Joy

Ryan's itsy bitsy spider

Ryan LOVES the camera. Anytime I get it out, he begs me to take his picture and smiles a very goofy mile for me. Here he interrupts himself to pose this smile once he realizes the camera is out.

Another one for Grandma Joan and Grandpa Bud

I wanted to post these for my grandparents. They sent the kids these beautiful sweaters over a year ago and Nora and Ryan are finally fitting in them really nicely. Caitlin loves hers and has been wearing it since she got it last year (the pic below is old). Thanks again!

Visit with Grandma Joanie and Grandpa Buddy

lest i have a high opinion of myself

As I'm getting ready to go out to Parent's Night for Caitlin's school, she is watching me apply some make-up and comments "I don't need makeup because my face is not like that.....but I still love you anyway."

wow. I guess the numerous discussions I've had with her about the importance of our heart over our looks is really making a difference.

First soccer game

Caitlin decided to try soccer this season instead of dance. She is loving it so far and meeting new friends. Somehow I managed to capture the one time she touched the ball below (she is #7). Nora and Ryan are enjoying rolling down the tiniest hill at the soccer field and are, of course, the cutest spectators.

First Day of kindergarten

Caitlin's first day of school was Thursday, Sept 8. She was very excited to go to elementary school. I thought it would emotionally difficult and sad to see her with the big kids in an elementary school, but it wasn't--I was just really excited for her. I couldn't wait to pick her up and ask her one hundred questions about her day.










We were invited in for the first 15 minutes or so and it was sort of fun to see the routine. Caitlin was very serious about listening when her teacher was talking. She was very independent about the whole thing--not only was she NOT clingy with me, but she wouldn't even make eye contact. I barely got a wave out of her when it was time to go. She is kind of a big deal now, i guess.

When I picked her up, she was all smiles though. She had a hard time recounting her day other than "it was great," but was happy to answer all one hundred of my questions and it turns out: she was able to get milk for lunch with the money I gave her, she met some new friends, she went potty exactly once with no problems, she played outside, they had apples, bananas and cheese sticks for snack, lunch was not enough time to eat, she likes her teacher, they traced leaves and birds, she felt good all day, she sat at a table of all boys except her, she didn't mind that she sat at the boys table, she likes "choice time," the gym is boring but the computer room is pretty cool.

On the way home, she started going through her school bag and doing her "homework," which intrigued me, but OK. She insisted she had some papers to work on. After dinner, I opened up her school bag and found emergency forms, lunch ordering forms, fundraiser forms, health forms, transportation forms, etc. that already had "CAITLIN" written in her typical 5 year old style under the "child's name" section and "710" written under "contact number." I left most of it that way and just filled in the extra blanks.

Since school has started, she has continued to be open with me about her days--I don't know, I guess I thought she would not be interested in talking about her day with me and that I'd be totally out of touch. So, I'm happy for that. She tells me who she played with at recess and what types of things she learned each day. I'm missing the regular chats I used to have with her daycare teachers each day so I'm looking forward to conferences to hear how things are going from the teacher's end. Caitlin has been great about getting to bed earlier, picking out her clothes for the next day, and getting up and moving in the morning but it's a long week. Last week, she got a terrible headache on Friday afternoon and I wonder if the transition to full day all week long isn't just a bit too much too fast compared with the 3 days she used to have school. She'll get into the groove, I'm sure, but I'm watching her carefully. The other issue is that she doesn't want to eat breakfast and she doesn't have time to eat a full lunch (she is a VERY slow eater) so I'm hoping that improves after the initial weeks we are in.

All in all, it's going great. We also started a pretty busy soccer schedule at the same time so we are trying to manage our new schedule. It's crazy, but good crazy.