12/17/13
Christmas Card Photo shoot
12/1/13
Cuteness Overload
Grandma Comes to Visit
My mom, her mom and my youngest sister drove down from WA on the 2nd. They stopped in Visalia for the night and left my grandmother there to visit her sister for the week before finishing the drive on the 3rd. We were all so glad to see her, just the 24 hours spent at home without her were very overwhelming. The week was rather boring, I just fed the baby and slept whenever possible. My mom and sister did a great job keeping the other two kids entertained and cooked and cleaned for us. The one time that we did get out was the last day of their visit, we went to the Pismo butterfly grove, the beach and Avila Valley Barn. The weather was not so great that day, so we were kind of cold and it put a damper on our activities, but we tried to have fun. And that was it. It was probably the fastest week of my life, I feel bad that I wasn't feeling up to doing more, but I guess a new baby does that to you. It was hard to say goodbye, it kills me to live so far away from my mom, she's kind of wonderful. A great mother, friend, and grandma. And I was really glad that my sister came, she helped out a lot, although I am sure it was a boring visit for a 15 year old.
Group picture at the butterfly grove. The butterflies were all clumped together since it was cold, so it wasn't very impressive. Man, my hair was out of control!
11/30/13
Coming Home and 30 Years
After two and a half days spent in the hospital, we were able to take Baby Ian home. We were just supposed to stay one day, but Ian had a couple low blood sugar sticks and slightly elevated bilirubin levels and so we had to stay an extra day... and Ian had to get many more heel sticks, poor guy. So we checked out of the hospital on the 2nd, my 30th birthday! Eric gave me my birthday present, a iphone 4s, while we were there (so glad to have a new phone that doesn't freeze on me and that has a decent camera). Yay! We spent a couple hours getting showered and ready before heading over to the Thomas' house for a birthday party for me. Yes, Brittany watched me kids for two and a half days and two nights, one of them being a major holiday, and then threw me a birthday party! She is amazing. We had delicious chocolate cake and ice cream and ended the party with an impromptu photo shoot of Ian. It was so nice because it was really the only thing that felt like a birthday celebration all day, but that's ok, I didn't mind being second to Ian, he was the best birthday present I could have ever gotten. My visiting teacher, Tamara, brought over dinner that night and Eric had mentioned to her that it was also my birthday, so she came over with dinner, cupcakes and party hats. I was so touched by her thoughtfulness, it was a lot of work for someone to go through, especially when she's got a young baby of her own! It was a tiring, slightly overwhelming, but good day.
A little side story: I brought a newborn sized outfit to the hospital to take Ian home in, but he was too long for it. I couldn't pull it up over his shoulders. So he had to get changed when we got home.
Meeting New Little Bro
Lillie and Henry were a little out of sorts when coming to see Ian in the hospital. The first time was on Halloween and they were way more interested in the upcoming trick or treating and less in their new baby brother. To be fair, babies don't do many tricks on their first day of life and the thought of consuming limitless amounts of candy that night is hard to beat. The second visit, the next day, was even worse. Imagine two sugar-crazed, exhausted kids forced to leave their best friends to come sit in a boring hospital. Henry was crying even before they made it to the room. But there were moments of sweetness, they both loved their baby brother and were excited to have him join our family.
Giving baby bro kisses through the plastic crib. Lillie and Henry took showers in our hospital room and got in their pajamas then we read bedtime stories together before Eric took them back to the Thomases.
I love that Henry and Ian are both scratching their heads. I know there'll be lots of big bro imitation in Ian's future. It's been fun to see how easily Eric has been able to transition to having three kids crawling all over him, he's been such an amazing Dad to Ian.
It took a few weeks for Lillie to become very interested, but she is now such a big help. She loves to hold the baby, she talks to him and he has started to smile at her.
Henry was smitten by the baby from the beginning which surprised me. He thinks every move and every noise Ian does is so funny. He loves to bring stuffed animals to keep him entertained. Henry also has taken a special interest in the baby swing, which he never did as a baby. He has gotten into trouble to sitting in it more than once. It is kind of funny to see his lanky 3 1/2 year old body hanging out of it.
11/22/13
The Name Game
Lillie and Henry were determined to be the future names of my children way back in high school.
Lillie was the name of my great grandmother, the mother of my Grandpa Dean, who passed away when he was a child. I loved my Grandpa so much, he was a great man. So creative, loving and friendly. When he died, I was devastated about the fact that my children wouldn't have the chance to know my grandfather in this life. He passed away a year before Lillie was born. Being named after my great grandmother myself, I have always been fond of family names. So this was a no-brainer.
Henry is not a family name, which surprises most people. I had been over at a friend's house one day in high school and her little brother had a friend over as well. He was a cute little boy with blonde hair and big blue eyes and his name was Henry. And I just really fell in love with the combination of a cute little boy and an old fashioned name. So, when I found out that I was having a boy, it was an easy decision to name him Henry.
This last pregnancy started with Eric and me looking at baby names really early on. I think Eric was trying to get me excited about being pregnant, as I have a hard time being excited about anything while experiencing morning sickness. It was something I went along with to pass the time. Anyway, I had a list of about 6 or more girl names that I absolutely loved and could see myself naming the baby any of them. The boys side of the list had a couple names that I threw on there just to put something down...there wasn't a single one that I was really excited about. So, of course the baby ended up being a boy!
After that we spent a lot of time going through names, books, online websites, etc. We then would comprise individual lists, compare and debate and never coming to an agreement. It was actually really frustrating. I had bulldozed Eric on the naming of our last two children and had promised early on that he could have more of a say on what the name would be this time. But at the time that I had promised that, I thought that we had similar taste in names...
Anyway, in the last week or two of the pregnancy Eric and I came to a compromise. We assigned names to different hair colors and decided we would name the kid based on that. Brown hair would be Owen, black hair would be Cole, Blonde would be Tate and Red would be Ian. I agreed to this because I was 99% sure that I would have a brown haired, brown eyes baby, just like my other two. I had pretty much already decided to name him Owen at that point. We had even started calling the baby that, but Eric was still on the fence. So, anyway, I agreed to wait and see and what do you know, our baby popped out with copper hair! Eric said that first day, he definitely looks like an Ian. But because I felt like my mind had already been made up, I fought it for a good day and a half before I admitted that he definitely looked more like an Ian than an Owen. So, Eric won and now I can't imagine his name being anything else. The middle name was never up for debate, my father-in-law is an amazing person.
A really good man that I hope Ian will become like some day.
A really good man that I hope Ian will become like some day.
11/20/13
The Halloween Unlike Any Other
Disclaimer: I'm going to be telling my birth story for Ian so proceed at your own risk...
5:30 am came really fast on Halloween morning. The sun still wasn't up yet as I left home to head to the local hospital for my scheduled induction. I arrived precisely at 6 am where I found a few nurses waiting for me as I was the only induction scheduled for the day. Because who would intentionally choose All Hallow's Eve as their child's birthdate...I would, that's who. I was led to room 2, the room that would be mine for the next two and a half days, where our family of four would become five. Things started off slow and relaxed, I changed into a gown and signed paperwork before getting a blood draw and IV started. I had to have two bags of IV fluid in me before they would start Pitocin and had to take cytotec first. Cytotec is actually an anti-ulcer medication that was discovered to ripen the cervix and start contractions, which it slowly did to me. I put the tiny white pill between my gums and cheek and let it slowly dissolve and do it's job as the contractions finally started to happen, slowly and sporadically. Dr. Huss broke my water at around 8 am, I was only dilated to 3 cm. Finally the time was almost upon us (we set a deadline of 10:15) where I would be done with the two bags of fluid and would be able to start the Pitocin to really kick things into gear. But at about 10:00, the contractions became much more strong and regular, so we never used pitocin which I was glad about. I was checked again and was only at a 4, so I was hesitant to call in the anesthesiologist even though the contractions were building in intensity and pain VERY RAPIDLY. At 10:30 I finally requested, okay begged for an epidural only to find out that the anesthesiologist was held up in the OR and it would be 20-25 mins before he could be there. By the time he did arrive, the contractions were definitely a 10 on the pain scale and were happening back to back. I didn't have any time to recover in between and they hurt BAD...like the worst pain I have ever felt, I wanted to die. At 11:15ish the anesthesiologist gave me a shot in the back of fentanyl to numb some of the pain so that I would be able to hold still enough to get the epidural, which was very difficult to do. But eventually the medicine kicked in and took the contraction pains to about a 5-6 so that I could hold still enough to get the epidural. The doc gave us a big spiel about how important it was for me to hold completely still, I was tall and "thin" (although I would never use that word to describe a 9 month pregnant me) and so there wouldn't be much room for error. He spent a lot of time positioning me and kept saying that I'd moved whenever I had breathed too deeply and would have to line up my spine again. Anyway, he started putting in the epidural and at this point we had been standing completely still for about a half hour and the doc was getting to the really important part (AKA giant needle in the back that could paralyze me if I moved, remember?) when Eric said he was starting to feel light headed and passed out briefly on a chair that thankfully was right behind him. The problem was that he was slumped up against my legs and I was internally freaking out that he was going to move me and leave me paralyzed. In his defense, it was really hot in there, he had not eaten or drank anything all day, and he was standing completely still with his knees locked for a half hour. He quickly came to and spent the rest of the epidural insertion with his head between his knees. Thankfully the doc was able to finish his job, with only a small hiccup when I felt this strong shock down my right leg and it started spontaneously kicking out in front of me over and over (he says it was caused by the epidural rubbing on a nerve). It was a good thing he finished when he did because before the epidural had a chance to kick in and do it's job, I was checked and was at a 10, totally ready to push. I had actually started to feel the need to push an hour earlier as I was sitting on the edge of the bed waiting for the anesthesiologist to set up but didn't say anything. So I think I went from a 4 to a 10 in about a half hour. Dr. Huss happened to be in the hospital at that time and so they set things up and delivered my baby very quickly, after one contraction's worth of pushing. Which was nice since I was feeling more than I wanted (read between the lines, OUCH!!!!). Official time was 1220. The baby was quiet and didn't cry much even as they tried to make him cry. I could tell that he was a long baby with big hands and feet right away. His official numbers were 8 lbs 4 oz and 22 in long. This delivery was different as the nurses kept the baby for what seemed like forever before I was able to hold him and try to get him to nurse. I think it was a good hour before I finally got him, even though we kept asking when we could hold him! I did not like that, but truthfully the baby's nurse was quite weird and obviously couldn't have cared less about what we wanted.
Ian has his own look, we were quite surprised with the color of his hair, it's strawberry blonde with definitely a lot of red in it and his eyes are lighter than our other two so there may be a chance for a blue eyed boy (having a blue eyed child would be a dream come true for me). His face shape is similar to Lillie's and looks more like her than Henry, but truly not much like either of them. He does have a crazy toe, the fourth toe on his right foot bends under his third toe, just like Lillie's. It totally has to be genetic. But because we've done this before and Lillie's has been just fine, means that we're not worried about it at all.
It has been amazing to me how quickly I have fallen completely in love with him. I experience a lot of anxiety with having newborns, but it has been a lot easier than with the other two. I love(d) them all but I worried a lot more about everything with the other two. I love all of his grunts, faces, squirming, burps, etc. I love it all. This was definitely a Halloween that cannot be topped!
5:30 am came really fast on Halloween morning. The sun still wasn't up yet as I left home to head to the local hospital for my scheduled induction. I arrived precisely at 6 am where I found a few nurses waiting for me as I was the only induction scheduled for the day. Because who would intentionally choose All Hallow's Eve as their child's birthdate...I would, that's who. I was led to room 2, the room that would be mine for the next two and a half days, where our family of four would become five. Things started off slow and relaxed, I changed into a gown and signed paperwork before getting a blood draw and IV started. I had to have two bags of IV fluid in me before they would start Pitocin and had to take cytotec first. Cytotec is actually an anti-ulcer medication that was discovered to ripen the cervix and start contractions, which it slowly did to me. I put the tiny white pill between my gums and cheek and let it slowly dissolve and do it's job as the contractions finally started to happen, slowly and sporadically. Dr. Huss broke my water at around 8 am, I was only dilated to 3 cm. Finally the time was almost upon us (we set a deadline of 10:15) where I would be done with the two bags of fluid and would be able to start the Pitocin to really kick things into gear. But at about 10:00, the contractions became much more strong and regular, so we never used pitocin which I was glad about. I was checked again and was only at a 4, so I was hesitant to call in the anesthesiologist even though the contractions were building in intensity and pain VERY RAPIDLY. At 10:30 I finally requested, okay begged for an epidural only to find out that the anesthesiologist was held up in the OR and it would be 20-25 mins before he could be there. By the time he did arrive, the contractions were definitely a 10 on the pain scale and were happening back to back. I didn't have any time to recover in between and they hurt BAD...like the worst pain I have ever felt, I wanted to die. At 11:15ish the anesthesiologist gave me a shot in the back of fentanyl to numb some of the pain so that I would be able to hold still enough to get the epidural, which was very difficult to do. But eventually the medicine kicked in and took the contraction pains to about a 5-6 so that I could hold still enough to get the epidural. The doc gave us a big spiel about how important it was for me to hold completely still, I was tall and "thin" (although I would never use that word to describe a 9 month pregnant me) and so there wouldn't be much room for error. He spent a lot of time positioning me and kept saying that I'd moved whenever I had breathed too deeply and would have to line up my spine again. Anyway, he started putting in the epidural and at this point we had been standing completely still for about a half hour and the doc was getting to the really important part (AKA giant needle in the back that could paralyze me if I moved, remember?) when Eric said he was starting to feel light headed and passed out briefly on a chair that thankfully was right behind him. The problem was that he was slumped up against my legs and I was internally freaking out that he was going to move me and leave me paralyzed. In his defense, it was really hot in there, he had not eaten or drank anything all day, and he was standing completely still with his knees locked for a half hour. He quickly came to and spent the rest of the epidural insertion with his head between his knees. Thankfully the doc was able to finish his job, with only a small hiccup when I felt this strong shock down my right leg and it started spontaneously kicking out in front of me over and over (he says it was caused by the epidural rubbing on a nerve). It was a good thing he finished when he did because before the epidural had a chance to kick in and do it's job, I was checked and was at a 10, totally ready to push. I had actually started to feel the need to push an hour earlier as I was sitting on the edge of the bed waiting for the anesthesiologist to set up but didn't say anything. So I think I went from a 4 to a 10 in about a half hour. Dr. Huss happened to be in the hospital at that time and so they set things up and delivered my baby very quickly, after one contraction's worth of pushing. Which was nice since I was feeling more than I wanted (read between the lines, OUCH!!!!). Official time was 1220. The baby was quiet and didn't cry much even as they tried to make him cry. I could tell that he was a long baby with big hands and feet right away. His official numbers were 8 lbs 4 oz and 22 in long. This delivery was different as the nurses kept the baby for what seemed like forever before I was able to hold him and try to get him to nurse. I think it was a good hour before I finally got him, even though we kept asking when we could hold him! I did not like that, but truthfully the baby's nurse was quite weird and obviously couldn't have cared less about what we wanted.
Ian has his own look, we were quite surprised with the color of his hair, it's strawberry blonde with definitely a lot of red in it and his eyes are lighter than our other two so there may be a chance for a blue eyed boy (having a blue eyed child would be a dream come true for me). His face shape is similar to Lillie's and looks more like her than Henry, but truly not much like either of them. He does have a crazy toe, the fourth toe on his right foot bends under his third toe, just like Lillie's. It totally has to be genetic. But because we've done this before and Lillie's has been just fine, means that we're not worried about it at all.
It has been amazing to me how quickly I have fallen completely in love with him. I experience a lot of anxiety with having newborns, but it has been a lot easier than with the other two. I love(d) them all but I worried a lot more about everything with the other two. I love all of his grunts, faces, squirming, burps, etc. I love it all. This was definitely a Halloween that cannot be topped!
11/12/13
Halloween 2013
The 31st was a wild one for all of us. I spent the day in the hospital, having a baby, Eric was at the hospital all day until around 7, then he took Henry to the Thomas' house to go to sleep while Lillie went out trick or treating with their family. Lillie had her kindergarten parade around the school in the morning, which I am still really sad that I missed, then they both went trick or treating with the Thomas' to the school and medical group where I heard they had a blast. So needless to say, they definitely got plenty candy, I mean, probably 4 lbs each and the kids didn't have to miss out on any of the celebration. I owe Brittany big time for taking my kids on such a busy holiday and for having them the day after when sugar overload and lack of sleep always bring out their grumpy sides.
10/29/13
Pumpkin Carving Party
We finally got around to carving our pumpkins tonight and the kids had a blast! I mean seriously, they loved every minute... except pulling out the pumpkin guts, we all deferred to Dad on that one. For the faces, we first sketched out ideas, they told us exactly what they wanted, their eyes and noses differed but both wanted jagged mouths, cuz they were scary punkins. Then Eric and I did the carving and before too long, we had two awesome customized pumpkins. We lit them outside on the front porch and the kids couldn't help themselves from dancing around and yelling things like "Happy Halloween" and "Trick or Treat" to the quiet neighborhood. I love to see their excitement for the upcoming holiday, I love Halloween and I love that they love it too!
10/27/13
Three little pumpkins
Operation baby prep is well underway at our house. We spent the weekend doing yard work, washing the sofa and dining chairs, dusting every surface imaginable, wiping down walls and doors, and washing windows inside and out all because we know these things won't happen for a while after baby comes. And while none of these tasks put me into labor, there's a chance that I'll be induced at the end of this week, so we could be counting down the days in single digits. We've still got a couple minor things to accomplish before baby arrives, like installing baby's car seat, packing a hospital bag, etc. but we are close, really close. My days of all of my kids being able to feed themselves, dress themselves and being toilet trained are numbered. I know I'll miss that, but I am ready to hold single occupancy of my body. I am ready to sleep on my back or even sleep lying flat without heartburn flaring up, although I know I won't be getting enough of it (sleep). I am ready to bend over to pick something up without groaning and squatting and reaching for something to help me back up. I am ready to see the scale go down, that's for sure. So although there are a lot of difficult things that accompany life with a newborn, I am now to the point that I'm willing to take it on. Let's do this.
10/21/13
Pumpkin Patch 2013
This last Saturday we decided to take in some fall festivities and started out the day taking the kids out to the base to paint pumpkins and then continued on to the Avila Valley Farm to the pumpkin patch! The kids had a great time letting their creative sides out, Henry, who is not an artist, painted his whole pumpkin (this is unprecedented) and Lillie did a cute purple and black pumpkin. And better that someone else clean up the mess than me, am I right?!? Then we kept the good times rolling by heading to the pumpkin patch. We went through the farm animals as per tradition before the kids and Eric braved the hay maze. It was CRAZY BUSY at the farm, so we passed on pony rides and tractor hay rides, because the lines were incredibly long. So I picked the shortest line, or so I thought, and waited to get us ice cream and olalaberry cobbler. I waited in line a good 45 minutes to find out that they were out of cobbler (BOO!) and after giving Lillie her ice cream she promptly dropped it in the dirt. But I managed to scrape most of the dirt off and we enjoyed the rest of our time there. The weather was perfect and it is such a fun place, I shouldn't have been surprised that everyone on the central coast was there that day. Unfortunately, Henry came down with the stomach flu that evening once we were home, which was too bad, poor little guy. Sunday morning, though, he was back to his goofy, wild self. I'm so glad that, even though going out in public and standing for longer periods of time, was the last thing a 37.5 week pregnant woman wanted to do, I still did it and soldiered through the crowds to make memories with our kids. This is normally my favorite time of year and I don't want them to miss out. Good times.
9/18/13
School Update
Lillie is in the middle of her fifth week of school and I have wanted to write down some of the things that have been going on. Lillie has taken to school like a pro. She has been looking forward to school for the past couple years and it has been every bit as awesome as she hoped it would be. Her teacher is amazing, which I am really grateful for. She says Lillie keeps her on her toes! A bold, bossy, literate 5 year old would become slightly annoying, but she is great with her.
I have had a much harder time leaving Lillie at school than I thought. I know it has to do with the Sandy Hook tragedy and I struggle to have her be away from my protection. Lillie has decided that she's too cool to have me walk her to her classroom and wait with her until the teacher opens the door. So, instead, she climbs out of the jogging stroller on the sidewalk and walks the rest of the way herself, and we wait about 30 yards away, outside the fence, until she is safely inside the classroom. I can't bring myself to leave until she's inside, usually we have to wait about 10 mins. It has been nice to have her gone for the 6 hours, entertained by someone else, because she was just soo bored when she was home all day with me. We've talked about getting into some extracurriculars, but I feel like that would cut majorly into the time each day that we get to spend together, school already seems like a lot for a 5 year old to handle, so we are waiting another year.
Lillie completed her 100 word reading list the second week of school, the list that her classmates will be working on for the rest of the year, she already knew them, and got an Eagles pin from the principal. So, she now spends reading time in a 1st grade class, where she is working on the 500 word list, which she says she already knows most of, just a few tricky ones like "soldier" that she is learning. She says, you can't even hear the D! But honestly, she's more advanced than the first graders. She reads as fast as I do and rarely messes up on words, even big ones. I know maturity wise she is a 5 year old and so we're just happy with how it's going. She's going to start reading chapter books at home to hone her skills.
She has been progressing nicely in her kindergarten class in other areas. I've already seen a big improvement in her handwriting, which is great! She has also made quite a few little friends with which she plays games like imaginary animals/pets or finding rollie pollies at recess. She said she had to play by herself the first week of school, so I was a little worried, but things have worked out. Her favorite thing to do at school is eat lunch in the cafeteria, I think it makes her feel cool to be in there where the older kids are.
So Lillie is doing well, but she isn't the only one who is in school, Henry is a part of Joy School! There are 8 kids and 6 moms and we rotate teaching 2 mornings a week. So far things have gone pretty well, or at least they did until last week during my first week of teaching. The back-to-school germs were in full force last week and about half of the group were sick or passed on sickness during my week, despite HOURS of disinfecting in between class days by me and at the end of the week.
Henry got sick on Saturday, he had a fever that day but didn't act completely normal until yesterday and then when I went to pick up Lillie from school yesterday, she was starting to feel feverish and is staying home from school today, because she's not quite right.
Last week made me question whether Joy School was the right answer for us, since I am not going to want extra germs around with a newborn, but I think we'll keep on keeping on and see how it goes. Henry loves it, he gets to play with friends, sing songs (which he loves), read stories and do art projects (which he is not as interested in, so I don't put in the effort with him alone, but it's nice to see him do a little bit with friends).
Henry knows about 7-10 letters of the alphabet consistently, we've been putting in extra time with him since preschool started, but he really is having a hard time picking up anything new. It's a little frustrating, especially since Lillie basically taught herself everything, but I know it's completely normal and he's just not as interested. So we're not pushing it too much. He loves to be read to, so we do that daily and we'll go from there. I want him to like learning and school and pushing and drilling won't do that. He's really good at building things with magna-tiles and legos, so he's just got different strengths than his sister.
Wanting to walk Lillie to and from school every day has gotten harder and harder the farther along in this pregnancy I get (almost 33 weeks). I am starting to get lazy/uncomfortable so I'll usually drive once a day. Even though its three blocks. School drop off and pick up are going to get tricky once we introduce a newborn and multiple naps into the mix.
I have had a much harder time leaving Lillie at school than I thought. I know it has to do with the Sandy Hook tragedy and I struggle to have her be away from my protection. Lillie has decided that she's too cool to have me walk her to her classroom and wait with her until the teacher opens the door. So, instead, she climbs out of the jogging stroller on the sidewalk and walks the rest of the way herself, and we wait about 30 yards away, outside the fence, until she is safely inside the classroom. I can't bring myself to leave until she's inside, usually we have to wait about 10 mins. It has been nice to have her gone for the 6 hours, entertained by someone else, because she was just soo bored when she was home all day with me. We've talked about getting into some extracurriculars, but I feel like that would cut majorly into the time each day that we get to spend together, school already seems like a lot for a 5 year old to handle, so we are waiting another year.
Lillie completed her 100 word reading list the second week of school, the list that her classmates will be working on for the rest of the year, she already knew them, and got an Eagles pin from the principal. So, she now spends reading time in a 1st grade class, where she is working on the 500 word list, which she says she already knows most of, just a few tricky ones like "soldier" that she is learning. She says, you can't even hear the D! But honestly, she's more advanced than the first graders. She reads as fast as I do and rarely messes up on words, even big ones. I know maturity wise she is a 5 year old and so we're just happy with how it's going. She's going to start reading chapter books at home to hone her skills.
She has been progressing nicely in her kindergarten class in other areas. I've already seen a big improvement in her handwriting, which is great! She has also made quite a few little friends with which she plays games like imaginary animals/pets or finding rollie pollies at recess. She said she had to play by herself the first week of school, so I was a little worried, but things have worked out. Her favorite thing to do at school is eat lunch in the cafeteria, I think it makes her feel cool to be in there where the older kids are.
So Lillie is doing well, but she isn't the only one who is in school, Henry is a part of Joy School! There are 8 kids and 6 moms and we rotate teaching 2 mornings a week. So far things have gone pretty well, or at least they did until last week during my first week of teaching. The back-to-school germs were in full force last week and about half of the group were sick or passed on sickness during my week, despite HOURS of disinfecting in between class days by me and at the end of the week.
Henry got sick on Saturday, he had a fever that day but didn't act completely normal until yesterday and then when I went to pick up Lillie from school yesterday, she was starting to feel feverish and is staying home from school today, because she's not quite right.
Last week made me question whether Joy School was the right answer for us, since I am not going to want extra germs around with a newborn, but I think we'll keep on keeping on and see how it goes. Henry loves it, he gets to play with friends, sing songs (which he loves), read stories and do art projects (which he is not as interested in, so I don't put in the effort with him alone, but it's nice to see him do a little bit with friends).
Henry knows about 7-10 letters of the alphabet consistently, we've been putting in extra time with him since preschool started, but he really is having a hard time picking up anything new. It's a little frustrating, especially since Lillie basically taught herself everything, but I know it's completely normal and he's just not as interested. So we're not pushing it too much. He loves to be read to, so we do that daily and we'll go from there. I want him to like learning and school and pushing and drilling won't do that. He's really good at building things with magna-tiles and legos, so he's just got different strengths than his sister.
Wanting to walk Lillie to and from school every day has gotten harder and harder the farther along in this pregnancy I get (almost 33 weeks). I am starting to get lazy/uncomfortable so I'll usually drive once a day. Even though its three blocks. School drop off and pick up are going to get tricky once we introduce a newborn and multiple naps into the mix.
9/6/13
A Day at the Beach
Eric had Friday and Monday off for Labor Day and the weather around here has been quite warm, fall is summer here on the central coast, so we spent Friday at the beach to cool off. We also spent Saturday and Monday at the pool... There are only a couple days or weeks in the year in which A/C would be nice, and that weekend was one of them. Anyway, we went up to Avila Beach, stopping at the Red Barn to feed the animals and pick up some peaches and berry cobbler, before hitting the sand.
That day was the longest that Henry had ever spent in the Pacific Ocean. He does not like the cold water, but he was in above his waist for most of the day. Next time we'll take the boogie board and give the kids rides.
These kids were covered head to toe in sand by the end of the day. Baby bump was also there.
Lillie spent her time running back and forth for water to build sand castles with.
We saw probably 15 dolphins that day, swimming by close to shore. Too cool.
Building a sand volcano.
Henry spent a lot of time chasing sea gulls around.
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