10 Months

With all the excitement of soccer and school, I left out Jack's 10 month status update. Our adorable Jack (or Sack, as a friend calls him) is into everything. His new favorite activity is to eat the plant and pull cans out of the cupboards. It's time to start locking everything up and moving things to higher ground.

He sleeps 12-13 hours a night and gets some good naps in. He eats twice the amount of food that Lilly currently eats. In fact he usually finishes her leftovers.

He is happy and giggly a lot and loves to be held. He also loves to play with Lilly and was rather bored today while she was at school. He took to eating wipes, I put a stop to that pretty fast.

Now that Lilly is in school we are both figuring out a new normal.

First day of preschool

I was more nervous than Lilly was for her first day of school. I started panicking a little last night. What if she wouldn't eat her breakfast and then she would be starving until lunch? I walked around the house getting things ready, worrying all the while.

What if she wanted to play ponies in the morning but couldn't because she had to go to school?? She did want to play ponies, but the excitement of school was way more enticing.

She woke up and ran into my room to ask if she had woken up early enough to get ready. We had a special breakfast (which she did not eat!!) and then got dressed in her new school clothes and shoes.

She carefully packed her backpack and lunch bag that grandma sent.

She insisted on taking two cups, one for juice and one for water. She also took her white blankie for nap time. On our way to school we saw a friend, she rolled down her window and shouted "I'm going to school!!"

We arrived to school at the same time as her friends from church. It was like the momarazzi hit town with all the pictures.

Mrs. Benjamin was all smiles taking pictures with the kids. When it was time for me to leave Lilly was a little clingy, but no tears. Hopefully we will both have a great first day of school!

Soccer

We are a little on the giddy side about soccer at our house. We went out as a family last night to find Lilly tiny shin guards to protect her tiny shins at her first game. Of course, I am aware of what 4 year old soccer is like. Chase the ball one way then another way and don't keep score. But, she was SO excited.

She called her grandparents to tell them that today was her first day of soccer. She woke up early to have time to eat a healthy breakfast and get dressed in her uniform from head to toe (she still doesn't want to take it off).

Eying up the competition - she seemed to have a great time. She commented once that she wasn't getting any goals, but hopefully that wont deter her from soccer fun.

Now that I am a soccer mom, I guess I need a minivan, orange slices, and gatorade.

Last week of Summer...again.

I thought last week was our final week of summer. Lilly was scheduled to start preschool this past Monday. However, due to unforeseen problems at her preschool, the start date was delayed by a week. It has been a looooong (second-last- week-of-summer) week. We are all totally exhausted.

Last week we lived it up summer style. We went to Knoebels 4 times, we went to the pool, and we played with friends. I wore the kids out like it was the last week of summer. Only it wasn't. This week was the last week of summer.

Most of Lilly's friends started kindergarten this week, leaving her at home for her second-last-week-of-summer. With her baby brother and her mom (who wont buy her twinkle toes).

We went on a bunch of really long walks in the jogging stroller and tried to have a really great second-last-week-of-summer.

We decided at the last possible second to sign Lilly up for soccer. When I say last second, I mean she already missed the first practice. The local AYSO chapter loves us the most for waiting the day before the first game to sign her up. Her jersey is about 10x too big for her and we have our first game tomorrow. I am on the hunt for super tiny shin guards and shorts for my little 32pounder 4 year old.

We tried taking pictures today, only they mostly turned out like the ones you see above. Jack has been teething and not sleeping which makes for a sad baby, but I'll take it in exchange for one of his cute smiles.

We will miss Lilly when she goes to school next week. Especially Jack, she is his best entertainment. We are happy we had another week at home with her.

Post #200

I have been prepping for my Music Together class, I really love it. I have already done two demo classes with friends and it seems to be going well. There is time during the demo class that I let the kids have free play with various rhythm instruments. The first day I played "Cecilia" by Simon and Garfunkel. I love this song, and it really makes people want to participate. However, Jim informed me (AFTER my demo class) that it has some questionable lyrics (making love in the afternoon, up in my bedroom, etc - not kids music class friendly). SO I need a new awesome song. Any suggestions?

Lilly is also prepping for real pre-school this Monday. She tells everyone she meets that she can read. The only thing is, she can't read. It's a little awkward. Not unlike Lilly telling my elderly neighbor that it was her birthday the following week and that she would be 5 (and then receiving a birthday card with money in it for her birthday - in January - 2011). If I tell someone she can't read, Lilly becomes very offended. Not quite sure how to deal with it yet. I try quietly shaking my head (because people are very impressed with my 4 year old who can read) but she has caught on to that, she looks at me to see if I am shaking my head and then argues with me(Yeah-huh I can read, etc). I am teaching her to read as fast as I can - although I don't know how to teach anyone to read. Any hints??

Fast.

Why do children grow up so fast? Lilly recently got her first bike. With training wheels. This is major, "all her friends" have bikes with training wheels and now so does she. Yesterday at the shoe store she asked the sales associate for skectchers, specifically twinkle toes. I responded with "She's 4, she's not getting sketchers."
Here she is still squeazing into her size 2T pajamas, that have transitioned into capri pajamas, out on her last bike ride of the day (also squeazing into her size 7/8 crocs).
She is still so little, but so grown up.

Last night a girl from the neighborhood stopped by to see if Lilly could ride bikes (HUGE deal). Before I could say anything Lilly said "We're having family home evening and then I am going on a bike ride with my dad. See you later!" That was one of those motherly-beaming-with-pride-moments.

Lilly starts real pre-school soon, and she reminds me regularly that next year she will be in kindergarten. Since when did kindergarten seem so grown up??

Ta-tar

I bought a guitar today. I used to have a guitar but the pegs broke and I got rid of it several years ago. I decided it was time to take up the guitar again. It was a rather spontaneous purchase, but I feel that music is always a good investment. At the store Lilly cried because she wanted her own 'ta-tar,' I was too excited by new purchase to be embarassed in the store by the yelling of my child.

I came home to practice the 4 chords I already knew and to learn some new ones. Lilly documented me ignoring, or enriching, my children with my guitar skills (however you look at it). I ignored my laundry and looked up guitar tabs to "Hey there Delilah" and other music.

I am teaching a childrens music class this fall and hope to play some of the songs for the class on the guitar. If not, I am sure the children will like "Hey there Delilah." Feel free to pass on any guitar tips, skills, etc.

More on Summer

I got distracted with that last post. I was going to tell you what we have been doing with our slow days of summer.

This week we took the car out on Monday. The rest of the week has been spent at home and walking in town. We walked to the grocery store, the yarn shop, for ice cream, anywhere we needed to go we walked. I am secretly hoping to trick my body into losing some of the baby weight by walking everywhere. I don't know if it will work because our town is pretty small.

We have been reading books, playing with Jack, and taking it slow. It has been surprisingly nice. Lilly has been taking pictures with my camera. This morning she took some pictures and asked me to post the picture of her to my blog.

Photo by Lilly

Summer

Slow days of summer.