The Family Blog

I've apparently got a little catching up to do...at least in the photo department. But I'll get to that in a second. First, I need to share that art class went brilliantly today! Yippee!

Gramoo came up this time. I insisted on being able to take Dalton to his Kindermusik finally and Gramoo was the "just in case" for Easton. But he didn't need her! I'm starting to think that maybe I'm overpreparing him for certain situations by possibly talking about them too much...he overthinks them, gets nervous and whatnot. So I never pointed out that art class was coming. Not last night, not this morning...not till just beforehand. So we started out the day with Easton putting on the vest from his Diego costume and I took him and Baby Jaguar (Dalton) out to breakfast to use up one of my Mother's Day gift cards. Then we went to the library for a bit...and then when we were leaving I said, "Tell Miss Jenny "Bye!" and we're going to art class now." And his demeanor changed again to his "it's not my day" mood (and yes, he repeats that frequently).

He got nervous and said how he doesn't want me to leave. I taped a conversation with him in the car in the parking lot where the class is. His bribe du jour was going to be ice cream (yellow because that is apparently what he thinks Diego would like). His reward for the week (swimming PLUS art) was a new Batman cup. It is very complicated with all our bribery around here. :)

Anyway, as we were chatting in the car about how I knew he was going to be a brave animal rescuer at art class and I couldn't wait to go have ice cream. Pretty soon he surprised me with an, "I'm ready". So we got out of the car and went to play on Squiggles for a bit. But really just Dalton wandered around:


...while Easton stuck close by me...or on me:


Till he saw another boy climbing a nearby tree and that made him brave enough to venture off my lap:


I gave him his two minute warning that we were going to go in and go potty before class and strangely he decided he needed to go potty right then...so that's what we did. And then he sat on my lap some more while we waited for Gramoo to arrive.

When Miss Annie opened the doors we didn't rush right in...I wanted other kids to be sitting having fun. Gramoo went and scoped it all out and filled Easton on the cool stuff she saw...so then Easton and I went in. We took it slow but he was really interested in the project and so he got started and I sat by the door so he could see me. He was getting really comfortable talking to the kids in the class and the teacher. I heard him telling his teacher how he was going to go get ice cream if he was so brave. :) After they finished up their project, kids were getting up and twirling around in front of the mirror. So he was doing that and having fun. I told him then that I was gonna go check on Gramoo and she'd come to get him soon. He was fine with it. I left and he did great the whole time! I'm both shocked and thrilled. Yay, Eastie! Perhaps the fact that he slept till after 8 a.m. today helped a little. We shall never know.

Because of Gramoo's long drive, and because we like her, we invited Gramoo to join us for the ice cream reward:

Easton's "yellow" was the Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla.

Diddles got some too:


Poor Dalton didn't get down for his nap till 1:30 and then I raced down to get Easton's new cup ready for it's maiden usage:


And then we had to fix his art project that Dalton broke:


He also made a drawing/painting in class:


I am just so so proud of how today went. I'm still not sure what my plan for next week will be. It's Dalton's last class and I'd like to do it with him again. We'll see. I know I can't assume E will do fine...that'll only get me in trouble. :)

So let's get back to the aforementioned pictures I needed to catch you up on. When we were at the phone store yesterday the lady working there hooked each boy up with their own discarded phone:




And then Easton and I did a small foamie project after his quiet time:




And last but not least, I wanted to share Easton's swimming report card:


Before we left the house Dalton decided he needed to go "poo poo", or at least that's what he said as he sat there:

At least he's not afraid of sitting on the potty when it does come time to try for real. :)

Now I guess you're all caught up. Trying to figure out my phone a bit more. First on the agenda...seeing if I can make the phone ring just a little longer before going to my voice mail...I can't ever seem to grab it in time!