Last Day

2008-05-26 113, originally uploaded by Kristianna.

Just dropped off Bun for her FINAL day of Kinder. And it was a hard one for her, since she had to be at school at 8:05, not 11:30 like she is used to. Bunny had a hard time going to sleep last night, so it was like waking the dead this morning. She tried to convince me she didn't need to go, haha.

This has been such a year for Bunny! She went from being *only* a preschooler, used to always having a half dozen moms she knew well (and me 1/3 of the time) in the classroom with her to going 5 days a week, doing homework, and being safety marshall for her class, which means she escorts people to the office and takes notes to the principal, as well as knowing what to do during drills or emergencies.

She's made some great friends, both in playgroup and class, and had a close friend move away, something she is still processing. She's learned to write more than her name and the very few words she was interested enough in to learn before, and can reason out some hysterical phonetically spelled sentences. She can add and subtract (some) and has learned so much from the visits from the Wild Bird Center. She went from counting to about 13 before losing it, to, well, I generally ask her to stop at about 201, since I know she knows the 'tricks' and could go up to 1000 and beyond and, um, I dont' want to listen to that ever again. ;)

Her report card will come home with her when I pick her up in a couple of hours, so I will have more boasting to share then. :)

Can't get 'em all...

Sometimes it may seem like I'm living my life through the lens of a camera, since I'm always noticing when I see a good photo possibility. I whip out that baby all the time, and have a great time doing so.

But sometimes you gotta let one get away. Yesterday Paul was carrying around our beautiful baby boy, and they looked to nice together, but since Paul was also on a tangent talking, I deemed it prudent to not get up and grab the camera. While I was *technically*listening to him, he'd have assumed I was not, so that photo will have to just be in my widdle brain. ;)

It was nice, though! Great evening light, they both had white tees... oh well!

Can you imagine?

Penguin kids meal for my boy, originally uploaded by luckysundae.

Having time to make this? Of course some of this woman's obentos are in a book... I would not want to eat it after working so hard. And for me, it would be really hard!

Preschool Prep?

http://www.preschoolprepco.com/h/i/index.php

There are now teaching tools to prepare kids for preschool? What do you need to know to be adequately prepared for PREschool? I don't even think learning much beyond adequate social skills seems important for IN preschool, honestly. Learning letters, numbers, that's also nice, for sure. Kids are supposed to PLAY--not spell play--when they are that little. Just sayin'.

I think I will be skipping this one for my 2 yr old, thanks.

Snippets.

Cole's starting to use his little hands to play with toys more. This was a fun one: push car off tray, Mama picks it up! Push off, Mama picks it up!


The planets aligned and Bun finally got the chance to work on riding her 2 wheeler yesterday at the park. We all went, and Carter was upset he didn't have a bike to ride.


VERY upset.


Want go home, Mama.


Look at that face! He's watching Bunny and Paul go around the edges of the park. They're a good 150 yards away, and what a searing look. I wonder if they can *feel* that?


I don't think he is appreciating my taking photos right now. Whaddaya think? ;)

Luckily I had a treasure in the diaper bag. Bubbles! That turned him around and he spent some time not blowing bubbles (he puts his lips to the wand and breaks the film almost every time, but he had fun, so it was all good as far as I am concerned).


Well lookie there! She's flying solo!


I goofed and forgot to bring the back carrier, so Cole had to deal with being in my arms on my hip and lap.


He worked on his spit bubbles.


Just that morning I was on the phone with my father, saying Cole has not yet put his toes in his mouth. I guess he heard me and decided to fix that.


Tired of working on the bike riding, Bunny and Paul joined Carter to play for a while. Then it was time to go home, eat lunch, play in the pool some, and go to friends' for dinner.

Had a Manhattan last night. Man, that is one strong drink. But oddly still palatable. Not something I think I'd order, though. Toodles!

Warning: the following post contains extreme cuteness.

Carter only has a few stuffed animals, compared to his sister, who is a stuffed animal freak, I tell you. She LOVES realistic stuffed animals and has like 50...

Carter, notsomuch. He has a few, and has not really seemed that into them, except to play with Bunny with them, until recently. He does sleep with one now and then, but for the past few days he has been really into one my father sent to him for his first Christmas when he was 7-8 weeks old. It's nearly as big as he is, and very soft.

Here comes the cuteness. I don't name animals for my kids. I might help name them if Bun asks for ideas, but it was not until recently that Carter ever considered that stuffies have names. I asked him what his dog's name is. He looked down thoughtfully, and then back to me. "Dog Friend." And Dog Friend it is... his first named stuffed animal. I'm sorry, but that name is precious. And I am so glad he didn't say "Booger" or something like that. ;)

Hmmm.

Worm Farm, originally uploaded by .Angeli.

I sincerely hope this is the least appealing image I ever find reason to post on this blog. :)

I'm considering a work bin for the summer at least. You can set worms free if you hate having them, right? Like, in a hole?

I don't want to commit to having worms forever if I hate it. But I am really interested in this kind of composting. Supposed to be AWESOME top put on the soil around your plants. Plus the kids would enjoy it.

And in this month's Family Fun magazine there is an article on it that makes it looks so simple and finally explains it so thoroughly that even I feel like I have all my questions answered about how to change the compost out, etc.

No decision yet.

Chugging along.

Yesterday Bunny's class had a very special morning. One of her classmates' Grandpa has built a mini railroad into his property, seriously! When I saw that we had the chance to go ride the train at Heather's grandpa's house, I figured it would be kind of lame, honestly. But this man ain't messing around. I guess this is the Lionel train set taken to the nth degree.


The entire perimeter of the property (just a normal house in a normal neighborhood) has tracks. In the front yard, the tracks are embedded into concrete, and form the borders of flower beds, and goes along a retaining wall. In the backyard they use 1" pickets as a base for the tracks.


Since the driveway is lower than the retaining walls, there is a removable trestle that bolts in when grandpa has the train running. Like I said, this is not too shabby!


Bunny rode it quite a few times. Younger siblings were also there, but Carter is not one to jump first and ask questions later. He *loved* watching the train. Clearly ached to ride it. But it goes along a wall with a sheer drop of 2.5 feet! That's dangerous, don't you know??


So, he and his buddy Derek played with their trains they each brought from home. See that wall, tall, eh?


There were also snacks. Mmmm. Gummy fruits.


Run, the train is coming by at nearly 1 MPH and might jump its tracks! Run!


Bunny knew he just needed to feel safe. "Come on Carter, want to ride with me?"


He held on TIGHT.


All aboard!


This might not be so bad after all....


Yay, they made it! He rode it one more time, the same way, protected by his big sister, who really was so sweet to help him through his anxiety. Yeah, they fight, which is normal. But they're also pretty good friends when you get down to it.

And after we dropped Bunny off at school, Carter took on the Dark Side at the park. A 2 yr old's work is never done, I tell you.

A Day in the Life

Woke up, fell out of bed...
Okay, I actually nursed the baby. Then it was time to get up.


The night before, I'd put out mini croissants from Trader Joe's to proof. Bunny has never had a croissant and wanted to try them.


Now that it's morning, they're proofed and ready to go, after I hit them with a little egg wash.
13 mins at 350 degrees... how to pass the time?


Play with the cute baby! Who is also the only other person up right now.


Ah, the coffee is done brewing. Caffeine come to me...


Done! Looking pretty tasty.


This will do for breakfast... nicely.


When she woke, she loved the croissant. And ate the other two later in the day. She is a fan.


Carter is TWO. Spends a lot of time here in time-out. Three times yesterday.


Time to make my menu for the week and plan the grocery list.


Back home, shopping put away, it's time to spend a nice afternoon in the sun--after liberally applying SPF 70 to us all.


Time for Cole's rice cereal. Mmmmm.


Bunny and Cole play while dinner cooks.


After dinner I get about 4 filled in, then it's time to get the kids ready for bed.

Oh, for crying out loud.

If I were John Stossell, I'd be standing squalling, "Gimme a break!"

Thank heavens the supposed public uproar has protected us from the extremist jihadist Rachel Ray. Now if only they could help us with her propensity to say, "Oh my gravy!"