Preschool

Daniel had his first day of preschool today.  He is going to Picasso Preschool two days a week, for two hours each day (Tuesday/Thursday, 9:30-11:30).  We went on Monday evening to meet his teacher and he was very shy.  He didn't want to talk to her, didn't want to play with the toys, and basically didn't want to have anything to do with any of it.  So, we started dreading today.  His teacher told us that if he was upset when we dropped him off, to just give him to her and walk away quickly and she would handle it.  That was the plan for this morning.

Before we left, we wanted to take some pictures of our preschool-age-boy.  He wanted nothing to do with taking pictures.  At all.  It was all I could get him to do to even look at the camera, let alone smile.

We then headed for school.  Daniel wanted me to carry him inside, but as soon as we walked in the door, he said he wanted down and wanted to walk to his classroom.  I was pleasantly surprised and quickly put him down.

When we got to his classroom, we said hi to his teacher and Daniel grabbed a toy firetruck and immediately sat down and started playing with it.  Amy and I took that as our cue to leave, so we said a quick goodbye and headed out.  He wasn't crying or anything, but was being very quiet. I turned around as we left and he was looking at me with very sad, puppy-dog eyes, but still not crying, not following us.  We considered it a victory and headed out for a nice breakfast to celebrate.

At 11:30, we went back to the school to pick him up.  As soon as he saw us, he came running with the biggest smile on his face and immediately started telling us about all the things he did.  His teacher said that he was great, didn't cry at all, did very good listening, and was very polite.  Lots of 'please' and 'thank you'.  In fact, he didn't want to leave!  We couldn't be more proud.

Each week, they focus on a letter, number, and color to learn about.  This week was A, 1, and red.  This was what Daniel brought home from school.

Overall, today was a great success and we can't wait for school on Tuesday.

Visitors!

This past weekend, we were lucky enough to get a visit from Uncle Terry and Aunt Elizabeth who live in Denver, AND Uncle Gene and Aunt Mary Jo who live in Des Moines.

Everyone arrived Friday evening and we had a great time chatting.  Daniel loved that he got to stay up late too.

Saturday morning Uncle Gene and Aunt Mary Jo gifted Daniel a kitchen set that cousin Allison played with when she was about Daniel's age.  You could say he liked it...  :)   THANK YOU Gene and Mary Jo!

Chatting with Uncle Terry on his kitchen phone about Uncle Terry's food/drink order

Aunt Elizabeth took a few minutes to read Daniel's current favorite book, Goodnight Goodnight Construction Site

After we were able to drag him away from the kitchen set, we took a trip to Lowes.  (Really there was nothing else that would get him away, and what visit is complete without a trip to Lowes?)  Daniel was very happy to show everyone where the hot-spots in Lowes are, especially the appliances including washer and dryers.  After that we took a quick drive around Lee's Summit and came back for lunch.

Later we ventured out to Oklahoma Joes for some famous KC BBQ.  I think everyone really enjoyed dinner!  Most plates were practically licked clean.

The rest of the evening was spent at our house where we introduced everyone (including Daniel) to Rock Band.  Daniel wasn't a fan (sadly), but everyone else seemed to enjoy a little rocking out!

Sunday morning everyone had to leave.  It was sad to see them go, but we are extremely grateful to each of them for making the journey to KC for a visit.

I want to thank Terry for being the breakfast chef extraordinaire!  It was nice to be spoiled and let someone else do a little cooking.  And of course to the clean up crew, Elizabeth and Mary Jo.  You made hosting a breeze.  Let's do this again soon!

(One more picture from today... He used his kitchen to "make pasta" for his lovies, Hop Hop and Ooo.)

In other news, yesterday I hit the 32-week mark!  I feel her hiccup frequently now.  I remember that with Daniel too.  She's still very active, which is a good thing.  It's reassuring and comforting to me.  We're all getting anxious for her arrival in seven weeks!

I don't know if I mentioned it before or not, but I failed the first gestational diabetes test and had to go in for a 3-hour glucose test a couple of weeks ago.  Thankfully I passed the longer glucose test, so I do not have gestational diabetes.  Bring on the key lime pie!  ;)

32-weeks pregnant

Cooking Eggs

Daniel and I were in the basement the other day and he found a bunch of Easter Eggs.  He wanted to bring them upstairs to play with, and then proceeded to spend a good part of the day Saturday and Sunday cooking eggs.  I took a short video of some of it:

Naptime

Over the past week or so, Daniel hasn't been napping well... maybe I should just say he hasn't been napping.  Until this past week, regardless of whether he took a nap or not, he always stayed in his bed.  Sometimes he would play with his toys, but only the toys on his bed or within reaching distance of his nightstand.  That changed this week and he started venturing out of bed to play.  He does stay in his room until the green light comes on, but I guess today was just too much for him.  Here's a short video of how I found him:

We now have a floor napper!  I guess there's a first time for everything.

Daniel Quotes and Pictures

We just put Daniel down for bed and he had some really great things to say.

He has a bit of a cold and his nose has been pretty runny this evening. 

Daniel: My nose won't stop running.

Daddy: I know buddy, I'm sorry.

Daniel: My nose doesn't have a button to push to make it stop running. Maybe we should get me a new nose with a button so I can press it and make it stop running.

Daddy: Where would we find something like that?

Daniel: Umm...maybe Home Depot?

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At bedtime, he will usually choose one of his stuffed animals for us to say good night to. Tonight it was Glowie. 

Daddy and Mommy: Good night, Glowie (pretending to listen to Glowie) Oh, Glowie said good night to us, too!

Daniel: Glowie can't talk, he's not real, he's just a toy.
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Daniel didn't take a nap today, and consequently he was very tired this evening.  The fact that he wasn't feeling very well and was tired meant that he just wanted to cuddle.  And then, while cuddling:

And a couple of great pictures Amy took the other day of our beautiful boy:

Weekend Activities

We had a very fun and busy weekend.  It started Saturday morning with our friend Wendy and her boys, Emmett and Link, coming over.  We were supposed to go to a waterpark, but unfortunately the posted hours on the web site were wrong and it wasn't open.  So, we consoled the kids by getting some doughnuts and going back to the house to play.  We set up a bunch of water toys and the boys had a great time playing together.  

After they left, it was nap time for Daniel.  Before putting him down, I (mistakenly) told Daniel about the birthday party we would be going to at the gym after his nap.  He didn't fall asleep.  Instead he spent most of the time yelling "Come on green light!  Turn on!  I want to go to the gym!"  After the green light finally turned on, he ran out of his room.  The first thing he told was that the green light did bad listening but then did good listening and turned on.  Here is a short video Amy recorded of his "nap" time antics:

The birthday party at the gym was a lot of fun. Daniel climbed, yelled, and played.  And, he ate cake.  He had a "really good time!" and we had a lot of fun watching him.

Daniel with one of his best girlfriends, Revae

After the gym, we made a trip to Lowe's and then out for dinner.  Despite no nap and a very active day, Daniel was incredibly well behaved at the restaurant.  Afterwards, we came home and I decided to turn on the Playstation and let Daniel have a shot at playing a game with the regular controller.  He played a kids racing game, and while he didn't quite get the hang of using the controller, he had a lot of fun trying:

We spent Sunday at home, getting things done around the house.  Including putting the swing back together for Little Sister:

And vacuuming.  Note, Daniel is sans-clothes in this picture because he decided what he was wearing needed to be washed in his cardboard washer and dryer a little earlier. 

He also helped bathe the dogs, do lots of laundry, make food for the hummingbird feeder, and do lots of other things around the house.  Overall, a very fun, busy weekend with a very happy boy!