Election Day and Griffin Milestones

First, Griffin is now rolling from tummy to back fairly consistently!!!! WTG Griffin!!!!

Now on to Election Day funnies. Last Thursday Caroline came home and this was our conversation...

Caroline; We got to vote for President today at school.
Me: Oh really. Who did you vote for?
Caroline: Barrack Obama
Me: Why did you choose to vote for Barrack Obama?
Caroline: His name is funner.

What a way to determine who should be our next President. Well apparently they did another vote yesterday and we had the following conversation the night before the Election.

Caroline: We get to vote for President again tomorrow.
Me: Who are you going to vote for?
Caroline: John McCain
Me: Why will you vote for John McCain
Caroline: Well John McCain sounds like Candy Cane. I like candy canes.
Me: I thought you voted for Obama last time?
Caroline: I did and now I can vote for both of them.

Parent teacher conference

Matt and I had our first parent teacher conference this morning since the first six weeks has come to a close. We got to see Caroline's first report card which was PERFECT! She mastered all the skills for the six weeks and had no behavior problems. Mrs B said she is by far the top in the class and is just a pleasure to teach. She said Caroline sits next to a little girl that has not had any preschool and Caroline has done a great job helping her catch up to the rest of the class. She said she is a leader in her class too, which is so great to hear. One of the things the preschool teacher last year mentioned was that Caroline never stepped up to take charge. We were also told last year that she would not raise her hand when the teachers asked the class a question. Well I've talked to her teacher about that already and she said she's always raising her hand to answer questions. I told Mrs B that I know the day Caroline gets a mark she'll come home in tears. She said that she highly doubts Caroline will ever get a mark since they get 3 warnings.

She said as far as reading, by the end of the year they should all be reading at a Level 2 and they would be ecstatic if the kids were at a Level 4. She thinks Caroline is already at a Level 2 if not a Level 4. They mentioned at the Kindergarten Curriculum meeting that they don't officially assess reading in K until December though so we'll have to wait to know for sure. I don't know what level it correlates to on their scale, but we just opened up the set 3 of her BOB books last night and she read the first one all the way through with very little help. The teacher showed us the page she used to check reading and it was a page of 20-30 words and she said Caroline almost made it through the whole list. She said she might have been able to get all the words, but the testing is done during Centers (play time) so the kids always want to get done to go play. She does plan on giving Caroline some more difficult books to read instead of the ones they would normally bring home. While we want to keep her challenged we don't want that to mean just more busy work.

We saw the over all assessment they did the 2nd week of school and Caroline scored an 86%. I thought that was pretty good until the teacher said a 30% is considered great for the beginning of the year. The things she missed she should have no problems accomplishing them by the end of the year. They will repeat this assessment again in the middle of the year and again at the end.

Overall I think it was a great meeting and I feel really good about her start in school.

And a shout out to Aunt Anne for letting Caroline hang with them while waiting for the bus this morning.

New Caroline Funny

Caroline always comes home from school saying "I didn't get a mark because I always do what I'm supposed to do." She always tells me about who got marks and color changes. I picked her up Thursday and we were talking about her day. I asked how her day was and she says "I didn't get caught." I never found out what she didn't get caught doing though. It took all I could not to bust out laughing in front of her after that one.

It's been a big week for Caroline

Caroline lost her first tooth on Monday September 22nd. Mimi happened to be over that night to watch Caroline and Griffin while Matt and I went to the Kindergarten Curriculum Meeting. She also spent the night and got up with Griffin to give Matt and I a break. Caroline had been playing with her loose tooth A LOT recently, which is like fingernails on a chalk board to me. After she showed us all her tooth I went and got the tooth fairy pillow that I used as a little girl and gave it to her. She thought it was super cool that I used it when I was her age. Later that night we put it under her pillow and she fell right asleep so the tooth fairy would come. The next morning when her alarm went off she called out for me. Once I got into her room she wanted to go see Mimi in the living room so we walked out there. One of the first things Caroline did was ask Mimi to come back to her room to see what the tooth fairy left her. She pulled out $5 and the look on her face was priceless. I totally forgot to take pictures that morning b/c my brain does not function before 8am and it was at 6am, but trust me, she was cute and I'm not biased at all. So now without further adieu......


Caroline's New and Improved Smile

First smile I caught on camera

I finally got a picture of our handsome man's smile. He's always smiling, but already has PCS, better known as, "Photographer's Child Syndrome" and stops smiling as soon as he sees the camera. I out smarted him this time!

I've got pictures from Chuck and Nancy's visit this weekend, but they are currently stuck on my camera until Matt brings me home a new Card Reader later tonight. Hopefully I'll get those up in the next few days. Even though it was a short visit we had a lot of fun. Until I get those up this one will have to do.

Griffin's 2 Month Appointment

Griffin had his two month appointment today and he is now

10 pounds 11 ounces (25%) (up 2 pounds 10 ounces from birth and 3 pounds 9 ounces from the day we took him home)
22 inches long (10-25%) (up 2 1/4 inches from birth)

She said everything looks great and he's right on track with milestones. He has a little yeast in the folds of his neck from the heat so I have to put Lotrimin on that. I remember that happened with Caroline too and her doc at the time said it is very common and especially in summer babies. He's got a plugged tear duct, again just like Caroline, so he has some drops to help it and he gets a little eye massage a few times a day. He's also had a slightly stuffy nose, but nothing green or that is causing breathing issues. The good news is I just picked up my Nosefrida and while I still haven't tried it the lady I picked it up from had tried hers and said it works wonderfully. Of course, the thought of it still grosses me out, but she assured me the snot was no where near her mouth. I always hated that bulb aspirator thing so I'll give this a shot. Also, my order came with a free window shade for the car that says something like "Swedish hoses for runny noses." Ummm. Yeah! That's what I want on my car window! Anyways enough babbling and on to Griffin's 2 month pictures. He didn't give me much time before he got fussy, but I managed to get a few cute ones. I still haven't caught his full out toothless grin on camera, but I got a little bit of a smile.

Steve comes for a visit and other things

Our old friend and roommate was in town this week to celebrate his birthday with his family and we were lucky enough to be part of his quick 3 day trip. He came over for about 4 hours today, but had to leave before Caroline got home from school. Last night as we were going to bed we were talking about what we are doing the next day and I mentioned that Steve was going to be here for lunch. She was so sad that she wasn't going to get to see Steve. While he was here he had the great idea to take a picture of himself for her so we snapped a few shots. When she came home she asked if he came over and I said yes. I showed her the pictures and she said that she was sad she missed him today, but she had to go to school.





Griffin Information-
Griffin is still doing great. He turned 2 months old yesterday!!!! He has his 2 month appointment tomorrow so expect a bit more detail and his 2 month pictures tomorrow night!!! He's is such a smiley happy baby and is sleeping in his room already. He's still waking up around 1am, 4 am and 6am, but has a nice stretch from around 8pm to 1am. I wish that long period started later though since I rarely get to bed before 11 and it's usually closer to 12am. Between broken sleep and having to be awake at 6am to get Caroline to school I’m starting to feel the effects of sleep deprivation. Matt took the night shift all last night and he always takes one weekend night which helps. I know it could be much worse so I try not to complain too much.

Caroline Information-
Caroline still loves going to school. She is such the little rule follower and comes home everyday talking about how she was the quietest one so she wouldn’t get in trouble. She says that “Table 1 always gets our drinks first because we are the quietest.” She sits at the table with Raul and Adrian, two little boys who are both “very good too.” I always hear about who got marks and who didn’t. I can pull bits and pieces of other information, but behavior seems to be top priority in her mind. I’m still not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. I wish she was that obedient at home! Tonight Caroline was really tired and kind of whiney. Well at one point she says “I haven’t seen Grammy and Gramps for a long time and I think I’m going to start crying soon.” I let her know that they would be back at some point this weekend and that she could see them then. She said “Well I guess that’s ok, but I’m still sad.” I got a call tonight saying they would be home tomorrow night so Caroline won’t have to wait much longer. The other big shocker milestone is that she came home and said "Noah's friend is in love with me and Cheyenne." I felt my heart sink a bit. Where is the "boys are icky" phase?

More Pictures

Here are what could very well be the last portraits of Caroline with all her teeth. Granted only one shows the tooth she's about to lose, but the others were too cute not to share. I was trying to capture Griffin's adorable smile today, but the logistics of getting him to smile while keeping the camera framed well proved a bit too difficult. I did get one 'semi-smile' and a few other shots. This is always an awkward age. Oh well the good news is we will try again in a few days and see how that goes. Enough blabbing and on to the pictures....

An approaching milestone...

For about a month Caroline has been coming up saying her teeth are loose when they aren't. We've been talking a lot about the Tooth Fairy and she's been very interested. Today she came up to me and said "mom my tooth is loose look." I didn't move quick enough and she said "No really look." I felt and found that she really did have a loose tooth. Her bottom left tooth is loose!!! I'm going to try and get a few face shots of her tomorrow or Monday because once they loose those baby teeth so they always look so different. It's been a rough week with milestones. Griffin has been smiling up a storm and is almost 10 pounds. He still such a teeny little guy, but he's strong. Holding his head up quite well and supporting weight on his little legs.

First week highlights

Caroline’s first week of school went better than we could have ever hoped for. She has been looking forward to riding the bus since she saw Ayden get off of the bus after school one day last year. I wasn’t planning on letting her ride the bus until the 2nd week, but after the first day in the pick up lane the bus wasn’t looking all that bad so I let her ride home on the Tuesday. She was so excited when she was leaving for school because she was going to ride the bus home. She apparently told her teacher 4 times and even mentioned it to the Principal when she saw her. At least she isn’t afraid to talk to the teacher and the principal I guess. That afternoon I walked down to Anne’s house to wait for the bus since I knew the bus would stop there and I could talk to the driver a bit. As soon as she was hopping off the bus she was screaming “Mama I rode the bus!” I asked her how it was and she said “It was fun I want to ride everyday!” We stayed at Anne’s for a while and let the kids play in the sprinklers for a while. We got home made a quick dinner of Grilled Cheese and Chips, finished homework and headed to bed.

Matt took her too school on Wednesday and I let her ride home again. That afternoon she comes home and says a girl on the bus was making fun of her, Ayden and another friend. I asked what happened and she said “I don’t want to say.” She wasn’t upset about it just very matter of fact. She also kept saying how she wanted to ride the bus too school everyday too. She said that she wanted to buy cafeteria food tomorrow. Well I hadn’t put money in her account yet so I told her I would get the money in there and as soon as it’s available she would be able to buy her lunch a few days per week. She didn’t like that answer, but said it was ok without much hassle. She was super tired and went to sleep easily that night.

I had errands to run on Thursday morning, but didn’t want to leave the house until 9 so I decided if I could get her ready by 6:45 I would let her ride the bus, if not Matt would take her again. Thursday morning came and I was up with Griffin at 5:30 so at 6 I handed him over to Matt and went to wake Caroline up. I sat down on her bed and lightly whispered “If you want to ride the bus it’s time to wake up.” Her eyes popped right open the she sat straight up in bed and hopped out in what seemed like one big motion and said “I’m awake I want to ride the bus.” As we were walking out of the room she says, “I need to shower, then eat breakfast, then get dressed and get my backpack then we can ride the bus.” So we did and we were out on the driveway at 6:45 waiting for the bus. It was actually quite enjoyable. Matt was inside asleep with Griffin so we just sat outside and talked for a while. While we were waiting she kept asking me about buying her lunch in the cafeteria, but I had just put money in her account that day and it takes 1-2 days to post so she couldn’t. The bus arrived around 7:10 and off she went. I went to brave the pick up line that afternoon so we could get home in time to have a snack, do homework, and get changed for dance class. I must say it wasn’t bad and I only saw one mom cut in line. I arrived at 3pm (they start releasing at 3:20) and was 6th in line (7th after the lady cut in front). We were home by 3:30 and sat down to have a snack while we did homework before class. She got another sticker today and the teacher wrote “What a sweet girl!” on the chart. She was so proud and, of course, so were we! We were on a strict schedule to get out in time to get to dance class. I put Caroline’s dance bag by the door and reminded her she needed to grab it on the way out. We loaded up in the van and headed out to dance class. When we were half way down 546 I asked Caroline if she had her bag. She said no she forgot it so we turned back around to go get it. She asked me if I would go in to get the bag for her and as soon as I said yes she fell fast asleep. She perked right up when it was time for dance class though. We got home from dance class just in time to eat a quick dinner with Matt before he left for his Calculus 3 class. Around 7 we started bedtime with the goal of me being out of the room by 7:30 so she can be asleep by 7:45 or 8. Well I finally left her room for the last time around 8:30 so it was a REALLY long day for her.

Friday morning I awoke to the sound of her alarm, but it wasn’t over the monitor. Apparently the monitors batteries had gone out and I slept through it. When I finally got to her room it had been going off at least 1-2 minutes. She was FAST asleep. I turned off her alarm and said “If you want to ride the bus you need to wake up.” She asked if I could cuddle for a minute so I did. A few minutes later we got out of bed and went to take a shower. Thursday night I checked her school lunch account and the money had posted so after her shower I let her know she was going to get to eat in the cafeteria today. She said “Yes!!!!” and did the arm movement and all. She quickly got ready and was ready to head out to the driveway by 6:30. Anne was bringing Ayden and Everett over to wait for the bus so that added yet another level of excitement to an already exciting day. It was also “Treasure Box” day. She was going to get to pick from the Treasure Box because she didn’t get any marks for behavior this week. Again, the bus arrived around 7:10am. Friday afternoon we were planning to leave as soon as Caroline got off the bus to go eat with Grammy and Gramps so it was going to be another long day for her. The bus dropped her off right around 4pm and we headed out for dinner at Babe’s Chicken House. YUM! What a great ending to an exciting week.

I’m NOT used to being up and functional at 6am everyday. It’s going to take a few weeks of adjustment, but as long as Caroline is doing well at school and isn’t too tired at night I guess she’ll get to ride the bus to and from school most days. Thursdays I’ll always pick her up to get her to dance class. Oh and I’ve become “Room Mom” which I never thought I would do. I think I will really like her teacher though so it should be loads of fun. Well this is enough detail for now.

The first day of school - Before school

This morning I decided to document the day from before she woke up to the time we dropped her off at school.

Still sleeping....


Good Morning Sunshine!!! This hair is why we have to shower in the mornings. It takes almost as much time to get the tangles out as it does to shower/dry hair and it looks SOOO much better freshly washed so that's what we do.


Out of the shower and mad that I was taking pictures. She kept saying "Mom I start Kindergarten today. We don't have time to take pictures."


Every kid needs a good breakfast before school. Today was Morning Glory Muffins w/ peanut butter, mandarin oranges, and yogurt w/ a touch of honey.


The oranges were the first to go, she ate about half the muffin and wouldn't touch the yogurt which is odd because she loves yogurt usually.


She's all ready for school in the outfit she chose.


A little unprompted pose from our little model.


I always love how their backpacks are almost bigger than they are so I had to get a shot of her with her backpack on.


Her in front of her classroom. She was so excited I didn't have the heart to ask her for another picture out there so this is what I got.


Putting her backpack away in her cubby.


Kissing daddy goodbye


I was very strong and did not shed a tear today. Of course, I lost it a bit last night after putting her to bed. It is hard to be sad when she was SOOOO SUPER excited about starting school. After we dropped her off Matt went to work and left Griffin and I home alone for the day. Griffin and I hung out all day and about 2pm Anne and Everett came over for a while before we went to pick the kids up.

Despite my excitement to pick her up the day went pretty quickly and it was soon time to brave the pickup line for the first time. We left around 3pm and got to the school in about 5 mins so we sat and waited for them to be released at 3:20. Being the first day in a new school and the first day for many parents to pick up their kids it was a bit crazy, but I can see where it will be smooth sailing once everyone gets the hang of things. I kept thinking about Mr Mom when Michael Keaton's character screws up the pick up line.

Once I got to the front of the line they got Caroline and she came running out. I was going to bring the camera and forgot, but I don't think I would have gotten a picture of her coming out of the school anyways. So of course as soon as she got in the car I grilled her about her day. The first thing she said was "I'm not going to tell you about it. I will tell you when it's over." Luckily over the afternoon I got more information from her and she loves it. Once we got home we sat on the couch and went through the folders in her backpack then did her first homework assignment. After we were done with homework she said "now I can watch a show!" So she watched a show as I made dinner. After dinner LaFemme, Charlotte, Gregory and Caroline stopped by for a brief chat on their way out to eat. Then we went for a very short walk before going back home to watch a show before bed. Since we're having to get up at 6:30ish we're trying to make bedtime 7:30. Tonight as we were going to bed I asked her if she was nervous this morning and she said "No I was actually very excited. Kindergarten is GREAT!" I don't think I could have asked for a better first day for her. We are so unbelievably proud of how confident she is and how she easily adapts to new situations. She never blinked an eye at this whole Kindergarten thing. I'm so excited to see where this year takes her.

Here's a poem someone sent me that tugs at my heart.

First Day Of Kindergarten School Poem

~Author Unknown~

She started school this morning,
And she seemed so very small.
As I walked there beside her
In the Kindergarten hall.

And as she took her place beside
the others in the class,
I realized how all too soon
Those first few years can pass.

Remembering, I saw her as
She first learned how to walk.
The words that we alone made out
When she began to talk.

This little girl so much absorbed
In learning how to write.
It seems as though she must have grown
To girlhood overnight.

My eyes were blurred by hastily
I brushed the tears away
Lest by some word or sign of mine
I mar her first big day.

Oh how I longed to stay with her
And keep her by the hand
To lead her through the places
That she couldn't understand.

And something closely kin to fear
Was mingled with my pride.
I knew she would no longer be
A baby by my side.

But she must have her chance to live,
To work her problems out,
The privilege to grow and learn
What life is all about.

And I must share my little girl
With friends and work and play;
She's not a baby anymore --
She's in Kindergarten today.

Caroline's Lunch for Tomorrow

This is Caroline's new "Laptop Lunchbox" with her lunch for her first day of school. I really hope that she continues to want to take her lunch instead of eating in the cafeteria. I'm going to try and be more creative this year to keep her interested. Last year it seemed to be the same thing every day which 3 days a week isn't too bad, but 5 days a week would get SOO boring (although Matt can eat Chik-fil-a 5 days a week for lunch so I guess it isn't much different).

If you haven't tried Greek Yogurt it's worth picking up. I'm not a huge fan of regular yogurt, but this stuff is AMAZING! It is so rich and creamy. I swear there has to be cream cheese in it or something. I've only bought the Fage brand at Market Street, but I was told today the Oikos brand is possibly even better. I'll have to get that next time. I rarely eat yogurt so I'm probably sorely lacking probiotics in my system so now that I've found a yogurt I will eat I'm stoked!



Top Left: Greek Yogurt w/ freeze dried fruit salad (from "Just Tomatoes")
Top Right: Carrots w/ small container of hummus
Bottom Right: Strawberries and Oranges
Bottom Left: Ham and Cheese Sandwich Hearts, two grape tomatoes, and small serving of animal crackers

Caroline's Meet the Teacher and 5 Year Checkup Update

Meet the Teacher Night -
Caroline will be starting school on Monday at the brand new elem school near here. It's so new they didn't have the permit to have the kids in the school until the night before Meet the Teacher night. It was quite disorganized, but we finally navigated the sea of lines and got the information about lunches and talked to the bus department. Caroline's bus will pick up in our neighborhood at 6:50am. School starts at 8am and is less than 5 miles away from us. She REALLY wants to ride the bus, but I'm not sure we can be up and out by 6:50. If I take her I'd probably leave the house by 7:30 and still get her there with time to socialize before school. I'm going to give them a few weeks to work out the bus kinks before letting her ride. We finally made it to her room and met Mrs Brinkerhoff. She seems like she is going to be a great teacher and loads of fun for the kids. Caroline doesn't seem the least bit scared or nervous about starting kindergarten and I'm trying my best to hide my nervousness around her. I cringed when one of the other parents mentioned how nervous her child was right in front of Caroline. I don't think it's even occured to her to be nervous about starting school. She's just SUPER excited!!! Part of me is sad that my baby is going to kindergarten, but mostly I'm just excited for her to embark on such a great journey in her life. She proves over and over again that she can rise to any situation she's placed in and I think she will thrive in school.

Five Year Checkup:
It's that time again and this year was a very uneventful appointment. They checked stats, went over the standard questions, and gave her a quick once over. She looks wonderful and hopefully won't be back to the doctor for another year. She's moved out of the 98-100%, but is still quite tall for her age. She's now:

Height: 44.9 inches (90%)
Weight: 50 pounds (92%)

We're going into our final weekend before school starts. If I can see through the tears I'll try to post pictures when I get home from dropping her off. I might even be able to get the Party pictures done.

1 Month Update

It's been a wild ride the first month with Griffin home. He's adjusting well and we all love having him around. We had a few issues in the weight gain department for the first 3 weeks, but we are supplementing with formula while we try to figure out what's going on. At his one month appointment he weighed in at 8lbs 5oz and was 20.5 inches long. He's been sleeping well both during the day and at night so we can't complain. Two nights ago he started sleeping in his own crib at night and for at least one nap per day. He seems to sleep well in there, but usually ends up in bed with us after the middle of the night feeding.

This is our last week with Caroline during the days. I can't believe my baby is starting Kindergarten already. She's SUPER excited and I don't think she's the least bit nervous. I've been having a hard time not letting her sense my nervousness. Since everything has been so much about Griffin lately we're going to leave him with my parents while we focus 100% on her. She's been such a trooper with the adjustment though.

Here are the latest pictures from the studio. Griffin's One Month shot and Caroline's 5 year. I will be adding pictures from Caroline's Birthday party sometime in the near future.

We're home and adjusting

We got home Saturday afternoon and have been adjusting well. Griffin is a laid back baby like his sister until about 9-10pm when he wants to nurse CONSTANTLY. During the day he'll sleep in his pack n play just fine, but wants to be close to one of us at night. We'll start working on that soon, but right now the path to the most sleep wins out.

Yesterday Matt set up the studio for me and I tried to take some pictures of Caroline and Griffin. I managed to get two before I was in WAY too much pain. Luckily Matt took over and got the cute picture of Caroline and Griffin. Today I had some alone time with Griffin and took the time to get some more images of him and wanted to share them.

Griffin pictures