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.