Whew, we've been busy!

We've had an action packed couple of weeks here! We really enjoyed having Erik home for 5 days over Thanksgiving, and celebrating his birthday as well. We had a couple of friends over for Thanksgiving dinner. Over that weekend, Stephen discovered the somersault. In the beginning, he needed a bit of assistance, but by the end of this past week, he just needed a little help steering so that he didn't run in to anything. As soon as we ask him if he wants to do a somersault, he runs over, puts his hands on the ground, tucks his head, and pushes off with his feet! These pictures were from last weekend, when he was just learning.

As you can see, he REALLY enjoys this particular activity! Now, he has added running to the mix, and does his somersault, runs around a bit, and then comes back to do another. It's really no wonder why he eats as much as he does, given his activity level!

This past Friday, Stephen was evaluated for preschool! As usual, he was stubborn and a bit uncooperative, but we are pleased that he WILL be getting to go to preschool starting in January. He really hit it off with the speech therapist who will be working with him as well, which was a relief, as he never really clicked with the one he used to see (those services stopped since he is almost 3). It wasn't really her fault, or his. I think she just happened to start working with him right when his sleep apnea started to get bad, and he was just cranky, and hard to get along with. They seemed to do better with each other these last couple of months though. Anyways, he will be going to preschool at the "Big Kid School" 4 mornings each week, and then will continue at Children's Day Out on Fridays, so that he doesn't have to leave his friends. We are all very excited about preschool! The school has been recently renovated, so the facilities are top-notch, and his teacher was very nice. There will only be a few other people in his class, too, so he will get a lot of one-on-one attention. We never wanted Stephen to NEED extra help with his speech, but we are so grateful that these services are out there so that we can take advantage of them!

The biggest thing coming up right now is our Big Boy's birthday!!! Even though it isn't until next Monday, we are going to celebrate it on Saturday. We aren't having a party this year, but Stephen's Grandma Janet and Grandaddy will be here, so we are going to open presents on Saturday and have cake after we got to the tree farm for our Christmas tree! Unfortunately, on his birthday, Stephen will be having a minor medical procedure done to remove a small, benign cyst from in front of his right ear. That was the best date we could get to have it done, unfortunately, but we don't figure that a 3 year old really cares about the actual DATE of his birthday - just the presents and the CAKE!!! I'm making him a chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting this year - a favorite on my side of the family!!

Some things...

We have been awfully busy around here lately! Last Friday (11/13), I joined Stephen at school for a Thanksgiving Luncheon. The director cooked all of the food herself!! Parents volunteered to bring drinks and/or desserts, and it was a delicious meal. Stephen surprised me by not only sitting in a regular chair all by himself (no booster seat!!), but using his fork remarkably well for the situation. He was definitely lower to the table than he was used to, but he did well anyways. This bodes well for our trip to see Aunt Erin, Uncle Adam, and Cousin Zachary, so that we don't have to worry about a booster for meals!! He also drank about half of a juice box, and then wouldn't take a nap... I had left him at school after the meal so I could get some more housework done, and he could play with his best buddy.

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Stephen has been waking up during the night wanting to use the potty, and often times, he has a dry diaper! So when it started getting colder at night, our poor boy was cold when he was on the potty, because he was wearing a blanket sleeper, and had to be completely stripped down to use the toilet. The other day at Target, I came upon this:

Yep, it's a two-piece, fleece PJ set! Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find it in any other patterns yet... (If you notice that his nose appears bruised and a bit swollen, it is. He was running in the family room, and didn't pick up his feet when he got to the rug, and did a face-plant)

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On Saturday, we went over to JCPenney to have this year's portraits of Stephen taken. He did remarkably well considering he has had a cold for several days. He also decided that he didn't like that the flooring in the studio was squishy - we think he felt off-balance due to the cold/congestion and the odd floor. He absolutely REFUSED to stand on that floor either in shoes or not, but he was fine once we got out the door. Strange. And that is why he wasn't wearing shoes in the photos! Here is a little sneak peak...

The shirt was a custom order from www.hopscotchsquare.etsy.com. I think she did a great job! I suspect, however, that Stephen will quickly outgrow this shirt (just based on how his growth has been these last several months!), and we will be asking Grandma Janet to put the "3" applique onto another, larger shirt.

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Stephen is now tall enough to turn on and off all of the lights in our house. When he was first able to do it a few weeks ago in his shoes, I measured him, and he was just under 37" tall. He can now do it in his bare feet with minimal stretching, so he has probably grown a bit since then. It's just amazing how much more he is growing now the he SLEEPS!!!

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Speech is coming along wonderfully! Stephen has been babbling more and more around the house (and OUT of the house more too!), and is having actual conversations with us on occasion. His vocabulary is growing by leaps and bounds, and he is USING his words more frequently. Erik asked him a question a few days ago, and instead of just shaking his head "no," he actually SAID, "no!" And when Erik then reminded him that using his words was fun, Stephen said, "VVVVVUUN!!" (fun) We are loving hearing his voice finally!

Luke, I am your Father...

This is Bear Vader. This afternoon, we took Stephen to walk at the mall because it was raining, and that's always a fun thing to do. While walking around, we noticed several people dressed as Storm Troopers outside the Build-A-Bear Workshop, and decided to go check it out. Stephen was not only NOT afraid of the men in "scary" costumes, but he found it all pretty amusing. He was shaking all of their hands, and blew kisses when we left. We needed to get him home for a nap, but when we found out that the characters would only be there this afternoon, we decided to go back afterwards with the camera.

Shortly after the picture below was taken, Stephen grabbed on to the trooper's hands and started to dance with him.

Stephen enjoyed the Build-A-Bear experience much more than I thought he would! He was excited to get his bear, and did the whole thing with the stuffer and his bear's heart (you have to rub the heart and do other things with it, like kiss it). And when the stuffer gave it to him to check the stuffing level, he didn't want to give it back to be sewn up! It was a lot of fun for all of us, and probably something we will do again at some point!!

Sorry, Mom!!!

Apparently I forgot to credit my mom with the creation of those clown costumes. As you can see, they were worn before Stephen and I got them... They held up well, didn't they? Thanks, Mom, for saving the costumes!!

A is for ART!!

Last week, Stephen and I started working on a kind-of "Letter of the Day" curriculum at home. We will do this on weekdays when he is not at school. Thursday's letter was "A." I gave him some roll-on paint marker thingies to color this A (you can see the squiggles...). You may also be wondering about the Christmas Tree...
Last week, I rearranged the playroom (which Stephen has LOVED, by the way!), and I decided to take some toys out of rotation, and put some other ones out. I pulled out his Little People Nativity Set, and another Christmas set. The plan is to start teaching Stephen about the Nativity a little bit, but I got out the other set as well for fun. He remembered the Christmas Tree, obviously, and remembered that pressing down on the star will make it play either, "We Wish You a Merry Christmas," or "Oh Christmas Tree." So, in order to get him to stay at his table and paint/color for longer than 5 seconds, I let him bring the tree over.


This is the first time we've let Stephen color with Markers. He seems to enjoy them over anything else we have had him use so far! Without prompting, he held the markers with a really good grasp (most of the time, anyways!). He put the marker down whenever he had to restart the music on his tree...
And for anyone wondering what this coloring project has to do with the letter "A," that little guy is Austin from the Backyardigans!

We also worked on another project that day, but I can't post anything about it because it is for a Christmas present for the grandparents!!!

Just a few more...

He finished off the evening of Trick or Treating with a pumpking cookie (thanks Grandma Deb!!), a bath, and The Backyardigans!! It was a lot of fun, but we were definitely missing having other kids around. Maybe next year we'll take him somewhere with other kids!!

Happy Halloween!!!

Yesterday, I got to school early to see Stephen and his pals go "Trick or Treating" at the director's office for CDO. When I got there, the boy was in full-on, meltdown mode. He was very upset, and when I asked the teachers, they said that they were planning on getting the kids their snacks, but they were all running a bit behind, and hadn't gotten to it. No biggie, so I gave Stephen some cuddles as I helped him in to his costume. He finally told me twice that he was hungry. He actually used those words, twice. Excellent. Since he told me what the problem was, I let the teachers know I was going to give him a little snack. Then, they all headed down the hall to Ms. Stephanie's office for treats!(that little guy behind Stephen is Noah, his buddy. I think Noah was trying to figure out if he could get someone behind that door to give him some candy too...) Stephen and Noah play together whenever Noah is at school. I met his mom today, and hopefully in the future, we will be able to get the boys together to play outside of school!

They all made it down the hall, and were getting their treats...

I just love this picture (below). I don't remember what their teacher (in the striped shirt) was saying to them, but I love how they are all listening so intently!

So here he is, our happy clown!

We will be trick or treating on our street tonight, and depending on how Erik is feeling, we may or may not go to "Haunt the Zoo." Erik is sick, from all of the dust aggravating his throat and nose from construction right outside his office at school. Our sweet boy, knowing that Daddy was using a lot of kleenex, brought him the box while he was in the kitchen this morning. After he gave him the box, he went back to playing. What a sweetie!