Lex discovered an activity book yesterday
that Grandma gave him for his birthday and he LOVES it! The
book came with 5-color highlighter and each page has activities
to do. Some pages even have some color, like yellow grass, and
then instruct the kid to color the yellow grass blue and see
what happens. He played with book all day yesterday and did
every page. The very last page says to draw a self portrait. He
has never done this before. After I explained to him what
self-portrait means, he said “I’ll color the circle pink while
I think about it.” Then he asked if I would draw the head for
him because he makes “wiggly circles.” I said “A wiggly circle
will be perfect because you have a wiggly head!” He laughed,
then proceeded to draw his first ever self-portrait. He drew
four eyes (and was very happy about it), a mouth, and
ears.

I’m an old-fashioned, thank you notes
kinda girl and I’m trying to instill that in my kids as well.
This year, with Lex’s new found interest in email (not so
old-fashioned) we gave him the choice of writing email thank
you notes or decorating cards to mail. Not surprisingly, he
chose email. It takes him FOREVER to write a message (find the
key he’s looking for, think for awhile, get distracted with
cool stuff on the desk, find another key, etc.) so they are
slow going. The cool thing though is that they are very
heartfelt. After he got those Legos from Dylan and played with
them for awhile, he jumped up and said that we need to write
Dylan a thank you note! So we did. Yesterday, practically all
day, he played with an activity book from Grandma. At one point
I asked if he remembered that it was from Grandma and he said,
“Oh, we should write her a thank you note.” So we did. It’s
taking us awhile to get through them, but it’s probably more
valuable to him this way than if I were to have him color on
cards while I write the notes and send them off all in one
day.

Eve has turned into a big ball of crazy
lately! She makes noise, lots of noise, for no good reasons.
Lots of random sounds, crazy running around, flapping her arms.
All very silly. Lots of head bobs and arm motion. She’s always
looking for her doggie or moosie or giraffee, or… silly,
silly girl.

For Lex’s birthday our friend Dylan wanted
to get Lex his favorite toy, Legos! He picked out his favorite
set, which also happened to be his first set, and gave it to
Lex. Lex loves them!! The set includes a truck, boat, and boat
trailer. He has made and unmade them many times already. Alan
was super excited and is now itching to break out the 40gal
bucket of Legos from his childhood. I’m dreading it :) I’m
hoping to think of a creative (and free) way to manage the
chaos, especially on dark colored carpeting and with a 2yr old
ball of crazy running around. Anyway, here is a little video of
Lex putting the set together for the first time.

PS. I added a few videos to the post below.
Scroll down a bit and check them out!

Today was the first day that has really
felt like summer to me. We were going to meet some friends at a
field to play soccer, but Lex protested, so we didn’t. A little
later I suggested trying a new playground and going to the
store to buy what we needed to plant a sunflower house. Both
kids were pretty excited about that! Lex even got dressed for
the occasion. After the summer ritual of sunscreen, hats,
sandels, snacks, etc. we headed out.

The
playground was at a grade school and the kids had a lot of fun.
Lately I’ve been thinking that our usual playgrounds are
getting a little small for the kids… or, more likely, they
are getting too big for the toddler playgrounds! This one had
some challenging features and the kids lasted all of 40 minutes
before they were asking for snacks :)

This thing is pretty cool. You
hang on to the handles and run on the wheel. Lex loved it and
Eve did it really well the very first time, but she couldn’t
seem to do it again.

At the top of the
slide.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRIHxkkg1HU]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtFsi9WcfYM]

We got back in the car and went to
the feed supply store to buy compost, seeds, and fertilizer.
While the nice man was loading 50lb bags into my car, another
nice man let the kids play with the chickens in the coop out
front. Lex LOVED it! He giggled and chased the poor chickens
everywhere. I thought one might keel over of a heart attach,
but the guy said that they are pretty used to kids. Luckily! He
told Lex that if could catch one he could take it home. Umm…
NO!! Luckily Lex didn’t even come close to catching one!

Then we came home for lunch and naps, and in
the afternoon we headed outside to plant our sunflower garden.
I got this book, Gardening
with Children, awhile ago and during the winter Lex
and I decided that we wanted to plant a sunflower house this
summer. We’ve been talking about it for many months and he was
super excited to finally do it (ok, I’ll confess, I was too!)
You dig a rectangular outline and plant alternating sunflower
seeds and morning glory seeds. The sunflowers grow tall and
straight. The morning glories climb the sunflowers, weaving
back and forth to create walls, and when they get tall enough
you can route them across the top to form a roof. It looks
pretty cool. Of course we didn’t do a very good job of
following directions, didn’t have quite enough seeds or
compost, and dug the trench much too deep…. so we’ll see what
we get. Worst case I figure we’ll get some pretty flowers, and
best case it will resemble a fort for the kids to play in. We
put it in the back yard behind the swing set, where it’s very
sunny and flat. If nothing else we had a fun experience and Lex
learned that “digging a trench is very hard work!” :)

Digging the trench. Neither of
them were terribly good at digging, and arguably neither was I,
but we all had a great time.

Here is Eve sitting in the dirt.
You can see the outline where we planted
seeds.

Aunt Joyce is here visiting, on leave from
“the naby!” We are having fun doing our normal nothing
exciting. Today we had dinner with the G’s at Panera Bread.
Always fun. Then we went grocery shopping. Also fun :) Here are
a few silly pictures.

Eve was
fascinated with the hair supply section. We went shopping with
two kids and three grownups, so it was interesting. Eve and
Joyce did their thing, Alan and Lex went to the cafe, and I did
the shopping. Good times.

Today was our best day yet! Woohoo! We
started talking about daycare yesterday and Lex said he would
be happy to go. At first he said he would be happy and act
sweet if I stayed with him for a little while, and I said that
I would help him take off his shoes, hang up his sweatshirt and
hat, and wash his hands (the first thing they do at daycare),
but then I’d have to go to work. After awhile he decided that
he wanted to act sweet for the teacher even if I didn’t stay
with him for awhile :) That was nice. This morning he was sweet
and didn’t fuss or argue. When we dropped him off he got a
little teary eyed and ran to the window to watch us leave, but
at pick-up the teacher said he did awesome! No crying, no
fussing, just nice behavior. Yay!! When we got there at the end
of the day they both ran to me, but neither cried :)

In other big news, Eve went all day in
underwear yesterday. All on her own choice. I put a diaper on
her at naptime, and otherwise no accidents. Today she asked for
underwear again, so we sent her to daycare in underwear. They
said she did very good, with only one accident that the teacher
actually took responsibility for :) In as much as you can take
responsibility for such a thing. Apparently the teacher we left
Eve with forgot to tell her teacher that she was in underwear
(Eve’s teacher came in shortly after we left). So her teacher
didn’t know and didn’t ask if she needed the potty, until a
little too late. They changed her and put her back in underwear
and no more accidents. I don’t want to get too excited, but
it’s great that she’s interested again!

Today was the first day that really felt right, in respect
to this whole work/daycare thing. The morning went well, I
spent the day at work talking to people and collaborating on a
project and using my brain. The past two weeks have been
podcast editing with headphones on the whole time, fairly
isolating and mindless, but that project is over and today I
started a new, more interesting one. Then we picked the kids up
and they were happy, we played this evening and had bagels for
dinner (Lex’s choice, of course) and bedtime was relatively
smooth. Today felt right.

I haven’t
been taking many pictures lately, but here is a little video of
Eve this morning in a new outfit. It’s adorable and she loves
it!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fJ3D7SeZ_U]

I so badly wish I had brought my camera to
Lex’s 4yr check up this morning. Sadly I just didn’t think to
grab it. He was happy all morning, then got a little stubborn
when it was time to get in the car. I had plans to go grocery
shopping this afternoon, so I told him if he behaved at the
doctor’s office we could go shopping right away, otherwise we
would come home for lunch/naps and then go shopping. Funny that
grocery shopping is such a good motivator. He hopped right in
the car and was SUPER well behaved at the doctor’s.

The nurse took his blood pressure and he was
so cute sitting in the big chair, feet dangling, with his arm
up and a cuff on. He sat still, but giggled and said it
tickled. Then he did an eye exam! He stood with the eye blocker
thing (no idea what they call that thing!!) and the nurse
pointed to shapes on a chart. He said “It looks like a heart,
and it IS a heart!” (or whatever the shape was) for everything
she pointed at. He listened so well and did everything she
asked. I was kicking myself for not having the camera. He and
Eve got a little wild when I was trying to talk to the doctor,
chasing each other around, opening drawers, etc., but then he
settled right down on the examining table and let her do the
full exam! I didn’t have to hold him or negotiate or anything.
He giggled a few times and said she was tickling him, but he
opened his mouth when asked, sat still, laid down, and did as
he was asked. It was awesome!! Sadly his reward for all of that
was three immunizations :( But even those he handled like a
champ! The nurse had him sit on my lap with one arm around my
back and me holding the other (for the shot), then we switched
sides for two shots in the other arm. Each time he cried, but
didn’t fight or pull away or anything.

I think I’ve told him about a million times today how
proud I am of how well he did and how happy I am that he acted
so sweetly. By the time we got out of there it was 12:00 and I
was ready to head home for lunch and naps, but he reminded me
of my promise and off we went to the grocery store. Much to my
surprise they both acted super sweet at the stores too! We got
home at 2:00, unloaded groceries and then I said we all need an
hour break. Upstairs they both went, with minimal fussing,
stories and into bed. I laid down with Lex and we all snoozed!
They are still sleeping :) It’s probably going to be a late
night, but that’s ok after such a nice day!!

His 4yr stats: 40″ tall, 38lbs, 60% on weight, 40% on
height, 20/20 vision. Perfect.

Should I post an update every day we go to
daycare? Think “Daycare – Day 2290” will be interesting?

Lex woke up this morning insisting that he
would not go to daycare. He argued all morning, saying he
wouldn’t put on his clothes or his shoes. Then wanted to lock
the doors so we couldn’t leave the house. Then wouldn’t get in
the car, or out of the car. It was a joy. By the time we got
there he was kicking and screaming. He flailed and wailed and
then clung to me and Alan like his life depended on it. Upon
the advice of the daycare teacher and several others, we tried
a quick exit today instead of the prolonged 20 stay from the
past few days. Alan hugged him, I hugged him, and then I handed
him over to the teacher, who also hugged him. Then we left and
I, once again, cried myself to work. (I’m a big baby) The
teacher called me mid-morning to say that Eve was complaining
of a stomach ache. I recommended pretzels. When in doubt, feed
them, right? :) She also told me that Lex screamed for a few
minutes, but she sat with him and held him snuggly until he
calmed down, then he was great. He stayed close to her all day,
but he joined the group for circle time and did the activities.
When we got there he was sitting on the couch reading a book.
He didn’t even see me come in! A little girl started yelling,
“Lex, Lex! Your mommy is here” I thought that was cute. He
almost cried when he saw me, but not quite. He was happy to
leave, but overall he had a great day. Now we just need to work
on the drop-off process.

One thing I
hadn’t expected from daycare is how much it wears Eve out.
She’s still a little sick, I think, with a runny nose and cough
when she sleeps, but she cries at the end of each day too. She
also comes home and basically sobs off and on until we put her
to bed early, usually in a crying fit. She’s normally pretty
mellow and goes to bed fairly easily, but these past few
daycare days have resulted in difficult bedtimes. I think she’s
just so tired from the whole experience.

We have a really great Yahoo group of parents in the area
and I posted a message yesterday asking for advice on daycare.
Most people said to have consecutive days so the kids get the
hang of the routine better, but one woman said she
intentionally does not do consecutive days because her kids
need a day to rest up after a daycare day. I may end up
switching the kids to T/TH or something because they may also
need a rest day in between. We’ll see. For now we will leave
things as is for a few weeks until everyone is settled (and
M/TH swim lessons are over).

No more
daycare until next week. Hopefully you’ll all survive a few
days without a daycare update :)

Day three of daycare today. We are all on
the road to health, though not quite there yet. Good enough to
return to work and daycare though. Lex wasn’t very interested
in going back and requested I stay with him for a little while.
I agreed and ended up spending 20 minutes with him on my lap in
tears. I tried distraction, showed him the schedule on the
wall, tried to have him talk to another new girl (not crying),
but nothing worked. Eventually he got off my lap and ran to the
window. The teacher asked what he was doing and he said, “I’m
going to wave goodbye to mommy.” (something he does when Alan
goes to work in the morning) I took that as my cue to leave,
and cried myself to work.

When I picked
them up they both ran to me and cried, but it was more of a
tired cry and short lived. Within a few minutes Lex was talking
to me and showing me a coloring page he made. The teacher said
he did MUCH better today and only cried for a few minutes. He
took a good nap and even played a bit with the other kids. She
said that showing him the schedule was a good idea because he
ran back to it many times during the day and they discussed the
time (the schedule is posted just under a clock), the current
activity, and what was coming next. She thought that was very
helpful. He is a schedule kind of guy :)

When I got him out of the car I noticed a smiley face
sticker on his back. I asked why he had a sticker and he said,
“I earned it because I was the only child who did as the
teacher asked.” I asked what exactly he did, but he couldn’t
remember. A sticker for cooperation is good news to
me!