The Beautiful Area in Which I Live

Did I mention how much I love where we live? There are parks and lakes and fun things to do. The following are a few pictures from one of our walks by the lake. And I really don't have a great camera for scenery, but I try.

Here is Manny and Luis on the bridge with Stanley from Weston. We are supposed to be bringing him places with us and taking pictures. Sorry Weston, it might not be that exciting.


Somehow Luis and Manny always look great in pictures. I, on the other hand, do not.
I look a little stoned, but I'm guessing I was talking to Manny. Turns out Manny is scared of swings now. ????

For serious-why can I never (almost) get a nice picture?

VIP Manny

In Manny's class at school they have a thing called the VIP. Every day (MWF) a different kid gets to be the VIP. This menas they get to bring something for show and tell, be line leader, hold the flag during the Pledge of Allegience (which Manny pretty much knows now, how cute!), stand at the front during circle time and help talk about the weather, day of the week, etc. And the most exciting part is bringing home Lucky, the class puppy. They get to take care of him (in his bag is a blanket and a toothbrush) and then write in his journal all the fun things they did together. Manny has been waiting patiently for weeks now for his turn. And funny thing is he would ask me if it was his turn. I would tell him no and then we would look at the calendar to see whose turn it was next. Pretty soon he knew how many people and who was before him. Mackenzie, Lincoln, Koral, and then me! And even funnier was that he would practice. I would catch him in his room, sitting on his bed, with his hands behind his back. (He already knew what he was going to bring for show and tell--his star turtle night light that shines the stars on the ceiling at night.) He would then very seriously bring the turtle out from behind his back and hold it up, push all the buttons, and then walk around in a circle "showing it" to his friends.
So here are a few pictures of Manny with his beloved Lucky, who went with us everywhere for the 2 days we had him.
Lucky carefully wrapped in his blanket.

Manny giving Lucky a piggy back ride.

Manny and Lucky-BFF

School crafts and a present from Aunt Jessie and Uncle Justin

Manny makes a lot of crafts at school, but this one has got to be my favorite so far. Isn't it cute?
Posing with his creation.


And Aunt Jessie and Uncle Justin surprised Manny with a super great present--a Handy Manny Drill!

Slowly getting the hand of it.
What a beautiful creation! It actually makes a lot of things, but this is the only thing I have a picture of. This is what he wanted to make first. After it was done he said, "Wait!" And then disappeared into his room. When he came out he had a bird in his hand and put it in his house.
THANKS AUNT JESSIE AND UNCLE JUSTIN!

Preparing for Baby, School, Handsome, Class Clown

Manny is getting excited for the baby to come. He has been practicing swinging the swing slowly and driving the stroller around (which usually ends up with him running it into things really hard and laughing, but he always starts out nice). He even asks often if he will be able to hold the baby. He still likes to feel his brother kick him and still likes to try to poke his finger in my belly button.

But about a month ago he did something that really made me laugh. It is a little before 7 in the morning, I am just laying in bed resting. All of a sudden Manny comes bursting in the room and says, "Is my brother coming out yet?!" What? Super random, but super funny. I have no idea where he is getting this stuff.

Manny is still loving school and it seems as though his teachers love him, too. Even the teacher in the class next to his says that he is her special boy this year. A little girl also told the teacher, "Look at Manny, he's so handsome." I say, isn't it a little early? They're 3.

At Manny's school they eat lunch. Every day he asks me to pack him a peanut butter and honey sandwich. So I do. But when I pick him up I ask, how was school, how was your lunch, and he tells me he didn't eat it at all. He threw it in the trash. What? I eventually talked to his teacher to see if he was really doing that or if he was taking a couple of bites or what was going on. She told me that Manny is very social. They usually have to remind him to stay in his seat. So he must be too busy talking to his friends and before he knows it lunchtime is over and it's time to clean up. So now the teachers have been very nice and trying to encourage him to eat his sandwich. And so far it is working.

It also looks like we might have the beginnings of a class clown. I'm hoping not too distracting. Manny has now figured out that when you say the wrong words in a song or a phrase it's really funny/silly. He loves to sing songs and put in the wrong words. And it gets quite a laugh with his friends so he does it all the time. I am trying to think of good examples, but all I can think of is "The itsy bitsy spider went up the water brick...hahahaha. Down came the brick and smashed the spider out....hahahah" or "Give said the little streamy, Give o givey, Give o givey," etc. Now place these weird phrases and wrong words in almost every conversation and you'll get an idea of how fun (not always) it is to talk with this kid.

Bug Update

I am not quite sure what this is, but I don't really like them. They can jump really high and are really fast.

And we also have had ants lately. I don't understand why. They weren't even getting anything delicious at my house. They were marching in from where the cable tv is supposed to come into our house. I am assuming they were looking for the kitchen, but most of them ended up in the shoe closet or in our sofa chair. Don't worry, everything is cleaned and sprayed a million times so hopefully they won't return. I even sprayed the outside of the apartment. And they bug people from our apartment will be spraying on Wednesday. Yay!

Funny story is that Manny cried when he saw that I was killing these ants in our apartment. I was really confused, because we have had many talks about how bugs do not belong in the house. We kill them if they are in the house, but if they are outside we leave them alone because they are in their home. (He used to like to smash bugs outside.) But these ants were in our house. So I asked him why he was crying. He said those were his tickle bugs. Apparently he liked it when they would crawl on his arm or feet-they tickled. Gross.