Uh oh, are we in trouble?

Now that the girls are done with school, we are planning weekly outings and playdates with several of the other moms in our neighborhood. It's nice because one of the moms has lived here for nearly 7 years so she knows the area fairly well and has introduced some of us newbies to some fun places to go with kids.

Last week we went to Latta Plantation which has a huge variety of activities. We'll be going back again other times this summer to check out some of the other fun things to see and do (a raptor center, a nature preserve, lots of hiking trails, etc.). But this time we went to go to the horses and ponies. Talk about a lot of excited little girls!

We bought some bags full of special horse snacks (oatmeal and apple cookie-like things), and signed up for a pony ride for each of the bigger kids who was with us. Olivia never quite worked up the courage to feed the horses or ponies by herself, although she would put her hand under mine and allow me to give them a treat. Katelyn couldn't wait to give the treats to the horses all by herself and shooed me away.


And of course Katy couldn't wait to do the pony ride. She was third in line (she would have been first, but there were a few kids who ran a bit faster...), but waited so patiently. She had such a sweet, confidant smile on her face for her entire ride.







Olivia held back at first. She wanted to ride the pony, but she waited to watch how it went for all the other children first. Once she saw that no one got hurt, she said she was ready to try, but wanted me to walk next to her. I walked with her for the first two times around the path, but she went solo for the last two times.


It's too early to make any predictions, but I know I've got at least one horse lover on my hands...

Getting there...

Well, it's been nearly a year, and we're finally starting to get the upstairs bedrooms a bit more finished looking. Ryan's room and our room still need curtains, and Ryan needs a headboard and some things to hang on his walls. I'd like to get a comfy chair for our room, and a different place to put the TV (actually I'd like to get rid of the TV in our room! But that's never going to happen. Sigh).

Tomorrow morning is our preliminary one-year walk through with the builder's warranty rep to figure out which contractors he needs to schedule to fix all of our warranty items. And then the house will get torn apart for a solid day of contractors in and out followed up by a visit by housecleaners to get rid of all the drywall dust. I'm really hoping that they schedule these days of fun while I'm visiting friends and family later in June!

And once we've gotten all the drywall repairs done, we're going to start painting! I'm excited to get some colors on our walls! I don't know that we'll do the main living areas yet because I just don't know what color I want to use, but the bedrooms will all be done and that will go a long way towards making things look finished.

Last Day of School...

How can it be that the girls are done with their first year of school already?

Wasn't I just taking pictures of them in their new orange 'Comets' T-shirts that all the children in the 3-year-old class wore for their first day?

Didn't I just receive a phone call from Cathy, the site coordinator, while trying to get my hair cut on their second day of school to tell me that they were both still crying 20 minutes after drop-off?

You mean to say that it has been 8 1/2 months since they had a hard time separating from me to go to school?

Has it really been over 5 months since they were dressed up as angels for the Christmas program and Katy announced "One night, shepherds were watching their sheep!"?

And didn't we just celebrate pajama day? and silly socks day? and wild west day?

Their very first field trip was almost a whole month ago? Are you sure?!?

Where does the time go? Before I know it I'll be writing that I can't believe they're graduating from Kindergarten, and then Elementary School... As a wise person once recorded on their blog "the days can drag on for eternity, but the months fly by." Truer words have not been spoken.

We received a DVD with a slide show filled with pictures taken over the past year by Cathy (the site coordinator for the YMCA preschool) today. I'd forgotten that they took pictures of the girls on their first day of school next to a picture of a tree with measuring marks on the trunk, and must have taken them again a few days ago next to the same tree. Olivia and Katy have both grown nearly 3 1/2 inches this year! I knew they had gotten bigger, but seeing the two pictures side by side was just so neat. I'm trying to figure out how to get individual photos off of the disk, and will post them once I've got it figured out.

And now I need to figure out how to fill the next three months until school starts again...

THIS is why we love it here...

Lake Norman rocks.

I knew that going out on the boat was fun, but it has gotten even better this year because we've discovered the joy of grounding the boat at one of the numerous islands that have little sandy beaches for the kids to play on. Bring along a bunch of sand toys and the kiddos are busy (and HAPPY!) for hours. Seriously.

And now my youngest children are old enough to go play in the sand and at the edge of the water for hours without the tiniest bit of complaining. Just the occasional request for food. And thanks to mandatory life vest rules imposed by the Lake Norman Police (not really, but the kiddos believe us!), we don't have to be right on top of them all the time.

We're going out again on Sunday for Memorial Day, and i. just. can't. wait.

Lego Dude

Ryan is thoroughly, completely, absolutely obsessed with Legos. He is always asking: "when can I get a new Lego set?" We've discovered that the promise of a new Lego set can be quite the motivator. (He's actually reading this out loud as I type--how cool is that?!)

For instance, each week his class has a pretest for the spelling words for that week. If a student gets all the words right on the pretest, then they get the challenge word list with harder words to learn. For several weeks he was consistantly bringing home the challenge word list, but was not real thrilled about having to learn the harder words. Then suddenly it stopped. I didn't pay much attention at first, but then the weekly newsletter mentioned the challenge word lists.

I looked at his spelling pretest and noticed that he had misspelled several words that I was fairly sure he knew. I asked him why he had gotten them wrong and he looked down and said "I guess I was rushing through my work." I reminded him about the importance of getting the job done right instead of getting it done fast.

The following week, there were some more misspelled words that I thought for sure he would know how to spell. The weekly lists generally contain words in a common word family, and he had gotten other words right on the test (like 'sound' and 'found' and 'round') but missed some (spelled 'loud' as 'lowd' and 'proud' as 'prowd').

Now, I don't mean to brag (honest!), but Ryan is a pretty doggone bright kid. And I KNEW that something was up. So I asked him if he was getting words wrong on the pretest on purpose so that he wouldn't have to do the challenge word list. He immediately hung his head and wouldn't look me in the eye. Hmmm. Guess I was onto something, huh? I asked him again, while making him look me in the eye, and he confessed that he didn't want to have to do the challenge words.

I didn't know what to do at first. I had the presence of mind to control myself from laughing or congratulating him (didn't think that would be the appropriate response, even though those thoughts ran through my mind!). I had to send him to his room so that I could talk to Kevin about it. We both had a good laugh. After all, you have GOT to admire the thought process!

We decided that this shouldn't be something we punish him for. We don't want learning or school to become unenjoyable, and don't want to motivate him with fear. Plus, sometimes he might legitimately not know how to spell one of the regular words. So we came up with a point system to motivate him to try to get the challenge words. Each word he got right on the pretest was worth 1 point (there are 10 regular words each week). If he brought the challenge list home, he got a bonus of 5 points. Then for the real spelling test on Friday, if he was being tested on the basic list, each word was worth another 1 point, but the challenge list words were worth 2 points each. Soooooo, without the challenge list he could earn a maximum of 19 points for the week, but WITH the challenge list he could earn 35 points for the week.

We then put together a variety of ways for him to "spend" his points: 10 points for ice cream at Brusters (by himself with mom or dad); 50 points for a trip to the movies (again, by himself with mom or dad); etc.; with the ultimate prize being 500 points for a new Lego set worth $50.

Since starting this system he has earned 447 points and has a few weeks left until the end of the year. There have only been 2 weeks that he hasn't brought home the challenge list. And he hasn't spent a single point yet. He is salivating over the chance to go get the newest Batman set he's been eyeing.

Cool. Especially since I know that these types of results would not have happened with a negative system of consequences. Thank you Legos for giving my son a reason to enjoy learning!

Here are a few examples of his building talents. Not bad for a 7-year-old, eh? Perhaps we have a future architect in our family... He always builds a new set according to the directions, and leaves it to admire for a few weeks, but then he starts tweaking it and finally dismantles it and turns it into something completely new by combining it with legos from other sets.

I am always so amazed by the complexity with which he builds. He is particularly fond of using symmetry.

It's Only for a Month...

And I can do ANYTHING for just ONE month. Right? Right?? I had yet another instance of diarrhea of the mouth a few weeks ago. My friend Wendy called because her daycare person had just given her one-week's notice, but she still had about 5 1/2 weeks left until the school year was over (she's a teacher).


She felt awful about even asking, but didn't know what to do.

Of course I said I'd be happy to help out in any way that I could! And I am happy to help, honest. But man oh man is there a big difference between a 2 year old and my 4 year olds! They get along fairly well, and Katy is such a little mommy--she's eating it up (Olivia has informed me after just 2 days that she doesn't want me to babysit anymore...). Nora is a very sweet little girl, but she requires so much more supervision than I've gotten used to having to provide! And it doesn't help matters that I got rid of ALL my baby proofing stuff before we moved.

Ah well, it's just a month. The time will fly by. Right? Please agree with me...

On the up side, the $$$ I'm making for this month of child care is helping to pay for a lovely stay at Topsail Island Beach in July. I think I need to put a picture of the beach house on the refrigerator, or maybe in the crisper (talk about a carrot!)

Pictures from Dan Nicholas Park

Ryan checking out another great shot at mini golf
















Part of the huge playground is in the background
















Olivia would only ride the carousel if I held her hand--but then she loved it!
















A bald eagle in the nature preserve
















Three silly kiddos on the playground

































Taking a train ride
















Panning for gold? Fools gold! And some other beautiful rocks and minerals.































Fearless Katy whooshes down a 20 foot slide!

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day! Okay, so it's actually over, but I hope everyone had a great day yesterday--you all definitely deserved it. My day was wonderful, and the festivities actually began on Thursday when the girls' preschool had "Muffins for Moms." Katy and Olivia served me mini blueberry muffins (only a few dropped on the way from the serving table to our seats... *grin*), and their teachers brought us orange juice.

They had planted little white impatiens flowers for me in cups to decorate the table, and had made placemats with funny (to me, anyway!) answers to questions like 'how old is your mommy?' (Olivia said I was 3, Katy said I was 16!). And the best part was when they all got up to serenade us (to the tune of 'Jesus Loves Me'):

Mommy loves me this I know
'Cause she always tells me so
She gives me hugs when I am sad
She even loves me when I'm bad
Yes, mommy loves me
Yes, mommy loves me
Yes, mommy loves me
She always tells me so.



Ryan wrote a sweet biography about me talking about all the things I do for him and our family, and my hobbies, and what I look like. It is so amazing to see what a difference there is between a 7-year-old's perception and a 4-year-old's. What a lot of maturing there is in those 3 extra years!

Kevin had asked me what I'd like to do for Mother's Day, and I told him I wanted to sleep late--without having to get up and fix any breakfast for anyone! And that I didn't want to wipe any messy bottoms all day, or cook any meals, or be responsible for bathing and dressing the children. Oh, and I also didn't want to make any decisions about what we'd be doing or where we'd be eating. My wonderful hubby fulfilled every request perfectly without a bit of grumbling.

He got up before the kiddos came into our room and took a quick shower, and then left our bedroom (even remembered to shut our door!). He got the kids dressed, and even fixed the girls' hair! Then he took them out to Dunkin' Donuts for breakfast, and brought me a Boston Cream and an Apple Cinnamon donut back along with a large coffee. Yum.

We spent the day at Dan Nicholas park, which was a perfect place to have fun with your family. We played mini golf, rode on a carousel, rode on a train, walked through a nature preserve and saw a bunch of animals, mined for gems and minerals, played on a HUGE playground and took lots of great pictures (I'll post these a little later once I load them).

For dinner we went to the Roadhouse grill and had steak and shrimp and yummy rolls. And when we got home, Kevin bathed the kids and got them ready for bed, read them their stories, and all I had to do was come give hugs and kisses. Wow. I felt so spoiled!

This morning he left bright and early to fly to San Francisco and won't be back until Thursday afternoon. And I started babysitting my neighbor's 2-year-old daughter (just until the end of the school year). So it's back to reality today. But I still have those wonderful memories!

Got time?

A (crazy) Day in Our Life:

4:15 am - Kevin's alarm goes off (he has an EARLY flight to NJ this morning)
4:20 am - Anne puts pillow over her head to block out the noise from the shower and tries (successfully!) to go back to sleep
4:45 am - Kevin leaves for the airport
6:05 am - Ryan gets up, gets dressed and goes downstairs to sneak some TV before school
6:05 am - Anne hears Ryan getting up, getting dressed, and sneaking downstairs to watch some TV before school, puts the pillow back over her head and tries to get just a few more minutes of sleep (unsuccessfully this time).
6:25 am - Anne's alarm goes off which sets the morning activities in motion: brush teeth, go downstairs, kiss Ryan, make breakfast for Ryan, pack Ryan's snack and lunch, say 'good morning' to the girls as they come downstairs around 6:45, start making their breakfast
6:51 am - load everyone into the van to take Ryan to the bus stop at the entrance to our neighborhood
6:52 am - kiss Ryan goodbye before he gets out of the van so as not to embarrass him in front of the other kids
6:55 am - Ryan gets onto the bus, and heads off to school--it's an exciting day for him with a field trip to Dan Nichols Park in Salisbury, NC to go exploring for rocks and minerals
7:05 am - Get back home after briefly chatting with other parents at the bus stop, and finish breakfast with the girls
7:20 am - Shower time for me, Olivia and Katy before their field trip to Patterson Farm to pick strawberries.
8:15 am - Call Erin Sedgley (lives down the street and has a daughter also going on the preschool field trip) to see what time she wants to leave (we're driving together).
8:20 am - Finish getting the girls dressed and start fixing their hair
8:37 am - Pack snacks and drinks to take on the field trip
8:40 am - Get everyones shoes on and get carseats out of my van
8:45 am - Load carseats into Erin's van, and leave for the field trip
9:20 am - Arrive at Patterson Farm. While we're here, we will visit a petting zoo with lots of farm animals including a peacock, take a tractor drawn wagon ride through the farm, plant strawberry seeds, pick over 5 quarts of strawberries, play on a playground and eat lunch.
12:15 pm - Get back in Erin's van for the drive home.
12:45 pm - Arrive home, unload carseats from her van and load them back into my van. Say our goodbyes.
12:55 pm - Take the girls back upstairs to clean up quickly in the tub and put on clean clothes
1:20 pm - Refix the girls' hair
1:30 pm - Put everyones shoes back on and get ready to go to the pediatrician for their 4-year-old well-child exams.
1:35 pm - Load into the van
1:36 pm - Anne gets back out of the van to get fresh drinks
1:38 pm - Leave for the pediatrician
1:58 pm - Arrive at the pediatrician, sign in and shell over $80 for the co-pay for two exams
2:02 pm - Get called back for our exams (I love our pediatrician! They are always so prompt!) This included weight checks (Olivia is 32 1/4 lbs. and Katelyn is 33 1/2 lbs.) and height checks (Olivia is 40 1/2 inches tall and Katelyn is 39 1/2 inches tall). We went through a variety of tests to check their developmental capabilities, answered a variety of questions, checked their hearing and their vision, talked with the pediatrician for a bit and then she did her physical exam. The conclusion: they are both healthy, strong, well-adjusted 4-year-olds.
2:35 pm - The nurse returns to our exam room with 8 (!) needles. Eight. 8. That means four injections apiece. Katy is quite brave and offers to go first, but Olivia is already shrieking and crying. I suggest that she (Olivia) go first and just get it over with. She cries through the whole thing, and continues crying while Katy stoically gets her immunizations without a single tear, just a few 'ouches.' They have now received all of their childhood immunizations, and will just require a DPT booster when they're 11 and a few more shots before college. Wow.
2:38 pm - The nurse leaves the room and I begin getting them dressed. Olivia is still crying and insists that she can no longer walk.
2:40 pm - The nurse returns with a jar full of lollipops! Olivia's sobbing begins to subside.
2:42 pm - We exit the exam room, Olivia is limping, and begin the process of choosing which sticker they would like from the sticker basket.
2:46 pm - I encourage them to just pick a sticker, already (!) so that we can leave.
2:48 pm - Back in the van to drive home.
3:05 pm - Pick up Ryan from Erin's house where he is playing with her oldest child Brady who is 6.
3:20 pm - Head back out to do just a small amount of grocery shopping for essential items that we MUST have before I can do a proper trip on Thursday.
3:35 pm - Arrive at Target to do grocery shopping and pick up some prescription refills
3:42 pm - Visit the bathroom at Target for a quick potty break
3:46 pm - Resume shopping
3:52 pm - Return to the bathroom at Target because someone needs to visit the potty again
3:57 pm - Finish shopping and checkout
4:10 pm - Load back into the van
4:40 pm - Arrive back at home, unload the groceries and begin making dinner while the kids play outside
5:15 pm - Dinner time - breakfast for dinner tonight since Kevin is not going to be back from his trip until after bedtime.
5:40 pm - Anne cleans up dinner dishes while kids play upstairs in playroom.
6:15 pm - Begin getting ready for bed--Ryan needs to take a shower after his field trip, O & K get their PJs on, brush their teeth, go potty and pick out a story.
6:30 pm - Get Ryan out of the shower, brush his hair, and remind him to get his PJs on and brush his teeth. He plays quietly (relatively speaking) in his room while I finish up with the girls.
6:40 pm - Read story to the girls, say prayers and tuck them in.
6:55 pm - Anne runs downstairs to make icy cold water cups for R, O & K.
6:58 pm - Distribute cups to O & K with a few more kisses.
7:00 pm - Read two chapters from The Magic Tree House #37 to Ryan, give him his water cup, scratch his back, say prayers and tuck him in.
7:20 pm - Anne collapses on the couch for a bit of veg time with the TV
8:05 pm - Kevin gets home from his trip to NJ, changes clothes and collapses next to Anne on the couch
9:00 pm - Bedtime for Anne and Kevin!

Thank GOD this is not our typical day! And believe it or not, I left out a lot of details... but here are some pictures as a reward for slogging through that craziness!

Life with Livy

I feel bad that I keep posting silly things about Livy and not much about Ry or Katy, but she has just been in rare form lately with some funny, quirky idiosyncrasies! Here's two more:

1. She does not know how to say the word "forgot." Instead, she says "firs-to-got" As in: "Mommy, you firstogot to get me a wet papertowel to wipe my fingers!" or "Mommy, you firstogot to give me my icy cold water!" or "Mommy! You firstogot to give Oreo his breakfast!" and so on, and so on, and so on. For some reason I seem to "firstoget" a lot of stuff in her opinion... And I'm sure that has nothing to do with my age!

2. Liv is just not a big dinner eater (watch out at breakfast and lunch, though!). She likes some things and will generally eat hotdogs, pizza, salad or fruit, but just about anything else is picked at, or manipulated around her plate. Lately she has become an artist, and any time that frenchfries are served, she makes them into spiders in the ketchup:













at least she ate her carrots that night!

Gaining Perspective

So often I get really down on myself about things going on in my life. Stupid things like not keeping up with housework as much as I think I should, or not staying in touch with people, or being tired all the time (I really need to talk to my doctor about this one at my appointment this month...), or not being caught up with scrapbooking, or wasting time online, or yelling at the kids (usually they deserve it, but sometimes not), or all the other myriad things that I do/don't do that make me not measure up to some image I have of what I *should* be.

Anyway, this weekend my longtime friend Danielle came to stay with us. Danielle and I have known each other since we were about 5 years old and took ballet lessons together. She has been living in Raleigh, NC since she went to NCState in 1987. Anyway, the reason she came to stay with us was for a walk-a-thon that was taking place near us to raise money for Battens disease. It is a rare, genetic disease which is fatal for anyone who has it, with most not surviving past their teens. Her 11-year-old son was diagnosed with Battens about 2.5 years ago after they were trying to determine why he was going blind. At the fundraiser, I had the opportunity to meet several other Battens parents--one set had lost their daughter on Christmas day of 2005, another mother had a 12 year old son who was now wheelchair-bound, and the parents who were organizing the fundraiser had just discovered that both of their sons had the disease.

After spending the weekend with Danielle I feel so small for the things that I have let bother me. Here is someone who is struggling with a child whose physical and mental abilities are regressing to the point that he will eventually be completely bedridden, on a feeding tube, with no ability to communicate. He is becoming increasingly violent, without the ability to control himself. He has lost nearly all of his vision. And he's only going to get worse. She has to live with knowing what is coming, and that her son will probably die in the next few years. And she has two other young children who need her time, love and attention. Her husband travels frequently, so she often has to deal with all of this by herself.

And she is handling all of these things with such grace and a sense of humor. She has taken the mind-numbing guilt (she is a carrier for this disease), and anger about what is happening to her child, and directed it towards raising money and awareness about the disease.

I am proud, and humbled, and my perspective has shifted.