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!

Brayden's Potty Training

I am happy to report that Brayden is pretty much completely potty trained!  It was not too bad really.  I wasn't sure if he was ready or not since he doesn't turn 3 until October, but summer was my only time to really attempt it b/c once school starts back up I will be too busy.  Kaitlyn will have preschool 4 days a week and speech therapy twice a week so it was just too much car time to try and potty train then.  We started on a Friday b/c I like to start on weekends so that Justin is home to help out with the others so that I can focus all my time on Brayden.  The very first day he was pretty scared.  He wouldn't really use it, but like Kaitlyn was able to hold it pretty long.  But unlike Kaitlyn he would start crying when it just came out by accident when he wasn't ready.  He would sit on the potty for long periods of time and just do nothing.  By Sunday he still wasn't really doing too well.  He had quite a few accidents and would sometimes start peeing in the potty but just never finish.  By Monday or Tuesday he was doing pretty good with his peeing.  He rarely had any accidents with pee after the weekend.  Maybe one or two.  But by Thursday he STILL hadn't pooped!  Our friend Ashley had sent us a book about potty training from a lady who professionally potty trained kids and she stated that the longer they wait, the worse it will be and you need to try and get them to go.  So Justin stopped at Wal-mart and bought an infant enema.  Luckily we never had to use it.  It only too the threat of having to give him "bum medicine" and he said "I go poo poo."  and went right in to the potty and pooped!  Ever since then it has been pretty good.  he realized that he feels better after he poops and we are able to go out to stores, etc.  Yay Brayden!

Sibling Potty Time!

Kaitlyn's Last Day of Preschool!

This past week was Kaitlyn's last day of preschool ever at the Wonder Years!  We are going to miss them so much!  Unfortunately they are closing down this year so I had to find a different preschool for her to attend next year.  I'm sure it will be great too, but I will miss the small intimacy of this school as well as the price!  The other schools in our area are about $100 more a month that The Wonder Years was.  I only paid $160/month.  I finally found another one in Lake Wylie for next year that is $215/mo which is not great, but much better than most of the others in my area which are $260+.  Below is the pictures of her first and last days of preschool.  Because of her birthday being in September she is always going to be one of the oldest in her classes.  She is still considered to be in the 3 year old class even though she was 4 pretty much the entire year.  But for Kaitlyn I think it will be a really good thing for her to be one of the oldest.  She needs that extra time at home before starting kindergarten.

 

Here school had a small "graduation" ceremony, no cap and gowns or anything.  But it was great.  They did a wonderful photo slide show of all the kids and there were a lot of really great pictures of Kaitlyn in there.  Afterwards they called each child up individually and said a little bit about them.  Kaitlyn was described as "Sweetness"  which I can actually totally see.  She really is a sweet kind hearted girl.  She walks away from conflict and is always concerned about others.

 Here is a picture of her best friend from school Bayla.  I'm really sad that this will probably be one of the last times she gets to see Bayla.  Since her mom and I don't really know each other it's not as likely we'll get together much for them to be together!  Brayden kept photo-bombing the pictures! haha!

 Kaitlyn and her wonderful teach Mrs. Lisa

 Kaitlyn and her wonderful teacher Mrs. Sharon.  I was told that they were "buddies"  Kaitlyn always stayed by her!  So sad that all my kids won't get to experience this wonderful school!

 Kaitlyn's second best friend from school Violet

Allie's First Birthday!

Allie turned ONE!  I can't believe she is already one!  She is growing up so fast!  Here is her last monthly photo!  I'm so glad I did this with her.  It was so fun to see her grow through the pictures.  I also did a comparison picture to Kaitlyn on her first birthday in the same party dress.  I think they look so different!  Kaitlyn has so much more hair, but even their facial features look so different to me!

 Kaitlyn on her first birthday                                                                Allie on her first Birthday

Opening up some presents.  The last thing we needed around here was more toys, so we actually just brought some old toys out that Allie had actually never played with.  They had been put up b/c they needed batteries, but it ended up working out great b/c she really liked them and never seen them before!

 My mom got her a cake from Costco.  Since we didn't have a party (only family) we really didn't need a cake that big, but the Costco cakes are cheaper than the small cakes at the grocery stores so Oh well!

 Sisters!  Kaitlyn loves her Allie!

 Exploring her cake.  She really didn't eat too much of it.  Just kept squishing it and then flinging it off of her hands everywhere! haha!

First trip to the Dentist!

A couple weeks ago I took the kids to their first ever Dentist trip!  This is the first year we have decided to pay for dental insurance b/c it was so much more expensive to add kids onto the plan.  So we decided to wait until at least Brayden and Kaitlyn could take advantage of it.  I chose a pediatric dentist in Ballantyne rather than my family dentist in hopes that they would be better with kids.  It wasn't as awesome as my pediatric dentist was growing up, but good enough I guess!  One bonus was that they were playing Frozen in the waiting room and in the chairs.  So they both enjoyed that.  Kaitlyn did great.  She listened and did everything she was supposed to.  Brayden on the other hand freaked out.  He wouldn't even let them look in his mouth so I ended up having to hold his bottom on my lap and his head was placed on the lap of the hygienist.  She maybe cleaned his mouth for like 1 minute. Hopefully he will be better when we go again in 6 months!

Easter Fun!

We had a great Easter.  Our neighborhood had the Easter Bunny visit and all the kids did really well.  No one got scared!  They also had an Easter Egg hunt but it was horrible.  There were just WAY too many kids.  You had to start behind a finish line so once they told you to go parents were literally trampling over children trying to take all the eggs for their children!  Ridiculous! Brayden only got two eggs and that is b/c I picked up one and another boy accidentally put one in Brayden's basket instead of his own! On the actual Easter Sunday the kids woke up to find that the Easter Bunny had came!  We went to church and then later that afternoon we were invited over to a friend from church's house for fun with friends and another egg hunt for the kids!  That one went much better!

Our friend Katie also did another Easter photo shoot and it went great!  Well Allie did great...Brayden and Kaitlyn aren't very cooperative with their smiles.  But she still got some great shots!

 I don't know why, but this picture just cracks me up!  I just love how both Brayden and the rabbit are both just staring so hard off in the distance!  They both just look so funny here!

 Gotta work on teaching her how to do a more natural looking smile! haha!