a strawberry, a mole, a spider, a fish,
and the letter E…. these are the things Eve “ate” while we
were reading a Wild Animal Baby magazine last night. When she
was sitting on the potty before bed she grabbed another book
and I was expecting her to “eat” her way through that too.
Instead she point to a statue and said, “It’s a statue! We
don’t eat statues. I want to hold his hand,” and she proceeded
to “hold hands” with the picture in the book. She is soooo
super silly! Today we made a “family sandwich” (Alan and I hug
with the kids squished in the middle, it makes everyone laugh).
Lex started squirming away and Eve took a big pretend
(thankfully!) bite of the sandwich! Never a dull moment with
her around.

The word on the street these days is all
about “back to school” and after several people asked me when
Lex starts preschool I figured I should figure it out. There is
a preschool “open house” on 8/26 and I was thinking school
started after Labor Day, but SURPRISE, it starts on 8/27!!
Geesh!! I’m glad I looked. He’ll be going from 8-11am, five
days a week. Eeek!! I’m so not ready! I don’t even know what he
needs. Do preschoolers need backpacks? Snacks? Spare clothes
(ok, I know he needs that one!) Pens, pencils, notebooks (just
kidding, he’d better not need those!) I was planning on getting
all of these questions answered at the open house, but I guess
that’s pretty last minute.

On a similar
note, I’m reading a book called “Protecting
the Gift” by Gavin De
Becker. It’s a good book and has a lot
of information about trusting your instinct and teaching
children how to handle themselves in the world, but it’s also
kind of scary. I finished a chapter about selecting a daycare,
which included tons of questions to ask your provider… of
which we asked maybe one. I did some research but largely went
with a place that felt comfortable. Tonight I just finished a
chapter on safety at school with even more questions a good
parent should ask and know about their schools. I’m feeling
very much like NOT a good parent :( Our criteria for
preschool…. it’s free! I don’t know the teacher’s name (I
have it written down somewhere, I think), I’ve only been to the
place once and have never been inside, I have no idea about
anything about the school (safety record, policies, procedures,
principal, etc.) and I’m about to bring my son there five days
a week for the next 10 months!! Eeeekkk!! I’m feeling very
inadequate at the moment. So much so that I can’t even sleep :(
Luckily hubby is nice enough to get up and watch some TV with
me (after my cathartic blog post). Maybe some Jon Stewart and
Stephen Colbert will help ease my mind.

Next step: select a good novel from the bookshelf and read
that before bed!!

We’re having a fun-filled weekend with
family and food. Fun and yum! Here are a few pics, although I’m
realizing that my camera is always trained on the kids and I
didn’t get ANY pics of our long distance family :(

It’s super late, but I just have to brag
about how helpful and independent Lex is becoming. This morning
I was sweeping the kitchen and he said he wanted to help. He
grabbed the little hand broom we have and swept all around
their booster seats and the chairs they are attached too. It
sounds silly, but it was really helpful! Those things get dirty
and he left a great pile of crumbs and gook for me to sweep up.
Then he decided it was time to dust and he grabbed a wet cloth
and started dusting the living room. After I finished sweeping
I asked if he wanted to watch a show while I took a shower (Eve
and Alan were both still sleeping), but he said he wanted to
keep dusting instead! Crazy child! So he dusted and I showered.

On an entirely different note, I’ve
been really frustrated with bath time lately because they are
crazy in the tub and I spend the whole time yelling at them to
settle down and not splash so much. We’ve had water leakage
issues in the past and I’m paranoid about it. I decided to try
separate baths and see if that helped. Last night she went
first and when I put him in the tub he said he wanted to bath
himself. So I sat next to him and talked him through washing
his hair, face and body. He did great. He was so proud and kept
saying, “I’m learning how to give myself a bath. I like
learning.” :) Then he learned how to dry himself off with the
towel and get dressed quickly (hallelujah to that, he normally
bounces around and takes forever to get dressed!) Tonight he
insisted on doing it himself again. This time he went first and
Eve was hanging out upstairs waiting for her turn. As she came
in and out of the bathroom Lex narrated what he was doing to
her, interspersing it with, “See Eve, I’m learning. I’m
learning how to give myself a bath.” and other little lines
like that. I love how proud he is to learn! :)

Today was a beautiful day. We spent the
morning at a local lake where Eve and I swam while Lex sat on
the blanket, fully dressed, and watched some campers play beach
volleyball. He refused to put on a bathing suit, but seemed
really happy to be there and just hang out.

Then we came home for naps. Lex insisted that
he wasn’t tired and didn’t want a nap, but he agreed to stay
still and quiet in his bed for one whole CD. I told him that
when the CD was over he could go sit in my bed and have quiet
time instead. Not surprisingly, he fell asleep half way through
the first song!! Two hours later he woke up and went into my
room for quiet time :) I went up and told him that he had
napped and could come down now, but he decided he wanted his
quiet time and stayed up there for over an hour! At one point I
went up and saw this. Of course I had to grab the camera!

After they got bored of coloring on the
street with chalk, the kids decided to decorate the tree. Lex
made it his job to color the “high branches” and then they went
to the neighbor’s blueberry patch for a post-chalking snack
:)

 

 

 

 

Hey, didja notice, it’s August!! Whoa,
when did that happen?!?

We went
blueberry picking this weekend. The kids LOVED it! The field
was wet and muddy but we all had fun. I told them I wanted to
make blueberry jam and if we had enough left over we could also
make blueberry pie. I think that motivated Eve and Alan! We
came home with almost nine pounds of blueberries!! The only way
we got Lex out of the field was to promise we could come back
again soon. I made five and a half jars of jam yesterday (with
the kids “helping”) and today we’re having blueberry pie for
dessert. Yum!

 

 

 

Here is Eve, patiently waiting for me to
finish up on the computer. She’s so cute! I keep giving her
different pens to keep her entertained for one more minute
until I’m done blogging :)

Lex likes to take things slowly, in steps,
which allows for lots of “firsts” :) Today he had his first
professional haircut in the big chair! The nice lady was
thrilled not to have to sit on the floor behind him again
:)

A few days ago we were talking about
how his hair is getting pretty long. I asked if he wanted long
hair or if he wanted to get it cut. He chose cut. By a
professional (not by me!). By Kristie at Vivo (that’s who did
his hair before). So I called an made an appointment. All week
he has been asking to go play at the toy store, so I decided to
see if we could combine the trips. Actually, earlier in the
week he was looking at the calendar and decided that on Friday
we would play at the toy store and on Saturday we would get his
hair cut. He was even going to write it on the calendar, but
decided not to at the last minute. Anyway, Kristie wasn’t
available on Saturday, so I made the appointment for today and
told Lex that if he sat in the big chair and let her cut his
hair with no fuss then we could go to the toy store. And boy
did he ever!! He was excited to go, waited patiently for his
turn, picked out a book to read and climbed right into the
chair. He put his head up and down as she requested and even
let her use the clippers!! All in an effort to earn a trip to
the toy store, I think :) So off we went. They played for half
an hour and as we were leaving Lex said, “Oh, wait, we need to
buy something!” Shoot!! So close!! I guess he’s figured out the
point of a toy store after all. It was bound to happen someday.
I told him that since he did such a great job with his haircut
and played so well at the store and was listening to me so
sweetly that I would buy him one small toy. He chose another
Lego playset and was thrilled to make the “emergency
helicopter” with Alan at lunchtime.