Gracious Good Start

It's crunch time here at the Melders.  Doug's in a series of super busy weeks which means this momma is also working overtime on the homefront.  This was our first of two super busy weekends especially and the Lord has been graciously carrying us through it.  Here are some high points of our good start.  

On Friday when Koen got back from school and rest times/nap times ended we headed up to the third floor for playtime (again, I'm just not ready yet for this cold and was super demotivated to get back outside!).  On a whim we got out the play tent.  Best.  Idea.  Ever.  The rest of the night was easy-going after that brainstorm.  Here are the 3 boys initially piled in.

Penn got it to himself for a moment and backed himself up against one of the tent walls and he was so weirded out about the soft surface bumping his head!

The boys went on to fully outfit the tent with pillows, blankets, books, play food and all sorts of other things.  Penn is now blockaded out because "he messes it up and then they have to reorganize it."  Believe me, boys, I understand.

Today we enjoyed a few hours with Doug before he had to take off again.  He took the big boys for me to get some errands done.  One of those errands was a stop at the "pumpkin patch."  Well, let's be honest.  We live in the city.  Our urban pumpkin patch is an old church's front lawn covered with a sea of orange pumpkins.  Close enough, right?  The boys were so excited!  Tavin even busted out his "preschool smile."  He has named his newest and best grin yet with that title.  He gets so excited everyday he has preschool he just beams.  So, now whenever we want a good smile we ask for the "preschool smile."  Works every time.

Penn and I met the big boys and Doug at a playground near the house so that I could take over parental duties and Doug could get off to work.  All three boys really had a blast playing with one another doing the same sorts of things...slides, tunnels and smiles.

I didn't even look to get this picture, I just stuck my camera down the tunnel.  Not bad!!

This was another lucky take.  Check out Tav's pose!

No time for portraits for this hard-working guy.  He never stopped moving (and can we just take a moment to say how cute that hat is!?).

Penn would like everyone to know that despite the fact I never have him around our stairs, he has conquered stairs and LOVES them.  He's been trying to go down them head first...not acceptable.  But here he was showing off his newest skill.

Well, that's it for now.  Keep us in your prayers if you think of it!

Geared Up for Storytime

Ok, it's officially feeling like Fall.  It is cold!  I need to build up my tolerance.  At this point in the season I am quite a wimp!  It's also time to get out the real gear and take the cold temps (in the 30's this morning) seriously.  I really wanted to get the boys out of the house for a little while this morning since it was going to be sunny.  I forgot how long it takes to get all the gear on and everything.  I should've started 10 minutes earlier!  Here are the boys in their puffy coats, fleece hats and mittens.  Tav's in fleece-lined pants and Penn is just a fleece explosion with his fuzzy pj's still on and a fleece blanket over top.  Yep, no joke.  We are geared up!

So, for what reason did we brave the cold (besides the fact I love a walk and some fresh air)?  Storytime of course!!  Tavin is such a good little "student."  He takes it all in, participates with hand motions and songs and even tries to answer questions.  

Penn wasn't really quite as cooperative.  He viewed Storytime more as "free expression time."  He crawled around the outskirts of the group being quite curious.  Here he is trying to mount the elephant riding toy.  Oh, silly Penn!

It was a nice short outing and totally worth all the gear.  We have to get used to it one or another anyways. =)

First Snowfall in the Burgh, Oct. 24th, 2013

I heard a tapping on the windows this afternoon while the little guys were sleeping.  And there it was, tiny little white things falling from the sky.  Somewhere in between snow and hail were the first snowflakes of the season.  Koen got to catch some on his tongue on his walk home from the bus stop with Doug.  Doug totally caved and bought the school boy a hot cocoa to celebrate the first snow.  

Here's another shot, just for fun (Doug's a pretty big fan), of the big boy on his way home.  My text back to Doug after receiving the picture was, "He's getting so big too fast!"  My how time flies!

Many more snow pictures to come I'm sure (well, at least I hope there's some good snow this year!).

Playdate Just for Penn

I by mistake scheduled a playdate with some other moms from church for a day when Tav is in preschool.  It didn't occur to me that I could just schedule a playdate on a day when I just have Penn in the morning just for Penn!  How silly!  When Koen was 16 months and dropping his morning nap I was eager to be out at fun playdates much like this one as often as possible.  How funny that when Penn and I have the opportunity to just be us that I want to just relish it at home doing our own simple thing.  Well, it turns out that Penn out on his own playdate is a blast and we will probably have to do some more of these (with plenty of time to ourselves at home mixed in of course, because that is still my favorite).  So the scheduling oops turned out to be a fun new experience for us as mother and son.  Here's Penn living it up at the Children's Museum...

At first he was tentative.  As if I was going to leave him there?  Or perhaps was he not supposed to touch things?  No, that's not right.  It's playtime, buddy!

Penn got super excited about this ball thing.  He wasn't tall enough to put the balls in the top, but he loved (and squealed with delight) watching them roll to the bottom.

He was so excited that he figured out how to turn this wheel.  The light is activated by the power generated by turning the wheel.  He was delighted.

Eventually we moved on to the garage where our friends were (previously we were in the nursery area).  Penn found several interesting things, but mostly he loved crawling in and out of the trolley.  While in there he found a familiar book.  He was so happy to see it (Koen just read it to him last night.  He pulled it down and started "reading" it, but then brought it over to me to read.  Precious!

A stare out of the trolley at the balls that run on rails up on the ceiling.  He was enamored by them.

Next we went to check out the latest feature exhibit.  It's called "TapeScape."  I figured it would be a quick peek to keep in mind for the big brothers on our next visit together, but nope, that wasn't the case.  Penn LOVED it.  The builders of the exhibit used packing tape to build a series of tunnels.  Pretty interesting!  Penn started in the baby tunnel which he ruled and just went back and forth over and over.  

Then he noticed the big tunnel with the big kids.  And being that he is the third of 3 boys, the clutter of kids in an enclosed space didn't scare this baby.  He got right in the mix to take it all in.

He caught a moment when he head the end of the big tunnel to himself.  Just an oblivion of packing tape.  Who knew it could be so fun?

So, as you can see, Penn had no problem enjoying his solo playdate.  From the museum we went to pick up Tav.  We watched Tavin in grassy park and as I was trying to get a few pics of Tav I by mistake turned the camera around at us instead.  In the first picture you can tell that Penn isn't aware.

Then he sees himself in the camera and puts on a smiling show all on his own.  

Oh man, that's a priceless face.  Loved my morning with you, Penn Rye!

Messy Morning with my Little Men

Today was a rainy, blustery day in the Burgh.  We sent Koen off to school and then Tav, Penn and I got down to business.  In our PJ's of course.  The boys destroyed the first floor playing while I prepped our dinner and a dinner for a family down the street that just had a baby.  Here are the little guys playing a duet on the piano for me.

After they tired of playing piano and playing cars in the living room, they played in the kitchen.  I thought I would include a few real life shots of what a disaster the kitchen can become when we are enjoying a simple morning at home.  Tav was busy with Play-Doh amidst the messy kitchen table.

Penn decided to reorganize the Tupperware (after he had already reorganized the pantry behind him and pulled out all the baking sheets in front of him).

I had been busy too of course.  Notice the heaping dishes and work in progress on the counter and the stove.

It was such a fun morning with my bugs.  I just love how they are happy doing their thing.  When they finally tired of the first floor (which thankfully timed well with my dinner project being completed), we went up to the third floor for more playtime, snuggles and finally got ourselves dressed and ready for the day. =)  

Tavin Pretends to Read

Tavin has been really eager to learn his letters, both capital and little letters as of late.  He's also been obviously working on his letter sounds (we get lots of opportunities for this since we work on his words all the time).  He loves books about the alphabet and he loves to review flashcards, etc. that help him practice all of these new and interesting skills.  I'm sure watching Koen progress in his reading skills has a lot to do with it and the speech therapy as well.  Well, I'm enjoying it a lot as I love to see his mind open up to new things and it is a pleasure to see him grasping new concepts.  Age 3 is so exciting!  With all of that in mind, Tavin has been seeing Koen start reading books to him now.  So of course, Tavin wants to pretend he can read too.  He memorizes his favorite books as I read them to him and then he tells me that he wants to read them to me instead of vice versa.  Today I finally remembered to grab the camera to take a video.  It's so precious and endearing.  Enjoy, "Everthing Goes...Henry in a Jam."

Impromptu Playground Pics

Last night we spent some time at a favorite local playground after naptime and before dinner.  The boys were having so much and being so sweet I decided to grab my phone and try to get it on camera.  I spent much of my time shooting pics of Penn.  He was so excited to be playing on the playground himself.  He especially enjoyed going up and down the slide.

Penn also crawled over to what I will now refer to as his Mt. Everest.

The big boys played hide and seek for a little while and then just played really well with one another on the playground equipment.  I eventually caught up with them and took some pics.  Koen was so sweet, he told Tav to hold his hand for the picture.

Then Koen noticed Tavin's static-ability and we just had to take a picture of it.

Finally I got them to all pose together.  Koen has been really into this lately (as you can see).  Tav's energy was waning at this point, so he looks a little tired.  Penn enjoyed it though!

Well, that's it for that fun trip to the playground.  It was such a wonderful way to spend our evening together (as you can see by the photos).