Take The Wheel

 

 

Aid announced during dinner today that he was ready to ditch the training wheels. So off they came. Grant has been practicing riding his bike on his own too but has not seemed to be able to get a hold of the whole steering process. Then today he just did.

I'm a teary eyed proud mama tonight.

Last Days

I can't believe Friday was Aid's last day of preschool for this year. It's already been a year. He has grown so much in a year.

At the start of the year he was in size 4 Toddler jeans. He was excited, but nervous. He hated to spell. He hated writing. He wanted nothing to do with any of it. He still ran up to kids on the playground and roared at them to indicate he wanted to play chase. He had one best friend (who isn't a relative and who moved away) and was nervous about who would play with him. He was obsessed with dinosaurs and one of the first questions he asked his teacher was whether or not they had any. They had a small collection, so we donated some....

This was him Friday.

He is now is size 5/6 (not Toddler!) wears "big kid" shoes, LOVES all things learning, still loves his dinosaurs, only starts growling once the game of chase has begun, has 2 best friends (Sam and Bradley) and is confident and happy.

We have decided to send Aiden to one more year of preschool. I won't go into all of the reasons now. If you know, then we wanted you to know. But it's the right decision. Not necessarily the easiest. He and his best friend Bradley have the exact same birthday so Aid continues to question if he is also turning 5 why he isn't going to Kindergarten. I have resorted to saying "you have to trust that I am making the best decisions I can make for you." No other answer is adequate. He will go to the same school. They granted us an insanely generous scholarship and he loves it there.  I have seen so much growth. And they very obviously care for him and he feels safe and cared for and that's really all I can ask for.

I love you Aid. And I am so unbelievably proud of you. You are a sweet, funny, kind hearted, stubborn, quirky little kid. And I love every last inch of you. I will always do what I think is best for you. Always.

Aid's Girlfriend

Aid is in love. And it's serious. He is friends with this adorably shy and equally quirky little girl named Cora. She is very artistic and he is transformed in her presence (minus the booger eating).  Joram is Bob's best friend from college. He came up here (again) to help us finish this beast of a play set. Before their arrival, Aid demanded that we had to make her a necklace. So we used the beads we had gotten for a few other people awaiting necklaces, and made her one. She was so happy when he gave it to her. As she walked by him to check out the play room, he sighed and whispered, "mom, I love Cora."

Oh dear.

He gives her first pick. With everything. Let's her take a turn first. Goes through his toys/books to find some trinket to give to her. And basically follows her around like a little puppy dog. It's beyond adorable and I turn into the mom with her camera trailing along behind them making comments about the wedding slide show I am going to make for them some day embarrassing them to death.

Grant, for the record, is a great little brother tag along. Aid is extra nice to him  in front of Cora and he knows exactly the right time to take a nap and give them some alone time!

Grant's Rough Day

It started this morning when we went to the gym. We were enjoying a picnic watching the bulldozers when I realized I left my water bottle on the bench. Grant was NOT in agreement that we would quickly retrieve it and ran away from me, tripped over the sidewalk crack, and skidded across the pavement. His nose and knee were seriously scraped up.

After dinner we decided to head to the library since it seemed inevitable that it was going to storm. We had a great time until it was time to go. Grant loves to scan the books and gets very excited when it's time to do so. He ran around the corner to the check out station and collided with a nice gentleman holding a stack of movies. SMACK. The corner of the movies hit right under his eye and his nose scratch from his previous incident reopened and began bleeding again. To add insult to injury the lovely librarian kept insisting that he could "hold" her little stuffed dinosaur until he felt better. I kept declining the offer and tried to explain that Grant thought she was giving him some sort of peace offering and that we really were fine.  She insisted. He got to hold the beloved dinosaur for exactly 30 seconds until he had to give it back. Heartbreak....they eye those dinosaurs on that computer every single time we go. So close this time....

We left the library a bit more banged up then when we entered it....and I thought we were pretty banged up this time. 

I don't know if the photo does it justice, and I didn't get one of his skinned knee (in two different spots), but trust me when I say today he got a bloody nose, skinned knees, a black eye, and a whole lot of disappointment.

Happy Mother's Day

This could not make me happier.

Strategic Moves

The Set up:

Aid's not so obvious plan of attack....line them all up perfectly straight. Now THAT will throw off your opponent.

Grant's Inventive Move:

Hate to break it to you honey, but you may want to think outside the box or your younger brother is going to pummel you.

Love,
Mom

The nail on the Head

We love the Children's Museum. Love it. We go at least once a week in the winter and recently revisited it on a rainy day. They have a Lego exhibit. Now, we could care less about Legos. Neither of my children seem to get into them and our lonely little Lego table sits in the dungeon (er, basement) gathering dust.

But what we DO care about is dragons. And castles. And capes. And swords.

"We" also love the $12 dragons in the gift shop. Sigh.