Carson smiled!!!

Carson is 5 weeks 1 day old, and today he smiled at me on purpose!  I was talking with him and as usual had a huge stupid grin on my face.  He flashed a smile at me and of course I went nuts and then he really started wroking.  He got his left side into a smile, and held it there for a few seconds and then low and behold he got the right side up too!  I'm not expecting them to be a regular thing yet but...he SMILED at me on PURPOSE!  This is so exciting to me!  I LOVE their little baby smiles!

Preschool!

This is Dillon's first year of preschool and Kayda's second (though it's her first at this school).  Kayda has been rearing to go since we bought clothes a few weeks ago.  Dillon has been on the fence about the whole thing which surprised me because he LOVED when we would stay with Kayda at prsechool last year.  We're figuring out our mornings, they are adjusting to waking up and going to bed an hour earlier.  We started last Wednesday night and they're doing really well with it!  They choose their clothes before we go to bed so when we get up they just have to put them on and eat. 

Today Daddy and I brought them to preschool since it was the first day. Here we are on our way, you can even see Daddy in the suburban behind us!

 

 Off to the races!

 One of the things I like so far about this preschool is that there is only the ONE group so EVERYTHING in it is personalized for them.  You don't look around the room and see four different clusters of names.  Each kid has a coat hook assigned to them (which had their name tags on them today), there is an apple tree where there are apples with each kids names on it, there's a birthday wall with their names sorted by the month of the birthday... and it goes on. 

 Their activity while kids were floating in was playdough!  Kayda took off to yellow and Dillon wandered over to the blue.  It's funny that it worked out so that the "yellow" table had almost all girls and the "blue" table was ALL boys.  Kayda later moved to the green table. 

 Kayda dove right in but Dillon was playing shy a little bit.  Which is NOT at all the usual behavior for him.  He had Daddy very concerned that he wasn't comfortable and wasn't going to enjoy preschool.  I was ready to head out, I was pretty confident that they would be just fine.  Daddy wanted to stand in the doorway for a little longer so Carson and I took off and Daddy stayed to watch.  Gotta love a protective Daddy who loves his kids SO much!

 They did a GREAT job at preschool the teacher was very impressed.  They even managed to stay sitting on the rug where they wait for mom or dad until the teacher said their names (they knew I'd been standing there for several minutes).  Their art today was a "Kissing hand" apparently it's a book about a raccoon that was scared to go to school.  Kayda was very excited to tell me all about the book and Dillon wanted to show me how a "kissing hand" worked.  (You kiss your hand and put it on your heart whenever you miss your mom)

Proof that Carson and I were there!

What a good big brother!

If you know Dillon you know he has a blanky that he loves.  He carries it almost everywhere (though I can get him to leave it behind fortunately).  He snuggles it, he SMELLS it, and he sleeps with it.  It is his security blanket and it helps him when he's crabby, not feeling good or just in a snuggly mood. 

This morning I had Carson in the highchair while I was making breakfast for Kayda and Dillon.  Carson already had a blanket but Dillon came in and wanted Carson to use HIS special green blanky that he LOVES so much.  So we tucked it over Carson's feet. 

Not the best picture, at some point I'll get the flash fixed so 2/3 of the pictures don't come out blurry.  What a sweet, loving, wonderful big brother!  I think he has adjusted well to the role!

Preschool open house!

Today was the preschool open house.  The kids have really been looking forward to preschool starting, unfortunately this wasn't really class...  it was just a time to meet the teachers and poke around the class a little bit.  I think it's purpose is to ease kids' anxiety about going to preschool, not really something my kids need!  But we went anyway, they had fun poking around at the toys and such.  Kayda was upset last year when I told her she wouldn't be going back to her old preschool.  Once we got closer to starting this year that has pretty much gone away.  I'm an overly picky mom and her old preschool was just NOT holding up to my standards! 

I tried to get some pictures of them before going but they kept making their horses "talk" so I couldn't get any good ones. 

 Here are some pictures at the class, it's three rooms!  Dillon will be in the 3 year old class with Miss Donna, it's the "bumblebee" class.  Kayda will be in the 4 year old class with Miss Brenda, they're the "frogs".  They will have some time together for free play but the two classes split up for "academics".  I was excited to hear that they made the distinction and actually have structured learning time as opposed to being more of a play group.  Hopefully they will make some new friends!  The first day is next week, then Carson and I will have 2.5 hours of bonding time just the two of us, though I'm going to miss my big kids!

Carson

I spend so much time just snuggling him that I don't get as many pictures as I have of Kayda and Dillon.  Definitley something I need to work on!  But here are a few I have gotten.  He already seems like he is growing too quickly. 

Some random things about Carson:

His neck is really strong and he'll already push up with his arms when he's laying on your chest.  He's not quite strong enough to do it when he's on his tummy on the floor.

He still spends most of his time sleeping though he'll have a few good hours awake over the course of the day. 

He absolutely LOVES showers.  That is my preferred way to clean him, he actually hasn't experienced a bath yet.  The other day he was crying and having a really hard time after his nap.  I decided he needed to get washed so I laid him on the bed and turned on the shower.  The moment he heard it he settled right down.  He just hunkers right down in my arms and lets me move him however I need to in order to clean him.  He doesn't even get upset if I let the water run over his face.  He just kind of blinks and stares at me. 

He only really cries if he's tired or wants to eat.  Usually if he's awake he's happy.

He loves the front carrier.  Every time I have him in it, usually when we're shopping, he falls asleep and stays asleep.  He had his first stroller ride last Sunday and he enjoyed it for little while, but once he wanted to be done boy did we know it!

Carson isn't much of a swing baby, he can only handle it for about 20 minutes. He actually prefers the high chair. He will actually fall asleep in it while I'm working in the kitchen.



Motorcycle rides!

Kayda and Dillon are fascinated by motorcycles, firetrucks and semi-trucks.  When we're driving they point them out wherever they see them!  Fortunately for them Papa H has his motorcycle endorsement and has rented a bike to go out riding tomorrow (His bike needs to be fixed or they'd be riding that one).  Today we went over to a local highschool parking lot so Daddy could practice riding.

Then Papa came by our house to give Kayda and Dillon rides.  He took each of them around the loop in our neighborhood and they LOVED it.  Kayda spent the whole time going "Woohoo!" repeatedly.  Dillon was even brave enough to let go of Papa with one hand and wave!  It amazes me how fearless our children are!

Carson was awake when Daddy was riding, fell asleep with the motorcycle driving close by and stayed asleep the rest of the time.  I wish I could sleep through that noise!!!

Kayda ties her own shoes!!!

Last  weekend I bought Kayda some shoes, I told her "You can only get these shoes if you learn to tie them yourself".  Well, she took that to heart.  She has gotten frustrated sometimes over the last week but she kept working at it.  (She learned from whistling that you have to practice and practice and practice until you learn to do it).  Today, for the first time Kayda tied her shoes with absolutely NO help, nobody was even sitting near her to help her.  She did it entirely on her own, BOTH of them!!!

Apparently this is her "I tied my own shoes" pose.  Dillon wanted ot be in the picture too.