The Smith Family Adventures

Wish us luck tonight!

We’ve taken the front off of Simon’s crib.

Since Simon has a lot of transitions coming up in the next few months (getting rid of the binky, new bed, new sibling, potty training just to name a few), we have a carefully laid out plan for how it will all go…in the hopes that it will all go smoothly.

But you know how carefully laid out plans go when it comes to two year olds.

Tonight was the night. Nathan took Simon upstairs, gave him some allen wrenches, and had him help take the front off of his crib.

(Please excuse the messy room, by the way…we’ll be rearranging the whole thing in a couple of weeks so I haven’t felt the need to pick up any of the toys or make the boys do so….)

I had purchased a big stuffed animal for only $9 at Costco. We gave it to him and told him it was his “big boy bear” for his “big boy bed” and it would stay in the bed with him. He was so proud.

After dinner, I made his bed with a real comforter and sheet set so it would really look like a big boy bed.

So far we haven’t heard a peep…but there are a lot of hours left in the night….and a lot of nights coming up. This ain’t our first rodeo. We’ll take little successes as they come, and the fact that we’ve been able to enjoy our evening so far without him coming out is a win so far!

Today was Elias’ 5th birthday. Nathan and I have been parents for five years. The day was actually a bit busy, but we made it as special as we could for our little man. I had to wake him up in time for school. I laid down next to him and sang happy birthday. He didn’t open his eyes, but he got a big smile on his face. Then I asked him if he wanted to go down stairs and see Daddy for a few minutes before work, and he popped out of bed like a jack-in-the-box.

Here he is getting some breakfast.

Before he ate, though, we allowed him to open one present before Daddy left for work. We got him a calculator. It was one of the few things he actually asked for by name. Back in August, he loved his cousin Audrey’s calculator. When he opened it, he smiled really big and said, “Hey! My own calculator!” Then he proceeded to try it out for a bit before going back to his breakfast.

Mrs. Bernick made it a special day for Elias at school. She has a big cupcake decoration she puts in front of the kids when it is their birthday. She also gave him a birthday pencil and a birthday sticker. Elias got to be snack boy, and he chose to bring fruit leather, Tillamoo and grapes. His class sang “Happy Birthday” to him, and Senora Hull, his Spanish teacher, sang to him in Spanish.

After school we went straight over to Ama and Baba’s for a birthday lunch. They boys enjoyed playing there. Ama made Elias cupcakes and we sang to him again!

Baby James was also at Ama and Baba’s. He was napping for most of the time we were there, but the boys got to see him for a bit at the end of our visit. Elias, as always, wanted to get in some cousin love.

Then we went home for a rest. Simon took a nap, and Elias had some quiet time. Before we knew it, it was time for swimming lessons. Elias was very excited because he got to try backstroke for the first time ever. He’s done a lot of “wings and kicks” on his back, but never official “backstroke.”

We came home and met up with Daddy for a simple dinner, got to listen to a special voicemail from Uncle Greg, called and say hello to Uncle Greg, and then let Elias open the rest of his gifts. I’m always impressed with his generosity. He let Simon open two of his gifts.

Besides the calculator, we also got him a rock collection/game, a book, a small science experiment kit, a geography leap pad game, and some walkie talkies. After playing with the rock game as a family, we only had about ten minutes left before bath time. We chose to try out the walkie talkies. Elias loved them, but will need some practice knowing when to press and hold the button to talk, and when to let it go. It takes some coordination! I tried to take a picture of him. He really did love them more than it appears in this photo.

Elias was exhausted. He told me he had a good birthday, and then promptly rolled over and fell asleep. This picture was taken on Monday, but I love it so I thought I’d include it. Here is my five year old:

Happy Birthday, Elias!

I only have experience raising boys, so mothers of girls please correct me if I’m wrong…but something tells me that the booger diaries are something only a mother of boys would need to keep.

Lately, Elias has a new fascination with his nose. He knows he is supposed to put boogers in a tissue, but as you’ll see, they don’t always make it there. I was collecting so many booger stories, I thought I’d write down a few for some laughs down the road. While they may make me cringe now, I’m sure they’re mild compared to some of the gross things the boys will do in the future.

Story #1
Setting: Driving in the van

Elias: “Don’t worry, mom, I threw it out the window”
Me: (Thinking…what in the world? None of the windows are open….) “What did you throw out the window?”
Elias: “The booger.”

Story #2
Setting: Preschool parking lot

Elias: “No one will find it”
Me: “No one will find what?“Elias: “The booger. I put it in the street.”

Story #3
Setting: At home

Elias: “Can people get down there?” (pointing into the heating vent in the floor)
Me: “No….why?”
Elias: “Oh…I guess I don’t need a kleenex, then.
Me: “Did you put a booger down there?”
Elias: “Yes.”

In the interest of teaching our boys about money, we started giving them an “allowance” in exchange for helping take care of themselves and the house. We were pretty consistently doing it for a long time, but then stopped (I don’t remember why). Just recently, Elias asked about it and we decided to start up again.

Each week, Elias gets two quarters for his spend fund, two quarters for his save fund, two quarters for his give fund, and two quarters to place in whichever fund he would like. It teaches him about how to handle money, save money, give money, and also about choosing what he would like to buy.

Elias has been saying he really wants another Mickey Mouse Clubhouse DVD for a long time. I never purchased one for him, but he kept asking. Finally, I told him that if he really wanted one, he could spend some of his “spend money” and choose one. We opened up Amazon and looked at all of the choices. I really impressed upon him that if he bought the DVD, then the money would be gone. He’d have the video, but not the money until he earned it again in the weeks to come. He was still very excited about it so I had him count out his money.

He gave me one dollar, made 7 piles of four quarters each, and then three more. The DVD cost $8.64. (Don’t worry I gave him the 11 cents change!)

Then, we had to wait for it to come in the mail. Today just before Daddy got home from work, we got a knock on the door, and look what had arrived!

Elias was so proud. I wished he could have watched at least a bit of it right away, but we had to get ready for swim lessons. After swim lessons we had dinner, and then there was only about 30 minutes left before bath and bed. I gave him the choice of watching a little bit of his DVD or riding his bike (something he’s been begging to do for days, but I haven’t let him because he’s been sick). He elected to ride his bike, and claims he will watch a little bit of the DVD before school tomorrow. I’m not going to allow that….but maybe I’ll let him watch a bit before quiet time.

I love how proud he was that he bought it with his own money. I’ll be excited to see what else he spends his money on in the future.

We’ve been sick around here. Uggh! I know lots of people out there are dealing with it. The beginning of school comes and we are all hit by a bus. For us, it started last Friday with Simon getting a case of the sniffles. I didn’t think much of it because it was so mild, but we took it easy Friday to avoid spreading germs, and to hopefully get it over with quickly.

Unfortunately, Elias caught it and he never does anything halfway…especially getting sick. Everything always goes into his chest and from there it gets scary. He gets scared when he can’t breathe, and I can’t sleep!

Yesterday Elias had to miss school, play group, swimming lessons, and his first night of AWANA. I really did not want him to miss a second day of school (especially so early in the year), but today he woke up still hacking a lot, and his breathing was still not back to normal. So I spent another day trying to keep him restful.

It’s hard to keep a 4 year old boy on the couch without the aid of electronics when he is on the mend. I did use my fair share of electronics. But I had lots of other ideas too. He calmly played marble track for an hour and a half while Simon napped and I dozed. He worked on an Usbourne wipe clean book for about an hour. We read books. And….we made a fall leaf craft for our windows.

I drew leaves on some contact paper and had the boys stick fall colored tissue paper randomly on top.

Then we placed another piece of contact paper on top, and cut the whole thing out. They turned out quite nice.

Elias’ leaf

Simon’s leaf

I wanted them to make more, and they wanted to make more as well, but we were crunching into nap time. Later in the day they didn’t have any interest. Maybe we will make some more tomorrow or another day!

Today was Elias’ first day of school for the year. This year he’ll be attending Pre-K at Prince of Peace Preschool. It’s the same school he was at last year. This year he’ll attend four days a week for three and a half hours each day. His new teacher is Mrs. Bernick.

Last night he was having night before jitters. He came down a while after we had put him to bed and said he was having bad dreams about his new class. He hadn’t actually been asleep yet (I’m fairly certain) so I think he was just laying in bed worrying. Poor little guy! I talked to him a bit and cuddled him until he was calm.

This morning Elias was excited to go to school despite the anxiety he had had the night before. Here he is proudly holding his school bag. I had wanted him to hold one of those “First Day of….” signs that are so popular for the picture, but he insisted he wanted to hold his school bag. Who am I to argue?

Of course, Simon wanted in on the pictures. He wants to go to school, but he won’t start until next September. Look at the little goof ball trying to steal the show.

When we got to school, Elias found his seat and proudly showed his “homework” to his teacher. Then she said they were going to start out by playing and Elias ran over to the blocks to begin building.

Mrs. Bernick kindly said that parents were allowed to stay for ten minutes and then needed to leave. Elias got a little watery eyed when I said I was leaving, but there were no actual tears.

When I picked up Elias he said it was a lot of fun and his friends were even nicer. I think he had a great first day!

That wasn’t the end of Elias’ day, though! We went straight to a lunch play date and then came home for nap time and quiet time. Then Elias had his first swimming lesson of the new session, and his first night of AWANA!

What a day! I’m proud of my little guy.