Sweet and Tough

Here we have sweet, smiley baby

Curious, strong

Animal lover

talkative baby

Here we have tough, rambunctious

tattoed

mother loving boy

We played with paint yesterday

They turned into football players, traveling football players (hence the suitcase/cooler)

they were tough

in a cute way

and then we bring you back to this sweet, mismatched bundle of cute

Ethan's imagination took a new leap yesterday. He's always playing make believe, but yesterday he started a story and followed it through. He grabbed his suitcase (see above) and his "coffee" and took an airplane to New York. Once there, he and daddy took a taxi, did some outdoor play, then took a plane back to Colorado Springs, well a different Colorado Springs, so they still had to stay at a hotel.
Almost every night Mike and Ethan have been watching a young football team practice over at the park, then they come home and do their practice. It's been great watching them bond over the sport. Ethan enjoys the tackling best, but is learning so much while playing.

Jumperoo!!

Warning: Milestone Alert!!!

 First of all, this little miss reached a big milestone today...

 ...she rolled over!! From her tummy to her back, only once but she did it! And she smiled afterwards, I think she knows she beat her brother on this one. (He didn't roll over till 4 1/2 months). So starts the sibling rivalry.

Second, this boy...

...can count to eight in Spanish! This past Thursday, on our way home from Grandma's (she had picked him up from school), I was asking him about his day. He told me they had lined up and were holding hands with a partner and the teacher counted their heads "like this, uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco." Later that evening I asked him which number he was; "siete; uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, sies, siete, ocho." I'm telling you, he's like a sponge! He usually comes home singing whatever song they learned in class, but he can't seem to remember the kids' names.
For the other parts of life, we're just trying to get into a schedule. Days off are pretty easy but the days I work and Ethan goes to school throw me off.

Dear Santa

Yesterday, my mom and I took the kids to Costco to pick up a few things (an adorable ladybug costume for Lucy, to be seen at a later date). While we were there we walked around the toy aisles. There were Legos, Transformers, tools, stuffed animals, and this:

an Erector set that builds...ROBOTS! Ethan was excited, but not to the point that I had to drag him away from it. He willingly walked away without so much as a fuss. Normally, if that happens, the toy is not too important to him and he forgets about it.
Later that afternoon, we were out playing with chalk and he drew this picture:

For those of you that can't interpret 3.5 year old sidewalk chalk drawings, this is a picture of Ethan and Daddy on a date, Daddy bought Ethan the robot legos (that's what he calls them) that he saw at Costco (specifically the one with the orange top), and Daddy is building them.
Later that evening, after taking Milo for a walk, Ethan bursts in the door telling me he needs to write a letter to Santa, so that Santa knows he wants the lego robots from Costco. He drew pictures of the robots and I wrote the words for him. This is what it says: "Dear Santa, I want Legos. The Legos that you put together to make robots. The Legos with the orange top."
So much for thinking he forgot.

"What If" Festival

What a great way to spend one of the last Saturday's of the summer. Downtown Colorado Springs had a "What If" Festival that focused on creativity, imagination and innovation. Even though all four of us have been suffering from the "funk," Lucy, Ethan and I went with Papa to the celebration.

All the letters spell out "INNOVATION," Ethan's in the 'O'

There were bubbles of all sizes, some came out of machines, some you made yourself

There was art that turned 3d when you put the glasses on

Amazing chalk art

A water balloon slingshot!

That's Ethan (with Papa's help) pulling it back. He hit the kids that were waiting to get splashed

and, certainly a highlight for my boy, ROBOTS!!

Ethan also got to make a fruit caterpillar (and eat it), dance to a live band, create his own coin, decorate a trick or treat bag, and watch someone creating a circuit board. Definitely worth getting out of the house for.

Preschool

 Today was special. Today was Ethan's first day of preschool. A day he has been looking forward to ever since wanting to become a "big boy". A day we left him in the care of someone else (not a family member) and didn't stay in the building.

 Today he sang songs, danced his wiggles out, played on the playground, ate snacks, made a hand print, watched a science experiment, made new friends, washed his hands by himself and played with toys.

 Today was his first day, he'll have lots more firsts in his life, but never another first day of preschool.

3 Months Old

At 3 months old, she is not the biggest fan of tummy time (even though she used to love it)

 She smiles and talks a lot, she loves smiling at her brother

She prefers to sleep in Mommy and Daddy's bed

but, she slept in her room for 6 hours straight last night!!