mommypalooza™ ~ a daily dose of mommy mayhem.

The Simple Things

This week William started his first FULL week of preschool.  Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays he'll be gone for 2.5 hours hopefully getting ready to enter the bright lights of Kindergarten next fall. 

As he comes home each school day with a bag full of papers and projects, I love dating them and putting them on display. Then they make their way down to the bin where I store EVERY single thing brought home from school.  It's mostly in order by date.

And, it's these simple things that I treasure when I look back at them.

09/13/10 

 

Day of Firsts

Today was William's first day back at preschool.  Granted it only lasted an hour today, it still came along with all the traditions that have become part of our family's memory-making.

Today he's officially  a Senior Frog.  Yes, Ms. Jan's M/W/F class is for the Senior Frogs - the big guys - the 4 year-olds.  Seriously I cannot believe that in less than one year William will be in Kindergarten! I will have not one, but TWO sons in grade school!  How? How does this happen?  Father Time, you are my nemesis!

Will woke up bright-eyed and bushy tailed today, ready for the big day.  We of course conducted a little "interview", as is customary on the first day of school here in our house. 

 
He had a great breakfast - eggs with cheese, cinnamon toast, and a heaping glass of orange juice!  Soon enough, it was time to head out for the big first day!

 
He was beyond excited to make his way from the parking lot to the front doors.  After I was able to snap a photo of him, he eagerly made his way to his cubby area and lo and behold it was in the same spot it was last year! I guess he was shocked by this?! I mean, look at his expression (above) when he discovers it!

So we walk into the class and he excitedly tells Ms. Jan about his "spiky" hair, which he styled entirely on his own this morning, courtesy of daddy's gel.  He made himself right at home once inside his classroom - working with puzzles, train pieces, and Legos.  So I stuck around for a few more pics and then made my way out. 

Such a great first day (hour, really) of preschool and we are BOTH so excited he gets to go back on Friday (for the full time this time)!

He also had his first Catechesis of the Good Shepherd session today.  I wavered on whether or not to enroll him in the program, but just kept coming back to how much Nathan truly enjoyed it and how he got so much out of it.  I couldn't knowingly keep that experience from William!  So glad it all worked out - he had a very good time and I can tell he is going to learn so much!

Needless to say, it's been a LOOOOONG day today and glad the day of firsts is over.  Excited for the routine to begin.

 

Will's Valentine's Day Party

Today Will had his class Valentine's Day party.  He had a ball eating, drinking, crafting, and playing with his classmates and I know all too well how fast this time will go by.  I love going to his preschool parties and seeing him interact with his friends and teacher.♥

 
♥

Will's First Day of Preschool

Last week Will started preschool and he's done nothing but talk about it since!  It's been so crazy hectic around here - getting ready for baby, hosting family in town, etc. that I haven't had time to blog about the big leap to preschool as I'd hoped to.

The morning started out like any other.  He was just excited to get to school!  Really, they only go for about an hour on the first day while we parents sit in the gym for mindless small talk and brief info about drop-off and pickup procedures.  I also used this time to coerce one of my friends into signing up to be room parent!

As usual, no first day of school would ever be complete in this family without a traditional first day of school interview. 

Will's First Day of Preschool from Candy Tai on Vimeo.

This week will be his first full week of regular preschool days and hours.  I'm excited about all the fun things he's going to be doing.  He's already become very fond of snack time and recess.  He tried the applesauce snack last week but said he didn't like it.  He's also into the counting bears that are in the bins of his classroom.  I think he likes picking them up with the tongs and sorting them.  I can hardly believe my boy who was just a baby not too long ago is now a full-fledged preschooler!  ♥

 

Last Day of Pre-K

Today was such a bittersweet day for me as I am sure it has been for many of you who have Kindergarten and older kids.  It was Nathan's last day of Pre-K!  Thankfully, though, it's not his last day being at the school we have come to love over the past few years.  He will be returning there for full-day Kindergarten and will be with many of his Pre-K classmates.

Still, today I looked at him just a little differently; and he seemed a little different.  The school picnic was so much fun and I can tell that he has made some really great friendships there.  I feel blessed by all the good people we've been fortunate to be surrounded by for the past almost six years of his life!

I found myself getting all teary-eyed over all of the journals and several pieces of work Nathan's completed this past year.  I know they will be pieces of his childhood that I will forever treasure.

We are all so ready for what the summer brings for us and are excited to kick it off officially tomorrow and on into this weekend with Jiggle Jam, the rockinest festival on planet Earth!  My mom, stepdad, and brother will be coming in on Friday from Texas and I'm eager to just kick it with them.

Here's some of what today was like:

 Nathan with classmates Keejay & Matthew fetching marbles out of a water pail.

 Enjoying a hot dog picnic lunch with Keejay & Nick. 

 
Nathan with his Pre-K teacher.

 My little Kindergartener.  He's SO ready.  I'm SO not.  ♥

Wacky Wednesday.

Nathan is trying to run his school, seriously.  A while back he suggested to his teacher that they needed to have a Wacky Wednesday as they did at his "old" preschool.  He explained to her what exactly a Wacky Wednesday was and she went for it!

Today was the designated day.  Nathan has been looking forward to this since he found out it was a go!  In addition to dressing wacky for today, the teachers really went all out.  Nathan informed me when I picked him after school that the numbers on the calendar in the class were upside down.  And, their teacher had made nametags for all of them substituting the first letter in everyone's name with a "W" for wacky and Wednesday.  So for today, Nathan was Wathan.  Ironically, this actually wasn't too terribly wacky.  Before Will could pronounce Nathan's name fully, he would refer to him as Wathan.  Kinda cute.  ♥

 
My wacky boys! Of course Will wanted his hair wacky-fied, too!

I feel better already.

Today's been a day of recovery for us here at the T household.  Yesterday morning I woke up feeling totally off.  I could tell it was much more than just morning/pregnancy sickness.  We skipped Will's Kindermusik class and I didn't get out of bed until about 10:30.  As I was showering I could really feel the sickness coming on fast.  And, well, it did.  Good thing I was in the shower.  But I did find myself calling screaming out to God to please help me!  And, crying out that I wanted my mommy!  Ugh!  I LOATHE vomiting.  I finished my shower and then found myself feeling like total crap.  Then I went to the bathroom.  Yeah, that wasn't pretty either.

After getting dressed, I made my way downstairs only to find David already fixing lunch for the boys so that Nathan could make it off to school in time.  (Thank you wonderfully awesome husband of mine!)  He had mentioned that N didn't feel too great but I didn't think it was anything to worry about.  Wrong.

I was out on an appointment at about 12:40 when I got a voicemail from the school than N was in the nurse's office at school because he had vomited and that he needed to be picked up.  I felt so horrible.  Partly for the vomiting, but mostly because N was going to have to miss his entire pajama day at school - something he's been looking forward to since last week when it was announced!  Poor thing.  I picked him up from the nurse's office and he was just sitting there, all sickly looking with his Thomas the Tank Engine pj's on amidst a couple of other older elementary students who'd made their way into the office as well for various ailments. 

All N could talk about on the way home is how he was missing the dinosaur movie they were just about to watch and missing the kettle corn and sharing in the day with his friends.  I told him that we could have our own pj day too complete with kettle corn when he got to feeling better.  That wasn't really good enough because he of course would want his class there.

We made it home and set N all up on the couch where he wanted to be, all curled up with a blanket and pillow and a cup of Pedialyte.  He had free reign of the tv so he enjoyed watching for a bit.  I went upstairs and changed my clothes and was feeling even more sick than I had felt that morning.  D was at the gym with Will and when they came back home, I started in again with the up-chucking.  Yes, it was a horrible, horrible day.  But I knew that between the two of us (N and me) we had some horrible stomach bug.  Will had this same thing Sunday and into Monday so I assume he was the culprit. 

So, N and I pretty much spent literally all day yesterday in bed.  N was fine with some saltines and Pedialyte, but I couldn't keep down any liquids, much less food.  By 8 pm I called my doc's office because I began to worry that I would get dehydrated from all the digestive issues and not being able to hold down liquids, and knew that couldn't be good for the baby.  I spoke with the doc on call and she basically told me to try a bit of Gatorade about a tablespoon every fifteen minutes.  I started at about 9:00 pm and was able to hold that down until the middle of the night.  I slept in our guest room partly because I didn't want to share my germs but also because I needed the room to toss and turn in a bed occupied by just me!  It was a long night but I managed to sneak in sips of Gatorade throughout and made it okay. 

This morning we skipped N's violin lesson and I lingered in bed till about 1 pm!  N also stayed home from school again just be safe.  I am happy to report that both N and I are doing quite a bit better.  We're both holding down food and drink and although I am still somewhat nauseous and having food aversions, I am strides ahead of what I was yesterday.  I think I am just back to my old pregnancy symptoms.

But, getting back to the title of my post - my mom, step-dad, and brother are making a trek up here tomorrow for the weekend and I am excited to see them!  The kids will be thrilled!  Hopefully I will not feel as bad as I have been feeling lately and will be able to fully enjoy their company.   ♥

 

♥

Now, THAT'S entertainment!

Friday N's school invited everyone out to a surprise performance to wrap-up Catholic Schools Week.  We were all told to arrive at 9:30 a.m. in the gym but were given NO clue as to what the performance would be.  For a moment I thought it might be something like a performance by either my friend Jim, Krista, or Kevin, but nope.  We were all surprised to learn that it was something most of us had never seen before - a Chinese Acrobat performing group!  It was perfect timing too, since we just celebrated Chinese New Year the previous weekend.

 
Nathan sitting with a few of his classmates - Claire, Cooper, and Keejay.  They're anxiously awaiting the show!

 
This act was AMAZING!  The kids enjoyed seeing them tumble through hoops and do all of these balancing acts that defied gravity!

  
This was my personal favorite out of the whole show.  Probably because my life constantly feels like I am trying to keep several plates spinning all at once without any falling down and shattering into a million tiny pieces.  I am in awe of anyone who can do that!

 
The foot juggling received the most oohs and ahhs from the crowd though!  The kids were screaming and yelling and watching with eyes wide open!  ♥

 

Proud mommy.

My little N has once again, made me a proud mom today.  D and I met with his Pre-K for our parent/teacher conference and we were all three smiling from ear-to-ear while we visited about N's progress as a Pre-K'er.

WARNING:  This is where I will rightfully brag.

Some of the things Mrs. Y said about N include that he is undoubtedly the leader in the class and "the sought after one...everyone is drawn to him".  (This could either be really good or really scary!)  She also identified him as her "strong one" in the class and as one who is friends with everyone. 

N is beyond where most Kindergarteners need to be at this point since he is reading and advanced with being able to count as high as he can.  The teacher noted, "he's such a well-rounded kid.  I keep looking for holes but he's got everything down - the fine motor, large motor, reading, math, writing, social, emotional...".   We've come up with some ideas to help keep his focus on learning new things both inside and outside the classroom and I am thankful that his teacher recognizes how important this is and is willing to put forth an effort to challenging him.  Thankfully, there is a little girl in his class who is also very bright and is reading, so there may be some opportunity for she and N to work together on some things.  Mrs. Y also shared with us that N is the one she often calls upon to help when they are learning about something new and the class is having a tough time understanding.   She feels it's comforting to his fellow classmates if they see that someone just like them knows the answers.

The most heartwarming and pleasing part of the meeting for me was when his teacher was explaining to us how humble and compassionate N is to others.  Apparently, there is often a fuss over which kids want to sit by him, but it doesn't really phase him.  He is always the one who is nonchalontly replying, "sure, you can sit by me", but then not taking himself too seriously.  There was also a time when the class received a new student about two weeks into the school year and was having a tough time feeling like part of the group.  Mrs. Y asked N to be in charge of helping that person find a group to play in, etc. and he jumped on it without needing any direction from the teacher on what to do. 

That totally warmed my heart!

D and I walked away very proud parents, although I did keep telling D I wasn't really surprised by what the teacher shared with us.  But it certainly did feel good to have my thoughts and assessment of him confirmed.  N got a very fun reward (inspired by his dad) for his outstanding-ness!

Oh, I'm sorry. I'm supposed to be blogging?

In the midst of Texas beating OU last weekend (go Horns!) my computer decided to crash - again.  This was my new one, people.  D and I decided we'd take it back to the store and get a new one.  So, that's just what we did.

I'm back to living life with only my basement computer right now so I'm swamped with emails to return, posts to be made, and sites to surf.

I do, however, have a few great shots from N's pumpkin patch field trip yesterday which was a great time till the rain decided to come down.  See why summer's so much better?  Enjoy. ♥