Jayden's First Field Trip

Jayden had his first field trip to the Pumpkin Patch today!  He has been so excited about it.  Today he got up, got dressed without us even asking him to, put his shoes on, stuffed his backpack with all the essentials - his school folder, little pumpkiny (a small pumpkin Willow painted for him at church), and snakity-snake, and then told me it was time to go.  He only had about 5 hours until he actually needed to be at school.

The plan was that Royal would come home from work for a few hours and stay with Willow so I could go with Jayden on his field trip.  Unfortunately, I have been sick this week and I was still feel a little under the weather today, so I traded with Royal and opted to stay home with Willow, so I could lay down and rest during her naptime.  But I did convince Royal to take the camera and take some pictures!









Sadly, right after the hayride out to the pumpkin patch, Jayden started throwing up.  So, he had to go home early.  Poor guy.  He kept telling Royal that he was fine now and that he could stay, but Royal brought him home.

And he's been here, on the couch, watching movies ever since.

Jayden @ School :: 2

2 weeks ago, it was Dad's day at Jayden's school.  I couldn't convince Royal to take the camera and take some pictures, especially since our smaller camera has bit the dust.  Thankfully Mrs. Burcham took one and posted it on her website.  Jayden loved Dad's day (who wouldn't???).  Both Royal and Jayden got to take a lunch to school and have a picnic and then Jayden showed Royal all around the school.


Then last Friday was Homecoming, and the whole school gets to participate.  In Jayden's class, each kid is paired up with a middle school student to each lunch with and go around the carnival with.  Jayden was not as excited about eating lunch at school this time.  He does not like his routine getting messed up and he especially doesn't like being put in the care of some "strange kids".  I didn't get much out of him about the day except that he said he didn't have fun.  However, he managed to win something at a ring toss game and much to my surprise, brought this home.



A 2 liter bottle of Diet Orange Crush.  Bad enough to bring all that soda home, but diet???  Eeeek!  For all of those that might be worried, I am letting Jayden drink it.  He won it after all!!!   It's just slowly being rationed out and the days he forgets it's in the refrigerator, I don't remind him.  :)

Then this week in Jayden's class they are working on the letter Pp.  Tuesday was Pirate day.  When I came to pick Jayden up, he looked like this.  I hardly recognized him!  Aarg! (and yes, he is wearing his dinosaur cape, he says it makes him faster when he runs during play break!)

Parade Time

While I might be missing Oysterfest back in Washington, this weekend here is Greater Andover Days.  So, we met up with our small group this morning and headed over to the parade.  Sadly, Jayden's best buddy Lainie and her family couldn't make it to the parade, and he was quite upset about it.  It was a chilly morning and we got out of the car and got him bundled up, but he was upset that Lainie wasn't going to be there and kept saying, "I'm too cold, I just want to go home.  I'm freezing.  It's too cold.  Let's go"  So, I wrapped him up in a fleece blanket and he flung it off and said, "I'm too cold.  It's just too cold out here."  Then all the sudden, 2 people on 2 horses come riding through the parking lot, right by our car where we were grabbing our blankets and chairs.

Jayden : What are those doing here?

Me : Those horses are in the parade.

Jayden :  They are?  Are they the only ones?

Me : No. I bet there are a bunch of horses that are going to be in the parade.

Jayden : I'm warm enough.

And then he runs off to stand by the side of the road.....

While the horses were a hit, it's was all the candy getting thrown at the kids that they were most excited about.  My kids were jumping up and down and yelling, "Candy!  Caaaanndy!!!!  Yes!!!  Caaaaaandy!!!!!"  And now I have a bag full of candy to hide somewhere.  We have so much I might not have to buy any candy to hand out on Halloween!  :)






Jayden loved the marching bands.  He couldn't help but start dancing around.  It. was. awesome.

Chinese Torture

I'm not sure if it's politically correct to call it Chinese torture or not, but that's what it was always called when it was done to me and that's what I called it when I started doing it to Jayden.  It's nice to see Jayden is passing on the tradition of torturing his sibling....all I can say is Willow is going to be one tough girl.

What Willow Wears :: 4

This is the sleeping edition of What Willow Wears, and it's not really her pj's that are out of the ordinary, but why she loves them so much.  Is it the hearts? All the colors?  The zipper?


 

No, Willow loves these pajamas because, in Willow's words, they "have shoooooooesss!"

Willow Water-dog

Before I get to some pictures of Willow in action in the pool, I have to first put in writing something I don't want to forget.  I was getting Willow out of the car in the parking lot of Jayden's school, when she starts saying 'Oh no!  Oh no!'.  I'm like 'what?  you have both your shoes?  whats wrong?'  And she says, 'Oh no!  Balls!  Oh no! Balls!  Balls!'  I start looking around for some balls rolling down the parking lot or something.  So I turn back to see what she's looking at, and she's staring right at the window in the car door and pointing saying, 'Oh no!  Balls!  Balls!'  I turn back to her and say, 'Oh baby, those aren't balls, those are rain drops.'  It was sprinkling outside and when I finally got her out of the car, she starts looking up in to the sky with an expression of, 'What in the world keeps pinging me on the head???'   Because in true NW fashion, I don't own an umbrella. :)  I guess I just never realized that some people get to have a first experience with rain.  Growing up in the PNW, I just take for granted that everyone knows what raindrops look and feel like!  :)

Now onto the pool!  During the summer, we put Willow in the parent-tot class at the swim club.  There are 5 sessions during the summer and we signed our kids up for 2 of them.  By the end of our 2nd session, Willow's teacher, Wanda told Royal that she wanted to move Willow up to Level 1.  Um, I'm sorry, but the kids are by themselves with a teacher in Level 1 and usually start that around 2 to 2 1/2 years old.  Willow at the time was 19 months old.  So, even though Wanda kept telling us to move Willow up, we signed both the kids up for the last session of summer swimming and we put Willow in the parent-tot class.  I just didn't think Willow was socially ready to be in Level 1.  You have to be able to follow directions and sit on the side of the pool.  If you put Willow on the side of the pool, she'll stand up and jump in whether there is anybody there to catch her or not!  So, all during that last session, Wanda would follow Willow and Royal out of the pool and say to me, 'You really need to move her up!  I can't teach her anything more in this class!  She's ready!'  So, when it was time to sign up for the fall swimming sessions, I put Willow (only 21 months old) in Level 1, and it just so happens that the fall session we signed up for put Willow in Wanda's Level 1 class.  It made me feel better that the person teaching Willow already knew her tendency to jump in the water without warning.  During Willow's first class, I only saw Willow jump in 3 times when she wasn't suppose to, and I was avoiding the windows in case her seeing me created a problem for her.  Willow cried when I handed her off to Wanda the first time, but now, as soon as she sees our swim bag she starts yelling, 'Sim!  Sim wi Danda!!!' (translated : Swim! Swim with Wanda!).  She has done so good!

Jayden started off the session good, but decided he was tired of swimming and didn't want to do it anymore.  So, against everything that was in me that was telling me to fight and argue with him on this, I just let it go.  Jayden decided he needed a break, so I'll give him a break.  He still has to come to the pool with me because Willow is swimming, so if he changes his mind, we should be able to get him back in no problem.  Plus with Willow in swimming lessons, it has given Jayden and I some alone time.  We've colored together and sung songs together and we were suppose to play Go Fish today, but I forgot the cards, so Jayden took a bunch of pictures of people around the pool with my camera instead.  But that is why I don't have any pictures of Jayden swimming.....

Here's Willow right before she's going in to swim.  She's so excited I can hardly get her to hold still for a picture for me.



Here's Willow waiting her turn on the side of the pool.  She's gotten much better at doing that!





Willow launching herself in....she was suppose to.  :)









Willow practicing her back float...

Jayden's Scooter

Well, Jayden did it!  He earned enough stickers on his behavior chart to finally get the scooter he has been wanting.





Good job kiddo!