Gemma's First Day of Preschool

For a while now, we've been debating whether or not to enroll Gemma in a preschool program.  Ideally, we were looking for something one day a week, primarily to give her a chance to interact with some other kids her age (which has been hard for me to do, since we're constantly having to work around Ethan's eating/sleeping schedule).  We've had her on a couple of waiting lists for a couple of different programs for a while, and finally Grace United Methodist told us that they had an opening in one of the 5 day classes but they would let us bring Gemma 2 days a week to the 5 day class since they weren't filling the spot anyway.  The best part is that Gemma's cousin Liam happens to be in this class, so she already has a friend there and she loves playing with Liam, so now she will get to see him every Tuesday and Thursday morning at school!

We decided to ease her in with just one day this past week.  We loaded up the whole family on Thursday to drop her off. 

I have had very mixed feelings the whole time we have been making this decision, and sure enough, I was pretty much bawling my eyes out as I watched her little face staring at me through the window as I walked away (about to start crying again now just thinking about it!).  I think it was pretty one-sided though - from what we could tell, Gemma did not cry and when we got there to pick her up, she didn't want to leave!  When we picked her up, she was sitting quietly in her chair at the table with the other children, and was wearing this adorable puppy dog hat that they had made. 

It seemed like her first day was a good experience.  I know it will be great for her to be around some other kids her own age, and it won't hurt me to have a little break from her a couple of days a week since we are right in the heart of the terrible twos and between her and her baby brother, those two can quickly drive me out of my mind sometimes!  But I am more than sure I will still have a hard time driving off and leaving my baby girl the next few times. 

Blog Revamp

I've decided to revive my old blog over at http://wibliophile.blogspot.com.  I've given the template a makeover, and I've decided that instead of just talking about my writing projects, my blog is going to be about all things book-related.  I'll be doing some book reviews (mostly of YA stuff).  Mostly this is because I really, really wish I could be part of foreveryoungadult.com (I'm pretty much obsessed with that website) but since I'm not, I can at least have my own fun.  Anyway, if you're interested, head on over and join me.  I'd love to get some conversations going!

www.wibliophile.blogspot.com

Guess Who's 5 Months Old Already?

This little guy (or big guy, as it says on his shirt, which is the absolute truth)!  I can hardly believe it - in some ways, it almost seems like it's been longer, but in some ways, I can't believe it's already been 5 whole months.  I already can't remember what life was like without him (and his crazy sister, of course).  And even though we definitely have some rough times, I wouldn't trade my 5 months of Ethan for anything.

We have had a great day today too!  We took advantage of the amazing weather this morning and our double jogging stroller and did a 3 mile walk around the neighborhood.  Then we loaded up and met Cy at Arby's for lunch.  Gemma entertained Ethan by jumping up and down on the booth - both kids laughed and laughed.  We sang along to the radio and danced.  I am sure we annoyed everyone else in the Arby's but we had a great time.

Now the kids are napping and I am enjoying this great weather on the back porch with my laptop.  Can't wait to play in the backyard after dinner so we can keep on enjoying the great weather while it lasts!

Two Ridiculously Silly Kiddos

I have two very very silly kids.  To prove this, I've downloaded some funny videos of them from my phone to post here.

This is what life is like at our house.

One of Gemma's favorite things to do is play outside, and she has (finally!) learned how to go down the slide on her own.  Of course, half the time she lands right on her bottom, but that just adds to the hilarity!

One of Ethan's favorite things to do is hang out in the exersaucer. He has very good fine motor skills already and can do many of the activities on the exersaucer. 

Ethan thinks his big sister is just about the funniest person ever.  When we play in the backyard, Gemma loves to jump up and down in the pool and then plop down on her bottom and splash.  Ethan thinks this is super funny every time, and both of them sit there just cracking up.

Ethan's not the only one who thinks Gemma is hilarious.  Gemma's pretty much convinced herself that she's the funniest person ever.  Which is why, when I'm trying to take videos of Ethan playing in his exersaucer, I instead end up with videos like this:

Labor Day Weekend Fun

Since we had a long weekend over Labor Day, we decided to head up to Lake Murray to visit Nana and Pops and also hit up the zoo while we were there.  The last time we took Gemma to the zoo was around Christmas, and she wasn't terribly aware of what was going on.  She's really into animals these days, so we thought she would love it.

Gemma did really enjoy seeing animals at the zoo, and she even got to feed a giraffe (which is one of her favorite animals), although after it wrapped its entire tongue around her little arm, she got freaked out and didn't want to feed it anymore. 

We had fun hanging out with Nana, Pops, Uncle Mike and Aunt Jean, and Aunt Pam.  One night, Pops took us out on the boat to see if any of the purple martins were still hanging around.  Most of them have migrated by now, but we did get to see a beautiful sunset.

If you squint really hard, you may be able to see a few purple martins

Although the trip there went smoothly, the car ride back was not so great.  We had two kids crying for about the last 30 minutes.  After that I am really not looking forward to making a long trip to see my family at Thanksgiving but I guess we'll make do!

We really enjoyed the long weekend but it made it even harder when Cy had to go back to work on Tuesday!