Last First Tooth

Sophie's first tooth has made its appearance. This is the last time we'll be celebrating a first tooth milestone. I tried to get a picture of the tooth itself, but, well.... that's impossible. So instead, I snapped this precious little pose. I mean, seriously, what a doll.

So, Travis really loves school. Every day I pick him up and ask him how his day was, and he responds, "Great!!"..... with enthusiasm. So I was a little surprised to hear his story today. He was as happy as he always is, told me his day was "great!" as per usual, and then when I asked him what they did today, he proceeded to tell me about recess, and the boy who throws rocks at him. He said this little boy always throws rocks at him when they go to recess (I think they've done it about 4 or 5 days, when it hasn't been rainy). He told me that he always has to hide at recess time to get away from the boy who throws rocks at him. I asked if the boy throws rocks at everyone and he said no, he chases everyone else and roars at them, but that he only throws rocks at Travis. I asked if the teachers saw it and he said, "no, the teachers watch all the other kids but they don't watch me because they know I'm always doing good stuff."

So, we had to handle our first bullying issue. So Travis and Ben and I sat down and talked about what Travis could do in this situation where he wouldn't have to hide, and he wouldn't have to throw rocks back at the kid, but could solve the problem. We decided he should let the teacher know when it happens, and we practiced dealing with it (I got to be the rock-thrower... Ben was the teacher, and I think he was a little bitter about it. He totally wanted to be the bully.) Then we talked about asking the kid to stop throwing rocks to see if that worked. So I told him to try one of those the next time it happened and we'll see where it goes. I think I'll see what happens tomorrow and then see if I need to mention it to the teacher on Wednesday.

The good thing is, Travis didn't seem upset about the issue at all. He said he thinks the little boy throws rocks at him because he (Travis) talks to two little girls about what they are doing. I have no idea if this is accurate at all but it is certainly interesting. But he seems relatively okay with the whole issue, still loves school, and hopefully we can nip this in the bud reasonably easily.

Yesterday, Noah and Travis were jumping and dancing around, and Noah tripped and bonked his forehead square on a speaker. Giant goose egg and bruise. And, of course, we've got family pictures scheduled for Wednesday. This is almost like the time I got a black eye three days before Ben and I got our engagement photo taken. Almost, except Ben didn't cause Noah's injury. In my case, Ben elbowed me during a game of bball at the rec center and knocked me out. (Note that we were on the same team. He's ruthless.) I remember it vividly. It was St. Patrick's Day weekend and everyone else was partying at the bars while I was throwing up at home from a concussion. Ahhh, memories.

daddy's little boy

Noah - 1 yr

Ben - 1 year

Noah - 2 yrs

Ben - 2 yrs

Take Aim

Went to go see a band last night. A friend of mine from back in the day. We met at a random karaoke bar about about 6 and a half years ago, and for a while, were inseparable every Thursday night. At any rate, she's now got her own band and puts on a pretty frickin awesome show.

On the agenda for today: replace water heater. And perhaps nap.

Ahh, cold showers

Went to Travis's Back to School night at his pre-school this week. I really like his new school, and he loves it also, which is great. I did, however, get a little emotional worrying about his speech perhaps being an issue. I finally heard from the feeding / speech therapist at the hospital this week, we're working on getting an eval scheduled for next week and can hopefully get some more progress underway.

Surprised my baby sis at her going away party last night, she's moving to Texas next month so I drove to Indy to see her. I think she was surprised and happy, and a good time was had by all.

Drove back home from Indy this morning to find our water heater is on the fritz, no hot water for us. Shopping for a new water heater. That's good though, because we haven't been spending enough money lately what with jeeps and pre-school and kitchen remodeling and back-yard fencing and all. I'd hate for our savings account to get too comfortable.

(end sarcasm)

Family photos scheduled for Wednesday, hooray.

Time to put the kids for a nap and get in the hot tub. Not quite the same as a hot shower, but, well, desperate times...

Pih-larious

I'm adding another post tonight, because Travis just called me up to his room. At first I yelled upstairs to "go to sleep!" but he hollered back down, "Mom! I just have to tell you this pih-larious thing!" (of course assuming he means hilarious). It went as follows:

"its about a dream I had back when I was two. We were in Canada, at that little cabin we went to the first time, and Blue and Joe were dressed up like bad men, and they knocked on the window and I said 'no!' and they did that one hundred times and i just said 'no!' and then they took off their outfits and did it again and i said 'yes!'"

That's all. Good night.

Obligatory first day of school pictures

Well, I just wouldn't be a real mom if I didn't post my proud pictures of Travis on his first day of pre-Kindergarten. (On a side note, the term "pre-Kindergarten" really bothers me. I can't imagine there is a whole heck of a lot of difference between pre-school and pre-K -- they say pre-K is designed to prepare them more for kindergarten, which of course is designed to prepare them more for 1st grade...what kind of preparation exactly do they need to be prepared to prepare for first grade? Why is that different than what pre-school prepares them for? How many times can I use the word prepare or some derivation thereof in one rambling tangent?)

Anyway, in my effort to be just like every other mom, here they are:

dressed and ready to go

at school

He did good, school went well, he was picked to do the calendar on the blackboard which is very fitting since he loves calendars. I asked if they had a snack, and he said "yes, cupcakes, but I only licked the frosting." That's my boy.

I think the ordeal was much harder on Noah than it was Travis. When he realized Travis was not going to be joining him at ya-ya's house this morning, he was not to be consoled.

Fence-ing

Just a couple of pics of the boys hanging out with cousin Trevor.

A good time was had by all. Meanwhile, the 'big' boys went to the hardware store to pick up fence supplies with the lofty goal of getting our backyard fenced in by Saturday before our get-together this weekend that includes umpteen children.

Workout update: I am finally back into the strength training routine, which you may recall I suspended during my weight loss competition at work. (I came in 8th, by the way, out of about 40, not terrible but I was expecting better.) I'm so glad to get back into lifting because the cardio binge was really starting to get... boring. I spiced it up as much as I reasonably could between, running, ellipticalling (which my fitness wizard calls 'striding' but I prefer my made-up word), rowing, cycling... but still I'm ready for the variation that the strength training provides. So I lifted for the first time in about a month today and definitely feel more invigorated.

As for the weight loss competition, it was a 12-week ordeal, I lost about 16 pounds.... generally lost between 1 and 2 lbs per week -- I know, I know, that's what the experts recommend, and that its more likely to stay off than if I had wild weight swings. But I was still disappointed because I felt like the lbs should have been coming off easier. I told someone tonight that I felt like my body was saying, "yeah right, like you're not just going to get pregnant again and ruin all this hard work....i'm not giving in that easily".

So anyway, the plan is to continue with this routine and keep up the hopefully 1-2 lbs per week momentum, which should get me to my goal in another 3 months or so. Here's hoping.

Countdown begins

Tonight, Travis told me "I wish I had a necklace with you and dad on it, so I wouldn't miss you so much when you went to work."

Wow.

We went to a beach party last night, pretty cool... they dumped a ton of sand (actually 1,500 tons if you believe the news report) in an otherwise empty parking lot right downtown. Last night was family night, games, balloons, face painting and whatnot for the kids.

School starts in five days. I am not prepared.

Zoo Day

Took the boys to the zoo today, I wanted to squeeze another trip in before school starts.

Noah in the butterfly room. He loved all the butterflies. (Or buttah-byes, as he calls them.)

Travis and his new elephant cup. He's very proud.

Wagoning

We also did pony rides at the zoo, on a little pony named Peanut. All the way out to the car, Noah kept repeating, "I got to ride the peanut"....

Ben's working late tonight again, the week before school starts is always really hectic for him. Work has been really crazy for me too, all sorts of insanity going on there. Not necessarily bad, but.... crazy. I'll just leave it at that.

Speaking of work, I believe I'm fairly fully transitioned into my part-time role. It's weird thinking that I only work part-time... for so long I've considered my job to be so much of who I am, I didn't think I could reconcile that with being a part-timer. In fact, I was filling out a form the other day, and I actually had to 'x' over the "full-time employment" box that I'd automatically checked. Now, I do consider this a short-term situation only -- I'll be full-time again in less than 5 years, I'm sure -- so I'm still a full-timer at heart, I think. I actually really enjoy my job, craziness and all.

I think Sophie's going to be an early walker. I can't stop her from pulling up onto things now. She is no longer content to crawl around anymore.....she wants up. She's determined to be one of the big kids.

Standing

Not standing

Birthday Cake!

Noah found a tiny green pom-pom today, which he insisted on placing directly atop Sophie's head. Then he stepped back and proudly exclaimed, "Birthday cake!!" Now, I don't know if he was calling Sophie a birthday cake or what; or maybe he thought she was ready for a birthday cake. I have no idea, really.

See it? It's there, I promise. I told you it was tiny.

In other Noah news, he's now taken to calling me by my first name. Not on a regular basis, but occasionally, mostly when he's asking me for something. Take this picture, for example, which I snapped while he was saying in his cutest two-year-old voice, "can I have some waffles, please, Diane?"

This kid is really kicking it up in the personality department. I mean, he's always been a charmer, but it seems like he figures out a new way to be adorable every stinking day.

This weekend I took Travis 'uniform' shopping for his new Pre-Kindergarten class, which starts in less than two weeks. He looked like such a big little kid in his button-up shirts and navy blue pants. So hard to believe I'll be sending him off to school every day here soon.

Still haven't gotten him into the feeding therapist yet, the waiting list is ridiculously long. I'll be so relieved when this issue is over. Tonight I did get him to try some carrot fries, which he choked and gagged down to the best of his ability ... but it still is a very stressful ordeal.

Time to rummage through the medicine kit. Bad headache.

A day of glue and vinegar

It's official. Travis is a reader. He read a whole library book by himself today. Of course, he's been reading for a while now, but rarely has the patience to go through an entire book. Pre-kindergarten, here we come.

Nothing much exciting to talk about. I steam-cleaned the carpets today. Also, did crafts. And a volcano. You know, the usual.