Thoughts on Preschool, etc.

First of all, Summer is 5 months old!  She is smiling, laughing, and for about the last 2 months she has been ALMOST rolling over.  I can remember how CJ would almost hit a milestone for what seemed like forever, especially with walking by himself.  Remember how he walked on his knees?  Seems like just yesterday.  I am not one that misses the newborn/infant days, but I will miss Summer's baby rolls when those thin out.  CJ was long and lean, but we call Summer our little "Pork Chop."  She has cheeks that you just want to squeeze- especially when she is giving you a big gummy grin which is pretty much all of time.  She is such a happy baby so we feel pretty lucky.  However, poor thing has been battling a cold for more than a month now.  I don't think CJ had his first cold until he was one, but OLDER SIBLING IN PRESCHOOL.  Who also puts his hands in his mouth all.the.time.  Oh, and likes to "pet" his younger sister.  I remember everyone told me that I would be sick 24/7 my first year of teaching, but I was fairly healthy that year so I was hoping the CJ would also have the immune system of my 23-year-old self and escape the fall colds in these first few months of preschool- not so much.  CJ, and I have long been back to health, but we're still running the humidifier and cleaning out the nose for the baby.  It just makes me want to hibernate in the house and keep CJ down in the basement when the baby's awake (not a bad idea? hehe).  I guess she'll build up her immunity early...

So speaking of preschool, it has for the most part been going well for CJ.  Aside from a day or two, he is really happy there, and has some very caring teachers.  I think his anxious side (thanks to his mom and dad!) is showing up in new ways at school so we have been learning ways to help him through certain situations.  Aside from a few weekends away, getting a babysitter here and there, and dropping him off at the gym childcare for an hour at a time, CJ is with me all of time so it's weird to not know or be in control of every little thing he is doing for 9 hours a week.   It's also different being on the parent side of the parent-teacher relationship.  We all are adjusting, though.  Instead of now not telling me anything about the school day, he now tells me EVERY day that he paints his Percy train. Progress.  AND, he can sort of say the Pledge of Allegiance.  AND, he randomly started stating what he was thankful for the other night.  I think, though, as we continue through the school journey, and if history repeats itself we may have our work cut out for us as parents as we learn to support our anxious little boy.  Kevin had a hard time adjusting to school, and I was just stressed about getting good grades so we'll have all of the bases covered!  Summer will be our laid-back kid and we'll have no idea what to do! :)

CJ is not napping anymore (not by choice, I keep him awake otherwise he will not go to bed until 11:00!) so even though I have a baby that naps all afternoon, I have a 3 year old who needs to learn to entertain himself for a little.  However, I can only "work" in the office for so long until he starts bothering me to come into the family room.  Or it just becomes super quiet which either means there is crayon on a window or he is passed out on the family room floor and it takes 30 minutes for me to wake him out of that nap-groggy-crankiness.  So, I must end here- but I leave with some pictures from the past couple of months! 

Obligatory Kid Fall Picture in Leaves #1

Obligatory Kid Fall Picture in Leaves #2

Halloween- CJ was the Very Hungry Caterpillar and Summer was the (Not-so) Grouchy Ladybug. Kevin's pumpkin carving talents were apparent yet again in the coordinating pumpkins!

What's Been Going On?

Recently, some family members have mentioned my blog and wondered what happened to it.  Sadly, while I enjoy writing and keeping all that care to read it up to date, other things always get pushed ahead of it.  Believe me, in the past year, I have had A LOT to write about.  My last post was June 17, 2013 and little did I know that exactly one year later would be the birthday of our second child, Summer Juliana!  All you have to do is just a little bit of Facebook stalking to know about the pregnancy, me getting involved with Wildtree, Kevin starting a new job, the birth of Summer, the absolute Hell of potty training, etc.  There were many mornings where I would come up with a great blog post while in the shower, but just like everything else that pops into my head at that time, it goes right out when I step out of the stall and so none of the posts were written.  So what happened?

Mother's Day at the OBX- and I still had over a month of pregnancy left

TOO MUCH.  Probably what I really would have like to write about when it was happening was how I just said "yes" too much.  Some people (Kevin) thrive on having tons of stuff going on.  I was always one to participate in one major activity and spend my time with that other than having a ton of extracurriculars and splitting my time.  This time last year I was working on a Pearson project, the MOMS Club President, and just joining Wildtree while also keeping busy with CJ.  We would try to get out every morning and then I would do "my stuff" during the afternoon while he was napping.  It was just too much for me- I felt like I couldn't spend enough time doing anything right.  Then, I found out I was pregnant and shortly after starting having some issues along with normal first trimester nausea.  Without getting into gory details, I had to put some things on hold so I could take care of me and the baby, and for the first time I was okay with that.  Relative to my pregnancy with CJ this one was a bit harder- even after the earlier issues resolved I was uncomfortable a lot earlier, swollen earlier (the pregnancy ended with mild pre-eclampsia), and just overall in much more of a funk.  The freezing winter could have also had something to do with that too.  The recovery time after having Summer was longer than with CJ and life with a newborn and a potty training 3 year old was not easy.  But, I am happy to say that life is much more under control now than it has for a year I would say! 

These two.  I can't even.

So now that I feel more motivated and energized during the day (and am not nursing a baby around the clock) I am hoping to regularly update this blog.  We'll see how it goes, but I will keep it the same with family updates, recipes, and other topics that I come up with while taking a shower.  :) Have a good weekend! 

Summer's baptism last weekend.  Not sure what CJ was doing that was so amusing.