End of March, Beginning of April 2016

These cookies are my favorites - They are a banana, oatmeal, chocolate chip.  They are delicious.  The texture is so chewy almost like the top of a muffin.  YUMMMMM

Humidity = curls

It's crazy how curly she is

Video - Emmalyn singing the Jeopardy Theme Song.  We watch it each night so she's a pro!

Since coming home from Seattle, Maxwell keeps score just like Uncle Clay w/ everyone's initials.  This is the score sheet he put together for playing baseball. (Maxwell and Peter)

When Maxwell does Math that doesn't come quickly (like 9 plus 7) he will use this method - "9 in your head and 7 on your fingers" and then counts on his fingers to get the number. When he says the head part he hits his head.

He's reading his new chapter book - I love this series called "Hey Jack".  It's perfect for just starting to read chapter books.

Playing together

Maxwell dancing in his room while he watches the "whip n nae nae" song and learns the dance.  He's pretty cute when he does it.

Not happy to be in daddy's car because she has to still be in the rear facing infant seat.  At nearly 2, she's ready to be out of it.

He's all into reading right now.  I loved walking in and finding him like this on his bed.

A rare thing - Maxwell actually sitting in a swing instead of laying on it with his belly?!

We had a playdate with a few of Maxwell's friends from pre-school.  Joshua, Preston, and Lucas.  Maxwell played with them a little but more spend time playing by himself.  It's still good to see him engaging with friends a little though.

Sweet sleeping baby.  Note her hand tucked into her shirt?  Just like Maxwell used to do.

Peeking over our neighbor's fence.  We have a picture of Maxwell doing the same thing.

The weather is changing and swimming weather is getting closer.  Maxwell got into the hot tub next door for the first time this year.

Part of spring means it's time to plant flowers.  I had a great helper who not only helped me pick out the flowers but plant them too.  He loved his superman gloves.

Look at how long that hair is getting!

Spring days = time at the park

My little dare devil

So much personality and spunk

Our regular picture spot at school - I tried to get him to smile

He tickled himself in order to give me a genuine smile.

This week I registered Maxwell for Kindergarten.  Peter and I have really been struggling with deciding whether to send Maxwell to Kindergarten in the fall or hold him back.  Since he turns 5 so close to the cut off date, it wouldn't be uncommon to hold him back.  If he were to go to school, he'd turn 5 only 3 days before school starts.  He's already little for his age, he will certainly be little in his class because there will be kids in there that are already 6!  Here in Texas, you will find parents holding back their kids that turn 5 in May and June just so they will be bigger and do better in sports.

I worry though that if we hold Maxwell back it won't be fair to him intellectually since he's already so far ahead in that area.  It's hard to know what to do!  Sometimes I wonder if he's mature enough to move on (like when he barely plays with the other kids at the playdate.

Anyway, it's hard and we don't know what to do.  So, we registered him knowing that we can always change our mind and he doesn't have to go.  Then, at least, he can go if we want him to.  I can't believe he's old enough to go to school!

Video - Peter gets the best giggles out of Emmalyn.  She is so fun to play with.

Maxwell put together this course for him to practice his soccer skills with.

Watching Maxwell and the other kids in the pool.  I think I'm going to need to sign her up for lessons soon.  I don't want to have to get in the pool with her but it's clear she wants to be swimming too.

 

She is certainly starting to look more like toddler and less like baby.

She calls all her fingers "thumbs".  Her two bottom two-year molars are barely popping through.  She says "yes" with the cutest lisp so it sounds like "yeth".  She has crazy tantrums and is scratching now.  She will just SCREAM.  She purposely does things that she knows will upset Maxwell.  She won't let her "piggytails" stay in.  I even tried a trick that Ashlee taught me about twisting her hair around and that didn't stop her.  It's so frustrating because it is just a wild mess if it's not put up.

When she gets in her car seat, she HAS to buckle her chest strap by herself.  She can now JUMP! for real. :)

I got some new tennis shoes.  I went and got shoes fitted to my feet at a nice store in hopes that good shoes will help keep my pinched nerve from coming back.  It's been many many months since I've focused on walking/running and I feel like my foot is finally healed (which is good because at one point I was feeling like surgery would be my only option).  I will give these shoes a shot and start moving, hopefully with no pain!  These babies are a size 7.5!!  I was wearing like a 6 before I had kids.  

Emmalyn goes to Montessori School

Brittany and her family went to visit Joe's family for two weeks so we had to figure out something to do with the kids.  We decided to go on vacation too for one of the weeks but for the other week, we took Maxwell AND Emmalyn to Maxwell's school while we worked.

I was quite nervous about how Emmalyn would do since she's never been to day care or anything like that.  Would she eat the lunch I prepared for her?  What would she do during nap time when she would have to lie on a mat and go to sleep - - no crib, no dark room, no sound machine.

I tried to get a pic of both of them outside but Emmalyn wouldn't stand still! (look how tan those kids are!)

Maxwell was excited to go to school and see some of his friends that he hasn't seen for over a month.  So the drop off for him went well.  Then I went to drop off Emmalyn in her class.  As you might expect, she cried when I went to leave.  It was AWFUL to have to walk out of that room with her crying.  

I stood for many minutes just watching the video feed to make sure she was okay.  She quickly calmed down and sat in her teacher's lap. (She's on the lap of the teacher in the upper middle but it's hard to see.)

I went back to the room a few minutes later to check on Emmalyn and she had moved off the teacher's lap and was sitting by herself listening to the Spanish teacher who was talking to the class and singing to them.

I thought about Emmalyn all day.  The receptionist was such a kind woman who saw how much I was struggling to leave Emmalyn and told me she'd check on her throughout the day and call me an update me.  She, along with many of the staff at the school, just love Emmalyn because they would see her when Brittany came to pick up Maxwell each day.  So, they were very excited to have her at school.  (I have been asked from the time we signed Maxwell up for school when we would be bringing her to school too.  I can't blame them.  She's a cute, fun girl.)

When the receptionist called me later that morning and let me know she was doing great, I felt much better.  I was so tempted to leave work during lunch and go check on her but I didn't because I knew I would be tempted to just pull her out and bring her back to work with me.

When I came to pick them up, Emmalyn was playing with some of the toys having a great time.

The great thing about being in the toddler class (unlike Max's preschool class) is that you get a DAILY UPDATE about the day!  It helped to know how she did in detail.  AND she took a nap!  It wasn't very long because one of the other kids woke up and started crying and woke her up but hey, she took a nap!

The next morning when I dropped her off she cried for probably 20 seconds and then was fine and sat with the other kids.  She had stopped crying before I even walked away from the door in the hallway outside the room.

Maxwell in his classroom with Ms. Cynthia

Emmalyn have a great time playing when I came to pick her up.

...wait!  Is that a pony tail on top of her head???

It WAS a pony tail!  Apparently it's part of the routine in the class.  After nap time all the girls get their hair fixed and Emmalyn wanted hers done.  This was her first pony tail!  I had no idea she had enough for a pony tail, even a little one!

You know, just a typical dinner (not) of doughnuts

That pony tail!  Kept cracking me up.  I guess I need to start doing more than just putting her in head bands (which is good because she's starting to pull the headbands off)

Both kids sitting to color (what?!  Emmalyn doing this?!  Thank you Montessori!)

This is the picture of a girl in the middle of a FIT.  Oh joy.

The next day when I dropped the kids off, Emmalyn's class was outside playing.  I dropped her off and walked away.  No crying.  She just sat down by her teacher and was happy.  (When I drove away I stopped to watch the class and the receptionist was out there holding her already.  Like I said, that girl is loved!)

Ugh.  See this?  This is how much I pumped.  Not even enough to cover the bottom of the bottle.  SO FRUSTRATING!!!!!  Sigh.  I just wish so hard it was better.  I don't want to give it up but it's sort of crazy to keep fighting so hard to get nothing.

That night I had to go out of town for a meeting in the morning in Minneapolis.  So, Peter was completely on his own with no Brittany in town.  He, of course, handled it because he's awesome.

Maxwell and I facetimed.  He was excited to show me the watch he made in school.  During the summer they do theme weeks and the theme for the week is all about Spies.

Time with dad = dressing up complete with two swords and a shield

Emmalyn brought this home - sweet little foot!

I'm still working on getting my 10,000 steps in a day so when I landed at the Minneapolis airport (at like 11 pm), I walked the airport until I had gotten my steps in.  It was nice and empty.

Daddy's girl all dressed for school the next day.

When I got home I was able to see Maxwell before he went to bed.  He was excited to show me the spy glasses he had made at school that day.

It was a nice, quick trip to Minneapolis and luckily my meetings went well and didn't run long so I was able to meet our friends Jessica and John, who used to live in Dallas, for lunch.  

Friday came quickly and it was a successful week at school!  The older kids got to enjoy playing with water outside.  Isn't Emmalyn's outfit adorable?!

She immediately walked in and went up to her teacher.  I am so grateful to the great staff at the school who made the week go even better than I would have imagined and welcomed her with such open arms even though she was only there for a week.

When I went to pick her up the kids were finishing a snack.  I had wondered how meals and snacks went and so they put the kids in these chairs and then were able to buckle them in - genius!

She was happily hanging out and didn't even fuss for me to get her out when I got there.

I celebrated a successful week at school by stopping for ice cream cones at DQ on the way home.

Maxwell got his EXTRA special - it was dipped.

mmmmmm

It was such a great experience.  I am so grateful to have Brittany to watch my kids and I wouldn't change that but it was really nice to now that if we had to, we could send both kids to school and they'd be well taken care and thrive.

Emmalyn's final "report card".  By the end of the week she figured out how to get a decent length nap and had lots of fun.