my booger's birthday

The weekend after Jonathan's birthday when we had gotten back from SciWorks and Jonathan had come home from shooting guns with Travis, Jonathan's mom came over so that we could have a night out.  I had booked a hotel room for us that night and we went out to dinner, to the movies, and spent the night out. 

First, we checked in and showered at the hotel.  We didn't have a lot of time before the movie started and since our hotel was near enough to walk we headed over to Firebird's.  We enjoyed a delicious meal at and the as silly as this sounds, the highlight of it all for me was watching the prom dates coming in and out of the place.  I wanted to take some pictures but didn't want to be a total creepster so I resisted.  There's definitely something to be said about enjoying a meal in peace and quiet when you're an overtired parent of two young kids, but still I loved the high school prom people-watching. 

Next we went to see Water for Elephants.  It wasn't a bad movie, but I am sad that I picked it for that night.  It was slow and Jonathan didn't enjoy it a whole lot.  I had read the book years ago and thought it was a decent read so I figured the movie would be pretty good.  As it turns out, the best things going for the movie were Robert Pattinson and the variety of beautiful costumes worn by Reese Witherspoon.  Anyway, I'm glad I saw it but wish we had saved that one for Netflix.  Oh well!  You win some, you lose some!

After the movie we stopped at Kernel Kustard and I got a buckeye sundae and Jonathan got a small bag of caramel corn.  Delicious!  I don't know why I didn't take a picture of this!

When we woke up Sunday morning we got ready and headed downstairs for the free breakfast at our hotel.  After we checked out we drove to Stone Mountain and hiked to the top.  It was only about a 4 mile hike there and back and it was a nice morning.

The whole weekend gave Jonathan and I a nice break and a chance to spend some quality time together.  The car ride to Stone Mountain and the hike itself especially gave us plenty of time to talk and unwind.  I'm so thankful for time with my Booger.

another fun weekend

A couple of weekends ago we went to see the last show of the season at the Children's Theater of Winston-Salem.  The show was Go, Dog Go! and I took both Jules and Josh.  We went to the Y right before and had a few extra minutes to kill before the show started so we stopped in to CVS and bought a few treats to eat during the show. 

It was great fun!  I was nervous about holding Josh on my lap for an entire hour or more but he did great.  He was riveted by all of the dogs on stage and he sat motionless for the first 45 minutes.  I am not even kidding.  I was thoroughly surprised. 

There was a moon and a sun that was part of the set and they kept raising it and lowering it for various parts of the story.  Towards the end, Josh finally pointed as they took away the moon and lowered the sun back down.  He enthusiastically said, "Moon!"  And then looked at me like, "What happened?"  Finally, it was, "Dog? Dog! Dog?" for the whole rest of the show.

Julianna sat there happily munching on her animal crackers, Sour Patch Kids, and Tic-Tacs.  This was the 3rd show she's been to this year and we have enjoyed them all.  I would highly recommend the Family Pack of tickets to anyone who's considering it.  Great little productions that let the kids have a fun afternoon and get a good taste of the theater.

But our afternoon wasn't finished yet!  After the show was over we raced out to get to SciWorks for their Spring Fest celebration that afternoon.  Julianna had a chance to ride a pony years ago when my mom's group visited Cash Lovell Stables and she has been asking about Mr. Buttons ever since.  When I heard that CSL was going to have free pony rides that day at SciWorks I knew we had to try to get there.

Unfortunately, Mr. Buttons is now retired, but she did get to ride another friendly horse named Turbo.  She was as happy as a lark on top of that horse and Josh was intrigued from his spot in the stroller.

Julianna also loves SciWorks and I recently got a one year family membership there through Groupon so we ventured inside after the pony ride and played for a while among the exhibits.

Here they are playing in one of their most favorite places, the fish pond in what we call "the animal room."  WHat toddler doesn't love to play in water?

Next we stopped in for some free workshops where we studied the life cycle of a plant from the beginning seed to the resulting plant and vegetable.  Julianna used rubber stamps to make a book about her plant in the various stages of growth and then both Julianna and Joshua planted two seeds each. 

Josh chose two lima beans and Julianna planted limas and sweet peas.  We rolled up newspaper and folded under the bottom to make a little cup.  We filled it halfway with dirt, put in the seed, and then filled it the rest of the way.  We took our seeds home and put them in the window sill and watered them for the last week or so and all four plants had come up with leaves and a stem.  Last night Jonathan helped the kids plant them in the garden.  I have a separate post coming about that, of course.

From there we headed to the "music room."  In this room the kids get to make all kinds of sounds using a variety of objects.  They love it.  I love the piano keys on the floor.

Finally, it was apparent we were really pushing nap time so we zipped through the rest of the exhibits, pausing for a quick climb in the extra large mouth before we headed home to rest.

am I the only one who can still sing the "i'm a big kid now!" commercial?

At the end of April Julianna's preschool class took a "field trip" across the street and down a block to the Elementary School.  This was so that they could see where most of them would be going to school next year and get a chacne to see inside some of the classrooms and eat in the cafeteria.  Jonathan went with her and said it was a good trip.

It really makes you realize how difficult it's going to be in some respects.  One or two teachers trying to open 22 cartons of milk at the same time will be rough.  Twenty two kids trying to talk all at the same time without raising their hands would drive me insane.  Julianna is most excited about riding the bus and so far that's the only part that terrifies me.

At the same time, I know she is ready.  It will more than likely be a very smooth transistion from her class this year to an elementary school classroom next year.  She is reading on her own, she writes all uppercase and lowercase letters (although not always the captial letter first followed by lowercase letters next), she is almost totally self-sufficient with eating and using the bathroom.  Her teacher this year has done a great job at getting them to count to 100, walk in a line, wait their turn to talk.  I know it won't be perfect, but I do know that my daughter will succeed.  I am so proud of her.

Last week Jonathan took her up to the Elementary School again for kindergarten screening.  When the lady brought her back from testing she said that Julianna tested as if she were a six year, eleven month old and she is only five years and one month.  Obviously, there weren't many concerns. 

Julianna was as happy as can be when she recounted the days events to me later that evening.  She told me that she did almost miss one question when the lady asked her what a picture of a compass was.  At first she almost said clock but them she remembered it was a compass and the woman told her that most of the kids do say clock when they are asked so she did great!  Jules was thrilled to tell me that she saw Lucas and Aidan (our neighbors) and she asked me when summer was going to be over.

I'm glad that she is excited and I hope it stays that way.

I took both kids to the doctor at the end of April for their well-checks.  There's nothing terribly fascinating to report but I still want to get it recorded for my reference later. 

Julianna is still off-the-charts tall.  Her eyesight was tested (20/30 in one eye and 20/40 in the other).  Her hearing was fine. Her weight was right around 51 pounds.  There was nothing that our pediatrician was concerned about.  She did spend some time talking to Julianna about school next year, safety issues with strangers, and her new permanent tooth.

Joshua weighed in at 25 lbs 8 oz.  His head circumference was 18.75 inches and his length measured 32.75 inches which is all around the 46th percentile so he's dropped a little bit but nothing to be of concern.  I discussed with the pediatrician at length his eating challenges and she advised me to cut back his milk a little and try to increase his protein intake.

This is why I love our perdiatrician so much - well, at least one reason.  She assured me that I was doing my job as a parent.  She said that parents are to offer the child food, appropriate choices and not give in to protests for unhealthy items and that it is up to the child to make the choice whether to eat it or not.  It made me feel so much better to hear that I was doing the best I could do and that nothing will go wrong with Josh because he chooses not to eat what I provide.  Of course, this whole time he was scarfing down goldfish crackers that he had dug out of the diaper bag right in front of her.  Since that appointment he has started eating a little better and I am encouraged.

Anyway, we also talked about his physical development, his watery eyes, and dry skin spots.  The only thing the doctor was mildly concerned about was the fact that his eyes still water all the time.  She referred him to a pediatric opthamologist at Baptist to get them checked out.  She said that usually clogged tear ducts will straighten themselves out before the child is 18 months so she thought they should take a look just in case they want to do a very non-invasive surgery to fix the problem.  But she told me that they may just end up telling us to wait a little while longer and see if his eyes stop watering on their own.

So all in all my kids are perfect.  :)

What?! You don't throw your kids?

belated blogger

I haven't made time for this here blog thingy lately, but I'm going to try to do so now.  And I have a lot of posts I've never gotten around to writing so bear with me while I try to re-cap some of the past events of the last few weeks around here.

We had a fabulous Easter.  We ran from place to place beginning with our nephew's first birthday party, church, and then Jonathan's grandmother's house for Easter lunch where we also celebrated Dalford's 80th birthday. 

It was a beautiful weekend here and we enjoyed spending time in the sunshine after we ate.

While the men inspected the outside of Memama's house, Travis and Jennifer hid Easter eggs for Julianna to find.

Eventually, we came across a little frog which fascinated both kids. They chased it through the pineneedles.

I hope your Easter was as fabulous as ours!

on thoughts

Do you ever think about the present as if you're telling about it in the future?  Sometimes I watch my kids and I think about how I'll tell them stories when they're older like, "Josh, when you were about 18 months old you wouldn't eat a thing. No one would know it now!"

No?  Well then maybe it's just me.