First Day of School

I was a little worried about how the first day of school would go. Would I cry? Would Jens cry? Luckily, neither of those things happened. When Jens came into our room this morning, I reminded him that today was a school day. He said "Should we go right now?" I said no, and that he needed to go potty and get dressed and have breakfast first. He answered "They have a potty at school!!" As in, I can take care of that stuff later--let's go now!

When we got there, I wondered if he would be shy. We went in and I helped him get his inside shoes on and he walked right over to the circle where Miss Dina was sitting and sat down. She was saying that the kids would all say their names, and he piped up "My name is Jens!" He didn't even give me a hug or anything. I had to work hard to get his attention and wave goodbye.

When I picked him up he was very happy and very happy to see me. He told me "The green girl pushed me." I asked what he said to her and he said "No, I just pushed her, too." I told him maybe saying something like "Please don't push" might be better. He doesn't know any of the other kids' names, he just refers to them by the color of clothes they were wearing. He liked singing the hello song at the beginning and doing the jobs. He played with blocks and in the sandbox and they had tiny muffins for snack, which made him very happy.

We are so excited for school--he really enjoyed today, and so did I!

August 28th

Hi Everyone

We are pretty quiet around here. I have been feeling especially tired and fat, and it has been extra hot, so we haven't been doing much. I did finish painting the family room last week and hung pictures and rearranged the furniture. It mostly looks like a real room, if you don't look too closely at the corners along the ceiling. On Saturday Mike and Mike Harrison cut a hole in our wall and recessed the pipes from the wet bar. We have opted to leave the hole for a little while and make sure there is no leakage from the pipes. So far they are holding up great, and it is nice not to have water filled pipes sticking out of the wall. It did make me a little nervous when Mike told me he needed some aluminum foil so he wouldn't burn the house down. Mike has also been working on sprinkler repair this week, and as a result we have managed to make four of the five stations turn on the way they are supposed to AND the timer works. So I bought some flowers and shrubs and planted them on Monday. 98% of our yard looks terrible, but the tiny little flower bed next to the walk way to the front door is very pretty with azaleas, caladium, fern, sweet alysum, and impatiens. It makes me smile, and hopefully it gives our neighbors hope that someday our house won't be an eye sore.

Aside from house things, we had friends for dinner Sunday, which is always fun. Two families from our ward came over and the kids had a great time and so did the adults. The kids insisted on eating outside, which also made cleanup much easier.

Today was open house at Jens's school, which Jens enjoyed. Mike and I left both saying we were very glad we aren't the teachers in charge. Jens got comfortable very quickly and then moved on to showing off, which means he made a lot of weird noises and struck a lot of strange poses. He has been into poses since the Olympics--I think he picked them up from the gymnastics. Also in line with the Olympics, he was playing a matching game at school that had pictures of children from all over the world. There was one of an Asian little girl and he immediately said "Mom! It is one of the gymnastics girls!" (Remember has fascination with the Chinese women's team? It is continuing, apparently.) And it actually did look a lot like one of the girls on the team.

Jens has also been into hugging and kissing the baby. Usually he wants to kiss the baby during mealtimes, so his face is covered with food when he presses it against my shirt, but it is very cute.

Not so cute is his need to hit, kick, poke, prod, and climb all over me at all times, and I am so tired of putting him in time outs and saying no that I don't have energy to deal with it anymore. It is making me crazy, so if anyone has suggestions on what to do, I would appreciate hearing them before I snap and hit him back. Luckily he doesn't hit other people nearly so much--it seems to be a special token of affection that he saves for me and occasionally Mike.

Back to something cute--he has been singing the Olympic theme nonstop all week. He and Mike held a mini olympics last week, which included a parade with flag waving and anthem singing in between each event. The events included hurdles, races, "carpet angels" (think snow angels on carpet) and some others which I can't remember. It ended with gold medals and ice cream, so it was very successful and fun. Preparing for the hurdles:
Gold Medalists:

Last Jens news--his three year old check up was yesterday. He is in the 75th percentile for weight and height, 35 lbs. and 38.5 inches. This is down a little from his previous rate of growth, but the doctor isn't worried about it. He also had vision and hearing checks, his blood pressure taken, and he got to show Dr. Marcus some of the fun things he can do, jumping, colors, etc. As far as allergies go, he is apparently an "allergic kid" as the doctor put it. She says that many of his prolonged colds and illnesses are probably related to some sort of allergen that his body doesn't like. Happily, of the long list of things he tested positive to, only two are real problems--shellfish and cockroaches. We have to get and carry an epipen for the shellfish. The rest of the things he is allergic to are moderate enough that he can continue eating them (thank goodness--what would I do without wheat, milk, and peanut butter?) We just need to keep an eye on him and make sure he doesn't start reacting more severely.

Tomorrow is his first day at school by himself--sometimes I think I will be sad, but then he hits me and I think school will be really really great.

August 21st

Hi Everyone!

We are finally feeling better at our house, mostly. We were sick all of last week, including on Jens's birthday. We still managed to have a funnish day, though.

Thursday night we put together his big boy bed and decorated with balloons and streamers. I put out our party horns and Jens's presents so we could have our family party and breakfast together when he woke up. We took his bed in and put him in it so he would wake up in it the next morning. Unfortunately, he was coughing so much that he woke up around 5. At 5:30 he called me and I got his inhaler and went to help him--he was lying on the floor in the hallway. It was very sad. I medicated and tucked him back in and went back to bed. Around 6:15 I heard a party horn blowing and paper ripping and bolted out of bed--he had decided to open presents by himself! We held him off until 7, then had pancakes and sang and opened the rest of his presents. He is very excited about all of them--it was a rewarding gift giving year. He especially loves his 'Chick Hicks' car from Cars, his blocks, and his scissors. Yes, I bought him his own scissors for cutting. He now cuts paper every day and makes all sorts of airplanes and "e-mails", according to him.

We tried to do a train ride at the zoo, but it had a broken part and wasn't running, so we got smoothies at Jamba Juice and had naps instead.
We had friends over for dinner and the kids decorated and ate cupcakes with LOTS of sprinkles. Jens is very pleased about being three, although he continually reminds everyone that when he is five he will get to chew gum.


Saturday I read Breaking Dawn, Jens watched more gymnastics, and Mike cleaned the garage and installed our new, very quiet garage door opener that works. I can now park in the garage, which is an exciting thing! He also took out the very VERY stinky central vac system which didn't work and took up a lot of room. We had pizza movie night which meant Jens watched Cars on the laptop while Mike and I watched the Olympics, but we were all together in the same room, so it counts as family time, right?

Monday I painted the ceiling and light fixture in the kitchen, Tuesday I painted the actual kitchen, yesterday I painted part of the family room, and today I painted some more of the family room. I am taking it slowly so I don't inhale too many fumes or get too tired, and it has been pretty nice weather here, so I was able to have all the windows open and the fans going full blast, so there was lots of ventilation. The end result looks pretty good except that I have decided I shouldn't stand on ladders due to extremely poor balance lately, so I had to do all the edging with an extender pole and I couldn't get into the high corners, so there are some patches of white and some mistakes that are going to need to be fixed by someone who can stand on a ladder without falling off.
It looks much better, though, and now I think I want to rearrange the furniture. The roses in the picture are from our anniversary--8 years of happy togetherness! Which we celebrated by having sloppy joes at home and watching (what else) the Olympics. It was very romantic. It is interesting to think about being married for 8 years--in some ways it feels like we have always been together, and in other ways I say 8 years and I think "I must be getting old!" I still think Mike and I are a perfect match--we have had a lot of fun and good times together, and not very many fights! I am glad I found someone so compatible who makes me happy and who is such a great dad.

Last night was book club on Emma, which I ended up enjoying once I got past the first 70 pages. It takes a while to get past how irritating and self centered she can be! It was fun to have people over and I have to admit, we didn't talk about the book nearly as much as we should have. I made key lime pie with raspberry coulis and it was so delicious and SO easy, except for squeezing the key limes, which are very tiny. I will put the recipe at the bottom for anyone who wants to try it.

Have a happy week!

Key Lime Pie

Crust:
1 package graham crackers finely crushed
3 T. sugar
6 T. melted butter

Combine and press into the bottom and up the sides of a 9 inch pie pan. Bake at 350 for ten minutes until golden. Cool.

Filling
1/2 c. key lime juice
4 large egg yolks
1 14 oz. can sweetened condensed milk

Whisk together and pour into cooled crust. Bake 18 minutes at 350 until center is firm. Cool at room temperature for one hour, then refrigerate over night. Serve with whipped cream and berries.

Raspberry Coulis
1 16 oz package of frozen raspberries
1/2 c. sugar

Thaw raspberries and blend smooth. Pour through a mesh colander to remove as many seed as possible! (I added some water to my raspberries to make it easier to strain). In a small saucepan, combine raspberries and sugar. Bring to a boil and cook over medium heat until sauce cooks down to a consistency you like. Cool completely before serving.

August 14th

Hi Everyone

We are gradually readjusting to normal life after the beach. We all had such a good time--somehow it managed to live up to three years of anticipation.

My top ten favorites:

10. The food was really good and varied this year
9. Sleeping in bunk beds. My mattress was new and nice, and I had a double bed to myself. Those who slighted the bunk bed room really missed out.
8. Taking the kids out to watch the lighthouse blink. Jens could have watched for hours. He loved the lighthouse, and excitedly told me over and over how it keeps ships and boats from crashing into the fence.

7. Our family Olympics- quite entertaining and fun to do something all together.

6. Watching movies and playing games at night. I was usually real tired by then, but it was still very fun.
5. Lunch at the Blue Point--an unexpected and fun kid-free outing.
4. Finally having Jill talk in front of me and even sit with me! It took a long time to break the ice, but she finally warmed up.
3. Not thinking about, worrying about, or planning ANYTHING for our house.
2. Having Jens there this year was really fun for us--he loved the water and the sand, and a favorite moment had to be all of has fantastic dancing during the "So You Think You Can Dance" finale. It was also fun to have cousins and Matt Beecher there. We are a fun group.



1. Being all together



Another 1. The water was so great this year--I don't remember a year where I've gotten in so much and enjoyed it so much!

A few more pictures: Jens loved the lighthouse, especially in retrospect.


He also really got brave at the pool and loved jumping off the side.

We only had one real downer, and that was going home. Our flights were delayed and we walked into our house around 12:30am California time, 3:30am east coast time. We were all pretty wiped out and I picked up a very nasty cold on the airplane home which I have subsequently passed to Jens. So we are sick this week. Boo.

I also have to say the Virginia Aquarium was a disappointment, although Jens had a great time, which I suppose is the most important thing.

Jens was VERY happy to be home and spent all day Sunday peacefully playing with his toys. We took a church holiday after our late night, thankfully I had called a friend to teach my primary class while we were stuck in the Washington Dulles Airport because we had no idea when we would get home, and even more thankfully she agreed to teach for me. I don't think I would have managed to get a lesson together. On the plus side, Jens was pretty darn good considering what a long, hard day it was. He slept for a large portion of our last leg, which was a great blessing.

We've been doing typical things since we got home--laundry, cleaning up, pulling out a few of the weeds in our weed infested lawn (I think it is more weed than grass right now, but I keep trying), Mike cleaned out Jens's cat poop sandbox and we got new sand, and of course, we've been watching lots of Olympics, although they are on so darn late and half of the time the stuff I really want to see is on after 10pm.

We are excited for Jens's birthday tomorrow--we are getting him his big boy bed and having friends over for a cook out and cake. I think I will also try to take him to the always desirable little train at Folsom City Park. He is very excited about his birthday and keeps telling people that when he turns five he will get to have gum, which is such a long way away I am not sure why he is excited about it, but it is funny. A few more Jens funnies--yesterday he insisted on wearing his headress, which we made out of paper, feather, crepe paper, and sparkly little pom poms (based on the one he made at the Florida storytime) to my doctor appointment and to Walmart. He got lots of complements on it.

Also, he loves the Olympic gymnastics. He particularly liked the Chinese Women's team, and kept asking when they would come back on. While he watches, you can see him studying their moves and deciding if he could do them or not. He told me that someday he will do flips on tv and wear brown tape on his legs (there was a shot of one of the Chinese girl's taping her ankles).

Today we have Sarah over to play, and they are doing a very good job playing nicely to each other. It is pretty funny to hear them talk sometimes.

I will report on birthday festivities soon!