Sledding :)

3 days until school starts!

We had kindergarten orientation yesterday. Charles got back from his meetings out of town in time to meet us there. (As in, we arrived at the same time and got to park beside each other.)

Adia's teacher is brand-new, which is kinda cool, since it's just like Miss Binney in Ramona. :) A was painfully shy and opted not to play with the toys while the teacher talked to the parents. (She stayed with us.) Unfortunately we hadn't gotten the heads-up that they would be offered the chance to take a practice ride on the bus. I say unfortunately because that meant we didn't have any time to prepare her. She flipped and declared we would be driving her to school everyday. (No.) So her first experience on the schoolbus will be the first day of school.

I gave the teacher a heads-up that Adia is reading on at least a 2nd grade level already. I'm not sure she believed me, but she said they do evals a few weeks into classes, so I guess they'll find out then.

Overall, I'm pretty sure we're making the right decision to put her in school. The academics of homeschooling her don't worry me, but the socialization does. I know most kids are fine being homeschooled, and I'm not knocking it in the least. But Adia really needs to have the chance to get out there alone and learn how to socialize with her peers. (And new adults too.)

Playing in the fountains at C's house

The girls never fail to amuse me

We have, arguably, the two cutest kids in the world.

This picture is from playing outside in the 70+ degree weather (in February!) the other day.


A summary of our week:

Monday morning - Charles left for Florida.
Monday night - Francesca woke up at 9pm to nurse, and after 50 minutes, I just let her wake up. She hung out with me until I was ready for bed, at which time she insisted she wanted to sleep on the couch. I tried arguing with her, but eventually let her go. I figured she would get up here, last 2 minutes in the dark, and be back to my bed before I knew it. I was wrong. She slept up here until 3:30am.

Tuesday: We played outside, and I ran them ragged. I also cleaned out the guest room/bed, which is where we've been storing moving boxes.
Tuesday night: Francesca nursed to sleep, I put her in her bed, and then she woke again a little while later. I put her in the bed with her koala, and she put herself back to sleep. Until 2:30am when she fell out. (I didn't put a bedrail up because she did fine on the couch. Oops.)

Wednesday: We went to the LLL meeting, and the girls spent a large chunk of the day running around outside.
Wednesday night: I put a bedrail on the bed, and Francesca again woke up to nurse at like 9:30. I nursed her, gave her a drink of water, and put her back to bed. She put herself to sleep, and she stayed there until sometime during the night. She pretty much ignored me in the bed, though, and snuggled with her koala instead.

Thursday night: I nursed Checka, and when she was still restless, I went ahead and put her in her own bed. She didn't wake up until 1 or so. (I was still up, as Charles was flying home from FL, and a delayed flight meant he wasn't home until 12:30.) I nursed her, changed her diaper, and Charles put her back to bed. She slept there until sometime during the night, when I nursed her again and Charles put her to bed. Then she was up by like 6:30, I think. But it's an improvement.

In Adia news, she continues to improve on her reading skills. (We're talking names of dinosaurs!) I bought "What Your Kindergartener Needs to Know" last weekend when we were at Borders. She asked if she could read it this afternoon, so she spent an hour curled up on the couch reading it. Hehe!

By the way, Crush has not been amused by the recent warm weather and my need to open the windows.

Snow movies

Snow day!

My little singing wonder

I've been noticing lately that Adia can carry a tune. Right now she's singing "My Personal Penguin" completely from memory (the tune -- she has the book in front of her) from hearing it in the car a few weeks ago. It's super-adorable.

Greaaaat

Adia now has a fever of 102.6 (ish)

We'll be at home until June, if anybody's looking for us.

On the good list, the flavored Zithromax is going well.

Good and Bad

Bad: Adia has a sinus infection. She's on Zithromax for 5 days. I seriously want to move now.* I didn't sleep last night, because the Benadryl I took must've been expired and I couldn't stop coughing.

Good: Adia's lungs sound good, so we're doing good on the nebbies. The pharmacy offered to flavor her medicine, so we made it strawberry. Also, she was freaking awesome at the doctor's office. Francesca sounds and looks clear, so the doctor said to keep an eye on her over the weekend.

I suppose I can't complain too much -- the goods currently outweigh the bads. And now we should all be well enough to go Madi's birthday party next weekend. :)

*So we can be closer to good pharmacies. The CVS we went to today was fast, friendly, and has a drive-thru. I've never done that before, and it's so much nicer than dragging two kids (one sick and I'm still sick) through the pharmacy. Rite Aid has never even presented the flavor thing as an option, and I'm wary of using them for anything with the constant screw-ups they seem to have.

Christmas pictures

Okay, I underestimated how much the Farmville trip was going to take out of me. :) But here are pictures.


The tree


The tree lit up


What Santa brought the girls


Divvying up the presents


Opening presents


New sippy cup!


Modeling the light-up Santa hat from Gamma


Modeling Mommy's camisole


Apparently Crush appreciates what Santa brought him.


Nemo overload! (That would be her stuffed Nemo on one side, her Nemo book on the other, and Nemo on the TV.)

Hanukkah pictures

Christmas-y ones will be tomorrow night. :) Blogger is being slooooow tonight, and I don't have the patience to wait for more!

In this group of pictures: latke frying (although the ones at the synagogue party were infinitely better!), dreidel playing (A is a hustler! She and I battled it out for quite awhile), candle lighting, and chocolate eating.

This year's card

Halloween 2008

My princesses in the front yard this morning before storytime.



Adia eating a cupcake at storytime.



Francesca eating a cupcake at storytime.



Pretty pink princess and puppy dog "goggie"



Cinderella castle, face, O-ba-ma, fleur-de-lis



Zombie puppy



Zombie puppy rolls over



Yay! Sugar buzz!!

Swim lesson #2

Note the purple lips... guess they have yet to fix the pool heater?

She posed like this -- silly kiddo!

Dear Britax,

I love your carseats. Seriously, I have one for each of my girls, and I recommend them to anyone I can.

However. You really need to come up with some design that allows for the removal of the cover that doesn't require Mama to get covered in whatever it was that necessitated removal of said cover.

Signed,
A covered-in-the-foulest-vomit-imaginable Mama

Recent pictures

Rafting on the "James River" yesterday in the mall..


A better look at those chompers!



Birthday party at C's house


This is last year's bathing suit (or bacon soup, as C's daughter A calls them!)


Mid-jump! Also, check out poor Miss Francesca's hairstyle.


Pretty girl on the pier! We went for a walk on the beach last Friday night after dinner.

Before and after

After looks dark coutesy of two grape popsicles after we got home. She's back to her daredevil ways, already.



And one from the berry farm Saturday. :) Yeehaw!

No news is good news, right?

We're still waiting to hear back. It was supposed to take 1h15m, but it's been 1h30m now. I'm hoping that's because they're taking extra time to make her teeth absolutely perfect.

Also, I'm going to give myself whiplash from turning around anytime that surgery door is opened. ;P

Whenever they're done, the dentist is going to come talk to us about how it went. Then we get to go back to the room where we left her (or somewhere thereabouts) and wait for them to bring her to us. I wish we could be there when she wakes up, but I get the feeling they're damn efficient here and since they seem to be on top of their game, I'm willing to go along with it. (Seriously, if the nurse anesthetist hadn't been so reassuring, I probably wouldn't be down with this idea, but she really really was.)

Adia did well last night. Mom said she woke up to Adia yelling "Noooooo Grandma" at some point. She thought it was just a bad dream, but when she asked Adia about it this morning it was because Mom had rolled onto Horton. Whatever. Grandma can do no wrong, especially since she de-hid the great big balance ball to play with. They were watching PBS Kids when I called a little while ago, so I guess the big list of instructions I left worked. ;P

Few pictures from yesterday and last week...

Wanting to push her own stroller around the mall after checking out the fountain.


Where are Adia and Francesca?


Merry-go-round!


Merry-go-round!


Orange-blueberry muffins that I made last week. Freaking awesome.


Adia's lilies from her birthday last year are blooming and absolutely gorgeous! (And Francesca's hand is a little grubby... ha!)