Oh-Bla-Di

Since it’s been seventy degrees here for much of the “winter,” we’ve been doing quite a bit of work in the garage and outside.  One of the by-products of a military life is that a family ends up storing a bunch of stuff for “the next house.”  We’ve got a full complement of yard care gear that we’ll never use in our plastic grass/xeriscaped yard here in Vegas, for example.  We’ve also got a whole lot of winter gear that will be great when we’ve finally got snow to shovel and play in again.

Since we were outside and the entire contents our garage had emptied itself onto the driveway, the kids found plenty of stuff to try to kill themselves with or otherwise make into toys.  If you’re wondering, this is what sledding looks like in Las Vegas.

These kids aren’t going to know what hit them when we finally get to Dayton and they have trees, grass, leaves, and actual weather events to play with.  It’ll be like having a park in our own yard!

We’re way overdue on a monthly update for Doozers, so I figured I’d better get it posted before we get back into the hustle of back-to-work. Noah turned 16 months a few days ago, so here’s a little bit about what he’s up to these days.

At 16 months, Noah…

:: weighs 21 lbs, 8oz, and is 32 inches long. Not much weight gain from his one year check up, but he’s put all his effort into getting taller.

:: is a full up walker, almost a runner. Doozers started really walking at 12 months and three weeks and gets around like a champ now. He’d very much like to run, which we can see when he moves a little faster and his left arm swings faster than his right. Adorable….really looks like he’s winding himself up.

:: has a few words. Milk, milk cup, dog, duck, baby, shi-shi (train), shs (shoes), Daddy, Dada (Ava), Mamé (Binky), yes, no, & “oh, whoa!” He has nothing to use as my name, so I just assume any screaming is directed at me.

:: knows signs for please, thank you, all done, more, bye-bye, and high five. He will also blow kisses.

:: will sit still for pictures because they’ve taught him to at school, but he only does group shots and must be sitting. No standing photos with his sister and candid shots only happen if your shutter speed is fast enough.

:: loves to play with Ava, but often doesn’t understand her “rules”. He just generally plays a little rougher…banging teacups and Godzilla-ing her block towers. He’s delighted and she’s writhing on the floor in hysterics. Good times.

:: really enjoys reading books. But, he doesn’t like the ones with too many words on each pages and you kinda have to sneak new ones into the rotation since he likes repetition of the familiar. Favorites are Global Babies, Goodnight Moon, The Big Red Barn, Hello Day!, Eyes, Noes, Toes, Peek-a-boo!, Planes, and Pat the Bunny.

:: sleeps for two hours every day at nap time (12pm-ish to 2 or 2:30pm-ish) and goes to bed between 6:30 and 7pm. He’s up between 6 and 7am each morning. He still uses his Binky to sleep, but won’t put it back in himself. We still get up a couple times a night to plug him.

:: speaking of the Mamé, we’ve scaled back its use to just bed and car (no Mamé at school except nap time) and this week were cutting it cold turkey. If he doesn’t need it to sleep, he won’t wake up looking for it, right?

:: loves Pokoyo. It’s the cartoon short on right after Peep and he drops everything he’s doing and comes running to the tv room for Pokoyo. Adorable.

:: is fascinated with things that go. Trains, cars, trucks, plasma cars, airplanes, it all rocks his socks. Christmas was very transportation themed for him this year.

:: has mostly overcome his vampire-like tendencies. While he still makes some biting attempts at school, it’s not as frequent and he hasn’t actually made contact in a couple of months. His teachers get most of the credit for this since they’ve really been helping him work on using his words and learn to share.

:: really loves school and seems to have quite the happy world there. He learns so much…he was “singing” Skidamarink the other day and doing the hand movements for it. He also follows directions really well and is very good at putting toys away. Will definitely miss this amazing influence for him when we move.

:: loves to play piano, but insists on doing it himself.

:: can open all the doors here…including the front- and garage-doors. Deadbolts are a must.

:: can climb the stairs, up and down.

:: is sort of a dare-devil and climbs a lot. He also falls a lot…not necessarily off of stuff, but usually over his own two feet and into sharp corners. His poor face is always black and blue from all the bumps.

:: is still one of the happiest kids we know. He’s pretty chill, unless he wants some specific, and is a wonderful addition to our family.

We love you bunches, Noah. Can’t imagine this little life of ours without you.

We love our kids’ school for a lot of reasons, but one of them is that they throw big holiday parties and invite all the families in.  I remember that it was always so fun to be in my school “off duty” when I was a kid and so I’m glad our kids get that chance here too.

The Friday of Winter Festival is also a school-wide pajama day, so the kids went to school in jammies and parents are invited to wear jammies for the festival.

These two were so cute, it just made my heart ache that day!

At our school, each of the classrooms is open with a fun activity or project for the kids to do and there are decorations and snacks throughout the hallways.  But the main event is that each of the classes in the school practices a song or poem for weeks in advance and then does a little performance for the families at Winter Festival.

I’m so grateful for this school because they’re so fun!  I can’t imagine opening a whole classroom, filling it with sparkle paper and glitter and then inviting kids in to go nuts.  Can you imagine the mess?  But, no kidding, on Monday morning, you’d have never even known it happened.  Talk about extra effort for the good of the kiddos.

Making glitter snow angels.

Noah wasn’t so sure glitter snow angels were awesome.

The babies and toddlers videotape their performances and we get to watch the movie on the big night since there’s no way they’ll perform for a big group on demand.  But, the bigger kids all do a little show and it’s super cute.

Ava’s class performed the poem “Falling Snow” and then sang “Jingle Bells.”  We got an advance preview of her performance at home before we left for the party.

Ava was pretending to be shy when it was her group’s turn to perform and we’re not really sure why.  We know she knew her stuff and she’s quite the ham, so that will probably always be a mystery.  Regardless, we sure had a fun time and all those cute performances sure made up for the sugar crash the next day!

Noah got a plasma car for his birthday and is now turning it into an indoor indy car.  He prefers to ride it with shoes on so that his feet don’t slip when he’s turning tight corners around the kitchen island and dining room table.  While Doozers has definitely gotten to be a pro, he still gets pinned in the bathroom or in a random doorway sometimes.  Nevertheless, he’s so clearly delighted with his newfound skill that it’s hilarious to watch.

One of the funniest things I’ve seen in a while….

This weekend, we invited some friends and family to come over the rainbow with us and celebrate Ava’s fourth birthday.  It’s been quite the extravaganza ever since Thursday, with something new and fun every day to help celebrate.

We kicked off the celebrating with a little birthday fun at Ava’s school.  If the birthday boy or girl brings in a cake mix and some frosting, the kiddos will whip up the cake in the morning and then they get to eat it for snack time in the afternoon.  All mommies and daddies have to do is come witness the fun.

This was the look on her face while her friends sang “Happy Birthday”….

this kid LOVES to have people sing her “Happy Birthday.”

Friday is our day at home (and was my prep day for our big party on Saturday), but we had a fun treat delivered late Thursday night for Ava to play with on Friday.

We imported a 5-year-old from California to come play with us for the birthday fun and it was awesome.  Thanks to the Traynors for letting us borrow your kid!  Ava and Lauren played so nicely together that it made it easy for me to get ready for the party.  After all, this was on my task list for the day….

After we had a pizza party on Friday night, Matt and I tucked all three kiddos into bed and then got the house decorated for Saturday’s party.  We were able to re-use some of the puffs from Noah’s party and hung a few extras.  And, the giant balloons were such a big hit last time, I figured they’d be a perfect fit for a rainbow party also.

Turns out, six 36″ balloons is a lot of balloons and a lot of helium.  They’ll really take off on you in the Albertson’s parking lot on a windy Friday night!

Saturday morning, Ava woke up to fun birthday decorations and grandparents!  We started her celebration with a (now traditional) donut and breakfast casserole breakfast.

Then, after sending the kiddos outside with Grammie & Granddad, Matt and I rolled up our birthday sleeves and got her birthday present all set up for the big reveal.

The bed Matt built for her (and I painted) was pretty much a hit.  Ava said, “It’s just like a hotel!  With boards and everything!”  She’s been sleeping quite soundly in it every night, but it’s amazing how high off the ground she seems now!

After the big gift, it was basically party time.  We got the food set out and the music on and our friends started to join us.  The party started with a craft…sweet sun catchers made by each of the little girls (with a little help).

We had fancy (cut into stars, hearts, & butterflies) PBJ sandwiches, chips, fruit, and veggies for lunch and then did some running around to make room for cake while the sun catchers baked in the oven.

When it was finally time for cake and ice cream, Ava loved (again) to hear “Happy Birthday” and blow out her candle.  And, then, she wanted to see her rainbow birthday cake!

After some more running around to get rid of some of that excess sugar (hooray for nice weather so the kids could be outside!), we got around to opening some birthday gifts.  Ava received such thoughtful presents this year, and it’s clear that her friends know her very well – a fancy tea set, a book with a picture of her on every page, a Tiana doll, a book about everyday princesses, a unicorn backpack (as promised by CrayCray), and a follow-the-directions game – have all been oooh’d and aaaah’d and played with to death already.

Even though the real day isn’t until tomorrow (with another whole day of fun planned with just Daddy & Mommy), I think it’s safe to say that Whoozers has indeed had a very happy birthday.  We love you, big girl!