First days through the years

2008: Grant was 21 months old, and I was 35 weeks pregnant with Drew.  I sobbed as I left the school parking lot ("my baby is growing up!"), and Grant cried a lot in the beginning.  He only went to school for (I believe) three days before it closed down for Hurricane Ike, and didn't reopen until after Drew was born.  So much for all that pre-baby alone time for me!

 

2009: At almost three, Grant was still majorly attached to his pacifier.  I was shocked when his new teachers told him that first day that he needed to put his paci in his backpack when he came into the classroom.  I thought, "he's still a baby!  That's awfully harsh!"  But it was the best thing for him; a few months later he was hardly using it anymore.

  

2010: Drew was 23 months old and Grant was three and a half.  This time, I was 33 weeks pregnant with Molly.  Grant didn't want to go to school because he was scared about having new teachers, and Drew just had no idea what he was getting into!  But Grant did great and loved it from the beginning.  Poor Drew cried every day until, oh, about early May!  I kind of forget, but I don't think I cried this time....I was just so excited to have another chance at that pre-baby alone time!

 

2011: Yesterday!  Grant is four years, nine months old.  Again, he said he didn't want to start school "because I'm scared Ms. Tammy and Ms. Shelia aren't gonna be my teachers anymore."  But he did great!  I'm so thankful that he's so well-behaved for his teachers.  And now that he's in Pre-K, it seems a lot more like Kindergarten....he has a behavior chart and he is responsible for bringing home his folder every day.  He definitely seems to be in his element at school (I pray that I'm not speaking too soon, bragging on him like this!).

Molly (ten months) is going one day a week!  She's having a lot of separation anxiety at church, but her teachers said she did okay yesterday.  She cried off and on during the morning, but then totally fell apart after lunch, so Ms. Jessica took her for a stroller ride.  She fell asleep and was still sleeping when I picked her up. 

 

Drew has grown up so much in the past six months.  He turned the corner at the end of the year last year, and yesterday he had no fear going into his classroom.  Yay!  I'm so proud of my big boy.

 

 

Drew- making the most of sibling picture time

We went to a park in League City the other day so I could take some pictures of the kids.  Not surprisingly, it's almost impossible to get a picture of all three looking at the camera- at the same time- with a reasonably pleasant expression on all of their faces.  Here's the first try......Drew has been shutting his eyes lately when I ask him to smile for the camera:

  So I asked him to open his eyes:

And it just got sillier from there!

Finally, success!

The cost of a little bit of sanity

Dean and I have never done a monthly budget, but it's something I keep saying I'd like to do.  It's not that I don't know what we spend....every month our credit card bill is basically the same and we do an okay job of mostly just buying things that we need.  But I have no doubt that we could cut our spending if we'd only assign every dollar to a certain category, and just stop spending when those limits are reached every month.

So last night I was going through our latest credit card bill, and started figuring out expenses by category.  The amount spent on gas: $409.  Exactly a hundred of it was Dean's (driving to work and back), which means we put over $300 in the van.  That is ten dollars per day.  Holy cow!  But I guess I shouldn't be too surprised.....I spend many hours every week just driving around.  Sometimes in the mornings, we leave the house when it's time for Molly's nap....so instead of going straight to our destination, I'll let the boys watch a part of a movie in the car so she can get a decent nap instead of sleeping for only 10 minutes (plus it gives me a little morning break from the madness!).  Or we'll end up driving around when we've been out in the morning, and we end up too far away to make it all the way home without someone falling asleep (which means they likely won't stay asleep when we get home).  So I figure I'd rather get 45 minutes to myself in the car than no time to myself at all at home! 

We are starting to think about possibilities of moving to a little bit larger house, and where we might want to move....so I usually end up exploring different neighborhoods.  I have become quite the expert on real estate in the Clear Lake/League City/Friendswood area this summer!  And as long as it's 101 degrees every day here, I really don't care how much money I spend on gas, as long as we're cool and it allows my boys to take a break from fighting for a little while!

Stairstep

When the weather allows it (this time of year, usually this means before 9am and after 5pm), the kids have enjoying playing outside at their sand/water table.  Molly loves standing up and grabbing the sand, and the boys have a blast burying their cars and Star Wars guys.   Don't these first two pictures look like those AT&T commercials that show the bars in all kinds of creative ways (I'm so tired and I can't think of a way to explain this more clearly!).

Molly watches intently as Drew pours:

Sweet Drew.....he's brushing the sand off her arm:

Even though Molly rarely put anything into her mouth until about a week ago (and these were taken a few weeks ago), she stuck her finger in her mouth and must have decided she liked the taste of sand.  Weird!  She did it once, then again and again until I had to stop her.  She just licked it right off!

 The boys came inside while I stayed outside for a few extra minutes with Molly.  We walked in to find them sitting very quietly, watching one of those live-action British comedies on PBS.  You know, the ones where the main characters always seem to be old men?  It was so funny.....the boys rarely sit so quietly even when they watch their own cartoons, but they must have thought this was pretty intriguing!

Finally, a break!

Dean has only been able to take a few days of vacation this summer, so most days it's just been me and the kids.  In these late days of summer, the days are starting to get brutal.  The boys complain every time I try taking them into stores, but with 100-degree days it's impossible to play outside (I don't really even want to go to our neighborhood pool, which has no shade).  There are a couple of indoor play options up in Houston, but I've gotten tired of going to the same places (as an aside, I think it is a shame that so few malls in Texas have an indoor play area for kids).  And our house just seems so boring.....I just turn into a crazy mom on those days when we spend more than about five hours here. 

So this week the boys have play days at their school every day from 9am-1pm.  Yay!  Molly and I did some things that I normally can't do when the boys are with me (rug shopping, for example).  And they had a fun time with their friends, especially Grant.  I was so proud because one of his teachers told me afterwards that he was the only one in the class who did everything when she asked and how she asked.  We are still having major issues with him at home, so I'll take this as a sign that I need to maximize the amount of time he spends in school this year!  Too bad our preschool doesn't offer a 5-day option!


We went to the pool last night and had so much fun!  For the first time, Molly had a blast in the pool (she's always been fairly indifferent towards it).  She kicked and laughed and had fun chasing her brothers in the pool while I held her.  Grant does a good job swimming by himself when he's wearing his floaties, and Drew loves jumping to Daddy from the edge.

 I never noticed this with the boys when they were babies, but Molly's feet were so wrinkled after being in the water.  Of course it's hard to tell in this picture, but it was actually fairly shocking!  Has anyone noticed their babies' feet doing this after being in a pool?