great attitude at school and her teachers speak so highly of her! She's their big helper and she is always ready and willing to do whatever comes next. Apparently she saves all of her feistiness for us, which is the way it should be! :-) One thing though, is that she really does want to be in kindergarten NOW. I finally realized that she thought that kindergarten was next year (as in starting this fall), and she was so disappointed when she finally realized that she has another whole year of preschool before she gets to start kindergarten. Poor kiddo!

Buttercup is doing great in swimming, as well! She's almost finished with her level, then she'll get to move up to station 1 of the level that Oliver just graduated from. She also started dance class a few weeks ago, and she's doing so well in the class. I love to watch her concentrating in the class and it seems to me like she is trying really hard to do exactly what she's supposed to be doing. When she was in gymnastics, she was always jumping all over the place when she was waiting for her turn, but in dance class she has so much more self-control, and it looks like this is a really good fit for her! She asked me one day how long she had to do dance, and I said that she needed to keep going for the next 2 months until after the recital is over, and then she could try another activity instead. She thought about it for a week, and one day she randomly said, "I think I want to do dance forever! Until I'm a grown up!" :-)

One last big thing about Buttercup is that she ran on the trail with me one morning a couple of weeks ago! She doesn't like riding in the stroller too much anymore, so one morning I said she could run next to me until she was tired, then get in the stroller, then get out, then get back in, etc. She ran about 1/4 mile at first without stopping, then she had a short break, then ran a little less than 1/4 mile. Then we stopped at the park to play for a while, and then she ran the rest of the way to the car without stopping, which was a little over a 1/2 mile! She was super proud of herself, and so am I. :-) And no, she didn't take a nap that day, ha ha.

Theodore:
Of course, Mr. T. is still an adorable stinker. :-) He is so funny and cute! He's been having a rough time with teething and some illnesses, so he's been pretty tempermental lately, but he's still really cute. :-) He parrots just about anything he hears, whether it's someone asking him to say something, or if he hears a part of a song, or a dog barking, or the sound of a wind chime, etc. He'll mimic anything!

He loves swimming, and playing outside, like most kids do, but one thing that we have definitely noticed about his personality is that Theodore loves music. He's the only one of our 3 kids who, as a baby, would sit quietly on my lap while I played the piano for 45+ minutes. Now, he doesn't sit that still when I play, but he still loves to listen! He frequently climbs up on the piano bench and plays his own little tunes. One funny thing is that whenever Oliver and Buttercup are playing in their room and want Theodore to come in, all they have to do is turn on their CD player, and he'll run in their room and start dancing. :-)  

We had a big answer to prayer a couple of weeks ago! We went to see Theodore's dermatologist to talk about the lasering process of getting his birthmark lightened. A friend of mine had her son's birthmark lasered when he was a few months old, because her dermatologist told her that the younger the skin was, the more effective the laser treatments would be. And Theodore's ophthalmologist told me that the procedure would be much more invasive if we chose to wait until he was a teenager or older. So, Dennis and I had decided about a year ago to start Theodore's laser treatments when he was 2 years old. (I couldn't imagine (and still can't imagine) choosing to do that to an infant!!) We were both really stressed out about it. Then we talked to the dermatologist, and told him that we didn't really want to have the procedure done, and he told us that basically between now and 10 years from now, the skin effected by the birthmark will only be marginally thicker, so we do not have to get it done now if we don't want to! We can just wait and see what Theodore wants to do about it when he's 5 or 6 (or older) and let him make his own decision! We were (are!) so delighted to hear that. I love Theodore's birthmark and I can't imagine seeing him without it, and I'm so happy that he doesn't have to go through the pain of laser treatments without knowing why it's happening. Yay!!!


Here are some cute pictures of Oliver doing one of his favorite things, and Buttercup twirling in her dance outfit. :-) (Sorry, no new pictures of Theodore!)

Updates

Here's what the kids have been up to!

Oliver:
He's been in kindergarten for almost 3 months now (!!) and he's doing really well. It's funny how, over the past few years, I thought that he wouldn't be socially ready for school, and he would be clingy and not want to go, would have trouble making friends . . . and he has totally been the opposite!!  He enjoys going to school, he has a bunch of friends, he likes all of the different parts of school (art, math, PE, library time, etc). He's even been faced with a couple of difficult social situations, but both times he has demonstrated integrity and turning the other cheek instead of fighting back. I'm so proud of him! :-)  I met with his teacher about a month ago for the fall Parent/Teacher conference, and his teacher had so many good things to say about him. He's an excellent reader, is courteous and friendly, and is a joy to have in the classroom! There are a few areas that need work (3D shapes, money, math word problems) so we've been working on those at home. :-)   

He still loves swimming and is close to graduating from his level at swim lessons. The only thing that is holding him back is the breaststroke kick -- I can't blame him, it looks really difficult to master! His favorite strokes are freestyle and butterfly, and he looks like a little fish in the water. :-) 

Oliver is also still doing well in gymnastics, and moved up a level this week. His favorites are practicing on the "mushroom" (this thing), and the high rings. He has trouble doing some of the skills that some of the other shorter, lighter boys can do with ease, but he tries hard and gets it eventually. :-)  

Buttercup:

She is really loving her "owl" class! I am finally 100% certain that sending her to preschool 3 days a week is the best thing for her. Her teacher always has such nice things to say about her attitude at school, she's never gotten in trouble for any reason, she's sweet and kind to everyone, and she is so bubbly and happy when Theodore and I go to pick her up. She wishes that she could go to school every day like Oliver, but I'm glad that we have 2 days together to (mostly) let her do what she wants to do. And then things start to go downhill at the end of the day, and she goes back to school the next morning. Win-win! :-) 

Buttercup is also still a little fish in the water. She's a much better swimmer at her age than Oliver was! The only thing is, she's easily distracted and she's just so excited to be in her class that sometimes she has trouble paying attention. But she's doing great, and she only has 1 more station to complete before she graduates from her level (at that point, she'll move up to the level that Oliver is currently in). 

She's also still doing gymnastics and just in the past month it's as though something clicked, and all of a sudden she's almost able to do a real cartwheel and handstand! Her favorites are forward rolls (like a somersault) and the bar. Like with swimming, she is SO excited to be participating in the class. She literally bounces up and down the entire time while she waits for her turn. It's adorable. :-)  

Theodore:

He's just an adorable, sweet, funny, chubby little boy. I love him! He is so much fun! He's definitely a ham. He loves to laugh, he loves to make people laugh, he loves to watch people laugh ... he just loves laughter. :-)  He's such a precious gift, I'm so thankful for him and his sweet, sweet personality. 

He's still a stinker though! Today at lunch, he threw some food, so I told him no and took his plate away for about 15 seconds.  He pretended to cry, then gave me the stink eye until I gave him his plate back. I told him "no throwing," and he looked at me, picked up his spoon (full of hummus) and flung the hummus in my hair. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. It was naptime after that. :-)

Theodore's favorite things are being/playing outside, swinging, pushing his lawnmower (he calls it "go-go", isn't that cute?!!), rough housing with his big brother, reading/looking at books, listening to music, stacking things, throwing balls (or any toys, really), and playing with markers. 

His absolute favorite song is "Cotton Fields" by Creedence Clearwater Revival, ha ha! He requests it every time we get in the car. :-) I love these sweet kids!

Toddler cuteness

Wow, I have really been slacking on updating our blog! Life has just been really busy lately. We've also been spending as much time as possible outside since it's been cooler! Nothing like a hot summer to make 80 degrees feel almost cool. :-)

Anyway, the reason for this blog post is to document Theodore's current list of words and other fun stuff. He's just talking and talking these days. I'm pretty sure he has more words at 16 months than Oliver did, and maybe has close to as many words as his sister did! 

Here are as many as I can remember right now:

Mama (his favorite word!)
Oliver 
Buttercup 
no
ball
milk
cup 
that
what's that (I really need to get a video of him saying this, it's so cute!)
banana
stop
dog
book (he also says "dog" for book)
more
cheese
cracker
Os (like Cheerios)
uh oh
bye bye
hi
hello
phone
um (this is one of my favorites! And he uses it appropriately, too!)
shoe
Anna
please
blueberry
bubble(s)
outside
swing
gentle
night night
mwah (like a kissing sound)
all done
hot
thank you
hold
mmm/yummy

He loves to play outside in our faded, steering-wheel-less Cozy Coupe, opening and closing the door and telling me, "Bye bye!" 

Often when we're outside, he'll wave at the cars and trucks driving past on the road and say, "Bye bye" in his soft, sweet little voice. :-)

He's such a sweet baby boy! He is a typical toddler though, and lately he's been a very picky eater. Tonight he pretty much went to bed without eating dinner, but he had a huuuuge lunch so I doubt he'll starve. ;-)  

Oh, one more cute thing -- this morning I was combing Buttercup's hair at the table, and he came over to see what was going on and slapped his sister on the leg for no reason. I told him no and told him to go sit in time out, and he did! He walked over to the rug and sat down, and he stayed there until I got him. What a sweet baby. :-)  

More pictures soon, I promise!  

Updates and some pictures

We have been very busy lately! Busy doing fun summer stuff, busy just hanging out, busy playing with friends, busy running errands, busy doing swim lessons and gymnastics, etc. Busy, busy, busy. 


Last week Oliver had a week of Lego Robotics camp. His complaints after the first day was that 1) he was bored, and 2) he had to build exactly what he was told to build. Ha ha. I talked to the teacher, and she said that most of the kids preferred the "free build" time (building whatever they wanted to from a big pile of Legos on the floor), so she gave them more time for that instead of having them finish up their projects. As far as Oliver being bored -- on the second day, the teacher split his group up so that he was only working with 1 other kid, and that kid was more than happy to let Oliver build all of the projects by himself. Oliver definitely wasn't bored after that, and his group was still usually the first one to finish!  :-)  The only day they didn't finish early was the last day, when the big project was a very complicated crane. He needed the assistant teacher to help him with that one. :-)  


Oliver is also making leaps and bounds with his reading these days. I counted up his sight words a couple of weeks ago, and he knows close to 200 words! And he picks up more every day. He's also able to use the combination of sight-reading and "sounding out" to read some pretty hard words! Of course Buttercup is interested in learning how to read now, too. ;-) 


Buttercup is kind of having a hard time adjusting to not being in school right now. She just craves routine and being around her peers! At the beginning of summer vacation, she would ask me every day if it was a school day, and then she would be sad for a while when I said no. :-(  Poor girl!  I filled up our calendar with playdates and trips to parks, pools, and splash pads to keep her occupied, but now it seems like she's still sad to be out of school, and is also tired from running around town so much. So now she's mad all the time. We just can't win! But it'll pass. I remember her going through a phase very similar to this last summer. It lasted about a month, so I guess we have another 28 days of this. Ha ha.


Theodore is having a very fun summer, just going with the flow as usual. He's so easy going! The only thing he really doesn't like is going to the splash pads, because he doesn't like it when water sprays him in the face. Poor kiddo! He loves going swimming though -- I hold him on my hip and he splashes the water with one arm and wears himself out. :-)


Here are some pictures of the three of them being crazy in the sun room this morning. :-)  

Update

Here's what we've been up to!

Oliver:

He's not really into Star Wars anymore. When he gets to watch TV, lately he's been choosing a show called Man vs. Wild, which is basically a documentary about a man who gets to live out every little boy's dream in each episode -- exploring exotic and dangerous places, diving off of cliffs, swimming through rapids, wearing your underwear like a hat, eating bugs . . . fun stuff. So a lot of his pretend play is centered around that sort of thing. He's also been drawing a lot, making up and occasionally writing his own stories, and sometimes he still builds with Legos. :-) He is reading pretty well these days! He likes the Elephant and Piggie books and easy to read books by Syd Hoff, but he doesn't quite have enough reading stamina to get through one in a sitting. He's working hard though, and we are very proud of him! He's still in swim lessons and he likes them, but the only problem is that his lessons are only taught on Saturday mornings -- and that time just doesn't quite work out for any of us. We'll figure it out though. Another big thing going on with Oliver is that he was selected in the lottery for our first-choice charter school! God is so good. And wow, I can't believe that my first baby is going to be in kindergarten in a few (very) short months. I'm going to need tranquilizers.

Buttercup:

Surprisingly (or not?) she is into Star Wars. When she gets to pick a TV show, she almost always chooses The Empire Strikes Back. (And who can blame her? Hello?!) Her favorite clothes are still boy clothes but lately she's been alternating Oliver's old shirts with girl shirts. And she's also been occasionally playing dress-up in princess dresses! It's strange to see her in a frilly princess dress, but it was bound to happen sometime. :-) We've been to the doctor many, many times in the past month, so Buttercup likes to play doctor and give Big Baby a checkup almost every day. Somehow, I always end up getting a checkup, too, ha ha. She still really likes doing crafts, and one of her absolute favorite things to do is cut paper. Give her a sheet of construction paper, a pair of scissors, and she will go to town cutting that paper into pieces so small that I can't even see them! (Theodore always finds them though.) And my sweet girl is such a big helper. I can't say enough about what a wonderful helper she is. Oliver is motivated to help if he gets something in return, but Buttercup's heart's desire is to help for the sole purpose of helping others. I can see that about her already, and I love that God has given that gift to her! I have a very special job of fostering that gift in her. :-)

Theodore:

He is such a cute, little round boy. He cracks us up all day because he is so adorable! Almost everything he does is cute. If any of us are having an off day, not feeling like ourselves, being a little grumpy, etc. all we need is to have Theodore around and we're smiling again! One of my favorite things is when he makes a motorboat sound, it's so cute! Of course it's not quite as cute when he does it at the table, because he ends up spitting his food out . . . but we're working on that. He is so sweet though. He's been having some trouble settling down at bedtime for the past 2 or 3 weeks. We're not sure if it's because it's still so light in his room at bedtime, or if it's from teething, but either Dennis or I (usually Dennis, thank you Hubby!!) end up going back in his room a few times every night to pat his bottom or rock him until he settles down. Poor little guy, I wish he could tell us what is wrong! He's such a happy guy though, and I can't wait to learn more about his personality and see what gifts and talents God has given him!

Updates

As always, we're pretty busy over here! Here's what the kiddos have been up to lately.

Oliver:
I think the big boy is going through a growth spurt right now, because he's been eating us out of house and home for the past week or so, and has also been napping much more frequently. He's really been enjoying having Grammy nearby and getting to have a "Grammy Day" every now and then. It must be nice to have the undivided attention when you usually have to share it with two other little people. ;-) Oliver still loves to swim. It's funny how 10 months ago he was so nervous about taking swim lessons (even though he was at ease in the pool with me), and he has come so far in lessons that we're trying to decide if now is the right time for him to join a swim team! He is also such a sweet, sensitive boy. He can tell when someone is having a bad day and he usually asks if we can pray for that person and/or do something for them. He's still obsessed with Legos and building all sorts of neat things, and he also likes doing puzzles, climbing trees, playing baseball and soccer, and playing our animal game (where we pretend to be different types of animals). And Oliver and Buttercup are still best friends, always sticking up for each other, helping each other, and they play together really well. (They also bicker really well, too.)

Buttercup:
She's still feisty (and probably always will be), but she is such a sweet girl. Oh, I just love her! She gives the best hugs and loves to snuggle. In the mornings after Oliver wakes her up (we're working on that), she comes to our room and crawls in bed with me to snuggle for a little while. She is also such an awesome big sister. She loves her baby brother so much! If I ask for someone to bring me something for him, she usually jumps up as fast as she can to run and get it for me. She is such a big helper! Buttercup is still a tomboy -- she is usually more interested in playing with boy-cenctric toys and, if we take her shopping for clothes, she usually picks out clothes from the boy section. (She still wears dresses to church though, ha ha.) She loves to do arts and crafts, ride her bike, run, and eat. Some days it seems like she never stops eating! She also still loves to swim . . . but only if I'm with her in the pool. When she turned 3 years old, she was finally able to take swim lessons, but after the first lesson she decided she didn't want to take lessons anymore. So we'll wait a little while for that!

Theodore:
He is growing so quickly and doing so many fun things! It seems like learns new tricks every week. A couple of weeks ago, he learned how to crawl and push himself up to a sitting position, and this past weekend, he figured out how to clap and pull himself to his knees! It's just so amazing to me, mostly because his big brother didn't even sit up until he was 8 months old, ha ha! I guess it's not surprising, because Theodore wants to do everything that his big brother and sister are doing. He never stays still unless he is ex.hau.sted. He's such a sweet baby boy, and he's at such a fun age!

Updates

The summer has really flown by for us! It's already the second week of August, and soon Oliver and Buttercup will be going on a long road trip with their daddy to visit Grandma and Grandpa. In some ways I'm looking forward to it (a week of baby time! and a quiet house!), but I know I will miss them so much. I have no doubt that the week will drag by!

We've been pretty busy since the last update, here's what we're up to these days:

Oliver:
He seems to be getting over his Star Wars obsession, much to the chagrin of his buddy Nathan, ha ha. Oliver doesn't seem to have too many favorites right now -- he kind of likes a little bit of everything, but mainly sharks and sea creatures, army guys, policemen, and pirates. He's also really getting interested in reading, but he prefers to memorize the words (sight reading, I guess?) instead of actually sounding out the letters and figuring them out for himself, ha ha.

He's in a different swim class now, which seems to be a better fit for him. In the new class, there are only two other kids (at the most) in his class with him, so he gets to spend more time working on the strokes instead of hanging onto the side of the pool most of the time. At the pool over the weekend, he had the chance to do the swim test so he could slide down the big water slide, but he opted out since he didn't have a friend with him. He said he would wait until Buttercup could do it with him, so sweet!

Oliver is also looking forward to "preschool" (Mother's Day Out) starting next month. He talks about it almost every day and I know he's looking forward to seeing his school friends again. Not to mention getting to create things without having a little sister go behind him and destroy them. :-P

Buttercup:
She is continuing to be quite a stinker most days, but she is just so sweet and funny. She also has the most beautiful smile, and her laugh is so infectious and I love hearing it!! I love the way she dives headfirst and gives her all to everything she does -- whether it's playing "sunday school," swinging herself outside, coloring, getting her big brother in trouble, or being defiant, ha ha. She is so much fun, and I know God has awesome plans for her.

She desperately wants to do everything Oliver can do, especially take swim lessons. I think she feels like she's been waiting forever to be 3 years old! She's also very interested in letters and words, and she's working on learning how to spell her name. So far, she has the first 3 letters down. :-)

Like Oliver, she is very much excited about starting preschool next month. She wants to start NOW, so I've had to fill up our calendar with playdates, outings, and fun activities just to get us through the rest of this month! :-)

Theodore:
He is such a fun little baby! He loves to smile and coo at us, and it just warms our hearts when he looks at us and gives us a big, gummy grin. LOVE it! And, he's always been a good sleeper, but last week he surprised us by sleeping from 7:30pm to 4:30am three nights in a row! Since then, he's pretty much kept the same schedule, except he's been waking up closer to 3:30 instead of 4:30.

Both Buttercup and Oliver are my big helpers with him. I can always count on one of them to help out and bring me something for him if I ask. They also like to lie next to him on the floor and hold out their fingers for him to grab, or talk to him. Theodore likes to wave his arms and move his legs like he's running -- we call it "riding his bicycle" -- and the other day Oliver laid next to him on the bed and moved his legs the way Theodore was. It was very cute. :-D

Updates

We are having a fun summer! Hard to believe that June is almost over already -- time is just flying by.

Oliver:
He is still obsessed with Legos and Star Wars. Actually, he's much more obsessed with Legos than with Star Wars. I know I've said this before, but it astounds me how he'll sit and build quietly for hours and hours, when nothing else will hold his attention for that long. I was telling a friend this morning that I would love to thank whoever invented those little plastic bricks!! They're such a great toy -- building imaginations, fostering creativity, giving Moms peace and quiet . . . :-)

He's also turning into quite a swimmer. He's almost finished with the Level 3 swim class, and after he passes Level 4 and the swim test, he'll be eligible to swim in the 4-6 year old club team at our YMCA. How cute is that?? He'll also be able to go down the 3 story water slide at the YMCA after he passes the swim test, which is something he's really excited about.

Buttercup:
She is still such a social little girl, and she's really looking forward to starting Mother's Day Out (we call it "preschool") in September. I think she really misses our old Tuesday and Thursday routine of dropping Oliver off at preschool, then going to the YMCA where she would play in the Child Watch (aka her "YMCA class"). About twice a week, she reminds me that, when she's 3 years old, she gets to 1) go to preschool, 2) go to the "big girl" room at the YMCA Child Watch, and 3) take swim lessons. Apparently, a lot of good things happen when you're 3! :-)

She's also still our feisty firecracker, and most days she cries approximately 50 times more than the baby. But we still love her anyway and wouldn't want her to be any different than she is. :-) She's such an awesome little girl and is the SWEETEST thing in the world when she wants to be.

She's doing pretty well with swimming, too. I took her and Oliver to the family pool at the YMCA last week, and she's started doing her own freestyle stroke (and propelling herself forward in the water!), so I have no doubt that she will be ready for swim lessons in September! We could sign her up now, but because of her age she's only eligible for Mommy & Me classes, and we think she'd be better off in a class with no mommies and just peers. ;-)

Theodore:
He is just the cutest, sweetest little baby. I looooove his fuzzy, warm head, I could just eat it up!! He is such a good baby, and is happy most of the time, but he definitely has some strong opinions about his likes and dislikes! So far he doesn't like 1) diaper changes, 2) his car seat, and 3) being put down (most of the time). But thankfully he likes sleeping and eating. :-)

He also loves watching Oliver and Buttercup play, especially when they dance in the living room. I'll hold him in my lap and he'll just watch them with his eyes wide open, like he's trying to figure out how he can do that, too! Just too cute. :-)

We are so thankful for all 3 of our beautiful, healthy babies!

More baby cuteness

Things are continuing to go well here with our brand new 1 week old baby! Theodore is a really easy baby so far -- he sleeps well in his crib, sleeps well at night, eats well, and generally only cries when he's 1) hungry or 2) tired. Oh, and sometimes for diaper changes. Of course, that may all change as he approaches the dreaded Colic Stage. ;-)

Oliver and Buttercup are still his #1 fans, and it's so fun to see how they each show their love for him in different ways. Buttercup loves to touch him, kiss him, hold him, pat him, rock him, etc -- basically, she mimics everything I do for him. And she has been SO gentle and good with him, I am so impressed with her! Oliver also likes to hold him, but mainly prefers to sing to him or show him things instead of the touchy-feely stuff. :-)

What have we been up to?

I've been pretty lazy about posting lately! I rarely get up early these days and have been reading during the kids' naps, which cuts down on my computer time.

Things are going well here, though! I'm almost 32 weeks pregnant now. The baby is growing fine and my belly has been measuring ahead of schedule for the past 3 OB visits. I can't remember if my belly measured big with Oliver, but I know that I started measuring small with Buttercup around 36 weeks until she was born at 39 weeks. At any rate, the baby seems to be healthy and perfect, and he's getting bigger and stronger every day! He's so big now that his movements are mostly uncomfortable for me, but I still love feeling them. It's also kind of funny when he pokes an appendage out really far and it distorts my belly -- it's really neat. Actually, baby movements are the only thing I'll miss about not being pregnant again, ha ha!

Oliver and Buttercup are both doing really well. Buttercup is turning out to be such a sweet little girl. Lately she's been more inclined to be a good friend instead of picking fights at the playgrounds. :-) She still has her feisty side though, and she's not going to let anyone push her around -- which is a good thing! It also seems like she's going to be a tomboy, not really caring for sparkly pink princess stuff (not that we have much or even any of that at home). I'm pretty relieved about that so far, since I'm not exactly a girly girl myself. Funny story -- we ran into an old friend the other day, and my friend's daughter was decked out in a matching outfit with coordinating hairbows, her hair neatly fixed, and wearing sparkly shoes. In comparison, Buttercup was wearing an outfit of her choice (pink "running" shorts and a t-shirt), with purple socks, beat-up tennis shoes, and her hair was all ratty because she doesn't like me to comb it. Awesome. :-D

Oliver is doing great at his preschool, and is always so excited to tell me about his day when I pick him up from school. And this past weekend, he looked at me and said, "Mom, I wish today was a school day." He's never said that before! I'm so happy that he loves his school so much. I think he's really going to miss it this summer. He's also continuing to do well with swim lessons. He's still nervous before his class, but he's so proud of himself and excited after it's over. And, of course, he's still really into Legos and building with them. Aunt Anna bought him a small Lego kit the other day, and he put the entire thing together by himself!! Very impressive. I don't think I could have put it together as quickly as he did. ;-)

In other news, since we have a 3 bedroom house and a baby on the way, we moved Buttercup into Oliver's room in January. I anticipated a looooong adjustment period, but it really only took a week or so for Buttercup to get used to being in a new room! They both love rooming together now, and it seems like it's brought them closer together. I'm so glad we made that decision!

That's it for now, more pictures coming soon!