1st Grade Field Trip

To me, there are certain things that seem really "mom-ish" (or at least my mom-ish) -- volunteering for the PTO, planning a birthday party, making school lunch or an afternoon snack, or sitting in the carpool line.  These are things I watched my mom do for years and would daydream about being a mom myself and doing these things for my kids.  These memories make up a lot of the fabric of my childhood and made us feel safe and loved.  There was a comfort in knowing mom would be at the carpool line everyday, a sense of protection we got from seeing her at the school volunteering (she was the McGruff the Crime Dog volunteer!), and a feeling of pride when she created a masterpiece birthday cake of our dreams (I'm thinking of you beautiful Barbie cake!). 

I want to give all these same feelings to Olivia and Eric. And it doesn't get more "mom-ish" than volunteering for a field trip!

To date, my work schedule has prevented me from doing that, but after some MAJOR guilt from Olivia, a brief respite in the work load, and the lucky coincidence of seeing the email requesting volunteers about 1 second after it was sent and before the spots could fill up, I scored a coveted position of chaperone for the Spring field trip. 

We went to the Nature Discovery Center where the kids got to put their previously acquired "insect knowledge" to the test.  (Yep.  Insects.  Of all the field trips, I got the insect one.)

We started the day with a quick review on the qualities of an insect (these kids already knew everything!)

And then divided into groups.  Our group went outside first where we got a lesson on how to nicely catch an insect in our "bug box."   (I mean.  What in the actual heck?!). 

The guide took us to a log and instructed the kids to kneel down and told them that when she turned the log over they were to quickly (but gently) get a bug.  She stressed -- these are little bitty bugs, you are a giant compared to them, they aren't going to hurt you -- just get one!  She turns the log over.  Yep.  Of course.  No one got a bug!!  They all screamed and squealed and jumped back.  BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT YOU DO WHEN YOU SEE A BUG!!

Second log.  Half of them at least bent down this time but I assumed we were in it for the long haul.

All of a sudden, I hear someone say "Mommy!  I got one!"  It was Olivia.  My daughter?!  Caught a bug?!  Without freaking out?!  This news continues to baffle me and frankly, disappoint me.  ;)

Then some of her girl friends asked her to catch their bugs (smart girls)

Once everyone had a bug of some sort they set to work analyzing the creature they caught and then also the creatures their friends caught to determine if they were indeed insects or not (you may not know -- because I didn't! -- that insect is a very specific creature with 3 body parts, 6 legs, and 1 or 2 pairs of wings. I like to refer to all disgusting outside bugs as insects but apparently that isn't scientifically correct.)

Then we traded with the other groups and went inside to learn about other animals/reptiles at the Nature Discovery Center

And we ended the trip with a picnic lunch!

Despite the disgusting bugs, I had the best morning with my best girl!  I loved seeing her in a school setting with her friends and teachers.

This day was a little bit of a hard one emotionally.  I had started the day with an early morning volunteer shift at Eric's school selling raffle tickets for the upcoming Parents Night Out.  Before Christmas, a stranger jumped over the fence and got into the campus and actually went into the baby nursery.  It was a terrifying day for the teachers/staff and a scary afternoon for the parents when we found out.  After some angst-filled weeks the school made the decision to employ 2 Houston Police Department armed officers at the school all day.  It was a decision I supported with some regret as to the state of the world.  Well.....on this morning I was volunteering at at table by the playground right by the entrance to the classes.  As I was sitting there, the 2 officers who are usually out front in the morning directing traffic and helping the kids get in the door come running past me, talking on their walkie-talkies.  After about 15 tense moments and the phrase "lock-down" being thrown around, all was okay.  There was a "suspect" on the loose by the school and the officers, along with the school director, handled the situation amazingly.  Bearing witness to those moments however, made me eternally grateful for those officers and our school director.  For a few minutes when they were deciding whether or not to go into formal lock-down I was struck with a sinking feeling of thinking about going back to Eric's classroom to be with him during the lockdown and feeling almost lucky that I was at the school and could be with him, instead of sitting at my desk at work getting automated text messages that the school was on lockdown and feeling helpless away from him.  So...it all turned out fine, but I was extra happy to have a morning with Olivia that day!

And, one final memory, like most kids Olivia is less interested in my schedule (homework, dinner, bath, get ready for bed, etc) than she is in her own (cartwheels, screentime, playing with Eric, etc).  It is a constant balancing act to merge our 2 competing schedules into one that meets everyone's needs.  On the night before her field trip her dawdling got the best of me and I told her that I would not wake up early to curl her hair the next day because she had made bedtime so late.  As you might expect, she LOST it -- yelling, screaming, sassing.  She finally calmed down and got into bed.  I went to get in bed with her as I usually do for some bedtime cuddles, but she told me not to.  She told me to sit down and then she gave ME a lecture!  Her angle was: This is not the person you are.  It was actually such a genius move.  She told me that I am not the kind of person who doesn't give people second chances.  I'm the kind of person who likes to make people happy.  I care about people.  I'm nice.

It was a monologue that would have given Meryl Streep a run for her money.  She delivered it with the perfect amount of emotion -- wiping away fake tears, slow and measured tone with the right amount of disappointment/judgment, and perfectly timed head shaking to really emphasize her disbelief in my behavior.

I gave her a kiss and went downstairs.  A few minutes later, this note gets thrown down the stairs:

This girl!  So I went up and talked to her.  She really wanted me to curl her hair and instead of apologizing and begging for a second chance, I guess she decided to use some weird psychology on me.  We talked about it and I asked her for an idea of how we could fix the situation.  She had some good ideas about giving herself time to play before work, and some things she could do to stay on top of the time so that the bedtime routine didn't get pushed so late.  So...at the end...of course I curled her hair.  Because, she's right...I DO like to do nice things and make people happy (ESPECIALLY OLIVIA JANE DEAN!!).

Spring Forward

The time change appears to have brought Spring to Houston.  There have certainly been Spring showers but we have had the chance to enjoy some nicer weather as well.

Eric's teachers usually post different ideas of sensory or other activities to try at home and one of most recent suggestions was sand.  It occurred to me that we had an entire box upstairs of kinetic sand that we did with Olivia all the time when she was this age.  So we pulled it out one weekend and both kids seemed to enjoy it.

 

Given the success of the sand, the next weekend it was super rainy so I brought out a playdoh kit I had been saving for just such an occasion.

Both of them were super intrigued by this kit -- so much so that they both refused the plan to get donuts for breakfast and then come home and play with it!  This kit has been worth the money for sure - they played with it ALL.  WEEKEND.

We also enjoyed Olivia's Field Day at school.  Olivia is on the Purple Team so we all wore our purple that day.

(Side story: Having Olivia as a big sister, Eric is really interested in hair bows.  He always notices Olivia's bows, even asking her the other day "New bow Yah Yah?" when she was wearing one he had not seen before.  So, on the morning of Field Day Olivia had woken up early and was dressed before Eric even woke up.  She went into with me to wake him up for school/work and he immediately noticed her big purple bow and asked her for a "boo" (blue) bow.  She got him one which he LOVED!  I have no idea where he got this but he told me "Its a man bow!" and now refers to it as such.)

This year she knew what to expect and was counting down the days!  We woke up that morning to some pretty dreary weather but luckily it all cleared up by the afternoon and we had a perfectly rain-free (and HOT!) day.

I knew it was going to be a good day when I got this text from our babysitter, Katie, that she was Olivia's Upper School Buddy!

Matt and I took off work early and headed up to watch the festivities and hang out!

Olivia won the cake at the cake walk so we all had cake for breakfast the next morning!

Matt is back playing tennis on Saturday mornings so I'm always looking for activities to do with the kids.  One morning I heard about Touch a Truck at a local park.  I had no idea what to expect but decided to try it.  Oh my gosh!  It was crazy -- at least 20 huge trucks parked on the lawns of this beautiful neighborhood park, tons of people, food trucks, music, and lots of kid friendly activities.  Both kids had fun (though I think Olivia had way more fun than anyone - including her - expected!).  Eric was a little nervous about all the people and once it got super crowded and they started letting the kids do the horns/alarms on the fire engines, he quickly declared "Rheric's scared.  No horns!  Home!  Home!"  (PS.  I absolutely LOVE that he tells us his emotions.  Really he only knows sad, happy, or scared but I say that's good for 1 year olds!)

Olivia had her 7.5 birthday a few weeks ago.  We of course celebrated with a cookie cake and a new LOL Dolls nightgown.   

At 7.5, Olivia is seeming so old and mature to us.  She is still really liking school and excelling at reading, math and spelling.  She has made a few good girlfriends that make school much more fun.  Outside of school I would say her favorite thing is gymnastics.  And she's pretty good at it - tumbling and cartwheeling all over the house and furniture ALL THE TIME.  We are also taking piano lessons after school which I think has also been a favorite of hers.  She is of course a sweet and thoughtful big sister to Eric, always aware of him and worried about making sure he's safe.  She loves him unconditionally even though he can be a stinker to her at times.  Matt and I still spend most nights sitting on the couch and rehashing the day -- most of which is filled with stories of Olivia and the funny and smart things she said or did.  She is intuitive, thoughtful, creative and silly.  She loves her family so fiercely and is walking a bit of a tightrope right now between baby and big girl.  I think there are definite moments of jealousy and longing to be a baby like Eric who seems to get away with much more than she does and doesn't have the responsibility of school/homework/chores.  We try in those moments to kindly and firmly help her find her way and try to reward her with moments of "big" -- staying up a few minutes late, big sister date nights, playdates with her friends, and recently she has started cooking a few meals here and there.  The other Sunday we were welcomed to "Olivia's Quesadilla Cafe" where she prepared quesadillas made to order for lunch! We love this girl SO big!

And, as for Eric, he is really living his best life too.  As always, I sort of marvel that he is growing up surrounded by so much love and attention.  Not that Olivia wasn't the exact same way, but I think most parents are obsessed with their kids.  I feel like Eric is a little different in that he has a sister who also is crazy about him.  (Aunt Naz - if you're reading this, I can't image the love/smothering you felt from 2 big sister!).  From the way he sleeps to watching him eat a cupcake, the 3 of us are still just smitten with every little thing he does.

 

Eric and I have been enjoying our Fridays together.  He found baby Stella (which Olivia had forgotten about in favor of her American Girl Dolls) and loved on her just like Olivia used to!

He doesn't really play with any toys -- his true love is still books.  But he has recently gotten into Daniel Tiger.  Matt got him some of the figurines from the show and I thought he might like to put them in the train.  So I set the whole thing up and he played with it for about 2 minutes before declaring "No like" and then just went about lining up the figurines next to the train.

So we mostly enjoy our Fridays by staying in PJs and eating breakfast on the couch or in his room while we read lots of books.  His current favorite is Penguin and Tiny Shrimp Don't Do Bedtime!

A few Eric stories for the memory book:
1.  He still calls himself "Rheric."  Other cute ones are "bup" for up; "mammalmal" is animal; "wewwow" is yellow.  He says Daaanel for Daniel Tiger and haaaand for hand in a way that almost has a British accent?  Its adorbs.  He says "boppin" for open and "bobble" for bottle.  He is 100% adamant that he will absolutely not under any circumstances drink milk from a cup.  Cups are for water.  The only civilized way to drink milk is warmed up in a bobble.  And, don't even think about giving him a "yittle" bobble.  He needs it in the big bobble.
2.  He has decided that I belong to him and Olivia can have Matt.  He is constantly saying "My mamma.  My mamma.  Yah Yah Dada."  Sometimes he will say it randomly just to make sure we are all on the same page.  But if Matt tries to pick him up or if Olivia tries to hug me, he will yell it and freak out!
3. On this same page, Eric likes to troll Matt sometimes by calling him Matt sometimes.  This is another one that we aren't sure where he picked up.  But every now and then he will just refer to him as "Matt" and this infuriates Matt.  He's all "Eric.  My name is dada.  Call me dada."  And Eric's all "No way Matt."
4.  The kids had some weird fight the other day over which one of them was "cute."  Probably my fault because basically everything either of them does I refer to as "so cute."  So Olivia, being the diplomat that she is, decided that Eric was "cute" and she was "pretty."  Eric now takes that as the gospel and will announce to anyone he knows and completely random times "Rheric cute.  Yah Yah pretty."
5.  He basically still refuses to eat anything other than junk.  I can put the juiciest most delicious fruit in front of him and he will throw it on the floor without even trying it.  But offer him a cupcake and you can barely get the wrapper off before he's licking it!  I have immersed myself in childhood nutrition blogs/podcasts/books to try and get some help.  One trick I thought was interesting was to tell your kid they can always spit something out if they don't like it.  Because I think the thing with Eric is that he's just stubborn.  The kid wouldn't try mashed potatoes which I think he would love if he would only put it in his mouth.  So we told Eric that he can always put it on his tongue and spit it out if he doesn't like.  Obvi a huge backfire -- he now spits out everything and tell us "Okay to spit it out!" happily as he does.
6.  We were at a birthday party recently and the kids were in the Jolly Trolley.  A little girl tripped next to Olivia so she picked the little girl up and was carrying her to the front so she could get out.  Eric saw this and went into near hysterics "No! No!  My Yah Yah!  My Yah Yah!"
7.   We are working on numbers and letters with him.  He knows about 3/4 of the letters and can count to 10!
8.  He is mostly a happy, easy-going little guy but when he wants something and can't have it or when he does something he knows he isn't supposed to do, he always reacts in the same way.  Pouty lip.  Eyes averted.  I was taping him the other day when he was mad that I wouldn't give him crackers for breakfast and was able to capture it!

9.  In an effort to get him to eat foods and/or drink milk from a cup, we have been telling him what a big boy he is.  He rejects this wholesale.  He is not a big boy.  He is a baby.  And specifically, "mamma's baby."  Please don't try to convince him otherwise.  ;)
10.  His favorite word is probably "mine."  He says it for things that actually are his (his water), things that are questionable (me or Olivia?); and things that are flat out not his (the slide at the park).  This love of "mine" takes all forms -- "my did it!" or "my do it!"
11.  Pockets.  He is obsessed with pockets (pop-its) but thinks any opening in your clothes is a pocket.  He will stuff things up his shirt sleeves, down the top of his shirt and up the bottom of his shorts/pants claiming they are pop-its.

But the best part of Fridays is when we pick up Olivia and usually take her for an after school snack and park-date!

And, last but not least, we baked and decorated some Easter cookies last weekend.  Olivia helped me cut them out and bake them so they were ready to decorate when Eric woke up from nap (hence the bed head).  Think both of them ate as many decorations and frosting as they used to decorate the cookies!