first day of school 2009:

First day of school, Aug 27, 2009: If you’ll recall, we went to a Kindergarten Orientation back in May which gave the kids a chance to see the building and to walk through the classrooms. Over the summer we received a letter stating that both kids would be in Mrs Cornwall’s class and that Mon and Tue of this week the Kindergartener shouldn’t come to class because they have scheduled parent/teach conferences. Our appointments were on Tuesday so the kids got a chance to see the classroom again and to meet the teacher and drop of their school supplies before their first day. The rest of the week is dedicated to a “gradual entrance” such that on each of the 3 days 1/3 of the class comes for a full day class. Alex and Chloe’s day was Thursday. We’d done several dry-runs practicing getting up early enough to be dressed and fed in time to catch the bus at 8:01 so we didn’t have any time problems. I had the kids pick out their clothes the day before and Alex picked his favorite Star Wars Lego shirt, and Chloe picked a new floral top that we’d just bought at Old Navy. There are 2 other kids at their bus stop, a 2nd grade girl, and a 1st grade boy, so the kids had lots of distraction while we waited for the bus. When it arrived, they climbed right on without even giving me a hug goodbye. They were excited! The bus returned at 3:15 and dropped them off a little sweaty from recess, but no worse for wear. Chloe said school was “awesome” and Alex said something like it was “fine”. It turns out that he was the only boy of the 6 for Thursday and he would have preferred to have some other boys to play with. The kids each created a construction paper tree and brought home a small amount of red play dough with instructions to roll into apples and then press them flat onto the tree and then count how many apples they’d made. The kids got right to it when they got home. I noticed they both had some of their dessert left over in their lunch boxes. They said they didn’t have time to finish lunch. I also noticed that their thermoses were full of milk. Alex explained that the teacher had gotten their lunch boxes out, but not the thermoses (which were stored separately), and he felt too shy to ask her about it. After further interrogation I also gleaned that the teacher asked them to do some writing. They were to scribble in their journals and then tell her the story that they’d “written” and she then wrote it for them underneath their scribble. She told them they didn’t have to “write like grownups”. Chloe really liked that. I asked if the teacher read a story. Chloe said a girl from the class read the story. Wow! I thought Chloe was doing pretty well with her reading, but she’s not up to reading a whole story that she hasn’t read before. I asked if there were a lot of rules at school. They said no, and they got to vote on some of the rules. Chloe voted to make a “no taking” rule because she doesn’t like other kids taking stuff from her. What a great idea to let the kids feel as though the rules are their own idea as opposed to something imposed on them! As for me, I had a very quiet day. Eerily quiet. Just yesterday I set a timer and instructed the kids to not talk to me for 10 minutes until the timer beeped because I really needed to recharge. Then today I was really missing their company during lunch and listening to them play while I do housework. The grass is always greener…

week ending aug 23, 2009:

Week ending Aug 23: The day we got back from vacation Danielle invited us to go to Chuck-E-Cheese with her, Natalie, and Aiden since it was her last day off before going back to teaching. I left the bags half unpacked and we headed over. Alex and Chloe both love CEC and they probably ask at least once a week if we can go there (we don’t go there anything like that often, but that doesn’t stop them from asking).

Later in the week we decided to take Chloe to a Chinese restaurant because she’s been curious about all things Chinese lately. She wants to have a Chinese theme for her birthday party (instead of a princess theme or pony theme, etc), and she’s been asking if we should have Chinese food. We haven’t been ordering any Chinese carry out and she doesn’t remember our last trip to the Chinese buffet with Big Daddy and Bubbe almost 2 years ago, so everything seemed new to her. In the end both kids bravely tried several different foods and it was Alex who liked the restaurant and Chloe didn’t, but I can’t blame her. Casey and I thought it was some of the worst Chinese food we’ve had in a while.

week ending aug 16, 2009

Week ending Aug 16: This week the kids and I went to Ocean City and Chincoteague. We stayed for two nights in MomMom’s condo in Ocean City, the kids played their first miniature golf, rode the rides, and did their first solo boogie boarding. Alex was very excited to play mini golf since we have two golf video games, and Chloe said she was just going to cheerlead because she was afraid she wasn’t going to be very good. I strong-armed her into trying it and she had a blast. We didn’t keep score and at the end of the 18 holes Chloe said “we all won!” I guess she thought that getting the ball into each of the 18 holes constituted winning. I have to concur that we did all win since it was a great time for all of us.

The solo boogie boarding occurred because once we got far enough out that the water was deep enough for me to ride with them, the waves were so big that I hardly had the strength to hold onto them floating on the board while the waves were crashing over us. So we walked back to shallower water. There was another little girl boogie boarding who was 7 and she showed Chloe how to do it in the shallow water. She was really brave and got splashed quite a bit but kept her head and had some great rides before Alex came and asked for a turn. I could hardly believe how well he did since at the beginning of the summer he considered it a near tragedy if he got pool water splashed on his face. It is so great to see them making such progress.

Unfortunately on our way to Chincoteague Chloe started throwing up. At first we chalked it up to car sickness (despite that I’d given her Dramamine), but when the throwing up continued even after we arrived we knew something else was going on. Chloe had a few weeks with really no complaining about her stomach, and then in the days leading up to the vacation she complained every day, so maybe it was something that had been building up for a while. At least 3 people have asked me recently what other options my doctor has offered besides the medicines. It seems telling that multiple people are coming to the same conclusion.

week ending aug 9, 2009:

Week ending August 9, 2009: 3 full weeks of summer left and we’ve done most of the summer activities we set out to do. We dropped the kids shot records off at school and while we were there I took the opportunity to walk the perimeter of the building and to show the kids the playground and the “bus loop” which is at a different entrance than the entrance near the visitor parking that we’ve been using. I have to imagine that when faced with the task of getting on the bus without me and not really knowing how to get to their classroom from there, and not knowing any teachers at the school and not knowing how they are going to be able to find the bus at the end of the day and figure out how to get back home, they will panic. I’ve been trying to talk them through it as best I can, but we have not yet received our letters from the school telling us what they ride on, what time to expect it, and where the bus stop is. So far neither of them is worrying about it and when I told Chloe we were going to drop the shot records off she said “is today the first day of school?” and when I said it wasn’t she said “its not fair! I want school to start TODAY!”

The kids are still making progress with their swimming. Chloe has started swimming in the deep end and jumping off the diving board. She still gets a little timid sometimes, but has made such tremendous progress that I am very proud of her. Alex isn’t ready for swimming in the deep end yet. He tried once and forgot the basics of swimming and started flailing, but he is making progress in his own way. He is really bothered by water getting near his eyes, and has only done swimming with his goggles on. When we go to water parks, and he gets splashed, he refuses to open his eyes until someone hands him a towel. Well this week Chloe was off swimming with the girls and the boys started a squirt gun battle. Alex joined in and had a great time despite getting splashed and squirted.

Also this week I took the kids to see Girl Authority, a tween pop group. Chloe danced in front of the stage and Alex curled up on my lap with his hands over his ears. For one song the kids were invited to dance up on the stage with the performers. I thought Chloe would be thrilled and would talk about it for weeks because every time we to a show on a stage she says that she wants to get up on the stage. But, when I talked to her after the show, she said she wasn’t that excited about it since ALL the kids got to come up on stage. It isn’t just the stage she wants, it is the spotlight.

week ending aug 2, 2009:

Week ending Aug 2, 2009: During this week we went to have lunch in DC with Daddy, visited the Smithsonian Natural History Museum, went to an outdoor concert on Granddad’s 60th birthday, and went on a pirate cruise on my 37th birthday. Lunch was frustrating because the kids are going through a picky/ungrateful stage and they seem to always get upset about their happy meal toy not being exactly what they wanted. I’ve gone so far as to actually take back treats that they complain about, but I can’t convince them to at least ACT grateful when they get something new.

The outdoor concert was fun. Grammy Carole brought a cake and we enjoyed the show. Chloe met some kids and ran all around the grounds and danced in front of the stage with them. Alex sat on our laps most of the time, but when I let him use my little digital camera, he got bold and went up and took pictures of the band.

The pirate adventure was great for the kids. They had a whole story set up that started while we were waiting to get onto the boat and continued through the whole hour ride around the Annapolis Harbor. The pictures are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/constance.phelps/PirateCruise2009#

week ending july 26, 2009:

Week ending July 26, 2009: This week we started shopping for school supplies. The Kindergarteners start with a half-full class on alternating days starting August 26 or 27. We’ve only got a month of summer left! Alex picked out a Star Wars back pack and Chloe got one that is bright purple with a sunburst of different flower patterns across the back. They like their new thermoses and we’ve used them a couple times to keep them (the children, not the thermoses) excited.
We had another follow up with Chloe’s gastroenterologist. Chloe’s still getting better, but is not 100% there yet. The carafate is making her constipated so we are adding yet another medicine, this one to soften her stool. I always try to take the kids someplace fun around Baltimore on the day of her appointments because we always end up waiting an hour and getting bad news. This time we went to Port Discovery. The kids had a great time and were very brave about the 3 story tall “indoor playground” climbing structure some of which was made of hanging net material that you could feel stretching under your weight. It made me want to get out of there as fast as possible, but didn’t phase the kids. Chloe did get scared when she tried to go in the pitch dark tunnel that had different textures and sounds inside. After we left it was all she could talk about “Mom, that tunnel was SCARY!”
The kids had another sleep over. If you’ll remember, the last time we wanted them to sleep over with their grandparents Chloe complained about it for days before the event, saying that she was worried about being without me. This time she said “Mom, when are we going to have a sleep over?” I explained that I needed her to sleep over without me on Sunday and she said “ok”. Boy that was a short-lived phase!