Ashley's 2nd Birthday Party

the birthday girl

having fun

tractor ride

Cousin Ashley's party was today at a local farm. Sean and Ashley had fun chasing a goat and feeding all of the animals. Abby was a little skittish of the animals. They also got to ride a tractor and eat yummy Dora the Explorer birthday cake. Tonight, Sean told me that he had fun with his cousin Ashley. I was impressed that he used the word "cousin". He explained to me that Abby was Ashley's sister and that they were his cousins.

Playing With Ashley

wonder what she's looking at
eating some snacks

I offered to watch my niece Ashley, age 1 today while Nanny took Abby to her 1st day of preK 4. The moms had to stay for the 1st day. Sean did really well playing with Ashley and found a new game that he likes, Hungry Hippos. I can see that we'll be having this game in our house, too.

Kid Swap

Ashley with the stickers watching "Dora"

Maw Maw has been helping out at Nanny's house because she took a tumble in a parking lot a couple of days ago. She is feeling much better! Maw Maw called and asked if she could take Sean to her designer's office to pick up some more plans for her new house and I said, "of course". Sean has been to Miss Ann's office before and she always has toys out for him to play with. Afterwards, Maw Maw took Sean to get some new sandals which he loves. Meanwhile, I watched my niece, Ashley for Nanny while Abby was a Vacation Bible School. Ashley is 1.5 and is very easy to watch. She loves Dora the Explorer and I found out that she likes stickers, too! I let her cover herself in Thomas the Train stickers. No Disney Princess stickers at our house.

When Sean came back with Maw Maw, she had chicken strips for the kids which they devoured. Sean played very well with Ashley. He asked her if she wanted to play with his trucks and she really liked his train table. We don't have baby dolls, so she latched on to one of Sean's stuffed bears. We were surprised at how well Sean shared his toys and Ashley mimicked everything Sean did. Being in only child, Sean has gotten much better at seeing other children play with his toys. Maw Maw, Daddy and I were very proud of him!

Adventures in Babysitting

oops..from my cell phone...Sean and Ashley eating and watcing Mickey

This morning Sean and I went to babysit cousin Ashley. When we pulled up to Nanny's house, Sean said, "this is going to be fun, mommy". I laughed out loud. He is so cute!! Ashley is 1 and Sean is 3, so they really didn't play together, but they did sit next to each other in the big leather chair and eat puffs and watched Mickey Mouse. They were quiet for an entire 20 min!!
Sean didn't want to leave, but I told him that we had errands to run. In the car, he kept saying, "going to Erin's house?". I tried to enunciate the word "errand", but he didn't seem to understand, so I just told him that we had some places to go. During our drive, he kept pointing out fire hydrants and said, "I get to touch those when I get big".

Sean took a good nap and then it was time for me to get ready for my monthly mommy's night out. I had him in the bathroom with me when I took a quick bath and for the 1st time I let him push the button to make the jets in the tub come on. At first, he was scared, but then he just watched the water swirl. After the tub drained, he got in and played with his cars. He told me, "mommy, you are so fun". Music to my ears!!

Egg Hunt, Ant Bites and Cousins

Sean woke up in the middle of the night crying, "mommy, mommy", so I cuddled with him for a good bit before he fell asleep, again. In the morning, I got to sleep in (thank you, Kenny!) to catch up on some sleep. Kenny went to work and Sean and I got ready for an Easter egg hunt at his school.

The school divided the "hunt areas" according to age which was a brilliant idea! Sean started picking up his eggs right away, but then, discovered an egg that had been opened and had jelly beans in it. Immediately, he stopped hunting for eggs and ate those jelly beans! He's loves candy just like his mommy! He looked for some more eggs with coaxing from me, but then went back to the jelly beans. (Note to self..buy some jelly beans, as this could be a great bribery tool for eating dinner, sharing, etc).

After the egg hunt, Sean was tired, so he napped and I uploaded a bunch of pictures. Then, I decided to cut the front yard. Sean loved this! He helped me push the mower and got out his toy mower and mowed the lawn with me. During this, I stepped in an "ant pilt", as Sean would say and I did very well not to let any bad words slip out!

After cooling down, we got in the car to do one of our favorite Sunday afternoon things..take a drive. We drove by Nanny's house and much to Sean's delight, his cousins, Abby and Ashley and Uncle Joey were outside playing. Sean rode Abby's scooter and had a great time. We stayed for dinner and then headed back out to play some more. There was a small meltdown, because he didn't want to leave, but we made it back to the car. On the way home, Sean said,"mommy, the sun's going down". I told him, yes it was and how smart he was. We enjoyed a nice ride home trying to find the sun "hiding b'ind those trees"! He's so talkative and cute!

A Day of Play

We were in a bit of a rush this morning to make a playdate here in town. Sean was very sassy this morning. I caught him trying to climb the refrigerator and when I told him to get down, he told me "no" and then to "stop it" when I put him in time out. After this, we finally left. Of course, it started to rain when we got into the car and Sean always wants to ride his bike before we go somewhere. I had to talk him out of that, so we could head over to Josh's house.

Sean is in the "mine" phase, so the entire playdate while he was playing with Josh's toys, all I heard from him was "mine, mine". I will be so glad when this phase is over! He did tell me that he had fun which I'm sure he did since he was the one with all of the toys!

We then headed over to Chick-Fil-A to meet Nanny (my sister) and Sean's cousins, Abby and Ashley for lunch. Sean was so good and I made sure to praise him. He ate a little bit and then we went into the play area and he had a ball climbing into the tunnel and then going down the slide. A meltdown was averted by Nanny. When it was time to go, Sean was ready to throw himself on the floor, but Nanny saved the day, by stepping in and putting his shoes on (they have to take them off in the play area).

I tried to get Sean to nap, but it is hit or miss and today was a miss. After trying to get him to rest, we went to ride his bike and to look at the new house that is being built. He got to see a "big truck", so he was happy. So, with no naptime, this was a very, very long day!