Piano

After hearing Joe play the piano, Elizabeth had to try:

From 2014 August

From 2014 August

There is also a video in the August album.

La La La

Elizabeth now sings "la la la" when you sing Elmo's Song. One of these days I'll take a video. She also looks around for the Elmo doll.  And last night in the bath she noticed the Elmo faucet cover for the first time and got super excited.  I think we have accomplished our mission.  And created a monster.

Preschool Graduation

Nicholas graduated from preschool this week!  His preschool is really low key so the "ceremony" lasted all of about 2 minutes and then the parents stayed an extra 20 minutes for afternoon snack and we moved on.

The graduation itself makes for good pictures, but I honestly wasn't that sentimental about it.  Because "graduating" from preschool?  Really?

But he only has one more week left at his preschool.  And the lead teacher, who has been there for 2 of his 2 1/2 years, is on vacation next week, so today was his last day with her.  And that makes me sentimental.  Or, if not sentimental, at least emotional.

And Nicholas has been very upset about this as well.  And no wonder.  He literally does not remember a time when he didn't go to that preschool.  He started there in January 2012, at 2 1/2.  That is half of his life.  And he is there 40-50 hours most weeks.  It truly is his second home.  And since we just moved, it is more home to him than our actual house.  And his teachers are family.  That has I think been part of his acting out more at school this year (he treats them like parents, which as every parent can attest to, means with less respect that most kids treat their teachers), but it also means that they are his safety net.  And so while he is excited about kindergarten, he is nervous.  And so sad to leave his preschool.

But . . .


cute pictures.

From 2014 July

From 2014 July

Sesame

We're going to Sesame Place in a couple weeks and so I decided it was time to introduce Elizabeth to the characters to maximize her enjoyment. (I think Joe may have put on Sesame Street for a few minutes a couple times with her, but she hasn't watched much. Chalk it up to the fact that, unlike Nicholas, she has not been an early bird baby and so we haven't put on tv to hold her attention while we were in a pre-dawn fog. Also, she has a big brother so if the tv is on the shows are not Sesame Street.) Anyway, I was wondering if she is old enough for the Elmo obsession that seems to grip every child in the 1-2 age range. And . . .

Hey, Elmo, you're pretty funny looking, but interesting.

From 2014 July

Wait, what is this? I must get closer!  Warp speed ahead.

From 2014 July

Pausing to make sure Grover is still there.

From 2014 July

Grover, hold on, I'm coming.

From 2014 July

Made it!

From 2014 July

Enthralled.

From 2014 July

she definitely likes Elmo. But she LOVES Grover.  And what you can't see in these pictures is the shrieks and pants.  Apparently we've been holding out on the kid.

Cute as a Button

From 2014 July

Math is Next

Nicholas' reading may be awesome, but his math skills leave something to be desired. Today at lunch I told him he needed to take 15 bites of his lunch if we wanted to go swimming. "But, Mommy, that's too many." "Okay, then take 10 bites of grilled cheese and 5 bites of tater tots." "Okay."

Good Day

Nicholas had a good day today.  Like a really good day.  He doesn't have many of those these days.  But he was awesome the entire day and I wanted to note it to look back at on one of the days we are at our wit's end.  He got up and got ready with no problems, was angelic at the dentist's office, got 3 green lights at school (itself a rarity most weeks), came home and gave me absolutely 0 problems as I got dinner ready, was perfect in the bath, and then sat and entertained himself while I got Elizabeth in bed.  So he and I then read a couple chapters of Charlotte's Web (he reads the pages with pictures, I read the other pages) while eating ice cream and I let him read himself his Ranger Rick Jr. magazine while I did dishes before tucking him in.  And it was adorable because he kept coming in to tell me something cool he had read.

There were a couple brief moments of whining, but that was it all day.  It was like going back in time a year.  I'm trying to figure out what happened.  He took a nap at school for the first time in forever, which could explain the good evening, but that doesn't explain the great morning.  Joe is out of town and he does tend to rise to the occasion when I most need his help. Or maybe it was random chance.  If he can keep this up for the next 2 1/2 days until Joe gets home I will be so happy!

From 2014 July