Wheaton Regional Park

Today was a beautiful day outside so we decided to head to Wheaton Regional Park. They have a miniature train, a carousel, and a huge playground. It was so much fun and both boys were in a great mood and had a fabulous time! Kyle loved the miniature train, of course, and so did Max. Max almost always has some part of him constantly in motion (usually his feet), but this train ride seemed to calm him - he was absolutely mesmerized! Kyle wasn't too sure about the carousel for some reason, but he and I took a ride, while Daddy and Max watched - Max loved watching this one too! The playground had lots of fun slides and climbing structures as well. We followed our trip to the park with lunch at McDonald's. There was a two story McDonald's nearby that we had never been to before. Kyle was very excited and of course we sat on the second floor. It was a really great family day!

Sleeping baby

I was never brave enough to go into Kyle's room when he was a baby while he was sleeping to take a picture because I was afraid I'd wake him. But, lately Max has been taking long naps and I decided after he'd been asleep for quite some time that I wanted to wake him up so he'd still go to bed at a decent hour. So, I took my camera with me, turned on the light, and took a whole series of cute pictures of him sleeping. He was out cold!!! He didn't wake up until I finally took him out of his crib.

Trains, Trains, Trains

Here are some pictures I found of some of the many and varied tracks that Kyle has set up over the past year. Most of his tracks are built with assistance, however he always makes his own modifications in order to fit with whatever storyline he is creating at the time. His passion for trains is still as strong as ever. Not a day goes by that we don't set up at least one track and the stories he reenacts and creates are quite elaborate. I don't know of many 3 year olds who as a part of their everyday play vocabulary say things like "he went crashing into the ravine" and "he applied the brakes but couldn't stop." :)

Big Day

Today Max is 10 months old. To celebrate he decided to do a couple of things he's never done before. First, he fed himself cheerios and fruit puffs. I've been giving him these with lunch and dinner for the past month now. Usually he just plays with them and occasionally lets me put one or two in his mouth. Today he decided that he would put them in his mouth himself and actually try to chew them. It's like he figured out "oh you actually eat these things and they taste pretty good!" He still doesn't quite have the hang of keeping them in his mouth. They often come out on his tongue or drool out the side of his mouth while he's trying to chew, but he's making progress. He even tries to push them back in if they fall out. Second, he said two new sounds today /n/ and /m/. This resulted in lots of babbling of "nana" and my personal favorite "mama."

First Day of Preschool

Today was Kyle's first day of preschool and he did great! When we arrived he walked right in and hung up his bag on his hook. He remembered exactly where to go from Open House. The assistant teacher directed him to the tables where there was playdough waiting. He was quite excited and got right to work. He didn't even say goodbye to me when I told him I was leaving because he was so engrossed in the playdough - they had lots of cool tools to use. Actually I just went to the room next door to meet other parents, have a snack, and ask any questions I had. It was only an hour the first day. I didn't realize parents were invited/expected to stay so I wasn't exactly prepared, but thankfully Max did well waiting with me. He was amused most of the time by a plastic cup and paper plate. It was kind of nice because I got to peek in every once in a while and he was perfectly fine - listening nicely to the story, participating in singing, playing with toys. It was so cute to watch! On the way out we visited the school playground since there wasn't time to play outside today. They'll go outside every day (weather permitting) and on days they can't they have an indoor place for them to play with balls, wagons, etc. for more active play. He was very happy to see me when I picked him up. He didn't even realize I had been there the whole hour. I asked him where I was while he was at preschool and he said "at home with Max." He told me all about his day and seems excited to go back, so it was a very successful first day! Hopefully when he's there for a full 3 hours he'll do just as well.

Preschool Open House

Tonight we went to Kyle's preschool Open House. He got to meet his teacher, Mrs. Tuel. She seems really nice. He got to decorate a paper apple with stickers and markers and play with a "cool racetrack" and some trains. He actually remembered (from our tour back in February) that they had Peter Sam and Fred the orange coal car and began looking for them immediately when we arrived. It was quite crowded since it was open house for all the classes, but thankfully Kyle didn't seem overwhelmed. He actually cried on the way home saying that he wanted to stay at preschool all day. Hopefully that's a good sign that the transition will be a smooth one. His first day is Thursday and he'll only go for one hour to ease into the experience. I'll post again then with details on how it goes!

Labor Day

Today we got a visit from Grandma Luster (Jason's Mom). Both boys were happy to see her. She treated us to a yummy lunch at Mi Rancho and then we went to Target and Best Buy. Unfortunately last week we had a mishap with our camera and it was broken. So we purchased a new camera (we have to have a camera to take pictures of Kyle's first day of preschool on Thursday) and Grandma Luster got Kyle "Talking Knapford Station" which he was quite excited about! She got to sit in the rarely used third row of our van and Max entertained her with his smiles and babbling. It was a nice relaxing day and nice to have Jason at home.