First Haircut–Times Two!

All three boys were in need of a trim, so we set up appointments this morning with my fabulous hair dresser.  AND my mom was able to come along.  Yay!!

Michael was first, and he was a dream toddler for his cut.

All trimmed up and so handsome!

Thomas (as suspected) would not have ANYTHING WHATSOEVER to do with sitting in the chair.  I was hoping that after he saw Michael not get tortured, he would be more open to the idea.  Nope.

Thankfully he has clear hair and didn’t need the cut quite as much, so Stacey was able to trim his hair in my arms.

Natalie’s job was to hold the envelope for Thomas’ “first haircut” hair.

Thomas did pretty okay.  He didn’t scream or throw a fit.  He let Stacey cut his hair while I snuggled him.

Then it was James’ turn! Normally I like to trim his hair myself, but that project has dropped completely off the list lately, so he got a real little boy salon cut!

He’s so ticklish.  :)

And Stacey was sweet enough to show me all his cowlicks and whirls and tips on what to do with them when I get back to trimming his hair myself.

What a handsome and less-scraggly little boy!

I was very thankful my mom was around to help. It wouldn’t have been possible to document any of this without another set of grown up hands. :)

Basically, November… so far.

Last Monday all three boys had their yearly well-check in the afternoon.  I’m very glad my mom was able to come with us because it ended up being a long afternoon. Everybody had shots and the babies had blood work.  I didn’t take any pictures, but here are their stats:

James, age 4
38.75” tall
32lbs 6.4oz heavy

Thomas, age 1
27.5” tall
19lbs 15.5oz heavy
19.02” head circumference

Michael, age 1
26.5” tall
15lbs heavy
18.9” head circumference

These measurements, combined with some developmental things, have earned Michael the “failure to thrive” label.  Personally, I think we need a new adorable label to replace that one.  It sounds so horrible!  We’re not really worried so much as we are curious if there's an underlying cause for he teeniness.  We’ve been referred to a general pediatric consult service downtown for more info and a second opinion/ set of eyes.  Of course, I actually need to mail the paperwork in for that to happen.  Last week sure went by in a blur.

It’s amazing the things I’ve seen him learn to do though in just the last couple of weeks.  I think he’s just a slow grower.  Joanna the Tiny was 16ish pounds at one year, and she leapt up onto the growth chart between 15 and 18 months.  I’m expecting the same from Sir Michael.  But I will happily pursue the consult to investigate if there’s anything else going on!

Really though, it’s a good thing he’s so tiny.  How else could his big sis do this?

Last Friday was enchilada night, and this is what that looks like these days:

Christiana and I sure did double the child population around here pretty quickly.  :)

Drew has pretty much surpassed Michael in weight and mobility.

Poor Michael.  Life is so stressful.

Isn’t this kid adorable?!  He loves to look at himself in the camera.

Right before we left for Grandma’s house, Joanna lost her very first tooth!!

She was sooooooooo excited!!

And, for the record, it was also the very first tooth she grew, just a little bit more than seven years ago.  Sniff… sniff…

Coincidentally, our dentist (who is a family friend) and his wife were at enchilada night.  Joanna was very excited to show the dentist her very first lost tooth.  :)

Back at home, we pulled out our first envelope for a tooth and put it inside.  Then the envelope went in the little pouch, and the pouch went under the pillow.  When she woke up the next day, Joanna was richer by one half dollar, and her tooth was gone!

She’d been waiting a LONG time for that milestone!

Yesterday was the girls’ first time to sing in church this fall with the children’s choir.

Natalie is on the front row, stage right.

Joanna is on the middle row, stage left, in a light brown sweater.

It was precious! I also took a video, which I may or may not upload.  I’m pushing it just getting these posts accomplished.  Hallelujah for naps!!

Sunday afternoon I attempted cutting James’ hair for the very first time!

Before:

And after!!

I learned a lot, and there are some things I will do differently next time and as I continue to teach myself how to do this.  BUT he no longer looks like a scraggle muffin, and with just this one haircut, the clippers have almost paid for themselves.  Sweet!

It surprised me how dark Mr. Blondie’s hair looked on the floor.

Somehow, I did it.  I caught up on blogging all of the things!!

Now back to life.

Joanna is so grown up.

Joanna was asking me the other day how to spell our last name, but I was mentally involved in something else and couldn’t tell her. {I’m sure it was some form of rocket science or bimolecular engineering that I couldn’t spell Pence for her… ahem.}  Anyway, I’m glad I didn’t because she came over a couple minutes later and showed me this:

She already knew how to spell it!!!  The massive scribbles came later, before I could get it scanned.

And also this week she officially became able to tie her shoes!!!!

The double knot still trips her up (the loops are confusing), but I am just so impressed!  And also so happy not to have to tie her shoes for her.  :)

Joanna’s Preschool Graduation

Tonight was Joanna’s graduation from SLC.  Waaaaahhhhhhh!!!!

I stopped Candice in the hallway to take this one of Joanna and me.

We dropped the graduates off over by their classrooms and headed to the sanctuary to secure seats.

I had to reserve a whole pew for our entourage.

Pence men in blue!

It was so nice to have lots of family there – Mamma and Pop, Gran, Grandma, and Christiana!  Thanks guys for coming – it meant a lot to us!

Here comes Joanna!!  My pics of this particular moment were quite blurry; this one is Candice’s.

Receiving her “riploma.”

As they walked across, Miss Stacey (the director) called out their name and what they want to be when they grow up.  “Joanna Pence wants to be a teacher.”  I think she’ll make a good one.

She was having a bit of a hat malfunction, but that didn’t stop her big-girl stride!

After all the classes got their diplomas, they sang a graduation song.  Hopefully a video of this will surface somewhere from someone whose child happened to be standing near Joanna.  :)

After the ceremony, they left the kids up on the stage so we could go paparazzi stalk them.

So we did.

The next couple are from Candice’s camera.

I love that by the time I woke up this morning, two people had already tagged me on Facebook with pics of Joanna from the graduation.  Yay social media!!

If you look closely here, you can see Joanna doing some kind of curtsy move.

James wandered out of our row and across the aisle to Miss Suzy!

And then he started wandering up the aisle as the graduates headed out.  I grabbed him just in time to prevent some trampling by five year olds.

Joanna was focused on her walk out.  :)

A few of Joanna’s previous teachers were there, so I had to take pictures.  Her toddler teachers, Miss Anne and Miss Joan:

Her three year old teachers, Miss Patty and Miss Shawna:

And this year – Mrs. Russell and Miss Kim:

There was cake at the reception, and when I had my back turned Gran fed some to James.  :)

And there were balloons.  James LOVES LOVES LOVES balloons.

There was a bag of goodies for each of the graduates.  Isn’t this photo AMAZING?!!

Best buds:

Her “riploma”

And also inside her goodie bag was a graduation cap cookie – yum!

It was a very sweet evening, and I’m just so proud of my big girl!  SLC has been amazing for us, and I’m looking forward to other wonderful things to come!