Syd Time = Fun Time

Max is on holiday break from preschool this week and next. What to do, what to do? Yesterday we invited Shelby, Sydney and Owen over to make 3-d dough crafts. Any activity involving Sydney is guaranteed to be a hit in this house. The dough was super easy to make and Syd and I had fun making flowers, snakes, hearts, etc. Max stuck around long enough to paint a snake. Mya stuck around long enough to paint stamp a heart. We had a great afternoon as you can see...

How to Cook Turkey According to Max

I picked up a packet of papers from Max's preschool cubby yesterday but didn't pay much attention to them. Maybe it was the distraction of corralling 2 kids into the van. Something like that! Anyhow, I was just going through his stuff and there is a packet included that is titled "How Mom Cooks the Turkey". Each child has a response.

Here is our darling Max's commentary on how I cook the turkey....

"Mom gets a lot of turkeys at the Spiderman store. She gets her turkey money from Target and she is happy when she has money. I love to eat all the turkeys but I don't eat feathers but Dad does. Grandma and Grandpa come for dinner and they bring more turkey and gifts and candy. Mom is happy and laughs and Grandma eats all the hot candy. After dinner Mom loves drinking orange juice."

We Love You Too, Mya!

While Max is off to preschool 3 days a week, I make a conscious effort to spend some special one-on-one time with Mya. We all know that 2nd and later children tend to get the shaft when it comes to that. Fortunately it seems to be working out fairly well for Mya.

We're frequent visitors to the our local science playground. Don't let this fool you if you haven't been. She's not learning physics. Well, maybe, but not intentinally. It's a huge indoor play area with a sand pit, water play area, ball blower, etc. A kid's heaven if frequently a parent's crowded nightmare. Mya runs around like she owns the place.

Mya also loves the community pool preschool swim. They restrict the leisure pool to kids 5 and under with their parents. Mya is insistent that she walk around the pool and screeches if I pick her up. She hasn't grasped the concept of the deep end and will stubbornly keep walking that direction. Today was a big day for the noodle. She picked out the raggediest one out of the pile, wrapped it around her chest and marched around the shallow end with it for 20+ minutes.

I also try to involve her in classes. She's currently participating in an art class and loves it. Last week we stamped with fruit, glued sunflower seeds to sunflowers, painted, etc. The next class she's taking is a toddler tumbling class.

I love that by staying home I'm able to spend this special time with her. I remember being so frustrated looking at the schedules and offerings when I was at work. That's what I'm grateful for this year.....time with my awesome kids!

Here's an unhappy Mya with the sunflower we made in art class. It makes me chuckle just because usually she's so happy-go-lucky and this time she was quite the opposite.

Can you say nap time?

Happy Thanksgiving!

Max's preschool puts on a monthly recital. Max has progressed from sitting in my lap for the September recital to at least sitting with his classmates for October and November. Although, as you will soon see, he isn't exactly an eager participant. ;-)

Sorry the video is cruddy. I had Mya in my lap, crawling on me. When she first saw him come out, she kept standing, pointing and loudly declaring, "MAX!" to the amusement of those around us.

(Max is in the front row, far left. His Indian name was Blue Bat.)

Max's First Field Trip

Max listens closely to the cider demo

Max and I passed a mother/son milestone today with our first field trip. We went to a pumpkin patch in Aurora with his preschool class. Mya stayed with Nana, oblivious to what she was missing out on. That will only last so long.

We arrived at the pumpkin patch by 9:15 and were excited to discover that they're store was selling freshly made pumpkin and apple cider doughnuts. Oh they were beautiful. I can still picture the grease stained bags. Max was also entranced in the gift shop but it was the pumpkin carving knives that caught his eye. I ended up buying him one and he carried it (in it's packaging) during the field trip.

Max was excited to see his friends and their parents arrive. Our first stop on the tour was a demonstration of an apple cider press. Max was thrilled with the machinery. Something about the smashing apples, chopped bits and grinding wheels I suppose. He passed on the tasting table so that we could try out the press himself.

After the press we visited chicks, goats, a llama, calf, pigs and big chickens. Max though they were okay but wasn't overly impressed. He did enjoy running through the hay maze on the way to the giant slide. He beat me to the top and I never did see him go down. I ended up sliding down by myself at the end of the pack. Yay me.

Max certainly is an independent child. He would spy something across the field and would take off without a backward glance for me or his teachers. He made his way to the nut house at one point and piled in there with another class of children. I definitely have to keep an eye on him in crowds.

We finally made it to the field and Max was excited to pick out 2 pumpkins, one for himself and Mya. A hay ride to the parking lot and we were done. I stripped him in the back of the van, changed him into clean clothes and we hit the road. Overall, it was a great success!

Mrs. Jolene high fives Max's pumpkin choice

September Update

Time to play some catch up. It was so much easier to keep up on blogging when I was working. Now that I'm home with the kids it's mommyhood 24/7. When I have a spare moment, blogging isn't first on my list of relaxing ideas. However, I do enjoy looking back on my old blogs and reminiscing so I know I had better get my rear in gear or I'm going to be cursing myself a year from now.

Max is a preshooler now and is doing great! 3 days a week we load up his lunch bag and he, Mya and I make the 2 block walk to his preschool. He adores his teachers, Mrs. Jolene and Mrs. Karen and is getting along well with the other kids. There are about 10 kids in his class and he is one of two boys. This is a nice change from daycare where there were frequently all boy days. Max will even admit that he likes school which he never said about daycare. Happy day!

Potty training was a huge success. I'm still a bit dumbfounded by the whole thing. Knock on wood he hasn't had a single accident at school and I can't recall the last accident at home. Way to go, Max! Now if only I could teach him to sit on public toilets without touching them.

Miss Mya is talking up a storm, picking up new words daily. She adores Max and becomes frustrated, calling his name, if she can't find him. She squeals and pumps her body when we go upstairs to get him out of bed in the morning. Fortunately he's being so much nicer to her lately. The hitting is a thing of the past for the most part. Just this evening she was fussing in the stroller about the treat we took away from her. Max leaned over right in her face and said, "It's all right, Mya, Max is right here." Say it with me....Awwwww!

She has also lost her baby fat belly which I miss. I reach down without thinking about it to rub her tummy and it's no longer there. Mya is always on the move, chasing after Max, digging through the toy box, dancing to Lady Gaga.

I've been loving being a stay-at-home mom. It can be exhausting but I can't think of a better cause than my own kids to be exhausted over! Oh although how about, "Gee, I'm so exhausted from laying next to this pool all day and having to ask somebody to being me food and drinks?" Yeah, I'd like to try out that form of exhaustion sometime!

Surf's Up!

Max's bedding arrived today for his new big boy bed. I'm still working on putting his art work together but it's looking good. My boy is growing up!