More Mankato madness

While Adam was busy hunting ducks in North Dakato, the boys and I spent a fun day in Mankato, first at the MSU homecoming carnival and then at a hayride at a local state park. The boys were really good. Luckily Brian was there to take the boys on the rides. Christianne even pitched in and went on the bumper cars with Kale! Nolan went on the spinning dragon ride with Brian. Right before they got on a boy threw up right in front of them. Nolan wasn't even phased and still went on the ride!

The boys loved drinking hot chocolate and doing the crafts before the hayride. Kale has been busy learning how to spell his name. I was surprised when he wrote a K and an A on his wood necklace with a sharpie, all on his own. He was so proud of himself! The woman on the hayride shared some interesting facts about the trail we were on - how it used to be an old river bed. Nolan retained that information and shared it with Adam when he got home from his trip. That kid has a fantastic memory! The highlight for both of the boys was finding the fairy gold on the candle lit path. As much as I look a good shiny rock, I don't like them scattered all over our cars and house!

After church on Sunday, we drove up to Foley to spend the day with my grandma. Kale was so tired he slept all the way there! We enjoyed a nice dinner and watched the Vikings game. Grandpa Tom and Grandma Paula stopped by, too. The boys love playing with the toys at my grandma's house. My dad took them outside after the game and Kale was showing him all the statues in my grandma's garden - a bunny, and butterfly and God! It was actually a statue of St. Francis, but Kale insisted it was God. He then went on to share that 2 mans live in his heart - Jesus and God.

Field trip fun

Nolan had his first field trip today, to the Minnetonka Apple Orchard.  Adam got to chaperon the event. Nolan rode the bus from the school to the Mound transit station, where all the parent's got on the bus. Nolan introduced his dad to his friends. Adam said he asked him what there names were and he said he didn't know.  Apparently that comes later in the year!  They had beautiful weather - so nice, in fact, that the kids had to stay away from anything that attracted the bees, because they were out in full force.  On the way back to school Nolan wanted to sit in the back of the bus, where it was extra bouncy.  I asked Nolan what his favorite part of the field trip was and he told me the donut.  Not surprising - he is our good eater!

You're making me grumpy, mom

On the way home from Jane’s house Kale was being a little crabby. He started talking back to me so I got after him. His response – “Mom, you’re making me grumpy.” His attitude improved once we got home, when he Nolan could play outside. I told them to play in the garage while I made dinner. After a little while it got really quiet. I peeked through the door to see what was going on and I couldn’t see either of them. I called their names and asked what they were doing. Nolan responded that they were “pretending to drink beer” by the new stand up freezer. I explained that they need to pretend to drink juice, milk or water, but not beer.

Superman

At preschool pick up today, Nolan once again told me that he had been crying on the playground. I asked him why and he said it was because he missed me and his dad again. I asked one of the assistants about it and she said he told her he was sad because he didn't know who was picking him up. I asked him if he was crying more than normal and she said no, and told me what a nice boy he is. It's not fun to hear about your kid missing you during the day, but it makes it a little better knowing he is making a good impression with the school! Adam and I agreed we need to do a better job of telling Nolan who is picking him up every day. We'll see how the next few weeks go, and if we have to put a picture reminder in his backpack we will!

After I picked up Nolan we went to pick up Kale at daycare. I had to park on the street, and as Kale and I were walking back up to the mini van he stopped to talk to Nolan on the curb side of the road. I told him to wait for me and we could walk around the van together, but instead he bolted in front of me, looked down the street, saw a bright yellow truck and decided to put his hand out in a super hero move, like he was going to stop the truck. I forgot to mention he was wearing his new superman shirt. I got after him and got him in to the van. The man in the yellow truck slowed down and said "he must really think he's superman". How embarassing.

K and A

Kale is learning how to spell his name at daycare. He is busy mastering his K and A, and is doing quite a nice job!

Kale's 3 year pictures and Nolan and the bucket

We had Kale’s 3 year pictures today. Talk about rockin it! He was the most well behaved little boy and listed to everything the photographer told him to do. Plus he was super excited to wear his new goldy shirt for some of the pictures.

After we got home from pictures Nolan still wasn’t feeling 100%. He was in the bathroom when he started yelling for me. I went in there and he was crying because he was now sick on the other end. He kept telling me it hurt. Again, I felt horrible for him. He took a fantastic nap and seemed to be on the upswing, until dinner time, when his tummy started to hurt again. I made him take a bucket to bed with him. Apparently I didn’t do a real good job of explaining what to do with it, because when I checked on him later that night this is what I found:

The sleepover that wasn't meant to be

Kale and Nolan were so excited for their daycare sleepover tonight. I was excited, too, because Adam’s been gone all week and I was looking forward to a much needed break to run errands and relax, kid free. That all changed at 8:45 pm, when I got the call that Nolan had gotten sick. I picked him about 10 minutes later. Kale greeted me at the door and told me that he wasn’t ready to go yet – whew! I told him he could stay and Nolan was coming home with me. I told Jane this was the first time Nolan has ever been sick, and she said he had no idea what to do. As soon as it started he started yelling “I need to go home to my mom!”. Poor kid. Luckily he didn’t get sick anymore that night, and the two of us had a nice sleepover together at home.

Kale's 3 year check up

Kale had his 3 year check up today. Overall he did pretty well. He weighs 31.8 lbs (51%) and is 39 inches tall (80%). He is 5 lbs less than what Nolan weighed at 3 years old, and almost 2 inches taller! We tried to do the vision test but he said he didn’t like the glasses he had to put on (one lens was covered with a piece of cardboard). He tried the hearing test, too, but only after the nurse told him he could listen for the monkey’s in his ears – and even that didn’t work all that well. The lowlight of the visit was the flu shot he needed. He freaked out and kept telling me he didn’t like to be poked. When I picked him up from daycare later that day he had drawn a picture of his “pokes”. So sad!

Later that day I picked up Nolan at preschool. When we got in the car he let me know that he cried at school. I asked him why and he said it was because he missed me and his dad. I felt so bad for him. I asked him when he cried and he said at reading time. I asked him who helped him and talked to him about it and he said his teacher. We talked about how it’s okay to miss us and he seemed fine after that. I feel pretty lucky that he’s willing to share his feelings with us. It’s so hard to know what goes on when you don’t get a daily report, like at daycare!

1st homework

Nolan had his first "homework" assignment. He had to find 4 objects to put in a paper bag that told something about him. I wasn't quite sure how this would go so I really pumped it up on the way home from daycare today. It worked, and he went right to it, coloring and decorating the bag. I then told him he needed to find 4 things that said something about him, but they had to all fit in the bag. The first thing we found was a toy airplane. I asked him about it and he said he likes airplanes. I told him that when he was a baby he flew on an airplane with me and dad. The next thing he found was a monster truck. I asked him about it and he said he just really likes monster trucks. The next item was a farm truck/dumpster. I asked him about it and he said he likes tractors. I explained that Grandma and Grandpa have a farm and he likes to visit it, and that he's been on tractor rides up there. The last thing he found was a motorcycle. I asked him about it and he said he really likes motorcycles. I asked him who drives a motorcycle and he said "dad!". Hopefully he'll remember the talking points, but if not I'm sure the class will clearly understand that he likes all of things he put in the bag!

You

I gave Kale a final hug before bed tonight. He looked at me and said "tank you mommy". I asked him what for and he said "you". Melt my heart!

Sunday school for two

Before Kale's birthday party on Saturday, Adam took Kale to Sunday school orientation at church. Kale was the only kid there, so he got lots of one on one attention. Adam said the highlight was when Kale prepared a pretend lunch for him and the coordinator, and then made them all say the dinner prayer before they could eat it! Adam found out that there were only 2 other 3 year olds signed up for Sunday school, so Kale would be in a combined class with Nolan. This made both of us feel better about how Kale would react to it!

Needless to say I was a bit taken back on Sunday when I took them to their classroom that Kale wouldn't let go of me and didn't want to stay. This is what Adam and I worried about with Nolan last year, and he took the change with no problems at all. It got to the point that I was going to have to take him back to church with me, when the coordinator came in and Kale saw her. She went over to him and said she would stay until he was more comfortable. I think seeing her familiar face from the day before made all the difference, and I snuck out and he did fine the rest of the class. He even told us they watched a video about God and Jesus, and that Adam and Eve ate an apple. Nolan clarified for us that it was a dirty apple. Hopefully next week will go a little smoother. I also hope that this isn't a sign of things to come when we need to introduce Kale to new things.

Happy birthday Kale!

Kale had a fantastic birthday weekend. We celebrated bright and early on his birthday with waffles, complete with a candle in it. He loved that we sang happy birthday to him. We let him open the gifts from us before daycare. He was thrilled with a spiderman backpack and lunch bag, a spiderman action figure and iron man bath toys. The first thing he said about his lunch bag is that he'll need to pack his hot lunch in it! He packed all of his new toys up in the backpack before heading to daycare for the day.

Jane texted me later in the day to let me know that she had given him a learning toy from the movie Planes. Kale was so excited that he did a somersault and said "I love it"!

We were lucky enough to be able to borrow Jane's bouncy house, so the boys got good use out of it on Friday night. This was good because it rained most of the afternoon the next day, which was the day of his party. The only other kids who got to enjoy it were Lalayna and Lola. But at least they had fun!

Kale had a couple of highlights from the day of his party. The first was the cake I made him. He explained the entire thing to me - that Lightening McQueen was on the road, Mator was on the grass and his name was on the cake. He then asked if that was his number on it. The other highlights were all the guests, but especially Jane and Devon. Poor Jane hardly got a break from him once she showed up! He loved all of his gifts, but the one that keeps causing a sharing issue between Nolan and Kale is the silly putty from great-grandma. She always knows just the right thing to get them!

Good buddy

We played a rousing game of BINGO with the kids after dinner tonight. Kale was having a hard time finding one of his letters, so Nolan offered to help him. Kale took him up on the offer and Nolan pointed it out for him. Kale leaned over, gave Nolan a shoulder hug and said "you're a good buddy, Nowan".

I like to move it, move it

Kale and Nolan recently discovered the song "I like to move it, move it", by watching the movie Madagascar. We listen to it every day on the way to daycare/preschool. Yesterday Jane texted me that Kale was singing the song at daycare, when another little girl asked him if he heard it in his car. Kale replied "no, we have a mini van".

First movie experience

We took the boys to their first movie theater experience, to see the movie Planes. We knew Nolan would do well and were a little unsure about Kale. The movie played out exactly as we thought. Both boys loved the popcorn and candy treats. Kale had to get up 3 different times to go potty, with one of them being a false alarm. He didn't do a good job of sitting in his seat and was more interested in hanging on to the railing in front of us. At the end of the movie as we were walking out he ran off in front of me and didn't slow down until he was at front of the theater, and then thought it would be fun to play a game of run away from mom. Kale won't be going to another movie anytime soon. Nolan, on the other hand, had a great time, was well behaved and will get to pick the next movie!

First day of preschool

Nolan had his first day of preschool today. It was very strange sending him on his way. I made Adam do the drop off because I wasn't sure what my reaction would be, and how it might affect Nolan - especially since he didn't have the most positive reaction at the open house last week! We decided not to send him to Adventure Club this morning, so we enjoyed a nice breakfast. We also managed to get the obligatory first day of school pics. I took Kale to daycare and Adam stayed home with Nolan until it was time to go. Before Kale and I left, Kale made sure to remind Nolan not to forget his hot lunch, and that his locker is a blue circle! They gave each other a hug before we left and Kale told him good luck. Adam said drop off went well, and that Nolan hopped in line with the other kids with no problem. There was a little boy who was crying and Adam wasn't sure how Nolan would react. There was no reaction, which was good, and the teacher went over to the boy and gave him a big hug, explained how much they were going to have and they went on their way. No tears from anyone - what a great start to the school year!

We thought things were going fine, until Adam and I each got a few messages from the preschool teacher. Apparantly there was some confusion and the school thought we were picking up Nolan after preschool, when in fact he needed to be sent to Adventure Club. Adam was the first to get a hold of the teacher, and she explained that the report Adventure Club had was missing his name, but they figured out where he needed to be and he was at lunch. That was the only time I got teary eyed, which isn't so bad. We found out from Nolan after school that he didn't get the hot lunch, but a sandwhich instead. He seemed okay with it, though, when he told me that he got chocolate milk from a box, and that he opened it all by himself! The rest of Nolan's report when I picked him up from Adventure Club was interesting. The first thing he told me is that he cried at rest time because he didn't have his blanket. I told him we could talk about it with dad, but that we didn't want him to bring his blanket with him. His response was, "the teacher told me I could". I asked if he made any new friends and he told us the names of 2 of the boys. He also told me that one of the boys he goes to daycare with saw him in the lunchroom and stopped to say hi to him. He was so excited!

The bacon tie

Nolan was enjoying a nice breakfast of eggs, toast and turkey bacon this morning. He put the bacon under his neck, looked at me and said "mom, do you like my bacon tie?".