Kindergarten!!

Yesterday was Marcus's first day of kindergarten. Really? How did this happen?? I remember being flabbergasted that I had a kid going to preschool. But now, kindergarten! Craziness. We've had a ton of fun all summer but all these sunny days were starting to wear my nerves thin. I have to admit that I was getting a little antsy for school to start so these big kids would have something to do other than just argue with each other. Then it happened. Marcus went back to his ways of being super adorable and sensitive and it reminded me that that little inner beast that has been coming to surface, is just a little nick in the otherwise wonderful little boy of mine. Just a few days ago he was telling me very honestly that as soon as he is old enough, he is going to do the driving so that way when I am tired I can sleep in the car while we go places.



Marcus was excited about kindergarten. When we first started talking about it a few months ago, he said he didn't want to go. Instead he wanted to stay at his preschool with the teachers and friends he already knew. Then he went to kindergarten orientation in the spring and he got to ride a school bus. Suddenly kindergarten was going to be the best thing that could ever happened to him. Two weeks ago he got to enjoy kindergarten for two days, a couple of hours each day, at Kinder Camp. He had nothing but good things to report from Kinder Camp, although he was still looking forward to getting to ride that school bus again.



The first day of kindergarten finally arrived. The first thing Marcus said when I got him up yesterday morning was, "It's kindergarten day! I'm scared." I let him know that I was scared my first day of kindergarten. (I left out the part of how I was that kid who was clinging to her mom's leg screaming.) But sometimes it is important to do things that you are a little scared to do. Then you see how much fun it can be and you feel really great about yourself for being so brave. I would like to think my little speech made him understand, but likely it was more that the excitement of riding that school bus took over. I didn't hear another word about being scared all morning. In fact, this kindergartener was downright excited!



Greg was able to go into work a little late so he could be there for the momentous occasion of sending Marcus off. Marcus had quite the crew waving to him as that great big kid of mine stepped onto the school bus.



Nary a tear was shed. I wasn't worried at all about Marcus being upset. It was me that I was concerned about.



The day went on. Will went to have some special time with Grammy for a bit since his school doesn't start until next week and he was a bit envious. Two babies napped at the same time for a bit. I had no idea what to do with myself. So, I thought about cleaning. No actual cleaning took place but I thought about it.

I was a bit anxious about the bus ride home for Marcus. Would he get off the right stop? What would I do if the bus showed up and he wasn't on it?? That is a lot of responsibility for a 5-year old. But the afternoon rolled around and that big yellow bus showed up. A very excited Marcus stepped off. He was so excited that it took awhile before I got to hear anything about his day other than it was good. His favorite part about the day was riding the bus. (When does that change? I know by the time I hit high school I was mortified on days when I couldn't drive or get a ride with a friend and had to get on a bus.)

As soon as he got back home the insanity started. I remember back when he was first starting preschool, he would come home from school - where I was told he never talked - and he would just go wild. Whatever he was holding in at school, he made up for it when he came home. The same thing happened as soon as he got home from kindergarten. He let loose. It took about 5 minutes before he was aggravating Will and fighting with him. Then there was loudness and wrestling with the dog and being rough with Sean and not listening. Maybe Marcus did get off at the wrong bus stop and some alien child came home with me instead.

All in all, kindergarten is going great for everyone. Two days in now and Marcus already told me today that he has a girlfriend (which I am sure he means a girl that is a friend). He was all embarrassed and whispered it to me and said I couldn't tell anyone or talk about it... so I just wrote about it on facebook and now I'm blogging about it. Kindergarten is all day and it is a long day. He was too tired after school today to be a wild child. But he went to bed tonight excited that he gets to get up and do it all over again tomorrow.

25 Things

Check out our latest list of 25 Things I Never Said Until I Had Kids. It has been a long time since I posted these - not because we haven't been saying odd things but because we haven't had time to write them down. It seems our current list contains lots of nursing baby related items along with the normal potty humor. To see the rest of the list, follow the links.

#1-25
#26-50
#51-75
#76-100
#101-125
#126-150
#151-175
#176-200
#201-225
#226-250

251. STOP SAYING "SLINKY"!
252. Sorry to disappoint you with my lack of buffalo pooping photos.
253. Stop dripping on your brother.
254. Why don't you put your pj's on so you're not running around naked looking for a sheep.
255. We don't pee any differently just because it's Christmas.
256. Relax. I'm just trying to get the pee out of your ear.
257. That's the classy way to drink from a boob.
258. One of these days I'll be able to sit at the dinner table without my boob hanging out.
259. I almost bit the dust on a brachiasaurus.
260. You don't need a spaceman outfit to drive a tractor.
261. If you put that tail in your mouth, you'll be in timeout.
262. The yogurt is vanilla-flavored. Not Noah-flavored.
263. Can you come here and examine poop with me?
264. Do you need to be in timeout for not eating worms after I told you to?
265. You need to remain seated throughout the entire process of pooping.
266. Are you wearing underwear to the baseball game?
267. We don't need a picture of you humping the Exersaucer.
268. He invented a new hobby at 2 in the morning. Muslim licking.
269. We got all clean without any Hoochie Mamas.
270. Yay! Mommy is getting her boobs out!
271. Do you want to sit down and play with your balls?
272. All that looking at dead animals wore us out.
273. We don't need to wear gardening gloves to play baseball.
274. I wish I had shoved a diaper in my underwear.
275. Get on that boob! Daddy wants some ice cream!

Laundry

It is important that all members in our household help out with the household chores. We do not discriminate based on age, gender, race, or all those other things.


And, perhaps, before the little guys were sitting, we might have put them in a laundry basket facing the clear front dryer for entertainment while we folded laundry. Maybe.

Are they twins?

I get a lot of stupid questions and comments when I am out with Sean and Aaron. The one that is probably the stupidest is, Are they twins? No, I voluntarily go out and about with two babies that appear to be the same age in matching car seats. Sure, I could be a nanny or watching someone else's similarly aged baby. Mostly I think people are just trying come up with something to say in order to break the ice and engage in baby staring. For the most part, I do like the attention. Who wouldn't appreciate perfect strangers saying wonderful things about their kids on a regular basis? Sometimes it gets annoying. I just want to get my errands done and not be a spectacle. I do a lot of ignoring, particularly when I just hear someone shout from across the aisle at the grocery store, "Twins!" Really, what am I supposed to respond to them with?

The thing that annoys me most is when people don't know what gender my boys are. Sometimes it might be confusing if they are wearing gender neutral colors, but usually that doesn't matter. So many people think Aaron is a girl. Poor Aaron. I can see maybe if they ask their names and I say Aaron and they might think Erin. Yes, he does have petite features and red hair. But, NOT A GIRL.

I had a doctor's appointment one day. It was a bit of an emergency and I had to take the little guys with me.* When I got Sean and Aaron dressed that day, I purposely made sure that Aaron was looking manly. Just the day before I had FOUR people at the grocery store comment on my how beautiful my daughter was. I was determined to make him look manly. I chose coordinating onesies and no pants since it was so hot that day. I made sure that Aaron was wearing the dark blue one with the pirate on it because nothing says "I'm a man" like a pirate. Roller skating turtles could go either way.


So, into the doctor's office I went. I was followed by an older couple who were quite chatty. The man must have asked me 3 times which of my babies he could have. Umm... neither. Then he insisted on pushing the stroller for me and smacked my hand away when I reached for it. His wife said the babies could come to their house and be top dogs since they didn't have any grandchildren. Then came the inevitable. "Blah, blah, blah because you have a boy and a girl." Seriously??? Dark blue pirate shirt people.

Maybe it is just the weird people that occupy my doctor's waiting room. As I was leaving that day, I was clearly struggling to fit my double stroller through the double doors, attempting to hold open the door with my butt while maneuvering the stroller with my hands, when a man sitting right next to the door said to me, "Wow, you really have your hands full." Yep. And you would think he would help me with the door. Not a chance.

The two best comments I have had about Sean and Aaron involved one lady telling me my kids couldn't be twins because they had different color eyes and another lady who said they couldn't be twins because they weren't dressed the same.



*I thought I had a hernia and was relieved to find out otherwise, since having surgery at this point in my life is not really something I think I could fit into my schedule. Instead I had an infection under the skin by my belly button. Apparently 8 months prior to this when I had that awful surgery to remove my ovary while I was 30 weeks pregnant, a "dormant pocket of bacteria" had taken up residence under the incision site. The bacteria decided to come out of hiding and start attacking me. I was put on antibiotics and a few hours after I saw my doctor, my belly button exploded. I'll spare you the details. Despite having gone through the above mentioned surgery, having issues with my incision after the surgery requiring a nurse to visit me every day to pack areas of the incision that had broken open, and then going through child birth, that infection in my belly was the grossest thing that my body ever did. I'm all better now in case you were wondering.

Campfire

One thing we try to do at least once every summer, is roast marshmallows and make smores in our backyard. This summer's experience went much better than last summer's for me, since this time I didn't manage to smack myself really hard in the head with a chair.

The big boys got to work making the fire...

...while the little boys and the pup lounged around.



Finally the fire was hot enough for proper marshmallow roasting. Greg loves his sweet treats, but was nice enough to let the kids have some too.


This seriously cute kid loved his smore.


You know the food is good when it is messy and sticky.


By the end of our dessert cookout, I wasn't really sure what the point of putting a blanket down for Sean and Aaron was.


No one took a picture of me during our family backyard adventure, but I was there and covered in marshmallow goo just like the rest of family. I'll just throw in this photo of me that Greg took one day.

Knitted Goods

I knitted little sweaters and hats for the little guys while I was pregnant. They wore their sweaters regularly during the winter, but the hats just never worked out. When I was knitting them, someone commented that they were worried the hats would be too small. It makes me sad to see how little and sickly my guys were in those first few weeks, but here is Sean looking completely ridiculous in the far too big hat I knitted.


I took this photo of Aaron last month. It only took 7 months but finally the hat is beginning to fit as it should. You know, because when it is 90 degrees out you need to wear knitted hats.

Sports

Marcus and Will talked all last summer about wanting to play baseball. So, we let them play. It was a pretty long season with practices every Wednesday and games on Saturday afternoon. Marcus was old enough to play summer outdoor soccer so we signed him up for that. It was a short season, lasting about a month. No practices, just games on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday mornings. Unfortunately the seasons overlapped which made for some really hectic weeks during late June/early July.

For the final baseball game, Marcus and Will got to play on the Pony League World Series field. Their names were announced as they came to bat at the stadium which they thought was pretty cool. Second only to getting ice cream at the end of the game, Marcus and Will were really excited about receiving their first ever trophies.


Soccer ended the same week. Marcus proved himself on the field as a really good defensive man. He would always hang at the back of the pack of 5-6 year olds fighting over the ball and would be ready to give the ball a big kick to keep the other team from getting a goal. Finally, during the last game he decided to take the role of an offensive man, got a breakaway, and scored a goal. And I just happened to be there with the camera!


He was pretty stoked to receive a gold medal for participating in soccer.


There will probably be more soccer in Marcus and Will's future but we are currently taking some time off from all the hours spent at the sport fields so we can do some other summer activities. Greg and I are exhausted!

Mostly Healthy Lunch #9

Turkey breast sandwich made from leftover turkey breast from dinner the night before, red pepper with ranch dip, pineapple chunks from a can. Everyone enjoyed this lunch, although eating that sandwich while holding babies on a sunny day by the pool made for a pretty messy sandwich experience.

Love

There is just no way I can look at this picture and not grin from ear to ear.

What a pleasant Friday!

Sitting on my porch in the sunshine. Marcus and Will are playing independently with some older neighborhood boys next door. Sean just rolled from his back to his belly for the first time. Aaron is smiling and talking and thinking about rolling. The dog is staying in the yard without me yelling at her. Just have to get Greg home from work and all will be perfect in our corner of the world.

Mmmm.... Feet....

Who thinks feet are yummy? Sean does.


That is a bit of an odd angle. How does his foot turn that way? Oh.

Rollin'

We have some rolling babies! Or at least we had rolling babies. Aaron has been rolling from belly to back for quite some time. He is so close to going from back to belly. He gets his hips and legs over but just can't seem to get all the way over his shoulder. Sean finally figured out rolling from belly to back. He learned. Then he decided not to do it anymore. Back during the time when they were both rollers, I made the mistake of putting them down on their bellies side-by-side. Using some sort of twin-twin cosmic connection, they silently planned to roll toward each other at the exact same time. It didn't work.

Mostly Healthy Lunch #8

Grilled chicken (made some extra with dinner the night before and chopped it up into strips), granola bar, carrot sticks (with some ranch dip), and applesauce. Of course the kiddos turned their noses up at the chicken, probably because it wasn't breaded in chemically modified food products and dipped in ketchup.

Fourth of July

How was your Fourth of July? Do you even remember it at this point so late in the summer? Ours was nice. There was lots of red, white, and blue and picnicking. We usually stick pretty close to our bedtime around here (or things get really ugly) but we let the kids stay up late to enjoy the nighttime festivities. We could see a few fireworks between some trees at our house which was enough for Marcus and Will. My parents came over and brought glow sticks. Apparently they make great chew toys (for kids that don't have teeth).



Marcus and Will did sparklers for the first time too. We got a few in just before the rain started. I suck at being a mom and photographer at the same time and totally missed getting a picture of Will and his sparkler.