Tuesday, August 28, 2012

1st Day of Preschool

1st day of preschool


Well, after chickening out last week, I finally got up the courage to actually take Marshall to the Montessori preschool we enrolled him in :)


I made Jerad come with me so that if the drop-off was traumatizing I would have some moral support. We dropped him of at about 8 in the morning. He was excited and kept talking about "going to the little blue school," which by the way is white but has a blue house next door, and "seeing some new friends."


When we got there we walked inside, and after saying hi to the teachers Jerad and I turned to leave. He tried to come with us and I told him he was going to stay at school and play with friends and I'd be back to pick him up later.


He made a face that was basically the toddler equivalent of a shrug, and went and got out some puzzles. Jerad and I had a few more papers to sign in another classroom and after we were finished we peeked in the window on the way back to the car. He was just sitting and quietly playing. Score!


All day I worried about if he was asking for me, or crying, or scared, or just being traumatized in general. Because Jerad and I both work, he's used to spending large portions of time away from us but its always been with either my mom, or our Nanny (who started when he was around 5 months old), and not in a childcare setting with multiple teachers and children and schedules etc. The program is over at 3:30 (the "preschool portion" technically runs 9:30-3:30 but is open from 7-5:30 to accommodate working parent's schedules). The plan is for him to go Monday, Tuesday and Thursday from 7-3:30ish. My mom will pick him up on Mon and Thurs when she can, and when she can't he'll be there till a little after 5. Wednesday he'll stay home with Miller and the Nanny, then I'm off Friday.Its just sooo long! I'd never send him to "school" that long at this age if I was staying home.


I got there to pick him up right at 3:30 and.... he wasn't even excited to see me or Miller. He was outside playing and just wanted to show me a big firetruck toy like it was no big deal I'd left him in this new place "alone" for 7.5 hours. Every teacher came over to tell me that he did AMAZING and the director couldn't believe it was his first day. They said he didn't cry or ask for us once...which kind of hurt a little honestly, but they assured me it just means he's well adjusted, confident, and securely attached to us so he doesn't have to worry that we won't be coming back. He played, and shared well with the other kids, followed all the directions, had fun with the different works, ate all his food, napped (on a mat?!?), comforted the kids who were sad, and acted like he'd been going there for years.


When we left he turned around and waved and said "Bye Miss Amy, Bye Miss Tiffany, bye friends, see ya later!" Then on the way home he kept asking for "more school." So I guess he had a good time and wasn't traumatized after all.


On the way home we stopped and got a "Jamba" for a treat. The whole ride he was singing songs and talking about different things that I'm guessing they did in class. When we got home he asked if we could watch "Teacher Blue" which is a Blue's Clue's episode where they are in school and Blue is the teacher.


This morning Jerad dropped him off and he walked right in, said hi to everyone, told Jerad "I love you Daddy, see you later!" then walked over and sat down at a table. Which is extra nice because they told us that day #2 would probably be the hardest day because he would realize that we would be leaving him.

I'm so glad. SO GLAD. Like I said before I've really struggled with this decision. Its pricey. Its a long time. But so far it seems like he loves it. Here is a really great description and list of some of the benefits of a Montessori education for children ages 0-6 if you aren't familiar with the method: Benefits of the Montessori Method.

Thursday, August 23, 2012

Miller: First Foods

 A week before Miller turned 8 months old we let him try some banana:



He wasn't sure about it at first, but warmed up eventually:


Then he discovered the fun of turning it into a huge ass mess:



We tried again the next day, but he wasn't really interested so we backed off for a week. Since then he's been eating (and making huge messes) pretty regularly:

Chicken drumstick, broccoli, sweet potato


avocado
 Bring it on!

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Midstate Fair 2012


We spent quite a bit of time at the Fair this year. Jerad and I went to a few concerts:

Eric Church

Eric Church

Eric Church

Eric Church
Eric Church

Eric Church

Eric Church


Zac Brown Band
Brad Paisley (With The Band Perry and Easton Corbin)
Brad Paisley
Brad Paisley
Marshall had a special "fair outfit" that he got as a birthday present:


The little cowboy booty just kills me. ADORABLE!




 
 We took the kids 4 or 5 times since they're both free and Jerad and I had passes. I only took a few pictures, but we had lots of fun!



 











 Because of Jerad's Contractor License Test, we missed the rodeo finals. I think its only the second one I've missed in 13 years! Oh well, next year we'll be there:)



Tuesday, August 21, 2012

IPhone Clearout

My phone has been working horribly lately. Freezing, taking forever to do anything. I had over 1980 pictures and videos on it (so many that I had to delete one every time I needed to take a new one) so I finally decided to move them all onto the external hard drive. Lo and behold my phone is back to normal:)

I've posted a lot of these on Instagram, but if you don't follow me here's a few of the recent ones:

brothers in the shower


chilling in the pool

our lab wishing he was chilling in the pool

Children's Museum

"Camping" at the children's museum



practicing taking turns in Marshall's room


brother bath

making each other laugh


beach trip with daddy



Miller ate some sand

LOTS of sand

and was proud of himself

ate a few rocks too

YESSSSSSSSSSS!


digging







Obsessed with the washer just like Marshall was

teaching Miller how to "drive" at Lowes



Looks like we've created another sand eater and laundry lover.