Fast ride

A couple weeks ago we realized that we had an excess of quarters and a Mall that has a train ride. So we thought we'd take the kids. The thing is we had no idea how fast this train went.

I couldn't take a clear picture because it was going so fast!

Nate seemed to enjoy it, but Gwen since she was sitting backwards was not so sure.

We then took them to the outside part where they have these water fountains, the kids really enjoy playing in them.

The trouble

I have this child, he is a cute, cuddler and possibly a sponge (I don't think he misses anything and he learns quickly!) Sadly this keeps me on my toes. My cousin tells me she likes hearing of his antics and I know she needs a cheerful antic story (HI CUZ!). So this is the story of the cute, cuddly, troublemaker. As you can see he like to climb and loves the look of the dryer, it is apparently his height now.
He climbs away when his Mom calls to him.

He pulls stuff down from my dresser and then plays with stuff he pulls down.

You've been caught, little man!

Ok, so this isn't so much him doing anything bad, he really wanted to cut his own hair...fortunately he couldn't and sadly it made his hair cut take longer.
He's gotten taller which is a problem.Ok, so maybe he's not that much taller...If he can't get to something, he'll stand on anything to get what he wants to get.
And he will drag something to where ever he needs to get whatever it is he fancies. Seriously not enough spaces in this house to hide stuff from him.
The problem with the advanced troublemaker is his age, he is too young and he definitely embraces the trouble part of personality when he doesn't take a nap. He needs to keep moving so he won't fall asleep. Sadly today he didn't get a nap. Which means that he was all over the place and when I stepped into the bedroom to take a phone call, he got into real trouble. He went into the refrigerator got out the chocolate syrup and he and Gwen were trying to get out all the chocolate syrup. I did not get a picture, but maybe you can envision 2 kids with chocolate syrup all around their mouths and a chocolate puddle on the table and chair, maybe on the floor. I should have known when I heard nothing coming from the other room, maybe a giggle...

A joke

We have been working on having the children sit and eat dinner with us. It is a struggle to get them to sit still for a long time. But, sitting down together for a meal is very important to me. These days we are often having breakfast at the same time as each other, well 3 of the 4 of us, and sometimes Eric and I will also sit together. We are also working on eating dinner to get dessert, but that will likely be a struggle for a long time. Nate will usually sit with us for about 5 minutes before he's off, unless it is pizza or enchilladas. Tonight was a more quiet evening, Nate was playing quietly, and Gwen sat and made conversation with us. Told us a little about her day and then broke out with her first joke...(that she had heard earlier on PBS kids)

Why did the banana go to the doctor?

because he wasn't peeling well.

Eric thought it was hilarious and laughed. So then she said

Why did the ban ap cherry go to the doctor?
because he was getting squeezed.

Eric and I both laughed, it was so random and spontaneous. This broke down into her trying to think of different fruits and some random punch line that didn't make sense trying to get us to laugh. It was so cute and funny. I then tried to cut her off (after the 15th joke) because it was getting old and said Daddy she's learned new songs and broke out with Johnny Appleseed...which is an old prayer we used to sing in Girl Scouts when we wanted it to rain and it always worked (sadly it has not worked here, I've tried it.) So then she started praying the prayers they must say at school, she made us close our eyes and busted out this prayer that they must encourage at the beginning of the day. She started out Thanking God for her friends and her teachers and then said Thank you that I don't have to wear my backpack to school today...We could not help it we laughed again. I think the random stuff we hear from her taken out of context is so funny and I can only imagine what goes on in a school room full of 4 year olds who have almost manage the full meaning of the English language, but not quite...I don't wonder why during our orientation the teacher said "If you only believe half of what they say to you we'll only believe half of what she tells us". Dinner was a lovely meal and it is a small glimpse of the random fun I hope to have at the dinner table as our family grows into more understanding of conversation...hopefully by then they will appreciate my dinners or at least eat it!

Busy or lazy

We are continuing on with life with a preschooler. Wow, this whole new schedule is reeking havoc on our lives. If we could just get the kids to sleep you know when they are tired and wake up when we need them to. Sure they are cute when they sleep...

I thought I should update you on the kids. Nate is quite the talker, a motor mouth really. People ask me all the time, how old is he and when I say 2, they comment on how well he talks. He is stubborn and will full. He is smart sure, but he can only point with his fingers and count to 5 on his hands...he can't hold up his thumbs. I keep trying to do the song "where is thumpkin?" He can't do it! He can count and he sings a lot, I have started to take him to story time at the library, he gets very excited and wants to go all the time. He still loves to read books and loves to do puzzles. He is good at it. He is still terribly stubborn about food and eating. Maybe he'll come around, one day, planning meals is very frustrating. He is still a sweet cuddler, which I am happy about...no sign of losing the blue eyes and blond hair yet.

Gwen, what to say about Gwen. My sweet girl. We had a play date at the park with most of the kids from her class. She was SO excited! I didn't tell her that we were going until she got into the car. She was so cute, her "best friend" (she doesn't use the term yet, but she only talks about Lana) was there first and she was happy to see her (it has only been about 15 minutes) they squealed and clasped hands and Gwen said "Mommy, this is my friend Lana, Lana this is my Mom". It was so sweet, until I realized she wasn't going to introduce her other friend. When I would have to come into the playground she would introduce me to all her friends, so excitedly. You'd think they wouldn't have just left school and spent hours together. It is so funny. She seems to love school, although everything that happens at school is a "secret" and she won't really tell us anything. She has started singing a lot of songs. And her Spanish, just atrocious. I am a little embarrassed. But she is learning and has brought some stuff home that she's done at school. I just hope to learn what she is actually doing there!

I have taken over a group from the Church that was going to fizzle, with another Mother. We had our first meeting the other night, so I have been busy with that. We also have to do service hours for the school, I have been trying to figure all that out. It should be interesting because you are not supposed to bring siblings. I am also training to do another ministry for the Church this weekend. So I suspect my time is no longer my own. The husband is still going to school/work and working on getting his thesis started. We are still adjusting to life here as best we can...my gardening experiment is almost over. I have learned a lot and am already starting to plan my garden for next year. I have been having a problem with my plants it has been so hot here. I thought fall was upon us, we were able to turn off the air at night, but now hot again. I have 2 eggplants growing and we have lots of sweet 100 cherry tomatoes. Eric is about tired of cucumbers, I guess I will only plant 1 next year instead of 3!

Can you see me now, 4yr old edition

As we watch Gwen grow you begin to appreciate how kids learn things, you know like the peak-a-boo and hiding under a blanket means no one can see you. We have gotten to a new level with Gwen. She LOVES to play hide-and-seek...ask my Mom! The only problem is that she doesn't really get it yet. She tells you what number to count to, where to hide and usually giggles or yells when she is hiding so you can find her. Always in very obvious spots. I am sure she will learn how to really play hide and seek, oh it is fun. She honestly asked my Mom to play every hour of every day she was here, my Mom might now say, wow that was fun, but I think at the time she was a little overwhelmed. Nate doesn't really participate. Gwen has also learned to hide under stuff and she thinks it is great fun. While Mom was here Gwen decided to hide, we had to pretend we didn't know where she was...Mom might have gotten a little carried away with her shoes...
After 10, ok maybe 2minutes wandering around pretending to look for Gwen, I think Mom's figured it out, she's so smart!

Some thing's in there!

HI! Grandma!

Gosh, don't you wish you could visit and play with us!

Gardening and keepin' out the riff-raff

The neighbor had a gardener who was nice enough come over and give me advice about keeping out the deer and whatever else had been eating my tomatoes and stuff. He said human hair and pee. Well, sometimes for fun we let the kids pee in the yard, around the garden...where are cool like that. Fortunately for us we have no neighbors behind us and the people on the one side hardly ever venture outside. The neighbor on the other side knows of the peeing suggestion and also is blocked from seeing most of our backyard. So one evening last month, this happened!
No pooping, just peeing. I swear he would have been out there for like hours. This is why I think he is not ready for potty training. Sure he can pee at will, but I don't think he knows how to control it yet, like he just pees, doesn't hold it and pees all at once.

I have one picture of him holding his shirt up in all his glory, but Eric made me promise not to post that one.

We did actually put his pants back on and let him play, as you can see here.

Library fun!

Our library had a summer reading program. We participated in the reading program. For the adults you had to read 4 books, for the kids 0-10 you had to read 15minutes a day. We read to the kids all the time, so that is no problem. I also participated and did 4 books in short order. Eric on the other hand picked a really long book to read as #2 at 10 days until the end of the program he realized that he still had 3 books to read and picked some short stories and plays to finish out his list. And you know what, that turkey won a prize! A $25 gift certificate! I might be still angry, but he took me to the movies for free, so I guess I benefited also. At the beginning of the summer reading program, the kick-off, the library had a big event. We went and had a good time, they had all kinds of free stuff for the kids, a bouncy house and games and books. The only problem was that it was super hot and the lines were long, so we left. We decided to go back for the ending. This is time we decided to go early and the library had done a much better job, a lot of the stuff you had to stand in line for was inside! We got their early enough and the kids decided they wanted balloons from the balloon lady, and man was she skilled. Nate picked a frog and Gwen a flower. They also decided to get their faces painted. Which was a huge step for both! I had forgotten my camera, but I snapped some pictures when we got home! Enjoy!
Nate is wearing a hat that Gwen made, they had the hats there and fabric markers...Nate made one also, but just did like 1 or 2 swipes of the marker and went on with his day.

His frog, he can also wear it as a mask.

The kids went through the inflated slip-n-slide type thing and ran his face painting. I was so impressed how still he sat (relatively!)

Gwen and the flower...pink of course!


One day last week or so Nate refused to nap and when Eric got him out and found him like this, frog on his head! That boy!

My 2 kids

I often consider the difference between my two kids and their temperement. I have started to think of them as I-can-do-it and I-can't-hear-you. Can you guess which is which? I think the difference and temperment of the kids can be told in this story.
I have been trying to get the kids to eat better so I have been making the kids eat some kind of fruit and then they can get a snack. Gwen gets it and I often find her eating fruit. Nate, still difficult about it. The other day I told he had to finish his grapes, he had 4 left. Nate refused and cried and cried about it. He was crying so much I couldn't hear Eric's phone call, so I went into the other room to finish our conversation. I hear Gwen call from the other room and come running. Nate had pulled a chair up into the pantry and was trying to help himself in the pantry. He reached an open bag of lentils and spilled it all over the floor. UGH! He made a huge mess, all in the pantry. I was about to clean it up when Gwen asked to clean it up. I thought sure, handed her the dustpan and little broom. And she THANKED me for letting her clean up Nate's mess. She cleaned the whole thing up! I helped her clear some of the boxes of cereal and stuff so she could get all the lentils up. She did a great job and thanked me several times. It was so nice after hearing all the complaining and moaning from her brother.
Now granted this won't always be the case. But the differences between 4 and 2 are great. And the differences between my boy and girl are also great.

PRESCHOOL!

This week Gwen started preschool! It is a weird thing to have only 1 kid for half the day and to get up so early to take Gwen to school. But here we are with a preschooler! It has been a long week for us. The festivities started Saturday, Eric and I went to a child protection class where we learned how to notice the signs of abusive situations and considered what we should do if we suspected something. It was interesting and informative! Then we went to Mass followed by a Ice Cream social where we were supposed to meet some of the other new families at the school. We met 1 or 2. The next day we had the "meet the teacher" where we meet Gwen's teachers and got our packets of information, had pictures made and you know took pictures. Wednesday morning I had oreintation with the other parents of the preschool kids. We learned the drop off procedures and things about the class and signed up for when we wanted to volunteer. It was a busy morning!
Thurday was the big day, Gwen's first day of preschool. I was a little nervous she wouldn't get out of the car. She had been acting nervous and we were worried she would not get out of the car. But she did! The school doesn't use buses so they have drop off procedures. The eighth graders help with the drop off-you pull up to the stop sign and then everyone from the stop sign to the cone (about 10 cars) lets their kids out. Fortunately Gwen's teacher was outside (she told us she would be so they would see a familiar face) and I waved her down and she came and got Gwen. Fortunately the teacher has been doing this for a long time, she grabbed Gwen's backpack and just said some stuff like, "what do you have in here? I bet something special?" reached for Gwen's hand and out she went! All the kids meet in the school hall for prayers, but the preK kids go to a different room off the hall because apparently it gets overwhelming waiting with all the big kids. One of the eighth graders walks the preK kids into the little room with toys. When it is prayer time they come out and then go to their room and start their day. And I think that is all we know except for the schedule they gave us. We do also know that at the end of their day they come back outside and wait on the benches patiently for the parents to come get them. Here are the pictures from the first day! I should mention Mom and I were both taking pictures so some of them are repeats, or almost the same...

I was a little sad I couldn't go in with Gwen and take those cute first day pictures of her with her teachers and her desk. But we did take pictures at the meet the teacher...I think we got a picture of her with everything with her name on it! After the meet the teacher we went to dinner, both the kids wanted to sit next to Grandma!

The zoo

This summer has been a good one for us, we were able to meet up with all the Godparents this summer! I don't think we have been able to do that ever. The weekend before last we met Jess and her family at the zoo. It is about half way in between us. I was surprised how nice it was. I don't know what I expected, but I know that I didn't expect the kids to survive so well, especially since we had a very late lunch and Nate skipped his nap...oh he was tired, we are were (I even have proof of someone yawning, but I didn't include it!) Here are the pictures in slideshow form

I should explain some of these pictures, but I am too tired to do it now...if you have any questions let me know.

A visit

A couple weekends ago the Godfather came to visit. The kids had a great time, Uncle Eric brought presents. We had a good time and I sent him home with a cucumber, which is what I do now, because I have been getting lots of cucumbers from my garden. I don't especially like cucumbers, but they are growing on me...ha,ha! Fortunately Southern Living had a couple recipes for cucumbers this month, we might be trying one tonight, but I can't make any promises! I got on a tangent there, sorry...here are pictures from Eric's visit, in slideshow form, of course.

I still haven't been updating this thing regularly. Sorry...I have a lot going on and this has been slacking. Here is a picture from Gwen on campus. We met some friends at the kids museum one day and brought some lunch and met Daddy for lunch on campus. The kids were hilarious, they spent a good portion of the time chasing squirrels. I have never seen anything so funny, Nate was chasing this one squirrel and instead of running up the tree he (or she, I don't know) ran around the tree, this went on for some time and I almost fell on the floor laughing. It went for like 5 minutes. I sadly didn't get a video of that, but I did get one of Gwen sitting on the bench. Sadly we also saw some girl doing some publicity photos or something, made us feel a little dirty, fortunately we had already finished lunch.
The kids really enjoy taking out all the pots and pans and sitting in the cabinet. Gwen asks they can play "pots and pans are handy"...I don't know why she calls it that, but she does.

We usually check on the kids before we go to bed, Eric runs out one night and says I need the camera. Apparently he had both shoes on but Eric missed it with the camera. Nate loves shoes and well, I let him where whatever around the house.
This is from when we went blueberry picking on Gwen's birthday. He told Eric he wanted some blueberries, for some reason Eric handed him the bucket and then this happened!
Have I mentioned my boy loves the blueberries.
The birthday girl required a picture, we obliged.

We have had some busy weekends and some unusual stuff going on around here. The ladies that were leading the Moms group at my Church had decided it was time for them to step down. I've decided to co-lead the group with another Mom I've met recently. I think we might be in over our heads, but we'll muddle through (I hope). The group has a lot of little side things-playgroups, Meals for Moms, Bible studies. Fortunately they already already have leaders for all the little side groups, we just have to coordinate the monthly meetings with a subject of our choosing.
Sadly Eric's Grandmother died last week and so he drove up to the funeral in MD. It was a long couple days for Eric.
We've also visited with some friends. Not as many friends as I would liked to have visited with this summer, but I guess kids get sick and things don't work out. But, I have some posts upcoming (I swear) about the visits we did have.
We are gearing up for Gwen starting preK this month...in about 3 weeks!
I haven't been able to go to the gym in the evenings because of break between classes so I have been getting up and going to the pool at 6am! It means I have been trying to go to bed early and getting up early. It has been nice to be home in the evenings and I have missed swimming. But man it has been hard on me, I forgot how much harder it is to breathe underwater, even though I have been going to the gym for 6 months and have been working pretty hard at the cardio. Breathing underwater is completely different. I am glad that the pools have reopened after all the construction. I definitely feel like an old lady in the pool.

I think that is about it for now...I must go to bed soon, early morning.