My preschool graduate!

Kelsie's preschool graduation was today. She has been counting down the days all week. I'm proud to report that I didn't cry, but Kelsie and I were both on the verge a couple times. She took the whole thing very seriously. They did a performance and ceremony, and throughout the whole thing she kept perfect posture and kept her hands folded in her lap. Big day. Too tired to write clever captions for each photo, so I'll let them speak for themselves.

This is the "Frogs on a Log" performance:


Pomp and circumstance:








And if you're still interested, here are more pictures and the school's blog: http://picasaweb.google.com/ParkPrepAcademy/PPAGraduation2009#
http://www.parkprepacademy.com/blog.html

Dylan and Me

A friend recently described Dylan as the human version of Marley (as in, the dog in Marley and Me). The more I think about it, that's a perfect description of him. Rambunctious and overly energetic. Doesn't always think through his inexplicable, and occasionally destructive, actions. But on the other hand, he's loving, cuddly, affectionate, loyal, protective, funny, and shows an enormous love for life.

Dylan is kind of becoming ... dare I say it ... the easy kid. As Kelsie prepares for her preschool graduation this Friday she is testing her limits and pushing lots of buttons. Dylan is now talking farely well, which I think has lowered his frustration level a lot. So he is a little calmer, not as quick to burst into a tantrum and his sweet side is showing through more and more.

He'll often stop what he's doing to give a spontaneous hug and say "I yuv you." When we were at the beach recently I was laying on my stomach on the towel and he sat down next to me, wrapped his arm around my shoulders, patted my back, leaned into me so I couldn't avoid making eye contact with him and gave me a very warm smile -- it was such a protective, secure, happy gesture. It just floored me.

And he's developing quite a sense of humor. The other day I told him he was my baby boy and he said, "No, you're a baby boy!" and then cracked himself up. Just today he barked at a dog and then told me, "Mommy, I too funny!"

So I'll gladly put up with some of his quirks (as all moms do for their kids) because he not only makes up for them with his loving behaviors, he even makes them endearing because they're part of the balance that make him Dylan.

Beach Trip!

We had an interesting experience last weekend. It was finally warm enough to head to the beach! Brian found a great deal for a half price hotel room at a beach that's about an hour drive from here. When we got about 5 minutes from the beach, Kelsie threw up in the new (used) car. Guess that's the appropriate way to break in a new car when you have kids. Turned out to be motion sickness and she was fine a few minutes later.

Then we got to the hotel to find out it was gay pride weekend there! So we saw some interesting outfits and the kids liked all the rainbow flags, but other than that they didn't notice anything unusual. They were sound asleep before we started hearing the raucous parties around the hotel.

But overall it was a great trip. The weather was just barely warm enough, although the water was FREEZING. After a few hours at the beach we went to the boardwalk for burgers and mini golf (Kelsie loved it, Dylan did not respect the game).

Not really getting the point of the goggles:

Hard at work:

Totally normal kids:

Very pensive:

He thought the object of the game was to go retrieve our golf balls after we putted, and kindly take them to the hole for us and drop them in. So we got a lot of holes in 1. Set some kind of record, I think.

Identical sleepers, crashed after a hard day:

Siblings

I wish this sibling love fest would last forever ...