Thursday, May 29, 2014

All the World's a Stage!

Back in March, my little girl decided it was time to climb out of her crib.  Oh no!  We had hoped she would last in the crib for a little bit longer - say, until she was 4 - but she wasn't down with that.  So, off went one side of the crib and she's been blissfully (sort of) sleeping in her toddler bed ever since!
 
First night in the toddler bed!  Aww...

Aurelia couldn't be happier with this arrangement!  Not only does it give her the opportunity to roam her room unhindered by her cage crib, but the toddler bed also makes for a fantastic stage!  Hence, we've had a lot of this:


And this:


And this:


(side note - blogger won't let me post the video I really want to post, in which Dashiell gets in on the dancing!  So frustrating to get a unspecified error message!!)

So not only does Aurelia have a "new" place to sleep, she also has a new place to perform!  What more could a girl ask for?

Field Trip!

Back in April (April 29th, to be exact) I was asked to be a parent helper during Dashiell's field trip to Drumlin Farm.  Asked, because when your kid has food allergies the school really really really  wants you to be the one responsible for shooting your kid with an epipen if he ventures somewhere outside of the realm of the school nurse and happens to have an allergy attack.  And while I was pretty sure that wouldn't happen, I was happy to oblige them anyway!
Selfie on the bus! Still smiling!

Selfie on the farm, crazy-mom style


So the weather for that day called for a high of about 57 degrees, and while I getting ready that morning I checked the temp, and it was already about 56 degrees.  "Great!"  I thought, "Maybe it will warm up a little more than expected and hit 60!".  So I told Dashiell to wear a t-shirt, long sleeve shirt, and zip up hoodie sweatshirt.  Layer, so if he gets too warm he can always remove a layer.  I wore a long sleeve shirt and a light spring jacket.  Such optimism!  Turns out the temp I saw in the morning was the highest it would get all day, and it would only get COLDER as the day wore on. By mid-day it was 42 degrees, windy, with off-and-on sprinkles, and we were whoafully underdressed. Huge mom fail!  Dashiell was miserable, poor kid.


But despite the cold, it was a nice field trip.  Drumlin Farm has a lot to see, and our guide was very knowledgeable and informative.  The farmers were planting things, we got to go into the (warm!) greenhouse, the kids pet a chicken and some sheep, a goat escaped from its pen, and the pigs were pretty darned cute.
Goats, prior to escaping

"Let sleeping pigs lie"

Warming up with the chickens (chickens not pictured, obviously)


The kids also got to search for worms and bugs underneath rocks and logs.  Dashiell said that was his favorite part.  The guide was teaching the kids the difference between wild and domesticated creatures.  Drumlin Farm actually "keeps" some wild animals, but only those who have been injured and are being rehabilitated, or those who someone tried to make into a pet but couldn't (because wild animals aren't supposed to be pets!), and now the animal doesn't know how to survive in the wild.
 
Not a pet!

Dashiell claims that he had a great time, despite the miserable weather.  I did too - it was really fun to hang out with Dashiell and all his school friends!  I haven't had a lot of time to volunteer at the school this year (so tough to find time when I also have to take care of Aurelia!), so it was nice to get to know a couple of the kids Dashiell is friends with. I look forward to going on many more field trips in the future!

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Happy (belated) 6th Birthday Dashiell!

My little guy turned 6 in April!!  What the what?!?  I know I say this every year (for both kids) but it's just so hard to believe he's that old already!  SIX!!  And so far, let me tell ya, six is pretty fun!  Yes he's obviously still a little kid but he's also a little person, with increased abilities and comprehensions and means of reasoning - it's amazing!  I mean, yesterday he helped me paint our back entryway, and he did a great job!  He paid attention to the instructions I gave him (this is HUGE, by the way - he's always been fine at paying attention to the instructions other people give him, but when mom tries to show him how to do something it's usually met with resistance!), and when I corrected something he was doing he was OKAY WITH IT.  No tears, no yelling "but you didn't tell me to do it that way!", just an "okay", followed by continued painting.  And the best part?  He had fun doing it and wants to do more!  Score!

What else is going on with our six-year-old?  He's getting accolades at school for his reading ability and comprehension, he's writing poetry, he loves math and is quizzing me on multiplication problems already, he loves drawing, and his printing skills have gotten so much better in the course of the school year.  I'm so proud of the student (and person!) he has become!

And he's tall!  He broke the 4 foot mark this year!  4'-1/2"!!  All that mac 'n cheese is really working for him! :)

So how did we celebrate my big guy's big day?  Well, here was the proposed schedule for Dashiell's Birthday Weekend:  Saturday - present opening in the morning, basketball, then big trip to the New England Aquarium, followed by dinner in Boston; Sunday - "friends" party at Jump on In, followed by "family" party at the house.  However, mommy got the flu that weekend!  NOOOO!!  So plans were amended.

First, we did have the present opening in the morning.  Dashiell was none too happy that he had to WAIT until Rick got home from work before opening his gifts, but I'm happy to report that he survived, and was very happy with his gifts!



(not pictured is the awesome telescope his Minnesota aunts sent him!  It's sooo cool!!)


Aurelia, however, was none too happy that Dashiell was opening gifts and SHE WASN'T.

Am I a bad mom that I not only didn't anticipate this and get her a small gift to open, but then I took a picture of her melt down?   Maybe, but I can live with it.

After gift-opening, we made it to basketball, which was his last practice of that session.  His little trophy was like a bonus gift that day!

Later that day, Rick did take the kids to the Aquarium, sans me.  Grandpa had to take my place!  And they had a great time checking out all the cool fish and fish habitats.  Then they got stuck in Boston for longer than expected due to an incident on the tracks (we never figured out what it was, but Rick suspected that a person ended up on the tracks somehow - yikes!).  Once they were rescued by Nana, they had pizza at the grandparents' house and headed home.

The next day, we still had Dashiell's "friends" party at Jump on In, which is a big indoor bounce house gym.  It's a well-loved destination!  And lots of his friends were able to come to the party - he had so much fun! (I, however, still felt awful but drugged myself up enough to head to the party anyway!)




After Jump on In, we headed home and did NOT have family over.  I needed to get well, and I needed to disinfect the house before letting any outsiders into our home!  So it was postponed until the following Saturday. 

That morning D had another friend's birthday party to go to at another fun indoor play space, then we rushed home and prepared for the family!  I decided to attempt to make a Lego cake!  It turned out okay - not perfect, not Pinterest-worthy, but pretty good nonetheless!  And Dashiell love it!

We were happy to have a lovely day that Saturday, so part of his party was held outside.  The kids went crazy playing, the adults enjoyed the fresh air!


We kept it simple with pizza and salad for the menu, and of course enjoyed the Lego cake afterwards!

There was some silliness involved, natch.
All in all, I think Dashiell enjoyed his extended birthday! 


Happy birthday to my firstborn!  Love you more than you'll ever know, Mr. D!

Pitiful, just pitiful

For the past month or so, things have been happening in our lives that make me think "I should document this on our blog".  But the thought of "catching up" with all the other things that had happened prior to all that has made me cringe, shudder, weep silently...and sigh.  Because I may never catch up.  And I feel bad about it, because stuff really has been happening!  But unfortunately, much of the past 3 months have been spent here...

At the doctor's office.  Or looking kind of like this:


Though occasionally being sick meant getting to do stuff you don't always get to do, like eating breakfast in front of the TV!
Or in my case, spending hours lying on the couch watching Sixteen Candles and Season 1 of Call the Midwife, with no one bugging me to change the channel to PBS Kids or Disney Jr.  So there were some perks.  But mostly stuff I would have happily lived without.

There were numerous fun things that happened over the past 3 months (which I hope to blog about soon), but our family has been hit with illness after illness - colds, the flu, conjunctivitis, strep throat (twice!), and general yuck.  For a while it seemed like as soon as one person would get better, someone else would get sick.  And the illness did not discriminate between child and parent - all were equal in its eyes. 

I'd say we were on the mend, but this week Aurelia is sick again.  However, the frequency of our illnesses has slowed, thank heavens.  I think we've had just about enough!

So wish me luck - I'm going to attempt to blog about at least a few of our many activities (um, Dashiell's birthday, that happened almost 2 months ago, maybe?) in the very near future so on those days when I think "I should post this awesome thing we are doing on our blog!" I won't feel so guilty not posting all the other awesome things we did before it.  Onward!