2 Weeks worth of fun @ Week 51

Dear Nathan, Hannah, and Hailey,

I am just so blessed to have you three call me Mommy, Mama, and Mah Ma Ma. As Hannah you started your last year of pre-school last week, I am suddenly overwhelmed with how quickly these few years have gone by, so I am starting to cherish these moments with the three of you even more. Now that Nathan is going to school from 7:30 to 3:00 each day, I feel like I hardly even see you much anymore.

Well, it's been a busy 2 weeks. I'm going to rewind to 2 weeks ago, we went to a birthday party and if you look in the picture below, I have a picture (can't find it right now) of the same 3 girls in a ball pit at around age 1. Now you all have turned 4.

 

Hannah, you have started practicing on the little bike now that your feet can touch the ground. Daddy took the pedals off and I've been having you scoot around with me on our walks to the mailbox. I think with one more week of scooting, you'll be ready to put the pedals on and take off. I think Nathan was about this age when he started to ride with no training wheels.

So Daddy took the last week of his Paternity leave last week, so he had lots of Dad duty time. One of those days, I volunteered at Nathan's school and had lunch with you. School lunch has come a long way since I was in school. For the most part things are healthier, with whole wheat pasta and breadsticks, and the veggies seemed like they were frozen, instead of canned (yuck), but the chocolate milk hasn't changed much and the fruit choices are still pretty much the same.

Daddy also came and had pizza lunch with you one day too. This sure beats the rectangle pizza that we had back in the day.

Daddy was pretty productive as he drilled and patched a bunch of holes in the wall and then he basically painted half of the downstairs. So now we have wipe-able walls instead of the builder grade paint that just came off with the slightest wipe...which is a pretty big deal because we had grubby prints knee height all over the house.

This past weekend we went to another birthday party and as we arrived, Nathan projectile vomited, so only Hannah got to stay to play. The bug ended up lasting 24 hours, which I am very thankful of.  The birthday party was at a new place that opened close to us, so it was cool for Hannah to check it out.

Hailey is now really into putting things into containers and taking them back out. I will set a bowl of plastic lids on the ground while I am cooking or cleaning up the kitchen and you will play with them for a good 30 minutes. Best toy ever!

You are also very cuddly. When holding you, you will often lay your head on our chest and just sing, which usually comes out as a long moan. You love it when we hold you close and rock you back and forth while saying, "Aaawww." You will mimic us as we do it.

Whenever anyone is laying on the floor, it's like an open invitation to climb. Sometimes you are very sweet and lay your head down as if you are giving a hug,

but then sometimes you go WWF style and pin down the unsuspecting victim.

You are also like to experiment with different types of head wear. Hats, hoops, bowls, rolls of tape, all seem to be headpieces for you.

 So we plan on decorating a trunk for our church's trunk or treat this year.  The theme will be revealed in a few weeks once we have more things created, but here's a sneak peak of Hannah's costume.

This last picture I just had to take because one day we can look back and say, "Hailey, I remember when you used to fit in this sink and brush your own teeth!"

School has been overall good for Nathan. I really like your teacher and after seeing briefly how she runs her class, I am overall impressed. You continue to have weekly run-ins with the same kid in your class. Last week you told me about a situation which made me so proud of you:
So you were at the lego station with this kid. He broke your creation. Instead of taking revenge and smashing his car into pieces (like I kind of expected you to do, based on all the tantrums you've been throwing at home lately) you told us that you just got up and went to the peace corner to calm down.

I was so proud of you when I heard what you did. You are showing lots of self control.

But then yesterday, this same kid punched you in PE (teacher called me about it) after you pulled a flag off his belt (which is what you are supposed to do). He apparently didn't know the rules and got mad at you for pulling his belt. You even told us that he was talking while the teacher was giving instructions, which is why he didn't understand. Ohhh, and get this, you told me that this kid flat out told the art teacher that his art was not very good.

While I am a bit annoyed at how this kid is acting, I'm kind of glad that you have one of those kids in your class because this gives you a chance to learn how to work with difficult people in a safe and controlled environment. While I can definitely see a "falling out" sometimes when you come home from school (you get bothered more easily by little things), I can see that you are really trying to practice self control and figure out how to outsmart this difficult kid.

Nathan, you've signed up for Tennis club after school. The coach tells me that you are the youngest kid, but you hustle and you make good contact with the ball. You absolutely love it and look forward to it each Tuesday.

Hailey's sleep is more predictable nowadays. Waking up around 7:30, taking a first nap around 10, and then another one at 2:30. You go to bed at 8 and will wake up once before I go to bed and then another time before I wake up in the morning. You are pulling up to stand and cruise, but you are nowhere ready to walk. Your crawl is still upright, pushing with one leg, while sitting on your bottom.

It's been raining a lot and when it's not raining, the thought of taking 3 kids out on an outing just sounds exhausting, but we really need to get out more. I'm going to make an effort to do so (especially with the cooler weather, there is no excuse!)

I feel so much more rested and am working on being a more intentional mom with the things that I do and say to you. I've resorted to lots of threat and "because I said so" for too long and I need to go back to being more patient with you all (especially now that I'm more rested).

Until Next Week,
Love,
Mommy