Six

This year Eliza wanted to try something different for her birthday.  She wanted her BFF to spend the night, instead of having a big party.  It was the first sleepover for them both.  C's mom assured me that I wouldn't have to drive her home at 3am and she was right; both girls were fine.  The girls decorated a birthday cake, then the three of us went to dinner at Phil's. We had cake after dinner and Papa and Grammy picked up Ezra for a slumber party of their own.  This turned out to be a great thing (even though I really missed him!) because about 10 seconds after the adorable tiara pic above, the girls ran off to Eliza's room and slammed the door in little brother's face, just as Grammy predicted.  I offered to take the girls to a movie but E decided they wanted to watch Brave and eat popcorn at home instead.  They slept in sleeping bags on the living room floor and giggled until about 9pm.  Then they woke up at 6:30 am and played Groovy Girls.  That afternoon all the grandparents and our best family friends came over for some cupcakes and to open presents.  E got a beautiful dress made by Grandma, complete with a matching dress for her doll.  She also got some My Little Ponies.  Even Ezra has been running around the house singing the theme song.  Uncle Eli stopped by that night and then both kids fell asleep early. 

Dia de los muertos

Eliza spent at least a couple of weeks working on projects for El Dia de los Muertos.  Her after school program was having a parade and a showcase of artwork.  She made a puppet, a mask and a maraca.  She was pretty stressed out about not finishing her projects on time. So, the event was last Friday.  Well, Ezra and I rushed over to get there in time and the "parade" lasted 2 minutes, tops, and the "showcase" was really just us picking up the artwork I'd already seen for days.  Anyway, I guess we all had it built up in our minds.  S felt bad that he got stuck in traffic and didn't make it in time.  I assured him he didn't miss anything.  Eliza looked very cute though. :)

Halloween

Wow, October flew by! Here are the kids, headed to a Halloween party and some group trick or treating!  I got the cutest group pic but I feel weird posting a picture of other people's kids without permission, so just trust me it was adorable.  On the way over the kids were singing along to Ghost Busters, although Ez sounded more like "dost dusters!"  This year Ez totally had trick or treating down pat, no more trying to wonder into strangers' houses like last year.  He did a great job of saying trick or treat and thank you and happy halloween.  Eliza wanted to trick or treat in our neighborhood after the party but when we got home at 7:30 she said she'd changed her mind and that she should go to bed at her normal time so she wouldn't be tired for her Dia de los Muertos parade today at school.  I was very surprised! Ez, on the other hand, bounced off the walls from the sugar high until 10pm.  I feel a little bad for his teachers today! :)

This snow man

When Ez sees a pic of a snowman, he starts singing, "This old man, he sings one, he sings knick knack on my thumb."  We finally figured out he's saying, "this snowman" instead and that's the connection.

This weekend he counted to ten old by himself and got every number right.  He's also been going potty on the potty chair at school and a few times for us at home.  He and his little friends all line up on their potty chairs together and read books.  It's pretty cute. 

1st in her class :)

This week was an exciting one for Eliza.  Everyone in Mr. Green's class has a card with their name on it.  They get a tiny sticker on their card for good behavior.  When their card is full of stickers, the child gets to choose a prize out of the treasure chest.  This week Eliza was the first in her class to fill up her card.  She very proudly chose a star shaped maze (approximately value 10 cents) that she's been carting around all week.  She brought it for show and tell at her afterschool program and her friends mom even texted to congratulate Eliza on being the first one.  Side note: I didn't even know they had show and tell after school.  Eliza remembered to bring something in all on her own; this is novel for us. :) Someone is shaping up to be quite the teacher's pet.

Rock Style

I keep noticing all these funny little sayings the kids have and thinking I should write them down so we remember them later.  So, here goes...

Eliza has been saying "Rock Style" instead of rock star for months.  I think I refer to someone as being a rock star more often than I'd like to admit.  i.e. "She runs every morning at 5am, then goes to work, then comes home and cooks from scratch- what a rock star!" Somehow that has turned into rock style in Eliza's mind.  Kinda adorable.

I noticed the other day she's been saying "So call me navy" instead of "Call me maybe" from that popular song.

Ezra has been running around saying, "I superman!!" all week.  He's also been saying, "I no go night night" and "Be nice to me."  He threw a pretty big fit yesterday.  The terrible twos are almost funny the second time around.  It's more like, "Wow dude, impressive tantrum- you're really going for it, huh?!  Let me know when you're done."  Doesn't phase me like last time.  Plus I know the threes are when it really gets tough, LOL.  He's getting very stubborn with clothing.  I do the whole "Do you want choice A or choice B?" technique but he just says he wants to wear his "Papa car" shirt or his "blue truck" shirt every day, even when they're dirty. 

Changes

Well, our oldest is officially an elementary school student.  Despite having to wake up much earlier than usual the past four days, she's still very excited and raring to go each day.  I'm sure once the excitement wears off she's going to be very tired (I am) but so far she's handling it like a champ. She's already making friends and getting stickers for good behavior. Ezra also started a new class but at the same preschool.  He is doing great in Ms. Katherine's class.  Ms. Katherine has 30 years of experience with two year olds and Ez is already super comfortable.  Having his best friend Jamey there helps and so does feeding his new class pet, GG the guinea pig.

 

I'll admit that these changes have been a lot harder on me than they have been on her.  Even though we chose the school she's attending because we loved it, public school is a big adjustment. We've spent over 3 years at a tiny co-op preschool that truly is a community.  We know the parents, kids and teachers very well.  We pick the kids up whenever we want. We stop by school whenever we want (i.e. every 3 hours when I was pumping).  It's next door to my office.  I spend 4 hours each week co-oping and know the dynamics between my kids and their classmates very well.  There are just a handful of kids in each class, plus a full time teacher, a parent helper and sometimes a part time college student teacher.  Now we've got a class of 22 kindergartners and a teacher who seems friendly enough but who has done very little communicating thus far.  Even though Eliza is having a great time, I'm not used to not really knowing what her day is like.  I'm used to calling up Ms. Madelynn (the preschool director) and her answering her phone immediately and having the answer to my question without even having to go ask a teacher.  So, adjusting will take some time, at least on my end.  In the meantime, take a look at these cuties. :)

 

 

Flying L

I totally meant to post this about a week ago, complete with lots of cute pics of the kids on horses, etc. but the pics are not on my phone and the post just didn't happen.  So, we capped off summer with our annual trip to Flying L Ranch.  This was our 3rd year.  It was our first year with just the four of us, usually it's a company sponsored trip but we went to a different ranch for that this year.  Eliza talks about Flying L all year so when we found out the company retreat wasn't there this year, we knew we wanted to go as a family instead.  I actually liked it better this way!  It was much more relaxing!  Eliza was super excited to see Mr. Buck, the guy at the ranch who leads the wagon rides, sings and plays guitar around the campfire during s'mores each night, etc.  I pulled Mr. Buck aside and told him that Eliza thought the two of them were super close so he went right up to her and said, "Eliza! Good to see you!" and she thought that was way cool.  Both kids got to ride the ponies this year (Brownie and Jelly Bean) and both kids were very into the water park.  Since we didn't have to go to the fancy company dinner on Saturday night, we got to go to "Ghost Town" and see a sheep dog in action, live music, face painting, archery and some pretty cool rope tricks. On the way home we stopped at Firehouse Subs and the kids traded in their cowboy hats for fire fighter hats instead. 

Take a chance, Zombie!

In the car on the way to school this morning, that song, "Honey I'm still free; take a chance on me!" came on the radio.  Eliza said it was weird there was a song about zombies (Dylan talks about zombies constantly).  I asked her why she thought it was about zombies.  "Because, Mom, it keeps saying 'take a chance, Zombie!'"  After I listened again, I realized she was totally right.  And now I'll probably never hear the song with its original lyrics. :)

MIA

Well, Eliza finally lost her first tooth.  Literally.  She went to see her friend Caroline's performance and right before the show started, she showed Caroline's dad her loose tooth.  Only when he looked he noticed it wasn't there anymore.  And it was nowhere to be found.  We think it fell out while she was eating a Nutrigrain bar and she swallowed it without realizing.  Luckily the tooth fairy came anyway. 

 

Parakeet

Eliza's teacher pulled me aside this morning to tell me a story.  Dylan's dad is getting his PhD in Cherokee Literature.  Sometimes Mr. Bryan teaches the kids Cherokee words while he's co-oping.  Yesterday Ruby asked why Dylan's dad always calls him "chooch."  Eliza explained that chooch means son in Parakeet.  She may very well think Mr. Bryan is getting his PhD in learning how to talk like a parakeet.  Love it. 

In other news

Eliza's tooth is very loose and we keep thinking today will be the day it falls out, but nothing yet!

 

Ezra working on his karate kid training.

Weekend at the grandparents

 

After a fun morning of indoor sky diving, we headed to B town to continue the birthday celebration. Grandma and Grandpa treated us to dinner and took us to see the play Willy Wonka.  Surprisingly enough, Ezra was completely mesmorized by the play and barely moved a muscle or made a peep for two hours! Of course Eliza thought the show was hilarious; S has already read her the book and she really enjoyed seeing it in action.  Ezra played trucks outside with Grandpa and Eliza made visors with Grandma.  Playing with the remote controlled recliner was also a big hit.

 

Morning

Morning Person

 

 

Not a morning person.  Check out that bed head.

Belly

The kids still love to snuggle in the mornings.  He only ate a little bit of the icecream; that "small" is bigger than his head!  This has been a fun week- nice that it's been rainy and cooler.  Twice this week we've gotten completely drenched, once on a walk home from the playground and once trying to get our groceries to the car during what can only be described as a downpour.  The kids thought me dashing across the parking lot pushing the cart as fast as I could was absolutely hilarious.  We've been wearing our rainboots a lot this week and puddle jumping too. 

JJ Baby

The kids got haircuts this weekend.  They look so much older after a haircut; it sort of depresses me.  Ezra's BFF had a baby sister last week.  Ever since I showed him her picture, Ezra has been carrying a doll around the house saying, "This JJ baby."  He feeds it, pats it on the back to go to sleep, the whole nine yards.  When he saw Lillie in person this week, his eyes got really big.  Eliza's swimming has improved dramatically the past few weeks.  She's been floating on her back a lot and swimming under water with her eyes open.  It's so thrilling to watch them learn new things.  The four of us went swimming last night and it was so much fun.  It's much more relaxing now that at least one of them can swim and the other is more likely to be convinced to wear his Puddle Jumper.  I still can't really take them anywhere more than 2 feet deep alone, but we're making progress!

4th

We had a fabulous little 4th of July.  The kids and I met Isaac and Sam and family at a neighborhood park for a little bike parade.  Ezra could not have been more excited about the firetruck.  We had icecream, got balloon animals and played on the playground.  Then the three of us had a quick lunch and met Papa and Grammy at this awesome pool near their house.  It was full of slides and water playscapes and we can't wait to go back! Papa and I both braved the big waterslide and the high dive, which the kids thought was hilarious.  I'll admit my stomach dropped a bit when I saw how high up I was, but seeing the kids watching intently from below, I knew I couldn't back out! :) Ezra fell asleep as soon as we got in the car and then Uncle Jason came into town and we got to meet his friend Claire.  She brought cookies, so she was instantly a hit.  We all went to Paco's for dinner and met back up with Isaac et. al at our favorite fireworks viewing spot with a picnic.  Of course waiting for it to get dark is always a challenge for the kiddos.  Poor Sam passed out right before the fireworks finally started.  Ezra had no problem staying up and was full of ooohs and whoas! Both kids were (for once!) sleeping in when I left for work this morning.  They're both very excited about having a special day just with Daddy today. 

Are You My Mother?

The next time you see Ez, ask him if he's your mother.  His response cracks me up.  In the book, the bird asks a bunch of different animals, "Are you my mother?" and each animal has a long response, "How could I be your mother?  I am a cow."  Ezra doesn't wait for that part.  He immediately and emphatically answers "NO!" Maybe you have to see it for yourself, but I promise, it's funny. 

He also really likes Little Blue Truck a lot lately and will say, "Beep beep beep; I'm stuck; I'm stuck!"

Last night we had a Monday night Dance Party.  Both kids are really good at singing along to All the Single Ladies, Hey Ho, and Stompa.  The Stompa lyrics seem particularly appropriate this week. 

I love this pic of Ez eating one of Daddy's father's day donuts.  It very closely resembles the picture of Eliza with a pink sprinkle donut taken the day before Ezra was born.  Poor second kid- I now think nothing of giving a 2 year old a donut and juice that isn't even watered down!  My, how things change. :)

Beach

We had a great long weekend at the beach, including one of the fanciest restaurants the kids have probably ever been to, a trip to the pleasure pier with Papa, Eliza and Daddy, in which Eliza was even more brave than our 2 roller coaster afficionados, a trip to the aquarium, a place that makes homemade icecream (actually the coin operated pony might have been the funniest part of the whole trip), trips to the pool, a whole lot of beignets and of course a lot of time building sand castles and jumping over waves. 

I'm 2!

We love you so much, Baby Boy!  Love the way you aren't scared of anything, how you pretend to be a snake and do the cobra pose and hiss, how you love to eat fried eggs, how you snuggle with your sister, how you yell "bus!" with a little lisp and "lellow!"  How you love to sing the slippery fish song and watch "Melmo."  How you pull people around by their finger when you want something, even how you throw your drink when you're done with your "wa wa."  How you are obsessed with trains, love the sprinkler and how you love to give hugs and kisses.  XOXO

Danger Ranger, Super Sister & Friends

Summer fun

Having a little Chinese food after a swim, at the splash pad, Ezra is not interested in sharing his Casey's snow cone, Eliza made everyone a special dessert for Ezra's birthday, The kids check out an ostrich seconds before it pecked Ez and cute siblings on their way to the Nature Center. 

Summer School

On the first day of every new "semester" at preschool, I take a picture of the kids in front of school.  These start pre Ezra.  I'm not going to lie- I got a little choked up taking this one, when I realized that in the fall semester, it will just be Ezra standing in front of this particular school. 

So long, training wheels!

Our little girl hit a major milestone last month!  She learned to ride a bike sans training wheels.  It happened much quicker than I thought it would.  One week night (the night Eli and I went to see David Sedaris) S decided to adjust Eliza's training wheels so that they wouldn't be on the ground anymore.  He thought she might be freaked out by seeing the training wheels totally off.  It worked like a charm!  He took both kids to a parking lot nearby and said she made it a few feet by herself.  (Of course I was mortified to have missed it but he swears he never thought she'd actually be able to do it right away) The next night we all went back to the parking lot.  He pushed her and off she went.  Without an hour she was going probably 50 yards without stopping!  He detached her training wheels and let her know she'd been riding without them for 2 days.  (Ezra kept trying to reattach them with tools, ha!)  We've been 4 or 5 times now and she even went all the way around lake park the other night.  She also got a kick out of showing off for both sets of grandparents recently.  Ezra has taken over Eliza's pink scooter and is riding it very well.  Family bike rides, here we come!

Round Up and Gardening

This week Eliza was officially "rounded up" for kindergarten.  I honestly thought it was going to be a little more exciting than it was, but at least S and Eliza got to tour a kindergarten class room while I stood in line with a bunch of paperwork.  A lot of documentation is required to register and I got a little choked up while digging up her birth certificate, social security card, etc.  I came across her  newborn hearing test she had initially failed and that set me off for some reason.  I told her a kindergarten related Super Sister and Danger Ranger story the night before and tried to be casual about it so she wouldn't be nervous.  I decided that me crying at registration probably wouldn't help her make new friends.  No need for her to get a reputation as the kid with the weepy mom.  But, once we got there, I snapped out of it pretty quickly.  Something about the bureaucracy of it made it hard to be emotional.  She already knows 5 of the kids starting kinder so that helped and randomly S ran into someone who went to his high school!  What are the odds of 2 boys from small town Michigan both transferring their 5 year old daughters to the same elementary school? 

We also started a small garden this week.  (Okay, we paid someone to start a garden for us.)  But still, Ezra did his best to "help" them install it and enjoyed the mud. 

I'm excited that Elevation Burger opened their new location finally.  Hooray for grassfed organic beef at a place with a playground!  Eliza was being so sweet with Ez on the playground.  She helped him up in the swing and pushed him without even being asked!  And she stayed close by when he was near big kids to make sure they were treating him right.  May is off to a very good start!

Bus!!

Oobleck is very messy when Ezra is around. :)

I never knew how exciting a 15 minute commute could be until I had kids with me in the car. Something about being in the car makes Eliza ask really deep questions.  The other day she blurted out, "Is it true that everyone dies?"  I almost choked.  She also asked last week why we have crosses all over town when Jesus died on a cross.  I said something about to remind us how much he loves us but confirmed that it is a bit weird.  If someone I loved was killed by a gun, I wouldn't wear a gun around my neck, right? 

Ezra gets very excited in the car now that he's forward facing.  He points out every truck and bus he sees.  "Whoa, BUS!!!"  Granted we pass about 50 in 15 minutes but he never loses his excitement.  I told Scott I think this is how Ezra is going to learn his colors.  I try to point out the color of the bus or truck now. 

Ezra has also finally gotten excited about books.  I've definitely felt some second kid guilt over my lack of reading to him.  We've read 3 books to Eliza every night since she was tiny.  And we've certainly tried to do the same with Ezra, but he usually won't sit still for more than 30 seconds and runs off mid book.  So, I hadn't been trying as much lately.  But, in the last week or so he's started climbing into his bed, pointing at his book shelf, saying book and patting his pillow so I'll come get in bed with him and read.  And he can finally make it through 3 or 4 books in a row without running away.  He definitely prefers books about automobiles, bugs and animals. 

Control

I had a bit of an aha moment this morning before the kids woke up.  See, the specialty children's sunblock I had ordered online arrived.  Now, we have plenty of sunscreen already.  But, last week I read an article about how we really needed this other kind because it was the safest and offered the best protection.  So I bought it.  And I realized this morning what I was trying to accomplish with all of this BPA free, organic, nitrate free, no hormones, paba free, no artificial colors, etc. etc. stuff all over our house.  I was trying to maintain control, trying to guarantee my kids would always be safe. 

And if I eat enough kale and cut down on my meat consumption and exercise regularly, maybe I'll be guaranteed to live until I'm 90 and by then my kids won't need me anymore. 

But, even if we do everything exactly right, there are no guarantees.  And we're never really in control.  Even if we homeschooled the kids, and never took them to the grocery store, or the movies, or to big events liked marathons in order to support loved ones and make memories, we can't guarantee they'll be safe.  And it's heartbreaking and frustrating.  And if we did keep them in a bubble, what kind of life would that be? 

So, we'll keep getting out there, taking small risks in order to live our lives to the fullest.  And, in the meantime, I'll change the station when the news comes on and try to keep the little ones from figuring out just yet how awful the world can be.  When they do figure it out, I'll remind them of all the good things and good people too. 

Parallels

Eliza has been on the cusp of reading for a while but she really made some progress yesterday. Both kids stayed home with S and when I got home from work, Eliza proudly read 3 of her Bob Books to me! Some of the words she memorized and some she sounds out.  She's doing a lot of inventive spelling too.  The other day she told me she'd figured out how to spell guitar- ctr. 

It's fun to watch Ezra learn how to talk at the same time Eliza is learning how to read.  They're on about the same level, so we'll play blocks together and Ezra will learn how to say car at the same time Eliza's learning how to spell car, etc. 

Funny girl

There are two songs currently being played on the radio a lot with the lyrics, "Keep your head up." Eliza cracked us up the other day after we met a newborn friend and she said, "Babies should listen to this song." :)

She's also been singing Gangnam Style a lot lately.

So the current fashion statement for the sorority girls on campus is to wear an extra large t-shirt with short running shorts.  One of the part time teachers at preschool, Ms. Emily, is a sorority girl.  (Side note: She's one of the Chi Os we met when they invited us to take shelter with them during the bomb scare.  She applied for a job at the preschool shortly thereafter.) When I picked Eliza up Thursday, one of the teachers said, "I was in a bad mood until I saw Eliza today.  She asked Ms. Emily in front of everyone, "Why don't you ever wear pants?!"  Ms. Emily apparently said, "I wear shorts, see?" to which Eliza replied, "Well, no one can see those!"  Mr. Steven said Eliza just said what everyone else had been thinking for months.

The Hunters

First, I have to say how much I love it when Eliza and I sing at the top of our lungs on the way to school.  Hearing her belt out, "This girl is on fire!!!" makes my heart smile.  And now, baby brother is getting in on the action.  He does his best to sing along with us, knowing few of the words.  His faves are "Ho Hey" and "All the Single Ladies." He also does a mean, "Row Row Row Your Boat" and "Head Shoulders Knees and Toes" complete with hand gestures. 

Yesterday was the Easter egg hunt at school.  Ezra was confused.  He eventually got the hang of it and put a few eggs in his basket, but mainly he wanted to play on the playground as usual and couldn't figure out why everyone thought cleaning up all those eggs on the ground was so fun.  At one point he wondered off to push a dump truck around and came across the egg he's seen holding here.  His face says it all, "Look, there's another one of those eggs over here.  And we don't even eat them?  Weird." 

Of course Eliza is a pro.  Her class was all lined up, ready to make a run for it.  She once again found the golden egg and suprisingly she even offered to share it with Ez.  The good news is the school doesn't put candy in the eggs.  The bad news is we now have about 2 million stickers, all cut individually, scattered all over the house.  The Easter egg at church last Sunday did involve chocolate and, let me tell you, eating just enough of it myself to cut down on her sugar but a small enough amount so as to not prompt her suspicion, is an art form.