Fearfully and Wonderfully: Easter and snow, snow, snow. . .

This winter has been weird (and apparently it's spring but the weather man here has not gotten the memo). There have been days in the last 6 weeks that we've been in short sleeves and playing outside, and multiple "snow days" where things are shut down. One afternoon/evening we got a foot of snow and many around us ended up with no power for days. It's frustrating when things keeps getting cancelled (like preschool, mother's morning out, t-ball tryouts. . .) but not much can be done about it. Now that we've had a taste of being outside we are ready for things to warm up for sure though.

Hot chocolate!

Nothing out of the ordinary going on. Corban has had a realization though. The past time I wrote on here he was saying "Mommy is the boss." We, he informed me about a week and a half ago and "Mommy and Daddy are not the boss! Corban is the boss!" And he really believes it. A switch flipped in his brain on Saturday March 24. Taylor left for the afternoon and he came home and said "what happened to Corban?" The change was that sudden and noticeable. He yells "NO!" when he's asked to do things, hits Gabriel and takes his things, and yesterday he threw an all out tantrum in the grocery store. He's 2 and a half and certainly acting like it. It's understandable that he'd start being this way given his age, but I was of course hoping that he'd forget to go through this stage at all. As he's always been, he's usually quite calm until you push one of his buttons and then life is quickly full of anger and rage. He's still super sweet and says the kindest things too though. He has a much more sensitive spirit than Gabriel did at his age. When he's reprimanded or punished for something he frequently thinks about it for a good while afterwards and then, without prompting, will come and cry and apologize. Being too harsh with him really seems to bother him more so I try hard to be gentle but firm. Even Mommy loses her temper sometimes though.

When the Romp 'n Roll theme is dinosaurs you just have to have them all!

Corban still loves dinosaurs, Little Einsteins, Romp n Roll (and Ms Diana), swings, growling, pretending to be a "baby kitty cat", pretending to be Roo (Mommy is Kanga), looking at books, PJ Masks, Star Wars (mostly because Gabriel does), and making up random names for people in books that don't have names. He also had made his own Star Wars character, "Chanda" the blue Jedi butterfly with pincher feet.

Swings!

Corban (like most kids his age) says the oddest things. Today he was getting so frustrated with me, but I have no idea what he was talking about. He was going on and on about "that round orange thing with mayonnaise all over it that was reading a book in the backyard. When you touch it it feels like a ladybug." I listened and just nodded but he was getting so annoyed that I didn't know what he was talking about. He finally said "Daddy knows what it is. I'll ask him when he gets home." Taylor didn't know either.

Monster feet

I was going into the spare room to get Corban up from his nap last week and I found him digging in a box with some candles in it. The conversations went like this:

Me: What are you doing buddy?

Corban: I need a candle. I need to spank the door. I told it to make me oatmeal and it won't do it.

Me: What?

Corban: I was going to do that, but then I realized the door can't do that. It's not a person!

"Take off my shoes mommy! I'll climb in the tree!"
This from the boy who flips out if his shoes get dirty
(although pooping in his underwear in no way bothers him)

Romp 'n Roll

2 1/2 year wellness visit for the boy who is still too
tall for the growth curve (and is wearing 4T shirts)

Corban suddenly has lots of "friends" that he wants in bed. It used to just be cow and Rompy
(and of course "sack"), but that has suddenly changed into a whole crew.
Cow, Rompy, Chick, Daniel Tiger, Triceratops, Brachiosaurus (who he has named Wall-E),
Rainbow bear, and owl (not pictured)

Gabriel reading Corban's baby book

And now Gabriel. Not much drastically changes in a couple months. He enjoys his same activities and outings. Still loves to read and listen to stories. He is getting more into reading to me which I think is fun. He spent an entire car ride the other day reading me a Star Wars book. He bounces back and forth in terms of what he likes to play, but the overall favorites are Star Wars (recently the Phantom Menace since we let him watch most of it) and Rescue Bots. He still has close to two hours of quiet time in the afternoon, and judging from what's out in his room afterwards he spends it on Legos, books, and Playmobile while listening to CDs. He is very excited to play T-ball this year and thankfully the tryout, which was postponed 3 times, actually happened tonight.

At the park with his best girl, Addy. They have sat at the same table at preschool
the last two years and will play T-ball together too. He is always so excited to
see her (and so is Corban. He brought me my phone the other day and said
"Mommy, let's call Addy!")

Ready to play ball!

Corban got a picture with his stuffed animals and Gabriel wanted
a turn too (with his bear, Freddy, and his Toy Story pals)

Random thing. I took Gabriel to his Ninja class last week. He looked at me from halfway across the gym and yelled as loudly as he could "I LOVE YOU MOM!!" I had to stop and appreciate that moment because before I know it he'll be embarrassed to be seen with me, while at this point he doesn't care if the whole gym knows that he loves his mom.

Picnic at the park with Daddy

"Carnival of Animals" at the Moss Arts Center

Besides snow, the other major thing the last couple months was Easter. Gabriel's class had a party and egg hunt and he was saying for a month that he really wanted me to come and help with the party. I could have gone to his parties in the past, but I honestly didn't because he never brought it up and Corban gets really hyper when we walk into Gabriel's classroom. It was just easier to stay home with Corban. We worked it out so that I could go this time and now I'm a little sad that I've missed all the past parties. It was so fun to see him interacting with his classmates and being so excited to have me there. I enjoyed participating in his music time, craft, snack, and egg hunt. And I've known this the whole time he's gone there, but I love his preschool. His teachers have the right mix of love and discipline and the order in the classroom of the kids demonstrates it.

Party food!

Listening to Ms Monica read an Easter book

Gabriel and Levi ready for the egg hung. Batman and Spiderman.
I have been hearing stories about Gabriel and Levi getting into mischief
for the past two years as they've sat next to each other.

Searching for eggs. I was proud of him. He didn't rush and try to grab as many as he could. He took his time and inspected each egg. Ms Lisa actually asked a couple kids to give him some of their eggs since he had so few. He thought this was so neat. He kept saying "Mom! Did you see that? John Paul shared one of his eggs with me!"

Grandma Cheryl came for an Easter visit and stayed in a hotel since there was lots going on for the weekend. When we went to her room each boy claimed their own bed to hang out in. That was a fun time

Blacksburg Egg Hunt

Carefully choosing eggs and then slowly picking any straw out of his bucket after each deposit

We went to the egg hunt put on by the town of Blacksburg. Before it started they had someone dressed up like the Easter bunny. I asked Corban if he wanted to say "hi", which he did. When we got close though he was not having it. After that he thought that "getting Easter eggs" meant seeing that bunny again. He kept saying "I don't want to get the Easter bunny eggs!" When the time came though he went it, got a few, and then said "that's enough."