G is ONE!

Our little monster man is a year old!

His birthday was yesterday, but I didn't get the chance to write this until today.  I can't believe it.  I'm amazed how quickly time passes when your busy with two little kids and how I wouldn't trade it for anything.

G, you are now reaching your toddler-hood and leaving baby days behind. I'm going to miss your little baby face and gummy smile.  But I'm so excited to see what type of person you become and how your relationship with your brother develops.  I can't wait to see all the amazing things that you will do.

For your birthday, Daddy, E, and I sang you happy birthday. I went to work and so did your Dad.  I wish I could have taken the day off to be with you. Grandma Martha and Papa Lee were with you, so that made me feel better about not being there.  You took one nap in the morning, but you didn't take one in the afternoon.

Once I came home from work, we all headed to Peter Piper Pizza to join our family to celebrate your cousin's birthday.  He also shares a birthday with the two of us.  You really enjoyed looking at all of the games that are there. We tried to get you to ride a few moving rides, but you wanted nothing to do with them.

You did really well letting others hold you, until you would catch a glimpse of me. Even then, you'd only fuss for a moment.  As a bonus, you were able to eat some of the pizza crust before we left to go home.

By seven o'clock, you were in bed and asleep for the rest of the night.  I didn't manage to take your chair photo yesterday, but I took one today.

G's one year milestones:

- Talking.  So you aren't really talking, but you do babble.  You also point to where you want to go or if you want something.  We are working on teaching you signs, but you'd rather yell or bang on something instead.

- Cruising.  As I mentioned before, you really only want us to walk you around everywhere.  Today you took a few steps in a circular pattern rather than moving forwards.  You've taken one of two steps forwards before you fall down.  I'm sure that you will be walking in no time.  Then we will be in big trouble.  You're already really good at crawling away quickly when we are trying to pick you up.  Just within the past 4 days, you have been able to stand up by yourself, without hold on to anything.

- Eating. To say it kindly...you eat everything.  Even things that you aren't supposed to...like crayons.  The only food that I can say you don't really enjoy are bananas.  You like them to be a little spotty and brown in order to eat them.  I would say that everything is your favorite food.  You'd much rather feed yourself.

- Teeth.  You have four top teeth and three bottom teeth exposed, with a few more coming out soon.  We have to be careful with you because when you're tired, you bite.  Hard. Grandma and I have the bruises to prove it.

- Drinking.  We are trying to get you to try and drink out of sippy cups.  You like to play with them and will bring them to your mouth, but nothing comes out just yet.

- Play.  I can honestly say that I can't remember the last time you played with a "baby" toy.  You'd much rather get into my plastic food containers, pots & pans, or any of your brother's toys.  What you are really attracted to are wooden letter magnets that we have.  In particular, you love the letters L, J, T, and Y.  They fit just perfectly into you little hands.  We have several toys that either pop out plastic balls or you drop them in.  Instead of putting balls in there, you like to put whatever you can in there. You also like to play with lids and put them on top of their coordinating container.  In fact, you are pretty good about putting the tops on the baby food & milk storage containers.  You enjoy playing chase with your brother and Layne - it causes you to squeal with excitement.  Of course, you want to do what ever your brother is doing.  One day when he was away, I caught you trying to put a play trash receptacle on a crane, just like he does.  You also LOVE to dance.  When you hear any music, you start bobbing up and down.  When your brother does somersaults, you roll around on the floor and must be thinking you're doing them too.  You really like to roll around for fun.

- Brotherly Love.  You love your brother.  He makes you laugh and he makes you cry and he makes you scream.  But when he's gone, you search for him.  A little sad "huh?" comes out of your mouth and you point to his room.  Sometimes you will even crawl in there and look for him.  It's quite precious to see.

- Nursing.  You still love Mommy milk.  You nurse before naps and bedtimes when I'm home.  We have started giving you whole cow's milk during the day because Mommy can't keep up with your milk demands.

- Sleep.  Most nights you are asleep by 6 or 6:30 and you sleep a solid 12 hours.  Occasionally you will wake up before six.  If it's around 5:30, I will nurse you and put you back in bed, but you don't go back to sleep.  Although sometimes you will and then wake around 7:30.  Other times you will wake around 4:30, I will nurse you, and you will go back to sleep and wake around your usual time.  You've been taking only one nap lately.  Grandma Martha says that you will go down easily and will sleep between 1- 3 hours, depending on the day.  On the other hand, you cry for your afternoon naps and many times will not go to sleep.

It is so great to see how you are developing.  You're so adventurous and independent.  You're shy, yet flirtatious.  You're a beast when it comes to eating.  And rebellious when it comes to changing your diaper.  But, oh, how we love your spirit.

Thank you for being you.  We love you, G-unit.

Thirty-One

Today is my 31st birthday.  I woke up to a crying baby at 5:30, nursed him, and he fell back asleep.  Then at 6:30, I woke up for work.  While going to the bathroom, a little boy came in to say happy birthday and give me a hug.

Work went well, and my students tried to give me random items as birthday gifts (i.e. pencil top erasers, cookies from their lunch, pencils they found on the ground).

I came home and then took the kids to my cousin's son's birthday party at Peter Piper Pizza.  He shares a birthday with G and myself.  Paul joined us and then we headed home.

We had Sprinkle's cupcakes for dessert.  For a gift, Paul had this blog printed into books for the past 4 years.  It was such the perfect gift.  I just browsed them for at least 30 minutes straight after opening them.

 Today was such a good day.  I'm so blessed to be surrounded by incredible people and loved by them as well.  I couldn't have asked for a better day!

First Day of Preschool!

E's first day of school for the next 13+ years was today.  I was pretty nervous about today. Last night my stomach was churning due to nervous and anxiousness.  E seemed to not be phased by it.

He spent the night at my parents' house last night, so when he arrived it was time to move.  Paul and E scratched off the remaining square on the countdown, put on E's shoes, and we were outside taking pictures by 8:00.

During the photo shoot, a large helicopter flew by and E was so excited to see it.  I'm so thankful that it came by because he was all smiles afterwords.

We hopped in the car and we were off.  I took the day off of work because I really wanted to be there to take him and pick him up.  Paul went in to work late so that he could come too.

On the way there, I reminded E that we would drop him off and that I'd be there to pick him up after the "Adios Amigos" song (the goodbye song at school).  He said that he wanted us to stay and play with him, but when I told him that only big boys stay at school and Mommy's/Daddy's have to go to work, he seemed ok.  I asked him if he was excited and he said yes.  I asked him if he was scared and he said yes. I asked if he was nervous and he said "Why?"  E also told me that he wanted to go see diggers, but I told him that we would wait until after school to go see them.  I offered to take him out to lunch and to get some ice cream after school too.  Another reminder that I gave E was to say "I have to go potty" to his teachers when he has to go to the bathroom.  He told me that he'd rather go by himself.  Silly kid.

When we arrived at school, E was ready to walk in by himself and he was eager to show Paul the things that he played with at Meet the Teacher.  E was able to play on the playground for a few minutes before going into his classroom.  When it was time to go in, E was ready!  He wanted to walk right in, but we had to sign him in and get his name tag on.  After washing his hands and taking attendance, he found the wooden tractor trailer from before and went straight to playing.

Paul and I stayed around for a few minutes until we noticed most of the parents leaving. I bent down and told E that Daddy was going to work and I was going to the store to run some errands.  Then I told him I'd be back after the "Adios Amigos" song to pick him up.  He then told us that he wanted to stay at school with Mrs. Vaughan.  (What a relief that was to hear!)  We gave him hugs and kisses...then we were off.  As we left, I noticed him looking around the room, but I didn't here or see him cry.

I did get a little teary/water eyed on the way to the car.  Paul headed off to work and I went to the grocery store.  In my head, I just hoped and prayed that he didn't cry (or have an accident) today.  After being home for a little, it was time to go back and get E.

He seemed pretty solemn when I saw him, but I was very cheerful when I saw him.  I think he was more excited about getting a lollipop than seeing me. He told me all about getting paint on his fingers, playing with trains, singing a song, eating apples and cheese and water for snack, throwing away his trash after snack, jumping on the playground, and crying because someone started playing with a toy he had.  I asked if he wanted to come back to school and he said yes.  That's one heck of a good sign to me!

We went out to Jason's Deli for lunch and ate pizza and ice cream, but we didn't get to see the diggers.  Which, of course, he told my mom when we got home.

I'm so proud of my little man.  He did so wonderfully and I'm so thankful and relieved that he had a good first day.  I did email his teacher to see how his day went and she said that he had a really good day -- no tears!

 And what's better than a good day at school? Getting to play with the hose at home!

Way to go, E!  We love you and are so very proud of you on your first day of school!

Meet the Teacher

Today was E's first ever "Meet the Teacher" day!  I took the morning off of work to take him and he did surprisingly well.  Before leaving, we scratched off another square on his Preschool Countdown.

When we arrived, he was really excited to see the playground and wanted to play.  Unfortunately, we were a little late so we had to head into his classroom.  His teacher, Mrs. Vaughan, was there to greet us and E did a great job saying hello and telling her his name.

E enjoyed looking around the room and got a kick out of the sinks and toilet that are just his size.  He found a Geoboard to play with for a little while and even a wooden tractor trailer.  Then it was time to sit on the carpet for a welcome song and story.

Afterwords, it was time to head up to the playroom.  When E heard his teacher say "playroom", all he would ask me is, "Where's the playroom?"  Even when we were there, he was still asking me where it was. It's basically the size of two classrooms where the kids get to play and explore.  As soon as E saw the train table, he was happy.  So were the 3 other boys that were there!  They all made a beeline for the trains!

This was the first crying incident for E.  Of course, there is only one large train for the kids to play with.  One little boy kept playing with it and E wanted a turn.  When E would see that it was available, the little boy kept taking it back.  At one point, E broke down and even started banging his head on the train table.  I felt bad for the little guy, and tried to distract him, but it didn't work too much.  He even tried asking the boy for the train and the other boy would ignore him.

After returning to the room, E went back to playing with the wooden tractor trailer.  A little girl started putting wooden cars into the trailer. This was the cause of E's second crying incident. One of his other teachers, Mrs. Hatton, came to check on him and was able to distract him with some cool wooden doors/windows that they have for the blocks.

E was also able to make a bear for their classroom bulletin board.  I didn't take a picture, but I will post one when I get a chance to take a photo of it.

Finally, it was time to clean up and go back to the carpet to say goodbye.  Mrs. Vaughan started to sing the goodbye song, Adios Amigos, and E looked up at me with a big smile.  It is the same song that his speech therapist would sing at the end of their sessions together.  Upon leaving, E gave Mrs. Vaughan a hug and told me that he didn't want to go home.  We met my mom outside and let E play on the playground for a few minutes.

I was so impressed with how E did, even considering those two incidents.  I know how great this will be for him.  Hopefully, there won't be too many tears on Thursday.

Homework

Last Thursday, Paul and I attended a parent orientation meeting for E's preschool.  We've already been assigned homework.

We were supposed to help E decorate a star that included his picture and some items that interest him.  I printed a picture of him and various things that he's "into".  I cut out his picture and helped him squeeze some glue onto the back of the images, but he did the rest.  He even cut out the other pictures!

E knew exactly where he wanted everything to go on his star.  But we had to stop him from covering his face with the tow truck sticker.  Let's just say that he didn't like that.

Here's his finished product...