Now I know where Campbell gets his pumpkin head

I couldn't help but see myself in some of the pictures that I've taken of Campbell lately. That poor baby and his round face. He couldn't help but get it from me.

Hot pink

Nolan's newest artistic phase is coloring. Not so much him coloring but he wants US to color and for him to watch. Tonight I was coloring with him in my lap and I said, "Will you find me a hot pink?" I don't think he knew what hot pink was so I helped him find one. As I'm coloring he asks, "Can I touch it?" I was a little confused at first on why he was touching the tip so carefully. He really thought it was HOT!

It's going to happen any day now...

Campbell is so close to crawling. He can get from point A to point B somehow. Usually it includes a big lunge forward and some belly scoots but hey it gets him where he wants to go. He's able to get up on all fours so our lives are about to be flipped upside down with no rest for the weary. When Nolan started crawling I lost a couple of pounds but after he started walking, I lost another 5 lbs! Maybe I should be rooting Campbell on more so I can shed these last 5 lbs!

Edible art

The boys' school is awesome about creating the cutest little artwork for me to keep and cherish. I have artwork with reindeer using their feet as antlers or bats using their hands as wings. I just love it. Well Nolan's newest masterpiece was this snowman made of marshmallows and pretzel sticks. He was so proud of his artwork that he wanted to hold it on the way home to admire it. He kept saying, "I made this mommy, isn't it beautiful?" Well take a look at what it looked like when we got home. There's nothing like a gluey marshmallow...yum!

It was bound to happen

"But I just..." Can I tell you how many times I hear that phrase daily from my 3 year old? Apparently, Justin tells me he invented that phrase as a child and his mom constantly got on to him to stop...I can see why! As a teacher, I'm a stickler for being disrespectful. The words "huh", "what?, or "yea" are not uttered in my classroom and I try to instill the same thing in my boys (well I will do the same with Campbell when he says something other than "dada" all the time). Sometimes, I wonder if my students have any sort of manners being taught at home with what I see at school.

Well lately Mr. Nolan has had quite the lip lately at school and been defiant. So now his teacher is probably saying the same thing about my kid that I'm saying about other people's children! One day I found out he was yelling at Mrs. Marla and had to go to timeout (rightfully so!) so now I check to see if he made good choices at school everyday. He knows that if he did, he gets a sticker and after 10 stickers he gets a prize i.e. watching a favorite show, getting to stay up 30 minutes later to play, etc.

He's always been brutally honest even if it incriminates himself but today he was on the playground and as I'm getting out of the car he's screaming, "I didn't yell at Mrs. Marla today or push Cayden!" I was pretty proud of him but a little embarrassed that he screamed it so loud across the parking lot. Well I stop by the office to talk with the director and come to find out, Nolan Case (as I refer to him when he's in trouble) has been in the office almost everyday this week because of his "No fits." Looks like someone has discovered that honesty is overrated. We definitely had a talk tonight and threatened to take away his puzzles which are is source of entertainment for hours. He does them over and over again each night. The director did comment how he's normally really well behaved and extremely smart (tell me about it...no really, tell me more!) She thinks that Nolan might be bored in class and starting to act out. Oh great, I can't wait to see what kindergarten has in store for us!

Go away bad dreams!

As you know, Nolan has at least 2 nights a week where he wakes up screaming as if someone is scalding him with hot water from his nightmares. It was at its worst after the big wreck that we barely missed last year. I understand the trauma in that one for sure but still don't understand why he's having nightmares still. I swear he lives in a bubble and the scariest thing he may watch on TV may be Mater from Cars. One morning after being weary eyed and groggy from a nightmare night, I mentioned how I'm at a loss about these nightmares to my mentor teacher at school, Beth. She had an awesome idea. She told me that she used to give her girls "bad dream spray" and every time her girls had bad dreams she would spray them away so that they wouldn't come back again. Her girls loved it and kept their bad dream repellent on their night stands. Hey, I'll give it a try. You know me...I need my sleep!

One night about a month ago, I tried it and it worked! Well last night, it was another nightmare night. He was hysterical and I was trying to calm him down. Through his tears, he tells me that he wants me to get the spray. Being that I'm half asleep and I only did it once and it was a month ago, I totally think he's talking in his sleep and making no sense. Then finally after he repeated it about four times, I remember the nightmare repellent. So I go to get the spray and hurry back. Picture this, it's 4:30 in the morning. I'm stumbling and I'm spraying water, ummm I mean the nightmare repellent in all four corners of the room. It seems to appease him and he goes back to sleep. Now I just need to teach him that he can spray this nightmare repellent himself.

So I come downstairs and Justin asks if he was ok. I slip back into bed but couldn't fall back asleep for awhile because I was feeling a little damp from the spray. I'm wondering when he's going to catch on that the nightmare repellent is the same stuff I put in his hair in the morning before I brush his hair.

Yee Haw!

I would call this another episode of Forced Family Fun but this wasn't forced...it was actually fun! We took the boys to the Fort Worth Stock Show. First I asked Nolan if he wanted to go to the Stock Show. Not knowing what it really is, he of course said no. Then when I really talked it up and told him that we would see horses, pigs, goats, he got his excited voice and told me, "and lions, too?" The morning of I was trying to get everyone up and moving and reminded him about going and he said, "I can't wait to see the monkeys!" So what if he thinks the Stock Show is the zoo.

He was dying to see the baby piglets and the ducklings and just went on a on about how much they were snuggling. And believe it or not (we hardly could), he actually rode rides...kinda scary ones too! It looks like our cautious scaredy cat is coming out of his shell! Campbell was a trooper. He's like me in that he loves to people watch and there were definitely a lot of people there to watch! We skipped nap time for Nolan but he crashed on the way home and didn't have any meltdowns the rest of the day. I told you it wasn't forced!