Monthly Archives: September 2010

Presents from Mema

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Nothing better than arriving home to find presents on the table.

happy Eve

This is what Eve thinks of M&Ms :)

hugging the pjs

She hugged and cuddled her new Toy Story pjs for a long time.

surly Lex

Lex loves his presents too, but he gets surly when I take his picture :) Won't stop me!

on the porch

We went outside with popsicles for snack and Eve decided to put the new pjs on. She then wore them all over the yard for awhile and only took them off when I told her should couldn't wear them to KAF. Bummer mommy, I know, but I didn't want to get holes in the feet on the first day!

One more from Lex…

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On Thursday I volunteered to be a monitor on the bike path for the “bike/walk to school” day.  Did I mention this?  I’m sure I have.  We all hurried down the hill and Eve and I stood on the path for half an hour watching kids go by, while Alan walked to school with Lex.  Thursday afternoon when he got off the bus, Lex asked me, “Mom, how did you do today?”  I said “With what?” and he said “With watching the kids on the bike path this morning.”  It was so sweet because this is the first time I remember him ever asking about my day.  He tells me about his day all the time, but I don’t think he’s ever asked me about my day.  So sweet!

Dessert

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I have been baking too much lately.  How do I know this?  Lex has come to expect dessert every night.  After school Thursday he said that he wanted brownies for dessert.  I said no (too much sugar/chocolate/deliciousness), so he asked for sugar cookies instead.  I said ok, if he helps.  He said, “No mom, I’m going to play outside.  You make cookies.”  Umm… NO!  Ha!  We all went to play outside for awhile and when we came in he said he was ready to make cookies.  Ok, twist my arm.  They both helped me for a few minutes, then retired into the living room to read books to themselves while I finished up.  As the first batch was coming out of the oven Lex walked into the kitchen.  He sniffed the air and said, “Yumm.. those cookies smell delicious.  I love dessert.  Tomorrow night let’s have chocolate chip cookies.”  Not only does he expect dessert each night, but he wants a different dessert each night!  Ha!  Then Friday morning he said, “Oh mom, I notice there a few cookies left.  Can I have one for breakfast.”  This cracked me up because he must think that Alan and I (or maybe just me!) eat ALL of the cookies each night.  Lex and Eve had one each for dessert and he saw how many there were all together, so the fact that he was surprised the next morning to see “a few cookies left” really amuses me.  Sigh.  This was all much funnier in reality.  It’s hard to convey in text several days later.  But the moral of the story is I need to do less baking! (and yes, I did let him have one for breakfast)

Along those lines, I signed up for a “Lose Big” challenge at the local gym.  It starts next week.  We meet 2x week for six weeks and during that time I am a full member of the gym with access to everything.  Eve and I toured the gym this week and she was soooo sweet! The two ladies giving the tour kept commenting on how wonderful she was. Dressed in a mishmash of clothes (boys and girls, nothing matching), she walked along calmly and examined everything they were pointing out. She even picked up some stray tennis balls and put them away, unasked. So sweet! Eve also starts preschool next week so my plan is to be at the gym while she is in school, plus 2x for the meetings (while she goes to the drop-in daycare there), and then whenever else Alan is around to watch the kids for me.  I’m hoping to be a gym rat for 6 weeks :)  I have gained way too much weight this year between the pregnancy, miscarriage, and all around stressful summer.  Hopefully I can get it off again easily enough.  HOPEFULLY!  If only “easy come, easy go” applied to weight as well!

Deep thoughts

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handsome lex

Isn't he handsome? Even with the pouty face. I was following him around all afternoon with the camera, despite his protests.

While we were out riding bikes this afternoon Lex asked me, “Mom, how did the first person come after the dinosaurs if there wasn’t a person’s belly for them to come out of?” Deep questions for an afternoon bike ride! I told him that I would happily explain when we got back to the house. He remembered the question and when we got back he crawled in my lap and asked me again. I explained about the theories of evolution and creationism, and what “theory” means. I told him there are two common theories and some people believe one while others believe the other. When I finished he said, “I think I believe in science.” I never linked one or the other to science, so I asked him which one he thought was science and he said evolution. Mind blowing! He amazes me.

Later, while eating dinner, he asked me why some children are born with autism. I explained as best I could. Then he asked me “Why is the man at school so fat?” Turns out their custodian is extremely overweight, which led us to a long conversation about fat. Personally I’m wondering why the custodians office is always just outside the little boy’s bathroom. Hmm… Anyway, we had a long chat about why people are fat and whether it’s ok to call them “fatso.” Apparently that’s a word he picked up from Encyclopedia Brown. Thanks! :) This conversation hit close to home because I’m feeling fatter and fatter by the day. Damn stress eating! Ahem, but this is not about me, it’s about my extremely bright son and how I hope he does not call his custodian “fatso.” I told him that’s not a nice thing to say and will hurt the man’s feelings. He told me he doesn’t know the custodian and therefore won’t talk to him anyway. I guess only time will tell how this plays out.

In the meantime, here are some more pictures of our afternoon.

Pouty Eve

Eve was singing happily and doing a puzzle, until she saw me with the camera. Then I got this face.

silly on the swings

Silly on the swings

fallen sunflower

This sunflower stalk broke and the flower fell. It was fun to show the kids the seeds and see them understand the link between the flowers and the sunflower seeds they like to eat.

bee on sunflower

sunflower and morning glory

lex again

"MOM! Please don't take a picture of me!"

fall

I think fall is coming. See the trees already turning and the leaves on the ground?

A quick progress report

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I was really pleased this morning when I dropped Lex off at school and his teacher gave me an unprompted progress report. As I was walking out the door she came over and told me that he has been doing really well in class. She said he participates in everything, including the singing (which he didn’t do in pre-k), and hasn’t had any bad behavior. She said yesterday they were doing a “jack be nimble” game and the kids were all jumping over blocks, but Lex (and another child) opted not to do the jumping part. She said he was very polite about it and waited patiently until the other kids were done. I have been hearing from him each day about how much he loves school and it was really nice to hear from the teacher as well. :)

I read a great blog post called Back to School: 6 Things Your Child’s Teacher Wants You to Know and it made me think that maybe his teacher is just shy. Not sure why I haven’t had this thought before. I figured she was just more concerned with the kids than with the parents, but perhaps she teaches kindergarten because she is more confident around 5yr olds. Perhaps. Either way, he likes her and likes the routines she has, and I am happy she reached out to me this morning.

Lex

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I love Lex. Have I mentioned this lately? He has been telling me that he needs a better railroad crossing sign and some additional signage for his trains. I suggested perhaps we use clay and popsicle sticks to make some and he was thrilled! I love that he doesn’t want everything to be store bought or branded or just perfect. We got out the clay and he went to work. I was thinking a clay base, stick post, and paper sign, but Lex thought clay signs would be better. He also decided to make the base for the RR sign. “It looks like it’s secured in a slab of concrete!”

railroad signs

Railroad signs. He laughed when I ran out of room to write yield. :)

painting

We did some painting today. Lex painted his signs (if you look closely you can see the silver bases in front of him), Eve painted acorns we gathered today, and I painted the ugly mirror we've had forever. I'm going to make it pretty and white and hang it in their room.

Yesterday we played Sorry. Eve quit early, I won the game, Alan came in second, and then Lex proceeded to draw cards until he got all of his players around the board. Alan and I came and went and Lex persisted. When he finished he jumped up and excitedly yelled, “I came in third!!!” He’s so funny!!

sorry

He's going the distance...

Lex also will smile for a camera now. That makes me sooooooo happy! So happy I don’t have to take pictures of the back of his head or be superman quick with the camera. Now he’ll sit still and smile and sometimes he even suggests we take a picture! I love it! :)

hugs

Hugs at the dinner table.

Photo heavy blog

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I’m realizing this blog is pretty photo heavy lately. I have a TON on my mind, but not much makes it to the blog anymore. I leave my computer off during the days for the most part, so when I turn it on every few nights and try to blog I usually find myself mindless. Uploading photos is an easy way out… and probably what most of you want anyway! :) Maybe when we eventually settle into a fall routine I’ll have more brain power, or maybe not. We’ll have to see. For now we are enjoying the cooling weather and the kids have started talking about jumping in the leaves again. I do believe fall weather has arrived.

Eve

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I took pictures off the camera today and found they were all of Eve! Guess that’s what happens when Lex spends all day in school.

all dolled up

Eve, all dolled up :)

tiny toes

She was sitting on her feet, playing with the trains, and I couldn't resist her adorable toes. The picture barely captures the total sweetness of her little pile of toes.

love for grandpa tom

Love for Grandpa Tom

more love

even more love

Eve likes to make movies with the camera. Every time I turn it on she asks if we can make a movie, however she seems to forget what that actually means, so movies of her lately start with her smiling and me reminding her that she has to do something if we make a movie :) Here she is, doing something.

First week of kindergarten

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Lex successfully completed his first week of kindergarten! Go Lex! He is exhausted and told me that he wants to sleep all day tomorrow. We’ll see about that! His teacher sent home an interesting packet of information today. Apparently they had a fire drill and lock down drill this week. He told me about the lock down drill, but then said he was too tired to tell me anything else :) The letter had lots of information that I was hoping to learn, such as what he does each day for activities (library, art, etc.) and what those teachers’ names are. He doesn’t always remember them. We talked to the bus driver this afternoon and learned his name. I also got an email from another parent today asking if I’d help with the walk/bike to school Thursdays. I think I will! :)

We are ready for a slow three day weekend and then hopefully we can start settling in to a school year routine. Eve starts preschool on the 14th and that will bring more changes, but I think she’ll love it. I’m ready for the routine to set in and the pace to slow down. But mostly I’m thrilled that Lex loves school!