Reid - 1/29/2016

Reid ate oatmeal and a bite of canned prunes for breakfast.  For lunch he ate hash brown casserole, biscuit, and three servings of mandarin oranges.  Lately he's been calling every meal "nack."  (snack)  He started at 8:00 this morning shortly after Momma left; "Hey Gary! When we gonna have nack!?"  "Hey Gary! Is it time for nack yet!?"  :)

Reid joined Cooper at the window waving bye to Momma Jamie this morning.  Cooper was doing his usual "kissing his left hand and waving with his right hand" (his technique of blowing kisses) and he always continues to do that long after the car has driven by.  Reid watched him for awhile and finally said, "Them already gone."  LOL  Cooper just looked at Reid as if to say, "And what's your point?"

The boys played with Coop's Star Wars cars and Reid was quizzing Cooper about each one and where he got it from.  I heard, "WalMart, Target, and Christmas."  After awhile Cooper said (to me), "Put these away; they're not our favorite anymore."  Haha.  I think it had more to do with Sophie wanting them!! Then I took this picture below because Cooper asked me "please take my picture."  :)

I took this picture to show you our little project this morning.  Reid had brought 3 glow-in-the-dark bracelets.  He also hooked them altogether as a necklace and then just one long piece.  Cooper had stuck it in the little hole he's pointing to in the picture and it was down inside the yellow bench.  So I got the drill to make the hole bigger and we were able to retrieve it with the grabber and some pliers.

Reid - 1/27/2016

Reid ate three servings of whole wheat toast and two servings of mixed berries for breakfast.  (Leslie, I'm sure glad he ate breakfast at home as well!  Geez!!  Ha!)  I asked him what he did last night.  He said, "I don't know."  Well, who then can I ask?  He said, "Lauralea!"  LOL  For lunch he ate three servings of ham slices, ate crackers, Bean & Bacon soup, and ate strawberries.  Cooper was expounding at lunch time about a TV show and he said, "When hot lava hits logs they turn to ash."  Reid said, "Wow."  :)  They were discussing another show; "There's a guy called Emperor and there's lightsabers going out both sides!" And Reid seemed to be familiar with that one.  He said, "And he looks like Darth Vader!!"  :)

After breakfast Reid said, "Hey Gary!!"  What? And he started chanting,  "Ma-ma, ma-ma, ma-ma.....That's the Ma-ma Hong!!"  (Ma-ma Song!)  Hahaha!  He cracks me up!!

Here's a picture of all three Templeton Boys having a look at Hudson right after he arrived.  Bode really likes Hudson too.  Very cute.  This next one is a little crude, but I'll Blog it anyhow!!  Bode got in front of Hudson on the floor and in a few seconds Hudson started fussing.  Bode said, "What's the matter; you didn't like the smell of that fart!?!"  Haha!!  When it was time for the boys to leave Cooper asked, "Where you going?"  Tate said, "To school."  Coop was disappointed; "Awwwww!!"  (Or something similar to that!)

I'll explain the picture below; The boys each had a little legos person, or in this case it was a warrior! Ha!  They attached the legos flowers to one of the guy's arms and that was his weapon.  Cooper pointed his straight up and said it was "aimed at the closest planet!"  :)  Earlier Cooper had announced, "The one with all the green is the winner."  Haha!  At the time he made that new rule he had ALL the green ones of course!  Instant winner!

Reid - 1/26/2016

Reid ate three servings of blueberry bagel and ate apricots for breakfast.  For lunch he ate chicken, three servings of whole wheat elbow noodles, ate peas, and applesauce.  At breakfast Reid said, "You hafta better go to our house!"  Ha!  Really, how come?  He said, "Mom has a grabber."  Huh!?!  Cooper starts yelling, "HIS MOM HAS A GRABBER!!"  Hahaha!  Ok, that's good.  (I hope.)  Haha!

These guys provide me with endless entertainment!  I probably shouldn't tell you all that because you might want to start charging me!!  Cooper was talking about something and said, "I'm afraid of heights."  Reid obviously misunderstood or didn't know that word because he said, "I'm not scared of hiking!"  LOL  Or maybe he associated heights with hiking!  (That's quite a long way beyond typical 3 year old thinking.  Ha.)

We read lots of books, the boys played on the mattress, on the igloo, with the food toys, did some dot painting, and did some building with the legos.  Reid was stacking cups and other various things all morning.  So I took a picture to show you one successful "tower" that he made.

I asked Sophie if she wanted to do some "dot painting" and she got all excited and said, "Uh huh!"  She sat down at the table beside Reid and I gave them all a paint shirt.  Reid picked one up, handed it to her and said, "Here Hofie, Put it on!"  Ha!  The cute part: she actually tried and had it sitting on top of her head!  :)

Reid - 1/25/2016

Reid ate bran cereal and dried cranberries for breakfast.  For lunch he ate two servings of canadian bacon pizza (homemade with no cheese - well kind of homemade with the whole grain crust bought at the store), ate corn, and two servings of tropical fruit.

Reid spotted Big Willy across the street going for his mail and the boys went to the window to wave at him.  When Reid saw him he said, "There's Big Weeeely!!!"  Cooper was laughing and said, "You called him Weeeely!"  They waved and waved at Big Willy and he was loving it.

I'm not sure exactly what happened, but Cooper got hit in the shoulder with a book.  He said, "Oww! That's my shoulder!"  So I told Reid he needed to give his friend Cooper a love.  He was hugging (well kind of) Cooper from behind and asked, "Is that good enough?"  Ha!  Cooper said, "Yup."  :)

We did a toy, book, puzzle, AND poster exchange this weekend and everyone examined it all.  However, as you can see from the picture below, nothing beats jumping of the igloo!!  Good job Reid!

We've always called the ponytails "whale spouts" when they are situated on the middle top of the girl's heads.  So I told Reid that Sophie had "whale spout" this morning.  Pretty soon he was giggling  and said it was a "volcano."  :)  So I took a picture of her hair so you could see the "volcano!"

Reid - 1/22/2016

Reid arrived shortly before Lunch so this Blog is super short.  For lunch he ate ground beef, two large servings of whole wheat elbow noodles, ate apple slices, and two large servings of mixed fruit.

This picture represents the place Reid and Cooper played before lunch.  This is where they were when TJ left and where they were when it was time to eat.  And now they're both asleep napping!  Reid said this was their "swimming pool."

Reid - 1/21/2016

Reid arrived after breakfast, but for Lunch he ate chicken, lots of crackers, ate sweet potatoes (primarily because I told him he had to before he could have LOTS of crackers), and ate canned cherries.  I finally ran out of the cherries I'd frozen from last fall - about the time they were starting to like them!  I told them these were canned cherries and Cooper said, "We don't like canned cherries."  Reid said, "YES I DO!!"  (As he's inhaling them!!)  Cooper THEN said, "We like them because they're warm!!"  (I always let the frozen cherries thaw-out overnight!)  However, Cooper finished his cherries the same time Reid did so I can confidently say that Cooper loved them too!  :)

I'm doing a documentary titled, "Behind the Scenes at Little Treasures: What's Daycare REALLY like?"  The fellow in the picture below agreed to be interviewed, but only if he could remain anonymous.  He said he was afraid of serious repercussions!!  Ha!

I was putting some things on the food tray for lunch when Cooper very excitedly proclaimed, "When we work together we can lift up the couch!!"  Really?  That's pretty cool.  However, I didn't really believe him so I asked them to show me after I grabbed the camera.  And here's the proof that they certainly can do it.   That's actually a really cool lesson to learn.  I was impressed!  I said, "Nice work boys!"  Cooper said, "If we work together we can lift you up too!"  Ha ha!

Reid - 1/19/2016

Reid ate three servings of waffles and ate hash browns for breakfast.  When he was washing his hands for breakfast he looked outside and said, "It got dark in a few minutes and now it's getting dark again."  :)  For lunch he ate chicken with tortilla on the side.  (We had chicken & cheese quesadilla.)  Then he ate mandarin oranges too.  I was pretty sure he didn't have a bite of carrots.  So as he was going up to wash I asked, "Did you have a bite of carrots?"  He said, "I done."  LOL  I said, "Well that didn't answer my question so here, pop this one carrot in your mouth."  And he did.  :)  I really enjoy and love this kid!!

Also at the breakfast table I told the boys I had a Doctor check-up on my thumb today and Lauralea would watch them while I was gone.  I said, "Not right now, but in a while."  That started a conversation that basically went like this;  Cooper said, "We get to Missoula in a while."  (this was about their trip to Bozeman this past weekend.)  "Bozeman is far far away!"  Reid said, "Well my car can go FAST!!"  Cooper said, "Well my Dad can go faster!!"  Reid said, "Well my Dad is bigger!"  LOL  (Cooper got the most silly look on his face like "ok, you got me there!  You always have to play the size card!!")  I LOVED Cooper's response;  "Uhhhh, well my Dad is big....like my Mom!!"  Hahahahaaaaahhhh!!!  I was roaring!!

Lauralea took this picture while I was gone.  The boys were putting on some dress-up clothes and that in itself is a RARITY!!  Lauralea had commented on what Sophie was doing so the boys started doing the same thing.

Reid and Cooper piled blocks inside the igloo and they had LOTS of them in there.  They had been stacking the blocks in a large pile and said that was their "fire."  Sophie came by and Reid said, "OH NO! Hofie hair get on fire!!"  :)

Reid - 1/14/2016

Reid ate raisin english muffin and three servings of blueberries for breakfast.  For lunch he ate three servings of turkey slices, ate sandwich thin, a few green beans, and ate two servings of strawberries.

At lunch time today Reid started saying, "walk walk, gallopy gallopy, walk walk....."  That's the game Lauralea frequently plays with Sophie in the mornings.  (Except Lauralea adds "trot trot" in the middle.)  It surprised me because I didn't think Reid knew it or even paid any attention when Lauralea was singing it to Sophie.  Well Sophie just grinned from ear-to-ear and she started doing it to in a "singsongy" voice.  That was so stinking cute!!!!  She was saying, "Walk walk, walk walk, walk walk..."

We did some coloring on coffee filters at Art Time and I spray water on the art pieces when they're done and we watch the colors run.  (Or in Cooper's case - just one color - green!!  Ha!)  Sophie sat beside Reid and colored at the table with the big boys.  Reid saw her sitting there and said, "Hey, Hophie hit by me!!"  I was like, "What?!?"  Oh yes, Sophie sit by you!  Ha!

Cooper brought his "launcher" toy from home and the boys had fun with it.  In the first picture Reid was already getting tired of the game and was folding it up and putting it away!  He wasn't folding it quite right, but he kept pushing harder!  Cooper said, "Are you sure about this?!?"  Ha!

I like this second picture!  Reid came to the lunch room where I was cleaning up from breakfast and said, "Hey Gary! I made a bed for Bode!"  So I had to go see the "bed" he made for Bode.  :)  Very sweet Reid.

Reid - 1/13/2016

Reid ate jelly toast and three servings of mangoes for breakfast.  For lunch he ate half of chicken/rice/bean burrito, bites of sweet potatoes, and two servings of tropical fruit.  Reid is so proud of himself because he's figured out how to tighten his bib by himself.  And it is kind of a cool trick! Right before lunch I fed Hudson and he kept yelling so I said, "If you're gonna scream you can scream out here."  And I moved him to the Daycare room with his toys.  Reid finished my sentence; "And you scream all day." Ha!  I had just put Hudson down for his nap and Reid saw him wiggling around on the monitor screen.  Reid said, "He a waking up!!"  LOL!

I took this picture yesterday afternoon when Kenzie was showing everyone the features on her new watch.  It's so amazing how technologically savvy kids are!!  They catch on so quick and they get it!  Also from yesterday, we were having snack and Hudson was sitting in his highchair waiting to eat.  He'd just woken from his nap and I commented (to no one in particular), "Hudson's not screaming!"  Kenzie said, "Maybe he's sick!"  LOL  I roared!  Poor Hudson!  Sorry to laugh at you Buddy!  :)

Reid is so funny and this next note cracked me up!!  Right before Lunch he went in to pee and said, "Watch this Gary! Just use one hand!!"  He was leaning forward holding on to the back of the toilet with one hand and the other hand behind his back.  "Wow Buddy!  You are a tricky feller!!  Peeing with one hand!!"  LOL!

This little story is more about Cooper, but Reid was the one who started the play with the cup towers. Reid asked me to show them how to build a tower with the stacking cups.  The cups are also numbered on the bottom so they can learn number sequences as well.  I have three sets of them and we did all three sets except we were missing one number 3.  Reid, Cooper, and I looked and looked and never did find the number 3 cup!  At one point Cooper said, "I kind of smell it!"  LOL!  Ok fine, but where is it?  "Well I can't see it!"  Moments later he said, "I smelled Sophie's butt and she's poopy!"  Except she wasn't poopy so I told him his nose was "haywire!"  Coop, do you know what "haywire" means?  He said, "Yup, it means awkward!"  Ha ha ha!  He cracks me up!  He has a GREAT vocabulary!

Reid - 1/12/2016

Reid ate three servings of cinnamon roll and bravely tried a good bite of canned prunes.  For lunch he ate half of scrambled eggs and sausage combo.  He ate three servings of waffle and ate melon mix.  Reed was wanting a third serving of cinnamon roll and so I was heating one up in the microwave. (I'd made some and froze them.)  He was waiting for it to cool off and he was a bit anxious!  Ha!  He said, "Can't wait to have it in my mouth!!"  :)

Today's Blog is going to be shorter because I had a follow-up Doctor appointment this morning and Lauralea covered for me.  (So I don't have notes - hard to get good help for free!!  Ha!)  Here's a note from yesterday;  Reid wanted me to read a book to him called "Bubbles Bubbles."  In the book is a picture of Cookie Monster with a bar of soap in his mouth.  Reid said, "This book makes me laugh." When he saw that picture he said, "He's a cookie monster, not a bubble monster!"  That's actually a great observation and a sign of Reid's cognitive development for him to recognize the silliness.

So if I have no notes I'll add pictures!  The boys were playing with Reid's toys and also some "little people" I have in this toy exchange.  Cooper found duplicates and I told him they were "twins."  Then he found three the same and I said those are called "triplets."  Cooper called them "triple twins."

Reid - 1/11/2016

Reid ate bites of kix cereal and three servings of mixed fruit for breakfast.  For lunch he ate two servings of ham sandwich, ate peas, and three servings of mandarin oranges.  

We did a toy, book, and puzzle exchange this weekend and the kids stayed busy with all the new toys. I found this little Captain America on a motorcycle at Walmart this weekend too.  I showed it to Reid and his eyes kept getting bigger and bigger and he said, "I was looking for that the WHOLE weekend!"  Well I'm certainly glad I could help you Reid!  I took this picture of him playing with it and the garage.

Reid and Lauralea were singing and Sophie went and got one of the egg shakers and started shaking it; grinning all over the place.  Then she was sitting on the cozy love seat between Lauralea and I.  She was leaning her head against me and then she'd lean it against Lauralea.  So dang cute and sweet.  Lauralea was saying, "Gary's turn" then "Lauralea's turn."  Reid couldn't stand it - he got up too and said, "Reid's turn."  And started laying his head on us too.

When the kids were washing up for breakfast Cooper was talking about his "R2D2 Lunchbox!"  Except I was hearing 'light' instead of 'lunch' and he kept yelling "lunchbox! lunchbox!" and it was getting funnier by the second!  (Lauralea was in the kitchen laughing uproariously!)  Reid (ironically) actually came to my rescue and oddly enough I heard him perfectly!  LOL  Thank you Reid!!

Reid - 1/8/2016

Reid ate brown rice and raisins for breakfast.  For lunch he ate two servings of meat loaf, ate pita bread, maybe half of his carrots, and two servings of apricots.  We were having some of our usual meal time conversations and then Cooper had to show us his bottom teeth.  He said, "Some of my teeth are broken."  :)  Hmmm, wonder where he got that idea from?  For those that don't know - Kenzie had 3 bottom teeth pulled yesterday.

I have a new little monitor that I use to watch the baby sleeping.  I'd just put Hudson down for his morning nap and Cooper, Reid, and I were watching him wiggle around in his crib.  I asked the boys what they thought about it all.  Cooper said, "I think he's waking up."  Ha!  Yup it sure looks that way, but he has to go to sleep first.

This first part is about Cooper, but I thought you guys might like it as well.  We were reading some books and Cooper said, "Boom-a-lacka, boom-a-lacka, boom boom boom; that's one of Gary's new books."  Yup, you're right!  (With one exception - it goes "whack whack whack, instead of boom boom boom.  The dinosaur is 'whacking' his tail on a log.)  Then the boys wanted to play with the tunnels this morning so we hooked the two of them together.  It's fairly long, but probably not as long as the picture makes it look!

Cooper and Reid were playing on the mattress with some of the little stuffed critters that have velcro. So the boys were sticking the velcro to their socks, pants, whatever.  I thought this one was hilarious when Cooper hooked the little penguin to his ankle and was walking around with it.  One other note from their mattress play - Cooper was singing, "Rudolf the red-nose reindeer...." and after several times through Reid was saying, "stop, stop, stop..."  Ha ha!

Reid - 1/7/2016

Reid ate three servings of breakfast: Cinnamon toast and tropical fruit.  He saw the tropical fruit in the bowl and said, "I want to finish it off!"  Ha! For lunch he ate baked chicken, dinner roll, half of hash browns, and two servings of cherries.  (I looked back and saw Reid helping himself to the cherries Cooper had left behind and then the rest of Coop's chicken!)

Here's a piece of the breakfast conversation: First thing at breakfast I dropped a plate and it broke in half.  Cooper immediately said, "Your plate broke Reid!"  LOL  Then I told Reid it was his turn to wash and he said, "I just washed at home!"  :)  Then I asked the boys the usual question; "What'd you guys do last night?"  Cooper answered for both of them; "We don't know."  LOL  Oh man I roared!  Then Reid answered with a direct quote from Cooper's most frequent answer to that question; "I just found my blanket in Mom and Dad's covers."  :)

Cooper went poop and afterward announced his great accomplishment to Reid, "I went poop Reid!" Reid said, "Wow!"......still thinking about it for several seconds....."WOW!!"  Ha!

The boys played with Cooper's Star War vehicles this morning and they both were LOVING it!  They played with them until breakfast and then at least an hour after breakfast.  They asked Lauralea which ones she liked and she said, "I don't like bad guys."  Reid said, "This Darth Vader and Storm Trooper! I like bad guys!!"  :)  The boys eventually played with the building blocks and when I took this picture below they were building a structure around and over Cooper's dog and Reid's baby (Steven). Coop said, "My dog likes the dark."  Reid said, "My baby like the dark too!"  Cooper said, "This is an airplane baby dog house!  This thing will be finished in no time!!"  LOL  Reid said, "Mom wake me up on airplane!"

Reid - 1/6/2016

Reid ate two servings of blueberry bagel and three servings of peaches for breakfast.  For lunch he ate two servings of ham, three servings of whole wheat elbow noodles, ate corn, and apple slices.  Cooper is not here today, but Reid had a good morning; played with Sophie, did some art (stickers and painting), sat for Story Time, and played with the legos.  

I took this first picture when he was lounging in the swivel/rocker and watching himself in the mirror. As you can see I took a picture of the mirror.  He's grinning because I kept telling him to close his eyes and pretend to sleep.  

I took this picture when Sophie was practicing bouncing on the mattress.  It's also great practice for her balance.  Especially when Reid is bouncing all over the place and she's fighting to stand up!  Ha! As you can see in the picture he's getting ready to bail off the balance beam.

I asked Sophie if I could have a love and Reid grabbed me from behind and was hugging me.  He said, "I give you love when Hofie give you love!"  He's a very sweet boy.

We were reading a book about animal sounds and it kind of went like this: What's a cat say?  Sophie said, "Mrr-ow, mrr-ow."  What's a pig say?  "Mrr-ow, mrr-ow."  What's a sheep say?  "Mrr-ow, mrr-ow."  Ok, you get the idea.  :)  Reid thought that was all hilarious.  Then he asked me about a picture and I said it was a boy "dreaming."  I asked him if he ever had dreams and this was his answer: "Yah, I think about monsters - soooo funny!!"  Ha!

Reid - 1/4/2016

Reid ate chex cereal and mixed fruit for breakfast.  For lunch he ate two servings of Canadian Bacon sandwich, drank some tomato soup - which shocked me when he picked it up and took another drink! He ate crackers, and banana.  Reid and Cooper were discussing the "weather" at breakfast and Cooper informed Reid; "With snow on the ground that means Christmas is not over yet!"  :)  I think Reid was happy to hear the good news!

It may be hard to see in the picture, but Cooper and Reid had about 20 of the little legos people sitting on the legos they'd lined up.  Reid said this was a "speed boat."  And Cooper added, "A really big and fast speed boat!!"

I love this picture how Reid is bending over talking to Sophie and she's looking up at him very attentively!  So cute.  (She really likes her Reid.)  Earlier she'd found his socks on the floor, picked them up and brought them to me.  I told her to put them on the changing table, but she couldn't reach it so she put them on the top of the dress-up clothes rack in her secret hiding spot.  :)

Cooper and Reid looked at their shirts and determined that they were wearing the "same shirts."  (See picture above)  Both of the boys have T-Rex on their shirts.  The shirts are obviously different and I was especially surprised that Cooper went along with the idea, but yup, they had the "same shirts!"  Speaking of dinosaurs, I got two new dinosaur books and also a construction book with machinery and all the books were big hits!

I came out from the bathroom and there were six or seven stuffed toys scattered around by the kitchen table.  I asked a silly question: "Who threw all the animals out here?"  They simultaneously (really) pointed at each other and said in unison (really); "He did!!"  LOL!!!  (That's pretty funny at 3 years old - not so funny at 18!)  Ha!