What a difference.

Almost 4 years ago we planted a new tree in our back garden.

A pretty little flowering cherry.

Here it is. See how skinny and short it is.

Just a fraction taller than the large shrub behind on the right.

This is it now. It's almost twice as tall, and twice as bushy!

It's such a. Beautiful tree, especially when in bloom.

Everyone comments on how it's thrived and how big it has become, so I thought i'd do a comparison.

 

I guess this tree grows like my kids :)

 

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Shalom.

 

 

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Hi!

Harrison's 4 year update.

Back in June Harrison went for his 4 year check up.

I don't think I blogged about it!

Here are his stats.......

Height 43 3/4 "

Weight 52lb

They didn't measure his head anymore. His BP was 98/48

He's doing everything he should. No problems. He's still a big boy for his age, and off the percentage charts in both height and weight.

He just graduated to his first size 1 shoes!

He is wearing size 6 clothes, but they are getting small! Oh my!

Next year he gets to go to proper Pre-school!

He starts at Dublin City Schools. Bailey Elementry Pre-school peer program. It's a 5 day a week Pre-school and it's 8:45-11:30. Notnsure how we are all going to get out of the house for 8:30 every day!

The peer program is a subsidized system so 50% of the school is for special needs or delayed kids. Some are speech delayed, delayed motor skills, autism spectrum stuff like that.

So Harrison is one of the peers - or average ability kids. They've found it helps both special needs and average ability children to be in a mixed class. And the class sizes are small! 8-10 to a class. I've heard a lot of good things about this program, and it will be a great start for him.

Next year he gets to go to kindergaten.

Scary!

4 years olds are a lot of fun. Seriously.

He is hilarious and has developed a true sense of humor. He laughs in all the right places in movies, will play a game and understand the rules, he loves to play make believe. Both our boys have awesome imaginations!

He won't eat a sandwich. It's annoying, he decided he doesn't like them.

His favorite colors are blue and green.

His favorite food is Probably soft salted pretzels. And chocolate and candy of course ;0)

He loves super heroes and Harry Potter.

He loves DocMcStuffins, Peppa Pig and Jake and the Netherlands pirates.

He loves to be told stories. Made up -with him staring in them.

He wakes at 6:30 am sharp almost. Every. Single. Day.

We are still learning to sleep dry at night, but we are getting there!

He is >this< Close to being able to swim. He's doing great :)

He loves to snorkel.

He loves to play dress up.

We love our 4 year old!

 

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Warm and fuzzy.

When I was little one of my favorite things to do was play Fuzzy Felts.

I had an under water one, and one with horses.

I saw some in Michael's that I thought the boys would love, or more likely, I would love!

So today instead of going to the pool, we played fuzzy felts. Harrison wasn't that interested at first, he's more of a doer and less of a sitter!

But once he saw Allister and I having fun, he wanted in on it :)

I'm my day they were not as big as the ones now!

Allister's pirates were Captain Hook.

All 3 of them.

 

Harrison's pirates were naked. He didn't want them dressed.

More worryingly they were Grandad, Grammy and Pooh-Bah.

Harrison spent yesterday afternoon playing games. He has finally reached an age where he understands the rules and he and I had a blast while Allister napped.

Harrison had a tough few days recently. He was acting up a lot. After a month of visitors I think it just took us all a while to get readjusted.

So I have been trying to spend some more one on one.

We played Break The Ice, Memory, And the Apple Picking Game that I can't remember the name of.

We also made a puzzle.

Love hanging out with my boys :)

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Daddy

We haven't seen much of Daddy lately. He recently started a new job back in Treasury. He's some important guy now.

Last night was one of the few nights he made it home for dinner and bed time.

The boys enjoyed reading Brave on the iPad together before bed.

And night time snuggles.

We're hoping Daddy's new job doesn't stay this busy for too long, we miss him!

And I don't know how single parents stay sane and have a clean house all at once'

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My First Summer Camp!

Harrison enjoyed his first summer camp last week!

He had a BLAST!

He went 9-1 every day at the local rec center, it's ages 3-5.

They played all sorts of fun games, catch the flag, soccer, sang songs, made crafts and all sorts of fun stuff!

They even took photos of a few activities.

Here is Splash Day.

Being so little they don't do field trips, all activities are in and around the rec. So they don't have pool days. Instead they get out the sprinklers and baby pools and have a blast!

Here they are playing with the parachute and Duck Duck Goose.

Harrison gets to go to summer camp again in a couple of weeks.

He can't wait to go back!

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Big Helpers.

Our first princess.

Finally we got a princess in out house! Harrison begged for the Brave doll while out today, and who am I to say no! I was pretty excited to finally get to play dolls :)

He loves to draw.

On himself and the walls!

The Zoo.

As always, when we have visitors we head to the zoo!

Here are some pictures from our fun days out.

Allister loved the zip-line! And so did auntie-Julie :)

This flamingo would not leave us alone! I think he thought Auntie-Julie was a flamingo- or maybe a deer?

They opened up a new area called Stingray bay! You get to pet stingray. It's pretty awesome.

Harrison had a dragon painted on his face. He absolutely loved it! I love these pictures :)

We love our zoo days.

 

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Cheeky Chappy :)

4th July.

There are not many pictures of July 4th.

 

This is why.

See that sneaky little 103f right there! It's been scorching lately- and humid. Hottest temperatures on record- and therefore the camera stayed in the air conditioning.

We all braved the heat and walked over to the Dublin Independence Day celebrations. And despite the heat we had a lot of fun!

We had a table this year, and Joe Walsh played- he was fun! The boys played in the bounce-houses and bouncy castles. The heat didn't seem to bother them one bit.

And then just as the fireworks were about to go off a lightening storm started to roll in!

 

They set the fireworks off early and shortened them slightly, but they were still awesome! And the boys absolutely loved the, which is all I need!

 

Hope you had a happy 4th!

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Slacking!

I've been seriously slacking in my blogging lately! I have so many blogs spin ing around my head I need to get them all here soon. So many things to blog about.......

 

-Harrison's 4th birthday.

-Harrison's 4 year annual check up.

- Auntie Jules visit.

-Grandad's visit.

-Uncle Gary and Mattais visit.

-4th of July.

-Fathers day and Daddy's birthday.

-Beach vacation.

-Grammy's birthday.

-update on Allister.

-Pre-School.

-Random stuff.

I'm sure there's more too!

So please bare with me while I catch up and expect lots of posts in completely random order :)

Thanks for being patient! it's been busy round these parts.

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