The North Pole (take 3!)

The past two summers we have enjoyed a family day-trip to the North Pole, located right at the base of Pike's Peak.  Kai really enjoyed it last year, and I had a feeling Finn would just love it this year, so on the Saturday before Labor Day we decided to take the boys again.  We were right--Finn was the perfect age for the adventure.  Since he is under two years old, his admission was free, but since he also just past 32 inches in height he was also able to ride about 90% of the rides that Kai could.  He just loved it!  For the few rides that we did not allow him to ride with Kai (mainly because we felt they were too fast), he would stand at the gate and cry while wailing out the word "riiiiiiiiieee", or "ride".  It was pathetic and cute.

Since this was our third trip to the park, we're pretty aware of the little tricks to having a good time.  There are really just three important ones--show up right as the gates open, have a jacket (because it's cold in the morning on the mountains), and go straight to the back of the park where the kid rides are.  If you do that you can just walk right on to any ride that you want and ride by yourself.  We were at the back of the park practically by ourselves for nearly 45 minutes.  It gave the boys enough time to ride everything they wanted at least once, and most rides they rode two or even three times.  We took a break for lunch and then headed back towards the front.  The only ride we really had to wait for were the cars, but that's a given at the park.  (I don't know who designed it, but that was a poor decision.  The one ride that you can only load one to two people onto it at a time is the very first ride inside the gate.  It always makes for a line, even when the park has just opened.  Silly planning!)  We sure wore the boys out that day and they both fell asleep for a nice nap on the way home.  It was a fun day.  I'm sure we'll be doing it again, but maybe not next year.  :)

Riding the train

Check out last year's blog (and then the year before that) to see how Kai has grown.  Wow--it makes me sad and proud at the same time.  I just love my big boy!

Finn's first ride--we're in an ornament circling a Christmas Tree.  Can you see Finn?

Now can you see him??

Kai loves the lady bug ride, but Finn wouldn't go near it.  We didn't figure out why until later in the day.

Once again, Finn wouldn't get on any of the carousel animals.  We didn't know why.....until later.

Finn was excited to go on this mini-ferris wheel with Kai.

Four feet!

This was Finn's favorite ride, and he had to sit right there every time--middle of the back row.

Race cars!

Riding the boats.  Kai loved ringing the bell and Finn started to feel left out.

On the firetruck, again.  I think this was his third time.

Kai's very first rollercoaster

The "North Pole"

I love Finn's expression as he realizes it's cold.

It was at this point that we put together why Finn had refused certain rides.  All of the rides had one thing in common--animals.  Finn does NOT like them.  See the stink eye he is giving this horse.  It's almost as if you can hear him say "Why are you chasing me?  Stop chasing me!"

This is my favorite ride (except for the lines) because the boys always love it!

September is Flying

I have no idea how we are almost all the way through September.  The month has just seemed to fly by.  Our new schedule has definitely made our days and weeks go faster and that's probably the biggest factor playing into the speeding time.  But then add in the fact that I'm always with a kid, and I just have no time to blog.  At night I don't want to sit down to the computer but would rather be in front of the TV, so here we are with no posts for practically the whole month. 

So, what have we been up to?  Well, since Kai is now in school practically every morning, Finn and I have a couple of hours together almost every day.  We normally use that time to play outside (if the weather's good), clean the house, play inside together, go grocery shopping, and eat lunch.  I try to get Finn to eat lunch before we pick up Kai so that he can go to bed as soon as we get home.  Once I get Finn in bed (around 12:15 or so), I then make lunch for Kai and talk to him about his day.  He often starts playing the computer while I'm putting Finn down, so he'll do that some more while I do some laundry or dishes or general straightening up.  Seriously, 1pm comes before I've even had time to blink most days!

This month we've really seen Finn's vocabulary take-off.  The other day I tried to count all of his words and ended up around 40 or so before I decided that I guess beyond that it didn't matter.  He's slowly putting words together to form phrases, but by far his favorite two word phrase is "my (insert object here)".  It could be "my dada" or "my ball".  Whatever it is that he wants falls right into the phrase.  The word that I just absolutely dread, though, is "Disdey" which is Finn for "Disney".  He would watch Disney on the computer all day long if he could, and when he can't he throws rather large fits.  Ahhhhh......the joys of being almost 2.

This month we also took Finn's bottles away from him.  It's been a bit over a week now and he's doing great.  I don't think he's even asked for one in a couple of days.  So, yay!  Over the weekend I packed the bottles up to put in storage and he happened to see them.  It was funny when he looked at me quizzically and said "There's the bawool (bottle)."  Yep, there they were but he wasn't going to get them.

Kai has started soccer again this month, and he's loving it.  Since Friday is the only day we don't have school, why not fill it with soccer?!  The only tough part is trying to keep Finn entertained for 50 minutes.  Other than that, we all enjoy getting out of the house and being busy.

Also this month, I have had the opportunity to volunteer in Kai's classroom as well as stay one morning to see him do his first show and tell.  I was quite proud of him and have been very impressed with his teacher and the preschool program.  I'm very happy with our choice for him.

Finally, for Labor Day, we took the kids to the North Pole (yes, again).  But there will be another post on that.  For now, I'll just end this post with a short video from this morning.  We drew, did playdough, and then finally pulled out the glitter pens.  Here is Finn with those pens.  I love how you can see the vein in his neck pop-out from exertion, and I love his new word "skeeez".  If you listen you might hear some of his other words such as "ho" for help.

Hope you enjoy!

Pre-K

Kai began a Pre-K program at our local elementary school on August 23rd.  His program is 4 days a week, 2 and a half hours a day.  There are 16 kids in his class and he has 3 teachers.  He had been looking forward to it for most of the summer.  He picked out his clothes for the first day of school himself and doesn't he look handsome??! 

In his classroom.

The playground for the preschoolers and Pre-Kers.

I will confess to being nervous and emotional surrounding this day.  I was concerned about how he would behave in class, if he would make friends (aka. be nice to his classmates), if it would be too much for us 4 days a week, etc.  But I needn't have been worried.  Kai loves going to school and is having a great time.  My one-on-one time with Finn has been great.  I was worried we would be bored, but we have had such a good time together.  I forgot how much I really enjoyed focusing on just one kid, especially at this fun age.  It really has been a good thing for all of us.  I've found that on Fridays when Kai is home in the mornings, I am more patient with him.  (although admittedly today seemed like the longest day ever!)  I'm even finding that school isn't taking our whole day like I had feared.  We still have time to be together and play together in the afternoon.

Finn has had a bit of a different reaction to Kai's absence, but I'm sure it'll change eventually.  The first day we dropped Kai off, as we were heading to the car, Finn started yelling out for Kai.  When I told him that Kai was staying at school he said "saaaaad".  The second day we dropped Kai off Finn kicked and screamed and did not want to get in the car.  So I bribed him with a trip to the park.  At the park he found other 3 year-old boys to follow around.  Poor thing really misses his buddy.  In fact, I was worried that picking Kai up right before Finn's nap time would be a problem.  I was afraid that Finn might fall asleep in the car and totally ruin his nap.  But instead, the excitement of getting Kai has Finn awake the whole time.  When we get close to the school Finn will start yelling and pointing.  He sure does love his buddy and is happy to see him.  The third day we picked Kai up, Finn began bouncing and squealing in his stroller when Kai came out of the classroom.  For now it's a good thing that Kai is gone for just half-a-day!  I love that my boys love each other.  And I love that Kai is loving Pre-K!