Lex with pumpkin ears
Eve wearing her baby cat hat.
Fun with hats
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Monthly Archives: August 2009
Pre-K picnic
Tonight we went to a “Welcome Back” picnic at Lex’s new school. The school has 14 classes, grades Pre-K through 5th. There was a good sized crowd! Based on the first letter of our last name we were assigned to bring a dessert (my favorite thing to make!). I chose cookies and Lex chose chocolate, so we made Chocolate Chocolate Chip cookies. :) Yum!!
My first school contribution
When we got to the school Lex was pretty overwhelmed. He wouldn’t get out of the car and I ended up carrying him from the car to the field and around for a few minutes. I introduced myself to the principal (Lex hid his face) and he introduced us to the Pre-K teacher (Lex buried his face in my chest and cried) and then we sat down for a little while to just observe. Eve ran around and had a blast with Alan tagging along behind her. After awhile I was able to get Lex calmed down and sitting up to just look around. Then three hot air balloons came over the horizon. They were beautiful!
Hot air balloons at the "Welcome Back" picnic
After a bit we decided to go into the school to find the bathrooms. Then Alan and Lex went for a walk to see the balloons (not sure if they ever got there!) and Eve and I played. I tried to strike up conversations with parents who were with 4yr old looking kids :) I ended up meeting two moms, both with girls in Lex’s class (Bella and Aurora… did Lex get put in the princess class?). When Alan and Lex got back we sat down to eat a picnic dinner. Alan enjoyed the BBQ and the kids and I ate chips and cookies. Sadly the salads and more healthy things were mostly gone by the time we got there. Oh well. While we ate Alan and Lex filled me in on their adventures. Apparently they went back into the school and the Pre-K teacher let them check out the classroom. Lex saw his cubie and told the teacher about his new green backpack. I think that was super helpful because after that Lex was so much more relaxed. We ended the evening with him and Eve running around, playing with other kids (even a girl from his class!) and having a great time! Yay! Of course he cried when it was time to leave, at 8:30pm. One of Lex’s strengths is that he really likes to be wherever he is. It makes transitions harder, but in general he’s very happy wherever he is. Hopefully he can hang on to the memory until Wednesday when we go back for the Pre-K open house and Thursday, his first day on his own!
This is not what I expected
“This is not what I expected,” said Lex, standing at the top of the stairs at naptime today. I had put him to bed about 10 minutes earlier and he had bopped around and woke Eve up. I was none too pleased, to say the least! So I put him in my bed for quiet time instead (I just wasn’t for a naptime fight with him and really wanted her to sleep more). Eve went right back to sleep and Lex stayed in my room for a few minutes. Then he came out and stood at the top of the stairs and said “This is not what I expected.” I replied, “What did you expect?” and he said he expected to be laying in his bed, sleeping. I gave him one more chance and made him promise (for what that’s worth!) not to wake Eve up again. He crawled into his bed and fell right asleep. :)
Pouting Eve
Look at the lower lip on that girl!
I’m just testing some features. Trying to get pictures to insert as a small size and make them clickable to the full-size. Patience please as I figure out this new software :) It will come in bits and pieces. Hopefully a few blogs posts along the way. Now I have to go bake cookies for our “Welcome Back” picnic at Lex’s school tonight. Nothing like waiting until the last minute!
New blog!!!
I have a new blog. Have you noticed? I switched from Blogger to WordPress (with Alan’s help, of course!) and here ya go!! I just did this tonight so it’s not yet perfect, but we’ll get there. Look at the links just under the header image. See Blog (this page) and Quotes. Yay! I found the old quotes and added a recent one from Eve. I’ll be adding other features soon too. WordPress has so many great features and it’s so much more dynamic than the Blogger account I had. Yay!! I’m excited :)
A quiet Saturday morning
Alan and the kids playing with Legos
Here is how we spent Saturday morning, an official “no plans day.” I love how the kids just cuddle up against Alan as they all play together.
The Great Train Ride
There is a train that stops at the science museum twice a day, and seemingly every time we are at the museum. Last year it went by with barely a glance from the kids, but this year they asked every time if we could go for a ride. I was never prepared, on the spot, for an hour and a half train ride, but I promised over and over that we could ride the train this summer.
Right about the time I realized that Lex starts school in August I also realized that summer is coming to an end and I’d better figure out this train thing!! So I bought tickets online (not realizing that you can buy them on the train!) and wrote it on the calendar. All week the kids grew more and more excited for Friday and the great train ride.
Friday came, dark and overcast, but we stuck to the plan. They both napped with the promise of a train ride in the afternoon. During naptime the sky opened up with buckets of water and impressive thunder and lightening. While I packed a suitcase full of snacks, books and dry clothes, I debated the wiseness of taking them for a train ride versus canceling plans and dealing with their disappointment. I decided to stick to the plan and we bundled up in the limited rain gear we posses and headed out. Lucky for us the brunt of the storm passed as we were getting ready and driving over, so by the time we had to stand outside and wait for the train it was just drizzling. Much more manageable!
The train is a sight-seeing train that runs for 45 minutes up the river and then reverses direction and runs for 45 minutes back down. I was really worried about keeping them entertained for that long, but they did fabulously! A woman at the train station had give me “train bingo” cards and the kids spent almost the entire ride looking out the window to find things to cross off on the cards. It kept them entertained way longer than I ever would have expected!! At one point Eve said “I see a horse!!” I asked where and she pointed to the horse on her bingo card and then crossed it off :) Towards the end I had to bust out a few books (I brought train and rain themed books :) ) to keep Eve happy. Lex decided to go sit by himself on a bench at the other end of the car. I enjoyed their happiness and they beautiful lightening strikes over the river. Overall it was a fun trip.
After a very successful train ride I agreed to let them play at the museum until it closed. A good time was had by all and we topped it off with dinner at Panera Bread with Alan. I think that was our final summer hurrah! :) Off to school this week.
Lex read the sign to Eve as we waited for the train.
Still waiting. See Lex plugging his ears? He spent a lot of time like that :)
They chose to sit in the dining car. A good choice, I do believe.
Here is what Eve has been waiting for all week! Snacks on the train! Whenever we talked about the train she would ask if they have tables so she could eat her snack on the train. I wasn’t sure, but luckily they do!
One happy boy!
Watching the train leave.
Potty update
We are doing remarkably well with potty training these days and I’m pretty sure I won’t be buying diapers again! (excluding the overnight pull-ups they are both in now) Eve has been diaper free for a few weeks now and for the past few days she has gone completely accident free. Lex, who I consider (maybe foolishly) to be fully potty trained, is coming out of a frequent wetting spell. He did the same thing early this spring as well, where he started wetting his pants, frequently, for several weeks. Last month it started again and seems to be lingering, but he is definitely on the rebound. Today they were both dry all day! :) Tonight I moved our 2nd changing table upstairs into their closet to use as storage shelves. Several months ago I moved the other one into the living room to use as toy shelves. Now I’m actually thinking VERY hard about putting away the potty seats. Eve can use the toilet just fine and more times than not it’s Lex using the little potty anyway, and he is just too big for them these days! The other day he started putting his feet up onto the potty and jumping off. The first time I saw it I almost lost it, just the thought of a full potty launching out behind him as he leaps forward…. gross!!! Sorry, that was probably an unnecessary visual. Anyway, I think I’m going to put away the potties and have a grown-up house :) Excluding, of course, all the toys scattered everywhere!
Lunch
Tomorrow’s lunch for the kids and tonight’s snack for Alan :)
Flower
We picked flowers from the garden. Eve was very happy. I was trying to get a good picture of her curls. See the one on top and the one on the side. Like a storybook girl :)