We got to take the boys to a trash truck show a few weeks ago. It's called The Trash Project, and it's basically a performance where several city workers drive around the trucks, which are choreographed to music. It is pretty impressive to see. Needless to say, the boys were in heaven. John and Eli went a couple years ago, and Eli hasn't forgotten about it since then.
the initial line up
amazed
taking it all in
they were taking in the trucks, I was taking in the sunset
the boys got to get in the trucks after the show
this is Jed in the trash truck talking to the worker (sorry, the pic came out dark)
checking out all angles
in the cherry picker
sorry, a dark pic again of boys by trash truck
Eli loved this song. He insisted that I record it!
I wanted to share these recent videos of Jed playing and singing. He loves to sing "Who Let the Dogs Out", which is the theme song for Monster Mutt and "Bad to the Bone", which is Grave Digger's theme song. These are his favorite two monster trucks, by the way. He sets up monster truck shows and sings the songs over and over. I love it.
He's just a singer in general, always singing no matter what he's doing. I like that in the Twinkle Twinkle videos, Eli is accompanying Jed's songs on the piano. Awesome.
We officially have a kindergartner! Eli was excited about going to school and was definitely ready. The first day was a little emotional for John and I since our boy was growing up and headed off to kindergarten, but we didn't let Eli know that. John and I teared up a little after we dropped him off, but we did okay after that! We've had a smooth transition all around, thankfully. Eli says he likes it and has met some friends, but we really don't get much information from him each day. Usually when we ask him questions about school, no matter if they are open-ended or specific, the answer we get is, "I forgot" or "I don't know". When I asked Eli why he forgets, he said, "My head gets so full of fun things we do all day that it pops and I forget everything". I guess that's a good thing! At least we know he's having fun!
As a matter of fact, Eli may be having a little too much fun. His teacher told me that "he's a boy's boy" and that he can get silly. She said she does have to give him warnings. Let's hope that behavior stops there! He had to sit out of centers that second day because he was being silly and using potty words. He still got a sticker for the day though. I think that in these first weeks of school, the teacher isn't letting anything slip by as far as behavior goes, understandably so. I just didn't think Eli would be the silly kid. I thought he would take longer to warm up. At least he's feeling comfortable there. We are keeping an eye on his behavior chart, though!
We put Eli in the dual language class where the kids are learning Spanish each day. I'm really excited to see how Eli does with that. I think it's going to be very beneficial to him now and in the future. Hopefully, he won't get bored in school since he has the extra challenge of learning Spanish, and the language will stick with him as he gets older. Already, he will randomly spout out a word or phrase in Spanish, which is fun to hear. The other day he was excited because he said "Hola" to one of the girls who only speaks Spanish and she said "Hola" back. Before we know it, he'll be fluent and we'll have a hard time figuring out what he's saying! Let's hope!
Showing off his Star Wars backpack
"Welcome to Sunset Valley Elementary" I love that he chose to wear his monster truck shirt on the first day!
Eli walked right in, sat at his seat, and started coloring
This was the "We survived the first day" picture that Jed took
And here are John and Eli riding bikes to school in the morning. I love it...and so do they!
The Saturday before Eli started school, we all went to the circus. The Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, The Greatest Show on Earth, no less! When I first told Jed we were going, he said he didn't want to go because it was too scary. However, I convinced him to go after we watched a few videos of the animals and the acts on the website. Jed's favorite part ended up being the tigers, which is what I thought he'd be most scared of. Eli liked the motorcycle on the tight rope and the motorcycles in the metal cage, not surprising. It was a good show, and we had fun making a fun family memory together!
Here's me at 31 weeks. I'm feeling great and nesting like crazy. Eli took the bare belly shot...ha! I start going to my midwife appointments every week now. We're getting close!
Update: I wrote this about a week and a half ago, but couldn't post b/c I didn't have enough storage space for pictures. It's fixed now, thanks to John. And now I have a lot of posting to do! As far as how I'm feeling since a week and a half ago...still nesting and feeling pretty good, just getting more uncomfortable, tired, and swollen!
Eli has shown interest in learning to play the piano recently, so we decided that instead of paying to put him in lessons, John could teach him. So far, it's going really well. Eli seems to be more interested in playing the songs rather than learning proper hand placement, posture, the notes and how to read the music, but he'll get there. He's getting the idea of it all already though. I found a couple of piano books for beginners, which are great for kids his age, and he does pretty well reading how to play some of the songs in there just from looking at the notes and the pictures of hand placement. So far he can play "Mary Had a Little Lamb", "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", and "Ode to Joy", plus some of the other little songs in his piano books. This all started about two weeks ago, so it's pretty amazing how much he's learned in such little time! I hope the piano playing continues for Eli. It's fun to watch John teach Eli and see Eli blossom as a musician!
I think I've posted about Eli's "weak" teeth here before when he had his first cavity filled about 6 months ago. This week at his regular cleaning appointment, the dentist found more cavities! He had to have silver caps put on two of his molars because the cavities were taking over most of the tooth. I don't get it. We do everything we're supposed to...floss every night, brush two times a day, limit sugary foods and drinks, etc. The dentist said she doesn't doubt we do all those things, especially when I told her I've never had a cavity before. It's just the way his teeth are. The dentist did give us some hope when she said that his adult teeth could be less cavity prone and just because his baby teeth are troublesome, doesn't mean his adult teeth would be that way. Let's hope! Thankfully, Eli is a good patient and does great at the dentist. He's very cooperative, quiet, and still! He was even a good sport about his mouth being numb and having to hold gauze in his mouth for 30 min. It was pretty funny to see him try to talk when he had a numb mouth! Here are some pictures of him when they were putting on the caps.
I am now 28 weeks along, officially in my third trimester. I'm feeling great, too. This little guy seems to be pretty active. I can usually tell when he's awake by all the movements and kicks, and I can also tell what position he's in, which is really cool. It's getting to where other people can tell where he is in my belly as well as see the kicks and movements! We had a follow-up sonogram appointment yesterday to check to see if the cysts in his brain have gone away. They discovered those in my 18 week sono and weren't too concerned about it but wanted to make sure they were gone...and they are! He is looking healthy and right on track in growth...yay! It was really amazing to have sonogram this late in the pregnancy. We saw him moving around, turning his head, opening his eyes, and opening and closing his mouth. It was like he was talking to us, but we couldn't hear him! The boys were there and at one point, Jed asked the lady where his weenie was. I guess that was the most important thing for him to see...ha! This baby is already a big one...no surprise there. He's measuring in at 30 weeks, and he's about 4 lbs. already. The sonographer said that's to be expected considering the other almost 10 pounders I've given birth to. My midwife says I have a proven pelvis! I'm really not worried about the size. I'm proud to show off my big belly and big babies! Here are some recent belly pics and also a picture of the sono where you can see the baby's face. His face is sideways with his eyes closed and mouth open. The picture doesn't compare to seeing it on video!
We've been spending a lot of time at the pool this summer since it's one of the only ways to keep cool in this crazy heat! A few weeks ago, Eli all of a sudden decided he was going to swim like a big kid. It's like something clicked and he started saying, "watch me, Mom" and he was suddenly swimming underwater and not afraid to try new things in the water. So, we decided it was a good time to put him in some lessons so he could learn the proper ways to swim with arm/leg movements, etc. and get even more comfortable in the water. It's a bit of a relief when we're at the pool now since I don't have to watch both boys like a hawk and keep both near me at all times. I still keep an eye on Eli, of course, but now I'm more confident in his swimming and safety skills in the water. Jed does pretty well in the water, too, I think he's more confident than Eli was at Jed's age. This makes me a little nervous since Jed will try things he hasn't quite mastered yet, like follow Eli into the deep end or bounce up and down, go under, and then come up coughing. I'm sure he'll get it soon enough!
Eli and I got to have a fun date last week! John's work had a team building day out at Krausse Springs, so he took Jed along with him for the day since Eli had swim lessons in the morning, camp in the afternoon, and we also went to my midwife appointment (busy day!). We had some time to kill between Eli's swim lessons and my appointment, so Eli had the idea that we should go to Zilker park and ride the train and get a snow cone. Great idea! It was a little spontaneous date for us. I love hanging out with my boy! And to top it all of, I got an afternoon to myself while Eli was at camp! I went shopping and got a pedicure, complete with flowers on my toes...so nice!
Eli and Boone have bonded recently. That could be because Eli is the one who feeds Boone most of the time, but maybe not. They play together, hang out together during rest time, and have lots of snuggle time. I keep remembering when Eli would take out his frustrations of having a new sibling out on Boone after Jed was born. Boone put up with a lot of pinching, hitting, and biting in those days, but now his relationship with Eli has done a complete turn around. Thankfully, Boone was willing to put up with all that. Boone's a good 'ol dog and I love seeing him and Eli together!
We have these little books called Bob Books for beginning readers. They are really short books, each with only a few letters in them to focus on so that it's easy to sound out the words. Eli has read a few books in the first set now, and is doing great! He's always asking how to spell things or what a word spells, but now we are having him sound them out. I love seeing his little mind at work!
We are now back from our two week stay in beautiful Montana. The getting there and coming back were not fun b/c of our 8 hour delay in the Denver airport and then the 3 hour delay there coming back. We ended up getting home at 2:00 am Wednesday morning, but the boys did a great job holding it together the whole time. They are very good little travelers.
As for our stay in MT, we had a wonderful time. The weather was cooler, although it was a little too chilly for me for June weather (lows in 30s, highs in high 50s, low60s mostly). I'm not complaining though! It also rained the first 6 days we were there, but it was still nice to relax and also find other adventures to go on.
We were able to do everything we wanted to do while we were there and more. I think I'll let the pictures and videos give you an idea of our experiences there, but here's a list of some things we did: saw a monster truck show (great people watching there!), drove to see black bears in captivity, went to Glacier Park a couple times, drove to a cliff to see mountain goats, went to Little Bitty Ranch to pet some farm animals and ride horses, hiked on Big Mountain and went on the Alpine Slide and rode on the lift there, went to the Whitefish farmer's market where the boys got to see a firetruck and use the fire hose, rode on the neighbor's boat on the lake and the boys got to drive the boat, and of course went fishing with Grandad!
Uncle Steve, Aunt Laura, and cousins Will and Alex came in from Denver for the last three days we were there, so we got in some time with them as well. The boys have so much fun together, I wish we could see them more often!
