November/December 2018

Oh my little Crew Boo, you are growing up so fast I wish time would slow down.  You are talking like a boy who has three older brothers and you are tough and strong as nails.  Your favorite food would be hot dogs, peanut butter and jelly, and Chicken nugget although, getting you to eat anything good for you has been a struggle these days.  You are stubborn like your mama, strong like your Daddy and pick up your entire personality from your all brothers.  You are sweet with your baby brother and like to squeeze his cheeks and constantly want to know where baby Knoxsky is.  You are a great big brother and can’t hug and kiss your little brother enough.  Your favorite thing to do is play video games with Owen and watch YouTube with Taterbug.  Your sarcasm and humor has me laughing daily and your memory is very impressive for a four-year-old.  You have a tender heart and your emotions sometimes get the best of you.  Out of all the boys, you follow directions the best. 

 November and December brought on all the fabulous things that the holidays bring.  We spent Thanksgiving at the Stroh’s house this year as we usually do.  You had a great time playing with your brothers and cousins.  In November we also attended the annual lighted parade and loved seeing Santa and sipping on hot chocolate in the back of Grandpa Stroh’s truck. 

December started off, as it always does, with Brayden’s birthday.  I love watching you get excited about everyone’s bday, just like Tate did when he was your ago.  Singing is your favorite part.  Speaking of singing…we had your first school xmas program and you do awesome.  So happy and excited to wave at everyone in the crowd that came and watched you.  We were so impressed by your actions….very grown up and well behaved.  You sang all the songs perfectly and even did the actions.  Proud parents!!!  We wrapped up the month with Christmas celebrations.  The first with the Vetters and our yearly trip to Kobe for dinner.  You had a good time but still scared of the fire but you loved opening presents as all

 
4 year olds do.  Santa came early this year and we opened gift on Christmas Eve.  You were very excited about Santa coming and eating all the cookies and milk.  I love the excitement in your eyes.  It’s a whole new work with a young one in the house again.  All in all, you had a great xmas and got many fund gifts.

November and December flew by as always.  Some things that kept us busy where Falcon football, Little Achievers preschool, pictures with Knoxsky, Christmas parade with Santa in GC, visiting with the Bloomington Vetters, trips to the doctor’s office and time with family.  

We have another first for Crew in December when we all were able to attend his awesome Christmas concert for Little Achievers.  Crew was practicing over and over his songs at home, so it was obvious he knew the songs and was going to be able to sing.  He was super excited to sing for us.  He did AWESOME!!!  He reminds me a lot of Tate when he was this age, not afraid of being in front of people and performing.  I hope he hangs on to that gift forever.  He got up there and sang like a champ and even did some dancing and acting.  It was great.  Lots of waving too which always warms your heart.  I can’t wait to see this kid go through life!!!

September/October 2018

Where did the time go…..my little boy started preschool on September 4^th.  Crew had already attended a small week long, summer school to get him adjusted to going to school.  He had absolutely no fear or going or staying in a strange place with new people.  He even left me to go play with the toys and said “Bye mom”.  I guess he’s well adjusted.  So when school was about to start I had absolutely no fear about it and knew he would be a trooper.  Daddy was able to take him to school and everything was great.  He had so much fun, made a new friend (“Beau” and “Easton”) and was excited to go back.  The first couple days they made Grandparents Day gifts and learned how to spell their name.  It’s going to be fun to watch a little one go through all the firsts again and be excited about school.

We ended September with Homecoming 2018.  The kids always have fun dressing up for the week at school.  We always go to the parade on Thursday night.  All three kids were awesome, and the weather was amazing for a parade.  Lots of Candy.  We also made a trip to Jurassic Quest with Crew.  He was good for about an hour and it ended with me dragging a screaming and kicking toddler out to the car.

Happy 4^th birthday Crew.  You turned four this year and was super excited about your birthday this year.  You looked for to it for about a month before the actual date.  It was cool to watch you look forward to the date.  Luckily, it rained a lot around your birthday so it kept everyone out of the field, so we were able to celebrate the Sunday before with family and had a TMNT (teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) cake.  You got a TMNT backpack for school, TMNT movies and a watch like your brothers.  Then, on your birthday you had preschool and was able to bring birthday snacks.  Of course, you chose to bring TMNT Go-Gurts for everyone and it worked out great.  Until next year when you turn 5!

We ended the month with Halloween activities including dressing up for Fright Night in Gibson, dressing up for a Halloween party at school and the big finale, actual Halloween night.  This was a much better year for Crew and the weather was perfect…about 50 and no rain or snow.  Tate and Crew did great and hit many houses together.  About an hour in Crew was getting tired and started having a breakdown.  Getting upset if Tate got to ring the doorbell and of course, Tate was a poker and kept upsetting him.  But we made it through and ended up with a lot of candy.

July/August 2018

The beginning of July started out with one of our favorite holidays…Fourth of July.  It’s always a great time in Sibley and this was no exception the weather was hot and sunny and with Knox here we didn’t get to do too much except sit around and let the kids run wild….okay, like every other year.  Crew was able to sit and watch the parade this year with Owen and his cousins.  He is a HUGE fan of Eastons so sitting with his cousin made him super happy. After the parade we made our way down to the lake for some lunch and then set up camp with the Ford/Johnsons like we always do.   We spent our evening watching the kids played kids games, jump in the bouncy houses, get their faces painted and run around with their friends.  Then the fireworks ended the day and we started to look forward to next year.

Crew also had his second dentist appointment.  He was so good this year…not like last year.  He was a big boy and talked with the dentist like he should and answered all his questions and sat like such a big boy as the dentist checked all his teeth.  No cavities and we will be back next year.

And of course the end of July brought our favorite vacation of the year….the Ozarks.  We had really cold weather this year…about mid 70’s and cloudy which made it pretty cold for about three days.  Then we had higher temperatures but more rain and then finally the last two days were perfect….85 and sunny.  The weather didn’t stop the kids getting in the water though and they all swam, skied, kneeboarded and tubed like no other.  Crew was able to tube a little more this year but there is still some fear there so a lot of the time he was out of the water unless we were at the condo or the Skyline.  He had a blast swimming off the dock as all the kids do and him and Tate got some good use out of the condo pool.  It’s so fun watching him grow older every year and enjoying the Ozarks more and more like we do.

We also started to get ready for Crew to start school in September.  We had our parents meeting where we had to bring in a change of clothes and supplies for our students as well as hear about some of the fun things they will be doing this year.  Crew also had to have a physical with Dr. Delost to get ready for preschool.  David took him and said he did great.  Luckily he didn’t have to have any shots so it was a good visit.

To end the month of August we made a trip to St. Louis to visit with auntie Sydney.  She has been in school for three years now so that meant it was a time for White Coat Ceremony.  The kids were able to make it because of school but rode down with David after school for some Friday night pool time.  Saturday we made our trip to the St. Louis Arch.  The kids liked it and no one showed much fear.  We ended the day with our yearly trip to Fritz’s for milkshakes.  Then Sunday we hit up Grant’s Farm…another first for us.  It was super hot but we did pretty good with seeing all the horses and animals.  

July 16th dentist- no cavities

New catch phrase:  “Geez oh Pete mom” and “relax mom” “calm down”, likes to put his slippers on a call himself a werewolf, loves to watch Ethan and Cole YouTube videos and will often role play with Tate and call each other Ethan and Cole…its weird and cute all at the same time.  Loves Spaghetti and hot dogs and barely can get him to sit down and eat a whole meal.  Likes to watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as well as Top Wing, PJ Masks and Team Umizoomi.

2018 - May/June

Welcome to May!  We started off May with a trip to a preschool screening with Daddy.  I’m not sure he did too well.  They said that he didn’t know the alphabet and only got to “c”, which he does know the entire alphabet.  They also said he didn’t understand to open and close the door, which I know he knows what that means.  We they showed him a picture of a bed he said “sleep” which seems like a normal answer to me.  They also said that he didn’t know his last name nor his birthday.  All things I am not too worried about.  He did, however, run into Audrey Killian at the screening so they played together and had a great time so that made me happy.

The rest of May Crew was getting carted from baseball game to baseball game.  He did great and was a trooper through it all.

Then in June we were able to get the first hint of what it will be like to have Crew in preschool.  Little Achievers had a summer camp for a week and Crew loved it.  I dropped him off with absolutely no problems.  This was a strange place with strange people and there were no tears, no screams, and even a “bye mom”.  Crew is a very social boy with no fear at all.  He loved camp.  The first day was arts and crafts, then they were detectives, then a clay day, and a water day.  He was such a good kid and I love the excitement he shows when we pick him up.  It’s such an awesome feeling.

We also made a trip to the Ford Country Fair to watch the demo derby and let the boys ride some carnival rides.  They had a blast and crew had no fear this year.  He wanted to ride everything with his big brothers but was unable to because of his size but had a blast on the rides meant for him. 

March/April 2018

Spring of 2018 is just around the corner and we are all getting spring fever.  March brought us signing up Crew for preschool.  How is he already in preschool?  We are so excited and signed him up with Little Achievers for now but would like to research the school preschool.  The difference is that Little Achievers is only 2 mornings a week but the school preschool is every morning and Crew would get to ride the busy with Tate in the morning.  Which I think would be really cool but David seems to think it would be too much for him.  We have a preschool screening for Tate in May and then we can decide after that.

Crew have a decent Easter this year.  We had an Easter egg hunt schedule the day before Easter at North Park.  It was cold and a little rainy but we survived and this was really the first year Crew actually figured out what this whole Easter egg hunt thing was about.  He ran around like crazy and got a basket full of eggs and even found the “GOLDEN” egg for his age group which entitled him to another fun basket with some prizes and his picture in the paper.  He was happy.  We then spent Easter day at grandma and grandpa Stroh’s house where they had another egg hunt.  Crew had fun, ate a lot of candy, and was a sugar crash nightmare that night. 

April kept us all busy with track, soccer, karate and baseball.  Between the three boys we were gone most nights and most weekends.  Crew is a trooper and does “decent” at all the sporting events.  As long as there is some candy or popcorn in his hands, he seems happy.

But April also brought our very first event for Crew.  The singing concert for his Thursday school that he attends.  That night we had already been to Brayden’s track meet and Tate’s open house, so we were asking a lot for Crew to be happy at 7 p.m.  We got to the church and Crew was actually happy to be there but we had to change his clothes really quick and putting jeans on him was not his idea of a good time.  So he started the breakdown mode.  Crying and clinging to mom with a death grip.  We go him in the church and mom peeled him off of me and dad took over but ended up leaving with him in tears.  The class came out 5 mins later and Crew was still upset but walked to the front of the room with a brave face.  And our little guy sang and did all the motions to the songs.  I was so impressed how well he did.  Huge smile the whole time.  It was a good night for him and for us.

MILESTONES:  Super into being at home or going home.  Will ask to go home often when we are out and about or at someone’s house.  Really into suckers and apples lately.  Finally, will crawl out of bed in the morning and come into our bedroom and lay down until other people are awake.  Before he used to sit in his room and scream for us to come and get him.  Has a sweet little “PLLLEEEEASE” voice when he wants to do something.  “Can we go to the park….PPPPPLLLLLLEEEEEEASE?”

2018 - January/February

POTTY TRAINING is a SUCCESS.  I think the extra time with mom, dad and Grandma Stroh really helped with the pooping issue and now he is a pro at using the potty at 3 years old!

The beginning of January started off with a big change for Crew when we switched him from his crib to his big boy bed!  He was very excited.  Crew and the new baby are going to share their room once the baby is big enough to sleep in the crib so figured if we changed things up well in advance, it wouldn’t be as difficult.   The first night he didn’t want to stay in it but by the second night he we head off to bed at 9:30 and mommy told him that he had to stay in his bed and she would check on him when daddy left for work.  Each night at 9:45 when mommy went to check on him, he was out and slept in his bed all night long without any problems.  He also loves taking the IPAD and hiding under his big boy bed.  Figures no one will see him under there.

By mid-January we were off to a SURPRISE trip to DISNEY!!!!  We left our house at 6 a.m. on a Saturday and headed to Peoria for our flight.  The boys were all very confused and couldn’t understand what we were doing.  A little less excited as I had hoped for…not my Disney commercial moment.  Our flight was uneventful and we rented our car and arrived at our hotel, checked in and were on our first ride by 5 p.m. at Epcot.  It was super cold (about 50 degrees) so we needed sweatshirts and jackets which made it a little less enjoyable but by the next day we were up to the 60’s and able to have more fun at Magic Kingdom followed by a day at Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios.  We had a packed schedule including a dinner with Mickey and friends, breakfast with Lilo and Stitch and tons and tons of rides.  Crew was such a trooper and loved seeing all the characters from afar or with daddy coming with him.  Except when it came to the scary Star Wars Storm Troopers, which he LOVED.  He walked right up to the first one and said, “hello bad guy.”  Apparently, the guy enclosed in hard plastic, with his face covered and holding a gun is not scary at all but Mickey Mouse is terrifying.  He did really good on all the rides but we had him ride the Dinosaur ride and that pretty much put some fear in him (bad parenting move on our part)  He would still ride the rides but would whine that he wanted to go home which breaks your heart.  He’s a tough kid and we got through it.  All around it was a great trip for all the boys and although Crew probably won’t remember it, I loved seeing how happy he was seeing all the characters and experiencing all the fun with his brothers.

The rest of January and February Crew just grew and grew.  Some of his new songs include “wheels on the Bus” and “apples and Bananas”.  He has really started to become super picky at that dinner table and will not sit and eat with the family but wants snacks all the time.  Makes it a nightmare for all of us.  At the end of February, Crew had a cold that just kept hanging on so Daddy had a cholesterol appointment and just took Crew along with him.  Turns out, little boo had an ear infection.  He was a trooper for having that ear issue for so long.  He was weighing in at 38 pounds.  So hopefully with the ear problem solved he will be happier and a better eater and sleep better