Anna's First Day of School

My baby girl started school today. Actually, she just started a Child's Day Out program once a week, but it counts as school to us! She was so excited this morning to wear her backpack and she even held it in her lap as we drove to school. She certainly didn't smile as the teacher got her out of the car, but she didn't cry either so that counts as a success in my book. She will love it and I can't wait to hear all about it as the year progresses.

She posed like this all by herself, and looks so dainty here. Just goes to show that looks certainly can be deceiving!

This is the best one I could get of them together.

First Day of Preschool

Jack started preschool this morning. He will go two days a week to the same place he went last year for Child's Day Out. This is "real" preschool, though, with a curriculum and I think he's going to love it. When I picked him up today he told me his teacher had on a pink shirt, he went to the potty 3 times, he knows one friend from last year, he sits on the number 4, he played on the big playground, and he saw his teacher from last year but didn't say "hey" because she didn't see him. I have no idea what he learned, but it sounds like he had fun!

Someone else insisted on wearing her backpack for a picture this morning, also. This isn't the real deal, though. Her day is coming Thursday. Will post more pictures then.

Everybody's doin' a brand new dance now . . .

Yet Another Photo Shoot

Sam was sitting in the bumbo today and Anna came over and sat beside him. Since we had Jack & Anna's "Meet the Teacher" this morning, they were actually wearing good clothes, so I jumped at the chance to have a photo shoot. HA!!! You can guess how well that went. Take a look . . .

Sam looks especially perplexed here.

Probably because he knew Anna was going to make him "talk on the phone!"

Sometimes she loves on him just a little too much.

I finally coaxed Jack to join us, and then Anna moved on to something else - typical!



Anna finally rallied, and came back to join us for a few group shots.

They actually started kissing him spontaneously!

And just because it's a sweet picture, I had to include my kids walking into school this morning with their Daddy. No good pictures from the inside because they turned into mutes and refused to talk to (much less take pictures with) their new teachers, but I think it's going to be a great year!

3 Months

My baby boy is 3 months old today. Sometimes it's hard to believe that it's ONLY been three months since he joined our family. He fits in so well that I have trouble remembering what life was like before he came along. He is adored by his siblings and they fight over who gets to sit next to us when I'm feeding him. Both Jack and Anna have been big helpers and will talk to him, give him the paci, wipe his face when he spits up, and throw dirty diapers in the trash. Sam is generally a happy baby and goes with the flow. He's a little grouchy in the late afternoons/early evenings, but if you take him outside he usually goes right to sleep. He used to sleep from 8pm to 5am, but has recently fluctuated from waking anywhere between 3:00 & 5:00 for a feeding. He always goes right back to sleep and gets up sometime between 7:30 & 9:00. He's really into "talking" and smiling these days, though you would never know it from the long face in most of his pictures. My camera just isn't fast enough to catch his sweet smiles.

Jack especially loves to snuggle with Sam and jumps at any chance he can get to share the Boppy with his brother.

These days Sam really loves tummy time (for 10-15 minutes at a time) on his surfboard.

He has his own little conversation with the octopus and it's so cute!

When his big, heavy head gets to be too much to hold up, we flip him over and he stares at the fan for a while.

He's also really starting to enjoy his playmat. He's pretty wiggly, though, and tends to scoot off of it if I'm not watching. He's also learned that it's best to be in defensive mode around here (I think it looks like he's throwing a punch in this one).

Just this week we pulled the exersaucer out of storage. He loves it! Of course he's not ready for the toys yet, but he loves to be up off of the floor and the kids enjoy sitting and talking to him at face level.

I know you can't tell, but he's at the end of a laugh in this picture - he really just looks pained, though!

This one was taken today.
Happy 3 Months, Sam!

This just goes to show . . .

that you can put a dress on her, a bow in her hair, and paint her toenails . . .

but that doesn't guarantee she will act like a lady!

Two Peas in a Pod

I love that these two are such good buddies!

Chunky Monkey

Because I couldn't decide on just one picture to post . . .

How is it that my smallest baby at birth has become the chunkiest at almost 3 months?

Seriously, do you see the fat rolls on his arms?!

Oh how I love that baby!

Pretty Nails

Look who has "pretty nails" (what Jack calls them) for the very first time.

(Just to clarify, those are my feet with Anna's feet. Not Jack's!)

Freckles

This sweet boy, my first born, has freckles. They popped up sometime this summer and I just needed to document that somewhere, so that one day I can look back and tell him that I remember when he didn't have any freckles, and I know exactly when he got them.

The Shrinking Paci

I'm so sick of seeing Anna walk around with a paci in her mouth these days. Just recently she seems to be more attached to it and wants it all the time - not just for sleeping. We've been talking about getting rid of it, but just like potty training, I have to gear myself up for it. I don't want to take it away and then give in and give it back to her. We were going to just "give" them away to another baby but a friend suggested yesterday that I just cut off the tip (thanks, Alana).

This morning I just decided to go for it. I hid all her pacis except the one I cut and gave that one to her. She looked at it like "something's wrong!" She took it out of her mouth, put it back in, took it out again and looked at it and told me "no." She did that a few more times and then sucked her thumb for a second before she started playing and forgot it. When we settled down to watch a movie right before lunch, she fussed for her paci so I gave her the new one. She does NOT like it. She put it in her mouth for a few seconds and then stood up and brought it to me. I praised her and Jack told her "Good job, Anna. You're a big girl now!"

She asked for her paci when I put her down for a nap and I gave it to her. She took one look at it, gave it back to me, and stuck her thumb in her mouth! I knew she would use that as a backup and that's fine with me, because she can't suck her thumb while playing, which is what I hate about the paci. We will see how this goes, but so far, so good!

Just Some Pictures

We've been pretty busy around here lately, but I haven't taken many pictures. Here's just a few of the somewhat recent ones.

This is before the big haircut, though it doesn't really look that different now since they didn't touch her bangs.

Sweet baby!

Pop, Grammy, & Mason came to town this past weekend. We had a fish fry and Jack was enthralled with everything about it. Here he is watching Pop cook our dinner.

My serious boys with Grammy.

Monday we went to Irmo to visit the Puppet Playhouse and Funzone. The kids had a blast jumping on all the bouncy things and I think they even enjoyed the puppet show.