Marcus the 1st grader

Here's Marcus's school picture for this year. He's doing great as a first grader and loving school. He is in the top reading group in his class and his teacher said that she will begin enrichment activities with him and some of his classmates probably starting in January. Also, Marcus is now the "hive leader" for his group of desks. He's been waiting in the wings for a while for the last hive leader to slip up and do something that would get her fired from the position. I have even heard Marcus talking with Cale about her, plotting her downfall (!). Hopefully, he can hold onto the position for a while (because I'm pretty sure that when it's time for the next hive leader, he will be crushed). He likes to be in charge (aka bossy-must be a first born trait), so it's the perfect job for him!

pumpkin patch field trip

Cale and Ewan had their field trip to the pumpkin patch last week. This is our favorite field trip because the pumpkin patch is about 15 minutes from our house (instead of driving 35 mins to preschool). This is the one preschool morning where we get to take our time getting ready-great! The boys had fun and each got to pick out a pumpkin. Then they climbed all over a straw-bale mountain, went through a bounce house maze and just ran around outside. I'm pretty sure they slept well that afternoon during nap time!

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/DShRGnm8TbJ8NqA4pf1Maw?feat=directlink

this link will take you to the rest of the photos

go Butler!

We hauled the kids out last Saturday in 40 degree weather to watch the Butler University Bulldogs keep their winning streak going against Valparasio. Wow, it was cold, and windy, and when the sun went behind the clouds-man! The boys were good sports and had a blast running up and down the hill by the endzone. These football games are nice to go to with the kids, because no one cares that they are running around, it's a pretty relaxed environment. Even Liam tolerated the game and the weather and eventually fell asleep in his stroller.


so cold out, we wore our winter coats!


posing with the Bulldog statue during half-time


the boys spent most of the time running up and down the hill



Liam wrapped in his "soft" and staying warm

Ewan and Cale tucked in

time for an upgrade

Well, the time has come to move Liam from his infant car seat to a convertable one. It got to the point where I would have to rotate his shoulders forward so he could move his arms when I strapped him in the infant seat-his shoulders were just too wide and he was wedged into the infant seat! Now, the "little" man has plenty of room and looks a lot more comfy when we put him in the car. Time goes too fast, he's getting so big!

a recent concert

exciting times @ our house! Cale performed in an impromtu concert for Liam, keeping him entertained while the other two boys were taking baths.
to watch the whole performance, click on the link http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/byPsJN5RhDOH6y0Wm4ZmxA?feat=directlink

breaking in the Halloween costumes

This year, I decided to go ahead and buy the boys their Halloween costumes. Thank goodness for Walmart because I didn't pay as much as I thought I would and they actually had a lot of costumes to pick from (plug for store over). Marcus and Ewan were with me and picked out their costumes and I picked out on that I thought Cale would like. We got the costumes on Friday, and they have been worn every day since then. Hoping they last until Halloween!

Cale as "Snake-Eyes"-some character from GI Joe


Marcus is a Bakugan trainer


Ewan showing off his musclesin his Iron Man costume

What's new?

Let me see...
*we sent Marcus back to school today. He ended up staying home Monday-Wednesday getting over a fever. I thought about just keeping him out the rest of the week, but I didn't want to have to get a note from the doctor. (update: He's home from school now, all sniffly and coughing and tired. I'm sure his teacher is wondering what we were doing, sending him to school. He looked much better this morning.)
*we are done with diapers for Ewan! I don't think he's worn a diaper in a week, even at night! We've only had a few wet beds which is fantastic. Since Ewan is potty-trained, he now gets to go in the "big kids" room @ the YMCA, very exciting.
*Liam is trying to sit up. He can push himself about halfway into a sitting position-so close! He's also getting the hang of sitting with the support of pillows. And, today I figured out that I had put his walker together wrong. After I turned the seat around, Liam had much better control of where he was going. :-) Still working on the cereal, trying to give it to him at least once a day.
*I got an awesome deal on children's and infant tylenol! (I only told Andy about it, like, 10 times I was so excited) Just a perk from working @ a hospital-I was able to buy them for $2.94! Talk about a great day! It does kind of make you sick, knowing how much of a mark-up there is on the drugs, though.
*I've been missing the Y this week with Marcus being sick. I can't wait to go back and start running again. I've been meeting with one of their work-out room employees to work on fitness goals. One of my goals was to get in to work out 3 days a week. Don't think I'm going to meet that goal this week.
*Ewan gets his 3 year photos taken tomorrow. Hoping that he is happy and cooperative!

movie night

Saturday night was movie night @ our house. After stimulating the economy with a successful shoe shopping trip for the boys (can we say $$$), we treated ourselves to actually purchasing a recent video release-Monsters Vs. Aliens. The boys were super-excited to watch it. After record setting bath/shower times, they settled down in front of the fireplace-which Andy turned on-to watch the video. We even had brownie snacks! There was a tense moment involving Insectasarus, but thankfully the story line was predictable enough that everything worked out like we thought it would. I think we've watched the movie every day since then, so I would say the boys give it 2 thumbs up!

Andy and Liam ready to watch-I bet Liam went to bed right after this photo was taken


The boys camped out in front of the fireplace


Even the Anna Kitty and Mr. Orange were ready to watch the movie!

sick @ home

Poor Marcus is on a temporary vaca from school. He had a temp Sunday night (101.4) that has carried through on and off all today (100.5) (Monday). I'm going to sneak a temp later on tonight before I go to bed, but I'm kind of betting he will stay home tomorrow too.

On a related note, I'm glad I got called off of work Sunday night because I don't think Andy would have taken Marcus's temp or given him anything for it. Andy just thought Marcus "felt warm" and admitted that he does not like to give the kids medicine and would rather let me do it. Andy is a great dad, but honestly, this one thing just drives me nuts! Don't worry, mommy is here to take care of you Marcus!

a baby in a bumpo

Here's the little man in his Bumpo. Doesn't look too happy does he? Truth be told, he does not care to sit in it for longer than, oh, 30 seconds-long enough to snap a few photos. And, let's be honest, Liam is working towards sitting up on his own anyway. I can put him in a tri-pod position and he doesn't faceplant onto the carpet. But, I love his look and thought you would too.

apple orchard field trip

Last Wednesday was our preschool's annual trip to Farlow's Apple Orchard. The boys like it because they are with their classes, having fun, and Andy and I like it because you can buy unpasteurized apple cider there (so good!). Each of the boys gets an apple too, which they ate in the car on the way back. Yum! (and Andy bought some Courtland apples for us-pretty good!)

Ewan's current stats

Ewan had his 3 year check up with our favorite pediatrician-Dr. Mazurek-on Wednesday. He's looking good and the doctor and I agree that Ewan is a pretty fearless 3 year old. (could it be the walking around up on the examination table that did it?) He got to show the doctor his muscles and how strong he was. Ewan weighed in @ 36.6 pounds and is 38 3/4 inches tall, both in the 90th percentile. Now, Marcus @ 3 years was 46.6 pounds and 41 inches tall and Cale was 39.8 pounds and 38 3/4 inches tall. So, a little bit lighter, but still above average :-) And, extra bonus, we got out of the office with no shots!

let the little man eat!

Yea! for Liam! We (I mean me-Tracy) finally decided to give him some rice cereal on Sunday. I had been putting it off, mostly because once you start feeding solid foods, you can't go back. Maybe I wanted to keep Liam a "baby" a little while longer. (I know, he's still my baby, but just a little bigger now since we've started the solid food journey) Did Liam like the food? Hard to say, he definitely ate most of what was offered, but he mostly seemed a little confused that we were putting this food in his mouth. After this first attempt, we waited a couple days to try again (really, I kept forgetting to get the high chair out for Liam to sit in). Good news, we fed cereal to him again for lunch on Thursday and he ate about half of it. We're on our way!