Sounding Off

Kent has been making us aware of when he is upset with us. Sometimes it's loud and clear with a proclamation where he simply says that he is really mad at us. Sometimes it's not so obvious. During our snow week (pics will be posted of that, I promise!) we didn't go anywhere at all. On Friday, I was making my big break out of the house and couldn't find my purse. I looked everywhere for it. Now, I have been known to misplace my keys, but my entire purse? That hadn't ever happened. Kent heard me asking myself, "WHERE is it!?!?" and simply told me that it was under his bed. I was pretty confused and then he told me that he had gotten upset at me a few days earlier when I wouldn't let him watch a show and he had hid my purse under his bed. It had been there ever since. I should have put him in time out or at least given him a little lecture, but I busted out laughing. There was something about the calm way he was telling me what happened.

A few days later, he was upset with Pete. Kent wanted to go on the computer to play on some show internet site. You know, you see those horrible commercials at the end of shows on PBS, Disney, etc. that tell the kids to go online, "for even MORE fun". Well, Kent always wants to go online. Pete has allowed him 15 minutes every other day in hopes that it will not become a habit and he will forget about it. This has worked, by the way. This particular day, Kent had used up his 15 minutes and wanted more. Kent had gone off stomping away and I heard him get out his markers and guessed that he had decided to draw at the kitchen table. A few minutes later he ran off to his room to play. I walked into the kitchen to see the simple message, "Dody is mein" written out on a sheet of paper. That was all he wrote. No other drawings, no extra sheets of paper or markers strewn about. Kent had put all of that away and left his message out for us to see how mean Pete was. I promptly put it up on the fridge and waited until Pete noticed. We kept it up there for a while as a reminder of one of the first letters he has written to us, I mean Pete. My letters are always covered in hearts. ;) If we ask Kent about it now, he denies ever have writing it.

Writing and Drawing

I've been meaning to post some of the writing Kent has done so far in Kindergarten. I think I have written before that writing is not Kent's favorite thing to do, but he has been getting better. Once he started learning to read, it kinda clicked and although I still don't think he enjoys writing, he does enjoy trying to spell. Here is one of my very favorite things he brought home from the first half of the year. He made a monster and then had to write about it.

In case you can't read his writing, it says (I edited):

My monster has sharp hair.

My moster is happy.

My monster has a long nose.

I was pretty impressed with the spelling!

Kent still really enjoys drawing and markers are his favorite media. You can tell this by looking at my kitchen table. Have I told you that I hate markers? Pretty much detest them. Those are strong words from an art teacher, I know. Regardless of my feelings, Kent does not share them. Here is a photo of a portrait of Sunshine Bear done in marker. I think it is so adorable. He's pretty good with the details. 

Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas with lots of family. Pete's mom and step father came in from Maryland and his step brother came in from Los Angeles. We had a great time visiting with them and the boys loved their three seperate Christmas celebrations.

Our first stop was Pete's dad and step mother's house. The boys had a blast playing with all their cousins and trying to share all their presents. If you need a gift to get a child from the ages of 4-8ish a gift, I would suggest this Crayola Activity Center. It's a dry erase board with different templates that you can switch out and write, draw and play games on. All the kids loved it and it was definitely a hit. The markers even magically work when you find one that has had the lid off for hours. Thanks Aunt Monica!

Here's a group shot of everyone. Pete's dad, step mother Linda, sister Monica and her two boys Evan and Elijah and step sister Misty and her kids Cici and Chasen. You can see how much Chasen was enjoying the picture taking!

I told you Kent loved that Crayola thing. See how it had to be in every photo!

The next day we had Christmas morning at our house with Pete's mom Maria, stepdad Will and step brother Jonah. It seems we only took pictures during their stay on Christmas morning. The only good photos I have of everyone are pre coffee and no makeup. So, you will get to see more shots of the boys. Sorry everyone!

Here are our boys in front of our tree eagerly waited for for the go ahead to start opening stuff. Kent was about to go crazy! On a side note, Kent did not like the spiral things that I put all over the tree. He thought it looked messy. Pete thought it looked like a mechanical tree that broke with the springs popping out all over. I was going for whimsical...

Kent and Pete were super excited about all of the GI Joes that Kent received. I was not excited about all of the mini accessories that they come with. Pretty sure that they got mixed up with the wrapping paper during the big clean up. Oh well, real men don't need accessories, right? The snow that started falling Christmas morning was just beautiful. It was a wonderful reminder of the the real miracle of Christmas- Christ's birth. We had a wonderful, warm day full of family and blessings.

My parents and sister Barbara came over the Monday after Christmas after they came back from Illinois. Kent and Cohen were very excited to open their pillow pets. They had fun playing with them all day.

Merry Christmas!

Not Much Longer

This photo says so much. You can tell I took it quickly because it's such a horrible photo. Every mom has had moments like this. Something happens and you wonder if you have time to grab your camera to document it. I look at this picture now and think, poor Cohen! Why did your crazy mommy not get your down immediately? Why did she have to go get the camera? I will say that he wasn't crying and he has tried to climb into his crib like this at least three more times.

So, here's the story. Cohen was playing in his room and Kent and I were in the kitchen. I was just thinking that I hadn't heard from Cohen in a few minutes. There's a certain time period that you will allow to go by before your start to seek out your child because it has been too quiet for too long and nothing good can come of that. It was just about that time. Kent and I heard a noise. It wasn't a yell or a whine or even a cry, but we could tell that Cohen was not happy. We both ran back to see what Cohen could be so frustrated about and the picture shows what we found. Cohen was trying to get a stuffed animal out of his crib that was just beyond his reach. Now, you need to know that Cohen is pretty fearless. He is not scared of heights like Kent or myself and he definitely likes to do things all by himself. If his feet had not slipped through the slats of his crib and gotten stuck, I have no doubt that he would have made it into his crib. Kent and I busted out laughing when we saw Cohen stuck like this; it was just so unexpected. Cohen laughed too, which is why I ran for my camera. By the time I got back there was no more laughing. Cohen was not too pleased that I left or that I was now trying to make him smile for a picture. Definitely a crazy mommy moment. After one blurry photo, I came to my senses and rescued Cohen. He apparently was not too traumatized as he did this several other times that week. His poor feet got stuck like this every time.

We had already planned to put the boys together in the same room this year. This just gives us a good reason to get that plan rolling!