Randomness

After the previous post and the tough stuff the kids have been through lately, maybe some smiles would do us good. So.... time to spread a little cheer and talk about some fun things we've been up to .....

What better to make a person smile than cupcakes? I mean, 72 tiny cupcakes individually iced and decorated in bright colors and sprinkles....what could be better?! This is what I took to Will's school to celebrate his birthday. The kids LOVED them

Notice Will sits with all Girls...apparently he talks too much with the boys . I can't imagine that :)

As for this past weekend, we went to a Family Retreat at church. It was so much fun! They had a giant slip n slide that Will slid down over and over and over and over....



Will and his friend Braden completely drenched in soapy suds



That's Will with the red hair...he got his hair painted at a festival for school that morning.



Wyatt, however, did not like the slip n slide so much...

He preferred to stay here....                       And here.....

He would stand at the top of the big slide, take a giant jump and say "wheeeee".

And here he is jumping with lots of girls (he is hidden behind the girl in the yellow shirt). I heard a very loud squeally scream coming from this jump house....it was Wyatt, not the girls screaming.

So Weston, what do you think about this whole deal?....

We came back from the Family Retreat with a fresh new start to the week and yesterday, Will celebrated a Butterfly Launch at school. As a school, they have watched 500 caterpillar larvae grow into Monarch Butterflies. Wednesday was the celebration to let them all fly away and begin their migration to Mexico. Yes, Will can tell you all about it! They had lots of songs and performances from each class. The students even painted this great artwork "A Butterfly's Life"

The Kindergartners all stood together to sing a few songs....

Will was so excited for this day and he would practice his songs all the time!

When they let the butterflies go, it was pretty cool!

It was nearly impossible to catch on camera though....

Anyway, the kids loved it and it was a great learning experience for them.

Sweet Oscar

Our sweet Oscar passed away last night. He had a neurological disorder that may have resulted from an injury to his spine where he was losing function in his legs. This had been going on since the spring and although it was getting worse each day, he could still run and play with a slight limp. Last night he completely lost all function in all 4 of his legs, could not stand up or even hold his head up. Trent took him to the emergency vet clinic where he then had to make the extremely hard decision to let him pass away peacefully or try to prolong his life with medication and surgery. The vet said he would probably not make it through the night on his own, and even with medication and surgery, the outlook was very "grim". She said with his age and the severity of the condition, we did the best thing.

Yesterday afternoon we were playing in the backyard and the boys wanted to give Oscar and Grizzly a doggie treat. Oscar didn't jump up and run to the treat box like normal, he just laid in the grass. When Will brought the bone to him, Oscar tried to get up, yelped really loudly and fell flat on his nose. He couldn't put any weight on any of his legs and couldn't hold his head up very well either. I took the boys inside and Trent took Oscar to the vet. While we were inside I was trying to act like everything was okay and distract the boys with cartoons and toys. About an hour later I noticed that Will was still holding the bone for Oscar. I asked him about it and he said, "Since Oscar couldn't eat his bone, I wanted to save it for him in case he wants it when he comes back." He kept holding the bone and when we ate supper, he put the bone on the table right beside his plate. I asked him to move it to the counter but we could still give it to Oscar later. It was bedtime before Trent got back and we told the boys that Oscar was gone. We told them that the doctors tried really hard but Oscar died and went up to Heaven. Wyatt was sad and asking questions, but he was okay. Will was very, very upset. He said, "Why did he have to die?....I just loved him so much.....who will I play ball with?....oh mom, now he'll never get to eat his bone." I told him we could bury the bone in the backyard and that way it can go to Heaven so Oscar can eat it. Both boys really liked this idea and Will said, "Katie (my parent's dog that passed away about a year ago) really loves bone's too mom, I think we should bury 2 so she can have one too."

Will about 9 months old

Trent and I got Oscar when he was a year old right after we got married. He has been here for the boys' whole lives.
He sure gave us lots of problems with his digging and chewing and escaping fences, but he gave us lots of sweet times too. His absolute favorite thing to do was chase a ball. Trent spent alot of time with him throwing the ball and teaching him to do things. Oscar was a very quick learner and a great retriever. He loved to play with the boys too, no matter what they were doing. He was always right there with them.

Oscar was a sweet, lovable, goofy dog that we will miss terribly.

Bye Bye Sweet Oscar. We hope you get your bone in Heaven and get to play lots of ball.

We love you!

4 Months ....for now

Weston Jack turned 4 months old on Monday. Yes, 4 months old....that means he can start eating cereal and vegetables and start rolling over and before I know it, he'll be crawling and talking and then starting kindergarten. Okay... deep breath... the time is going so quickly! I wish he would stay in this happy baby stage for a little while longer. Everyone says, "I can't wait until they start doing this or that....", well, I say -I've been there before and it doesn't get any easier! Sure, some things get better like the nursing every 3 hours and changing diapers constantly and carrying him everywhere, but as they grow you are introduced to a whole new kind of busy!
The journey of parenting is ever changing and a constant challenge. I guess that's what makes it interesting!

Back to the present...Weston is officially 4 months old.
He weighs 15lbs and is 25 inches long. This puts him in the 60th percentile on both stats. He is still VERY happy. I really think he is the happiest baby ever. He hardly ever fusses just to fuss. He is either hungry, tired or has a poopy diaper when he cries, and once that is fixed, back to happy...seriously!

This month he has really started using his hands. He likes to grab his foo-foo, pull it out of his mouth and then try really hard to get it back in. In fact, he is doing this exact thing right now on the floor beside me. He can't get it back in yet, but he doesn't fuss about it, nope, he just keeps trying. He also loves to grab toys and examine them. He's not really playing yet, but he is sure interested in giving them a good look over. He LOVES, LOVES, LOVES to cuddle with a blanket or his bear. He cuddles them in his arms and rubs his face. So sweet!
(update on him playing in the floor beside me...In the few minutes it took me to type this out, he tried to get his foo-foo back in but couldn't, didn't fuss about it, cuddled his little bear and went to sleep. How easy is that?!)


Anyway, he has also found that his feet make a pretty interesting play toy.

Notice the "John Black look" - yeah, he gets that from Trent!

I'm pretty happy that he can stay occupied with his feet and a few toys right now, because next week we are leaving for Disney World!  Hopefully he won't get too bored riding around in his stroller all the time! Will and Wyatt are SOOO excited!!I can't wait to go and I'll be sure to take lots of pictures!

2-Wheelin'

Yesterday we asked Will if he wanted to take his training wheels off and try to ride his bike. He said, "YES...Yay!!" We were at Memur and Pepaw's house and they have a nice long, grassy, gradual hill that would be perfect for practicing his 2-wheel skills. He was SOOOO excited but asking lots of questions at the same time. Will tends to blurt out whatever is on his mind at the time, so questions that some people would have but not voice, are always voiced with Will! He was so excited and asking, "what if I fall? Will it hurt? What if I can't get back up again? What happens when I need to stop? What should I do when I go too fast?".....and on and on and on. He asked about 50 questions in a 2 minute time span. Anyway, he jumped on, Trent pushed him around 1 lap and then let go. He never fell down! He kept going and going. He did great! When he started to lean too much, he put his feet down to catch himself. He can start on his own and stop on his own. He even got going really fast down the hill, took both feet off the pedals said, "wheee" , caught himself again and kept going!
He did a great job and is an official 2-wheeler now!

I speak Wyatt

Yes it's true. I am completely fluent in "Wyatt". You've never heard of this language before? Well, it's spoken around our house all the time and I seem to be the only one (besides Wyatt himself) that understands. He has such a deep voice and combine that with the strong "Wyatt" accent, it gets difficult to understand sometimes. When Wyatt talks to grown-ups at church, school, grocery stores, etc, this is what happens. The grown-up will lean down, ask him a question, say "oh, uh huh" and pretend to understand everything, then they'll look up at me with this "I have no idea what this child is saying, please help" look and I'll translate his response to the more common "English" language. It's a system that works fairly well for now. Hopefully soon, his ESL classes will start to show some results. Oh well, at least I'll have a bilingual preschooler - that's pretty cool right?! In the meantime, here is a short cheat sheet for some of the cuter things he says.

Hop-cycle course - translates to: obstacle course

Example quote from yesterday: "My built a hop-cycle course with balls today mommy"

Ottoman- translates to: Almond

Example: "My really really want some ottomans mommy"

Buttons - translates to top portion of female anatomy

Example quote from last week: "My want big buttons too mommy. And my want milk in them." Don't worry, I talked to him about that one.

He is really very sweet with his comments and is constantly coming over with a big hug and saying, "My like you mommy".

Nannie was giving him an "Eskimo kiss" the other day and he asked, "why that called Eskimo kiss?" He then answered his own question and said, "is that how Eskimos love?" So sweet!

He loves to sing, especially at the piano but he WILL NOT sing if you ask him to or if anyone is looking. Here is an example:
He was singing "Jesus Loves Me" at the piano. I got my camera out very discretely and started filming him. He sees me, stops what he is doing and then refuses to sing anymore. In fact, a couple of days later, he sat down at the piano and said to himself, "I really want to sing Jesus Loves Me but mommy will take my picture." I told him I wouldn't, but he didn't actually start singing until I put the camera up in a cabinet and promised I wouldn't even listen to him. Whew... he's a stubborn little stinker!