Happy Halloween!

Despite the cold temperatures, we had a great time trick or treating tonight for Halloween.  Poor Will has been sick nonstop since starting preschool, and currently has a nasty cough.  Then Will has shared all of his preschool germs with his baby sister, so Laney also has been sick nonstop since Will started school.  Laney also has that nasty cough as well as a runny nose and a bad case of the grumps.  She cried all day and didn't want me to put her down.  Somehow the excitement of costumes and friends was able to cure her grumpies though and she rallied strong this evening, making for a fun time for all.
We hosted the Halloween party this year, and Eliana spent all morning putting up decorations.  We made several ghosts, spiders, and pumpkins, which William and Laney both loved.  Adele, Hannah, and Gianna came over plus our neighbors Violet and Xavier.  William was practically beside himself with joy.  He was dressed as Red Claw, the T-Rex from Land Before Time.  He was roaring and showing his teeth to everyone.  David said he ran up to every house, said "Trick-or-Treat" and thank you, and was going strong even to the end (quite different from last year). Eliana was dressed as a leopard witch.  She has been some type of cat for the last couple of years, so I was hoping that she would try out something new this year.  At first she said she wanted to be a witch.  Great, I thought, something different! But then she wanted to be a leopard - which, as she pointed out to me, is definitely not the same as a cat.  Finally she decided on a combination of the two and became a leopard witch.  Laney, lucky girl, got to wear Will's skunk costume from a couple of years ago.  She was quite adorable as a little skunk, even with her runny nose.  She sat with me to hand out candy for a bit and really enjoyed seeing everyone walking by, especially when they were walking with a dog.  We lasted about 30 minutes handing out candy but then had to go inside because it was too cold.  When Eliana brought home her candy bucket, Laney had a blast dumping the bucket out and then putting the candy back in, over and over again. With as cranky as she had been all day, I didn't think she would make it through the evening without a meltdown, but in the end, she had a wonderful time. All the kids in fact had a blast!

Little skunk, waiting for the party to start

I think she's adorable!

Most of the crew. Note Will roaring in this picture.

Family picture

Eliana and Violet

Red Claw!

What is this skunk doing? I caught you!

Skunk stealing my candy! Laney - 13 months

Does that costume look familiar?  Who wore it best?

Will - 4 months - 2014

I love all of my stinky kids!!

Carving Pumpkins

Only Eliana actually carved her pumpkin this year.  Will painted his (and Eliana painted Laney's) but I forgot to take a picture.  Eliana's turned out really nice.  It was her design but I helped with the actual knife work. Can you tell what it is?

William's first day of preschool

Will had a big change this year - he started school for the first time!  He is going to BEARS preschool two days a week in the Panda class (3 year old class).  This is what Eliana did a couple of years ago.  I was really nervous about how Will would do with school, as this is his first experience outside the house. (I even called the preschool director to talk about my concerns! You would think he was my first child by the way I was acting!)  Eliana was in daycare at 8 months old, but Will has always been at home with the nanny.  He seemed somewhat ambivalent about it too.  Some days he would be excited about picking out a new backpack for school and other days he would tell me that he was never going to school and wanted to stay home with me forever.  They had a meet and greet day at preschool the week before he started.  Kids could meet their teachers and play in the classroom for an hour while the parents stayed too.  Will was really excited about the dinosaurs and zoo animals and played happily the whole time.  However, when it was time to leave, Will got upset, threw himself down on the floor in a full blown tantrum, and had to be carried out of the room!  To top it off, he had an accident as we walked out of the school building.  So that sure didn't help with my nervousness about him starting school... I kinda had to laugh though as we were leaving because the whole situation was pretty ridiculous. 

The following Monday on the first day of school though, he did great!  At drop off, there were several kids crying in his classroom.  I was afraid that would get Will upset, but he just walked in very confidently and started playing with the dinosaurs again.  I stood around watching him for a minute or two, hoping a little that he would look up or need me.  But he didn't.  He's a big guy, older than I think sometimes.  His teachers, Mrs Mel and Mrs. Stanhope then asked if I needed something.  No, I said, I'm just simultaneously hoping that my son needs me and doesn't need me.  Just watching him for a few more seconds as he grows up before my eyes.

He continues to be a bit ambivalent about school.  Most preschool mornings he declares that he is not going to school that day.  But when it actually comes time to go to preschool, he happily grabs his backpack and will run into his classroom.  He has made a couple of friends, Parker and Asher, and seems to be having fun.  I'm really excited for my big guy.  I love hearing him tell me about the things he has done in school and the adventures he is having.  It's exciting for me to hear about the things he is doing outside the house and watch him change!

First day of Preschool

Eliana wanted to be part of the pictures too.

Laney didn't request to be in the pictures like Ana, but I thought she was pretty sweet that morning too.

Classic

Finding his leaf, which just so happens to be his favorite color: blue!

(P.S. There is another William in Will's class, so my son is Will B. and the other one is Will T. We have already gotten Will T's coat sent home in my son's backpack once.  Another time at pick up, probably the second week of school, the teacher sent Will T. out to me when I came to the door.  I said,"You're close, I am Will's mom, but not that Will!")

Eliana's first day of Kindergarten

A little bit of background on last month and this month: I have been very busy at work lately (I'll give you a hint why - I work with newborns and you know what happened about 9 months ago? The Holidays...). I have been staying late most days that I work, picking up extra shifts, and working all of my call shifts.  David has also moved off of his easier, lighter schedule of research block and now is in his busier clinic block.  Laney then decided that after mostly sleeping through the night for several months, now that she is a year old, she should start getting up at 3am every night thus making me very tired.  In case this wasn't enough to keep me busy, I crazily decided to make both Eliana's and William's Halloween costumes from scratch.  Like taking fabric and transforming it into a pair of pants - which up until about two weeks ago I had no idea had to do that.  So this overambitious project of mine has left this blog sadly outdated.  Now I will try to back track.  I feel like first day of school pictures have lost some of their appeal since it is ALMOST NOVEMBER! But please indulge me because I still think they are pretty cute.

Way back in August, Eliana started kindergarten at Windermere Elementary.  My big girl is growing up! She is in Mrs. Salmon's PM kindergarten class.  I requested the PM class because the afternoon is when Laney naps and Will sometimes naps, so it can be quite boring at our house around 1pm.  This way we could do fun stuff together in the morning and then while her siblings nap, Eliana could go do more fun stuff at school.  As an added bonus, we get to avoid the morning rush for another year.

Eliana rides the bus to and from school, which made me very nervous at first, but she absolutely loves it.  Originally, she was to be picked up from the end of our driveway to go to school (since it is only kindergartners on the bus at that time) but dropped off at the end of our block on the corner bus stop.  For the week before school started, we practiced walking home from the bus stop.  We would walk to the end of the street, and I would pretend to be the bus driver dropping Eliana off. Then we would all walk home together (Eliana leading the way) while I questioned her about different scenarios like what she would do if a dog came by or if a stranger approached her, or if our neighbor invited her over to play.  She knew just what to do - come straight home and not stop for anything.  Plus I could also see the bus stop from the end of my driveway and would be able to watch her the whole time she walked home.  The first day that she rode the bus home, Will and I met her at the bus stop (David was home that day with Laney), and we all walked home together.  The second day, I stood at the end of the driveway planning on watching her walk home from the bus stop.  Except when the bus stopped at the corner, no one got off. Eliana was actually the only kid at that bus stop, and I thought, "Oh no, either she forgot to get off because she didn't see me or the bus driver is not going to let her off without me at the corner." Sure enough, the bus continued down the street then stopped in front of my driveway and let her off.  Her bus driver said that since she was the only kid at the stop anyway, she would just change the stop location to my house.  Perfect! One less thing to worry about.  I was pretty excited about that.

So since starting kindergarten, Eliana says her favorite part of school is recess.  Her best friend is Maddie M.  And her favorite "special" is Library.  We've already had our first parent/teacher conference which went great.  I hope she always enjoys school this much!

First day of school!

Waiting for the school bus on the second day of school (kindergartners have to be dropped off on the first day).

There she goes...

The first time Eliana rode the bus home, Will rode his bike to the bus stop (thus the helmet) and we waited for Eliana to get dropped off.  When Will spotted the bus, he started clapping for joy at Eliana coming home.  So cute!  These two fight a lot when they are together, but boy does he miss her when she is gone.

She made it home!

For a while, Will wanted to be at the door every time the bus picked her up.  Once he was playing in his room and I said "The bus is here!" to Eliana, and Will came shooting out of his room to the front step.  He did not want to miss saying goodbye!!

Cute things my kids do

*In kindergarten, Eliana has been working on sounding out words to find how they are spelled. She loves to make signs and cards and often asks me to help her write out sentences. Earlier in the month, she was working on a birthday card for our neighbor and we were trying to spell "Happy Birthday to You."  Eliana was doing a good job with the beginning and ending sounds of most words.  Then we got to "you." She hasn't worked as much on vowels yet, so I said "You is kinda tricky, so I might need to spell that."  Eliana stood up straight, pointed to her chest, and very confidently replied, "Not for THIS kindergartner!"

*Have you ever heard of a king cake? I'm not sure why, but I must have told Eliana about them at some point.  Yesterday Eliana and I made pumpkin pie (her favorite).  She asked if she could put a chocolate chip in the pie, then declared that whoever got the piece with the chocolate chip could be king or queen for the day.  So we decided we were making Royalty Pumpkin Pie.  And I'm the one who got the chocolate chip!! Which makes me the queen.

*In gymnastics class that Will and Eliana take, the teacher asks a question at the beginning of class each week.  This week's question was, "What's your favorite day?" Some kids said one holiday or the other. Eliana said, "Easter!" Then on his turn, Will said, "Zoo Day!" I love this answer.  This is just like Will, my little animal lover.  What an awesome answer!