Ry, Elle Belle, and Mason,
(Notice how I switched it up so the middle child gets his name first for once? You’re welcome, Bud.)
This was apparently the month of going on dates! Now that I’m writing it out, I’m noticing how many there were!
We started out this month with Mommy getting a date with both of the boys. On Mason’s half day of school, we went to see Mary Poppins Returns at the mall for our popcorn party (lots of smiley faces!) We ate at Sooner’s in the mall first, and then we got popcorn while we watched the movie. Then you went to Nonni’s for a little bit while Mommy had her parent-teacher conference with Mrs. Hooser.
The next day, Mommy went on a date with Rylan! It was the first of your yearly dates with Mommy and Daddy. We’re counting that one as your January date, even though we missed it by two days. (I hoped we could get another one in February, but it didn’t happen.) Anyway, we went to Barnes & Noble in Harrisonburg to hear story time about Elmo. Then we read a bunch of books— mostly Superhero books—, played with the train table, ate lunch in the cafe place, bought the Click magazine where Mommy had two pictures featured as finalists in the VOICE competition, looked at the toys and games, and then bought dessert. You picked a cookie that was as big as your face.
You also got to have a date with Daddy this month! The two of you went on a Sunday afternoon when it was surprisingly warm-ish to the playground at Stump. Apparently there was a little girl there who wanted to play pirates and mermaids with the two of you. So that sounded pretty fun. You’ve still been pointing out which playground you went to every time we’ve driven by Stump the rest of the month, so I’m pretty sure you liked it!
Mommy and Daddy got to have a Valentines Date on the Saturday after Valentine’s Day! Aunt Michele and Uncle Wesley (and Jill) watched the three of you while we went to Charlottesville. We ate at Bonefish Grill, which was delicious, then we walked around Home Goods (bought nothing), and got a blizzard/latte at McDonalds for the ride home. You three got to play with toys, eat yummy kid food, make homemade cotton candy, and watch PJ Masks while eating cookies. So basically y’all basically had a date too.
We had a family date to Sweet Frog to celebrate how well everyone’s been taking all the things we have weird names for… “berries,” “Mason’s pill,” “cinnamon,” etc. And yes, celebrating healthy things with dessert is probably counterintuitive. But whatever. Y’all loved it.
Grandma came to visit for about half a day at the beginning of the month, so that was fun. She ate lunch with us; we took a walk while Mason was at school; she picked Mason up from school and went to Hardees for a milkshake afterwards; and she ate supper and did bath time with us.
We had a few days where it was warm enough to play outside and take walks this month! We also had our first sickness of the year this month. Rylan, then Mommy, then Daddy caught a stomach bug and were each down for a day. Mason and Elli never caught it though, so I think that at least is a win! Mason spent the night at Nonni and Poppy’s on the day that Mommy was sick, which ended up being even better, because it turned into the night that Daddy got sick. Mase, you had your vocabulary parade that next day, and Nonni and Daddy helped you with it….as Mommy had forgotten which day it was happening and had not prepared ahead of time and was then too sick to do anything. (Insert embarrassed face.) Then right at the end of the month Mason you got strep! (Waaah.) So far Rylan hasn’t gotten it, but we’ll see.
One fun thing we did twice this month was make homemade slime! It worked super well when we first made it both times, but it dried out really fast the first time but then went a little better the second time. The first time we made it on Valentine’s Day and Mommy and Rylan made it together with red sprinkles. The second time we did it on a snow day with Mason and we made it blue!
Rylan, you’ve been learning all kinds of new things basically on your own. You wrote down the whole alphabet one day and it looked pretty great. You also know the sounds of lots of letters and like to figure out how words are made. You have also created new creative things like “kiss canons” where you shoot me and Daddy with kisses from an imaginary kiss canon. Elli, we are working on you saying some 2-3 word phrases, and it’s going well but slowly. Some are understandable, and some aren’t so much, but Mrs. Kari says you’re doing well. You have the important phrases down, like “Ry Ry, NO!!!” which you seem to say every day, regardless of what’ he’s doing. Mason, you missed your first Spark-a-Rama practice when you had Strep, and you say you’re going to be too embarrassed to do it for real…so hopefully the next few practices make you feel more comfortable. I can’t remember if I mentioned it last month, but you’re really starting to like games now. Some of our favorite things lately are playing UNO, listening to Adventures in Odyssey, and reading chapter books (Geronimo Stilton, recently.)
Here are some quotes from this month!
“Why did Mikayah want to learn German? Because he has a German Shepherd?”
“What is your favorite kind of distinct animal?”
“Mommy, do dentists sleep? ... Well then where do they sleep?”
“Nonni, does our school have any girls from that planet?”
“When I was throwing up, I thought I swallowed a lego. I mean I thought that.... but it felt like it.”
Love you, love you, love you.