PreSchool

Who is supposed to be more prepared for preschool, Joshua or me?  If it's me, I'm not sure I'm there.

Regardless, we are officially in the phase of researching preschools.  I might be a little late to be starting, but I will blame that on my denial.  While I have had the intention of starting Josh around the time he turns three, I have been putting off actually pursuing it.  At first I blamed it on the coming of the second wee one, but now I think it was just because I didn't really want to be in this phase yet.

So I've been looking around and asking people for referrals.  I've discovered that there is a specific order of steps for me to decide.  1) Does the school offer the schedule I want?  2) Is the price acceptable? 3) Check out the school to see if I like it.  4) Will it work for the grandparents?

I met with the first school today.  I knew going in that they won't have any opening for another year, but I still wanted to check them out.  And I am know officially on their waiting list should things change.  Other schools I have spoken with didn't mention anything about space issues, so hopefully this is a solitary problem.  I'm aiming to find a good Christian preschool.

This past week as I have been compiling my list I've been excited.  But then today after being at the school, the reality of him being in that environment hit a little bit.  It will be weird.  My plan is for two half-days a week on the same days I go to work.  This will more than likely mean that the grandparents will need to take him and pick him up.  That makes me a little sad that I won't be the one interacting with the teacher on a regular basis. The following year my plan would be to switch to three days on the days I am not in the office.  But we will see how things go.

Somebody hold my hand...

Josh's Numbers

This is how Josh counts:

one
two
flee
four
five
six
eleven (then I correct with seven)
seven
eight
nine
ten
eleven
etwelve
ethirteen
efourteen
efiveteen
esixteen

Emily: 5 Months

Look who's five months old already!!!

It's hard to believe she's five months, but at the same time, it seemed to take a really long time to go from four months to five months.  I'm not really sure why; maybe because that month was just ridiculously busy.

I have decided that she is a "happy baby".  This probably sounds strange, but that is her general demeanor.  Not that Josh wasn't a happy baby, but I would say his general demeanor was (and still is to a degree) serious.  But Emily loves to smile, easy to laugh, loves being around people and getting attention.  And not much upsets her.

So here are some of Emily's accomplishments so far:

Rolling Over - she seems to be pretty good at rolling over.  I don't have a lot of first hand experience with this simply because most of the time she rolls over, no one is around.  She does it mostly during nap time and it tends to make her mad!  So there are naps where I have to go in multiple times to flip her back.  But I have actually only witnessed her roll over while not in her crib once.  Thankfully she doesn't seem to do this rolling act during the night time, so we still have peaceful nights.  (And, yes, we are happy to report that she has been sleeping through the night for several months now.  Yay Babywise!)

Standing - We started putting Emily in her saucer about 3 weeks ago and it's amazing how quickly her legs have gotten stronger.  She can support her weight on her feet for good stretches before collapsing.  In this video you can see a glimpse of her wildness in the saucer.  She is definitely a more physically active child just as I suspected from her movement in my tummy.  I have high hopes for molding her into my new thrill-ride buddy.

Sitting Up - She is also getting stronger at sitting.  She can stay upright on her own for a couple seconds.  She went on her first stroller ride out of the car seat a couple weeks ago.  She loved it!  I'm sure part of her joy was all the attention she got from people we passed.

Emily continues to be a joy and Josh is still in love with her as ever.  We are so blessed!

Emily's Baptism

On Sunday, June 24th we had Emily baptized.  Jim and I were both baptized as babies and we are doing the same with our children.

My mom had made a very special baptism dress for Emily which she had given to me at my baby shower.

My sister, Susan, flew in and Jim's Aunt Patti drove in for this special day.  It meant a lot to have them both here.  During the actual baptism our family joined us up on the stage.

Pastor Doug presents Emily to the congregation.

The funniest thing was Josh's reactions to everything.  During the sprinkling of the water, he watched very intently.  Then when Pastor Doug walked down the steps with Emily, Joshua got very protective and concerned with where she was going.  You can see I am now holding him in the picture above because he was getting pretty upset.

Our congregation surrounds us in prayer.  Here, too, Josh was in the moment and laid his hand on my shoulder (Jim was holding him) and bowed his head during the prayer.  Of course he kept looking up to make sure he should still be doing it.

After the service we had everyone come back to our house for a little lunch.

Emily with her Aunt Melanie

The boys having a great time together

Aunt Su-Su

Aunt Patti-Patti

BabyPalooza

Last Spring / Summer...uhm...apparently love was in the air.  Big time!

How do I know? Well, by the baby boom that has been going on around me.  I know a lot of people that have been having babies, and I know people who know people who are having babies.  Of the people I know personally, I was the first to kick things off in February.  Since then, I would bet I could easily list at least 10-15 people who have given birth since then and several more who are still expecting.

One of my circle of friends is women who all met at work.  Not everyone still works there, but we still get together for lunch as often as we can.  Of the seven of us, five - yes, five! - added children to our families between February and May.  Sounded like something that needed a celebration to me.

So last Saturday we got together at my house with the new babies and adjacent kids.  There were seven adults, six kids between the ages of 2 and 5, and five babies 5 months and younger.  And there were four kids missing of the moms who were here.

 

Natalie, Gina (Emily), Stacy
There was oogling galore! 

I was hoping it could just be some relaxing time to all be together.  So I ordered food in and we just hung out.  It was so nice.

Michelle and Liz

There were car seats every where! 

Emily and Ethan were just hanging out with each other.

The Gaggle:

The Babies:

Emily (4.5m), Brynn (3.5m), Sofia (3m), Ethan (2.5m), Kayla (1m)

The kids played along very well too.  There were no injuries, fighting or even crying.  It was a good day.

And there were also a lot of dirty feet...

I feel so blessed to be surrounded by such wonderful women to share mommyhood with.  They are all life savers!!