for real

April 2014

 Caden went through a bit of a word explosion this month and added so many new words to his vocabulary.  A sampling of his new words includes yellow, blue, purple, owie, hold me, up, see see (for a squeeze pouch, aka a "seeky" at our house), book, teeth, bite, Elmo, mott (milk), beebow (binkie), lub-bee (lovey), step, down, doggie, feesh (fish), and love you.  He also changed up his tantrums a bit and is turning into a limp noodle boy.  So he's gone from flinging his body back in a fit of anger/frustration to laying himself down on the floor carefully before flailing to going all limp if we try to get him to stand up.  He's a crafty one. :)

 

The boys both got haircuts at home!  We also finally planted a strawberry plant in a big flower pot on the back patio; Zane has been asking for one for months because of a book we were reading about a girl that planted a garden.

 

 We hung out with some good friends at Schmitz park.

 Our big 4 year old has started referring to things in the past by starting out with, "when I was 3..."  It is pretty entertaining.  Zane also now says "for real" all the time, just in case you might think he was trying to trick you.  One fun first for him was getting his very first trophy!  We celebrated the end of the soccer season with a picnic at the park, and Zane and all of his teammates got trophies.

 Zane and Caden both share a deep love for the sand areas at playgrounds, and one of the parks in our rotation has a coveted digger:

 Thankfully Caden still has a tough time operating it on his own, so they don't fight over using it at the same time (yet).  That doesn't stop him from getting in on the sand fun though!

We also took our longest family trip ever with an 8 day adventure to Texas.  We had brand new friends to meet for the first time in Houston (Leora), Dallas (Cooper and Karsan), and Fort Worth (Maren).  Thankfully, Zane is old enough now that he can put on his headphones and watch a movie on the iPad almost all the way through.  Caden, on the other hand, isn't quite ready for that level of laid back travel yet.  :)  

When we landed, Grandpa was happy to wrangle the boys while we wrangled the bags.

We arrived Easter weekend, and the Easter Bunny found us at Grandma and Grandpa's house!  We went to a fun Easter brunch at the Houston Aquarium that morning with Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Jasmine.  After brunch, we walked around, went on a few rides, including Caden's first carousel ride, and the boys got to take part in the Easter egg hunt to find some treats. 

It is safe to say that Caden was a bit off his usual schedule, and he even passed out at the table waiting for lunch one afternoon.  He's a trooper!

Then we were off to Dallas...

To Fort Worth...

And a stop back in Dallas on our way back to the airport in Houston!

We had a great time visiting, but we ready to get back to our normal routines and sleep in our own beds/crib!  The weekend we got home, there was a family social at our preschool celebrating the last day at their second building as part of the transition to a new location.  The boys were back in the same building the next day at school. 

The last week of the month, Zane had his very first tee ball practice and game.  It was a lot of fun!  His team, despite their yellow t-shirts for games, was named the Green Cheetahs by the players.