Thursday, May 30, 2013

May - part 1

I actually wrote this post 2 weeks ago and haven't even had the time to add pictures and publish it.  I'm adding the photos now and we'll just pretend that I posted this a couple of weeks ago :)


Holy cow!  Time is literally flying by!  The end of the school year is fast approaching.  In fact, Emily has 4 days left next week and then we will be bidding farewell to pre-school.  Casey has 9 days left of second grade and she hasn't once mentioned how sad she's going to be to say goodbye to her classmates for the summer.  Hmmm, wonder what that means? 

 
We've had new neighbors move in and they have boys nearly the same age as the girls.  Casey has been begging us for 6 years to live someplace where there are kids her own age to play with, so she was thrilled when she discovered Jon is as eager to play outdoors as she is.  They've rode and ran around the cul-de-sac non-stop for weeks now and it's so good to see her have a playmate finally.  And, of course, Emily wants to be outside, too.  And that means I have to be outside with her.  This is the main reason I have not been able to blog or get anything done around the house - I'm outside with her constantly because she needs supervision to keep her from going on the street or off to a neighbor's house.  At the age of 5, I hate having to hover over her, but I can only hope that one day she will be aware enough to play outside with the other kids without my watchful eye.  She is old enough to realize she should be doing some of the same things they are doing and gets frustrated when she isn't able or allowed.  So while there are some difficult times trying to get her to understand all of this, there have been some really great results.  In fact, in her motivation to do what the other kids are doing, Emily has managed to check another goal off the list.  Emily learned how to ride her bike last week.

 
Okay, well she knew how to do it mostly, but the experience of riding her bike since she received it for her birthday in March has gone something like this:  Bring bike onto street.  Pedal a few times with much encouragement from mommy.  Then get frustrated because pedaling is hard.  Then get mad at mommy and hit her.  Then mommy gets mad at Emily for hitting.  Emily gets off bike and throws a fit.  Mommy drags Emily and bike back to driveway. 

 
But this week, sister saw the other kids zipping around on their scooters and bikes and decided she wanted to hang, too.  So she started pedaling and hasn't stopped.  And, again, I am in love with her determination and persistence.  She's fallen several times and has managed to rally each time with little fuss; she just gets back on and takes off down the street like she's been riding her little pink bike forever.  Checkin' goals off lists - it's good stuff and I'm glad I'm out hovering to see it all unfold.

 
We've managed to check another big one off our list.  I've been putting off writing about this because I didn't want to set the law of averages into motion and summon some reverse luck on us (me? superstitious? yup.), but this one's been done for almost 2 months.  Emily is potty trained.  Not through the nights yet, but, honestly, that one is so far down on the list, I'm not worried about it.  There was a time not-so-long-ago that I thought she may never be able to be potty trained.  And now she is.  And that is awesomeness.  I can honestly say that even while in potty training boot camp through February and March, she didn't even have that many accidents.  We've been hopeful for this for a long time.  Checkin' more goals of lists - really, really good stuff and sister is happy to rock and roll some big girl undies.

 
Mother's Day was last weekend.  Tom and the girls took me out to breakfast at our usual Mother's Day spot, First Watch.  I love breakfast food, so we go and indulge gorge on french toast and pancakes then everyone is too stuffed to need me to make lunch.  I got to spend the whole stay curled up reading a book and it was beautiful :)  The girls and neighbor kids rode their scooters and bikes and did 'tricks' for the moms, who were parked in lawn chairs.  I use quotations because these tricks were not very elaborate.  At all.  But they practiced them for days to show the moms and they were so proud. 
 

Tom grilled steaks for dinner and I enjoyed a glass of wine.  Except I really mean that the bottle of wine was made out of glass and I had that.  The bottle.

The next part of May will be super busy- Emily's dance recital, the end of school for both girls, a doctor's appointment for Emily that I'm hopeful brings some good changes, a crazy packed Memorial Day weekend and the start of summer!!!  And I'm positive it will all just fly by!








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