A really long one

#1. I jinxed us for the weather in Chicago. It was not beach weather at all. It was cold, windy and rainy. And, my favorite term from Chicago weatherman Tom Skilling: BLUSTERY. Yep, it was a little blustery. But our friends were cheery, happy and sunny! We had so much fun. And I hardly have any pictures to show for it. Although Bryker took a few of Claire on my phone while riding in their van (thanks again Heidi for driving us all over the city!). Now I kind of want to move back.

* We managed to get in a "nice" (it was still really cold) hour or two at the park for Asher's birthday

*Funny story: We went to a restaurant called Xoco and I think we had the only kids there! We literally waited for like an hour to get a table and the nice hostess gave the kids lemonade and was making conversation with them, trying to entertain them. So Claire asks, "Why don't you guys have any chairs at your restaurant?" That's what you get for making kids stand for an hour!


#2. This guy had preschool graduation. Only he's going to preschool again in the fall so it wasn't a true "graduation!" Their class sang about a dozen songs and I was crying about halfway through because I was laughing so hard. My kid turned out to be "that kid" that sings SO loud and is SO off-key! I asked his teacher afterwards why she didn't warn me and she said he never sang that loud in rehearsal. She said she was just happy that he was so happy to participate. Unfortunately he wasn't so happy to participate in picture-taking. This is about the best we got. Saddest part about graduation for me? No preschool for the summer. :(

#3. This girl is busy, busy, busy. Busy, busy, busy. She's either dressing up and accessorizing or stripping down and running around the house naked. She makes a daily trip upstairs to go in the "big girl" potty (which Bryker so nicely pulled out of the closet for her one day) and then she proceeds to take the little bowl out and hang it over the railing so I can see how good she did. Maybe she's ready to potty train? Too bad I'm not ready for it!!

*I hope it's obvious that she dressed herself in both of these pictures!


She also had a little bit of a rough time when we ditched her to go to Chicago. (Apparently she didn't think it would be fun to sleep in the grandma's cribs. Or sleep at all, really.) The end result is this:

A crib tent. I knew I was taking a chance with this but luckily for me she loves it. (As you can see, it's not only fun to sleep in there but jumping is lots of fun, too.) I lay her down and she says, "zip it up so I won't jump out." Yeah, because the jumping out part was getting dangerous. And the sleeping in the bed on the floor part was taking an hour to go to sleep. Thank you, crib tent. We are back to normal now.

The one thing I hear the most from Makenna all day is "Mommy, hooooooooooooooold me." Along with being busy, busy, busy, she is whiny, whiny, whiny! It must be a girl thing. Bryker was never whiny...instead he just yelled, threw tantrums, hit me, you know, boy stuff. I can't decide which is worse!

*This face makes an appearance at least 10 times a day


#4. Since birth, Bryker has been a little on the big side. Now whenever anyone asks his age, he says, "everyone thinks I'm six." Well, he just lost his two bottom teeth. Only he's not six; he's four-and-a-half. Or maybe he really is six and my due date was just REALLY off? Anyway, I wasn't ready for the lose-the-teeth drama but luckily his daddy has had a little experience pulling teeth.

Another example of why he might be six: his new favorite show is iCarly. Yes, iCarly. One time, during a commercial, he yelled for me to come over to the TV. It was Big Time Rush (if it's possible, an even dumber show than iCarly) and they were singing some song, which Bryker informed me was a Justin BEAVER song. And, just for the record, he doesn't like Justin Beaver.

*My "six-year-old" still likes a little cat nap here and there! No need to lie down. It's just as comfortable sitting up!