Gary Gets a Skuut!

Here's Gary with his Skuut from Uncle Rick. Isn't it the cutest little thing you ever saw? Rick says it's cute enough to hug. I first saw this little balance bike on "Sesame Street" when Grover went to the Netherlands on vacation. People there ride bikes as their main means of transportation, so children learn very early. This bike allows them to learn to balance and coast first, and then they transition to a regular bicycle. They never use training wheels. The little girl on "Sesame Street" looked like she was having so much fun riding across fields and coasting down hills. I really hope Gary enjoys his as much.

The neat thing is the first one Rick got had a small defect in one of the tires--it wouldn't hold air. Well, he wasn't asked to send it back. The company just sent a new one. Now all we have to do is fix the tire, and Will will have one, too! They're going to have so much fun!

The Easter Bunny Came!

Man, was the Easter Bunny generous this year! The boys got stuffed animals, puzzles, books, Bob the Builder machines, Thomas trains and lots and lots of candy. Gary had tons of fun making his little plastic eggs "hack" (hatch), and Will entertained himself for a long time trying to refill them. Of course, having a breakfast of chocolate and Peeps was the very best part of Easter. 

It was so much fun shopping for the stuff that went into their baskets and putting them together last night. It felt like Christmas all over 

again. 

We didn't have any company, so there were no big meals cooked. The day was low-key and low-stress. We just played and made a big mess of the living room and took naps and ate chocolate. Great day! Even though he took a nice nap, Will was so sleepy by 6:30 that just the mere mention of bed sent him running for the gate at the bottom of the stairs. He was practically begging to be put into his crib. Poor guy rubbed his eyes the whole time he was getting his diaper changed and his pj's on. Gary, who hadn't eaten a real meal all day, decided at 7:00 that he wanted some of Dada's cereal (Lucky Charms) and some strawberries. He stayed up a little longer tonight eating and watching one last episode of "Bob the Builder" before heading upstairs for story time. His current favorite library books are "Dinosaur Train" and "Get to Work Trucks!" His new words today are "bar", as in candy bar (go figure), and "stop". 

I wonder if they'll wake up tomorrow thinking they get to eat chocolate eggs and M&M's for breakfast again.

Oh Spring! Happy days are here again.

Wow! It's been a long time since I've posted. Happy St. Patrick's Day for another half hour. (It's almost midnight.) I forgot to wear green today, but nobody pinched me. 

Tomorrow is Gary's first day back at work since his injury back in December. He's had 3 1/2 months of being a stay-at-home-dad, and I think he's sick of it. I'm going to miss him, and I'm really going to miss getting to take a nap when the mood strikes, but I'm also looking forward to getting back into my routine with the boys. And it's SPRING! I'm so happy to be able to go outside again without layers and layers of clothes. Oh, and sandals! It's such a pain trying to hold two wiggly boys down long enough to put on sock and sneakers. Velcro sandals, here we come! And speaking of sandals, my 8 year old Birkenstocks desperately need to be retired this year. Now if only I could manage to scrounge up an extra $100 or so. 

Little Gary is now going to preschool two mornings a week from 9-12. Neither one of us is used to it yet. He started at the end of February, and he still cries every time I drop him off. Each time I drive away I question whether I'm doing the right thing. He has the next 13+ years to be in school, so I wonder why I'm putting him through this now. Is the chance to interact with other kids his age important enough to his development and happiness to warrant all of the crying and anxiety? I don't know. Learning to talk and express himself is slow-going, so I haven't really been able to get his take on it yet. We're going to complete this year, which ends in May, and then spend the summer thinking about attending next year.

Both boys are in speech therapy. Will has an unofficial diagnosis of Apraxia of Speech--unofficial because he's not yet two years old. He still will only occasionally say "Mama" and nothing else, even though he's 21 months old. You can look at his sweet little face and see that's he's trying so hard to get some words out, but he just ends up kind of yelling at you. It's sad. I'm trying to be patient and hopeful.

Gary is coming along nicely. He's adding words to his vocabulary every day. We have a list written on a large piece of art paper taped to a door in our living room. It's "Gary's List of New Words." Today's additions were moon, sun and walk. He's so cute. When he's trying to say something by just making guttural noises with the inflections of speech I tell him to "use his words." His eyes will brighten and he'll say, "List?", like those are the words I mean for him to use. This morning he said, "B-O-D, Bob (as in Bob the Builder)." I couldn't help but laugh.

OK, it's almost midnight. I should scoot off to bed. Must dry my hair first, or I will wake up with a rat's nest on my head and will scare my children.