Charlotte can swim!

Charlotte, (2 years old) can stay alive in deep water!   This girl has made drastic improvements this summer.  I remember saying earlier at the beach that if she went under, we would be in big trouble because she didn't even seem to be able to bounce up to the surface on her own. But, with lots of pool time and her usual determination/stubbornness, she can now tread water unbelievably well and is making better forward and backwards movements each day.  Both of my kids hated the puddle jumper/any life jacket and while it has definitely made me be at attention more, I'm excited about their swimming ability!  

 And one of my bigger fish and daddy for good measure;) 

   

Charlotte loves to push off the wall and then come back to it. 

Can't wait for swim team next year;)

Dad's 60th birthday!

My dad, Poppi turned the big 60 on April 4th.  To surprise him as a family, my mom organized a beach trip where all of us siblings joined throughout the week to have a big weekend together.  While the weather could have been better, the company was great!  

 

Riding the ferry! 

They absolutely loved climbing to the top of old Baldy!

We made it! 

And then Alec made it!  

And even though it was over cast and we were caught in the rain, the kids thought it was a great idea to go swimming!  They had a ball with Poppi. 

We had lots of time for family Jenga:).  

Finally, we got some pool weather! 

Hanging with Uncle William

Now, it's Uncle Harrison's turn:)

So excited for the new splash pad

Daddy!  

They loved the lighthouse so much, they had to go back.  I decided to sit this one out and save my pennies:).  

The weather was perfect for lots of bike riding:)

Bye bye Poppi and Mimi!

Time to get back on the ferry!

Next stop, Mrtle beach:)

Trevor's 18th birthday

Recently Trevor has gotten very interested in his upcoming birthday.  Several of his friends have had their parties and so he asks us daily how soon it is until his birthday.  He knows it's after Ellis's, then Coopers, then it will be his on June 1st.  He just can't quite seem to grasp how long 6 weeks is.  

The other day we were driving and Trevor said, "mommy, we are in the middle of the buildings."  Side note, Trevor hates to be in the middle when he comes into our bed in the morning.  So as a joke, I asked him if he wanted to sleep in the middle now like the car was doing and he replied, "no, I don't want to, but maybe when I'm 18."  And that comment prompted the following conversation...

Me- "What kind of birthday party do you want to have when you turn 18?"

Trevor- "I want a big bounce house and a small bounce house"

Me- "What kind of food and drinks should we have?"

Trevor- "how about animal crackers, gold fish, and Cheerios". " milk to drink mommy"

Me- "who do you want to come?"

Trevor- "Ellis, Max, Claire, Jack, Charlotte, and mommy and daddy" (I'm sure he just says the most recent ppl that he's hung out with, but I wanted to recap it how he said it so we could look back on it later:))

Me- "Should we do anything else for your 18th birthday?"  "And, what shirt do you want to wear?"

Trevor- "We can all watch movies together and I want a ninja turtle shirt and a dinosaur shirt to wear":)

Well, if my memory serves me correct, that's about it.  Just thought I'd keep a record of it so we can go by this in 14 years:).  

Trevor update- my 3.5 plus year old

It's been awhile as usual.  Just wanted to recap a bit about where Trevor is these days.  

A few weeks ago it was time to make a decision about school next year and it really had me questioning what my plan or the two was.  We've got a good rhythm going (most days) that I'm not quite ready to put either in school more days.  Trevor and Charlotte are getting along really well, not driving me completely crazy, and there are so many things to do with the children in Greensboro that they love outside of their school.   Unfortunately with his age, the options of school are limited with most being 4-5 day programs.  I've decided to hold out for a possible two day spot for both.  We will be allowed to do that only if there is room left after everyone that has wanted more consecutive days signs up. I do think that school is very important and do want at least two days so hopefully it will workout at their current school, but if not, well figure it out!- be it a different school or more home structured instruction.  I feel that Trevor receives plenty of social interaction and play outside of school, but not sure about the amount of actual "instruction" outside of school.  I'm a firm believer that before first grade, play is one of the most important components as well as learning about life situations through experiences.  BUT, I don't want my children to start elementary school behind their peers on the basic fundamentals.  I've been trying to research the skills that are necessary for kindergarten and looking into materials to get this done alongside some preschool.   So, I've started using some workbooks and other activities as incentives for things, especially before tv.  So far, they are going well.  He's not 100% thrilled about doing them, but he does them and understands the reward process:).  It's amazing for me to see how hard some tasks come (using Scissors, holding a pencil, handwriting) and on the opposite how quickly some others come.  From not knowing how to write his name a few weeks ago, he's gotten pretty good at it.  At first glance, in the prek workbooks, he is definitely his father's son, flying through the math sections.  The other books that I found recommended by my BFF (Pinterest) should be here soon.  So far, he's great at numbers, counting, and letter recognition, but doesnt enjoy writing them much at all.  The book below is one I picked up at target.  

This is how his name was a few weeks ago.  He even drew the connecting dots for himself since he was used to seeing them from me.  You can see we are still working on spacing issues:)

Getting a little better/straighter.  If he's not happy with a letter, he scratches it out immediately.  

And this last one was yesterday.  I should probably buy some better paper for beginning writers as well as some pencils:)

And one last thing, his speech has really taken off.  He's still doing speech therapy, but the therapist believes it isn't necessary any longer and once the next IEP plan ends, we will stop if not before:). 

Charlotte is 2!

   

My sweet baby girl turned 2 this week!  She weighs 25lbs (57th %) and is 33 1/2 inches (34th %) tall.  So, she's had a little growth spurt:).  At the start of her 2's, Charlotte is still an extremely smily and social child (except when she wakes up from naps).  She is also very sneaky:). She loves to wander off in the house and find hiding places where she can get into trouble with items such as my makeup, tooth paste, and any type of spray/lotions.  She is saying new words and short phrases daily, a big change from her big brother at this age.   Charlotte is very active, fast, and balanced.  She goes to school two mornings a week and gets really good reports from her teachers (minus trying to eat everything that isn't edible).  Speaking of food, her favorite meal item is milk, but she is more interested than Trevor in trying out bites of new food.  However, she still never finishes more than a few bites of anything (even bday cake).   Charlotte loves her "pink" blanket.  Other than that, she doesn't seem to have any favorite toys unless her brother is playing with something.  She has no interest in tv yet.  Even though, I would maybe be ok with that some mornings.

Charlotte is doing wonderful with her potty training.  We followed the same method as we did with Trevor, but this time I made the bright decision to start over a weekend so I could have daddy help:).  And let me tell you how excited Alec was about that! Not.  To be expected, it was a pretty miserable week, BUT, now we are in big girl underwear at all awake moments and have been for several weeks!  Yay!  

Big brother trying to show Charlotte tricks of the trade.

They sure do love each other and are really entertaining each other these days.  

Charlotte's play date birthday party

Videos of Trevor Counting and saying his ABC's

Not sure if videos work well on the blog, but wanted a spot to keep some of my first videos of Trevor actually counting things and deliberately saying his ABC's.  Proud of my little guy. 

A good one

I

Yesterday (or two days ago by the time I upload) was one of those days I wanted to post a photo or video on Instagram way too many times.  We had a really good day together alone.  By alone, I mean no gym escapes or school or babysitters;).  We have lots of those "alone" days, but typically, there may be quite a few stressed out moments and I may or may not be counting down the minutes until Alec gets home to tag team.

I will not be taking the bike on any more wagon rides alone!  Big man wants to jump out to ride all too often in traffic.

Luckily we ran into the Kesslers to help with the afternoon meltdown period.

Morning fun at the Science Center

Sweet girl has picked up a little bit of an appetite!  Here she is trying to steal Aspen's snack!