Ch-Ch-Changes and General Updates

I have a job. I wasn't looking for one, but I had entertained the idea of having one for the past 6-9 months. When I was approached about one at the kids' preschool, I decided to say yes. It's very part-time (11-12 hours/week), but it's still a shift in our schedule, nonetheless. I am an assistant teacher in the 3-year-old's room. Lenore hangs out with me the first 15 minutes, then she goes to her class for 3 hours while I work. She helps me in my room for the last 15-30 minutes, and we head home for lunch, nap, and pick Lewis up at the bus stop. It really couldn't be more ideal. I'm still getting used to the new schedule myself and to teaching/loving/parenting these extra 15 kids three days a week, but I think it will work out well.

Lewis is in Kindergarten and loves it. His bus picks up at 8:24am (ish), and returns at 4:10pm (ish), so we spend quite a lot of time apart Monday-Friday. He still comes home from school SO very tired and SO very hungry. I'm not sure what he is eating while he's at school, but I've heard it can take 6-8 weeks for them to adjust to such a long day. I usually give him 30-45 minutes to chill when we get home from the bus stop, and then he does his homework while I'm making dinner. He has homework Monday-Thursday and gets Fridays/weekends off. He is getting really good marks for behavior every day, and he seems to love and respect his teachers and their rules.

I had hired house cleaners in the spring to help me, and I just let them go at the end of the summer because I thought I could definitely get a grip on things once school started for Lewis. I was supposed to have Wednesday-Friday mornings 'off' or 'free from children' to make doctor's appointments or clean the house. Then I got offered the job, and there goes my grand plans. The dog hair is everywhere, and I constantly feel like I can't get anything completed from start-to-finish. I'm always interrupted, and that just messes with me/my sense of accomplishment. Let me tell you, nothing feels as amazing as coming home to a totally clean house*. (*Which was accomplished with no children present, no mess-makers underfoot, no frustrations on my behalf.) I think I just talked myself into it, so I'm probably going to have to call and hire them back.

Lewis is in swim lessons again. He's taken the Beginner and Intermediate(preschool) levels, which were a tad disappointing. I don't mean to be critical, but I felt like they were too easy on him and didn't make him learn how to struggle through and learn how to *really* swim. Now he's in the Advanced (preschool) class, and it is a bit above his current level, but I think they're going to let him stay in. Just in the span of one class, he was able to swim with his face in the water, take breaths to the side, use a forward stroke, swim on his back, and try to do backstroke. Granted, his instructor was supporting him through most of those things, but he was actually having to work hard and seemed to be clicking more than the other classes did the entire time. 

Lewis is in soccer through the Y for the first time. He'd done a program through his preschool the past two years, but that was more skill-building than actual team play. He's only had one game so far and seemed to be running the wrong way for most of the first half. Kevin told him which goal he should be heading towards, and he got the hang of it more in the second half. :) He's having a lot of fun with it.

Lenore is the same. Bossy and hilarious. She HAS started hitting me in the face, which is not cute. I'm wondering if she picked it up at school and/or is doing it at school. I need to ask her teachers.

Kevin broke his big toe last Friday. He'd volunteered to be in the dunk tank for a work function, and it happened sometime in the course of those 30 minutes. He thinks it might have been from slipping on the ladder to get back on the seat, but he isn't sure. He, of course, proceeded to split firewood with my dad all the next morning before going to Urgent Care for an x-ray. He has to wear a special shoe for a few weeks and will hopefully be fine after that.

The owls are back in our woods. I can't wait to have consistently cool overnights (next week!) so I can sleep with the windows open again. I love our house and neighborhood so much, especially when it's cool enough to leave the windows up. The bugs are deafening, too--I love it.

Ta-ta for now.

The Polar Express and I Turned 34

While we were waiting for Lenore's arrival, my parents came down to stay for if/when I went into labor. My mom mentioned taking Lewis to The Polar Express ride in French Lick around Christmastime, so we decided to go for it. I bought him the book (which came with an audiobook) and the movie, and he and Kevin went to the Science Center to see it on the big screen sometime either before or after Lenore was born. (It's all a blur!) :) We listened to it in the car just about every time we drove anywhere, so that we were up on the story, and Kevin read him the book most nights at bedtime. Lewis could recite the book to you if needed.

We drove up to French Lick on a Friday afternoon and met my parents at our hotel for the night. They were sold out of the train tickets, so the only way we could get tickets was to book a package at this hotel with an indoor water park, so it became a whole getaway thing, which was great. We unpacked and got ready to go for our 5:30pm departure:

 They encourage kiddos (and adults) to wear pajamas, like the kids in the book. :)

 Waiting at the train station

 Lenore was there, too! 

She slept the whole time, of course. Maybe next year she'll be awake for it. :)

The conductor came through and punched our tickets like they do in the movie. 

I think Lew thought that was pretty cool, seeing punches/confetti flying everywhere. :)

They did a really great job of reenacting the book and movie details. Lewis thought it was pretty great--it stops at the North Pole and heads back to the station, at which time Santa comes aboard the train and talks to each child. Lewis' face, seeing Santa walking down the aisle, was priceless. He wasn't much into talking to ol' Mr. C, but he happily took a bell from Santa's sleigh (which is from the story) as a souvenir, which was pretty cool.

The next day, we headed to the water park at the hotel where we were staying. Lewis was tall enough to ride the big water slides with an adult, so we took turns taking him down and going down ourselves. Despite feeling like I might crash and seriously injure myself (they were FAST), we had a blast. We all switched off holding Lenore and riding the slides and/or lazy river. It was a really great set-up, and we'd like to go back sometime. After lunch, we headed over to the French Lick Resort to see their Christmas decorations, which were beautiful.

The next day was my birthday--the big 3-4! It's kind of a blur--I know there was cake and ice cream. I might have gone for a pedicure, I honestly can't recall! [Update: Kevin reminded me that we went out to dinner and to see Wild.]

 Getting some help from Big Lew

There are a ton of pictures that I haven't posted--of Lewis and Kevin raking leaves, visits with family at Thanksgiving and Christmas, etc. I could do a whole posting of pictures of Lewis and Lenore snuggling--Kevin has so many on his phone! I'm working on getting the pictures off of my phone so that I can post about our trip to Boise--it's just taking a while.

Weekend o' Fun in Cincinnati

Way back when, I bought a Groupon for The Beach in Cincinnati, thinking we could take Lewis for a special getaway before the baby arrives. We went the weekend before Labor Day--to the water park on Sunday and the Museum Center on Monday. We'd thought about the zoo, but that will have to wait for another time (too hot/humid for this mama). 

We left the camera and our phones in the car so that they wouldn't get wet, so we don't have any pictures from The Beach. It was a fun day--hot and humid, good for floating in the lazy river. They don't have much else for kids of Lew's size, so our options were pretty limited--I think the cut-off for water slides is 45 inches, so he needs to grow about 3 more inches. They did have a nice splash park-type area with sprayers and slides galore. He had a great time, riding the slides over and over (and over). It was complete and utter child anarchy, and he had a blast. He jumped right in with a group of other kids, all riding the slides one after another, and he'd come out of the slide just cracking up as they ran into each other at the bottom.

There's a new attraction that Lewis saw and wanted to do--it's called the Soaring Eagle, and it's a 2-person zip line that flies high over the big wave pool. Lewis met the height requirement, so he and Kevin decided to go for it. I wish I had pictures or video to show just how high they were a-flying, but I don't. I'm very glad that it wasn't me up there--Kevin said it was a little spooky at the highest point, but Lewis had a blast. 'I was FLYING, Mama!'

Our hotel had a Graeter's (ice cream) in the parking lot, so we thought we'd go get some ice cream that evening after dinner. Little did we know that it was National Waffle Day, which meant they were giving away free waffle cones, so the line was probably 30 minutes long. We persevered, though, and got to enjoy some of the best ice cream around. :) 

Enough words--onto pictures of Monday. We went back to the Cincinnati Museum Center, which has a children's museum, natural history museum, and history museum, all in one. We'd gone last year, too, but hadn't visited the history museum--it was the best part! Trains, streetcars, riverboats, and others of Lewis' favorite things:

Children's Museum:

 Fill 'er up!

 Scooping rocks at the construction site is serious business

 Doing some light grocery shopping

The scanner actually scanned the bar codes! My former 11-year-old self geeked out for a second--I used to want to be a cashier. :) 

 :)

In with the fish and turtles

 I love my boys.

 The woodlands/tree house climbing structure kept Lewis entertained for a while.

Until the water table caught his eye, of course. :)

Museum of Natural History & Science:

In the (fake) cave

Hanging out with a wolf, learning about glaciation :)

Cincinnati History Museum--I can't believe we didn't go here last time we visited:

 Toot toot!

One happy buddy. 

 Sitting in a streetcar, which might have been his favorite thing

It was hard to get him out of it.

 Rocking away the day in a little log cabin

There was a Stephen Foster impersonator in this area, so we sat and listened to some of his life story and songs (My Old Kentucky Home, Camptown Races, Oh Susanna!, etc.).

  A Cincinnati street, a long time ago

A riverboat, which he also really liked

We had a good time--it was a fun way to end the summer and spend time together before school started and before Baby #2 arrives. 7ish more weeks!

Summer Fun (from Kevin's Phone)

I'm finally remembering to get back into Dropbox to access Kevin's phone pictures...only a month and a half or so behind. :) Here are the highlights from the past 6 weeks of our summer:

 Planes: Fire and Rescue, way back in July.

It was cute--Kevin and Lewis just went to see it a 2nd time today.

 Uncle Dave, the toddler whisperer (L-R is Juniper, Otis, Mathilda, and Lewis)

This was while Emily, Dietgard, and I were setting up for my mom's birthday party.

 His first jump off the board

I was inside and didn't see him jump the first time(s), but I saw him jump later.

 Playing trucks in the garden with Juniper

 Hanging with a baby cow in the barn at Conner Prairie

 Oh, the places you'll go! (at Conner Prairie)

 At the playground in Louisville 

 Mama and Lewis, in a boat

This was while Kevin was assembling the desk.

 Trying out the trampoline at Puzzles Fun Dome

He met the weight requirement, but it was really hard for him to get much momentum behind his jumps. We'd never been here before, and it was so-so...part inflatables/part arcade, kind of expensive. We went because it's one of the only places that has inflatables open on the weekends. 

Bats game 

We went to a game a few weeks ago, which was a pretty big fail. He sat in the seats for just a few minutes--there were playgrounds and the carousel that were much more enticing. It also rained quite a bit, so we spent a lot of time under shelter--I think we left in the 3rd or 4th inning.

Otis' 1st Birthday and Gramma Pat's 60th Birthday

First, a few randoms from last week. Lewis said, 'Take our picture!'

Best Buds, most days :)

Helping make cookies

I'd had a hankering for cookies last week, so I googled Best _____ Cookie (chocolate chip, peanut butter, chocolate, etc.) to see what the internet had to offer. The first recipe for Chewy Chocolate Cookies was divine. I made them with peanut butter chips, and yum. They were even better the 2nd day. I'm going to attempt some peanut butter ones, next, followed by a chocolate chip cookie showdown. I have two new c.c. recipes to try, but I'm skeptical of whether they can top my usual recipe.

Last week, we worked on a gift for Gramma Pat's birthday--Lewis picked out a butterfly-shaped picture frame at Target, and he painted it for her with a school picture inside:

So focused

At first he did one color at a time, until I had all of the colors out on the plate. Then he switched to dipping his paint brush into each color, every time. So the brush had a dab of orange, light blue, red, blue, and green. It all ended up kind of brownish by the time it reached the butterfly, but who cares. He did a really good job of painting all of the surface this time.

I told him he could cover the plate with the leftover paint, so he very slowly went to work on that, too. :)

Lewis had camp last week until Thursday, so he and I drove up to my parents' house that afternoon to see the Bergstroms (minus my brother-in-law, Joe).

Boys' Breakfast

Emily and I headed to Indy on Friday for lunch and Costco (for Mom's party) while Gramma and Papaw watched the kiddos. Later, Mom and I took Juniper and Lewis to the bouncy house place:

Juni's waiting up top :)

Eyes closed!

Cousin Love!!!

Later that evening, we had a pizza and cake party for Otis' 1st birthday (July 16):

Again, Lewis was trying to help Otis with the candles.

I don't think he (Lew) was successful this time (as he was with Carlton).

Mmmm, Concannon's cake. :)

Lewis' fork efficiency and speed greatly improve when there is cake involved. Same with spoons and ice cream. :)

Saturday, the grandparents took the kids to a horse show (for Juniper) and car show (for Lewis) while Kevin, Emily, and I got things ready for the birthday party. (Kevin drove up after work Friday evening.) Em and I headed over to the pool in the afternoon to set-up for the party while Kevin and the grandparents and Uncle Dave watched the kids.

I don't have many pictures from the party because I was too busy co-hostessing and catching up with people, but I do have some of Lewis swimming:

Moving up to water wings

Because Mama forgot his usual floatie at home :)

Thinking about jumping off the diving board

There goes Juni!!

And Lew!

I know Kevin has some pictures on his phone, too, of him jumping earlier in the evening, but we don't yet have Dropbox on this computer, so I can't get to those pictures at the moment.

The party was great! We went with a peace and love/tie dye/hippie theme, and had close to 50 family and friends, I think. There was a rain/storm chance all day, but it held out just until the very end. Lots of people helped us clean up quickly, so we were able to make it home before the rain came.