Float Like a Butterfly, Sting Like a Bee

One happy little guy

This is unbelievable to me. BUT. Bode will be FOUR years old tomorrow! Hello?! Four just sounds so much older the three. And while it feels like he's been with us forever already, time has flown by since he was born and it really seems like yesterday that i held that little 5 pound peanut in my arms for the first time! Oh well. I'll save the sappy stuff for later.

Since his birthday is on Monday and i can't quite wrap my brain around when to celebrate it with friends (or if we will have an official "party"), we decided to take him to get his big bday gift yesterday. He is such a big boy (for real--tall and strong) he's pretty much outgrown his trike. And Keegen is waiting in the wings, more than happy to inherit that puppy. So we took him down to REI and let him pick out a brand-new big boy bike! Oh! Sorry! Excuse me! Bode is yelling at me that it's NOT a "big boy bike" but a TWO-WHEELER! Dur Mom! In fact, as we drove to REI, Doug and I started singing Queen's "I Want to Ride My Bicycle" and Bode made us change it to "I want to ride my two-wheeler bicycle with training wheels, I want to ride my bike! I want to ride my two-wheeler bicycle with training wheels, i want to ride it where i liiiiiiike!" Woo. I'm out of breath.

We walked into REI and found the kids' bikes section, filled with already-assembled bikes just waiting to be tried out. He knew from the start which one he wanted--the red and black Novara 16" Stinger dirt bike! He climbed on and gave it a test drive around the store (which i was informed after-the-fact was a big no-no. Heh, heh. Oops!). The look of glee on his face was priceless. I had another bike pulled down for comparison sake but he never waivered from his first choice. "No Mom! This one is my bike!" I can only hope he will always be so sure of his decisions...

Keegen wouldn't be left out of this fun!

Wild Animals

Ah. I love our zoo. And i finally got to share it with Erin and her chicas. It was a "last hurrah" Wednesday afternoon. Sadly, right as we started off on our zoo adventure, Fiona developed an ear infection to go along with her pinkeye, but amazingly she was awesome at the zoo even feeling lousy. We did a quick tour, just enough to give them a taste and want to come back to CO for MORE, right???

Holy freaking tongue!



Keegen could not take his eyes off the many many giraffes

It was FREEZING but being the true Coloradoans that we are, we weren't phased...(Ugh). Luckily most of the animals were in their warm cozy houses so we just ran from house to house. I love that we can feed the giraffes. What a fun thing. This was the first time i've fed them in their house. Not as fun as outside, but it was definitely warm. All the kids enjoyed it. We spent some time staring at the lion family. Beautiful. Enjoyed my favorite house--the hippos. It's my favorite because it's so random. Hippos, pythons, penguins, komodo dragon and fish tanks. Like i said, random. But again, warm too. And then we ended in the primate house. Lots of babies at the zoo (giraffes, lions, orangutans and gorillas) which is fun to see.


How gorgeous are they??!

We burned home and got some lovely numbing drops into Fi's ears which seemed to quickly do the trick. Got the kids fed (thanks Doug!) and off Erin and I went to meander around World Market and Target and then a late dinner at Chili's. I loved sitting and talking and laughing with my sis. Seriously good times.

Well East Coast Girls are Hip...

Erin and the girls got here late last Saturday night and sadly left Thursday afternoon. But we had a great time! I love love love seeing the kids play together. Fiona and Bode pick up where they've left off everytime. And now Keegen and Chloe really dig each other too. Other than the hard parts of the trip (the flight for them, the pinkeye, the not-sleeping-in-a-new-place syndrome) it's been great. I love having them here and wish they would stay forever and ever and ever...

But back to real life. We enjoyed some tubing and lots of tunnel-time and bouncing in the basement castle. Erin and i got the entire day to ourselves on Monday. Doug took the day off and watched all the kids while we took off to Boulder. It was freezing but so fun. I love that town. And it was nice to be able to take our time and enjoy each other's company and not be interrupted by the kiddos. What a treat.

Basement Fun

Here is a look at the kiddos enjoying the Christmas bounty. They love the castle and new tent tunnels! The video shrinks a bit as it uploads, which is too bad, because you can't really appreciate how truly TICKED Keegen gets in this!

Naughty

I mistakenly assumed i had moved these treats out of his reach. When i entered the room saying, "I don't think so!" his response was an enthusiastic "YUMMY!" as he reached for another...

A Sun-BEAM!

Today was a big day in the Bell Household...Bode is now a Sunbeam! He missed the cut by 28 days last year, so this past year he got the chance to finally like and be comfortable in nursery (hey, it only took 29 months!). He got to be there for the few months both he and Keegen were in nursery together to help Keegs with that transition.

Anyway. He was very vocal about the fact that he did NOT want to go to Primary, did NOT want to go to his Sunbeam class, did NOT want to be with the other kids because they are all "older than me" (HA! he's the oldest!); etc., etc. So i went with him to sharing time because i figured that would be the most overwhelming for him. He sat on my lap and i slowly transferred him over to his own chair. He seemed to enjoy the singing time, especially when it was a familiar song.

Then off we went to his classroom and i told him i needed to check on Keegs and took off. And by all accounts he did GREAT. I had no doubt he'd be fine once he was in the smaller room with fewer kids.

I asked him about his class as we drove home and he answered all of my questions with, "I can't tell you now, Mommy. It's a surpwise." Usually he'll at least tell me about what he had for a snack, but no dice. So i asked when he could tell me and he said when we got home.

Here's how the conversation went once we were home...

Me: "So can you tell me about your class now?"

Bode: "I had cwackers and we did wing awound the wosy!"

Me: "Oh! You did ring around the rosy? How fun! What did you guys learn about?"

Bode: "I didn't learn anything."

Me: "Did you talk about Jesus?"

Bode: "Huh...Jesus...Sho-ure (sure)."

All in all, a successful day, i say!