Truck Touch

I had to work this Saturday and suggested that since Den could not spend from opening until 5pm with the kids at the pool, that he take them to the local 'truck touch' where all the public works vehicles were being set out for people to interact with.  The kids had a good time and it occupied several hours for Den.  Then it was off to the pool.  Dinner with friends that night was at a habachi place that did NOT go over well for the kids.  Josie watched as a nearby table had their food prepared and screamed before the chef got to our table.  Eli, who was with us ran around the corner so as not to be near the flames. 

After dinner, the kids went out and played in a sand volleyball pit, which was great after they had new sheets on and fresh baths.  But it did ocupy them for a while so the adults could talk.  Running around catching fireflies from probably the highlight of the night.  In pat because our kids are usually in bed by the time they come out.  I think Eddie is ready to plants some beans, don't you think?

Speaking of which, our garden is doing well.  We've harvested lots of green beans, already have a cucumber to pick, lots of tomatos and green pappers coming in and will be dtrying potatos for the first time this year.  Somehow we are still getting strawberries.  The kids usually enjoy helping to harvest things, but not not after spending 5 hours at the pool today.

Grocery shopping

This last school year it has just been Josie and I at the grocery store, but now that Eddie is out of preschool, he is now accompanying us.  They enjoy helping both load and unload the groceries from both the cart and at home.  This day that had an especially patient clerk who allowed them to hand her everything (usually the clerk picks the groceries out of the cart in a logical repacking/bagging order).  By the time I got this shot there was nothing more they could reach, so they were a little disappointed to have finished.

Eddie's Last Day of Preschool

I cried today.  I wasn't ready for it, but when I called Den in to our room to tell him what was going on, he began to tear up also.  Just over 5 years ago we brought Eddie home from the hospital and neither of us imagined how quickly we would arrive to this point.  Eddie's last day of preschool was today.  I had always scoffed at preschool graduations and it seemed parents placed so much emphasis on this.  I now can understand where they are coming from. 

We have LOVED this school.  The staff and teachers are just wonderful and supportive to both the parents and the kids.  We certainly have 2 years ahead of us with Josie, but sending Eddie off to kinder brings tears to my eyes just writing about it. 

I was a room parent this year with a mom I'd gotten to know well last year.  We had a good time, but it was more work than we thought it would be when we signed up.  My co-parent asked me to give the 'thank you to the teachers' speech.  As a gift to the teachers, we'd had each child draw a picture, title the picture and then write their name.  We then recorded something they liked or would remember about the teacher.  We attached a photo of each child and a couple class photos and gave them each a scrapbook with everyone included (we also gave a gift card too).  Den hadn't arrived yet, so I can't get a true critique of my comments, but I'd given some thought to how to sum things up.  I thanked everyone for their support as my friend and I cut our teeth as room parents.  I then thanked the teachers for providing such a fun and welcoming place for the kids.  I explained that while it is often the kids that teachers know thay have impacted, that they also impact the parents.  Knowing that our kids were coming to a place each day that they enjoyed and knowing that as they head off to kinder, they are as fully prepared as they can possibly be is such as wonderful feeling as a parent.  About half way through, when I started talking about the parents, I choaked up and had to fight back tears.  I was so not prepared for that.  At least I had seen a couple other parents tearing up, so it wasn't like I was the only one overcome by the transformation of ending one chapter and beginning another.

After I spoke, I was blown away by what I heard next.  Our kids love art.  It's one of their favorite things to do and Cookie comes up with such creative projects for them and we have enrolled them in classes to have even more fun (especially for the messy stuff).  So Eddie will make pictures for everyone in the family--included g'parents and sometimes extended family and friends.  One of his teachers told the whole class that today Eddie announced to her that he wanted to make a picture for each kid in the class.  She thought he needed 16 pieces of paper, but he said he wasn't going to make one for himself, only to give to each of the kids.  When you looked on the wall above all the hooks, was a picture for each child that I recognized as crafted by Eddie.  I asked him about it tonight and he said he didn't want any of the kids to feel sad that the teachers had all gotten artwork by each of the kids, so he wanted to draw a picture as a present for each kid so they too had a piece of art to take home.  Wow! 

My co-room parent really wanted some way more than a pizza party to indicate to the kids that this was not just another day of preschool and so she spearheaded an afterschool dance party with diplomas and caps for each kid.  While permitted, it was not an offical preschool event, so the parents took care of everything (for all its virtues, the school is slow to change and many of the teachers had been around for a couple generations of kids).  We had a photography skilled mom take photos of each kid (so I don't have the photo yet), but the parents had a good time as did the kids.  The preschool director thought this was a nice direction to consider for the next year. We even had t-shirts for their kids with their names on the back (written by the kids). 

Everything was going great...until almost everyone had left except about 8 little girls and Eddie.  One girl whom he knows well said to him, 'no boys allowed!'.  Apparently earlier in the play, the boys had said something similar to the girls.  He came bawling to me.  Extremely upset.  I tried multiple times and multiple ways to reintegrate him and he would have none of it.  Even the little girls realized how sad he was and tried to get him to join in.  At the very end, he did, but he said he couldn't stop crying, blotchy face, red eyes and running nose.  I was so sad for him and tried every kind of pep talk I could think of.  Not how I wanted things to end for him.  He did manage to cheer up, but it is these expereinces I do not look forward to. He is such a sweet kid, and while he is not an angel, does have thin skin himself.  I figure I have the summer to help him adjust to kinder and grade school and that I can't create an artificial cocoon that will protect him from most of the ills of the world.  Any advice on how to help him develop thicker skin or learn how to react to these types of things?

So the pictures:  the first one I couldn't get them to pose until I pulled up the picture from Sept. 2009 of Eddie's first day of school, it was a cute shot and they basically recreated the picture.  Then you have Eddie with his 2 main teachers (there was also an assistant).  The one thanked Den for Eddie being in her class (we figure she did this with each child).  This last one is at the after-party.  Eddie was loaded up on sugar and having a great time.

PJ day to cat day

Eddie's preschool class recently had pajama day as the last day of show and tell.  Each kid was to bring in waht they slept with or had in their bed, so Eddie brought in a blanket grandma Wisc. had made.  He so enjoyed the day that he did not want to change out of his pjs as we headed to a local attaction.  He proceeded to parade around said attraction, loving every minute of his PJs.  I suppose if you are going to do something like this, you should go all out.



Josie decided it should be princess and hello kittyrain boots day.  She mercifully changed into something more suited to the weather before we went downtown.  But she did go grocery shopping in this attire.  Got a couple smiling glances.  She is not normally one to go around dressed like this, so I just went with the flow.  The boots started to drive her crazy, so that was an easy switch.  And she was so worried about keeping her dress clean that she asked to change out of that too.















Fast forward a bit to Saturday night.  We were babysitting the kids of some friends of ours whom both our kids adore.  Josie wanted to show off her collection of barettes and bows and as she and Eddie love to play with them, they entire right side of her head looks like she might as well have curlers in.  Here they are having lunch/tea with their zsu zsu pets. 




Then we have today.  They play a game of 'cat' pretty regularly.  Eddie is the owner and Josie is the cat.  Near as I can tell on the handful of times I've been drafted to play, it involves Josie crawling on her cat legs and meowing and Eddie asking her, as the cat, what she wants to do.  You can't see it in this picture, but she has a cardboard tail that Eddie taped to her backside and then (entirely his idea), we taped cat ears to her headband.

Eddie has changed so much since the beginning of the school year, he is scaresly the same child.  He can both buckle himself in and unbuckle himself from his carseat.  I removed the child lock on his door so that he can now open the door and get himself out.  He likes helping Josie get out of her carseat too. 

He can definitely read some (can absolutely sound out words, thanks to the TV show Word World) and can spell, so spelling things out around him is becoming more difficult.  He has been really into building and constructing things...from his train tracks (probably his all time favorite toy) to integrating other toys into his track designs.  Josie LOVES art.  It is the first thing she asks to do almost every day.  Eddie has lately been claiming that Josie knows everything.  "Ask her anything," he implores.  She then gives her best educated guesstimate answer.  She is a classic 3 year old.  Striking out on her own and insisting on things 'her' way.

We somehow let the day get away without making any preparations for dinner and I'm proud to say that Eddie ate his weight in cantalope, which Josie refuses.  They both enjoyed the recently picked strawberries, Josie decided she does indeed like edamame and ate her weight in those.  After inhaling beets 2 nights ago, tonight she decided she didn't care about seeing if she peed pink and refused them.  We made Eddie try beets again and for added effect, he shuddered as he swallowed.  Not to be too healthy, we rounded out the meal with tator tots and sweet potato fries.  Josie walks into the kitchen while it is all being heated up and announces, "it smells like tator tots."  maybe we need to try some other potatos.

iphone--the downfall of my blogging

This was supposed to go at the end of the post...but it's a self-portrait by Josie.  Cracks me up.I love my iphone.  LOVE.  However, the apps for blogger leave much to be desired.  The one app I have found is free for just doing text, but if you want to include photos, you have to pay.  I'd be ready to pony up, but the reviews uniformly pan the app specifically in the picture upload area.  So, now I have all these photos on my phone with no way to get them to blogger aside from downloading them to my computer. 

This is the long-winded way of explaining why I haven't gotten pictures up as frequently.  The first weekend in May we had near 90 degree weather and broke out the pool.  I got some great shots on my phone, where they continue to reside. 


Eddie has been building elaborate train layouts and 30 minutes after you make him put one away on account of it taking up most of the 15x18 foot family room, he builds a new one, with bridges and hills.  He then likes us all to watch a single self-propelled engine run the track.  I could have a picture/day of each new track...

The other reason I haven't written as much is that aside from a less than 24 hour trip that involved a car instead of a plane, Den has not been on a work trip since early February.  That is the longest he has been home in the 12 years I have known him.  He didn't stick around that long when the kids were born.  Tthe kids fell right back into routine and talked by phone with him tonight, fighting over who got to hang the phone up.  The kids enjoy the trips to the airport when we can either see him off or welcome him home.

Mommy Fact Sheet

Eddie came home from preschool with his Mother's day gifts today.  He was so excited he wanted to show me right in the doorway of the classroom (pretty much every other kid refused to let their mother's see until Mother's Day).  Inside was this great candle holder with pieces of tissue paper glued to it to give the candle a colored light as it burns.  And there was a card shaped like a purse.  The other room mom and I are racking our brains trying to think of an end of the year gift the kids can make for the teachers and just can't think of anything really really good.   Any ideas?

I digress.  The other part of the gift that had Den and I cracking up was the Mommy Fact Sheet:
What is your mother's name?:  Elizabeth
How tall is she? 3 feet tall
How much does she weigh? 30 pounds
What color is her hair? Brown
What does she do around the house? Work
What is her favorite drink? wine
What is her favorite thing to eat? Bananas
What is her favorite TV show?  Word World
What does she cook?  she doesn't cook
Where does she like to go? to the park with me
What is her favorite hobby?  sleep

Pretty observant kid.  Happy Mother's Day out there!

J's camera

Grandparents Ohio seem to have a tradition of getting each grandkid a camera for their 3rd birthday. Eddie's is now ready to be retired after 2 years of intense love, but he has really become quite the photographer. These are off of J's--A Canon SD 1300IS. We had lots of requirements: Pink, lithium ion battery and anti shake features. These are surprisingly difficult to find in a relatively inexpensive camera.

The top photo is the one J took--first one for the camera. The second one is of J taking said photo (you can see Den staying back behind Eddie in the first photo and the second photo shows his perspective and what he captured.

She has had a little practice with Eddie's camera, when he let her, so she jumped right in and started snapping away.

We went to the Day out with Thomas and she snapped the one while sitting in the red kiddie train (that's Ed in front). The second gives an appreciation of just what it is like to be 3 feet tall...

Oh and btw, the app for my iphone sucks. The free version does not allow pictures to be posted and the one you pay for gets horrid reviews, so I didn't bother. Ugh. Wish I could find a good ap that would allow me to upload photos from my phone. I take so many photos from my phone these days and just don't hook up for downloads often.

Test post

Found an ap to post from my phone. Mean typos willl be rampant but posts more frequent. If it works...

Our neighborhod needs a hose down...

It's been a wild week for us.  Last week J's bff was rushed to the hospital with complications from pneumonia (she is 2) and was hospitalized for 2 days.  She and J hang out near daily, so when the friend's brother and parents also became ill (fortunately none as serious), we kind of wondered how long before we'd be hit...

Wednesday Eddie woke up with the stomach flu.  After 6 hours of discomfort and a nap, he felt good as new.  Cookie banished him to the living room in the hopes of keeping he and Josie separate.  It worked pretty well as he proudly told his dad, "I saw TWO movies today!"  March of the Penguins looks really good, but he fell asleep halfway through.  I stayed home from work.

G'parents Ohio came on Thurs. after we gave the all clear so we could all attend the local "Day out with Thomas" on Friday while Den escaped at work.  Nothing like a police escort through the bad parts of town on your "Thomas" ride. 

Fast forward to Sunday when g'parents left and I took ill with Eddie's stomach flu.  By Monday I was still quite ill and starting to experience extremely painful chest pain and shortness of breath.  Of course at 5:30 after the doctor's office closed I decided I might need to see a doctor.  My health insurance's nurse line (which is a fabulous benefit, btw), said I needed to call an ambulance to get immeidate treatment (second one to our neighborhood corner in less than a week). 

After 6 hours and a slew of tests to rule out what the doctor was certain was a blood clot in my lung, I was sent home with the diagnosis that it was likely the illness that was causing an inflamation of the lining of my heart which was causing the pain.  Yikes!  Nice to know they were thorough even though it meant listening to the dementia patient who had fallen from the wheelchair in her room and got a gash on her head from hitting the dresser say over and over and over and..."I love Yoooouuuuu, I love Youuuuu" to both her caregiver and daughter.  Poor woman had to wait an hour for a transport back to her nursing home.  Then there was the suicide attempt that came in, but we had been pushed to the back of the room by that point as old meat and couldn't see anything.  So much for HIPPA.  Aside from names, I could have told you about every case that came through the door as we were just outside the station where the ambulances communicate with the hospital.  It was interesting to listen to...until we lost our primo spot.

While we were at the hospital, Cookie called to say that J had a 102.6 degree fever and had been lethargic all day.  Tuesday I called the peds 2 times as the fever kept getting higher and stopped responding to fever reduction meds.  We were told that with no other symptoms, she needed to have a 103 fever for 2 full days before it was worth being seen.  Last night she had a 104.4 degree fever, and we made a game out of putting a cool washcloth on her face, neck and wrists...until she lost interest in the game.  At least Eddie got a good night's sleep.  This morning she seemed to be recovering until Cookie called around 10:30 to say she was 104.something.  By the time we got her to the doctor's, it was 104.8 and really wasn't responding to any meds.  J was pretty lethargic.

We had waited an hour to be seen and I was fuming.  After being told the doctor had one more patient, I marched myself down the hall and complained to the office manager, who kindly listened and and explained that yes, I was correct, they had booked too many patients for our time slot.  Shortly after the nurse practioner came in to see us and then ordered rapid strep, a swine flu, regular flu and then urine test.  Predictably, J gagged and puked after the throat culture--while Den held her.  I had promised no needles, but not no cotton swabs.  J was shaking and practically in tears, worried about a needle.  She finally worked up the courage to ask the doctor if she'd get a needle.  I think the doctor wanted to do some blood work, but seeing J's condition and reaction to potential bloodwork, wanted to order the other tests first and then reassess--peds do tend to take the emotional needs of the patient into consideration.  Poor J had peed 3 times while waiting to be seen and had nothing left to give for her 'sample', but gamely tried when she finally seemed to understand what she needed to do.  Her throat didn't look like strep, but was not in pristine shape and she was swollen around her neck. 

While there, J's spirits seemed to improve and she was more active, so the doctor was less worried (we told her it had been a yo-yo pattern of lethargy and fever spikes).  Den thinks the doctor did seem like she was contemplating addmitting her to the hospital as she seemed quite relived towards the end of our visit.  And she did say that it didn't seem like she needed to be admitted, or to have additional tests at this point.  We took the pee cup home and while I was at MY doctor's apointment to make sure I really was on the road to recovery, Josie filled the cup.  Nice perk of being the nanny....

I turned right around with Josie and traveled the same route a third time today so Josie could give her pee cup to the nurse.  She proudly handed it over and then we waited to learn that it was also negative.  She seemed to be doing better by this point, but then spiked another 103.7 right before dinner.  If she still has a fever in the morning over 100, we are to go in again.  Nothing like not getting in any work this week.

Eddie was an absolute star tonight.  He was so incredibly sweet to Josie and genuinely helpful.  He got her some cereal to eat, her favorite cup for gatorade, and kept her company on the sofa.  It sure pulled at your heart strings to see their interaction.

Submitted to answer any and all questions from the g'parents...

My Favorite Things

My top favorite things (as of this moment):
songs:
1. Come on Eileen
2. Hey Soul Sister
3. Pachabel's Canon in D

Foods:
1. Watermelon
2. Raspberries
3. Shrimp Tempura Sushi rolls

Perfect temperature outside: 83 and sunny

Drink:  Earth Wise Chardonnay
Den's Watermelon Jolly Ranchers

Watching my kids play happily together and acting considerately towards each other--usually happens at least once/day

Finding 'green' products that really are green