All about Lee

Lately at our house, everything has revolved around us incorporating Wade into our family. We're trying to establish some sort of routine and enjoying every minute with him. However, just because Wade has dominated our conversations, that doesn't mean Lee hasn't been just as funny, smart, curious and sweet as ever. He has really taken to his new role as big brother, but it certainly hasn't defined him. He is so unique, and we love that about him. Here are some things he has been up to lately.
Thanks to his Daddy, he loves all things Star Wars. Matt let him watch a movie with him one day, and that is all it took to get him hooked. He has watched all of the movies and has learned every character, old and new. We got Matt the latest SW movie for his birthday, without knowing it was animated. Once Lee realized that, it was instantly his favorite.

He has chosen Star Wars as his theme for his upcoming birthday party...much to my dismay. I would have chosen something Disney for him, but I guess I'm just trying to hold on to my baby just a little bit longer. He still loves Cars, Toy Story and Curious George, but they are still second to Star Wars right now. Although I can't make myself enjoy SW, I am willing to accept Lee's love for it and be as supportive as I can. I figure it could be a lot worse.

T-ball season has been terrific so far. Lee has enjoyed himself so much more than I could have imagined. He is learning and really soaking it all in this year. He loves his teammates and loves having his daddy on the field coaching him.

These stolen moments melt my heart every time. I keep my camera ready at all times, because I never know when Lee is going to do something precious like this. I not only don't want to miss it, but I don't want to ever forget it either. In this particular instance, Wade was hanging out in the bouncy seat, and Lee came over and rubbed noses with him out of the blue. I had the camera within arm's reach and got this picture before he realized I could even see him.

This time, Wade was playing in the floor while Lee was watching tv. I was in the other room when I heard Wade fussing. I came in to get him and saw Lee kneeling over him singing to him trying to make him happy. He was singing so sweetly and softly that I couldn't hear him in the other room. This picture was posed after Wade was happier.

Lee LOVES taking pictures and is constantly asking me to use my camera. Of course I don't let him, but he has my old, old camera to play with. It doesn't take good pictures and only stores 15 at a time. So we're constantly deleting pictures for him. So, Matt and I decided to invest in a kid-friendly digital camera for him for his birthday.I think he will be thrilled.

He still says the funniest things. Today he asked me if Wade is a newborn. I said yes, why? He asked when he would become an "oldborn." He was so serious.

His reading skills have exploded in the past month. This is his first chapter book. We read this to him first, and he loved the story.

So the next night, he read the entire 6 chapters TO us! There is no stopping him now. He loves his books so much and is always rotating them and reading something "new" all the time. He also loves to write and guess how to spell words. Matt and I still spell words to each other, forgetting that Lee can spell many words now. Sometimes we'll spell a word to each other, and Lee will shout out the word like it is a game created for him. Today he announced that he knew how to spell tissue. I asked him to spell it for me. T-I-S-H-Y-O-U he said so proudly. We're having a hard time explaining some of the word rules to him, like silent K's, etc. We have a beverage tub that says "The Hayes" on the side of it. He asked me why it didn't say "The Hayeses." I thought that was such a smart thing to notice.

Lee has recently discovered word searches, and he loves them! He got this book for Easter, and he has nearly completed the entire book. It is not tailored for kids so I thought he would be frustrated by it and move on to something else, but I couldn't have been more wrong. I even bought him a Disney word search book that said for ages 5+ thinking he would enjoy it more. He finished the entire book in 1 day and went straight back to the more challenging book.

Nothing makes Lee laugh harder than when Wade toots or poops. I have never enjoyed potty humor myself, but lately I laugh harder at Lee's laughter than whatever it is that he is laughing at. The other day, Wade was in the swing, and Lee came running to me laughing so hard he could barely breathe. I asked what was so funny, and he said, "Wade just blew a hole in his swing." There wasn't a hole there, but he certainly did mess his pants in a big way. Another time, I was changing a particularly stinky diaper when Lee came in drinking some milk. He stopped and said through laughter, "Wade, you stink so bad that you're making my milk taste bad." He is so funny and thinks Wade does all of these potty tricks just for his amusement.

Hope @ Walk-a-Thon

For some reason, these pictures didn't upload properly in the walk-a-thon post, and I thought they were too cute & funny not to share.

Lee and Hope have a mutual love for each other. They are very sweet to one another and are always excited when the other one is there.
Hope wants to be big like the boys, so she tries to copy everything they do. This includes learning to climb the ladder up to the slide to be with them. She tried and tried and before the end of our visit, had mastered the ladder by herself.

At the top, she reached up, grabbed the board and pulled herself on up. She is very strong!

Her hard work paid off, though, when she got to slide with "Gee." So sweet!

St. Jude Walk-a-Thon

On April 29th, we gathered with our classmates, teachers and parents from Holy Cross at Memorial Park for a walk-a-thon to raise money to send to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. The children had been collecting donations for a couple of weeks prior to the walk and had been talking about and praying for the children who are at St. Jude. Lee was very interested in the hospital and in making sure he had a nice donation to send to the sick children. He got a t-shirt and was one of the top fundraisers in his class. He was very proud. The class raised around $2000 to send to St. Jude. Thank you to everyone who donated and made this fun day possible for the kids.

We're trying to get a group picture for the newspaper. Ever heard the saying, "trying to herd cats?" Trying to herd 26 excited 4 year olds at the PARK for a group picture is as close as it gets.
S-U-C-C-E-S-S!!
Instead of collecting money for laps, the kids just took donations and walked the trail at the park once as a group.

Can you tell Lee is so excited?

After the walk, the kids got some free play time at the park while the parents grilled hamburgers and hot dogs for lunch.

I know it's not nice to take pictures during the prayer, but I had to document how precious Lee looked while he was asking the blessing!

The siblings got to come too! Hope was having the best time. This is how she greets me now. She comes running asking where Wade is. I'm definitely second fiddle to the "bay bee" now.

Lee was showing off his skills for his daddy. He kept calling him from slide to slide to the monkey bars, etc. to watch him.

It was Wade's first visit to the park. I'm pretty sure he was miserable in the baby carrier, even though he slept most of the time. I thought it would be the most convenient way to take care of him and still participate in the activities. It was an unexpectedly windy day, so he had to wear a hat. It was his first time to ride in the carrier, so I don't think he ever got comfortable. He was a very good sport and endured the 2+ hours we were there.

A quick family photo before the fun day ended.

Busy Day

After we dropped Lee off at school, Wade and I picked Daddy up at work and went to vote. We had 3 local races that were contested. One of the candidates stopped by our house yesterday for a visit. For some reason, Lee was running around in his underwear at the time, and I was feeding Wade. When I heard a knock at the back door, I assumed it was Nam and sent Lee to the door to let her in. He came back and said, "Mom, it's not Nam. It's a woman I don't know." So I jumped up and quickly put myself together and went to the door. She was campaigning on our road and stopped by just to meet Wade. She has small children of her own, so she understood the current chaos she just walked in on. She was very sweet, and even though she already had my vote, she certainly sealed the deal with her visit! Later, Aunt Clara came for a visit. She stayed with the boys while I went to the grocery store.
This is what I came home and found. The 3 lazy bones were cuddling on the couch. It was a rainy day, perfect for snuggling!

Wade's umbilical cord stump finally fell off at 3 weeks, so he was ready for a real bath. I have been anxiously awaiting this day. He has been really scaly, and I have been wanting to scrub him in the real tub. After his reaction to the sponge baths, I was ready for his crying this time. He didn't like the bath in the tub any better than he did the sponge bath.

The pacifier did help to calm him down. Mom thought this was so funny when we did it with Lee. What do you think, Mawmaw? Is the paci in the bath still funny with Wade?

Of course, my helper wanted to pull up a chair. Matt circled us taking pictures while Lee and I took turns washing Wade.

Lee disappeared while I was getting Wade dried and his pajamas on for the night. I knew he was being very quiet in his room. I peeked in and found him snuggled in his bed reading a book. So I snuck out to get the camera. I can't think of many sweeter pictures I have of this precious boy. He is such an eager reader these days. Now at bedtime, he wants us to read a book and then let him have a turn to read us. It is one of my favorite parts of my day.

Lee's First T-ball Game

Lee got his new uniform, so I thought I'd better get a few pictures of him in it while it still looks new.



He's number 4, which is his favorite number! He was so excited!

Lee and Paul are on Team Edward Jones, which Uncle B is sponsoring.

Lee has been practicing his slide for weeks. We told him he shouldn't slide in t-ball, but he doesn't listen. He slid home both times he got to bat.

A lot of the dads provide crowd control and guidance on the field. Lee loved having his daddy out there with him.

Paul is a great hitter!

We have been practicing Lee's hitting by pitching to him and not using a tee, so we weren't sure
how he would do, but he seemed to do fine with it.

Best pals!

Paul got one!

Thanks to Subo for providing these wonderful pictures (& more!) for us. The weather was crazy that day, and the low was predicted to be around 50 degrees at game time. There was no way I could get Wade out in the cool night air, so we stayed home. It didn't occur to me until a couple of hours before game time that I would not be able to go, so I was devastated to miss Lee's first game. He didn't seem to mind that I wasn't there though.

Paul's 5th Birthday

Paul turned 5 on April 26th, and we were lucky enough to get to celebrate with him on 3 occasions. Lee did not want his birthday to end, except for the fact that his birthday is right around the corner.

Paul's birthday party included a "real magician." (This is according to Lee.)
My normally shy child loved the magician and eagerly accepted Paul's invitation to be a part of the opening act.
On the way to the party, he said he did not want to be a volunteer. However when the time actually came, he was a willing participant in 3 tricks.

See him volunteering??

Here comes another trick!

How much fun are they having doing this??

I love this picture of them!

Wade was not impressed with the magician. He said he does tricks all day long, and no one cheers for him!

Paul had more than a little help with his candles.

Brian's nephew, Bobby, was very interested in Wade. He pulled up a chair and was talking to him. He asked me if he could pick his nose yet. When I said no, he then asked if he could "put his fingers in his ears and do 'dis?" He proceeded to stick his fingers in his ears in the nah-nah-nah boo-boo way. I laughed so hard at him. He was pretty disappointed when I told him he couldn't do that yet.

Present time!

Next, we had our family get-together at Nam and Pa's. Lee sat close to Paul while he opened his gifts, so he could get some ideas for his birthday. He's very interested in these Spike Jaws!

He got to blow out his candle alone this time.

The next day, we celebrated Paul's birthday at school. Wade and I were visiting that day, because Lee was the leader. Subo and Hope got there before we left, so we just stayed for the party. Paul is choosing a gift from the birthday box.

They boys are enjoying Paul's favorite snacks.

Wade was bored with the festivities and hung out in his car seat the whole time. Lee was glad to have him there to show off to his friends though.

We hope you had a fabulous fifth birthday, Paul! Thanks for sharing it with us.