Another one bites the dust

The 8 pairs of pants in the picture all have 2 things in common: they all belong to Alan and they all have holes in the knees. Alan is SO hard on his pants. Most pairs of jeans only last one month and I stopped buying any other kind of pants because they only last a week or two. He does this every winter - he can go through 10 or more pairs of pants. So of necessity I learned how to patch pants. For Christmas I asked for a sewing machine and last week I sat down and figured out all the parts and instructions for my new machine. I am not much of a seamstress so that took quite a while. Then I sorted through Alan's drawer. Five of the pairs were getting kind of short so I didn't repair them, so I guess the title should read 5 more bite the dust. One pair are his paint pants so I didn't repair them. The other two I put patches in the knees and sewed them up. Now he has 2 good pairs of pants (they are both the Toughskins brand which means they last longer) and 2 pairs of play pants. Hopefully they last the rest of the winter.

Going to Preschool

After Christmas we looked at our finances and decided that we could send Alan to preschool. I found that there was one vacancy in a preschool near our home so we enrolled Alan there. When we told Alan I expected him to be really excited and at first he was, but then he got really quiet. I asked what was wrong and he looked at me with this worried look and said "I'm nervous." We reassured him but he stayed nervous until his first day. He seemed to lighten up when he met his teacher and saw all the toys in the room. When I picked him up after his first day I asked how it was. He excitedly replied "Mom, it wasn't boringer!"
Me: "Oh, it wasn't boring?"
Alan: "No, I thought it was going to be boring but it wasn't!"
Since then he has loved every day of preschool. He loves doing crafts and coming home to show me what he learned about. They had a valentines party on Monday and he was so excited for the whole week prior to it - he couldn't stop talking about it. I have learned that apparently here in the states you always put candy on your valentines. In Canada we don't do that - we just give cards or paper hearts. So I was kind of surprised when Alan came home with a pouch full of valentines and all of them had candy on them. He also came home with a plate full of goodies. At first I felt kind of dumb for not sending candy but then when I thought about all the candy Alan ate that day I think that maybe the kids didn't need anymore sugar.

Alan with his back pack on, ready to go to preschool

In preparation for President's Day they learned about Abraham Lincoln. Alan really liked wearing the pretend beard.

Happy Birthday Reed!

On Reed's actual birthday he had to work late and then he had to go to a scout thing so we decided not to celebrate that day. The day before I made his requested birthday dinner - homemade lasagna, with homemade sauce, and Caesar salad. It was delicious. Then a couple of days later I made his dessert - lemon/orange poppy seed cake. Our whole family loves this cake.

Here are the boys helping dad blow out his candles

Happy Birthday Reed!

Well Child Checks

Last month I took Alan and Micah in for their well child checks. The doctor checked Alan first. Here are his stats:
weight: 47.6 lbs. - 86th percentile
height: 46 inches - 95th percentile
He is a healthy boy. We got his kindergarten set of shots and I was impressed at how well he handled it. He didn't cry or make a fuss - he just sat there and then he admired his bandaid.

Alan loves to make crafts. He asked me for a cardboard box and then he went to work with tape and scissors. In the end he made a grabber machine. It could also dispense candy.

Alan rarely naps anymore. Instead he has quiet time in his room. He usually starts by looking at books on his bed and then he moves to the little nook in his room and plays quietly until I come get him. On this day he was extra tired so he fell asleep while playing in his nook.
Micah had his 4 month check up. He is also a healthy little boy although he seems to have no interest in rolling over. He didn't handle his shots as well as Alan, although he only cried for a minute. Here are his stats:
weight: 16 lbs. 11 oz. - 73%
height: 27 inches - 94%
head: 41.3 cm - 17%

He loves his bath time!

The hair in the back never lays down unless it is soaking wet.

We like to Party!

We had a family party for Alan on the weekend his Grandma and Grandpa Pitcher could come. We have a book of cut-up cakes and Alan had fun looking through that. He finally decided on the rocket ship cake. We invited his 2 friends and their families over for cake and ice cream.

He was really happy with the final product

Make a wish!

After his friends went home we opened presents. Alan got a lot of presents and he was very happy with all of them except for the dress up clothes I gave him. He opened that present first and then he just starred at them. I bought a couple of costumes after Halloween because I thought he might enjoy dressing up as a pirate or astronaut but I guess not. Oh well.

Here he is with his space shuttle. He was so excited when he opened it that he fell over.

Just what I wanted!

Conner was excited to show Alan the craft supplies that he gave him

I love how excited he got about his presents. He was super excited to get a buzz lightyear laser gun with foam darts.

After that Grandma and Grandpa took Alan and Conner out for lunch at McDonalds and that concluded the celebration. Alan had a wonderful day!

Alan turns 5!

We decided to do our family party for him on the weekend but on his actual birthday we did some things to celebrate. When he woke up we told him we had a treasure hunt for him. He followed the clues and found a new back pack.

He was pretty excited

Then after breakfast we went to walking group. I told my friends that I wasn't going to do a friend party for Alan this year so they brought a game and cupcakes to the gym and we had a little party for him there (their two children are Alan's best friends). He got bakugan (Alan calls them vacuum guns) from both friends.
That night I made Alan's requested dinner: fish. I told Alan that I would make him whatever he wanted and he thought for a minute and then announced that he wanted fish. I was so surprised - we are not big fish fans so I have never cooked fish for the boys. I think he got the idea from his preschool field trip to Albertsons. Anyway, I waited a couple of days, thinking maybe he would change his mind, and asked again. Here is how the conversations went:
Me: So what do you want for your birthday dinner?
Alan: Fish
Me: You still want fish?
Alan: Yup, when are we going fishing?
Me: Uh, we aren't. I'm going to go buy the fish at the store.
Alan: (in disbelief) What?!?
Me: Well, its too cold to go fishing, all the water is frozen right now.
Alan: Oh (obviously disappointed). Well, when you go to the store you will buy a fish and I can see it when you bring it home.
Me: Uh, no, when I go to the store I am just going to buy some fish meat (I was planning on a salmon fillet).
Alan: What?!?
Me: Alan, when you have a hamburger it doesn't look like a cow, it just looks like meat. It's the same with fish.

After this conversation I took Alan to the store on his birthday and we went to the fish counter. Apparently you can buy whole fish. We looked at them and I pointed out the salmon fillets and told him they were good but he wanted a whole fish. I convinced him to look at the frozen fish sticks with me but he didn't want those (can you tell I tried to talk him out of this?) At this point we had to make a potty stop so here is our conversation in the bathroom:
Me: Are you sure you want a fish for dinner?
Alan: (looking very concerned and serious) Yeah, because what if I grow up and I've never slayed a fish?
At this point I burst into uncontrollable giggles and had to duck behind the bathroom door so that he wouldn't see me. He was so serious I didn't want him to see me laughing. After I contained the giggles the conversation resumed:
Me: Okay, you're right Alan. Lets go get a fish.
Alan: Yeah!! And even though the store people slayed it for us I could still learn to slay a fish when I get older, huh?
After a "coughing" fit to contain my giggles again I agreed with him.
The whole way up to the fish counter he kept up a very serious dialogue about slaying fish and I struggled to keep a straight face. So we bought a whole rainbow trout. The lady put it on a styrofoam tray and covered it with clear wrap and Alan and Conner were so excited that they took turns carrying the tray around the store as we finished our shopping.

The rainbow trout

We took it home and I watched a video on youtube of how to prepare it. Alan was really excited to watch me put spices and lemon on it and then we baked it. We also had rolls, carrots and homemade french fries. Alan was excited all the way up to the part where he was supposed to eat the fish. Then (predicably) he didn't want anything to do with it. I told him that the only reason I had bought the fish and cooked it was for him so he had to try a bite. He starred at it on his plate for several minutes and then asked if we would give him a kinder surprise egg if he ate a bite. We agreed and he took a quick bite and then washed it down with a big glass of juice. He has decided that he doesn't like fish. Reed asked him why he wanted fish and he said that he thought we would like it. What a funny kid! We love having him in our family.

Here is a little about 5 year old Alan:

Favorite color: rainbow

Favorite movie: all of them

Favorite thing to do: play with Alex
What makes you happy: When Alex comes over to play
What makes you sad: When I get consequences and when I have to go in timeout
friends: Alex, Mara, Zachary
favorite book: I like most of them
favorite food: donuts
What do you want to be when you grow up: A dad
How many kids are you going to have: I don't know...Mom, you have the babies, you get to decide.
Where do you want to live when you grow up: in a house or a building. I want to live with you guys.
favorite song: Give said the little stream.

favorite toy: new matchbox car set that you can make lots of different cars with

A less than fun week

A couple of weeks ago we had a rough week. It started with Alan coming down with the stomach flu. He woke up at 1 am on Saturday and threw up. He threw up 8 times in 8 hours, the poor kid. Looking on the bright side, he made it to the toilet every single time. I was very impressed. Not only that but he handled being sick really well - he was calm and very matter-of-fact about it. Unfortunately Conner didn't handle it as well. Just as Alan was starting to feel better Saturday night Conner came up to me and told me he was hungry. Then he threw up everywhere. He completely panicked - I don't think he has ever thrown up before. Luckily he only threw up twice but after that every time he had a burp, hiccup, cough or sneeze he would panic and put his hand over his mouth, as shown below:
Thankfully the sickness was relatively short lived and Micah never did get sick. It has been a while since we have had the stomach flu and it made me really grateful for how healthy we usually are.

Then on Monday and Tuesday Micah slept horribly during the day. He would sleep okay at night but I counted how much daytime sleep he was getting - he got 1hour and 20 minutes of day time sleep spread out over 5 naps. So he was only sleeping 10 to 20 minutes at a time. Then he would wake up CRANKY. He always had to be held or he was crying. After a couple of days of this I was done. We started sleep training. I absolutely detest sleep training because it always involves tears. I started putting Micah down for naps when he was drowsy, but still awake (before this I had been walking him to sleep and then laying him down). He was so mad. He cried a lot the first 2 days but then it started to get better. It is still not perfect - he still only sleeps for 30 to 45 minutes at a time but that is better than it was. It is hard with him because he is so worried that he is going to miss something. As he gets sleepy he will do everything he can to keep himself awake - the little stinker.

Finally - he's asleep!

The following Saturday we decided to try to figure out why our kitchen is so cold. When it is cold outside our floor is freezing - I have to wear boots or slippers or my feet go numb. Also our drawers that back up to that wall feel like little refrigerators. So we pulled the oven out and looked at the wall:
After some exploring we realized that we don't have much, if any, insulation in that wall. No wonder it was so cold. Now we are looking into having someone come and blow insulation into the wall.