Not much happenin'

We are enjoying some nice weather, despite the wind :-/ The boys are loving playing outside, and I'm happy that the backyard is getting more "playable". The sandbox is wide open now, so hopefully it'll dry out soon (the boys are playing in it anyway!).

Arlan continues to talk more and more. He's starting to say sentences, like "Landon sit now" and things like that. He definitely knows what he wants, and when he doesn't get it he shares his feelings. Usually by crying / screaming in your face. It's annoying, but mostly funny (unless you have a head ache or are on the phone ... not fun for people on the other end of the phone either!). The boys mostly fight all day, with brief periods of peaceful playing which I love. But they're fun.

Landon seems to be enjoying preschool more. He actually asked to go to preschool Monday morning, but he only goes Tues and Thurs mornings. And of course, now he doesn't have preschool until Apr 13!! Easter break. But at least he's enjoying it more.
Oh yeah, Landon's spring concert was at preschool last Thursday. I enjoyed it (Arlan loved playing with the toys there). Landon didn't squeak a single word, or participate in any way. He just sat there quite shy. But he didn't cry, so I was happy about that. Maybe next concert he'll find his voice.

Landon is getting better at controlling his strong emotions too. The other night he was so mad at John because John told him to quit hitting the window. He picked up the pillow, and you could see in every fibre of his body just how badly he wanted to throw that pillow at John. We just watched him with that "go ahead and try it" look in our eyes. He marched over to John with the pillow poised over his head, and put it on John's legs and stamped away. Much better - very impressive self-control I think. So it's an improvement. In fact, he's much less aggressive in many ways. I'm definitely seeing a pattern - Feb / Mar is an aggressive time for Landon, and I'm thinking maybe due to it being the end of winter and he's sick of being inside? But I distinctly recall us having some challenges right when he turned 2, then 3, and now at 4. So perhaps we'll be able to better manage that at 5? We'll see

Anyway, I'd better go, just thought I should put a note up. Until next time...

times, they be a-changin'

I did it, I left the kids in the car *gasp* for approximately 1 minute today while I dropped candles off. Bad mommy, I know. Arlan was asleep, Landon was enjoying his A&W bribery winnings. Then Landon walks up the stairs to get me. Yup, I forget, he's in his booster seat and can easily undo the buckle. Then he climbs over the seats to the front, as the back doors have the child-locks engaged. Gets out and comes on up to get me. Of course.

So, no need to scold me too much, it'll be the absolutely last time he's left in there at all (except maybe when I get the mail, maybe, he was half-way to the front seats today when I got the mail, ready to climb out the door after me ... to "help" of course). *sigh*

Arlan was oblivious to it all, drooling on his jacket. Poor kid. He was so grumpy all morning, so sleepy. He didn't even eat his A&W winnings, hamburger's in the fridge :-/ He's so cute, it's ridiculous really.

Landon also scared the pants off of me tonight. He's in bed, has been for 1.5 hours or so. It's quiet, I'm thinking he's asleep finally. I go there, no Landon. The mattress is off the bed, all the bedding strewn about the room, but no Landon. Then I pick the mattress up to put it on the bed, and Landon's been playing under it! Seriously. So, the long-time threat was followed through - all toys in Landon's room were boxed up and put in the garage where they will remain for 1 full week. That includes Thomas trains and trains, his hotwheels spinning fire-thingy, stuffed animals. Of course, while I took the first load down to the garage, I could hear him scampering about. I asked him what he was doing. "Just moving my favourite toys downstairs!" he tells me (so that they don't go out to the garage!). He was huffing and puffing like he'd run a marathon! So I gave him that one, smart little bugger; whatever toys he managed to salvage to the toybox downstairs did not put into the garage :-/

TOO SMART FOR HIS OWN GOOD!

That's the news from here...

Finally - PLAYING OUTSIDE!

I love when the boys can play outside. And not only outside, but in the backyard too! The sun is shining on more ground back there every day, so the snow is finally disappearing :-D Even Arlan was out there today ... although he fell on the icy parts and hurt his bottom, poor kid.

Landon actually spent the entire afternoon playing with Camryn from down the street. Firstly they played out front of our house for a bit, then at Camryn's, then back to our house and Caitlin came over too, then in the backyard. It was so nice to see him having so much fun with his friends. And of course Arlan loved every minute that he was awake for...

We also learned today that Landon's friend from preschool lives on our street too :-) So that should add to the play-time fun on the block! YAY

We haven't been doing too much besides playing with the kids. I've been busy with some Mia Bella fun. I'm just so glad the weather's getting nicer, my house is a bit muddier, but it's quieter for a good chunk of the day and that's good.

until next time...

more pics - randoms

Arlan was playing so hard he fell asleep - on the floor in the living room! A site we've never seen with Landon, that's for sure!!


Landon's new favourite activity is "tories" at bedtime with Landon. We all snuggle up in Landon's bed to read ... Arlan's always first, waiting for Landon and mommy!

Arlan just hanging out, drinking his bottle, doing a "cool dude" impression...













Landon painted himself so nicely one day -- thank goodness for washable paints! Even his toenails were done so beautifully!

And this is the kind of help I can afford in my house ... the boys were, ahem, sorting?? laundry. Very helpful, certainly.

Birthday Party Pics

Here's the shot of Landon's construction cake. The toys were a hit with him, of course :-) Thank you to Grandma for helping mom make this cake!!

Landon's favourite present was his new two-wheeler bike! This pic is about 15 minutes after he got it ... he was riding like a pro right from the start! I think we'll be doing a lot of bike riding this summer!


Opening presents - this one is the hotwheels (look at his face!), he has been playing with that whenever he isn't outside riding bike (and Arlan's been scheming to get that monster truck...)

Landon picking the construction vehicles off of his cake, and all the kids waiting oh-so-patiently for their piece!!

Success - and Landon's FOUR

Landon's birthday party (and the entire weekend) was very successful! We had a great party - with no meltdowns or fights or anything (phew!). Landon had a blast with friends here and presents. He definitely has the idea of presents now - it's all he wanted to do was to open presents! LOL His favourite was his new two-wheeler (with training wheels), which he took to immediately. He can even leave "blackies" when he stops! I can hardly wait for warmer weather, he'll be riding his bike all the time I'm sure.
Present fave #2 was his first HotWheels set -- some monster truck slammin' jammin' fire shootin' thing a ma hooey. He plays with it non-stop.
We've also started a "chores" list for Landon. He gets stamps when he does his chores, and when he gets enough stamps he can have money and can buy what he wants (which fluctuates between more monster trucks, Frosters from Mac's - which he refers to as treats - and today he was going to buy a movie). He's quite proud when he gets to put stamps on the chart, as I haven't let him use my stamps before. And the chart is up high, we have to help him up there, so it's a big deal.

Arlan loved the weekend too. Grandma and Grandpa were here. He kept pointing to Grandpa and saying "Look! Grandpaaaaa!" with big grin on his face. He is talking more and more, now it's just to figure out what he's saying. "rhoni" means macaroni, got that one figured out tonight. He loved the toys and people and everything on the weekend as well. He didn't even make it through the party - he went to nap right after lunch and missed the present opening and everything! lol Last night both boys were snoozing early - Arlan didn't even want to hear all of his "tory".
Arlan LOVES stories at bedtime. All you have to do is mention story-time and he's burning up the stairs. I didn't know where he went the other night, I went upstairs and there's Arlan laying in the middle of Landon's bed, looking at me with bright eyes, "Tory!" Too funny! Landon quite tolerant of Arlan sharing story-time with him, thankfully. Although the past 2 nights he's taken to reading his own stories in mom's bed ... Dad changed that one up tonight though. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

I have the camera and all the wonderful pictures sitting here. I have to upload and go through them and hope to be able to do that tomorrow night. The kids are much less tolerant of mommy on the computer these days - I really don't get much chance at all before they're in bed. And I certainly don't get blocks of time to get anything major, like pictures, accomplished throughout the day. So hopefully tomorrow evening...

Oh yeah - and Landon had his 4-year check up on Monday morning. He's just a smidgen under 40 pounds, and is 40.5" tall. 75th percentile for both height and weight, as he's always been. Everything else is great. He was a big boy too. I asked him to sit nicely beside mommy and show Arlan how a good boy waits patiently for the doctor. And he did it! For only about 45 seconds, but he did it!! lol Now to get that patience stretched out a bit further...

until next time...

happy morning...

Well this has been an incredibly happy morning. Landon woke up in the best mood I've seen him in in several days! Likely because we all slept until after 9 am (which makes mommy in a very happy mood too!).
Or maybe Landon's getting the vibe for his birthday coming up this weekend ... the next few days are all about party-planning! Gotta figure out a cake, party snacks, etc. Again, ideas are welcomed! I'm leaning towards a construction cake, using little construction vehicles ...maybe a mining scene with big dump trucks????

preschool struggles

Well, it seems that Landon really isn't liking preschool. It all began at his Valentine's party there on Feb 9. Since then he has hated it - begging me to leave him in the car while I go inside, fighting not to go, then refusing to let go of me when we do arrive. One day he even had a couple of tears escape after I left :-(
So I had to call today to see what's up. It all stems from that party. That day when I picked him up he was sad, he said that his cookies weren't eaten because someone said there's 'too much sugar' in them (they were iced roll-out cookies, in the shape of hearts - nothing too fancy). I do believe this all stems from that careless comment made by a volunteer mom, no doubt (really, would a 3 year old kid say there was too much sugar in anything??!!). We are going to send cookies to preschool for his birthday party on Thursday - hoping to replace a bad cookie experience with a good one. This time I think I'll buy Oreos and leave it at that (I don't need to feel bad about my baking skills too!). Landon doesn't want to bake cookies, he said he doesn't like the other kids :-/ He has related an incident where someone yelled at him "Get out of here! You're not supposed to be here!" I think this was most likely some kid wanting to keep the toys they were playing with to themselves, but I wonder if Landon took that to mean he wasn't supposed to be at preschool?

If that doesn't work, I'll volunteer to see how things happen at preschool. It's really heartbreaking -- he absolutely LOVED preschool up until that day, and I so hope we can get that magic back for him. Plus I simply don't want to face the fight to get him there, and then deal with him when I pick him up (he's horrible for about an hour, yelling, screaming, sulking, throwing things, hitting ... ). I know that preschool is valuable for him (and me), but not if it's a horrid experience for him -- and I am contemplating pulling him out, at least until the fall, if things don't turn around.

The teachers say he has a lot of fun at preschool (she hadn't noticed anything was wrong at all). He's got some buddies that giggle and play together, he loves the trucks and trains. He enjoyed the ambulance that was at the school today (although he didn't even want to tell me about it when I picked him up, just throwing his hat and colouring book all over the car and pouting). After an hour, he did admit to having some fun, and told me all about the ambulance -- but that was a looooong hour to get to that point.

Anyway, that is where we're at. Hopefully Thursday can bring some positive memories into his head. I'm open to suggestions on this one ....