Kindergarten?? Already???

Well, not quite already, but soon!  We just registered Dashiell for kindergarten in the fall this past week.  What. The. Heck.  It just seems too soon, though logically I know that Dashiell is developmentally ready for it.  The fact that he will be gone from home all day?  Weird.  So weird.  Thankfully I'll have Ms. Aurelia around to keep me company, or I might have to try to get actual things done around the house.  And heaven knows we wouldn't want that! 

Dashiell brushing up on the finer points of cow digestion

 

Aurelia "helping" in the refrigerator - see why I can't get anything done?

I won't lie.  A big part of me is excited for the small amount of freedom of movement this will provide (hauling around one kid is sooo much easier than hauling around two kids!).  And I'm definitely excited for him - once he gets there and meets all the other kids and his new teacher, he will LOVE LOVE LOVE kindergarten (though he is currently feeling a bit leery of the idea).  But, yeah, I'll also be a bit sad that first day.  Especially if he rides the bus.  The thought of my little guy riding a bus with all the big kids to a new school gets me totally teary-eyed.  And I seriously need to do a better job of hiding that from him!  The other day I told him about kindergarten registration and mentioned the EXCITING possibility of riding a big yellow school bus, and he flat out told me that he'd prefer it if I drove him to school.  I told him it would all depend on which school he is assigned to - we had to pick our "top 3" schools at registration, and we'll find our where he's going in a couple of months.  There is a possibility that he would be going to a school that is so close to our house we wouldn't be eligible for the bus, otherwise it's the bus all the way!

Other than kindy registration not a whole lot has been going on here!  We went back to the Butterfly Place a couple of weeks ago, and this time Aurelia came with us.  I'm not sure how she felt about it - I think she would have liked it a whole lot better if she could have run around stomping in all the plants.  But alas, that would also mean stomping on all the butterflies and that would be tragic.

Daddy and kids taking a little rest

Check out the cute belly on that girl!  

I told D to say "Butterfly!" when I took the picture - I think he was in the midst of the "-fly". :)

We are definitely ready for winter to be over now, but since it's not we did try to go out and have some snowy fun last weekend.  Big snow followed by warm weather means it was perfect sledding weather! Though sometimes the sled goes down without you.

We figured out that the better place to sled was on the already-established trail shortly after this was taken.  I think D really wanted to be the one to make the sled track, but the faster hill is the one that is well-worn!

I'm hoping the sound works on that video on other people's computers - currently I can't hear anything on it.  Not that there's much to hear, but it's just weird to watch a video that has absolutely no sound!

General snowy fun was had as well:

King of the mountain!

This snow tastes just about perfect!

A mere 4 days later and most of the snow was gone! 

Sunny and 50 degrees!  Beautiful weather for playing on the slide instead of the sled!

I originally took this picture as an indication of the lovely weather, but honestly it's a better illustration of how seriously long Aurelia's hair has gotten!  I forgot to put it back up in a pig tail after her nap and the poor girl can barely see!

One last Aurelia note (see, now that I'm only blogging once or twice a month I have to fit everything in one post!) - she is still trying sooo hard to talk, and it just keeps on getting cuter!  She now says "thank you" every time you hand her something - of course it sounds more like "dit-doo" than thank you, but you can tell that's what she means!  And when she says her brother's name she's started to add an "s" to the end - "Dahs" (not quite "Dash" but close!).  She's still not consistent enough with her ma-ma sounds to make me believe she's talking about me, but I'm sure that will come soon enough.

Next post:  Spring?  Hopefully??

Snow storms and Auntie visits and pig tails, oh my!

Now that we're supposed to have our third snowstorm in as many weekends, I probably should get around to posting about the first one, the Big One, NEMO!  My sister Lisa came out to visit a couple of weeks ago, and thankfully arrived the night before it hit otherwise her trip would have been completely cancelled!  Dashiell stayed up late to see her when she got in (her flight was late AND the traffic was just awful getting home - I think everyone in Boston worked late that night knowing that their work day would be cut short on Friday from the storm).  He was SOOO excited to see her and to show her his "collection" (fyi, the question is not what does he collect but what doesn't he collect).  We put him to bed shortly after she arrived and he asked "How am I supposed to sleep when I'm this excited?"  Then he passed out.

The next morning Dashiell was raring to go and wake Lisa up first thing.  Aurelia didn't know what the heck was going on, or why this stranger was sleeping on our couch.  She seriously stood there and stared at Lisa for a good two minutes, then walked over to me and hugged my legs, all while keeping a close eye on her aunt (and stayed hugging my legs for another few minutes).  Then Lisa played a little peek-a-boo with her and after that they were best friends!

I decided to take that day off so I wouldn't have to deal with traveling through the snow storm that afternoon, and so Rick could take my car (which has all-wheel drive) to work - as an emergency worker he couldn't take the evening off and had to work - and drive - during the worst of the blizzard.  I'm so glad I spent the day at home!  We all had a great time playing, baking, and watching the storm coverage on TV.

The kids all cozy on the couch with Auntie Lisa

It started snowing that afternoon, but the blizzard really started in earnest overnight.  It was crazy windy, and we woke up to probably about 18 inches of snow with some serious drifting everywhere, and it was STILL SNOWING.  Rick called on his way home from work, and Lisa was awesome and headed outside to shovel out the end of our driveway so he'd have a place to park.  Have I mentioned how happy I was to have her visiting that particular weekend?

Lisa tackling the end of the driveway!  She RULES!!

By about noon the snow had mostly stopped, though it continued to be wildly windy throughout the day.  We started digging out after lunch, and Dashiell bundled up and headed out to play (or rather, try to play)!

 Attempting to navigate the chest-deep snow

 

 His feet are no where near the actual ground, btw

 

Taking a rest

Oh no!  No boot!!

 

 A year ago he might have freaked out over his lost boot, but this time he just laughed.  

Reason #187 why 4 is more fun than 3.

Navigating around the car (yes there is a car in front of him under that snowbank) to find me while I shoveled the front sidewalk.

All told once the storm was done we ended up getting about 27 inches of snow.  Wow!  But despite the challenges of dealing with all this snow, we had a fun weekend.  It was oddly freeing to be stuck inside when Lisa was visiting - we normally try to do "fun stuff", like go into Boston or to the Butterfly Place or the zoo or something like that.  We couldn't do any of that, so we could relax and not worry about trying to get out of the house! 

We did see a few people on Sunday - a family friend from Bemidji who now lives 15 minutes away from me came to visit, then we went over to Rick's parents' house for dinner.  On Monday Dashiell had school for some reason (every other town cancelled school or had a late start) so I left Aurelia with Lisa, drove him to school, and ran a few errands.  When I came home this is how I found Lisa and 'Reels:

Lisa was attempting to get Aurelia in her sleep sack when she laid her head down on her shoulder and fell fast asleep!  That's a far cry from the evil eye 'Reels was giving her auntie at the beginning of her visit!

We had such a great time with Lisa in town - I wish we could see her much more often!

A few random photos that don't fit with the post but need to be shared

We put in a new vanity in our upstairs bathroom the weekend before Lisa arrived and there was this BIG FUN box to play with!  Dashiell gathered his pillow, blanket and Hello Kitty doll and climbed in.  I added Aurelia to the box.  She was none too pleased.

I kind of love this picture of Dashiell.  Hat askew, jaunty scarf over the rugby shirt, mid-explanation about something vitally important, I'm sure...

Aurelia is obsessed with finding things to sit on.  I don't remember Dashiell going through this phase so this amusing me to no end.  She backs her little bottom up to anything and everything, trying to find a good place to sit.  Since she also loves going into our cabinets, it was only natural that she discovered that the cabinet is the perfect thing to sit in!  

The other awesome thing about this picture: the pigtail.  Her hair is finally long enough to put into a little pigtail, and surprisingly she will keep it in for hours!  Barrettes and headbands usually last no more than 30 minutes (if even).  Is there anything cuter than a toddler with a pigtail on the top of her head?  I think not.

More photos!

I have a few random photos that I wanted to quickly share with everyone before I forget!

Winter has been wintery (though you wouldn't guess it from our 60 degree heatwave a couple of days ago!), which means a little bit of playing in the snow and a lot of figuring out what to do inside.

A couple of weeks ago we finally had snow that was snowman worthy!  Dashiell was soooo excited, and HAD TO make a snowman as soon as possible!

He named the snowman Ryan, after a friend of his in preschool.  I'm sure Ryan (the friend) felt deeply honored, as he should.  And I know Dashiell wants to make more snowmen to name after all of his other friends, too!

Aurelia LOVES climbing into our cabinets.  There have been times where we've turned our backs and suddenly can't locate her, only to find her deep into the cereal cabinet.

At her last doctor's appointment her pediatrician was talking to us about her development, and asked if she was starting to get into everything - on cue, she climbed right onto the shelf under the exam table.  Our little show-off!

Dashiell has been really into art and pattern-making lately.  The other day he asked how to make a color wheel.  After I showed him how to section off the circle, he went to town on the colors!  This was his first attempt:

He made about 10 different color wheels that day.

A couple of days later I had a bunch of coupons out on the table, and he started trying to fit them into a rectangle.  He did a pretty good job!

A couple of notes on fun things Aurelia does that I don't want to forget when she's older (but currently have no photos of):  She is constantly carrying pairs of things.  It's never just one car, it's always two and they are usually the same color.  Same with blocks - you'd think that it wouldn't matter what colors or shapes the blocks are, but it nearly always matters.  Two wooden rectangles, two green plastic cylinders, etc. Or she'll carry a pair of Dashiell's socks or his tennis shoes, one in each hand.  I'm hoping that someday she'll display this same "matching" habit and we can say, "you've been doing that since you were one!"

Another thing - she loves red.  More often than not the pair of things she's carrying is red.  Especially if she's carrying cars.  Dashiell loves red too, so it might have to do with him.

One last picture of Aurelia, only because it's darned cute:

 

Rick called that sweater "unbelievably cute".  I think I'd have to agree!

The Birthday Party

I'm a bit behind in my posts (what's new?) and am finally getting the chance to post a few photos from Aurelia's birthday party!  It was a fun day, and we had many, many guests in our little home.  It was cozy, really cozy.  But it seemed like everyone had a pretty good time, and the Birthday Girl charmed them all!

We had a Ladybug theme, so I felt the need to get all crafty and make Aurelia a cute little black and red tutu and a little headband so she could be suitably "ladybuggy".

 Turns out tutus are incredibly easy to make!  Who knew? 

The cake and cupcakes were made by our family friend, Lauren (who makes most of the Hanson Family cakes and was the creator of Dashiell's Trolley and Dr. Seuss cakes).  Once again she did a wonderful job, and the cake was SOOOO tasty!

Dashiell thought so, too!

It was a fun party, and I'm so glad everyone was able to celebrate Aurelia's big day with us!