This Might Be My Favorite

When Zach says bicycle, he says "bike-a-saur".  I think that might officially be my favorite thing that he's ever said.  Ever. 

My Big School Boy

Zach and I spent the morning at Gabe's school yesterday.  The New England Aquarium visited with some tidepools for the kids, and I got to bring Zach.  We watched Gabe and his classmates come into school first thing, and I was shocked by how grown up they are now.

When I drop Gabe off at school in the morning, a teacher picks him up from my car and walks him into school.  Yesterday I walked Gabe into school myself; so I got to see him go to his cubby, get himself ready for the classroom, etc.  I was astounded by the kids.  For some reason, I thought that the teachers walk them to their cubbies, help them with their coats, etc.  Nope.  The kids go right to their cubbies, take off their coats and backpacks all by themselves, take out their folders, bring their folders into the classroom, etc.  They do this all by themselves! 

They are little big people.  And Gabe is one of them.  It was heartwarming, amazing, and sad for me all at the same time.  I just find it so hard to believe that he's so independent.  When you take care of a child's every need for so many years, it's so hard to imagine that they can take care of so many of their own needs all by himself.  I'm so proud, so amazed, so lucky. 

Here are some pics from our day with the Tidepools yesterday:

Putting my backpack in my cubby

getting my folder out of my backpack

taking my folder to Miss Donna

the tidepools

Sam, the NE Aquarium educator

Gabe's teachers

sea star

hermit crabs

oops!

Joseph!

look at how happy Zach is!

look at how happy they both are!

Zach & Jonathan playing in their big brothers' classroom

my old standby safety net

pizza, donuts, & cake

the happy sea star

touching the tidepools

Remember This?

I almost had PTSD when I saw this project come home from school the other day.  Remember the poster fiasco last year?  Well, they're at it again this year.  But, this year we know exactly what to do.  And we did a darn good job, too!  Unlike last year (when Mom did most of the project), this year Gabe was able to cut with scissors, pull off the stickers, and use the glue stick!  What a difference a year makes. 

This year, Gabe's three wishes were: to be a dinosaur (and wishing that the dinosaurs were still alive), to be a delivery man (what?), and to be Optimus Prime (from the Transformers).  When he grows up, he wants to be a race car driver (I might have wanted to be one at one point in time, too!).  His favorite things this year were:  his brother (which he said first!!), playing with his brother and tickling and belly bumps, whales, the color yellow, pirate ships, dogs, T-Rex, lions, cars, cool car, cranes, cupcakes, bacon, Thomas the train, alligators, and Easter eggs.  This year, the things that he dislikes are:  shrimp (what?  he says they are too squishy), scary houses, scary pumpkins, and scary cats. 

cutting out my "favorite things"

here's my poster page!

and here's the back with more of my "favorite things" on it

We're On A Roll

We're on a roll with being big boys in the Fredette home.  I decided that it's time to do away with Zach's highchair.  At first, he wanted his chair back; but he got used to it.  Here are the pics of my two boys, eating their first meal at the counter together.

I'm a BIG boy now!

Speaking Of Holding

My little Zachie-bug reminds me a lot of Gabe, at times.  Here's an instance.  I joined a gym a couple of months ago, and the boys play in the daycare there while I'm working out.  It only took me 3 years to get comfortable with the idea of a gym daycare - what took me so long?

Anyway, during one of Zach's first visits to the daycare (it may have even been the very first visit), he played with a little toy birthday cake that looks something like this:

This tiny cake fits into the palm of his hand and is a dollhouse toy.  Well, I guess he's grown pretty attached to the cake.  I'm pretty sure that it's the first toy that he would look for when we first started going to the gym.  Now, he usually asks me to help him find the cake before I leave to do my exercises.  Once he has the cake in his little paw, he's ready to play.

Similarly, when we play at the Melrose Family Room, he always looks for the toy donut (like the one we have at home that he was obsessed with for a while - and which he continues to carry around every now and then).  Donuts and cake seem to be Zach's security blankets.

Funny guy.

Dabe's Buckle

The sweetest thing happened after we dropped Gabe off at school today.  Zach reached over to Gabe's car seat and took hold of one of the buckles.  He asked me, "what dis?"  When I told him that it was one of Gabe's buckles, he asked, "Mom, can I hold Dabe's buckle?"  Of course, I said yes.  And so I moved my rear view mirror down to watch his little hand holding that buckle.  He held that buckle all the way to where we were going in Melrose.  If I'd had my camera, I would have snatched a photo of that pudgy little hand, holding his big brother's buckle.  It was priceless!

Zach And His Chicken Nugget

Would you believe that we're still having food issues with Zach?  He didn't eat lunch or dinner today; he refused to eat his grilled cheese at lunch and his chicken nuggets at dinner.  Argh!

Of course, he wanted his "shock-lit milk" after dinner, but we refused to give it to him until after he'd eaten a nugget (at the very least).  It was heart breaking when he burst into tears without his milk.  Thankfully, he decided to "eat".  And by eat, I mean that he took one bite of a nugget and stored it in the side of his mouth for over half an hour.  No.  Joke.

Just before it was time to brush his teeth, he spit the nugget out.  Waaaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!