Skippy Jon Jones

Today Brayden had a book character parade at school. He had to pick a book character to dress up as and share the story. After some suggestions he decided on Skippy Jon Jones. For those unfamiliar, Skippy Jon Jones is a Siamese cat with a vivid imagination that thinks he is a Chihuahua dog. Since we forgot about it until the evening before, we had a lot of last minute preparations. I went to JoAnnes to pick up some green and black material for the cape and mask. Matt and I stayed up until 12 am and with our basic sewing skills to put a quick cape and mask together. When I showed it to Brayden the next morning he was pleased and then asked, "Can I try on my white suit (full body cat suit) now?" I was feeling pretty impressed that Matt and I were able to pull the mask and cape togther in less than 2 hours and thought that would be good, but apparently it was not enough. Poor Brayden, in his mind he was picturing a full body cat suit and cape with mask. When Matt asked Brayden about his character parade at dinner he was all teary eyed sharing that people couldn't guess who he was. Kids thought he was either a superhero or a ninja.



Brayden is usually not very self motivated to do things that are required of him. For some reason when he does his homework or sets the table it puts him on the verge of death. I was worried about this school year and how he would do because of his lazy tendencies. He has surprised me with his motivation in learning how to read and continuing to practice his reading. He is constantly asking Matt and I if he can read with us. He always has a book ready that he is working on and follows us around for the opportunity to read with us. I feel guilty when I have to tell him I can't read with him at that time. Brayden doesn't remember things as easily as Kylee does so it takes a little extra work, but he doesn't get up or get frustrated. It has been great to see his motivation and how quickly he has learned to read. I am so impressed.

Kylee's Krafts

Kylee's social studies class was studying consuming and producing. They created their own market for the day. For two weeks the class earned play money and created crafts. Each student decided what they wanted to sell and made 10-15 of them for there fellow classmates to purchase. This was right up Kylee's alley. The hardest part for her was narrowing down her long list of things she wanted to make. Here is a picture of what she created. She did origami swans and boats, tissue paper flowers, yarn animals, and "sketches" that she drew. She also came up with the idea to hold a raffle. She sold dollar tickets and had drawings for a jewelry box she made for the girls and a rare Pokemon card for the boys. She said that it was so much fun to be a part of McIntyre Marketplace.

Strawberry picking

We are going to miss the yummy local fruit. We took a quick trip to pick some tasty strawberries just 5 minutes from our house. I am sad that we will be moving before it it is blueberry picking time.

Blakey turns 1

Our sweet brown eyed boy turned 1.


Blake had his 1st birthday on May 4, 2009. Matt went out of town for a meeting so the festivities were split up. We had the traditional cinnamon roll breakfast on Sunday before Blake's birthday and then a birthday dinner at Red Robin on Tuesday the day after when Matt got home. Blake has a special bond with the blue doggy he sleeps with, so Matt thought it would be appropriate to make a blue doggy cake. Blake loves to suck on his doggy's ears, so we gave him a slice of the ear. He loved the breakfast cinnamon roll, but he was less excited about the chocolate cake.

Blake has started standing up on his own for a few seconds at a time. He loves to see everyone get excited when he performs this new trick. He watches to see our reactions. We clap to encourage him, so he thinks that he needs to clap when he stands. Blake has also started to wave. He is exploring more and starting to climb things. He likes to push the stools and little red chairs around the kitchen to practice walking.

Blake is still not sleeping through the night despite having a doggy and fuzzy doggy blanket to snuggle. He is also a picky eater, and doesn't like to try new things. If he doesn't recognize a food item by sight he will close his mouth and turn his head (though he doesn't seem to have any concerns about putting unrecognized nonfood items in his mouth). Blake is also starting to express his opinion when things don't go his way, and will give a cry of protest if anything is taken from him.

Everyone loves to spend time with Blake. Julia always asks to have Blake come play with her in the bedroom. Brayden shares a room with Blake and is a great help with keeping him happy when he wakes up in the morning. From his crib, Blake will call to wake up Brayden and happily talks until someone comes to get him. Brayden is very heavy sleeper, so this sometimes takes a lot of effort on Blakes part. Kylee (95% of the time) responds very positively to requests to watch Blake. She enjoys talking to him and making him laugh. We are all very happy to have Blake be a part of our family.

A Weekend in Washington D.C.

Our time in North Carolina is rapidly coming to an end, so we are trying to get in some sight seeing before we leave. We finally made the weekend trip up to Washington D.C. we have been talking about since we got here two years ago. Riding the metro was an amusement park ride in and of itself.



We spent a morning at the Museum of Natural History.


We made the trek all the way down to the Lincoln Memorial with stops at the Washington Monument, World War II Memorial, and Vietnam Wall. It was a long hike and Julia and Blake fell asleep, but there wasn't anyone to carry Brayden.




We had to bribe them with ice cream to make the trek back.


We spent the rest of the afternoon at the Air and Space Museum. There were too many great things to see and do.

The next day we went to the Zoo. The adventure was the process of getting there. Our ill planned attempt to park in downtown Washington D.C. resulted in a great deal of unanticipated sight seeing in some of the less typical tourist locations. Several hours after our planned arrival time we finally showed up at the zoo. Saturday is probably not the best day to go to a free zoo. The best shot we got of the pandas was on this sign. We only had a little bit of time and we probably spent half of it waiting in line to use the bathrooms. I think we still managed to have fun though.

The high point of the entire weekend for Brayden was on the sidewalk in front of the Museum of Natural History. It was a combination of two of his favorite things; money and picking stuff up of the ground. The ten dollar bill was burning a hole in his pocket all day long until he was able to unload it at the gift shop of the Air and Space Museum later that afternoon.

If you have read the blog entries over the past several months you might have picked up on Brayden's money fixation. Since he figured out you can use it to buy stuff he has been preoccupied with getting it. He had planned on building a robot that could make money, then he started just making it himself with a green crayon and lined paper. He has been reading and writing incessantly to earn money, first for the Wii, and more recently for Legos and other future acquisitions. My friend Philip was staying with us the week before our trip to DC. Brayden was telling him that we were going to Washington DC and invited him to go with us. Philip explained that he had already been to Washington DC. Brayden was pretty excited to hear that and asked, "Is there a lot of money there? Did you see it? Do they have a bank?" Turns out there is a lot of money in Washington DC.