We went to the playground today and Lex
had a blast playing with two other boys. We met Michelle and
her kids, and then another boy from Dylan’s class came too. It
was fun for him to play and fun for me to watch him playing
with other kids. He played for awhile, then went off on his
own, then back to the crowd. It made me happy.

I had a nice experience this morning. The
kids woke up happy and excited to go to daycare. Eve picked out
cereal spoons and milk while Lex packed blankets and doggies
into the daycare suitcase. They both ate breakfast and got
themselves ready (as best they can) and in the car. They were
happy the whole time. We got there and she took a book in while
he brought the suitcase in, both walked on their own, no tears,
both happy. We went inside, washed hands, big hugs and away I
went, with Lex standing at the window blowing kisses. The
teacher even called Lex “Mr. Lovey” when he was giving me a 3rd
or 4th hug goodbye. That made me happy to hear. I know he gives
her hugs and I appreciate that she sees him as “lovey” not
“obstinent” or “stubborn,” which were words that came up the
first day or two. Anyway, they seem to be settling into this
new routine quite nicely. That makes me happy :)

While Lex was at his lesson yesterday Eve
and I swam in the current pool. It’s like a river that goes
around in a wiggly loop, with water jets creating a current
stream. It’s good exercise to walk in and they love swimming in
it. I usually hold on to Eve (despite her attempts to swim by
herself) and she kids her legs and wiggles her arms and ducks
under the water. Yesterday a lifeguard offered us a flotation
device that I’ve seen a lot of the kids wearing. It straps
around her belly and goes over both arms. Hard to explain, but
popular. I didn’t realize that some of the ones I’d seen around
actually belong to the aquatic center. We put the floatie on
her and I let her go! It keeps her relatively upright and she
just bobbed along in the current. It was so funny. I bought
them both life jackets, but they don’t love them because the
jacket rolls them over onto their backs. Safe, but not so fun
to swim in. This thing keeps their heads up and is really
popular with the kids. Anyway, she was bobbing along, having a
good time. At one point she had a sweet smile on her face — a
closed mouth smile, which is unusual for her. I pulled her over
to me to give her a kiss and she spit a mouthful of water at
me!! I was shocked! She laughed and laughed. Little
monkey!

I’m losing track, that’s a good thing! And
today was a GOOD day!! Lex had a series of tantrums last night
that kept him up until 9:30pm so I was a little worried about
today. He woke up at 5:30am (who needs sleep?!?) but I was able
to get him to lay still in his bed, with me beside him, until
6:30, a more reasonable hour. He was super sweet all morning,
but started fussing when it was time to go. Kids are funny
because you never know why they go one direction or another.
When the fussing started I mentally readied myself for an
argument, but instead he decided that he was a baby and I
needed to do everything for him. Umm… ok! I got him dressed,
put on his shoes and hat, and put him in the car. Way faster
than he would have done it himself! Eve hurried herself along
quickly because she slept through breakfast and we were trying
to get there by 8:30 for the 2yr olds snack time. I don’t know
why they have snack at 8:30 in the morning (the preschool room
eats at 9:30, which is more reasonable), but it works ok for us
because it often ends up being her breakfast. She’s such a good
little sleeper! :)

On the way to daycare
Eve announced that she wanted to go to Panera Bread instead of
daycare. I laughed. Lex jumped in and asked if we could go for
dinner instead. Yup! I told them that if they had a nice day at
daycare then we could go to Panera Bread for dinner. Just a
little bribery, nothing wrong with that. I dropped them off and
they both gave me big hugs and smiles and away I went. When I
picked them up they were both happy, well rested, and ready for
dinner. I was told that Lex even told his teacher that he loved
her :) That’s a good sign, right?!

At
dinner they told me some things they did during the day and ate
happily. We came home, did bath, teeth, finger nail clippings
(way overdue!), stories and off to bed. Easy! Why can’t they
all be like this? A few times during the day Lex and I talked
about why I wouldn’t lay down with him last night (tantrum boys
don’t get what they want) and how I could lay with him tonight
(acting sweet, of course). While we were reading stories he
told me that he was happy he was acting so sweet because he is
excited that I will lay down with him for a few minutes at
bedtime. Maybe he’ll remember this… or not. I enjoy the good
times while I can!

Now they are both
sound asleep (poor Eve is coughing like crazy though) and I’m
off to prep for another day. I’ve found that when I do all the
prep the night before (lunches and bags packed), our daycare
mornings go much smoother.

Daddy
sandwich!

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.