August Kid-Isms

Nolanisms-

• When Nolan's bored he'll say, "I'm boring."
• I told Nolan his preschool teacher's name is Miss Brown. He said, "Like a brownie?" I giggled and said "No, Miss Brown, but I'm sure she'd like to hear that you thought that." He got very serious and said, "No, we can't tell her that, it will hurt her feelings if she thinks people think she's a brownie."
• Nolan told me he saw a daddy long leg and that it wouldn't bite him, but to watch out because a Mommy-long leg would.
• Nolan told Brian that he had ordered cinnamon toast, but changed his mind and ordered cereal (from me) instead.
• Nolan called an almond an "al-nut"
• He calleds gravity "grabbity"
• N's working VERY hard at saying Joseph correctly and has it about 25% of the time when he concentrates.

Joseph-isms-

• Joseph's fear of the bath got better, but got worse again. We now know that the fear is the water in his face, but he has no problem splashing in the pool, splash park, etc.
• J can say Uh-oh, but it sounds like this: "Uhhh-eeww"
• Joseph can say "please" in sign language.

Daniel-isms-

• Daniel loves to dip his food and says, "Dip dip" very clearly.
• If anyone says "hello?" Daniel puts his hand up to his head like he's talking on the phone.
• Daniel loves to go behind his crib and "hide" and gets the biggest grin when we say "where's Daniel?"

Vacation Bible School

Mid-August Nolan attended a Vacation Bible school in Lexington. The base VBS requires that the kids have completed kindergarten, so we were relieved to find one off base that had a preschool age class. Lunch and snack were included daily. Nolan made lots of crafts, sang songs and learned a whole lot about Jesus. It was fantastic and by the time I went to pick him up each day I missed him dearly!

Friday the twins and I got to join Nolan for lunch and hear him and his friends sing songs. Very sweet!

Nolan LOVES showing off his brothers and was telling the teachers how his prayers had made Daniel "not sick anymore." Here he is smooching J:

The boys were so tickled to be a part of it all.

Nolan and his little friend, they were best pals.

Lookout Farm

A couple weekends ago we went to Lookout Farms, where they have all kinds of pick your own fruit. There's apparently quite a few farms like this in the area and in another month or so, they will be even more festive. We were able to pick Saturn peaches, nectarines and apples. It didn't seem like a hot day until we were in the sun, then it was pretty toasty. Not Florida-hot, but still warm. We had a great day and have been eating the rewards since!

At the end we let Nolan eat one of the apples he picked. They had a great kids area, complete with playground, a maze, face painting and a caterpillar ride. Here's Brian before we let the kids loose in the playground, which is scarier than it sounds these days. Nolan taking Daniel down the slide. I realize that perhaps it should have been Nolan or at least Joseph on the lone side of the see-saw, but what you can't see is Brian, helping Big D out! This pic is kind of grainy, but I zoomed in on the boys faces. The ride actually went kind of fast, so I didn't let Danny go because he can wiggle himself out of any and every single buckle, strap and seat, so I figured that may not end well. J was a bit scared, but also delighted to be with big brother. Growing up so fast... Joseph literally swiped this from me. I was munching it, set it on the counter and he stole it. Apparently he can eat a whole apple. But at least he shares...

I made a peach and blueberry pie with our pickings. It was not bad, but Nolan kept saying "its just too good to eat, Mom. I'll eat some tomorrow." He's like me, I'm not much of a fruit pie kind of gal. Or my baking just needs some work...

The Cubby

One of my favorite places in the new house is this little area of random space to the left of the staircase and directly across from Nolan's room. We called it the Nook at first, but Nolan instantly named it "The Cubby" and that name has stuck. We discussed reasonable choices for what to put there... a computer desk, for example. Even a bookshelf would be great, but I knew one of the boys would climb it and fall over the edge (which goes about 10 feet down to the bottom of the staircase). While we were painting and getting moved in, Nolan even slept in the cubby. I fell in love with this tiny space and wanted to make it a special place for Nolan and eventually even the twins. Ikea helped me a lot in making my vision of a little fort/special kids area become a reality. We were able to surprise Nolan and set most of it up in one night, so when he woke up and came out of his room, he found this:

The "door" to the cubby.

To the left is the magnetic chalkboard. On the right wall are the baskets that hold the chalk, magnets and tic tac toe magnetic games. There's also a "bug" light you can't see to well. Under the leaf and on the back wall are pillows for snuggling in and reading. We read Nolan his bedtime stories almost every night in here.

This is the view from inside Cubby, looking into Nolan's room.

What it looks like when we peek in on the kids from their point of view: I really want the space to be creative/educational, but on occasion (like when I have a specialist coming to the house for Daniel), I know I can keep Nolan totally content by letting him watch a movie on the little DVD player in his cubby. Best thing ever!

Brotherly Love

Daniel likes to climb on these toy buckets, but then gets mad because he's stuck (Nolan used to do the same thing!) Notice Joseph in the background? Aww, poor Danny... Joseph wants to help him out. No. No wait, he just wants to be in the picture.

Ahh, now he's got it just right. Totally blocking brother and a huge grin to prove it! I couldn't make this stuff up or plan it if I tried!

Ladies Night

The club on base adverstises Thursday night as being Ladies night, with drink and appetizer specials. A group of us girls decided to check it out, and although the bartender wasn't aware of any of the specials, we had a great time. We sat on the patio, enjoyed the gorgeous weather and talked about...well, I can't tell you what we talked about, but it was fun. Glad I wore jeans because its not quite cool enough for the mosquitos just yet!

Corn Festival

A few weekends ago we went to a little corn festival up the street. It was really cute and had lots of yummy treats to sample, a small "petting zoo" (it was really a barn with some chicken and pigs), cookie decorating and corn shucking contests. We didn't take many pics, but here's Nolan shucking corn.... And the winner is...Nolan! He was so proud and even more proud the next night when we ate the winnings.

Spaghetti Time

It had to happen someday...why not now? Gotta love spaghetti night. Messy, messy, messy....but so fun and delicious!!

Joseph is actually a very picky eater. He loves all things carbs, but prefers bread over anything, so he ate more than I thought he would, but still wanted his crescent roll more than anything.

J&D both started out with forks, but as they realized how much they liked it, they ditched the forks for their hands.

Daniel LOVED it! He kept shoving handfuls of noodles in his mouth. Which is wonderful, because his noodles had extra butter!

And Nolan loved it, too...

How cute was he?? That was Nolan at about 18 months. It could have been yesterday. Here he is now. Much cleaner, but still as adorable (but I am his momma, so I'm probably fairly biased).

Full Moon

I heard about a restaurant through some local parents website and Brian and I decided to check it out with the kids. Its located in Cambridge and is a quaint little place, with yummy food for all ages. Steaks/fish/wine list for the adults and a nice variety of choices, including healthier alternatives, for the kids. They deliver buckets of toys for the little ones and have a great play area that can be viewed from almost anywhere in the restaurant. We enjoyed a great meal and the kids had a blast. Win-win! A picture of me with Joseph & Daniel. Okay, it took 2 pics!

Nolan in the kitchen part of the playroom.

Joey loved it!!!

Daniel kept getting frustrated with this truck...its a long story.

After dinner we went to the river and walked around until the sun had set, it was sooo pretty!

Nolan loves to take pictures these days!