Bedtime for Violet takes way too long

Anybody else who is reading this...does your 3 yr old have an hour long bed time routine that seems impossible to shorten? I've learned to start getting the kids to bed by 7:30 so she's actually sleeping by 8:30. If I start too late she is even more difficult to manage from being too tired. I get Calvin's teeth brushed, PJs on and in bed in less than 10 minutes, he's still easy. Violet is a different story. She is usually in the bathroom brushing her own teeth while I'm putting Calvin in his bed. How it goes: Ask her to come upstairs with me and Calvin. She usually collects all her "stuff" and pretends that walking up the stairs is WAY too difficult. She will lay on the middle of the steps and say its too hard. Funny how she could run and hop up them a million times throughout the day and not complain about it. If I get too far ahead of her she freaks out that I "left her behind" and she couldn't be the leader. Once she successfully makes it up the stairs, she brushes her teeth, then I do it "to make sure she did a good job". Go potty Change into PJs. I have learned to not suggest anything, anything I suggest she always says no to. She she says "Can we rock and sing and read one book?" Then we sit in the rocking chair in the corner of the room with one selected blanket and one selected book. Read book. Rock and sing songs of her choice. She usually "makes up" a song and rambles on and on about her fan, her closet, her cozy bed, the calendar she wrote on, how tall she is, and her curtains. Sing a few other songs. We pray. She kneels on a little pillow that she shoves under her bed and only pulls out so she can kneel on it with us as we pray. After prayer, getting her to climb INTO bed is always a challenge. She usually disobeys and gets a spank for not climbing into bed when we ask her, which sets her off into a hysteria of crying. Settle down after crying. Snuggle into bed, take inventory of all blankets (must have baby wrapped in purple blanket, pink blanket, flower blanket, and "moon and star" blanket). Ask "Is there going to be lightning, thunder, and beeps tonight?" This all came from a couple episodes - one night a bad storm hit and we had to take the kids to the basement a few months ago. Ever since then she's been afraid of lightning and thunder, and the beeping she is afraid of because one night at camp back in August, the fire alarm in the room next to us went off and freaked her out at night time. So....she has to clear all those in her head before she falls asleep. Once she knows that won't happen, she asks for her door to be open a little crack. We always say no, she knows this, but always asks. Then she cries that she can't have a crack. As I walk out the door she always says "mom!" as if its a big emergency so I stop and ask her what. She usually has a mundane question as her way of stalling, and if I shut the door too quick she freaks out. A snippet of conversation from tonight: Me: Violet, please stop sitting up and talking. Its time to go to sleep. Violet: But my questions keep making me talk!!!

Pictures

A snapshot of the sunset that we caught on our way into Kansas City on Sunday evening, Sept 20th.
We stopped by to see the home that Mama Ruth and Daddy Ben lived in for many years in Van Buren, AR.

The thing that kept Violet entertained almost the entire trip: her own personal CD player and head phones. She loves music, so it kept her happy and we didn't have to listen to it! She told daddy that she was turning the music louder so the van could drive faster.

Calvin loves books....for about 10 seconds. If he got bored with something, he chucked it on the floor.

"The Ruths" in the family now. Violet Ruth, Rachel Ruth, and Aunt Ruth, all holding a pic of Mama Ruth.

Funny moment and a few pics

I just remembered this after looking through a few pictures from our trip to Arkansas for the funeral. On our drive from Van Buren, AR to Little Rock, AR, we stopped for supper at Sonic. I got the kids a grilled cheese and they snacked on a few of Dave's french fries. Well...I don't really know how this happened, but when we got to Little Rock, Rachel pulled him out of the car when we arrived at the hotel, I saw something on the back side of him that didn't look right. I got a closer look and busted out laughing. The poor kid had a french fry stuffed between his skin and his diaper right near his rear end!!!

Silly things

The other day I was getting Violet ready for bed, and I took her hair out of two french braids. Of course, her hair was all fuzzy and kinky from being in tight braids all day. She saw how her hair was coming out of the braids and exclaimed "hey! My hair looks like Aunt Rachel's!" And she's had an obsession with the word sparkly lately. She prayed tonight and said "Thank you for my bed, thank you for the sparkly day, and thank you for my sparkly bed." And here's "the hair":

Awana started up for the year

We missed the first night (last week Sunday) because we were headed down to AR for the funeral. But tonight was the kids' first night at AWANA. Stands for "Approved Workmen Are Not Ashamed" and is a program available at whatever church decides to participate in the program. Its a children's ministry from ages 2 and up through the grade levels. The goal is for the kids to have FUN and hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. Violet "graduated" from her 2 yr old Puggles class and moved up to the "Cubbies". She has more involved stories and a way to earn things on her vest she wears to each Sunday night class. She was initially shy when I dropped her off, but I knew she would quickly warm up to the teachers...all her friends were in her class with her, that feels natural to her. Calvin is a little young but he is already in the Puggles group. Kids around age 2 start puggles, but since he's just a few months shy of that, he's doing it, plus his two friends Evan and Macoy are in there, and based on the first night, he did so great! Of course, he cried when I left him in there, but don't all kids do that? He quickly got over that. Violet sure did when she was younger, it just feels normal. I'm not sure what I would do with a kid that happily said "bye" to me and was OK. Awana starting signals the beginning of fall! September is coming to a close, the leaves are changing colors and falling, and the night air is crisp. Makes me excited to lounge around in sweatshirts, not t-shirts. I'm so fancy, lol. Here's my cubbie and my puggle!

Funeral in Arkansas for Mama Ruth

My great grandma Ruth died last week Thursday. She would have been 112 on Sept 30th. Everyone in the family was sad, but we all knew it was her time. I don't know exactly for sure that she was saved. I hadn't spoken at all with her about it, but I knew she loved the Lord and she made mention that the Lord had taken good care of her throughout her whole life, and she quoted the Psalm "This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it." Most of the Lincoln family are not Christians, so my prayer was that this event of death in the family would make them think more seriously about eternity and that someone in their path of life would lead them to Christ. So we decided to make the trek across three states to go to the burial and funeral. Jay decided to drive along with us in our van, so we picked him up on Sunday afternoon in Cedar Rapids with the goal of staying at a hotel in Kansas City. It was a 6 hour drive there. I think we stopped a couple times, I can't really remember anymore. Its all a blur of 4 days of driving and sleeping in three different hotels, a different one each night. I'm surprised we didn't forget anything anywhere, we had SO much stuff to haul into each hotel room each night and pack/repack three times. The first hotel was a Homewood Suites in Kansas City. We arrived around 9 pm after eating supper at Denny's upon arrival. Their pool was closed, Violet was really bummed about it. This hotel was a nice room - it had a separate bedroom with a door, so the kids both slept in pack and play cribs (yes, even Violet barely fits in one!) crammed in the corner together. It took them awhile to fall asleep, they kept giggling and playing games, throwing blankets in each other's crib. Once they fell asleep though, they slept hard. Jay slept on an air mattress in a sleeping bag, and Rachel rolled in around midnight and joined us. She stayed in Iowa City later on Sunday to go to the Iowa Dental meetings and make contacts with other doctors in Iowa. She drove separately and got in late - everybody else was sleeping when she got in, but she made it safely. That morning we drove to Van Buren, AR for Mama Ruth's burial site. She was buried next to her husband in her home town. We somehow underestimated the time it was going to take us to get from Kansas City to Van Buren, and once we got on the road, we figured it would take 2 more hours than we expected. We all felt a little sense of panic when we realized that, and started driving a little faster. Rachel plugged in the location on her GPS, and the device informed us that we would arrive 30 minutes late. We drove a little faster, made up some time, and the estimated time of arrival kept shrinking close to 1 pm. We got there at 1:07 pm. Just in time. We threw a dress on Violet once we got there. We had to stop for gas once along the way, which set us back a few more minutes, but we made the stop in record speed. Poor Violet was so confused. Just being three years old, she obviously doesn't understand death or what a burial or funeral is. She asked the most literal questions. "Who is in that box? How did she get there? Is she having fun in the box? You mean they're going to put her in the ground? Can I help put the dirt over the box?" She got confused with the name Ruth. She thought that my aunt Ruth died and was in that box. She said "bye Ruth" very sincerely when we left the burial site. She touched the white coffin and then left with the rest of us. Calvin stayed in the stroller and kept his eyes safely on mom or dad the whole time. He wasn't so sure about all these "strangers" getting in his face saying hi to him. A little church that Mama Ruth used to be a member of in Van Buren hosted the family and some friends for a small funeral service and reception after the burial. We had a few snacks (fruit and cookies) after wards and the kids finally got to run around a little bit. When that was over, we changed our clothes and prepared for another "long" drive of 150 miles to Little Rock. We first stopped at the house that Mama Ruth used to live in in Van Buren. We found the house at 1111 Murty Lane. We took a couple pictures of the house, then stopped at a different cemetery to see the gravestones of Grandma Rowena's grand father and relatives. We grabbed lunch at a Sonic (there are Sonics everywhere down there!) and drove to Little Rock. Violet was by far the easiest traveler. She definitely had her moments of fussing and whining, but she was generally happy and slept decent when she was tired. I think the most fun thing for her was having a personal CD player and her own headphones. She got to listen to all the music she wanted and the rest of us didn't have to hear the silly songs the whole time! It worked great. She thought we could hear them. And she also said "I am turning the music louder so the car can drive faster!" The day before we left I picked up three CDs full of kid songs (123 songs!) to keep her occupied. She loves music so much, I knew she'd love them. A few of the songs she already knew, so that was a bonus. Calvin definitely had worse moments than Violet. He is so intense. He did not sleep as well as he should have during travel time in the car. He fought sleep so badly, and when he did sleep, it was for no longer than an hour. There were times that he would just scream at the top of his lungs. And I could tell that he just HAD to scream. Its like his brain knew nothing else and screaming was his way to express himself. He was tired, sick of being strapped into his seat for hours and hours, and just had to let it out. It did wear him out, though, and often times after these episodes of screaming, he would fall asleep. Poor kid. We got to the hotel in Little Rock and I took Violet swimming, and Dave put Calvin to bed. Rachel and Jay joined us in our hotel room for a few minutes. Rachel brought her computer along so she could show Violet some pictures of who died and who was alive. She saw some good pictures, and we pointed out that Great Grandma Ruth (the old lady with white hair) died, and was in the box. That seemed to make her happy and realize that her favorite aunt Ruth wasn't dead. She didn't get to bed until 10:40 pm that night, and slept hard through the night. The next morning we all slept in til 8:45 am. On Tuesday morning, most of the family in town met for a breakfast at a place called Delicious Temptations. The kids snarfed down huge pancakes and I had sausage biscuits and gravy. My mom took Calvin outside numerous times so he could run around. He was never happy just sitting at the table. He wanted to grab everything in sight and throw it fiercely to the ground. Violet was really happy to see Aunt Ruth and Uncle Michael when then showed up for breakfast with the rest of the family. She asked her "did you die?" and Ruth graciously told her no, and it was her grandma Ruth that died. We spent the next hour over at Mama Ruth's old apartment over at Chenal Parkway village. Aunt Lucy told us to go there and take whatever we wanted. It was weird to be there with most of the room cleared out and no bed. I looked around a little but didn't see anything I liked. My grandma Rowena suggested I take a blanket, which I thought was a good idea. I also saw a big box of baby wipes in the closet. We took those, too. Most of the family had already gone through and taken things they wanted. The church service at Second Presbyterian Church where Mama Ruth had attended her whole Little Rock life was at 2 pm. Not such a good time because I knew the kids would be tired, but we dressed up and went. They did surprisingly well - lighting up whenever the congregation would sing a song. We even sang Amazing Grace, which perked up Violet. She proudly sang along with the rest of us for the first verse, which she has memorized. I got lots of compliments on the kids, saying how well behaved they were and how cute they were, etc. I was glad to hear they had made a good impression on people. During the service, the pastor related some funny things that Mama Ruth said in her life time. She was such a humorous person. He told a story of when she made an appearance at some church event to help raise money for a new roof. She joked that the church could just put her in a cage and charge a dollar for people to view her and by the time the day was over, they could raise enough money to pay for it. ha!! She knew she was sort of a spectacle with people, being as old as she was. She was the 31st oldest person in the world at the time she died, and the oldest person in AR at the time of her death. The church hosted family and friends for another reception with cookies and fruit. The room was enormous, the size of a gymnasium. There was a slide show of pictures up on a screen of Mama Ruth and other family members. I kept Calvin in the stroller, afraid I'd lose him in that crowd of people. He runs SO fast, I have to run to keep up with him, so even though he was rearing to get out of his stroller, I wouldn't let him. Violet helped herself many times to punch and cookies. I just let her do it, even though the mommy in my head was screaming "stop eating junk food!". She actually reached for some strawberries and at a bunch of those along with some grapes. I didn't know she liked strawberries. Apparently she does! lol We talked to many family members before leaving for the car and getting comfy clothes to change into. We planned to drive half way home tonight, and stop overnight in Columbia, MO. We left Little Rock around 5 pm, and got into Columbia at 11 pm. That drive was miserable. The first 2 hours was windy twisty roads and nobody slept, they just whined and fussed. I was about to lose it. Finally Calvin fell asleep, and then Violet did. Dave drove that whole trip, and was exhausted when we pulled in. Both kids were sleeping when we pulled up to the hotel so they were NOT happy when we had to wake them up to take them to the room. Like clockwork, we each took a kid and got them ready for bed. Calvin was happy to get in his crib and Violet started the night on the air mattress, but she kept tossing and turning. Dave brought her to bed with him and she slept soundly the rest of the night. I slept by myself in the other bed. My grandparents and parents were in a car together - and they decided to stay in the same hotel with us so we could have breakfast together. Jay stayed in mom and dad's room so he could have a bed. That next morning, Calvin was the first to wake up when the sunlight peeked through a crack in the window curtain. He popped his head up and said "hi!" I tried to pretend I hadn't lifted my head up and seen him, but he knew I saw him. He kept saying "hi! hi!" until everybody woke up. Little stinker. He tried jumping up and down in his pack and play like it was his crib (and his crib is really bouncy!) but it didn't work the same. It was repeated thumping...over and over. Finally everybody else crawled out of bed. Everybody was hungry, so we went down to get breakfast in our PJs. We knew we were going to stay a couple extra hours so Violet and Calvin could play in the pool....so staying in our PJs just made sense. Breakfast was delicious. They had cheese omelets, sausage, biscuits, yogurt, cereal, yummy coffee, juice, and lots of other options. My grandma Rowena helped Calvin get breakfast. Violet munched on her food and got lots of attention by my family and the hotel staff. The manager came over and gave each kid a webkin toy. My grandparents and parents left, and we stayed a little longer so the kids could swim. This time Dave got in the water with them. I was too tired and had no desire to get in the water. We let them swim a little (Dave held Calvin the whole time and Violet swam by herself with the life jacket). Jay watched, too. We finally cut off swim time and got showered and checked out. We hit the road by 11 am, and tried finding a starbucks with no success. Dave was a little grumpy that he couldn't start out the morning with his customary mocha, but he got over it. I started out driving the first leg of the trip. We were almost home! Well, not exactly, but this was our last leg of the whole journey. We drove until we stopped in a little town in Missouri called Monroe City and got Hardees for lunch. Jay drove the rest of the way to Cedar Rapids. I don't remember much of that drive. I think the kids slept a little. I sat in the back seat and read a book. We were all just tired and really wanted to get home. We finally started seeing familiar territory when we got onto hwy 380. Jay drove to his house, and stopped for a bathroom break and let the kids see his rabbit, Corby. They loved to feed him little treats. We got back in the car after about 10 minutes, eager to get home, knowing we only had 50 more miles to go. The time went quick, and before we knew it, we were pulling into our driveway. yayyyy!!! The kids tore through the house, so happy to be home and to be able to run and play with toys again. Dave and I slowly unpacked the van...trudging with each step. We knew the kids had bundles of energy, so we rode on our bicycles to the nearest park and let them hash it out for an hour on the playground. The loved it, giggling with every new thing they came across. We biked home and got our tired kids to bed. I looked at the mess of stuff on the kitchen floor and asked Dave for help unpacking and straightening things up. He was reluctant to help but knew it was important to me to get a start on this stack of stuff. In 20 minutes, all the dirty laundry was in baskets in the laundry room and most everything was put away. Yayy. I could finally relax and start laundry tomorrow. Dave watched a little TV and I settled into a chair and read a book. We just sat with out moving for probably 2 hours. It felt nice to be home and relax.

My morning

This morning when I woke up I knew I only had one more day to get my Bible study book before it starts tomorrow. I had that on my mental list of things to get done while Violet was at preschool today. I even told myself that we would drive here there so I could head right to the book store with Calvin after I dropped her off. Some how totally forgot what I errand I was supposed to run. I prayed and asked God to help me remember exactly what I was supposed to do...I don't normally just forget things like that, so it was weird. I knew we were out of eggs, so maybe I was supposed to run to the store and get a dozen eggs. I got the kids in the car after breakfast and dropped off Violet at the store, half way convinced that I was supposed to grab eggs before coming home. After I dropped her off at preschool, I drove the car around the north side of the school and saw my friend Trisha parking so she could go into exercise class. I pulled over next to her and said hi. She said to me "Are you ready for Bible study tomorrow?" I was like "thank you God!" because he brought me into the path of a friend who would remind me what I was supposed to do with out even realizing it! I told her I knew I had something to do but couldn't remember, and she just reminded me! I was so happy. I knew I'd be frustrated if I went to run errands and forgot to pick up the book. Yay! She told me to try calling the library since they have a preowned book section of books you can get for cheap. I tried calling the library on my way to the book store, but they said the preowned book store was only open on Mon, Wed and Fri. Well, its Tues, so I took another route. Instead of going out of my way to Waterloo to the Family Christian Store, I decided to check out Wiley's Books on Waterloo Road just a few blocks from where I was at the moment. I stopped in and asked the lady behind the desk if she had the book I was looking for. She checked her computer, and said "oh I'm sorry, we're out of that book at the moment, but let me check the back for a minute." She left for a moment, and came back with the exact book I was looking for. She said "This book is free." I must have had a very puzzled look on my face. She said "We got it free, I'll give it to you free. sometimes missionaries or people wanting to donate books and get rid of their collections give them to us." It had a few markings and highlighted pages, but that didn't matter. I was very thankful to her, and she said "God is good!" I agreed, and packed Calvin back up in the car. I was amazed and thankful for the very clear, simple and effective means God used to communicate to me and help me this morning. He really heard my prayer for help this morning and delivered immediately!

Brave swimmer

We had a lot of fun last night. The Hemmer family invited us to swim in their pool last night and we brought along a couple pizzas for dinner. It was so nice to hang out and just have fun. We went to Dennis and Selena's house when Dave had wrapped up all his work activity and we all enjoyed the pizza. Calvin even sat at the "little kid's" table and did alright. I had to make him sit down and eat about four times, but I think he ate something. We changed into our suits and walked over to the pool at Dennis' parent's house (right across the yard) and swam for about an hour or so. I thought for sure I'd have to hold onto Violet the whole time. In past swimming experiences this summer she has clung to mom or dad pretty tightly - even with a life jacket on. I think Ivy inspired confidence in her. Ivy jumped right in and started floating with the help of her arm floaties. Violet must have seen how easy that was and immediately told me "DON'T hang on to me!" and she let herself go off the step into the water and float. I think she was so excited, she couldn't stop giggling at the new feeling of floating by herself with the help of her life jacket and nobody helping her. She figured out how to move around in the water by moving her arms and legs. She had a blast - she swam all over. She saw the slide and asked to go down the slide. I wasn't about to tell her that she would go under water when she hit the water so she went ahead (I "caught" her) and she loved it. She didn't even fuss about going under water and getting her eyes wet. I think she went down the slide 4 or 5 more times. She must have inspired a little confidence in Ivy, too. Ivy wanted to go down the slide, too, and she went a couple times, a little scared the first time but much more confident the second. I think Evan even floated himself with his floaties. Calvin however, did not have so much fun. He pretty much stuck his feet in the water and played on the steps, but when we got him in the water deeper, he freaked out and cried. He didn't even like floating with the help of a blow up floaty designed for kids his size. Oh well. Dave, Dennis and I got goofy with tricks off the diving board. It soon got very dark and buggy so we closed up the pool and went back to their house to dry off and get dressed. We promised to do this again next summer, but we won't wait til September. :) Even though she dropped a plate on her toe after dinner and smashed it, she didn't let that little injury prevent her from having fun.

little mommy

Carrie and I got busy in the kitchen today getting supper prepared. She was melting chocolate with the double boiler and coating strawberries with chocolate, and I was chopping peppers and onions. Violet was standing near me, and Calvin came running into the kitchen and said "yeah! yeah! yeah!" Violet looks at Calvin's excited reaction and quickly hushed him and said "Calvin! Relax! Its NOT macaroni and cheese!" in the most parental tone I've ever heard her come across to him. Carrie and I could only laugh.

The cousins reunite once again

Carrie, Austin and Renee all came to our house for a few days this week. Josh is in India for work and will be back on Sunday. He is in charge of setting up a tech support team for his company. It seems like they're all getting along so much better than last time. Violet is being an excellent sharer and letting the kids play with her toys. They got here Tues night and are heading out Friday morning. Wednesday morning we met at a park with some friends and their kids, which was a nice time. They got SO dirty playing. Calvin has mulch from the playground smashed in his ears and in his hair, and the rest of them just got plain sticky and sweaty, every piece of dirt they came into contact with stuck to their sweaty skin. I think all of them took turns rubbing their hands in ash from a charcoal grill near by. (ew, ew!) They all got baths before nap that day. We packed all 4 of them in our big soaker tub in our master bathroom - they had a blast. Violet woke up from naps before everybody else and by 4:00 they were all up, so we started supper for the kids and then we all went to the Wilson's house for small group. We fed the kids spaghetti before we left so we didn't have to feed them there, but of course they were all interested in the snacks available. This morning Carrie and I took Violet to preschool and the rest of the kids to the child care area so Carrie and I could go work out in the gym. She is a trooper - being 7 months pregnant doing what she could from the work out and improvising positions that required laying on her stomach. We got the kids when class was over (V stayed in school til 11:30) and ran a couple errands at two stores. We picked her up when preschool was over and decided to pick up some lunch at Zippy's BBQ. That's it so far. Tonight we're having teriyaki chicken of some kind (Carrie brought it) with peppers and rice. I also have to prep some food for dinner tomorrow night with my grandparents and also some picnic food I'm preparing for Saturday.

A couple new words for Calvin

2 in one day! He said "hah-dah!" in place of "hot dog" last night at dinner. We ate lots of corn on the cob, so the kids ate hot dogs along with it. Calvin saw his on his plate while I was cutting it into small pieces when he said it. Then a few moments later, he heard an airplane in the sky and said "Air-pay!" Most everything he says is "doh!" so to hear some new things come out of his mouth was refreshing. :)

Calvin has a new thing

....and its Elmo. He says "Ehhhh-moh!" I got him a pair of Sesame Street pajamas at a garage sale last month. They're so cute, size 3T, I thought they'd fit him next year. But to my surprise, they do fit him now. I guess PJs are made small because they're supposed to be fitted. And he's just a big kid anyway, wearing mostly 2T stuff. Anyway, he gets so excited when he wears them. He pulls the t-shirt part of the pajamas out so he can see Elmo's face and points to it. He also uses a spoon that has Elmo on it. Violet went through a phase where she was crazy about Elmo, maybe Calvin will too. Another thing he's been doing lately is trying to get his hands on anything and everything he can possibly touch while being held. If I'm carrying him in from the van, he has to shut my door, run his hands along the red sparkly strip on the boat, push the door open and shove it closed. If we're walking up the steps, he grabs for the post at the top and hangs onto it - he's like a leech - I have to peel him away from it, and of course, he giggles about it. His favorite things lately are trucks. He actually plays with them like they're supposed to be played with, driving them along the couch and on the floor. He's a little confused though, and says "choo-choo!" while driving his trucks. I know he recognizes trains and also says "choo-choo" when he sees a train or hears a train whistle. Only at a distance is he comfortable with loud trains. A rumble or a loud noise from a train and he's squealing for fear holding onto my legs wanting to be picked up. Another favorite thing of Calvin's when coming into the house from the garage is to take off running (I call it his runway) from the entrance to the fireplace steps as soon as I put him on the floor. I have to slip his shoes off quick! He goes so fast he practically floats. If he's wearing socks, he'll not even notice how slippery it is and immediately fall having no traction on the tile floor. Silly kid. I love him so much. Having a boy is so different and so much fun. Ok, since I'm thinking about Calvin so much, I keep thinking of things he does ALL the time. One of them is to sneak upstairs when I'm not looking and get onto the bathroom counter top and pull out a toothbrush and start to open up the tube of toothpaste. He just loves to sit there and chew on the toothbrush. I always spank him and put him down, telling him no, but he does it relentlessly and repeatedly. Its like he has an addiction to toothbrushes right now. I don't want to lock that bathroom door either since Violet uses that bathroom all the time during the day. Except when his teeth get brushed by mommy or daddy before bed, and then it becomes a screaming event. *sigh*

Success!

Violet just loved preschool today! She came up to me with a running hug that about knocked me over when I came to pick her up at 11:30. I had gotten there a little bit early and watched them all walk in a line from the little playground to their classroom. She did great, walking nicely, making sure one kid was in front of her and one kid was behind her. All the kids were sitting on the benches by the door waiting for their mommies to pick them up, but I had walked with the double stroller. I knew she'd be tired so I brought the double thinking she would sit on the walk home, and she did. She said many things. I will try remember her reaction. "I got my mommy back! I'm so glad because I love you, and you got your Violet back. Mommy, were you sad? Calvin, were you sad because you missed me? (he answered "yeah")" and so on. She said they colored with markers (but not the same ones that we dropped off), played, sang songs, played on the playground, etc. I don't really know what they all did. She told me she followed the leader. When daddy came upstairs, she was beaming and said "I had so much fun at school to day!" so all-in-all, a great day, she loved it, and I am happy for her.

Violet's first day of preschool

So far it has gone really well! But she's only been there for 1 hour. I'm speaking of the morning and drop-off. She woke up and had some cheerios with daddy while I got a shower. A few days ago when we were in the car we talked about her going to preschool and she asked me if I would be going with her. I told her no, and she started crying in the car. She thought I was going because I went and stayed with her during the open house a few weeks ago. But now that we've talked to her for the last few days about preschool just being for those kids who are three and four years old (definitely not for mommies and daddies!) she seemed to adjust better. I told her her friends would be there (she knows Ethan, the grandson of the fitness instructor at OHC, and she also is familiar with Liam, a son of a friend of mine). I told her her friends mommies wouldn't be there. So Dave got to walk with us over there this morning - he took a short break from work to do so. When we walked there she was happy and wore her back pack. She clasped her hands together because she didn't want daddy or mommy to touch her. I'm not sure what that was about, but maybe she was trying to be "by herself" and convince herself that she didn't need help. We got in the building and saw Rachel, the fitness instructor. She snapped a pic of Ethan and Violet together. We walked down the hall and found the hook for her back pack. She walked in the class room and found her name tag and a teacher helped her hook it on. She asked me to hold her, but I said no, I can't right now because I can't stay. She seemed alright. We both gave her hugs and kisses and left. She walked further into the classroom with out a fit or a tear, we were both very happy she did great. I suppose I'll hear a bunch of stories about her first day when I go to get her at 11:30. Calvin is a little confused why Violet isn't here. He grabbed their favorite trucks to play with (he has a red one, she has a pink one) and didn't really know what to do. He's adjusting - he is playing well today by himself most of the time. I bet he will be very happy to see her. Now for a pic of her the morning of her "first day at school"! (ignore the wet stains in her shirt...Calvin gave her a bite of oatmeal this morning and got her messy...the wet spots were my attempt to wipe them clean...)