Shane 37 months

Dear Shane-

You are now officially a pre-schooler, you are three years old and one month! Oh my, how quickly time flies. You are flourishing my little guy and while you are saying more words and being more independent you are still very much a daddy's boy- you want daddy for everything and if you can't see Daddy you get very upset (even if mommy is right there). But I know that you love your daddy and he loves you so I guess in the long run that is all that matters.

Your imagination Shane is getting greater every day. You have started to watch a little T.V. during the week and you like Barney- you ask all sorts of questions, like where does Barney come from? What is Barney etc. ? You love to play and be a lion- you run into the room and jump and yell Roar- I a lion! You continue to play really well with your brother (for the most part), last night a package came from Amazon and you and Jackson played in the box for about 30 minutes. You, my little Shane are very affectionate towards your brother and are always giving him hugs and kisses. last night you were saying- its o.k. Baby, I take care of you and then you would give him a hug inside the box- it was very cute to watch and listen to.

This month Auntie and your cousin Zach came to visit. Just like Jackson, you were all over Zach all of the time and would not leave him alone, anything that Zach did , you wanted to do also- even if it was jumping up and down on one foot- you would copy Zach and jump up and down on one foot.

You seem to really love the music and anytime there is music playing on the radio you start to dance. You have really good rhythm and you smile. Sometimes you hold my hands and we have a little dance party- just you and me! I need to look into getting you enrolled into some music classes since you love it so much.
The other thing that you have stated to do is jumping on our bed with your brother. The two of you now love playing upstairs and especially in our room- last night you took all of the sheets off the bed to jump around on it. Mommy tries to keep the gate to the 3rd floor closed but Daddy likes to leave it open so you and your brother can meander throughout the entire house- you love it up there.

I love you Shane Kilday- you are mommy's sun, moon and stars. I'll write more to you later.
Love you little Shane-
Love, Mommy.

Jackson 37 months

Dear Jack-
Today I will call you Jack because that is what I sometimes call you at home and Daddy often calls you Jack Jack. I like the name Jack but certainly love the name Jackson, Jackson Reid.

You have had a busy month my friend- Auntie and Zach came out for a visit- your cousin Daniel was getting married and Zach was in the wedding so you were able to play with Zach for 2 days! Nana took you all to Brighams and Zach ordered a hamburger and wouldn't you know, you ordered a hamburger as well! You have never had a hamburger before that day but since Zach had one, you had to have one. You and your brother were all over Zach- you loved to wrestle with him and play blocks and just do everything with him. We had a great time at the park playing kick the ball and you were such a joy! You are always a joy my little Jackson Reid.

This month was the first night that daddy was ever away from you- we had to go to CT. for Daniel's wedding and we stayed over. Trish stayed with you and you were fine but I think Daddy had a hard time being away from you.

You are becoming more independent and want to help with everything! You drag chairs and stools around the kitchen to help me all of the time, sometimes you are a great help and then other times not so much! Dr. Yogman switched you over to regular kids vitamins and you love them!You wake up asking for a vitamin- not so sure if this is a good thing or not but you eat them regardless which is important.

Christmas is coming and boy are you excited about that. You understand that Santa is coming to your house and that he says HoHoHo, so you continually ask if Santa is coming tonight? And I say, no sweetie, Santa is coming soon. Then Jackson says- soon? o.k. Mommy Santa is coming tonight? and we go on like this for a while. I am excited to see your little face on Christmas morning.

Jackson Reid, I love you with all of my heart. You are mommy's sun, moon and stars. Until next month -
Love Mommy

Thanksgiving Weekend

We are Thankful for everything, especially our family and good health! We had a great Thanksgiving at Uncle Adam's and Uncle Dave's house. The boys fell asleep on the way over there so we let them sleep in the car and when they woke up- watch out- they were a bit cranky- in fact Jackson lied down in the middle of the kitchen floor to "rest his eyes", but after a bit of playing with the dogs and going to the park they were in in full swing again. Both Shane and Jackson had a great time on the stairs at the Uncle's home, in fact they loved going down stairs and playing with Uncle Dave as he cleaned up. Dave gave them Breakable glasses with some bubbly water and animal crackers and the boys sat at the end of the island ready to play with the water for about 30 minutes!

On Saturday we played with Aiden at Beaver Brooke then went to Auntie Kim's house for a fall celebration with Kim and Cheryl's families. All afternoon Jackson continued to ask "we go to auntie Kim's house now? " and when i pulled into Nana's driveway he threw a fit but calmed down when I told him we were going to Kim's. Auntie Kim had birthday cupcakes for the boys. They loved signing Happy Birthday!

                                                                     Jackson and Mommy

                                                          Mommy and Shane

We also visited the Decordova Sculpture park- it was an interesting place, the boys weren't too into the art but liked trying to climb on the sculptures. Sunday was a daddy day- they went to the park with Daddy and then Jackson stayed home with mommy while Daddy and Shane went grocery shopping. I have to say that it was weird only having one of them at home, it was rather quite and we were a bit at a loss at first without Shane there but finally Jackson decided to color and we played lots of music and read lots of books. Daddy rocked that Sunday. We finished off the Sunday by raking leaves with daddy! (a favorite past time for the boys).

                                                     Jackson helping daddy "Rake"

Bunnies and Sharing

Both boys were upstairs this morning while I was getting ready for work. They were playing in the hall and in the guest room. When I went into the guest room they had taken the sheets off the bed and said the bunnies did it. Jackson even showed me the bunnies!

Jackson put the sheet over his head and pretended to be a ghost.

While Shane was playing with a toy, Jackson was very quick to come to me and tell me that Shane was not sharing. Of course, when  I asked Shane to share he did so very graciously.

We lost power last night and lit our first fire in the house ever. We don't have a fireplace screen yet so it was not a good idea to do, especially since Jackson was enamoured with the fire. Shane stayed on the couch but Jackson was right there with the fire. When the lights came back on we put the fire out due to fear.

telephone call to Auntie and Zach

Last night in the throws of making dinner and daddy at the stove I bribed the boys with a phone call to Ohio to get them out of the kitchen, it worked. We called Ohio and no joke- i think Jackson and Shane stood there yelling into the phone "Zach, Zach, Zach" and said little else. Jackson tried to show Zach his story land badge and Shane was showing him dinosaurs- of course Zach can't see these through the phone but none the less they kept yelling his name and showing him things. I think Zach was a little tired of if by the end.

This morning Jackson woke up at 4:30! and wanted to go downstairs because Auntie Kris was coming- no joke- he said on his own, Auntie Kris! Kris and Zach will be at the house in a little bit I expect while I am at work, but we'll see them at the wedding.

Imaginations and tool belts

We had a GREAT night last night! The boys put their tool belts on and helped Daddy change out some light fixtures. They got their stools and belts and held the items that Daddy gave them very tightly, at one point Shane was holding onto Daddy's leg so that he wouldn't fall.

We had a great game of blocks and magnet blocks- Daddy was creating amazing shapes and structures and Jackson liked to knock them down. While it sounds a little destructive it was a great time. We'll send out some photos later this week.

busy boys need to be entertained all of the time!

I'm sure like many three year olds, my boys, Jackson and Shane need to be entertained a lot. They play very well by themselves for a while and then bamb for no reason other than because all hell can break lose and they go crazy. My question from this weekend is what to do all day every day with pre-schoolers! No, I don't think that they are toddlers anymore, I do consider them pre-schoolers. We definitely go out every day and we go some place every day but every second of every day can't be someplace else? or can it? I admit it boys, yesterday was the first day that I HAD to put the T. V. on- we watched Winnie the Pooh. You were going crazy we were raking leaves, but you weren't listening and were playing in the street; then the guys were there painting the house and you kept wanting to touch the paint- it was all good in nature- you truly wanted to help but it was not helping. So when we came inside you were crying and yelling and I didn't know what else to do except put a movie on. Daddy and I have tried very hard to keep the T.V. off limits but I am now convinced that there is a time and place for it.

I almost turned it on this morning when you woke up at 4:45 am! and wouldn't let daddy sleep but I resisted and instead Dealt with the crying and yelling that comes along with Daddy being upstairs and Shane being down stairs. Our poor neighbors on the first floor- they got an early wake up call today! I love you guys! When i left you were happy as clams sitting at the island playing Play dough with Trish- you weren't that into the play dough when we were playing it this morning, but what ever, you were smiling and laughing and asking me to roll out the dough so that you could make dinosaur shapes and that made me happy.
All my love.

Raking Leaves

After our October snow storm, fall is in the air. We have had guys working on the house this week which has been quite entertaining for Shane and Jackson. However, today the leaves were the entertainment. We rakes and bagged leaves, or tried to. The boys thought it was more fun to dump the leaves out of the barrel! instead of keeping the leaves inside the barrel. My job was to keep everyone on the sidewalk and we were successful with that.

After a nap in the car, we visited with Nana and played at Robin Hood Park. A good time was had by all.

Imaginations: what is in the pantry?

This morning there were a lot of things happening in the pantry. The boys motorcycles from Grandpa were in there and they started going through the recycling bin for what I don't know. Well according to the boys, they found animal food- and started to rummage some more through the empty containers. The boys played Dogs and made barking sounds. Then there were the kitties up on top of the shelve. All of this while there were guys outside scraping the house (the guys were real). It was an exciting morning before school.

Jackson 3rd Birthday

Dear Jackson- You are now three years old! Happy Birthday Buddy. I can't believe you have been with us for three years. Not only are you getting tall but your words are flourishing. You love to talk and you talk all of the time. Your listening skills have gotten so good and you get stickers every day for such good listening!

You love to run around and play. You like to play with everyone, especially Shane. When we are at the park, you like to play with the Bigger kids - you play ice cream shop and a host of other games. Your dear friend Aiden seems to be more prominent in your little life and you like to pretend that you are Aiden. You come up to me and say 'Mommy, me Aiden" and tap your chest. Your favorite book is still the Balloon book and anything Caillou! You my dear little one, Love Caillou- a bald cartoon character with a little sister named Rosie. I don't fully see the reason why you love Caillou so much but you do. Sometimes Shane will be Rosie and you like to take care of him- you give Shane hugs when he plays Rosie and tell him that it's O.K.

We had a lot of fun this month. We went to Aunt Dottie and Uncle Bill's 60th wedding anniversary party and you and your brother were a hit at the party. You had everyone looking for dragons all over the place and the college kids had a blast with you. Auntie and Abby came to visit for your birthday party and you loved having them here. Everything was Abby, Abby, Abby- (even though sometimes you called her Katie). It snowed this month but the leaves are still coming down and you like to help daddy rake leaves and shovel the snow.

Jackson, my little guy, I"m going to sign off now. I love you with all of my heart. You are mommy's sun, moon and stars.

All my love-

Mommy

Shane - 3rd Birthday

Dear Shane-

I am writing you a letter for your three year old birthday! Happy Birthday little guy! I can't believe that you are three, you have been  alive for 36 months! I love you Shane Kilday.

Your words are coming along perfectly and sometimes when you talk you blink your eyes a couple of times and it is very cute to watch. You love balloon and most recently have had balloons from your birthday, Friendly's and the Bank and you carry them all around with you, this morning you lined up all 5 of the deflated balloons on the floor and were playing with them.

October was a busy month for you. Auntie and Abby came to Boston to celebrate your birthday and you loved having Abby around. You did often call her Katie, but Abby was a good sport about it and didn't mind. Abby took you to see some diggers when we went for lunch at the discovery museum and you trust her explicitly. Every morning when you woke up you immediately went to her room and woke her up as well, you loved to play with her stuffed animals. Your favorite stuffed animal remains to be softy and you are still attached to your snappy p.j.'s. Aiden continues to be one of your best buddies and you love to play with him.

As usual, you and Jackson are pretty much inseparable. You always like to know where he is as does he, you. We continue to work on your listening skills, I"m trying to give you a sticker for every time you listen to mommy- your sticker chart has been a little bare, but I am confident that we will get there. Night time is a bit of a challenge for you, you have lots of energy and jump around and play like crazy at bed time. Again, we will get there.

I love you Shane Kilday, you are mommy's sun, moon and stars.

Love, Mommy.

Cousins

                                                  Abby and Jackson watching Sesame Street

                                                                       Shane on the pumpkins

                                                                    Walking with Abby.

Snow before Halloween!

Yes, we had a snow storm before Halloween this year! Some how luckily we were spared a lot of the storm, we got a few inches of snow but did not lose power! Here is my little dragon shoveling the snow in the yard. (Shane)

discovery museum

Auntie and Abby came to Boston for the boys 3rd birthday party and on Friday we went to the Children's Discovery Museum in Acton. We had a great time running around the house and Abby was a huge help. We lost Jackson for a few minutes, but we found him down at the Train Station. Jackson was "buying train Tickets". he said that he needed two tickets, but the child giving out the tickets only wanted to give out one ticket per person. Jackson insisted on getting two tickets and when he finally received two tickets, he ran off to find Shane. And said, Shane I got you a train ticket Shane.

                                                     Jackson playing the drums in the jungle room

                                                                    Jackson calling on the phone

                                                               Jackson on the train

                                                    Shane selling ice cream to EVERYONE

                                                               Shane at the train station

                                                                       Shane doing ???

Happy Halloween!

From our Home to Yours!
Happy Halloween- Love Dino & Monster

                                                              Shane as the Fire Breathing Dragon

                                                               Jackson as the one eyed monster

                                                  Jackson, Aiden and Shane trick or treating