Brothers/Best Friends

I fully realize that there may come a time when they don't want to have anything to do with each other, but I am relishing this time when they truly like to be around each other. A few days ago Noah said to me, "Mom, do you know who my best friend is? It is James, I love him".  So sweet!  Since James's move into a big bed, I think that they have become closer.... it may have something to do with James preferring to sleep with Noah;)  At first Noah would tell me that he had to keep telling James to stay in his own bed, but I finally realized and told him that it was ok for James to stay in his bed, but only if it was ok with him.  He responded "YAY"!  That night we found them in the above picture... both sleeping after what appears to be Noah reading a book to James. I have found them both in Noah's bed several times now. They are both so loving and caring towards each other and Benjamin that it sometimes makes me want to cry, to realize how blessed we are! 

They do fight... ALOT... and I have had my second significant "I am a mom of three boys" moment.  Wrestling... it has started.... I remember wrestling/fighting with my sister, but it was usually when we were mad about something.  Two nights ago while I was picking up after supper and doing some other things they "wrestled" for over 45 minutes.  I kept waiting for someone to get tired and start crying because they didn't want to participate any more, but it didn't happen.  They were totally exhausted at bed time.  There was no hitting or bitting or head butting or even hard falls.... just wrestling in every room of the house. One would come up behind the other and push them down... I have actually never heard them laugh to hard together.  I was picturing all three kids (and lets be honest Gabe too) at 8, 10 & 12 wrestling in the house and destroying the furniture... maybe I will build a nice little apartment separate from our main living area that will stay clean, with the toilet seat always down, and where I can display things that I would prefer not to be broken..... :) 

The last picture is how I found James last night when I went in to check on him:)

Dr. Seuss = Scientific Genius??

We have slowed down on our letters and started having a bit more of a science approach to our days.  Noah's latest fascination is with the solar system.  He can now name all of the planets and a blurb about each one... we have taken many books about the planets out from the library recently.  The thing that makes me laugh every time is when he talks about Pluto.... "that's not really a planet anymore" then he laughs really hard.... not sure why that is so funny, but it makes me laugh too.

Our latest "theme" is using our 5 senses to learn about things as well as "solid or liquid".  Our new favorite library book is "Bartholomew and the Oobleck" by Dr. Seuss...... cool book!  It is a bit long for James, but Noah loves it so we read it often when James is napping or otherwise uninterested in reading.  Yesterday we made some Oobleck. Per usual, no one initially wanted to touch it, but with some coaxing they had a blast..... it made a huge mess, but was fairly easy to clean up;)  The neat thing about oobleck for those of you unfamiliar is that it is neither a solid nor a liquid (it is a non-Newtonian fluid for those fellow science nerds)... you appear to be able to pick it up, but then it just runs through you fingers.... you can stick you hand in it and it feels like water, but when you try to pull it back out it gets stuck. Anyhow, cool to explore with the kids. 

We took on making pizza after that and it turned out to be a really cool scientific experiment using the 5 senses with the different textures, tastes, smells, and colors.  The cheese was frozen, so that really threw them off a bit.  Trying to expand their descriptive words beyond "it smells like cheese" or "it looks like cheese" was probably the biggest learning accomplishment here;)  

James's Big Boy Bed

We have been floating the idea of a big boy bed to James for about the past 6 or 7 months.  He did it one night, but then he adamantly said "I sleep in crib". We had decided that after Christmas would be a good time to really try again, or we wouldn't get the chance to take it on until spring.  It was really hard for us to push him since we like having him confined to the crib as much as he likes sleeping in it, but we will need the crib again soon for Benjamin.  Sunday after nap time I again asked him (it was really a routine at this point) if he wanted to have a big boy bed and get rid of his crib and he said Yes!  I couldn't believe it at first, but he insisted, so we sprung into action.  I took him away to the store to buy some "special new sheets" while Gabe took down the crib and started the assembly of the bed. It took much longer than we would have liked to get it together, but it is done, James was thrilled and he has really taken charge of "being a big boy".  So far he has done well, except that he would prefer to sleep with Noah... everyone is a little grouchy and sleep deprived, but luckily Noah is a good sport to put up with it and they both are very excited to have two big boy beds in their room. Next... where will the crib fit... who knows, we still have a few months to figure that out... stay tuned;)  

Celebrating Christmas Up North

What a fun week!  Neither of us can remember the last time we were up north ("home") for this long (only 5 days, but still:)).  We left early Monday morning making the first stop at the Glidden home. Nanny, Grandpa, Aunt Amy, Uncle Dennis, Uncle Jon & Nicole, Uncle Andy & Aunt Kerrie Jo were all there with cousins- Trey, Becka, Tim & Maria.  We had a great brunch and opened some gifts.  The hit of the morning though was when Gabe thought he had won $10,000 in scratch tickets... poor Gabe- Amy had gotten some fake scratch tickets last year just for this purpose.  For the record though, Gabe's losing streak in the scratch tickets continues for another year... 

Monday evening we headed up to the Civiello home to stay for a few nights. We had a great ham and turkey dinner with Grammy, Grampy, Grammy Grammy Day, Grampy Grampy Day, Grammy Grammy Civiello, Uncle Dennis and Aunt Andrea. Noah and James really enjoyed playing in the special fire truck bed Grammy and Grampy got for James to try, but in the end Noah ended up getting the most use out of it:)  We had a relaxing Tuesday visiting with family, opening gifts and attending the Stearns girls basketball game to see Mikayla play!  Late morning we braved the frigid temperatures to try out the special present Grammy and Grampy got the boys.... a little snowmobile complete with helmets.  Noah was very excited and took to it right away, on the other hand, James decided that it was "too loud" and wanted nothing to do with it.  Wednesday morning was the complete opposite- it was beautiful outside, so much so that we didn't even need to wear coats... felt like spring.  Noah was a bit disappointed that he couldn't ride the snowmobile again, but was just as happy with a tractor ride.  The bottom picture is of James checking out the ice with daddy.

Wednesday afternoon we went back to the Glidden home where we spent two more nights.  The first night we had tacos (for my birthday) and ice cream cake.  The Pelkey's came to play cards and we laughed very hard... no accidents though;) Thursday we relaxed in the morning, went to the chinese buffet in Lincoln;)  and took the kids mini golfing in Millinocket in the evening.  That night after the kids went to bed Gabe took me out to dinner at a restaurant where we got to dine like celebrities... we had the whole place to ourselves the whole time... I am pretty sure people pay good money for that kind of experience;)  This morning we got up and headed back south for a, hopefully, low key weekend before we are back to reality next week!

Christmas Day- 2011

Christmas this year was very fun with the three boys.  Although we did miss seeing all of our families on Christmas day, it was nice being able to spend time with just the 5 of us.  Gabe didn't get called into work which was a huge blessing.  We spent the morning opening presents.  Well, Noah opened all of the presents and James played with them.  James was so funny because he could have cared less about opening the gifts, he just wanted to play with them after Noah opened them.  When Noah was James's age it took us 3 days to open gifts for this same reason.  Next year I am sure James will care more;)  They were both very excited about the car rampway and the "car with a remote", but the best gift came in their stockings from Santa- mini Cars flashlights... who knew.  They played explorers for most of the day.  The picture of them on Noah's bed didn't do the scene justice because they were actually in the dark, Noah was reading a book to James by flashlight.  At nap time Gabe and I took down all of the decorations, including the tree... it was a bit weird, but it was not something we wanted to leave for the week, then deal with when we got home.  Heading north in the morning!!

Christmas Eve in Mattamiscontis- 2011

Gabe worked on Christmas Eve this year (just days thankfully), the kids and I decided that we just couldn't miss out on another Smith Christmas, so we took a day trip to Mattamiscontis... With better planning it probably would have made more sense to make it an overnight visit, but oh well.  We had lots of fun visiting with everyone and eating sticky rolls.   We made it back home before bedtime, so we could leave Santa his "special cookies" from Noah and carrots.  I realized after the fact that Noah had peanut butter all over his face for this picture:)