Summer Camp

Alex went to summer camp at his new preschool July 28-31 for 3 hours a day. I won’t lie – I was really nervous about this day coming! I even called his teacher, unsure about whether it was a good idea to send him to summer camp (4 days straight, 3 hours a day) when he hadn’t even officially started preschool. Miss Barrie gave me a “mommy pep-talk” and assured me he would be fine … and she was right! I think it helped that Miss Barrie ran straight to him when I brought him to the playground and gave him a huge hug, telling him, “Alex, I am so glad you are here! Let me show you the water table.” He didn’t even look back at me! Good thing, because I barely made it back to my car before busting into tears. Spencer and I drove across the street to Starbucks and enjoyed a coffee and yogurt after I collected myself.

I’m so proud of my big boy! He woke up each morning, anxious to go to school and excited to see his teachers. He learned all about water in camp – he seemed to enjoy the books and experiments the most. It was kind of hard asking a 3.5 year old all the details of his day, so we love that all the teachers at his school send emails to tell about the day. We are all so excited for him to start preschool in September (he will go Tuesday and Thursday mornings).

My backpack is heavy!

On the way to school the first day, Alex asked where I would be. I told him I would be shopping across the street. His response – “Ok, I just need to know where you are because I love you.” I LOVE that boy.

Showing me his boat (they learned they had to wrap it in foil for it to float).

Reading his new “congrats for finishing your first week of school” book.

We Love Cooler Days!

We’ve really enjoyed the cooler weather the past few days. We’ve been breaking in Spencer’s new bathing suit (thanks Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa Workman) and his new picnic table (thanks Grandma and Papa Murff). We really do love our back yard!

We don’t have to put on his leggings anymore since this suit covers his knees!

Just taking a break.

Snack time!

I think someone just swallowed a bit too much water.

Peek-a-boo!

Teething

Poor Spencer has had an awful time teething this week. He hasn’t wanted much to eat and had a couple rough nights earlier in the week. At one point during the day, after he’d already had some medicine, I remembered reading that cold or frozen bagels/pancakes/waffles were good for teething pain. Spencer worked on this bagel for two days before it was left on the floor and Kovu found it.

Scoop!

Alex was so excited to see Scoop (the backhoe) and Bob the Builder at Toys R Us when we went shopping for Spencer’s birthday presents. Thank goodness he hasn’t asked to start watching them again … that was a painful obsession!

Back-Pack

Alex picked out a back-pack online a few weeks ago and was so excited for it to come in the mail! He wore it around all day and kept showing me the “surprises” he had inside. Can you believe he goes to his first summer camp (at his future preschool) the last week of July? I can’t either! Even crazier than that … we have preschool Orientation the last week of August and his first day of school is … September 2nd!! We’ve even already gotten mail from his teacher and a supply list! Slow down, summer!

5th of July Party

We had such a fun holiday weekend! My high school/college friend, Amanda, and her family spent the night with us, so we had our other college friend, Katherine, over for a cook-out. It was a lot of fun getting together with friends and watching our kiddos play. After a busy evening, we were up early the next morning to head to the NC ZOO. Alex spent all 7 hours at the zoo telling us his favorite animal was the dolphin and was convinced we would see one (there are NO dolphins at the NC Zoo). Finally, at the end of our visit, he decided they must be in their cages with the polar bears (it was too hot for them). Guess we need to find this boy a dolphin show!

Alex: 3 yrs, 7 months & Spencer: 1 year … Cerys: 3 yrs, 11 months & Ace: 1 year, 2 months

LOVE this pic of Amanda and me!

Alex and Cerys had so much fun at the zoo.

Family picture with some bears.

As usual, Spencer was such a good sport about being stuck in the stroller all day.

I wish I could remember what they were talking about. They had some pretty hysterical conversations that day.

Spencer’s 1st Birthday Party

We had a ton of fun celebrating Spencer’s first birthday! Alex was so excited and helped a lot with the planning, buying presents, and baking the cake. I think he was most excited to “help” Spencer open presents – but I do think he understood it was a special day for Spencer.

We chose an airplane theme for the party because Spencer loves playing with airplanes. He actually flies them in the sky and makes airplane and rocket noises, just like Alex does. It’s so fun to watch!

I’ll let the photos do most of the talking. Thank you to everyone who attended! Sorry the house got so hot! I guess the AC couldn’t keep up with 20 some people in the house on such a hot, hot day!

It didn’t take long for Spencer to figure out how to rip the wrapping paper off!

Spencer showing off his new fire truck to our friend, Liam.

Alex, choosing the next gift.

Tissue paper!

I think this is our best cake so far! Tim modeled the plane on the computer and cut out all the pieces, Alex chose the green color, and I spent forever icing it!

Blowing out the candles.

Hmm … this whole piece is for me?

Now what do I do? (He actually really liked it – and got SO MAD at me the next day when I tried giving him a bite off a fork. I guess he wanted to get it all over again!)

4 generations of Watzins! Great-Grandma, Grandma (my mom), Amber & Beth (sister), and the boys!

Reading Spencer’s 1st birthday book. Grandma used the lullabye she sings to Spencer and turned it into a book! What a great way to look back at all my pictures!

Spencer is 1 Year Old!

A year ago, my baby was still in the NICU for pneumonia treatment! Time has passed so quickly! I’m so thankful for the amazing nurses who took such great care of Spencer after I was discharged from the hospital. It was so hard going back and forth to see/feed him those few days. But … now he’s 1 year old!!

Spencer is such a busy little boy. He always wants to be in the middle of the action, whether it’s the dryer, the open refrigerator, the bathroom while it’s in use, Alex’s train tracks or race tracks … I think you get the picture. He LOVES playing with cars and trucks and will roll them back and forth and push them around the house. He is finally saying “ma” from time to time, though it’s mostly when he’s mad/hungry/tired. He’s taking 2-3 steps at a time, then he’ll huff and crawl really quickly to where ever he was trying to go. Spencer was a great eater til about a week ago – he loves chicken of all kinds, meatballs, and pulled pork, yogurt, fruit, peas, waffles, and bagels. But now, he has several teeth pushing and some sad looking swollen gums, so he’s more interested in cold bottles and fruit pouches these days.

Here are Spencer’s 1 year stats!

Height: 30 in … 56th %ile (grew 8 inches this year) - Alex was 30.75 inches

Weight: 23.5 lbs …. 81st %ile (gained 15 lbs this year) – Alex was 23 lbs 14 oz

Head: 48 cm … 95th %ile – Alex was 48.75 cm

Since I’ll be posting tons of pictures from his birthday party, I’ll just do my Spencer/Alex comparison here:

Alex on his first birthday.

Spencer at his first birthday party.