Skip to content

Toadfrogs & Elephants

The Burch family Photo Blog
  • Archive
  • Books
  • LittleToadfrogs
    • Alex
    • Teague
    • Kaitlyn
    • Ben

Month: April 2013

30 Apr

School Pictures

Finally MDO offers school pictures! I was excited to get the notice and even more excited to get the pictures. I was told we would get four pictures of each child and I got quite a few more than that plus a color and black and white of each pose. There was no mention that if you had siblings they would be photographed together – what a happy surprise!

pic5pic8pic6

pic1pic4

pic3pic2
And my favorite picture by far…
monster
The pictures were done by Alison Ziebell.
30 Apr

April 30, 2013

apr3013a

Alex always likes to check out the lobsters when we go to the fish store. Today the man got one out and let Alex look at it up close and personal. He offered to let Alex hold it but touching a fingertip was as close as he got.

30 Apr

April 30, 2013

apr3013t

It has been interesting to watch Teague with the neighborhood boys over the last few weeks. He definitely gravitates to Alex, Riley, and Abram instead of Grant and Glenna, but he’s two years younger and can’t always keep up.

29 Apr

Water Park Extravaganza

Wade and I planned a morning at the water park! He had never been and I thought having two adults might be best for my first time with two kids. We all had a great time. Teague loved the water fountains and watching everybody. Alex loved the small water slide and running around with Daddy. We got him to go on the big water slide once (just like always). After that he remembered that he was scared and would’t go again. As soon as we got home Alex was asking when we could go again.

water4water5

water1water2water3

water7water6
29 Apr

April 29, 2013

apr2913a

We’re trying soccer again. Here’s hoping a 4 year old can handle hour long practices.

29 Apr

April 29, 2013

apr2913t

The water park was a definite hit!

28 Apr

Do You See?

There is no high chair (or rather hook-on high chair)! Although it is a wonderful convenience I always rejoice when it is no longer needed. No more collecting crumbs in the seat. No more having to take it apart to wash (and then finding what has gotten hidden between the clamps and the counter). Yay!!
kitchen

28 Apr

April 28, 2013

apr2813a

A boy and his dog.
(Alex has really taken an interest in the animals recently. He has learned to approach them calmly and then to gently pet them. Amazingly now they don’t always run from him.)

28 Apr

April 28, 2013

apr2813t

Teague was so proud of his rocks. He carried them from one side of the yard and back (over and over).

27 Apr

Digging In The Dirt

Today I convinced Wade to empty out my compost and mix it into the raised beds. Alex of course wanted to help. I didn’t realize later that he had taken his trucks to play in the muck, but oh well. Why not.

yard1yard2

yard4yard3yard5
27 Apr

April 27, 2013

apr2713a

Smile. You’re on camera.
(Wade brought home these video glasses to test. Alex has loved wearing them all day and recording/narrating everything he sees.)

27 Apr

April 27, 2013

apr2713t

Higher Daddy higher.

26 Apr

April 26, 2013

apr2613a

This reminds me of a 4 year old version’s of Born To Be Wild.

26 Apr

April 26, 2013

apr2613y

Tandem sliding – quite the accomplishment for Teague and Glenna.

26 Apr

Out Out Out

We spent the entire day outside except for nap. It was pretty incredible. (The funny story of the day – When Alex has his head buried in the “microphone” on the playground he is yelling “HOLY SPIRIT” over and over. No clue why. He never explained.)

park1park2

park3park4park5

park6yard1yard2

yard4yard3

25 Apr

April 25, 2013

apr2513a

Alex came home from school telling me this necklace was for catching rainbows. Tonight it was the requested item for dessert.

25 Apr

April 25, 2013

apr2513t

Mr. Independent can’t wait for his turn at brushing teeth (after Mom’s turn).

25 Apr

Daddy Heaven

Wade has been working hard on Alex’s training. Tonight it all paid off..
scratch

24 Apr

April 24, 2013

apr2413

And so it begins with the second child (taught by the first child)

23 Apr

April 23, 2013

apr2313

Alex turned his socks into knee socks and thought it was hilarious. He even requested the picture.

23 Apr

April 23, 2013

apr2313t

Teague was excited to learn that Madison will attempt to drink from his cup. (I was not as excited, but didn’t stop the behavior. Instead I grabbed my camera.)

23 Apr

I Spy

Do you see what I see? I spy a couple of 20s. Thank you Jerry!
hidden
(In case you don’t know the history of Jerry and the $20 read here)

22 Apr

April 22, 2013

apr2213

We decided on an after dinner walk and Alex was a little concerned it might get dark before we got back to the house. He wanted a flashlight for everyone, but we finally set a group limit of two.

22 Apr

April 22, 2013

apr2213t

Teague decided he wanted a turn wearing the flashlight on his jeans too.

22 Apr

Out We Go

We are enjoying every minute of this weather!

boys1boys2
21 Apr

April 21, 2013

apr2113

A little teamwork.

21 Apr

Breakfast

Alex is normally predictable with his breakfast choices (a bar or maybe two – usually nutrigrain – and apples). Occasionally he will ask for a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Today he really threw me for a loop. He wanted a single piece of bread with the peanut butter and jelly not touching. The first description had the jelly on one side and the peanut butter on the other. We finally decided that might be too messy to make and to eat and came up with the half and half solution.
sandwy

20 Apr

April 20, 2013

apr2013

Happy Birthday to Mom.

20 Apr

Happy Birthday To Me

Being a four year old must get exhausting. Alex has been counting down to my birthday for weeks. He couldn’t be more excited if it were his birthday. Earlier in the week he told Wade that decorations were needed. Thursday night Wade took the boys to the Party store and bought decorations. I had strict instructions this morning to sleep in while they did some serious decorating.

morn1morn2morn3
deocrated
The boys couldn’t wait for the presents to be opened so we did that immediately – even before breakfast. Then we spent the rest of the day being a family and having fun – with our silly hats!

bootsfamily
19 Apr

April 19, 2013

apr1913a

Batman to the rescue.

19 Apr

April 19, 2013

apr1913

Sometimes even Superman needs a good cry.

19 Apr

Warming Up To It

Alex has been asking to go to Monkey Joe’s for weeks. (I have no idea why since we haven’t been in almost a year.) We finally arranged a playdate there with Riley. I was curious to see what Alex would do. He is sometimes rather hesitant and sometimes ready to jump right into new activities. For the first 30-45 minutes he wanted to “look” at the games in the arcade area. Then he finally went in the smallest of the bounce areas. By the time we had to leave he was having a great time!

joe1joe2joe3
And just for my birthday tomorrow we got snow – real snow coming down quite hard (but not sticking)!
snow
18 Apr

Progress

Alex has really been into stickers and coloring lately. Today it was stickers and he was adamant that the water from the water hose had to actually be putting out the fire. That’s a vast improvement from just putting the stickers all over the paper…
stickers

18 Apr

April 18, 2013

apr1813a

Alex likes to brush his teeth by himself in the morning. Thankfully I thought to check his face before we got ready to leave the house.

18 Apr

April 18, 2013

apr1813t

Teague likes this book because it has a monkey (he still says mumby).

17 Apr

April 17, 2013

apr1713


Photographer and his subject (eating jello).

17 Apr

Sleeping Issues

daynightWe like to say that Alex didn’t sleep the first 9 months of his life but has made up for it since. He has always been a great napper. (The boy still took two two hour naps till he was 22 months old.) Alex currently takes a 2-3 hour nap and sleeps 11 hours at night. Imagine my surprise when a few days after his four year check up he suddenly developed night terrors. We quickly realized what they were and thankfully they don’t last long, but he gets them 4-5 nights a week. I called the doctor just in case there was something we could do to prevent them. The first question they asked was whether he could be needing more sleep. I told her his schedule and the nurse laughed and said a lack of sleep was definitely not the issue. She gave me a few tricks for dealing with them (most of which haven’t proved helpful) and told me good luck. Thankfully Alex doesn’t remember a thing the next morning. Wade seems most effective so he normally goes in the room and speaks VERY loudly to Alex. He eventually stops screaming and snuggles back down without ever saying a word. Night terrors are freaky. Very freaky.

16 Apr

Thank Goodness For Daddy

I am not the creative one in our house. Thank goodness Wade is. He came through when a homemade camera was needed for kindermusic class.
camera1

camera2camera4camera3
camera5
16 Apr

April 16, 2013

apr1613a

Thankfully Daddy and his shop come through when craftiness is needed for Kindermusik class.

16 Apr

April 16, 2013

apr1613t

Teague and I have been reading the Belly Button Book quite a bit lately. Now he likes to lift up his shirt and yell, “Bee Bo” (which is the Hippo way of saying “belly button”)

15 Apr

Boys Will Be Boys

It was warm enough to be outside and the rain (which has been a constant in our lives for the last few weeks) took a break for a few hours so we had an outside play date! Could this be the return of our normal spring/summer routine? I can only hope. It’s obvious the boys have missed it. And have there ever been more typical boy pictures?

boys1boys2
boys3
15 Apr

April 15, 2013

apr1513a

Typical Alex. He took a break from playing with Abram and Riley to read one of his new library books.

15 Apr

April 15, 2013

apr1315t

Evidently it takes three shovels (and a sword) to play in the dirt.

14 Apr

Tied Up

We had a lot of fun this morning getting dressed for church. I wasn’t sure how Teague would react to wearing a tie but he loved it and stood very patiently (much more so than Alex) while his was being put on. Alex actually had to be convinced to wear a tie and bribed to wear a belt. (Alex did have a lot of fun with Teague’s tie before getting dressed.)

tie1tie2tie3

tie4tie5tie6
14 Apr

Surprise

I love snow. Love it. I have been living in Milwaukee about five years and have never seen snow on the ground this late in the year. Happy Sunday morning to me! (I tried to wake up Wade to at least look at it and he refused to acknowledge it existed.)

snow1snow2
snow3
14 Apr

April 14, 2013

apr1413

Tie assembly line.

13 Apr

Reevaluating

When we were in Boston the research doctor asked if Teague played with his peers yet (as opposed to parallel play). I kind of laughed and said no. At the time I was only thinking of my observations of him at MDO or play dates when Glenna or Grant are present. Then the last few days I have watched how he interacts with Alex. They are definitely two years apart but they definitely play together. It’s quite adorable to watch.

drink1drink2

drum1drum2
13 Apr

April 13, 2013

apr1313

It only took moments…

12 Apr

April 12, 2013

apr1213a

Working on the farm.

12 Apr

April 12, 2013

apr1213t

Wade might have a little work to do on teaching Teague tools and their uses.

Posts navigation

1 2
  • Alex
  • Archive
  • Ben
  • Books
  • Kaitlyn
  • Little Toadfrogs
  • Teague