Graham settled in to his transition week this week, where all his Panda friends moved up to the Duck room. Then, starting next Tuesday, he will leave them from 9am - 1pm to go to the K room and then rejoin them for the afternoon. He even got a homework assignment. We got a blank posterboard and we have do decorate it to describe his personality, so that is gonna be fun! We are working on picking out pictures for it.
On Friday, we went to meet Ms Sabre for orientation / open house for the Kindergarten room. We took his backpack and folder to show her and got to check out the room. She had his name on all kinds of things and had the classroom all set up and ready to go. She had some forms for us and gave us the schedule. We had to sign a form for him to be able to check out books from the library too! We enjoyed the visit and he is very excited. It will be a small group, just three of them for that four hours, but she assures us it will be a great experience and they will get to do a lot of really neat things!
Graham also got his third stripe on his orange belt this week for his form. He is really enjoying moving in to the next level and getting very excited about getting to spar soon! We should be getting his equipment in very soon!
On Saturday, it was kind of overcast and breezy, so we decided not to take a chance on going to the lake. So, later in the day, we headed up to the Mill Mountain Zoo. We met up with Bobby, Tyler, Josephine and Vivienne there. We saw the animals, rode the train and played on the playground. It was a lot of fun. Then, we hiked up to the star and Graham really enjoyed looking for everything down below. Then, we headed to dinner (where Evan out-ate all the other kids.....). It was a fun evening and both boys crashed right after baths after we got home!!!
On Sunday, we headed to church and then out to IHOP for lunch. It was another nice day and Graham asked to go on a bike ride, so him and Dean went out through the neighborhood for a long ride. Hopefully, as the weather starts cooling off, we can do more riding! Graham's new tooth is starting to really work its way in, so that is neat. The tooth next too it is getting looser and looser, so we will see if it falls out before the other one is even in!
We were happy to be all back together and start a new week. Graham's class transitioned to the new pre-K class and he was excited that "all the girls he grew up with," were moving up to his class. Starting on the 30th, he will leave the room every day from 9 - 1pm and go to the K room, but this week, they will all be together. Since he has his orange belt, we had to transition to a new class schedule, so we found two nights to go and sure enough he got his first two orange stripes, so that was fun and exciting!
Evan is continuing to talk more and say more and more words, so that has been a lot of fun. He communicates very clearly and often with us, we just dont always quite follow him! He also continues to be an amazing little eater! He eats tons of foods that Graham would never eat and just eats and eats! Often after he finishes his food, he moves on to whatever is left on Graham's plate!!!!
We had a stay home day on Saturday and Dean worked outside and I worked inside and we tried to get caught up a bit. Evan took a nice long nap and Graham played quietly, so that was good. On Sunday,me and the boys headed out early and went to my parents. We visited there for a bit with them and Kenneth and Lillian and then we headed to Carol's for a playdate with Carol, Stacy and all the kids. All seven kids had a great time and it was lots of fun to catch. The kids played inside and outside and we took a break for cupcakes, which of course was a big hit! We got back to my parents house late that evening and so me and the boys had just decided to spend the night and get up and drive in to work / school early Monday morning. The boys were of course excited about spending the night with mawmaw and pawpaw and end was a fun end to the weekend!
We all survived our split up week. Graham had a blast at my parents house, lots of play time with Lillian and a couple adventures. He had all his favorite foods, some toys and lots of inside and outside play time. Dean and Evan faired pretty well also, other than Evan waking up during the night a couple times. On Thursday, my parents took Graham to Barnes and Noble for some train table fun and he picked out a book for him and Evan - on dinosaurs of course! Then, they picked Evan up and as soon as I landed I headed to the park for Graham's orange belt ceremony! I made it just in time and we were all happy to be together to see Graham get his orange belt. This time the ceremony was a potluck at a park, so that was different and fun! Graham was very very proud and we got the order form for his sparring equipment!
On Saturday, we did some fun visiting. First, we went to Brad and Kelly and Graham had fun of course playing with Grey and Reed and we got to visit some with Baby Zane. So, that was alot of fun. Then, we went and visited with Dean's parents for a little bit, so that rounded out a full day!
On Sunday, we headed to church, then home for a quick lunch and then off to the lake. There was hardly anyone around (as usual) and we had tons of fun in the pool and then at the beach. Dean and Graham went on a super long kayak ride and we called it a day and headed home with two sleepy boys!!
Evan continues to repeat and say more and more words. He jibber jabbers all the time, but more words are definitely coming out! And, he continues to be as busy as ever especially with the climbing!!!!! Graham's summer session at school is winding down and more and more of his friends are dropping out and heading off to the big schools. This is Graham's last week with the class he has been in before all the fall transitions start!
Evan continues to be such a busy little guy on the go go go! He plays hard, has a great appetite and will eat pretty much any and everything we offer him and then when it is bedtime, he crashes hard too! We have gotten in the nightly routine of bath, stories, prayers and then he goes right down in his crib and falls asleep (most nights!). Some nights Graham will come in and we will do prayers and stories all together and then he gives Evan some love and slips out, so that is cute! Evan is working on his two year molars big time, so he is drooling tons again and trying to chew (and bite) everything that he can!
Graham only had Taekwondo class one night as it was testing week and he had already tested. The ceremony to get his orange belt will be next week, so he is super excited about that and he knows very clearly that orange means he gets to start learning to spar! We got the order form to measure him for all his equipment! So, that will be exciting!
On Wednesday night, Dean was working late and Graham asked me if we could go somewhere to eat, so we decided on Chick-fil-A so that after dinner they could play in the playroom. Sure enough, after we just started eating, we heard someone yell Graham and we looked up and it was Tyler, Josephine and Vivienne. So, they joined us to eat and then the four kids had a super fun time playing. So, nothing like an impromptu play date for some mid-week fun!
On Saturday, the weather was overcast and rainy, so we stayed home and got caught up around the house and prepared for Dean's bday celebration on Sunday and getting me and Graham packed up for next week and I head to Minneapolis to work through Thursday and he heads to my parents for the week. I worked on cleaning up toys and going through the boys clothes, etc. It amazes me how much stuff they have already accumulated in less than five years!!!!!!!
On Sunday, both sets of parents and Kenneth and Lillian joined us to celebrate Dean's birthday with a Mexican fiesta. It was a ton of fun and we had lots of yummy food. Evan ate early and went down for a 2 hour nap while we were eating, so that worked out well. The kids played outside a little bit, but it was too hot to stay out there for long! We had a fun afternoon and then Graham loaded up and headed home with my parents. He was excited to go and looking forward to fun adventures and lots of play time with Lillian.
Evan and Dean will be on their own for the week until Graham and I get back. Hopefully they will have a quiet week and then we look forward to all reuniting on Thursday evening for Graham's orange belt ceremony!
We started out the week with a fun playdate on Monday night. Julie and Carson came over after dinner and the three boys played and played outside, first on the playset, then shooting some hoops and just running around the yard. They all had a good time and Evan tried his best to keep up with the big boys! We finally lowered the basketball goal for him so that he could have some luck getting the ball in, so that was lots of fun. Evan headed to bed and Graham and Carson had ice cream and played for awhile inside and then we finally called it a night for them!
Evan was 27 pounds and 2 ounces, 70th percentile, and about 33.5 inches long inches, 90th percentile (almost identical to Graham's 18 month stats!). He was a busy little bee hanging out and getting in to everything in the exam room and Doc Johnson finally commented - "and we thought Graham was busy!" That about sums it up! Everything checked out good and since he wasn’t running a fever and seemed to be acting fine, we went ahead with his hepatitis shot. She thought he was communicating with us enough and said we will probably have a full vocab explosion any time now. She said she wasn’t worried about the thumb sucking yet, so just let it be and said he also seems to be working on his 2 year molars since the rest of his teeth are firmly in. He is starting drool more and seems to be putting more and more in his mouth again! He screamed for a couple seconds for his shots and then we got stickers and decided to head back home. Both Dean and I worked from home and the boys ate lunch and then took long naps. No more signs of any throw up and they ate dinner and seemed fine, so back to school on Wednesday!
Graham and I went back to Taekwondo on Wednesday since he had to miss on Tuesday, since he stayed home and testing is soon. So, he had a really good lesson and really perfected his form and his one steps. He was very excited about testing for his orange belt soon. On Thursday, we all headed to Taekwondo and sure enough since Graham was in full uniform and was doing so well, Mr. Abbott told him to go ahead and test and he did very very well and we don’t have to go to the big testing ceremony this Wednesday night now, so that is good because we had not figured out what we were gonna do with Evan! The ceremony is supposed to be the following week and we need to get the official word, but it sounds like he is on his way to orange!
On Saturday, Graham and I headed out for some date fun, we went to the Touch a Truck event at a park in Salem. Graham was in heaven, over 100 different kinds of trucks and cars, garbage trucks, fire trucks, police cars, tow trucks, cement mixers and lots of construction equipment! He got in and out of truck after truck, pushing buttons and blowing the horns, tons of fun. We had lunch and ice cream and finally called it a day when we just couldn’t take the heat any longer, it was about 98 degrees! We ran some errands and headed home to check on Daddy and Evan who had a quiet and cool day at home! We managed to get some outside playtime in the yard later before bedtime after it cooled off some!
On Sunday after church, we went to Lowe's to get Dean a new weed eater for his birthday. Graham had suggested that we get him a lawnmower, but he was game to help pick out a weedeater, he suggested the red one, of course and sure enough that is the one Dean ended up with, haha! We went home for naps (well for Evan anyway) and then headed to Blacksburg for a picnic / pool party with Dean's work. It was going to be a late evening for us, but it was a big celebration for Dean's work and we wanted to get to go. There are lots of his coworkers with kids around the same ages as ours, so that was fun. We had a big meal and then headed in to the pool at the Blacksburg Country Club. There was a little slide in to the 3 feet water and of course Graham did that about a 100 times and loved it. Then, he had to go off the diving board a few times and down a twisty slide in to the deep end. The water was 11 feet deep and had no problem coming back up and making it to the ladder swimming. Then, we went back to the little slide some more and Evan finally decided he was following Graham up the ladder! And, he started sliding over and over! Finally at 9pm, we changed them in to their PJs and headed home! Evan fell right asleep and never woke up getting out of the car and going in to his crib. Graham was way too wired and stayed awake all the way home and it was 11pm when he finally got in bed and went to sleep! Both boys had a ball but were very very tired needless to say.
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