Tea party

Yesterday Tuesday was a fun but busy day for me.  The morning started off with me waking up to my alarm at 5:30am, rolling out of bed at 6am and finally remembering 20 minutes later, with a contact in one eye, that I didn’t actually have to be at work until noon.  I had taken the morning off to attend Lil J’s Mother’s Day tea party at his preschool. Seriously, my all-time favourite way to wake up.
Not.

I made a quick decision to roll back into bed as quiet as humanly possible, to not wake the kids up.  Aside from being startled awake by hubby an hour later {he thinking I was late for work}, I had a pretty restful “nap”.

Then, it was time for the real day to start.  I quickly got both kids ready and we made our way to the preschool.  Once we were there, I was totally amazed at how well-behaved both of my kids were – at the same time!  We had tea, fruits and cookies, and Lil J made the most amazing little flower bouquet.  Each flower was cut by hand and even the paper wrap was hand-painted by Lil J.  Definitely a proud mom!

And if that’s not all, after he gave me the bouquet, he told me he made the flowers for me “because I love you, mama”.

Heart. Melting.

Next up was a brave painting session with both Lil J and I wearing white, and Baby Z wearing her brand new sweater tunic.  Luckily, not a spot touched our clothes; although, I can’t say the same for their hands, arms and faces.

{Convos with Lil J} That dreaded question + his second language

Living with a four year old equals some pretty funny conversations - especially if that four year old seems to be learning a number of things from preschool.  Here are some of the highlights from this week:

CONVO #1 - in the lobby of the Old Spaghetti Factory, no less

LIL J:  Where do babies come from?

healthy valentine's snack xo

Lately, it's been hard for me to keep up with the daily grind.  So imagine my surprise when I took a look at Lil J's school calendar just after dinner last night only to realize that his preschool's Valentine's party is not on Valentine's Day, but the day before {today}.  And we're supposed to bring food.

Being the crazy party planning mom I am, I love coming up with new ways to celebrate each holiday - with the help of fellow bloggers and Pinterest, of course!  After an emergency trip to the grocery store, I stocked up on strawberries, a cucumber, carrots and a watermelon, and came up with this:

Not too bad, hey?  It was quick, easy and painless.  All I needed was a small heart cookie cutter and a paring knife to carve out the strawberry and carrot hearts, as well as the cucumber X's.  A healthy snack can go a long way!

Happy Valentine's Day!

dear lil j: i miss you like crazy when we're not together

Dear Lil J,

So we're two months into school and last Thursday you finally came home and declared that you had fun at school.  Mind you, it was Halloween and pretty much every kid has fun at school on Halloween, but the fact that you actually said something different from the usual "I didn't have fun at school" gist, I was taken aback.  And maybe secretly smiling to myself.  After all, it took you exactly two months last year to say you were having fun at school.  And you're finally "having fun" at school...maybe.

I suspect that you may have a slight problem with authority.  It's quite possible since you're at the age where you're trying to test everything and everyone.  I'm planning to talk with your teachers during my two weeks off {starting next week} to make sure everything is going okay at school.  You know, just in case.

Have I told you lately what an amazing big brother you are?  I try to tell you every day and I'm going to tell you again:  you're an amazing big brother to your baby ZoZo.  In fact, you call her "my baby" as if she's yours and only yours.  You love to "protect" her and help her anytime she needs you.  You like to share your food and toys with her but sometimes sharing can also be a challenge.  You don't fight much with you little sister but you sure like to get under the skin of your older sister {and vise versa}.  Sometimes it's a battle and I tell myself that you're just going through another "stage", and that it'll see itself through eventually.  I know it will.

giving your child the freedom to choose + a Sears Canada FacebookContest! #SearsBabysRoom #BTS

Back-to-school!

I never thought I'd be so happy to hear those three words together.  This is Lil J's first year going back to school, or preschool rather.  In any case, it's a good thing - for both Mommy and Daddy and Lil J.  Plus, we get to go back-to-school shopping!!

Last Sunday was reserved for taking a trip to our local Sears to see what they had in store for back-to-school {pun intended!}.  Over the past few months, Lil J has been more vocal about what he wants to wear and he takes the initiative to dress himself in the mornings, so I thought our shopping spree at Sears would be the perfect chance to get him to start choosing his own clothes!

Much to my amusement, Lil J chose a number of licensed character tees and I had him pick two out of the many that were on his "must-have" list.  He ended up with a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle long sleeved tee and a Ninjago t-shirt.  I may have added a pair of grey skinnies and a Canucks tee {my brother would be so proud!}:

siblings and the bonds they share

Before Baby Z came into the picture, Lil J was the complete center of attention.  Not only with myself, my hubby and Miss S but with his cousins, grandparents, aunts and uncles.  For a couple years he was the baby of the family.  And did he ever feed off all that attention!

Never one to be shy about expressing his feelings, Lil J was emotional and definitely went through all of his many phases.  As my pregnancy with Baby Z came to an end, I worried that Lil J would retaliate negatively as the center of attention would suddenly shift from him to the new baby.  They were the exact same worries I had for Miss S right before Lil J was born.  I wanted to protect the kids from the inevitable and make them still feel like everything was all about them.

And so Baby Z was born and Lil J, just like Miss S before him, took on his new role as the big sibling with ease.  He embraced his new title, Big Brother, proudly and told everyone and anyone who would listen about his new Baby "ZoZo".  I was taken aback and beyond proud of my little man - he hardly showed an ounce of jealousy and loved his new baby sister like crazy.

the freakin' fours - figuring out how to deal

With the twos come the terrible twos, the threes are the testing threes and the fours?  So far that seems like it's in a whole other league.

I can't explain it. The minute Lil J turned four, everything was fine and dandy. Nothing exciting happened drastically in terms of personality. In fact, he may have been acting a little more mature - because apparently that's what four does to you. 

And then. And then came a week later. It hit us completely out of the blue and we were so confused.  We were so not prepared.

While shopping at our local mall after Lil J's weekly gymnastics class, we went to the Lego Store and then let him run around in a kids play area.  When it was time to leave, he asked to see the mechanical ride-on horses, dogs and cars and just kept whining.  Hubby got annoyed and thought he was asking to go back to the Lego Store so he told Lil J that we were leaving.

Then all hell broke loose.

Like a loose cannon out of hell.

the solar system according to a 3 year old

You may remember my dilemma when I was in the midst of choosing the perfect preschool for Lil J back in August and I'm happy to say that I did - 100% {and if you're going to say nothing is perfect, this school is d*mn well near perfect!}.

This evening I had an "out-of-this-world" conversation {pun intended} with Lil J or, I should say, it was a one-sided conversation with Lil J doing all of the talking.  It went a little something like this:

Lil J:  Mama, the solar system is in outer space

Me {in awe}:  Yes honey, it is!

Lil J:  And the planets closest to the sun are hotter.

Me:  Yes...

Lil J:  And the planets far away from the sun are colder and Mercury is the smallest and coldest.  Mercury is far away.

Me:  Mouth drops open.  Also wondering if it's true.

update on lil j and baby z

This post is an example of a case of "mom brain" as I had written it about three months ago but forgot to post it:



It seems these days my blog has taken a different turn and gone off track to what it was originally intended to be - a diary of sorts for myself  to remember my kids' milestones and for my kids to look back on one day and figure out what the heck Mommy was doing all those years.

Don't get me wrong.  I'm loving the attention and I love seeing PR pitches in my inbox, although some are not carefully thought out or properly pitched.  Exhibit A - I do not need boob mugs for anyone in my family, joke or not.

All PR jargons aside, I figure a post about the kids is past due.  So here it goes...

Baby Z is already eight months old!  Wow, I totally meant to do a post when she turned six months - ooops!  She's started solid foods and loves rice cereal and pretty much anything I give her.  I don't know what it is about the second child but sometimes I forget to feed her...?  The solids I mean, not the boob.  She's also had carrots {which she's sort of undecided on}, bananas, butternut squash and some random pre-made organic baby food.  I wish I had took a video of her expression when she first tasted the bananas {priceless!} but needless to say, she hated it.

first field trip: the pumpkin patch!

Last Thursday I went with Lil J to his first preschool field trip to the pumpkin patch.  What a proud mama moment!  He had been talking about it for weeks and making sure that I was coming with him by repeatedly asking me over and over {you get the picture}.  I had been thinking about it for weeks wondering how I was going to swing it:  school bus + baby in tow + a rumbustious toddler + no stroller + only one me = total meltdown.  That's the equation I came up with anyways.  Luckily, it was far from the truth.

As we walked down the street towards the school buses, Lil J couldn't contain his excitement.  He's been dreaming about riding a school bus for, oh, I don't know...two years.

Waiting to board the big yellow bus!

On the way to the pumpkin patch we talked about how excited he was to hang out with his friends and pick out pumpkins.  It had rained the night before so I knew we were in for a nice, muddy morning.

On our way to the pumpkin patch - so excited!

The minute we stepped off the bus, our boots were covered in slimy mud.  It wouldn't be a trip to the pumpkin patch without the mud!  I held on tight to Lil J's hand while Baby Z snoozed away in her carrier.  As we entered the pumpkin patch, I noticed some awesome wagons that would take us straight to the pumpkins!  This was {obviously} Lil J's dream.

On the wagon

On top of the wagon ride, we had some banjo playing entertainment and a chance meeting with the Pumpkin Princess {sorry, I didn't get a picture of her highness}.  When we finally got to the pumpkin patch, I just wanted to turn right around.  The ground was so muddy our boots were literally sinking in.  Luckily for Lil J, he had boots with traction on the bottom, unlike his smart mom.  As I watched other children slip and fall, one by one, I silently prayed over and over that Lil J would stay on his two feet and not make friends with the ground.  God only knows what a mess that would have been.

Thankfully, Lil J did manage to keep himself somewhat clean - no thanks to me.  I almost slipped a few times and actually had to balance myself on Lil J.  My poor poor 3 year-old.  My lifesaver.

We picked out two pumpkins - one for Lil J and a tiny one for his baby sister.  I couldn't imagine carrying any more than that.

Even though I anticipated that this field trip would be a disaster, it was actually pretty tame.  Lil J behaved for the most part and Baby Z pretty much slept through the entire trip.  We were ready to go home an hour before we were actually "allowed" to leave but made the most of it with bites of apples and some cheap Halloween entertainment.

All in all I had an amazing time with my son and wouldn't have traded the day for anything.  Our next field trip won't be until April when we visit the Aquarium.  Can't wait!

lil j is officially a preschooler!!

Yesterday was Lil J's first day of preschool!  Can't believe my little man is growing up so fast!

For the past 2-3 weeks I've been tweeting and posting about my stressful last minute ongoing search for the perfect preschool for Lil J.  And then, I finally found one.

It got me thinking.  Is preschool everything that it's hyped up to be?  I mean, there's Montessori, play-based, Reggio Emilia, religious based, junior kindergarten...the list could go on and on.  I'm sure there are others that I just didn't happen to stumble upon.  I personally didn't attend preschool, and neither did my husband, and I think we turned out okay {if I may say so myself!}.  Is preschool just a cash grab for poor, unsuspecting parents who only want what is best for their child{ren}?

Well that's just it!  We all want what's best for our children and we all want them to succeed.  In our case, it came down us wanting Lil J to be around kids, build on his socialization skills, and help him learn up to his full potential.  It was also Mommy feeling guilty that she didn't have 100% of her time focused on her son when there was a newborn crying to be fed 24/7.  And sometimes, she just needed a break.  Even if it was only for 2 hours and 45 minutes a day.

Lil J is going to preschool five days a week for those 2 hours and 45 minutes.  I would have preferred him to go for only three days but the preschool we chose only had a four or five day option.  We ended up settling on a Montessori after visiting around five different preschools.  I made sure that Lil J was with me at every single one of those visits just so he could feel out the environment himself and the last school we checked out seemed to be the perfect one.  It was also the one that was furthest from our house.  Only the best for Lil J!

So far, the drop-offs tend to be the hardest part.  Since we're only on day two, the separation anxiety is still kicking in.  On the first day I ended up leaving after five minutes because Lil J was super clingy, hit a kid that accidentally head-butted him and just straight up told me he didn't want to be there.  Learning from our previous experience at daycare, I knew the only way I could get Lil J to be comfortable was for me to just leave.  That was hard.

But then it gets easier.  I called the teacher 15 minutes after I left him on the first day and low & behold, Lil J was doing just fine!  The only challenge for me is to get him excited about school.  Right now he tells me that he doesn't want to go back.  I tell him his best friend also goes to preschool and he tells me he wants to go to his best friend's preschool.  I tell him that all of his friends are going to preschool and he says "not me!".  It's like an uphill battle that I'll never win...except I will.  You'll see.

Outtakes!

After school posing

I'm so proud of my little man!  I seriously almost died when I saw him walking out of his classroom this afternoon with his grown up backpack on.  Yup, that's me getting a little emotional.  Just a little...

Cue the waterworks.

Did your child have his/her first day of preschool recently?  How did he/she you cope?