Parent-Child Night

Last night was parent-child night at the dudes' school. It was a delightful evening. Each boy showed us a couple of works they enjoy. I felt very proud of my smart men as I watched them demonstrate all they have learned.

Their teachers had nothing but positive feedback. The boys are doing wonderfully with the classroom routine, making many new friends, and overall, being awesome dudes.

Here are a few pictures.

Dad and Jules making a necklace.

Jonas being a genius. 

Julesy rocking a bird puzzle. 

Julesy, the king of opposites. 

Julesy, future mathlete.

Jonas proudly sporting his first necklace. 

Jonas getting down in music class. 

Julian bustin' a move in music class. 

Best Brothers

Often times I ask the boys, individually, if we're best friends. They usually say yes, but most likely because they want a Swedish fish. I know I'm not their best friend; they're each other's best friend.

Little Jonas has a lump in his throat. We had to visit the doctor twice last week. (He's fine.)

On Tuesday, I left work early to take Jonas to the doctor. I asked Rachel to have him ready so we could head out as soon as I got there.  I went into the house to get him and was greeted by a sad little Julian. If you could've seen his face. So pitiful. "What's wrong, buddy?" I asked, knowing full well what the problem was. "My head hurts. I need to go to the hospital with Jonas."

I made him stay at home, and it broke my heart. He watched us leave from the living room window. He had on that little face he makes when you know he wants to breakdown, but he's trying to be brave.

On Thursday, Jonas had to go back to the doctor. This time, I took Jules with us. I walked into the house and once more I was greeted by a sad brother. "What's wrong, Jules?" Today, it was his elbow that hurt and needed medical attention. "Alright," I said, "I reckon you should go see the doctor with us." You would've thought we were going to Disney World! Both boys were so happy!

They had everyone at the doctor's office gushing over them. They were holding hands walking down the hall. Giving each other hugs and high 5s. Trading hot wheels cars. You know, brother stuff.

Here's to hoping they remain close always. I love my little best friends.

Brothers waiting on banana muffins.

Enjoying a lunch out. 

Just holding hands, strolling through the aquarium.

School Update

Before spring break, the boys were having somewhat of a tough time at school. They were having separation anxiety. Not from Mom and Dad, but from each other. The teachers communicated this to us, delicately, trying not to destroy my soul. However, they did share a sad story about how the boys would sometimes go to a shared door/window in their respective classrooms and call out to each other. Pretty sad stuff for a Mommy to hear. BUT, I still think it is good for them to be independent, at least for a few hours a day.

To help with the separation anxiety, the teachers recommended reading the book A Kissing Hand for Chester Raccoon with the boys. Have you heard of this book? It is awesome. Go buy it now. Such a darling story. The best part about this book is that is makes my little boys suuuper lovey-dovey. Doug and I snuggle in bed with them to read. Julian will rub our faces, look at us, and say, "Mom, gimme a hug! Dad, gimme a hug! I love my family!" Most precious thing ever. 

They returned to school this week, and have had a wonderful transition. Here are some action shots and a few words from their teachers.

Jonas had another wonderful day. He is making many new friends and adapting well to our classroom rules and procedures.He enters the classroom with a smile, eagerly greeting his friends and transitions nicely into his morning work cycle. Today he chose to start his day with the necklace making activity. He will be attending music tomorrow, he enjoys singing with Ms. Lissa! 

Julian has had another nice few days.  He comes into the classroom happily and is able to complete his tasks with independence.  Julian participated in more lessons today and chose independent work. Today, he seemed surprised when I told him it was time to go home. This is a good sign! He seems to be building that endurance we talked about. Here he is refining his fine motor skills and one to one correspondence with bean transfer.

Jonas has had a wonderful week. As you can see he has busily worked on many different works throughout the week. He is also building his social skills by collaborating with friends to complete puzzles and other activities.

Here is a great sequence where Julian prepared himself a snack. He is so eager to be independent :)

Making Rice Krispies Treats

Lately the boys have been very interested in cooking. Even though it is a little stressful and a major pain in the neck for ole Ma, I have been encouraging this newfound hobby. It doesn't hurt that they are ridiculously cute while cooking.

"Come on, Mom. Let's cook supper for dinner!"

"Welcome to the Julian and Jonas making show. Okay, now, today we're cooking rice krispies treats. We get the butter and the mushrooms and the cereal."

Note: In Julian and Jonas world, mushrooms are marshmallows.

A couple of cuties with "mushrooms" for rice krispies treats.

So proud to be chefs.

"Snap, crackle, pop!"

Just a little mess.

After their treats were done, they were very excited to take their Dad a piece, and to gobble a few of their own! You always have fun at the Julian and Jonas Making Show!!!

Chef Jules

Julian has lately become very independent. Everything is suddenly "my turn!" From throwing away trash to taking off his socks, he wants to do it all by himself.

Tonight, it was his turn to cook supper. So, equipped with his butter knife, he set out to cut all the grapes. Like any good cook, he snacked along the way, eating most what he cut. He was very proud of his handiwork and made sure to tell Jonas all about it when it was time to eat.

 

Hold it steady, Julesy! 

Watch for that thumb! 

Such concentration.

Feeling to see which side of the blade to use. 

Color Me Mine

Last Saturday, Kate and her brothers explored their artistic sides and painted some pottery.

Uncle Dacian and his Dad, Jim,  went along with us to help out and have some fun.  We had a fabulous time. Kate and I painted a snake. Jonas and Dacian painted a frog. Julian and Jim painted a lizard.

I've got to find a sweet spot in the house to display my lovely new pieces.

The finished works. 

All painted and ready to fire! 

Artists at work. 

Banana Bread

The dudes and I have a few different night-time routines. We like to tell each other stories. We like to sing songs, particularly, "Mommy, Julian, and Jonas," which is a song about all the cool stuff we do. Or, we read books. 

The book Julian most frequently requests is,  Pete the Cat and the Bad Banana. I think we all have this story memorized. Pete the Cat loves bananas, but one day, the poor ole feller gets a bad banana. It is brown. It is mushy. It is gross. So, Pete swears off bananas.

In an attempt to make him remember his love of bananas, Pete's Mom makes him banana bread. Hence, our latest baking adventure:

 

Julian's beautiful bundt.

Lots of banana smashing. 

Putting his all into it! 

Gray Poss

As you all know, Julian and his possums are inseparable, which is why for the past few days, Doug and I have torn our house apart. You see, we could not find Gray Poss. We searched everywhere: under beds, under radiators, in closets, in cabinets, in the van, on the playground. All to no avail.

I asked Julian, "Where's Gray Poss?" He said, "I don't know. He's gone!" Heart shattering. I could hear, "When She Loved Me" playing softly in my mind's soundtrack. I couldn't stop thinking of a sad, abandoned Gray Poss. What happened to him? Was he dropped along our walk when we were out in the wagon? Did we leave him at the aquarium? I couldn't imagine Julesy forgetting his buddy!

We had given up all hope. Doug ordered a new Gray Poss online. Julian still had Black Poss, but he's lived his whole life with 2 possums, so he needed another.

But! Just like Bori Cat returned home from being lost the very day a new cat (Flash Gordon) showed up, so too did Gray Poss!

All this time, GP was inside the seat of Kate Monster's musical motorcycle. The question is, did Monster know this whole time?

Boys Don't Cry

As a payback for not sending me emails, I dressed the boys alike.
You're welcome, Teachers!

Boys don't cry...unless you tell them they cannot eat a Swiss Roll until after dinner. But that's another story for another time.

Tonight, I am here to report that my boys don't cry anymore when their Dad drops them off for school. In fact, they are dang near jubilant in the mornings! Ready and raring to go! I'm not sure what switch was flipped to make it this way, but I am certainly grateful this day has come.

Unfortunately, the notes and pictures from the teachers only came for the first week. I think that is cruel, but I guess it doesn't matter what I think. At any rate, I have to rely on those boys to tell me about their days. Which, as you can imagine, does not get me far.

Me: Julian, what did you do at school today?

The Bear named Joe enjoying a Krispy Kreme.

Jules: A frog puzzle!

He tells me that every single day. He's got to being doing something other than that dadgum frog puzzle.

Me: Jonas, what did you do at school today?
Jonas: Played on the playground!

In addition to playing on the playground, Jonas informed Rachel today that he also, "Made a huge mess with cheerios."

Last week, both Doug and I got to go to school to join the boys for Donuts with Dad (or Mom). Doug had donuts with Jonas, and I had donuts with Jules.

The parents walked into the classroom to find the children all sitting politely in a circle. When Jonas spotted Doug, he hollered, "Dad! You're home!" He crawled into Doug's lap and a kindergarten student gave them each a donut. Jonas wolfed his down in record time (his first donut [excluding the "chocolate meatball" aka chocolate donut hole he lapped up a few weeks prior]) and wanted more. While the kids and Dads were eating donuts, the teacher read a nice book, "What Daddies do Best." Jonas waited until a pause in the story to scream, "I WANT MORE DONUTS!" My kid.

My crazy critters.

The following day, it was my turn to join Jules in his classroom for donuts. I was in the back of the line of parents entering the class, so I got to watch his little face search the crowd, trying to see if his Mommy or Daddy was among the group. When he spotted me, I tell you what, I wouldn't give anything for that feeling of seeing his little face light up with love and excitement! He rushed right over to me, and I had to usher him back to the circle. He gave me kisses and sat in my lap. Unlike Jonas, he wanted nothing to do with the donut. He wanted nothing to do with the story. He wanted nothing to do with school. Two or three times the boy got up from my lap and went over to his cubby and got his coat, backpack, and hat. "Time to go home, Mom. Let's go to Woolmart." "No, you have to stay here at school." "Let's go to Target!" "No. Not today." "Let's go to the aquarium." "No, you gotta stay here." "Where's my brother, Jonas?" Sigh...and then story time was over, and I had to leave him, and he cried. It was terrible in that moment. BUT. He doesn't cry anymore!

And through it all, one thing remains constant. Kate keeps chillin out maxin relaxin all cool.

Monster.

The Struggle is Real

It's exhausting being this cool.

Another School Update

Geometry Jules.

On Friday, the boys completed their first full week of preschool. Sadly, the morning started off much like it had the previous days: the boys cried at drop-off. I don't know how Doug does it. I would be a heart-broken mess.

But, at least they cheer up pretty quickly.

A note from Julian's teacher:

We wanted to share what a great day Julian had. While he was upset getting out of the car, he stopped shortly after entering the classroom. Julian participated in more lessons today and is beginning to learn how to choose his own work independently. He showed off his geometry skills this morning telling us all about triangles, squares and circles :)

And one from Jonas's teacher:

It looks like these are the same pictures but, they are not.  This is just a work Jonas enjoys daily.  Look at his concentration when squeezing the sponge. Also he is learning the sequence of the activity.  He cleaned the table without any direction.

He may cry some when he comes to school but settles in shortly after school starts.

Very focused.

It's been a treat talking to them all week about their days at school. Friday, though, was the best. I asked Julian what he did, and he said, "I made new friends." So sweet. And when I looked in their backpacks, Jonas had a picture in his that he drew with a friend. Whoever his friend was, he/she drew AT-ATs for him; that's a good buddy.


While the boys were hard at work at school, Kate was playing King of the Castle on her puppy dog throne.

She went along with Rachel to pick up the boys and scored a free donut hole at Dunkin Donuts. Working that charm!

Next week, Doug gets to go to an event at school with the boys, "Donuts with Dad." I can't express enough how jealous I am.

Boggle

When I was a kid, one of my favorite things to do was play Boggle with my Mommaw and cousins. In case you don't know, Boggle is a word game. There's a plastic grid and a bunch of blocks with letters, and you try to make words by stringing together adjacent letters. Got it? It's also timed, and you get double points for words greater than 5 letters.

Anyway, we used to play it all the time. I remember that we always had to be really quiet when shaking up the letters so we didn't wake up Papaw. Truth be told, I bet we could've shook that thing till the cows came home, and he wouldn't have heard it. Still, we were always very quiet. Except for the laughing. 

Fast forward to now. It's been years since I've played a good round of Boggle. I actually had forgotten it existed, until my buddy brought it over to play a couple of weeks ago.  I was so delighted to see it as it brought back so many fond memories.

That night, we discovered that someone else liked Boggle--the dudes. They liked it so much, that my friend bought them their very own game. Now, obviously, they can't play for real, but they do like to take the blocks and build words. I was playing with Jonas, when he started making words.  "C-A-T. Cat! C-A-R. Car!" He yelled excitedly. "A-S. Ass!"

What a funny guy! I only wish my Mommaw could've been there to hear it.