Four

There is something amazing about turning 4.  It seems and feels so different than 3.  It feel BIG.  Maybe it's because the kids are not babies anymore and they can do so much, have so many thoughts, and share so many ideas.  Whatever it is, I LOVE this age.  They are so fun to be around. They care so much about us and each other.  They try to get their points across any way that they can.  They communicate so clearly and can engage in amazing imaginative play.  They are my buddies.  They love being around me and I love being around them.  There is no more fierce independence that reared its head at age three.  Now there is just a mutual understanding and a feeling of teamwork.  This age is FUN!

Naps stopped right around their birthday and I can't say that I am sad.  We had a great run.  We had years where they were able to stay up long enough to see Chris and still get their much needed 12-13 hours.  As sleeping in the afternoon became an increasing struggle, I started to embrace the earlier bed times, the longer evening hours for which to squeeze in some work (or extra sleep) and the uninterrupted day hours where we are able to do whatever we want.  I tried to build in some structured quite time in the afternoons for the boys but after many annoying attempts, I decided it was more work for me than it was worth.  I am happy we made it to four with naps intack.  Now I am happy that we have quality daytime hours to spend together and bedtime routines that are much much simpler.

For their actual birthdays we kept it relatively simple this year.  Brody wanted chocolate and Brady wanted vanilla cake so I made marble Stormtrooper cupcakes that tasted pretty mediocre (sorry boys).  We had a fantastic afternoon at a jump place with our best buddies.  I took the boys out for a special adventure every day of their birthday week, many of which involved cupcakes and fun at the park.  We upgraded the boys to peddle bikes and they had fun taking the bikes for a spin around the block before school.

Since their birthday fell on a school day, we were invited in to read to the boys' class.  Each boy picked a story for us to read and the book gets donated to the classroom's library with a sticker in their honor.  Brady picked a scary story from the Frog and Toad collection called  Shivers  .  Brody picked The Book with No Pictures.  Chris had a ball reading this book to the class.  They roared with laughter at the end of every line and made it sound like he was telling the funniest story in the whole world.  It was so much fun to be able to celebrate the boys in a such a fun way!

Interviews!

1. What is your name? Brody McLean

2. What is your favorite color? Dark Blue and golden

3. What is your favorite toy? Star Wars Ray Gun

4. What is your favorite fruit? pine apple, all the fruits i like

5. What is your favorite TV show? PawPatrol

6. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Sandwich

7. What is your favorite outfit? Star Wars shirt

8. What is your favorite game? Duck game

9. What is your favorite snack? Mommy, are you writing this down?

10. What is your favorite animal? zebra and lion

11. What is your favorite book? Star Wars

12. Who is your best friend? Brady

13. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Play in our treehouse

14. What is your favorite holiday?  Christmas

15. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? Ellie

16. What do you want to be when you grow up? A daddy

17. Where do you want to go on vacation? Michigan and Ohio and Disneyland

18. Who do you want to come over for a play date? CiCi, Nico and Athan

19. Who do you love? Daddy, Mommy, Brady

20. What’s your favorite drink? Smoothie

1. What is your name? Bradyn McLean and Brady

2. What is your favorite color? Dark blue and golden Michigan

3. What is your favorite toy? Batman

4. What is your favorite fruit? blueberries and grapes

5. What is your favorite TV show? I don’t know, Justin Kitty Olive

6. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? pancakes

7. What is your favorite outfit? Star Wars shirt

8. What is your favorite game? Checkers and dominos. Mom, how do we play dominos

9. What is your favorite snack? Sticky bar

10. What is your favorite animal? Zebra and cows

11. What is your favorite book? Witch and the Broom and Star Wars

12. Who is your best friend? Brody

13. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Play a monster game

14. What is your favorite holiday? I like all holidays that have presents

15. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? Baby dougie

16. What do you want to be when you grow up? Marble man 

17. Where do you want to go on vacation? Snowy place and Disneyland

18. Who do you want to come over for a play date? Brody, Carolina and Anna

19. Who do you love? Mommy, Brody

20. What’s your favorite drink? Milk

Happy FOUR Brady and Brody.  We love you so very much.

Thanksgiving 2015: Lake Tahoe

In what is perhaps becoming our family tradition, we traveled again this year on Thanksgiving.  After hearing that the Lake Tahoe area received about a foot of snow in a recent snow storm, we decided to rent a house and spend four days playing in the fluffy white stuff that we never get to see here in the Bay Area.  It was SO MUCH FUN!

We drove up really early on Thursday morning and got to the rental house by 11.  We immediately changed into snow clothes and played in the yard for a few hours.  After that, Chris headed to the grocery store to buy some provisions for a small Thanksgiving dinner.  Because of a mistake in book keeping on my part, we were surprised to find a farm fresh box of produce on our doorstep at 5 am when we were getting ready to leave our house.  This was actually a blessing because I had a box of fresh veggies to cook along with our small turkey.  It was a simple but great dinner and our bellies and hearts were full.

On Friday we did not leave the house. It snowed lightly all day and all we did was alternate between playing outside and playing inside.  The rental house had a great snow hill immediately out back and it also abutted woods that were great for exploring.  We hiked up the hill, both the most and least steepest ways, and came sliding back down in sleds.  The dogs ran free and we enjoyed having these beautify quite woods all to ourselves.

   

On Saturday we stayed home for the morning and then drove to a local ski hill so the boys could take their first ski lessons.  I can't believe how nervous I was for them.  I did not know how they would react to the strange boots, the slippery snow, or being left with an instructor for a few hours.  The ski hill has a very well recommended ski school that gives these little kids a lot of independence and the kids took everything in stride.  They thought each step of the process was fun and did not blink when the instructor took them over to the bunny hill without us.

We were able to spy on them from a distance and in the beginning they hardly stayed on their feet.  I could see them trying to move their legs and gain some forward momentum but they would either stay in place or fall down!  I really did not give the boys enough credit.  Instead of finding everything frustrating and wanting to go home, they just learned how to do everything correctly.  In the span of an hour they were moving their legs the right way, getting to the magic carpet all by themselves, and progressing up the steeper parts of the bunny hill.  Eventually Chris and I were able to stand at the bottom of the small hill and watch them come down again and again.  They were beaming, I was beaming, it was wonderful!  At the end they get a report card of sorts and what the instructor said pretty much summed up what we witnessed.  Brody caught on pretty early and got the hang of things pretty easily.  He had no real fear of the speed,  did not like being unable to get up himself and once the skills started to be repetitive, he kind of coasted to the end of the lesson.  Brady really surprised me.  He went from not really being able to do anything to steadily improving with each run.  He smiled the entire time, never complained, had a incredibly positive attitude, and tried his hardest the whole time. I am so glad they had so much fun!

On Sunday we packed up and headed home on the early side to beat the traffic.  As we descended back down to sea level, the temperature rose into the 60's and it was as if we imagined our winter adventures.  All of a sudden all the extra clothes and boots seemed kind of suffocating.  It is so weird how one minute you can be in a winter wonderland and the next you are in sunny perfect weather.  For the rest of the afternoon, the kids played in the backyard in short sleeves bemoaning the loss of their snow hill.   This was probably one of our most relaxed, fun, and easy trips.  I can't wait to do it again!

Halloween 2015

This year we managed to pick one costume and stick with it - huge progress from last year when the boys changed their minds in the 11th hour!  Brody knew he wanted to be the Flash.  Rather funnily, he never called himself 'The Flash" but instead referred to himself as Barry Allen- the Flash's regular human name (can you tell I have no vocabulary for Super Heroes.  I better get studying).  We have a kids Flash book and Brody loves it.  He knows almost all the words and really enjoys the story.  He also likes when I call him "Flash" when he is running really fast so this costume was a natural fit.  Brady chose to be "Chase" from Paw Patrol.  Both Brady and Brody are Paw Patrol fans!  Brady referred to himself as "Chase is ON the case" the full tag line used in the cartoon, much to the confusion of anyone who asked who he was.  It is so funny what kids hear and retain and then decide to reuse in certain situations.

We squeezed in a quick trip to a pumpkin patch one Sunday on our way back from Monterey two weeks before Halloween.  Chris and I always retell the story of our first trip to a pumpkin path with the boys where after a rather speedy trip to the pumpkin path followed by a double diaper disaster, we managed to leave our pumpkins on the side of the road in Half Moon Bay.  This year we came home with pumpkins but not without having to constantly tell the boys they needed to pick out smaller pumpkins because we (uncharacteristically) had almost no cash on us and the pumpkin patch was cash only.  Luckily Brady is like his mom and he likes small cute things so we only had to reel Brody back from picking out the most ginormous pumpkin on the lot.  Hank was with us too so he got to visit his first pumpkin patch.  He took full advantage of all the fun and was the only one who really wanted his picture taken!

We left our pumpkins uncarved until we got back from Disney.  Then we realized that we only had a few days until Halloween so we better get carving!  We ended up carving our pumpkins as it got dark one evening out on the patio (real life).  Brady really wanted a witch and Brody wanted a Ninja turtle face (beyond our capability this year) but settled for a scary face that Chris drew.  

When it came time to wear their costumes and trick or treat, the boys were totally into it.  They loved dressing up and asking for candy.  They also loved eating chocolate (this was the first time they participated in the candy aspect of the holiday).  We trick or treated with friends in our neighborhood and had a great time.  By the end of the night it was hard to pull the kids away from doorbells.  When we got home, we let the kids pick some chocolate to eat and they went to bed happy.  Magically, the candy was gone the next morning.  What was left was their costumes that they still like to put on and play dress up with.  Halloween was a huge success and tons of fun with these big boys!