A little bit of this, and a little bit of that.

Shepard has officially finished his first year of preschool. I didn't take a cute picture on the front steps with him holding a cute chalkboard. We were doing good to get all the stuff together for water day. On this day, Mommy has to remember to bring a full change of clothes, get him there in water clothes and shoes, with sunscreen on every inch of his wiggling body, bring a towel and wrap two gifts and write cards for the grad assistants/teachers. So, no picture. I did snap these with my phone on that day, so there's that.

Shepard and Landon play in the water table. Landon has alternately been his very best friend and "not his friend" since day one. But mostly his very best friend. Except sometimes Landon says "me first" and isn't very nice, so Shepard goes and plays with Libba.

That's Shepard in the middle and the playground as water day commenced.

Lately, here's what we've been discussing. Cousin Madeleine asked him in the car the other day what he wanted to be when he grew up. He answered "a mommy." At first, my heart leapt, as I thought, "That's actually kind of sweet. He wants to be like me..." Then my brain took over, as I realized that was not his thought process at all.
Me: "Shepard, is that because you want to be in charge."
In the rearview mirror, he just nodded his head yes. Madeleine and I explained to him that he could be a parent AND something else. So he picked "Daddy, because I'm a boy and boys are daddies." So I asked him why. "Because I want to be in charge," he said.
So, that's him in a nutshell. He did say the other day that he wanted to be a Daddy and a teacher, just like his Daddy and teach at Daddy's school and live in his same house, and I could live with him forever and be the Mommy. When I asked him if there was a special girl that he wanted to live with, he said me. So, I'm actually good with that for now.

Lately.

Pre-bedtime interview. Chocolate-milk-drinking was more important than answering questions...


A little of our favorite song. Followed by distraction.

Photos and life...and watermelon

Nothing too exciting going on lately. We were able to visit with Grandma and cousins and uncles and aunt over Labor Day weekend. But did I take pictures? Nope. I did grab the camera on a few occasions lately, though. Here are some highlights.

Lawnmower! Good for 30 minutes of entertainment.

We're learning the letters of our names. It hasn't rained, so these have been around for two weeks.

Mommy, you ride in the back. I will drive you.

Riding on the "tractor" is fun!

And our annual watermelon video...

A little song

In addition to some of the perennial toddler favorites, such as Old McDonald and Row Your Boat, Shepard also composes some of his own tunes with great vigor:


I call this one "Sunroom Tune."

ABCs!

I'm hopeful to get some holiday pictures up this weekend. For now, I'll just have to leave you with the cuteness that is a piano and vocal duet by Mommy and Shepard. I am attired in my Saturday morning PJs, and Shepard is wearing a t-shirt of mine that he insisted on. We make quite the pair. I have no idea where he gets this bossiness from.

School pictures

I'm a sucker for the school picture. I just have to get them. They couldn't get a class picture of his spring class, which made me sad, as we really liked his teachers and classmates. So, this picture is priceless to me. These are his "school friends" that we go see each day. They are such a big part of his life right now. He comes home singing all kinds of songs these days, like "Baa, baa black sheep," his ABC's, "Bringing home a baby bumblebee..." It seems he is constantly learning new things.
Here are his friends and teachers, Miss Lecara and Miss Leah.

L-R: Front-Trevor, Xavier, Rylen; 2nd-??, RJ, Devin, Shepard, ??; Back: Miss Lecara, Aiden, ?? Hayden, ??, ??, Miss Leah

I need to work on the girls. A lot of the boys he's been with since he was tiny.

They have group time in front of this wall each morning and discuss what month, date and day of the week it is. They go through their shapes and colors. It's terribly cute to see. None of them can sit still for more than 20 seconds.


 Who's that handsome little man!?!?!

It was 90 degrees outside when they took these "fall" pics. I didn't know there would be a full-length pic. Oh well. Please note the blue bandaid on the big toe.  :)

Slice of Life

Any given night, we are playing, singing, brushing teeth, etc. Here are a few moments of some time last week. Just hanging out and chatting.

Sing...sing a song...sing out loud...

Little man has really taken off with verbal skills. Lots of full sentences, loads of new words every day...and he doesn't forget a thing. In addition to all the yabberin', he's also started singing intelligible songs! We caught him singing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" earlier this morning. Of course, I couldn't find the video camera!! While he was eating lunch, I started singing it to see if he'd join me...and he did. And by this point, the video camera was ready and waiting. Enjoy your first full Shepard song. Yay, Shepard!

I LOVE...YOU!

Here's a fun new trick...just in time for Mother's Day. Happy Mother's Day to our special Gigi and Grandma. We love...YOU! And, just for fun, a special rendition of "The Wheels on the Bus."

Friends Old and New

Way back in the day, I walked into my new college dorm room at my Winthrop University (where I knew ONE person) and met Marcie Neal. Before the week was out, we were singing together and laughing. A lot! As any good relationship, we um..."sharpened" each other too. We are two strong-minded (read stubborn?) ladies with a lot of good sense. But in the middle of it all was love. And singing. One night, we sang in mock-opera for several hours...just a regular conversation...all sung. Good times.
Fast-forward about ## years later (sheesh--can I really say 18??), and she is a Mama too...and now a Yon to my Jones. With three sweet little ones to my one. They were able to drop by for a visit the day before Thanksgiving. Shepard was pretty excited to have three new playmates all at once! The coolest thing was one of her daughters found a book on Shepard's shelf that was an audio version of "Aladdin." The kids all played with it while they were here. The next day, I read the inscription in the front..."From Marcie Neal, Christmas 1993." We were freshmen. The batteries in that thing still work! And Shepard has been enjoying it since the Yon kids pulled it out for us.

We tried to get pictures, but our wiggly ones were WIGGLY. Shepard hasn't mastered cheesing for the camera quite yet. There are other things he could be doing, I guess. Here are the results...what a sweet little pile o' kids!!!

L-R: Wiggly Shepard (17 mos.), Edy (7), Joshua (11 mos.), Abi (almost 3)

Making Meowsic

I admit it. I bought a toy for Shepard because I knew I would enjoy it. I mean, I think he does too...but this thing is seriously fun. Technically, it was a gift from my sweet co-workers for Shepard's first birthday, but I was able to pick it out in a return situation.  :) I had been eyeing it for some time. It's a cat-keyboard that has five key sounds, techno/samba/disco beats, pre-loaded sing-along songs and some instrumental tunes. Not only will I be able to teach him basic piano/keyboard skills...it has a....MICROPHONE TOO! He really gets a kick out of hearing his voice amplified.

(you can get the cat at Target, 'cause now I know you're as interested as I was)

Without further ado, here's Shepard recently hanging with the cat. I think Cat needs a name. I'll be working on that. And, I'll be learning to play the ever-popular "Smelly Cat" on this for sure.

We're loving the weekends around here

Having Shepard in child care through the week is tough...I'm not going to lie. So, when we get the chance to cuddle, play, sing and generally hang out all day, we are LOVING it. And we have to squeeze in some laundry and stuff too. Weekends are like a little oasis in the hot desert and oh-so-precious. And of course, I have to whip out the video camera. This one is like five minutes long...and I never seem to have any plan of what we might talk about. Good thing it's just fun to look at a baby! Enjoy this week's installment of "Hangin' with Shepard." (12 weeks)