Big Day

Today was a big day for our little Kaylee…her first day of preschool. Where has the time gone, I ask you? (I have pictures to post, but haven't taken them off my camera…to tired tonight.)

The decision to send her to preschool has been one long evolving. Without all the details, we had actually decided not to send her this year. Although our church has an excellent preschool program, we decided to wait until next year to have her go…mainly with Samantha coming this fall, we thought it would just be too much.

Then last week (or something like that) we were invited to send her to a home school preschool. My long-time friend, Jenny decided to purchase a curriculum and home school her daughter, Marie, and wanted a few other kids to join in. This arrangement fit our schedule much better in a number of different ways. It's close to Mom's house, so Logan and I can take the girls to preschool and then go there. He can play and I can take my work, not get too far behind, and not have to do as much driving. It's only 2 days a week instead of 3, which also makes it much easier to do this year.

So today was the first day! We told Kaylee about it this weekend, and she seemed mildly excited, which I found odd. I figured she wouldn't be able to contain herself. However, by yesterday she was much more excited. We set her clothes last night, and we were all ready early this morning. Logan was "ready, ready, ready," and kept saying preschool…poor little man thought he was going, too. Once we got to Mom's house, he didn't seem to mind at all that he didn't stay at Jenny's.

Evidently, Kaylee did a good job during her first day. …until it was time to go home. I honestly expected this, but tried to talk to her about it before in hopes of avoiding it. Jenny said after they sang the goodbye song, Kaylee got upset, started crying, and went and sat on the steps by herself. Jenny thought she was missing me, and the song made her want to go home. Well, that would be the case for most children, but I don't have "most children." You see, when Kaylee goes somewhere and has fun, she really dislikes the idea of going home. 'Twas the case today. She threw a big fit, cried, and tried her hardest to be able to stay at Jenny's. It was a long while (long while as in we were home before), but she finally calmed down.

I know a large factor in her breakdown is the fact that she is very tired by that point, and has a hard time dealing with being tired. I explained to her that she would be able to go back, but it was time to go home. I tried distracting her with other thoughts, but nothing calms that girl when she is in a state like that. While I can deal with it mentally, it's getting physically a lot harder to manage her when she is limp or somewhat putting up a struggle. I'm hoping this doesn't continue to last too long, as I was exhausted by the time I got her in the van. I've tried several other methods, but am open to suggestions if anyone has encountered this before.

 

In other news…I'm also sadly realizing how fast Logan is growing up. I guess since he has stayed a little more baby-ish longer than Kaylee did, I've gotten used to it (and yes, like it). But tonight I put him in the booster seat and he fed himself almost his entire dinner…a plate of scrambled eggs with cheese melted in. (Which also happens to be what he requested, and I think he wanted to help make.)

He hardly made a mess, and sat nicely while eating all his food. He even thanked me when he was done. It's not that he hasn't fed himself before, but he usually starts eating, gets full, tosses some onto the floor, forgets what he is doing, plays a little. I mean, tonight he was like a little boy. He was so happy with himself and so proud of himself, I could only be about half-sad.

(And no, this time I did not let him help me make it. We often involve the kids in cooking when we can and when it's safe, but tonight I was just too tired to let him cook. Not to mention Kaylee wanted pancakes and not eggs, so I was making two different things…I'm not usually a short-order cook, but I offered options, and each kid picked a different option tonight.)

 

 

 

Pictures

It's been way too long since I've shared any pictures...here are a few, in no particular order. I would write more, but spent too much time trying to convince a certain Miss Someone that it really was time to be in bed.

Logan

Logan…Logan…what to say about the little Bubba. I love listening to him talk. He is always learning new words, and repeating words he hears. I love to hear him say, "Oh man," when something falls or doesn't go the way he thought it would. In addition, he has started to say, "Gosh," because his big sister has used the word a few times (like when Logan was offloading the contents of his high-chair tray at dinner one night).

Tractors and Thomas the Train keep him occupied for hours on end. While occasionally he gets into trouble when he is quiet, more often than not, it just means he is in his room playing with his toys, which is a huge change from how his sister was/is. I never would have let Kaylee play in her room without being checked on every few minutes when she was this age, but with Logan I know I can. We keep doors closed where he isn't allowed, thus pretty much just leaving his room and sometimes Kaylee's room open territory.

In Kaylee's defense, she didn't have an older sibling to check on her, and I ask her to check on Logan quite frequently…so helpful!

Poor Logan is going through a time where he wants to be bigger than he is. He sees Kaylee doing things, and sometimes he just can't do them, and it's frustrating for him. Even though he doesn't talk a ton, he gets his point across most of the time, but when we don't understand, it's even more frustrating. I remember Kaylee going through a frustrating stage, and although I don't want to rush him growing up, it will be nice when he can communicate his feelings better so I can avoid getting hit in the head by metal tractors help him through his struggles calmly.

Oh, but let's talk about a time when he was quiet and not so good, just yesterday in fact. Based on a few past events, I'm normally acutely aware of closing my laptop any time I get up from it, unless it's in my room and the door is closed. Yesterday, I thought this was the case. Evidently, it wasn't…or Logan somehow managed to open the door.

Either way, Adam needed me to look at something, so I left my work for a minute. During that minute, Logan decided to take over my work, managing to type off 40 keys off my keyboard. Upon my discovery, he was still rapidly engrossed in his work, fingers flying as fast as he could. Who only knows what would have become of my poor computer had I not decided to check on him when I did. It took me a long time to get it put back together, but in the end, I only have to buy three new keys, fortunately all ones I don't use often. Thus, my computer is still in service!

I love the way Logan runs to me with his arms stretched out to give me a huge hug when he hasn't seen me for a while, and sometimes even when he has. He sometimes just climbs up in my lap, puts his head on my shoulder, and cuddles. Now let me tell you, no matter what I'm doing, it all stops for that. He has also developed a new name for me…Mon-ey. He still says Mama, but if he's trying to say Mommy, it comes out Mon-ey (not money…). Love it.

Kaylee

Well, the little girl isn't so little anymore. Every day I see new traits developing in her that remind me of that. She regularly asks deep questions, sometimes to the point that I really don't know how to answer. Tonight, while we were reading The Jesus Storybook Bible, there was mention of someone dying. She then asked me how you die. Normally, I do try to answer her questions, but this is one I decided not to explain right before bed. She has been told some about death, but as surface as I can keep it for a three-year-old, although she does have comprehension beyond that age.

One day she (thankfully) answered her own question about another topic. I had taken a break from work and Adam and I were playing with the kids, as I walked back into the room to work again, I heard her asking Adam, "Daddy, how did the baby get in mommy's tummy?" To which she promptly replied, "I think God put it there." End of story. Whew. (Although I would have liked to have seen Adam's face when she asked the question!)

She asks questions wondering where God is, if He will ever leave her, and if He loves her when she is naughty. One night when she was at my in-laws, she definitely threw Penny for a loop with all of her questions.

I love seeing her mind develop as the depth of her questions deepens, as does her understanding. One thing I have done is to try to always answer her questions honestly, even if it takes more time or is annoying (as 1,000 why's can tend to be).

Kaylee spices up my life like I never would have imagined possible. She challenges me, sometimes to the point I could scream, and then she can turn around and make me melt in the same minute.

Checking In

During the day when my energy is at its highest, I have all kinds of ideas for blog posts, including pictures and everything. However, my list of things to do during the day is so long, I don't have time to actually sit down and blog, thus leaving it until later. Once later comes, I rarely feel like writing. It's actually disappointing because I feel like I am going to forget so much from this time because I haven't written it down. Then again, I have to remind myself that there are only so many hours in a day, and so much I can do.

I have been busy sorting through all our baby clothes from both kids. I have no idea how long it actually took, but I'm pretty much done. I have more than 10 boxes of clothes that Logan has outgrown. They're not all huge boxes, but it's still a lot of clothes. These are all clothes we'll either try to sell or give away. I would love to be able to just give everything away, but I feel I need to sell at least some to have money to buy his fall clothes.

One of the first boxes I came across to sort was slightly bigger clothes. THEN I opened a box of his newborn clothes, and it hit me. I started crying, a mix of emotions that I won't have another baby boy to wear them and that my baby boy is growing up. Thankfully, I was all alone with no one to, ahem, laugh at me.

Then I have boxes of clothes ready for Samantha. I painstakingly looked at each and every label, making sure I had everything in the proper box. While doing this, I learning something…of sorts. Either Logan was a much neater eater, or we got better at making sure to use stain out. Kaylee had clothes left and right that were stained, and Logan, not so much. ??

It was actually really fun to sort through these clothes as I remembered certain outfits and thought about what Sam might look like wearing the clothes her big sister wore.

At one point I explained to Kaylee that Sam was going to get her old clothes. She got very quiet, which is not normal for her at all. Although I'm not totally sure what she was thinking, I explained to her that she would keep her own clothes and Sam would only get the ones that were too little for her anymore. I assured her she would continue getting clothes that fit her, and then when she was too big, those clothes would also go to Sam. I don't know, but I wonder if in that little head of hers she was either picturing us getting rid of her, or making her give the clothes on her back to her sister. Either way, once she learned that was not the case, she was so happy to make piles of clothes and shoes that didn't fit anymore.

I was getting ready to give updates on the kids, but I think I'll just do separate posts for that…for the sake of simplicity (or something).