First Day of Kindergarten

I can't believe my little man is in Kindergarten already. I didn't cry, but I was very close. It helped that Noah was so excited and that he has always separated easily from Mommy. He had a wonderful first day. He loved eating school lunch, he loves recess, and he adores his teacher, Mrs. Broesch. He was also excited to learn that a boy from his soccer team is in his class. It's so hard to believe that he will now be in school for at least 13 more years. I feel a little nostalgic for preschool when he could come home and watch Noggin and eat pb&j and then we could take naps, but I guess that's part of growing up.

San Diego

We recently spent 5 glorious days in San Diego. It was such a fun vacation for all of us. The kids loved every second of it and fell asleep exhausted every night, and Seth and I had so much fun just watching them have fun.

We spent two days at Sea World, one day at the San Diego Zoo, and just hung out at our resort, which was gorgeous! There were 4 or 5 swimming pools and there was also a private beach where the kids got to swim in the ocean. Ella loved swimming and Noah had fun taking pictures and finding sea shells. Noah liked swimming in the pools, and he finally learned how to swim under water (well, decided that it was something he was interested in, I guess), so that was very exciting for us. Now he can pass Level 1 in swimming lessons before high school!

We also went to a Padres/ Mets game and had awesome seats behind first base and 5 rows up. Unfortunately for Seth and Noah, their team (the Mets) didn't win, but Ella and I had fun eating the food and watching the people.

The kids did well on their first airplane rides, and everything went very smoothly. I have about a million photos to go through, but I found some to put on here quick before I get busy with going back to work.

Ella watching the ducks at our resort

swimming in the ocean for the first time

Recent Noah-isms

Regarding Ella:
"I'm getting sick and tired of my sister's out-of-control behavior".
and
"My sister has some serious behavior issues"

Regarding his score on a hole at putt-putt:
"Mom! Mom! I got a hole in eight!"

Regarding playing putt-putt in general:
"It's a nice day, fun game, what more could you ask for in life?"

And my personal favorite.......

Regarding finding his lost shoes:
"Mom, I found my flip, but I can't find my flop."

No more Nah Nah

Ella used to call Noah 'Nah Nah', which we thought was pretty cute and endearing. At Adventureland, Ella and I got separated from Noah and Seth, so I told Ella to yell for Noah. She yelled at the top of her lungs "Nooooo Waaaaah, WHERE ARE YOU????" No more Nah Nah. :( But it's still cute hearing her say Nooooooah.

We finally have our daycare arrangements made. Noah is going to go to La Petite where his friend Dillon goes before and after school three days/ week. He will ride a van to school on those days. It's not the ideal situation, but I figure we can give it a try and if we don't like it, we'll come up with something else. He is on the waiting list for the Kids care at his school, so maybe he'll get into that sometime before high school.

Ella is going to go to an in-home daycare at "Miss Theresa's" who was Noah's preschool teacher and recently quit at the preschool to open her own daycare. So far it is just Ella, another 2 year old girl, and a baby, and that is about all the kids she wants to have, so I'm hoping that it, too, works out well for us. I feel good that Ella knows her, I think that will help with the transition a little.

Noah started a new class this week that he loves at PE 101. I'm still not quite sure what exactly they do, but he adores it, and it keeps him entertained from 9-12 each day.

This past week-end we took the kids to Spray Station, a waterpark in Fremont. I wasn't brave enough to take my camera, but I wish I would have. They both had a blast. We'll have to go again soon so I can get some pictures.

Evil Processes

Today, after a particularly harrowing episode of Ella throwing macaroni and cheese all over the kitchen and nearly falling off the table, and Noah running around the house screaming like a banshee and using pencils as weapons, I muttered to myself "Lord have mercy". Noah heard me (he can hear THAT, but he doesn't hear me yelling at him to sit down and quit running with pencils in his hand?) and he said "Mom, you are not supposed to use the Lord's name for evil processes." (I think he meant 'purposes'). Okay, Mr. Ten Commandment Quoter- how come you can't seem to remember the one about honoring thy father and mother?

Roller Coasters Everywhere

Wow, I don't even know where to begin...

I have been neglecting my blog lately because I have been a little overwhelmed with what to even write. Life has been a little overwhelming. Okay, a lot overwhelming. But, as all things that go up must come down, all things that are down also come up eventually, kind of like a roller coaster. So, I'll start with the bad, but end with the good. Isn't that how life goes?

Last Monday night I officially learned that we would have to find a new daycare for the kids. While I had been preparing myself for the chance that we would have to find something else, and had been looking around and checking into different options, I was hopeful that things would work out with our current sitter. But, no such luck, so we are still trying to iron out our exact plans. I think we have some good prospects, so I'm crossing my fingers (and losing some sleep) hoping that things all work out before I have to go to work on August 20th.

As I was laying awake in bed Monday night considering our options, I heard a horrible noise coming from Ella's room. I went in to find that she had thrown up, which she continued to do the entire night. I, literally, did not get one minute of sleep that night. I laid on her floor and jumped up every five minutes or so to help her as she threw up. It was awful. Poor thing was so sick and would wake up crying saying she was thirsty, so I'd give her a sip of water and she'd get sick a minute later. The kids had started swimming lessons that week, Noah is in level 1 and Ella is in the Mommy and Me class, so I called my mom to see if she could take Noah to his lessons. She did, and kept him the whole day, overnight, and took him to his lessons on Wednesday, too (Thanks Grandma Mary!!!!!!!). Poor Ella had to miss hers, which was too bad, because she LOVED them, and was the star pupil in her class of three, with another Ella who is 18 months and wanted to do what she wanted to do and not what the teacher wanted as most 18 month olds do, and a 3 year old boy who is terrified of the water (it was hard not to be the star pupil). But we were glad that Noah got to go to his lessons.

On Wednesday night, as I was again laying in bed stressing about daycare instead of sleeping, I heard another terrible noise coming from Noah's room. Yep. So, he was throwing up all day Thursday, Ella was still very sick and really listless and tired, and then, to top it all off, I got sick later in the morning. So, we spent the entire day with Ella and I laying on one couch covered with blankets and towels and Noah laying on the other couch, all three of us dozing on and off, watching movies and taking diarrhea and vomitting breaks. Lord have mercy.

Seth came home for lunch on Thursday and had a phone call from the dermatologist who had taken a biopsy of a mole on his cheek and was informed that the biopsy results came back and showed that the mole is cancerous. Basal Cell Carcinoma, which, I guess is very common, and very treatable. Still, a very scary phone call to receive. With all that had been going on that day, I'm afraid that I wasn't much help to Seth who, I'm sure, was pretty shook up with the news. The kids and I were having our own explosive issues at the time, so I couldn't quite take it all in at once. All in all, a terrible week.

But, as I said, what goes down will come up, and our week ended positively. I was a nervous wreck all week that someone would still be sick and we would have to cancel our trip to Adventureland that we have had planned with some friends of ours for quite some time. Luckily, everyone was recovered and we were able to go, and we had a great time.

Noah was tall enough this year to go on "real roller coasters" and was sooooooo excited. He started off with the Dragon, which goes upside down twice, and he seemed to like it. The ride goes so fast that I couldn't look at his face (actually, I couldn't see his face with the bars over our chest), but I imagine he looked petrified. Later in the day we went on the Tornado, which doesn't go upside down, but is pretty rickety and bumpy. I was able to see his face, and he looked like he was being tortured, poor thing! Afterwards, though, he claimed that he liked it. He is very brave. Ella had fun going on the rides that she was able to go on, and all the kids had a good time and were troopers- we were there for 9 hours! The weather was GORGEOUS!!!! We wore sweatshirts and jackets most of the day- unheard of for July in the midwest!

After Adventureland, we went out to dinner and then back to our hotel to swim in the pool. By the time the kids got in bed at 11:00, they literally were out before their heads hit the pillow. On Sunday we went to the Living History Farms which shows what farms were like in the 1700s, 1800s and 1900s. It was very interesting and interactive, and the kids loved it. Noah was really into it and had a lot of questions for the workers who were dressed like they were from that time period. His questions included: does that use electricity? (referring to the wood burning stove), is that real? ( referring to a hoe that a worker made), and is that a weapon? (again, referring to the hoe). We left at 4:30 and got home at 7:00 and are all utterly exhausted. It was such a fun week-end, though. I'm so glad we were all healthy and could enjoy our trip.

And so starts a new week. We have one last week of swimming lessons, hopefully Ella can go this week, and then next week Noah has a weeklong class at P.E 101, then we go to San Diego, and then Kindergarten starts!!!! This summer has flown by, as always...

Slick

It seems like the 4th of July was yesterday, but it's already a week later. The past week just flew by. Noah had a weeklong class at the Children's Museum called Raptor Rangers where they learned about dinosaurs and got to go on a dinosaur bone dig. He LOVED it! I figure it was good practice for his future as a paleontologist. I did tell him to make sure and not be too bossy or too much of a "know it all" and let the teachers teach the class, which I felt a little bad about, but I do think that's something he has to learn before he goes to Kindergarten. After the second day he told me that his teacher mispronounced 'parasauralophus', but that he "didn't even correct her".

The only thing I didn't like about the class was that it got over at 12:00 and if Ella and I didn't stay there it was really hard to find a parking spot when we came back to pick up Noah. On Thursday Ella got to have a day with her Grandpa Donnie and they went to the zoo. I went by myself to get Noah and didn't even attempt to park in the lot, instead I parked illegally on the street at a meter (illegally b/c I didn't pay the meter). I ran in and got Noah and made him run back out. We made it without getting a ticket, and getting out was so much easier than it had been trying to fight all the traffic in the parking lot. Apparently I said that parking there was pretty slick (I don't think I've ever used that word in that context bef0re) because now Noah keeps walking around saying things are "slick" too.

Today Seth and I took the kids to Fontenelle Forest. We hiked on the trails and the kids played in a little area they have with kids' activities. It was really fun, and Noah was really into the hike. Seth had made a scavenger hunt of things for him to look for along the way, and he found almost everything on the list. I ended up carrying Ella about 3/4 of the way, which was difficult, but I considered it my workout for the day.

After naps we went to a park where Seth and Ella played on the playground and Noah and I practiced his tennis. Out of about 30 balls, he hit 3 over the net, but he was thrilled with his progress. It was a very fun day and we are all going to sleep well tonight.