The past few days of chaos. pics are up:o)

Tanner met his teacher, Mrs. Eaton

and found his desk

Tanner's little birthday party

Cake was at home and we celebrated at

Chuck E. Cheese

Make a wish~
and Blow!

skeeball skills

July 26
After staying out till around midnight Fri night, working on a paper with my classmate. My classmate and I then returned back to our campus around 8am to discover no one was there. We then decided to clean things up on our presentation at a local Kinkos, returned back to campus at around 9am and to find just a few classmates trickling in. Then to our surprise, the Sat class was to start at 10am! Then another surprise, our presentation wasn't due until Wed evening (8/30). How did we miss this, you may ask? My classmate and I were both absent from our last Wed class when the teacher decided to change the start time and we also missed that she did a lottery of who was doing their presentation for Sat or Wed. A wee bit relieved that I at least have the presentation ready and I don't have to worry too much about it now, but I sure would had been able to get a little more zzzz's if I had known. :o)
July 25
I started back at work for District meetings. Tanner met his new kindergarten teacher as they had Sneak A Peak day. Dane, my mom, the boys and I all went to view Tanner's new classroom and teacher. It was a great experience! Tanner is really excited! And so are we.
July 24
Happy 6th Birthday Tanner! Grandma arrived to our home around 1pm and we picked Tanner up from the park, where he was with Cole and the Au Pair. He was so surprised and felt so special to leave and run errands with his Grandma and I. We ran to Costco and picked up party supplies for my Dad's party and we let Tanner pick out his own birthday cake. We ran other errands and Tanner was being a real trooper.
Cole had a special visit by his new preschool teachers. They wanted to visit him in his own environment so his first day at preschool wouldn't be so scary. They were very nice and played with Cole and talked to him. I'm looking forward to him being with his peers.
Later, Dane met up with us at Chuck E. Cheese. We brought the presents and cake. It was just us with Grandma and we had a great time.
Tanner really liked his gifts and was so generous in sharing them with his little brother.

July 23
Nothing special happened. I played hooky from night school and stayed home with the boys.

7/21

I'm so overwhelmed with so much to do and so little time. I have a lot of homework assignments that I need to complete by this Wed evening, a slide show for the party, a photo album for the party, lesson plans for my own students, and the house needs cleaning. I'm starting back to work this Friday morning; I have Tanner's meet and great the same time. I'm not sure how I'm going to pull all of this off but I'm trucking through it the best I can.
Today, I went to my college campus and worked on the computer researching for my Sat presentation, then went to order the cake for the party. The boys had swim lessons today and did very well with that. Tanner had karate right after swim, he earned his second stripe on his gold belt. Way to go, Tanner! After karate we paid a visit to the pet store ( it is next door to the karate studio). Tanner and I fell in love with a tiny all white Ginnie pig (I never imagined that I could actually find a Ginnie pig charming) , I wanted to buy it for Tanner's birthday but a later call to Dane (for his permission) made for no Ginnie pigs in our future. sob sob...
Anyway, we left the pet store to get gas in the car and then off to In & Out as that was Tanner's reward for a great day and the promotion of his karate stripe. This made for a couple hours of Cole wearing underwear, not wanting to go potty at any location, and coming home with dry undies. Shortly after we were home, Cole asked for his undies to be taken off and promptly walked to his potty seat and deposited about 2 cups of urine. YIPPY! I think we are going in a great direction.

7/18-20

7/18
Tanner had golf camp in the morning and I was told that he played through 3 holes, this is an improvement as I'm usually told that he will only play one hole then chase bunnies or look for fish in the ponds. After golf camp, Tanner and I went to visit one of the moms from Tanner's babyhood playgroup. That mom and I had intended for the boys (Tanner and Reed) to play as we would work on our scrapbooks; however, we spent from 10am until 2:30 pm chatting about stuff. The boys did an awesome job playing and there was never a complaint.
7/19
During the early morning hours, I made the boys pancakes. Pancakes, crepes or waffles has been the Sat morning tradition. Then we headed out to my classroom to look for some items that I needed (didn't find what I was looking for). Then the boys dealt with my small garage sale tour. I purchased a couple of fun finds. Cole went along on this morning excursion sans diaper and never had an accident in his undies, we got home and then he relieved himself. Woo hoo!
7/20
I did an all day scrapbooking event. I had a lot of fun and got a lot accomplished. The boys behaved well for Dane.

7/17

A day of one event after another. Tanner had golf camp in the morning. Dane said he did well with that. I did a lot of running around with both boys after golf camp and they did so well, no meltdowns. Cole has been working on potty training, so we had to visit several restrooms. He refused to relieve himself at any strange location and held it all until we got home. So that he did, we got home and then he made a visit to his potty. Dane said it must had been an Austin Power potty break. lol..

After lunch, we went to swim lessons, they did an awesome job with their teachers in their lessons. Tanner had Mr. Gates and Cole worked with Mrs. Gates.

Cole waiting patiently for his turn.

Tanner had Karate shortly after swimming lessons. He has been struggling with Karate and has shown disinterest, but he will stay as it is good for him to continue.

Our family was invited to a Messy Party at a friends home. She had everything out in her back yard; tie dye shirts, home made goo, water colors, a large sheet was put up as a wall the kids can paint on, and spin art to name a few. After all the messiness, she opened up her pool for swimming. Her pool was a comfy warm 89* and the water is salt water instead of chlorine. We were all hanging out until 9:30 pm.

What a terrific day!

Enjoy the videos of the boys with their instructors. I adore these people, they have been great with my boys. The video on the top is of Cole and you should watch it till the end. The bottom is of Tanner, he is in the deep end.

7/16

A rough day with Tanner :o( We really need to be on him about respecting adults and listening to what adults tell him and do as they ask.
A lot of behavior problems had us questioning what he ate. What was different .. and such. Finally we realized that we had not been giving him his Miralax and came to the conclusion that he was 3-4 days constipated.

Standing firm prevails

Golf camp went well. Dane reported to me that all of the little boys behave the same as Tanner out on the golf course..... a little wiggly and talkative. I guess that is reassuring. ;o)

After a rough Monday and standing by my word, Tanner may have learned his lesson as swimming went very well. Cole was great in his swimming too. I'm very proud of my boys at their swim lessons. Tanner got directly out of the pool once asked and didn't say a word. Cole was a champ throughout the whole lesson, no whining. Oh the sweet rewards of staying firm.

July 14

Busy day for the boys and I. Tanner started his second session of golf camp. He is enrolled with several little boys that are around his age. Dane mentioned that he had 13 kids under the age of 8... yikes. Tanner is in company of two little boys that are almost the exact same age as he ( they were born within weeks from each other), these two other boys were in playgroups with Tanner when they were all babies. The moms and I have kept in touch with each other through the last 5+ years, but life gets us busy and we haven't been able to get the boys together as often as when they were just little toddlers. Anyhow... it is so neat to have them together again and to remember that we used to think about the day that they would do sports together.. that day is here.... wow.. how time flies!
Cole had his first swim lesson, he cried through a lot of it. And Tanner did okay but was pretty ornery about getting out as they had asked. Between Cole's anger about getting his swimming experience and Tanner getting into trouble for jumping into the pool twice without permission, the rest of my evening went on forever as Tanner had lost a lot of privileges for such defiant behavior and I was hearing his discontent the whole evening. I had to keep reminding myself that if I give in to his demands, his behavior will not get any better. I had to stand my ground!

Parent's Anniversary

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad

45 yrs!

7/12 Happy Birthday, Mom!

Mom and Dad holding Cole 11/05

Mom spent her B-Day up in Santa Rosa with her sister and my Dad. Wish I could had been with her but I know she had a wonderful day :o) You are beautiful, Mom! I love you!

I was invited by my wonderful friend, Laura B, to a scrapbooking event. We left Brentwood at 8am to Sunnyvale. I met some wonderful people and had a great time. I got some pages done, ate some great food, and had great conversations. Made a new friend too..... Leah! I didn't get home till around 10pm. What a fabulous day! Laura... you are such a dear friend of mine and I hope you know that! I really appreciated being a part of your Cricket.com group. Thank you, I look forward to more!

Swim lessons 7/11

This was a busy day as we went to Clayton to meet up with some other moms and kiddos. Tanner was so excited to meet another Tanner that is 8 days younger. The two of them played very well. I was so busy with Cole as he likes to run in the parking lots and then had to change his diaper. I tried to get back to Tanner to meet the mother of the other Tanner; however, she had already left with her son..bummer.

Cole got a rash all over his face and was still having very loose stool. He was supposed to start swim lessons with Tanner, but a call to the Dr. regarding Cole's condition required him to stay out of the pool until next week. Tanner had a great time polishing his swimming skills. Cole observed the swimming patiently.

Coleyisms

Maybe a little speech impediment or maybe just talking two and half year old language, either way, I thought I'd journal some of Cole's vocabulary.

These are the ones that he can't get out correctly yet

Snake= nake
Tanner = Day Day
Daddy = Poppy ~I used to be Poppy and Dane was Daddy until Coley started calling me Mommy

Swing = wing
Thank you = dee doo
Love you = dah doo
most bugs = zzzzzzz
fish = bish
spoon = boon
water = wa wa
Grandma = Ma ma
Grandpa = Pa pa
spider = bider

chicken=nicken

He does have pretty good vocabulary of many other words that are spoken as they should be.

bye, hello, let's go, ok, downtown, car, truck, no, ah ha, down, up, pool, tractor, green, yellow, blue, balloon, sun, moon, star, doggy, kitty, turtle, cup, plate, fork, toy, baby, mommy, daddy, milk, drink, juice, done, fly, and ant.... to name a few

I did this with Tanner's early vocabulary when he was a toddler; he had his language skills much higher than Cole by this age. I should document in Cole's book too as this will be fun for us to look back at.

Tanner had high temps today and was sleepy for most of the day. We canceled a play date in our home, swim lessons, and karate. Cole had diarrhea so the potty training with undies was a complete mess. LOL

Potty Training

I've been working with Cole on potty training. He has been pretty easy, picked it up on the first day (#1 and # 2) but he is running around in his birthday suit. This week I've decided to introduce new undies, he isn't really getting that undies are not diapers but I will march on with this mission as he will be starting a new daycare in Sept and they request that he be potty trained.

The boys start swim class tomorrow. Woo Hoo!

My boys are not perfect

As my subtitle states ~ Boys will be boys and that they are. I've decided back when I started this blog thing that I will not make my boys out to be little angels who do everything right and never ruffle my feathers. I have been going a good amount of days without wanting to pull my hair out over their behavior; however, today they brought me to that not so pleasant place.
It all started in the playground when Tanner insisted that I push him on the swing. I gave him a good push, but he wanted every back swing a good forward swing. I don't quit get it with him.... I have seen him try and actually know how to lean back and pump his legs and I witnessed a little bit of it today (minor effort). He tells me that his Au Pair always pushes him. I found that hard to believe as she has told me that he swings by himself. Tanner just wanted to boss me around, I guess. Later, I had Cole on my lap for some swinging time and Tanner came and wanted me to put him on my lap. Ugh.. 48lbs of a hot child on my lap in high 90 temp. I just couldn't do it and wouldn't do it. Needless to say, I had to get those kids back home because the park was just not working for Tanner or me. I suggested that we go in the pool in the backyard. Tanner didn't like that idea. As we were hanging out in the home, I realized that Tanner is actually not feeling well as he had been sounding congested and the throat was bothering him (yes again), he also asked for meds which I gladly provided to him.
Ok.. So Tanner got settled and appeared to be a happier kid. I got a little brave and decided to take the kids to Linen and Things as they are liquidating the store. We were there in the store and the boys wanted to sit in the cart (fine they can sit in the cart). But that was short lived, Tanner had to get out as the cart was accumulating more items and more space was needed. I was then left with Cole in the cart, but Cole had the desire to be down on the floor with big brother. No can do.... Cole doesn't yet have the interest to stay with me, he is my runner. I was trying to tie him down in the child seat portion of the cart, impossible, he was screaming his head off. I then proceeded to leave the cart of items in the middle of the store and quickly exited the building with Cole hanging on one hip (wrestling to get out of my grip) and Tanner wining that we didn't buy anything.
Well, at least I tried :o)

July 6th

Tanner proclaimed himself married when he was in pre-school, he was about 4 yrs old. His bride was a sweet little red headed girl. The two were inseparable, they were often caught having such tender moments together; talking, playing together. This little girl's name is Elyse. She has fair skin with freckles, long red hair, and a dainty stature. Tanner would always talk about her and the things that they did that day. The day that he wedded her (the teacher's informed me of this), he and Elyse got dressed in dress up clothes and went up to the book area, they held hands and wah la.. they were married. Another memorable day about Tanner and his favorite gal was on Valentine's Day Eve (Tanner was 3 1/2). This was Feb 13th and we were preparing for the day of passing out valentines. Tanner did a little practice run of this and handed one out to Cole (an infant in his swing at that time), his toy lawn mower, the bed that Mommy and Daddy slept on, and the favorite spots that his kitty frequented. I asked Tanner who is girlfriend was and he told me it was Elyse, I asked him what does he do with Elyse to show her that he likes her. His response to this was , " I sit on her". Oh.. I will never forget that.
We have kept in touch with Elyse and her family as she really is such a sweet girl and the two kids have a special bond with each other. It had been a year since Tanner had last seen Elyse. Dane and I decided that we would have her over for some swimming fun and a little bit of slippy sliding too. Tanner was so elated when Elyse was at our door, he couldn't get out the door fast enough, and when he did get out, he couldn't hug her long enough either. They had such a great day together.... just like the old days.
We also had his good pal from pre-school days, Steven. The two of them really like to be boys and rough house. Steven has a little brother that is Cole's age too. They boys really enjoyed seeing each other and so did the little guys too. I really enjoyed seeing the moms, we really had a nice time chatting it up while the kids played so well together.

July 5th

We went to Dane's BFF, Jeff's home for a BBQ. Tanner had a lot of fun swimming and so did Cole. It was so wonderful seeing being around Jeff's family and seeing everyone again. We also saw friends that we haven't seen in 10 years. We are so excited that they will be moving to our town in a month. I will have to show Mel around the town, we also have plans to get together to scrap once they are settled in their new home.
Cole looked at my camera and called it," Mommy's eye". I corrected him by telling him it is a camera, but then thought about what he said and he is right it is my other eye, it is my eye that captures the special moments of the events of my life. My life being...... my children, my family, and friends.

4th of July

Tanner's VBS had a family picnic on Friday at a local park. Dane had a golf tourney, so I decided the boys and I would attend this. Pastor Andy and his wife Darlene were very kind and providing to us. I brought cheddar sausage dogs, chips, and soda along to contribute to the abundance of food that was laid out for everyone. Cole loved hanging out in the playground which was a small distance from the picnic area and Tanner stayed with the group, playing in the bounce house and such. I was sometimes able to lure Cole back to the picnic area by sparking his interest in food or a drink. Tanner played his first 3 leg race, and the two of us with (separate) partners, played balloon toss and egg toss. Tanner and his little partner lasted a long time with their eggs; they kept tossing it back and forth, the egg often landed on the grass and would do a couple bounces, but their egg would not break. There must had been 25 pairs and Tanner and his partner where the last 3 pairs still standing with out a broken egg. I was becoming more and more convinced that their egg must be a rubber egg. But finally it broke. Wow.... way to go Tanner! Tanner also met a little boy that will be starting kindergarten with him at his school. We will have to see if he ends up being his classmate.

Early evening came around, the boys and I met Dane at the golf course. Cole noticed the golf carts and wanted to ride in one. Dane took all of us out for a ride on the golf cart. We cruz'd about 9 holes, the kids enjoyed watching rabbits prancing around, ducks wading in the little ponds, and the squirrels scurrying about. After dinner in the restaurant at the golf course we got home to watch neighborhood fireworks. Tanner couldn't handle the level of noise from airiels and cried to go home. Cole on the other hand, exclaimed, " ooo...wow.." after each firework.

VBS day 2

Tanner had another fun day at VBS. His favorite is the singing and dancing that they do at the start of VBS and at the end. I thought I'd video tape his enthusiasm. :o)

lyrics to above video

mommy shark.... do~ do~ do~ do

daddy shark......do~ do~ do ~do

grandpa shark.... do~ do~ do ~do

going swimming....... do ~do ~do ~do

there is a shark......... do~ do ~do ~do

swimming faster.......... do do do do

shark attack........... do ~do ~do ~do

cpr............. do ~do ~do ~do

it's not working........... do ~do~ do ~do

it's too late............... do~ do ~do'~ do

going to see jesus.................. do~ do~ do~ do

Golf Camp Pictures week 6/23-6/27

Tanner with Daddy and a few classmates

1st day of VBS

Tanner was so excited to go to VBS today. I realized , while driving him to VBS, that his time in VBS is almost the same time period that he will be in Kindergarten. He will be an early bird in K (8am-12noon) and his time in this VBS is 9-12noon. What a great way to prepare him for K. I got a nice little surprise when I dropped him off at VBS this morning. He had the same VBS church group as last year. I didn't know it in advance because the church group changed church buildings. This is such a great church group and they do a great job with Tanner.
This surprise started when I brought him into the church this morning; a lady took Tanner by his hand and told him, " remember me from last summer, Tanner? I'm Miss Karen." She wasn't familiar to me and I was wondering why she said that to him. I actually thought maybe she just assumed that he had been there last year. After I was shown the classroom that I will need to pick Tanner up from, I ran into one of the head ladies and then realized this is the same great group as last year. I saw the pastor and he remember me too, well he remembered Tanner first and nobody forgets Tanner. Tanner has matured so much over the last year. VBS noticed this change too and put Tanner in with the soon-to-be first graders instead of the-soon-to K's. He did such a great job today.
After VBS, Tanner and I went to a local water park while Cole stayed home with the sitter. We had so much fun going down the slides and playing in the water. I'm glad I got to see him having some water time too, as it made me realize that he needs more swim lessons. I was going to pass on giving him lessons. Now I've signed both boys up for lessons, due to start next week.