children

Emma’s First Day of First Grade

August 19, 2009 by Amy 4 Comments

Do you get the feeling she was happy? I hope so because she was. So. happy.

We counted down all of yesterday. Counting hours including and excluding sleep time. I’m not sure how many times I heard “Can I go to school NOW?” She told a few people she was excited and wasn’t scared at all. Such a different story than last year. She says she was excited because her room looked like so much fun and indeed it did have many little centers.

We bought an alarm clock last night at Target. She wanted to wake herself up and get ready before I woke up. And of course it was not a digital clock and I don’t think I set it right. I woke her up and the first thing she says is the alarm didn’t go off. So she says “Ring, ring. Time to get up for school.” She was up and at ‘em, complying with all requests to get ready.

At school, she was happy to see the principal and I heard no complaints or nervousness. She hopped out of the van with her bag and lunch. I didn’t even walk her in.

Hopefully her first day will go well. I’m sure it will. I just can’t quit smiling when I see that picture. So. happy.

She’s Excited! She’s Really Excited!

August 17, 2009 by Amy 2 Comments

Since we found out the meet-the-teacher date, Emma has been counting down the days. And not in the going to the gallows kind of way. She actually was looking forward to it. Today, we counted down hours and then literally, minutes the last hour. Emma and I walked hand in hand through the busy hallways but it wasn’t a death-grip-I-can-feel-her-shaking type of thing. And then in class, she actually answered the teacher’s questions (albeit quietly without looking her in the eye) and took completed papers across the room to the bin the teacher requested. All by herself. When we left the room and talked about how to find her class (her hall wall is the only red one) she didn’t want to make a practice run down the hall to find it. And she didn’t flinch when I said I wouldn’t be with her Wednesday morning. And then she couldn’t wait to tell everyone about her visit. Trust me when I say Emma’s excited about school on Wednesday.

And ya’ll have no idea how excited that makes me.

The Park

August 9, 2009 by Amy 3 Comments

Emma remembers everything. Sometimes it’s a good thing. Sometimes it’s not. The other day she mentioned in passing it’d be a great idea for us to go to the park and take their bikes and eat a picnic. And we really should do that this Saturday. I told her that’d be great but she’d be at MIL’s this weekend. I thought that was the end of it.

Saturday for some unknown reason I got out of bed earlier than I normally do on a weekday and cleaned up the house. Around 10:30 I got a call from Emma saying she was calling about our park visit and when could I come get her? Oh and can S go too? Um….ok. Let me run a few errands and I’ll be over at lunchtime.

We decide to do the picnic part first. Except Lexi got mad about something. Usually Emma and S do things together and leave her out and she gets mad. I can’t recall what happened but Lexi insisted on sitting by herself:

And this is Lexi pouting sitting by herself:

I think it’s the cutest picture ever and I probably shouldn’t.

The girls decided they wanted to play before getting the bikes out so they headed straight for the sand. The same place that used to be a pool when I was a little girl. Except S and Emma got the toys first. So this is Lexi pouting about that:

OK, I won’t pick on her anymore. She did have some fun:

So the girls finally decided to ride their bikes.

And I just happen to think that’s an adorable picture too. And this one too. The girls stopped to go potty and left their bikes parked in a line.

Turns out the bathrooms were closed. What better thing to do than drink water when you have no bathroom handy??

It was really hot outside. My girls stopped for a break. I’m not sure what Lexi is doing here. I do know she wasn’t pouting.

Oh, look! Someone came to visit us! Daddy! And yes, that does draw a little attention from other park-goers.

I think it’s hot. And well, it technically was our anniversary so I made him take a picture. Right before this he said, “Embarrassing!”

So we finished out the visit with Emma taking the camera. I think I had either my it’s hot out here or Emma, what are you doing face on.

And just like a sixteen year old she took pictures of herself.

I don’t know Em, I think this time, your outstanding memory was a good thing.

Mid-Week Random

August 5, 2009 by Amy 2 Comments

I feel the need to do a brain dump. No fancy stuff today.

I’ve been on Internet overload since this weekend. I had all the Danny Gokey hoorah from the concert and then two of my other blogs were involved in the TCAs. Blogging has been a lot of work the past few days to say the least. I actually turned off Twitter yesterday afternoon. I guess all of us have a limit after all.

One of the funniest things I’ve seen in a long time is Scott teaching the girls how to give wedgies the other night. Their little Barbie undies stretching to their shoulders and their tanned bottoms were almost too much. It was one of those times Scott and I looked at each other and belly laughed at our kids.

Scott has ripped apart the hall bath and will be laying the tile for in there today.

The kitchen counter top should be in at any time.

My bathroom lighting still hasn’t shipped.

A diamond fell out of my ring again. I think it’s the same one as before.

Yesterday Lexi accidentally knocked my non-novel off my desk and it tore the back cover. It gave me the courage to actually write in the book to edit it. I’ve spent some time doing that. It really makes a difference reading it on paper. I don’t know why. But it’s more clear than ever that it needs a lot of work.

Emma goes back to school in two weeks. She seems to be ready to go back. I don’t care to see 7am any time soon.

Scott’s new motorcycle still won’t work. He’s gotten a new battery, replaced the gas and cleaned the spark plugs. He has a neighbor coming to look at it tonight. We’re still not sure whether it’s a keeper.

We visited a new church Sunday. We all liked it.

We haven’t been swimming much because the pool had a bad case of algae. Scott cleaned it and dumped all the chemicals in today. Hopefully this weekend we can return to the swimming.

More Face Painting

July 30, 2009 by Amy 1 Comment

Bath this morning and then face paint…of course. It’s like make-up for kids! Emma insisted I put these on the Internet. Just in case someone else wanted to do it like this. I feel a blogger in the making.

I have no idea what Emma’s is. I tried copying some random design on the Internet. I really needed to airbrush a base, but you know, I do what I can.

Lexi had two swishes on the bottom that made the whole thing look like a heart but she washed it off.

Face Paint

July 29, 2009 by Amy 1 Comment

I took Emma and Lexi to the store today to pick out toys so they could use their own money. They both had about $10. Lexi got Barbie stuff but Emma got makeup and face paint. Emma had a very specific thing in mind for her face paint. I followed her directions specifically but it looks a little like an amoeba crawling on her face. I think she was trying to describe one of Heather’s from a fair last year. Lexi is supposed to be a cat that we copied from a random site. She washed it off about 2 minutes after putting it on. And mine…I asked for a butterfly and Emma did her best. No matter how it looks, we had fun and it was a different activity than normal.

I can’t say I’m not tempted to copy one of these full butterfly patterns on my own later. Who says face paint is only for fairs?

It’s Going Swimmingly

July 27, 2009 by Amy 1 Comment

Well we’ve had a good month with our pool. After a week with the cover on and blazing temperatures it was NINETY FOUR degrees yesterday. It felt more like a hot tub to the point you had to keep half your body out of the water just to breathe properly. I love it though. 89 is my favorite temperature and anything above that is just icing on the cake.

The girls are improved so much in just a few weeks.

Lexi was technically swimming at the end of last year. But this year…oh boy. She’s swimming and now diving. She does canon balls, belly flops, back flops and literal dives into the pool. One time she did such a perfect dive I was scared she had hit her head. We nixed those dives and she can only dive straight out from the steps. She will do pretty much anything you ask her to. I help her do handstands and front flips because the poor girl is too little to get to the bottom on her own. She really amazes me with her fearlessness and Mom is insistent she should be getting with a coach on diving/swimming.

Emma has had a harder time. She has been swimming above water for a while. The thing with her is she hasn’t quite mastered blowing air out of her nose so she’s had to do underwater things while holding her nose. Most of the summer she’s been barely jumping off the side, making sure to go feet first and trying to keep her head above water. She was swimming above water as much as possible and only going under when we’d really challenge her.

Well, last week she finally put on a mask that covered her eyes and nose and wow, what a difference. She is now swimming underwater and doing her own canon ball. And then today…she started doing flips underwater on her own. And then all the sudden she did THREE flips without coming up all on her own. And she’s trying really hard to get to the bottom to do a handstand.

So, all in all, it feels really good that the kids are swimming so well. All the pool trouble has been worth it just for the girls to be comfortable in and around water.

On Birthdays, Politics and Toilets

July 14, 2009 by Amy 8 Comments

Today is Scott’s birthday. The girls are dying to have Scott a party even though Scott does not like parties and told me he didn’t want a party. I think he’s going to lose on this one. I think the family will be coming over for some ice cream and cake. And the girls may or may not have bought some balloons and noise makers for the occasion.

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Scott has somehow taken to politics. Recently he’s been listening to talk radio. At night he has been listening to Bill O’Reilly and right now we have the Sotomayor Hearings on and Scott is talking back to the TV. It’s so very odd. I guess that’s what middle-age does to you.

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The girls and I went to Dunkin Donuts per Scott’s birthday request this morning. The radio was still on from my trip to Dani’s house last night. I wasn’t paying much attention until I heard “Birthday Sex“. I hate that song (yes, it’s a real song on the radio) but thought it was funny I heard it today….except when I hear Lexi chime in “Birthday checks! Emma did you hear what they’re saying…Birthday checks, Birthday checks”. Emma was like what is that?? Neither have ever heard the word “sex”. I quickly turn it off and Lexi was all “Put it back on!!” And I was all “NOooooo”.

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A friend of ours works at Lowe’s. He gets deals on tools for Scott sometimes. And guess what he randomly asked if we needed last night? Toilets. Yep. $52 a piece. Thank you, Lord.

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So Happy Birthday, Babe. You get to pick up toilets and have a party…JUST what you wanted to do today. Maybe we can watch some Bill O’Reilly and figure out those Birthday Checks tonight to make up for it.