A new way to Kindermusik

It’s been a long time since we’ve had a baby in a Kindermusik class. We thought long and hard about how we were going to handle the classes this year and even contemplated quitting altogether. Our original plan was to do a family class with Zander and Ben and send Nick along to an Orff music class at the same time right next door. Unfortunately, the teacher quit and a new one couldn’t be found in time. So, we began looking at our other options including taking Nick out of the class and having everyone in the family class together. When our longtime Kindermusik teacher emailed me because we hadn’t signed up I explained my dilemma and she offered another solution --- send Nick and Zander to a preschool/kindergarten Kindermusik class on their own and take Ben to a baby class at the same time. The older boys were totally on board, even though I was a little hesitant to break up our family time, and we decided to move forward with that arrangement.

The first few classes with Ben were a little less than exciting. He was still pretty little and really didn’t get into the activities all that much. He is the youngest in the class, but now that he is sitting up he is having fun and even able to participate a little more. I’m definitely glad we decided to enroll this year and I’m absolutely loving the extra bonding time with Ben (though I’m having some guilt that Zander never had the same one-on-one experience). We will just have to wait and see what happens next semester. Hopefully they will have the Orff class up and running and we can start our life of having three kids in three different activities all at the same time --- the upside is that for now they are all still in the same building.

Ball time before class starts. This is a lot more fun now that he is sitting up and interacting.

Baby exercises. Ben is one of the few that will actually do these, mostly because he’s too little to run away!

Eating the bells is more fun than shaking them. Thankfully Tricia puts everything in the slobber bucket when we are done.

Time to dance. This is Mike’s favorite part (because he gets to toss Ben around).

Playing with the scarf.

The older kids string the noodles on the scarf. Ben just watches us build a tower and then knocks it over.

The older boys are in a sparse room next door with only three other little girls and Miss Cassie. It’s such a different environment, but they love Miss Cassie (an aspiring opera singer – she’s auditioning in New York in December) and the class.

This is their good-bye song. They wave, shake hands and hug. This little girl is Nick’s age, but Zander’s size. She had to prove her strength by picking him up . I thought it was adorable. Zander, not so much.

Aunt Jamie

My parents are on vacation this week and Jamie is staying at our Mema and Papa’s house. We offered to give them, and her, (and me), a little break today by bringing her to our house for dinner. It was great. She kept Nick busy so Zander could play by himself. Ben chilled in the swing or on the floor and I was able to get a couple of things done around the house. I think we need to have Aunt Jamie over more often.

Super baby

Sometimes Ben thinks he’s Superbaby.

Then he realizes just how hard all that flying and saving people can be.

And it makes him tired.

So, he goes back to just being my cute little baby --- who’s quite super in is own special way.

Happy Halloween!

Our Halloween fun started early this year with a party at Nick’s school. The younger kids paraded through the hallways and into the gym in their costumes and then headed back to their classrooms for a little Halloween party (afternoon snack). I have pictures, but don’t want to post since some of Nick’s school friends are in them. Nick got to leave school with us so we gathered up the other boys and headed home for a quick dinner before heading out in the neighborhood. I once again tried to get a picture of my boys in their costumes and once again failed at getting everyone to look at me and smile. Hey, a mother can dream right?

First, Nick tried to put Ben in the pumpkin. Speaking of pumpkins … there are the pumpkins we carved this weekend. Cute, eh?

 

Then Zander gave me his strong man pose.

Then they tried really hard to give me one good picture so we could get a move on with the real reason for the night.

We never got it, but I did make Mike take this picture.

And then we were off. The boys did a great job of saying “Trick-or-Treat” and only had to be reminded to say “Thank you” at about every fifth house.

The boys gave us the play-by-play of everything they got at each house. I think that is what Zander is doing here, but it looks like he is doing something else entirely. I cracked up when I saw this on the computer.

We saw our backyard neighbor. She is in Nick’s grade at school but is Zander’s size.

Zander made it through to the exact furthest point from our house before deciding he was ready to call it quits. His biggest complaint was that his bucket was too heavy. I carried it for him for awhile and I can’t say I blame the kid. Mike thought we could sneak through a backyard and get home quickly, but a mean looking dog told us otherwise. Instead, Mike gave him a ride for the rest of the night. 

Ben snuggled up in the Moby and fell asleep just a few houses in. He’s getting so big now though that it is hard to keep his head from flopping when he is asleep.

At home the boys quickly sorted through their loot.

Because of Nick’s allergy we have to be extra careful on nights like this. He is really good about it though. He dumps his candy out and sorts it into three piles: Yes, No and Maybe.

Mike or I have to check all the maybes to see if they are actually safe or not.

Zander decided he wanted to help pass out candy to the approximately three kids who came to our door. He looked so cute sitting there waiting for someone to knock.

And then they went to bed. And we scared the crap out of Nick. I’d show you the video but someone might call protective services on us and that would be bad. The quick synopsis: boys are sounding all cute playing with their new flashlights so we go to tape them. The door was shut and Mike opens it just enough to stick the Flip in the crack. Nick sees the floating red light and screams in terror. I laugh. Yeah, I’m that mom. And you can hear me on the camera. Mike laughs, too. You can’t hear him, but you see the camera shake. That’s him. Laughing. Hopefully it won’t end up costing us thousands in therapy bills.

Totally safe

Nick thinks because he is as big as some 10 year olds he can act like one, too. Lately, he has taken to moving Ben around wherever he so chooses. It looks a little something like this:

I’m sure it is totally safe, right? Right? And then Ben looks at me and asks me to save him.

Gooey fun

Mother Nature smiled down on us again today. After a cold start to the day the sun came out and we were able to carve our pumpkins outside. I still can’t believe it’s October and we are outside in sweatshirts! Anyway, the kids are usually super excited to carve their pumpkins … for about the first 10 minutes. They will help pull the pumpkin guts out for a little bit then bail, leaving us to finish up the task. This year was only marginally better. This is about as close as Zander got to helping.

Mostly though, he just watched.

Nick was simultaneously grossed out

and amused by the goo coming from inside the pumpkin. He took special pleasure in scooping and flinging the stringy pumpkin guts across our driveway.

This guy is still too little to be much of a help. So, he just sat around being his usual cute self. Until it was time to eat. Then, he was my excuse to go inside. It might have been sunny and unseasonably warm, but the insides of those pumpkins were still cold! I was happy to have an excuse to warm my hands up!

However, that means I didn’t get a picture of the final masterpieces. This was the first year we used the carving sets instead of just free-handing it. We stuck to the easy designs and they didn’t turn out too bad. Maybe next year we will get a little more adventurous.

He’s back

Mike spent the last week in San Jose. Thankfully, his time away always goes by quickly. Between work and school there just aren’t many hours left in the day. But, that doesn’t mean the boys don’t miss him and we aren’t all ready for him to come home! Looking at Nick though you’d think Mike’s plane had been delayed several hours. Really, we’d been waiting about 10 minutes. This kid is bored all. the. time. Unfortunately, that’s karma coming back to bite me in the butt.

This guy was just happy as a clam, even though it should have been time for a bottle. I only hope he stays this mellow when he gets bigger.

It will help offset the crazy that is this child.

Yeah! Dad’s home!