I bet you didn’t know that Old McDonald has dinosaurs living on his farm!

And in case you didn’t know, a t-rex says “roar” and a long neck says “smack”. Smack would be the sound of it’s tail hitting a t-rex. (explanation given by Jayden)

Yea, Willow didn’t know either… and that would be because she has yet to experience a Thanksgiving at the McComb household.  Olives are really for scooping and throwing mashed potatoes across the table.  :)

After you’re all filled up on lunch, well, you have to have a tea party.

Jayden likes to put one of the “desserts” into his cup, so he can have whipped cream tea.

Delicious!!

Here is an updated video for all my long-distant peeps. I know that last one was pretty dark and blurry. I thought it turned out kinda bad because it was at night and our room wasn’t very bright, but then today when I was trying to take more videos of her walking, things were still kinda blurry. I turned the camera over and I found a perfect little greasy fingerprint covering the whole lens, I’m gonna go with it was probably Jayden’s. Once I got that cleaned off, the picture came out much better!

There was a new baby donkey at the zoo too. She was 8 months old, but this was the first time we had seen her.

We spent a lot of time at the giraffe’s exhibit.  Jayden and Willow both really like them, and to be honest, they are one of my favorites too.

We got in on the giraffe feeding today too!

This was 1 of the 2 kid giraffes and he’s not tall enough yet to reach over the feeding platform’s railing. He is actually the same age as Willow!

Look at that tongue!

The lions were out and 1 of the 2 boy lions who are less than 2 years old got all fired up when Jayden and his friend Noah brought over their stuffed tigers. He was pacing around and kept batting at the window trying to get at them (the kids or the stuffed animals, I’m not sure…). It was pretty fun to watch, but made me a bit nervous…I mean, how strong is that glass really???

How ’bout in this one?

Ok, here?  Does it look like maybe someone put a little something in her hair and scrunched it, trying to create some body and wave?

It wasn’t me.  This is the result of eating waffles with syrup for dinner and not wanting to use a fork.  Then stretching halfway through and playing with your hair.  Guess we’ll be taking a bath tonight.  :)

(check out the length of the legs of his costume)

(he is very serious about his work)

(and the screens could always use a good cleaning!)

(ewwwwww)

So, the idea of him going to preschool has always made me a bit nervous, because I don’t want to deal with the meltdown before class everyday.  Most of the people I know put their kids in preschool when they turned 3, not me though, it was never a serious consideration at all, because I knew Jayden would flip a lid.  But Jayden will be 4 in April and next fall, Royal and I are seriously considering putting him in school (homeschooling would be the other option - not just because of Jayden’s anxiety, for other reasons as well).  So, in preparation for that, I decided to test the waters with Jayden.  I signed him up for swimming lessons, since he’s now old enough to be in a class by himself.  We chose to put him in lessons at the Wichita Swim Club, because from what I have heard from other people and read on their website, they don’t let kids cry their way out of swimming.  They take crying kids out of their parents arms and take them to the pool.  Even if they are sitting on the side of the pool crying, the teachers pull them into the water and make them do whatever skill the class is working on.  The parents aren’t even allowed to be in the pool area, we can watch through windows on the side, and if your child is having trouble being able to see you, the teacher asks you to stop looking.  They are hard-core and this was totally what Jayden needed, someone who wasn’t going to give into him if he started throwing a fit!

I started prepping Jayden for his swimming lessons a full month in advance.  We’d talk about him going to a class all by himself and he’d started out saying he wasn’t going to swim without me or Royal.  Then he’d change his tune and started waivering and every other time he’d be okay with it, then he wouldn’t.  So, by the time this Monday rolled around, he knew what was coming, and he was excited to go swimming, he just wasn’t sure about doing it alone.  Jayden totally exceeded all my expectations and I am just so proud of him.  When we were sitting in the room before the class started and his teacher came in and called his name, he looked at me with a bit of a shocked look on his face, but I told him to go with his teacher, and she grabbed his hand, and another little girl’s hand, and headed out the door.  I actually didn’t get to see any of this first lessons, because I had to sit through an orientation thingy, but his teacher told me after class that Jayden did great.  He started out kind of crying on the edge of the pool, but as soon as she got him in the water he changed his mind and started having a great time and did great the whole class.  And the best part was that Jayden loved it.  He talked about it all the way home, he told me he cried a little, but that he started having too much fun swimming, and he couldn’t wait until Wednesday so he could have another swimming lesson.

Today, I managed to bring my little handheld video camera, which I can take pictures with.  It’s just to hard to keep Willow contained and take pictures with my good camera too.  (Royal’s had basketball games this week, so he hasn’t been able to come with us yet)  Not to mention, I can’t get inside the pool area until Jayden’s last class of the session, so I’m trying to take pictures through a foggy, water spotted window.  So, these pictures are not very good at all and are pretty blurry, but Jayden just looks so cute in his goggles and fins sitting on the edge of the pool.

This video is of Jayden trying to learn how to do a flutter kick. When he gets on his back, he has a tendency to just start flinging his legs trying to make the biggest splashes possible. And who wouldn’t???

So, anyways…tonight, Jayden and I planted seeds for parsley, chives, basil, oregano, and cilantro.  And I forgot to save room for our lavender seeds, so I’m gonna have to get another little start pod for them.  Oops!

Here’s some pictures of the kids swinging in the backyard, taking advantage of the warmish evening. I can’t wait ’till we can play outside after dinner again!

And on a side note, Willow has learned that she does indeed love cherry dum-dums.