Jekyll and Hyde

Mason loves school and teachers love Mason. Ever since he has been 18 months old I have been told over and over how well behaved he is, how he is helpful and if all the kids were as good as him their jobs would be much easier. I must say it sort of makes me mad. Mad because the child they describe to me sounds nothing like the child I see at home, he talks back, he doesn't listen, he hates picking up, he whines... he's 4.

A few months ago Mason started attending a new preschool. His new teacher Miss Mary sends home a daily sheet that tells how his day was. It has a bunch of adjectives on it and she circles the ones that reflect how he acted. Everyday his sheet says: cooperative, good listener, respectful, happy, helpful, nice to my friends. And everyday Jake and I look at each other say... "there must be another Mason in that room."

Yesterday I got Mason's daily sheet and all the positive adjectives were circled but there was a 1/2 by the good listener. And she wrote comments that said "Mason was asked to stop talking during circle time but was not being a good listener. Otherwise a good day." It was kind of shocking at first and refreshing at the same time to know that it is my kid that she send notes home about... now if only he would act at home like he does at school we would all be happy. But Jake and I both agree it's better he act like that at school and bad at home than vice versa!

Happy 3rd Birthday Easton!!!

Today is Easton's 3rd Birthday. Here's a look back at the past 3 years.

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Don't know what you got til it's gone!

So this post is about one of the furry Koller Kids today! Last night we had a big scare with Macy. I arrived home at 5:30 with Sutton to meet my mom (who had the big boys) and Karen (Jake's mom). Karen was watching the boys so I could go to a meeting and Jake could work late. My mom called me when she got to our house and said they were there waiting and wondered where Macy was. I said, "she's not there?" and she said "no." I said, "oh well today is payroll day at Lucky Pawz so Jake probably took her there for daycare and will pick her up tonight." Somehow I failed to remember that Jake actually left after me and I clearly left the house with Macy and Maverick both outside.

When I got home from my meeting around 9, Jake had just arrived home and Macy was no where to be found. We searched all over the neighborhood but because it was so dark it was hard to look in the wooded area behind the house. I called the microchip people, the police department, the animal control people, the animal shelter, all the neighbors... and finally went to bed after one more search at 11pm. Needless to say I didn't sleep much last night.

This morning I called the police again and still nothing...then a neighbor from down the street knocked on our door and said that someone had our dog! She was hiding in an upstairs bedroom of a house being built a couple of lots down. The drywall guys found her and she was terrified. I ran down there (with 3 half naked kids following me) and she was so scared. I felt so bad for her. But she is home safe and sound.

Best we can figure is that she ran out the back of the yard (we have an invisible fence and she had her invisible fence collar on) and got shocked. That probably scared her so much she didn't want to come back in so she probably just went roaming and eventually walked into the empty house next door since it has no doors (and ironically for those of you who I went to HS with-the house where she spent the night is Ben Eisenbach's future house.) It was as close as she could get to home and safe I guess. Maybe our Golden Retriever is smarter than we thought :) So that was stressful to say the least and I of course immediately thought the worst that she must have been dead somewhere and was so distraught. ugh.

We are all relieved she is safe and home. It really made me think about what would happen if one of my boys got lost or taken from the yard, something I really haven't ever pondered. And makes me sick to think about.

In other updates, I am showing our house to a potential renter today so crossing my fingers he wants it. In the meantime another woman is VERY interested as well, so there is hope we might get renters in there. Too bad someone just doesn't buy it. ugh.

And in other exciting news, Mason, Easton and Sutton are going to be cousins! Michelle and Ryan are having a baby in March. I am thrilled to finally get a niece or nephew, I secretly am hoping for a niece so I can buy lots of cute clothes.

Finally I will post a few pictures, I submitted these to the GAP casting call, they do a thing each year where you can submit photos of your kids and they pick a winner. I am sure they won't win but I think they are the cutest kids ever! You can only submit 5 total, and they have to have been taken in the last 3 months. So I did one of each of them and picked the 2 other best pics. Enjoy. Check in later this week, probably Thurs or Friday for Easton's Birthday post and time line!

Too big for my britches

I guess when you are the youngest of 3 boys it is inevitable that you grow up faster than you should. Being a mom I even expected this, but it's out of hand really. Yes this post is about the baby....First he rolled early, crawled early, walked early, climbed up and down the stairs early, jumped off the couch early... well you get the idea. For the record he didn't talk early :)

So about 3 months ago he started throwing a fit every time I would put him in his high chair. So I started making sure it was right next to the table... didn't work. Finally one night I said forget it, and I put him at the table on one of the booster seats. He proceeded to climb on the table multiple times and I proceeded to get him down and sit him back down each time, until eventually I just let him sit in the middle of the table and eat his dinner. As the saying goes in our house, "oh well... he's the baby" So at the age of 14 months the high chair becomes obsolete... I swear I know people with almost 3 year olds who still sit them in the high chair (lucky people, this is like jail for kids and hence wonderful for parents.)

So along with his indepence of sitting at the big table he decided to he must also feed himself...everything. Caught this shot this morning at breakfast... I just keep reminding myself that the mess is worth it because he is learning independence and this is important in development... right? Of course YOU think so because you don't have to clean up this mess. Next big step... big boy bed. It is coming soon as he is quite obsessed with the other boy's beds. Mason slept nicely in his big boy bed starting at 17 months, Easton started in his big boy bed at 15 months and Sutton is now 17months so I guess if he's gonna do what they did we might as well move him. BUT...the reason we moved them was to make room for the baby and get them used to the big bed before their new baby stole their crib... NO we aren't moving him to make room for anymore babies... stop hoping for a girl cause we certainly aren't :)

Stay tuned... we will see how the transition goes or if I can put it off for awhile until I find the perfect big boy bedding! He CAN climb out of his crib, but usually chooses not to cause he loves to sleep so much.

Mason's new trick

So every Tuesday night I teach night class and so the house becomes "boys only." 2 weeks ago when I finished teaching I had a text that read, "Mason can ride his bike with no training wheels." I was like, "what?" "when?" "how?".... he had been begging us to take his training wheels off all summer and Jake and I both looked at each other and shook our heads, we knew he would crash and burn and we just weren't prepared to deal with it. Especially since he gets so frustrated when he can't quite master something.

Apparently that night they all went for a walk around the neighborhood and down the street a new little boy that just moved in (who is almost 4) was riding with NO training wheels. So I am not sure if it was Mason's idea or Jake's idea... but regardless they came home and Mason learned to ride with no training wheels. This also sparked the 2 other little boys in the neighborhood who are the same age as Mason to start learning and mastering this skill too. (so yes we now have a bike gang in our neighborhood).

When he first learned someone had to hold onto the bike so he could start going, and when he stopped we would have to walk to where he was and do it all over but within the past week he has learned to balance on one foot push himself and start pedaling.

Now it's time for a new bike as his is tiny...and Easton wants it anyway. :)

Here is some video of him, sorry it's bad quality it is from the point and shoot and someday when we get a new video camera (hint, hint for xmas) I can post good video.


So the next Tuesday night Jake decided that Mason would learn to sleep with no diaper on (he just can't quite wake up to go potty)... let's just say that didn't end as well as the bike riding. So no more "Tuesday night firsts"

Easton's almost 3!!!

I can't believe that Easton is about a to turn 3 in 10 days! Time sure does fly. For his birthday he requested a skid loader party. Well that has proven to be a fairly impossible wish to grant so we are going with an overall construction theme instead. I made his invitations for his party last night and he thought they were "cute" this morning. Stay tuned, we told him when he turned 3 he had to give his pacifier away to baby Paige (my friend Lisa's baby), he keeps talking about it, but we will see if it works. I am working on his video timeline and will get that posted on his birthday. The birthday invite is above, and if you are in the area everyone is welcome to join! Be back to post later, I have a Mason post to make too :)

Summer time wrap up

Wow, summer sure is busy. I have about 8 different blog posts floating around in my head that haven't made it onto here yet. So today I decided I would just do one huge one and do a pic montage to catch up and start fresh. Now that semester is back in session I have a more distinct schedule and hopefully can get back to my weekly Tuesday blogging session... don't hold your breath!

August was our month of travels. First Jake and I went to Boston where I had a sociology conference. We did many fun things including a tour of Boston in a "duck" which is an old war vehicle that goes on land and water, went to Boston Commons, and had lunch with a friend of mine at the Cheers bar! It was nice to get away for a few days and thanks to our parents who took care of the wild ones!

Next up the State Fair. Jake came home from work one day and said, "we should go to the state fair." I asked if he had ever been there and he said, "no" he asked me the same and I hadn't either. We figured we might as well check it out. Sutton wasn't invited to come along because we figured he would have been a nightmare, so he stayed home with Grandma Rene and Grandpa Dean (what a treat for him!). When the older boys found out they were coming to babysit they soon decided they didn't want to go to the fair either because they wanted to stay with grandma and grandpa!

At the fair we saw the butter cow, and Shawn Johnson made of butter too. We went on the "ski lift" as we kept referring to it and climbed on many many tractors of all varieties. I wish I had a video of Mason when he first saw all the tractors parked, he was so excited and kept saying, "WOW LOOK AT THAT ONE..WOW.. MOM LOOK..WOW... THIS IS COOL." I don't think he has been that excited about anything for a very long time. We also went down this HUGE slide. Mason went alone, I went with Easton the first time and he went alone the second time. This slide was massive and you had to climb a million stairs while carrying a gunny sack. I can't believe Easton made it up there by himself, all 28lbs of him dragging the sack that was bigger than him. Overall we had a fun time and the boys enjoyed it.

A few weeks later it was off to St. Louis with Grandpa Bob and Grandma Patty. Once again Sutton got the privelege of staying behind, this time at Papa and Grandma Lana's house. We did many fun things. We went to the zoo and saw all kinds of neat animals. My favorite was a momma tiger that had 5 cubs and they kept wrestling with her, I could have watched them all day. We saw a sea lion show, zebras, giraffes (Mason's favorite), monkeys, chimps, gorillas, penguins...you name it we probably saw it.

We also went to the park that the arch is in, where Mason and Easton had fun chasing geese. The boys and daddy and Bob and Patty all went up into the arch... I couldn't bring myself to do it. I am terribly claustrophobic and chose to stay behind :) We then went to the Cardinal's game where the boys did ok until we had a rain delay in about the middle of the 9th inning. Then all of a sudden they had a blast because they were running and splashing in all the puddles. So much for our future athletes, might as well buy them a farm right now, LOL. The favorite part of the trip for Mason was the hotel swimming pool. I swear it was barely bigger than our bath tub but he sure had a blast jumping off the side and swimming around.

Those are the August travel highlights. Our other big change in August was new preschool and daycare for all the boys. Easton and Sutton go to an inhome provider, which I hesitate to even call her that because she has a whole wing on her house devoted to her daycare which has more learning stuff and stations and educational toys than they had at their former daycare center. It truly is amazing. The boys had a slight adjustment but have thrived there and Kathy has really helped Sutton start talking ALOT! He's starting to say so many words. They now go 5 days a week (used to only go MWF).

Mason is at 2 different preschools. One is called Creation Kids and he goes all day MWF, it is a preschool readiness program and he loves it, brings home worksheets he has done everyday. And this week he started his second preschool Kinderfarm on Tu/Th afternoons. It is a preschool on a farm, they go and help take care of animals and also focus on preparation for kindergarten as well. He of course thinks this is the coolest thing ever. So for the first time since I started having kids I actually have days where they are at school and I am not teaching!!! I have visions of getting a lot accomplished (you know like that dissertation that is moving at turtle speed) but Tues I had meetings all afternoon and today I found myself wandering around aimlessly wondering where to start. Guess a list is in order so I can actually make use of this time I have!

Guess that is it for now. Do have another post to make, will do that soon. Mason learned to ride with no training wheels and we have video. He's so proud and I feel like he is getting too old! Easton turns 3 in a few weeks which I also just can't believe. Time flies... but it sure is fun.

Hope you are all well... here is the slide show with many pics. Dont' miss the really dark one, I walked in after having given the boys icecream and see them with their bowls on their faces licking the bowls clean...monkey see monkey do. The pic is bad but hilarious so I had to add it.

Happy end of summer! Yay for football season, boo for little kids at Hawk games (yet another blog post to come)

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