The Lily Log

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Hard Work

November 21, 2008, 10:31 am

Lest you think Lily and I just play all day and do nothing constructive on our days home together, here are pictures of our latest project. We have goals each day I'll have you know...

(Most time is spent in Lily's room where she "kidnaps" me. This is allowed on Tuesdays and Thursdays as Nathan and Noah are not at home. Jack is sometimes allowed in the room but doesn't seem very disappointed when he is asked to leave.)

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My Baby

November 16, 2008, 9:10 pm

The reality of Lily entering into Kindergarten has started to sink in for me lately. Lily's birthday is August 16th, so she's close to the cut-off for Kindergarten and some people have asked if I'm going to send her or hold her back a year.

Last month I went to Lily's Halloween party at preschool, and she was very shy around the other kids. She mainly hung out with me (and she does like to point out I'm her best friend/favorite person.) I have asked many people including lots of my teacher friends who know Lily for advice.

I've received mixed responses, but I would say 90% of people say that Lily is ready. My friend Jean said, "Holding kids back is overrated! Send her!" (or something like that). She's a teacher and that put my mind at ease. A grandma of one of the children at story time (also a retired teacher of 35 years) told me that Lily is obviously ready for Kindergarten. Then I talked to her teachers at school, and they said it would be a disservice to Lily because she's academically ready and the shyness will decrease in time.

Lily's teachers also pointed out that she is not a morning person. She often comes to school pretty grumpy but warms up around 10:00 a.m. I think if Lily had her way she would sleep in until 10:00 a.m. every day (which made me realize that morning preschool is probably hard on the girl.)

Really what all of this comes down to is that Lily is my baby. I love being home with her every Tuesday and Thursday. When she's at school every day I will be home alone. I'm going to miss story time and playing all the fun games and activities we do every day. So I'm going to enjoy every minute of it. And maybe those people who said don't blink when she was a baby (and made me roll my eyes because I was sleep deprived and grumpy) knew more than I realized.

Here is Lily at a field trip last Friday at Maggie Moo's ice cream. Lily was in a very good mood that day and interacted with all of her friends and was maybe even a little too silly:

Our cutie (I'd love to be able to pull off striped pants):

Making ice cream with her teacher, Mrs. Polzin:

Silly:

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The Good Patient

November 10, 2008, 5:44 pm

Lily scared us last week with a very strange sounding cough in the middle of the night. She woke up coughing and having trouble swallowing. Nathan patted her on the back for a while, and she was able to get out a lot of phlegm that was causing her trouble. I took her to the doctor the next morning, and she had an ear infection and cough.

Lily is a great patient. She reminds me when it's time for her medicine. She likes to give herself medicine even. She has always been a little jealous that Noah takes a pill each night (for his asthma).

The pharmacist let Lily pick out what flavor he would add to her antibiotic. Lily picked bubblegum (rather than apple). After a few days of taking her horrible bubblegummy medicine Lily yelled out, "I'm picking apple next time!" I assured her that apple was probably just as bad as bubblegum. She still takes her medicine though (but I often hear a grumble about apple being better.)

At a Halloween parade, Lily got a couple wooden tokens for a free ice cream cone from Country style. She keeps these "wooden nickels" (as she calls them) in her purse and often talks about how some day she will get an ice cream cone with one. So after her doctor's appointment, I took Lily to Country Style.

Here she is very excited to have her free cone:

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Our Noah

November 8, 2008, 10:35 am

We had a parent-teacher conference for Noah last month. His teacher and student teacher stated they would love a classroom full of Noah’s. They also said he is loving and gives them a hug at the end of every day (that brought tears to my eyes). They would like Noah to participate a little more, so we talked to him about that and he just smiled. He loves his 2nd grade class and thinks Mrs. Sanchez is the best teacher ever.

Noah filled out a paper entitled "Who in my family is..."

Here are his replies:

the silliest: Mom
the youngest: Lily
the kindest: Dad (I'm still a little upset about that one)
the prettiest: Mom (Oh yeah)
the bossiest: Lily
the laziest: Dad (HAHAHAHA!)
the strongest: Dad
the quietest: Noah
the tallest: Dad
the littlest: Lily
the oldest: Dad
the happiest: Noah

Noah was so excited to vote for Obama at school on Tuesday. He was even more excited that Obama won at his school and FOR REAL. I think I voted for Ronald Regan in grade school, so I know he's voting based on his parent's views...but he still makes us proud.

Captain Rex is for Obama too!

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The Real Halloween

November 4, 2008, 9:48 pm

After a lot of pre-Halloween fun and lots of opportunities to wear their costumes, the kids were very excited for the real thing on Friday night.

Lily had her Halloween party at preschool. She was very excited to dress up in her flower costume at school. I was surprised at how shy Lily was at school. She doesn't interact much with the other children. She did have fun playing games but always waited to be last. At home Lily would insist on being first.

Nathan took the kids trick-or-treating in the neighborhood with Cade and his family. Noah was so excited to trick-or-treat with Cade who was dressed up as Captain Rex. The boys didn't trick-or-treat for long as they were even more excited to play and have a sleepover than get candy.

We went over to Cade's house for a bonfire that night and stayed late. Lily had a great time playing with Cade's little sister Emma who is 3.

Here are some pictures from Halloween:

Noah always reminds me of Elvis in one of his jumpsuits when he wears his costume sans the helmet. Is it just me?

Lily and Patrick. Lily talks about Patrick every day. They go to preschool and Theresa's house together:

Lily and her friend Taylor:

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Pre-Halloween Fun

November 1, 2008, 4:31 pm

We had lots of pre-Halloween fun this year. Noah's school party took place the week before Halloween. He was very excited to dress up as Boba Fett and that his friend Lane was Jango Fett. They paraded around the school together (and said hello to lots of other Star Wars characters).

We went to Boo at the Zoo this year as we always do, but it was an extremely windy and chilly day. We were not very comfortable walking around the zoo and spent extra time in the giraffe's building and the reptile house. I kept asking the kids whose idea it was to come on such a windy day to which they yelled back, "YOURS MOM!" I do appreciate that my family always goes along with me to the zoo as it's one of my favorite places.

Our friends the Swifts hosted a pumpkin carving party, and the kids enjoyed carving their pumpkins with friends.

Lily had fun at her storytime Halloween party and got to parade through the library for all of the librarians.

Here are some pictures from the week before Halloween:

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