I'm back!

We just got back from a 8 day vacation to Iowa. I know, sounds kind of boring, but it was fun.

Adventureland, visiting friends, Okoboji

I will blog some more tomorrow and hopefully get some pictures loaded. I'm still trying to figure out how to do that on my new-to-me computer.

Back to the real world tomorrow!

Naps are important!

This morning we were at the gym nice and early. Like 8:45 early!

I wanted to go to Pilates at 9, Courtney had scooters class at 9:30 and Megan had ballet at 9:30 too. After all these classes were done around 10:15, I was going to go put thier suits on and take them swimming until 12. I knew Christian would not last in the childcare for 3 hours, so we were just going to make it work out somehow.

After Megan's dance was over, I went over to Christian's room to check on him. I fully expected him to be breaking down since he had been up since 7. No, he was just fine and I was going to let him, but then Courtney got ahead of me and he saw her. Now I had to pick him up. It's alright though. I told the workers that I would go get him a snack and then bring him back, maybe he will take a nap then.

I put him in his stroller and gave him some crackers. We went to the locker rooms, got dressed, covered everybody in in suntan lotion, and went out to the pool. I think it was already 90 degrees by 10:45 am! I had Christian in the shade, so he was fine. He was having his snack and was happy. About 11, I noticed he had this glazed look over his eyes. It was pretty hot out there and I had no intentions of getting him in the pool because of his fair skin, so I told the girls that I was going to take him back to childcare.

I got him back there and by this time, they had moved rooms. I checked him back in and crossed my fingers. Is he going to scream for them since it is naptime? Is he going to be ok? I left him anyway and went back outside.

At 12, I picked him up again and he was a very happy boy, they said he was great. Apparently, the little snack had perked him up, plus the new room to explore. I thought that he would surely fall asleep on the way home. Nope, all the way home, he was wide awake.

My next plan was to get him lunch and then put him down, I just couldn't believe he didn't fall asleep on the way home. I fed him lunch and he kept signing, "done" and "read books." I took that as he wanted to read books and go to bed. I took him upstairs and went through our bedtime routine. I put him in his crib, even though he didn't look tired, and said good night. For 20 minutes, he cried up there! This was unusual, he usually goes right to sleep.

I went and got him and tried to feed him lunch again. Again, "All done." Ok, now what? I put him on the floor to play and he just was off. He was cranky and didn't quite know what he wanted. Eventually he found the pillow we use for nursing and he knew exactly what he wanted! He got the pillow and drug it over to me (this is a king size pillow, so it's bigger than he is!). I could tell that this would do the trick, so I nursed him and he went right to sleep!

After an hour nap, we were much better.

Maybe I should stay home tomorrow and let him nap. Or leave the gym a little bit earlier, so we're not staying in the childcare for 3 hours. It's just too hot to go swimming in the afternoons, so I like to let the kids go in the morning before it gets to be 115 heat index.

And this was his only nap of the day. One hour and he was up at 7 am and went to bed at 9 tonight.

That could've went better.

We attempted family pictures this afternoon. We had our last one done about a year ago and I'm tired of looking at Christian who was only 3 months old in our current pictures.

I called JCPenney's and had an appointment set for 1:20. I thought thatChristian could nap while we had lunch, we can take pictures, and then we can feed Christian and all would be well! (This is normal for Christian not to eat with us, so don't think I'm starving my child.)

HA HA HA- total backfire!!!

It all went well until we sat down to take pictures. Christian was wide awake and had a little snack, but he discovered that he could run ALL AROUND the portrait studio. We couldn't get him to sit for anything. So that was problem #1. Our other problem was Courtney! She just didn't want to cooperate. From not smiling, to not sitting right, to finally screaming at us! Matt took her out to the car for 15 minutes to calm down.

We ended up taking a half hour break. While Matt was in the car with Courtney, I took Christian back to the food court to get lunch.

About 2:30, we headed back to the portrait studio for round 2.

Round 2 went much better! We got some great shots! Christian still wouldn't sit, but once we gave him a ball and played with him, we caught him for about a second to take the picture.

About 3, we were finally done. It took about 3 minutes to pick out pictures and place my order! I knew exactly what I wanted before I walked in there.

Now we are at home, hopefully we'll have better luck next year. :)

It's official...

we're homeschooling next year!

Yikes, what are we getting into???

Matt and I needed to make a decision, so we did. We're going to go for it.

We found some curriculum on ebay that was about $150 cheaper than on the curriculum website, so we bid on it and we got it. Now we have to homeschool!

When I was sitting at the computer watching the auction, Megan was right beside me. When I said, "We won," she got really giggly and gave me a big hug! She wants to homeschool more than anybody!! (ok, besides Matt. I was the last one to really come around. Even Courtney wants to homeschool.)

Now onto filling out the official paperwork and letting her school know that she will not be attending in the fall. This will probably be the hardest part of getting started. For the last three years, we have sent Megan off to school. It will be wierd having her home, but I think it will be a huge blessing too!

Courtney is still going to go to preschool, so that will give us our reason to get up and out the door in the mornings. I am also going to do 4-day lesson plans on everything, so we can take a day off every week or we can catch up on what we didn't get done.

I have all her curriculum picked out and priced. Now to purchase the rest! Megan still wants to take music and art at school though, so we will see how that will work out. We will probably do some homeschool PE classes at Prarie Life too. Other than that, we will see.

I have a lot on the plate for the fall. Homeschooling needs to be priority number one! I am still a member of MOMS Club, but we haven't done much this summer and since Courtney will be in preschool, I'm not sure how much we will do. I will still be attending mom's night out though. :) I am also registered for MOPS at Christ Community again, we'll see if that will work out. They do not have a room for homeschoolers.

I also want to keep my membership at Prarie Life and keep exercising. My thoughts are that I will drop Courtney off at 9 on Monday/ Wed/ Friday and then head over Prarie Life. I could do a class at 9 and then have Megan do some homework in childcare and then at 10, we could sit down in the lobby and do schoolwork. We could also do school work first and then I could do a class at 10. Courtney gets out of preschool at 11:30, so that would be perfect. Christian could hang out with us or go to childcare, which is right around the corner from the lobby. If we don't get done with school at Prarie Life, then we could always finish it up at home in the afternoon with Courtney around.

I told Megan that we need to sit down everyday and do something together. We really don't do that now, but if we're going to be doing schoolwork everyday together, we need to get into that habit. People say that school will take 2-3 hours.

I think it will be a huge change for us around here, but to Matt and I, the benefits can be huge!! We are anxious to teach her science and social studies from a Christian perspective. We are anxious to do bible class with her everyday and see her faith grow! I want to do service projects with our kids. I want the girls to be close and love each other. So many benefits!

Public school has done us good, even though I complained a lot about it. We're going to take this one year at a time and see what happens.

The Week is over!

Man, am I glad it is Friday!!!!!

After having dance camp and bible school everyday this week, I am exhausted and tired of playing taxi driver! Last night was the last night for Bible school and the kids had a little program. It was cute, but of course, I didn't have my camera. The girls had fun, learned about Jesus, and got a nice break from each other.

Dance camp is over too, Megan had a short recital today at 3. She was very excited because they danced to a song from "Tangled" and she got to play Rapunzel!! She had a solo and of course, she did great!

Now, one more week until vacation. One week gone on vacation, one week back and then we are going to camp out at the Dodge County fair for the weekend.

If you want to get particular,Millard kids go back to school that following Wednesday, that means less than a month left of summer. (Didn't they just get out??)

But of course, we're thinking of homeschooling this year, so Megan would get an additional month to enjoy her summer. :)

Camp Week

In addition to all our classes we are taking at the gym, we had to pile two camps into our schedule for this week.

Megan has dance camp at Saddlebrook Community Center everyday from 11-11:15. This is with the same dance teacher she took dance with all year, so she was quite excited. On Sunday night, I looked at her and said, "Megan, do we really have to do dance camp this year? You are already taking dance Prarie Life every week." She said, "Yes, I have to go to dance camp." Ok Megan, fine.

We are also participating in Vacation Bible School this year. This is at Miracle Hills Baptist church from 6-8 at night. We have went to bible school here for the last 5 years (minus one year where we missed it). This church is by our old house, but we've gotten to know the faces and the girls love it, so I always insist we go again. Matt wanted to try a bible school up by our house now, but I didn't want to. The girls have been looking forward to this all year.

So I am taxi driver this week and it's a little chaotic. For example, today, Megan still had ballet at Prarie Life from 9:30-10:10, so I did water aerobics from 9:15-10:15, Courtney did a scooter class at 9:30 and crafts at 10. At 10:30, I piled them back into the car and drove over to the community center. We were there until 12 and now we are home for the afternoon. About 5:45, we'll leave again to go to bible school.

Yesterday (Monday), started with dance camp at 11. We ate our lunch at the community center and then went swimming at the gym until 3. We then had to get home because I taught piano lessons at 4:30 and then bible school at 6. Wow! I'm going to be exhausted by the end of the week!

I said I was "All Done!"

We spent most of the day at the gym again today, about 3 hours of that included time at the pool this afternoon. I took Christian with me swimming today because he had some green drainage coming out of his nose. I got him in the pool like always and we were having a good time. Well, I was, I knew he wasn't. He kept getting splashed and he kept snuggling up on my shoulder like he was tired. About 10 minutes before restbreak, I was getting tired of the squirmy worm in my arms, so I decided to get out of the pool. Plus Megan has learned that she can swim by herself, so she likes to use me as a floating device. Two kids hanging on you in the pool- not so fun.

Anwyay, I asked Christian if he was done swimming at that point and he signed "All done." Ok, so we got out and rested. We went and found some friends during break and sat by them. After restbreak, I had all intentions of getting back in with him. About 10 minutes after the whistle blew, I asked him if he wanted to go swimming again, and he signed, "All done" to me again. Do you really think he understood? So I asked him again. Sure enough, same thing.

Alright Christian, I guess you are done swimming for the day. We sat out for the rest of the hour and let the girls swim. So much for cooling off on a hot July day! Hopefully his nose will clear up and he can hang out in the childcare room tomorrow!

New Development

Here's some of Christian's latest developments:

1. We've been working with Christian on sign language for awhile now, but lately, he seems to have finally gotten some of them.

He can sign:
All done
More
night-night
wash hands
books

I know it's not many, but they're the most useful ones!

He can also understand many words that you say. The other day we asked him, "Where is Dell?" and he looked right at the dog! He knew Courtney, Megan, and daddy, unfortunately, when we asked, "Where is mommy?" he didn't look at me. :( We may need to work on that one.

2. He can also stand up all by himself now. No more crawling over to something to pull himself up. I think his crawling days are done! It's funny because Megan learned to stand up by herself first and then she learned how to walk. Courtney and Christian both learned to walk first, and then they learned to stand up on their own.

3. I also determined tonight that he might be the first kid to knock his front teeth out. For the second time in his life, he has fallen and we have seen blood coming out of his mouth. Tonight we never found where he was bleeding from, but all his teeth were straight. I think it's his frenom above his teeth, he had a pretty fat lip tonight. Poor Courtney, she saw blood on his finger and lost it. She has such compassion for him! Before he went to bed, she wanted to make sure he was ok. She does not like it when anything bad happens to him!

4. He also loves to read books! He goes crazy when you ask him, "Do you want to go read books?" I think that is his favorite part about bedtime. Now that he can sign it, he can let us know when he wants to read. Tonight, I was reading books to Courtney and Christian was on my lap. I had put all the books down on the bed and he was signing "books," so I gave him one and he was all smiles!

5. He's also much better at going to bed! Hopefully we'll get this little guy weaned soon, so we are working on going to bed without nursing. We've transitioned to reading books, singing a song, and putting him in bed. He usually cries for a little bit and goes to sleep (MUCH better than about 7-8 months ago!). Tonight, he didn't even cry, he just laid down and went to sleep! This works for his morning nap too, but I usually nurse him to sleep in the afternoon. Still need to work on that one!

6. He can eat about everything and he loves 1% milk. Apparently, mom aren't supposed to give babies whole milk anymore because it leads to obesity (whatever!), so I just give him what we drink. I will probably start going through more than 3 gallons of milk a week now. Do I get an extra fridge or go to the store more??

That is all I can think of for now. :)

The "Real" Parade

Today was the actual 4th of July parade for our neighborhood. After being up until midnight last night at our neighbor's house, we let the girls sleep in and once they were up, it was time to get ready to go to the parade, again. We loaded everything up and off we went, but this time, we had balloons for the bikes. When we got to the middle school, there were about 50 people there. This is more like it! We got in line and the parade started. We walked and the girls rode their bikes to the park.

Once we got to the park, there was only cupcakes and cookies to eat and juice boxes and water bottles to drink. Usually, there is a snow cone machine, a tattooe station, water balloon games, and other kid-friendly activities to do. Today- nothing! Ok, I take that back, they did have a clown who was making balloon animals. He had quite a line! After about 15 minutes, people started realizing there was nothing else to do and started heading home. We would've too, except Megan's dog balloon popped, so she stood in line again to get another one. We got home about 11. Hopefully, they will put more effort into the event. I would've surely helped if I had known they needed it!

Parade? What Parade?

Every fourth of July weekend, our neighborhood has a 4th of July parade from the middle school to the park. Kids decorate their bikes/ wagons and everybody waves flags. After everybody walks the 10 blocks to the park, they have snow cones, tattooes, cookies, juice, and other fun stuff for the kids to do. We've gone every year and it's always fun.

Matt and I noticed this week that there were signs up at the neighborhood entrance that said, "Parade, Saturday, July 2nd, 10 am." So by 9:30, we had the bikes and wagon decorated with streamers and we were ready to head to the middle school for the start of the parade.

We got to the school about 9:50 and looked around, there were two others kids there on their bikes. So, we unloaded the bikes/ wagon and kept waiting. About 9:55, another family showed up. We though something was going on, so Matt went over and checked the sign again and we were right.

About 10:10, nobody else is there. :( One of the kids calls his dad and said there is nothing set up at the park either, his dad also said it is Monday, not Saturday.

So unfortunately, we loaded the kids back up and came back home.

I guess we'll try again on Monday! But Matt said we are going to get more streamers and balloons for the bikes. There is always a competition for the best-decorated bike, he wants to win. Hopefully more people will show up on Monday, I don't know how I was supposed to know it was on Monday!

Big Improvement in the pool!

With spending so much time at the pool this summer, my girls are really improving in their swimming skills. Megan can now swim in the deep end by herself and go off the slides into 5 foot of water and keep herself afloat. Wow! She can also swim the length of the pool doing front crawl and back crawl. She is really getting it! Sse finally passed level 2 in swimming lessons and she is anxious to start level 3- whenever that may be.

Courtney, on the other hand, is making her own improvements this year. She has never taken lessons before, so she took preschool level one class in the month of June. Unfortunately, she didn't pass because she wouldn't put her head under water. She missed about 3 other things, but passed the other twenty. She was so close! When she found out Thursday that she did not pass, she was in tears, especially since her friend that she took lessons with did pass.

Last night, Matt and I took the kids to the pool for a couple of hours. Megan really wanted to show Matt her new skills and I thought it would just be something to do as a family. It's been a long week here, so something fun was definitely on the agenda. By the end of the night, Courtney had made huge strides, she was putting her head completely under water!! She was doing awesome! She practiced for about a half an hour and all I heard was, "One, two, three" and she would go under, always feeling the top of her head to see if she went all the water under or not. When she would come up, she would always ask us, "Thumbs up or thumbs down?" Of course, we would always give her two thumbs up and tell her what a good job she was doing! She was thrilled with her progress by the end of the night.

As we were walking to the locker room after we were done, she looked at me and said, "Mom, do I pass now??" I didn't know what to say!

She's going to Vegas!

I was just in the playroom getting my hair done by Courtney when Megan came in with a HUGE grin on her face. I asked her, "What are you doing?" because I kind of saw her singing and dancing in the hallway.

She responded, "Playing 'America's Got Talent". " I responded, "Oh Really, Megan, and what did the judges say?"

"Yes, yes, and YES!!!" very excitedly. I told her, "You're going to Vegas then!" She just giggled!

But of course, ten minutes later, when I am performing some made up song with my crazy hair, she's giving me "x" with her arms!