Proud and a little sad

Today we took Mr. Boy to visit his new preschool. I'm so excited that he's nearly 3 and ready for 2 afternoons a week of big boy school. It's really great.

But I'm sad. My first little baby is growing so fast. He's so tall and smart and talks a blue streak. I cannot believe he's old enough for school. I know it is only pre-school, but here it is. I'm now a mom who has a class list. A mom who will have a kid invited to birthday parties or play dates (assuming he learns to socialize like I hope!). A mom who will talk about spring break and back to school clothes. A mom on the list to help with classroom parties.

This is the beginning of an era in parenting that will last in one form or another for 15 more years. And I thought the baby stage was lasting forever, but I am coming to terms with the fact that everybody saying 'they're only babies for a minute' is so true and suddenly I'm going to be sharing my sweet Mr. Boy with people from all over the place. First it'll be these few half days a month and the next thing I know he'll be borrowing my keys to drive himself to his own school and begging me NOT to attend a class party or social event.

For now I'm choosing to be very excited that Mr. Boy is a strong, healthy kid who is getting a great opportunity to go to a nice Christian pre-school where he'll meet more adults who teach him about love and respect and venture into the wonderful world of friends and learning.

And I'm also going to be secretly rejoicing that Princess Baby is an end-of-spring Birthday girl and won't be old enough for this particular pre-school for another year and a half!!

Raising Bookworms

As a mom who loves books, it is my hope that Mr. Boy and Princess Baby also learn to really love to read. I never hesitate to buy them books and taking them to story time is a favorite for me as well as the kids.

Story time is especially fun because of all the cool songs and rhymes. We read a couple books and then we get to do "Grand Old Duke of York," and "Head/Shoulders/Knees and Toes," "I Have a Blue Balloon," and the special clapping, hugging, waving bye song we do every week at the end. What has been neat is the fact that when Mr. Boy or Princess B are sad, we can cheer them up easily with a little Duke of York or Clapping song here at home, too.

Books the kids really love the most include: Skippyjon Jones board books, of course the Princess Baby and Princess Baby Night Night stories, one called Duck Dunks about duckies at the beach, Mr. Boy's Wonder Pets animal seek and find book, and our set of books featuring baby Sesame Street characters. We also have a great book of prayers for kids and three awesome picture Bibles.

For Christmas I have stowed away some books about farm animals and some Sandra Boynton specialties like The Belly Button Book and her ABC's book. Wouldn't be Christmas morning without some new books, right?

Belated Happy Halloween!

The kids enjoyed their first Kansas Halloween very much. They wore a cool pumpkin costume to their respective story times and then on the big day we went Trick-or Treating in Grammy and Papa's neighborhood with our special visitor from Western KS. It was so great to have Great-Granny R. here for a couple days so the kids could get to know her. The fact that it coincided with Halloween fun was just an added bonus. Our church also had a great fall festival night so after T or T-ing, we hit the church where the kids played games and got candy and had a blast.

Scunny School

Mr. Boy and Princess Baby are so blessed, they go to a church full of people that love them. Mr. Boy goes to kinder church, aka Sunday school for 2-5 year olds. They have snacks and sing songs, say prayers and learn Bible stories and how much Jesus loves them. It is so special. The teacher is a very nice lady named Miss Mary Lou and she even sends us cards and SS papers when we're absent. Princess Baby plays in the nursery and she has a nice lady named Grandma Lola who loves her babies and takes such wonderful care of them. Princess Baby has a little friend who is 2 weeks from her own birthday and they play with the baby dolls and hug them and take good care of them, learning from the best.

Mr. Boy likes to pray to Jesus, he folds his hands, squinches up his face (eyes are open, but he thinks they're closed) and he loves to say AAAAAAMEN!

Here they are all dressed for going to church.

Pumpkin picking!!

Yesterday the whole team celebrated fall with Grammy and Papa at Westside Market buying pumpkins. It was so fun. We got a nice big one and a little one for Papa to decorate with Mr. Boy and Princess Baby as well as two medium ones for the kids to decorate at home with Mama and Big J. It was very fun and put us in a delicious Halloween/fall mood!

Visiting Great Grandma

Mr. Boy and Princess Baby were able to go with Mama and Grammy last Thursday to visit Great-Grandma. She lives in assisted living and so it is challenging to keep the toddlers happy there, but they must know how much their Great Grandma adores them because they were super well-behaved and just as sweet as they could be. Mama was so proud.

Going to do better now!

Because I am now in possession of a working camera, keeping up with this blog will be more fun and way more easy!



Update on the Team:



Big J: He's enjoying his job, possesses a real life KS driver's license and is embracing his Midwestern status.



Mama: busy busy busy with work and loving the one-on-one time she's having with the kids on Big J's work nights



Mr. Boy: no luck potty training, but Mama doesn't care, has progressed from knowing all the letters in the alphabet and being able to identify the starting letter in each word he says to working on the letter combos--ch, st are his first two. Can count to 10 and knows every animal under the sun



Princess Baby: Much less baby than before, but she's a still our happy princess and the youngest, so the name stays! Almost 18 months old now, she's talking more and more, saying sentences like "read the book" and "get down now." She loves to steal toys from Mr. Boy and run squealing and laughing away from him. To his credit, Mr. Boy's not a hitter and expresses his outrage at her verbally only.