18-month check-up (S), Painting with yogurt (S), losing a tooth (M), playing in a blanket fort (M+S).

First, Sean had his 18 month check-up. He is developing really well, and he is SO TALL! At 36.5 inches tall (93cm) he is the size of an average 3-year-old. He weighed just under 29lbs (13kg), which puts him in the 85th percentile for his age... but below the 10th percentile for his weight-to-height ratio! The doc was not at all worried about this, Sean eats well, has healthy round cheeks, and cute little dimples on his arms and legs. In my Mom's words, he's just "a very looooong drink of water."

Mark has early release from school all of this week. Thanks to all the wonderful WA rain, I'm having to get creative with finding things to do indoors! Yesterday I took Mark, Brady and Sean to eat gelato at Chuck's produce. I pushed all 3 of them all over the store in a shopping cart (together they weigh almost as much as I do!), and then they each got to choose 2 flavors. Anyone who knows me well knows that we hardly ever eat sweets... so this was a treat.

Today we did some art together after Mark came home. Drawing ("daw! daw!") is Sean's favorite thing to do. About 100x a day he announces "daw!" and climbs up onto one of the 'big' chairs at the table, helps himself to some pencils, markers, or crayons, and starts scribbling on the paper I leave there for him. I always stay with him to ensure he doesn't run off to "daw" on walls, clothes, or kitties...

I've tried painting with Sean in the past, but he kept trying to eat the paint. While it is supposedly non-toxic, I wasn't thrilled at the idea... so today I decided to try letting Sean paint with plain yogurt that I added some blue food coloring to.

"before" painting - not quite sure what to think of it, especially since I wasn't letting him sit in his usual "daw" spot...

blue yogurt "paint" and some white paper

"Hmmm. This is kind of cool."

Mark had fun drawing - it is so fun for me to see how much concentration he musters while working on a project!

Sean tasting a little of his paint. He doesn't usually get to feed himself any really messy foods, so this was extra fun for him.

It was nice to have some extra time with Mark. I kind of feel like I never see him, since he normally has school until 3:35 every day.

I painted a little stick boy for Sean

Sean really started getting into the whole thing at this point: he SWISHED the yogurt all over the paper and the tray, he SCOOPED it up in his fingers and SQUISHED it between his hands. Of course he also fed it to himself by the spoonful.

What are you looking at?

Mark proudly presented his finished art project

He explained the details to me

At some point Sean abandoned the use of utensils to feed himself the yogurt by the fist-full

Mark continued drawing for a while

"after" painting with yogurt. Sean was so happy!

Ok, so at this point Mark announced that his tooth is REALLY loose, so I suggested he bring me the floss so he could try pulling it out. I tied a loop of floss around his tooth - it was so loose I was able to see part of the root when he wiggled it - and with a good YANK Mark pulled it out.

Eek! Blood! (Mark was a little worried about tasting the blood)

Mark pressed a cold wet wash rag against the empty gap for a few minutes to stop the bleeding

Proudly showing off his gap

Once Mark's tooth stopped bleeding, and once Sean had been washed off, we went into the living room and built an awesome blanket fort. I don't very frequently actively role-play with the boys, but this was fun! We took a rocket ship to a variety of planets, got stranded, rescued, caught some space pirates, killed some aliens, and had a lot of fun in the meantime. Sean got really into it, and Mark had a lot of fun narrating and enacting.

Another "cheese" for the camera

Boy, do I ever love my 2 boys! (here in the blanket fort)

Star Wars party at the library

One of the local libraries had a Star Wars party this afternoon - complete with costumes! It was pretty fun to watch all those young (and not so young) Star Wars enthusiasts easily answer the "difficult" Star Wars trivia questions that the librarian threw out there. Marth Vader and Sean had a great time. 

Marth Vader posing next to a clone trooper. This costume was very impressive (and I am sure expensive), and it was complete with "battle damage" to the armor. I have a feeling that the wearer spends lots of time at Star Wars conventions...

Marth Vader meets Darth Vader. There were also several "shiny" storm troopers present in the room.

Sean was completely fearless about meeting the "Guy, guy, guy!" (short for bad guy, maybe?)

Sean also try to steal this storm trooper's gun. Good little padawan.

Star Wars trivia games and grown-ups in expensive costumes were followed by a variety of Star-Wars related crafts: making light sabers out of a long balloon and a TP roll and duct tape, creating Yoda or Wookie popsicle stick puppets, creating Yoda ear headbands... Most of the kids never got beyond making their light saber, with which they then proceeded to have vigorous bopping fights.

What a fun afternoon!

(Please excuse the blurry pictures - we took them on Ben's cell phone!)

An afternoon at the park

Today after school Mark asked if we could go to the park together. There were so many other kids there and the weather was so nice that we ended up staying there for nearly 3 hours!

Here are some pictures I took of the boys playing:

Sean spent lots of time running all around the park exploring, while I followed a few steps behind him.

Sean found this AWESOME stick! He is very purposefully trying to show it to the camera.

Mark was not super excited about my attempts to take his picture.

Such a great smile - do you see that top tooth that is so loose it is flapping in the wind?!

I see you there!

It was fun to see Mark and his friends climb up on TOP of the play set. Extreme playgrounding, anyone?

Sean braved the little slide all by himself this time. Then he decided to try out the big slide! Thankfully I was right there to catch him - he was a little surprised at how FAST the big slide sped him down...

Little mischief-maker...

...carefully walking across the wiggly bridge...

At some point Sean decided that he wanted to join the big kids. Mark was a good big brother!

After a little while, Sean decided that running around, waving his stick WITHOUT being told where to go by the big kids was more fun. 

In my mind, today was the perfect kind of day to be outside: warm enough to go out without a coat, bright and sunny, but not hot. I hope we have MANY more of this kind of day!

Cool by association...

Me (as part of a conversation with Ben): "I wasn't really ever one of the cool kids in school."
Mark: "It really doesn't matter if you were cool or not, because you are MY Mom." (said with pride)

Good morning, Saturday!

Well, at least one of us is bright-eyed and bushy-tailed!

Photos taken by Mark's teacher during school

Mark's teacher (who is also my friend from church) emailed me these two photos she took of Mark during school.

Mark writing a story during "5 choices"-time

Mark's "goofy" face upon discovering that the camera was being pointed in his direction...

Happy President's day!

Springtime... almost!

Happy February!
We have been enjoying the fantastic warm Spring weather by going on lots of walks and playing in the yard. I thought you might enjoy some updated pictures of the boys.

I love Mark's smile. His two top teeth are SO wiggly now!

Where on earth did he learn the "thoughtful" pose?!

Mark is doing so well in school. He is learning so much, making friends, enjoying each day, writing wonderful stories, and is reading reading reading. 

Mark is also enjoying the independence of playing alone in the back yard for long stretches - without coming in the house with complaints of being lonely. The result is a very dirty, sometimes somewhat scraped up, but very happy boy. 

Hooray for play clothes! (have I mentioned that this boy is STRONG?!)

I kept the wood that fell out of our tree - Mark has had fun "chopping" it into smaller pieces, and lugging it up and down from his tree house by a rope. 

Sean loves to RUN all over the yard. Sometimes he even stops before he gets to the steps.

Sticks are great fun - he would bring whole armfuls of them inside if I let him.

 Lincoln watches every move the boys make while they are in the yard. 

Sean loves playing with trucks in the mud...

I have to make sure to zip his coat all the way to the top, or he starts putting clots of dirt and rocks and sticks down the front of his shirt for safekeeping! (I learned that the hard way)

Sean has some fun new words, too. Here are a few:
"hello-low" - phone
"pewwwwww" (said with much awe in his voice) - computer
"ge-go" - LEGOs
"hnah" - snack
"nah" - nap
"ba'-pa'" - backpack
"broh" - broken (sometimes used along with "uh-oh")
"boo" - book
"tur-tle"
"bear"
"wa-wa" - water
"pee"
"poo" (he tells us when his diaper is full, and sometimes if he wants to go in the potty)

Sean vigorously nods his whole upper body "yes" now, and accompanies his "no" with a shaking head.

A funny little anecdote: Sean has been fighting a cold and cough for the last few weeks, partly due to a virus that's going around, partly due to teething. The other morning Sean woke up with a really croaky voice. Sean sat up in bed and tried to say something, and all that came out was a squeaky croak. Sean looked up at me with a very worried expression, touched his throat, and rasped "Uh-oh, broh!"

Sean, the independent Artiste

Sean is such a fun little person, and I really enjoy my mornings with him while Mark is in school.

A few days ago, Sean took me by the hand and walked me over to the kitchen, pointing vigorously at the (child locked) cupboard where I keep the pens and paper. Sean thinks scribbling is fantastically fun, and he asks for pens and paper several times every day. After I got the pens and paper out, Sean very determinedly walked over to Brady's chair at the table, and climbed into it. I figured that there is no reason why he shouldn't sit there to draw, and Sean felt so proud and big!

...have I mentioned that Sean loves to climb?

Choosing some markers and pencils. Crayons have been declared both delicious and boring. 

How many 16-month-olds do YOU know who hold a marker "the right way" without prompting?!

Opening and closing the lids on the markers is almost as entertaining to Sean as drawing with them.

By the way, being in control of the Gatorade can of markers and pencils is a much sought-after status symbol in our house. 

Sean is SO proud of his little drawings.