Harvest Day at School

Shepard's school recently did a harvest day. They baked apple pie and pumpkin bread in class and practiced acting out a book. Shepard plays the role of an enormous turnip, with the help of some of his friends. He is in a plaid shirt. We had a good time playing "tossed salad" and having snacks in his class. I watched him POUR APPLE JUICE into his own cup. Without spilling. Amazing what they have these 3-year-olds doing. Do note that his class is 3 - 4 year olds with several turning 5 in the fall as well.

We had lots of fun.

Pumpkins, pumpkins, everywhere.

We got to go on a little field trip with class to the pumpkin patch. We had real, live police escorts shutting down the streets for us! God bless those teachers. They earn every penny. It's stressful keeping up with that many 3-4 year olds!

But fun too.

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...

Three. The Movie.

It's epic-lengthed. Seriously. Way too long, but time is moving along so quickly that I don't want to skip anything and forget it. So, if you have 15 minutes to watch the sweetest little guy on the planet, here's your chance.

Coming soon...THREE. THE MOVIE.

But until that big ole video uploads...amuse yourself with this. "Froggie" and Shepard recently. An interview.

Come on ride the train...and ride it.

We took a spin down to Greenville for the long weekend to visit Grandma and family from Illinois that was visiting. I'm a ninny and didn't pull out my camera for group pictures, but we had fun hanging out with Uncle Carly, Aunt Debbie, Cousin Jonathan and Courtney.

One of Shepard's favorite activities in season at Grandma's house is the little rec department train that runs in the park about a block from the house. We can walk there (or ride bikes!), and it also has two playgrounds. Pretty neat stuff.

We rode the train three times in two days. He LOVED it.

A few pics and a short video...

Getting close to that 42" mark...

Let's RIDE!

Lessons from the Potty

We are about 80% potty-trained. Well, I should say Daddy and Mommy are 100% trained, and Shepard is 80% trained. He does almost all of his #1s and a fair amount of his #2s in the correct place at the correct time.
He was his usual strong-willed self throughout the process, and I'm sooo thankful for his preschool teachers who had lots of patience and helped us immensely with tips and tricks...and changed a LOT of wet/poopy underwear. There has been a ton of laundry at our house as well. But, it seems that the message has gotten through. Mostly through. There has been lots of candy and some big prizes and an entire weekend of watching Elmo's potty video over and and over and over and over...

Especially this little rap about the toilet paper factory. I might be able to do this from memory now:




Catchy, huh?

Here are a few tips that I should share, since they were no where in any book, online article or Elmo video.

1. Y'all. CROCS. Or any variation thereof. Sooo handy to clean and dry when accidents happen. Plus, he can take them off and put them on by himself. Just rinse those things off or even run them through the washer...but they made the accident-zone a much better place.

2. Move an entire clean-up and supply system to the bathroom. This might be a no-brainer for some of you, but I was unprepared for messy clean-up the first few times. In the drawer right next to the potty, we have: gloves, wipes, pull-ups, clean underwear, arm & hammer odor-shield bags and disinfecting/cleaning wipes and some potty-time books to read. Stock it daily. There is a reason I didn't do cloth diapers. But, I can say that my poop-tolerance is fairly high now. No gagging or screaming or crying.

3. Make toilet paper a line-item on your budget. Bless him. He just can't pull off two squares. He has to pull 11 and then swirl them around in the water. We're working on it. Until then, cha-ching! Compounded more when your puppy finds the long, dangling end of the paper on the ground and completely unwinds the roll before you find him. Yes, puppy. I need to post about that, don't I? We just believe in potty training and manner-training lots of creatures at once.

4. Some basics that we did that you can find in other resources: start talking about it early. We got several fun books (this and this) at the 2-year-old mark. Boys apparently take longer and start later. His school encouraged us to use ONLY underwear (no pull-ups) during waking hours so he could get used to the feeling of wet. Make it fun, and don't dwell on accidents. We used stickers and candy as rewards and he got to go pick out a "poopy prize" after he pooped in the potty the first time. Let them watch you, particularly see the same-sex parent (if possible) go to the bathroom to allay any fears and to help them see everything in action. We had to wait on him a little to actually let me put ON the underwear, but it was helpful that we had been talking about it and practicing a little for about 8 months.

I'm still cute when I covered in poop.

5. Elmo video and book are great. Be sure to look through the book and practice the songs before you bust it out with your kid, though. YOU are the singer...it's basically a back-up track with words printed. Be ready to sing the songs A LOT while he/she sits on the potty.

5. One thing I read AFTER we had transitioned to underwear (so too late for me) was to place the child on the potty while they were making a poop, even if they were wearing a diaper. It just made the association of sitting up there while doing that. Of course, I'm pretty sure Shepard would have balked at that and jumped down...but it's worth trying.

6. There is hope. As with every stage of development that seems to take FOREVER, I just tell myself, "well, I can assume he won't still be wearing a diaper or (insert baby behavior here) when he goes to college..." Now, instead of sending home three or four sets of wet/yucky clothes at the end of the day, I'm usually getting NONE or one. And I'm getting a raise to the tune of $30/month that we spent on diapers. #Winning.

Next up: nighttime training. He woke up dry this morning and tinkled first thing. So, who knows? Also, I have put a little portable potty in his room so he doesn't have to go wandering down the hall in the middle of the night. Anybody have some pull-ups coupons? Or good ideas?

Darby Acres Farm

The sun finally came out for five minutes in March, so we made sure to GO OUTSIDE. We found the cutest place in Charlotte called Darby Acres farm. I thought Shepard would be fascinated by all the animals...he wasn't.
What he loved more than anything were ALL THE TRACTORS that he could climb on, plus a little stash of tricycles, big wheels, etc. I mean, there were BABY GOATS, y'all, and I couldn't tear him away from the plastic big wheel. He had fun anyway. There are lots more animals, but I was sticking with him...so didn't capture all of them on video.
This is an insanely long video, but it's fine. One day I'll be cherishing every second of video I took to remember the glimmer in his eyes, his voice and expressions.

Yee haw.

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."

SNOMG!

The video really does all the heavy lifting for me this time. Just watch and enjoy Shepard watching and enjoying his first real snow...followed by a few pictures of him in snow when he was much smaller (sigh). Sorry for the delay. I have had numerous technical difficulties getting this one saved and published (???). It's has taken about a week and a half to get it worked out. Oh well. ENJOY!

Whoa. What's going on, Mom? January 2011

 

Don't worry, I was only sitting here like this long enough for Mommy to snap three pictures.

Eating my hand at the Cracker Barrel, Bristol, TN: December 2010

It's a Snow Gang Sign.

Snug as a bug in a snowstorm. December 2010

Can I have some "catch-up" with that?

Between my video camera being stuffed in a sofa and an over-full schedule of late, I've been remiss at posting some of Tidbit's videos. I'll start catching up now. I mean, you don't mind having Christmas in February, do you?

Here's Shepard with a Christmas gift, JINGLE the dog. Jingle has an accompanying storybook and iPad app, and responds when you read certain phrases with barks and such.

Thanks Aidan and Melissa!

Holiday Wrap-up, Part Two

(I have been "writing" this one for a solid week and a half. It's finally going up!)


After 8 straight days of little man feeling poorly, not even wanting a bath, barely eating goldfish and turning down ICE CREAM...he finally took a turn toward healthy. As parents, we were struggling mightily when our normally chatty toddler was just pointing and crying. We had tried every food that he loves--Bojangle's mac n cheese, Chick-fil-A nuggets, yogurt, bananas, applesauce, popsicles, ice cream, etc. I think he was finally ready to eat by Thursday though, and Jerod went to the Chinese place we frequent to pick up some "Chinese noodles" (aka Mai Fun noodles) for lunch. Kiddo scarfed them down. Mommy and Daddy jumped for joy. No sooner had he eaten a plate-ful than Gigi, Pops, Aunt Suzee and Uncle Harry arrived. Yippeeeee!

Gigi and Pops were able to score a great deal on a TRUCK for Shepard. Here is Uncle Harry, Gigi and Daddy figuring it out the night before...on the kitchen counter:

Pops is cheering them on from the sidelines.

Here he is seeing and trying it for the first time:




He wasn't 100% sure about the sound and thrust of the thing. He has sat in it a few more times. We're just going to let him warm up to it. I'm sure once he gets the hang of it, we won't be able to keep him indoors!

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.

Monkeys and Elephants and Baby Giraffes, oh my!

We thought we'd take a leisurely trip to the Greenville Zoo on Black Friday instead of braving the malls and shopping centers. It was just about as crowded there since it was a beautiful 69-degree sunny day. We had lots of fun seeing the animals, playing on the playground, and hanging out with Melissa and Grandma.

Look at me! (thanks, Melissa!)

Monkey, meet my monkey.

Grandma is showing me the elephants!

This looked like a car, but now not so much...

Lions, what lions? I want a snack break.

Cheese!

Bamboo hill. Let's run up and down 14 times...ok? Ok.

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!

August flew by--but we have a few videos to prove it existed

Excuse me. Has anyone seen August? I'm not sure where it went. Our house is on the market...so we get to go behind the wee tornado of toys and clean up the aftermath. Sometimes, if we're lucky, he'll help. He definitely likes to vacuum. It's been eventful, but not in great ways. We had a few trips to the hospital last week with Daddy and Grandma. I think everyone's on the up and up now. Daddy started a new school year, and Shepard moved up to the two-year-old class at day care. He learns so much every day that there's no way to document it all. He walked out of his room this morning saying "Follow the Leader. Follow the Leader!" Huh? It's awesome watching his language explode.

Here are some non-sense videos of the last two weeks or so. In the first one, he was reprising his fun trick of moving his bowl and alternately saying "Diamond. Square. Diamond." Did that all on his own. And of course, once I get the camera rolling, he sometimes doesn't "perform" the tricks. That's ok. It would be great if we could catch all the funny moments in our house, but for now you'll just have to believe me.





Here he is after a sweet little nonsense song he was singing. One day I'll catch his little songs on video. They don't happen too often, but they're nice when they do. This is a balalaika (Jerod's). We're just calling it "guitar" for now.




 All the grandparents came to town to help with life as we shuttled to and from the hospital earlier this week. Here is Grandma with her "fuzzy feet" and "scary toes..." And my little monkey-climber with unending energy.



We finished up summer with a dip in the backyard "pool" on Saturday. As hot as it was, it was good to get splashed and watch Shepard have some summer fun. Though this mama can't wait for some cooler weather. Happy Labor Day, y'all!

Just like a rock star

It was nearly bath time. I had gotten as far as getting clothes off and was tending the bath. I came in Shepard's room to find him performing, so naturally I flew to get the video camera. Thank God I caught some of it for you. Rock on, little man.


I have more videos to upload from July, but it's been a little nuts here lately. More to come!

Summertime staycation!

We had a bit of a summer staycation after the birthday hub-bub was over. Several days of playing and hanging out at home and around the area. It was wonderful! Shepard had some watermelon last night. Yummo! More watermelon...

I think he likes it. :)