we have a kindergartener in the house...

Well, the day is finally here. Charlie started kindergarten today. He was so ready for this and he woke up very excited this morning. When I went in to wake him up, I told him it was time to get ready for school and he quickly started to shed his pajamas saying "I cannot be late for my very first day of school!" I had originally laid out shorts for him to wear, but it was a chilly morning and we decided to switch to pants.

Cannon is thinking about how he feels about all this school stuff going on....
Nope, he doesn't like it one bit!
Right after taking these photos it began to pour so we ran inside, grabbed some jackets and then headed out to school. He is going to ride the bus normally, but of course I wanted to bring him on his first day.

He quickly found his seat and gave me the thumbs up letting me know that everything was going to be okay. I had expected to be a little more emotional today, but I think I know deep down that he is more than ready for this and he is going to do so great. Makes my mama heart happy.

We were all up and ready, dropped Charlie off, got some groceries and were home by 9am. I am so not used to these early mornings. I am also pretty sure we were the only ones at Walmart under the age of 65. I was thinking I should make it a habit to go so early because the store was so empty (well, besides all the senior citizens of course). That is until we got to the checkout and they only had ONE lane open. And I don't think the clerk was very happy to be there.

I had been wondering what Cannon was going to do without Charlie around. He pretty much stuck by me all day. Occasionally, he would wander into Charlie's room looking for him. When he couldn't find him he would come find me again. Don't get me wrong. These two don't really play together (unless you count yelling and screaming at each other as playing). They still really don't even seem to like each other all that much. I am sure Cannon just noticed that he was missing, and probably wondering why he was stuck home with boring ol' mom.

We played, ate lunch, cleaned up a little bit and then got a special present ready for Charlie for when he got home. He has been saving for the lego beach house for a while and had about half saved, so I kicked in the other half to surprise him with it. Just a little gift to let him know how proud of him we are and reinforce what a special day it was.

Charlie was pretty quiet when we first picked him up. I expected that. He is usually an observer at first when he is put in a new situation. He told me he had a great time. They learned about math, had goldfish crackers for snack, he loved the spongebob stickers I put on his sandwich bag and it rained at recess. Those were the highlights. I asked him if he was excited to go back tomorrow and he said "What?? I get to go back tomorrow? Awesome!" Sigh. I am so glad to hear that.
And of course the lego surprise was a big hit. Now it is time to hit the sack so we can do it all over again tomorrow.

cannon at 21 months....

(Okay, so I know he is 22 1/2 months now, but I did write these down when he was 21 months. Just wanted to get this posted on the blog so I have record of it here.)

Cannon has turned into quite the big boy these last few months. He is crazy, adventurous, curious and most definitely a handful!

A few things about you at 21 months:

- You have 16 teeth - all 4 of your incisors have finally broken through. 2 of them are still hard to see, but they are definitely there. I am so glad we are almost done with this teething business.

- You have become a little chatterbox. You are talking and repeating a lot more these past few weeks. You probably have around 25-30 words in your vocabulary now including mama, dada, cha-wee, doggie, apple, drink, cup, milk, more, ball, book, elmo, spongebob, up, car, lego (wego), cereal (cer-e-o), gigi, gpa, chair, light, blankie, block, shoes, nose, feet, toes and night-night.

- You have been sleeping much better lately. You go to bed between 7:30-8:00pm and wake up between 6:30-7:00am. You usally take a 1.5-2 hour nap at 1:00. You are much happier when you stay on schedule (and so am I!) You love your blanket and cannot sleep without it.

- You are wearing 18-24 month clothing and size 4 diapers.

- You are still a pretty picky eater and will hate something one day and then love it the next. You love milk, cereal and bananas. Everything else is pretty much day-by-day.

- You are finally showing an interest in books. You love to rip them all off the bookshelf and then bring them to me one by one so we can look through the pictures. You think every animal is a "doggie" and every little blonde boy is "Chawee".

- You call McDonald's "da-ways" and everytime we drive by one you scream excitedly from the backseat "da-ways! da-ways!"

- You love the Lagoon commercial. Everytime it comes on you stop what you are doing and dance around the living room. You also still love the Lion King CD and sing at the top of your lungs to all the songs.

You are so much fun and you make me laugh everyday. I am so glad I get to spend my days with you and your brother.

summer days....

Hmmmm...well, I wasn't planning on taking a break from the blog, but I guess I needed it! :)

We have been enjoying the summer and getting excited for Charlie to start kindergarten next week.

Our summer days have been filled with...

- Lots and lots of swimming at the pool. Both boys started out pretty cautious, but are now crazy about being in the water. Cannon gets cold pretty quickly but still tries to homestead the pool even with his blue lips and shivering body.

- Charlie has been going to tae kwon do on Wednesdays and Fridays.

- Cannon turned 21 months and Charlie turned 5 1/2.

- Eric and I celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary.

- We played with shaving cream.

- My mom and dad came to visit.

- Charlie has been playing with legos every single day and has gotten lots of great new sets to keep him busy.

- I started to redecorate the kids/guest bathroom. I could not find a shower curtain that I liked that wasn't at least $80, so I decided to decorate my own. I found some fabric that I liked from the Nicey Jane line from Heather Bailey and I just sewed it on. I also sewed the fabric on a few plain white hand towels. I love how they turned out! Now I am trying to find some decorations for the walls and countertops.

- I went back to school. I am doing an online program in Paralegal Studies. It sure is hard getting back into the swing of things after being out of school for 7 years!

- We went to Idaho for a week so Charlie could attend a lego camp. He learned all about motors, gears and motion sensors. He was absolutely crazy about this class and could not wait to go to it every afternoon.

- Eric dug out all his fishing gear and went fly fishing for the first time in over a year. He didn't catch anything but had a good time anyway. I don't think he will let the summer end without at least catching one though, so I think he has another little trip to the Provo River planned.

- We went on the paddle boats with Grandma P.

- We played at the splash park. This was pretty much the first time Charlie would ever go to one of these. He used to just hate the water splashing up in his face, but not this time. He ran around and laughed and just loved every minute of it. Cannon took a while to warm up to it, but he liked it and he made a little buddy while we were there.




- And of course we enjoyed a few summer treats including some chocolate chip cookies. Can anyone tell me how it is possible to get so much on your face when you only had less than a half cookie to begin with? He's thinking "put down the camera and give me another cookie lady."