Reid - 5/25/2016

Reid ate blueberry bagel and three servings of peaches for breakfast.  For lunch he ate ham, three servings of whole wheat elbow noodles, ate corn, and two servings of apple slices.  Reid asked Coop, "Do you love elbow noodles?"  Cooper really didn't answer the question, but told Reid, "you're going to turn into an elbow noodle!"  Ha!  Reid didn't act too concerned!  He finished off the serving bowl of noodles and then ate all the rest that Cooper didn't eat!  That was a lot of noodles!  We took a break from the breakfast table to watch the water truck spray the street, followed closely by the street sweeper.  Cooper was on the patio waving his arm like crazy!

I asked the boys who'd removed all the books from the book rack and made a big pile.  Cooper immediately said, "REID!"  And Reid followed that up with, "COOPER!"  And back-n-forth it went with lots of finger pointing and laughing.  At one point Reid said, "A ghost dumped them out!!" Eventually they both started pointing fingers at Sophie and said she was totally responsible.  :)

This picture may be a clue to the unsolved mystery of the emptied book rack!!  The boys were using it to play a game.  They were shooting and tossing food toys into the racks and as you can tell in the picture it didn't seem too challenging!  Ha!  Reid was doing most of the tossing and shooting and Cooper was rattling off rules and rule changes as fast as his tongue and brain would allow!  :)

It's been several days since I've done "How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if....."  Today Reid just randomly said, "How much wood could Woody Woodpecker peck?"  LOL!!  Then he was looking at some plastic shapes and asked, "Do these glow?"  I don't think so.  He had an idea!  "Gary, can I stay at your house when it get dark to see if they glow!?"  :)  Yup.

I took this picture right after Story Time.  We were sitting on the couch reading and as soon as we were done Sophie was hugging Reid and kissing the back of his head!!  It was so cute!  By the time I got the camera she was sitting down, but still loving on him.  She loves her Templeton Boys and they are so sweet to her!!  :)  Yesterday after nap Cooper asked, "When will Kenzie be here?"  I told him it would be a few minutes and Sophie asked, "Bode?  Bode?"  So cute.

Reid - 5/23/2016

Reid ate several bites of rice chex cereal and two servings of mixed fruit for breakfast.  For lunch he ate two servings of beef sandwich, drank tomato soup and ate crackers, and licked the pickled beets two or three times.  When Cooper was washing his hands before breakfast he saw the beets and said, "Hey Reid!"  RT; "What?"  CC; "We're having your favorite!  Beets!!"  He knew he was being funny and it was hilarious!!

It was interesting and enlightening to listen to their breakfast conversation.  I didn't participate; I just listened.  They were talking about their birthdays and then Cooper started expounding on his upcoming party!  And it went like this;
CC; "My next birthday is only for boys and Hudson can come!!  And my Dad can come because he's a Boy.  And you can come Gary.  And you you can come Reid!"
RT; "Thank you Coop! And Tate and Bode?"  CC; "Yes."  RT; "My Momma?"  CC; "Nope.  And my Grandpa can come because he's a boy."
They went on to talk about Grandpas and Reid said his Grandpa died and I'm pretty sure he was talking about TJ's Grandpa.  RT; "My Grandpa died."  CC; "My Grandpa never dies."  All of this conversation took place before they even started eating and I was furiously taking notes.  I'd given Reid his cereal, but not Cooper.  Reid started laughing and said, "Hey Gary!  You forgot something! Coop's food!!"  LOL  Yes I know, but your conversation is too interesting this morning.

The boys had a blast playing together this morning!  The first thing they did was start jumping and playing on the mattress.  I took this picture when Cooper was jumping "over" Reid.  Reid kept saying "Hey Coop!  Jump over me!"  I don't know what he expected but then he kept saying, "He not even bonk me!!"  LOL  They also played with the food toys, legos (making lightsabers), and of course Star Wars.  Cooper told Reid, "I'm Yoda.  You're Luke."  Reid randomly said,  "Hey Coop!  Funny story; Bode was 13 when I was a baby!!"

Reid was having love surges when Sophie arrived.  He kept following along behind her with his arms extended wanting some hugs.  It was so cute!!  I took this picture when Reid took a break from from jumping onto the mattress to talk to Sophie.  They were jabbering at each other about something!

Reid - 5/18/2016

Reid ate three servings of whole wheat toast and ate mixed berries for breakfast.  For lunch he ate ham, crackers, bites of bean & bacon soup, and ate strawberries.

This first picture I took yesterday afternoon after Reid and Sophie woke up from their naps.  Reid said, "She was standing down there and I pulled her up here!"  :)  Reid always brings his special blanket with him and today he brought another special "puppy blanket."  As soon as Sophie arrived he went over and gave it to her.  Later in the morning I saw Bubba about to grab the puppy blanket and Sophie sprinted to rescue it!

Yesterday Reid was talking about Hudson's Birthday - which is coming up in less than two weeks and so he's probably heard his Momma and I talking.  Anyhow, Reid said, "I know Bubba gonna invite us to his next Birthday! Because Tate and Bode love him!"  He's a pretty sensitive male!!  Love it!!  :)

This isn't about Reid, but I thought you might like it.  Yesterday afternoon outside on the patio Cooper came running and yelling, "There's something BIG coming toward you!!"  Ok, I'll get the rifle!!  Then he pointed at an earwig crawling along the concrete!  Ha!

The kids were building a "box" for their blankets.  They hid their blankets and then continued to build on top of them.  I love how they can express their ideas!  Cooper said, "This is a cage for blankets; now they can't escape."  I said, "I didn't realize you all were having trouble with runaway blankets!"  He said, "We been thinking all day for one of these!"  :)

We sang songs, did dot painting at art time, did some sign language, and also the shapes.  It's been awhile since we did signs and shapes and the boys did awesome with both of them.  Reid is doing well with the shapes too, except for the 4 hardest ones; Parallelogram, trapezoid, octagon, and hexagon.  I wrote the words on the shapes and I think Cooper has the words memorized for octagon and hexagon because he doesn't count the sides, just looks at the word.  Pretty cool for 3 year olds.

Reid - 5/17/2016

Reid ate two 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.  The meal conversation was all about Star Wars: "Star Wars battle front, Star Wars infinity game, Emperor, Darth Vader, blow up, Flame Trooper....and on and on and on and on........."  :)  Cooper asked, "Are Flame Troopers nice Reid?"  One word answer; "Bad."  :)

Reid loves the book in this toy set about Cookie Monster and he's eating a bar of soap!  Reid always laughs about that and asks for me to read it.  He said, "I like this one!  Cookie Monster eat the HOPE!!"  :)

These first two pictures are ones I wasn't able to post yesterday so here they are!  I like the first picture because they were holding hands and wanting to jump at the same time, but there isn't enough room for both of them to stand side-by-side on top of the igloo.  And then I liked how far Cooper was stretched out. I love the next picture with Reid holding Cooper.  Then he was carrying him to the mattress and diving on it - over and over again until they were both sweating profusely!!  Just by looking at the picture you'd never guess those two boys are only 6 days apart in age!!

This block creation in the last picture was "Our helicopter.  The guns are up here on top!  This is the Dark Side ship!!  This is our Fort!!"  :)

Reid - 5/16/2016

Reid ate raisin bran cereal and dried cranberries for breakfast.  For lunch he ate canadian bacon pizza, corn, and three servings of tropical fruit.  The boys were being silly when I asked them what they did this weekend.  Cooper said, "I took a shower."  Reid said, "I peed my pants one time."  Then Reid was burping out some words and I said something like; "I don't think your Dad and Mom want you to do that."  Reid said, "Why my Dad do it?"  LOL!!  :)

I'm not able to put the pictures on the blog today, but I'll save them and put them on soon.  Especially one picture where Reid is packing Cooper around.  It's so funny and cute!!  Cooper was sitting on the igloo and Reid was picking him up and walking to the mattress.  They were having a blast and laughing their heads off!  And both of them were wet with sweat!  (Picture issue: I'm upgrading to the latest operating system and then I think we'll be good.)  It all started with them doing "canon bombs" off the igloo onto the mattress.  Then Cooper was trying to "carry" Reid and he basically was grabbing Reid's ankles and pulling.  Reid said, "Why you pulling on my legs?!"  :)

We did a toy, book, and puzzle exchange this weekend and I think the boys noticed, but they were more interested in using the toy "knives" for lightsabers and building guns from the legos.  I was wondering why I even bothered with the toy exchanges!!  Ha!

I kept this note from several days ago;  Reid was looking for his sock so we could go outside to play. I saw it laying on the floor right in front of him and I said, "It's right in front of your face."  He eventually spotted it and went to tell Cooper about his success; "Hey Coop!!  I found my hock!! It's in the middle of my face!"

Reid - 5/9/2016

First, I want to mention that there will not be a Blog for the next two days at least, and maybe longer.  I'm taking my Computer to the Tech tonight and then it depends on what they find.  And (as part of the problem) there will be no pictures today.  I love having pictures every day because they tell the story so much better than I can!!

Reid ate bites of cheerios and two servings of banana for breakfast.  For lunch he ate three servings of peanut butter and jelly sandwich (instead of cheese sandwich), drank all his tomato soup, ate crackers, and had a lick of pickled beets.

The boys had fun today and they are always interesting to watch after being apart for the weekend and it especially gets interesting if it's longer than just the weekend!  They'll frequently squabble a little bit, but they are always quick to move on.  Their love of all things Star Wars helps them have a huge common interest.  They discuss Star Wars all the time, including meals and it was the same all morning today.

Reid was also in the mood for some wrestling, but Cooper wasn't too keen on it this morning.  Probably because Reid was being too rough and I had to get on his case about that a couple of times. Cooper said, "I don't want to wrestle, but you can tickle my belly button!"  LOL  Hey, he was just trying to find something that would satisfy Reid's need for mauling!!

They built a really large fortress with the big blocks - primarily to keep Hudson at bay!  They built weapons with the small legos too.  Reid was playing with Hudson and gave him a push.  I said, "Oh Reid, you can't push the baby."  Reid instantly felt bad and was giving him loves and said, "But he was going to do a back flip."  Uhhh, he's too little to introduce him to back flips!  :)

Cooper really likes one of the Special Books that describes an animal and then you guess what it is.  (Of course he basically has it memorized!)  This morning it was describing a "walrus" and it was Reid's turn to guess.  Cooper started laughing and said Reid called it "a wallet."  That made me laugh because "wallet" is what I thought he said as well!   :)

Reid - 5/6/2016

Reid ate oatmeal and three servings of dried cranberries for breakfast.  For lunch he ate ground beef, three servings of whole wheat elbow noodles, bites of peas, and ate applesauce.  (Most of the peas were still froze because the electricity was off for about an hour this morning.  It came on when he was finishing lunch.)  Before breakfast Reid was moaning at the sink; "Why do I need to do it every time!?!"  Do what?  "Wash my hands!?!"  Ha!

Bode and Tate were still here this morning when I took this first picture of Reid.  He said, "Hey Lauralea!  Watch this!!"  ......  "Uhhh, I was doing a move and I landed on my face!!"  Ha!

Cooper and Sophie are not here today so it is just Reid and the two little babies.  Reid has been SO sweet to the babies all morning!  (Well, when they are not sleeping!)  He was giving loves to Hudson and Bode did what Bode loves to do!  Photo Bomb!!  :)

Reid worked hard at building this sidewalk and he was totally good with Bubba crawling on it.  (He built it by himself with no help from me.)  A few minutes later he started dismantling it.  You're tearing your sidewalk apart already!?  He said, "Yup, I wanna make a L for Lauralea!"  :)  Have I mentioned that I think he's a sweet kid!?!  :)

In this last picture Reid was playing with some food toys in the sink and Hudson was right beside him.  So cute.  Reid was making a cake and pretty soon he started singing, "Happy Birthday to You, Happy Birthday ...."

Reid - 5/5/2016

Reid ate two servings of cinnamon roll and three servings of blueberries for breakfast.  For lunch he ate two slices of turkey, ate whole wheat bun, maybe half of green beans, and ate strawberries.  When I called the boys for breakfast to come wash Cooper said, "I've been gone longer!"  What does that mean?  "It means I get to wash first!!"  Ha!  Well I'm not familiar with that rule so we'll just continue to take turns washing first!  (Besides being the most fair way, it's also the SAFEST way!!  Otherwise they race wildly and recklessly to get to the sink to wash first!!)   :)

Reid had built a small tower with the blocks and then was trying to show Hudson how to knock it over.  "Hudson, you do it like this."  Then he was hugging on Hudson and wanted Lauralea to see it; "Hey Lauralea! Look!"  Reid is such a sweet boy.  Sure love him lots!!

We are playing outside in the afternoons so I'm not able to post pictures from the same day!!  I took these first two pictures yesterday.  The Cline kids (2/3rd's of them) and the Templeton kids (2/3rd's of them) on the teeter-totter.  :)  It's a bit small, but nobody seems to care!!  Just having fun!  In the next picture Kenzie is showing some good form.  Also in the second picture you can see the ice cream carts and dump trucks all lined up.  All four of the kids below were running and jumping over each of the obstacles.

Here's a picture of the boys with a poster we'd made a few days ago, but we laminated it this morning when Sophie was at Kindermusik and the two babies were sleeping.  We took a field trip to the basement where the laminator is located.  :)  Cooper was looking at the top of the holding tank (which holds the septic sump pump) and asked, "What's down there?"  I told him it was a holding tank for the basement bathroom so it holds poop and pee and then the pump pushes it up the pipe that you are hanging on to.  Hahaaa!  You should have seen how quick he turned loose of that pipe!!  :)

Reid - 5/4/2016

Reid ate english muffin and canned prunes for breakfast.  He ate the one prune I put on his plate and then asked for more.  I'm very proud of him for learning to like something that he originally didn't want to touch!  For lunch he ate a couple bites of beef & bean burrito, ate sweet potatoes, and tropical fruit. Reid didn't like the burrito at lunch and I noticed he'd deposited it on Cooper's plate, which apparently was fine with Coop!  I told Reid to put it back on his own plate and he said, "Well I don't like it."  Ok, but we don't stash unwanted food on our neighbor's plate.  :)

I took this picture yesterday afternoon because I thought it was cute how they were perched on the top of the yellow benches together.  I'm not really sure what they're focused on, but it could have been the "fish."

I took this picture of Cooper under Reid's blanket ("Blue Guy") after he'd ate breakfast.  Everyone else was still eating and Cooper was trying to get some attention!  He kept saying, "I'm snug as a bug in a rug!"  :)  Cutie!

The boys were playing with the "number pillows" and calling them their "backpacks" and "life jackets."  And it evolved into some kind of "life-saving equipment in the lava flow!"  Ha!  Pretty handy pillows I'd say!  We read books, did some art, and sang songs.  Speaking of songs I didn't realize I was singing this particular song very much until I heard Reid and Cooper start singing it.  It's an old Chuck Berry song - "Maybellene" - and Avilene rhymes and fits perfect in the song.  I heard Reid and Cooper this morning both singing, "Oh Avilene, why can't you be true..."  LOL  (Maybellene was a "car.")

Reid - 5/3/2016

Reid ate three servings of breakfast: jelly toast and mangoes.  For lunch he ate scrambled eggs, hash browns. and sausage combo.  Also three servings of waffles and two servings of melon mix.  At breakfast Cooper and Reid had a difference of opinion as to whether Avi is a boy or a girl.  Reid said, "She's kind of like a boy."  :)

The kids were watching the workers across the street again.  Cooper thinks it's funny that one of the workers doesn't wear a shirt.  "He doesn't have his shirt on!!"  (giggle giggle)  It was fun watching the truck driver unload the pallets of shingles.  Like I told the boys, it's a cool machine because it has a boom like a crane and forks like a forklift!

The boys got on the yellow benches to watch me change Hudson and then had super exaggerated responses to how bad he smelled.  They ran across the room holding their noses and sat on the mattress for several minutes as I took this picture.  Reid said, "We can smell it all the way from here!" After two or three minutes Cooper finally said, "Ok, it's not stinking anymore!"  :)

We also read books, built with the big blocks, and the boys wrestled and rolled like......boys!  Sophie was quite entertained and amused by all their antics.  (Although she'd finally seen enough when I took the picture below.  You can see her playing on the mattress.)  It was pretty funny what they were doing when I took the picture.  Cooper was holding Reid's weight with his legs and they were laughing uproariously!  Over and over.

Reid - 5/2/2016

Reid had bites of rice crispy cereal and two servings of mixed fruit for breakfast.  For lunch he ate three servings of ham sandwich, ate peas, and two servings of mandarin oranges.  The boys have a habit of putting too much soap on their hands to wash at meal time.  At breakfast Cooper said, "I have a lot of soap because I have a LOT of germs ON!"  :)

We did a toy, book, and puzzle exchange and I took a picture of Reid and Cooper playing with the pop-up toys.  I think the name of the toy has changed; instead of a pop-up toy, it's now simply a "launcher!"  They were launching Cooper's stuffed Star Wars toys and Sophie was keeping a close eye on everything.  At least they are soft!!  :)

Also in this toy set is the little houses, little furniture, little pets, and little people.  So I'm thinking it's possibly helping domesticate these boys a little bit.  Or not!  :)  I do know that Sophie played at the spot in the picture below long after the boys had left to find something more exciting to do!!  Ha!

There was also quite a bit of activity to watch out the window this morning.  The workers are putting a new roof on the house across the street and then these two young boys had their 4-wheeler almost up to the window in our driveway!   (They'd moved by the time I saw them and got the camera.)  Ha!  I soon realized that the motor is missing and it's probably a good thing considering how they were pulling it to get it started!  :)  A picture of how not to do it!