The Hoglund Family Blog: Books GALORE ! ! !

I feel so bad even complaining about this.... but REALLY I need a break from all these books. I don't think it helped that my mom brought up a ton of her Dinosaur related books (she informed me this is just the tip of the iceberg with what she has to hand off on me) and the boys just love them. We are reading pretty much non stop the entire day to the boys and to Evie. I think Evie just sees what the boys are doing (bringing us books and sitting on our laps etc) so she does the same .... but over and over again, the same books.... day in, day out. And honestly, I am proud and happy that my kiddos love to read... definitely better than zoning in on the TV which they seem to do here and there depending on the program. I love that they love books ... and I love that they are becoming so familiar with them that they can practically recite them to us. Oscar is definitely better at the rhyming ones - you can leave out words here and there and he will fill in the blanks for us. MacKay has about 4-5 books that he can read/recite most of the words on the pages. He also loves, and is fantastic at, the look and find books. We have a Thomas book like that and he can find some of the most obscure things that they ask for - things we have a hard time finding. I Love You, StinkyFace ..... Dinosaur Roar .... Are You My Mother ..... Dinosaur Train ... and DinoTrain ... all seem to be on their favorites list lately. My only wish in this ... would be just to have one day that is book free.... OR, I would even be willing to trade that peaceful book free day for some sort of service that would come put all the books away that they take out. :) We are working on getting them to put toys and books away as they use them .... and for the most part it is working if we just stand our ground and refuse to read another book or help them with something until they put their other toys away... but it is hard when there are two of them and one wants to desperately clean up to get whatever it is that they want, or to please us.... and the other just lies around being lazy about it. They both take their turns at each of those roles ... and they even get frustrated with each other when the other won't help. It's somewhat entertaining.

Let's see..... since the last post the boys started their Preschool Plus program. Tuesday was their first day (with me) and they did very well for circle time - which can be a bit of a stretch for them as they want to get up and play with everything in the room, but they have to sit and listen to the teacher, read a story and participate in some activities before they get full reign of the room. But they did quite well .... played with all the others nicely .... did their crafts and were great about going and cleaning up themselves and after themselves. Then we split after the first hour and we parents convened in another room where we could watch through a tempered glass window. Thursday we went back for their "day alone" .... I sat with them until class started and then kissed them and said I would be back later and they weren't phased at all by it. I even came back 30 minutes before the end of class to watch them and still they seemed completely fine with the fact that I was nowhere to be seen. When I did finally go in there at the end of class I was greeted by two very affectionate and excited boys.... very happy to see me and tell me that they had a lot of fun. I'm so proud of them for handling that transition so beautifully. YAY. Now this week will be a little bit more chaotic as ..... 1.) I won't have the help of my mom here in getting them all ready/fed and out the door in time - i suppose that will take a bit to get the hang of.... AND .... 2.) This Thursday we start Evie's ECFE class (1-2 yr olds) during the time that the boys have their "drop off" day. I can't wait to see how Evie does with all this ECFE stuff - she really hasn't had a chance to be around many kids her age... they are always older.

Some updates on Evie .... still teething like crazy. Her poor butt needs a break from this rash .... she gets such bad rashes when she teeths - never had it this bad with the boys. We even brought her into the doctor last week cuz she had this weird red ring on one of her butt cheeks and we thought it might be fungal like ring worm or something. The doctors didn't think it was that, but they gave me a prescription salve to use on her (in place of the desitin we usually use) as it is a 4 in 1 ointment - has zinc oxide, anti fungal, lotrimin, etc - so basically it will clear anything up. So we've been using that quite liberally on her lately as her rash has come back full force again. Poor little girl starts crying every time we take her into her room cuz she knows that means having her diaper changed. But other than that she's have a bawl .... copying the boys and bringing us book upon book to have read to her. Though we rarely get through a full book as she quickly figures out that almost every book she brings us isn't something she is interested in. But the ones she does like (shapes and colors books, anything with Elmo or Grover, lift the flap books) she could sit for hours with. She's still kissing things in the books that she thinks are cute... especially puppies, Elmo and Grover. She just loves to smooch. She's still a little chatterbox, loves to sing and dance too. She now yells "Stop" (which sounds more like "sssdop") when Angus barks at everything that drives down our street. She loves saying "Hi" to everyone (a hoot while shopping). And I am just amazed at how much she understands - she can do so many things that we ask of her. Maybe I am just forgetting what it was like with the boys... but I don't remember them being this sharp to catch onto this stuff this quickly. And she's loving all her new outfits lately (we've moved into a whole new set now with all the fall/winter/long sleeved outfits etc) .... she takes a minute or two every day to check out what she is wearing. It almost seems like if it is new she sorta struts around a little different for a while - almost to show it off. And every once in a while we'll throw one of her pettiskirts on her and MAN does she love wearing those ..... swishing her little hips this way and that way - showing off.

We had a visitor and play date recently too. My cousin, Shannon, brought over her little 1 year old son, Cameron for us to meet and play with. They live in AZ and were home to celebrate Cameron's 1st birthday and baptism .... lucky for us, James' (Shannon's husband) parents live here in Brainerd so they came here for a few days ... and we got to have a couple play dates. One was planned out .... and the 2nd was more of a reactionary thing - Cameron was wreaking havoc on his Gma/Gpa's house so Shannon brought him over to our house for a little bit to give him a change in scenery. They all played together so nicely ... I wish Shannon lived closer so we could do this more often :) And MAN oh MAN, did Cameron LOVE Angus. He just laughed hysterically every time Angus went by him, and was crawling all over him... it was so entertaining to watch him play at our house. Got some cute pictures of him too - check them out below.

And update on me and the house. I'm now feeling pretty darn close to 100% now .... I say close, cuz I'm not sure that as a mother of 3 children under the age of 3, that I EVER run at 100%.... so basically, I'm good. I had my post-op appt and everything is great ..... other than the fact that I asked them to look into the reason I had to have that followup EKG before the surgery (because they said I had an "abnormal" EKG from my ER visit) .... come to find out that my first EKG read something to the extent of "****acute MI *****" which translates to heart attack. And even my 2nd/followup EKG showed yet another abnormality. Guess that means another trip to the doctor to get that ironed out. Nice .... I'm freaked out at the whole "acute MI"thing... but then I am consoled by the fact that I am hoping that NO doctor would ever send someone home from an ER visit (even though they found I had the gall stones to be the reason for my pain) if they showed signs of a heart attack on their EKG - either way, I'm getting to the bottom of that one. As for the house... someone came out Tuesday of last week (the ONE nice, non raining, day we had last week) to take pictures of the outside before all the foliage died. And we also got a ton of nice pictures from the realtor we used over a year ago from our house listing .... so those will work for the "before" pictures that the editor wanted. Going to give her a call to let her know I have those before pictures... and see what the plan is for doing the interior stuff as that will mean getting the kids OUT of the house for a few days (trip to Gma's) :) ..... and giving this house a good ole douching.

Well.... like I said - a ton of back logged pictures. Might sneak in another post in a week or so, I think we're going to try our first weekend of potty training with the boys next weekend while Gma Chris is up visiting again. We already made them up some trees to put stickers (monkies, dinosaurs, bees, birds etc) on every time they go in the potty vs their pants. Should be interesting - wish us luck. ...... enjoy the pictures:

Here are some pictures of what I had mentioned in the last post.... about Evie attacking the boys with hugs... that is until she finally bit MacKay - then the fun was over.

The boys and their early birthday presents from Gpa Gary and Gma Terri ...... talking and moving Thomas and James trains

Just some cute pictures of Evie .... one where she needed some attention from her Buppa - awwwww.

Daddy and Oscar reading one of the new favorites.... DinoTrain (the one Oscar loves to read by filling in the blanks we leave in the verses)

The boys' first day of Preschool Plus .... ready and waiting to go with their back packs.

.... and Evie's first day back at sibling care (during boys' class).... and back at home, Gma Chris reading yet another favorite to ALL of her grandchildren - Dinosaur Train

Cameron .... our little buddy who loved Angus

And the caption: How many more kids can you fit into this kennel?

Evie during our play date with Cameron ... getting some more wear out of her Matilda Jane outfit (have to get lots of use out of this one since Daddy saw the receipt) :)

Oscar and MacKay - wanting to have THEIR pictures taken too (I think they were getting jealous of all the pictures I was taking of Cameron).

Shannon reading yet ANOTHER favorite to the boys..... Dinosaur Roar! (this is the one that MacKay can fully read/recite based on the pictures)

Evie playing with the ball popper - getting frustrated, sticking her hands/arms in their to try get the balls to pop out. :)

Grandma Chris reading one of MacKay's favorite (my least favorite) look 'n find Thomas book.

Just some cute pictures of Evie in a cute sweater from Gma Diane ... started out as a cute sweater, and hours later it was more like a sweater dress with how active she is.

Cameron from his 2nd visit to our house .... love when you can catch those "scowling" pictures like this.

Evie wearing a cute hoodie outfit she got for her birthday from my Aunt Sandy and Uncle Denny (Shannon's parents) .... note: the pants for this outfit are actually super cute leopard print leggings, but got soiled before I could take a picture.

Some fun outside .... with cousins Kelly, Brandon, ... and Kelly's friend Mallory:

MacKay helping Daddy blow some leaves ... and as usual, running around like crazy...

Oscar, as usual on his Gator .... giving his hew friend, Mallory, a lift (total ladies man, here) :)

Evie driving around her car ... and pushing around a Tonka truck (it's inevitable she plays with trucks huh?) - Note: wearing cute birthday outfit from my cousin Shannon.