one of the top Mommy moments

I am twenty-eight weeks pregnant today.  I've been feeling Chloe move for a good ten weeks or so [it gets earlier every time; I guess I know what to expect by now!].  Coleson couldn't feel her right away, but he has for awhile now too.  And there have even been a couple of times where I've been able to see her move; those are wonderful!  But today was by far the best.  Ryan and Chloe and I finally timed it right and Ryan felt his baby sister kick him!!  It was absolutely amazing and he was very excited!  "I felt her!!" And it was a good reminder that this miserable thing called pregnancy is one-hundred percent worth it!!  I love all three of my babies!

Dismissed!

Ryan is officially done with speech therapy!  He's been doing great, had caught up to his peers, and has actually been working on articulations at an eight-year-old's level.  I think he just got stuck in the system [it is government after all :)] and I've been ready for him to be done!  If he still needed it, that'd be one thing, but I just don't think  he's been getting nearly as much out of it recently.  So I am very excited and proud to say that as of yesterday, he is out of the program and we are free!  He had a great teacher this past year, Ms. Holt, and we appreciate all her hard work.  He also made a friend named Colin, although Colin must have been dismissed as well - he disappeared a couple months ago and we haven't seen him since. 

End of the year

Hard to believe, but Ryan is done with preschool for the year!!  His last day was this past Thursday.  We had a celebration complete with a performance and a party.  It was an American theme and they sang several patriotic songs, including Yankee Doodle.  Ryan loved that one best and practiced at home several times and always said what a silly song it was.  They also recited numbers and colors in Spanish during their performance.  I always love these events, they are so sweet and emotional and yet chaotic too :) 

After the singing, we headed back to his room for a few snacks and goodbyes to all his friends and teachers.  He had such a great year and we will really miss everyone.  His two favorite preschool friends, Hudson and Brooks, will not be returning in the fall, sad!  His teachers, Ms. Kathy and Ms. Marlene, have been wonderful.  Ryan even told me later in the afternoon: "I miss Marlene, she's a good teacher."  And Ms. Kathy took time to tell us how wonderful Ryan is before we left and that's always a good feeling.  She said he's always very respectful and friendly and she hopes we realize how smart he is too.  Wow, yay Ryan! 

After preschool, we went out to Wendy's with Daddy before he had to go back to work.  Ryan LOVES Wendy's!  While I am sad another year has come and gone already, I'm also excited for summer break. [yes, I know, I'm that crazy mom that actually likes having her kids around :)].  We've had a couple of lazy days which have been wonderful.  We look forward to lots of fun stuff this break including a week in Destin and of course Chloe's arrival a little later in the summer!

Ryan, Eli, and John walking in for the performance

 

snacks with Hudson and Brooks

Ms. Kathy and Ms. Marlene

polka dots

So this morning I'm getting Abby up and ready.  I'm changing her diaper and she says something that sounds a lot like poo-poo.  I wasn't really sure what to make of this since she didn't have any in her diaper and we don't usually call it that...  So anyways, she's persistent though, even after the diaper change is done.  She's now walking to her old room where we still get dressed [we haven't switched the closets yet] and I'm thinking maybe she's saying purple.  So I open the old closet and look for purple shirts and meanwhile she's pointing at something very specific that's nowhere near the purple shirt.  Eventually I pick her up and she grabs a shirt and once again says the same thing, poo-poo dah.  Ohh!  Polka Dot!  I already knew she had a mind of her own and when she wants something she wants it.  But to know exactly what she wants when it's something hidden away in a closet in the other room is pretty impressive to me.  Abby's happily wearing her polka dot shirt today and we've been working on the "k" sound :)

Trains, pools, and bicycles

Last week we took a super quick 24hr visit to cousin Maxim's house in SC.  The kids always look forward to these trips; they love Maxim!  In fact, Ryan cried for a good five or ten minutes when we left, poor guy.  And when we stopped for gas, he asked if we could turn around and go back to Maxim's instead of going home.  Sweet and cute, but a little frustrating too! 

We drove up Thursday after the craziest morning ever [think Abby, a big girl bed, a stink-filled diaper.  think Daddy sick with food poisoning, trying to get him to the airport only to have him decide halfway there that he can't really get on an airplane yet.  it was certainly one of those mornings. thanks to Grandma for taking Abby to music class so Mommy could figure out life].  Anyways!  Once we finally made it, the kids enjoyed playing out back in Maxim's swimming pool and with all his fun backyard toys.  We also rode bikes in the cul-de-sac and ate a pizza dinner, yumm!

Friday morning we headed to a really cool playground complete with a train.  We all had a great time riding "George" the train.  And then play, play, playing followed by Sonic for lunch.  And yes, I actually drove up and parked and ordered.  I guess there's safety in numbers; neither Auntie Sarah or I had ever done that before, the drive-thru had always been just fine :)  After lunch, was the highlight of the trip: the model train show!  Ryan loves these things and can watch the trains all day long.  And there are buttons you can press to make the accessories and decorations work: swings swing, lights turn on, balloons go up & down, and of course the best was the crazy cows running around their pen.  Abby loved a wooden Thomas engine that you could sit in and Ryan loved racing trains with arm pedals. 

After playing a bit more in Maxim's backyard, we began the journey back home.  Thanks to Maxim, Auntie Sarah, and Uncle Christian for a action-packed, fun-filled adventure.  Looking forward to seeing you again soon!

My Girly-Girl

While we were rearranging the bedrooms last weekend, we had all sorts of stuff sitting around including the little three-drawer organizer thingy that holds Abby's bows, barrettes, bracelets, etc.  Abby LOVED having access to all her accessories [remember her rock star look??].  By the time we were done she had brought me every single bow and barrette and told me right where to put them.  Again, like her rock star get-ups, this was all Abby!

Soccer Superstar

Ryan LOVES playing soccer!  He has done soo well this season.  He is very confident on the field and really enjoys the game.  And with Assistant Coach Daddy and two of his friends, Anna Wynn and Sam, on the team, he gets very excited about Saturday mornings.  He's scored several goals, including a really good, legitimate one this week.  No scores or stats are kept or anything, but the look on his face when he scores is priceless!  And to top it all, he won the medal this past week.  Each week the team talks about a value and the kid who models it the best is awarded the medal that day [and yes, it may be slightly rigged so that each kid will win a medal by the end of the season, but I'm okay with that at four years old :)].  This past Saturday's value was paying attention, which was slightly ironic since it really felt like all six of the kids were off in their own world.  Oh well, good job to Ryan for giving it his all and paying attention and scoring a goal too!  We've had such a great experience and I'm sad that there are only two weeks left in the season.

Ryan's medal! Awesome job Buddy!

Sam, Anna Wynn, Ryan, and Natalie

Coleson, Amy, Ryan, Abby, and ....

So as I typed "Chloe" in the last post, I realized that I don't think I've officially announced her name here on the blog.  We presented the name to our families on Easter with a fun letter-block scramble.  We gave them the ten letters of her first and middle names and her grandmothers & Auntie Sarah worked together to decode the name.  Yes, Grandpa, Pop-Pop, & Uncle Christian were there too, but they weren't exactly participating.  Men.  Anyways, it was a fun little game and it was also the first time Ryan & Abby heard her name.  We weren't born yesterday, we knew if we told Ryan the names we were considering he would spill the beans [or that Auntie Sarah would pull it out of him :)].  It was soo super sweet to hear Ryan & Abby saying "Chloe" and "Hi Chloe!" and getting all excited about her.  I love that we've finally agreed on and told everyone her name; it just makes her so much more real!  So here it is, a few weeks late, but better that than never right?! .......

We picked Chloe simply because we both loved it!  Mommy and Daddy each had a few names we liked, but Chloe was the only one that made both of our lists :)  We also liked that it is similiar to Cole.  And Marie is after my middle name.  So she's got both her Daddy & Mommy in her name.  Having family in Ryan & Abby's names put a lot of pressure on us to come up with something special and meaningful!  

I'm a big kid now! [the 2nd edition]

We spent the past weekend working on the bedrooms upstairs.  Ryan will stay in his room, although it's been updated [remember the bunk beds?].  We also finally finished hanging up some wall decor for him, including some bigger-boy things like a couple of UGA prints and red curtains, and we took down things like the Snoopy quilt.  There's still plenty of Snoopy, Ryan still loves him, but we wanted to pull out some of the red colors and make it just a little more mature for him.  I still can't believe that my baby boy is outgrowing his Snoopy nursery!!

Abby and Chloe will be sharing the huge corner room, formerly known as "the bonus room."  Honestly I wasn't sure what to expect from this transition and I was certainly nervous about Abby getting a toddler bed.  But the move went far better than ever imagined!!  Abby loves her new room and loves that Chloe has a bed in there too.  She helped Daddy and Ryan "make my new bed" and will point to her old crib and tell us that's Chloe's bed now.  She has been sleeping in her toddler bed since naptime on Sunday.  I'm still a little hesitant to admit how well it's been going!  She climbs right in, we say night-night, and she goes to sleep just like she did when she was confined by crib bars and had no choice.  Based on her wandering-ness and extreme independence-ness and -inability-to-stay-still-ness, I had fears of sleepless nights spending repeatedly putting her back in bed!

There's still a lot to do in the room; the furniture is literally as far as we've gotten.  We still have to switch the closet contents, curtains, wall decor, etc.  But it's a relief to have the beds and furniture done and I'm happy that we finally started the process.  And of course Abby's old room is now full of all the junk that was in the old bonus room.  But hey, one thing at a time, no sense overdoing it :) 

Oh, PS, I forgot to mention that last night Abby went to bed nice and quiet just like she's been doing.  However when I went it to peek on her and say good night before I went to sleep, I found her fast asleep on the floor just beside her bed.  Not only that, but she was on top of an Elmo book that has sound and it was making this crazy repetitive noise.  But at least she was asleep??  :)  And even better she stayed asleep while I put her back in bed and under her covers!