In the swing

We have made it to week three.  Sara has survived going to preschool, Evan has finally adjusted to school, and I am still working on learning student names.  My school day schedule is crazy, I teach in 3 classrooms, and non of the are consecutively.  I run from one side of the building to the other, I guess I can consider this exercise!
     Sara loves school and has been tear free.  I surprised her and picked her up the first day.  She received her first WOW, a small piece of paper stamped WOW, as an incentive for sitting and listening attentively during story time.  Evan received one each week last year so hopefully Sara will too. 

Sara discovered the dress up clothes at school

     Evan told me today that he loves school and then thought for a moment and said but not as much as I love home.  The first few days were complete tears so after a rough start we are finally happy and exhausted.  Bedtime has been moved up to 7:30-8:00 pm and I wake him around 6:45.  They do have a rest time at school but he says he never naps. 
     Sara is a complete Daddy's girl and was so upset this morning that he had left for work that she fell to her knees and put her head down on the floor.  Did I mention she is a drama queen?  Tonight she asked him to come home and he told her he had to work and make money.  She ran and took some money off the kitchen counter and told him "you have this money so you don't have to work anymore".  She has it all figured out at two, if only it was that easy. 

Back to School

     It has been a crazy week, I'm exhausted.  I started back with students on Tuesday.  My classes are bigger than ever due to all the budget cuts.  My Finance Academy accounting class is 30 students.  I have never had more than 25.  On a positive note they all want to be in the class and are adorable.  My schedule is nuts I'm in 3 classrooms, have 3 preps and am bouncing back and forth all over the building. 
     Evan had a half day on Thursday and a full day on Friday.  He woke up very excited to go on Thursday and was all smiled getting on the bus.  I came home at lunch to get him off and he was hysterical when he came off the bus.  Poor baby he told me he hated school and all the teacher did was have him sit on a rug all day.  He said she went blah, blah, blah, all morning long.  I had to hide my smile for this one as I explained all teachers have lots to tell you on the first day. 
     So as I was getting ready on Friday morning he woke up furious he told me he wasn't going and demanded to know why I signed him up for school.  Finally I calmed him down and he climbed on the bus with tears in his eyes.  Luckily his best friend took control (a kindergartner) and told him to come and sit with him.  He wasn't crying when he came home but he was exhausted and gave my mom a hard time.  She ended up sending him to his room.  I opened his backpack when I came home figured out what they did and started praising him.  He told me about playing, gym, and then told me he had bacon in his pocket at school. 
    My kids love bacon and they had has a few pieces for breakfast.  Evan had a t-shirt on with a pocket and a piece must have fallen in there.  I asked him if he took it out and he said he as afraid his teacher would get mad!  He told me he ate it when he came home.  Too funny... we had lots of giggles about the bacon. 
    Last night we celebrated Marc's dads 70th birthday and took the kids to a Japanese restaurant.  Evan told everyone he liked school.  So the saga continues. 

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. 

Halfway Point...

Where does the time go?  Summer vacation is half over.  I love being home with the kids and love being lazy without a schedule.  Evan was called to model at Fisher Price this week, a Mavis the train from the Thomas Line.  He has been waiting to be called because he wanted to buy the Gotham City Jail for batman.  My nephew gave him the batcave and I purchased the small batcave on the right after his allergy appointment.  Sara chose Princess and the Potty.  Its hilarious, the doll sits on a potty and when she does it looks like there is #1 and #2 in the potty, there is a lever to flush and it turns back to blue water.  The neighborhood kids were enthralled with it.

My Dad is back at Roswell he was running a fever on Saturday and was admitted and has had to receive a transfusion and platelets each day.  He ran out of clean pajamas this evening and I offered to deliver them if my Mom would watch the kids, instead she said why don't we all go.  It takes about 25 minutes to get there.  So we brought the kids into the hospital.  They have never been there before.  Evan was very sad.  Hopefully next time my Dad calls to talk to him he will spend a little more time speaking to him now that he has seen how lonely Grandpa is.       Sara wanted to know how Grandpa would get home.  She was very happy to see him.  The kids usually see my parents every day.  Its been difficult because they haven't been able to have any physical contact with him since April.  Sara loves to sit on Grandpas lap and hasn't been able too. 

     We purchased Evan's backpack from Lands End via Sears today.  His school supply list is almost complete.  I can't believe my baby will be at school everyday.  They grow up way to fast.  Today we had gymnastics and Sara only cried once.  She burst into tears and I took her to the bathroom and she told me she wanted to go home but luckily after that she stayed for the rest of the class. During the previous classes it happened multiple times and  I had to sit out in the gym with her several times.  Its surprising because she is so independent.  Last Friday my high school girlfriend came over and brought her Freshman daughter.  Her daughter babysat while we went for dinner.  It was fantastic we will have to do it more often.   A whole new meaning to BYOB - Bring your own babysitter!  I guess having our kids years after all our friends will have some perks.  Another couple that was in our wedding had their son graduate from high school this year.  They always offer to bring there daughter to babysit when we go out.  I think I'll take them up on it next time. 

     The last picture is from our blueberry picking trip.  We picked 16 pounds in less than an hour.  Sara and I have been eating lots of blueberries.    I gave away lots of blueberries to my parents, my aunt, and our neighbors.  I froze enough for blueberry muffins but surprisingly we are almost out of the fresh ones and I considered going picking again.  Maybe if it cools off this week.   

Swimming

     The last week of school we had an incident and Evan fell in the neighbors pool.  It was a huge wake up call for all of us.  He has always been very hesitant about the pool and this reinforced it.  He is comfortable if he can touch the bottom but fights us to wear swimmies, life jacket, and puddle jumper.  At our cottage  last week we were able to convince him to swim of the boat although he wouldn't let go of me.  Sara swims independently if she has a life jacket or puddle jumper on.  Yesterday we started private swimming lessons at a neighbors pool.  The kids have a one on one lesson for a half hour for $5.  Evan was the last lesson and he told me I need to come in.  So I fully expected that he would last about a minute.  He lasted the entire half hour.  Our friends had super heroes that were in the pool and as long as Evan could play with them and look for them he was fine.  Marc came home at 2pm, and asked Evan about his lesson he told him it was awesome. 
      We took a ride to our cottage and I rode the tube with the kids.  Evan had a blast and didn't want to get off.  He kept telling Marc faster and we even went in and out of the wake.  Last night in bed I asked him what the best part of his day was and he say his swimming lesson.  What a relief! 
     Sara is completely potty trained she runs to the bathroom herself to go.  She tells me to leave and shut the door if she goes #2, and has woken up dry every morning.  Twice she has woken me up around 6am to tell me Mommy I need to go potty.  Now to conquer the pacifier.  It will not be as easy as potty training. 
     My Dad is heading in for his 4th chemo treatment today.  He has to go not because he needs it but because there is no bed to put him in in the transfer unit.  My Dad has non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma and is undergoing a stem cell transplant (with his own cells) and will be in the unit for 2-4 weeks.  They will completely kill his immunization system and extract his cells, grow them, and then return the cells to him.  It has a 50% success rate of curing the cancer at his age.  The unfortunate thing is there is no test at the end to know if it worked.  He will have to continue being monitored to see if the Cancer is gone.  My mom is so stressed and disappointed that this 4th treatment is happening.  My Dad is completely dependant on her and has no idea how much pressure and stress he puts on her.  She told me this week I would much rather be watching the kids everyday than running to Roswell each day.  I have offered to take him but she wants to be in control of the care and some days he is there 4-9 hours.  He has undergone weekly plasma and blood transfusions it is so difficult to see him go through it.