Our family is happily back under one roof after our crazy week! I had a busy week in Minneapolis complete with snow and ice. Graham had a great week at my parents house, lots of fun with outside and inside, art time, stories, playing with Lillian and a couple outings. Mama and Graham went to the mall and Barnes and Noble to round out the week and then Dean met up with them there on Friday evening after work and they headed to Rachel's to get their hair cut and headed home to meet me and Evan.

Dean and Evan got along pretty good, they seem to be in a groove for bedtimes, so I am not messing with that and we have just switched things up and I will get Graham ready for bed and let Dean and Evan continue in their groove. Dean and Evan went to swim lessons on Thursday, he screamed again......

On Saturday, we headed to swim lessons and even though Evan is still screaming, his instructor showed me how he can float on his back and he has quit fighting her and is just relaxing his body and giving in. So, that is encouraging and very similar to how it worked with Graham. Graham on the other hand, is swimming like crazy. He still needs to work on his strokes some but he is no fear and works hard during his lessons, he is really tired when he gets out of the pool.

We hung around the house the rest of the day and Graham enjoyed playing with his new "little legos" that I brought him and just being back at home! On Sunday, we headed back to church as a family so that was nice. Unfortunately, it was a cold gloomy weekend, so we didnt get any outside time. Hopefully, this is the last cold spell!!!!

Evan is still going through his clingy mommy phase when I am around and is waking more frequently at nights, just lots of changes and new milestones going on with him. Graham is looking forward to going back to school and says that he misses his friends.

We have another crazy this week as I have another trip out of town on Tuesday and Wednesday, so hopefully Dean and the boys will get through that pretty easy. Then, on Friday, both boys are going to my parents for the weekend and I am going away with the girls for the weekend and Dean will be home alone! Then, HOPEFULLY, things will settle down a bit for us!!!!!!!

Dean and the boys got along okay while I was in Houston, for the most part......Evan was a little fussy and hard to get to bed to continue with this new stage he is going through. He hasn't really settled in to a new bedtime routine so every night is a little bit different in terms of how he falls asleep. I got home late Tuesday night just in time for him to wake back up! So, I was up with him for a bit and then Graham decided to wake up, so not much sleep for me and feeling very congested and jet lagged, so Evan and I stayed home on Wednesday and we got some rest.

On Thursday, I picked up both boys and we headed to Evan's swim lesson. Graham and I had a picnic dinner in the play area during Evan's lesson. He screamed about like he did the first lesson, but everyone just reminded us to hang in there. Hopefully, he will gradually start to settle down.

Friday evening we got some outside time on the playset and in the yard, now that it is finally warming up some and the evenings have more daylight, so that was a lot of fun. After dinner, Graham and I had to get him all packed up for his week away. He gets his over-packing honest from his mommy and wants to take everything under the sun with him when he travels!

First on Saturday, we headed to Dean's parents and met up with Michelle and Graham headed off with her for the weekend. Michelle had a lot of activities planned for them and off they went. First, they went to the mall and burned through some quarters on all the riding toys and had some pizza. Then, they went to a big playground that had lots of neat and different things and Adam had played there when was a little boy. Then, they went back to her house and Adam met up with them and they played outside and inside and had a big time. He conked out with some of Adam's old toys! He was up bright and early Sunday morning and then colored and played around the house and then went to McDonalds for lunch.

My dad met them at McDonalds to pick him up and took him back to their house for the week while I am in Minneapolis. I fly out EARLY Monday morning and get back late Thursday night. Hopefully Dean and Evan will get along okay and Graham will most definitely have a big time at mama and daddy's with them as well as Lillian, who will be there most of the week. He is quite the little traveler!

On Saturday evening after we got back home, Katie from church, came over to sit for Evan and we went out to the Annual JDRF Denin and Diamonds fundraiser, so that was a lot of fun. It was first time using an official babysitter and we thought with only one boy that would be a good trial run. He screamed when we left of course, but she got him settled down and they played and ate dinner and she even got him to sleep over an hour before we got home, so that was a success!

SO, hope all goes this week as we are all spread out and look forward already to being back together!!!!!

Evan had a good transition to his new class. We had a couple clingy crying dropoffs but for the most part, he was happy to check out all the new toys and settle in with his other mobile buddies and his walking has really improved, so being in that room probably helped it some. The teachers seem really good and that will hold us over until the big move to First Baptist at the beginning of June! We also accidently found his top two molars had broken through and were well on their way to coming in. We had no idea!!! The antibiotics did the trick on his little finger infection, the redness, and swelling went down and he was good as new, so that was good! We never had to pop the raised place, it just went down on its own.

On Saturday, we headed to swim lessons and for the first time - Evan was going to have a lesson as well. Graham was very excited for him and even tried to show him what he would be doing (floating on his back, putting his hands behind his head and looking for the sky, very awesome that he remembers the difference between that and what he does now). Evan of course started crying when he went to the instructor, since he is already in the clingy mommy mode and cried through the whole lesson. She didnt take him under this time, was trying to get acquainted with him and she did comment on how strong he was when she tried to flip on his back and he did not want to go! It was not quite 15 minutes and then he was all done and we got him dressed and took him to the lollipop bowl and he figured that out fast! The staff was all pleased with how well I did versus when Graham started! But, then watching Graham in his lesson, swimming the length of the pool on his front and his back and kicking with a kick board only the whole pool over and over, I know Evan will get there too! (just hope he doesn't scream and cry as long as Graham did!!!!) We got lunch at Panera and then Evan conked out on the way home!

Evan continues to just full blown walk and even run all over the place. He will still drop and crawl from time to time, but he is defitnitely a walker now. On Monday, he is going to transition to the next room at Honeytree. It will be the last room that he is in there before moving over to First Baptist in about 3 more months. He had transitioned to sleeping on a cot for nap right when he turned one and since he dropped his formula and switched to milk, he has fallen in to the schedule for that next room, which is also very similar to the schedule at First Baptist. The room he is moving out of is a mixed room of half cribs and half cots, bottle drinkers and cup drinkers, some walkers, some not, so this new room will be a good fit for him and he will be with all full blown toddlers now! We are still very excited for him to get to move over!!!!

Graham got a progress report from his teachers this week. He got lots of good scores and they bragged on how much he likes to explore and learn new things. Things he needs to work are the things that were no surprise, sharing, waiting his turn, the kind of things he typically gets in trouble for! There were several work assignments that they shared of his writing skills, etc, so that was neat to see. They definitely think he is ready for the kindergarten program there in the fall, so that is good!

We had a jam packed weekend. Dean and Graham headed to swim lessons on saturday, Graham is really energized about his swimming, so we can't wait to get to the lake this summer! They came back home and got me and Evan and we headed to the YMCA for Josephine's 4th bday party. It had been awhile since we had been to a party, so it was fun to hang out with the "gang." There was lots of bouncing and playing in the gym and then of course pizza and cupcakes! Evan enjoyed getting to walk around the gym, so that was neat. We left there and headed home and then my parents came to stay with us. They watched the boys while we went to the Addys awards program with Dean's work. It was a fun date night out and the boys were very good and went right to bed for mama and daddy.

On Sunday, the boys and I stayed home to spend some time with my parents and Dean went on the church. Mama made us chicken and dumplings for lunch and then they headed home. And, then Evan and I headed to the doctor! His middle finger on his left hand had started getting red and puffy sometime on Saturday evening and when he woke up from nap on Sunday, it clearly looked to be infected. Thank goodness our doctor office has weekend hours, I called and the nurse told me to come right on. We got there in 20 minutes and within 10 minutes we were walking back out the door with a script for augmentin! Sure enough, he as a little staph infection in there. A place had came to the surface on the side of his finger that has some puss in it and she tried to pop it, but it wasn't quite ready. So, 10 days of meds, twice a day and wash it and soak it a couple times a day with antibac soap and then keep an eye on it. Headed to Walgreens and got the meds in less than 10 minutes and were back home in just over an hour. That has to be a record! He doesn't seem like it is hurting or bothering him except when the doc was mashing and pressing on it. Hopefully, in a couple days, it will be all cleared up!

It was a rainy cold weekend, so we didnt get outside at all, still really yearning for warmer days and lots of outside time!