Some Things Never Change...

Line Leader

Henry is definitely one of those boys that LOVES his cars.  From early on, I had concerns about his fixation on wheels and it has only escalated from there. He loves his vehicles so much that I am having a hard time deciding on the theme of his second birthday party:  a generic car theme? Firetrucks? Construction vehicles?

One of his favorite thing to do with his many matchbox cars (he has inherited Jason's cars from childhood as well) is to line them up.  And in doing so, he has easily learned all of his colors.  He can (fairly) clearly say the words "yellow, blue, red, green, white, and black".  And although he can't say the color words pink and brown, he can identify them!  All thanks to his "vroom vroom" obsession!

In fact, his obsession is so great that when he goes down for a nap (STILL twice a day) or for the night, he requests a "blue vroom, vroom" to sleep with.  Or yellow, or green, or red.....

Bare Building

Who needs pants to finish the basement?

Paging Dr. Henry

Off to Kindergarten

Well, I have FINALLY made it to the first day of school post....As much as I was hoping the first day of kindergarten never came, it did and it started with a bang.  She was up early and we were dressed before the sun came up.

Then, it was time to head outside for some first day of school pictures...

She was a little bit excited!  It is hard to believe that she is "school age".  

One of her very best friends, Natalie is attending the same school as Amelia.  She was disappointed that they were not in the same class, but I'm pretty sure Amelia wouldn't have accomplished anything if they would have been.

We arrived embarrassingly early to school.  We were to the classroom before the teacher.  I guarantee I couldn't get Amelia to school that early again if I tried. We wasted some time checking out the hallway and the apple tag on the door with her classmates names.

We got a couple drinks....

And then finally made it to her spot in the classroom.  (Notice no other children in the room...)

It was a great first day and she has had many more since.  In fact, she has been in school for almost 2 months already!  Hoping to get caught up on the blog one of these days....

And Speaking of Gross Boys....

I might as well throw a potty picture in there.  By complete chance on August 25, Henry grabbed his diaper, said "pot" and headed to the toilet.  I set him on the big potty and he pooped! 

 

Not actual picture from potty day.

However, if you ask about our progress since that day, I would have to tell you that there is none.  I certainly don't think he is ready (or maybe I'm not ready?), but it was a fun event nonetheless.

Yard Time

This sign may look a little strange to you.  That is because I (probably unnecessarily) went all crazy and blurred most of it out.  One day while Amelia was supposed to be napping, she came barging into my room and said, "Mom! Someone just drove up, stuck a sign in our yard, and drove away!".  I was pretty miffed about her account of events, so we headed outside to investigate.  As it turns out, her new school stuck a sign in our yard welcoming us to our new "school family".  She was pretty excited and had many questions about how "they" knew where she lived and how "they" knew she was going to that school.  The sign stayed in our yard all the way until the first day of school and was a special reminder about the big change ahead every time we saw it.  It was a very sad day when Amelia saw me loading the sign up to turn it back in at her school.  She was under the impression she could "keep it forever" and "hang it in my room" (?). 

Pack it Up, Pack it In

My aunt Phyllis has been involved with G4U for a long time.  It is an organization that collects and packs "goodies" for deployed troops each month. She has often invited us out to Warrenton to help on packing day. Since I knew this was probably our last chance to help for awhile with Amelia starting school (they pack Friday mornings), we jumped at the chance to go.  It was great to see such a great, organized group in action.  Unfortunately, I didn't get too many pictures (and neither are that good really) because I spent much of my time chasing Henry around and attempting to keep him happy.

The group has an assembly line type method of packing bags which was perfect for Amelia.  She excitedly took one item from each bin for her bag (and picked "pink" things as often as she could).  Then, she joined the line and went through it again. 

We are hoping to help again when it aligns with Amelia's school schedule.  In the meantime, we are collecting items and making pictures and cards to send along with the packages.  When I heard they have a shortage of letters from kids, I knew just the person to put on the job!

Note to Self

We need to paint outside more often.

Lacing Up

Amelia has never been too interested in learning to tie her shoes.  And I haven't been much help, considering I can probably count on one hand the number of shoes with laces that she has ever owned.  But, we checked out a book on CD called "Countdown to Kindergarten" and the character has near panic attacks because she doesn't know how to tie her shoes before starting kindergarten and she thinks she will be the only one.  I won't give away the ending (I can tell you are on the edge of your seat), but after we listened to that story many, many, many times in the car, Amelia decided she was ready to give it a go.  She had received the Melissa & Doug wooden shoe for Christmas from her friends Natalie and Emma and she finally put it to use!  Once she was ready, it only took a couple days to get it completely mastered.  And later that same day she was double and triple knotting!  She was very proud of herself and we were so proud of her too!