End of the Three's

So, a few weeks ago Evan had his last day of preschool for the year.  I can't believe that Evan has already finished two years of preschool and is done with the three's class.  He had a great year and learned a lot.  He loved his teachers Miss Karen and Miss Kathy.  He still started every day by running in and touching the RUMC sign on the way in.  He met some great buddies, and it was so much fun to watch them run around outside after preschool was over.

Evan's worked on all the skills a little three year old should work on like sitting still and listening, sharing, writing his name, finger painting, cutting and gluing, feeding a fish, and many more.  Now, he's a big four year old, and next year he will go to school four mornings a week.  How can my little man be so big?

 (First day of school-September 2010)

 

 (First day of school-September 2011)

Ladies Man

Since summer has arrived we've been spending a lot of time at the neighborhood pool.  The boys absolutely love it.  They love splashing in the shallow end on the steps and gradually venturing deeper into the water.  The other day, both boys wanted to head over to the 8 ft. deep end and hang out.  Ben loved jumping off the edge into the water, and Evan even swam with his float across the deep end.  I needed a break and wanted to head back to the shallow end while Evan wanted to stay in the deep end sitting by the ladder. 

I walked back over to the shallow end with Ben, but Evan stayed sitting near the deep end on the ladder with the floatie around his middle.  After a few minutes, I look over and I couldn't see Evan.  Not because he'd gotten in the water or anything like that, because he was SURROUNDED by teenagers, mostly girls in their pretty bathing suits.  It was hilarious to watch Evan just holding court over there.  I knew he'd never met a stranger, but this was a bit much.  If he's this much of a ladies man now, I am scared to see him as a teenager!

(I didn't want to disturb the party too much by taking a picture, but if you look closely you can see Evan's little blue floatie in the middle of the collection of teenage beauties.)

A Train Ride to Raleigh

As I was writing before I was interrupted by a "THUD", my parents spent a wonderful week here.  While they were here we decided to go on the ultimate adventure and take the Amtrak train over to Raleigh to check out the NC Museum of Natural Sciences.  The boys were SOOOO excited about riding the train with their grandparents.  Evan wanted to take his favorite stuffed dragon in his backpack, so we grabbed the backpack and off we went.

The boys were giddy as we arrived at the train station and waited for the train.  Evan would go up to everyone he saw and tell them that he was going on the train.  Ben just wanted to run out onto the train tracks.  Finally, we heard the whistle off in the distance and up pulled the train.  We hopped on board and found some seats.  Evan spent the entire half an hour journey from Durham to Raleigh staring out the window.  Ben was a little twitchy, but he had a good time.

When we arrived, we hopped off the train and walked over to the museum.  Once we got there we had a fantastic time taking in all the the museum had to offer.  We went to a talk where we could pet animals (but we weren't quite brave enough to pet any except the bunny), we wandered over to the brand new wing and ate lunch, we watched a 3D dinosaur movie but it was a bit too real for Evan to leave his glasses on, and we wandered around the exhibits.

Finally, it was getting a bit late and we still had a bit of time to kill before our train ride home.  The adults and kids were all exhausted.  However, about that moment we found the "discovery room" at the museum where the adults could sit down and the kids could wander around and explore anything they wanted.  It was just what we needed.

After we were a bit refreshed we headed back to the train station.  Everyone had a great ride home, except for me because I was stewing over the fact that we had a preschool picnic to go to and the train was about an hour late.  It was a great day, and everyone had a wonderful adventure.  The grandparents were still standing, but don't worry because they still had a few days left in their visit.

(Everyone is excited waiting on the platform.)

(Wow, we're actually on a train!)

(Grandma and I sit with twitchy.)

(The boys study an exhibit with their grandparents.)

(What are they looking at?)

(These boys make these look good!)

(See what I mean!)

(A dino in the discovery room)

(Ben finds a bear to cuddle.)

Thud!

My computer was in my lap, I was pulling pictures off of the computer and opening up blogger.  I was all set to write about another phenomenal adventure with my parents while they were visiting.  However, I was interrupted by something.

Evan had gone to sleep about 2 hours ago, and we always turn on their monitors while we're downstairs in the evening.  Suddenly, I hear a THUD and a cry from Evan's room.  Then, all was silent again. 

No worries...I've heard this before.  We recently took the little rail off the side of his bed in preparation for getting him a big bed for his birthday.  So, occasionally, he'll roll out of bed in the middle of the night.  The interesting thing, however, is that he never wakes up. 

So, tonight, I headed upstairs, opened his door, picked my sleeping boy up off the floor, set him back in bed, and tucked him in.  He never even stirred.  I don't know why, but there's something so sweet about it all.  I love picking my big boy up and tucking him in when he's fast asleep.  He's getting so big, there aren't many opportunities I have to cuddle and take care of him.  I'll definitely take what I can get...I love that kid! 

However, when we put him in the big boy bed on his birthday...we'll definitely put his old mattress on the floor next to it!

(Don't worry...I'll tell you all about our adventures with Grandma and Grandpa next time.)

Outdoor Adventures with Grandma and Grandpa

We were so excited!  Last week, we were lucky enough to have Grandma and Grandpa fly in from Texas to visit.  It was so great to see them and have them here for so long.  The boys are still talking about their Grandma and Grandpa and we can't wait until they come back for another visit.  Now, Grandma and Grandpa are game for pretty much anything, so while they were here we had quite the adventures.  (I think we might have worn them out a bit, HA!)

The first few days they were here we headed outdoors checking out several great parks.  Ben loved checking out a little park in Chapel Hill and having Grandma and Grandpa all to themselves on Wednesday morning while Evan was at preschool.  Grandma and Ben enjoyed playing "Pooh sticks" on the bridge where they drop a stick and watch it flow through the water, and Ben just enjoyed walking around with Grandpa.

The next day, we headed out to one of our favorite places, Eno River State Park.  We hiked around seeing all manner of interesting sites.  The boys found rocks (always Ben's favorite), sticks, plants with interesting flowers and leaves,   bugs, squirrels, butterflies, turtles, and even a few snakes.  Of course, Rip came too to join in on all the fun and had a great time running into the river to fetch sticks.  Evan and Grandpa did some great rock climbing near a little waterfall in the river, and everyone did some wading in Fews Ford shallow area at the end of our hike.  We finished it all with a great picnic lunch and headed back home.  The boys, Evan especially, just come alive when we head out into nature, so we all had a fantastic time!

Stay tuned for more tales about how we exhausted Grandma and Grandpa! :)

(Ben and Grandpa enjoy a little walk at the park.)

(Evan the climber)

(Grandma and a wet poodle-Hey, why aren't you throwing sticks for me anymore?)

(A little nature exploring)

(A little tree climbing)

(I wonder what they found this time?)

(So much fun!)

(Evan and Grandpa in the wild rapids)

(Ben and Grandma stay a little closer to shore.)

The Stats of a Two Year Old

Our little two year old widget had his two year well check up at the doctor today.  Of course, he is the picture of toddler health.  He could do all of those items on the developmental checklist that they handed us, especially the jumping-we've been working on that at gymnastics.  We had practiced our appointment with our new doctor's kit so he did great when Dr. Pickens started looking in his ears, mouth, eyes, and listening to his heart.  He wasn't too fond of his one vaccination, but the promise of a sticker quickly made everything better. 

They measured his height and weight, which is of course, the part that I'm always most anxious about with these little Davis boys.  However, he was nicely following a growth curve and even made the percentile charts in weight, which I was a bit surprised about (I promise, he does eat!)  Here are the numbers:

Height: 32 and 1/2 inches (10th percentile)

Weight: 22 pounds, 15 ounces (3rd percentile)

Head Circumference: 90th percentile (This was up a bit from last year...couldn't let big brother show us up! Big brains!)

So, Dr. Pickens said he was a perfectly healthy little boy, which we already knew.  So, we went out to lunch to celebrate--and he ate part of a plastic fork.  Sigh. 

 (Two years ago)

 (One year ago)

(Our little two year old now!)

Slip and Slide

The weather is warming up, so it's time to bring out the bathing suits!  While I haven't been brave enough to head out to the pool, which I imagine is still a bit chilly, I couldn't let the boys miss out of some summer fun.  So, I headed to Target and picked up one of my favorites when I was a kid-a slip and slide!

Evan was so excited.  We invited his friend Nathaniel over and headed outside.  Everyone got in their bathing suits and headed outside.  I got everything set up and twisted the hose onto the end of the slide.  Then, I made the mistake of not uncoiling the rubber on the slip and slide that had gotten twisted when I screwed on the hose.  When I turned on the water, I watched the rubber fill up and burst within seconds.  I looked at the excited boys surrounding the slip and slide and knew I had to do something to fix this, and fast.

So, as my quick-thinking friend Danielle (Nathaniel's mom) suggested, I got out the duck tape and Saran Wrap and fixed the tear as fast as I could.  I managed to get the slip and slide mostly repaired so it was able to be used that day. 

They absolutely had a ball.  While none of them could figure out how to actually slip and slide down it, they had a great time splashing around, throwing balls, and sticking their heads in the water fountains.

Since that day, I have gotten a new, fully-functional slip and slide and set it up properly, and it is still just as big of a hit.  When we got out the slide this week, Evan actually figured out how to slide down it a little bit, so I'm sure Ben's not far behind.  Evan only manages to get about halfway down the slide and hasn't quite managed to go down on his stomach, but everytime he would hit the ground hard on a slide, he would look at us and say, "I'm okay!"  So, I'm sure he will keep trying until he's able to get down the whole slide.   Evan's been talking about getting the slip and slide back out ever since!

 (slipping and sliding)

(a well-deserved break after playing hard)