Loose Tooth

Nicholas has his first loose tooth! And much to my surprise (and relief--thank you Mommy guilt), it is not the one that he knocked loose (twice) a year and a half ago. We went to the library this evening and checked out just about every book they had where the character has a loose tooth. He is so excited!

Disney Sneak Peek

At some point I hope to write a real post on Disney, but the short version is that we all had a great time.  Watching Nicholas' reaction (especially the first day) really helped me understand the idea of it as a "magical" place.  And Elizabeth was so fascinated by all the bright colors and moving things.  I was shocked that she could go on almost all the rides Nicholas could go on and how much she enjoyed it.  Here are a few pictures to start off:

From 2014 March

From 2014 March

From 2014 March

From 2014 March

From 2014 March

From 2014 March

From 2014 March

From 2014 March

From 2014 March

From 2014 March

From 2014 March

From 2014 March

Flying

With all of the excitement of Disney World I think Nicholas has already forgotten the excitement that started off our vacation.  I had until I looked back at the pictures.  He was invited into the cockpit and the pilot showed him all the instruments and let him test things out!!!!

From 2014 March

The pilot was amazing about it because not only did he invite Nicholas in when we were getting on the plane but when Nicholas was too shy to take him up on it, he said maybe when we landed and then gave him the chance at the end.  And Nicholas being Nicholas he needed those few hours to get comfortable with the idea.  I have said it before and I will say it again--Nicholas has had an amazing number of really cool and uncommon experiences in his short life.  He truly has no way to understand just how lucky he is.

Kindergarten

Nicholas starts kindergarten in the fall and I've been really anxious because one of the towns we are considering moving to has school choice but you have to register by early April and we won't have residency and I'm afraid he won't get into the program we want.  It didn't even occur to me to look into registration in the town we live in now (which is another contender for where we'll live next year).  I assumed that since there wasn't  the choice and school assignment element that registration would be a summer thing.  And I had been told by a neighbor whose kids are at the local school that kindergarten was only half day and you had to pay even for that.  And we can't do half day and work full time so we figured we'd have to send him to a center for kindergarten anyway so I wasn't looking into the local kindergarten much.

It turns out she was horribly wrong, which I can't figure out since her daughter was in kindergarten last year.  Apparently half day is free and there is a full day option that you pay for.  But of course more people want full day than they have spots because it costs about $12,000 less for a year than a center. And so there is a lottery.  But registration was in late February and the deadline for the lottery was last Friday.  The drawing for the lottery isn't until Tuesday so my plan is to call tomorrow morning and beg them to let us register and sign up for the lottery.  I seriously doubt it will work, but I'm going to try.  And if they agree I will spend my day rushing to the dentist and doctor to beg them to complete paperwork on the spot so I can do the enrollment.  And we don't even know that we'll be in this town in the fall.  But if we wait until we move this summer we'll miss out on everything.  I thought the summer before he started kindergarten was the perfect time to move but it turns out that we needed to move at least 6 months before he started kindergarten.  And I feel like we've failed him.  He is so excited about kindergarten.  How are we messing this up?

4 Months

It is hard to know how to write Elizabeth's 4 month update post because she is on the cusp of so many things and yet how do you capture on the cusp in words?  She has noticeably changed so much in the last couple weeks, but I can't figure out how to put it into words.  It seems older baby.  It is as though she is suddenly in the blink of an eye closer to the 6 month old baby than the infant.  So here is my best attempt to capture Elizabeth at 4 months old:

• She still loves to chew on everything.  Everything goes in her mouth.  That isn't new, if you look at her 3 month post, but there is something somehow different in how she grabs things and puts them in her mouth--smoother, easier, more confident. 
• She developed a velociraptor shriek this weekend, which I remember Nicholas going through a phase of as well.  Hopefully this phase won't last long.  Right now she is in bed cooing and jabbering away but not too shrill of a tone . . . yet.
• She is SO close to rolling from back to front.  She twists and throws her legs and turns her head.  But she doesn't/can't get her shoulder out of her way.  She also sleeps at a funny angle that is similar to this position.  Nicholas called me in this morning to look at her.  He came out and whispered, "Mommy, you have to come see how the baby is sleeping.  It is so silly."
• She is able to sit up with support from the boppy or her changing table, leaning forward.  She still has quite a ways to go before she can sit up on her own, but she is months ahead of Nicholas on this.  She does seem to spit up when she sits leaning over like that for a long time, so it might not feel great for her tummy.
• She is consistently waking up every two hours at night and almost always insists on eating.  We have tried adding a bottle of formula at night to see if that helps and it seems to buy us an extra hour on the first shift (which doesn't help my sleep since it is before we go to bed) but that is about it.
• She has a ridiculous looking bald spot that goes across the back of her head and is bigger on the left side than the right.
• She just started sleeping in her crib this week and there have been no noticeable changes in her sleeping habits.  Except that she never stays in the position I put her down in.  I'm not sure how she can travel so much of a distance on her back without rolling over, but that could explain the bald spot on her head since I think she pivots on it.
• She loves Maria (her daycare provider) and the other kids there.  She smiles and waves her arms at Maria when we take her in and happily goes to her.  And I am (almost entirely) happy about that.
• We just started her in the jumper this weekend.  She hasn't figured out how to jump but she does love being able to play with the toys standing up.
• She has the most adorable giggle.  It first appeared when Joe tickled her and that is still the most reliable way to get her to laugh (although even that isn't fullproof) but she now will sometimes do it when I lift her up in the air.  Best sound ever.
• 6 month clothes fit perfectly.  Little girl better not grow out of them before it is warm enough for summer clothes.
• She had found her thumb a couple weeks ago but chewed on it like the rest of her hand rather than sucking it.  I haven't really noticed her having any interest in her thumb recently.
• She just recently discovered books and really enjoys them.  I think it is the bright pictures close to her face more than the stories.

That is all I can think of for now.  And I have a stack of exams to grade, so I should do that instead of blogging.  Here are a couple 4 month pictures:

From 2014 March

From 2014 March

Helping

Sometimes Nicholas is a big helper. And sometimes he tries to be a big helper but misses the mark.

The kids are now in the same room (pictures to come) and a little bit ago we heard Nicholas singing BINGO over the monitor.  I went in to whisper-yell at him and remind him he needed to be quiet so he didn't wake up his sister.  He explained that he was singing because her giraffe (which plays white noise) had turned off and so he was making noise for her.  Sweet but fail.

Just now he came out to go to the bathroom and told us that Elizabeth was crying so he gave her the pacifier.  We had heard her crying about 5 minutes ago but then she stopped before I went in to get her.  Apparently Nicholas fixed it.

And then other times, of course, he doesn't even try.

Perfection

From 2014 March

Smile

I rarely get good pictures of Elizabeth smiling because our camera flash is SOOOO slow that it is impossible to time your shots. And once she sees the camera she usually stops smiling anyway, I think because she fears the crazy flash. Today the flash wasn't going off at the library because of all the windows, so I got some of the smiles. The lighting is all off because of that, so they aren't good pictures, but they do give you a little glimpse at her personality.

From 2014 February

From 2014 February

Also, the crazy hair. I already have to comb out tangles at least once each day.

This and That

I have a few minutes while I wait for pictures to load, so here are some random things that are going on:

• Last night was miserable but I don't know if the experiment of having Elizabeth in Nicholas' room last night really failed because it didn't seem to be Nicholas waking Elizabeth up.  And Elizabeth's crying didn't even register with Nicholas.  She just woke up ever hour or so.  And it was actually surprisingly more of a strain to go get her out of Nicholas' room.  It is all of 10 feet away, but just having to actually get out of bed forces me to more fully wake up.  And there were a couple times when I was a little worried I would drop her with how wobbly I felt.  Then again, that might have been more of a problem last night than other nights.  My body was clearly overwhelmed with exhaustion and was shutting down.  I couldn't get warm all evening and I could feel with each waking that my temperature was getting slightly more regulated as I got a little sleep.
• Nicholas is signed up for tee-ball this spring!  He is super-excited because he has been asking about this for over a year.  And we discovered that the tee-ball practices and games for the town are at the elementary school instead of the town baseball fields, which means we have to go a total of down the street.  And then after that we are taking a break from sports and Saturday morning activities in general because every Saturday morning is a big fight to get out the door.  You would never guess how much he loves soccer with the way he fights getting his uniform on.  I think after a full week of rushing to get out for school/work, he really just wants a lazy Saturday morning.  Sold.

Okay, and some pictures:

From 2014 February

From 2014 February

From 2014 February

From 2014 February

From 2014 February

From 2014 February