Gettin' Down on the Drums

Tuesday night we went to the Early Childhood Resource Center for one of their programs. They had a percussionist (formerly with the group Stomp) who was playing drums with the kids.

He made music on different items around the room & then had the kids join him in his jam session. First they all played together & then he selected a few kids to come up and jam with him one on one.

Harrison was ready to get down! Here's a video we captured! He loved it and asked me the next morning to take him back to the resource center so he could play with the guy from Stomp some more.

Harrison's Rock Jar

Mommy's greatest idea yet! 

We have been struggling with discipline ideas for Harrison. Time outs don't work well because he won't stay where we put him, he hits, kicks, even bites us, and when we put him in his room he just screams & beats on the door.

 So, I came up with this simple idea and crossed my fingers that it would work: I grabbed a plastic "jar" that toy links came in & a couple bags of river rocks from the floral arranging section of the craft store (it is sad that I had to buy rocks, but we have none in our yard). There ended up being 63 rocks and they filled the jar just right.

For every good thing he does he gets a rock. Examples: get dressed when asked, finish his entire dinner, pick up his toys, bring me a diaper for Andrew, go to bed without any problems, etc. He also can lose rocks: throwing a fit when Mommy or Daddy tells him "No", being mean to his brother, not listening, unbuckling his seat belt in the car, etc.

When the jar got filled he got a surprise. I thought it would take him about a week but this first time around took him a little over two weeks to fill. It worked great! He was so excited to put rocks in and saw it fill up. When he did something wrong & had to take one out sometimes we had a meltdown and would end up losing two rocks. He quickly realized that throwing a fit & losing two was worse than just losing one.

Yesterday I took him to the dollar store for his surprise. I told him he had $5 to spend. We browsed the store together & I made suggestions as to cool things he might like. I wanted him to be happy with what he got, but not have cheap, plastic toys that would break or get lost within a day.

He made his choices and ended up with: 
a Phineas & Ferb coloring book
a writing pad for practicing his name & letters
a Winnie the Pooh puzzle
 a sheet of Spiderman stickers
 a smiley face balloon

His jar full of rocks!

Excited to show off his selection of goodies.
I love Andrew peeking up over the table.
I am sure it won't be long before we will have to do a rock jar for Andrew!

Fun at the Fair

A couple weeks ago Daddy took the day off to go to preschool orientation with Mommy & Harrison. After that the rest of the day was left to spend as a family.

We headed to the Canfield fair to spend the day with Grandma & Grandpa Barnett. We watched the West Branch band perform, rode the rides (well, Harrison rode, we watched), and ate fair food.

Andrew & Daddy watching the band.

Harrison conducting with the band.

First ride . . . the motorcyles!

Ready to go!

Fancy new ride - these helicopters circled around the center tower
and went up. Harrison rode the purple one.

Andrew hung out in the stroller in the shade with Mommy
while Harrison enjoyed the rides. Maybe he will get to enjoy
 the rides when he is bigger next year.

The jet ski! He rode this twice in a row and
tried to talk the ride operator into a third!

Serious face, but don't let it fool you, he wasn't scared one bit! 

Kid version of that pirate ship that rocks back & forth.

Another motorcycle ride

Riding in a truck like Daddy's!

In case you have no idea what I mean
by Daddy's truck , here's a picture!

First Day of Preschool

The first day of Preschool finally arrived this past Tuesday! Harrison was super excited. He wore his new shirt & jeans and couldn't wait to try out his new backpack Mommy made him. He is going for a couple hours Tuesday & Thursday mornings.

The boys held hands in the back seat as I drove to preschool. Harrison walked right in, put his backpack away and was ready to go play with the other kids. I told him to give Andrew a kiss and say goodbye. He asked me where we were going (Mommy & Daddy went to orientation with him last Thursday & didn't leave). I told him we were going grocery shopping & he said "Okay, goodbye!"

He had a great first day & came out smiling excited to see me & tell me about his day!

Wearing his new clothes & backpack!

This is the best picture I could get of him telling Andrew goodbye!

All tuckered out after a fun morning at preschool.
He came home, ate lunch, & asked for a blanket to lay down for a little bit.

The boys super excited to see Daddy at the end of the day!

Cute Kids

Daddy was getting ready last week to take pictures for a wedding. He was trying out his new flash & a different lens.
 I think these pictures of the boys turned out darling!

Handsome Guys

Before church the other day the boys were all sitting by the front door playing while Daddy put on their shoes. Andrew was sitting on his toy car as his shoes were being put on . . . too funny & cute.

Then I decided to have them sit on the stairs for a few pictures together. Lots of them turned out cute, but it was hard to get Andrew to sit still and smile at the camera. He would have rather been playing with the car still.

This is Andrew's "cheese" face.

Couldn't get Andrew to smile here.

I love this one!
Harrison likes to pose and Andrew copied him this time.

Thumbs up!

Too bad I couldn't find Andrew's black tie!

Floor-time Play with Daddy

They boys love to play on the floor with their Daddy. If he even sits on the floor to play with their toys with them they think it means pounce on him. They wrestle, tickle, and love for him to lift them into the air so they can "fly".

Harrison likes to perch upon Daddy's feet

The strangest dismount Harrison has ever done. Usually Ryan just carefully lowers him back down, but I guess he just figured he'd jump onto the couch.

Andrew likes to be lifted by his legs.

He stiffens up, standing nice and straight, with a big smile on his face.

His preferred method of dismount is to relax and flip down onto Daddy.

Preparing for a smoother dismount, but once again onto the couch.

Sitting happy on top of Daddy's feet. Notice Andrew got away from me & didn't want to wait his turn!

My Good Eater

Andrew is my good little eater. He will eat whatever Mommy makes him for dinner. Of course he has his favorites. And as you can guess by the pictures spaghetti is one of them! In fact, it is one of the meals that both the boys will happily eat.

Playing with Little People

One day I glanced into the playroom to check on Andrew & found him quietly playing with the Little People. It was just too cute to pass up taking a couple pictures.