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. 

Spring Break

We had a great Spring Break with lots of outings.  Some I got pictures of, some not so much.  We went to Dino Park for the first time and it was a great combo of intellectual for Eliza and plenty of space to run for Ez.  He roared at every dino we saw.  We went to the Waco Zoo with some friends and Eliza got very serious about keeping track of all the animals she saw with her Zoo Passport.  Ezra said a few new words while we were there, like alligator and elephant.  He also does an adorable impersonation of an elephant.  We went to the Botanical Garden and saw a bunch of Fairy Houses and got to cross some streams via rocks.  They loved exploring.  After the garden we headed to the nearby IHOP to stave off a hunger  meltdown and that pancake with a face on it might have been Eliza's favorite part of the whole week.  She also got to have her fingernails painted for the first time ever.  The Rodeo was a big hit once again; Eliza did a bunch of crazy rides with S and Ezra so wished he could join them.  I think we're going to have 3 roller coaster afficionados in the family.  We also had a few playdates and playground trips and met up with our neighbors at our favorite hang out. And we met up with some old friends for St. Patrick's Day festivities and our kids got to meet for the first time.  The balloon animals were a hit.  We also took E to a swim lesson but that wasn't exactly the highlight, unfortunately.  All in all a great week though.  I'm exhausted and the kids were very excited to be back at school this morning.  Ezra said, "Malachi!" when he saw his friend, gave him a great big hug and then ran off to play trucks.  Eliza wanted to show off her fingernails, painted green for St. Patrick's Day. 

Early Bird

Ezra and I have settled into a new little routine.  No matter what time he goes to bed, he always wakes up at the same time.  Eliza will stay up late on the weekends and sleep in the next day.  Not Ez.  Early mornings have become our one-on-one time.  If it's a week day, S is gone before we even wake up.  And if it is a weekend, I usually let him sleep in a bit, since he loses so much sleep during the week.  Usually Ezra and I eat fried eggs together and play trains or chase.  I'm slowly learning how to play with a boy, or at least this boy.  Growling, running, knocking things over and crashing cars or trains into each other is typically involved. 

This pic was not taken in the morning, obviously.  It's at the turtle pond, and I don't anticipate ever getting ready early enough to hit the turtle pond before work, haha.  This picture was from Friday after school.  I surprised the kids with a little Jamba Juice picnic at the turtle pond.  Ezra decided he wanted to keep some of the crackers for himself, instead of sharing with the turtles.  You can see why we need scar ointment.  Kiddo always has some sort of scab or scratch on his face!

February

Well, at least one of this year's mysteries has been solved- we know where Eliza is going to kindergarten!  I won't say which school it is, just in case more than 3 people are reading this blog, but at least 2 of our readers also attended this elementary school back in the day! ;) Her transfer request was accepted, which means we don't have to move and that Eliza will be at a wonderful little school we just love.  Yesterday she and I accompanied friends to "Poetry Night" at the school library.  E got to meet the school librarian and 2 more kids who will be attending kindergarten there.  It was fun to watch her body language change the minute we walked through the doors.  She was excited and her head held high, although she did say, "Wow, there are a lot of kids here," a bit apprehensively.  I drove both Eliza and her friend C to the school and C used Ezra's car seat.  I said something about adjusting the straps because Ezra is chubby and Eliza said, "Yeah, he even has to wear fat shoes."  She meant wide size but it cracked me up. 

We have decisions to make about Ezra's schooling as well.  He got a much coveted (150 toddlers on the waitlist just for his class!) spot at a nearby preschool.  I love our current preschool (took us 2 years to get in off the waitlist there initially!) but it's closed a lot (5 or 6 weeks of the year).  So, I toured this place when I heard we had a spot.  The quality of the schools seem similar but attending this new school would be a lot easier in some ways.  All food is provided by the school; it's not a co-op so much less parent involvement is required.  It would be more convenient.  But I wonder- is easier better?  Do I really want to be less involved in his life?  Yesterday I was helping out for a bit at his current school.  His teacher went home sick.  The floater teacher was also helping and I realized I could tell her almost everything necessary about the kids in his class.  I know who goes to sleep with a sippy cup of milk, which music everyone listens to at nap time, which kids will bite each other when they hide in the corner (that would be Ez and his BFF Jamey), etc.  It's impossible to have that same dynamic at this new, much larger school.  So, I have a feeling we'll stay where we are.  We love that little community, even if it is a lot work to balance everything. 

Ezra is putting 2 and 3 words together now, mainly things like "Go play!" "Get down"  "Let's go!" "I don't know."  He loves to close things and say, "Closed!" over and over.  He likes putting things away (and usually dumping things out again.)  He likes to do wild things and raise his eyebrows in surprise, then look at you to make sure you're watching.  Once he catches your glance, he gives a huge smile and it's so hard not to smile back when he's doing something dangerous but he looks so proud.  He's constantly covered in scrapes in bruises.  I just got some kids' scar prevention medicine because he needs it already!  After a great 7 hour trip to Oklahoma to see our favorite cousins, we learned that he's still a pretty terrible road tripper.  He hates to be confined.  He gives sweet sweet hugs and then 2 seconds later smacks you in the head with a block.  He keeps us on our toes, for sure! 

Dentist Part Two

Well, I certainly don't have any happy dentist pictures from this go around.  Eliza was totally calm going in, but then things took a turn for the worst.  Turns out she needed a crown and a filling.  They needed to sedate her.  I couldn't be in the room.  I did watch from behind a window at one point and it was really weird to see her all out of it with her mouth propped open.  The dentist and assistant both said she did amazingly well and was very calm.  Thank goodness.  As soon as she saw me though, she totally lost it.  Like, screaming and kicking full on tantrum like I've never seen before.  Eight different staff members came out of their offices to see what was going on.  The dentist said extreme anger was one of the ways some kids respond to anesthesia.  That's an understatement.  It was like something out of the exorcist.  The staff were offering all sorts of things to calm her down, water, tylenol, popcicles.  She wanted none of it.  I carried her out of the office over my shoulder, still thrashing around.  She was yelling all sorts of things like, "This is nonsense!"  "This is all your fault!"  "I can't close my mouth!"  "I can't swallow!"  "If you would've flossed my teeth this wouldn't have happened!"  (Ouch).  The thrashing was so bad that as I carried her across the parking lot, a police officer stopped and got out of his car.  I said, "I swear, she just had dental work done.  I'm not kidnapping her or anything."  He looked at the pediatric dentist sign, nodded and left.  Whew.  It's a good thing she looks just like me. 

She thrashed and screamed like that for about 30 minutes.  Once I got her in the carseat though, it was almost funny.  I made a recording of some of it, so S could see the full effect.  After 30 minutes, she suddenly stopped and said, "How did we get here?" and smiled.  Then she was like a drunk sorority girl, falling down in the bathroom when she tried to pull her pants up, giggling hysterically.  What a trip.  Thank goodness we don't have to go back for 6 months.