Pre-School Begins!

Today was Noelle's first day of pre-school! It wasn't a true day of school because we just went for about an hour to meet her teacher and get the scoop on how everything would work for the year. Come next Tuesday will be the true first day when I leave her and have a whole morning (okay, really just two and a half hours) without her!

I convinced Luke to work from home so that Jonah could stay with him, and I could focus on Noelle and figuring out how everything would work with her. We watched our neighbors get on the school bus for their first day of the year, and I kept telling Noelle how exciting it was that she was also going to be starting school. Of course her response was that she didn't want to go to pre-school and that she wanted to stay home with mama.

I made a little 'first day of 3's pre-k' sign for her to hold and took the necessary pictures. She gave us her eyes closed, super cheesy smile that scrunches up her entire face. After I made sure we had a few decent pictures, she and I got into the van and headed out. By then she seemed a little bit more excited about going, and I kept talking it up as we drove to the school. Inside I was freaking out and telling myself we should just wait another year, she doesn't have to go to school yet, she can stay home for another year. Which is all true- we are choosing to send her. But we know she is going to love it!

We walked into the school, checked in, and wandered down the hallway to her classroom. I started to get a little choked up and told myself to just HOLD IT TOGETHER! One of the assistant teachers greeted us, gave Noelle her nametag, and told us to pick one of the available cubbys where she would hang her tote bag. She ended up with the purple oval cubby, and it looks like she'll be sharing it with a little boy in her class. We wandered over to where her classmates were playing, and she immediately found the bin of horses to play with.

The head teacher took us parents down the hallway to talk to us about procedures and what the school year would look like. Her teacher was so nice, and seems so excited about her year with the kids. There are two assistant teachers in the room as well, so I know that Noelle is in good hands! It's just so hard to think about hitting the school milestone, and leaving her with teachers!

But as Noelle said when we were leaving, "This wasn't scary, this was so much fun!"

Suprises and Poison Control

I had a real "I feel like such a mom" moment last night. I woke up to a weird noise (probably the cat) around 1:30 and went to check on both kids. I pulled the covers up around Noelle so that she wouldn't get cold. And I felt Jonah's head since he had a bit of a fever when we put him to bed. Of course, as soon as I touched his forehead, he rolled over and I backed away as quickly as possible so he wouldn't wake up. But it made me feel like such a mom, and of course, I loved it!

Luke's birthday was on Tuesday (so glad he's finally the same age as me again!), and this past weekend, I had a surprise party for him. It was at my parent's house since they have a good sized backyard, and on Friday, I went over to clean the main floor since my mom hasn't been able to do much since her hip surgery. Saturday morning, I went over to their house after my run and once Jonah was awake to help decorate, and when I came home I told Luke that I gone up to Starbucks for awhile. The plan was that we were going to my parent's house to celebrate all the August birthdays- Luke and both of my sisters. When we got there, all the cars were parked in the yard, and of course Luke asked what was going on. I just told him to stop asking questions, but he had already figured it out.

We had a good mix of friends there including family, people from our Bible studies, college friends, his old work friend Tim, and our friend Joe, who encompasses childhood through post-college friendship. I'm just glad that I was actually able to pull it off- so hard keeping secrets from the person I tell pretty much everything!

On Monday, I had T and S for the whole day for the last time this summer. I had nothing fun planned, and we ended up sticking around the house for awhile since Jonah didn't seem to be a big fan of taking a nap. T had gone to a paint ball fight birthday party over the weekend, and brought back three un-exploded paint balls as souvenirs. He brought them over to show me, and ended up forgetting to take them back home. Later that evening, Jonah found one and bit into it, and immediately started spitting out the tiny amount of paint that got into his mouth. I wasn't sure if it was harmful, and quickly googled it. This was of course not helpful, and only brought up a message board where everyone said the person was an idiot for letting their child get a hold of a paint ball. (My bad!)

I ended up calling poison control, and the woman I spoke with couldn't find much, but since it seemed like Jonah only got a taste of it, she wasn't concerned. Three years and I've never worried about something Noelle ate, but 16 months in, and Jonah has me calling poison control. I am definitely going to get gray hairs from this kid's shenanigans! Thankfully all was good and there didn't seem to be any repercussions. (Praise the Lord!)

A 5K and A Bloody Nose

August is just flying by, and the MOPS group at our church is just two weeks away from our kick-off night! The last week has been full of lots of emails back and forth between those of us on the leadership team, me emailing moms about turning in their registrations, actually registering moms on the MOPS website, planning a craft play date with the other hospitality leader (which we then missed thanks to all the snot from our summer colds), plus all our usual weekly things like grocery shopping and cleaning.

I'm so excited for the group of moms who will be meeting together, and the relationships we'll build by sharing the joys and struggles of mommyhood. Our leadership team has a retreat this evening to focus on the theme of the year: a fierce flourishing. As MOPS International lays it out, this includes celebrating lavishly, embracing rest, and noticing goodness.

 screentime- motherhood at it's finest

In other news, this past weekend I ran the River Valley Run 5K with my sister-in-law, Lydia. I ran this race last year, and loved the race and supporting River Valley Ranch. It was Lydia's first ever race, and she totally rocked it! I'm pretty sure her time was faster than any of my first 5Ks- and that was even with her having to stop for a minute because she had a cramp. I love when people I love start running! And she's already saying she wants to do a 10K- and of course I say, bring it on!

I ended up being first female, but only in the last few seconds! There was another girl ahead of me for most of the race, and whenever I caught up to her during the second half, she would pull ahead. I booked it at the end and finished right in front of her (which I feel kind of bad about since she had the lead for the majority of the time!). Lydia and I grabbed some post-race food (yay for Chick Fil A), and ended up talking to a girl who is at Grove City currently. It was a fun morning, and way less stressful for me than last year since I didn't have to rush home to a nursing baby!

Speaking of the baby who used to nurse, on Sunday evening I was laying on the couch playing with him. He kept laying down on my chest, and then at one point must have moved up a little, because he came down hard and bashed me on my nose. It hurt so much, and immediately blood came gushing out.  I sat up and started screaming for Luke to come help me while catching blood in my hand. I don't know that I've ever had a nose bleed in my life and couldn't remember if I was supposed to lean back, or if that would cause me to choke on my own blood.

Luke came running down the stairs and told me to lay down while he grabbed paper towels. By that point the blood was dripping down my shirt, onto my legs, down my arm. And then the pain really started to sink in, and I told Luke I thought I was going to pass out. I have this thing where unexpected pain causes the vasovagal response, but it hasn't happened in a while and usually laying down helps me avoid it. But, according to Luke, I passed out, came to and stood up, passed out again, came to and stood up again, and passed out. I never passed out for more than a few seconds, and when I came to the last time, I just laid there until I felt okay about sitting up.

Thankfully there was no broken nose, and I was wearing a dark colored shirt so there shouldn't be any visible blood stains, right? And now I have a big fear of Jonah's incredibly hard head coming anywhere near my face!

VBS and Hip Surgery

Life has been busy- and August and September are only going to be busier! Last week we went to Vacation Bible School at my mother-in-law's church, which filled up our mornings (in lots of good ways!) On Monday I had T and S, who decided they didn't want to do VBS since they wouldn't know anyone. So after we dropped off Noelle, we headed to the Carroll County fair to check out all the animals. Jonah loved the chickens and kept pointing to them as we walked through the barn with all the chicken cages. The Carroll County fair is pretty small, so we wandered around for an hour and still had some time to kill before we needed to pick up Noelle.

T and S (and their mom) had graciously gifted me with a Dunkin' Donuts giftcard, so we headed there to get ourselves a treat. I gave them the choice of a drink or a snack- and both of them chose an iced coffee fully loaded with sugar. And then they both added more sugar. Oops! After we picked up Noelle, we headed home for lunch, and then to a new to us pool to play in the water and splash pad. The pool happens to be near where their moms works, and as we were starting our drive home, she pulled out right in front of us. We called her and she pulled over so the kids could jump in with her- I know she loves getting as much time with them as she can!

VBS was fun, and was a good practice run for starting pre-school in the fall. I tried to make sure both kids were up by 7:30 so that we could get dressed and fed before it was time to leave. We did pretty well for the most part, but I definitely noticed that we were leaving later and later as the week went on. Except for Friday, Noelle cried every morning when I left her, and it hurt my mama heart. But I knew that within minutes she was fine and happily playing, singing, and crafting. My mother-in-law and sister-in-law were helping with the crafts, which the 3 year olds did first, and I think that helped ease her in. Hopefully it won't take her long to get used to being dropped off at pre-school! Other than Monday, I attended a Bible study for moms on the book of Proverbs. It was so wonderful having consistent time in the Word!

We kept things low-key in the afternoons, and on Thursday went to hang out with my mom before her hip surgery on Friday. The surgery had already been rescheduled from the week before and she was ready to have it done with, so hopefully her grand-babies were a good distraction! On Saturday, we drove down to Baltimore to visit her in the hospital. There had been more damage to the replaced hip than the surgeon had thought, which made surgery take a little longer and more pain for my mom in recovery. But she was home on Sunday, and is getting around slowly with her walker. Lots of prayers for a quick recovery, and for full, pain-free mobility!

Pool Time and Birthday Celebrating

Last week with T and S we adventured to the Cryptologic Museum to "learn" more about codes and machines that have been used by our government. Needless to say, keeping track of four children, especially Jonah, meant I didn't do reading of any sort. I was a little worried about how T and S would do- the word museum might automatically make it boring. But as we walked in, they were offered to do the challenge of decoding 10 clues throughout the museum. They were given a cipher, which changed at each clue, and they decoded words and phrases. It mostly meant that I would read off which letters lined up together, but it was fun! They each got a little prize at the end (which was the main motivator for completing it!)

Later on that afternoon we headed to a local pool, where I inadvertently got Noelle in for free. They couldn't see her over the counter and they thought I was including Jonah (who was free) when I said I had four people, and then of course it took me awhile to realize I didn't pay for four people. Oh well! I was nervous about having four kids to look after, especially since Jonah and Noelle do not know how to swim and have only been around water a little bit. (Maybe Jonah's first time in the pool??) But the kiddie pool worked out really well for my two while T and S played in the big pool, and checked in with me every so often.

Jonah working on his de-coding

Later on in the week, I met my friend and her little guy at her gym for some playtime in the pool. They had a really nice kiddie pool, and Noelle and Jonah spent pretty much the whole time playing in the shallowest part with all my friend's pool toys. All this time in the pool makes me want to get a membership somewhere next summer! Luke wants to teach them how to swim, but we just need consistent access to a pool.

clearly excited about her birthday cake

We also decided to have a last minute birthday celebration for Noelle on Sunday evening with our families. Nothing like calling and texting our families on Sunday afternoon to come join us for pizza and cake that evening. But we had all the grandparents and two aunts, and once Noelle recovered from her nap on the couch, she loved being the center of attention.

We've been enjoying a lot of our summer evenings by taking walks around the neighborhood and then eating popsicles. We've gotta soak up our time outside while we can!

Jonah at 15 Months

Jonah baby (I will call him that forever!) was officially 15 months old as of last Thursday, and on Monday we had his well-check appointment. It's hard to believe we're coming up on two years since finding out I was pregnant!

The nurse practitioner we saw was very pleased with his growth- he almost doubled his percentile in both height and weight! He was 31 inches (47%) and 22 pounds 8 ounces (22%). She said that he'd probably just gone through a growth spurt and would start to slow down some, especially as he gets more focused on other things and not on eating. I can already tell he's getting pickier about what he eats, and just wants to constantly move.

The words he says consistently are Dada, Mama, Zooo (when he's following the cat around), and yuh or dah (for yes). He answers almost every question with "yuh"- which I think is more based on our intonation than understanding the question. He also tries to repeat words, like when he's standing in his high chair or on the counter, and I'm firmly saying sit. He just continues to stand, emphatically saying "Sih" and smiling at me. We were out for a family walk the other day and Noelle and I were pretending to race, saying "ready, set, go" every few feet and "running" to Daddy. Jonah caught on, and when he heard us saying "ready, set", he would say "go"! Sometimes he'll attempt other words that he hears us say, like bye or hi.

Jonah is thankfully continuing to sleep solidly through the night for about 11 hours, going to bed around 8 and waking around 7. He still seems to be holding on to the morning nap, but if I keep us busy in the morning, he's usually good until about lunchtime and then starts to lose it. I'm hoping we can drop the morning nap so that I don't feel as stuck at home in the morning and afternoon to make sure he gets his sleep!

He still only has 8 teeth, but the nurse practitioner said she could see that his gums were really swollen. Hopefully those teeth pop through soon, and it would explain why he's been a little bit crankier than usual lately. He's in size 3 diapers and 12 month clothing, though the ones that have been passed down to us and been lovingly worn are getting a tad small. But we have continued to be so blessed by people giving us hand-me-downs that he will be well dressed for awhile!

Overall, I'm having a lot of fun with him at this age. He's into everything, climbing things that Noelle never even thought about climbing, falling when he runs down the sidewalk, going down slides by himself on his belly. climbing on and off our bed (just waiting until the day he tries to climb out of his crib!), and in general just being a busy, busy boy! He still prefers me most of all (which I not so secretly love), but also, once I'm out of sight, he's a busy baby wherever he is. Until he hears my voice or sees me, then he's all like, I need my mom. Right. Now!

Baby Cows and Dressing as Cows

My abilities at finding free or cheap things to do with kids are not so great, but last Monday we managed to find something fun to do with T and S. Jonah woke up earlier than usual, so I declared that we needed to stay at the house until he was able to take a morning nap. T and S found friends in the neighborhood to play with for a little while, and then once Jonah was up and we had eaten our lunches, we headed out to South Mountain Creamery. T and S had been before with their parents and had told me all about how they let you feed baby cows!

Unfortunately we didn't get there at the right time to feed the babies, but we did get to play on the little playground, ate some yummy fresh ice cream, and looked in on the baby cows. They were so precious, and at least two of them were just two days old! The stall doors were low enough that Jonah could stick his little hand in to say hi to the baby cow. I definitely want to go back sometime to feed one a bottle!

On Tuesday, we headed to Chick Fil A for Cow Appreciation Day. Jonah was dressed in the dalmatian costume Noelle wore for Halloween last year, but he passed for a little cow. I cut out black spots to tape on to a white dress for Noelle, and bobby-pinned cow ears on her head. We met Kristina and Lillian (who had the perfect cow costume from Halloween!), and enjoyed our free breakfasts and some play time in the play place. As always, the customer service was excellent, and the girl who took our order was so excited about all the kids coming in dressed as cows. 

Thanks for the picture, Kristina!

Later on in the week we had a play date with a friend of mine who I was in a play group with as a kid. It's crazy to think we were 3 and 4 years old playing with one another, and now our 5 kids are playing with one another! That makes being 30 feel old!

We celebrated our friend Owen's 2nd birthday on Saturday morning, and then Luke and I dropped the littles off at Grandma and Grandpa's house so we could have a day date! (Thanks, Mom W!) We did some shopping, saw Inside Out, ate out for dinner, and grabbed some Cold Stone before heading back. I have to say having uninterrupted time with Luke is one of the best things ever! I know it's so important for us to have fun with one another outside of being with our kids, and Saturday was just what we needed!