Pre-School

I was reading an article somewhere recently that talked about how narcissistic this generation is, and cited all the 'selfie' pictures they post places like Facebook and Instagram. I can't even imagine how much worse it will be as T and Nora get older, because they already ask us just about every day to take pictures of whatever they are doing. "Mom, take a picture of me like this! Send it to Granny and Gigi!". Or, T frequently asks me to take pictures of her drawings and send them to the museum. Anyway. Here's a picture they wanted of them playing with blocks. 

But really, I'm posting because I sent my little four-year-old off to pre-school this week. She's been SO excited all summer. Poor kid has been waiting for both school to start, and her brother to get here, it has been pretty hard for her, especially the last few weeks. She had absolutely no qualms about going off to school without me. I was trying to get her to admit to any nerves the day before, but nope, there were none. Once we got in the car to take her she did say "Um, I think I might miss you guys a little bit while I'm at school. But only a little". Marc walked her in, but I got out to give her a hug, and barely had time to hug her before she was pulling away, ready to go. Poor Nora had the hardest time, she kept saying "but I want Teresa to come back!". We took her to Costco and got some ice cream, and let her walk instead of riding in the cart, so that made up for being left behind quite a bit. 

Of course I had to send Marc out to take some pictures before school started.

Oh, the back pack. We went to Target a week or so ago to get the few school supplies she needed. We made the huge mistake of going after Marc got home from work, so it was closing in on bedtime. Anyway, backpacks are expensive, y'all! I found a cute striped one that was in our budget but didn't feel like it was super cheap, and had almost gotten T convinced that she loved it when she spotted the Hello Kitty back packs. She likes Hello Kitty, of course, since she's a 4-year-old girl, but it's not like it is her favourite thing ever, so I was pretty surprised when she had a complete breakdown about NEEDING that HK backpack! Yeah, we were totally that family in Target. Luckily the other moms in the school aisle were all smiling at us and commented that they'd been there before too. So. I knew Costco had nicer HK backpacks for a better price, so I told her that she could either get the striped one at Target, or wait until the next day and get an HK one at Costco. She finally decided she would rather have the striped one right away, so that's what we got. The next morning she came in my bed good and early, and just burst in to tears over how much she wanted a Hello Kitty backpack instead. Good grief. So, we ended up returning the Target one and Marc took her to Costco and got the very last Hello Kitty backpack they had. 

  

  

Girl loves to pose. She came up with all the poses herself. 

Nora needed a turn at pictures, too. 

"Dad! Take a picture of me looking at that bird!"

Nora is pretty bummed that she will not be going to pre-school as well, but I am excited to get a little bit of alone time with Nora during the day. I don't want her to feel like the neglected little middle child, so hopefully we can do some fun stuff together. We'll just tell that baby brother he has to nap from 12:30-3:00 everyday. 

I thought I would have a harder time sending T off to pre-school, but she is just so excited for it, that I'm excited for her. Ask me again next week when she starts riding the bus. I'm a bit nervous for that. Her school is only pre-K and Kindergarten, and that is the only reason she gets to ride the bus, too. No way would I send her on the bus if there were bigger kids, too.

Marc went to pick her up and found her like this on the playground.

She was pretty excited that she got to pick a prize for  being such a good listener the first day! She was so cute, once she got home she spent ages in the bathroom, just standing in front of the mirror looking at herself in her "Mr. Man face" and saying stuff in a deep voice.

She was nice enough to let Nora try it out, too. 

Just Some Stuff

I don't really have any thing cohesive to write about...we've just been muddling through the rest of the summer, waiting for this baby boy to get here. I think T and Nora are starting to wonder if he is ever going to actually show up.

They have been pretty funny in regards to my pregnancy symptoms. Every time T sees me take something for heartburn she says "So, when I have a baby in my tummy, will I have to take that medicine, too?" and one night we were watching a movie and she put her fist up to her chest and said "oh, I think I have some heartburn". And when I'm throwing up (because, of course, that's back now) she is very concerned for me and will come over to hug me when I'm done and say "I really don't like it when you have to do that" or "I'm really sorry that you keep doing that". She also has worriedly said a few times "when I have a baby in my tummy, will I have to throw up all the time?". Gosh I hope not, Teresa. Hopefully by the time she starts having babies there will be more effective nausea treatments out there. 

Both girls are always asking to help me make dinner or pretty much whatever else I'm doing in the kitchen. Luckily for them, I realized how easy it is to let them make boxed brownies, and they have been loving it. Seriously, they can pretty much do the whole thing themselves, it's great. And of course, they get the bowl nice and clean afterward, too :). 

Avocados. Teresa thinks that she does not like them. She always tries to talk me out of buying them when we're at the store. She complains when I put some on her plate. But then I tell her it is good for her, and she needs to eat her one small piece, and she does and says "oh, yeah, it's yummy". But always declines more. She loves guacamole, though. Silly girl. They both devoured this avocado pasta. Though, it's possible I told her there were not any avocados in it. She is rightfully suspicious of anything green at our house. 

   

Teresa's been asking to go back to the beach since July, and we finally made it happen again this past week. We were planning to go to Ocean City, but when we got there we saw that Assateague Island was only another seven miles away. I've always, always wanted to go see the wild ponies there, but I thought it was so much farther away from us than it is, so we took the opportunity and went there instead. 

We saw some ponies right away, the girls were so excited! I was a little less excited by all the warning signs telling you that they will bite and kick you - they even had some pretty gruesome pictures of people that had been bitten by the ponies, so we made sure not to get too close. 

This summer has had such weird weather, it was only in the 70's when we were there -  almost too cool for swimming, though that didn't stop the T at all. I think it is so funny how much of a water bug she is this year, it is so opposite from last summer. Gives us hope for Nora. She mostly stuck with the sand again, and loved collecting sea shells. 

She did surprise us at the end and decided to get wet after all - I love hearing her cute giggles as she anticipated the waves coming for her. She got cold pretty fast, though.

More ponies, just hanging out on the side of the road. I guess there are some conflicting opinions on how all the wild ponies came to be there, but most people seem to think they are the result of Spanish ships that sunk way back in the day when people were first coming to America. 

After we left I asked them what their favorite part of the day was. They both said the ponies, but then Teresa asked if we could go find some regular horses that she could actually touch. Nora has been asking all week to go back and see them again. 

Teresa has been drawing a ton lately. We got a drawing/chalkboard easel from Ikea a few weeks ago, and it has totally unleashed her creativity. I'm loving it - she had such little interest in drawing for so long, and it is so fun now to see what she comes up with. Below is a picture of her and Nora riding on "a pony with a horn" - NOT a unicorn. Seriously, don't call it that. 

I'm just hanging out, being pregnant. It's been rough. Marc came home from PT one morning and said "wow, why do you look so bad?" He quickly tried to back track and said "I mean, why do you look like you feel so bad", but the damage was done. I'm very, very ready for the little dude to get here so I can start sleeping again. I had some Braxton-Hicks on Sunday, which was totally lame, because it made it really hard to not get our hopes up that he would show up a bit early. I never really had any contractions with the girls before I was actually in labor with them, so it was a bit disappointing to have some fake ones this time.

We are actually ready for him, now, as Marc was able to get his car seat base installed in the back of our Camry. We struggled with it for about an hour a few weeks ago, and finally gave up for the time being. Then Marc headed out on Friday to try again, and I was totally surprised when he came inside less than 10 minutes later having been successful. So. Three car seats do fit comfortably in the back of our car, but we will have to see how it works out when there are actually three children filling them up. I'm thinking baby brother won't be doing a lot of sleeping when he's in the car. 

Things They Say: Nora Edition

Nora has been a little chatter box, as usual. We're sure glad to have her around to keep us laughing. And a little frustrated :).

Here are some of her more recent quotes.

Playing dress up she announced "I am getting a new prince!", I asked what happened to the old one, and she just matter-of-factly said "Well, the prince died, and I said oh no."

I told her that Daddy had gone fishing with some of his friends and she said "What! Daddy doesn't have any friends!" and then laughed her little head off.

After Marc had cooked up some of the fish he caught, Nora came to the table and said "I am NOT eating any fish, NO WAY!". Even though she has had fish before and really likes it. I told her she needed to please try at least one bite. She did, and as she was chewing a big smile spread across her face and she said "Wow! Dis is the best thing I evvvveeerrrr ate".

Often when I tell her I love her she will say "I love you more". Once after saying it she paused then added "What it means, I love you more?"

I found her hiding in the corner with a pen one day. When I went to take it away from her she started protesting "I just drawing a birfmark for me! I just need a birfmark like Teresa's!".

Both girls were talking to the baby one evening. Nora said "Hi baby boy! Dis is No-ah! I am your big stister!" Then she turned to me and said "Is he pretty awesome?" Then back to him "I know you are in dere!"

I told Nora she was a good girl and she responded "Thanks, you're a good Mama".

Changing her diaper the other day she said to me "Mama, are you nice?". I told her that sometimes I'm nice, but I'm a little mean sometimes, too. Then I said "what do you think?", and she responded "I think you are nice. Um, you are like a nice bear". I'm really still not sure what she meant by that.

We took her to the doctor this week, she's had a bit of a recurring fever issue, pretty much once a month she will get a bad fever and complain about her eyes hurting, so this month when it happened we took her in to the doctor. It was pretty much the most horrifying and traumatizing doctor's appointment ever. The worst part was trying to get a urine sample. I'm pretty sure we won't be getting to potty train any time soon thanks to that. Anyway. She screamed and yelled and thrashed and kicked the whole time we were there. She finally calmed down about 5 minutes into the drive home. She was quiet for a few minutes and then piped up all calmly and matter-of-factly "Well, I had a fun time".

She is so over this pregnancy. After trying to get comfortable on my disappearing lap she gave a big sigh and said "when da baby boy gets here, can he go sit wif Daddy for a while?"

 This is possibly the best ever picture of our children.

And finally, the very most often heard phrase coming from her mouth "I'm hungry. I'm really, really hungry!". I can not feed this girl enough food. Five minutes after breakfast or lunch or even snack time she is asking for more food. I'm hoping it is just a growth spurt and will be over soon, because, seriously, I just can't even keep up with her appetite. 

Things They Say, Teresa Edition

Looks like it's time for another things they say post! Just Teresa this time, so it doesn't get too long.


Marc asked the girls if they wanted to learn how to count to five in Spanish. T said "You mean uno, dos, tres, quantro, cinco?". I guess they really do learn something from watching Dora.

When Marc got home from fishing T told him "You are the BEST fisher-dad ever!".

She insists that she does not need to be "baby-sitted", she needs to be "big-kid-sitted".

Playing school with Nora one day, T was pacing back and forth saying "Rule number 1: Do not cry. Or whine. Or laugh. Or talk. Or cry. Or burp. Or sneeze. Or toot.".

"Okay, I will be captain Tressa. Nora, you will be Matey Nora. Mom and Dad, you can be the guys that swab the deck". Sounds pretty accurate to me.

Said to me at 5:45 in the morning, when I wasn't getting up fast enough for her liking "Mom, it's not okay for people to just sleep all day. You need to get up". You bet I will be referencing this when she is a teenager.

She thought she wanted to ride this mechanical bull. She was wrong.

Marc complimented her on something she did and she said "Well, I couldn't have done it without myself".

Driving to church one day "Mom, you know those animals that are brown, that are not reindeer?". Um, no. I don't, sorry.

Reasons she wanted to go to her "Mom's-mom's house: Our house is not pretty. My Mom's mom's house is very pretty. Our house is not fun. Granny's house is fun. Our house does not have a trampoline (it does now!), Granny's house has a trampoline. Our house does not have any cats. My mom's mom's house has three cats".

During a look and find book she got to find a heart shape. She said "Oh, I love hearts." then a big sigh, then "Oh, I'm going to cry!".

Marc was trying to teach Teresa our phone number in the car one day. He made it into a little song to help her remember - she sang it a few times and then said "let's sing it together!" Marc and I started singing and she said "No, no, no, stop. I am just going to sing it by myself. Dad, you can help me." I guess that was her tactful way of saying she didn't want me to sing?

T is always thrilled when the dalmatian that lives near the park is out. She loved when the dog would jump up on her. She's planning on getting a dal when she is 5. Right now she wants to name it Biscuits. I told her when I was four, I named our dog Poocha, and she laughed her head off about that name for like, five minutes. Not cool, T.

July

We headed down to Virginia Beach for the holiday weekend. The girls were both super excited to go to the beach, but I wasn't holding my breath that they would love it based on last summer. However, they both surprised us the first day by immediately bounding into the water and spending pretty much the whole time there. 

It was super fun, but we definitely learned that going to the beach on the Fourth of July is not the best idea if you don't love crowds. 

The next day when we got there Nora would absolutely not even touch the water. Little rascal, she was so different than the day before! She just wanted to dig in the sand. 

Teresa was awesome. We picked up a little "surf board", as she called it, and she loved it so much. She was totally brave in the water, and didn't care at all when she got dumped off her board. She actually got really good at riding the waves back to shore. And I think she just looks so old in these pictures! 

Nora got some Baywatch practice in...

The day before we went to the beach was the celebration on base. 

The official 4th of July celebration actually got cancelled this year, due to the Sequester, so Budweiser stepped in and sponsored it instead. Which our girls loved because they brought their big Clydesdale horses out. They were pretty thrilled about the horses, and especially thrilled about the dalmatian. T is has big plans for us to get a dalmatian when she turns five, so she is always excited to see one. 

Nora ran off too far, so we sent the T after her. She got her almost all the way back to us before Nora made a break for it. Luckily Marc had the camera on hand to catch this awesome progression.

We waited in the hot line for over 30 minutes so the girls could do a bounce house maze, so of course Nora refused to go in once it was her turn. Luckily when she changed her mind a few minutes later the guy let her take a turn without doing the line all over again. She loved it.

She is a huge camera ham!