Last Day as a Three-Year-Old

Today turned into a big celebration of doing everything for the last time as a three-year-old for Jacob. Even though his birthday is Thursday, we wanted Wednesday to be super special and turn his birthday into a big, special time for him this year.

We all got up and rushed out the door to enjoy free Chik-Fil-A breakfast. Every Wednesday they give one free entree per person in the dining room, so we headed in to enjoy it together as a family. Jacob and Joshua ate a great breakfast, and we were thrilled to head to the park afterwards. But, then a teenage driver hit our car in the parking lot. It took a while, but we were eventually on our way to the park! We finally had a break in the extreme heat, so it was a beautiful morning for the kids to run around.

 Joshua cracked me up with how determined he was to put all of this into the tunnel.

 Jacob loved this slide!

 After the park, we headed home and had some lunch. Joshua took a nap right away, but Jacob stayed up for a little while to play. He took a short nap, and Joshua slept for almost three hours! Definitely the longest nap he has ever had!

A trip to the library was next on the agenda. Joshua cracked me up because he took a book with a fire truck on the front and carried it over to another mom and said "wee wee." I forgot to put on here that he has started calling anything with a siren a "wee wee." What is so funny about that is that Jacob did the same thing all the way up until he was almost three years old. I love that they both say the same random things sometimes! And, it's hilarious to hear Joshua say "wee wee" at every police car, fire truck, ambulance and siren! We checked out lots of train books for the birthday boy, and then headed back to the house to drop off Joshua and Daddy so Jacob and I could enjoy a date night.

We went to Jacob's favorite restaurant, Moe's, and enjoyed sitting at dinner without hurrying along or sharing time with anyone else. Jacob asked me to sit at a table since Joshua wasn't with us (we normally sit at a booth with him on the end), and asked to sit on the same side. I just loved hearing everything he had to say and what he was thinking throughout the whole dinner. It was just so special to get this time with him where we weren't in a hurry to get home or to do anything but spend time together. We had just taken a few bites when out of nowhere he reached over and gave me a huge hug. Melted my heart.

Every time I got up to get a refill or to get him something or to throw something away, Jacob came right with me and hugged onto my leg. He was just soaking up this alone time so much. We make sure we take each of the boys on their own sometimes, but Jacob was looking forward to this so much that it was just so special for us to have this night together. I asked him during dinner what his favorite part of the day was, and he said, "sitting here eating dinner with you, just me and you time." He is so sweet! He got to try my diet cherry coke for the first time, but he also just enjoyed trying both cherry and raspberry lemonade. We talked about some of the things he loves to do with his brother - dance, and chase each other and play dark out (they turn all the lights off and use their flashlights only and hide in a room or closet, and Jacob calls it dark out or darkness, so funny!). We talked about how he misses his friends at school, and that he can't wait to get the fire truck for his birthday. We talked the entire dinner about everything and nothing special at the same time, and I wouldn't have it any other way! He makes me laugh, that's for sure.

 My grandma had sent Jacob some birthday money, so we headed to Toys R Us so Jacob could pick out any toy he wanted with the money. He was so funny on the way into the store because he said his belly was so full from dinner! First he picked a train that would go with his Thomas trains, but finally settled on more freight cars for his GeoTrax collection.

 After paying, Jacob received his birthday balloon and crown from Toys R Us. The lady didn't tie the balloon on tight enough, so as soon as we stepped outside it was off into the air, with Jacob holding onto the weight still so tightly. He was upset, but I took him back inside and we got a brand new balloon. Happy once more, I asked Jacob if he wanted to head to the bookstore or home. He picked the bookstore!

I love that our special place together is Barnes and Noble. He headed straight for the train table, and then I read him an adorable book, "Demolition." Then, he headed to the Titanic section, and we went through a 60 page book on the Titanic. The book took about half an hour, and Jacob loved every minute of it! So did I! I loved not having to tell him to hold on while I chased Joshua or that I couldn't go through that book because it was too long while Joshua was with us. He ended up picking out three step into reading books - Twisters, Bolt, and a Transformers one he didn't have already. He has always been fascinated with tornadoes, so they were great picks!

Since we are members of their kids' club, I printed off the coupon for Jacob to get a free cupcake. There were two in the case, and Jacob automatically said "one for me, and one for Joshua!" Since it was free, I said that was sweet, but only got the one, haha. Jacob was stuffed from dinner still, so he gets to eat his cupcake in the morning on his birthday. Normally I'm busy baking cupcakes, but thankfully, Barnes and Noble saved the day this year.

 I loved hearing Jacob say he had such a wonderful time, and that he loved just "special me and you time" together. I just adore this kid, and can't believe this was his last day as a three-year-old. I'm glad we really did it big for today because he really understood this year what a big deal his birthday is to all of us. We love Jacob more than the world, and are just so lucky to have him. Tonight was such a special night that I will never forget. The way he smiled and laughed and knew it was all to celebrate him. He was so sweet to say thank you for everything and to give lots of hugs and kisses.

Here is a peek at some of the decorations Jacob will wake up to in the morning! His family party isn't until Saturday, but we wanted to make sure his real birthday morning was just as special!

Randoms

The boys have been loads of fun lately, and I just can't get enough of them right now. They play together so nicely, share really well, and make each other laugh. They entertain each other while I pick up from meals, and I love to see what they come up with.

They still like to sit in little places together - behind the rocker in Joshua's room, under the table, behind the closet door, in boxes, etc. They don't mind knocking into each other while they get comfortable, and will sit together forever laughing because of the small space.

Turning on Fresh Beat Band music leads to an instant dance party, and running in circles is a game that will never get old.

Joshua has started giving Jacob lots and lots of hugs and kisses. He runs up to Jacob saying "brother" and laughs when they both end up on the ground.

Jacob started saying "shut up and eat your garbage" today. It is the most hilarious thing I have ever heard come out of his little mouth and I can't help but laugh like crazy and encourage him to say it again. It's from the movie Ratatouille, so it's not like he is just saying mean things, haha.

Josh gets in the car and says "movie" right away because he wants to watch a show on the way. He likes to play trains and will follow Jacob around the train tracks and wait patiently for him to keep going. I am amazed at how well he leaves his brother's trains alone and understands when I tell him that "no, that's your brothers."

Jacob is really loving swinging, and figured out the glider tonight. He asked me tonight to "hold hands and walk around," so we held hands and walked down the street. Then, half way down the road, he starts farting like crazy and asked for me to give him a piggy back ride home because he had a "poopy belly full of poop." Oh, boys and their love of talking about poop.

We bought Jacob a new night light - he hasn't had one since Joshua was born and we have been leaving the bathroom light on so he could get some light in his room. He LOVES having his own night light. He also still loves that I have a special box up over his bed that he puts all of his special toys in like his LeapPad, sunglasses, whistles, pencils, and anything else he doesn't want his brother touching. I think it's important he always has a place to put things that are just for him and not for sharing or for his brother to possible ruin on accident since he's younger.

I am just in shock that Jacob will be four in two days, and that these boys are just beyond easy to handle every day because of what nice hearts they have. I am truly blessed with these two boys, and am so glad they are growing up to be best friends just like my brother and me.

Tomorrow is Jacob's last day as a three-year-old, and we have a lot planned!!

Birds: 2, Lewis Family: 0

We headed to the zoo tonight to enjoy late hours and a member preview of their new birds exhibit. Another hot day meant the boys got to try out the splash park for the first time. Even though we have been members every year, last year I was too nervous to let Jacob run in the water on concrete after having his cast taken off, so this year both boys get to enjoy the fun. Jacob LOVED the splash area, and thanked us so many times for bringing him there. He ran, and yelled at kids who stepped on fountains, and was so happy (until he collided with another kid). Joshua, on the other hand, was very hesitant at first. He ended up splashing around a little bit, but more so enjoyed picking up leaves and carrying them to Daddy. He also got knocked down by a bigger kid, and was very upset and wouldn't run around too much after that! But, it was successful for a first trip for him, getting use to the water splashing around him and watching out for kids running around.

 Jacob looking surprisingly okay despite just having finished crying from his head-on collision.

 After our water fun ended, we headed to the new exhibit. Jacob loved feeding these birds, and luckily found one that ate all of the food from his stick. He liked watching them fly around, and I was pretty surprised at how nice the new exhibit turned out.

 After this enclosure, we headed in with the second set of birds and were told we could pet the lorikeets. Those lorikeets must have had the Lewis family on their wanted list, because despite other people petting the birds, one of the angry birds bit Jacob twice, and bit Bob hard enough to draw blood. Jacob was very angry, but surprisingly still wanted to stay and watch the birds fly around. One bird climbed onto Bob's shoulder and stayed there until Bob made it leave. I wanted nothing to do with the birds, as I hate them anyway and was not fond of them having freedom to fly right by my face. But, I put on a happy face so the boys could enjoy themselves.

Off to the zoo train to finish the night. The first ride of the season for the boys! Jacob chose to sit right behind the engine, and loved it!

 Joshua was adorable sitting with Daddy the whole ride. He would call out to animals, swing his legs and say "wee, wee" like he does when he swings in the backyard, and looked around at everything. I love that he totally gets the zoo this year - just last year he was content sitting in the stroller through the whole thing and not looking at any animals!

We finished off the night with playing out back with the neighborhood kids. Jacob and Joshua were filthy and exhausted by the end of the night. Great summer night!

Busy Week

Just a quick recap of a fun, busy week! After Jacob's soccer game on Sunday, we had our first spaghetti dinner with the kids. We normally make penne noodles because it is much less of a mess, but decided to let the kids go for it. Joshua LOVED his spaghetti!

 Monday was spent just relaxing around the house, playing outside and enjoying the weather. Tuesday we headed to family music class at Gymboree, where Jacob and Joshua were the only two kids there and they LOVED playing with the instruments and dancing. They had an open play time in their gym room afterwards, and Jacob loved being able to jump into soft mats and running like crazy.

Wednesday we had friends over to play, which always makes for a fun morning (and a quick morning!) Thursday was lots of water time with temperatures getting up to 90. Playing in the water table and sprinkler before 10 a.m. is always fun! Jacob figured out how to get himself started on his swing, get himself going and go way high! I am so proud of him for figuring this out all on his own. I love watching him enjoy swinging by himself, and I can tell how proud he is of himself!

 Thursday night we used another make-up class to take Jacob and Joshua to family play class at Gymboree. Jacob made a quick friend in this little girl, and they were inseparable the rest of the class.

I can't believe how easy these two boys are becoming, playing so well together and having a good time doing a lot of the same things. I love these boys!

Funny thing - we had Pizza Hut over at my parents' house this week. Jacob looked at the breadsticks and said, "Remember when I thought this was snot?" I totally forgot until he said that, and then I was reading through old blog posts during their nap today and found where I wrote when Jacob asked who snot on the breadsticks about a year ago! How crazy his memory really is!

Jacob has been donig a great job sharing lately, and saying sweet things without us reminding him to thank people for being thoughtful. He is such a sweet boy, and I love his character.

Joshua is saying more and more words, and loves to shout "bird" when he finds one outside. He enjoys waving to everyone with a big, enthusiastic wave, and trying to sing with his brother. He LOVES The Fresh Beat Band more than anything, and will dance like a crazy man to any and every song he hears.

Trophy Time

Spring soccer came to an end this past Sunday. It was a long, hot weekend, but the kids did a great job despite having two games in one weekend and being super hot! Even the parents were miserable in the heat, and we weren't doing anything!

Jacob and his pal, Cooper, enjoying some time under the umbrella. Jacob and Cooper ran around together a lot this season, and it was so funny to watch them go from playing Transformers to giving each other hugs within seconds.

 "Coach" handing Jacob his medal - Bob loved coaching this year, even if half of the time was spent bribing kids to stay on the field, haha.

 Jacob super proud of his trophy, even though he was exhausted and HOT!

I thoroughly enjoyed watching Jacob grow over the 10 weeks of practice and games. Sure, we had weeks where he didn't want to play much, but we taught him a little about making a commitment and playing when it is time. Kids are use to doing things when they want to, not because it is game time! He did a great job, and we loved watching the games where he was really into it and scored multiple goals! But, we loved watching him make new friends, get along with others, work together, and of course, get a trophy!

Sad story about the trophy...that night we took him to get ice cream. He wanted to bring his trophy with. He showed everyone in the ice cream shop, and was so proud of his trophy. When we got home, he walked in the door and dropped it in the hallway, breaking his one-day-old trophy in half. We were proud of him though for not crying about it, and we explained to him that things like this happen sometimes and we would ask if they had extras. Luckily, Jacob received a brand new trophy two days later.

Sunny Saturday

The boys woke up at 7 in the morning on Saturday, and after a quick breakfast we headed outside to be our neighbor's first lemonade stand customers. Here is Jacob and Kylee (Joshua was already running around after trying to eat a nickel).

After drinking some lemonade at 8 a.m., the boys spent a few hours playing with the boys who live in the cul-de-sac behind us. Jacob was thrilled because the older boy is home now for the summer - he never understood why kindergarten goes every day! Both boys looked exhausted by 11, so we went ahead and put both down for a nap. When they woke up we fed them a quick lunch and were at Jacob's soccer game by 1 p.m. It was SO HOT! Jacob enjoyed being under this umbrella I luckily had in the bag from an earlier game in the season when it was raining.

Jacob scored two goals, and was so proud of himself! We were thrilled, and know that having that nap got him through the game with smiles instead of worn out! With naps already taken care of, when we got home we went straight into the kiddie pool I had filled up in the morning so the water wouldn't be freezing cold! Joshua thoroughly enjoyed his first try at the pool, and Jacob just couldn't get enough. Kylee came over for a little while and swam, and then we headed in for dinner. Bob made the most delicious chicken fajitas! We love that Jacob will eat fajitas now, and of course nachos.

Bob asked the boys if they wanted to head to the park, so off we went again. Joshua loved the tunnel slide, and Jacob yelled at some girls for climbing on top of the tunnels - my little rule follower. The park has some baseball fields, so the boys ran the bases a few times.

 We finished off an eventful, exhausting day with ice cream! We tried to go to a local place we've been wanting to try, but realized it was cash only and we were no where near an ATM, so we just hit up Dairy Queen. Joshua stole some of Daddy's cone, and Jacob loved sitting outside watching the cars drive by.

A very busy day, but we loved spending so much time together as a family and watching the boys get to run off so much energy. I love that Joshua is old enough now to really participate in days like today and not be riding in a stroller everywhere or sleeping through a lot of things. Jacob is such a great big brother and looks for Joshua wherever we go and wants him to be happy. Very proud of both boys!

Jacob's Spring Program

I think every parent anxiously awaits their child's very first program, excited to see them perform and sing (or not sing), be with their friends and show off what they have practiced at school for weeks and weeks. Jacob's 3-year-old preschool program was Wednesday, May 9, and I was beside myself on how proud I was of our little guy.

The day was an entire celebration, with the program followed by a teddy bear parade and a mother's day picnic. We had to decorate a float, and Jacob borrowed Joshua's little wagon and turned it into the best purple race car I have ever seen!

I asked Jacob what number his race car should be, and he originally said "18," but quickly changed his mind and settled on "100." He painted lots of "100"s on his little race car, and I love that he has his own ideas of how his car should look!

 Here is Jacob the morning of his program (eating cantaloupe) with his float. This side has his name and tons of race car stickers, some sports stickers, and a few spiderman stickers!

 My little man and me before leaving the house!

 "Hey, mom!" I love when he does this - points and smiles! He is too cute!

 "Thank you, God for sunshine, thank you, God, for sunshine, you're so good to me"

 A better look at his awesome job on his name.

 In the teddy bear parade. I loved seeing him parade around with his float that he worked so hard on.

After the parade, the moms and their preschoolers went to the classroom for a picnic. We sat with some of Jacob's dearest friends (Isabella, Gavin, Lizzie, Luke T.) and had some snacks. Jacob ended up getting food out of some of the other kids and brought back his loot so proud he had convinced them to share their cookies and fruit, haha. Then the kids sang some songs, went through the alphabet and did all of the sounds and the animals they know that go with the letter, and finished up with running like wild on the playground. I have been so lucky to find such a wonderful preschool, and that the boys and girls in Jacob's class have been so wonderful. He has really learned a lot this year - especially about friendships and learning how to choose friends you like and that treat you nicely. I am going to miss this year in watching him grow, but am happy that he will be with most of the same kids in his class next year.

Joshua at the hospital

Friday started like most Fridays. I gave the boys a bath, we played, and I got them dressed and headed to story time at Barnes and Noble. They had a great time playing, coloring and eating their snack. Two other boys from Jacob's school were there, along with their little brothers (lots of boys!), so Jacob had a blast. We headed home, but decided to stop at Chik-fil-A for lunch. The boys laughed and ate a great lunch, finished off with ice cream.

Both boys took a great nap, but when Joshua woke up he was a little grouchy, stuffy, and clingy. We headed up to my parents' house because we had an early dentist appointment Saturday morning by their home and it would make for an easier morning if we spent the night. We packed up and were there in time for dinner. Joshua ate really well, but didn't drink much.

Bob tried to put Joshua to bed while my mom and I took Jacob to the party store to pick out stuff for his upcoming fourth birthday. Joshua wouldn't fall asleep for longer than a few minutes before he was coughing and crying. When I got home, I tried putting him to bed with the same results. Then we noticed how hard he was trying to breathe. He still seemed okay, but just a really bad cold. We let him fall asleep, and around midnight he was really struggling and retracting and looked terrible. We took him up to the hospital where they got him right in because he was struggling so much - we passed people who had been waiting for four hours to see the doctor and the doctor was in our room within minutes getting Joshua on breathing treatments.

The first treatment didn't get good enough results, so Joshua had an hour long treatment. Afterwards, Joshua still wasn't doing too well. His heart rate was extremely high and his oxygen levels dipped in the 80s, and still working very hard to breathe. They decided to admit him to the hospital, and we were up in our room on the fourth floor soon after.

Joshua had breathing treatments every two hours, and then stretched out to three hours, and finally to every four hours. Around the afternoon, Joshua was doing much better, but they were still talking of him having to stay the night and leave Sunday morning.

The doctors came in to check him right before his breathing treatment that should start at the third hour, but he was souding okay and they thought he could be stretched out to the fourth hour. Things started to improve drastically from there, and he was doing great. They decided he could go home as long as we gave him a breathing treatment every four hours, even through the night, and had him on oral steroids for the next few days. We were out of there around 8 p.m. and home for the boys to head to bed.

I finally crashed when we got hom. Bob got Jacob into bed, and left me to sleep in our room, turned the monitor off, and slept on the couch and took care of the 10:30, 2:30 and 6:30 breathing treatments without waking me up. I woke up around 8:30 to our boys bathed and already done with breakfast.

In other news, Jacob had a soccer game Saturday afternoon and score three goals. He is really getting into soccer, and I love watching him have a good time. I hated missing his game, but glad that Bob could be there with him.

We will have Joshua at the doctor on Monday, so hopefully he is still doing well!