A Peek into our Week

We had a wonderful spring break!  Here's a peek into our week....

We celebrated Avery's birthday with many visitors.  Grandpa came to stay with us and we enjoyed some yummy burgers at Red Robin.  The wait staff brought Avery dessert and sang her Happy Birthday.  She thought this was a great idea at first and then when she realized all the attention was on her, she slowly sank down in her seat and disappeared.  We had to make her sit back up as they sang! 

Aunt Annie, Uncle Mike, and cousins Finn and Bode came to visit.  We had a lot of fun but as always, the visit seemed too short.  Avery celebrated with some daycare friends at our house on Saturday.  Grandma and Grandpa Stohs came to visit on Sunday and brought the great-grandmas along for a BBQ at our house.  That's a lot of cake and cupcakes in one week!!  Some of Avery's favorite gifts include Pucchi Pets (stuffed dogs in a cute handbag), Kidz Bop 21,  Zoobles, a pillow pet, and some cute fuzzy horses.

We had amazing weather over spring break.  The weather hit 80 degrees several days so we enjoyed a lot of outside time and even broke out the water guns!  Emmett enjoyed some sunshine and played on a blanket in the grass many times.  Turns out he does not like sitting in the grass.  He holds his arms out and cries!  The blanket was perfect for him.  Emmett also hit a new milestone and started pulling up on Saturday!  He has been pushing his legs straight while on hands/knees for awhile so it was only a matter of time before he figured it out.  He's pretty strong so he can stand for long periods of time already!  He is crawling just a bit, using his right knee and left foot, but he's still faster at army crawling so that's his primary mode for getting around right now!  We joke that Emmett will be walking before he gets any teeth!  That silly boy doesn't have a single tooth yet.  He just hit the 8-month mark on Avery's birthday.

Garrett impressed all of our visitors with his ability to solve equations.  I'm amazed at what kindergarteners learn these days.  He can solve problems such as 5+2, 4+4, 8+1, even solving most of them in his head.  Then he likes to gives others equations to solve.  His equations go something like this, "What's 100+100+100+100+100+100?"  That reminds me, at parent-teacher conferences 2 weeks ago, the students had to rate themselves in each study area.  Garrett gave himself an okay face (versus happy or sad face) for math.  When his teacher questioned him about the reason, he said, "Counting makes me throat dry.  But I really like doing equations!"  Garrett gets really bored doing work that is redundant to him.  That probably explains the dry throat!

Garrett's favorite stuffed animal went MIA last night.  I searched around and told him I'd have to tuck him into bed and keep looking.  Avery chimed in, "It might be behind the pillow on the couch, but I didn't do anything.  It wasn't me.  Look under the pillows on that side, Dad."  Hmmm.  Sounds fishy.

Happy Birthday Avery!

Avery,
I can't believe my little girl is now a 4 year old!  I remember holding you in the hospital and thinking our family was perfect with a little boy and now a little girl.  You were so sweet and full of life from the very moment we met you.  Today we joked that you were born screaming and as you ran excitedly through the house screaming, you still are (screaming, that is).  You bring so much joy to us every day with your happiness, your genuine caring spirit, and your constant giggles.  Your giggles bring smiles to everyone's faces, including strangers that we encounter on our daily adventures.  I loved watching you play with your new toys today (Zoobles, a digital kid's camera, and Pucci pets).  You have an amazing imagination and are very creative.  We thank God every night for the wonderful gift that you are!  Happy Birthday Sweetheart!

I CAN RUN AGAIN!

After a 7 month (on-going) struggle with plantar fasciitis and a heel spur, I finally got the okay to start running a little again.  Thank goodness.  I was thinking I might go insane if I can't relieve my stress by running.  But first things first...I need a good pair of shoes.  No more Asics on sale for $40 or less at Kohls when I get a 15% of coupon in the mail.  I will be visiting the running shoe store in town that makes recommendations for shoes that fit your specific type of foot (over-pronator in my case).  I go shopping on Friday and will hopefully log some miles without too much pain this weekend.  Casey will be so excited!

We'll see how it goes.  I'm trying not to be too optimistic.  The podiatrist suggested deep tissue massage and icing.  I had been doing massage and icing but she suggested using a golf ball and rolling it very firmly under my foot.  After 2 nights of doing that, my pain level has increased so once again, I'm not sure what to do.  I start physical therapy at the end of March so hopefully I'll get some relief from that.

Healthy Cereal is a Joke

I bought Kix cereal the other day (plain yellow balls of cereal) - I had just heard on the radio it's one of the top healthiest cereals for kids and it has no food dyes (unlike Trix and Fruit Loops which my kids love).  When I showed Garrett & Avery the box they both looked skeptical.  I said "This cereal is supposed to make you smarter and it's good for you."  Avery says, "Are you kidding me???"

So far so good though....Avery has eaten it for 2 days in a row.

Birthdays

Avery is getting so excited for her 4th birthday, which is rapidly approaching.  She has been talking about it for weeks.  When we were browsing through Target's toy section so she could give me some birthday gift ideas, she asked me when her next birthday (after this one) would be.  I explained that we have a birthday every year, so the year after this one she will turn 5.  Her response was, "Then why did Garrett have 2 birthdays?"  Ahh...sibling rivalry.

My School Name

Earlier this week our lovely neighbor, Connee, was a substitute teacher in Garrett's kindergarten classroom.  He was excited to tell me right away that Connee was his teacher for the afternoon!

At bedtime, Garrett asked, "Mom, did you know that when people work in a school they have different names?  When Connee was my teacher, we didn't call her Connee.  We called her Mrs. Smith!  What's your name at your school, Mom?"  Both Garrett and Avery were surprised to hear that I am "Mrs. Stohs" at school!