Winnie The Pooh

This morning our Parents As Teachers group took the kiddos to a live theater performance of Winnie The Pooh at the Irving Arts Center. It was a great performance. Afterwards we headed outside to have a picnic snack of biscuits and honey (Pooh does love his honey!). The children enjoyed running around looking at all the neat sculptures.





All the children loved playing around these columns because each side of the columns had water trickling down them. Kids and water are just drawn to each other!



Nicholas picked a flower for me. Awww!



Nicholas really enjoyed spending time with his friend Emma Rae who he hasn't seen in a while.

So Much Fun All The Time

For those of you that check the blog daily for updates (Granddad!), I'm sorry that I keep falling behind. Sometimes we're just too busy living life to find the time to write about it.

Thursday, February 28, 2008

Here is Nicholas performing a song he learned at school called "Elephants Have Wrinkles". Cute!



Take a look at our furry friends. I don't know that I'm really excited about this but we have (at least) two rabbits that seemed to have made a home under our deck near the kitchen window. They come out into the yard to eat every day around dusk. You can see one up close in this picture and the other is farther back in the picture under the bird feeder (sorry the pic is crooked but I was taking it in a hurry before they scampered away).





They are cute to watch but I know what they say about rabbits multiplying and I don't really want a huge family of rabbits living under our deck but I'm not sure what to do about it!

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

I kept Nicholas home from school today so we could go on a cool field trip to see Slim Goodbody at the Will Rogers Memorial Center in Fort Worth. It was awesome! Slim Goodbody teaches young children all about the human body and how it works. He wears a body suit printed with all of the internal organs and he performs the entire show by himself with the exception of some audience participation. He was just great. He made it fun with songs and dances and the kids particpated with him. We learned about the circulatory system. He had half of the room say, "Lubba" and the other half say, "Dubba" and we did it over and over again to make the sound of a beating heart. I think this was one of Nicholas' most favorite parts. We also learned about cells, skin, respiration, digestion, nerves, bones, and muscles. We will definitely go back next time he is in town.





After the show we went to a phenomenal used book sale that I go to every year. It is a warehouse-size sale with books priced as low as 50 cents! Of course, being the book-addict that I am, I had to stock up! Like we don't have enough books already. Where in the world will I put these new ones?

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Back to school. It was cold so Nicholas was all bundled up. He always has fun playing with me while we wait to drop him off in car line. Today he brought some of his stuffed animal friends with us. He set them up on the dash board and sang to them, showed them his Nemo toy, and waved good-bye to them when he got out of the car.





Monday, February 25, 2008

Nicholas has quickly picked up how to use a computer mouse - thanks to his Webkinz. His little dog, Capaccio, comes with an online subscription in which you can play with your pet online. He has a little online house and you can play games to win money to buy food and furniture for your pet. Your pet can even meet up with your friends' pets in the online world. Nicholas really likes it and he looks so serious when he is playing.



Sunday, February 24, 2008

I couldn't resist catching this picture of a sleeping angel! It's so rare to see him lying so still :)





The weather was nice so we took Nicholas for a bike ride over to our neighborhood park. Nicholas absolutely loves his bike. He rides it all the time, weather permitting. We love it too. It is really well built with hefty tires which makes it easy to go over uneven sidewalks.



Saturday, February 23, 2008

After breakfast, Nicholas climbed up into Stuart's lap and cuddled. Stuart asked if he was cuddling because he was cold. Nicholas said, "No, I'm just a baby armadillo. Take care of me."



Nicholas loves to act out all kinds of cute scenarios. You just never know from one minute to the next if he is pretending to be an animal, superhero, baby, or rocket ship. It's so much fun having him around!

Going Bonkers! is a fun place Nicholas loves to go to play. They have great climbing structures and games. He is quite good at some of the games like shooting out the horse's teeth with balls. Poor horse!



But his favorite game is the motorcycle racing game. He isn't very good at steering his bike but he sure has fun pretending to drive it.





Friday, February 22, 2008

Nicholas seemed to be cough-free so we headed over to a friends house to learn about the symphony. We got to see a really old violin. We listened to classical music and danced to it with colorful scarves.



After all the dancing, Nicholas started to cough again so I tried to get him to leave so we could go home. He ran around the yard some trying to avoid going home.



Eventually I wrangled him into the car though. We went home and I gave him another breathing treatment and let him take a nap. He hasn't been sleeping well because of the coughing.

He seemed to do much better after catching up on some sleep. Here he is entertaining us with his singing and guitar talent.



Friday night we got to hear Bishop T.D. Jakes speak at our church. He is an incredibly dynamic speaker. I've watched his sermons on TV many times but it was awesome to see him in person.

Nicholas is still coughing

I took Nicholas to school yesterday but they called me to come get him because they said he had a fever. She said that they used thermometer strips across his forehead which just give a color change for a fever and he was in the yellow (mild) range. That surprised me because I had checked it before we left and it seemed normal (although our thermometer isn't the most reliable). I picked him up and he seemed to still have the cough but he begged me to take him to a park so he couldn't have felt too bad. Needlessly to say, we passed on the park. I took him home and checked his temperature and it was still normal. I checked mine just to be sure that thermometer was accurate and it was close. I gave him another breathing treatment, made him drink lots of fluids, and tried to keep him still. Yet, he just wanted to play, jump around, and try to balance while standing on top of the ottoman to the glider rocker (the ottoman rocks too). Seem sick to you?

At nap time, I decided to bring out a gift I had bought for him just recently. I want him to appreciate the things we give him so I don't usually give him gifts "just because" so I was planning to hold on to this until I had a special reason to give it to him. Well, a get-well gift seemed like a good enough reason. Here he is with a new Dr. Seuss book, Horton Hatches The Egg and his little coordinating stuffed Horton elephant.





I just love puppets or stuffed animals that go along with books. It makes the story more interactive when the animal "reads" the story aloud to Nicholas. I got this set at Kohl's as part of their Kohl's Cares For Kids program. The Cares for Kids merchandise rotates throughout the year but the ones I've bought have always had a book and a coordinating stuffed animal. Each item is only $5.00! I plan to go back and get some other sets. In addition to Horton (who, by the way, is the softest stuffed animal I've ever felt!), they also have a book and stuffed animal for Yertle the Turtle, Fox in Socks, and Hop on Pop. Love it! For each Cares for Kids item, Kohl's donates money to health and educational opportunities for children. It's a win-win!

We ended up getting another thermometer last night, just a basic digital one that goes in his mouth. Still showed no fever. But he was still coughing last night so I let him stay home from school so I could keep him more comfortable. He's doing much better with very little coughing. Looking back he could have gone to school. But then again I just like having him home with me. I pulled out a giant art supply kit that he has and we played artist at the kitchen table for a while. He mostly just scribbled but he did make a cool handprint all by himself.





At one point, I told him I was going upstairs to put away some laundry and I'd be back in a minute but he could keep drawing. When I came back, he said, "Look, Mommy! I decorated the table!" Oh how that knot formed in my stomach before I ever even looked! There was marker all over the table. It's not like it's a great table or anything. It was left here by the previous owners because it was beaten up enough that they didn't want it. It's the perfect size for the space and we just haven't bothered to have it refinished because, well, because of things like Nicholas decorating the table. He has been so rough to that poor table. And since the finish is scratched off in many places, the exposed raw wood just soaks up ink and paint. It's our kitchen dining table but it definitely looks more like an artist's work table. Oh well. We just throw a table cloth on it when company comes over.

This wasn't Nicholas' first "decorating" attempt. There have been many others. Just earlier this week, he was drawing with markers while I was cooking dinner. He said, "Look! I decorated my arms!" Yep, he did! Dark purple marker up and down both of his forearms. And it wasn't the Crayola washable kind either. We scrubbed and scrubbed but all we could do was turn it into a lighter purple that looked more like some strange brusies along his arm. Lovely! Fortunately, Daddy has good scrubbing soap that uses to get grease and stuff off his hands when working in the garage and that took it all off painlessly. Whew!

We are the bright glow sticks

Nicholas has been coughing a lot today. There are no other symptoms except a slight wheeze. So we kept him up later than usual tonight so we could give him two breathing treatments. The first one just didn't seem to make much difference. He and Stuart popped three glow sticks so there was a little delay in bedtime because of that too.

I got Nicholas all tucked into bed with the lights off and the nightlight on. His music playing softly in the background. It is a great CD that came with an orchestra book that Grandmother Chance game him last time she came to visit. Of course, he had his glow sticks in his hand so there was a soft (albeit neon) glow on his face. He looked so precious and sweet that it just melted my heart. I felt bad about his coughing because there wasn't anything else I could do for him at the moment. We usually take turns saying prayers so I told him I wanted to say a prayer first. I prayed a little prayer for Nicholas to be healthy and well again. Nicholas seemed touched by it because he said, "Thank you. That was a special prayer."

As I type this at the computer, I can still here him coughing in his room but he's doing ok. I can hear him singing, "We are the bright glow sticks and we shine all night. We fly through the air. We are the bright glow sticks."

Catching Our Breath From A Busy Weekend

We've had a very busy few days.

Friday - Nicholas went to a Valentine's Day party at a friend's house. I wish I planned ahead enough to do parties like that. When I was Nicholas' age, my mom would throw a party for me and my friends for just about every holiday. She was great at that - I am not. But at least Nicholas gets to go to parties at other children's houses! Friday night, we had dinner at a friend's house with our Bible study group. Nicholas loves going over there to play with all the other kids while the mommies and daddies talk downstairs.

Saturday - Nicholas helped Stuart work on installing our new back door. They both love working with tools and Nicholas loves doing anything that Stuart does. I'm so glad that they have such a great bond between them. Stuart loves teachable moments with Nicholas. He even let him use a pry bar to pull off the trim around the old door.





Stuart was amazed to find that our old door was attached to the house by only 2 nails! And there was no insulation around the door. So much for quality craftsmanship. But no worries now. Stuart has done an excellent job on the new door (thanks to some of his tool birthday presents he just got).



Saturday night - we went to church then to a surprise birthday party for a friend of mine that I worked with before Nicholas was born. The party was at Alforno's restaurant so Nicholas was automatically going to have a great time because he loves going out to eat at restaurants (What does that say about my cooking??!). Nicholas had even more fun than expected because he got to sit next to another little boy who is also 3 years old. They played with their little toys and talked the whole time. It's neat how kids can become instant friends if one of them has a toy car with them. And of course, Nicholas loved having birthday cake and taking the extra balloons home with him.

Sunday - we spent time wandering around a nearby park. We found some animal tracks that we think were from a raccoon. Nicholas was so cute! He grabbed his notebook and pen from our backpack and started drawing the footprint in his notebook. I've talked to him in the past about starting a nature journal to keep track of all the neat things we see outside. I guess he's decided to start one!





Daddy found a little green bug that he showed to Nicholas. Nicholas, smart boy that he is, suggested that we look in our insect field guide to see what kind of bug it is. I was so proud! Yet, for some reason I never pulled the book out of the back pack. We looked it up later and learned that we were playing with a green stink bug! Eeww! Fortunately, none of us got "stinked".



We stopped for a while to have our picnic lunch. I sneaked in a picture with my boys saying the blessing. Sorry, God! I just couldn't resist.



While we were eating we watched this worm crawl around under our table. We tried to pick it up and let it crawl around on our hands but it wasn't very good at holding on. It kept rolling off our hands!



We wandered along some more and found this very tall tree that had fallen in the woods. We asked Nicholas if the tree had just recently fallen or if it has been that way for a long time. He correctly guessed that it had been that way for a long time. Then we pointed out how we could tell that this was true but looking at the ground where the roots were and how the dirt had settled and washed over it so that it now looked undisturbed. We also pointed out that the bark had fallen off and it looked very dried out and old.





We walked a little farther and Nicholas pointed out a log that had a lot of worm holes in it. Then he noticed a bird nest way up in the trees. He drew pictures of both of these in his journal.





Look at this giant seed pod that Nicholas found! I think that's the biggest one I've ever seen! I haven't figured out yet what kind of tree it came from.



Nicholas enjoyed inspecting a hole in an old tree stump.



Here's a cool bridge that Nicholas just loves.





I tip toed away from the guys and hid under the bridge. I started pretending to be a "grumpy old troll" which is a game Nicholas made up. They found me under the bridge and started making silly faces at me from on top of the bank.



Here are some more pics from our explorations around the creek. Nicholas loved putting leaves in the creek just above the little waterfalls and watching the leaves flow down the fall. We followed several of them down the creek a while just to watch how they flowed with the water or got stuck on branches along the way.