Results are in...

After almost four hours, she came out in tears. She didn't make it. It was hard news to hear, but she is ok. She was with another truffle from last year who didn't make it either. I think that helped ease the blow some.

She said she still wants to go see it, so that's good! :)

She's in...

Today is the day for The Nutcracker auditions. The whole process is much worse for the parents than the kids. The whole wee has been full of anxiety. Was my house going to be plagued with the stomach virus? Was H going to get nervous? Was she still even interested? Not to mention, it seemed like the was the week that EVERYONE asked her if she was going to to the Nutcracker again this year!!!

Well, she's in the audition now. I expect to be here for hours. It seems as if there are over 200 girls and parents here. Now, I have to sit and wait... Wondering how she's handling the stress...

Everything happening at once

Ever feel like you have those days/weeks where everything happens at once?

 

I’m feeling a smidge overwhelmed at the moment.  I have a huge release at work tonight and, of course, there are many last minute fires to put out and decisions to be made.  My manager’s kid (who is bffs with E) was up all night last night vomiting.  So, not only do I not have her to help me with the decision making process today, I just know that I’m going to get a call midday saying that E has barfed all over the classroom.   I’m supposed to be in charge tonight with the release…  that’ll suck.  Then, I don’t want E to get sick b/c that may mean that H gets it.  She has her auditions on Saturday for The Nutcracker and it would be terrible if she started hurling during that!

 

Aaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!

WTH

This was in front of me in line at the cafe at work on Friday. ?$/@/):&/@-?

Kiddo News!

Lots to update you all on the kiddos this week.  Let's start with H.  D and I went to parent/teacher orientation on Wednesday night for H's new class.  It was great.  It lasted almost two hours.  She has excellent teachers this year.  They are both male.  They have an incredible teaching background.  Her lead teacher has been at her school for 13 years and has a terrific reputation.  I'm really looking forward to this year.  Their first field trip will be to the Morehead Planetarium.  Then, they are going to have an overn night field trip on the grounds of the school in September.  They will be catering in food for all of the children's families so we can have a social meet and greet.  Then, around 7:30 all the family members go home and the students and one parent stay on campus and camp out on the grounds.  They will roast marshmellows, study the stars, and watch a movie.  It should be really really nice.  Now, who will be the parent to stay?  Dunno yet! They will be going on at least one field trip a month, usually more.  There is also a low income preschool that the teacher is associated with and the 3rd graders will be doing work with them several times throughout the year.  I think it will be an extraordinary way for H to learn to give back to her community.

We had the piano delivered this weekend!!  H is completely infatuated with it.  She has played it every spare minute she's had over the weekend.  We've gone through all of her old music books and even found the sheet music to Chopsticks and have starts playing it together.  It's a lot of fun.  I'm so glad she's excited about it.  Her lessons start on Tuesday afternoon.

H made another attempt at a sleep over this weekend.  This time, it was with some friends in the neighborhood.  They did really well, but she just gets so much anxiety when its time to go to bed.  She feels like she has to do everything the same time as or before anyone else does.  When everyone else falls asleep first, she looses it.  They tried to do lights out around 11, but the mother said that H was upset, but they were going to try some things.  I get another text from the mom around 11:40 saying that they were all motionless.  Then, I get another text at 1:00 saying that H wanted to come home.  The mom says that she think H fell asleep but she swears she didn't.  Knowing H, I'm pretty sure she was asleep, awoke and then couldn't go back.  She was even armed with her iPod touch and a sleep app.  Oh well, we just gotta keep trying.  When we got up Sunday morning, I invited all the girls over for breakfast.  I fixed them pancakes.

I was on my own with the kids this weekend.  D was at conference all day long both days.  We had a good time playing and everyone was healthy, which was nice.  H and I tried out a new chocolate chip cookie recipe and we roasted our first chicken which turned out yummy!

Ev would walk around the house this weekend saying "Daddy...  whork"  One time, he literally said it for a half an hour, over and over again.  That boy is SUCH a Daddy's boy.  He LOVES his Daddy.

We took them both to the dentist today for their six month cleanings.  It was E's first time.  He did about as good as you'd expect.  The dentist is really concerned b/c E has a large open bite.  They want us to stop the paci altogether, very soon.  He has been down to only having it at night for about two weeks now.  We will have to work on breaking that habit soon.  Maybe this weekend? 

Update on the Kiddos

Well, last week was another large milestone for us.  H started third grade!!  I can’t believe I’m the mother of a third grader.  Let me just say, she’s got the attitude of a 10 year old, for sure.  We are working extra hard these days on not talking back, responding to parents requests immediately, and doing more than watching tv on her days off.  She is a great girl though and is super eager to please.  (thank goodness!)  I think she just picks up some bad habits from time to time.  Don’t we all?

She had a sleepover on Friday night at a friend’s house.  H hasn’t done extremely well with sleepovers in the past.  She has a hard time falling asleep at night and when she is out of her element, things just get overly magnified.  She has some tools/tricks up her sleeve though.  A glass of milk before bed seems to work wonders.  Plus she has her white noise machine.  For the sleep over, we set up a white noise app on her iPod touch.  She actually made it through the night Friday night.  She said she didn’t get to sleep until around 2:00 and was crying b/c she couldn’t fall asleep.  (this is typical)  But, she did it.  She said she slept from 2 until about 7.  So, maybe this is a stepping stone towards her being able to do it more often, with less drama!  She was SO wiped out when she got home.  She pretty much went straight to bed and slept for 3 hours!!

E is doing great.  We had to take him to the pediatrician on Friday b/c he couldn’t kick his cold.  It’d been about 11 days and it was starting to affect his eyes.  (Gooky drainage)  He started an antibiotic Friday night and has made huge strides over the weekend. 

Apparently, he has now figured out how to take his pants down.  Now that he has mastered this, we can’t keep pants on him.  Seriously, he wants his pants off all the time.  So, he has been running around this weekend in only a diaper.

Favorite things that he says now, “Tan – ku Mama”  “Tan – ku Daddy”  “My Sissy”

I went to get him out of the crib after nap yesterday and he was holding on to the side of the crib and jumping up and down like it was a trampoline.

I feel...

a big purchase coming soon...

Who knew obtaining a new piano is so mind boggling!?!?  We've found everything from 'free' to several thousand dollars that we're interested in.  How will we ever decide?

Today, D came with me to a local piano store.  It was his first time diving into this.  I was quite impressed with how seriously he took everything.  He touched keys and looked inside cabinets.  We tinkered with grands and uprights, new and old.  Ultimately, we narrowed our selection (in this store) down to these two.  They are absolutely lovely.

I really hope we end up with a piano.  I think it will encourage H to play more to be on a piano rather than a keyboard and it will allow me to sit down and tinker as well.  I want to play again SO badly!!  (when I was 14, I never dreamed I would ever say that)

Third Grade!

Look who started third grade yesterday!!!

I feel old. :(

The greatest tub toy EVER...

We have stumbled upon the greatest tub toy ever made.  Here's a pic:

It's a battery operated toy that spouts water up through the center.  It has three interchanging tops that each spout water different ways.  It has proven to be THE most exciting time of the day now.  E LOVES it and it takes me FOREVER to get him out of the tub now.

For all you moms out there, here is where you can purchase one of your own!!

http://www.amazon.com/Yookidoo-Stack-Spray-Tub-Fountain/dp/B001QCIG16

(This post was my own personal opinion.  Not a paid advertisement.)

Beach Pictures (Part Deux) :)

So, I wasn't extremely happy with the pictures I took on the beach on the first pass, so I thought I'd give it another shot on our last night at the beach.  I think I got some really good ones.  Here's a sampling:

By the way, we are back home and settled in.  I can't believe school starts for H in three days.  I think she's a little nervous about going into 3rd grade.  She told me today that she doesn't feel like she should be in third grade that she feels like she should be entering a 2 1/2 grade this year.  :)  I hope the nerves don't get too bad!!

Tacos?

Last night I fixed tacos for dinner.  I usually have to fix something separate for H to eat when we eat tacos b/c she doesn't like them.  So, I fixed some veggies for the kids to eat while D and I ate tacos (and veggies).  Anyway, the kids were sitting at the table, waiting for me to get everything on it.  I had the veggies set out and I was bringing over the taco shells for me and D.  All the sudden, E yells out "T-A-C-O-S, T-A-C-O-S, T-A-C-O-S"!!  He was so excited.  Apparently, he likes tacos.  (thank you, day care)

He ate his veggies, but he also ate a taco.  This kid can eat!

MagiQuest

Today we drove to Myrtle Beach in the morning.  Our main goal was for H to play Magiquest.  We got there around 10:30 and she played until about 12:30.  It was tons of fun.  D and I were constantly doing the toddler shuffle, but we both got to play with her some, so it worked out really well.  She enjoyed it and is definitely looking forward to going back and playing again.

After dinner, we hit the sand to try to take some pics of the kids.  We got some 'ok' shots, but nothing that I absolutely love.  E still isn't too thrilled about the beach and was not interested in sitting in his sister's lap, at all.  Regardless, I'm ok with we we got.  Maybe, if we're feeling frisky, we'll try again tomorrow!  :)

More Fun at the Beach

Today was just another day at the beach.  This morning, we tried family time on the beach again.  H had a blast, but after 30 minutes of E crying and me having to hold him the whole time, I gave up and brought him back to the house.  Once we were back inside, he was happy as a clam.  I think he just doesn't like the beach.  :(

I took H to see The Smurfs movie today during nap time so the boys could sleep.  It was really cute.  Then, after everyone woke up, we went for a long drive down to the point to see the new HUGE houses that were built down there.  We were wondering if these people live here full time or if these are just their 'summer homes'.  Must be nice to have more money than you know what to do with! :)

After dinner, we tried to go to a candy store in Southport, but found out that was closed already.  (small town hours)  So, we went for another drive to see the lighthouse.  Tomorrow, it's off to Myrtle for some Magiquest!  :)

Aquarium

Today we took the ferry to the aquarium.  It was the first time any of us had driven onto a ferry before!  It was quite an interesting feeling.  :)  The aquarium took about an hour to get through and apparently it bored H to death.  There was another albino alligator (or was it a croc?) there; however, it was much smaller than the one we saw in California.

We all came back to the beach house for a nap after lunch.  (everyone napped except for H)  Then, after dinner, we went for a quick stroll on the beach.  E still was not interested in getting in the sand or near the water and one of us was holding him the entire time.  After that, D, H and Pa went for some putt-putt, arcade games and ice cream!  :)

Only bad thing...  E is coming down with my cold from last week.  :(  Snotty and sneezy.  We'll be lucky if all of us don't end up with it!

E would rather bury his head than think about getting in the water.  :(  I think the waves scare him.

And, have I mentioned how much of a 'daddy's boy' he is?  (yes, I'm a little jealous)

Who's the Pro Now?

We spent about an hour and a half on the beach this morning after breakfast.  E still wasn't too thrilled with the water, but did enjoy playing in the sand a lot.  H boogie boarded for the majority of that hour and a half and was extremely displeased when she had to go back to the house.  She was a trooper though.  Sometimes, I feel really bad for her b/c I see how much she sacrifices b/c her brother needs so much more care.  For instance, she rode the entire 3+ hours down here watching Elmo so her brother wouldn't pitch a fit.  She could have stayed on the beach for hours if it wasn't for the fact we had to get back and get showered and fix lunch so her brother could take a nap.  Then, she was 'bored' during the majority of the afternoon while her brother took a nap... although we played games together for most of that time.  Regardless, I think she is an excellent big sister.  I need to remember to tell her that more often.

Anyway, after dinner, I decided to take her back to the beach for a little kite flying, just the two of us.  Let me just say, we have this kite flying thing down pat.  (thanks A and J and that bum on the hill)  It took us about 5 seconds to get this kite flying and it was tons of fun!  :)  (we forgot the kite we bought in CA, but fortunately, there was a kite here at the house we are staying at)

Beach Bums

We made it to the beach.  It's lovely to just get away with no plans.  :)  We made it down here before lunch and have just been hanging at the beach house ever since.  We went for a lovely walk on the beach after dinner.  H could hardly stay out of the water and E was the exact opposite.  We walked down to the water and let it run over his feet.  It knocked him off balance and he wanted nothing to do with it after that!

We'll see what tomorrow brings.  :)

H swam the length of the pool freestyle tonight!!!

SO proud of her!!!

'Nuff said! :)

Back to School shopping

Last week was a hectic week.  (aren't they all?)  E was sick last week. He was sent home on Wednesday from daycare with a fever. It came on really suddenly and lasted until the middle of the night. At it's highest point, it was 102.6, which wasn't that bad. Once the fever broke though, he was happy as a clam.


H was in her last week of camp at CA.  We took her and a neighbor to and from camp every day.  It was nice for H to spend some time with a friend, but I think she got extremely overstimulated.  Friday night, she wanted this friend to spend the night.  I reluctantly said yes and oh, how I wish I would have said no. 

H has a hard time falling asleep.  She always has.  It's MUCH worse on sleep over nights.  Friday night at 11:30, she comes to my bed crying b/c she can't go to sleep.  The other girl, of course, is out cold.  The girls wanted to sleep in the bonus room upstairs.  The other girl was hogging much of the futon so H and I spread our her sleeping bag on the floor and I laid with her until she went to sleep.  Of course, they were up before 7:00 and H had not gotten enough sleep.  We muddled through breakfast.  I made the girls watch a movie while I cooked and then, we packed the other girl up and sent her home.  H was a basket case...  crying and throwing tantrum after tantrum when I asked her to clean up the mess that she and the other girl made.  Finally, I made her lay in her bed and refused to allow her to read or play.  She was out within thirty minutes and slept for 3 hours.  Now, H hasn't taken a nap since she was about 3.  So, this is a major thing.  When she woke up, she was such an angel.  She was using manners, she was smiling and happy.  A complete 180.  From that point on, the weekend was MUCH better.

H has received her list of school supplies from her teacher. There aren't that many things on it. However, this weekend was the weekend to get them since we are headed to the beach next weekend. When we were children, purchasing school supplies was one of the most exciting times of the school year. Our parents, pretty much let us pick anything we wanted to to help us get ready for going back to school. My sister and I would pick out the coolest new pens and pencils, binders, folders, glue, markers, highlighters, etc. It was always a lot of fun and I want to pass that tradition on to my children.  (I think my parents felt like this would get us excited to go back to school, and they were right.)  D, of course, wanted her to get the $.99 red/blue/yellow binders at Target.  No thanks!!  So, after H's nap on Saturday, we were off to Office Depot.  She came home with quite a large loot!!  She has four 3 ring decorative binders, she has two neon spiral notebooks (colors were her choosing), a pencil sharpener, a cool new pencil case for her notebook, a set of awesome highlighters, a huge set of new colored pencils and a 4GB flash drive with a plaid blue design on it.  Yes, a flash drive!  How crazy is it that I'm buying a 8 year old a flash drive for school!!



Our neighbors across the street have a baby boy who just turned 1 in July.  They threw a birthday party for him Saturday evening.  It was a lot of fun.  There were a lot of children there and they all played really well together.  They served salad and pizza and cupcakes.

Sunday was our day to go back to school clothes shopping.  Oh, how I loath this.  I had planned to take Friday off and head to the outlets and do the back to school shopping myself.  However, during one of H's fits on Saturday morning, she was complaining about how she hated one of the outfits I was asking her to hang up in her closet.  I've been wanting her to become more involved in dressing herself, so I felt like this was prime time to get her involved.  So, off we went on Sunday afternoon.  She was bound and determined to get some 'flashy' clothes.  (meaning bright colors with sequins or sparkles)  Yay! - NOT!!  So, the first place we went was Justice.  Can I just tell you, I absolutely HATE this store.  The clothes are crap.  They are WAY over priced and they just don't reflect the kind of look I would like her to have.  Regardless, we spend well over an hour in this store. We had one really LONG disagreement over why this was not appropriate clothing attire for school:

 We tried on several outfits and finally decide on a few things.  My favorite was this one:

It's flashy (sequins), but subdued.  So, I was ok with it.  We also purchased a ruffle denim skirt, two tanks like this:

Yes, those are the colors... neon pink and yellow, but they are flashy (sequins).  We also got her 6 pairs of panties.  The sign said buy 4, get 2 free.  All that rang up to $171...  Seriously.  For two outfits and panties, that's just too much.  Plus the fact is, the sequins will probably fall off after a washing or two.

So, off we went.  We headed to Gap Kids next.  There, we found the cutest tops. 

(except in purple)

These tops were buy 2, get them for $12.50 each.  In lieu of the cami we just purchased at Justice for $24!!  So, we had to have some discussions about how you can purchase items for reasonable prices and then make them 'flashy' with accessories.  She actually 'got it' and continued to work well with me for the rest of the shopping trip.

We we to Belk (after a snack from the Cookie Company ;) ) and we actually ran into one of her girl friends and her family shopping for back to school clothes too!  This was great b/c they, too, were being cost conscious and H and her friend were able to pick out some items together!!  Many of these items came with accessories... a belt or necklace, etc.

We ended up taking back the undies and the denim skirt to Justice and getting $76 back.  But, we purchased some denim shorts on sale at Gymboree for her to wear her neon tanks with.  At GapKids, we purchased the two shirts above along with a pair of white denim shorts.  At Belk, we got two shirts (that are her FAVORITE even though they aren't flashy at all) and two pairs of shorts.  After all that shopping and talking about accessorizing, we went by Claire's as well and purchased some 'flashy' headbands and three packets of earrings - some dangly.  We also bought a pair of Nike tennis shoes and a pair of Tom's.  So, we are set for her to start back to school.  (we will probably have to do all this again in about a month when the weather starts to cool and she can no longer wear shorts to school)

Until then...



Monkey See, Monkey Do

E is in a new phase of wanting to mimic everyone!!  It all started with the 'Oh my gosh!' phrase.  Now, he's mimicking everyone's movements and actions.  Tonight at the supper table, D twisted around to look at something on tv (no, we usually don't have tv on during dinner, but with the UNC football coach fiasco, apparently, he can't miss a second of coverage... anyway) and he put his arm on the back of the chair.  E twisted in his seat and put his arm WAY up on top of the chair.  It was hilarious.

I got some video of he and H tonight that's hilarious of him mimicking her.  Check it out...

The most exciting event of the day today was that E said his name!!  He substitutes a 'b' for the 'v' and reduces it to two syllables, but it's a terrific start!!

My New Office

Our big office move occurred over the weekend.  So, I've been spending a lot of my time this week getting settled into my new building and office.  The move didn't go so smoothly.  My office was supposed to have been painted and it wasn't.  When I arrived on Monday, my desk was not connected together and my keyboard tray was detached.  (I spent all day Monday w/ my keyboard in my lap.)  Things are starting to come together though.

This is, by far, the largest office I've ever had.  It's about 10 ft by 14 ft.  I feel a little lost in it, honestly.  When folks come in my office, they feel so far away, when it used to be so up close and personal.  The good news is that I can fit all 8 team members in my office for our daily scrum now.  (Some used to have to hang in the hallway.)  :)

Here are some pics of my new space...

Voila!  My space.

This is the view from behind my desk.  I'm in the process of requesting new chairs and maybe a small table in lieu of these old desk chairs.  It would be nice if the chairs could match too.

This is the view as if you were standing in the corner with the filing cabinet.  I'm also requesting some bookshelves to go along the wall underneath the whiteboard.  The windowsill is lined with important family photos. (I need one with my sister and soon-to-be brother-in-law together - hint hint.) I doubt they will stay there once I get my new bookcases.  I'd like to get some plants to go in the windowsill.  :)  On the cork board, I've always kept the kids work from school.  I cleaned some of that up with the move, but I've still got the first piece of work either brought home from school on there.  :)

In the top right corner of my cork board, I have my favorite picture of my dad.  He is notorious for his 'chair' at home.  Here he is looking happy, healthy and like a really proud Papa!  Love it!!

I still don't have all my photos on my walls.  There's much more wall space than I was used to so I'm still trying to figure out how to arrange everything.  It's a work in progress. It will get there though.  I was in my last office for about 8 years.  So, it will just take some time.  :)