One night last week I was out shopping and stopped in the Dollar Store. I found these folding vases and picked up three of them to do an experiment with the boys.

I wasn’t interested in folding vase part as much as the “designer hydrating beads”. After I got home Dave entertained Luke while Adam and I got to work.

I had Adam pour the beads (we had blue, green, and clear ones) into an empty container and make observations about them as we went along (were they big or little? hard or soft?).  Then I added water to the tote and let him play for a little bit.

After he was done playing, we put the lid on the box and set it on the counter. The first thing he asked me the next morning was if he could see his “speriment”.

We talked about the changes to the beads. Adam told me they were bigger, squishier, and more breakable (this is true, for some reason the clear ones seemed to split a lot).

I asked him what he thought happened to all the water that had been in the tote and he said, “I have no idea”. So I tried to explain that the beads absorbed the water and that’s why they were bigger and squishier. I’m not sure how much of that lesson stuck though, since he and Luke were much more interested in playing than learning.

Which was fine with me. I added some small animal figurines to the beads and Adam had fun finding and rescuing them. They played together nicely for a long time (we had to stop after Luke got bored playing with the beads and started trying to eat them).

Adam was pretending to be a lion in the zoo and caged himself.

I could get used to this.

Doesn’t everyone sleep inside their pillowcase?

Adam has been talking about Five Guys for a few days now, so that’s where we went for dinner last night.

I think he was most excited about sitting in the high chair. He doesn’t use a high chair in other restaurants (and hasn’t for a while now), but Five Guys has high chairs with wheels and Adam loves pushing himself (and Luke) around. It’s like baby bumper cars. He lucked out that there were only three other diners there last night, so we let him play around a little more than we normally would.

Whenever Luke hears the bathwater start he runs right for the tub. I’ve had to stop him several times from jumping in fully clothed. His favorite thing to do is to sit directly underneath the stream of water as the tub fills up. This is so different than Adam’s reaction. Oftentimes Adam won’t get in to the bath until the tub is full and the water turned off. And if he does get in he stays at the opposite end of the tub, as far away from the spout as possible.

I love seeing unique aspects of Luke’s personality emerge and am so excited to see what this next baby is going to be like.

Adam was super excited to have Aunt Stacy and Uncle Robbie come visit for the weekend. When I told him they were coming, he asked me if I would take a picture of him with them when they were here. So of course, I said yes.

If you noticed in the picture, Adam is sporting a new ‘do. We had been talking about getting his haircut and he agreed to let Uncle Rob do it (a decision I’m sure he later regretted). So I ran out to the store to get a pair of clippers and we got to work.

Adam was fine with the first couple of swipes of the “buzzer” (as he called it), but then quickly decided he was done. However, by that time, it was too late.

(No Adams were harmed during the haircut process)

After Barber Rob was done, Adam stopped his fit immediately. Aunt Stacy gave him a bath and afterwards he looked in the mirror and said, “Hey, I look a little different”. Then he went right up to Rob and thanked him for his haircut.

He does look like a different kid with his hair cut this short. I’d like to think that next time maybe he won’t throw such a fit about getting his hair cut, but it’s always been like this, so I’m not going to try and fool myself.

At least we’re good now for a few weeks.

Luke wasn’t feeling well this morning (I may have gotten thrown up on today before I was fully awake – just keeping it real here). So Adam and I were snuggling with him while watching cartoons. Adam asked me if he could sing Luke a lullaby, and of course I agreed. This is how it went:

I love you Luke

I love your head

I love your hair

I love the food you eat

la la la la la

We all have hair

We all have hair

We all have hair

I think it must have worked because Luke seems much better now. He ate a big breakfast (not my idea, he kept stealing food from Adam) and is acting perfectly normal now (well, as “normal” as my kids ever act).

Fingers crossed they stay that way.

We got to see our little uncooperative Bumblebee today. Everything the tech could see looked good, we’ll need to have another ultrasound to double check the things the baby wouldn’t show (an arm, face in profile, and I’m not sure what else she was looking for).

On our way to the appointment Adam told me that we “should have gone to Five Guys for lunch because they make delicious food there”. I asked him what was wrong with the hot dog I made him for lunch, and he told me “It was good Mama, but Five Guys’ hot dogs are really delicious”.

He also told me (in the same car ride) that when the new baby gets here he and Luke are going to go live with Papa and Mabel. He seems to have thought this out because he had an answer for every question I asked.

Me: Who will watch you during the day when Mabel and Papa are working?

Adam: I will watch Luke and Luke will watch me.

Me: Who will feed you lunch?

Adam: I can just pretend lunch is breakfast and get breakfast food from the pantry.

Me: What if Luke needs a new diaper?

Adam: You can come change it Mama.

Me: What about all your clothes and toys?

Adam: I will take them there. They have room.

Me: Why not just stay in our house? There is lots of room for you and Luke and a new baby.

Adam: Because if we go to Papa’s house there will be two grown-ups and two kids and we will have too many kids at our house.

Me: Well, I will miss you a lot.

Adam: It’s okay Mama. You can come visit me every day.

So far this week has been about trying to get back into a routine. We started back up with school yesterday. There were a couple of weeks I never wrote about, but for the most part we’d been on vacation since Thanksgiving. Now, we did do plenty of crafts, worksheets, and coloring during that time period, but it wasn’t as structured as it had been and we got away from our “Letter of the Week” format.

So we started the new year with the nifty letter N.

One of Adam’s goals for this year is to be able to count to 100. And yes, this is really Adam’s goal. He asks me all the time when he will be able to count to 100. For some reason, it’s something he really wants to be able to do.

So, since “numbers” start with “N” we started working on that. He has a set of 10 train cars that he got from Mabel and each car holds 10 blocks. I started with just having him fill each car and count how many blocks it took per car. I think next time we’ll work with only five of the cars and talk about how each one has ten, but together it’s fifty.

I took a set of plastic tiles I got online and numbered them 1-100. They’re not magnetic, so there’s a little bit of shifting around when he works with them, but overall he really liked them. The worksheet I had him using had some of the numbers missing so he had to fill in the blanks. It’s harder for him than when we do similar sheets with the alphabet, but I’m sure it won’t be long before he’s a pro at these too.

Adam got a doctor’s kit for Christmas and has had a blast playing with it. This past weekend he was a huge help to me and really good, so I pulled out this costume and surprised him with it.

I had picked it up during the after Halloween clearance sales and I’m so glad I did. It’s pretty big on him right now, but he doesn’t let that stop him from taking care of his patients.