Oh my it has been half of a year since i have been able to take a minute and fill in on this blog...oh how i have missed checking in!

Well lets go down the months

December- 

Christmas in our first house was AMAZING!
Our neighbors gave us an 8 foot Christmas tree and we hosted Christmas dinner with the family.  We had our house full of family, memories and love. It was amazing. 

My bug opened one present from his Papa (a set of three air planes) and then sat on the couch clutching his planes and would NOT open another present. I think he was afraid he would have to trade the planes, so he was clutching them for dear life saying "no my planes, i want planes" LOL  My dad has now decided that he will get one large bucket to open instead of individually wrapped presents.

The Bug did get a BIG present this year.  All the aunties and Uncles pitched in and bought a swing set (aka the playground/jungle gym) and my brother and i set it up in the backyard.  TOTALLY under estimated the size and effort to put this beast together but in the end its pretty amazing.  The Bug and all the kids love it.  Its also nice knowing they have something to play with, use their imaginations and energy on outside and not in front of the TV. 

January- 
New Years was only amazing because i closed out one great year with my Bug and we started a new one together, happy and healthy! When the clock struck 12 he ran from one side of the house to the other watching all of our neighbors and surrounding areas light fireworks... then promptly at 1:09am he said "night night mama" and went to sleep (in my bed)

Our Ravens won the super bowl and of course we said if they made it the house would be purple and black during our super bowl party sooo we went all out.  Someone was even nice enough to make us matching shirts for the day! 

February- 

After a year or trying different things, my brother FINALLY got the Bug to fall asleep in his own bed.  He still wakes up in the middle of the night to get in bed with me, but at least this is a start.

I took my bug for his first Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles trip. It was classic.  We went with one of his aunties (she calls the Bug "poopoo" so he started calling her TiTi Poo Poo LMBO) The bug ate all his waffle but didn't care for the chicken...That was fine with the auntie and i who then split his chicken on his "Country Boy Number 9"--to you REAL Roscoes fans it will always be a country boy and not an Obama :-P

March- 

The Titi came out for her first visit since she moved all the way to the other ended of the earth to be with her boo-thang and she brought the Bug a tent.  Not just a tent let me correct myself she bought him a gigantoid Circus tent.  It takes up a fourth of the Bugs room and he LOVES it.

I got the Bug peeling cuties. He wont eat one but he will peel it for me. When the cutie has the skin on it he says "mama look apple" i say no its an orange, "oh yea sure Orange"...then he peels it and with a gasp of excitement screams "MAMA LOOK a Pumpkin!" lol I was stumped the first time but i just explained its still and orange. Deep down i do not think he believes me.

April- 
Resurrection came and was amazing this year spiritually for me. I joined a lovely women's group at our church and i started new traditions. I made a resurrection tree this year. It was a tree with plastic eggs and each egg had a visual of a scripture, like am advent calendar counting down until Resurrection day.  I also had the nieces and nephews over for a day of pizza, dieing eggs, decorating paper baskets on Resurrection eve.  Family + Fellowship= Memories!

May-
Brings us up to date!

We are ending the Bugs FIRST organized sports venture.  It has been a funny funny season and i am exhausted, but my Bug had a blast and that is what counts. 

Next i am looking into preschools still (prices are just outrageous for me like 100 for two half days a week...not conducive for a single mom)...and looking at swim and tumbling classes for the Bug possibly Karate/Judo sooo who knows!







I do know that i REALLY hope i get to update sooner than later, dont think i could wait another six months to add to this book!


Oh some stats
38lbs
42 Inches (i think)
Size 4/5 in Boys (ekkk not toddlers anymore!)
and size 12.5 shoe

Sharks

Today is the day i realize my baby Bug is no longer a baby.  

The Bug

With his "Fish"

He can wear a Boys extra small or size 4 small shirt, and his pants size is just in the little boys category too. We are speaking and communicating with words and sentences more, which is fun because he still cant/wont say too much still but enough that you know he is learning and still trying.

Today my Bug went fishing with his PahPah.  He was looking forward to using his "pishing pole" so much so that the other day when my dad was packing up the truck with all their gear.  I drive up to the house and see my bug sitting down at the foot of the garage crying. I mean crying like balling crying. I asked what was wrong and he pointed to his PahPah's truck saying "momma sit sit pishing". He thought they were going fishing and he wanted to make sure he was going with all the fishing stuff but when i showed up he knew that meant he was not going fishing right then and it broke his whole world.

With his "Shark"

The day came today and he got to go fishing.  I forgot to send a heavy coat and a hat but the bugs sweat suit was warm enough with his PahPah doing man stuff.   I was at work but i hear he had fun at the water and he even reeled in three fish! The first fish he reeled in he called it a fish, he held the line it was on, touched the fish, and looked so excited.  The second and third fish were bigger so he said those where "sharks".  I do not know if it was because he had already caught his "fish" or if it was the fact that the other two were bigger, but it was still funny to me.


All in all i know my Bug is not a baby any more and he had a great day.  Even if he does not remember this day i know it means a lot to my dad to have his smart as a whip grandson share an interest of his and do it well.

3 year old Stats

So our stats

The Bugs Weighs in at 33 lbs and is 38 Inches tall.  He wears a size 11 shoe in kids (and is just about out of those already).

PS my shoe complaint (yes i know i have many more shoes to buy for this boys growing foot)
MAY  i bought him a pair of shoes...3 weeks later they are to SMALL so my dad bought him a full size bigger and the girl said in about month he will be another half size.  AND NO LATER THAN 4 WEEKS PASS and he is in a FULL size bigger...UGH.

SO now we are three months past that and he is just about out of these...OH well some people put ten dollars away per pay check for tires i have to put money away per pay check for the Bugs shoes!

Bugs 4th Pumpkin Patch!

It was about that time again...PUMPKIN PATCH TIME!!

There are two things i LOVE Pumpkins and Penguins so Harvest/ Halloween season and Christmas season make me HAPPY!

A tradition the Bug and i have in October, is going to the Pumpkin Patch at Cal Poly Pomona.  We are two in the thousands who venture out early on Saturday morning to run up and down the field of pumpkins, run through the hay maze, and support the clubs and organizations.  This year we even hung out with the Bugs Auntie KC the entire time we were there.  P.S. im pretty sure she got some amazing pictures of my Baby bug having a blast in the patch so look for those to come soon!

This years patch was good, but not as a great as the previous years yet we still enjoyed our selves!  The Bug ran through a hay maze, painted a pumpkin, pulled his wagon, pee'd in a port-a-potty for the first time, photo bombed others pictures, and picked three great pumpkins!

When we left we had a snack, and he fell asleep in the car as always...after all its tradition hahah.

Later in the evening we cleaned and carved his pumpkin then put a tea light in it and watched it glow on our kitchen table.

It was a great day and as always  i am reminiscing on todays fun times while already looking forward to next years!!

Can you Say Friday?

My Bug does random things through out the day that reassure me he is a smart kid that is doing things on his terms...not mine.

I am trying to get him to use his words more so i say words and have him repeat them, but in a question and answer sort of format.  One of the things we do is going through the days of the week daily.  I say what day of the week is it...if he doesn't know what day it is he says "ummm what day is it"...this happens most of the time but in time i figure he will catch on. 

Oh and a little background, on Fridays for dinner i try to do pizza for dinner, he loves pizza. I think its a good family tradition to start something of this nature that he is excited about now, with the hopes that nights like this just continue as he gets older or as our family grows. 

So now onto this morning as i am driving him to his Nana's and this was our conversation:

M: What day of the week is it today?
B: Ummmm what day is it
M: Its Friday can you say Friday?
B: Umm Pizza
M: Yes pizza is for dinner on Fridays can you say Friday?
B: Oh Yummy

This little genus wont tell me its Friday but he will tell me whats happens on Friday because he KNOWS what he gets to eat at dinner on Fridays!

Then i laugh and shake my head saying this is only the beginning of him taking his stubbornness to the limits.

Color, Cut and Paste!

Lately i have been trying to think of things to keep my Bug learning and challenged by using activities i know he enjoys. 

I came up with a matching put the puzzles together type of game with alphabets and numbers, so far it seems to be a fan favorite to him so i am sharing.

Here is what we did:
1. Using word art i made block letters A thru Z, big enough to fill the entire page. Then i printed two copies.

2. We took one copy of our alphabet sheets and colored each letter in.  We said each letter as we colored it and tried to do each letter a different color.

 

3. Then i let the Bug use his safety scissors and cut the letters out as i supervised. By the end he was getting good at making confetti so i just let him cut the extra strips of paper as i cut the letters out.  That was still a nice part of the activity because he had to work on hand eye coordination, plus using scissors is a good life long goal to know right hahah

4.  Then using a glue stick and the second page of the alpha bet sheet, we glued on the cut out letters to their correct letter.  Going in order, we said each letter we were looking for, we matched up up with the paper so he could see the letter, then we glued each letter on top of the correct letter on the blank paper.

This activity took little prep time, really i just had to type the alphabet on the computer and change the font then print.  The best part (beside the learning and bonding) was that my busy busy Bug did not get bored because we were not doing one montamous thing AND the skills he obtained from start to end were all learning tools.

By the end of the 45 minute activity the accomplishments i observed :
1. We repeated the alphabet 3 times, with sight recognition
2. His scissor skills became way more controlled
3. His "i can paste skills" were defined
4. We went through various speech and sight skills with colors
5. We had fun!


I also did this activity with numbers.  That one did not take so long as we only had 9 numbers we went through.  I know my bug loves puzzles so i think this was a good activity that allowed him to use his skills he likes while getting to learn some other skills. 


This did not take long, it was fun and bonding and we were learning. Some smooth music on in the background and no TV for an hour and half just Momma and Bug moments.  I can definitely see us doing an activity like this on a weekday when we both get home with not just numbers and letters but i can see it growing into works and shapes and so much more.

Learning to make the Sparks Fly!

Today I gave my Bug a disposable camera that I got from work, thinking of would be a fun 10 minute something to do. Boy was i wrong on how much he would learn and have fun with this thing.

He was using it for its correct function at first, advancing the film, turn on the flash, saying cheese and taking pictures. Then we got home and he ran out of pictures so the flash and button stopped working.

If this was me i would have been done and onto the next toy, but not my Bug.  What does he do next...try and figure out why it's no longer working duh. So the bug went to work. He ripped of the paper covering the camera, then split the camera in two by repeatedly dropping it on my tile floor. Once he got it open it kind of shattered into many pieces. A battery case, a battery, the front and back to camera, then the electronic board that the flash is connected to (note i have NO CLUE on the technical terms for these parts).

I was certain that the camera was trash and he was going to loose interest in it since it was all disassembled, but no the interesting part just started. My bug went to work and put the camera back together piece by piece. Not only did he put it together but he did it correctly! When he pressed the button after assembling the camera the flash went off. His face lite up he looked up clapped and said yaay! Truthfully my heart melted a little because that was a big accomplishment...well to me it is because HE IS ONLY THREE!!

He took it apart again, and when he was putting it together this time he learned that the with out the battery in the camera the flash wouldn't go off.  That's when he started messing with the wires in the camera. He moved the colors around, with the battery not in place and nothing happened.  Then he moved the wires around and put the battery in place and a big spark just popped off!

Total he had thirty more minutes with the camera experimenting on trail and error before he took it apart to build it again.  Then i ended up having to take it away...Yes I ended up taking it away and throwing it away when his engineering skills got too good. Once he started messing with the flash and the wires and a spark flew...I then confiscated it with the quickness and or disposable camera time was over.


I understand more now why this guy gets bored in school. In the schools he was in they sang the days of the week or they are required to sit still on a shape on the carpet.  He could not use trial and error doing things like taking apart a camera or working with things that give him a reward when he built it right like "making the camera flash".  So i am now on the hunt to find things to nurture my Bugs intellect and curiosity to learn in a positive growing way. 

This morning i am glad to say I have a step in the right direction.  I shared my story with my friend at work who hipped me to littleBits . The idea behind these came because the CEO saw that Lego's helped with kids with construction and architecture skills, but there was nothing circuit and electricity wise.  THIS is exactly what my Bug needs, its just a bit pricey for my single mom budget, but if it going to be something that aids in educating my Bug i will make it happen!