Portrait Time

Back in February Tanner turned 5. I managed to get him to the doctor for a well-child visit but failed to bring him in to get his picture taken. This must have been the case the last 3 years since I've only gotten Tanner in once when he was two. When it was getting closer to Garrett's birthday I decided I might as well wait a little longer and bring them both in. Since we were finally all healthy I decided I better bring them in before one of them got sick again.

Yesterday I managed to give them both haircuts and a bath so they were good to go this morning. Last year for Garrett's first birthday he was very uncooperative. I was really hoping that having a sibling there this time would make him less shy and want to participate a little more. Nope. He acted the same exact way. Somehow we managed to get a few good shots again. Here are the results:


This is my favorite of Garrett. Oh wait!! Oh No!! I just realized that his left hand is flippin' the bird! I think. That's what it looks like now. Great!! This is one that I got an 8x10 of! Oh well. That also fits his personality I guess! :D



A split second before he ran for me.



This is his "I'm trying not to smile" face. I almost didn't get this one because his buck teeth are showing but it was so "him" I couldn't resist.

This was one of the attempts to get him to cooperate by having Tanner participate with him. They were supposed to hold hands facing away from the camera and just turn to look at each other but you can see how Tanner was trying to encourage him to relax.

I thought this collage of Tanner was pretty cute.

This one I think is somewhere between "I'm bored out of my mind" and "I know I'm irresistable".

This is pretty classic.

This is my favorite of Tanner. He is so handsome!

Tannerism

Saturday morning I was taking my time getting out of bed and Savannah was being such a good big sister and made all the kids some Instant Breakfast chocolate milk. (This is normal for school mornings but not Saturday.) She included Tanner in that menu. She poured him his soy milk but failed to realize that the instant breakfast chocolate mix has powdered milk in it. Jon and I, when we make choc. milk for TJ, make it with NesQuik. Both yellow containers with blue lids.

TJ, oblivious to all of that, drinks his choc. milk and then started to have throat issues. I think it was mostly itchy but getting mucus-y. I don't believe it was bad enough to start swelling shut. Seeing as how I was having my bowl of cereal, (and also oblivious to the mistake) I was multi-tasking and checking email when TJ came to me. He said, "Mommy, my throat hurts. I was trying to get a drink of water but my throat keeps distracting me." It was from there that I had to play detective and got it all sorted out. After a dose of Zyrtec and several sneezing fits he was fine...no more distracting.

Photo Ops

A couple weeks ago I told Tanner to go use the bathroom before he had to go to preschool. He was gone for a little while and we almost needed to leave so I went to find out what he was doing. This is how I found him. He had found swim goggles on the floor and was trying to put them on the whole time.


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After buying halloween costume accessories the kids kept playing with everything and at one point Savannah dressed Tanner up as a pretty little girl. Jon and I were sitting at the table, I had my back to them, and was very surprised to find I had a new daughter.

4 Year-Old Imaginations

I just have to share the little conversation I had with Tanner a few minutes ago; it gave me quite a chuckle.

A little explanation as to why we were having the conversation though... As we were leaving to take Savannah and Ethan to school I noticed that the access door for the garage was open about 8 inches, letting in the crisp cold air into the garage. Frustrated I asked, "Who left the door open?" Savannah is quick to blame Ethan, saying that she told him he needed to lift up on the handle to be able to close it tight. (It IS quite hard to do.) So, I close it tight and off to school we go.

When we come back and I'm going up the stairs to the landing, I notice the bag of kitchen trash that was set there 2 days ago is missing a cornbread muffin wrapper. There is a nice small hole in the bag where it was fished out and crumbs trailing from the bag to the wrapper. It obviously has to be the work of some kind of animal.

As I was doing all of my thinking out loud, I made my way into the house to set my keys down. I then said, "It could have been a cat, or maybe a rat, (Tanner starts to get a smile on his face-I thought maybe because I rhymed) or a mouse." I shivered on the inside at the thought. Tanner quickly announced what he thought could have done it: "Or maybe a donkey!" Apparently he didn't think any of my suggestions would be able to open a door.

Tanner Starts Preschool

Back at the beginning of September Tanner started preschool. He has been wanting to go to school since last year. When I would take Ethan to kindergarten Tanner would say, "Mommy, I can go to school. I'm 5, duhhh." I would just tell him that "next year you can go to preschool Tanner".

Well, he needed a backpack for preschool and loves SpeedRacer so he got his very own SpeedRacer backpack. (I had seriously contemplated having him use a cheapy older Spiderman one until he started kindergarten next year.)
He is going to the same preschool that Ethan did a couple years ago. I got a referral to here from my friend, Kathy, whose had 3 of her girls go here as well. His teacher's name is Ms. Connie and she does the school in her basement.

The thing I was most worried about was his food allergies. I'm assuming all is going well in that department since I gave the teacher a list of snacks that he likes and is used to having. I think the beginning was a little rough for him snack-wise though because Ms. Connie told me that after several days of other kids' birthdays & treats, she brought out some Oreos and Tanner said with much excitement, "Hey, I can have those!".

Speaking of excitement... I'm hoping that now that he's in preschool 3 days a week and my other two are back on track that I'll get at least one day (one day, I'll be at the school volunteering, and another day will be a shopping day) where I have an hour to myself. That is, if I can get Garrett down for a nap before Tanner gets out of school. I know this won't be happening this week because S & E have early out for parent/teacher conferences 15 minutes after I drop Tanner off. Here's hoping for next week!

My Little Shadows

One day while doing some laundry this is how these two ended up. It's been a little while since this happened so now I don't remember who layed down first or how either of them ended up like that but I just thought it was cute/funny.
You can tell a couple things from these photos. 1) Garrett isn't that much smaller than Tanner even though there is just over 3 years difference between them. 2) They both have their fingers/thumb in their mouth. My laundry room is pretty tiny.

Favorite Things

So here's a photo of what happens if I try to take a shower while Garrett is awake. Things to take note of:

1. Tanner zoning out playing hotwheels.com


2. The tissue box is mostly empty with tissue scattered everywhere;


3. The corded phone is off the hook


4. Jon's headphones are missing vital pieces and on the night-stand under the phone


5. Garrett is holding a glass frame


6. Oh, and the obvious fact that he is ON the nightstand


7. Something not obvious is some of the ball-like "flowers" behind him had been picked off the stem and he had some in his mouth

Excuses

Kids can come up with any excuse as to why they do or don't do something. This morning after taking Savannah and Ethan to school Tanner got out of the van on the passenger side but didn't close the door. There isn't any easier way to close the doors on this van--you push a little button on the inside right next to the door and it does the work for you. Easy, right? This was the second or third time he's done that recently so I asked him today why he doesn't push the button to close the door. He said, "When I push the button it makes my legs tired."