1000 books before kindergarten

 

Back in the middle of  October, I signed up for a "1000 books before Kindergarten" program at the local library.  I was given a reading log for both kids in which I was to record all the books we had read.  For every 100 books, they each got to choose to a free book.  Once they hit 1000, they had a special graduation party in which a new book was purchased for the library and dedicated to the child with a special plague on the inside.  That graduation celebration was yesterday, August 12.  Judging by the title of this post - we made it - 1000 books in about 7 months time.  We finished about the middle of May, but I didn't get my logs turned in until this past Monday with only 2 days to spare before the party.  Luckily the librarian was very accommodating. 

 

I knew that we read a lot of books at home - it's one of my kids' favorite past time, but until I started actually writing them down, I didn't know how many we read.  After the first day, I recorded 25 books for each of them, and they weren't all the same title.  I knew that we would have no problem hitting the goal.  I apologize that the pictures are a bit blurry - I guess that's what happens when you are trying to keep 3 kids at bay, and they are so excited to get their book and look at it right away.  

 

 

Zabien was too quick for me to get a picture of him getting his award, and Eliza was just as eager to get out of the spotlight. 

 

I did mange to get the two of them with their books when we got back to our seat. 

 

 

I thought it was neat that they even had cake and ice cream for us. 

 

 

The whole crew of kids - it was difficult to get a picture of everyone without getting other parents taking pictures in your own photograph.  I'm happy the kids stayed up their for as long as they did. 

 

 

As mentioned before, each child had a book dedicated to them - this gets to stay in the book for as long as it lasts at the library - how cool!

 

 

Here are the kids enjoying their refreshments. 

 

 

 This particular library has a really great children's section with lots of fun activities for the kids to do.  We don't come to this library as often as I would like (there is another one closer to us that we also like), but when we do, the kids always have a good time. 

 

 

This just goes to show how much the kids love books.

 They are reading to each other.  They both take books to bed with them at night, and want a night light on in order to see.  That's why the book light Eliza got from the 4th of July parade was the best. Eliza doesn't just take one book, she takes a stack of books, or else a thick, long book that has multiple stories in it.  Her favorite is Ameila Bedeila - it's hilarious listening to her "read" or rather make up what Ameila is doing.   

 

Good job kids for finishing 1000 books in 7 months, and good job mom for reading that many.  Eliza still has a year to go until Kindergarten, and Zabien has 3 years - I don't know what I'm going to do now, I need a new challenge.   

Preschool year in review

Back in October, Eliza started attending preschool at Pennridge High School.  The child development class at the high school runs a preschool for 3-4 year olds.  They meet 4 days a weeks for an hour and a half.  Free play, projects around language arts, reading, math, and science, snack, and story time sums up the preschool experience.  Overall, it was a good experience for Eliza.  I wasn't too worried about her learning her shapes, colors, numbers, or letters; she already knew those before starting, but the social interaction has been the most beneficial for her.

Here is my cute little girl on her first day of school:

She was super excited to start preschool this year.  I don't think she realized that she had to attend 4 mornings a week - that was more than she was ready for.  We had some mornings in which we head butted over the process of getting ready, but she always had an enjoyable time.  Only one morning, shortly after Hazel was born, did we just not make preschool happen.  I know that it was a positive experience for her, and I'm glad we stuck with it.  

Crazy outfit day at preschool - the funny thing, this is actually not that crazy of an outfit for her - it's just cute.  

Pajama day at preschool!

All of the following pictures are from the preschool face book page, so I don't really have too many pictures to document the year. 

Here is Eliza working on some art projects.  Always one to march to the beat of her own drum, she doesn't mind at all that she is the last one to be finished. 

They took a field trip to a local pumpkin patch and got to ride a real school bus.  Eliza was thrilled, and I was a bit nervous - my three year old little girl isn't big enough to ride a school bus.  Here is the little cutie with her proud pumpkin:

Eliza is very particular about her clothes - she has gone through various clothing stages over the past year.  First and foremost, she insists on choosing her own outfit.  Getting her to wear the required field trip shirt was a piece of work that morning.  It is difficult to tell from this picture, but she has multiple layers of clothing that usually don't belong together.  That's my girl - she was always complimented on her outfits at preschool, no matter how crazy and bizarre they were.  She is my little fasioniesta, even if it means mommy has to wash 3 outfits for every day. 

Her class also had a Halloween party in which they went trick or treating around the school - I already posted about that. 

Another time they went to a show at the Sellersville theater.  I was hoping she would see a wonderful children's play and fall in love with the theater like her mom, but they saw a dog show instead.  Eliza was definitely not impressed (just like her mother wouldn't be), and I was a bit disappointed when I found out too. 

They had a Thanksgiving dinner and a Christmas party which I will post about later as well. 

During the second semester, her class took a trip to the Please Touch (children's) Museum in Philadelphia.  She didn't tell me much about this trip except that she had fun and got to ride the carousel - so fun!

Eliza never talked much about her friends or what she did at preschool each day.  Occasionally I would hear something about Michael and the silly thing he did while they were eating snack - apparently Michael always sat at the same table as she.  Later I noticed that everyday one boy would say "Bye Eliza," as I was picking her up.  He never said bye to anyone else except her.  I asked her about it, and she simply said "Oh, that's Carson - he always want to play with me, but I don't let him." 

One afternoon I ran into one of her classmates at the library.  After talking to the girls mother, I learned that her name was Stella.  I found out from Stella that the two girls play together every day.  Stella's mom knew a lot about Eliza, even though I knew nothing of Stella.  It was after this that I started seeing Stella other places around town, and would hear about what Stella and Eliza did at preschool.  I'm glad that she made some friends, she has a tendency to stick to herself when in groups of people.  The picture below is of Eliza (turned around), Stella (in the red), Carson (the boy in black), and Michael (the boy in blue, a little cut off) eating snack. 

Other activities included a Valentine's Day party and an Easter party (which was written about in a different post)

For Mother's Day they had a special luncheon for all the moms. The kids sang some cute little song to the moms.  I thought I was taking a video of the song (like all the other moms); however, my phone camera is still slightly new to me and what I thought I was videoing, I was simply taking a picture over and over again.  Sorry girlie, at least I got the cute blow kisses. 

 

At the end of April and middle of May they took a field trip to the Crayola Factory in Easton, Pa and an Iron Pigs baseball game.  I managed to snap this quick picture of her getting off the school bus.

 

 

Near the end of May, they had a preschool graduation for all the participants and invited families to come.  It consisted of a picnic outside on the patio of the high school with goodie bags for the kids - short and simple, the way I like it.  There wasn't a drawn out ceremony, just Mrs. Reim who called each child up to receive their certificate. So full of sass this one is. 

 Here is Eliza with her teacher Mrs. Reim and her big buddy helper whose name I think is Sam, but I'm not sure on that one.

Eliza and Zaby both drew extensive sidewalk chalk drawings for a good portion of the party - I was surprised they sat so long, and her big buddy was so great to interact with both her and Zaby; some of the other big buddies were chatting in a circle with themselves. 

We had several attempts at getting a group photo of the kiddos.  It's difficult to get 20 kids to sit still for a photo when there are bubbles, sidewalk chalk, and a table full of goodies behind them.  I have to laugh though because Zabien made an appearance in every single one of them - I think he thought he was really part of the class.  He's the one in the striped shirt at the very top.  Eliza is in the cute dress near the bottom stair. 

Visit from Grandma and grandpa

A week after Hazel was born, my parents came out to visit and help with the new baby.  I really appreciated the help of my mom as I was still recovering from a C-section and adjusting to life as a family of 5.  This visit took place April 23-May 3.

Bruce especially deserves a pat on the back since he endured most of the grunt work on his 2 week paternity leave from work.  I really have to give him Kudos - those two older kids are not easy.  I must admit that I secretly enjoyed his mounting frustration at taking over the reins of the household - it hopefully made him appreciate more of what I do and what I put up with.  Back to the initial purpose of this post.  The kids had an enjoyable time hanging out with grandma and grandpa. 

Grandpa read books in which he made up most of the words.  He may have regretted his decision to agree to book reading since my kids will listen to books being read to them for hours and hours at a time. 

 

 

The grandparents got in some good snuggle time with 1 week old Hazel.

 



 

The funny thing about Hazel is she would only snuggle on a shoulder and go to sleep if it was mom or grandma - for some reason daddy just wouldn't do. 

 

 

Bruce and dad (grandpa) even made it out to a Phillies game. 

 



 

The Phillies lost pretty badly to the braves, but the two had fun anyway - they even managed to get their hotdogs, and got better seats upon their return from the concession stand. 

 

 

My dad treated both he and Bruce to Phillies shirts so they were official. 

 

And to add to the fun, grandpa and daddy took the kids to Hershey's Chocolate World where they were gifted with oodles of chocolate, Twizzlers, and play buckets. 

 

 

It was noted, however, that when it came time to purchase their goodies, Zabien pulled his famous take off and run technique and Eliza decided to follow suit.  Unfortunately, Eliza decided to run in the opposite direction.  Poor Bruce was in a conundrum at who to chase first since my dad isn't very mobile.  My mom and I had a relaxing afternoon at home.  We may have gone to Walmart to do some shopping for baby Hazel, and snuck in a visit to Friendly's for lunch on the way. 

 

 

We made another outing entirely to Lake Nokamixon for a picnic and walk around the lake.  We were fighting off rain clouds, but it turned out to be a lovely afternoon. Here's the crazy crew minus Bruce who is the photo taker.  I love how Eliza is trying to blow bubbles in this picture.

 

 

 

 

  Grandma supplied the kids with lots of bubbles and squirters to use at the pool.  I must say that the squirter was worth its weight in gold in the eyes of Zabien.  He always makes sure he has it when he goes to the pool or outside if water is around. 

 

 

 

The kids got to play on the playground and take a nice walk with grandma and grandpa.

 

 

All too soon the 10 days were over, and we had to send grandma and grandpa on an airplane back to Wyoming.  The kids went with me to drop them off at the airport.  Poor Zaby fell asleep on the way there and didn't know that they had gone back home.  He kept asking where they were for at least another 2 days after that. They miss their grandparents - it's a good thing we were already planning a trip out to see them in July.  (I have lots of things to post about that.)

 

2 Months Old

Hazy, Hazel Mae, Mazel Hay, boo boo chicken, or pookoo - whatever it is we call you, we are certainly blessed by your presence. 

I can't brag enough about this beautiful baby.  She is so angelic and wonderful to have around.  Although she is only a week shy of 4 months now, I feel like she hasn't had much time in the spotlight. 

 

She has always had an even temperament and disposition.  She hardly made a peep at birth, and generally only cries when she is a hungry or tired.  When she is both, she really does have the quite set of lungs on her - she makes her presence known. 

 

She is such a beautiful baby - besides Eliza, I haven't seen such a gorgeous babe, everything about her is simply precious.

 

Here she is at 1 month old.  She doesn't like tummy time at all - none of my babies have.  In fact, the first time I put her on her tummy at about 5 weeks old, she squirmed so much that she actually managed to flip herself over onto her back.  It was a fluke thing because she hasn't done it since. 

 

 

At 6 weeks old, she started smiling.  I love how she has different smiles for different occasions.  Even so, she smiles with her entire face, even her eyes light up.  I've been trying to figure out who she looks like.  When I saw her smile in the picture above, it became clear - that is my grandpa Erickson's grin, the spitting image of g-pa.  She has enough other features of her dad's side too that she fits right in with our family.  Some faces look like Eliza, some like Zabien, and some unique to Hazel. 

 

She also started sleeping through the night (8-9 hours) at 6 weeks old.  I told you she was an angel baby.  By 8 weeks, she was consistently sleeping 11-12 hours a night, and she is still doing that, even after our month long trip to Utah.   

 

She is by far my easiest baby to put to bed.  I nurse her until she's full.  I sing her a song while I snuggle her, then I giver he a kiss, put her in her crib, turn on her mobile and walk out of the room. She generally goes right to sleep without a fuss after she smiles at me a bit.   

 

 

In this picture, she is cooing on the phone to grandma Richards.  I took this picture and texted it to grandma so she would know that Hazel was smiling at her. 

 

She is just as easy to put down for naps - she likes me to just lay her in her bed when she is tired.  If we are not at home, her car seat is a good substitute.  She will rub her head against my chest and start sucking on her hands.  That's the sure sign that she is ready for sleep. 

 

I love how you can see the fat rolls already starting to develop at about 6.5 weeks.  She is my biggest baby at 2 months old - weighing in at a hefty 15.2 pounds.  She's the girl who loves her birthday suit.  She absolutely loves getting her diaper changed.  Any volunteer to do this dirty job will be rewarded with smiles and giggles galore.  She isn't one to tolerate a dirty diaper for long.  Bath time is another favorite for her.

 

How can you not fall in love with this face?   

 

In a lot of ways, she acts and looks older than merely 2 months (in these pictures, as stated before she is closer to 4 months now).  She is very strong and holds her head up well. 

 

 

Bruce and I decided that her sturdiness is a survival mechanism.  She gets smashed and tugged on by her brother.  She gets smuggled, poked, and prodded by her sister, and somehow she survives.  She's a tough girl and very tolerating of the "vultures" who love her dearly. 

 

I love you baby girl - thanks for being in our family

2 Month stats:
Weight: 15.2 lbs - 98%ile
Length: 1'11.62" - 88%ile
Head Circumference: 15.83" - 92%ile

 

4th of July parade

I have not been to a good 4th of July parade for almost 10 years. The parade in Illinois was very political , but more importantly did not throw candy. I have not been able to find a city or community in Pennsylvania that actually has a parade for the 4th of July. Pretty sad huh! Knowing that we were headed out west for the independence day holiday, I asked my mom before we made plans if Evanston has a 4th of July parade, and if they throw candy. She answered yes to both questions.  You can imagine my distress when on July 3rd, she found out at work that Evanston was in fact not having a parade. However, my moms friend Tori, whom she works with, came to the rescue. She lives in Woodruff, Utah and told us she would save us a spot in front of her house where we could not only watch the parade, but also pick up candy. Hooray! It sounded like this was exactly what I was after. My excuse is that I wanted this experience for my children (which is partially true), but I was probably more excited for the candy than my children were. 

Here is Hazel hanging out with grandma while we waited for the parade to start.

It took the kids a while to catch on to the concept of picking up the candy, but once they did, they were not afraid to go out in the street to get some. You can see from the above picture that Zabien put on his "binoculars" in order to find all the unclaimed candy.

They were so cute. They made sure they got enough variety of candy to share with everyone. Not surprising, they were picky about what kinds they picked up for themselves. 

Eliza liked the horses and drill team, Zabien really liked the fire truck and tractors.

Hazel on the other hand was not a fan of the parade. She found the whole thing much to sunny and much too hot. The weather was really hot for Evansron, Wy standards, but compared to the humidity of Pennsylvania, it really wasn't too bad. 

Hazel tolerated it well, but when the parade turned around and came back, she was not amused and let us know that enough is enough. 

The older kids loved the extra candy. Eliza picked up a book light which she is thrilled about. She went to bed with it that night attached to a book. She has been telling everyone that she can go to bed with a long book and read it until she gets sleepy. Best parade throw ever!

I think Zaby could have been more efficient at picking up goods if he would have put down his baby doll, but he wouldn't part with it. 

Zaby with one of his favorite characters, Mater. 

When the parade was over, they each sorted out their candy; giving away what they didn't want, and giving each other what they had duplicates of.  Later they told grandma they would only give her a kiss if she took them to another parade. With that remark we can conclude their first exposure to a parade was a big success. I don't think it will be their last parade this vacation.