Excited Kids; So much fun!

Ryan is having a great birthday so far. He opened a package yesterday that he thought was school supplies, but turned out to be Lego Star Wars for DS from his Aunt Bee and family. Not having a DS of his own did not stop the excitement. After some discussion about borrowing Zach's DS he said, and I quote, "This is the best! I couldn't have asked for anything more!" We were getting ready to head out the door so he brought  the game with him in the car just by itself. He read the directions and was just so excited to have it.
This morning he got to open his gift from our family. It was a blue DS. His chin nearly dropped to the floor. This time he said, "This is AWESOME! I couldn't ask for anything more!" Then he opened his gift from Grandmommy and Granddaddy, a Calvin and Hobbes collection, which generated more beaming smiles and exclamations of joy. This kid is so happy. It's like it's his birthday or something;-)
As Ryan was rejoicing about his gifts Lily hugged her new stuffed animal close and said with all the joy in the world for herself and her brother, "And I have my Hello Kitty!" You see, yesterday we went on a Grandparent sponsored trip to the State Fair. The kids had a blast, but that's another post. At the fair Ryan won a stuffed animal and he chose to get a Hello Kitty and give it to Lily. He said to me afterwards, "I'm really glad I got that prize for Lily. Even more than if I had gotten one for myself." It has quickly become of of her favorite things in the world. Lily even pulled a chair up next to hers at the table so Hello Kitty can sit next to her in the booster seat at meals.
All in all a good day so far. I think it has been nice for him to have the day off from school. Last year his birthday was the first day of school and for a while there we thought it was going to be the first day this year as well. he takes it all in stride and doesn't complain either way, but he seems to be having a really fun day today with the neighborhood kids.

Ryan's First Day of Kindergarten

At Ryan's school they do a gradual entry for kindergarten students. So Ryan's first day was only 2 hours with me there. I drove him and he went home with me. Tomorrow will be his first day all by himself and riding the bus. Tomorrow I'm more worried about than today. This is Ryan before we went in to the school in the morning. You can see the slight trepidation on his face. He keeps talking about how excited he is and I think that's true, but I think he was a bit nervous too. Who wouldn't be?

We went into his classroom and they did some of the things that will be in their morning routine while the parents filled out paperwork. I don't have any good pictures from that time that don't have other kids with name tags on, so I didn't want to post them on the Internet.

We went down to the cafeteria to have a "practice lunch" so they would know where to go and what to do tomorrow. Ryan enjoyed his cookie and juice.

When we went back to the classroom the teacher had them draw self portraits. The had little mirrors and crayons. Ryan took a little too long drawing the stripes on his shirt and didn't have time to draw arms. His mouth is blue because when he showed me I told him not to forget the mouth and he had a blue crayon in his hand(not because he was feeling cold or anything.)

They read a story and then it was time to go.

This is how Ryan looked at the end of the day. Much more relaxed. I think he really enjoyed his first day. I hope he's not mad tomorrow when I have to pull him out for a dentist appointment. His dentist only does kids under 6 before noon, so he will have to miss school whenever I schedule it. ::sigh::

School Starts Tomorrow

Ryan starts Kindergarten tomorrow and I'm going through all the emotions I went through last year and more. I wonder if I'll be this nervous at the start of every year or if it's just the idea of "real" school and bigger kids that make this year especially nerve racking. Whatever it is tomorrow feels like a big day. I know I don't like the idea of putting him on the bus and not seeing his teacher daily. Maybe I'll be able to volunteer in the classroom to get a better idea of what goes on and who his teacher is.

On the plus side I am looking forward to having some alone time with Lily.

Graduation

I never thought I would be one of those moms who makes a big deal out of preschool graduation. Before I had kids you might have heard the words, "Preschool graduation?! Oh, pu-leez!" escape my unknowing lips. But somehow as it approached the gravity of it hit me. My little boy is not so little anymore. Next year he will be required to be in school by the state. He will go to the big building with "Elementary School" emblazoned on it. Not only that, he will ride the big yellow bus there and I won't see his teacher every day in case she wants to share something with me. And what about all those kids, those big kids on the bus and in the school. How will he interact with them when I'm not there?! The worst part is he will be gone all. day. long. As I thought about all that stuff I realized this is a big deal, a transition, a milestone if you will. So it turns out I was wrong about another prediction of my parenting. I'm not sorry though. I know Ryan felt special today and it was a special day for all us.

Here he is getting his diploma.

I thought I'd take advantage of the fact that we were all dressed up to get a nice picture of the four of us.


Here we all are with the cake I made to celebrate the occasion. I used blue M&Ms, his favorite color of his favorite candy, to write his name.

I also got a few pictures of the graduate.

Look What Ryan Can Do!!!

It's the first decent weekend day in spring that we didn't have plans, so Jay took off Ryan's training wheels and I padded him out. We went over to the local school and Ryan learned how to ride a two wheeler!

The First Pre-school Drop Off

Today was Ryan's first day at Preschool by himself. Yesterday we went together and we spent about an hour with half of his class and their parents. They had some free time, then circle time and a craft that we helped them with yesterday.

Ryan has afternoon preschool, so we had Coffee Break this morning then came home for lunch and went to drop him off. I brought my camera (of course!) I can't believe I was the only one. Oh well, I'm not going to miss having a starting preschool scrapbook page just because I'm the only nerd with a camera! One other person had a camera yesterday. Maybe all those kids went to pre-school at 3 years old too so their parents didn't think it was a big deal. It was a big deal to me. ANYWAY, today was much less involved for me. We waited outside the door with the rest of the class until the teacher came and opened the door. I gave Ryan a kiss and he walked in to his classroom stopping to give me a big "cheese" smile in the doorway. Lily and I started to leave and guess who started crying...Lily! I never thought to prepare her for taking Ryan somewhere and leaving him behind. As we walked away she cried and said, "Where Yai-ya?!" [translation- Where's Ryan?!] "Wan Yai-ya!" [I want Ryan!] As we walked out the the car I explained to her that Ryan was going to preschool. We would leave Ryan at preschool. Lily and Mommy would go home and then we would come back and pick Ryan up. Amazingly enough she stopped crying. I totally expected her to fall asleep in the car because it was nap time, but no dice. So we did our normal nap time routine. I put her in her crib and finished her songs. She was still, so I started to walk out. She popped up on her elbow, waved with her other hand and said, "DYE-dye! Dye-dye!" Somehow I actually took this as a good sign, maybe because she was smiling. A couple minutes later I hear a very distressed sounding "MAMA! MAMA!" I found her straddling her side rail with a mixed look of terror and pride. ::Sigh:: By this time I figured she wasn't going to get a full nap anyway since Ryan had a short day, so I let her stay up. I'm hoping that wasn't a mistake. I changed a load of wash, talked to the contractor, tried to pick out a carpet color and paint color for the family room and checked out the progress on our bedroom color. Then it was time to pick up Ryan. Lily and I waited patiently in that same hallway for the kids to be dismissed from class. Ryan was called to come second. He seemed to take a while, but had a huge grin on his face when he finally appeared. He came out and threw his arms around me. I asked how preschool was and he said it was good.

It was drizzling, so we got his Diego umbrella out of his backpack to walk the 10 yards to the car. It wasn't really necessary, but it makes him feel cool. In the car I asked what he did today. He said he played with trains and drew a picture of himself and that's it. I probed him a little more and he added that he played in the kitchen. I asked if he had circle time and he said, "Yeah, but it was boring. They just talked for a long time." I could almost feel his eyes rolling from the front seat. I asked if he had a story in circle time and he said, "No. It was boring. They just talked." I asked if he listened to what they said and he said "Yes, but it was boring." I asked if they did the weather for the day and he perked up a tiny bit and said they put up a rain cloud. I'm thinking he is not a big fan of circle time. I asked if they did a craft and he said they just drew pictures of themselves. Then he giggled and said he called his picture of himself "Rockman" because he drew it like a rock. I'm not sure what that means, but he seemed amused. I asked if he was ready to go back tomorrow and he said, "No." At first I was surprised because he seemed like he had fun and he said he liked it earlier. I understood as he continued, "because circle time was so boring." I pointed out all the other things that were fun and he changed his tune.

I guess he has forgotten about the dreaded circle time by now because I just asked if he was ready to go back to school tomorrow and he jumped up and exclaimed, "YES!" Ah, the mind of a 4 year old.

Pictures from the day:

Come on mom! Let's go in.

Down the hallway to his classroom.

In front of the classroom.

Going in.
Too bad the focus is so bad because this is a cute picture of him saying cheese for me (I didn't ask, he just said it) as he went in to his classroom.

Oh the Milestones They Keep a' Comin'

We went to Ryan's preschool for the open house today. It was a nice classroom and the teacher seemed sweet. It was kind of crowded and very loud, but I think that was more because of all the parents and siblings. They had two classes in the same room and Ryan was a little overwhelmed. The teachers had made a scavenger hunt which was a fantastic idea because there was just so much to take in I think we would have missed a lot. Ryan looked right at the bookshelf 3 times before he found the books. That was with looking for one item at a time! He liked it and he can't wait to start Monday.

Lily can now climb into and out of her crib and she does it often. This girl worries me!

Happy 4th Birthday Ryan!

I should have written something this morning, but the day has just been so busy. We started with breakfast at Panera. When we got to the parking lot Ryan said, "I don't think I'm going to like this place." He had wanted to go somewhere where they had chicken nuggets for breakfast. After he ate his chocolate chip muffie (aka- muffin top, I guess someone at Panera watched Seinfeld back in the day)I asked if he liked the place and got an enthusiastic head shake with a big chocolaty grin. When we got home we played in the front yard for a while. Then he watched Toy Story with Grandma while I went to the store to tie up some loose ends for his party Saturday. While I was at the party store I picked up a balloon bouquet for today. He shared one of his balloons with Lily and I think it made her week. She grinned and giggled and played with that balloon most of the day. Ryan also played with his balloons. Most of his games ended with a big thud as he landed on the floor after jumping off some makeshift apparatus to grab the ribbons. Jay's family and my mom all came for dinner and cake. Elizabee came more for the ice cream than any of that stuff, but they all came for Ryan and he thought that was special. He also got calls from Uncle TJ and Grandpa(aka my brother and dad) who couldn't be here. That was pretty cool too. Unfortunately for Grandpa he called right in the middle of a very cool Lego project Ryan was working on with Uncle Ben. He did talk to Grandpa for a few minutes and he told him some stuff about his day, but his attention could only be held away from that space ship for so long. Sorry, Dad, if it felt like an abrupt end to your conversation. He does that sometimes. It was really special to have the family that could come to celebrate and though Ryan doesn't fully get how much that means it does mean a lot and some day he will look back and it will mean a whole lot more. Thanks to everyone who made Ryan's day special. I love to see my boy smile the way he did today.

Family Day at Dutch Wonderland

Jay and I decided on Friday that we needed to spend a family day since we have been so busy lately and have not spent much time all together. We decided to take a day trip to Dutch Wonderland. We really like Dutch Wonderland because it has something for everyone. It's a little heavier on the kiddie rides than a lot of places, so it's perfect for us. Any time Zach and Jay went on a bigger ride we just found a kiddie ride nearby so we wouldn't have to wait around for them or have a hard time finding each other later. Another reason it's good for us is it's only and hour and a half away, so we don't have to stay over night. Here are some highlights from the trip.
We started the day by riding one of the few rides we've never ridden before. It was kind of lame, but Ryan had fun "driving" the boat and saving us from the alligator. Then we let Ryan choose a ride. He chose the train which is a pretty good ride to do first because you get a look at a lot of the stuff there is to ride later. Then Zach chose the space shuttle, so I took Ryan over to the whip ride across the way and Lily and I checked out the ginger bread house right next to it. We went back over to watch Ryan for the last part of the ride. Then we all met up and headed over to the carousel for Lily. Lily loves the carousel. Maybe it's the lights and music or the smooth ride. I'm not sure, but she loves it. The rest of the day was similar in style with each kid choosing rides. Lily was content to run around the grassy areas and check out statues when the bigger kids rode rides we all couldn't go on together.


Ryan got to ride on his first real roller coaster. You can see his face in this picture. He loved it. That's mommy's boy!

After lunch we changed into our bathing suits and hit the water park area. Ryan and Zach enjoyed the fort area with all the big water slides. Lily LOVED the baby water slides in the other area, but I couldn't get a picture while I was helping her and when Jay was catching her I was busy with Ryan.

I did get some good pictures of Lily playing in the water. she really liked the springs that would come up and go down. I had to find one that didn't go as high because she kept getting sprayed in the face. When we found a little one she stayed there for a long time. She would laugh and poke at it every time it came up. Then it would stop and she'd poke at it some more. I finally picked her up and took her over to the slides again.

It happened to be Christian family weekend, so we got to meet Bob and Larry. That was fun.

We went back and rode more rides until the kicked us out at closing time. Okay, they didn't kick us out, but we did have to leave.

On the way out we got the see the princess, the knight and the dragon. They are the symbols of the park. They were really good with the kids stooping down to talk to each one and posing for pictures.

It was a great time. I'm so glad we went and made time for our family to spend together.

R is for Ryan **updated**

Ryan, Lily and I were sitting on the couch. Lily and I were playing peek-a-boo and Ryan was sitting next to us scribbling on his mini-magnadoodle. He generally scribbles something and tells me it's a picture or it says something. Imagine my surprise when he says, "Look mommy!" and I see a plain as day R right there on the board. He took it upon himself to do it and he did. We weren't even talking about letters at the time. He was so proud of himself. I think he really liked it that I said it was so good we should save it to show to daddy. That means it's really special. He was embarrassed, but I made him take a picture with it later in the day. He kept hiding his face, so the picture here is when he popped out from behind the doodle board. I think it turned out well for a picture taken on the fly.

**UPDATED to add:
This is what he showed me today.
I guess he was inspired by the praise he got for his "R". Okay it needs a little work, but he did it completely on his own with no coaching. I'd say that is pretty good for a 3 1/2 year old!