Track Day

There are lots of things that I love about Tyler's school - they really seem to go above and beyond on a lot of things. They have lots of things at night for families and lots of dress-up days at school One of things that I really like though they do on Wednesdays during lunch recess. Every Wednesday the PE teacher has begun a track day. All the kids who want to can walk or run this track that goes around the playground. Four or five times around the track equals a mile. So the PE teacher stands out there and puts a dot on the kids' hands every time they go around. Then at the end of recess she records how many laps each kid has done. Every time a kid hits a 5-mile mark they get a little foot token that they string on a necklace so they know how many miles they've gone throughout the year - she calls it the 5-mile club, 10-mile club etc. and the kids gets recognized for different achievements. Tyler really likes it and every Wednesday he comes home with a hand marked up with dots. This topic was made blog-worthy yesterday when Tyler had his personal best and he came home so excited. I think it's such a fun way to get the kids active and also gives them a sense of accomplishment and also belonging to something. I love teachers who go the extra mile (pardon the pun!).

Round and Round

You know how every CD player comes with the feature of Repeat? Well I've often wondered who ever would use this? I mean, who wants to listen to the same song over and over? Well, I realized today that the person who invented it and then got it to be a standard feature was a parent of a 2 year old. Today Bay and I were driving around and I had 4 kids CD's in the car and Wheels on the Bus comes on. I know it's a fave of Bay's so she's happy and then as soon as She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain comes on she says, "Round and Round" (2 year old talk for, "Can we listen to Wheels on the Bus again please?"). So sure, again with Wheels, back to the lady still coming around the mountain, and more "Round and Round", so we go through this probably 6-7 times and finally I think of the Repeat button! So we drove all around listening to Wheels non-stop and everyone was happy. Yes, necessity must be the mother of all invention.

FHE Funny

Here's my funny FHE story for the night .- Derek is out of town so FHE was pretty casual at our house. Tyler was the activity and he decided that we were going to play Superheros. What, you might ask, does that consist of? Well, everyone gets to pick a super power and then we run through the house using our powers to escape all of the aliens that are trying to destroy our planet (I told you it was casual tonight!). So we all pick our powers - I pick invisibility, Tyler picks about a million powers, Emmy picks to be able to make poisonious treats, and Bay just picks to make cookies (she must have a soft spot for aliens). So off we go through the house defending our planet and Emmy says that she's just hit an alien - I say, "why don't you give them one of your poisonions treats?" and she says in the sweetest voice to an alien, "Would you like a cookie?".
On a completley different topic, I hope I'm not jinxing anything but I think it's safe to say that spring has sprung. With our crazy winter this year I've really been looking forward to spring for 2 months! But I think it's here - my daffodills and tulips are several inches tall and I love being able to just see something green outside. Logan made his first trip to the mailbox last week so spring must be here!

Ode to Grandpa

This is my ode to my dad - he's really gone above and beyond lately for me. I signed up to take Carleen Tanner's parenting classes Thursday nights knowing that I would miss several due to Derek being out of town or coaching the YM basketball team (of course they would play on Thursdays!). But I really would have been able to go to one class so far (out of 7) if it hadn't been for him. Derek's just been gone so much lately - the YM haven't seen much of him either. We seem to have a standing date Thursday nights. He reports for duty at 6:30 every Thursday, I run out the door to class, and when I get home I have all sleeping kids - it's pretty fantastic isn't it? I try to not think about how many fights he's had to referee, Wii controllers he's had to taken away, how many drinks he's gotten and all the rest - I just focus on the sleeping kids! The kids are getting pretty used to it to - last week Bay could tell that Derek and I were getting ready to go out without them and she ran to the window saying, "Papa Papa!" And then this week I was calling around to find a babysitter and I said to Tyler, "who should we get to babysit you guys?" - of course he said, "Grandpa, he's the best!". And then just today Bay was talking on her toy phone to Papa for a good 20 minutes! So there it is - my ode to my dad. Hopefully I'm a better mom due to these classes and he's made it possible for me to go. My kids shoule really thank him!

Bumbo Baby

So here's my Bumbo baby - Allyson was telling me about Bumbo seats since way before Logan was born - how great they were for babies and how she was sad Paisley had never had one. So I went on the hunt to find one (pink and purple were abudant, finding blue required more hunting). I wouldn't say Logan loves it by any means - but he's getting better at keeping more upright in it - though sometimes I do find him in more of a slump than he's inteded to be!
Logan's had some other firsts too lately. He's started cooing which is the single cutest thing ever! He just looks at you and talks like he's got something to say! His sleeping is getting better and I'm starting to get some hope that some time I will get some decent sleep. In one week he slept through the night 3 times - we haven't repeated that yet, but the fact it happened once is something isn't it? His sisters sure love him - Emily picks out his outfit almost every day and Bay spend the day pulling off his socks much faster than I can put them back on. He also went to his first movie last weekend. I wouldn't say "27 Dresses" is exactly his kind of show but he did great (he must have liked it better than my parenting class last night where I spent the whole night in the hall!). He also got to go to kindergarten orientation with Emmy this week and got the whole tour of the school - how many 3 month olds can say they've had a tour of a school bus?