I’ve started job hunting. Is this the
right idea? I’m not sure. I hope so. I’m probably the most
indecisive person on the planet. Some days it feels so right
and other days I’m worried I’ll scar my kids forever (like I’m
the first mom to return to work!) The economy isn’t exactly
hopping so the choice may not even be mine, but we’ll see. I’m
hoping to get an interview for an Events Coordinator position.
That would be fun. Right? Lex will be in preschool in the fall
and Eve is super social. Some days I think she’s bored at home
with me. But then I start wondering if I’d miss out on
important one-on-one time with her next fall while he’s in
school. Or maybe she’ll be even more bored because he won’t be
around. Sigh. It’s late. Sometimes I wish life was a little
more clear cut… but then I remember that I’m privileged to
have the option to choose. Sooo… I’ll keep ya posted.
Obviously not mentioning it to the kids yet. Instead we’re
enjoying our days (most of them) and looking forward to the
beach (Eve asks EVERY DAY if we can go to the beach!)

I signed Lex up for preschool in the fall!
He is super excited and I am nervous. Typical, right? Our
school district offers a free public preschool (they call it
Pre-K) and we are waiting to hear if he’s been accepted (not
really worried about that) and which session. There are two
schools and each school holds a morning and afternoon session.
On the application we got to specify our preferred place/time,
but we may or may not get it. I choose a morning session at the
school right down the street, but I won’t know for sure until
the end of May.

I went to a preschool
informational meeting tonight. It was interesting. The program
is pretty basic and everyone seems nice. The preschool room is
kind of small and clearly a public school, but the teachers are
super nice and the one I was speaking with was thrilled about
his reading abilities and already started talking about ways to
work that into the program. They also have a nice little
reading corner and she said that they never force kids to join
the group if the kid doesn’t want to. I’m sure Lex will, but
maybe not right way. He likes to hang back and watch for a few
minutes. Or maybe he’ll jump right in, who knows! I had Emily,
our neighbor, watch them tonight while I went to the meeting
(Alan had to work late) and the kids were thrilled! Lex
normally runs and hides (just being silly, really) when people
come over, but with Emily he was right there, talking to her
immediately. He pulled her into the living room to show off his
trains.

I think Lex is definitely ready
for school and he is really excited about it, but it will be
weird to leave him every day. I guess you have to send that
first one off sometime, huh? Although these past few days I’ve
been ready to boot him out several times!! I think they are
both getting bored of being home with me full-time. Hmmm….
anyway. Preschool in the fall!

Eve officially knows how to get out of her
pack-n-play and now fully understands her new abilities… in
other words, the girl won’t stay in bed!! We’ve finally come to
a point where Lex goes to bed nicely and I guess it’s now time
for round two. She’s in the toddler bed now with Alan up there
trying to get her to stop crying. I told her that if she’s
going to get out of her pnp then she’s not allowed to sleep in
it anymore. We’ll see how that goes.

The time has come for sunscreen again. My
least favorite part of summer. I got my first sunburn earlier
this week (minor, thankfully!) and this weekend it’s sunny and
80s, so no more excuses. Normally I’d just slather on the
leftovers from last year’s stash, knowing I should buy new
stuff, but no bothering. This year, however, I read a report
about how sunscreens don’t protect against UVA light, have
misleading claims of effectiveness, and contain potentially
cancer causing chemicals. Kind of a “damned if you do, damned
if you don’t” situation! So now I find myself wondering if I
should use the same old Aveeno that we like, or shell out for
higher quality, hopefully useful stuff. Or just let ’em burn!!
Just kidding, of course! There will be no sunburns on my pale
babies!

In case you’re curious: Sunscreen
Summary — What Works and What’s
Safe

In the past few days Lex has started
asking me about words that he read at a different time and
place. I’m always amazed at the learning process. The other
day, out of the blue, he said, “Mom, what does chops mean?”I
asked him to use it in a sentence, but he didn’t seem to
understand my request, so I asked where he saw the word and he
said, “Mom, in the Winnie-the-pooh book Tigger licks his
chops.” So I did my best to explain. (Alan did a better job
later that evening) Then, when I was buckling him into his
carseat yesterday he asked me what does “widow” mean. Again I
asked where he saw that word and he said, “Mom, in Jack and the
Beanstalk, Jack’s mom is a widow.” He likes to start all
sentences with “Mom!” just in case I stopped paying
attention… which I sometimes do… I don’t even know when he
last read that book, but it makes sense that he wouldn’t know
the word and wouldn’t be able to figure it out from the
context. He never ceases to amaze me. I think it’s cool that
he’s thinking about the books later in the day and still
mulling over words he doesn’t understand. Even cooler that he
cares enough to ask!

After a few crazy (cranky!) days I decided
today would be a calm one. We would go slow, take it easy, and
do just what the kids wanted to do. The forecast said rain all
day, but the morning was bright and sunny and we ended up
taking a walk to the playground across the street from Alan’s
office. We played for awhile and then he met us and we all
walked home together. It’s the first time we’ve been to that
playground this season and the kids were thrilled! This
afternoon I mentioned that we need to go grocery shopping and
they decided that we needed to go today, despite the downpour!
The last few days we’ve gone shopping it’s been raining…
maybe because on the nice days we go to the playground! Anyway,
we brought the umbrella and rain boots, took it slow, and
everyone had a good time. Then waffles and strawberries for
dinner and a nice, easy bedtime. We need more days like
this!

Walking home with daddy. I was pushing
the stroller. It’s a 1.5mile walk, so they spent most of the
time in the stroller, but they like to walk part of
it.

Eve likes to carry her “little pink phone”
around with her and talk to people. It makes me laugh,
especially since she won’t talk to anyone on the real phone.
Maybe my phone isn’t pink enough for her? Actually, I think she
prefers the phone that doesn’t talk back :) Yesterday she was
talking to Bone on the phone :)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ulZJQOCiUs]

Check out Eve’s new trick! This one totally took me by
surprise this morning. She did it and my heart almost stopped
because I just caught it out of the corner of my eye! Then I
let her do it again so I could see what she was doing. Then I
let her do it two more times, once for Alan and once for the
camera. Then we moved the pack-n-play! Don’t want to tempt fate
too much! I also discovered that she can get out of the
pack-n-play with no trouble at all. She doesn’t at nap and
bedtime, but apparently she can. Hmm… might be time to move
her back to the toddler bed.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcJ_83JBUPw]

This last one is of her riding her bike this morning. It
makes me think Fred Flintstone.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aH0J6c6ndjw]

The kids LOVE the Splash Park. The first
video shows Eve doing her little froggy thing in the water. Not
sure why or where she learned it, but she does it a lot. The
second one is them sliding and it cracks me up!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dLfti-ntYg]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ya-dF3LWN14]

The slide is dry because the fountains aren’t on (because
swimming lessons are going on in the nearby pool). When the
fountains are on water flows through the slide and the kids go
super fast!

We took a trip last week to visit the
family in the country. Everyone had a blast! Probably the most
relaxing trip we’ve had as a little family of four. The kids
were super excited to see the new dogs and the new kitchen,
although I think their kitchen excitement may have just been a
reflection of my own :) We visited with a high-school friend of
mine and her kids, I did a Pampered Chef show for another old
friend, we had a fun-filled afternoon with Grandpa Tom’s two
brothers and their families. The kids got to meet a cousin!
(technically a cousin of mine, so a second cousin?) A good time
was had by all and we’re looking forward to our next visit
:)

A lesson that I learn and then forget,
then relearn and reforget (sometimes very quickly!) is that Lex
is a whole foods kinda guy, and raw when possible. I’m sure I
posted about the carrots last summer. He won’t eat the baby
carrots (open bag, put on plate, easy for mommy) but he will
usually eat a whole carrot. These days he only sometimes eats
carrots, but when he does it’s only whole, raw carrots. He
hasn’t touched green beans since last summer when he was
picking them off the vine. He also inhaled strawberries last
summer, but has since been telling me he doesn’t like
strawberries. I bought some yesterday and it occured to me that
maybe the problem is that I always cut them up, so instead I
washed them, hulled them and put them on his plate… and he
ate seven!!! Crazy kid. Another eating quirk is that he seems
to prefer dishes with three ingredients or less, except for his
“goldfish and bunnies kinda snack” where he mixes dozens of
kinds of crackers and dried fruit together :) But for real
meals if there is more than two or three ingredients he won’t
even touch it. With these realizations and the fact that I am,
theoretically, smarter than a three year old, I should be able
to get him to eat vegetables and a more varied diet, right?
We’ll see :)