Kindergarten

Today was a day that I'd been thinking about all summer. I can't say that I was dreading it, but it's definitely been bittersweet.  But that's life, right?  I didn't bawl my eyes out after I dropped him off for two reasons.  One, he was very brave. He didn't get upset, he was very stoic and matter-of-fact about sitting down at his new table and getting started on work.  Two, Pop-pop showed up and helped us drop him off so I couldn't get all weepy in front of my dad.  That's only for sporting events! 

Here's the official first-day-of-school portrait on the front steps.   

Here's the big 5-yr old with little sister, who would herself go to kindergarten in a heartbeat if only it was legal for 3-yr olds to be there.  I know, great photo staging huh?  Hi kids!  Look into direct sunlight!

These two spent the summer in the same classroom at Montessori and they played together on the playground and all of Will's little boy friends are now Reina's little boy friends.  (Justified or not, I actually blame all of them for the cherry-pit-up-the-incident of last week.)  I didn't tell them to hug each other for this picture.  I said "stand next to your sister" and he grabbed her for a big hug.  So sweet.  While it lasts.  And doesn't devolve into a front steps wrestling match. 

More sibling together-ness.  When we picked Reina up from preschool tonight, Will was already in the car.  One of the first things she said was "Bobo, I missed you!" 

The last picture I took before my tears fogged up the camera.  Hey I didn't say that I didn't cry at all!  I didn't do the Titanic Sob but I did get a little teary.  Look at this big kid sitting at his table, working on a maze, with his Spiderman water bottle. I swear I'm going to blink and he'll be backing out of the driveway headed off to college.  Except don't forget that he does want me to go to college with him so that won't be so bad. 

So in summary: Will went to kindergarten today.  Reina started her first official year in the primary class at Montessori.  Glenn got us all out of the door (relatively) on time and I didn't bawl.  Mission accomplished. 

Squeezing the last little bit out of Summer 2012

It's the end of August - how did that happen?  Our nights are getting cooler and there's a crispness to the morning so I know Fall is around the corner.  For all my complaining about the hot weather this summer, I still can't believe that it's almost over. 

We spent the day at Water World last weekend.  It's became a summer tradition.  We meet the rest of the Hansen/Fry gang and spend the day cooling off and not getting sunburned.  This year was no different except some of us failed miserably at the not-getting-sunburned part. My back has entered that lovely itching-like-crazy stage that follows a stupid sunburn.  Glenn was stung by a yellow jacket .... in the mouth.  His lips had a lovely collagen/Angelina Jolie look for the rest of the day and apparently it hurt like a you-know-what but he was a trooper.  Will has graduated to the slightly scarier water rides so he and Glenn spent most of the day in search of adrenaline rushes.  Reina and I stayed closer to the wave pool and the kiddie areas.  We did take her on a few of the family rides, including one called the River of the Pharaohs or something like that.  You take a giant innertube through an underground river with mummies that move and make noises.  Not too scary but enough to sufficiently freak out a 3-yr old.  Afterwards she kept insisting that she wasn't afraid of those "muma's" and she wanted to do it again and oh by the way what's a muma?  I found myself saying "Well when someone died, they wrapped them up in cloth and ...."  Yeah, great answer lady.  That's definitely not going to give anyone nightmares.  Grandma H pointed out that I could've just said "Mummies are from Egypt" and left it at that.  Next year. 

It was 57 degrees when we were standing in line for Water World.  Brrrr!  It warmed up before I had to break out the sweat pants. 

Last weekend, we also made a trip up to the State Fair. I had to attend a work function but I dragged the whole gang along and we walked around the fairgrounds afterwards.  It was hot and the kids were all hopped up on cotton candy.  We spent some time at the petting zoo where Reina was captivated by this little black pig. 

 And then so was Will....

 And Glenn too!  We snuck the cute little pig home in my purse.  Okay we didn't, but wouldn't the dogs have loved that? 

 Nothing like posing with a goat. 

This past week, the kids' school was closed on Thursday and Friday so I stayed home to multi-task.  One afternoon, Reina was not tired (clearly) but fell asleep for her nap on the sofa with Trigger.  I looked downstairs at one point and noticed this.  Clearly Trigger is unwilling to sacrifice his spot on the couch, even with a foot on his jugular.  Reina started to wake up when the camera clicked but she settled back down and slept like this for another 30 minutes or so. 

Later that night, I came downstairs to find this.  Let's just call this picture "3-yr olds are interesting." 

It's a cowgirl/diver/3-yr old. 

We finished off the week with a trip to Will's new school and a chance to meet his teacher.  He's so excited for the first day of kindergarten on Tuesday.  I'm more ready than I was a few weeks ago.  It's hard to feel so bittersweet about all of it when he's so very ready to be reading and writing and learning.  Reina's ready for kindergarten, too.  She came with us to the new school on Thursday and she was very upset that Will had a bunch of new school supplies, even though she has some new paper and a lunchbox.  When I tried pointing out that she had neat stuff at her school too, she told me "I don't want to talk about it."  If readiness for Kindergarten was based solely on attitude, she'd be there in a heartbeat.  Soon enough, kiddo, soon enough. 

The One Where Reina Stuck a Cherry Pit up her Delicate Little Nostril

So that happened. I was working at my desk during the lunch hour when the preschool phone number rang on my cell phone. Both kiddos were chipper and healthy this morning when we all left the house, so I didn’t immediately think that school was calling because someone spiked a fever or threw up. I’ve helped with a few fundraisers and projects like that lately so I thought that maybe it was related to that or the fact that Will has only two more days left at Montessori… sob, sob, sob. No such luck. Reina’s teacher informed that they had a little problem. It was lunchtime and Reina had just stuck a cherry pit up her nose. The teachers had tried to get it out but it was solidly stuck up there and Reina was pretty freaked out. The teachers didn’t have any of the special tools to pry stone fruit pits out of little 3-yr old nostrils so I would have to take her to the doctor. I had always imagined a call like that for Will, but not Little Blondie. So I laughed, grabbed my purse and headed for the door. Before I could get to the parking lot, school called back and the pit was out. They’d been able to get Reina to close off one nostril and blow hard and out it shot. Crisis averted. Tonight we asked Reina why she did it and her answer was the 3-yr old equivalent of literally “ha ma na ha ma na?” Basically a nonsensical blah blah blah blah, thanks for asking mom and dad but let’s not get worked up about all of the details. I’m hopeful that it freaked her out enough that we won’t have a repeat of this incident in the future. Just to be on the safe side, we aren’t packing cherries in her lunch anytime soon either.

What?  Me stick something up my nose?  Never! 

Ima Inja Ghel

Is it taking you a few minutes to decipher that title? It took me about five minutes and asking Reina to repeat herself about twenty times before I figured out she was saying, "I'm a ninja girl.". Of course she is. Reina wakes up in the morning, starts talking, talks throughout the day and then falls asleep mumbling something. She has opinions on everything from what she's wearing to what I'm wearing. ("I don't like your scarf, mom. It has writing on it.") and everything in between.  Remember how I was so worried that she wasn't talking? 

So not many photos from the last few weeks because the camera was out of batteries and I didn't have time to walk downstairs and get some fresh ones.  Yeah, I know.  Things are wild around here.  I had some day trips out of town this week, Glenn has some traveling coming up and we are both incredibly busy at work.  Will's last three days at Montessori start on Monday and then the kids have a few days off

before the new school year starts.  We have an ice cream social at the elementary school next week so we can meet Will's teacher and drop off his school supplies.  It's all very exciting and oh so very bittersweet.  But that's a post for next week.

In the meantime, here's Trigger and Tootsie.  This was the third picture of them I attempted.  Shortly after this picture was taken, they were banished outside because of extremely loud and furniture rearranging wrestling.  These two are my faithful jogging partners and if I make the mistake of putting exercise pants for non-exercise reasons, I have to listen to Tootsie whine excitedly until she finally realizes that I'm just loafing around in exercise pants instead of exercising in them.  She's a smart one. 

 Here's a quick photo of our crazy garden this summer.  For the first time since we moved in to this house, we've actually had a little time to put into yard work.  We have some giant hollyhocks that we transplanted a few years ago when we were too lazy/busy to do anything else.  I thinned them out a little this year to make room for other stuff but they are pretty tenacious.  We also have tomatoes and peppers in pots because I'm paranoid about hail storms and want to be able to move expensive plants into shelter if needed.  With this drought, we haven't had to worry too much about hail this year.  I planted a pumpkin at the beginning of the summer with the thought that I'd probably kill it off, as I've done with all of the other one's I've tried to grow, but this was a hearty pumpkin and you can see that it's taken over the backyard. 



A close up of a little baby pumpkin nestled in the pine tree.  I wonder how that will turn out?  So far so good.  You can also see another vine growing up through the pine tree. 



 It's been another smoky week in Cheyenne.  We don't have any forest fires close by but smoke from other western states has been moving through our area.  The sky was so red tonight that I tried to capture it with my little amateur camera.   

 Last Saturday, Reina had Tootsie hooked up to a leash and was walking her all of the house.  Patient Tootsie just followed Reina around but kept throwing me "save me!" glances.  I tried to take a picture of Reina pounding on the piano with one hand while holding Tootsie with the other, but that's when the last battery in the camera gave out.  I did "save" her shortly after this picture was snapped when Reina was yelling "SIT TOOTSIE" while she was trying to play the piano. 

One last highlight from the week.  Last weekend, the kids and I went down to the Farmer's Market.  On the way home, it was quiet in the backseat.  Out of the blue, Will asked, "Mom, how does the baby get in your tummy?"  I froze like a deer caught in the headlights, thought for a minute and said, "You know what Buddy?  It's complicated.  Hey look - is that a slug bug?"  Yep, total parenting fail.  But it worked.  He was sufficiently distracted and the next time the subject comes up, hopefully I'll have a better answer.  Like "Ask Daddy." 

What we've been up to

In a short summary, nothing major but lots of fun stuff going on for the last few weekends, therefore very little blogging time.  And not many pictures since everyone is moving too fast to sit still for a photograph.  I can't believe that it's August and school starts in three weeks.  Yesterday we all went to Target for school supplies.  We crossed everything off of the Kindergarten supply list (2 boxes of crayons, scissors that can't stab people, folders, 4 (!!) glue sticks, regular glue, 2 boxes of kleenex (for mom to use on the first day of school), a big boy backpack, post-it notes, ziplock bags (?), washable (yeah!!) markers, pencils, and a brand-new lunchbox).  Reina scored a new lunch box too because every time we put something in the cart, she'd shriek, "BUT WHAT DO I GET THAT'S NOT FAIR."  Kindergarten can't come fast enough for the little sisters of the world. 

Will is a little subdued lately and I think a little apprehensive about the change in school.  Academically, you can tell that he's very ready.  He's been reading more words and writing.  He's also discovered the joy that is "Angry Birds" on my Ipad and we've had to institute restrictions on how much time you can play computer games.  Hey, I got an Ipad!  I never mentioned that a few months ago.  I'd like to say that Glenn surprised me with a big, romantic gesture, but the truth is, I just wore him down.  But it was very sweet of him to order it online and get the fancy, shiny, new model.  I love it.  The kids love it.  Glenn loves it.  He's using it right now in fact to search for hunting stuff.  I think I need to password protect the Ipad. 

Both Glenn and I are busy at work and when we are home, that's busy too.  We've had birthday parties and barbecues and lots of chores around the house.  We have a little garden in the backyard this year that's growing tomatoes, strawberries, peppers and one ginormous pumpkin plant.  We also have a bunch of flowers, a brave little blackberry bush and a new chokecherry that we planted this weekend.  The yard looks better than it has since we moved in but those little plants don't grow themselves and we all spend a few hours every weekend keeping everything alive.  Just like the rest of the country, we are having a very hot and dry summer.  It's good weather for tomatoes (that needed to be watered everyday and sometimes twice a day) but that's about it.  The heat is not fun.  We don't have AC and you hardly really need it out here but there have been plenty of days and nights that I wouldn't have minded it.  Hopefully we will be seeing cooler weather soon.

So in a nutshell, lots of stuff going on and we are trying to squeeze every last bit of fun out of summer 2012.  Still on the to-do list:  more camping, Water World, State Fair, and last but not least, Will's first Broncos game!  Guess who's most excited about that?