Sammie's 8 months!

Time just keeps ticking by, huh? Sammie is getting stronger and more mobile every day. She is SO close to crawling. I hope that she holds off for a little bit because I LOVE the rocking back and forth on the knees - it's one of my absolute favorite things :) She can definitely get where she wants to go, either by crawling, scooting backwards, or flopping herself forward. She is up on her knees all the time now and has stained-kneed outfits to prove it. She is eating 3 meals a day and eats a lot better than her brother and sister do :). She has seemed to go back to waking up about 2 times a night again, which I actually don't mind because this is always the age I get worried about my milk going away since she's eating more solids, so it makes me feel better to feed her more during the night. She is a very happy girl but definitely has her mood swings and has no problem letting you know how she feels or if she's bored :) She just started saying "ma-ma-ma", not meaning "mommy", just babbling, but it sure is cute :) She is such a sweetheart. Good thing she is so easy going. I was just thinking this morning, as I was waking her up from a nap to go get Bradley from preschool, about how she HAS to go with the flow - being the third child and all, but she really is such a trooper. I try the best I can to keep her on a sleeping and feeding schedule, but every day seems different - not because of her but because of EVERYTHING else :) Sweet, sweet baby!

New Playset

We are always so very grateful when Kevin gets wonderful clients - people who are kind, helpful, and appreciative of the great work he does. These latest clients went above and beyond. They have kids that are now grown past the age of toys and playsets and they were so generous to pass those on to our kids to play with and enjoy. They gave us this playset mid-summer and we finally had some time a couple weekends ago to go disassemble it and bring it home. Then the next weekend we put most of it together, the next weekend a little more, and I'm happy to say we only have the sides left to screw on :) It was quite an ordeal getting it together, even for my contractor husband :) The base is an octagon shape and we ended up getting all 7 sides together, fitting nicely then one side was about 2-3 inches from fitting together. I know the other sides must have been off 1/4-1/2 an inch and it just added up, but as much as we adjusted and pushed and pulled, we just could not get it together. Mind you, the set is a decade old and wood warps and curves after a while, but it drove us a little crazy. You'd think if one side was to long, then there should have been a side too short - oh well. It's not perfect now but it's good enough and it's sturdy and safe so that's all I care about :) It's SUCH a nice set! It has a climbing wall, monkey bars, swings, climbing rope, ladder, pole, and even a canopy for the top and a covered sand box at the bottom - I love it, but I don't think anyone loves it more than Bradley and Gracie. I'm a little sad we didn't get it up earlier in the summer so they could have enjoyed it in the warmer weather, but as long as the snow holds off for a little while, we still have plenty of good outside days left this year :)

Preschool!!!

Bradley started Preschool! We had a little orientation day with the parents on Sept 5th, then his first full day (2 1/2 hours) by himself was on September 7th. He was so good at orientation, we had a little list of things to do including decorating his name tag and going around the school to find the bathroom, kitchen, and gym area. He was very excited and eager to do everything on the list. You were supposed to do them all in whatever order you wanted and that's all I was told. So we did everything in the classroom first, then went around the school, then went back to the classroom at the very end. We opened the door and were talking very loudly to each other and I look over and everyone was sitting in a circle while the teacher read a book and we interrupted everyone - oops :( We're obviously the newbies! That's one thing I was a little sad about. The week before Kevin and I went to a parents meeting where we met the teachers and learned what we would be doing on our parent helper days and all the rules. When talking to our teacher at the end she said we were one of the 2 new families, everyone else had their children in 3 year old preschool there the year before. I was kind of hoping everyone would be in the same boat doing this for the first time. After being there for a few weeks now I see it more in the parents than the children (friendships already formed). I have always been more of an introvert than an extrovert, Bradley is the same way. I am not one to just run up to someone new and introduce myself and start a conversation. I've talked to a couple parents while we're waiting to drop off or pick up the kids, but just little conversations. I am hoping that we can get to know some of the parents and kids a little better as the year goes on. :)

Back to the first day - Bradley had a blast! I was worried about dropping him off because we've talked up preschool so much and he was so excited to go that I knew Gracie would be sad leaving him and not getting to stay with him - boy was I right!!! Bradley had no problem saying bye to me and "see you soon" and went off to explore the paints (his favorite), but Gracie did NOT want to leave! She threw a FIT! I kept explaining to her that we had to leave him there and we'd come back for him and we couldn't stay there with him, but she was not hearing any of it. I called Mom right after I dropped him off and I could barely hear her with the screaming child in the backseat but she said to come by her work. We did and she brought Gracie out a cookie - which calmed her down big time! Then we got home and when we were getting out of the car she seemed to remember that Bradley wasn't with us. "We leave Bradley!!!! Oh Darnit!!!" She said very surprised and panicked! I had to explain that I meant to and we'd pick him up soon. When we picked him up she was very excited and Bradley was so excited to see us and show us all that he did. He was Line Leader on the first day of school and was VERY proud of that. Mrs Herman told us that he did a great job. There is a schedule on the wall with little pockets and pictures of the sequence of events every day and Bradley LOVES that! He runs over there first thing to see what the plan is for the day. Mrs Herman told me that the first day he went over there and tried to go through the whole schedule in about 5 min - circle time, play, bathroom, snack, outside, small group, then Mommy comes. It's a co-op preschool so I work there with the kids as a parent helper about 15 times during the whole school year. That's one of the reasons why I chose this school. I thought it would be a great opportunity for me to see him in that environment and be there with him sometimes and get to share that with him. My first day was the second week of preschool and I absolutely loved it. Not only that I was able to be there with him, but it is exactly what I went to school for and I felt very in my element with the kids. I can definitely see doing something like that once all the kids are in school, but for now it's the perfect balance because I get to be home and share that with Bradley every now and then. I think we're going to have to start Gracie in 3 year old preschool now because she wants to go SO badly! Every day she asks if she's big enough yet, so I keep telling her next year. But then Bradley gets all excited and says, "Yes, next year, then we can go TOGETHER!!" And I have to explain that he won't be there anymore, but it's sweet that he wants to be with her all the time.
I was very apprehensive about him starting preschool, mostly because of my selfish feelings of wanting to be with him all the time and just being sad that he is so old already and time is going by too fast! And this is the start of it all - the start of school and him being away from me more and more and it breaks my heart! I know that it's good for him, and good for me too, but I just miss him, and all my kids, when I'm not around them. I think the first day was hard on me but having to deal with Gracie being so upset distracted me a little so I think that actually helped me a little bit. All these feelings that time is going by so fast and they are all growing up too fast just reiterates the fact that I made the best decision possible when deciding not to go back to work. I LOVE being home with them and wouldn't trade it for anything in the world and I thank God everyday that I am blessed enough to get to be with them all day, every day. Now if we could just slow down time, just a little bit...

Go fly a kite...

Kevin was able to get off early one night so we went to the park to fly some kites. I now see the importance of getting good quality kites, cheap ones just don't cut it. Bradley's broke when we were putting it together, it never even had a chance, so that was sad. Good thing we brought the football and he got pre-occupied with that most of the time. Gracie's fell apart several times but we were able to piece it back together enough to keep trying. It was the perfect night for kite flying, but our poor cheap little kite just couldn't get in the air for too long. But we kept trying, and kept trying. Then I gave up and decided to just take pictures. It was a lot of fun. I have since found some on clearance at Safeway that are really nice expensive ones and can't wait to go try them out but we haven't had the time or the kite-flying weather needed. Hopefully soon.

They were just fascinated by this water fountain. When you push the button the top pops up for the water to come out, it sure scared Bradley the first time...

Gracie thought it was funny :)

We even got to see a deer :)

Hot Air Balloons - nay - Balloon

A couple years ago we went to the Hot Air Balloon Show at the Windsor Harvest Festival and I LOVED it. So last year we tried to do it again, got everyone up early and got there and it was cancelled due to high winds - so sad. This year I heard of one at the Fair so once again - got everyone up early, got there, sat down with everyone else and started to watch and nothing was happening. All the trucks were sitting around with their balloon baskets but they weren't rolling out the balloons - they were just waiting. We decided to go to the free pancake breakfast and come back since nothing was happening. I'm assuming right after we left they called it because of weather again because we got back a little later and everyone was gone and no balloons were in the air - so sad AGAIN. Then the Windsor Harvest Festival came, so we tried AGAIN! I guess I didn't realize how lucky we were that first year to catch all the balloons. I'm assuming they cancelled it because of weather again because hardly anyone was there - but there was ONE balloon thank God :) I thought it was a perfect morning, but what do I know :) I was disappointed again but at least the kids got to watch one balloon go up which was very exciting for them.

Sammie is 7 months!

Samantha Jean is seven months old now and she is learning so much every day! She LOVES being on her belly now - funny how all that changes when it's not so difficult to hold yourself up and look around :) She will continuously roll around and can make some serious ground pretty quick! She's a great eater. No teeth yet which I'm surprised about, I thought she would get them early. She is so easy going and quiet for the most part. However, now she has realized that when she screams at the top of her lungs it sure gets my attention quick - especially in public places, so she thinks that's pretty cool :) She has been sleeping great in her crib and is always easy to put down for a nap. She's just gorgeous, if you ask me :) Such a sweetheart and so loving and fun.