Back to School and Big Girl Stuff

Every time I post, it seems like there are so many milestones that I have to skip over a lot of them and just focus on a few. This time, I promise to hit the big highlights. As I posted earlier, Sophia was "learning" to ride a bike without training wheels. She finally did it! Now she is flying all over the place, and my and the hubby had to get bikes of our own to keep up. Celia is not a huge fan of the helmet I force her to wear, but she does enjoy riding with me, so it's a wash and she puts up with it so long as I go fast. Monday was the first day of school for both Sophia and Maia. Last year I bawled when I dropped Sophia off for preschool. This year, not so much! I had a little moment when I dropped off Maia, but I didn't cry, and I was good after Miss Sophia got on the bus. Both girls seem to love school, and I am loving the break I am getting while they are gone. Maia is definately not a morning person, so it's hard to get her moving in the morning. She just cries and says it's too early to get up. Can't wait for the teenage years! All in all, things are going smoothly, though we almost missed the bus this morning, and I'm sure the girls will continue to love school.

On the darker side, the girls are having to learn a bit about the sad side of life lately. My grandmother was found wandering a few weeks ago, and since then was diagnosed with two different forms of dementia, and later we discovered she also has stage 2 lung cancer. The girls have visited the nursing home my grandma is now at, and have been so wonderful by not asking too many loud questions while we are there! It is a side of life that we all must deal with at one time or another, and it is an awesome responsibility to teach your children the proper way to handle and cope with the situation. We don't know what the outcome will be yet, as there is a lot more testing to be done, but regardless, we have been trying to see my grandmother as often as possible and are so grateful to have her in our lives.

Lastly, Celia has become a monkey on speed set on fire with the way she moves. That kid is so fast, so dexterous, and so smart that there is no way to keep up. I've actually lapsed into fantasies of having a giant monkey cage in my room to safely sit her while I do such exotic things as clean or cook lunch. I don't have any pictures of her doing her typical stuff because I'm usually too busy yelling and running to catch her to take a picture, but I think the sitting in the drawer picture is cute. I will try and calm myself enough to take a picture of her standing on the table/counter/computer desk next time she is up there, which shouldn't be too long. When I do, I'll be sure to post it. Now, I'm going to enjoy the next 1/2 hour of silence!

Summer summer time.....

Two weeks to go until school begins, and we are really cramming the best summer has to offer in. Blueberry picking, trips to Purdue's varities of fountains, baseball games, gardens, parks, and zoo trips abound. Sophia's in the process of learning to ride her bike without training wheels. I don't recall that being such a traumatic experience as a kid, but perhaps it was so bad I blocked it out. She started the process crying and freaking out, which by a general rule is not condusive to riding a bike, as it is hard to see where you are going with tears in your eyes and snot running all over. We're making progress, and as long as she doesn't realize we've let go, she is able to ride. The problem is the second we let go, she lets go. So there is a lot of work to be done. We're all ready for the beginning of school. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with one kid two days a week. It's only for 3 hours that I'll be alone with Celia, but it will no doubt be odd. Being the third, she is always having to stake her claim and demand attention. The few times where the other two have gone somewhere with James, Celia and I had a great time once we figured out what to do, so I'm really getting excited to know her better as an individual, rather than part of the herd. She is really becoming verbal, and understands a lot. She can follow pretty much any direction you give her, knows most of her body parts, and says probally 15 words now. Every day there is something new. Yesterday it was "Spongebob". It's amazing to watch her blossom, and remember how Sophia and Maia went through that same process. It seems like a lifetime ago, even though it was just a few short years. Now that my last totally free summer is coming to an end, and we are about to become a part of the larger world outside my family and friends, I know that things will change dramatically. And I'm looking forward to it.

Back to School, and I'm kind of jealous

It's that time of year, the stores are filling up w/ fresh, crisp paper, perfect crayons that have yet been chewed upon, lunch boxes and backpacks, and for the first time ever, I will be the mom buying for my kid. Now, the school Sophia will be attending is kind of making it sorta disappointing because all school supplies are provided for kindergarteners, but she still needs a backpack, lunch box, and some new duds. I'm normally a pretty cheap girl, but since I have to clothe 3 girls, I tend to buy the nice stuff, on a deep discount a season out. That means Miss Sophia already has most of her fall clothes, thank you very much Children's Place Outlet. But, today I spent the big bucks for my dear girl. I know my friend Laura will be proud, because I bought her the first LL Bean backpack in the house. People swear by these things, and I wanted something to take her to the 6th grade. So, she and I looked at the catalog together, and online, and she picked out a purple flowered backpack with her initals on it. I am so excited to take her picture with it on the first day of school. Maia is getting the old backpack that Sophia used for preschool, and on the monumentous occasion of starting kindergarten, she will get a LL Bean as well. It reminds me of when I was a kid, excitedly buying my supplies before school, getting everything neatly stacked, packed, and ready to go. I even had a dream of going back and getting my PhD the other night, that is how in the school zone I am in. So when all those supplies go on sale at the end of August, I may just slip an extra box into the cart, just for me.

Da duh da duh....

Anyone wanna guess what this is? 6am, James leaving for work, and this is what he sees:

There was no noise, and while the darkness makes the video quality poor, he could see the object clearly, and it was a shape similar to a jellyfish. He's super skeptical, and if he took video, then you know he was baffled!

Sweet Summer

I've been trying to think of all the things that made summer so magical to me as a child, and apply them to this summer with the girls. I remember grape koolaid, popsicles, running with bare feet, trips to the swimming pool, water guns, and tending the vegtable garden with my mom. So far, we have hit all of those things. I added some of my own, including trips to Conner Prairie, bouncy houses, and outdoor projects. My favorite was seeing Sophia and Maia carrying a 14 foot long board to the backyard. Impressive! It's been crazy and fun, and I hope that they are developing the amazing memories that they will cherish their whole lives, just as I do.

FUN!

I forgot to post pictures from our recent outing to King's Island. Our good friends Christina and Steve went with us, and their adorable kids came along as well. The super cute girl, S, is Maia's newest favorite friend, and their boy, A, is a doll, but not Sophia's boyfriend, because she is mortified by boys already if you insinuate that. So he's just her friend, and she loves him, but not in that way! We all had a great time, even though it rained quite a bit. Note the wet shirt on James. Lovely day with some lovely people. Makes me wish I lived closer!

Worn out!

Lately, I feel like I've been engaged in man-to-man combat on a daily basis. First, let me say that I've been working out to this crazy video, 30 Day Shred, which I swear is awesome but leaving me extremely sore. So I'm in no real place to say I'm starting out on the right foot when it comes to the fact that I'm on my feet all day. However, even if I wasn't getting the crap beat out of me w/ the workout (have I mentioned how much I love that video. Because I do, since in 4 days I'm already getting seriously toned arms), Celia has seen to it that I do not have a moment of rest, EVER. I've been straining for a good description of her, and it's a tie between mountain goat on caffine, or monkey on speed. I'm more for the latter. She has NO FEAR, and amazing climbing abilities, which makes for a dangerous combination. I don't yet have pictures of

her hanging off of the ladder to the clubhouse, or standing on the top of the back of the couch, because I'm too busy racing to catch her. She has also learned that if she stands on the dog, she can climb on the bed. We're talking Wuzzy the dog, not a stuffed dog. That dog is the best, calmest dog in the world. Thank god, because I don't know what I would do if she weren't! This morning Celia dumped about 200 goldfish crackers on the floor, which Wuzzy cleaned up for me, thank you very much. That is why we got a dog, to reduce my sweeping! Seriously though, Celia is a terror right now, because with this newfound delight for climbing and doing dangerous activites, she is also teething, and developed a lovely "do it now" attitude. Each age brings the good and the bad, it's just right now, while she is so sweet and staring to say really cute suff, the bad is just wearing me out! Don't be suprised to see another ER post in the near future, either for a nervous breakdown on my part, or a broken bone on Celia's. It's a toss up!