we went to the fire station!

It was time for the preschool's trip to the fire station. I got to go and take Liam too, since Andy conviently had a CPR class to attend. Cale, Ewan and their classess got to have a tour of the fire station, complete with kitchen, living room, giant bedroom and firemen pole. (The fireman actually asked the kids if any of them had a pole in their bedrooms. No one said yes.) The firemen talked about fire safety, having a fire plan, smoke detectors, you know, the usually stuff. Cale loved the tour from the start and was always at the front of the group. Ewan took a while to warm up to the field trip and hung back with me for most of it. Halfway through, Ewan thought the fire trucks were very cool and decided he wanted to be a fireman. Liam got held by me the entire time-my arms were tired by the end! What follows are some photos from the trip....

Cale took this picture. It's the grill of one of the fire trucks. He really, realy wanted to take a photo and the grill is just his height.

The boys got to go up into the fire truck.

A kind parent took this photo for me. The trip was fun and just the right length. We earned ourselves a trip to McDonalds afterwards-coffee for me, cookies for the boys.

forced photo

I just wanted to post this photo of the boys in their new matching t-shirts from Grammy Pammy. I had to threaten Marcus to get him to stand in the picture-can't you see his enthusiasm? Shame on me for interrupting his television viewing time! :-)

stuff in Liam's world

Should I be happy to say that Liam has found a favorite video? He is loving Baby Einstein's Baby Newton (or as we call it-Baby Shapes). This is the only one of our moderate-sized Baby Einstein collection that he has any interest in. I'm not too sure if it's the puppets, animation, or the awesome music :-), but he will actually sit and watch almost the whole thing, which give me time to get dinner ready, clean up, etc. And, as you can see from the photo, Liam's not the only one who likes this video...


Liam has mastered the stairs. What I mean is, that Liam has found the stairs and has figured out how to climb up them. He's a fast little guy, too, so now we have a baby gate at the bottom of the stairs. (I got the gate the day I asked, "Where is Liam?" and Marcus replied, "He's going up the stairs." And, holy cow!, Liam was halfway up the stairs headed toward the landing! I bought the gate that evening.) He doesn't seem to mind that we have barred his way. I guess to him, it's just something new to pull himself up on.

In other news...

Weather permitting, Marcus will have a full day of school today! Starting last week, he has missed 3 days from snow and has had several 2 hour delays. They even had school on Presidents' Day to make up for a snow day. Last week, he was so bored, we started printing out math worksheets for him to do. Thank goodness for the internet! Marcus is trying to be a "Math Champion". I'm not sure if this is a title he can earn in his class, or one that is made-up, but I think it means someone who can add "harder" math problems, like double-digits and carrying.
Cale is on the right team in soccer. He didn't have a problem switching or anything. Their games were good on Saturday. Marcus is playing with a lot of 8 year olds, which is fine, since he is as tall or taller than they are. I think his team won, but I don't know if Cale's did. Really, I'm just cheering when the kids kick the ball in the right direction.
Ewan (and Cale) are getting colds :-(. Poor Ewan, his eyes were all watery this morning and he sounds all conjesty (probably a made-up word, but I like to use it). I think he is actually napping right now, which is how you know that he isn't feeling great.
Liam still has this cold thing. I'm sure it's some kind of virus that just has to run its course. Liam has gotten use to having his nose suctioned with the bulb syringe that he just lays there and doesn't fight with you when you do it. Good news-his second top tooth poked through yesterday and he is going from a squat to stand independently, no first steps yet, but we think soon (just recording this for the baby book I don't have yet).
Now that you're up to date on our happenings-have a great day!

pampers points

I like that on facebook you can see what other people are "fans" of. Well, someone was a fan of a site called Money Saving Mom. It sounded cool and I was drawn to the word "saving", so I decided to be a fan too. Well, now I look forward to the notifications from this site for different deals and free sample requests. One of the things I just got done doing was entering a bunch of Pampers points listed on the Money Saving Mom website. Maybe you aren't aware, but these points from the diapers can be "cashed in" for free stuff! Last year, the points I was hoarding went towards $50 in Starbucks gift cards. Pretty cool. This year, I'm planning on spending some of the points on free photos from Snapfish (still working on Ewan's 1st year scrapbook and photo album). Before I toss the list of codes, I thought I'd share them with anyone else passing through who is interested. I got 150 points from these:
(the codes were written in all caps, but I typed them in lower case and they were accepted)

xkcmyxfvd96vxvk
ohamandaawgtg08
justbecause2009
gratuit89102009
growwithvillage
welcome2village
welcome2gtg2010
jointhefungtg09
startearningnow
thriftymommygtg
gtgplay2usa2010

happy saving!

note to self

Dear Liam's yet-to-be-bought baby book:

I just wanted to remember that on Feb 9th, Liam's top right tooth finally poked through. And, also write down that at the beginning of Feb., Liam has started waving at people. There was something else, too, but I'm sure it's on a scrap of paper somewhere on my desk. I'm sure it will be found when I find time to get a baby book in which to record these milestones.

Sincerely,

One very behind mommy

soccer photos

Here are some photos from Marcus and Cale's indoor soccer league. It's already halfway done for Marcus since this is a 6 week league. Cale's first game was postponed due to the weather, so he will go one week longer than Marcus.

Andy with his team. Their name is the Dynamos. Maybe it's also the name of a pro soccer team, I'm not sure. Obviously, Liam decided to huddle up with the kids, too. Who let him wander out there? What kind of mother does he have?-one that is too busy taking pictures!



Marcus practicing he defensive skills. This is the first time he's played organized soccer.


working on dribbling and shooting


Cale working on dribbling.


Cale, in line, ready to go!

As you may have noticed, both Cale and Marcus are wearing orange jersies. Same colors, different age groups. But, this was by accident. The first week of soccer, Cale was actually with another team-called the Rapids, I think. They went around to different stations and worked on different skills. The second week, the week these photos were taken, Andy and I and the boys sat down in chairs near where Cale's practice had ended the week before, but not near where he had started with his team. Well, he practiced with the orange team last week instead of the team he had been assigned to. No one noticed, including us, until after practice was well over. What to do? Do I let Cale stay with the orange team or do I redirect him back to the white team(the one he should be on)? I worried over this for a while (Andy said not to, it's just YMCA soccer for crying out loud). Happy to say, I have made up my mind. I am going to have Cale play on the team he was originally assigned to. This will help keep numbers more even and help with equality of playing time. It also means Cale may have to exchange his orange jersey for a white one (and white socks). Hopefully it goes smoothly. I guess later pictures will show you what happens next.

Tonight

It is cold, windy and snowy. It has snowed at least 3 inches so far, with more planned, according to the alarmists (I mean, weather people). And, just bless him, the man across the street is shoveling his driveway. I guess you have to admire the effort he's making, because there is no way his driveway will stay clear. Or, maybe he is just getting out of the house-he does have two little boys.

As for us, we are making this a movie night and a McDonald's night. The boys will be getting happy meals and watching "Battle for Terra". I don't know what the story line is, besides the obvious clues from the title, but I hope it's good enough for adults to watch too. The grown ups will be viewing "The Hangover" and their menu is TBD (probably McD's too). We will snuggle down in our jams and turn our fireplace on, grab our blankets and pillows and camp out in the living room for the evening.

Sounds great, doesn't it? I can't wait for the fun to start!

the ladies man

Look out everyone! The ladies have a thing for Cale! And, Cale likes taking care of them, too!

We were buying valentine's cards for the Vday parties next week and Cale said, "Um, I think I need to get a little something extra for my girlfriends."

"Really, who are your girlfriends Cale?"

"Um, Jessalyn, Anna, Betsy, Alexandra." (ok, well these are all the girls in his preschool class)

I told his preschool teacher about this, because I thought it was cute/funny, and she said that the girls like to have him sit next to them during the end-of-the-day song. They hold hands during this song, and the girls want to hold hands with Cale and Nathaniel. While Nathaniel is more "here I come girls", Cale is more reserved, but Mrs. Andrea can tell he still likes the attention.

Then, today at the library, a little girl was complaining because she didn't have a chair at the lego table. Cale stepped in and said, "Here little girl. Here is a chair for you." She sat down in the chair and said "Thank you". Cale said, "Let me push you in. There you go." It was so cute! Cale had this very satisfied look on his face, like he knew he had taken care of a problem and everything was okay now. What a ladies man!

Liam 9 month stats (and photos)

Finally, here are some pics of Liam at 9 mos. old. I already celebrated this milestone in a previous post, so I will just let you view his cuteness. In this photo, you can see how long his bangs are. I think about trimming his hair, but I really want to let his hair grow until he is a year old-coming up too soon!


At his doctor's appointment last Wednesday, Liam was 30 3/4 inches and 22 pounds 9.5 ounces. According to our doctor, Liam is off the chart for his height (the size of an average 14 month old) and is in the 80th percentile for his weight. He actually weighs the same as his 1 year old cousin.


Here he is with his tongue sticking out. Liam has his tongue out a lot, chewing on it. It's a funny little habit that none of the other boys did.

You might think, "Liam is the biggest of the boys yet!" Well yes, but not by much! At 9 months old, the other boys weighed as follows:
Marcus: 30 inches, 21 pounds 10 ounces
Cale: 29 1/4 inches, 21 pounds 12 ounces
Ewan: 29 3/4 inches, 22 pounds 7 ounces