First Day of Preschool!

I forgot how much I used to LOVE nap time.

With Caleb being the only napper in the house, the 12-2 hours are now some of my craziest.

"Mama, what can we do now?"

"Mama, can you get this toy down?"

"Mama, can we play on your computer?"

"Mama?...Mama??..."

So I basically keep running on a normal day and didn't realize how much I missed the solitude of a good nap time with no children awake until right now.

Ahhhh...quiet.  Can you hear it?  I'm drinking it in.

Well, except for the new garage door getting installed.  That's a little noisy.  But I'll go into all that next week.

Today, I had to take my heart to preschool.  Now, you know that Elizabeth went last year and she was jacked about going back.  Not a hesitant bone in that child's body, I swear.  But Rachel...

Well, we signed Rachel up because the pediatrician thought it would be best.  She is our shy one, our sweet and quiet one.  She will rarely talk to adults and sometimes not even kids her own age.  And she's never really been away from me for more than a couple hours.  I would be lying  if I said I wasn't nervous all morning, but she was really all smiles picking out her outfit and getting ready.

Ok, girls!  Stand there so I can get a picture of you in your back to school outfits!

Ok, Caleb...You want to get in there too?  Ok, now everyone look at me!  No, stop moving.. No, look at me.  Wait!  Hold still just a second...

Don't squeeze her head off Elizabeth!!

I asked the girls to go to the potty, got my bag on my shoulder and walked back in the den to see them both standing with their backpacks on, holding their lunchboxes, waiting on me.

*tear wipe*

And then Caleb pointed up at me, "Bap pap."

I have no idea why my dad taught him to say backpack at the beach, but somehow it wound into conversation.  Well, now here it was.

"BAP PAP!!"

He wanted to go too.  And was quite insistent on my making it happen.  I ran back into the kitchen, his chubby little feet hot on my trail, and grabbed his lunch box out from under the island.  Happy to have something like his sisters, he marched proudly to the door to stand with them.

And there they were, ready and excited for what was very much the real world for a 5, 3 and 17 month old.  We walked in the school and dropped Elizabeth off, no problem.  Caleb held tight to his "bap pap," and after saying goodbye to Elizabeth (with a reminder to listen and obey), I turned to find a very nervous Rachel standing in the hallway.

Oh, how I know that feeling and how I wanted to take her back to the car with me.  Doesn't being the mom just suck sometimes??  

I smiled and gave her a big hug and we walked the hallway to her classroom and met her teacher.  Much to my relief, she was scooped up in her teacher's arms and told how excited she was to see her.  And then I saw Rachel's slow smile and knew she was going to be ok.  And I thought that I probably would be too...

Until I looked down to see my son staring up at me, expectantly...the one who has never been an only child in the house.  Sizing up his playmate for the day, he turned on his heel, grabbed his bap pap and started running for the car.

So much for being sad!

And now that my playmate is down for the count, I'm going to try to tackle my kitchen...which is still wrecked from making pancakes and lunches.  Happy Wednesday, my dear friends!!  And I'll let you know how the day went tomorrow...that is, if the girls let me use my own computer during nap time.  ;)

Planking - Elizabeth style

I don't get the whole planking thing, although I've seen it across the Internet and on various blogs.  And now, I guess the pose of choice (especially after yesterday's game) is the Tim Tebow prayer on one knee.

In fact, I think my favorite plank was performed by Missy's husband over at It's Almost Naptime!!:  Just a Man and His Will to Plank.

But I digress.

In the midst of all the hype over poses, you have our daughter, who has made up her own sleep-anywhere-you-want-to-pose.  It's going to be the rage, folks.

I shared a while back that we were venturing out of the nap time zone, much to my chagrin and sanity.   She began to stretch her bedtime to later and later at night and would venture downstairs after being tucked in more and more.  Her pediatrician broke the bad news to me that if she was up past 9 p.m., then I probably needed to do away with the nap.

I think I teared up in the office.

And it wasn't just that she was getting up, it was that we wouldn't know that she was up, finding her later, asleep, in the strangest of places.  One night we got up to go to bed and she was asleep behind the couch.  Another time, it was at the top of the stairs (which scared the be-jeezers out of me).

Here are some examples of our favorites...

But do away with the nap we did and while she isn't completely over the hump of not needing an afternoon snooze (seriously...who is?), she goes to bed much easier at night and sleeps through the night without a hitch anymore.  And honestly, after being up with her all day, I'm ready for some parent time by 8 p.m. 

So you can imagine my chagrin when, during the hustle of the holidays, she started falling asleep for a little cat nap in the afternoon.  Don't get me wrong, I loved the alone time and ability to get things done, but I knew I'd pay for it later in the evening.  And most nights, we'd keep the same routine with Scott reading to her in bed and turning out the light, and, like clockwork, she'd be outside the door when I got out of the shower or sitting at the top of the stairs, listening to the TV or in her room, singing and jumping off the bed.

Today, I could tell she wasn't going to go the distance.  She was whiny and crying and laid down on the couch in her green leotard (*sigh*) and before I knew it, she was out.  Even though I woke her up after an hour, I could tell by the bedtime rituals that she wasn't tired yet.  However, mama was tired.

Scott wasn't feeling well, so he went to bed early and I got the girls to bed and came downstairs to finish cleaning the kitchen and sit on the heating pad for a while.  Five minutes later, I heard the familiar thunder of her feet jumping off her bed and then saw her peek around the stairs. 

Too tired to fight, I gave in.  "Come here, Elizabeth."

Her hair was still damp from her bath and she was in her pink flannel princess pj's and she ran with her Juno doll up to the couch and scrambled up beside me. 

"Are you watching your cooking shows, mama?"  They love to watch cooking shows with me, which I find hilarious. 

"No, I'm watching this one about some people buying a house,"  I answered.  "Do you want to watch it with me?"

"Yes," she said simply, and snuggled into my side.  I put my arm around her and felt both of us relax after a long day of parenting/growing up.  She was quiet and content to sit there and steal heat from my heating pad and watch HGTV.  

After about a half hour, I told her I needed to take a shower and she needed to go to bed, which she seemed fine with, so we went upstairs together and I tucked her back in and she was asleep when I came back out.

I fear that there's going to come a day that we won't be able to get her out of her room and that she wouldn't dare snuggle up to mom on the couch - but I hope not.  And I'm thankful that, at these times, my tiredness allows me to relax just a little bit to enjoy her at the same time that her tiredness relaxes her enough to be lovable. 

Because, Lord knows, they're growing up so fast and we'll one day look back and laugh at this stage along with the rest of them.  

Have a great night!

Movie Night

I now know why my dad always teared up at Disney movies.  

I have always been an emotional movie / TV watcher and have probably cried at every single Disney movie known to man.  But I remember growing up and watching them next to my dad and looking up to find him with tears in his eyes as well.  He would always hug me and hold me until I stopped crying and got into the rest of the movie.

I always figured it was because it reminded him of his mom and dad, who he lost in his early 40's (way too young, I now realize) or maybe the sheer fact that some of these flicks are heart wrenching and to this day, I can't watch Fox and the Hound without becoming a complete mess.

Either way, I never questioned it...until tonight.

This has been a little bit of a busy, crazy week and when I found out that Scott wouldn't be in town Friday night, I posed a movie night to both girls and offered to do an early dinner, Lion King, and popcorn.  Of course, they were ecstatic - Elizabeth being excited for real and Rachel just going along with her sister.  

Of course, I didn't realize that Red Box didn't have Lion King and that I would have to buy it for full price with no coupon (*double shudder*) but in we marched to Target and Elizabeth grabbed that puppy right off the shelf and even let her little sister hold it for a couple aisles...I mean, she was that excited.

Daddy and daughter movie date - this is one of my favorite pictures.  Something about his expression and her feet...

Scott had taken Elizabeth to see it when it was in the theaters a couple weeks back and she really enjoyed it - but we weren't sure how much she really got of it, as the whole first movie experience had her on sensory overload.  So I wasn't really sure what I had gotten myself into as I snuggled in between my two little pajama buddies with their blankets and bowls of popcorn.

I was so into the girls enjoying the movie and seeing it again after so long that I missed the first quiver in Elizabeth's voice when she asked me what happened to Mufassa.  I tried to explain to her that the stampede had run him over and he had died but when she turned and looked at me with crocodile tears filling her eyes, I stopped short.  

I have seen my child cry many times - from the moment she was born to the tantrum she threw today over me making her stop playing a computer game.  But I had never, until that moment, seen her cry because something was sad to her.

And it broke my heart.

I wrapped her up in my arms and rubbed her back as she dried her tears and I felt a few fall down my cheek to join hers.  I knew then why my dad always cried at Disney movies.

Because his child was sad and that just wrecks a parent's heart.

wow...

Of course, the moment was quickly over as Rachel had finished her popcorn and lost all interest in the movie and was holding onto the back of the couch, jumping with all her might.  So when Simba went  to live with Timone and Pumba, Rachel went to bed and I enjoyed the rest of the movie with my big girl.  

Funny how this parenting thing teaches me and humbles me daily...I'm guessing it's probably not going to stop any time soon...

Have a great weekend!