In Which the Boys Acquire Carnivorous Plants

 We made a quick trip to the Botanical Gardens yesterday, and Mattie was very excited about getting to see a Venus flytrap.  And then, when we arrived, it turns out they were selling them in the garden store!  So, Mike let each boy pick one out.  :)   I wonder if they like mosquitoes?

Hula

 Our neighbors had a wonderful party last night (complete with hula hoops!  and cake!)  The only bad part?  It was a going away party for our dear friends who are moving away to new adventures.  (At least they're around for a few more weeks!)

Springtime Boys

Just a few pictures from today.  :)

We had James's IEP meeting on Monday to plan for next year -- and it's basically the same as this year.  He'll have the hearing and educational specialists come to the classroom and work with him, mainly on playing and having conversations with other kids, as well as speaking up when his hearing aids aren't working or when he doesn't hear/understand something.  (It was a bit amusing that he had achieved the goal of "protesting when wronged."  You go, James!) 

I think half the battle is that the classroom is noisy and so I don't think he always hears the other kids well, so we're trying to come up with some strategies to improve that.  (One thing will probably be to explain the hearing aids to the other kids at the start of the year, and let them know that they need to be facing James for him to hear them better, and so on.) 

On the Mend

After a miserable Friday night, we took Mattie back to the doctor on Saturday morning.  He had ear infections in both ears, poor kid.  (The one silver lining is that the doc put him on oral antibiotics, which means he doesn't need to do any more eye drops.) It appears the antibiotics have started working -- he's much more chipper today. (And our souvenir shot glasses have gained new life as medicine cups.  The grandparents will be pleased to know that Mattie likes the Florida and South Dakota ones.)

Touch a Truck

  The boys enjoyed Touch a Truck last weekend.  (The adults would have enjoyed it more if some of the semi trucks had not allowed every single kid to honk the horn repeatedly!)  They were excited about the bouncy house this year, and like last year, the flatbed pickup truck that they could climb up and slide down was a big hit.  They also spent a lot of time in the back of the Harris Teeter semi truck and the scooper of the backhoe.  :)

Poor Mattie has had a fever since Wednesday (occasionally controlled by medicine), and it looks like James is now getting whatever it is, too.  Ugh!  (We took Mattie to the doctor because he also had some yellow goop around his eyes; the doc didn't think it was pinkeye, but prescribed eye drops just in case.  As you can imagine, Mattie does not like them!  James commented this morning, "I had ear drops and now it's Matthew's turn."  I hadn't thought of it quite that way!)

Way Better than My School

Today Mattie (and Jamesie) were playing Dog School.  (Mattie was a beagle and James was Clifford.) Mattie informed me that at Dog School, they were learning to jump in patterns.  Then, Mattie won a car (a pillow) at Dog School, and then another car, so he had two convertibles.  They also had a Trap Door Festival, and later a go-cart race.  Pretty exciting school day!  :)

Happy birthday, Grandpa B!!

[Photos from 4/5.]

Yellow Menace

The boys made a valiant, yet futile, effort to get rid of some of the pollen on the cars and driveway today.  :)

Another Day in the 3s

Yes, it was another Parent of the Day day at preschool.  :)  The 3s have gotten a little more rambunctious since last time I was there (or at least a couple of them have!  Not Mattie and James; they save their rambuctiousness for home.)

The painting below is Mattie's. It doesn't look like much, but it was fun to watch him talk through it, sort of to me and sort of to himself. ("Is orange a spring color?  This is an orange footprint for fall.  This is a green forest.  It goes all the way up to the sky  It's a haunted forest.  It has a sign that says haunted.  It's okay in the daytime, but at night the LEAVES MOVE!")  Lots of imagination going on there!

James impressed me with his math skills again yesterday.  He said, "What's 9 plus 4?" (as you can see, this is one of his favorite topics of conversation these days, along with "what time is it?") and I said, "Do you know?"  He thought about it for a second, and said, "10, 11, 12, 13.  It's 13."  So, he started at nine and counted 4 more in his head, without using his fingers.  Wow! I don't think the average 3 year old is doing that.

Putting It All Together

 Yesterday, Jamesie said to me, "What's 5 plus 2?"  I said, "You know what that is."  He said, "You say it."  Just as I held up my fingers for him to count, he said, "Starts with S."  Okay then!  :)

Mattie's art is looking more like actual things these days -- he showed me his painting which included an apple tree and a path with puddles, and they looked pretty good! 

Zoo

We made our first trip to the NC Zoo this afternoon (along with, apparently, about half the population of North Carolina).  At least getting our zoo membership online in advance allowed us to skip an enormous line just to get in the gates. :)

The boys had a great time, although they enjoyed climbing on the animal sculptures more than seeing the actual animals!  (In fairness, Jamesie did report that his favorite things was seeing the giraffes and zebras.)  They especially loved the ostrich eggs that they could climb and jump on. 

The zoo seems to be great for the animals since they have a lot of space, but that means plenty of walking for the visitors.  We were glad to have the wagon with us. 

(For the last photo, Jamesie said, "I want to drive the anteater!")