KINDERGARTEN!

My sorrow at Micah being in kindergarten completely blindsided me. I thought it was awesome that he was going to be in kindergarten, I thought he was ready to be learning more, he was ready to be socializing more, he was ready to have more structured school time in his week, and I think I was right. But I was so not ready. 

We had a kindergarten assessment last Tuesday which had only been "scheduled" two weeks earlier. By scheduled, I mean they assigned me a random half hour time slot in the middle of the work day. When we arrived, I learned that I wasn't allowed to be in the room when he went through his assessment. This was fine, but when it was over and I asked if there was anything we should be working on at home, the teacher told me no and that they just do these assessments at the beginning and end of the year to gauge learning. Awesome, but I'm a parent who wants to be working on learning with my kid, I'm sure you could give me something to start with! 

As of last Wednesday, I still had not received any consistent information on when school would be starting on Thursday. The website says 9:15, but the school says that kids can be dropped no earlier than 8:30 and that the doors open at 8:40. That seems like an awfully long time for kids to be standing around. As it turns out, they have a morning assembly with drums and general announcements that begins at 8:50 or so. I found out in a letter they handed out after that assembly on Thursday. Really helpful. One of our neighbors did warn me that the school is exceptionally bad with communication. It seems like you should prioritize this kind of information for nervous kindergarten parents, though!

On Thursday morning, I went with Micah to school. There were people directing kindergartners and their parents on where to sit in the auditorium and after the morning assembly, the parents went with the kids to their classrooms. There was one little boy in Micah's class whose parents weren't there with him and he was just sobbing and I almost lost it, but in the end I didn't cry. It was really hard to leave Micah there. 

I know he'll do well, but it's hard to let go of this much control over his life, and it's hard to let go of his early childhood. I am mourning our ability to head to a museum on a Monday or Friday when no one else is there. I am mourning the time he will no longer spend with Cece, his very best friend. I am mourning the loss of my little baby.

But I'm also adjusting to the idea of having a big kid. I'm looking forward to learning together. I'm looking forward to working on homework together. I am looking forward to all the new friends and new experiences that will come from this period in his life. And I'm horrified. I think that it's okay to be in both of those places at once.

The End of an Era

I'm officially done nursing Penelope. For a while now, I've just been nursing her once around 5-6am to get her to do some good sleeping until we're ready to wake up. On Sunday morning, she slept right through that and I decided not to nurse her when we got up, just to let it go. She still wakes up in that time frame and is a little unsettled, but she doesn't request it in any way, so I think the timing was right. I will very much miss that cuddle time with her though. I'm sad to see it go.

Doughnut

Micah is walking around saying "doughnut, doughnut, doughnut." And I (Michael) am like, what are you saying? And he is like, I am that shark that says doughnut doughnut doughnut. And then he pretends to bite my ass.

Love Potion

Micah is very into making "potions." He is constantly making concoctions in the shower using empty shampoo bottles, vitamin bottles, anything he can get his hands on, and then mixing different shampoos, conditioners, shaving cream, and water. He'll spend 30 minutes in the shower doing this if we let him. He also makes recipes for potions. He diagrams all the ingredients that need to be added, shows a knife chopping something up, shows arrows to indicate the sequence of instructions, and then insists that we make his recipes (which will be disgusting and I generally refuse to do). 

His latest thing is "love potions." The other day, he commandeered an empty spice container, used our mortar and pestle to grind some coriander from a cilantro plant that went to seed in the back yard, clover leaves, and watermelon. He added salt and water and put it all in the shaker. Then he insisted that I put it in his cereal the next morning. I suggested he taste it first. He was so disgusted that he ran to the bathroom to spit it out and then had to chase it with some juice to get rid of the flavor. Now he has made another love potion, we're out of watermelon so he substituted apple, added green food coloring, put it in a spray bottle, and he's using it to scare monsters away because it's so disgusting they won't want to be sprayed with it! ❤

July 4, 2016 - Potty Time

We had a wonderful weekend together in Erie, at the beach, at the amusement park, lots of junk food, sleeping in a hotel room together with Micah in the king size bed and Penelope's pack n play right up against the side of the bed.

However, I think it is worth noting that on Friday, I put Penelope on the potty seat after she watched me use the toilet and started pulling on her diaper, and she just peed in it, no problem. We cheered for her and gave her lots of high fives. Today, I put her on it again when she was hanging around in the bathroom, and again she peed right in it. She still squats in the middle of the room to fill her diaper with poop, but we'll work on that one another day!

Tuesday, June 28, 2016 - So Many Things

Things change so fast with two little kids in the house. Here's a bulleted list of updates:

• Penelope is a full fledged walker, sometimes she wants to hold my hand, sometimes she refuses to hold my hand, but she hasn't crawled anywhere except to go down the stairs in several days.
• Penelope loves accessories, just like Micah always did. She is almost always wearing mardi gras beads, and she insists on wearing any shoes or socks that she can find. 
• Over the weekend, I pulled out a bunch of things we're going to try to sell at a yard sale and I piled them in the lobby. Penelope immediately climbed into the infant car seat and curled up with a toy. Over the course of the weekend, I kept finding her there, with a toy, with a book, she was just hanging out!
• Penelope apparently loves airplanes. We were in the kiddie pool last night (she also LOVES water) and we saw an airplane overhead, she pointed to it and then waved and said, "HI!" When it went out of sight, she waved again and said, "Bye!" And then she tried to climb out of the pool and when I helped her out, she sat down on the patio and looked up at the sky waiting for another airplane. We saw three more, every time she heard them before she saw them and was waiting for them to come into sight.
• Micah spent the weekend with Michael at Grandma's house. When he came home he ran as fast as he could to Penelope who was in a stroller and he practically jumped into the stroller with her, hugging her, he was so happy to see her. Several times last night, they were just hugging each other, Penelope initiated it too, they were both so happy to see each other. 
• When Micah got back from the weekend, one of the first things he told me was that he was using an inner tube in Grandma's pool and he was kicking with his feet and MOVING himself through the water. He was so excited that he was learning how to swim!
• Last night as I was putting Micah to bed, we were snuggling and he wanted me to hold his hand so that he could rub my hand with his thumb like I do for him when he's feeling frustrated in the car and we have a little farther to drive. He asked me, didn't it feel nice? It was pretty cool to know that this little thing I do is meaningful to him.

We had a close call with Kaya over the weekend. It seems clear that she doesn't have long to live, but she's on some medication and I'm glad she at least made it long enough for Michael and Micah to come home and see her. I was paying more attention to her than usual on Sunday and it was apparently obvious to Penelope because she was so focused on Kaya Sunday and Monday. Every time she would see her in the yard, she would point and look at me and start panting. When Kaya was in the house, I couldn't keep Penelope off of her, she wanted to horse around with Kaya in the dog bed, she wanted to snuggle with her, she wanted to sit on her like a horse while she was laying in the family room. Kaya didn't seem to mind, at least not enough to move, and I spent a lot of time this weekend just trying to keep Penelope from bothering her! She may not have the best life at this point in time, but there's no doubt that she is loved. 

Lake Erie

We took a great trip to Erie on Friday. As usual, it was a last minute decision. We left the house around 10am and arrived around 1pm. 

Micah spent all his time playing in the sand, making sand castles, burying various toys, and ended the day making a pretty incredible gorge with Michael. They used a bucket of water to erode a crevice into a wall of sand, and then they used sticks to create a bridge, they dug out a deep pool at the bottom and added more and more water to try to fill the pool with water that flowed down the waterfall. It was impressive and I wish I took a photo!

Penelope is definitely a water lover. She was beside herself with excitement when I took her to the water's edge. She stomped in the shallow water, sat down happily with the water almost up to her neck, wanted to go deeper and deeper, and very excitedly kept bending over to put her face into the water, despite the fact that she came up sputtering and choking on more than one occasion! 

Michael and Micah flew a couple of different kites, we brought our beach umbrella for shade and Penelope and I napped under it for a while, we had a picnic lunch, and as usual we stopped for Italian beef sandwiches, mix and match soft drinks, curly fries, and milkshakes on our way out of the park. Penelope. Loves. Milkshakes. In case you wondered.

Mom and dad both came home sunburned, but the kids were well protected. The weather was perfect, sunny and 76 degrees, not excruciatingly hot like it can get mid summer. 

And She's Off!

First steps officially occurred yesterday. Penelope took her first steps just a little while before I arrived to pick her up at the sitter and repeated them when we asked her to both at the sitter, and at home for Dada. I guess we're in trouble now, but I think it is so exciting and she is so proud of herself!

Here's a video: https://goo.gl/photos/kWwU89G5n2TqNd3i8

And She's Up!

Penelope has just gone through so many changes in the past week! Last Tuesday, she stood up without holding on to anything or anyone for the first time and I feel like it triggered a hundred other changes. First, the standing up. It is adorable. She spreads her feet so far apart and stands up with her hands out to the side and is so unsteady. She looks like a little surfer. We keep trying to encourage her to take a step and she has tried once or twice over the weekend but mostly is just not steady enough.

However, standing up has made her much more interested in the idea of walking and now she wants to hold our hands and walk frequently, where a week and a half ago I would have had to force her to try to walk holding my hand.

Yesterday, we went to the park and she crawled up the stairs (joyously shouting while doing so, because she is the happiest child ever, I might add), went up to the slide, sat down facing forward, and then flipped onto her belly and slid down, the flipping and sliding was pretty much all one single motion. She LOVES the slide. She got to the bottom, reached up for my hand and had me help her walk to the steps, walk up the steps, and then managed the sliding part on her own again. She did this ten or twelve times in a row.

Language changes are happening too. She has started repeating things we say, not often, and never on command, but it's happening. I asked if she was all done eating a couple nights ago and she said "done." She has started to be interested in books. I've been dropping a book into her crib in the middle of the night and she'll sit and look at it in the morning before demanding we come and retrieve her. She's also started saying "hi" to everyone. She just says it again and again and again while waving. Yesterday while grocery shopping, she saw a bunch of those golden cats that use solar power to wave their paws sitting on the window sill while we were standing in line to check out. She shouted, "Ahhh!" pointed, and then when I acknowledged it, she waved at them for about two full minutes.

And one last tidbit, at some point in the past week she has become obsessed with shoes. I think that it's just because we've never bothered with shoes before and suddenly have been trying to find some that fit her since the tops of her feet are calloused from crawling around. We have a pair of toddler boots that are at least one size too big and won't stay on her feet, but if she sees them, she'll grab one, crawl to where I am, and hold it up in the air while shouting and lifting her foot. If I don't put it on, she gets very upset, and then it falls off every three minutes and we go through the routine again and again and again. It's adorable, of course. 

Taking a Walk

Micah was feeling kind of crazy Monday night so we took a walk together. First we went for a jog. Apparently his water shoes are magic running shoes and make him go super fast. We ran and walked around the block. He turned the corner to go home, but I suggested we go a little farther and have some Mama and Micah time. We walked to Fulton school, climbed the tree, and he sat in my lap there for a little while. He was worried that a teacher would come out and tell us we weren't allowed to climb the tree, so we climbed down and he searched the grass for some dandelion leaves for his caterpillar. We walked two more blocks, found some enormous leaves for the caterpillar, found some clover and flowers we wanted to offer the caterpillar as well, he found a hair tie in front of the school and put it up on a railing so the person who lost it could find it, he found a "perfect" pencil (a very stubby but sharpened number 2 pencil) and we took it with us. We stopped at home to drop everything off and then continued walking. We walked past all our mulberry trees to see how they were doing. We agreed that it's a good thing we planted our own mulberry tree since it seems like the ones in the neighborhood keep getting cut down or heavily pruned. Micah told me a story about a man who took off his sock and threw it on the sewer grate (apparently he saw a sock on a sewer grate somewhere). He theorized that the man must have wanted to kill the fish and must have been a bad man. I suggested that he probably didn't think about the fish when he lost his sock. We stopped so that Micah could check out some interesting mud in front of a house that was recently remodeled. He ran his fingers through the mud and considered taking some home but decided against it. Micah wanted to just keep walking but I was worried that we had been gone too long and so we went home. It was just a very nice evening. 

Tuesday, April 26, 2016 - New Skills

Penelope is changing like crazy. In the last week, she's started standing on her own and she's starting to be willing to walk while holding my hands and not just behind the little push toy she loves. She has several words including "nigh nigh" at bedtime, "Dada," and "doggy." That's on top of "Kay-kah" for Kaya and "Guy-kah" for Micah. You read that right, she seems to have no idea who I am.

Another new thing she's working on is using forks and spoons. The other morning I put her in her high chair with a bowl of cereal and a spoon (while Micah was also there eating breakfast) and I went up and took a shower. When I came back down, she was still hard at work!

And Penelope's newest skill is screwing and unscrewing bottle caps. She practiced it last night on a bottle of diaper cream while I was putting away her clothes. I turned around and she was sucking the diaper cream out like it was applesauce. Pretty sure she hadn't swallowed any yet but poison control said it wouldn't be a problem anyway! Good times!

Micah in 2015

2/14 According to Micah, Jesus is a person in the big book at the babysitter's house.

3/29 Micah wants to know if little kids turn into big kids, big kids turn into grownups, and grownups turn into giants.

5/28 After radio traffic report: "Why do they keep saying Butler street? I think Butler is so funny. Butt-ler."

5/31 Micah says bison are "the lion of cows."

6/18 "I want to walk down the street wearing this (mask) because I don't want anyone to realize me."

6/25 "I wish I could climb or fly. Because I want to know what the mulberries at the top of the tree taste like."

10/13 Micah knows a girl named Cionna ("See-Ah-Nah"). She's in his dreams and she's very strong and can fight dinosaurs.

12/2 "I want to wear all brown today so I can be in camouflage with the floor."

Penelope

I want to always remember how wonderful this stage of Penelope's life is. She is currently trying to climb on everything. She'll go for the stairs the second you turn your head and be 3/4 of the way to the second floor before you even realize she's left the room. She tries to climb on chairs, up park ladders, she'll climb onto any box that is low enough for her to maneuver onto, she climbed on the little breakfast in bed table when Micah had it set up on the porch for a picnic lunch.

Penelope also loves getting into trouble. If she thinks she's not supposed to do something, she will do it while staring you down and then laugh when you tell her "no," and then she'll do it again. Putting coins in her mouth. Putting anything and everything in her mouth that she thinks shouldn't go there. Splashing in the dog water. Trying to splash in the toilet! Reaching for things over the ledge of the tub. Going for the stairs. Eating dog food.

She's also started saying single words. I'm not sure when sounds we recognized morphed into actual words. But it seems like she really is saying Dada, Micah ("Guy-Kah"), and Kaya ("Kai-Kah"). She puts her hands up when she's done eating to signal "all done." She will use the hand signal for more please, but only if I ask her to, not if Michael asks her to! She also seems to be giving kisses which she must have learned from the sitter, because I don't think I really have asked her to learn that at all. But it is most definitely adorable when she leans in with her little closed mouth!

Penelope is also exceptionally cute in the night. Unfortunately she's still up to each a couple times every night. The first time, around 1-2am, she just nurses for a while and then is ready to go back to bed. When you put her down in her crib, she rolls to her stomach, turns her head and opens her mouth for the pacifier, and puts her hands up behind her back to grab the little afghan we put on her. And then the second time she wakes up, around 5-6am, she's much more awake than the first time and is usually socializing while she eats. She'll shake her head while nursing ("shake" was one of the first "tricks" she learned and she'll do it on command!) and then wait for me to shake too. Then she'll do it again and wait for me to return it. She'll do the same with waving or high fiving. This morning she was waving her hand back and forth and waiting for me to wave back, when I did, she waved baby-style with just the fingers and waited for me to return it, then kept alternating until I stopped. She'll also hold her hand out for a high five.

It's always pretty clear what she wants in those middle of the night moments. Two nights ago, I was enjoying holding her and was stroking her hair, but then stopped. Once I had stopped, she started tapping and rubbing her head and I thought she was undoing the touch I had done, but then realized after a minute that she was asking me to do it again. It was so sweet. And then when she had had enough, she just reached up and took my hand away.

This is truly such a wonderful stage. I know they're all wonderful, but I'll be sad to let this one go.

Language

Both kids are learning so much these days. Penelope has just a few words. Her first word was "Hi" and she would turn her head to the side and say hi like she was peeking around a corner, something we did with her that apparently stuck. Her second word was Kaya, "kay-kah." She sometimes seems to say Dada and also kind of says Micah, "Guy-ka." I was pointing to a car on the street the other day and she said "Cah." Michael says she says Mama, but I think he's just humoring me, I've never heard anything resembling it.

Otherwise, everything is just "caca" while pointing at whatever it is she sees. She does love waving at people though, and knows the signs for more please and all done.

The latest is that we think she might be having trouble digesting cow's milk, so this week it'll be breast milk and water only until we can reintroduce milk and see what happens. The hard part is convincing a barely one year old to eat enough food to get all her nutrition that way. My fingers are crossed!

In four year old news, Micah is learning to read and write like a champ. We haven't pushed it, but every time he sits down to color, he asks how to spell various things and writes all kinds of messages on his pictures. He's learned how to spell a few words without help now, Micah, Mama, Dada, Love. He's also getting good at reading, we've worked with him on sounding words out, but I think he's actually just learning to recognize what something will sound like as a whole. He sees the first and last letter and fills in the rest. He's read a couple pages of One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish in the last day or two.