Preschool Graduate

It's so cliche to say, but it truly doesn't seem like that long ago he was heading off to preschool ... and now we are watching him graduate and move onto the next step:  Kindergarten!

Luke heading off to his very last day of preschool (well, except that he is going this summer ... sort of makes it anti-climactic)

 Graduation for his class was held in the afternoon, so Mia skipped her nap (not ideal, but necessary), and joined Michael, myself, and my parents for the big event.

With Day's babydoll, Kristy.  Waiting for the ceremony to begin

SO unimpressed so far!

 Leading up to the graduation, Luke has been serenading us in the car for weeks.  He doesn't just sing one song, but the entire repetoire.  So, I asked him if he was planning to sing for this last, final time on the Mandala stage.  He told me that he was "thinking about it."  Then, just the night before he announces to my mom and I that it is "totally weird to stand in front of everyone, while they are looking at me and sing."  I guess he has a point...

All that to say that, yet again, he didn't sing.  In fact, he didn't even LOOK at us!

The good news in all of this is that I was spared from bawling my eyes out.  The final song, "Goodbye, So Long, Farewell" killed me everytime I heard him sing it, so I was dreading the actual performance.  However, we were so busy giggling about Luke that I didn't even cry!

Everyone else looks to be having a pretty good time

Miss Sharada tried to persuade him about halfway through, but to no avail

 After the performance, they placed graduation caps on those kids who are moving on to Kindergarten, and they walked across the bridge.

And received their certificate (diploma?) from their small group teacher.

Mia watching her big brother

 After all of the hoopla was over, it was quite evident how excited and proud Luke was of himself - he just is SO not into being the center of attention or having all eyes on him!

Yep, back to normal, making silly smiles for the camera!

High-fives to Day

Excited about his balloon

With his BFF, Christopher.  These two little guys are SUCH great friends.  I loved watching them when I came in to volunteer in Luke's room.  They really just enjoy one another's company - doing all of their "jobs" together, chatting away about anything and everything.  They will certainly miss one another next year.

The Graduate

Luke and Vidyut

Giving gifts to all of his small group teachers from throughout his years at Mandala.  Here is Luke with Miss Tabatha, who was his small group teacher for the 2nd half of last year.

Miss Nasreen, whose group Luke was in for the 1st half of last year



 Just when I thought I had escaped the tears for the day, Luke presented his small group teacher from this year, Miss Sharada, with her gift.  We have seen an enormous amount of growth and maturity in Luke throughout the course of this year.  He has really grown into a Kindergartener, and much of this is thanks to the support, encouragement, and teachings of Miss Sharada.  She was SUCH an incredible gift to Luke this year, and we are so incredibly grateful to her.  So, when she started to cry as she was congratulating Luke, I realized how mutual the feelings were.  She has loved and taken care of our little boy this year.  I know that they will miss each other so much.

Presenting Miss Sharada with a gift



I love this picture because you can just tell how much Luke loves her.

Luke and Miss Sharada

 The wonderful news for all of us is that Miss Sharada, although she won't be in Luke's classroom this summer, will be Mia's small group teacher as she begins early preschool in a few weeks.

Luke, Mia, and baby Kristy

 A few family photos after the ceremony

Then out for ice cream sundaes (Luke's choice of post-graduation celebration!)

Congratulations, sweet boy!  We couldn't be more proud of you and the person you are becoming.  You are SO ready for Kindergarten (something we were not so sure of at the start of this school year).  You finished preschool with flying colors!  You are incredibly smart, sensitive, kind, curious, articulate, and social - the world is at your fingertips.  We love you!

Potty training update

Okay, Mia has done incredibly well this week ... I am so proud of her.   Although I felt very uncertain, we ventured out on Tuesday in panties and she rose to the occasion.  In fact, we followed our normal routine for the week and Mia never once had an accident when we were out and about.  As to be expected, she's had a few here and there, but literally less than a handful since Monday.  She's still very uncertain and hesitant about #2 ... we've had markedly less bowel movements this week, so that's still "in progress."  She is napping in a pull-up (which is often dry when she wakes up), and sleeping in a diaper (which is always wet), but if she needs to go and she's awake, she's been calling us to come get her out of her crib.

I honestly cannot believe it.  SUCH a big girl!

Walking Girls

Mia deemed today a "No Nap Day," which doesn't often happen.

I thought for sure that if I popped her in the stroller and took a walk, she would fall asleep...I was wrong.

At any rate, we had a lovely walk with Brooklyn while Luke was at school and I quite enjoyed pushing only one child (Luke has become rather ginormous to ride in the stroller, making it difficult to steer).

Memorial Day Weekend 2012 ... and potty training

It was a "big" weekend ... yet, we didn't go anywhere. It was the weekend I have had set aside on our calendars for months now as the 3-day window to potty train Mia.  A friend had recently sent me a copy of The 3-Day Potty Training Method.  I knew I needed to try something different this time around (after the potty training that went on and on and on with Luke), and after reading her potty training "manual," I decided to give it a try.
So, we got started right after breakfast on Saturday.  I explained that the diapers were going away so that the other babies can use them, and that she needed to wear panties going forward.  Mia, not surprisingly, had several accidents on Saturday, but we just continued to follow the instructions (which, by the way, include wearing panties with a shirt and no pants - hence you can see that she had no pants on in any of the photographs from this weekend).

By evening on Saturday, we were happy to accept my parents' offer to have dinner at their house.  Although the plan suggests not going ANYwhere, I figured that going so close and still having easy access to the potty would be fine.  Interestingly, Mia seemed to really "get it" while we were there and had NO accidents that evening!  She even initiated going to the potty and was successful several times (and there were several ... okay, probably 10-12 ... times when we went to the potty but nothing came out!).

Coloring at Day & Paw's with her panties on

Sunday was not quite as lucky.  I don't think she went in the potty even once :(  ... and I have no photos from that day because, frankly, all you would see would be me in my dirty pajamas cleaning up accidents and running loads of laundry.

Monday we executed on a project in the yard that we've been talking about for quite a long time now:  planting a garden.  It's a small plot, but a great amount of space for us to start with.  Michael worked the previous days to clear the plot and frame the bed.  I figured it was a good idea to have Mia outside.

We planted tomatoes, peppers, summer squash, strawberries, various herbs, and still have a space designated for some arugula.  So excited to start growing some of our own fruits and vegetables.

On the potty-training front, Mia did very well on Monday.  We had a couple of accidents, but also many successes.  She is very proud of herself and seems to want very much to make it in time to the potty - so much so that she has many false alarms where we are all running to the bathroom only to have her tell us after sitting down for 2 seconds, "all done."  Oh well, better to be safe than sorry!





In other exciting news:  Trader Joe's peonies are in!  Which makes Mommy ridiculously happy!

Princess Luke

He'll kill me for these photos one day. 

In case you can't tell, those are Mia's dress up clothes.  She really has no interest in them (yet), as she is too busy pretending she's Buzz Lightyear, playing with Thomas the Train, or zooming Lightening McQueen and Mater around the floor (and occasionally taking her babies for walks in their stroller).  Luke, however, thinks that they are hilarious.



Where have we been?

This blog is so neglected lately.
As is my camera.

Which goes hand in hand.

UGH!

I feel like I've almost completely missed out on documenting the past month or two, but thankfully I do have photos from my iphone, which tell the story of where we've been and what we've been up to.

We've been in the yard enjoying the spring weather

 We've been to see Seasame Street Live:  Elmo Makes Music with our neighbor friends, David and Dylan

We've been celebrating Daddy's, Uncle Todd's, and Aunt Michelle's birthdays

 We've been creating masterpieces

We've been at the ballfield (Luke's up to bat - and has graduated from using the T to coach-pitch)

Luke's littlest fan

We've been waking up with SEVERE bed head

We've been on spontaneous mid-week bagel dates with Mommy (who is realizing that her almost-Kindergartener soon won't be so available on those weekday mornings)



We wish we've been sleeping this much!

We've been celebrating Day's birthday

 We've been practicing batting (and our game face)

 Did I mention that we've been at the ballfield ... a lot!?

Above:  Ready to advance bases.  Below:  getting instructions from the 3rd base coach

We've been hanging with Buzz and Wish Bear (oh...and we got new carpet - a 6 week project, but it's done and we're ALL relieved!)