OtterPops: Kid Update

Emma 1st Day of Preschool

Little Ms. Emma started preschool last month and actually seems to be doing great! I set up a co-op with other moms and we purchased the Mother Goose curriculum since all of the students are young and need a watered down curriculum. As opposed to Jonas who had only boys in his preschool, Emma has all little girls. All of us moms teaching the "Little Ladies Preschool" have older kids (or newborns) and busy lives so we need an easy pick-up-and-go lesson plan! I am in the middle of my teaching weeks right now and I always enjoy teaching and getting to know the other kids and moms. We have already had a couple field trips-I was in charge of coordinating the pumpkin patch field trip this month (pictures below)

Apparently they were learning about "friends and feelings" a couple weeks ago and the lesson plan said to let the kids draw faces with varying emotions. That is way above the skill level of Emma and her classmates so the teacher thought she would make it more meaningful and just ask the girls to make the appropriate faces, capture them on camera, and send a collage to each parent. Emma was the only one even remotely close to making the appropriate face when asked and my friend said she wasn't missing a beat. She would make the face right on cue! She does make really dramatic faces and has some pretty funny expressions.

The girls with their pumpkin craft at our house

Emma is very much a 2 year old and lately her independent kick has been wearing only dresses or skirts. If I try to get any other outfit on her she just tells me matter-of-factly "That's NOT for ME." If you see her wearing anything except a dress it is probably because I bribed her with a jelly bean. She also discovered recently that her nose produces boogers and that it can be entertaining to dig them out. I am trying to distract, discourage and otherwise deter her from making nose-picking into a habit but I am not winning. The other day she told me as I got her out of her car seat "there is something on the car door." We proceeded to get everything out of the car and I asked her what was on the door to which she responded "My booger." I promptly took her out there with a wipe so she could clean it up and we had a nice little chat about how boogers only belong in kleenex! yuck! I guess it is better than eating them but still...

Emma at the Pumpkin Patch

Jonas has made huge strides in going to school without crying or incentives (aka bribes). He always says it is the best part of his day and is doing great making friends and learning. But, he definitely comes home exhausted at the end of the day. Here he is with his teacher, Ms. Basile. He is learning so much academically and it is really fun to see him start to learn sight words and improve with his fine motor skills. He will be more than ready for kindergarten next year!

Jonas with his teacher Ms. Basile

It will be really great next year when all the kids are at the same school-as we are doing double duty going to drop off and pick up at both (with the help of bus and neighbor carpool occasionally with the girls), volunteer at both, fundraisers, etc. but we are grateful the schools are both good schools and not too far from home (just opposite directions and similar times). It has been good to be able to volunteer in Jonas's classroom every week to get a feel for the classroom environment and know the kids that he is playing with at recess, etc. I guess I am a nosy mom like that! He also is very proud of himself when he can get hot lunch on his account. I put some money on his account and told him it would be there in a pinch if he forgot his lunch, or if we did not pack one, etc. Well, on more than one occasion he came home and reported that not only did he get hot lunch, but he got brunch as well! Why, thank you for the $5 pop tart!! Those school lunches are so overpriced and under the nutrition standards that I can hardly stand it. I got a call that he had a negative balance on his account! We have since agreed he can only get hot lunch once a week. I am sure it is just a novelty and an independence claim because Jocelyn (by 3rd grade) won't touch the cafeteria with a 10 foot pole.

Jonas with his car after the "drive in" birthday

Jonas at the Pumpkin Patch

The kids get all excited when we receive the halloween store advertisement by mail. Each year they take turns looking through and scouting out good costume ideas. After looking through the flyer last month Jonas turned to me and asked "Can you have a baby brother for me by Halloween?" in all seriousness. I asked him why he needed a brother and he told me he had been scouting out power ranger costumes, Incredibles and superhero themed costumes-All of which needed more boys than we had in our family. I told him that would not be possible this year but it was a good idea! haha

Lillian with one of her teachers, Mrs. Almeida

Lillian has been doing well with school. Besides having to be moved tables this last week after getting too chatty with a friend, she seems to be a great student. Last week when Jared was recovering from his bike crash my neighbor was so kind to take the older girls to the Home Depot kids craft and her daughter's soccer game. Here are the girls with the fire trucks at Home Depot. We are so blessed to have wonderful neighbors right behind us. The kids can go back and forth through the gate to play, etc.

Fire Truck at Home Depot

At Home Depot Kids Craft

Lillian with recent school project-counting all the pumpkin seeds

Since our piano teacher (and my dear friend) Angela moved, Lillian and Jocelyn are now taking piano from their Aunt Maren. She comes to teach at our house and I get to take care of Claire while the girls take turns with their lessons. We have been having so much fun seeing them both on a regular basis!

The girls with Aunt Maren/Piano Teacher

Lillian taking care of Claire with me

Jonas helping take care of Claire

Lillian at the Pumpkin Patch

We are still doing our incentive system with the kids earning tickets for the chores and other responsibilities they complete. Even though there are other options, the kids pretty much cash them in for "date nights" with mom or Dad. Especially the older two girls are capitalizing on this and we have had some fun date nights lately. Lillian and I went to yogurtland the other night since we had not tried that out before. Another night Jocelyn and I went to check out the new "park" downtown with a borrowing library, this huge lawn chair and some other fun attractions.

Cait and Joc on a date night

Jocelyn stood true to her fall tradition of getting a bad case of the stomach flu, but luckily it stayed with just Emma (who had a very brief bout of flu) and Jocelyn. Poor thing threw up 10 times in a matter of 7 hours! Her birthday party was scheduled only two days after this. Since her stomach still was not back to normal, and I am afraid some anxiety over the party was contributing, we had to cancel her party. We rescheduled to the following weekend when, as fate would have it, Jared got into a biking accident and we had to cancel AGAIN! I told her the 3rd time would be the charm and we successfully pulled it off this past weekend. She wanted to have a "movie" themed birthday so we had dinner, all kinds of popcorn and movie treats, then Jared set up the projector in the backyard and we had a "drive-in" movie wherein the girls sat in the boxes they had decorated to watch the movie. It was ingenious all-in-all. We had 10 kids decorate their own box then sit in the box for an hour and a half out back, containing all the mess in the box, then taking it home with them (since none of them wanted to part with it). It seemed like everyone had a fun time all in all!

Getting ready for the party

Jocelyn with her "movie" cake

The whole crew at the birthday party

During the "drive in" movie

This beautiful, hard working girl turned 9 and enjoyed the traditional breakfast in bed. She even had Nana and Grandpa visiting for her birthday which was a special bonus!