1st Day of School

(before we left the house)

Lots to share (Grandma & Grandpa visit, Florida, birthday, etc.) but first things first...Kaelan started his new school today. He's been in childcare/school his entire life but for some reason, dropping him off this morning was different, more official. I think I mentioned before that we enrolled K in an amazing Christian school just a few miles from our apartment. He was SO excited to get back to school. I hope he remembers his manners and his "listening ears" all day!!! He will be attending 3 half days each week, M-W-F, from 8:15-12:15. I found out this morning when I dropped him off that today they have chapel, recess, and gym all back to back later this morning so I'm sure he'll be nice and tired when Max and I pick him up later. Then we're meeting Nana for lunch at McDonald's so he can share his 1st day with us. I can't wait to hear all about it. Of course I'll share all the details in a later post but for now, here are some pics from this morning. :) Right after we walked in the doors. You can clearly see how excited he is to be at school!!!
Meeting his teacher for the first time. This was SO cute. I reminded him in the parking lot to introduce himself to his teachers and his new friends so these were his first words in his new room. "Good morning Ms. Zivitsky (sp?), my name is Kaelan!" A shy kid huh? haha!!! I was very proud!

His nametag with his "morning work" ready at his place. I LOVE how they have them get right to business when they enter the classroom. It is truly a school atmosphere with enrichment opportunities instead of an enrichment atmosphere with academic opportunities. I think this even more structured environment with higher academic, social, and independent expectations will help keep him from some of the behavior "issues" he had been displaying at the early part of last year. That along with his obvious increase in maturity...HAHAHA! Serously though, I'm so excited to see how he grows and learns over the next several weeks as he becomes familiar with his new environment and finds his niche in the classroom. Hopefully they keep a firm thumb on him though, just in case!

An attempt to explore after saying hello. We work before play here buddy! Ms. Zivitsky quickly helped him find his spot at the tables.

Found it!

Listening to the directions for his assignment

Disney Quickie

As I said in my last post, my parents came for a visit and we are having a great time. They originally planned to spend half the week in Orlando with Scott and Melonna and the rest with us. However, since I'm not working, we decided to crash their little vacation and tag along. So, here we all are down in Florida. What's even better is that one of Melonna's friends was able to get us into Disney. Hooray!!!! We just finished lunch and now Max is napping. So, while I'm sitting with him, I thought I'd get on and post a few quick pics of our day so far. There's very little crowd so this morning we walked right on to every ride (including Big Thunder Mountain Railroad twice per Kaelan!!). There are a few showers now but I imagine it wont last long and will only improve the temperature and the lines later. :) Hope everyone is have a fabulous weekend!!!






Enjoying the slide in a little toddler area in Frontierland while big brother rode the roller coaster again.


Argh!!!!


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Well, I can't believe it's already the middle of September. We have been enjoying some milder temperatures and lower humidity thanks to the upcoming fall season. Here are some recent pictures and videos before posting some good times with Grandma and Grandpa who will be here Friday...HOORAY!!!

Playing on the train table at Toys R Us. We were there getting Kaelan's reward for earning all his marbles in his behavior jar.
"Howdy pardner" (he chose the pose, I have no idea...)

Hangin' out with Daddy on a lazy weekend morning

Saturday morning we went to Sesame Street Live and had a great time. Elmo is Kaelan's new addiction and Max loves it too so SS has been a new staple in our house (there are definitely worse things). Here's K posing with his new souvenier.

Check out this superstar!!!

We're signing Kaelan up for a flag football league that starts next month so we decided to take him out for a little intro. Jasmine and Max were also along for the fun.

Get him K!

The whole gang

Serious game face!

Future quarterback...

Down...set...

hike!

Love the smile, and even better, he actually ended up catching it!!!

Max's version of hiking

"Cheese!"

Max is 18-months...already!

I don't know where the last 18 months went but we have SO enjoyed sharing them with this adorable, happy, and very sweet little boy. Here's a few pictures of our little toddler (I guess he's not a baby anymore).



Loving on his "woobie"



Loves his "woobie" & his slippers



"Hi!"



A nice new shiner. He fell into one of our dining room chairs. :(

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Zoo and Playground Fun

We had another great outing with our new neighbors from downstairs. Today, the playground and zoo. A great time was had by all. The best part, the temperature...only 63 degrees (I know, right!?)!!! The boys really could have used jackets, but oh well. We'll deal with runny noses if we have to.

Climbing the ropes course
I had been pushing Kaelan back and forth on this skateboard-type apparatus. Maddox decided to give his juice a ride. :)

This things spins around and around equalling a very dizzy little boy afterwards. :)

Playing hide-n-seek, "Ready or not, here I come!"

I love how K decided to let the lion wear his hat

Checking out the giraffes, always one of his favorites!!!

The boys

"Cheeeeese!"

Feeding the goats

"FEED ME!!!"

These are Kaelan's new diving rings. He decided to use them as halos...and rightfully so! ;)

You can tell Max is saying "cheese" even though you can't understand what he's saying. He now says it everytime he even thinks a camera is near by, even if it's just my phone being used for some other reason. :) Maybe he will be a cooperative participant with photos!

"I'll do it MYSELF!!!"

Happy Labor Day 2

Here are the pictures from the park today.









Kaelan and Jasmine running steps at the amphitheater.





We had a couple missteps and tumbles on our trip. Kaelan was NOT happy about it, clearly. He was pretty banged up but it wasn't nearly as bad as you would have thought had you heard his hysterics. WOW!!!


K putting on a performance for us (and to men resting on bicycles) in the amphitheater.
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Happy Labor Day 1

Happy Labor Day Weekend! We hope this post finds everyone enjoying a relaxing and safe weekend. We spent the morning at Paris Mountain State Park which is only about 20 minutes north of our apartment. It was the first time we've been hiking for a LONG time and everybody loved it! We will definitely make it a habit from now on. There are lots of trails and a lake for Jasmine to swim (cool-off) in. It even has canoes and paddle-boats to rent which we will take advantage of once Max gets a little older. We have a few pictures from the park but they're still on my phone so I'll send a quick post right after this one. For now, here are some recent pictures and videos from the past couple of weeks.

We finally got Kaelan a helmet for bike-riding. Of course Mike and I never used helmets growing up but at his last well-check, that was one of the things the Dr. emphasized. He seems to be getting a little too big for his bike, either that or we just can't find the right settings for his seat and handlebars. Unfortunately, on this day, we made lots of changes to his normal riding routing. We filled up his tires, added his helmet, and moved the seat and handlebars up. I say unfortunately because he managed to fall/tip over TWICE in about 2 minutes. Poor guy!
Lookin' good!!!

I may have already posted this picture but I couldn't remember. We got these for the back of the Explorer...GO COLTS!!!!!

We have finally found a new preschool for Kaelan here in Greenville. It's called Southside Christian School and we can't wait for him to start! Although founded by a Baptist church many, many years ago, it doesn't currently claim, endorse, or teach any one form of Christianity. Just like his school in Rock Hill, he will get an outstanding academic education that includes a rich foundation in Jesus and the Bible. SCS actually goes all the way through high school so we will have options for later on if we're all happy there. Because I wasn't sure when we would find the right school, I bought some Pre-K and Kindergarten activity books for him to do with me at home. The Pre-K book focuses mostly on letters and the Kindergarten more with concepts. In this picture, he is working in the K book which he LOVED. This day's focus was on finding which picture did NOT belong. He did an outstanding job not only making the right choice but also explaining why it didn't belong with the others. Of course the "why" is almost more important than the answer in school now-a-days so I want him to be prepared for verbalizing his choices. Such a smart boy!!!!

Well, it's finally happened, Maddox is a full-blown walker. He has finally made walking his preferred mode of getting from one place to another. I must admit it is SUPER fun to watch him proudly walk everywhere, sometimes just for the sake of walking. Here he is walking solo at the park for the first time.

Other Max updates: he still has only 6 teeth but he is learning to chew with his front teeth so he able to swallow his food a little better. He doesn't say much, at least not much that you can understand. He will imitate anything you tell him to with perfect intonation and inflection. However, I say imitate instead of repeat because he doesn't actually pronounce the words, just the syllables with sound. His efforts are cute, but when the only word he says consistently is "mama", it can be pretty annoying too. :)

He is still cuddly and loving and has a wonderful sense of humor. He loves playing with his big brother, even if that comes with being tormented. Whatever Kaelan is doing, he wants to try to do himself. Luckily, K is more than happy to act as mentor. Yippee...haha!!! Max is just getting interested in TV with his favorites being Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Sesame Street.

More park pictures...fireman Kaelan

My turn to drive

His new toys of choice are vehicles of any kind, especially trains and these light-up trucks passed down from Kaelan (a gift from Uncle Scott a couple years ago). It's fabulous because it's something the boys can do together that is relatively safe. ;)

Beep, Beep

Seriously, how cute is this little one???!!!!!!! And he knows it!

"Can't catch me"

Back at Monkey Joe's for more bouncing fun!
A new family moved into the 1st floor apartment of our building and they have a 3 1/2 year old son. We took the boys to Monkey Joe's so they could all play together and release some energy!

Mike went back to check on the boys because it was eerily quiet in the apartment and this is what he found. LOVE!!!!!!!! Books continue to be a favorite past-time in our house (if only for the adults too).

Kaelan made this bed for Jasmine one day...so sweet!!!!

Sporting big brother's shades. He's quite the ham!

Not sure if I mentioned this before, but his old pediatrician does routine blood-work at 15-months. However, we moved within days of that well-check so we just now got around to doing it this past Thursday. I have to admit I dragged my feet because I didn't want him to have to suffer through getting his blood drawn. Kaelan had a horrible experience with it when he was a baby and I couldn't bear for Max to have to go through the same thing. However, this little man didn't cry one tear. He was so brave and strong and Kaelan and I were extremely proud!!! Here he is enjoying his reward (sucker).

Kaelan posing as a tough guy for Daddy.

Lastly, an old video I forgot to post of Max playing the piano at Papa and Nana's house.