Tuesday, December 21, 2010

October Part III

A few more random things from October 2010:

Jake and Leah (a.k.a. "the twins"-just today I had yet another person ask me if they were twins and he looked pretty surprised when I told him they were 3 years apart!)  Jake decided to get out this box that holds our grill accessories and turn it into a stage.  I guess he was the singer, and Leah's barbie was the dancer.  They were so funny groovin' out to Jake's tunes. 


Another great sunrise in October:

When I got down my suitcase to begin packing for our Utah trip, I came into my room and found this: (let's just call him gumby for short).

October Part II

Jake's first day riding the bus to his preschool was a big moment for both of us.  Jake had been asking every day since he started when it would be his turn to ride the bus.  Finally we got all the paperwork in order and he was a legitimate student who could ride the bus!  Jake's expressions say it all:



I love this one-is he happy, or in pain??? 




That last one was a hard moment for me.  I was so excited for him to finally get to ride the bus, but also felt a great "letting go" moment as he took a major step toward preschool independence!  I am so grateful for all of the therapies and teachers Jake has experienced in his short 4 years, but it has also required that I let go of some things much earlier than I ever wanted to.  Like when he started at Jumpstart when he was still a few months from his third birthday.  I never thought I'd leave my 2-year-old for three hours a day for therapies!  And now riding the bus, yet another moment I didn't think I'd see before my child was in kindergarten.  Life is full of the unexpected.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

October Part I

October included a trip to Utah, which (of course) had to include getting together with the Page cousins.  We brought down our Halloween cookie cutters and made cookies with the girls.  Leah managed to lick the frosting off of at least 3 cookies.  A right of passage for any 18-month-old, I'd say.


Jake is in this major building phase (more on that on an upcoming "what I love part II" post), but lets just say that he turns just about everything into a tool these days.  Case in point: a small magnetic ball attached to a small magnetic rod becomes a hammer, of course.  See that squint in his eye when he's really concentrating?  His preschool teachers thought he must be having more vision problems and really encouraged (read: pressured) me to get his vision checked again.  They were sure he couldn't see well up close.  This was a little disconcerting to me because at last check Jake was extremely near-sighted.  If he couldn't see things far away, and now couldn't see things close up, well, what could he see??  I tried to tell them that he always makes this face when he's concentrating, but they weren't buying it.  So I took him in for a checkup.  Turns out he can actually see slightly better than last time, so his squinty little face is just...well...a squinty little face!


Thursday, December 16, 2010

September Fun

September was a busy, fun time of year.  Jake started his new preschool, and was so excited to be back.  The woman holding his hand is Mrs. Betty, who is a helper in his classroom (and who also happens to have a son with Down syndrome-cool!)  She is Jake's favorite.  Many times after school Jake has wanted to "play teacher" and he always wants to be Mrs. Betty.  He also loves his teacher Mrs. Carrie, who is great with the kids.  The woman bending down is Mrs. Heather, the occupational therapist.  She is a wonderful lady who loves Jake too.
 Early mornings brought beautiful sunrises.  Neither of these photos have been edited at all.  The view is looking out our patio door across the field.  Awesome!



Now for some random events:

 Jake gets sent to time out in this corner.  He has to face the corner because he gets too distracted looking around the room to think about why he's in time out.  Leah thinks it's a fun game and always tries to run to time out with him.  It cracks me up (Jake too), which may defeat the purpose of time out, but oh well. 

And speaking of Leah, she found Kennedy's goggles and was obsessed with them for about a week.  She climbed in the bucket and Kennedy pushed her around.  I thought she looked an awful lot like an old-school aviator.  What did I laugh at before I had kids?  I can't remember. 

Another morning I heard some serious giggling coming from the computer room.  It turned out Leah was having her first go at playing doctor with Jake.  She would put the stethescope on him and just start giggling and giggling.  It was so cute.  Jake was a great patient, laying so still and coughing at just the right moments. 


Kennedy came out of her room one day saying she was "sooooo cold."  But instead of changing into, oh I don't know, warmer clothes, she decided to get her winter gear on and then fashion herself a pair of boots made of.....diapers.  A little tape and ribbon and viola!


A part of September that wasn't so great was that I got really sick.  It started in the evening with a fever, body aches, and chills.  The next morning was worse and I couldn't even get out of bed.  Kennedy stayed home from school mostly because I didn't have the strength to get her ready.  She was a great helper for me that day.  Mid-morning I was laying in bed and I kept hearing a "ker-plunk" sound coming from the kitchen.  It sounded like a small rubber bouncy ball hitting the floor and then bouncing away.  Which is what I assumed it was.  Although the amount of giggling and laughter I heard coming from the kitchen was susupicious.  So I dragged myself out of bed, held on to the walls as I walked to the kitchen, and found this:
I had asked Kennedy earlier to get Jake and Leah some grapes for a snack.  Little did I know she had gotten out all the grapes, left them on the table, and went happily back to the computer room to play her game.  Well, Jake and Leah had found all the grapes, and were sitting on the edge of the table, feet swinging merrily as they plucked each grape and threw it across the room, laughing hysterically as it "ker-plunked" on the floor and dribbled away.  Oh boy.  Good thing my camera was right on the counter.  I have to say, if I hadn't been so sick, I would have been laughing hysterically too.  The kitchen floor covered with grapes?  Not so hysterical.  Kennedy was a trooper though and helped me clean them up.

And finally one more funny moment.  Leah was eating her yogurt while I was changing the laundry.  I heard Kennedy yelling for me.  I came to find Leah's lovely finger painting on my door and Kennedy being the ever-watchful big sister pointing out her little sister's evil doings.  Leah was giving me a look like, "What?  You took too long and I want down!"


August Stuff

Catching up again on some things....here are some random things from August of this year:

Brian took this photo of the "twins" having a great time on the kitchen table reading the newspaper and finishing breakfast (let's just say I was at work).



 
On another morning I went to get Leah out of her crib and found her like this:
 
She has started to undress herself and it always starts with the p.j.'s.  Don't ask me how she did it without undoing the snap and zipper first.  I guess those jammies and super stretchy.

And finally, there's nothing like a couple of watermelons to get the kids going.  They had a great time sitting on them, rolling on their tummies on them, and just rolling them around on the floor.  Who knew watermelons could be such great entertainment?

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

A lot of Randomness

Oh boy, it's been a long time since I've posted.  The year is quickly wrapping up and quite frankly, there are a lot of things this year I don't want to remember (hence I won't write about them), but there are even more things I do.  Namely, my awesome little family.  Also a few great trips to see extended family in Utah.  And of course the fact that we have a roof over our heads, food to eat, and our health.  And speaking of food to eat,  I am, at this very moment, eating a concoction of goodness that a good friend brought over last night that includes popcorn coated in some kind of creamy, candycane goodness with mini chocolate chips.  YUM!

I am going to try and update the blog a bit during the holidays, so here is my first attempt.  These photos come from a day on September 1st of this year when we were just playing outside.

 This was really fun because it was the first time these two had gotten on the tire swing together.  They loved it and were laughing a lot and having a great time.




(of course they had to come in for a big drink.  Jake and Leah always have to stand in the same way and the same spot when they're both getting a drink.  It's usually standing against the kitchen cupboards, but this day they decided to shake things up a bit, I guess).
        This is a lame post (besides the adorable pictures), but I'll publish it anyway.  It must be because it's not midnight or something :)