first day of school...

Oliver and Wyatt started preschool today. They were very excited to carry backpacks (they have to bring a full change of clothes)...

They were actually ready to get there as soon as they woke up. I had no trouble getting them dressed, feeding them breakfast and getting their lunches ready. When we got there they didn't even glance back at me. They just ran right into their classrooms. One of the other mothers told me that Oliver was surrounded by little girls! They had snacks, played on a playground, had "circle time" and lots of fun activities to celebrate Dr. Seuss's birthday!

These are the lunch boxes I made for the boys. They insisted on the same design even though I gave them lots of choices. Unfortunately almost all the decorations fell off because I didn't use the right glue. I solved that problem by using hot glue when we got home.

Long update...some random stuff

First let me say...I LOST 12 POUNDS IN FEBRUARY! I'm down to 123 as of today. Only 8 more pounds to go before I get to my goal weight of 115. I'm hoping to get to 120 by the end of February.

I've been looking around at schools for Oliver. He's reading (level 2 books!), writing all the letters  and I've started him on simple math. After searching and looking at private schools, magnet schools, public schools...we decided to keep him out this year and start next year when he'll actually be 5. I'll continue to teach him here at the house and we're looking at a one-day-a-week preschool for him. Wyatt would also go to the preschool. I think Oliver will be more at ease if Wyatt is nearby. There's also a little girl that Oliver knows who goes to the school so if he does well with the one day we might add another day so he can be in the class with her.

Wyatt is learning all his letters and counting so well. He gets excited when he gets it right. It's fun to watch him. He likes his lessons even better when Oliver teaches him, though. Oliver is very patient with Wyatt when he's teaching him something. He'll say it over and over and over. Wyatt seems to pick it up faster from Oliver, too.

Wyatt is fully fully day potty trained. He's been having some night accidents lately but for a long time he was dry all night. He's really good about knowing when to go and doing it all by himself.

Bob got a promotion at work. He's now a Field Supervisor. That means he is in charge of the techs in Raleigh, Durham, Greensboro, Charlotte and Wilmington. About 10 guys, I think. He basically rides with them and makes sure they're doing what they're supposed to. The new job involves some travel and that kind of stinks but we're figuring it out. Luckily his travel days are mostly the days I am not working anyway so I didn't really have to change anything.

The boys are just getting so BIG. I can hardly lift Oliver anymore. He's almost 40 pounds! He's all muscle, though. Just ask him, he'll show you. Wyatt is almost as tall as Oliver - he's going to be huge - but he's still as skinny as can be. Some of his 2T pants are still too big around the waist.

The power in our bedrooms went out two nights ago and then yesterday my dishwasher and stove stopped working, and then the heater for the dryer (it would tumble the clothes but not dry them). We finally figured out (with the help of Duke Power) that some pin was bent or something and the main power wasn't connecting with some of the breakers (or something?) Anyway it got fixed and everything is working again. Thank goodness! I couldn't get anything done yesterday!

Pappy came yesterday to watch the boys while Bob and I went to school and work. The boys were so excited to see him. They weren't even shy! They talked about him all day and then when he got here they barely let him in the door. They wanted to talk to him and show him every toy in the house before he could even come in. I guess he wore them out pretty well because they were fast asleep when I got home.  Thank you, Pappy!!

my play dough

a little man...

by request - a mommy snake with two little boy snakes

a happy flower that Wyatt wouldn't put down.

Oliver play dough fun!

Oliver made a popsicle and an ice cream cone...

He decided to try it...but luckily didn't actually lick it. ew!

This is Oliver with his first attempt at a snake. I was showing him how to roll the dough out so it gets longer and longer. Then he just kept going and making his snake longer and longer and longer. What fun! We did this for about an hour before they ran out of steam.

play dough fun!

Wyatt started out being silly with the can...

then he made spaghetti so I made him some meatballs to go with it.

then churros...

and I think that was a snake. or maybe a bird? I can't remember now.

The tree...

I don't think I posted these when it was finished. This is the tree that I made to cover Oliver's window. I spent hours and hours cutting out those leaves! There are five different colors in two sizes. After I cut them all out I had to lay them out and glue them together then figure out how to hang it. We ended up just sticking it to the wall with double-sided tape. Anyway, it keeps out the light and the cold so both boys sleep longer. Oliver has only been scared once since I hung it up. AND it looks pretty. There are little flowers and bugs on the leaves. At some point I'm going to make a hole with some owls in it for the trunk. Poor Wyatt doesn't really have anything to look at so I asked him what he wanted and he picked owls.

Look at my big guy reading!

Oliver is getting better and better at reading. There are a lot of words that he knows by sight now. This is his new favorite book to read although he's really more interested in "reading" Bob's old comic books. He can get through a good portion of Hop on Pop all by himself.

number practice...

Bob got this big whiteboard somewhere and I've been using it for the boys' school. Oliver was practicing numbers 1-40 by playing number bingo. He had a lot of fun but he was most excited about the chocolate chip cookie he got when he got a bingo.

This is Oliver practicing counting. I drew circles with numbers above and he had to put that many coins in the circle. He does really well with counting except that he always skips 15.

Snow Wyatt

Snow Oliver!

Wyatt...

opening the box...

Wow! I never even thought to ask for THAT!

Happy boy

Oliver...

Opening the box...

What is it?!?!?!

It's JUST WHAT I ASKED FOR!!!

it was a very Batman Christmas...