Goodnight Batman

Tonight as Evan and I were headed up the stairs and Sara was lying on the couch, I heard her yell to him goodnight Batman.  For all the fighting they do during the day its the sweet moments like this that make my heart melt! 

Sara has not been napping since giving up her pacifier.  Evan is so frustrated by not having some time without her around.  He tells her she needs to take a nap and the other day told her Daddy wouldn't come home if she didn't take a nap.  Yes, he is the master manipulator.  Unfortunately his attempts do not work any better than mine.  I tried telling her she had 15 minutes of quiet time and setting a timer.  She started yelling my name at 3 minutes and was hysterical by 7, when I went up stairs she was gagging and holding her mouth.  She threw up her lunch, and luckily we made it to the bathroom. 

Sara and Evan are night and day.  He is cautious and she is daring, he is very tidy and she is messy, he will only eat things he is familiar with and she will try almost anything.  Yesterday she at two whole peaches and then had yellow beans that she dipped in vegetable dip.   She ate a bowl of plain lettuce and tried some Kalmata olives.  The only thing she disliked was the olives.  Evan decided he no longer likes hot dogs or macaroni and cheese.  He is still big on pizza, raspberries, corn, and broccoli.  Raspberries are the tough ones we either have too many or not enough and they don't keep long enough.  The recently opened a Save A Lot near us and they have great inexpensive produce.

Last weekend we went for family pictures.  Each of the kids needed them for school and we hadn't had them done in so long that we went to JCP.  The family ones were cute but the kids were horrible for the individual shots.  We even made another attempt after seeing the pictures and it was a flop.  Oh well, sometimes they turn out cuter when I do a photo shoot in the yard. 

Last night I had new parent orientation at Evan's school.  There are a ton of social events for families and parents.  We start the year with meet the teachers on a Friday night.  My neighbors told me its 10 minutes with each teacher and then an amazing happy hour with appetizers.  Its all catered.  One of my high school friends is sending her 3 children there so I look forward to seeing her more often.  I'm excited to make new adult friends.  We belong to a huge parish but there are not a ton of social activities and we never get involved.  So this will be our forced way of getting involved.  Evan's class has 20 kids in in and 15 are boys!  I think I'm more nervous than he is.  His first day I have open house at night, its going to be a crazy week.  My dad will also be admitted to Roswell for his chemo and stem cell transfer.  So juggling the kids and sitters will be crazy.  Tomorrow the kids and I are going to the beach with a former computer aide from my school.  She retired in June and has offered to watch the kids when I'm in a pinch.  We went to the playground and to her house a few weeks ago and the kids instantly warmed up to her.  I'm still hesitant to leave them since they don't know her that well although I adore her.  I'm sure after the first day my thoughts will change! 

Big Girl

Wow what a summer its been, Sara started out by getting potty trained and this week she gave up her binky (almost effortlessly) and transitioned to a toddler bed.  Its a mixed feeling knowing she is independent and not my baby anymore! 

The calendar is quickly filling up with open houses, meet the principal, meet the teacher, first days, I'm exhausted thinking about it.  We have all of our supplies ready to drop off this week.  The only unknown is Sara's first day of school and when my Dad will be admitted for his stem cell transfer. 

Marc's mom cancelled her visit this week her Doctor thinks she is having gall bladder issues and is having more tests done at the end of the month.  Hopefully Grandma can come up this fall for a visit.  Otherwise we will head down to SC over Easter break. 

Evan and Sara have started doing puzzles each day.  Sara has mastered the 24 piece puzzles and is working on a 40 piece and 48 piece puzzle.  She is so determined to do everything "myself".  She has even figured out how to buckle her own car seat and Evan has not! 

Today I had a picture frame delivered and the kids took the bubble wrap and made paths across the floor to run through

Today I had my yearly OBGYN appointment.  My OB had a nurse practitioner that managed most of my infertility treatments.  I'm sure we kept her other patients waiting because we chatted forever.  Afterwards I told her I think we need to do lunch and catch up!  The Dr I went to in Syracuse is opening an office in Buffalo.  There is currently one clinic in Buffalo and it is awful, so it will be a great asset to our surrounding area to have a new clinic.  She told me each time a difficult cases comes up they bring up my name.  Every time there is a question of who to see in Philadelphia my Dr.  says call Sheila.  Too funny, I told her they can call anytime, I'm just thankful for the children they helped me conceive and safety deliver. 

Binky Fairy

Crossing my fingers that our pacifiers are off to the Binky Fairy.  We have been talking about it the past few weeks and I cut the ends off a few.  Sara keeps telling everyone no more binkys and no more diapers.  She equates getting rid of the two things to being a big girl.  We have promised her the Jake and the Neverland Pirates ship if she gets rid of her Binkys.  Today she told me no more binkys so we decorated a lunch bag with stickers and filled it with all the binky's.  She put it in the mailbox after the mailman had delivered todays mail.  She had me double check the mailbox twice to see if they were gone.  They were Grandma hid them in my car.  She didn't nap tonight and after a complete meltdown has fallen asleep on the couch. 

Hopefully we can make it through the night.  Marc doesn't agree with my cold turkey approach, but Evan streched his out until 3.5 years old and I can't let her keep it that long.  Hoping she is so exhausted she will survive night one, she does look for it first thing in the AM.  So we will see how early she awakes. 

Slowly working on my list of summer projects, I ordered a new refrigerator this week and its getting delivered on Monday.  Our fridge is still running strong and its almost 14 years old.  It is to small and the only non stainless steel appliance in our kitchen.  I though when we built this house in 2006 it wouldn't survive the move but it has kept on ticking.  Next big purchase is a new car and I'm still undecided between the Accord and Oddysey.  The huge difference in price has me torn, we really don't travel except once a year to my MIL's.  It would be nice to be able to put someone else in the backseat of the car.  Both kids are so light we will be in carseats for a while still.  Evan is 32 pounds and Sara is 26.  Booster seats recommend 40 pounds.  At the rate Evan is gaining that could be years!  We do have the Britax seats so they can stay in them for quite some time, unfortuantely they are very bulky.