News from the Nest

I hardly took any pictures for most of the month of January.  After seemingly endless weeks of toting my camera  around during the holidays and Leah's birthday, it was nice to have a little time off from my self-induced pressure of capturing every event in our lives.  But we've been full of little pieces of news that deserves mention in this blog post.  In no particular order of importance:

-We finally painted the children's bathroom, and it's an adorable bright green that matches their Hungry Caterpillar-inspired decor.  I searched for months to find a cute theme that would work for both a boy and a girl, and was happy when I finished decorating Luke & Leah's bathroom last year. However, the paint remained our builder's tan/neutral, and I couldn't muster the energy to complete that finishing touch to the room.  A few weeks ago we selected a paint color, and we are thrilled with the final result!  It's a much fresher room now, and satiated my need to have a house project last month. 

 

-Winnie tore her ACL last weekend.  She was running in our backyard, chasing a ball, when suddenly she yelped and collapsed.  Winnie couldn't bear any weight on her rear left leg, and we feared an ACL tear, as that is a fairly common injury to labs.  Our suspicions were confirmed at the vet on Monday morning, and our poor, furry girl is confined to her crate and resting her leg until Valentine's Day, when her swelling will be less and we can see if there is any improvement. She will undergo x-rays at that time and we will determine if surgery is needed.  Poor, sweet Winnie.  Get well soon, so that Leah and I can have another cohort to wear Bubba's fire hats while he is at school!

 

 

-I registered Luke for Kindergarten last week, and it was fairly anti-climactic.  I've heard from other moms of first-time kindergartners about what a big deal that day was for them, but it was really just a bunch of paperwork.  I am slightly intimidated by the knowledge that the elementary school that my first-born will be attending in August has 1,200 students (which is 3x larger than my entire high school) and I did have a pit in my stomach as I filled out all of those forms.  However, I know that my hesitation mostly lies in my need to be able to picture what life will be like in the fall, which is impossible right now.  It's the logistics that make me nervous (carpool vs. bus riding, the fact that none of his preschool friends will be at that school, etc), and for that I am grateful.  This transition would be so much harder for me if Luke didn't love school so much or if I felt like he wasn't ready, which he most certainly IS...

... which leads me to the report from Luke's Parent-Teacher conference at preschool this week.  Luke's teacher effusively praised his academic skills.  He's the only one in his class fluently reading, and his wonderful teacher continues to upgrade parts of the class curriculum specifically for Luke (i.e. buying him advanced books to read, introducing math to our son when other children are just recognizing numbers, etc.).  Ms. Ashley also reported how proud she was of Luke for maturing so much since September, and she has absolutely no concern at all about some of the impulse control issues and strong-willed behaviors that sometimes prove to be a challenge for us at home.  She reported that Luke is a very smart, happy, cooperative student each day at school, who has no difficulty listening, sharing, taking turns, and getting along with friends!  We are very, very proud of our big boy and basked in the glow of a terrific school report. 

-Mark attended Doughnuts for Dad at Luke's preschool on Friday, and it was darling.  A few days before the big event, Luke reported:  Mommy, I worked SO HARD on my project for Daddy..." and told me that he "wrote a sweet message to Daddy."  We eagerly anticipated the big reveal, and Mark proudly took his gift to his office to display:  "Doggone Crazy 4 U!" reads the adorable handmade painted dog, crafted out of a paint stick and clothespins.  We thought that the best part was the special envelope and note:

I know that it's typical of any preschooler's handwriting in the world, but I don't think I can ever throw this one away, as it is the FIRST fully independent written message of love from OUR preschooler to HIS DADDY (without Mommy's assistance), and it just makes my heart melt. 

While I enjoy all of this preschool cuteness, I am fully burying my head in the sand about the list of important dates that Luke's teacher sent home last week which includes PRESCHOOL GRADUATION in May.  Umm, we JUST started preschool, about a minute ago in our lives- It certainly can't be coming to an end soon!  I will remain in denial indefinitely...


-Leah has had a yucky cold for the last week, but is still her bright, sunny self, despite the fact that her big, blue eyes can't stop watering and she constantly has a tear running down her cheek.  She looks pitiful, but when you ask Leah how she is, she always responds, "Date!"  ("Her pronunciation of "Great!") with a big smile.

-Our silly girl made me laugh last week while we were baking banana bread together.  She asked to lick the beater from our electric mixer, and I noticed that it was taking her an incredibly long time to finish the puny amount of batter on it.  I continued to put away ingredients in the fridge when out of the corner of my eye, I caught Leah repeatedly dipping the beater back into the full mixing bowl reload her "beater-batter-treat"!  Needless to say, no one else ate that batch of cooked bread, and it was one surefire way for Leah to outsmart Mommy and get a whole loaf all to herself!!   

-Leah found her Princess Potty in the midst of one of my closet-reorganization afternoons this week (Yep, that's what I do for fun!), and has been asking to sit on it every day.    She strips down and plops her chubby little body on that pink potty (which resembles a throne of course), and she's simply delighted when the royal music plays intermittently (it's supposed to be liquid-sensitive and play when a child goes pee pee, but the batteries are dying, which makes the song play completely randomly).  In true royal fashion, Leah even ordered: "Read a book to me Mommy, while I sit on my potty."  Tonight, we had a milestone moment as Leah actually went pee in the potty for the first time before bed!  Mark and I clapped and cheered, and commented to each other that this is an ENTIRE year before someone's big brother EVER went on the potty.  And so far, it's been fun and entertaining with Leah!  I'm not going to start a specific potty training plan now.  I'm still of the mindset that kids will do it when they are ready (or when their parents impose a weekend-long boot camp b/c you HAVE to be potty-trained to begin the 3 year-old preschool class, Luke!).  We'll follow Leah's lead and whenever it happens, it happens, but wow, what a different experience so far with our two kiddos! 


I love her expression here.  It's as if she is thinking, "Mom, do we really HAVE to take a picture of this?!"

And I think we'll leave you with that image, so that you can be thankful for that photo being a clothed re-enactment of our latest breaking news (and that we spared you the real going-on-the-potty pictures)!