in celebration of boys...

Michelle, happy birthday to your little (or not so little) guy! If only we could stop the clocks for a short time. Yeah, there's been a crazy shake up at the school. It's a Catholic school, and the economy has has a MAJOR impact on enrollment... Needless to say, fave teacher is gone, but my son's old KG teacher is teaching 2nd grade next year, so I'm HOPING he gets her! The worst news, though, is that since KG teacher is moving to 2nd grade, they are having no 1/2 day KG...so my baby is going to school full days next year. I've been soo sad about this, although in my mind I know it will be a good thing...but yeesh! No little ones at home with me during the day. First time in 7 years! Soooo, I will be going back to school in the fall. Going to get my degree in Early Childhood Development. That way, when the preschool teacher retires, I can hire in at the kids school. WIN WIN! :evilgrin:

Happy Birthday to your son!! :p My son will be 2 on Monday and we're having his party tomorrow :) Nothing so fancy as a lego shaped cake though I'm afraid. :arrow: I was just remarking to my mom yesterday that my son has a really awsome birthday. Many years it will end up falling on a three day weekend!

Congratulations on heading back to school! So sorry about all the upheaval at your sons' school. I can imagine the stress :(

Happy Birthday M!!!!*hands tissues to Mom*love, my degree is early childhood special education. I love working with little kids! I've taught Pre-K and K and I've worked in a special ed preschool and even in Early Childhood Intervention. Good for you! :)They may be moving all K to a different school this next year, which mean I'll have 2 kids in 2 different schools. :( So not ready for that!

Thank you all! I get to do this again in 3 weeks but I have to figure out how to do spidermans head as a birthday cake....yikes. Little man will be the big 5 :hissy: . I am right there with you Love....the house will be so quiet this fall with both boys in school. I have to say I really was against all day kindergarten when my oldest started but his school really did a great job keeping them busy and they did have quiet time where sometimes they could take a nap if they wanted. It is a long day but my son loved it from the very first day. Congrats on going back to school Love. Sounds like an exciting opportunity for you. Bajj how frustrating :grr: that will be to have your boys in two different schools. jalapeno....Happy Birthday to your son!!!:banana:

Michelle, my boys' birthdays are 3 weeks apart, also. This year I'm going to do one huge party rather than two smaller ones. Poor little man (age 4) doesn't get much of one because Mommy's too tired after going all out for the older one's. So this year I will pick a date between their birthdates and we will have a huge cookout, or go to an indoor inflatable party place or something.

Ani, that's what we do...we have a combined party for both kids...Of course, it was born out of necessity since my kids bdays are 3 weeks and 1 week before Christmas, and we have to fit in the holidays, a family party, and parties with their firstfamilies as well...Michelle, I felt the same way about KG - I was very adamant that my kids would not go all day...in fact, I still feel the same way about it because they are just little guys...But like my mom said, both the boys have late birthdays so they are the oldest in their class, and had they been born just days earlier, they would have gone to SCHOOL a year earlier.But with JD...well...I guess he's been babied for so long that we still treat him as such, and I acknowledge my part in that.But I'm excited for school (I start tomorrow - YIKES), he's excited to eat lunch in the lunchroom, and AJ is excited that he'll be able to play on the playground with his little brother.And my DH is excited that he'll be able to get some quiet during the day since he works midnights and trying to sleep with two loud, boisterous kids is next to impossible.(And Michelle, my oldest is 7 1/2 and he has also made the move from superhero's to legos. Well, he still loves a hero, but I can see him slowly turning into a big boy. *sniff* )ETA: I have no idea why there's a house in my title line...I must have hit something - haha

Love my dh used to work the same shift. That was so hard not only for him but for us. I understand how quiet is very important. So have you started school? Can't wait to hear how it is going. I planned a very busy summer for the boys with summer camp this next week and then 3 weeks of swim lessons and then another week of summer camp. Thank heavens for my inlaws....my mom is in the hospital and I flew out a few days ago and am now with my mom but I so miss my kiddos....and dh. Little M keeps asking when I will be home from Kansas. I gave big M the responsibility of taking care of the garden. He has taken it very seriously. He gives me updates each time I talk to him. What a good kid/teenager he is becoming. Man I love my boys!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How is everyone's summer going? I am still here in Kansas.....mom has had many surgeries and more to come. The boys have been with me the last two weeks and it has been fun. We have visited grandma and spent a few nights in the hotel since grandma was transferred to Kansas City. We have also gone to the zoo and water park to help break up the time we spend at the hosital. I am so amazed at how good they are with grandma when we visit. I make sure they pack their backpacks with books, paper crayons and of course legos to play with while I talk to mom. I certainly hope you all are having a great summer. I don't wish to have to go through this kind of summer again. Happy summer you all! School is around the corner for some of us. Michelle

It's HOT in AZ. So we're mostly stuck inside lately. But we're having a good summer anyway. The boys are both around 2 years old now so there are so many more activities that are feasible as compared to last summer. My DD will start preschool in August and I'm looking forward to having some grand adventures with just my boys! Both my boys are TALK-TALK-TALKING like crazy lately! Oh they're so much fun :) Michelle - I'm so sorry about your mom. I'm keeping you and your family in my prayers!

I loved when the boys started to talk....but they never stopped.....lol! Enjoy every moment with them. It is so much fun to hear them start to talk and you can have a conversation with them. It is the best! I have learned lately to live for the moment. Appreciated every moment and day. Man do I love my boys!!!!!!! Thank you for your prayers. Mom is not doing well. Her next surgery is next Tuesday. She had surgery today and wasn't good. You guys have a great weekend!

Okay....I was reading through the posts feeling nostalgic. Maybe its because my youngest is about to start kindergarten, maybe because my mom is still very ill, maybe because I am still at a cross road as to what I will do once the boys are in school. Guess I miss all the posts and chat from you all and the fun it was to read how all your boys were doing almost daily...good and bad. Fun to know that my boys were doing the same exact thing that yours were doing...or not doing...lol. Hope you all are having a great summer. School starts Wednesday so have been preparing uniforms and school supplies to be ready. Sincerely,Michelle

Well I'm still here and checking in. :) I'm so very sorry to hear your mother is still ill Michelle. I can imagine how stressful and draining that must be. I get the sense that you are particularly close to her. My father was very ill for many years before he passed away. He and I were very close as well. I will continue to send my prayers for your family and your mom. I know most of the parents on this thread have boys older than mine. So I suppose you've all been through this craziness. But my boys are just nuts lately. One turned 2 in May and the other will turn 2 next month. They're constantly jumping off the highest surface they can manage to climb to. My older son seems to have a bit of sense - he looks where he's jumping and does it cautiously the first couple of times. My younger son . . . not so much. Half the time he doesn't even seem to be paying attention. Certainly he doesn't put him arms out to catch himself should he happen to miss. It's like there are only two possible outcomes - success or death. Ugh. I don't LET them do this stuff of course. But it turns out I can only be in two places at once and I have three kids :arrow:. The thing is I make a real effort to get them time every day to jump and climb in a safe area. They have gym class and we go to all sorts of play areas and parks. So anyway, we're doing lots of time-outs lately! On the other end of things, I'm so very proud of my older son lately. He's talking up a storm. I wouldn't consider his speech delayed but he tends to be sort of last minute in hitting milestones. Up until a few months ago he really only made a handful of sounds (although each sound clearly meant a number of specific words). Even though he's still pretty garbled, he's getting quite a bit clearer in his speech. And he's picking up vocabulary like crazy! And talking a LOT more often in phrases and sentences. He's just so adorable. :love: Another thing that really gets to me is that my boys now seem to miss each other when they're not together. I try to mix it up a lot with my three kids - sending one or two kids to grandma's or with their dad on an errand. So they aren't ALWAYS together. So they get a chance to have one on one time with adults and get a chance to play with each of their siblings separately. Both boys have long since been crazy about their sister. But now they also want to know where each other is all the time. And they want to SHOW each other things. Amazing and adorable.

jalapeno.....Thank you! My youngest son we have recently started to call our stunt man he will jump, run,or hop. While visiting my parents home this summer he would jump about 5 steps from the bottom of their staircase. My nieces daughter who is 2 visited while we were there and he taught her how to jump from the steps. Her mom(my neice) had this huge gasp while her dh said...You Go Girl!! I had a great laugh about that. What kids will teach others. Many of us have been there but still love to hear the stories of you young ones.....lol Michelle

Sorry I don't check in often, Michelle. How are the boys doing?We're homeschooling this year so we stay pretty busy. Also, little man (little J) has severe scoliosis and we're making a ton of trips to Shriner's hospital with that (it's a 2 hour drive).I do have an iPod with internet, but do not have a smart phone where I can stay checked in. I'll try to do better and update more often.Big J and little J both just finished soccer and are now into basketball. I'm anxious to see how my little man does this year. Last year was his first season and he just kind of stood there not knowing what to do. He'll do better this year, I believe. He did the same in soccer and now is the top scoring kid on his team. Of course, he looks like Goliath when he's out there with kids his age. He just turned 6 in Sept and he's already 52.5 inches tall. He's long and thin, like always.Big J is doing great. He's enjoying basketball and so far hasn't broken a finger. Last year he had to sit out the first of the season with a broken finger. That was not fun for him (or me).My boys are ages 9 and 6 now. I can't believe how fast they grow up!