School Daze

As you know, the little guy started preschool a few weeks ago.

After I got over the oh-my-goodness-my-baby-is-growing-up shock of it all, I was really looking forward to what this could mean for him. Being with other kids, having new structure to his day, access to OT and Speech while in a classroom environment - I was very hopeful this would be a new blessing in his life. 

Yes - it's a special needs preschool program. And I had mixed feelings - is he too young? Should I try to get him in a "regular" preschool with "typical" kids? Should he go 2, 3, 4, 5 days a week? Should he go some days here and some days at another school to get both environments? But after meeting for his IEP and talking to the teachers, therapists etc - I was confident this would be a great first school experience for my little man. It's very Italy with just enough Holland to make me feel at home. (if you know what I mean.) ;)

And I'm happy to report it is going FABULOUS! He goes 5 days a week. 4.5 hours a day. It's the real deal folks. But he's doing fabulous. Just a rock star as always. It's part of a larger elementary school so it's biiiig. But he's not in the least intimidated. (go figure.) I am a combination of relieved and excited and thankful and emotional over the whole thing but he LOVES it. 

And so do I.

I love that he picked out his own backpack and it only cost $5. 

I love that when we pull up to school he yells "big boys!" at the big kids walking into school.

I love that his OT recommended not packing him a lunch  and letting him buy a school lunch to hopefully expand his texture/food tolerance. After getting over my disappointment of not making pb&j sandwiches cut with a heart cookie cutter -(which btw would have absolutely have gone un-eaten) and writing sweet notes (which he could not have read or probably cared to read) I've seen it as such a blessing! As hoped, he's trying new foods he'd sooner starve than eat at home. Whatever floats your boat little man. You wanna eat oranges and tater tots at school and come home and turn your nose up at anything but goldfish crackers? Go for it. I know your secret. I'll get you one day. 

I love that we can breakfast with Daddy in the morning as we are all getting up for school at the same time. :) 

I love dropping him off in the morning and watching the teachers at carpool melt at his cute little curls and tiny voice saying "goo-morning." If you haven't heard it...you are missing out as it's one of the cutest.things.ever.

I love that along with saying and recognizing his ABC's, colors, shapes, and counting to 20, he now knows 

- days of the week (and a few songs to demonstrate if you want it in musical form)

- months of the year

-how to spell his name

-how to predict the weather (ok maybe not predict...but he can certainly state the current conditions...which is pretty what the weatherman does anyway right?)

- and that he's a boy. (lol. Seriously - I hear him talking to himself "Jet...are you a girl or a boy?...BOY!" Who knew that would be such a revelation? :))  

I'm a proud momma.

I love that he begged to ride the bus.

For a week.

He was quite insistent (if you can imagine...)

Talk about Mr. Independence.

So I let him.

And like any decent helicopter mom,  I drove up to the school on the day he was supposed to ride the bus home so I could make sure he still wanted to.

Of course he did.

Mom...be cool okay?

So I followed the bus home in the rain like a complete crazy person.

(proof of craziness brought to you by instagram)

And I had to park in my neighbors driveway and run across the yard (yes...in the rain) because the bus was parked in front of my house blocking the driveway.

I love that I got the "you're one of thoooose moms" looks from the driver.

And Jet got off the bus smiling.

And every day...he still gets off the bus smiling.

He loves it.

I love him.

It's a wonderful thing.

Ju{ne}ly

As a follow up to my last post..."never thought" I'd get to blog twice in one week again! Maybe this preschool thing has it's perks. :) No seriously - the time between dropping little dude off and picking him up again has gone quickly, and I'm thankful for that. I kinda miss my little partner.





Especially after a fun-filled summer! I hadn't looked forward to summer like this in a long time. Being so busy this past fall and then again in the spring with my new photography business,  I was feeling pretty tired and overwhelmed. By March I had already booked a few sessions for the months of June-July and decided that was enough. I chose to take the rest of summer off and enjoy some family-time.

Best decision I ever made.

From waking up as a family of 3 almost every morning and introducing Jet to "snuggle time" in mommy and daddy's bed so we could get a few extra minutes to sleep, to helping daddy mow the lawn...

...to playing in the pool every chance we got...

...June and July  (or Ju{ne}ly as I've titled those precious weeks flew by so fast they couldn't possibly have been two whole months) was every bit as renewing and rejuvenating as I hoped.  Sure we stayed pretty busy - but it was a different kind of busy.  

It was a first-time-at-Disney-World kind of busy...

David's family planned the perfect trip to Disney World this summer for us their grandsons. ;) 
And it was so much fun!

Our happiest place on earth.

 The rainy weather couldn't wash the sunshine off the boys faces and we enjoyed every minute of it! There were pancakes for breakfast, all the goldfish and cereal a picky-eater could want, and parents and grandparents waiting to spoil you with souvenirs - what more could a boy ask for??

Disney-gram anyone? Gotta love the powers of  the iphone.

Jet was AH--MAZED by the giant characters at our hotel...

...and I'm pretty sure he and little Daniel would have been perfectly content to set up camp at Cars Land and never leave.

It was an awesome trip. 

(sorry...a little hydro-humor. Rocco had a nice time too... ;) )

Ten Tips from Jet to Make Your Next Disney Trip a Success : 

1. RIDE THE BUS. 

2. Snow White is a sweetheart. You should definitely find her...and tell her I said "hey."

3. RIDE THE BUS AGAIN.

4. Make sure you take your own cars toys.

5. RIDE THE BUS SOME MORE.

6. "Peter Pan's Flight" and "Small World" are the only safe rides.

7. RIDE THE BUS EVERY DAY.

8. Don't stay for the fireworks.

9. Every now and then, cry and plug your ears and act scared ... you'll get more presents.

10. DON'T FORGET TO RIDE THE BUS.

   

It was a visiting-family-up-north kind of busy...

Just a week after our fabulous Disney World trip we took a trip to  PA to visit family whose exact relations to us are probably a mystery to most people. Mostly because we have invented terms to better describe our closeness such as "sister-cousin" and "cousin-niece" and consistently use terms like "cousin" and "aunt" in cases that legally do not apply. But we get it. And that's all that matters.

And in Jet's mind, "cousin Jane" is as much a sister/celebrity/disney-princess as anything. 

And he is c-r-a-z-y about her. And it's not hard to see why.

And I am crazy about her braids.

(the first step is admitting you have a problem...phew...I feel better.)

And in turn he makes her c-r-a-z-y as any brother/mischievous-elf/monkey-man should.

(a glimpse into Jane's mind: "does this kid do anything besides run around, mess up my stuff and play with cars?")

But together they had a movie-watching-pool-splashing-donut-eating-toy-sharing good time.

Oh - and don't forget what an "Amish-touring" good time can be had up in PA.

I'm not one to take pictures of food - certainly never a half-eaten plate food (why do people do that?) and I never think it looks as good as it does in person - but if I were an avid food-photographer, I'd put a whole lot of pictures right HERE of all the amazingly delicious food to be had. 

In the highly annoying words of Rachel Ray (bless her heart)  Yum...O.

And in between - it was a fourth-of-july kind of busy. 

Which with a little boy who's terrified of fireworks is now one of my least favorite days of the year...along with New Years Eve...and pretty much the whole first week of January...comin down off the Christmas rush...it's hard on us holiday-junkies.
But I still put for the effort to make my house patriot-friendly.

Maybe someday Jet will come around and actually let us take him to one of the 10+ fireworks shows in our area. I look forward to that. ;) Until then, we'll  turn up the two rain-maker boxes in his bedroom and cross our fingers and toes that he stays asleep through the obscene amounts of fireworks our neighbors set off into the wee hours of the morning.



 All together this summer was a blast. And though we stayed busy, and I didn't get to half the items on my" summer-to-do" list (which are obviously now part of the "fall-to-do" list) I don't mind the busy. Because this summer was an oh-so-happy-together, soul-fulfilling, sleep-good-at-night kind of busy.

The very best kind of busy there is.