Ryan in PE

Ryan's favorite class in school is PE, he asks every morning if today is a PE day. Luckily he gets to go 2x a week. Today they were learning and playing capture the flag. I can't wait to hear all about it when I pick him up. 

My Girls

Independence

Audrey has had a huge amount of growth since started her new school. She is going to a Montessori school which values teaching children confidence through independence. In the last few weeks she has started making her own lunch, cleaning her room, setting out her clothes the night before and so much more. Yesterday she let me know that she had learned to pump her legs on the swings so she didn't need help anymore. This girl loves to swing and with three kids it has always been a challenge to be able to push her on the swing and take care of everyone else. It is bittersweet, I love that she is growing up to be independent and self reliant but it's hard as a mom to become less important.

Outside

When the weather is nice and Ryan finishes his homework earlier in the week the kids get to spend the afternoon outside!

6 Month Appointment

Kenzie had her 6 month appointment today. She is healthy and happy and is hitting all the developmental milestones.
She is 17 pounds (60th percentile), height is 27 Inches (85%!) and her head is 45cm (97%)

Crawling... Almost.

Kenzie is just on the verge of crawling. She can get on all fours and rock back and forth, she just needs to move her hands forward and she will be off and running. She can roll and scoot where she needs to go but I can still catch her. She will soon be quicker and I will be in trouble!

Sitting Up

Kenzie is still pretty wobbly but she is sitting up! She can't wait to get moving- She is strong enough to crawl but can't get the mechanics down yet. I am okay to have a few more weeks until she can easily escape me.

Audrey's First Day of Pre-K!

Audrey had her last first day of school before elementary school! She is in Ms. Liz and Mr. Patrick's class at Heartwood Montessori. They had their phase in days last week, where she and the other new students got to spend 2 hours a day Wednesday-Friday exploring their classroom and learning routine. Today was the first day with all returning students and the full school day calender. She is SO excited to start school. She even gets to do her own carpool and walk herself into the classroom!

Kenzie is 6 Months Old Today!

Audrey's Meet the Teacher Day

Audrey is officially starting her new school, Heartwood Montessori! She had a few weeks of summer camp there which was great because she is used to the school building and one of her camp teachers is one of her classroom teachers for pre-k! She loved exploring all the classroom activities and learning about the classroom. I think she is going to have a great year and will learn a lot! 

A Day at the Park

Today the weather was great! It was about 10 degrees cooler and 15% less humidity than it has been lately. We decided to hit up the park while Ryan was at school. We even got to meet up with Amy- which is generally a challenge to coordinate with 6 children between us, two of whom are under a year old.  It was a great way to spend our last day before phase in starts at Audrey's Pre-K! 

Concert in the Park

I got out of the house for a few hours last night (the first time without at least one child in a few weeks). I met up with my parents, brother and sister in law for dinner and Josh Groban concert. The weather was great and apart from being an hour late thanks to Kenzie not falling asleep when I had to leave it was a relaxing evening. Unfortunately she decided she was done sleeping at 4:15am this morning so tonight the plan for me is SLEEP.

Ryan's First Day of First Grade

Monster of a Week

This week has been a monster.... It has probably been the hardest week of parenthood that didn't involve a life or death situation (which unfortunately I have had a few of). Let's see, where to begin...
On Friday afternoon I got an email that Ryan had been accepted to Sterling Montessori. It is a charter school that we have been on the waiting list for since February (after not getting in last year). The catch was that school started on Monday. Ryan doesn't do well with change so this was a big decision. He was enrolled for Cardinal Charter which was slated to start a week and a half later and he has friends who would be going (not in the same grade though). The Montessori has a more hands on approach, it's a smaller community and I have always liked the Montessori method. We decided to at least try the Montessori. Don ran out on Sunday to get the school supplies.
Before deciding on the school Audrey got a UTI on Saturday, she started having symptoms about 5 minutes into a conference call, so I hung up and ran to the doctor before they closed at 12:00pm. She was diagnosed and given a week of antibiotics.

So all this went on before the week officially started. On Monday at 5:00am Don went over of town to Montana. A few hours later I took Ryan to school, he had a really hard time, he clung to me, he didn't want me to leave. It was painful but he eventually let me go. This whole week has been more of the same, but he is getting better. He is happy when I pick him up and sad when I drop him off. He doesn't understand why there is so much work, why the day is so long and why he can't go back to him kindergarten class. His teachers are very nice, they have been teaching together for a long time, the class is well organized and they have so many fun classroom materials. This in the long term is what is best for him but this transition has been hard- and the fact that I am doing it with Don out of town has made it worse. I'm sure I will have lots more to say about the school as time goes on. I finally decided to officially pull him off the Cardinal roster on Thursday so at least the stress of that decision has been made. It was a lot of stress- made worse by so many unknown variables (teachers, classmates etc).

Audrey has been at Frozen dance camp all week. She loves it, especially because their dance performance at the end of the week is to all Frozen music. It has made for a lot of driving for me (her camp goes from 9:30-12:30) but it keeps her occupied and happy.
Kenzie had a few nights of very little sleep but we now have an understanding that I won't feed her in the middle of the night so she has been getting up only once. She still gets up for the day between 5 and 6 am, but as long as I get a good chunk of sleep somewhere in there I can manage. She did decide to cut her first tooth this week which made her a drooly mess.

This is probably incoherent. But I'm tired... hopefully next time I write I will be going on more sleep and less stress!