That Kind of Day

I'm trying to find a Daisy Girl Scout troop for Hannah to join. I was a Girl Scout for over 10 years (more like 15+ years if you count all the years I tagged along with my mom's troop as a toddler and the summers I worked as a camp counselor), and I really enjoyed it. Well, I contacted the administrator at Hannah's school to see if they had a troop this year like they have in years past. Here's the response I got.

"The answer is yes and no. There is a Third grade mom who did it last year and she is going to do it this year, but only for the elementary girls because she said when they did it with kindergarten girls it was just too big of a group.

Personally, I recommend checking and seeing if there is a troop at the school she will be attending for grade school. Although troops are started in schools, it's my understanding that anyone in the community can join. If that works out she will already be establishing friendships for next year."

I understand, there are approx 12 elementary age girls and 20 kindergarten girls. An optimal Brownie troop has 10-15 girls, so excluding the kindergarteners is reasonable. My issue is what I have marked in red... We are hopeful that Hannah will be chosen to go to MONTESSORI next year. So this statement was kind of a slap in the face. Granted 80% of the kindergarteners WILL go to another school, so I'm hoping she said it this way for simplicity.

***
Yesterday was Elijah's second time at gymnastics, and it was a horrid experience for both of us. I had to wake Elijah from a nap when it was time to leave. He refused to wear his Crocs (the only shoes he can take on and off by himself). He started screaming as I helped him remove his tennis shoes and socks before class. He screamed some more when I got his name tag (he wanted to pick someone else's). He was reasonably calm when I handed him off to the teacher. Then I had to take him potty (fun while holding Leah since I have to pick him up so he's tall enough to pee in the toilet). I got him back to class and I thought all was well. He got scared when he was walking across the balance beam, and he started to cry. A little bit later, it was his turn to run down a long trampoline and jump into a pit filled with foam. When he got to the jumping off point, he decided he didn't want to jump. He was fine until the teacher removed him from the trampoline... that's when the REAL screaming started. His teacher did ask me if I wanted him or if I thought he should stay, and I opted to let him stay (Leah was being difficult enough at this point, and we had to wait for Hannah anyway). When class was over, and the teachers were putting stamps on the kids' hands and feet, I heard Elijah yell, "I DON'T WANT A STAMP!!!!!" I promptly removed him at that point. So, today, I got a phone call from Hannah's gymnastics teacher who is in charge of the little kids' program. She said that Ms Danielle (Elijah's teacher) thought he would do better in the 'mom and me' class. Great. That is not going to happen since I have Leah too. I did explain that he did fine the first week of gymnastics, but yesterday was a fiasco. She said to give it one more week, then we can take him out (with a refund) if it doesn't go well. I can honestly say, that I've never gotten a phone call about Hannah. Is this what it's going to be like to have a boy in school and activities?? All I can say is "Yikes!"
***

Every morning when we leave for school Elijah says something about not wanting to go to school... Thankfully, when I pick him up he tells me how much he loves it!
***

Today Leah tried to eat a dead spider, but I didn't let her finish it. Elijah and I were both pretty grossed out!!
***

After we picked up Hannah things got better. Daddy came home, and we all went to the library. Hannah got about 8 chapter books for me to read to her (love those Magic Treehouse and Junie B. Jones books!!), and both kids picked out some DVDs for the weekend. Then we went out to eat at our favorite restaurant. YUM!

Elijah at Montessori

Elijah's teacher has a private blog that she updates daily. Here are the pictures of Elijah so far.


This is Elijah getting ready to do his first work on the first day of school. I'm not sure what the grumpy face is about since I know he was ecstatic.


Snack time!


Elijah and classmates looking at the classroom toads.


A grasping work.


Another snack on another day.


Walking the line.


More snack, it happens every day.


Elijah with the sewing apple which is like a 3D sewing card. This is his favorite work. I hear that now there is a sewing cheese out to work with.


Here are the newest additions to the class, Pit Pat and Scribbles. I believe they are gerbils, but they look like rats to me!


Here Elijah is sorting animals into land animals, water animals, and air animals.

"Windsday"

I have to write down this little Elijah-ism before I forget it! When I took him to school this morning, I opend the van door and a nice, cool wind (see, whoever heard of such a thing in AUGUST??) blew across his face. He said, "It's windy! It must be Wednesday (you know winds-day)!!" A few days ago he told me it must be Sunday because it was sunny...

Autumn or August??

Forget that my kids started school more than a week ago, that shouldn't change the fact that it SHOULD still be summer. Look at the calendar, there is a full month before fall starts. So, why, why, WHY are the leaves in my yard starting to turn red and fall off the trees? Has the earth moved in it's orbit around the sun? Are the days suddenly shorter than a normal August day? (FYI, the amount of daylight is what causes the leaves to change colors and fall off... at least that's what I learned in school) We have noticed that now it gets dark at 8pm (I'm sure back home in Oklahoma it's still light at 9pm or even later!!), and it looks like the trees have noticed as well. I've certainly enjoyed the temperate August we've been having... but I don't look forward to the dreary gloom that is Indiana in the winter.

Sure there is still lots of green in the trees, but our lawn is also dotted with fallen leaves. I don't recall this sort of thing happening last year (or the 2 years before that), but maybe I was preoccupied with Leah... she was pretty new this time last year.

Sharing

Why is it that he can't share a toy to save his life, but he'll share his peanut butter cracker with his baby sister? At least he did ask first, and he was concerned that she might choke on it.

We Have a Climber

This was from this morning...


and this was from this afternoon.

I think it's official, we have a climbing baby! I'm not quite sure what to do since the other two were happy to keep their little feet on the ground. I suppose the kids will soon learn that NOTHING is safe.

Matching Dresses

The matching twirly dresses that I bought the girls from Hanna Anderson arrived today. I had Hannah try hers on so she could see how twirly it is. Elijah was so distraught that he couldn't have a twirly dress... "WHERE'S MY DRESS?? I WANT TO TWIRL!!!" I finally caved and let him try on Leah's dress (which is a little big on her, but definitely wearable).

I can honestly say that I never thought I'd have a picture of Hannah and Elijah in matching dresses!!


They twirled and danced with each other for a while.


Then when it was time to get dressed, they decided to SWITCH clothes with each other! I didn't think Elijah's shorts would fit on Hannah's 'junk-in-the-trunk' bottom, but they did... They will probably spend the rest of the afternoon pretending that Hannah is Elijah and Elijah is Hannah...

Did I mention that Pete has been out of town for the past week? He gets home tomorrow, and I'm thinking of leaving the country for a month or so sans kids!

Box Pushing and Pig Tails

Elijah thoroughly enjoyed pushing Leah around the house in the box... Leah had a blast as well!


I finally got around to buying some tiny rubber bands for Leah's hair. I recently realized that her hair was long enough for pigtails. I'm impressed with the improvements that have been made to baby hair products since Hannah was a baby, these actually work!


All three kids have this kooky cowlick/part in their hair. It makes it nearly impossible to have pigtails come out even. Anyway, she looks pretty cute!! But they don't last long. Once she realizes that they are in, she pulls them right out... and tries to EAT the rubber band.

First Day of School!!

Today is Hannah's first day of kindergarten and Elijah's first day of preschool. They were both pretty excited this morning! Isn't this a cute picture?? Elijah wouldn't let me hold his hand once we walked through the door, he was READY to get to class. So, his drop off was super easy. Because not all first year students are as independent as Mr. Elijah, parents are not allowed to linger. That was kind of a bummer since my kid wasn't going to be throwing a screaming fit about being left... Then Hannah and I dropped off her lunchbox in the cafeteria and went to her classroom. Last year was a transition to a new teacher (Montessori students have the same teacher for three years), so this was the first time we'd seen the classroom set up the way Miss Beth wanted it. Hannah was a bit unnerved by the changes in the room (how unlike Elijah she is in that regard!!), but she saw several of her friends and that helped. I did linger for a minute until she was almost adjusted (I knew that the second her best friend, Daniela, arrived she'd forget about everything else). I left the school with just ONE child in tow. We drove to Target and did a little Elijah-free shopping. Just before lunch I'll pick up Elijah, and at the end of the school day we'll go get Hannah.

I'm very excited about Elijah's teacher, Miss Sarah. She has a classroom blog that she updates nearly every school day. Miss Beth (Hannah's teacher) isn't the computer-phobe that last year's teacher was, so maybe she'll start a blog as well.

The Kids' Check Up

I took all three kids to the doctor today for their check ups. Let me tell you how much fun that was... Actually, it wasn't too bad. Our doctor has four daughters and is very understanding of toddlers, so that's nice.

Hannah has done the most growing this year (well, except for Leah, lol). She's now 44 inches tall and she weighs 44 lbs (easy to remember!!), she's now in the 54th percentile. She's grown almost 4 inches and gained 5 lbs in the past year!!

Elijah is now 36 inches (he's a YARD tall!) and weighs a tad over 30 lbs. He's in the 30th percentile which is higher than last year. He's gained 4 lbs and 3 inches this year.

Leah is 29.25 inches and 19.3 lbs. Her height is in the 30th percentile, but her weight is only in the 10th! She actually weighs half a pound LESS than Hannah did on her first birthday, but she's nearly 2 inches taller! Wow, I don't think anyone who has seen Leah would describe her as skinny, lol!!

Each kid also got one vaccination today. Boy, do I hate vaccines! I hate making the decision whether or not to inject my child with known poisons, metals, and electively aborted fetal tissue... However, since I don't feel I'm an expert on infectious diseases either, I opt to delay and selectively vaccinate. Leah had her first shot ever today, a DTaP, and Hannah and Elijah both got an MMR. That MMR just terrifies me. I've just read too many autism horror stories... Hannah had no problems with her first dose, and I'm sure Elijah will be fine too.

Elijah Met His New Teacher

Here are Hannah and Elijah standing outside of THEIR school this morning. Elijah had his "interview" with his new teacher, Miss Sarah.

When we walked in, Miss Sarah greeted us and complimented Elijah on his shirt (it has a frog on it and the word 'ribbit'). She took him to the classroom while Hannah, Leah, and I waited in the office. During that 30 minutes, she showed him how to do several "works", introduced him to the class pets, explained how the classroom was set up, and where the bathroom was located. I believe one of the works was a hand washing tutorial :) Afterward they came back and took us to the classroom and showed us what he had learned.

Miss Sarah was impressed with Elijah's vocabulary, especially his knowledge of tertiary colors (aquamarine specifically). She said she was honored to be his teacher. I don't know if she realizes that we requested her to be Elijah's teacher...

I don't know that I'll get a chance to take pictures on Wednesday morning (Hannah's first day of kindergarten!!!), so I took the above picture today. I will certainly try to get some on Wednesday, at least on the front porch, but I know that the school will probably be utter chaos.

Bowling

Some of the kids in Hannah's class got together today to go bowling and eat lunch. It was a good time, but it takes a LONG time for 15 people to bowl on two lanes!!

Here is Hannah and her best friend Daniela.


Here is Hannah and her future husband (according to him), Walker


Montessori kids

OH! MY! GOODNESS!

That little Leah of ours is turning out to be something else!! Today we ooo-ed and aww-ed over her ability to climb two steps... Later, when the rest of us were busy doing our own thing (and we all assumed Leah was playing on the floor by Hannah where we last saw her), she climbed the entire flight of stairs, wreaked havok in the kids' bathroom, and was playing in the toilet. I got up to look for her and couldn't find her. I asked, "Where's Leah?" and no one even heard me. There was an unidentified noise coming from upstairs so I ran to see what it was... Leah had her arm caught in the toilet (the seat had fallen on her arm while she was reaching into the water)and she was starting to squawk about it.

So, now we have a new rule. ALL bathroom doors must be shut at all times since the upstairs is no longer safe. We need to work on teaching Leah to crawl DOWN the stairs now, and things will be good.

I know Elijah was crawling up the stairs when he was Leah's age, but I don't remember him being so sneaky about it! She is definitely a toddler now even though she's not yet walking. She'll probably take her first step in a few weeks if she's like the other two, but probably won't walk for a couple more months... I miss the stage where she sat in one place and quietly played with her toys... oh wait, that was Elijah :)

New Kitchen and Haircuts

Leah's birthday present finally arrived. I should have taken pictures of the process of constructing it! It was the most complex thing I've ever built (the entertainment center was a close second though). It arrived in a flat box and started out as just pieces of pastel colored particle board. The plastic box of hardware had broken open and there were screws and whatnot strewn throughout the packaging. It took me a good hour to unpack the box and make sure ALL the pieces were there (amazingly they were!) and another two hours to construct. It was well worth it though because all three kids just love it!!


Since school starts on August 13th (sounds a bit early to me), Elijah and Hannah got haircuts yesterday. I decided to actually pay for Elijah's instead of doing it myself, and I have to admit that it looks a lot nicer then when I do it (but it costs $14 more!!).


Hannah just got a trim though I think more got trimmed off than the requested one inch. However, she hadn't had it cut since last August so she was more than due.