We have good intentions...

To update the blog, but have been lazy.  Where has the time gone.  Marc's mom came to visit for 10 days in December and then the holidays seemed to arrive so quickly.
     Evan had  his first choral concert at school.  The concert was amazing.  We have a very large parish and the concert was held in the church.  Evan was front and center in his pre-K class.  He was smiling and having a great time singing.  He said Mom I was nervous but I told myself "you can do this Evan, you an do this!". 





     The holidays were fantastic, we were home for 12 days.  Most days the kids refused to leave the house.  The played so well together and Christmas morning was so joyful.  We spent the week creating Evan's new Lego sets.  We finally had one that was a bit to advanced. 

     Sara is all about princesses and loves to dress up.  We bought her a bike with training wheels and she immediately took off around the house on it.  She  begged to take it outside.  We had a few 60 degree days and she was able to ride a bit outside.  She is a very proud little girl. 
     We finally bought a new car, a Honda accord.  I debated the minivan but couldn't bring myself to get it, maybe next time. 
     January has brought out the stomach flu, colds, and fevers.  I feel like I have been sick for most of the month.  Today I was so desperate that I went and stocked up on some vitamins today.  I haven't taken any since I was pregnant.  Since I'm approaching 40, and not getting much natural vitamin D, thought it was time for a multivitamin and some Calcium and Magnesium.  I notice I am exhausted before I get my period each month, so hopefully the calcium and mag will alleviate this.
     Today was Sara's preschool conference.  Last year I was upset that Evan didn't have perfect scores, he sometimes ran in class, and could not do a somersault.  Well Sara had a great review although she didn't recognize the R in her name, or her shapes.  The teacher told me how Sara follows all the rules, procedures, and always participates.  She comes in with a smile each day.  Sara truly loves school.  Sometimes I am hesitant to send her early, she will always be the youngest in her class.  NYS has a 12/1 cutoff and Sara's birthday is 11/27.  I do feel she is ready and Sara can hold her own and wants to learn.  Her behavior in school is exceptional.  I volunteered twice in the past month and she is so well behaved.  I am lucky to have such great kids!  Evan should receive his report card this week.  I am curious to see the results.
     Evans teacher institutes  a red, yellow, green dinosaur.  Evan has been green all year.  Once the kids hit yellow or red they have to draw  the color in their notebook and the teacher sends a note home.  We went to a parents event on Saturday night and all the parents were talking Dinosaurs.  I wanted to brag that he has always been green, but bit my tongue! 
     Yesterday I gave the kids a bath and turned Sara's mermaid upside down to dry and she walked into the bathroom and saw it and said "What the heck is going on here?"  where do they get this stuff?  Evan told me last night that the Superhero's that have tight underwear can't fly! 
    As I am attempting to blog, because Sara fell asleep at 5:30, and will probably have me up all night.  Evan made me a garden out of Lego's because I didn't get a lot for my birthday (that was in October).  Having an evening with one child is way to easy!!

Happy Birthday Princess

  Sara is 3 today... whew!  that flew by!  Yesterday we celebrated her birthday at preschool.  It was my first time being a helper this year.  They decorate a birthday chair, let them throw confetti, be the leader, and have their mom their all day.  We had a blast and she was so well behaved.  She chose her friend Mandy to sit next to her during snack time.  Today we awoke to balloons on her chair, a musical birthday card, and one gift.  Evan had a very tough time with Evan having the attention.  He had a breakdown at the house and then at my moms before getting on the bus. At our sitters Sara had a gift of Princess squinkies awaiting her.  When Sara and I came to pick Evan up at my Moms, Sara received her presents from my parents, the coveted Cinderella mirror, she jumped up and down and was so excited.  Grandma also gave her some clothes and a $50 bill, and Sara clutched it and said now I can buy exactly what I want!  Where does she get this stuff?  We explained that the money has to go in the bank.  Well when we came home she managed to take the money out of the card and was crumbling it up to fit in her bank! 

      My Aunt came over and brought Sara some wonderful books and a leap frog Dog.  We bought Sara the Little Mommy Doctor Doll and a pack and play set and some doll clothes.  Evan and Sara had a blast playing with the doll and making her better.  She talks and her head turns red when she has a fever.  Hopefully we will play with this often and it won't just be a novelty.  The kids love to play with the Fisher Price Doctor set so I hope this works the same way.  Marc tried so hard to be home.  Yesterday he woke up at 3am to go to Staten Island he made it home at 8pm, and planned to be home tonight.  At dispatch this morning he had to go to Philly, so I videotaped and took lots of pictures. 
     Sara has come a long way the past few weeks, she says her alphabet, identifies 8 letters, counts to 10, and sings lots of songs.  She is a great problem solver and has a incredible memory.  When she talks on the phone she always ends her calls with I love you so much!  She does tell Marc I love you the mostest!  Dad is preferred over Mom by a long shot.  She is a easy child to feed.  She loves raw vegetables, especially cauliflower, peas (in the shell I buy at Wegmans), carrots, celery, and broccoli.  She would prefer vegetables raw rather than cooked.  She will also eat chicken, steak, and loves roast  beef.  She will not eat any ground beef. 
     Sara is still in her crib, we have tried the toddler bed and she climbs out over and over again and tells us she needs to check on us.  She has never climbed out of her crib.  Naps seldom happen, if she falls asleep in the car or in front of the tv she may take one, but then doesn't fall asleep until 9:30, or 10:00 pm.  She has been completely potty trained since June.  We still use a sippy cup only out of convenience but she is completely capable of using a drinking cup. 
     Sara is my child I have to watch.  I never know what she will get into.  Evan has always been the complete opposite and I never had to worry.  Now I need to worry when she disappears or it quiet for to long.  Last week it became very quiet as I was getting ready in the morning.  She had went in her room and climbed behind her chair and I found her unwrapping a tampon.  I keep waiting for the day she gets into makeup or nail polish.  I try to be vigilant but she is very resourceful in getting what she wants.  She will dump the clothes basket and use it to climb up on.  My parents laugh because I was always climbing up on the counters.  My mom used to tell me she was going to come to my house some day and walk on my counters.  When we were little we were playing hide and go seek and I climbed on top of the fridge!  Sara has acquired my climbing abilities. 

      Marcs mom is flying in on Thursday and staying 10 days.  Saturday we will have Sara's birthday party. 

3rd month of school already??

The weeks fly by, as much as I like my school year to go by quickly, I hate the idea of my babies growing up.  Sara is getting so big and verbalizing everything.  Although she has amazing verbal skills she is very stubborn about learning.  She can finally count to ten, recognize her colors, she is not catching on to numbers and letters.  She can identify a few letters and numbers but has not interest in them.  I have tried flash cards, foam letters, reading, magnets, writing, a letter a day, and still she will tease and tell me everything is "S" or "X, Y, Z".  I guess its so frustrating because by 2 1/2  Evan could identify all letters and numbers.  Her problem solving skills, balance, and fine motor skills exceed Evan.  She can completely dress herself correctly.  Evan still wants me to put his shirt on. 
  Oops I started this post a few weeks ago and never finished.  Well Sara can tell me whose name in her class goes with the letter but she doesn't name the letter if I show her B - she tells me Brett, M- Mandy.  I guess she learns very differently from Evan!

Surprise!

No, I'm not pregnant.  As much as I love my children, 4 pregnancies have been enough.  Today Evan had a half day and I picked him up during my lunch.  When we opened his backpack he had a letter addressed to Marc and I.  Well he was chosen for Student of the Month for the character of behavior.  I am such a proud Mommy today, out of the 21 students in his class he was chosen for this.  Evan is very well behaved in school, unfortunately if he is tired or hungry this doesn't carry over to home. 
     I also had his parent teacher conference this afternoon.  His teacher had nothing but positive things as far as his academics go they only negatives were that he had a hard time identifying lowercase q, and a hexagon.  Other than that he is exceeding all the goals for pre-k.  Last week he asked us how to write I love you, and then wrote us each a note with it on it.  He also wrote I love you Santa Claus this weekend after I had written it for him to copy.  He is a little sponge at school.  I had some concerns about his socialization because he tells me he doesn't always play with the other kids.  His teacher told me he will often ask the kids that are to shy to play with him.  He avoids the loud obnoxious kids.  Evan will often complain to me that the kids are very loud, and I'm glad he avoids this group.  I know that there are a few kids that should have IEP's and the parents refuse to have them tested.  I'm sure one is on the autism spectrum and the other is very defiant.  Hopefully they won't continue at our school next year. 
    Evan has a half day again tomorrow so I'll pick him up and take him to Sara's sitter for the afternoon.  I made the mistake of promising happy meals, something that is no longer a cheap lunch.  Tonight I said lets go for pizza, thinking we would just get two slices.  The kids asked if we could get french fries and then Sara decided she didn't want pizza.  So our cheap date turned into $18 for chicken fingers, fries, a slice of pizza, and two drinks, I knew I should have just popped a frozen pizza in the oven!

Photo Card

Initially Merry Christmas

Quick and easy: Christmas photo cards at Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

 

The love of school

     I hope I can always say that my children love school.  This year started a bit rough.  Evan cried multiple times during the school day.  Now he is sad when he doesn't have school.  He had last Friday and Monday off and then stayed home sick on Tuesday.  He told me multiple times he loves school and wants to go.  On Wednesday the first thing he told me after school was that his friends missed him! 
     Evan had always hated to color.  He would quickly scribble a bit and call it done.  Well there has been a tremendous turn around, maybe a little competition in the classroom.  Now Evan is determined to be an expert at coloring.  He wakes up in the morning asking to color and will spend over an hour doing school work at home.  We practice writing, coloring, and doing worksheet activities.  This weekend we will practice using scissors.  He is a little perfectionist, I think this exists with  his lego building and puzzle making as well.  He certainly didn't pick this up from Mom! 
     He is still very particular about what he eats and whether or not it will make his hands dirty.  He has stopped eating certain foods because he deems them messy.  This week he suffered from diarrhea and I told him he needed to eat a banana, which he has refused the past few weeks.  Well we now need to leave the peel on and once he reached the part in which he would have to peel it more he told me he was done.  I have considered battling this but if this is some OCD with his hands I don't want to intensify it. 
     Sara and Evan were coloring with markers on Wednesday while I battled out a change in service with Verizon.  A side note never change your telephone/tv/Internet online, it was a nightmare!  So much for attempting to save money.  While I was on the phone they colored themselves with marker.  This is so out of character for Evan.  I sent them to the bathroom to cleanup, when Evan discovered it didn't come off easy he became very upset. In anger and frustration I told him he would have to go to school like that.  He became hysterical and I put them in the tub.  The verizon rep probably thought I was a nutcase!  Well we finally scrubbed up but he was tormented by the idea that he would not be clean.  Needless to say the markers have been put a way.  Evan was crying that he never wanted to use markers again. 
      Sara has entered full princess mode.  She wet our bed this morning so we started watching Cinderella at 5:30.  We have the Disney costume for Halloween, unfortunately it leaves a trail of glitter throughout the house.  She wants a Cinderella birthday party.  Evan is often her prince.  Yesterday we picked up a ballet DVD from the library and Sara was mesmerized.  Its funny to see how she is all girl and he is all boy.  Although I did catch him trying on the Cinderella dress last week! 
   I have been terrible about taking pictures since school started to we need to take some this weekend. 

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.