Days for Play, Parents, and Birth

We leave for Missouri on Saturday morning. It seems like we just returned home from our Thanksgiving trip. We were supposed to leave on Friday, but Jason has to go into work. I'm not disappointed, this way Lucas doesn't miss his holiday party at preschool (they will be decorating gingerbread houses). Plus... it also gives me another day to procrastinate packing. After the week that I've had, I really needed that extra day. Not only has it been an incredibly busy week of running and doing, but it's also been a week of emotional highs and lows.

This past week Clara finally got to have a playdate with her dearest 1st grade friend. It was interesting for me to finally get to witness how well they interact together. At one point, they were creating a picture by each one taking turns to add something to the paper. It turned out lovely. And it also showed me that yes... Clara does indeed know how to share and take turns. So why then is it so hard for her when she is playing with Lucas?

It was Parent's Day for both Clara and Lucas at the dance studio. This was the first time that we were invited into the room to watch the dancers. Clara was so excited to have us there. She kept looking over and smiling or waving. Lucas was trying hard to be serious... he takes dance very seriously. They both gave us good reason to be proud parents!! Of course, Lucas is the only boy, but that doesn't affect him at all.

And my birthday was last weekend. We, as a family, did go out for dinner... and it was yummy, but for the most part... it was just another day. Clara and Lucas made me birthday cards, which I loved and want to share (at Kelly's urging).

Clara's card (side 1):

Clara's card (side 2):

Lucas' card:

The first snow

The temperatures here dropped drastically this weekend and then Saturday evening it started to snow. Our first snow. The first snow is the ultimate winter welcome. There is something so magical about snow... the little white flakes falling and covering everything. There was a lady that came into the building where we were and said it "smells like snow outside" and I actually got goosebumps! And yes... I completely am a realist. Snow is no fun for those of us who have to get out in it, especially for Jason who was up on the roof when it started snowing... the snow prevented him from hanging the outside lights. But there is nothing like that first snow. And for all of you who have kids... they understand completely!! Even though our first snow was only a light dusting, which had pretty much all disappeared by lunchtime, my kids were clamouring to play out in it from the time they woke up and saw it outside their windows. And yes... by the end of winter, I, too, will be tired of all the hazardous road conditions, shoveling the front stoop, and trudging to and from the different schools every day. But for now... I'm in love with this season and looking forward to our second snow.

Picture Perfect

This isn't an actual post... just wanted to put this picture up. It's an excellent picture of the kids.

Thanksgiving - Part II

The rest of our trip was pretty uneventful. We had a pleasant Thanksgiving day surrounded by family and good food.

Our drive home was long, very long... it seemed even longer than the drive down (it rained most of the way). We left dad's house at 9:44am (Sat) and didn't get home until 2:16am (Sun). Originally, we had planned to stop over along the way and make the drive over two days, but once we were in the car headed home... we decided we really just wanted to get home.

I have been thinking for many years now... at what point do we start having Thanksgiving at home? I would like to start traditions of my own. I want a funny anecdote of my own to share about something that went wrong the first time I tried to cook a Thanksgiving turkey (a shout-out to Kerin's undercooked turkey and Kelly's thawed chicken breast). I want my kids to have fond memories of the warmth and comfort of the holidays at home that I remember from my childhood. The struggle is that I also understand the importance of extended family, especially around the holidays. So I ask again... when do we start having Thanksgiving at home??

Which brings us home... and some sad news. Our television died this morning. This was obviously not in the plan. It was 10 years old. We bought it while living in our first apartment in Washington state... I remember at the time it was the only thing in our living room and it seemed so huge in that tiny place. It has survived many moves and even the failure of a voltage regulator (yes... 2 1/2 years ago we had it repaired instead of replacing it). Jason was not sad at all... he has been wanting a new TV for a while. On the whole, I tend to be slightly averse to change... and I liked that TV, even with the power button on the console that hasn't worked in nearly a year. I guess we'll be TV shopping in the coming week(s). In the meantime, we've brought the old TV from the basement up, but it is a pathetic replacement.

Our Thanksgiving Trip - Part I

I'm writing this post from my dad's house in Florida. I really just wanted to break up our vacation into smaller portions, especially since it is quite front heavy. The drive here went pretty well, although I'll admit to getting a bit of a bumpy start. In all, it was a 15-hour drive (that leaves about 2 hours of stop time since Yahoo Maps gives a drive time of 13 hours). The kids did really great! And for all of you out there curious if the Dramamine helped Clara this trip (oh how she gets carsick)... YES!! A big thanks to all the parents who tipped me off on that little miracle worker... how I wished I had known about it sooner. We arrived here at 9:39pm (leaving the house at 6:22am) and put the kids right to bed. Following that marathon drive, we pretty much rested up all weekend. Unfortunately, what I forgot to mention was that both Clara and Lucas were sick. Clara complained of an earache at 1:00am the morning we were leaving and I figured we would have her checked out once we got here. She says it feels much better, but still hurts. Lucas came home from preschool on Wednesday with a fever and a cough. The fever eventually went away two days later, but the cough definitely got worse. In fact, the second night we were here, many times during the night he woke up in these coughing/screaming fits. It was terrible. Jason ended up sleeping in the bed with Lucas for the next couple of nights, while Clara slept with me. It just didn't seem fair to leave her in the room with Lucas and not let her get a good night's sleep. Honestly, we were starting to worry that Lucas wouldn't be well enough by Monday when we planned to take them to Walt Disney World.

Which then brings me to Monday... our day at the Magic Kingdom: "Where Dreams Comes True." I've been so anxious about this day for months... ever since we told Clara we were going and she insisted that when we got there, she was going to turn into a fairy... her one true wish. There was a fairy meet and greet, for which we waited in line over an hour. It was funny... the guide met us at the door and told us that we were now shrunk down to pixie-size and Clara's eyes got huge, she was so excited. Then we went and met three of the Disney fairies (for those interested... they were Tinkerbell, Iridessa, and Rosetta). I took lots of pictures. Then many hours later, in the car leaving the park, Clara informs us that it was all just pretend and that they were not real fairies at all, just people in costumes. The girl is crazy intuitive! Ok... the one bad thing - Eli started getting what Lucas had (so all day at the park, he was running a fever, and gross as this is, he even threw up in line and all over me waiting for one of the rides). Aside from all the above... what a great day it was!! We all had a such a wonderful time, yes... even Eli. Roseann, a dear family friend and her two boys acted as our personal tour guide, making sure we hit all the good rides and providing a bit of comfort and familiarity in a situation that could have had us floundering. Roseann's boys made sure that all the roller coasters were points of interest... they even got Clara to ride a few of them. Lucas loved the trains and Eli just enjoyed looking around at everything (when he wasn't asleep). The Haunted Mansion was a bit scary for Lucas (he was so worried that a ghost was really going to follow us home), but all three kids were fascinated by the It's A Small World ride.

And finally, this vacation hasn't been all sunshine and roses. As some of you are aware, I had a bit of an emotional stumble Sunday night, but this blog isn't really the place for that. Let's just keep good thoughts and hope all that is behind us and that the rest of the week is a wonderful visit for all of us!

and so it goes

So the weekend was a bust. I've been sick since Thursday (although I didn't really feel sick until Saturday). My voice completely disappeared for nearly three days and it's finally starting to come back and it brought this nasty cough with it. Of course it goes without saying that all three kids are sick now. Let's hope the cough and all the sickness goes away before we leave for our trip on Friday morning.

One noteworthy thing that occurred this weekend was that Jason took Clara to see her very first play. It was a high school production of Fiddler on the Roof. I'm pretty sure she liked it. They left at intermission (she wasn't feeling very well and they had already been there for one and a half hours). The story probably was a bit old for her, but she knows the songs and music as we play the soundtrack at home. She said her favorite part was the curtains opening and closing (she liked to pretend her hands were the curtains). I would still very much like to take her to one of the Nutcracker ballets going on around here. Mental note... check the Events section of the paper to find out the where and when.

Jason spent most of Sunday pulling the vine roots (honeysuckle and another unknown species) out of our azalea bush in the front yard. That has been an ongoing project for him and it is wonderful to see it finished. I'm sure the azalea is much happier. I can't wait to see how much improved it is come spring.

A friend made me realize that I haven't really mentioned how Clara is doing since she started as a permanent 1st grader. So here is a brief update. She is loving it completely. Every day she confirms that we made the right choice by running out of the school smiling and so full of energy. Funny... all the teachers and parents who were trying to dissuade us from promoting her for whatever reasons have even conceded that this was definitely and obviously the right move. And as a 1st grader, Clara now has opportunities that weren't available to her as a kindergartner, i.e. an extra-curricular Spanish class. We enrolled her yesterday (Monday) and she started this morning. It's an hour long class in the morning directly before school one day each week for 20 weeks. The ONLY down side is trying to get the 3 kids ready and out of the house by 7:30am.

I took one of the side rails off of Lucas' bed today, not because he doesn't need it anymore (although that may be true), but because he broke it! He uses his bed rails as a ladder of sorts... climbing up and then propelling himself into the bed. If he manages to not fall out of bed for a few nights, I'll take the other rail down, too.

Eli is officially a toddler. Forget that crawling business. And he is fast on two feet! I'm still going back and forth about moving his crib in with Lucas... one of these days, I'll just do it and be done with it. The more I think on it, the more reasons/excuses I come up with to postpone it.

And finally... I found out today that a good friend of mine from the past is expecting her first baby. Congrats!! The back and forth emails brought back those feelings when I first found out that I was pregnant with Clara... all the excitement and expectations. It seems like so long ago now...

Bulbs, Ballasts and Books

I had to use that title for this post... only because as I was thinking about our past weekend, that pretty much sums it up. Of course, here it is Thursday and I'm just now posting about last weekend? The week itself has been fairly uneventful, therefore... on with the about our past weekend news.

I'll go in order. Our kitchen light hasn't been working properly for quite a while. It is a four tube fluorescent fixture, which gives off great light when it works, but for nearly a year, it has only been functioning on two bulbs, which was still decent lighting... probably why we put off fixing it for so long. Then a while back we replaced the two bad bulbs and the light was great for about two weeks or so, then those same bulbs went out. After replacing the two bad bulbs a second time, the entire four bulbs just started dimly flickering. It was maddening! We researched it online and were trying to debate replacing the ballasts or the entire fixture. Replacing the two ballasts ended up being half the cost of a new fixture... guess which direction we went? It was actually pretty easy to wire in the new ballasts, just uncomfortable as it is all above the head work. Now our kitchen light works better than ever!! It always feels so good when we can do home maintenance ourselves. Rarely do I actually have the confidence to trust that I can successfully complete home mainenance/improvements.

Which brings us to the books part of last weekend. The Fairfax County Public Library book sale was last weekend. I love these book sales. They occur twice a year (once in spring and once in fall) and I make it a point to attend both. Lucky for me, two of our local FCP libraries were holding their sales on the same weekend. Buying books is definitely a weakness for me, so at least I wait and buy them used at a great price and help out our local libraries at the same time. I ended up with a paper bag full of books for each day that I attended the sale (three). Keep in mind that they aren't all for me, lots for the kids and a few for Jason... but that doesn't really matter when the fact is that our bookshelves here at home are overfull.

Yesterday, the painter finally came to touch up the damage from the woodpecker . Let's cross our fingers that infernal bird relocated far far far from here!!

This coming weekend is our last weekend before our trip to Florida for Thanksgiving. I'd say that we won't be doing anything other than preparing for our trip, but who are we kidding? We truly never begin preparing for any trip until the day or two before we are set to leave. I'm actually getting excited about the trip this year. It could be our plan to take the kids to Disney World... maybe the excitement they are feeling is infectious?

Videos... Finally!

Here are the videos that I said I would post eventually.

Clips from Clara's Soccer Game



Eli Walking

The turning point

of our day was when we left the corn maze. We had such a wonderful time at the corn maze. The kids loved the playground and the animals. It was nearly impossible to drag Lucas away from the obstacle course... he loved climbing up and going over the wall. Every time he started to climb the wall, my mind flickered to that scene in 'An Officer and a Gentlemen' and I wanted to cheer him on. He didn't need any cheering though... he was quite proficient. Eli could have sat in that corn-filled tire for hours. Anytime he can repeatedly throw things without getting in trouble is perfect for him. And Clara was all over the place, she had to try everything and read everything. And the actual maze was so fun. We let the kids determine our path for the first half and they didn't do too bad, but by the last half Lucas was getting tired and we were looking to just find our way out. As tired as the kids were, they didn't want to leave. It was such a great day until that point... which brings me to the title of this post. Once we left, things just skipped from bad to bad to bad. We stopped at two different JC Penney stores looking for a specific item that we never found. We drove around and around looking for a specific restaurant that we never found... meanwhile all this driving and looking took us hours and Clara was getting carsick and we were hungry and tired. We finally stopped at this restaurant that Jason had been wanting to try for a long time, just glad to finally almost be eating. How this place ever passed it's health inspection is beyond us!! Not only was the food subpar, but the worst part was all the gnats flying and landing all over our food... so disgusting! The funny thing was that Clara was fascinated by the gnats... she kept calling them beetles. She fixated on three of them that were on her plate, she even named them. If we hadn't been so tired, hungry and it so cold outside, we would have just taken our food and left. Of course, looking back, we just should have! What I found amazing about the whole experience is that on our way home, Jason and I couldn't seem to get out of this bad mood, even after the wonderful day we had before the horrible turning point - which makes me wonder... how is it that no matter how much good occurs, one little bit of bad can ruin the whole?

A Wizard of Oz Halloween

My intention to get pictures up on Flickr fell through... the night was spent playing Scrabble and messing around on FaceBook. So I'm planting one picture of the kids in their costumes here to appease those anxious for more and promise to get more pictures up in the next day or two.

Halloween truly turned out to be an enjoyable day. With two parades, a party, and of course trick-or-treating around the neighborhood... the kids were exhausted by bedtime. Some highlights from the day:

• When asking Lucas if he was a mean and scary lion, he would respond "Nope. I'm a cowardly lion."
• At the doors of the houses during trick-or treating, Lucas would say "ROAR! Trick-or-Treat"
• The yellow rubber bands in Clara's hair were meant to represent the yellow brick road... totally her idea.
• Lucas preferring to go to bed rather than have some of his candy.
• Clara preferring to have an Almond Joy out of our treat bowl rather than something out of her treat bag.
• Scarecrow Eli coming to the door to help hand out candy.
• Lucas being the leader at his preschool parade.
• Clara being only one of two Dorothys in her school parade! (I was so afraid there would be an abundance of Dorothys).

We didn't go all out this year (no pumpkins carved, no ghost lights hung). It didn't really matter in the end. A good time was had by all.

Our little soccer star?

Clara scored three goals during Saturday's game! The first one was so funny and I wish that I had got that one on video... she was in control of the ball, and as she was dribbling it toward the goal, she slipped on the damp grass and fell hard on her bum. In the midst of the fall, her legs shot out in front of her and propelled the ball straight into the goal. It was a bit anti-climactic for her, unfortunately... hard to be proud of herself when she is crying for the hurt of the fall. She regained composure quickly and followed with two more consecutive goals. I did get those on video! Maybe at some point, after I actually get the video out on YouTube, I'll figure out how to embed them into this blog.

Which brings me to the next bit... I captured some great video of Eli walking! Thanks so much to Jason for the help on that... I don't think I would have ever managed to get it on my own. He's walking so much more now... and he has suddenly become quite comfortable with getting himself down the step into the library. Oh... those poor books!! Also... another tooth for the boy... that brings the total up to 6. The last two popped out at about the same time. Hopefully, he'll have a short reprieve before he starts cutting the next ones.

Lucas is really taking an active step towards reading. He's been recognizing letters and their sounds for quite a while now. He's also been recognizing certain words that he sees over and over (like "exit"... he loves to point out the exits on the freeway). Lately, he's been trying to put it all together and has had some success. However, he's been getting frustrated when he can't read a book to himself, even if he knows the story by rote... he wants to be able to read each word. He can almost read the entire story of "The Deep Blue Sea" by Audrey Wood aloud to himself. Maybe that is something that I should get on video? His favorite book of the moment is "Alphabet Rescue" which is a little more complex (no rhymes.. no repetition) and that is the one he gets frustrated over. It's rather cute, though, when he comes to me complaining that he "just can't read without help".

We took a load of clothes to the thrift store today. We love the thrift store. We found lots of bargains (mostly books... as that is my personal weakness). Unfortunately, while sifting through the toy aisle, I gashed my finger on a staple. I somehow manage to hold it together when the kids get hurt, but when it's me... I fall apart. I'm in the bathroom of the thrift store with my hand under running water, my head resting on the counter, just trying to breathe so that I won't faint. I'm hoping that neosporin and bandaids will be enough...

A walker, a swimmer, and a 1st grader...

This has been a rather exciting week:

Eli started taking steps. It was almost a week ago that he took two independent steps to the refrigerator. Then nothing for about five days. Then on Saturday while we were at a friend's house, he took 5 steps! And he's been doing more and more each day. Of course, I was so disappointed that he decided to start stepping out of camera range... and yet, here he's been doing it at home rather frequently, and I have yet managed to capture any of it on either film or video! And it appears that he is working on another tooth.

Jason just submitted his first resume here. After months of talking about it, he is finally taking steps to secure our future here. He spent the past week updating his resume, which hasn't been even looked at since 2002. He has a few coworkers that have offered to shop his resume around through some of their networks, which is unbelievably great - we know that works the best... that is how he ended up getting that job at Livermore after all! I am keeping my fingers crossed.

Both Clara and Lucas' swim class session ended today. Lucas has been promoted to the next level (yay Lucas!), but the teacher wants Clara to repeat... again. This will be her 5th or 6th time in this level. Jason suggested today that maybe it's the teacher... I guess we'll have to see if he's right... next session is a brand new teacher.

And last, but definitely not least... Clara is officially a 1st grader!! It all happened last Friday. After school I met with the 1st grade teacher to find out what her thoughts were on how Clara did for a whole week in the 1st grade class. After talking for over an hour, we both decided that this was really the best choice. Needless to say, Clara was ecstatic. Then today, three of her classmates came up to her and said "hi" at Soccer Training. That somehow eased my mind about how she was fitting in.

"The Best Day of My Life"

I'd say it was a bit of an overstatement, but we did have a really good time. Sunday afternoon, we headed to Lake Accotink and rented a couple of canoes (the boys in one and us girls in the other). Clara and Lucas enjoyed trying to row with their oars, but floating on the water and enjoying the scenery of the autumn leaves was the better part of the trip. Clara proclaimed numerous times while in the canoe that this was "the best day of my life" (hence the post title). The only one who didn't enjoy the canoe trip was little Eli... he just cried and cried until he finally fell asleep.

Also, over the weekend... Eli welcomed tooth number 4!

I don't really have much to update in the decision regarding Clara. After a nearly two hour meeting on Friday with the Principal and the 1st Grade teacher, we decided to extend the trial period for another week. Hopefully, we will know more at the end of this week. Of course, the longer we leave her in the 1st grade class, the harder it will be on her when/if we move her back into kindergarten. She is loving being in the 1st grade class and has already told me that she doesn't want to go back into the kindergarten class. Of course, we will take that into consideration when we make the final decision... but the endgame is really to decide what is the best for Clara.

Promotion = Ulcer?

So it's been quite an eventful week (and it's only Tuesday). About two weeks ago, we received a phone call from Clara's kindergarten teacher suggesting we consider promoting Clara into the 1st grade. Needless to say, we were ecstatic!! After all... those who know us, know that this is something we've been wanting for a while. And as I waited for that call from the principal (as it seemed she had the final say)... I worried. We had never been this close to actually seeing it happen and all of a sudden, I started worrying about all the things that could make this the wrong decision. I worried that moving Clara in the middle of the year would adversely affect her already borderline emotional/social development. I worried that she wouldn't want to change classes and leave her close-knit group of friends/soccer mates and that making friends in the new class would be difficult for her. I worried that she would be missing out on something that kindergarten offered. I worried that the age gap, though not huge, would be too much. Basically... for the past two weeks, I worried. Then Monday came. After lunch with Clara at the school, I was swept up for an impromptu meeting with the teachers and the principal. All of a sudden the decision is ours. So all that worrying that I did for the past two weeks... nothing compared to what I've experienced in the past 24 hours. After a few calming phone calls to some impartial friends, I still haven't decided anything, but am much less stressed. So here is the latest... Clara will sit in on a 1st grade class for 1/2 day Wednesday and a full day both Thursday and Friday. After Friday, we can get feedback from the 1st grade teacher, the special education teacher, and of course the most important person in all this: Clara! Hopefully, the next three days will help us in deciding where she will spend the remainder of her school year. Needless to say... we are extremely proud of our little girl!

Welcome to the world of blogging, Heather!

So here it is... my first post. At the urging of a friend, I am now out here... my life and my thoughts public for anyone to read... a little scary. Of course, those who know me well are probably thinking that my free time should be put to more useful purposes... like a clean house or more creative dinners. Of course those same people also know that I spend way too much time playing Facebook Scrabble and Word Twist. And then there is the thinking that what am I really going to write about that anyone will want to read... well, let's just jump in and see what happens, right?