3 Years, 6 Months

The critters are now three and a half.

And they are wild.

To stop the pre-dawn rampages through the house, we decided to resort to a couple buckets full of dollar store-type "prizes" from which the boys can choose if they stay in their beds until their light-up alarm clock turns on. It works most of the time, to Steve's and my great relief. Bribery can be extremely useful.

Jack:

If I had to describe Jack at 3 1/2 in one word, I'd go with "willful." He can be very funny and loving, but the stubbornness runs deep.

Who, me?

Henry:

Though this picture doesn't suggest it, I'd go with "exuberant" for Henry. He gets very excited about things, has strong feelings and opinions, and lots of words to go with them.

He's decided that he's potty trained now, which we're very enthusiastic about. He's great about sharing with his brother and at times shows great kindness. He loves people and will happily greet anyone he can with an peppy "hi!"

School
For the most part, the boys love their preschool. It's been absolutely wonderful for them. They're doing well with their numbers and letters, and their social skills have advanced considerably.

Jack has a habit of stuffing his pockets with toys and art supplies, so we now have a routine of checking all pockets before we leave school for the day. One day, while checking his vest pockets, I could tell Jack had something unusual tucked away. I asked him to remove what was in his vest, and...

The bemused teacher looking on informed me that this is a leg to a piece of children's furniture that Jack must have unscrewed and tucked away in his vest at some point during the day.

Sneaky little guy.

Teacher Jenna has been trying to help prevent the acquisition of contraband throughout the day, which has been met with great disapproval from the boys (particularly Jack). So, operating out of the traditional parenting values of guilt and bribery, she got them special treats: collars for their stuffed animals! A brilliant idea for sure; the boys were very excited.

Jack chose to put his on Jello the bear:

Jenna knew to get Henry's favorite color: "purple, to match Purple Owl!" (full name: Owl, the Grape Purple Penguin)

Notes home from school for Mom:

Adventures with Daddy
I don't get holidays during tax season, so Steve has to entertain the boys on his own when preschool is closed.

Jack helps Henry make the long trek to San Lorenzo Park:

Henry needed to save his energy for the swings:

Adventures with Mommy
I've taken the boys to the children's museum in our local mall a couple times to get them out of the house so Steve could actually make some progress on projects.

Mom: Do you want to take a picture with the sandman? Smile!

Henry was not, in fact, interested.

I swear they said they wanted to ride this thing in the mall; they're not being forced, despite Jack's expressions to the contrary.

Henry gets in touch with his inner road warrior:

There's lots of fun things to do at the museum. The boys like the pretend pizza restaurant.

Henry prefers to work the front register in costume:

Jack shows me that he's cooking a pizza, salad and a stuffed fish in the pizza oven.

Off on an adventure in the play boat! Jack at the bow, scouting the territory, Henry aft with the lunch cooler:

Jack, singing a sailing ditty while Henry "eats" a cucumber from the lunchbox:

Satisfied with the sailing adventure:

Jack's favorite thing at the museum is a green backpack in their outdoor adventure area. He makes a beeline for it when we arrive and wears it until we leave.

Climbing on the cool octopus slide:

Henry loves elaborate dress-up outfits, and was particularly taken with a purple dress on this particular trip. He didn't let it get in the way of his climbing, though.

Thoughtful summit-ers.

Venturing down octopus mountain:

Henry and puppet dog take an exciting slide:

The toddlers that used to live here have definitely been replaced with complex and opinionated small adventurers.