My Busy And Smart Little Man.

I love my son! I really do, but lately he is driving me crazy. Unless he has something to work on that keeps his little mind busy he is getting into something he shouldn't be, or tormenting his sister, and he can't sit or stand still! He is always running , jumping bopping, drumming, banging, kicking, swinging, and on and on and on. Maybe we have had just to much time together lately, I find some times John needs a break from mom just as much as mom needs a break him. That's why I called papa John this morning and asked him and was prepared to beg if I had to, to take him with on his weekly trip to the dump this morning. Papa as usual came through and topped it by taking John and Audrey with him to Olean, and gave me a few hours to spend with my girlfriend who had come to visit! I can't pawn my child off on his grandparents every day though so we have to some up with other ways to keep peace in our house, and one way to do that is to give John a challenge.

This is a puzzle little John had convinced papa he just had to have! Papa tried talking him out of it, dad tried talking him out of it, and so did I. We said it was to hard, what 4 year old can do a 550 piece puzzle. He wouldn't give though, he wanted this puzzle.

He started it last Saturday October 15th with his dad. They sat down and found all the edge pieces and then proceeded to put the border together. Aaron had to leave the next afternoon for work, and the puzzle was a life saver. John was determined to finish his puzzle before his dad returned home on Friday night, and spent a good amount of time each day working toward that goal. His determination is unbelievable.

To my surprise he did it! He finished the puzzle Friday morning and I think I was more excited about it than he was, I'm still in awe! He did ask for help occasional but I think it was less that he needed help and more that he wanted someone to sit with him because when I would start finding to many pieces, he was like ok mom I can do it, you can go! I do not usually enjoy working on puzzles, but I honestly enjoyed every moment he let me help him work on his puzzle because it was something for just the two of us to do together, and when he's not moving at warp speed or intentionally annoying someone he's actually very enjoyable to be around!

When daddy came home Friday night he brought some puzzle glue and frame, so we can proudly display just how intelligent our busy little guy is. I'm pretty sure as long we can channel his energy that John will prove to be very successful in anything he sets his mind to.

Puzzle glue and a frame aren't the only thing daddy brought home with him Friday night. He also bought Audrey his 1st barbie, and he scored big with that gift. She has been asking for a barbie for a couple of weeks now and I honestly thought she was still a bit young. Well her face lit up when she saw what daddy had for her, and hasn't let it out of her site yet. She even kicked her dolls out of their bed and pulled it (the bed) right next to hers so that Bell could sleep next to her. Then she went to Olean with papa John and Bell of course, this morning and came home with yet another princess barbie, Cinderella this time!

That's not a smile we see very often.

Daddy and Papa John did good!

Leaf People

Last week we made leaf people. I planed on sharing our fun before now. but we are going through a time of transition, and I'm still trying to figure it all out:)

The 1st step in making leaf people is of course is going outside and gathering leaves. However, the day we decided to do out craft started out extremely cold, so we stayed in most of the morning trying to keep warm.

John has not yet figured out that as an older brother ,he has to make sure his best friends aren't romancing his sister. It's a lesson he may have to learn sooner rather than later I'm afraid!

Once it warmed up a little, we bundled up and went to gather our leaves. As you can see Audrey was running the show.

Once inside they each picked out a piece of construction paper, and the leaves they needed to build their leaf men or woman in Audrey's case.

A little glue, some googly eyes, and a sharpie smile later they where all very proud of their creations!

A Rainy Weekend

All week last week, John eagerly talked about everything he planed on doing at our town annual fall festival. He couldn't wait to paint pumpkins, go on a hay ride, jump in the bounce house, eat kettle corn, watch the homecoming parade, and of course gather a bag full of candy during the parade. I'm telling you this boy has an amazing memory, because those are all things we had done at the festival the year before. As often as he brought up the festival I was checking the weekend weather and hoping it would change it's plans so we wouldn't have to change ours. Alas that didn't happen so I had a very disappointed boy on my hands on Saturday. So I did the next best thing I could think of, I brought out and set up a toy he hadn't seen in a couple of months.

He was thrilled to have something "new" to play with. However, keeping Audrey out of his way was proving to be a problem. So I broke out a new toy for her too. Papa John has bought Audrey a brand new doll house (never opened) at a yard sale when she was just 3 months old , a little young at the time:)

I went and got the doll house out of storage, and the moment I pulled it out of the box Audrey's face lit up like a Christmas tree. It was all I could do to keep her out of it long enough to try and set everything up. Needless to say the new toys didn't just save the day, they saved the weekend. Any free time they had Saturday and Sunday was spent playing with these items, and not always the ones you may think!