1st Day of School

I know this is a strange time of year to title a post that way, but nevertheless, so it is. Last Thursday, February 5, was Cole's first day of preschool!

He was so excited in the days leading up to it. He kept asking if it was Thursday yet, and when I dropped him off in his class that morning, he just walked right in and made himself comfortable. After talking to the teachers for a few minutes, I went over to say "goodbye". That's when I was caught off guard by the large lump in my throat. My baby is growing up! Somehow, I managed to swallow the lump and make my exit without too much of a scene. If a two-day-a-week preschool chokes me up, what on earth will I do when he starts kindergarten? Yikes!

It was so strange not having Cole at home for a large part of the day, but it was great to have some time with just Max. We haven't had much of that, for obvious reasons. Max enjoyed it too, although he did ask for his big brother a couple of times.

"Dole?" he would say, and point to Cole's room.
"Cole's at school, sweetie," I would reply.

He seemed ok with that, but he was very excited when we went to go pick him up. Incidentally, I think it's sweet that Max looks up to his big brother so much already. I hope it continues.

Finally the time came to pick up Cole. When we got to his class, his teachers said he had a great day. He even came home with a "Super Student" certificate for being a good friend. I'm so proud!

Our school boy...

...and his certificate.

A Day at Home

Thanks, Jessica, for the great idea to record a day in our life for memory's sake!

Thursday, January 29, 2009

6:30am: Max wakes up. I go to his room and encourage him to lay down and go back to sleep. I'm never ready to get up this early, but especially not today after staying up until 1:00 last night working on our taxes. Max obliges, and I go back to bed too.

7:00: Derek gets up and starts getting ready for work.

7:10: Cole comes into my room with a cheery, "Hi, Mom," as he climbs in bed for our morning cuddle.

7:15: Derek and Cole go to get Max, and then Derek gets them each a drink of milk and puts on a TV show; Mickey Mouse Clubhouse is Cole's choice this morning. I go back to sleep.

7:35: Max comes in, hands me my glasses and points to the kitchen. Translation: "It's time to get up, Mommy!" I sleepily sit up and watch, amused, as Max happily goes back and forth from the nightstand to the bathroom taking Derek all the things that go in his pocket.

7:45: I get Max started on breakfast while Cole finishes up his show. Cole joins us, and we all have banana bread and bananas (hmm, that's a lot of banana).

8:10: Derek leaves for work.

8:30: With everyone full and wiped up, we head to Cole's room to play for a few minutes.

8:45: Go to the kitchen to unload the dishwasher and clean up from breakfast. Cole is a big helper and puts the silverware away. Max tries to help and then decides climbing in would be more fun.

8:55: Start a load of laundry.

9:05: Time to get dressed. Cole requests his green "number" shirt, but it's in the washing machine right now. He complains, but accepts that he can wear it when it's dry. Max protests about being changed but then gives in to a smile and a giggle as I tickle him. Finally, it's my turn. The boys chatter together and close themselves into the cabinet under the sink (Max's second favorite bathroom activity; the first is pulling anything and everything out of my drawer), while I change and try to paint some semblance of a human being on my tired face. Not sure I was successful.

9:35: Instead of making our bed, I decide it's been too long since I've washed the sheets and strip them off. I ask Cole to go get his children's Bible and meet me on the couch while Max helps me change out the laundry. He loves to put the wet things into the drier.

9:40: We all sit on the couch to read and talk about a few Bible stories. Max gets bored after a few minutes and gets down to entertain himself while I read with Cole. Max finds and eats some banana bread from breakfast that I forgot to wipe off his high chair. Oh well. It hasn't been there that long, and I'm sure he's put worse things in his mouth.

9:50: Wrap up our Bible time with a little prayer. Cole wants to keep reading, so he chooses to stay on the couch while I get up to make a phone call. Play a little game of peak-a-boo with Max on my way to the phone. It's so cute when he puts his hands in front of his face like that! I call our church's preschool to set up an appointment for a tour next week. We're thinking of starting Cole there soon.

10:05: Cole helps me make Vanishing Oatmeal Chocolate Chip cookies. He does a great job of measuring out the ingredients while I supervise and make several attempts to keep Max occupied with other things, to no avail. Finally, I put him in his high chair close by with a goldfish snack. He's very happy about that.

10:50: First cookie batch goes into the oven.

10:51: Laundry load #1 comes out of the drier with Max's help and goes to the couch. Load #2 goes into the drier, and cookie batch #1 comes out of the oven.

The next hour is a whirlwind of activities, which include:

Baking 3 more batches of cookies
Changing a dirty diaper
Getting the boys some juice
Turning on Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood for Cole
Playing shape-sorter with Max
Derek calling
Taking the sheets out of the drier and putting them back on the bed
Eating a tortilla. (Not too thrilling, but I was feeling wilty from hunger and that was first thing I could get my hands on in the busy moment.)

12:00: Lunch! Derek often comes home for lunch, but today he is meeting an old friend, so it's just me and the boys. We have sandwiches, fruit, and of course, cookies!

12:30: Nap time. Cole plays in the living room while I snuggle with Max for a few minutes before tucking him in bed. With Max down, I start to clean up the kitchen from lunch and cookie-making while Cole goes potty. When he's finished, I tuck him in bed, and then finish cleaning.

1:05: With Cole in bed and the kitchen clean, I sit down at the computer to take care of a few things.

Grrrr. The internet isn't working again. I troubleshoot for awhile and get it worked out.

Now to take care of business. I pre-register for my maternity stay at the hospital, and then order a support top for my belly that is reaching ridiculous proportions. I have high hopes that the one I found will comfortably help my torn and stretched-out stomach muscles carry the extra weight and provide relief from the ligament pain I've been having.

Business taken care of, I quickly check e-mail, Facebook and blogs.

2:15: Sit down on the couch (opposite end to the laundry that is still there) and read my Bible.

2:20: Too tired to concentrate on what I'm reading, I give in to a little nap.

2:40: I stir at the sound of Max waking up. Hoping he will go back to sleep, I close my eyes again. Groggily, I realize he's been napping for over 2 hours and isn't likely to go back to sleep, so I get up and get him. We have some good Mommy and Max play-time, during which he lets me know he has a wet diaper. At 16 months, he's been doing that more and more. Hmmm. Maybe he'll potty train sooner than Cole did. Wouldn't that be nice with another diaper-clad boy coming into our family very soon.

3:30: Cole is up. I fix the boys some juice and turn on a show (our normal after-nap routine). Cole chooses Mickey Mouse again. I put away the laundry and throw some ingredients into the breadmaker for homemade bread. It'll have to be "Expressbake" this time because I forgot to get it ready in time for a regular loaf. Max only watches a few minutes of the show before joining me in my chores.

4:00: Get Cole changed out of his nap time pj's and into regular clothes (the a fore mentioned green shirt this time), put our shoes on and head to the library to return some books. We get stopped by a train on the way, which is a very normal occurrence for us. I've never seen (or heard) such an active railway as the one close to our house before.

4:40: Home again. I peel potatoes for dinner, Cole plays with his cars in the living room, and Max gets his usual early evening grumpies.

4:45: Potatoes peeled, I realize I don't have to start cooking them just yet, so we head outside for a few minutes.

5:00: Back inside, we wash hands, and I work on dinner.

5:10: Derek calls to say he'll be a little later getting home tonight. I put dinner on hold again and read a book to the boys.

5:20: The bread is done, and I continue to work on dinner while Max follows me around fussing for me to hold him.

5:30: Derek calls; he's on his way. Yea! I'm hungry and tired, and Max is still fussing to be picked up. He slips and bumps his head (lightly) on the floor. Now he really wants to be held. Picking him up, I comfort him and decide I'm at a good stopping point with dinner. I sit down with him on the couch and turn on Design on a Dime to watch in the background while I catch my breath and wait for Derek to come home.

5:45: Daddy's home! There's rejoicing all around and he is greeted with 3 people who are VERY happy to see him. I finish dinner while Derek changes clothes.

6:00: Dinner time. Ham (taken out of the freezer from Christmas), mashed potatoes, veggies and homemade Bread. And cookies for dessert, of course!

6:30: It's Thursday, so it's family night/date night. We all play together in Cole's room.

7:30: Give Max his antibiotic for an ear infection. He's been on it a week now and doing much better.

7:45: Derek gets Max ready for bed, and I clean up the kitchen.

8:05: The kitchen is clean (again), Max is in bed, and the three of us sit down to play a quick game of Candyland before it's time to pick up toys and get Cole to bed.

9:00: Cole is in bed. Date time! We watch American Idol and then play the game "Pathwords" on Facebook. It might not sound too exciting, but we love to play word games together. And after a busy week, a relaxing night at home is a wonderful thing.

11:30: Check on the boys, get ready for bed, and crawl into our nice, clean sheets. I'm exhausted and my body aches, but over-all, I'm pleased with the day. My one regret: I only had 5 (sleepy) minutes of my own Bible time. Hopefully that will be better tomorrow. Derek and I pray together (our nightly routine), and then sink deeply into blissful sleep.

The Brake Is My Friend

I am not a runner. Never have been, and especially not now that I am pregnant. But I got my run in this morning whether I wanted it or not.

First of all, it was freezing outside and I would rather have stayed home, but I really needed to run (no pun intended) some errands . So I got the boys all bundled up and headed out.

At our first stop, I pulled my hood up over my head, jumped out of the van, and got the stroller out as fast as I could. "It's not so bad," I thought as I walked around to Cole's side of the van. Just then a gust of wind came from out of nowhere and sent my "it's not so bad" far, far away. That wind was downright shocking, it was so cold.

Not wanting to wait for him to do it himself, I unbuckled Cole as fast as I could. I swept him out of his seat and swung him around to put him in the stroller. But there was a slight problem... the stroller was missing.

My head jerked up and around just in time to see my big, double stroller sailing through the parking lot. The wind had caught it and swept it away so fast that in the 3 seconds I had my back to it, it was already across the aisle, almost to the next row of cars. At the speed it was going, I was worried that it might put a little ding into the side of the parked car it was headed for.

"Stay here. I have to get the stroller!" I yelled as I quickly took off. Somehow the stroller managed to miss the parked car and redirected it's course through the empty space next to it. I was glad it hadn't hit anything, but desperately wanted it to stop. Or at least slow down.

The wind picked up it's speed, and so did my stroller. "This is crazy!" I thought, as I picked up my speed, trying to catch the thing before it rammed into a parked car, or got hit by a moving one.

Now when some people run, it is something wonderful to behold. They seem lighter than air, with grace, strength and elegance oozing from their every step. And then there are others, like me, who's body parts look completely at odds with each other with every heavy, earth-pounding thud.

So there I was, swollen belly and all, running as fast, and as least awkwardly, as I could to catch an empty runaway stroller. I'm sure I looked as ridiculous as I felt.

I finally caught my rogue stroller and turned to hurry back to the van and 2 boys. Cole was smiling giddily. "What happened, Mommy?" His voice chirping with laughter and excitement.

Chuckling at the ridiculousness of the situation, I said breathlessly, "The wind blew the stroller away and I had to go catch it."

Still smiling, Cole replied, "You forgot to put the brake on, didn't you, Mommy?"

Ahem. Yes, thank you, Cole, for that little reminder. I believe I did forget the brake.

But lesson learned: The brake is my friend...even on strollers!

Tiss

"Huh?"

That's probably what you're thinking after reading the title of this post.

Well, that's exactly what I want to know. What the heck is "Tiss"?

A few months ago I realized that we have completely uncreative names for the stuffed animals in our house. The three that reside on Cole's bed are called "Puppy," "Lamb" and "Bear."

Not that it matters very much, but I remember having names for my dolls and things as a kid. I don't know why I haven't been able to think of anything else besides puppy, lamb and bear lately, but I thought maybe it was time to change that. And what better way to spark a little creativity in my three year old than to have him come up with the names.

So, I picked up a soft, fluffy dog from the toy box.

"Hey, Cole," I asked, "Why don't we think of a name for this dog?"

Cole thought for about 2 seconds and perkily said, "Let's call him Tiss."

"Tiss?" I replied, "Well, ok then. If that's what you think we should call him, then Tiss it is."

Since then, every time he's playing with something that needs a name, he calls it Tiss. Cars, trains, animals, it's all Tiss.

So after my sonogram on Wednesday, I said to Cole, "Now that we know the baby is a boy, we can think of a name. What do you think is a nice name for our new baby?"

I'm sure you see where this is going. "Tiss," was his answer.

I don't know what we are going to name the baby, but I'm pretty sure it won't be Tiss.

I will say one thing for it, though. We wouldn't have to worry about too many other kids having the same name. I'm pretty sure he'd be the only Tiss around. Until he came home. Then, he'd be one of a hundred.

No, sorry, Cole. Not Tiss. What else ya got?

It's a...

BOY!!

We had our 20 week sonogram this morning and everything checked out great. Our littlest baby boy looked super sweet hanging out in his comfy home! We are thrilled that he seems healthy, as best we can tell, and are excited to have a date set for his delivery...that is, unless he decides to come sooner! Otherwise, my 3rd c-section will be the morning of April 14.

Now the name hunt begins!

Not Your Ordinary Hat Box

Does anyone know what this is? You might guess that it's a toilet, in light of the fact that there is toilet paper next to it. But did you know that it's actually called a "Hat Box" Toilet? Well it is, and apparently, this is the new, and very stylish, thing in plumbing.

So, why do I have a picture of this toilet? Because I'm an ordinary person, accustomed to ordinary things, and my experience with this little gem of a toilet was a little, well, out of the ordinary.

I recently had the privilege of attending the beautiful wedding of an old friend from my childhood church. The reception, which was held in the bride's parents' elegant mansion, was in itself something to blog about. But for now, I'll stick to the toilet.

Just before a delicious dinner was served, I excused myself to visit the ladies room. When the time came to flush, I habitually reached for the usual flusher handle. You will notice in the picture, however, that there is no tank on the back of this toilet, and therefore no usual flusher. Hmmm.

At first I thought it might be motion-censored. But after standing there staring at it for a few seconds, I realized it wasn't.

"Maybe you lower the lid," I thought. No, that didn't work.

"Is there a peddle?" No, there wasn't.

"Well, how on earth do you flush this thing?" I thought, half panicked as my mind flashed to the embarrassing thought of having to stick my head out the door and announce to the person in line behind me that I didn't know how to flush the toilet.

And then I saw it. A little, quarter-sized button on the left side. I touched my finger to it, and Voila! It flushed! Phew...embarrassing moment averted. But, really, they should post instructions for that thing, don't you think?

Maybe you are more cultured than I am and would have known how it worked. But if you are an ordinary person like me, accustomed to ordinary things, now you have a head's up. If and when you are faced with a "Hat Box," you will know just what to do with it!

It's All In Your Perspective

Recently our family gathered together to celebrate my mother-in-law's birthday. Amongst the delicious dinner fare was a great salad with all kinds of yummy goodies in it, including grapes. Once we had filled our plates and were chatting and settling down into our chairs to eat, one voice rang out over the rest.

My nephew, Jake, who's four years old, yelled, "Hey, why is there salad in my grapes?"