How the Other TWO Spend Thier Day

So, there are two more still at home while Johsua is at school, and I thought I would let you all in on their day.  Sorry, there will be no pictures as I can not post pictures of them on the internet, because they are foster kiddos.  Believe me if I could post pictures I most certainly would!!

Here we go:

Wake up when Big brother does, because we all get the pleasure of taking him to school.  Get home from taking brother and then there is the big decision on what to eat for breakfast.  The oldest, who is 3 starts off with saying she wants cereal, after I get said cereal, she then changes her mind and says she wants waffles.  I make her waffles and when they are placed in front of her she proclaims they are not her favorite  and then I proclaim back that "I don't care, and its what she asked for so she needs to eat it!" Her response, because she always feels she has to have the last word is, "I asked for cereal!! 

Play in the living room with the oldest and youngest. Babies, tents, its up to her.  While trying to play with her, the baby plays her own little game of hide and seek.  Once I discover her and put her where I can see her and continue to play with the oldest, the littlest is off again this time I find her under the side table with all the magazines pulled down.  This is actually repeated several times through out the day. She thinks its the best game ever of course, I feel like I am on a never ending hunt and find mission.  Almost always there are tears from both the oldest and the littlest one.  Over what, you might ask?  I would like to know, myself, but when I ask the 3 yr old, she proceeds to tell me nothing every time.  Baby takes a nap or maybe not! I try to do a little bit of work or maybe not! Lunch is another one of those tough decisions.  Luckily the baby will eat just about anything I put in front of her, because I have to fight the battle with indesisive over what she wants for lunch.  It usually ends with PB&J and a banana.  Naptime for the oldest goes smoothly for the most part unless I forget to say quiet time and instead say naptime and then there is more crying, which only proves that she needs to take a NAP!!!  Baby sometimes decides to treat me and take a nap at the same time, which is HEAVEN!!!!  My "heaven" usually last about 45 minutes.  The baby gets up and starts demanding a snack.  The baby is only 10 months old, so when I say demand, I mean she asks using her signing of "more" and then if the food doesn't magically appear, she begins to slam her hands on the high chair and squeal, which eventually turns into a scream!  The oldest wakes up just in time for us to go pick up Joshua from school.  Load em up and move em out!  Baby screams and fights me because she doesn't want to get in the carseat, and the oldest forgot something that she just has to have for the 2 min car ride.  Finally, get to the school only to wait in the dreaded car pool line, to which should be faster, but it isn't.  There is not a groove to the system yet!  The baby falls asleep but then wakes up because the car stopped moving and proceeds to scream for the next 10-15 minutes while we wait, which I get to hear from the oldest, she is crying so loud, stop crying baby!  Oh, thank you for that!  I wasn't aware that there was a screaming baby directly behind me!!!  Big brother gets in the car and we head home or to therapy depending on what day it is.  You can see that it is quite eventful here with us 3 while brother is at school!  We all love when daddy walks through the door! 

We Survived The First Day of Kindergarten

 I have "We" in the title of the post, because I am including myself as having survived the whole day with minimal tears while he was at school.  The alarm went off at 6:00 this morning, but I was up around 5:45.  I woke Joshua up around 6:20 and I was a little nervous, because he is not the happiest person first thing in the morning, and pressuring him to hurry and something makes matters worse, but he did well with getting up and moving.  My nerves were all over the place, but I did my best to hide them.  When it was time for us to start loading up, he looked at me as he held his blankets and said "Mommy I am scared!"  I actually had to open the fridge and pretend to look for something while I tried to get myself under control, because I told myself not to cry in front of him.  Not because I dont like showing emotion, but it makes him nervous to see me cry and I didn't want that the first day.

 So we walked out the house around 7:15, took the famous first day of school pic, which he hammed it up for me!  We then loaded the car as a family of five and headed to take Joshua to school.  They can enter the school starting at 7:20, and we happen to be in walking distance, so it didn't take us that long to get there.  The front of the school was crowded!! Joshua squeezed my hand super tight, but I didn't mind, because at least he wanted to hold my hand( I know the day will come when he want, so I will take the circulation being cut off for now).  He seemed excited and kept smiling and jumping and giving me loads of hugs (sweet boy).

 After we walked in and signed into the office for our "vistor" tag, we walked to the cafeteria, this is where I think we both began to feel the reality of what was about to happen.  His table with class and teacher was right when we walked in.  We took 3 steps in and he froze.  Like his feet had glue on the bottom and he would move.  I knelt down and said it was going to be ok, we needed to go say hello to Miss Zuris, and sit down.  He still didn't move.  Finally, Dan was able to coax him forward.  He hid behind me the whole time, but eventually sat down.  His school provides breakfast for all the kids, so, even though he had already eaten breakfast at home, he chose to have some orange juice while he waited for the bell to ring. 

 Finally the moment came where we had to say goodbye.  I gave him a hug, ok I gave him like 3 long hugs, and then had to walk away because the water works started.  Dan assured me that when he looked back, Joshua was fine and drinking his orange juice.  The look in the picture below was what we got when we told him it was time for us to go and he had to stay all by himself.  Say What?!?!

I went on about my day, trying to keep myself busy, which wasn't too hard.  My schedule stays pretty full.  Joshua seemed to have a busy day as well(the class schedule looked busy, but fun).  2:30 couldn't come fast enough.  The carpool lane drove me absolutely insane.  I was the 6th car in line, and it was so chaotic that I saw Joshua come out, but I couldn't get out to get him.  So I waited and waited.  It was so hard seeing him sit there, but not be able to get him.  But, rules are rules and all that matters in the end is that I got him.  His teacher finally saw me waving and brought him to the car.  She told me that he had a great day.  When I asked him, he told me he didn't want to talk.  I was expecting that.  I am sure his brain was buzzing from everything that he had done today.  He finally told Dan that he had such a fun time on his first day of Kinder!  Tomorrow will be a whole new day, with me dropping off all by myself, and I think I will park and wait out front instead of sitting in the never ending carpool line.  So, I only cried the one time today, pretty proud of myself for that.  Joshua didn't cry or meltdown at all either!  So, I call that a win for everyone.  YAY for surviving the first day of school!!!

A Letter to My Kindergartner

Dear Joshua, as I sit here tonight on the eve of your first day of Kindergarten, I can't help but think back almost 6 years ago, holding you in my arms, just a few weeks old and thinking to myself Kindergarten seems so far away right now, but here we are!

                                These past 5 years have flown by!  I really do feel like I have blinked and now you are entering your first year of school.  I hope that your dad and I have taught you enough to feel confident with yourself, to know who you are and to stand up for what you believe in.  Your desk at school seems so big to me, but I pray it is the perfect size for you and that you become great friends with the ones that sit next to you.

 I hope that you shine brighter than the sun inside and out this year!  I pray that your sweet smile and spirit show others what a great friend you can be and are.  Your so funny and have the best spirit that spills out and takes over a room.  You brighten our day and I know you will brighten everyone's day you come in contact with.

 To be honest I am nervous for you, as a mom, I just want what is best and I wish that I could be with you the whole day.   I want to be there to protect you, to make sure that you eat your lunch and play well with your new friends.  It pains me that I can't, but I know this is one of those stages that I need to let go and let God!  He will be with you every step of the way, and I have to have faith that he will protect you like I know He will. 

It is your turn to shine, sweet boy!  I hope that you have the best first day ever and that your year is filled with fun, learning and laughter.  I pray that your dad and I did the very best we could these past 5 years and I know there are many more years to come and many more milestones to cross, but at this moment, for this year, I hope we did you right, and that you can walk in Robertson Elementary tomorrow, Aug. 26th with your head held high! We love you with all our hearts and we will be praying for you!  Mommy will shed a few tears, ok alot of tears, but I want you to know that you are my shining star and I am so very proud of you!!!!!

Oh How I Love Summer!

 

So far we have had a pretty good summer!  Lots and lots of things keeping us busy.  We work hard, but we play even harder.  As you can tell from the pictures above, we have gone to seaworld, gone swimming(lots of swimming), fed dolphins, tended to a garden and celebrated a friend's birthday!  We have a lot more summer left and therefore a lot more fun to be had!  I love swimming and the fact that my kids love it too and that when they get home they crash!  So, nice!!  I would have to say that this has been the busiest summer so far, but we are having fun! It could be a little bit cooler, but we are staying cool in the pool! :-)

It's A Zoo!!

 Above: Joshua and his friend Finn feeding the sheep

Below: Joshua with the chickens

 Above:  Joshua loved the baby goats!  This one was a twin!

Below:  Cutest boy holding the cutest goat I have ever seen!!

Joshua's little program or school that he attends had a petting zoo set up for the kids on Monday!  Joshua was extremely excited about this!  He kept asking me if there were going to be cows, horses and goats?  I told him that I didn't know what would be there, we would have to wait and see!  He told me that he thought there would be goats there for sure!  He was right!  All the animals in the petting zoo were babies!  Baby goats, bunnies, sheep, pigs, and chickens.  The chickens were older, but they were still gentle.  The kids in his class had a ball!  Joshua was not afraid at all, he was very anxious to get in there and get started petting all the animals!  This did not surprise me, because we have been to a couple of petting zoos before and he seemed very relaxed.  He was all over the place, feeding, petting and even holding a baby goat!!  The goat in the picture above was super cute and so gentle!  Joshua even got to bottle feed the goats and sheep!  I thought he would be a little nervous about that because they all came at him at once, but he just laughed and kept backing up.  I love that he is not nervous and was able to get excited about this activity.  He doesn't get excited about much, so it makes me happy when he does!!  This program has done wonders for Joshua.  I will post about that later.

One End to the Other

Sorry about the lack of blogging.  I usually try to blog in the evenings after the kids go to bed, but lately I have just not had it in me.  I didn';t realize it had been since March that I had put a post up.  So, on to this new post...


I have a 5 yr old son and a daughter that is 3 yrs old(that we are in the process of adopting).  It seems that God has given me two VERY different children.  I know that all kids are not a like, I just find it humorous as to who God gave me the privilege of raising.  So, I thought I would jot down some differences between the two, so I can have something to look back on one day.

My 5 yr old

*Quiet
*Timid
*Plays well by himself
*Does not necessarily want to play with others
*Social settings are not really his thing, but he is getting better
*Is all about Routine


My 3 yr old

*Loud
*outing going
*does not play well by herself
*loves to play with others for the most part
*Social butterfly after she warms up
*More go with the flow, could careless about a routine


None of these are bad qualities and it makes them who they are!  I just thought it was funny that God placed this sweet little girl with us and she could not be more opposite of our 5 yr old!

I guess it is true that opposites do attract, because they balance each other out and play very well for the most part(the sibling love/hate relationship).  God knew exactly what he was doing when he placed her with us and when he gave us our son 5 yrs ago. 

What's Happening in Pictures

                                                      Joshua as Captian America

                                    Baby girl found her foot for the first time and is also eating rice cereal

                                     My big boy enjoying some very blue ice cream with sprinkles

                                            Hanging out with family and each other

Rainy Day Activities

 

This weekend has been pretty yucky outside!  Friday was beautiful, but Saturday and today were overcast and cloudy and then eventually it rained!  So, to keep the kids from going stir crazy, ok, who am I kidding, to keep ALL of us from going stir crazy, I decided to break out a few "rainy day activities" for the kids to do.  A big thank you to Pintrest for all these wonderful ideas.  First, the kids made their valentines for the kids in their class.  I found this cute idea on pintrest to use a white crayon and write on paper "You blow me away" and then let the kids paint over the wording with water color and the message appears and then you attach it to some bubbles. Brilliant!  They turned out cute, but I think you have to stick to the light colors for the wording to show up really well.  Today, we are playing with "fluffy stuff."  It is like moon sand, but with cornstarch and shaving cream.  The kids are calling it snow and having a blast.  They are still playing with the "snow" as I am typing this blog.  I think they have been playing for about 45 minutes and when I ask if they are done, they scream: "NO!"  I will tell you that it is not the cleanest of indoor activities and I will not lie and say that I haven't had a couple of moments of "what the heck was I thinking", but they are having fun and that is all that counts.  I can always sweep and mop my floors and the kids will get baths, so it's all good!!  So, I would say that we kicked this rainy weekend's booty!

 

Hope everyone had a great weekend as well!!

Dan Flew and We went to the Zoo

 

If you recall in my last post I was hoping that our January would slow down a bit, well since the last time I blogged was back in December and it is almost February, I guess we can say that didn't happen!  We are a busy family of 5!  We try to have alot of down time on the weekend and try to do some fun things with the kids,since they work so hard during the week, with school and therapies.  So, last Saturday we went to the zoo.  The kids had so much fun, ok, the adults did too!  I love seeing the kids explore and get excited over seeing all the animals.  We made a day of it and we all had a great time.  Joshua's favorite part was the aquarium and L's favorite part was the Giraffes.  The baby, well her favorite part was being snuggled up in her carrier and sleeping almost the entire time. After our eventful day at the zoo on Saturday, we went to watch Dan "fly" at a place called "Ifly" it is basically indoor skydiving.  I bought him a gift card for his birthday.  The kids loved watching him in the wind tunnel and even said that they wanted to "fly"!  You only have to be 3, so technically they could have both gone, but we weren't sure if they were ready.  In fact, Joshua was about 5 minutes away from us buying him a time slot for the next group, but he decided he wanted to wait and do it some other day.  It was a fun filled weekend.  This is weekend is not as busy, so we will be able to take it slow, which is always good to do.

 

Sorry, I am not able to post pics of the girls' faces, so that is why all the pics are of the kids backs.  I did get some cute ones of them smiling at me, and maybe someday I will be able to post them!