March 2013

So much for a snazzy title, huh?

Things have been busy around here, but pretty low key at the same time. Nothing exciting happening. We spend most of our afternoons/evenings at the Y. Reagan has swim lessons two days a week and Aftan has swim team two to three days a week. Aftan also has Girl Scouts every other Monday and she does various miscellaneous activities with them, as well. Aftan's swim season is coming to a close. She has one more meet this month and then championships in April. After that time, she will still swim two days a week for the Spring and Summer, but no meets until next Fall.

Speaking of swimming, I can't wait for the summer. I want the outdoor pool to open and just spend all summer laying out there by the pool. It was so nice last summer and I really enjoyed it. I long for those days again. I am tired of all this cold and dreary weather. I am ready for the warm/hot weather. I also am dreaming of hanging out at the beach at First Landing State Park. We went there only one time last summer, but it was fantastic. I want to bust out my beach umbrella and lets the girls play around in the water all day. Nothing to do. Nowhere to be.

Updates on the kids? Let's see. I just re-enrolled them for school next year. I can't believe Aftan will be in the 2nd grade and Reagan will be finishing her last year of preschool. It doesn't seem possible. Aftan will also be bridging to Brownies with her Girl Scout troop. I just find it amazing. It is so true when people tell you not to blink, that they grow up much too quickly. I think that sentiment is a bit of an understatement.

Aftan is just so interested in everything and anything they learn at school. They learn about different animals, she comes home and hops on the computer to research it further. They learn about the solar system? Same deal. Pyramids? "I need to look this up!" She has also started to learn cursive writing. She does pretty good at it, I think. Her signature is better than mine.

Reagan is starting to read. She has gotten so good at sounding out words and is learning blends now. She can read simple sentences to me. It really is amazing. She is also learning to skip count (just by 10s right now). She was particularly interested in a science experiment they did at school where they put a chicken bone in vinegar and it make the bone flexible. She mentions that nonstop. She has also taken off with her swimming. She is still working on doing an overhand stroke, but she can paddle 25 yards (a pool length) on her own. She is like Aftan where Aftan really started to pack on muscle weight at this age. Reagan seems to be doing the same thing. It feels like she is finally gaining weight and it is pure muscle.

These girls are my pride and joy. I don't know that I can express how proud of both of them I am. While they both have their moments and they like to bicker and argue sometimes, they are both really good kids. Very sweet and loving and wicked smart and funny. I wouldn't have them any other way.

Love, love, love them.

No Excuses

Well, I guess I DO have a list of excuses for not updating this thing. It was a long, lazy summer for us. Then school started and we had to hit the ground running. It's been crazy, crazy, crazy since school started at the beginning of September.

Aftan is in the first grade now. She absolutely is totally thriving and she loves her classmates and her teacher. In previous years, she would not tell me much about her day. Now, she tells me all about it in great detail. She knows how many lessons she worked on. She knows exactly which ones they were. She relays to me what they sang in music class and what they learned in Spanish class. She started out the year kind of rough. She was not used to being the "low man on the totem pole" so to speak. She was never the youngest in her class. But, this year she is in the 1st grade in a mixed 1st-3rd grade classroom. At first, she found it hard making friends b/c some of the kids in that class are in 2nd and 3rd grade and have been together since they were toddlers in preschool. But, it only took a week or two for her to start making friends and gaining some confidence. She has made a friend out of one of the 3rd grade girls. Aftan brings a little notebook to school every day and her and her friend take turns writing out a little story. Which brings me to another thing. At the beginning of the year, Aftan had no interest in reading on her own. She "could", but she wouldn't. She was having a confidence issue b/c the older kids could obviously read better than she could and she doesn't like to do things if they are not "perfect." I don't know what happened, though. She has taken off. She loves to read now. In fact, she volunteered to read a book to her classmates at the end of the day one day. She is doing great in school!

She has also started swim team at our local Y. This is the child that was doggy paddling at the beginning of the year when she started in swim lessons. She just swam in her first meet yesterday. She swam 5 events which included freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke and two relays. It was a really long day for her as she swam in the very first event and then one of the very last events. She was there from 12:30pm - 6:00pm and then stayed at the Y after that until 9:30pm for Parent's Night Out. But, she asked me to sign her up for the next swim meet next month.

Here she is at swim team. The first pic is of her at practice and the others are at the meet yesterday:

 Waiting in the ready room

 Breaststroke

 After the meet

Reagan is almost 4 now. Can you believe it? I sure can't. She also is loving school and is doing great at it. She is working very hard on her handwriting and it is getting really good! She can write her name and Aftan's and also "Mom" and "Dad". She can copy any word. She is also starting to read! It's crazy. She is definitely at the point where she can tell beginning letters, but she is also starting to be able to read short words like "cat", "dog", "in", "stop" or any word that is easy to read out phonetically. She is a smart little cookie. She is also in swim lessons. She moved up to the third level of ten, which is great for her age! She is able to do back float for a few seconds and can tread water. She is still working on getting her arms out of the water for freestyle, but she will get there. 

Here are a couple recent pics of Reagan :)

 At swim lessons

 Playing outside

Summer Days.....

Man, I just have been gone for a long time because blogger has changed. Something else to get used to, I guess.

I suck at updating this thing. It's been six months since I last updated. I apparently only updated twice the whole last school year. Well, maybe I will have more time to update since I am UNEMPLOYED. Yup. I quit my job. I am officially a stay-at-home mom for the first time in my life. I was previously a work-at-home mom, but I've never been an actual stay-at-home mom. It all started out as wanting/needing to take the summer off because it made more financial sense to stay home with the girls and save the summer camp money, but it ended up being a permanent thing since my work got their proverbial panties in a twist over it and went over the deep end. So...I am unemployed.

I have created a bucket list for the girls and I to do together this summer. Things like ride the ferry and play in the sprinkler and have picnics and play with sidewalk chalk and chase fireflies. You know...typical summer things.

One of the things on this list is "Turn 6." We are just a few days away from this milestone for Aftan. She had her birthday party today. It was her first real birthday party with friends and cake and decorations and the whole nine yards. We had it at the YMCA pool, and she had an absolute blast. We went swimming and had cake and pizza and the kids decorated bucket hats and necklaces to take home. I think they all had fun. I hope it tired them all out.

Aftan goes into the 1st grade next year. She is excited, and we are excited for her. She is turning into such a big girl. She's so smart, creative and witty.

Reagan is 3 1/2 years old now. She is so smart and goes into her second year of preschool next year. She can write her name with impeccable penmanship (for a 3-year-old...or even some 6-year-olds). She takes after her sister in this regard.

Let's see if I can rustle pics of the kids up. These are from Aftan's pool party today and the last one is from the other day. I just love the pic of them together:

It's Me Again, Margaret!

So much for updating this thing. I read so many blogs, you'd think I could remember to update my own.

Anyway, it is now 2012. I would say the obligatory "Good riddance to 2011. Worst year yet!," but I have to say that 2011 was much better to us than 2010 was. Here's to hoping 2012 will be a great year!

Hmmmm...what has been going on with us? Let's see....

1. Reagan has adjusted well to school. She loves to go and see her friends and misses it when they have days off. She is so ready to go back from the holidays.

2. Aftan is doing good. Getting taller, as usual. I think someone forgot to tell her that you are supposed to not grow so fast after the age of 2 or 3. :)

3. Reagan just turned 3, and we just barely met our goal of being potty trained by 3. She has been accident-free for a week now and has been going out of the house in undies.

4. Aftan has her first loose tooth. It is really loose and I thought it would have fallen out by now, but nope. Just hanging in there. I can see her adult tooth behind it, so I am hoping it falls out soon.

5. I got semi-furloughed at my job. That's been fun times, but we are managing.

6. The in-laws so graciously provided us w/ two months worth of membership dues at the Y, so we are going to start exercising and eating healthier. That is my New Year's resolution....just be more healthy in general and lose about 40 pounds. (Not saying it wouldn't hurt to get into some skinny jeans. #just saying)

That's it really. We are boring people. No wonder I don't update this thing more often.

Let's see if I can muster up a recent photo of the kids.

School Time

I can't believe the summer went by that quick and that school time has already started.

I have both my girlies in school now. Aftan is in "kindergarten" and Reagan in preschool. Aftan was very excited to go back to school and see her teacher. She really missed her this summer. Reagan is liking school, but she is not yet adjusted to having to be away from me all day. She cries for me at drop-off in the morning, but I peek in the window when I am outside (yes, I am a preschool stalker) and she is already done crying every time I look in. She is excited when I come to pick her up and announces to her entire class that "My mommy is here!!!!". She tells me all about her day and all the things she did. Aftan is hit or miss. Some days she "can't remember" what she did and some days, like the day she got to be the teacher's assistant, she will explain in great detail. I guess it's the age ;)

I have gone back to work outside the home. My original plan was to work 9-2 M-F, but right now it is not working out quite that way. I am working 9-2 some days, but I am working a couple nights after the girls go to bed and maybe will start working some weekends if the weekday hours don't pan out. I kind of like it b/c a couple days a week, I have some time at home to myself. I enjoy that down time and the ability to get things straightened up w/out someone asking for things constantly.

I do miss my girls, though.

Here is a pic from their first day of school:

Six Months Later...

I can't believe it has been just about six months since I last updated this thing. This year is just slipping through my fingers. I can't believe it is almost half over. It is kind of surreal.

The school year is almost over. We still have about three weeks left. Only about five weeks until Aftan's 5th birthday. How is it that I can remember the day she was born like yesterday, but in just a few months she will be in "kindergarten"? *I use quotey fingers for "kindergarten" b/c she will be in the same class she was in this year, teacher and all, but moves to the top of the cycle in her class. For those that don't know, she goes to a Montessori school and their classes are divided by age, with 3 different ages per class. She is in the 3-young six class (those kids that did not make the 1st grade cutoff). She will not move up until next year when she is in the 1st grade. She will then stay in that class from 1st through 3rd grades. It gives her a chance to be the youngest and receive help and learn from older kids and will also give her the chance (like this coming school year) to be the oldest and help the younger kids.* Anyway, Reagan will also be going to school in September. Actually, she is going to go to a week of Summer Camp at school w/ Aftan this summer, as well. She will be in the 2-young 3s class. I can't believe that she is just about 2 1/2 now. She talks in complete sentences and sometimes just says the funniest things. I can also remember very vividly holding her in the rocking chair when we brought her home from the hospital. I would rock her all day and just daydream about what she would look like and what she would say when she was old enough to talk. Now I know, and it's so cute.

Oh....Aftan's birthday. We decided to forgo a big party w/ her friends from school and spend the day as a family at Busch Gardens. She is very excited about it and said she'd rather spend her day w/ us than her friends. She is already planning on what rides she is going on (she has never even been. LOL) and what food she is going to eat. We are thinking of trying to get her in to have lunch w/ Elmo, so hopefully that will be available on the day we go.

But, that is pretty much it. We haven't really done anything exciting or new. I am going to try to update this thing more now. :)

Thank you, Universe!

May I have another?

It just seems like we can't catch a break. My van is still not ready. It was supposed to be done last Friday, but the transmission that came in was a dud and had to be rebuilt. He told me it'd be ready on Tuesday. Well, it snowed on Monday, so it never got delivered. He told me on Tuesday that'd he'd put it in that afternoon or Wednesday morning. Never heard from him on Wednesday despite calling nearly 20 times throughout the day. I call him this morning (Thursday) and he says he has double pneumonia and is trying to get his worker to put it in under his (doped up) instruction. It started snowing and the area shut down. We didn't hear from him again today. No idea if it will be ready tomorrow or not.

Aftan's school was cancelled today b/c of the snow and ice. She didn't go yesterday owing to no transportation.

Yesterday, I noticed that the hot water would run out after about 1-2 minutes. I tried giving the girls a bath during the day and could not get enough hot water. I mentioned it to Steve when he got home late last night from a business dinner. He went up in the attic to look at the heater and the wire on the bottom was so hot that it had melted the plastic casing and the styrofoam insulation. It could have burned our house down. So, we turned the circuit off to the heater. We have no hot water. I called Lowe's this morning about buying a new one and having it delivered and installed today. The guy was really beyond helpful. I purchased the heater and he said they'd talk to the contractor who delivers them and he'd call me. The contractor calls shortly thereafter saying they have us slated for 4 p.m. depending upon the weather. He calls back around noon saying they are not coming out today and only had a 75% chance of coming out tomorrow.

So, that's where we stand. No van. No hot water. Aftan hasn't been to school since Tuesday, and if they are only delay will not be going tomorrow since there will be no before school care and Steve would have to drop her off early.

At least we have heat and are done Christmas shopping.