1st day of Big Boy School

When Reese turned 3 he officially graduated from the birth to age 3 program. Now he'll get services from the school district. That means he attends preschool at a local elementary school. The school is about 4 minutes away, which is very convenient. Class meets at 8:15am, UGH!
His first day was Monday.

He looks so little at the big doors!Once their coats are off they practice writing their names. Then he dove right into the legos. They play while they wait for the buses to arrive. They have a morning circle time to discuss the month, days of the week, & weather. They do some counting (to the day's date) and patterning (color sequence of what the date is written on). Then they wash their hands, have breakfast, brush their teeth and go outside!This of course was Reese's favorite part.He had no problems getting up the giant slide steps.He loved this part. After outside time they wash hands and have more circle time--alphabet stuff and a story or discussion about how to deal with feelings, or music class. They have free play choice: sensory table or water table or computer games or books or a variety of toys. At some point in the week the speech therapist and OT therapist will pull him out for individual time or they may incorporate stuff into class time. Then they wash hands and eat lunch. It's so cute! They serve family style and the kids serve themselves -- with serving spoons or tongs. They have to ask to be excused (or attempt to say it) and then scrape their plates in the trash and separate their dishes into buckets. Then HOME!
Mommy and Grandpop attended Monday and Tuesday. Mommy and Daddy attended on Wednesday and then on Thursday Reese stayed all by himself! It was an exhausting week. We are ready for a 3 day weekend to recuperate!

PARTY!!

Reese had his birthday party on Sunday. He was very excited about his cake and could hardly wait for everyone to arrive so he could have some!

This year he really understood that he was getting gifts and did pretty well with the gift wrap.

He got some ToyStory goodies.Here he is with his very own laptop! He waited patiently in Daddy's usual laptop spot for it to be removed from its packaging.
The 4 of usDaddy and Gus

He got right to work on a birthday craft project.

All in all he had a great day!

Reese is THREE!!!

Wow, this little guy...

...turned 3 years old today.It's so shocking to think 3 whole years have passed. Our first baby is not a baby anymore. Yet it's also shocking to realize it's only been 3 years?! It seems like he has always been in our lives.
Three years ago today I was in my 6th month of pregnancy. On my 16th day as an inpatient at the UWMC antepartum unit Reese was delivered via c-section and then taken to the NICU. When he was a few hours old the neonatology resident came down to my room to let us know he was a "fire cracker." At 7 hours old I got to go see him for the first time. At 4 days old I held him for the first time. Kyle finally held him at 9 days old. At 2 months old we brought him home.
3 years later he enjoyed a birthday donut covered in sprinkles in the morning...and a cup of hot cocoa as a bedtime treat.

We can't imagine a sweeter little boy.

Organic Veggies

We have been trying to eat mostly organic veggies for awhile now, but lots of times it's hit or miss what's available. My friend, Anya, turned me onto Wildly Organic. We got our first drop on Wednesday.

We ordered a Veggie Pak, but you can get fruit or fruit and veggie. They dropped off a rubbermaid tote packed full on our back porch. It was all just lovely--I hate it when produce is beat up and ugly.

We got a TON of veggies! We had a yummy rainbow chard frittata with sliced mango (I actually discovered I don't like mango, but Reese did). I used the carrots and celery with roasted chicken and a beef roast. I used the leeks to make potato soup. We used the red onion on salads and the beautiful red lettuce for sandwiches and salad. We ate some broccoli with chicken and stuffing. We still have zucchini left. I am going to make this cheesy zucchini red pepper meal. We also have a bunch of spinach. I think I may make another fritatta or quiche along with some mushrooms. I substituted some things I didn't want on the delivery list-- like beets and turnips. That's how we got the mango and bananas in our "veggie" pak. Reese loves bananas again. He had been on an apple kick of late and refused to eat banana anymore. We also have some cauliflower left. I think I'll make a curried cauliflower--still trolling the net for recipes. Then I think the only other thing we have left is butternut squash. I got a bunch of recipes from the same blog as the zucchini recipe that I am debating.
We can't wait for our next delivery. The only thing is it makes menu planning difficult since we have to wait until Wednesday for our delivery. Okay it doesn't effect my ability to plan--it affects Menu Plan Monday in the blog world.

The Plan:
Monday: Potato Soup
Tuesday: my recipe made 5 quarts so...potato soup
Wednesday: cheesy zucchini red pepper barley bake
Thursday: Fajitas
Friday: Ribs in the crock pot, curried cauliflower, baked butternut squash (I'll still have one left for a fancy recipe)
Saturday: out to eat
Sunday: Reese's birthday party---not positive what we'll be eating yet.

See more ideas at orgjunkie!

Science Project

For Superbowl I made yummy Tex Mex dip which resulted in a lovely avocado pit. It seemed to be calling for continued purpose in life.

So it has become Reese's science project.

We have inserted the toothpicks for support to suspend the pit over water in hopes of getting some sprouts.

It says 10 days in a warm place or up to 5 weeks. I put it under the microwave vent to get some hot air circulation, so we'll see if that counts as "warm"--we may be in for a long haul. But Reese thought jabbing in the toothpicks was pretty fun!

School's Out!!

Reese has been attending Holly Ridge for speech therapy and preschool which incorporates occupational therapy and speech in a group class. We started in October 2008. He was in a class that required parents to stay and participate the whole time. About 2 months after his 2nd birthday he graduated to the class where the parents do not stay. This was with the same teacher we already had been in class with so it made the transition a lot easier. Well today was his last day. This program is for birth to age 3, so starting Tuesday he is no longer eligible for this program. He has had all his 3 year old assessments and I think I've filled out all the appropriate paperwork. Now we are just waiting to hear what is next. The 3-5 year old program is preschool through the school district, so he'll go to the elementary school. (I do not know if they expect us to drop our kids and leave or what--but I'm not too comfortable with that idea.) Holly Ridge has recommended he go into an inclusion class --meaning along side "typically developing kids" aka TDKs. Of course nothing can be straight forward---inclusion classes are both school district and head start sharing a class. The class he should be in only has 3 district spots which are full. The other 17 are head start and 1 spot is open, BUT we don't financially qualify for head start.

SOOOO...they have to review all of Reese's assessments and calculate a score for him. Head start must give their spot to the child with the "most need" and that is determined based on a score compiled from a huge stack of factors. So we should know by Friday if he gets the head start spot or not. They haven't really told me about what the options are if he doesn't get that spot as they are thinking he likely will. So for now we think he'll go 4 days a week at 8:15AM (HOLY COW) at the elementary school closest to our house..less than a mile. SO we shall see.

Give me the FOOD!!!

This kid is after all of our food!

I just cut up the last of my romaine and Gus promptly grabbed the lettuce keeper. He lunged over the opening to see what was inside. Then he was content to gum the side. I made sure I took it away before any slobber could drip inside. He he lunged at Kyle's ice cream bowl. When Kyle held it out closer to him he did a shark attack and chomped his little gums right down. He definitely seems to be in full teething mode, but I feel no teeth yet. I sure hope they either hurry up and pop through or stop bothering him.

New Friends

Gus finally noticed my mom's dog, Maddie.She's not as tickled with him as he is with her.

Gus really seemed to like her. She finally warmed up a bit and decided to check him out more closely.

Lego Lover

Reese got his first real Legos (duplos) for Christmas this year. The first time we tried to play with them he was still REALLY into Cars so he didn't have the patience to figure out how to connect the legos together. He was in a hurry to get back to playing with all his Cars stuff.But the other day we busted out the Legos to give them another try.He loved them. We spent about 30 minutes playing together, then he played solo the whole time I prepped dinner.
Maybe next time Daddy works in San Diego we'll hit Lego Land.

Funny Monkey Hair

This is the puff of yarn hair on the top of Gus' sock monkey. OK now that I think about it, It's actually the pom pom on the sock monkey's hat.

Tummy Time

Gus loves his tummy time. He really isn't making much effort to get up up and crawl, but he does hold himself up and play with toys. He still is at the stage where he whines and fusses if a toy rolls out of reach. I've been trying to hoist him up on his knees but he's having none of it.

He is newly fascinated with paper!
I remember my brothers wearing overalls and thinking they were so cute. Maybe it's because my boys are so skinny, but now they just seem so uncomfortable especially during tummy time.You'd never know it from this photo, but Gus has blue eyes. They kind of change with his outfit though. In these camo overalls, next to my blue eyes, his seem greenish/brown. Reese's eyes are the same blue as mine and look blue regardless of his clothing.

Bag Lady

Back in the summer I had planned to have a Gigi Hill party, but I canceled because I had a kidney stone problem. I almost just sent in an order on my own. On Sunday I went to a demonstration my consultant held to unload her summer samples. I got these 2 bags at 65% off, no shipping!! Woo HOO!!! So happy I waited. One is an overnighter and one is more tote. I love them and many more. Luckily my mother in law is having a party in April. If you want to come or place an order let me know!

Brotherly Love

I realized I've haven't been taking many photos so I was trying to get a nice one of the boys together.
This is after a LOT of cajoling to get Reese to stop saying "cheese" with the squished face, closed eyes and gritted teeth. This was his best effort to keep his eyes open.

Goofing around.

Gus watching Reese run off.

More goofing around.

Of course finally a normal smile and he grabs the lens!!

Hugging...

Kissing...

Good Times.