Sunday, February 8, 2009

A little of this, a little of that

You know it's been a good day when your kid goes to bed with buttercream icing on his glasses! We made cupcakes this afternoon for Zach's preschool Valentine's Day party (tomorrow) and he wanted to ice them when Bryan and I got home from small group. So, I left Bryan to get Luke out of the tub and into jammies while Zach and I started on those cupcakes. I have discovered that one thing I love about Valentine's Day is that now I have a reason to use those pink cupcake liners and make pink icing! School snack is usually very strict - never any sugar - but the second I heard that they would let us make an exception for school parties I signed up for Valentine's Day snack. The kids are going to love the cupcakes!

We've reached some milestones in the last couple of weeks. First, Zach is now sleeping on the top bunk! This happened about two weeks ago. He loves it and is just so proud of the big kid he is becoming. This leads to another milestone - Luke has been napping on the bottom bunk! He thinks he wants to be a big boy, but when it comes down to it, he generally opts for his little boy things - like the crib! However, Bryan has the magic touch and has had him napping in the lower bunk for the past couple of days. He still has no intentions on giving up the crib over night! He has also digressed in the potty training department. He was doing great (no accidents) but now he's refusing to wear underwear. He wants either naked or diapers, so we've agreed to go with diapers. And one more MAJOR milestone - Zach has conquered the biggest play structure we've ever seen! Zach is very conservative - never takes a risk. He has never gone higher than the first level of a playstructure (those plastic hamster cage things) and most of the time he wouldn't even go that far. Until Wednesday night. We went to a local family fun center and Zach got the bug. After playing outside the structure for a while, he decided he wanted to go high enough to slide... Then, the next thing we knew, he was two stories up and crawling all over the place. He loved it! Looks like he might be astronaut material after all! If we can do something about his vision... And one more milestone we are quickly approaching - KINDERGARTEN ROUND-UP. I am in awe when I look at this incedible child that was a baby just yesterday. Wasn't he? And now we're getting kindergarten readiness materials everytime I open his backpack after school. I think my heart just broke a little more as I typed that. I am not one of those moms who looks forward to kindergarten. I do for his sake - I know he will love it and it will lead to every other milestone he needs to reach. You know, like 1st grade, having his own library card, dating. Okay, that's a jump. But, seriously... I am excited for him to grow up (slowly), but scared at the same time. Scared to leave him alone in that big building, scared to drop him at the curb and not walk him in, scared to leave one teacher alone with 20+ students (right now he has 2 teachers for 11 kids). This is when I cling to God and trust Him to watch over this child and return him safely to the curb where I will pick him back up three hours after dropping him off. Or is it 3 1/2? I will be early. So, anyway, we're off to kindergarten round-up in April, with birth certificate and tuition check in hand. Phew.. I will need to spend the next two months praying that I won't cry all night at round-up and run out, scared into homeschooling.

We have enjoyed the time that Bryan's been home with us. On Friday we went to the zoo! When it's 70+ degrees on a midwestern February day, what else do you do? You allow your kid to skip school and take a family field trip! We went to our state's capital city and visited the greatest little zoo. Luke loved the monkeys and Zach loved everything. We have tons of pics, so I will have to post them a little later. The day before that we went to a preschool friend's birthday party. A local nature center brought some animals, so we got to get up close and personal with a snake, tarantula, rabbit, and owl. It was pretty cool. And the week before that, we went to a local museum that has a neat kids exhibit. We've done a good job of finding inexpensive (and even FREE) things to do as a family during Bryan's lay-off.

A couple other things have changed recently... I just started teaching pre-k Sunday school at our church every-other-week. I have subbed for years, but this is the first time I've officially been a Sunday school teacher. So far I'm really enjoying it! The other thing I've picked up is subbing at the church where Zach goes to preschool. They needed childcare subs for various Bible studies and classes, and I felt like it was the least I could do. We really love Zach's school - they have been so good with him and have taught all of us so much. We are sad to see Zachary graduating from there and moving on to another school. But, we look forward to Luke going here in a couple of years. My, how the time flies!

Speaking of time, it is after 10pm and I still have a show on DVR that I want to watch before crawling into bed. We didn't even have DVR six months ago, but my sister-in-law kept telling us that it would change our lives! That's a different post for another day (and maybe a support group?), but I think she was on to something. Well, maybe it hasn't changed our LIVES but it certainly has changed how we watch TV. Did you happen to see that Lipstick Jungle might be getting picked up by Lifetime? And what will I do when ER goes off the air? Like I said, maybe a support group is needed.... 'Night.

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