My big boy has started school

Well the day I have not really looked forward to all summer has come and gone. It was this past Tuesday when Dylan started school. Wiat, let me change that, I guess the real day I wasn't looking forward to was last Thursday when he had orientation and I had to discuss with the teacher about his diabetes. That went just fine and the next day Dave and I sat down with the school nurse, teacher and principal of the pre-K program and showed them how to check his sugar levels. Luckily he is only there from 9:00 until 11:30 and the only issue would be to make sure he has his snack at his normal snack time. The teacher was kind enough to arrange the schedule so that snack time was at 9:45. And the nurse has experience with diabetes because there is a little girl in 3rd grade at the school that has it. So, after this meeting I was a little more comfortabel about him being away from me.

So Tuesday morning comes and I am excited for him but nervous at the same time. How will he be when I leave, will he wonder where I am, will he make friends. Dave took the morning off and we both dropped him off. As soon as we took his book bag off his back he went right over to play with the toys and didn't look back. We stuck around for a few minutes and then said our good-byes. He was really good about it. However, there were about 3 other kids in the class that were clearly not happy about the situation and their mom leaving them. I thought that I would get upset walking back to the car and on the drive home, but I was okay. I think I was more nervous; wondering how his sugar levels would be.

We went back at 11:30 to pick him up and the teacher said he was just fine. He told us he loved school. We checked him when he got in the car and his sugar level was just fine. So no worries. He did tell us that he asked the teacher where we were at some point during the day and that she told him we were right down the hall.

Today was day #2 and I was again worried how he would be after I had told him that I would be going home when I left but would be back later to get him. Once again as soon as the backpack came off he left me. This time there were only 2 other kids screaming. As I walked out this moring I was a bit more emotional; maybe because I didn't have Dave to talk to to keep my mind off of things, but it was definitely more upsetting for me this morning.

It's hard for me to accept that there is now a part of Dylan's life that I am not involved in 100%; that he will have experiences I won't get to see or hear. I am, however, glad we made the decision to send him at this age; I couldn't imagine the emotional wreck I would be if I waited until he was of kindergarten age (5) before sending him off.

To CFL or not to CFL

I have been debating the issue on whether to convert all of our light bulbs to CFLs. I know the pro is cutting down on the use of energy, but the con is that they have mercury in them. I have read that when it comes time to dispose of them there really isn't a safe way to do it without risking the mercury leaking into the environment. I know that the bulbs will last a long time and maybe by then they will have a safe way of recycling them, but will they?

Here is an article I found on the subject if you are interested:
article

A mixed blessing

So, now in addition to Aidan being able to climb he is walking about 90% of the time. This has made some things easier but other things a bit more difficult. It is now easier at the parks because he can actually get out of the stroller and go and climb on the apparatuses and interact with the other kids. However it is now harder for me to keep an eye on two kids. Today, at the library (yes I have said in a previous post that we go weekly) I let him out of the stroller to play with the stuff the library has for kids. Well Dylan goes down one aisle of books and Aidan turns the corner to go around another. So I scamper off after Aidan while Dylan calls out my name to help him pick a book. I do believe I will be keeping Aidan in the stroller as much as I can for my sanity.

Maybe I should let him walk through the airport when we go to California in 4 weeks so he tires himself out enough to sleep on the plane :)

Oh, and to add to the insanity of the climbing fascination he now decides to walk on the couch.

Bows on frogs????

Today we took our weekly trip to the library. On our way I noticed something blow/hop onto the road so I stopped not knowing what it was. I backed the car up a bit so I could see it and it was a frog. I got out of the car to try and startle it to go back into the grass on the side of the road. Well the darn thing wouldn't budge. So I got back into the car and drove around it. I looked in my rearview mirror and saw that when the next car passed it it hopped back into the grass. Anyway...Dylan asked me what it was so I told him it was a frog. He asked me if it was a boy or a girl frog.

I said "I don't know" (an answer I give him frequently).

He said, "It was a boy frog Mommy because it didn't have a bow on it; girl frogs have bows".

I said, "oh, like Daisy Duck has a bow and Donald doesn't?"

He said, "yes"

I did tell him that real ducks don't wear bows but he swears he has seen a real duck on television with a bow. Not sure where.

Yo Gabba Gabba---some strange tv

Okay, so today is a dismal rainy day and I decided to let Dylan watch a little bit of television and the only channel with anything appropriate for him is Nickelodeon. Well at 10:30 this morning this horrible (in my opinion that is) show Yo Gabba Gabba was on




Dylan seemed to enjoy it. Did some research and discovered that Elijah Wood filmed an episode as did Tony Hawk and Biz Markie, as well as some other musical guests. To me it seems a bit on the strange side.

Aidan and the couch

OMG, Aidan is such a daredevil and just loves to do the things Dylan does. Up until last week Aidan was not able to get up on the couch on his own and would just see Dylan up there. And let me tell you that Dylan doesn't always just sit on the couch, he will hang/climb/sit on the arm of the couch. Well Aidan has finally been able to figure out how to get himself up onto the couch and will now do exactly what Dylan does (which Dylan is no longer allowed to do).

Aidan will use all his strength and pull himself up onto the couch. At first he will just sit there like a good boy, but then if I turn my head and then look back at him he is sitting on the arm of the couch almost falling off or he is dangling head first over the arm. The best is when I go to take him off and yell at him "No" he gives me a sh*t a$$ grin.

And he has no reservations about getting off the couch no matter how he does it. Just now I believe he fell off (not sure how as when I turned my head I heard him hit the floor) and just climbed back on up. He will also scoot in a sitting position to the edge and then just dangle his feet over and slowly inch forward until he falls off.

Definitely won't be getting much peace now that he can do this and I am sure once he is walking 100% things will just get worse.

Say goodbye to the trees

As of this morning our house and yard will no longer have any shade. We have been fortunate enough to reap the rewards of the large trees growing in our neighbor's back and side yards. They provided shade for the kitchen and den and some shade in the backyard for the boys when on the swings and in the sandbox in the early half of the day.

Yesterday we got home and found a note on the door to call our neighbor. Dave called and was informed that they were going to be cutting down the two trees in his backyard and the one on the side yard this morning. They arrived at 8:30 this morning and began the work. It is now 9:30 and the one on the side is already cut down and my kitchen is so much brighter now.

The pros to the situation are that my den will be warmer in the winter (but hotter in the summer) and we may have more success with grass growing in the one bare spot in the backyard.

I really hate to see trees getting cut down as I love the green foliage; we may just need to plant a tree in our yard somewhere to make up for the loss.

And now there is one

Last year right before Aidan was born Dylan received 3 goldfish from a friend of the family. Within two months of getting them all set up in their tank one of them jumped out of the tank and didn't survive.

Then there were two which Dylan named Nemo and Jaime (not sure how he came up with those names) and things have been fine. Then about 2-3 weeks ago I was in the living room and Dave and Dylan were in the den (Aidan was in bed) and Dave went into the kitchen and called my name, sort of panicky. I ran in and there on the kitchen floor was Nemo, or was it Jaime (who could tell). I quickly picked him/her up and put him/her back in the tank and he/she swam around just fine.

This morning I went in to start our normal breakfast routine and while pouring cereals into bowls I noticed only one fish. Now sometimes the tank will play tricks on my eyes and the other one is just laying low in the corner. Well not this morning. The other one, once again no idea whether it was Jaime or Nemo was laying on the counter behind the tank. I grabbed the net and got it up off the counter and put it in some water to see if maybe it had just happened. Nope, it was all over for him/her. Since it was 7:15 in the morning we chose not to mention anything to Dylan, plus he never even notices them. So I put Jaime or Nemo in a plastic bag and put him/her out for the garbage men this morning. And now there is one.

I did tell Dylan that there is now only one fish in the tank because the other one jumped out and couldn't breathe and is now in fish heaven. And of course because Dylan always asks questions, that was followed up by 3 minutes of questions like where is fish heaven? up above our house? and so on.

Pictures

So, a month after his first birthday I finally got around to taking Aidan for pictures for his 1st birthday. I had thought about going to Picture People because I hear they are really good with kids that move around a lot (the photographer moves around with the camera). But since JCPenney's is only 10 minutes away I opted to go there this morning (and it is cheaper so if the pictures aren't great I won't waste a lot of money).
Now, Aidan is teething and been quite cranky, but I figured he would be okay, might not smile much (doesn't do that anyway when out in public) but would give it a try. Well it was just as I thought, not one smile. I think we got one good shot of him with a birthday cake with a slight smirk, that looks like a smile. Then I had the photographer get a couple of Dylan and Aidan, which went just the same. Dylan kept saying cheese, but Aidan was emotionless. Out of the 4 he took of the two boys I only liked one. The photographer wasn't overly kid friendly; he put a puppet on his hand and kept squeaking it, but didn't do much to try and get Aidan to smile. I kept trying and even tried to recruit Dylan, but it didn't work.
Luckily I only spent $8 and will be taking them to Picture People to see if I can get some really good pics of them.
Oh, and while I was reviewing the pictures learned that having Dylan play peek-a-boo with Aidan makes him smile and laugh; now if I had only known that 1/2 hour earlier :)

New pics

Here are some recent pics as well as some from Great Adventure (just click on the picture to see all of them)

July 29