Just for fun...comparison pics

First day of preschool - August 2009 First day of preschool - August 2010 (a couple inches taller!)

Violet's first day of preschool (4-5 yr olds)

This first day of preschool compared to last year's first day was pretty uneventful. She was like a veteran preschooler walking into the building knowing exactly where she was going, and happily said goodbye to me after she got settled into her new classroom. I think she's pretty proud to be part of the "big" class this year, the 4-5 yr olds. She'll be going Mon, Wed and Fri at Orchard Hill Church preschool from 9-11:30. Her teacher told me she did a great job when I picked her up. She said she was helpful and showed the new kids in her class where things were, etc. Some of the kids in her class are attending preschool for the first time. She has a large class, 21 kids I think. Last year there were 15 in her group. She laid out her clothes last night on the floor before going to bed. She picked out her multicolored shorts and yellow top with the birds. There is a new rule about no open toes shoes so after she heard that, she grabbed a pair of socks and put one sock near each leg of her shorts knowing that she had to wear her tennis shoes in the morning. Her most talked about favorite thing is her "silly bandz" bracelets in shapes of princess stuff - she wore 5 or 6 of them to school and was really happy about it. I'm so proud of my little preschooler! I am excited to find out what she will learn this year.

Briarwood block party 2010

Yesterday was the annual block party for those living on Briarwood Drive. The Patterson's at the corner of Orchard Drive and Briarwood host it on the 4th Sunday of August. There was a short "parade" the kids participated in prior to the event which consisted of all the kids who wanted to ride their bikes/trikes from the middle of the street to the Patterson's house. Some decorated their wheels, others didn't. Violet and Calvin rode their trikes at the end of the parade and seemed to enjoy themselves. About 50-60 people came, we all took turns announcing our names, how long we've lived there, etc. Violet drew chalk on the driveway with some other kids, and everybody enjoyed a mexican food buffet. She lost interest in everything else when Curt Patterson stood up and announced that his pool was open for anybody who wanted to swim. She was determined to go home and change into her swim suit as soon as possible. I agreed to let her swim for awhile - so we all went home, Violet changed quickly, and I took her and Vanessa down to the pool. Vanessa and I just sat on a lawn chair by the edge and Violet happily swam (with her life jacket) all on her own, and went down the slide 5 times. She went under the water with no troubles and didn't even complain about not having a towel to dry her eyes off with. It really helped that there were bigger kids swimming all around her. She went off the diving board four times, the first two times she was so scared, she sat down on the edge and turned around on her tummy and slid off (which was a chore considering the life jacket made her get stuck while "sliding" off). The third time she stepped off feet first, and the fourth time, she got a little momentum with the spring of the board (just a tiny bit!) and jumped off. She knew her life jacket would help her float back up to the top and she did great, I was very proud of her. It was a chore getting her OUT of the pool however. I captured some of her slides and jumps on my phone, maybe I'll figure out how to upload a video to my blog later. She was happy to ride her trike home all wet. The "parade": (a few neighbors made the effort to sit outside on the curb and applaud all the kids...it was sweet) Getting ready to line up: They were the only trikers, so they ended up wayy behind the group, but either way they had fun!

Busy Friday - an update on the week

This week flew by, wow! I can't believe 6 days ago we got back from Albia. I feel like I just finished putting laundry away from our trip. Maybe I did...a week later, haha! Life with our dog is beginning to feel like routine now, even though it is still a little crazy. He's much, much better with pottying outside but some times has accidents if he gets too excited or we wait too long to take him out. Usually he will sit by the deck door if he has to go potty outside, so we have to pay attention to his cues. He still has a desire to chew on everything in sight...so we constantly have chew toys for him available and need to distract him when he's chewing on something he shouldn't be chewing on...like Calvin's feet or Violet's arm. Solomon can get a little nippy with the kids - so he is in his cage a lot of the day and especially when we are eating at the table, right where little feet are more available. He's still a 4 month old puppy so he does take many naps a day. I frequently hear him snoring. Today was a very fun, but busy day. We invited over my friend Kelly (who I met through ICAN) and her two kids, Renee (4) and John (8 months). They came over after Renee got done with preschool at 11:25 so I had prepared lunch for them. We had (according to Violet's menu planning) strawberries & bananas to start, macaroni and cheese for lunch, and brownies for dessert. I made that for the kiddos in addition, the adults enjoyed BLTs and chips. I put Calvin down for a nap, and Violet and Renee went outside with Kelly, myself, Vanessa, and John. We got John occupied in the jumperoo and Vanessa snoozed in her bouncy seat, while the girls and Kelly and I played with trikes in the driveway and drew a "whole white (wide) world" (says Violet) with chalk. We drew a house, the store, a restaurant, the library, a museum, a park, a coffee shop, a church, a garden, a mailbox, and little roads to connect all of them. The girls had a lot of fun riding their trikes all over "town" and of course, going as far as they were allowed to ride up and down the sidewalks as fast as they could pedal. It was a VERY sunny day so we all got very hot quickly, had lots of cold water breaks, and then we decided to inside. The girls watched Word World, then decided to have a tea party (with just water!) on the deck and occupied themselves for awhile. They went home around 3. I tried to get Violet to rest for awhile so she could muster up some energy to play hard again the rest of the night, but it didn't go over well. She first started out laying on the couch, but she kept telling Calvin and I to stop whispering so she could sleep. She got up and set up her Dora blanket on my bed but that didn't last long either, she said it was too dark. Oh well. I talked with her at length about her behavior and said if she started whining and crying she wouldn't get to read any books at bed time. Dave had plans to go catfish fishing with his friends (Dennis and Jason) so Trisha (Jason's wife) decided to have all the families over for supper, which was a collaborative effort on all our parts. Jason grilled a ginormous pork loin, I brought mac and cheese and brownies, Selena brought a yummy ramen noodle/cabbage salad, and Trisha baked a broccoli casserole and banana bars. The kids had a really, really fun time playing. Total there were 13 kids present...that includes the babies. Calvin preferred to play inside with the trucks and trains, Violet preferred to kick off her shoes and run around barefoot with the big kids, they did all sorts of things, I don't even know, but I know hide and seek was involved. Violet was extremely happy to be playing independently of her brother for once, and she told me she had a lot of fun on the way home, and she loves her friends. So Dave and his buddies took off for the river and I headed home to get the kids in bed. Praise the Lord, Solomon and Vanessa were both sleeping the entire time I got Violet and Calvin to bed. They took a long time to get calmed down, they were practically bouncing off the walls. They crashed quickly though, after such a fun day. Calvin insists on us leaving on the hallway light so there is light under the crack of his bedroom door. Even an hour after he's gone to bed, if we turn it off, he will notice and scream hysterically. He is scared of the dark, I think we should get him a night light. Once we go to bed though, the light goes off and we hear nothing, so he must be sleeping soundly. Violet, of course, knowing that Calvin likes the light under her door, will insist on having the crack under her door completely blocked off by light so nothing shines through. She prefers a towel over her crack "so she can sleep better". These little phases are so short lived, but at the time, its like life and death to these kids to have their preferences made known and carried out. I just go with it, doesn't really matter much. Vanessa has not been sleeping all that well lately at night. The whole week, almost every single night, she wakes up at 1 am, 4:30 am, and from that point on through the night, she is restless, squirms, and fusses from 5-7 am. I nurse her to get her to relax and zonk out again...but it doesn't last long. She seems to be working on a big poop for those few awake hours and around 7 am it explodes and fills her diaper from corner to corner. Poor kid...just now I realized it might benefit her to use some gas drops before she goes to bed. Maybe the huge serving of broccoli I ate on Thursday night affected her negatively. I'll never really know...I just hope she starts to sleep better because I am feeling the effects. I am dragging myself out of bed in the morning feeling half dead and cranky, not ready to start my day. When mommy is in a bad mood, nothing seems to go right that day. I really need to work on improving my mood in the morning when I see the kids for the first time and not see them as nuisances that prevent me from sleeping. Violet starts her 2nd year of preschool on Monday. She is really looking forward to going back and starting school "in the BIG kid classroom" as she calls it, with the 4-5 yr olds. She will go Mon, Wed and Fri 9-11:30.

Pics from Albia

Visit with Grandpa Loren and Grandma Rowena

We had a really nice time visiting my grandparents this weekend. We made one stop at Smokey Row Coffee shop in Oskaloosa for mochas and potty breaks. The kids barely slept on the way there, I think they were too excited. Vanessa did though. They were both excited to see us when we arrived at their place around 5:30 Friday night. I think we unloaded our gear for 20 minutes. Grandma Rowena was at the top of her game (as usual!) hosting our family and had a little scavenger hunt ready for Violet and Calvin upon our arrival. Violet excitedly ran around their place and asked me to read all the clues. At the end of the hunt were two presents, one for each kid. Calvin got some pipe cleaners, and Violet got a cardboard picture frame with stickers to decorate it. She got right to work on the frame while Mama Row finished getting supper on the table. She served such yummy food. Dinner on Friday night was baked ham, corn, purple cabbage, and peach-pecan pie with ice cream. The kids slept together in the small room. Violet got the twin bed, and Calvin slept in his little portable pop up tent with the blow up mattress that gets inserted under neath it. He was just fine sleeping on the floor. They took awhile to settle down since being there was exciting and new. They eventually fell asleep though. Grandma Row showed me a lot of pictures on her computer that had been converted from slides - many pics were of my family (mom, dad, Rachel, Jay and I) from many years ago...they were fun to see. She is planning on labeling all the pictures with who the people are and some places, and burning some pictures onto CDs for the family. We brought along a pack n play crib for Vanessa and her big swing. We didn't even end up opening the bed for her, as she was happy to sleep in the swing for naps and night. We just set up the swing in our bedroom and she did great. The first night, about 3 am, I heard Violet screaming at the top of her lungs. I asked Dave to go see what in the world was her problem. She said it was too dark, and was scared. I guess she tried to get up in the middle of the night (maybe to use the bathroom? I'm not even sure)...and was just terrified. Her screaming woke up Calvin, so both of them needed calming down before going back to sleep. Saturday morning, the kids woke up shortly after G&G. Grandma had waffles already prepared that she toasted to warm up. When Dave and I got up, the kids were finishing up their waffles and were ready to play. She had planned on taking everyone to the pool that day, but (as in times past, the pool hours were not as she thought they were) the pool didn't open til 1 pm. We killed time by eating an early lunch (leftover ham from the night before in sandwiches and cottage cheese on the side), letting the kids watch some TV, and played at the park before it opened. The pool had a nice set up for little kids, with a large kid area and lots of shallow water to play in. They jumped right in the water with Dave and Grandma Row (I stayed under an umbrella with Vanessa, she slept most of the time). Calvin was overconfident in the water - slipping under a couple times and got scooped up quickly by daddy. But he wasn't scared by it, he just kept on swimming. Violet was brave enough to go under water a few times and wiping her eyes with her hands instead of a towel like she normally insists. She got braver as the day went on just by watching older kids jump in, go under, and come right up out of the water like it was no big deal. Amazing how other kids can boost the confidence of a younger one. She wasn't quite tall enough to go down any of the slides, so we stayed on one end of the pool the whole time. The kids played hard for an hour and a half in the glaring sun, and soon it was obvious that we needed to go and get them down for naps. They were acting tired and whiny...so getting them to sleep wasn't that difficult when we got them tucked into bed by 3 pm. G&G took naps, Dave and I watched some TV, and the kids slept - and when everyone woke up it was time to get supper ready. Grandma made some delicious BBQ ribs, baked beans, and broccoli. Grandma Row got out a wrap-around-the-waist style apron for Violet to put on like a big flowing skirt, and dressed her up with necklaces and flowers in her hair. She danced around the house and sang songs. We hung out in the den area and spent time singing songs, goofing around, and the kids seemed to enjoy all the attention. Getting them to bed was more difficult since they had just taken a late afternoon nap. They fell asleep somewhere between 9:30-10. Dave took the night light from the bathroom and put it in an outlet in the bedroom where the kids were sleeping so we could avoid them being scared by the darkness. I think that plan backfired around 4 am when we heard both kids awake and messing around in the bathroom together. Calvin was on the toilet, and Violet was in there with him. I don't think he did anything on the toilet, I bet she went herself and he was just copying her. Not exactly sure...but Dave did his best to get them back to bed. As soon as they were tucked back in Vanessa woke up to eat at 5 am. We did not feel all that rested Sunday morning, but made the effort to wake up early enough to eat a light breakfast and go to their church with them at 8:30. I brought along dry cereal and two snack cups for the kids to munch on during the message so they would be occupied and it worked pretty well. Their church has a new person doing the teaching message and Dave and I found it to be a very sound message and we're glad my grandparents are in the habit of hearing some decent Biblical teaching on a regular basis. Maybe some day what they are hearing about Jesus will sink in. The kids enjoyed the kid sunday school, and us adults participated in a Bible study after wards. The Bible study was a discussion from scripture (Philippians 4) about purposing in our hearts to have a better attitude about things, life, and circumstances. Definitely an applicable message for me! Grandma Row prepared lunch for us before we left. She made a one-skillet dish with couscous, scallops, pepperoni, peas, and turkey, along with sauteed carrots and parsnips as a side dish, and bread/butter. Calvin ate the food better than Violet did. She tried to avoid eating the carrots but we made her eat them anyway. We packed up our stuff and got our van loaded which took close to an hour. Grandma Rowena let me choose a couple of her paintings to take home with me, along with a couple of stools they had refinished with different fabric on the cushions. I thought we could use them in the kitchen so the kids can stop dragging chairs across the kitchen when they want to "help" me. The museum of history that was down the block was open, so Grandma Row took the kids down to see the trains on display. The trains were a hit - the kids enjoyed walking through the caboose and the engine, pretending to drive the train and toot the (nonworking) whistle. After we left, we only drove a couple blocks when I remembered that I left Violet's swim suit on top of their washing machine. I stopped back to grab it and we were on our way. Somewhere on the way home (I was driving so Dave could get a little work done on his computer), I missed my turn on Hwy 63. I ended up on Hwy 6 heading east, so we intersected with Hwy 21 and went north until we hit Hwy 20. I was really distracted while driving watching a sky diver fall from the sky and hit the ground at one point, I think I missed the sign to tell me to turn while paying more attention to this sky diver than the road. Oops. All 3 kids slept almost the entire way. They were excited to get home. Dave went to pick up Solomon at the vet at 7 pm - and the dog also seemed excited to be home. He didn't potty in the house and was pretty relaxed...a big change from the first time he came to our house two weeks ago. In my next post I'll post pics.

Going to visit great grandparents this weekend

We are packing up our family (except for the dog, he's going to boarding at the vet) and heading to Albia this weekend. I hope Great Grandpa Loren and Great Grandma Rowena know what they're getting into hosting our family. :) I am in the middle of packing right now, and I just can't believe the amount of stuff we are bringing. Each kid needs their special pillow, blanket (or more), clothes, diapers, gear, sleeping stuff, fans, tents, burp rags, pacifiers, swing, the list goes on...wowww.... We hope to leave very early this afternoon, maybe 1 or 1:30 at the latest.

A real giggle from Vanessa, 2.5 months

Vanessa did giggle today, I was talking to her and she was cooing and making cute noises back to me, and I startled her a little. She laughed one little laugh, and went back to smiling. Her smiles are getting so much bigger - her entire face smiles, her eyes light up, and her cheeks lift up super high.

Vanessa rolled over today

Vanessa rolled over from front to back for the first time today. Dave witnessed it, too! She was on her tummy holding her head up really well looking around when WHOOP she was on her back. I think it surprised her. Her head just turned and looked up high up enough that her whole body flipped over with her head turning. I think she might have even chuckled for the first time the other day, too. I was playing with her legs, straightening and tucking them in, and she sort of laughed. Not a real laugh though, maybe she just grunted as she smiled.

That didn't last long (trying to share a room)

The problem wasn't his bed, it was Calvin in the same room as Violet that just didn't work. He was just too tempted to get out of bed, jump around and talk to Violet. Nap time today was the straw that broke the camel's back for me...trying to get them to sleep in the same room for over an hour was beyond frustrating...so I put him back in his crib in his room and he slept just fine. In fact he slept so well he woke up from his nap asking for breakfast! lol So they're split up again. I put his new big airplane bed in his room and he loves it, went to sleep PERFECT tonight with no trouble. And Violet ended up with a rearranged room which she loves. So its a win-win. :) Some times parenting is such a trial and error thing.

Another nap time disaster

Calvin is not getting used to his bed. Even though last night went better, today's nap time was another mess. I had to tell him to lay down four times. Violet was being quiet and a "good example" (in her words) but Calvin was still messing around, so I put him in his crib/tent again. He screamed himself to sleep. I wonder if this will improve.

Vanessa is 2 months old

I'm a little off by a few days, but I am posting now that I have a minute to sit down and type. She is still a sweet little thing. She is still nursing many times a day...who knows...10-12 times? She sleeps three naps a day at various times (her longest is in the morning for a couple hours). She is smiling a lot more and her whole face lights up when I talk to her. She smiles at other people too. Nights are still unpredictable. She wakes up at least one time to eat. She usually sleeps 10 pm to 3 or 4 am. I nurse her and put her back in bed, if she is unsettled and doesn't sleep, she goes in the swing which usually lulls her back to sleep. She will sleep in the swing until 7:30 or 8 am. We used to carry the swing up and down the stairs each night/morning so I could use the swing on both levels but I got a little bouncer seat she lays in instead for the main floor, so the swing is always in our room. She sleeps in the bouncer seat pretty well too. The kids still love to hold her but they don't bed to hold her all the time like when she was 1-4 weeks old. She goes to the pediatrician for her 2 month check up (and her first vaccinations) on Wednesday at noon.

Kids "moved in" together

Violet's room is now "the kids' room". We did this so Calvin's old room can be Vanessa's new place to sleep in a little while...not quite yet, but we are making the transition slow. We haven't made the switch 100% yet with clothes and toys, but Calvin now has a "big boy bed" set up in the same room as Violet now. We got him some airplane bedding and he loves it. The first night was pretty rough. He climbed out a lot, jumped on Violet's bed, and they basically played after we tucked them in. I know it was SO FUN for them so we tried to be nice and they did eventually fall asleep. Nap time was a disaster today. They didn't sleep for an hour after I laid them down and I eventually put Calvin back in his tented crib. He was NOT happy. He screamed bloody murder and got so tired he fell asleep. Tonight went much, much smoother. I asked him over and over if he was going to do better, I asked him if he was going to get out of bed (he said no), I asked him if he was going to talk (he said no), and I asked him if he was going to go to sleep (he said yes). And I only had to correct him one time tonight. They are both sleeping at the moment and I think it only took them in the ball park of 10-15 minutes to both fall asleep. I hope this works, because I want it to become routine. Violet might be done napping, I don't know...on the days she doesn't sleep, she does fine. On the day she does nap, she sleeps for 2 hours and still goes to bed at 8:30 with no trouble. Her preschool schedule might tire her out more once that starts on Aug 30. Calvin is ECSTATIC about his new bed. He was screaming and squealing when we set it up for him. He's really growing up, talking a ton more, and is on the verge of being potty trained (so I think). He tells us about 75% of the time when he has to go poop on the toilet, and gets excited when he get his prize, which is a hershey kiss. We haven't attempted to get him to use the bathroom for pee all the time yet...with the introduction of the dog in the house, its been slightly crazy. And VBS is this week, maybe once Violet is in school I can focus more on him. I think he'll do it just fine.

Solomon update

These first few days with Solomon have been more of a challenge than we anticipated. But its getting smoother each day. We hired the help of a professional dog trainer to give us the right tools to train Solomon. We are getting 6 sessions. She is really good at what she does, and we're already training him with the tools she gave us. She came yesterday for the first session and we hired a babysitter to get the older two kids out of the house so we could concentrate. We have "homework" to do. The best thing anybody (and us as a family) can do who walks in our house for the first time is to completely ignore the dog. That immediately "ranks" the person in the dog's mind as leader of the pack. In a dog's world they're always sizing up people to find out who's the leader and in nature, the leader always returns to their pack and ignores them. So that's a clue to anybody coming to visit - just ignore our "dog in training" and let us tell you how to introduce yourself to him. There's a lot more to it. We have learned to correct him with "ehh ehh" for no and "yes!" for praise instead of saying "no" to him, because we say no to our kids...and the dog needs different words to associate with his behavior. He's in his crate most of the day until he learns to tell us he needs to use the bathroom. We have a routine to help him learn his name, help him focus, help him walk on a leash, learn to sit, lay down, etc. It is all very basic and the homework training sessions we do with him should last 3-4 minutes max or he gets mental overload and too distracted. We really want our dog to be well behaved, this is a step in the right direction. Its hard to think we're making any progress because he's still a 3 month old puppy who still tries to chew on everything, but time will move on, he will grow, and become calmer. This is pretty much what he's doing all day:

Solomon, our new puppy

The dog has a new name: Solomon. He will soon look old, wise, and smart so we thought that would be appropriate. Plus, now Dave can't try convince me to name a kid that some day. :) He came home last night, and it is quite obvious he is not used to his new surroundings. He is having some accidents in the house but we've confined him to the tile floor in the kitchen when he isn't in his crate. The previous owners didn't crate-train him so this crate thing is new to him. He howled a little last night, Dave got up with him in the middle of the night to let him out, but he had already gone in his crate. *sigh* Solomon is absolutely adorable. He's a gentle puppy, playful, but he's not wild. He doesn't lick and doesn't bark much, and his coat is wonderfully soft and cuddly. The plan is to keep him in his crate most of the time so he learns that going outside is best. Our first night/morning with him was a little rough...but we know it is only going to get better as he gets older and gets more comfortable with his surroundings. Here's some pics!

Its time...

...for a new member of the family. The LaMarches are adopting a dog tomorrow! We are getting a male neopolitan mastiff puppy, 12 weeks old, already housebroken, and has been socialized well with children. We pick him up tomorrow evening and bring him home, the kids are REALLY excited! Will post pics soon.