Talking up a storm!

Sara has turned into a chatterbox.  I was a bit concerned in February her preschool teacher suggested we have her speech evaluated.  I hesitated but said I would make the call.  The more I spoke to neighbors, our sitter, and friends, they all thought it was a complete waste of time to call.  Sara talks non-stop its not always clear but she has 7-8 word sentances at times.  Yesterday she asked my Mom after shopping at Wegmans, "Why that boy take our cart?"  Yesterday she asked for a dink(drink) and I asked he what she wanted, I had a hard time making out lemonade.  She has a very broad vocabulary and can usually get across her point.

I had to pick the kids up from preschool this week and I was able to speak with her teacher.  Sara barely talks in class, so she is just busy observing.  The funny thing is once she gets around us she never stops talking.  This morning at 4am, I heard "Mom", I ignored her and then I heard "Mom come to my room". 

Big Brother

My mom picks my kids up from preschool and told me Evan always runs out and hugs Sara, holds her hand and gives her a kiss.  I see them do this occassionally when they are playing.  Sometimes they play very well together.  Our basement is finished off and the two played an hour the other night without fighting.  Friday my Mom took them to a new playground.  The kids were playing chase with lots of other kids and one of the kids was hitting Evan.  My Mom thought he may have been autisitc.  Evan told the boy to stop that because your scaring my sister.  The boy continued and he told him to leave my sister Sara alone.  So proud of him.

Today we went to a birthday party at a childrens museaum.  He took her hand when it was time to transition to another activity.  It is so sweet to see him look out for her.  They have been playing on our playset in the backyard while I clean up after dinner.  Our slide is very fast and Evan catches Sara at the bottom. 
Evan has been suffering terribly with allergies.  He is actually excited when it rains because he knows he'll feel better.  This morning his eyes were almost swollen shut.  It was obvious he felt terrible during the birthday party.  He sat with his arms crossed and a miserable look on his face while his good friend was opening presents.  At first I thought it was jealousy but he told me the kids were so loud especially the little boy next to him and I think he felt awful.  He took a 2.5 hour nap and Sara took a 3 hour nap, it was a fantasitic afternoon. 

We survived our trip to Charleston to see Grandma.  Evan threw up in the first two hours and there was no way we could have traveled 10 more hours smelling his car seat.  We ended up stopping at Target when it opened and picking one up.  I'm so bad, I returned it when we arrived in Charleston.  He is so skinny and the seat was as hard as a rock.  We have the Britax Marathon carseats and they are so overly padded that the kids don't ever complain.  We stopped in Charlotte and I purposely chose a hotel with a indoor pool.  Well the pool was freezing and looked very cloudy, the kids in it were very loud. So we ended up skipping the pool.  The next morning we went to the outlet mall and hit the Lego store and Disney store as promised. 

Evan loved the Lego store although it was the same stuff I could have ordered on Amazon.  He sat in his carseat putting together Lego's for a good part of the trip.  I bought them both soft trays for their carseats and brought Evan some tupperware containers and he worked on Lego's.  Its not a cheap hobby but I bought all the $3-5 dollar sets I could find and then Grandma gave him a few sets so he was happy.  Sara was my big concern and she was fantastic.  She colored, did stickers, magantic paperdolls, and had candy buttons. 

We had a great trip the weather was a bit chilly but the kids were happy to be with Grandma all week.  The Easter bunny came to Grandma's, we went downtown a few times, the pool, playground, and just relaxed.  We ended up driving straight through on the way home.  Fifteen hours in the car and no tears! 

Our other Fisher Price Boxes

Thought I would include out other Fisher Price pictures, the first one is Evan in a Jumperoo. Next is all of us in a Japnese parenting magazine, and finally Sara in a swing. Wow those cheeks on Sara she looks like a different kid. We have probably had a dozen pictures that have never mde it to a box or the product never made it to the shelf.

Marc and I have a funeral on Friday so I want to stop by the FP store and pick up a few Easter gifts for the kids.

Marc is out of town tonight and Sara is lying on the couch next to me saying "make Daddy come home". She has designated her left cheek as Daddy's cheek and her right cheek at Mommy's cheek. When I kiss her she always reminds me whose cheek is whoses.

Fisher Price Surprises

The kids model a few times a year for Fisher Price and they love it because they get to pick out a toy afterwards. I think its fun and they need to follow someone elses directions, we get a $50 gift card each time, and the "chance" to be on a box. The downside is we never know if or when the toy will come out and we don't know where the pictures will be used, ads, displays, boxes, or magazines.

Tonight we went to the mall and browsed in Barnes and Noble and I just happened to see a toy I thouoght Evan may have modeled and to my surprise he was on the box. Of course I was excited and Evan could have cared less. He didn't like that there was another boy in the picture, and then he wanted to know if he was on the Cars box too. I'll call the FP store tomorrow to see if they have it, we certainly have a pile of gift cards to purchase it with. Sara was on a swing box when she was a baby, unfortunatly I could never find the box and couldn't spend $150 plus on a box.

Today I renewed Saras modeling permit, so we are good for another year. Hopefully we will get some calls over the summer.

Summertime fun.... in March

We had 75+ degrees this entire weekend and its forecasted for the entire week. I must say I'm loving global warming if this is what it is. Living in the snowbelt of NY and having a snowless winter, a great lake that never froze, and no wearing shorts in March we are experiencing complete bliss. The only downsize is Evan has very bad seasonal allergies and he started taking Allegra already. We make sure to have him shower each night and I'm constantly washing his jackets. Now if the lawn would dry up it would be perfect.

The kids are so funny Sara will tell Evan "no get away", the other morning my mom asked Sara how she was and she responded "pretty good". Evan is full of imagination and talks and plays nonstop. The other day he asked Marc how come your old and mom isn't? Love him!

Marc has had the stomache flu all weekend, but at least we have been able to get out of the house. The kids and I did some shopping for spring clothes at Old Navy, Children's Place and Gymboree. I always thought Gymboree was expensive until I experienced the sale deals. I have found I can buy things on sale there cheaper than at a consignment sale. This weekend they had 30% off everything and had brought out boxes of past season clothes, I had a 20% coupon they combined and then earned $50 gymbucks to use on a later purchase (Gymbucks will take $50 off a $100 purchase) I haven't had great luck with Evans clothes there as he becomes pickier but can buy lots of adorable outfits for Sara.

The Mothertime Marketplace sale ended and I only had 11 items left over, there were probably 10 that weren't accepted for stains I missed, and another 5 or so that the kids had pulled out or I forgot. So overall we ended up making $490, and I forgot to bring the highchair that I can sell on Craigslist now and make more money. It feels really good to have it out of our basement.

March is marching by!

Its been awhile since I've had a moment to sit down and write. The weather has improved, its been a quick jump to spring in WNY. We really never had snow and now its March and my Daffodils are blooming.
We have had a fantastic month so far. Last week our sitter called early in the am and said her daughter who is school aged had the stomach flu and she couldn't watch the kids. So at the last minute I called in sick and took the kids to Rochester to the Strong Memorial of Play Museum. It is fantastic and the kids had a blast. The hour and twenty minute ride was so worth it. The kids were able to work in a kid sized Wegmans (Wegmans is based in Rochester, NY), play in the Bernstein bears village, drive an airplane, Visit Sesame street, be on TV with Elmo, and visit a butterfly garden. We played, ate pizza hut for lunch, played some more and made the drive home with both of them napping. We even stopped at Target for a new toy to celebrate our play day! We spent the babysitters pay on our day of fun. Thursday our sitter called again and I was able to have my mom watch for the afternoon. When I told Ev he said can we go back to Wegmans and play! I told him its an hour and a half to get there and he said that's okay we'll just stay for 5 minutes. If we purchase a membership to Explore and More, the Fisher Price museum we can go back to Strong for free next time. I think it'll be worth it.

We have one week of ice skating left and I don't think I have to worry about becoming a hockey Mom yet, a sigh of relief for now. Evan wants to take swimming and tennis lessons this summer and I think I'll have Sara do a gymnastics class. We finally made a decision and are sending Evan to our Church for preK. Our district cut 7 teachers in the high school this month, an entire middle school team, and 10 elementary teachers. The district and the directions it is taking is frightening. Luckily our department has a strong Finance Academy presence in the community and lot of community support and involvement. The other members of my department are very hard workers and very good marketers.


Easter break is 3 weeks away and we are driving to Charleston, SC. Evan will be fine but I'm sure Sara will be telling us fine. They are both excited to see Grandma and hit the beach. We bought groupons for Carriage rides, and a harbour tour, and hopefully will hit the beach in Mt. Pleasant. Evan is hoping we can stop at the Lego store in Charlotte. I'd love to do this but we'll be driving on Good Friday and I'm worried about traffic in Charlotte.
Speaking of Lego's he has come so far since the love affair with them began at Christmas time. He can put a 100+ piece together on his own. The downside is they are very expensive. I've been leaving them in my cart on Amazon and picking them up when the price drops. Before Christmas I picked up one for 19.99 and I see it in the stores for $75. Sara is completing 24 piece puzzles and dressing up each day

This weekend is the consignment sale at the fairgrounds. It is my 3rd year participating and hopefully the most profitable. I tagged my allotted 200 items and dropped them off on Tuesday. As of tonight I sold 119 items and all but 2 of the larger items. The sale ends on Sunday and I have to pick up any left over items and they will mail me a check for 55% of the total sold in two weeks. I could have increased it to 70% if I had volunteered 4 hours, but finding those 4 hours was impossible. I tagged almost $1,200 worth of items. I love this sale, its a lot of work organizing, pricing (they have an inventory system that prints tags, hanging all the clothes up, packaging the toys, but so worth it not to have a garage sale. This must be such a money maker for the 2 organizers.

Valentine's

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We had a fun weekend being home and being lazy. The weather was winter like for a change even though we only had a few inches of snow. It was nice to enjoy staying home. Evan and I made bird feeders for Valentine gifts for his teachers and babysitter. They were so easy to make we found them on this blog. We made them and they firmed up pretty quickly after putting them in the garage to chill. I flipped them over on a cookie rack and let them dry overnight. Evan was very proud to give them to his teachers today.

The teachers must have filled the valentine bags with all the students goodies while they played in the gym. We opened it when I came home for lunch and Evan told me all of my friends must love me. He is so sweet. Sara was anxious to dig into the treats! Evan was good and shared with her. He discovered he loves rice krispie treats. Its funny because they made theses in the fall at school and Evan refused to try them. I bought them premade in CARS packages last year because he insisted he would try them and he refused. So tonight he was in tears that I didn't have any cereal to make any. I guess I'll run out tomorrow and pick some up and it'll be our valentine treat!

Each day Sara tells us Grandma back. She misses Marc's mom, so sweet. We are contemplating making the 16 hour drive to Charleston over Easter we haven't driven down since we were dating. I was thinking if we drive 7-8 hours the first day and then stay at a hotel with a pool it may make it bearable. The flights are outrageous, it would cost us almost 2k to fly and then we would have to rent a car for the week. I need to break down an purchase a new car so I'd rather have a few miserable days of travel and put the money towards a new car. I'm not quite sure what I want but I hate car shopping and have been procrastinating it. It was bad enough without kids but shopping with kids/or while they are with a sitter does not sound fun.

Sara has her valentine party on Wednesday so it'll be fun to see her reaction. I bought them each two new books, Sara has a new puzzle, and Evan some Kung Fu Panda action figures he has been wanting. My mom gave him a Lego set today with 143 pieces. He sat at the table for 20 minutes attempting it before he asked for help. He is doing really well with them and is so patient. My mom has been knitting Sara some mittens and its been a winter long project due to everything going on with her and my Dad well she finally finished them and Sara was very happy and proud to wear them. So sweet!