Kindergarten, Preschool, and MORE Birthdays

Hylton had his first day of preschool yesterday. I forgot to take pictures before preschool, or during, but I finally remembered sometime during the afternoon after things had settled down. He is such a poser. Doug and I always crack up when we upload pictures to the computer and see all of his silly faces. What is this last one...?! He thinks he's modeling for GQ or something!
Preschool was at our house yesterday (as it will be for the next 5 weeks to get it all done before baby comes) and he has been asking me every half an hour for a week straight, "when is it time for his preschool to start?" He loved having his friends come to his house!


I also took a terrible picture for Evie's first day, so I finally took a nicer picture of her yesterday waiting for the bus. She gets a bus-ride to school even though we live so close, but she gets to walk home with Sterling after school. There is a rather large group that walks this year, which is really reassuring. Last year there were three of them and I think I counted at least 7 this year.

Evie ADORES Kindergarten! She didn't cry when I left her at her desk the first day, which I was very much expecting since she's suddenly been crying having hysterics when we leave her in primary class on Sundays, but she just told me she loved me before I left and she did great. I was even expecting a mid-day call from the school to have me come pick her inconsolable 5-year-old self up, but that didn't happen either, much to my relief.

Hylton and I have been having little adventures (meaning doctor's appts. and grocery shopping) together during that three-hour break and it has been heavenly. Hylton considers himself the Big Boy when he's alone and is capable of such astonishingly good behavior that it is a hard adjustment for both of us, I think, when the other two get home from school and he becomes the little brother again.


Evie has been experimenting with accessories and came up with this hair-bow concoction yesterday. She was so proud of her stylin' efforts! I think there must be 10 hair clips in there... Her being so girly is something I was not expecting from a daughter of mine, and it can be a really hard internal struggle for me when she wants to pick out pink, ruffly, fru-fru things, but I am truly grateful for her individuality and that she likes to make herself look pretty.


Oh my goodness, I want to eat them up, I love them so!


Sterling turned 7 yesterday. After preschool was over, Hylton and I switched gears and cleaned up everything and brought out the decorations, baked cupcakes, and made some Sackperson cupcake toppers. We waited until we saw the kids walking home and then we hid in the living room and surprised Sterling. These are things he loves the best! He LOVED the cupcakes. He had a great time looking at all of them before deciding exactly which one he wanted to eat.


As a side-note about Sterling's birthday, I have to document this story: I got an email from a friend yesterday explaining that her daughter was insisting that tomorrow was Sterling's birthday and that she had been invited to his party, but wasn't sure were his (handwritten, mind you) invitation had gone to get the details and she hadn't been able to read the writing anyway. So my friend was wondering when this party was... It turns out Sterling (along with verbally inviting anyone he ever knew to his "Birthday Party" all year long) had also written invitations and given them to every kid in his primary class. So along with his one friend who alerted us, another friend had already bought and wrapped a gift for him and was planning to come (and who knows who else)! I was so embarrassed! A little amused at his sneakiness and resourcefulness, but embarrassed, nonetheless. We had a little talk about when it's appropriate to send out invitations or invite people over (um, like when Mom knows about it, for one thing).

This year, Doug and I have decided not to do friend parties or even large family parties every year. There will just be too many kid birthdays in our family for that (July, August, September and then October or November for the baby), I would go crazy! So sadly, he was totally expecting a party and didn't get one, except with us last night. But, as a friend posted on Facebook today, which I heartily agree with:

"Two important things to teach a child: to do and to do without."
-Marcelene Cox

This is a fantastic life-lesson for Sterling and I'm glad for these opportunities. Our kids have much more than I ever did growing up and I think it is so healthy for them to experience and learn to manage a little disappointment.


It was his idea to pose like this. I have to chuckle, inwardly of course, each time they express their character through preferences. It's gratifying to watch them get bigger and have their own opinions and creative desires.




Sackperson helped him blow out his birthday candles, of course.




Silly Mister... Doug and I have decided that this is his Grandpa Dewey face.


Licking all the frosting off first!


Ease-up on the sugar, Little Man.


Daddy is gettin' DOWN on that cupcake! Since I had one of the smaller ones, I had to count the carbs for my charting. Over 20g in just one tiny one! We weren't terribly surprised, then, when they were freaking out for the rest of the night- they probably had 40-60g per cupcake! And that was with homemade frosting without all the high fructose corn syrup and only half of the sugar called-for.


A kicking fight ensued and it was all fun-and-games until someone cried.


Sterling really wanted more Sackpeople for his birthday. He might be a little obsessed. So he got Arr the Pirate and Caesar the Roman.


Doug and I found a great deal on a battle dragon for Bakugans, too, and he just loves it! He had other small Bakugans fighters that he somehow collected from friends at school last year (I probably don't want to know what toys he traded for these and/or conned out of less experienced negotiators). He was so grateful when he was going to bed last night and told Doug and I very sincerely that it was a great birthday and that he just loves all of his toys. Doug and I try very hard to teach the children gratitude, and it sometimes seems like it's never going to pay off, until suddenly it does and it feels like we've been doing at least something right for our poor, first, guinea-pig child!

And, I had to upload pictures from my phone today, which I so rarely use that I found these cute little ones that I had to post!

Evany at Krispy Kreme for her Halloween preschool field trip, Oct. 29th, 2009, dressed up as a kitty.





Hylton using the car on the patio full of kitchen-remodel debris, Nov 2009.


Outlet mall, Feb 2011

Aquarium

Saturday morning, we decided to leave the last two days of soaring valley heat behind and retreat to the coast. Doug and I are planners, so it was a little liberating to just pack up and go with little thought before-hand. We had purchased a Groupon for the Aquarium earlier this summer and it expires in a couple of weeks, so we thought we'd better put the house projects on hold for a day and go use it. Instead of making the almost 6 hour round-trip in a day, like we had originally planned, we booked a last-minute room and headed out.


It was incredibly gorgeous at the beach when we arrived (and much cooler than 95°), so we immediately took the kids down to the beach to let them run off their wiggles from the car ride. Evie wanted to fly the kite, so Dad helped her get it set up and she did pretty well.








The boys just wanted to run and slide down the dunes and find treasures.


Hylton thought it was especially fun to makes trails in the sand with seaweed.




There are four little people down on the right that belong to me. Doug was able to let the kite string out all the way at one point... until it all crashed. I think it brought out his inner boy. He spent quite a while playing with it until Hylton fell in a rivulet and a lady carried him through the water to me, and then Sterling and Evie ran off into the waves and Doug had to run after them before they got swept out. It was actually quite terrifying. They were duly chastised and we decided to call it a day after that.


We drove through downtown Newport in search of dinner. The sunset on the bay was so pretty to see.


After parking, we heard the growls of sea lions, so we walked across the road to the pier and found the Sea Lion Disentanglement Cage where the sea lions can recover after being caught in fishing nets.








I'm not exactly sure why we chose a pub for our dinner, except that it looked like the cleanest place we could see. Our waitress was really grumpy and we waited for quite a while. We were all starving!


Doug and Sterling thought it would be funny if Sackperson sampled the local ale. Boys!


Little Miss Sassy and Daddy. He was appalled to find that my purse was on the floor, so he held it in his lap for the rest of dinner. I asked him if he wanted to sanitize the bottom of it with hand sanitizer- I'm kind of surprised he refused.


After a crazy night where we went to bed late with three kids in one bed and Doug and I in the other (and Doug feeling nauseous), and then ended up with Hylton between for the rest of the night (I don't know how Evie and Sterling scored that victory) with his tiny little feet wedged into my back, we checked-out of the room and went to breakfast.


Evie LOVED her strawberry crêpes and, after licking all the whipped cream off the top, ate them all up before we knew it.




The sea lions were being fed right after we arrived at the Aquarium, so we went and found a good viewing spot. The trainers had them do all sorts of tricks and jumps off the rocks and it may have been the best part of the Aquarium (except maybe the actual underwater aquarium).








It was fun to go adventuring, but it's never relaxing with kids. I came home way more tired than when we left- we were all in bed by 8pm last night! It was probably good to go do something fun before the baby comes, though.

Brand New Information

Little Missy got some new bling. Princess glasses to be specific. All three kids went in to see Doctor Crockett, aka "Uncle Wes" before school starts to check their little eyeballs. (If anyone needs an eye doctor, he's really nice...) Evie had been sitting pretty close to the TV and computer and, unsurprisingly, had enough astigmatism to warrant some eyeglasses. She will need to wear them to school, etc. but, luckily it's not bad enough she needs to wear them ALL the time.

The boys wanted to get in on a little camera action.

One thing I have been doing madly, when not busy with other things, is sewing. I have a few projects I am in the middle of right now for le bébé. I finished one, which I wasn't planning on doing, but I had some extra fabric so I thought I'd make a diaper case for the wipes and diapers to go in.
And it was easier and smaller, so I procrastinated my other planned projects and did it first.

Early this summer, I went to a neighborhood garage sale and one kid, who looked like he was about 16, was selling a whole tote full of Legos. I bought two gallon sized bags FULL of Legos for a really good price and the kids have been loving all the extra options.
I also bought a Sackperson from the same kid, which Sterling has LOVED! You'll see what I mean below.

The only thing we planted in the garden this year were about 6 tomato plants, which I should remember next year is more than enough unless I plan on canning them. Grandma's secret planting concoction must have worked because they have grown really well this year! I think my problem is I really love a garden tomato, and the varieties are too much too resist. Plus, when the guy down the street sells the starts for $1 a piece, why limit? I have yellow pear tomatoes, orange and red beefsteaks, romas, and cherry tomatoes. The Golden Girls (the orange beefsteak) have been our favorite so far. They are meaty and sweet!
A really fabulous person gave me this bowl for my birthday! Isn't it pretty?

Sterling watched a tutorial on how to make cucumber sandwiches, so he conned Dad into making some with for him. I love his silly faces- he is the biggest ham!

It's been pretty hot here this week (and getting hotter!), and Doug has been feverishly working outside on the gutter drains before the rains come. Yesterday, he set up the sprinkler for the kids so they would leave him alone to work for a little while. It worked.

Meet Sackperson. He is the newest member of the family, along with blankies, Bun-Bun, and Crusoes. He goes everywhere with Sterling- even into the sprinkler. And then he found a Sackperson-sized bath towel to sunbathe on. What a life!

This one got pretty tired running around in the sun and decided to hang out with me for a little while in the shade.

...before he passed out naked on the couch while I made dinner.


Super Saturday prep, in all forms, has been a high priority around this house for a couple of months now. This is just another manifestation, and Doug thinks a pregnant woman with tools is funny... apparently. He really only breaks out the camera if my prego self is trying to wield a drill or sander or other such object around my big belly. Maybe it's comical.

This G.D. diet (and by that I mean Gestational Diabetes, not an expletive description of how I feel about it) is going pretty well so far. I have been able to keep my blood-sugar within target range, except when I am experiencing abnormal stress. Stress really is a much bigger part of this than I originally knew, so I have been trying to stay on the down-low more than usual. I had a meeting here one night and I saw a large spike that day, due, most likely, from social anxiety and meeting prep. Awesome, right? Like it's not limiting enough?
I started out pretty gung-ho on eating lots of protein, which is key. Also key are lots of fiber, no sugar, and VERY low carbs. You would not believe the amount of carbs we Americans consume until you have to count them! I'm surprised we don't ALL have diabetes! So, in a way, this is a great learning experience for me, who really thought we were eating pretty healthily.
...Although, based on the all the eggs and cheese I have been eating, I'll probably end up with high cholesterol after this...
After two weeks of what seems like a very extreme diet change, I was able to think of a couple more comfort foods I can eat that make me feel more "normal." Chocolate mousse was one of them- lots of eggs, cream, and just a little bittersweet chocolate. Happily, it did not spike my sugar since it's mostly protein and fat. I can also have wild rice (which has a surprisingly low carbs and high protein), and a few chicken casseroles. I am much happier now that I have some "real food."

Being in pain is one thing- the "known" experience is manageable. Anticipating pain is something quite different for me. I was terrified of the finger lancing. Isn't that silly? The meeting with the nutritionist was an exercise in self-control. The first few times I tried the lancet, it didn't work, so I had to keep anticipating what I'd been dreading for a couple of weeks. Then, once it started working, it wasn't drawing enough blood, so I had to keep re-sticking myself until we finally got enough to test with. At least when I left I wasn't concerned with it anymore!

Finally, today was Sterling's first day back at school and he was so excited to go! Despite all the fighting this summer, I wasn't as excited for him to go back as I thought I might be. ...Until today- when running errands all day didn't make me a crazy, maniacal mess! Sterling can be tender and sweet and wonderful, but he certainly adds an element of unprecedented difficulty that is hard to ignore.
I very love him anyway.