Jack on Skates

When Greta was 2 and Jack was a tiny baby, I took her to tot skate at Skate City.  She would shuffle along by my side in slow rolling skates to retro music and Disney classics.  Jack was rolling along with us in the stroller, usually napping.  But, not this time....

  

 Just being in the rink makes me smile and feel nostalgic.  I lived to roller skate as a kiddo.

There is excitement in the air...and the smell of feet is also in the air.

Launch.

Rolling by the disco lights.

A little snack before the "Bear Hunt".  We love to skate to the "Bear Hunt" especially when the lights go out and the black lights glow.

It's better than Xanadu. 

May Day

On this day, the first of May, we made baskets for our friends.  We filled them with fresh cut flowers, saltwater taffy, jelly beans, licorice and chocolates.  Greta and Jack took one to our neighbors, Mike and Dotty.  Greta placed the basket just so and Jack rang their bell.  We all ran back and hid, peeking around the car.  Mike came to the door, picked up the basket and looked our way with puzzlement.  Did he know what day it was? Did he know of the fun you can have?  Greta and Jack jumped out and wished him Happy May Day!  He was delighted.  He loves chocolate.  He gave hugs to all of us and beamed.  He loves Greta and Jack and is so proud of them.  They make him laugh so much with their cute little kid ways.  He held my ear and told me about a fairy exhibit at Powell Gardens.  Greta ran back into our yard while we talked.  She came back and held up her had to Mike saying, "Look at these berries!"  Well, they were not berries at all, but, rabbit poops!  Greta is not pleased, but I think it is a story to tell.  It makes me smile.

He Sleeps

Sleep has been one of Jack's major challenges....since birth.  Still, he fights letting his days go by and drifting into dreams.  He plays along with bedtime routines but when the time comes for his bedroom door to close and him to welcome the quiet, he has already thought of a list of things he needs, or things you forgot to do for him so he can finally sleep.

We have to let Mimsy hunt spiders in the garage or they torment one another underneath his door.  Many nights we hear his footfalls take him to the door, and we hear the door rattle as he bumps into it with his clumsy boy body.  He is down looking underneath. We shine the flashlight and see his face. His eyes close and his nose wrinkles up and he says, "Where da cat?"  As if we are not the guests he had invited.

This night, he fell asleep waiting for her.  The house was quiet and Derek and I shut off lights and went up to bed after watching our shows together and having a drink or two.  Up the stairs we went to the strangest sounds coming from Jack's room.  It was like snoring but magnified and manly.  I thought he might be sick or something, but after shining the flash from my iphone under his door, Derek said, "Jack is asleep right there and his snoring is echoing down the hallway!" There he was right up against the crack of the door.

He put up a fight to hang on to the happenings outside his door, but poor baby needs a rest.

Color Splash

 Greta is dying Easter eggs the Friday night before Easter.  This happens to be as much fun for her as I hoped.  She is so creative and amazed by the colors.  We tried hard to get some bright eggs.

 And here they are.  We got some really pretty ones.  I told the kids they could eat one for breakfast, but they wanted to save them and admire them instead.

 Jack had so much fun and is really good at timing.  He drops them in with barely a splash and checks every 3 seconds.  I would say he was more about quantity than quality.

 Girl, these are my eggs.




Well, it is May first and I still want to talk about Easter.  I had a few pictures taken the night we dyed eggs.  We really had a great time together.  I find that Greta and Jack are so much fun to be around and these special times mean so much because I am reliving things I remember about dying eggs with my sis.  We both liked the hot pink eggs.  Sometimes we put those little PAAS decal/ tattoos on them.  I cherished my favorite egg and it was my only wish to find it Easter morning.  I remember running my fingers over the egg shells and arranging the eggs in my basket by color and even naming them.  So many Easter mornings my sis and I would wake early and sit at the top of the stairs next to each other.  We would spot eggs and claim them before the hunt even began.  I remember one year there was a My Little Pony in my Easter basket.  I remember the year I got Blueberry Muffin.  I remember my sweet dad always buying corsages with tiny pearls and butterflies to match our Easter dresses.  I remember him taking us to the sunrise service and watching the sun come in through the stained glass.  I remember the year my dad sat in the kitchen smiling with his cup of coffee telling Sarah and me that there was one more treat to find.  He played "warmer or cooler" with us as we searched the house.  The treat was a chocolate carefully placed on the chandelier above the kitchen table where he sat.  What a laugh he had!

Derek and I promised to maintain a budget. I get carried away and want their Easter baskets to be magnificent.  We did great....until Jack found his hidden gifts and said, "come here, what dat?"  So, we had to move to plan B the Friday before Easter and find something that would knock his socks off.  We decided on a scooter and helmet.  Greta got the mini Lalaloospy doll house and some furniture for it.  The Easter bunny even hid tiny chocolate eggs inside!  They had pretty chocolates and jelly beans, windmills and little Easter things.  They were so happy on Easter morning.  The eggs were hidden around the house.  The baskets were in the family room on the couch and caught Greta's attention right when she came down the stairs.  Jack didn't see them but kept on going down to our living room where the scooter and doll house were.  He screamed with joy about his scooter and yelled to Greta who was yelling to him, "Jack come see your Easter basket!""And, "Gigi! You got a dollhouse!!" He took the dollhouse in his arms to bring it up to show her, and eggs and furniture went flying! It was so funny. I tried so hard to make some magic and it went unnoticed.  So, I tried to place it all back in with some tiny little chocolate eggs before she got down the stairs to see.  And she was happy and amazed even so.  The kids searched for eggs and ate treats and shared with us.  We played and gave scooter lessons in the kitchen while making Easter breakfast.

It seems a tradition now that we have carrot cake from Whole Foods each Easter - we have since moving into this house.  We picked up an incredible potato salad, rare roast beef sandwiches with horseradish on baguettes and we enjoyed another Easter....At least for me, enough to talk about it until May.

Easter Eggs

We had the sweetest Easter this Spring.   The day before, we saw Papa, Gee and Aunt Sai Sai and hunted for eggs with the Grandpas at Papa's.  The kiddos know the many halls of this home very well and the halls were pouring with eggs.  There were flowers and balloons everywhere.  There were lop eared bunnies and the big, fluffy Easter Bunny.  There were many kids, of all ages and plenty of eggs for everyone to find.  We sat in the sunroom and watched them run by and within minutes all eggs were found.  Greta and Jack shared chocolates with us and we also had cupcakes and milk.  We sat for a bit and enjoyed each other.  When it was time to go, Gee came out of the front door with a giant bunny balloon and Jack was on the moon....hunting Easter Eggs.  

Just Start Typing

Either it is because I try really hard to do everything I do very well or I am totally distracted by the nice weather, but way too many days have gone by without even a mention. And, so, what I am going to catch up with is pretty old news mixed with a little new. And, there is some big news, too. I wish I hadn't fallen behind on the entries. I am so sorry, it is such a disappointment.

Greta is still logging hours of preschool each week. She often comes home with ripped pants so I know we are getting our monies worth. The little sweetie has a crush. Dane. Will this name be remembered and mentioned in the years to come? He is mentioned quite often now, and the little sweetie blushes a deeper pink than she was when she was born. She likes him. He makes her giggle with abandon and I am pretty sure he has no idea why. She stands in front of him, just giggling - enough that tears even come to her eyes. I think it may freak the poor boy out. Greta has come home with stories about Dane standing on her head and kicking her. And she smiles and says, "I like it." What a crush!

Jack is rockin our world with hilarity and bold boy-ness. But, besides this he continues to be an anomaly. Never was there a boy who is so tidy that he straightens his room every night before bed....everything in its place, everything just so. And, never was there a boy that is so tidy, yet causes such absolute chaos daily. He and I have our eyes on one another. It is a showdown. It is unknown who will win. I am wearing down due to the skill of non sleep that the boy possesses. And, for the record, he is loved for all of these qualities. Every night Derek takes Greta and Jack up to brush their teeth and change into jammies, and then read stories, kisses and good night. Jack gets out of bed and taunts us by either opening his door and asking questions, or just lying on the floor with his face on the ground to look under his door and taunt the cat. We heard him many nights ago knocking into his door, and Derek and I went to the stairs opposite of his door. We shone a flashlight down the hall and heard Jack shriek. We see his pretty eyelashes and eye squinting at us from the crack. He doesn't care. He asks, "Where da cat?"

Jack is enrolled in Preschool next fall and this goes along with my big news. He is going to attend Bethany Lutheran Day school! And, Greta is also attending Kindergarten there! We are thrilled to have found a school that we feel is a good fit for instilling the values we want our children to possess. It was a soul searching process and I feel excited about the final decision. We attended Kindergarten round up at the elementary school down the street. But, Derek and I both left feeling unsettled and maybe a bit disappointed with "the way things went down". We decided to look around and this actually blew my mind, because we moved to Kansas so we wouldn't need to put our kids into private schools. But everything happens for a reason.

It costs 300.00 a month to attend Kindergarten in Kansas for a full day. We were content with sending Greta for a half day, but I found out from a handful of retired teachers from this area that she would need to go a full day or she would miss out on a lot of instruction. Class size would be between 20 and 30 and there would be too many kiddos coming into the system that would need extra help with simple things like sitting down or lining up. We decided that since we would be paying for her kindergarten year, we wanted to be sure we were paying the best school. Bethany is about 4 blocks from our home. Derek, Greta, Jack and I went for a tour. The principal met us at the front door and took us back to her office were, in a basket filled with blankets, she and her 2 sons were nursing baby squirrel orphans. She gave us the paper work and led us to the kindergarten room. The children ran to the door to meet Greta and Jack and surrounded them...almost scared Jack to death! They had made glittery fishes and were kissing Greta and Jack with them. The teacher bent down on one knee and introduced herself. There was a great feeling of nurturing from her and every other teacher we met. The kids were well cared for. They had written a book as a class and had it bound. There were 11 in the class. Jack will be across the hall, and the older kids (2nd through 8th grade) are separate. Their lunch is catered in from the grocery store down the street. They do a musical every year. HELLO! They also have smart boards and touch screen computers. (Derek was pleased!)

It feels good to know, from a stay at home momma, that my babies are going to be nurtured a little longer out of this nest. Baby steps for us both.

Today we took little man Jack for a hearing and eyesight screen. We feel like he might need a little extra help with his speech development. And, God knows, he has a lot to say. After an hour with a therapist and early childhood development teachers, our fears were confirmed. He needs some therapy. I am glad we are able to help him, I hope it makes things easier for him. He gets so frustrated when not understood and I know he is bright and thoughtful. He is even aware that he talks different. He wants help, bless his little heart. This journey is getting exciting and I know there will be more stories to tell as we take it.

I won't be gone again, so long.

Spring Break

I am considering this a super long spring break from writing on the blog because I was a slacker for a few weeks and then my laptop crashed. The weather has been so beautiful and the flowers are blooming like crazy so we are soaking it in. Derek cleaned up and refilled the sandbox, so I think we will be doing some digging in it today. Spring cleaning is on my mind.