Dirt Magnets - H is for Hats, Hopping, and "Happy Birthday, MamMa!" (Feb. 18-21)

H is for Hats, Hopping, and "Happy Birthday, MamMa!" (Feb. 18-21)

Friday, February 22, 2008

Nothing really "blog-worthy" going on around here - it's been a pretty mellow week, aside from dentist and doctor appointments.

The boys spent most of the weekend building and then, of course, destroying, lego and duplo creations. Tyler was particularly proud of his robot.

Tyler spent the day Monday at a "Junior Engineers" class presented by Mad Science KC. He had a fantastic time. They built a dome, bridges, skyscrapers, and houses and worked with tesselations.

Tuesday was dentist day for Ty and Ryan. It was a good news/bad news kind of event. They were both very cooperative, and better yet, cavity free. The only negative was finally making the decision to go ahead with braces for Tyler. We've talked about them at his appointments for the last year, because his top front teeth are pretty far forward in his mouth and the dentists have had concerns about him breaking them or knocking them out. Eight seems awfully young to be putting on braces, but with his lack of grace, I suppose it's better to get them done and the teeth moved before he does serious damage to them.

Wednesday was Tyler's follow up appointment for his stomach. All of his results from the last couple weeks were back and the only thing that showed up was some slight dehydration. After another x-ray, another exam, and even more questions, his doctor decided that he thinks that the tummy issues may all truly be constipation. Arggh...such a simple diagnosis after all the time and co-pays that we've put into checking it out, but we're very thankfully that it's nothing serious. He left the office with strict instructions to always make sure he drinks at least 8 oz. with every meal and snack and to eat at least two fruits or vegetables with every meal. The fruits and veggies are no problem - he already eats at least 5-7 servings a day, but we'll try bumping it up even more. The liquids may be a bit harder - we already feel like we're always nagging at him to drink something as it is, and he tends to not want more than a sip or two at meals.

Yesterday was my mom's birthday, so we went out to dinner and then came home and celebrated with brownie sundaes. Tyler did most of the brownie preparation, and they were fantastic!

Our preschoolers have spent their week on the letter H and the book We're Going on a Bear Hunt, which have led us to lots of fun activities. We had a hat day, where each child brought a favorite hat from home to wear for the day, practiced hopping in hula hoops, acted out the bear hunt story, learned about different types of bears, and more.

James was ready for hat day a couple days early -

and he had a great time when it finally was "hat day".

Ryan and Tyler enjoyed hat day, too! Tyler wore hats all day, even when the little kids were napping.

Ryan wore the knight's helmet much of the morning. He also wore his baseball cap for quite some time, but was feeling silly and running away to hide whenever he saw the camera.

Hopping in hula hoops was great fun! We did this for nearly an hour, but could have gone on even longer. Even Tyler decided that it was an activity that merited his participation.