It's Finally Spring

The last couple months have just flown by.  Nothing out of the ordinary has been going on.  Just school and normal things.  It's just suddenly spring and the end of the school year is right around the corner.

I've realized that I tend to always start with Gabriel's stuff and this time I actually have more pictures of Corban.  That's usually not the case since he is less likely to hold still for a picture these days.

Walking at our favorite after school park, Nellie's Cave

 Some days when I take Corban to preschool he doesn't want me to leave, but he really loves it there.  Last week when we were leaving he said "When are we coming back to preschool?  I love it here!"  Then he yelled "I love you!" to his teachers and marched out the door.  On the way home from school today he said "Do you know what Ms. Lisa tells me sometimes?  She tells me that I'm very helpful and a very kind friend."

Class Valentine's Party

Class field trip to the gym and sitting with his buddies, Tobias and Luna

Corban's class took a field trip last week.  That evening the following dialogue took place:

Taylor: Corban how was your field trip today?

Corban: It was good. I didn’t hit anyone in the face.

Corban is his own guy.  He is wild and crazy, but then can be so sweet and cuddly.  He likes to sit in someone's lap while he's playing or reading books.  He still likes to suck his thumb and cuddle with "sack".  He also likes to bite his nails, cut things with scissors, be a cat, play with umbrellas, give little kisses, and sing random songs or make up new words to songs that he knows ("Mom!  I'm going to sing a joyful song now!"). We have been going through the letters of the alphabet and when he sees things that start with certain letters he likes to point it out or figure out what the starting letter is.  The other day he said "Rompy and Rubble start with an R!  We should put them our our R paper!"

A big fan of doughnuts.  And of saying
 "Momma, I like doing things with just you."

He loves Ninja class and Coach Daniel

Corban has taken to playing with his toys or telling stories using chapters.  He was playing in the bathtub the other day and I heard him say "Chapter 3!  Tony Stark and the Hulk!"  The following was a recent Facebook post that I made:

Corban spent the entire afternoon talking. He came out at rest time and said “Mommy I need to talk about some things.” He followed me around and proceeded to do so. When he got in bed he said “I just can’t go to sleep. I have so much more to talk to you about.” I said that it can wait until tomorrow. He said “Ok, we’ll start right when we get up.” Where did these talkative children come from?

The following happened just that night:

He came into my room at 5 this morning saying he had a bad dream. I asked if he wanted to tell me about it. He said “Chapter 1. The evil emperor bird steals Christmas. . .” And so he began. There were many chapters

Science museum with Daddy

Corban has been having some trouble with sleep lately, which isn't a problem we've had with either of the boys since they were babies.  He's not napping much anymore, and so is enjoying some quiet play time in his room in the afternoon on most days.  Some days he falls asleep in his bed during that time for a while.  The frustrating thing is that he keeps waking up sometime between 1am and 3am.  He usually comes into our room and just stands by Taylor's side of the bed.  He says that he's scared, though he isn't externally looking like he is. We want to give him the benefit of the doubt about it though.  Sometimes he gets in bed with Taylor for a few minutes and then he takes him back to bed. Last night I heard him shuffle into our room in his footed PJs and just stand by Taylor's side of the bed.  He stood there for some time.  I finally got up and asked if he needed something.  He said he was scared.  I just picked him up and hugged him and walked him back to his room.  He gave me a kiss and went back to sleep.  Him waking us up is a little frustrating sometimes, but he goes back to sleep without getting angry.  He's going through some kind of transition, with having so much to talk about, sleeping less, throwing age appropriate tantrums, etc.  He's trying to figure some things out.

One night last week Corban told me that he's scared of the dark because God is always there.  I hadn't thought of that from a kids perspective, but I could see how thinking about someone being in your room could be strange.  We talked about it and later he told me that he was glad that God was always with him.  I'm glad that his little mind is processing these things.

Opening day with our dragons

We don't go and see a lot of movies in the theaters because it's obviously so expensive.  Gabriel had seen a float with the How to Train Your Dragon characters on it on New Years Day.  He remembered from that what day the new movie was coming out this year and he pointed out many times that it came out on a day that he didn't have school.  SO, on that day the boys pooled their money and bought a new dragon and we went to see the movie in the theater.  Gabriel said it was the best day ever.

In the movie two of the main characters get engaged and married.  Gabriel's teacher sent me a text last week and said that while talking to one of his classmates about the new movie he said "I hate engagements.  That's all girls think about."

Playing on a fallen tree in the park.  We've had a windy winter

Valentine present from his buddy Addy

Local Hokie statue

Gabriel loves this monkey, who he named "Macaroni."  Corban, who did
not want to be left out of the noodle fun, named his Penguin "Spaghetti"

Helping Daddy change the oil

Taylor was out of town for a week recently.  He came back on Friday and I had to go to work on Saturday.  I told Gabriel that I was sorry that I had to go to work the first day Daddy was back home.  He said "Mom it's ok that you're going to work on Saturday.  We've been with you a lot this week and we want to hang out with Dad." 

Gabriel is up to the same things.  He loves his Legos and both boys have been really into dragons (due to some Christmas presents and the new movie that came out).  He told me that his favorite day of the week is Wednesday since he gets to have his violin lesson.  And he's super excited that tee ball starts back up this week. He also finally started occupational therapy.  I'm still trying to figure out how to incorporate the things that he's learning there into daily life.  They have been working on learning how to adjust his body from being fast and wild to calm and controlled.  He now has a weighted lap pad that he uses at school for math and writing to help him stay grounded and still.  He also has something on his pencil that he can purposely chew when he feels the need to do that.  They have also been working on identifying emotions and talking about appropriate ways to express and deal with different feelings.  I didn't realize that OT could address all of these things, but the activities that she does with him seem to be focused around the areas where he really struggles and I'm thankful for that.  And Corban also loves the sensory bin and putty that we got for help with calming down.

"Mom take my picture by this pole.  It looks like something from Narnia."  Gabriel loves
Daddy driving him to school most mornings so that they can listen to Narnia books in the car.

And finally last weekend we went to the open house at the local Vet School.  They have this every year, but I'd never taken them.  They had so much fun.  There were exotic animals to touch and see, ice cream for milking a pretend cow, a "repair clinic" where vet students had stuffed animals and felt hearts and they could have one sutured on, cookies decorated like cells, microscopes, and a whole room full of animal skeletons.  We will be going to back next year I hope!

Identifying ticks

They had a book of facepainting options, which did not include a bat.  Gabriel had never wanted his face painted but was certain that he needed to be a bat.  The girl looked up an example and he loved it!