Barry in Colorado

Per Brody's direction, Barry found a mountain so that when Brody gets to go, he can climb it too.

Aimee, Zach, Eric, Barry

Barry went to Denver May 3-7 to visit his brothers and have a little fun sans kids. He even got to ski!

Maverick

Pre-haircut.  Notice the three teeth on the bottom.  He has seven total and has for awhile.  That side bottom tooth has been there for 2 1/2 months, will the one on the other side ever come in?

What?

Mara & Mav enjoy playing blocks together.  Don't you always hangout in a giraffe hat too?

Happy when he's sick with his rosy cheek.

He loves baths, loves them!!  He also likes snuggling, even with just a blanket.

Post-bath

Hard to believe that Maverick will be one already at the end of the month! How time flies.

Brody works on writing his name.

His first try of "BRODY" for the night.  He's come a long way with the 'B' and drawing the 'O' is his favorite.

Drawing pieces to letters that are lines at an angle are tricky to explain, but his 'A' was spot on.

I never know when the mood will strike him, but when Brody asks to use the marker or chalk board I always let him. He's not great at recognizing a lot of his letters, but I figured out that learning to draw them himself is more his style of learning instead of staring at a letter in a book.  Sometimes he decides then that he wants to work on his letters. He gets frustrated if he doesn't get it right the first time, but with the proper encouragement he will keep trying and he always get so excited when he gets it right. That's why he likes the chalk and dry erase markers so well I think.

Brody fences a pasture...

The green blanket is the pasture.  This is before we found fencing.

Whoops, the farmer that was holding the calf fell down!

The pasture was moved to the table so Maverick couldn't destroy it.  Omi found fences for Brody to use so he didn't have to use imaginary fences.

A full farm.

Brody was so excited about his work!

On Thursday Maverick was sick so I stayed home with the boys. Brody got into farm mode and created a pasture. He discovered he didn't have fencing materials, a cowboy hat, or the right boots. We pretended our regular hats were cowboys hats and are tennis shoes were cowboy boots. The green blanket was the pasture and it was tricky to keep the animals from escaping. On Friday at the farm, Omi found some fences for Brody. On Saturday he went right to work fencing so that his animals couldn't escape. Don't worry, the tractors are allowed to go in and out of the field-duh, of course they are. As I write this, he's playing with his creation again. He has the skid loader hauling some fence panels in and out and doing various other "repairs". Can you tell that Papa and Sean have been fencing on the real farm recently?

Claire's Birthday Party

Action shot.

Omi spots the kids as they walk across the beam.

Papa & Mav

Ethan & Mav (2 months apart), these boys are ready to tear it up outside this summer!

Maverick practices standing unassisted.

Blue eyes gets up close to my camera lens.

Aunt Sue supervises the uneven bars.

Brody and the birthday girl wait as the bouncy floor gets blown up.

I'm not sure who was the cautious one, Brody or Claire, but the both stood together on the side for a minute before joining in.  Maverick wishes he could join in too.

Uncle Josh helps Maverick practice taking steps, he's getting the hang of it (Mav, not Josh...Josh is a pretty good walker already).

Claire had her 4th birthday party this weekend and the kids had fun running around at the gym.

Brody practicing writing and Maverick "helps"...

I wrote "PARK" on the bottom and Brody tried to copy it on the top.  For his first time trying, I was very impressed that if you look closely, the letters resemble the correct ones, especially since 'A' is the only letter he recognizes of these four.  When writing 'A' he said, "a line, a line, across, and a hat".  He forgot to draw the "hat" in this version, but it was interesting to hear him describe how he sees a letter in pieces.

Maverick decided to help by erasing our work.

I love how a kid size band-aid takes up half of his ankle.  So cute.

Happiness is found in sunshine and a warm breeze!

Brody asked for water in his bucket and a rag.  He washed our big table and chairs, his little table and chairs, and some of his deck toys.  Great job buddy!

Brody has started to take an interest in letters and in the last few days has wanted to practice on his white board and chalk board. Usually it's around nap time and bedtime that he really wants to practice probably for two reasons; he's putting off going to sleep and he's calm enough to practice. Maverick who copies everything likes to get in on it too (and hide the marker on Brody or eat the chalk). Spring has arrived so we were able to visit a park this weekend. To say that Brody is excited that it is spring and he can see green and no snow is an understatement. I think Maverick enjoys the fresh air too.

Trains

Even Brody was impressed with the long train he put together!

"Look mom, I can dump the Kix all over the floor. Aren't I cute?"

Intense concentration, a trait of every good conductor.

Brody loves to play with his trains, but hates that Maverick can't leave it alone long enough to build a good track. Enter Kix, a magical distraction.