making it up as i go along
Friday was the carnival at Tabby’s School.
The event kicks off with the fun run, just a 1 mile jog through the ‘hood. The fun run kicks off the school’s mileage club, a club where they run laps on lunch recess two days a week and they earn charms for various achievements. The fun run earned them their first charm and the necklace to put them on. Continue reading “Carnival!”
Matt and I have a fabulous history of doing very little for our anniversaries. Gifts according to the fun materials schedule? Nope. Dinners out? Err … maybe once? But this was #10 so we were determined to do something! We had to reschedule … twice … but we did finally make it on our weekend. And it was wonderful!
We headed out for Vail after dropping the kids off on Friday AM. We had lunch (sushi!) and hit the grocery store for some provisions. Then we had a lovely nap, walked around the town and did a little shopping. Then we went back to the condo and made a simple dinner and chilled out with some Netflix.
The next morning we set out for our hike! It is so rare we get to do a “real” hike these days (we’re usually greatly limited by length and terrain) and we were really excited to get out and go. We picked Nolan Lake, a reasonable hike, 6 mi round trip and punctuated by a ghost town and a couple of waterfalls.
Goody gosh it’s been a crazy week. And it’s not quite over yet.
After two successful playdates and a very successful first two days, Ben had some setbacks today. He apparently cried for a good part of the day. Seems like the problems started when Matt dropped him off. He wanted to go back to his sitter’s house. It was like, “Yea, the preschool thing was fun, for a while, but now I’m ready to go back to my routine.” He just didn’t get that the game has changed and he’s not going back. He apparently started crying sometime after morning recess and then rallied a bit for lunch and then was nearly inconsolable heading into nap. They considered calling us for a while, then he finally went to sleep and slept 90+ minutes – long for him when he’s at home, let alone with other kids. After nap he was OK for a little while and then started up again. When I arrived he was quietly crying for Mommy and Daddy while he played with toys. Enough to break your heart. He was more than glad to see me and insisted on the way home that I stay with him at preschool.
After we got home, we waited on Matt to cook dinner – normally I’d just get on with things, but Matt had selected fajitas, his choice and his domain, but he was delayed by a call that ran late. This is normally Tabby’s climbing class night, but our rec centers are thankfully on shut down for the week (you know a parent orchestrated that!) so class is cancelled (along with B’s tumbling class tomorrow night). While we waited, the kids played on their plasma cars and then on the tablets. They were too exhausted to do much else. Finally we had dinner and not a second too late. The kids went right from the dinner table to the shower and to bed. Not a peep has been heard from them in quite a while.
Matt and I were supposed to leave for our anniversary trip tomorrow evening, but with how this week has turned out (house is still a mess, laundry isn’t remotely done), plus the obstacles presented by school pickup and drop off, we decided to leave after Friday drop-off instead. It just works better. This way my parents won’t have to do pickup Thursday and drop off Friday and it won’t make a huge difference to our weekend away and the kids will get an extra night in their beds. I think they’ll like that.
This morning after a quick breakfast and the ceremonial “finding of the shoes,” we set off to drop Miss Tabby off for her first day of kindergarten. It was a nice feeling with lots of folks walking along the same sidewalks and paths towards our neighborhood elementary school and when we saw the pileup of cars, we were extra grateful to be within walking distance.
Tabby went right into her classroom and hung up her backpack and before any time at all she was happily ensconced in a coloring project. She waved us off without a glance back. The day must have gone well from there on because she greeted us with smiles and tales of her day. Best of all, she can’t wait to go back tomorrow.
The evening was a little dicey. She was clearly exhausted from her long day but not very inclined to rest. I think we will insist on the rest tomorrow.
This morning, with nary a glance backward, my baby headed off to preschool. He stashed his nap mat in his cubby, hung his backpack up haphazardly and went to sit on the rug with a bunch of other little boys who were assembling a giant puzzle. He asked to join and was soon working with them to put it all together.
Matt and I filled out some paperwork and deposited his lunch in the proper bins in the kitchen and took a few photos. Finally as we were ready to leave, he showed a bit of hesitancy, giving us extra hugs and kisses. Then it was waves and smiles and he was back to the classroom with all of its interesting things.
When I picked him up, he was happily playing outside. From all accounts he’d had a good day. Activities participated in, nap taken (50 min), food eaten. He was glad to see me and Tabby and we got big big hugs and rave reviews of his day away. By the time we got home it was clear he was exhausted. EXHAUSTED. He was acting out big time, getting into loads of trouble and couldn’t handle anything. Within seconds of us putting him to bed (early) he was out.
When we signed up for the Firefly 5K a few months ago, I sort of forgot it was our anniversary. Not only that, our 10th anniversary. But it seemed like a fun thing to do with some friends and when the neurons finally fired and we connected the two, we weren’t upset. It sounded like a fun thing to do with a bunch of friends. We’re not really super INTO anniversaries (ignore that sentence when I post about our pending anniversary trip, hopefully next week) anyhow.
The Firefly 5K is basically just a 5K in the dark. They issue blinking reflective bands along with your standard issue race t’shirt and at the end you get a glow-in-the-dark bracelet (livestrong style).
Of course there were plenty of folks who blinged themselves out big-time. Costumes, LEDs, and lots and lots of glowsticks. They were our decor of choice as well.
Of course for us it was mainly an opportunity to run a fun race with some fun friends. It was a good group and we would have loved to have gone on to party a bit more with the group, but as we hadn’t eaten all day, we opted to head to Sam’s No. 3 to split a burger and by the time we were done and it was time to meet up with the group, Matt, who had worked until way too late every night last week, was done and we headed home. It was a perfect night and a wonderful 10th anniversary.
As predicted, the weekend was FAB. Steamboat is a beautiful town (in more ways than just the one above!). We went hiking, checked out the HOT springs, danced our butts off and tossed back a few. My girls worked hard at making my b’day a super special one and it was very rejuvenating to be with such an awesome group of women. We all see the world in a similar way, though some of us stay home and some of us work and we vary in age by up to 10 years (I’m the baby in case you’re wondering!). We had lots and lots of good conversation (including the 4hour+ drive home – car on fire=traffic).
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, my better half was fearlessly mustering the troops all on his own. They worked in Daddy’s shop. They went grocery shopping (and bought mostly yogurt from the looks of the fridge?) and on an outing to the aluminum supply store.
Tabby, it seems, got to sleep on her floor. I asked Tabby if they liked being home alone with Daddy. Tabby said, “Yes, it was fun. But I missed you lots.” My sentiments exactly, baby girl.
Then we got to celebrate birthdays with the extended family. We had a very lovely dinner – fried chicken! – and desserts. I received lovely gifts, including a family portrait from Tabby, kisses from Ben, some very nice software from Matt, and some cute clothing from my mom and sister. Not to mention the lovely birthday wishes from folks near and far. I am truly truly blessed!!
Last Tuesday was L-day … as in Launch Day. The kids had been looking forward to this for quite some time. It was the day we would set off the air rocket they built with daddy.
The concept of an air rocket is pretty simple. Rather than having some sort of slow burning onboard fuel, an air rocket is all the initial thrust. You use a cylinder to capture air at high pressure. The pressure comes from a standard bicycle pump. You then release the pressure suddenly, expelling the air straight up and into a rocket made with paper and reinforced with painter’s tape. NASA has a good description of some of the physics.
We have some huge changes coming up here pretty soon at Casa de Nichols. I am referring of course to the retirement of our long-term (5.5 yrs!!) sitter and the kids moving into official full-day schools. As a type-A control freak, I am not very big on change. But over the years I’ve both developed coping mechanisms for dealing with change, namely planning! I get to make lists and time tables and label things and suddenly even though I can’t control what else the change is going to do to us, I feel better because backpacks are labeled and the calendar is updated and I have a chart for making sack lunches.
So I am slowly but determinedly getting everything ready for the big shift. I have a countdown sort of going in my mind, not like 52 days, 51 days, 50 days … but practically every time I look at the calendar, I do a gut check of “Wow. Just a month until our sitter’s last day,” or “Wow, just 3 weeks until we do Kindergarten registration.” I’ve ordered Ben a nap mat – it arrived yesterday and let’s just say he hasn’t been this excited for naps in a loooong time – and some personalized stickers to label clothes and lunch containers. In all seriousness, I do have a file of links to lunch ideas. I’ve also been filling out mounds of paperwork and making sure all the things we need to do before school starts (immunizations, dentist appointments, shopping trips) are handled. And I am planning a small “thank you” dinner for our sitter.
Winston Churchill said, “There is nothing wrong with change as long as it is in the right direction.” I’m sure he was right. But I also like my change well orchestrated.
So … did ya miss me? I took an unexpected but pretty necessary blogging hiatus for a while there. And it was awesome. See we got a chance to extend our weekend away by a couple of days and we jumped at it. JUMPED. So we headed for the hills and we proceeded to do a lot of nothing. Continue reading “Did you miss me??”