Fraction Puzzle

Eli LOVES his fraction puzzle! While Scott was setting up his classroom for the new school year, we started visiting Daddy's classroom. Eli found Scott's fraction kits. Eli called them fraction puzzles and has spent many happy hours playing with them in Daddy's classroom. After bringing both Grandmas to Daddy's classroom to indulge his fraction puzzle fixation, Dendi and Eli visited the Education Station to try to find one of his own. They couldn't find the exact kind they were looking for, but the replacement has been just as popular. In fact, it's such a hit that Eli brought it for Show and Tell today, (Sept.1).

These fraction puzzles have also factored into a magical time we call Eli Play Time. Since he was a tiny baby Eli likes to be entertained as much as possible. And, if entertainment is not possible, he likes to at least have someone sitting next to him. While I know that this time is finite, and I will mourn it when it's over, I needed some time to clean the house and play with Keira. He's slowly starting to self entertain more and more anyway, but Eli Play Time was a way to encourage independence when I had something to do. For every ten minutes he plays by himself, he gets a sticker. The sticker charts are such a hit that he will often ask how many minutes of Eli Play Time he needs to finish his present sticker chart, and then he will try to play by himself for that many minutes. The other day, he tried 80 minutes. Of course, that was way too long in one sitting, but I think he did do 20 or 30, which was great, too. His favorite prizes for a completed sticker chart continue to be temporary tattoos and 30 minutes of extra video time, but we've also added playing a token game at Jump To It.

Elijah's First Day of School

All in all, I think we had a very successful first day of school. Scottie got a sub for Eli's special day, and he confided in me later that he stayed home to support me. It did throw me for a loop, and I felt upside down for most of the day. But, I survived and I feel worlds better today. We started yesterday morning at Mike and C's, a yummy local restaurant right around the corner from Eli's new school. We tried to make yesterday as festive and positive as possible. Scott was talking about how people should celebrate the beginning of school, not the end. So, I think we may have started a tradition. Eli was feeling pretty nervous at breakfast and was cuddling up to Daddy, which Scott loved. I think his Mickey Mouse pancake and bacon helped him get through the morning, too.



Before I found out that Scott was taking the day off to spend with us, I had asked Diane to come and help me drop off Eli for the first time. I was specifically worried about trying to control and supervise Keira and be able to give Eli the attention that he needed, too. Keira absolutely loves Eli's new classroom filled with kids, high school girls, toys, stairs and a giant slide. We decided to invite Diane to come with us that morning even though Scottie was there to help with crowd control. It was nice to share the special morning with her, and we got the added benefit of a photographer. She took a picture of the four of us in front of the high school before we headed inside. If you look closely in this picture, you can see Keira's fat top lip. She is our adventurous one. We went to Chick-Fil-A the night before for some ice cream. She decided that she could climb up the giant stairs and go down the slide on our laps. She was in hog heaven. Unfortunately, on the fourth or fifth trip up the stairs she lost her footing and took a header into the stair in front of her. I caught her before she fell down the stairs backwards, but I wasn't able to save her lip.


Once we got inside the classroom, Eli wasted no time putting away his backpack and getting down to the business of playing. When we left, he had moved on to the play dough table. When I bent over to say goodbye, he begged me not to leave and said he was sad. It crushed me. My eyes started tearing up and I had to turn away from him quickly so that he wouldn't see me cry. But, I survived, and he did, too.




When we came to pick him up at 11:30, he greeted me with a huge grin and hug. When I asked him how he liked school, he said, "not very fun." I think he got a little confused about the centers. He stayed away from the math center because he thought they were going to do Ken Kens (adult math puzzles that Scottie and I work on.) And, he thought at the reading center they'd make him read by himself, and he can't read. Scottie and I explained about what would really be at the centers, so I'm hoping for a better report when I pick him up today.

In the afternoon, Scott emailed Eli's teacher, Ms. Via to ask about the rules regarding snack and show and tell. When she emailed back she said that Eli had a great first day. She said he was very smart and was full of lots of great observations. She said they really enjoyed him. That was nice to hear, and I hope Eli shares her enthusiasm soon!

SMHSCDC Orientation

Eli will be starting preschool tomorrow at Starr's Mill High School Child Development Center. It's an awesome program ran out of the local high school where Eli and Keira will be returning to attend high school. I know, it makes for a lengthy acronym and title. :) We went for the orientation last Thursday night, and everything went as well as could be expected. Scott had his own Meet the Teacher that night, so he got to attend for about five minutes. It was fortunately enough time to watch the kids play for a few minutes and have a family photo snapped. I'm thinking that the high schooler who took our family shot had a better angle, since our copy cuts off Eli, and he was the star of the night.




Eli decided that this school was his favorite because of the giant indoor play structure in the middle of the room. Within a few minutes Eli had moved on to play with other things, but Keira was absolutely enamored. I think she'd be tempted to start preschool with him tomorrow if given the chance. Thankfully, both Grammie and Dendi attended the orientation. They were wonderful help with the kids after Scottie left so that I could remain as calm, sane and focused as possible. By the end of the night Eli had warmed up considerably to the idea of school and didn't want to leave. There were too many cool things to play with. He was also really excited to see his name on his cubby and an apple on the wall. He was excited to see that they printed his name on the yellow apple -- his favorite color!




Every day since the orientation he's asked me in an excited voice how many more days until school. But, tonight in the car, I think the nerves finally hit. He said that he was nervous about starting school on our way home from our celebratory "Before the First Day of School Ice Cream". I asked him why he was nervous. He said about being sad when Mommy has to leave. Scott and I both tried to make him feel better and excited about school. But, I don't blame him, I know that I'll probably cry after leaving too. After all, I even got choked up at the orientation. Fortunately, I have the best husband in the world, who got a sub for tomorrow. Diane agreed to come with me tomorrow and now we'll have enough eyes and hands to watch Keira (who will be trying valiantly to join in on the fun) and help ease Eli into his first day.

My Big Boy's Starting School (gulp)

I'm enjoying my time as a stay at home mom of two so much that I'm sad that Eli will be starting school next Tuesday. It's the end of an era. While I know that it would be a disservice not to send him, I'm sad. I'm also not ready for the end of his innocence. I know he'll come home with choice habits, words and ideas. He doesn't even know what a gun is yet, ugh. Gulp. But, I am looking forward to seeing him with new eyes and hearing about his new experiences. Orientation is tonight. While Eli is nervous, scared and apprehensive about starting school, he is in love with his new rocket backpack. Dendi found it for him online. Hopefully that will help to pull him through his first morning jitters. In fact, he loves his new backpack so much that it was hard to photograph him. He kept making his excited, clenched teeth face while wiggling and jumping up and down.




Speaking of wiggling and jumping up and down, the one time I was looking forward to him starting school, was this morning at Babytime. Eli turns into a rambunctious, crazy boy at Babytime. It's a side of him I've only ever seen before with his uncles. While it was kind of fun to watch him act like a "normal crazy boy." I was worried he would hurt a little one or at least be a bad example. From now on I'll be able to enjoy taking Keira. And, that is another good thing about his school. I'll have a little more time to concentrate on her.

An Ode to Sticker Charts and Temporary Tattoos

I'm always a little leery at the end of the summer, when Scottie heads back to school. We all love our summers, and Eli gets used to getting a lot of attention. The first few days this school year were rough as I expected, but then I made an important rediscovery -- sticker charts! We've used sticker charts off and on for at least a year. We were giving Eli stickers for falling asleep by himself and taking naps, with a few thrown in for good behavior. I decided to shower him with stickers and see how it worked. It's magical! I'm now giving him stickers for following directions the first time, not complaining, being helpful, cleaning up, sharing with his sister, playing by himself, not coming out of his room during quiet time, not making noise or interrupting me when I'm putting Keira down, and generally good behavior. It's working like a charm. We've had generally wonderful days and it helps to keep me focused on the positive. I find that I'm fussing at him a lot less and we are both in much better moods. For complete sticker charts he can choose what to earn. In the past he's earned water tower drives now we've expanded his repertoire to temporary tattoos, balloons and some extra video time. Here are a few pictures of him with his temporary tattoos. He was never interested in them before, he told me he thought they hurt. Now that he's discovered they don't they are another favorite incentive.



After I took these pictures and looked at them to make sure they came out, I couldn't believe how big he looks! I almost didn't recognize him, crazy...

The Clearing of Lot #2

I'm slowly, but surely catching up...

They began clearing our lot a few weeks ago and finished up late last week. They cleared it first with only 20 feet of flat soddable yard behind our back foundation. That seemed a little shallow to me. So, upon my insistence, they cleared about 13 more feet into the trees and even made the little hill going up to our trees more shallow. Of course, being a hippy at heart, I hate to see more trees cleared... But, the big, less buggy yards were part of the appeal, so I went with a few less trees and more area to run around on the grass. I'm really excited about the way that it turned out, and they are supposedly starting laying the foundation today. Very exciting!

July at Home, Part III -- Out to Dinner and Ice Cream

One night, we went out to dinner and ice cream with Dendi and Bapa. Keira had a particularly enjoyable time with Dendi. I love her expression in the first picture. She's hysterical when you really get her laughing. And, as you can see, even though Keira's still not a fan of food in general, she has no problem with ice cream!

July at Home, Part II -- Time at Dendi and Bapa's

We spent a lot of time at Dendi and Bapa's house in July. Between trying to buy a house in their subdivision and Scott building shelves and using Bapa's tools we needed to be in Senoia a lot. Fortunately, Dendi and Bapa were gracious hosts and hopefully we weren't too annoying. Here are some of my favorite pictures from their house in July...

Keira smiling and showing off her troll face that Scott says she inherits from me.


She helped herself to Wheat Thins out of the pantry and within seconds had a happy pile.


Nothing better than nudie babies in the pool. It's been HOT!



Keira getting some Dendi love and showing off her first Giants shirt, courtesy of Dendi, of course.



Keira and Eli playing with Keira's toys in the Family Room.


She got into the markers, can you tell?


Bapa indulged Keira with a Cozy Coupe ride all around the yard and back into the house.



Eli playing Tee Ball for the first time -- in his Giants shirt, of course.

July at Home, Part I -- Blue Smoke Park (and Keira talks)

We spent many July days just like this...

We'd wake up, have breakfast and try to get out of the house before the heat of the day hit. We realized after a few tries that we needed to get out of the house and play hard at a park to ensure a smooth remainder of the day. Eli thinks he wants to stay home all day long: doing puzzles, crafts and having an "at home day." But, his behavior says otherwise. We discovered after trying a few parks, that in the summertime, there were only two parks that were bearable, even in the morning -- Blue Smoke and the Dendi's New Park in Downtown Senoia. Eli usually chose Blue Smoke. Keira loves going to the park, too. Park is one of her new words.

Speaking of Keira's new words, I'm going to digress a little and jot down some of her words -- she is talking a lot. She starting talking early, and then seemed to plateau a bit, even seemingly losing some of her first words. Now, her vocabulary has exploded once again. Many of her words represent entire categories. She says "bow wow" which does mean dog, but frequently means other animals, too. She says "ba-bu" or "va-vu" for vaccuum, which does mean the vaccuum, which neither she nor her brother are fans of. But, babu also means motorcycle, blender, garbage disposal, lawn mower, leaf blower, blender, coffee grinder or any other noise making device. She says "apple" VERY clearly (I think it's her clearest word), it means apple and most other food, too, which by the way she still isn't eating a whole lot of... She says "eye" which means eye as well as other body parts, buttons or small round things. She says "bottle" which sounds a bit like "bah-woo" it means bottle, water, container, cup, glass or mug. She says "guitar" which sounds like tar, which means guitar mostly, but she pointed at Dendi's piano the other day and said it, too.

She also says words that mean just one thing and have a predictable and understood meaning. For the family she says "Momma" or "Mommy", "Dadda" or "Daddy", "E-I" "Kee-Cat" (Kitty Cat) or "Kodi", Babo and Bapa (which refers to the grandfathers or grandmothers). She also says "ball", "baa-oo" for balloon, "hot", "booo" for book, "ow" which she says when she hurts herself or hits someone -- something we're struggling with... She says "boom" when she falls or when she bumps into something, usually gleefully. She says "car" which sounds a little like tar -- she loves her little red Cozy Coupe car which she can open, climb in and push backward. She says "bike" which sounds a little like buy -- another ride on toy she's getting fairly adept with. She says "spoon" which sounds a little like poo. She says "bath" which sounds a bit like bah and remains one of her very favorite things. I know I've missed some, but you get the idea.

And now, back to Blue Smoke Park, one of her beloved "park"s or parr...

Here are the pictures. First, Keira standing on and playing in the wood chips.





A few pictures of Eli on the slides



Now for my favorite of the bunch, the swings -- I love Keira's expression while Eli pushes her, it's worth the blurriness.





And, finally, one of me and my girl -- she's definitely still a Mama's girl.


After the park we'd often go to Starbucks or Senoia Coffee Company. The boys would work on puzzles while I walked around with Keira. Sometimes she'd doze in the sling and sometimes I'd follow her around. Then, we'd go home for lunch and nap. In the afternoon we'd go to Kedron Fieldhouse Pool to practice Eli's swimming and veg by the pool. What a charmed life we lead!!!

Fourth of July at the Lake House, Part III -- Day Trips

We went on a few day trips from the lake house. Next summer, we plan on taking even more. We're thinking about taking the kids tubing on the Chattahoochee near Helen, on a few hikes and into Clayton. This time our most successful day trip was into Clayton. Clayton has one of our favorite book stores with an awesome, cozy kids section. We went to the bookstore, hung out at a peaceful public garden and found our new favorite haunt -- a great coffee shop. The coffee shop has a train table that kept Eli and Keira happy while Scott and I relaxed and had a chance to chat. Here's a picture of me and the kids at the tranquil public garden.


Besides Clayton, we took a few other drives this trip. We took one drive to our favorite river spot on the South Carolina border. Another day we took a drive around looking for some poorly marked waterfall hikes and ended up having dinner and delicious fudge in Helen instead. Finally Scott, Keira and I drove to Clarkesville one day. We went to Clarkesville for a few groceries and stopped to let Keira play at the local playground for a few minutes.

Fourth of July at the Lake House, Part II -- In and Around the House

Yesterday, I got the message that our contract has been approved. Yay! We're under contract and we are officially set to close in the middle of December. Very exciting. :)

***

I wrote the prior sentences on August 3rd, now it's a week later... They cleared the lot last week. Today, on my insistence, they are going back in and clearing ten more feet into the trees to make a bigger back yard for us. I'm realizing that building a house is a very exciting, yet time consuming task. I think I'm going to have a part-time job making sure everything is done correctly until December.

Now back to playing catch up...

The four of us spent most of our time in and around the Lake House. First, for indoor fun... Keira was in love with walking and enjoyed cruising around and exploring all the new space. She plays quite nicely by herself for long stretches of time and has a habit of walking around with whatever's in her hands when she stops playing. Then, she finds interesting places to put her rogue toy. At home, we find things in all the hampers, in the shoe basket and in cupboards. The Lake House was no different. Up there, she tended to stick to cupboards -- especially one in the kitchen and one in the bathroom. When walking around she seemed to always have at least one thing in her hand.



Another trend that extended to the lake house was Eli and Keira's blossoming playtime relationship. They are spending time and playing together more and more. Their dynamic is one of my favorite things to watch.


Their favorite game to play together up at the Lake House was elevator. After Grammie and Babo headed home early in the week, Eli and Keira loved to play in their empty closet. Eli pretended to be the elevator man, opening the door, "pressing buttons" for the appropriate floors and then announcing the floor and letting Keira out once again. They both loved the game and played for hours.



Besides playing in the house and on the screen porch, the most exciting attraction is of course the water. Keira enjoyed playing in the sand, pulling out the wind mill decorations and swimming a little in the water. This trip she was thankfully less adventurous in the water and easier to hold on to. I think she'd had enough mouthfuls of water to realize that she can't swim solo yet. Truthfully, Keira's favorite water attraction was the hose. After spending time at the waterfront, we hose our feet off so that we don't track sand into the house. For Keira, it was better than the sink.





Eli also spent some time at the waterfront. Although, he was not impressed with the big waves from all the motor boats zooming around. His happiest time in the water was one afternoon with Daddy. Scott and Eli spent time talking and playing with a neighbor.