Penn Wears Overalls (and other little Melder happenings for today)

Tavin and I are really getting into the swing of these Kindergarten weekdays.  We bid farewell to Koen this morning and then had hours just the two of us with our little sidekick, Penn.  We had a blast.  Tavin happily plays without fending off big brother and we sort of play together, but Tav doesn't seem to mind me keeping my hands busy in the kitchen or elsewhere while we chat about all that he's doing with his toys.  It's so nice.  He's happy, we're interacting and I'm multi-tasking getting a head start on lunch and dinner and getting things cleaned up.  After Penn's 10am feeding, we all went out on a long walk to get some errands done and visit the library.  Tavin is patient and quite the little helper and I love having him along as my buddy.  Penn pretty much just sleeps through these outings, but he's cute to look at and show off as we bump into people we know. =)  Speaking of cute to look at...check out Penn in his jean overall shorts.  Once again I've taken too many pictures and can't decide which to post.  You'll just have to look through them all!

I tried to get Tavin to come in and get a picture as he is sporting the train stickers from yesterday again (I was so glad their stickiness still worked today as Tavin was pretty excited to try to wear them again).  My silly Tavin was into the pictures and striking hilarious poses.

Tav actually has a runny nose today.  But as you can see he's still in great spirits.  I'm curious to see if the runny nose turns into anything.  He got the nasal spray vaccine of the flu shot yesterday while we were at Penn's appointment, so I'm wondering if it's a reaction to that.  At this point I'm just thankful it doesn't seem to bother him.  Koen is in full health, but he is having a rough time at home these last few days.  From the moment he got home from school today at lunchtime he was all over upsetting Tavin.  It's like he is out to make Tav's life really difficult lately.  I feel so bad for Tavin.  Koen goes after his favorite toys and books and then is mean (shoving, pushing and lightly hitting) when Tav won't let him steal something away.  Doug and I are pretty sure that this behavior is most likely induced from him adjusting to being at Kindergarten 5 days a week for 4 hours each day.  I was curious if his behavior is rough at school and was alarmed when I got a call from his teacher tonight that my curiosity could be correct!  But thankfully she was just making calls to all the parents to see how the transition to school was going for each student.  Ahhhh...  Big sigh of relief!  Actually, the teacher had only wonderful things to say about Koen.  So I'm thankful that we are at the receiving end of the poor behavior and our efforts to train Koen up to be kind and respectful seem to be paying off at school at least in these first two weeks. =)  Although Koen had a rough time with Tavin after coming home today, while I was laying Tav down for his nap Koen was being so sweet with his other brother, Penn.  Koen is amazingly patient and sweet with his baby brother (he was very sweet with Tavin in the baby stages too, a very special trait in this wonderful big brother).  When I came out from laying Tav down Koen had Penn chatting and smiling as Koen showed him toys and talked close to his face.  I tried to capture it on video, but Penn was getting tired, so this isn't as great as it was, but it gives you a sense of Koen's very sweet big brother behavior.

The boys all had good naps (well Koen had rest time) and I got a lot accomplished.  We are leaving tomorrow for a long weekend.  Koen and Tavin are staying here with friends and Doug and I are headed to Florida with Penn.  Doug's doing a wedding, but it just happens to be in the same town that my brother, sister-in-law and niece live.  Yay!  So, anyways, the last few days have been all about planning for our trip and to have the boys all set here while we are gone.  The evening was pretty smooth with the distraction of Daddy getting home for dinner.  And then Doug laid both boys down tonight after a walk to visit neighbors and give away the crazy plethora of tomatoes we continue to reap from our humble urban garden.  Good day all in all.  I'm so thankful for this life as a mom with my 3 boys.