Brayden turns 3!!!

So I know I just said I can't believe I have a 5 year old, but now I can't believe that Brayden is already 3!!!  I miss my sweet little 2 year old boy!  Pretty much to the day of her 3rd birthday Kaitlyn stopped taking her midday naps.  Now I don't know what it is but pretty much right when Brayden turned 3 he has stopped taking his naps as well!  I am currently typing this while I listen to him just playing around in his room!  After about 2 hours or so in his room, I eventually just go let him out b/c it will be too late to fall asleep after 3.  I really miss when he takes naps though, not because I get a break, which is nice, but because whenever he would wake up from his naps he would always like to snuggle me for a while.  Now since he doesn't nap, he doesn't want to snuggle :(  Brayden was always my only child that enjoyed snuggles so I am pretty bummed that he is giving them up.  He is also turning more into a Daddy's boy.  If I ask for snuggles he will say he will only give Daddy cuddles.  Brayden is not in preschool this year since we barely afford one tuition as it is, but he wishes he was so much.  He has finally stopped, but the first week Kaitlyn started school I would have to pull him kicking and screaming out of the building after each drop off b/c he wanted to go to school too.  I feel bad for him in a lot of ways b/c I feel like the second/third/ etc kids get shafted as far as learning goes in this house.  I put so much effort into teaching Kaitlyn her letters, numbers, etc and feel like I never have time to do the same with him.  I really need to be better about that.  Luckily though it does not look like he will need the speech lessons.  Whenever we practice Kaitlyn's speech words he is actually able to say most all of them and definitely better that she can.  It was actually kind of sad one day b/c Brayden would say them when Kaitlyn couldn't and she would ask "Why is Brayden smarter than me?  He is only 2!"  I had to try and explain that speaking didn't have anything to do with how smart you were, but that she just needed to learn how to enunciate better.  So anyway, That is good for Brayden.  He is definitely slacking in the alphabet department compared to Kaitlyn at this age.  He knows all his upper case letters, and about 1/2 of his lowercase. He cannot sing the alphabet song, but I haven't really tried to teach him!  He can count to 10 but he doesn't comprehend how to truly count 10 objects.

For his birthday this year, I took him to Carowinds the Saturday before his birthday to spend the day and ride whatever he wanted.  He loves Carowinds.  Unfortunately soon after that the entire family came down with a bad cold that has ruined our whole week and is still going on.  So he was pretty sick on his Birthday.  All we did was open presents and I made his favorite corn casserole for dinner.  Kaitlyn is usually the one that will first catch a cold from school, etc and then spread it around the house, but yet she gets over it in like a day.  Justin usually never even catches it and if he does he is over it very soon as well.  Unfortunately for Brayden, myself and Allie, we ALWAYS catch it and the sicknesses usually last 2+ weeks.  I remember last winter we were literally sick for like 3 months straight with one cold after another.  It appears this winter will be the same :(

 Visiting the Dinosaurs at Carowinds.  He loves seeing them, but was upset the T-rex was not moving this last time we went.

 On the swings!

 Attempting a selfie while waiting for the flying ride to start.  I don't take many of these so neither of us even knew where to look!

A bit more about 3 year old Brayden:  Current favorites: Sheep and dinosaurs.  He still loves his "Baa" his stuffed animal and likes to take it everywhere.  He loves watching Shaun the sheep, Dinosaur movies such as Land Before Time, etc.  He still enjoys Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and has started watching Jake and the Neverland pirates.  For toys, he likes to play with his toy dinosaurs and whatever Kaitlyn is playing.  He enjoys playing outside and likes squirt guns as well.

 Opening presents:  He got a lot of Land Before Time Movies.  Poppy (my dad) got him a roaring, light up dinosaur, and then I also got another dinosaur that lunges out at you from a church swap meet the night before as well!  He was in Dino-heaven!

Kaitlyn kept trying to open his presents for him. 

Cupcake decorating party with green frosting (his favorite color)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRAYDEN!!!

Kaitlyn turns 5!!!

I seriously can't believe I have a 5 year old!  When people ask me how old my children are, I still catch myself wanting to say 4,2 and 1.  It actually makes me pretty sad.  I have loved this age with Kaitlyn.  I think 4 has been one of my favorite ages with her.  She was so much more helpful, considerate, and definitely not as many tantrums etc.  I can see a lot of "drama" starting to creep in though.  Hopefully that never gets too crazy!  I feel like I am such a slack mom compared to pretty much everyone else, but I am just not a "party planner" nor do I ever feel like investing a lot of money into them.  So no parties this year.  We did take Kaitlyn along with her best friend Bayla from her preschool last year to Chuck-E-Cheese.  They had a blast and Kaitlyn actually thrives off only having one friend around at a time anyway.  They got a bunch of tokens to split and were able to just have fun.  I kept trying to get them to play games that would win them tickets, but they mainly just wanted to ride all the rides.  Oh well the prizes were pretty horrible anyway!  My dad had came to visit the day before and brought her a bunch of frozen presents and then at Chuck-E Cheese, Mamaw, Papaw, my mom and brother all came to celebrate.  Justin and I made some Frozen cupcakes and she got to open all her presents.  It was a nice birthday!

 Chuckie Came over to visit!

riding the spinning teacup

Cupcakes!

Present time!

Yaya got her a new "little horse" to replace the one she lost!

Kaitlyn starts Pre-K

 I am so far behind on blogging.  But Kaitlyn started Pre-K back at the end of August.  She is going to River Hills Church Preschool in Lake Wylie.  The school is great.  But I still miss her old preschool so much!  I miss the personal level of attention and the small class size.  The teachers were great and I also loved the convenience of location and drop off.  In her new school I have to walk her into class and pick her up from her room.  Which wouldn't be as annoying if I didn't have to unload Brayden and Allie each time as well.  The drive isn't horrible.  It is pretty much exactly 15 minutes from our house if I don't hit too many lights, etc.  But it is worth the drive to pay $60+ less each month to go to school down there!  So far she enjoys it.  She is very quiet and shy her teachers tell me so she hasn't made too many friends.  Her class size is much bigger than her old school so it's probably a bit more intimidating with 17 kids vs her old class size of like 8.  Kaitlyn has also started speech lessons this year through CMS.  I am grateful to have them free of charge, but I really detest going to them twice a week.  Thursdays are the worst because I pick Kaitlyn up from school, we usually pack a lunch and then just hang out at the school until it is time for her speech lesson at 1:30 off Tyvola Rd.  (The closest location to us.)  They are only 30 minutes long 2x a week, but it is really annoying just having to sit in a waiting room each time with Allie and Brayden.  I am sooo ready for Summer to come already!  Hopefully the speech lessons will be worth it though.  She is mainly going for help pronouncing a lot of consonant sounds.  I am just over all the driving.  I feel bad for Brayden and Allie b/c I feel like they are always in the car while I chauffeur Kaitlyn around!