An Answer

Tonight we had Caleb's preschool parent-teacher conference. I have been looking forward to this for a while in hopes that his teacher would be able to shed light on the kindergarten issue. And my hopes were not in vain! Caleb has a September birthday and we didn't know if we should send him to kindergarten in the fall or wait another year. Almost everyone we talked to said, just hold him back. But, he is already huge for his age and academically on track. Anyways, his teacher said she would recommend sending him to kindergarten. I was so thankful to hear her confidence in his readiness!

So now we have to decide where to send him for kindergarten and whether to do full or half day kindergarten. So what are the pros and cons of full vs half day kindergarten?

The Big 3-0

As you know, I turned 30 this past Saturday! I had a wonderful birthday, thanks to this handsome man. Nate planned a great party for me. He reserved a room at the local bowling alley and about 45 people attended. About half of that number were children under the age of 4! It was like a romper room with kids running/crawling all over the place.:) It was great and the kids (and adults) had a blast. Nate planned some group games. For example, people got up and told two truths and one lie about me and people had to guess which one was the lie. Nothing too embarassing was brought to light.:) We then had an Italian buffet dinner and of course an awesome cake! I love cake. Nate also asked everyone to bring 30 of something as a gift. I got a ton of Jelly Belly's (they're my favorite candy) and chocolates. I'm tempted to weigh the bag of Jelly Belly's. That way if I gain 20 lbs in the next couple of months I'll know where it came from! I also received some funny and thoughtful gifts. One of my friends was kind enough to remind me that I'm only 20 years away from joining the AARP, fabulous!;) When I get some pictures of the party I'll post them. Thank you to all of you for being a part of my life!

Too cute

This morning I was feeling down about my current role in life. I was struggling with how my life seems so repetitive and unfulfilling at times. Of course, God has a way of breaking thru my pity party. See the previous pictures for the reminders I received. Isaac and Cardale will play off each other- which can be good or bad. Today at lunch they were laughing at each other and putting the washcloths on their heads. As soon as they saw Caleb and I laughing they were quite proud of themselves.

Then tonight Caleb was in one of his non-stop talkative moods. He informed me that if I got stuck on a rhino's back he would jump on the rhino and rescue me because he was brave of rhinos. I'll keep that in mind the next time I get stuck on a rhino. Caleb is also convinced that we are going to get a baby girl and he is telling everyone. We've been talking about the adoption and we keep telling him that we don't know who God will give us, it could be a boy or girl. Caleb will hear none of it. He keeps saying he needs a baby sister and doesn't want another brother. We'll see what happens with all of that.:)

Motherhood reality

Now that the kids are in bed I can think back over the day. I've started asking Caleb each night what the best part of his day was and what the hardest part was. It's interesting the things I learn about him. For example, the other day his best part was playing with his friend Caedmon at school (they are inseparable) and the worst part was having to go to the bathroom at school. He does not like going to the bathroom in other places so this was a good lesson for him to use the bathroom at home before school.:) His worst part the other day was writing thank you notes for Christmas. And I thought, "Seriously? All you had to do was scribble a picture while I had to write the notes and wrack my brain trying to remember what each person gave each of the kids!" :) Anyway, I digress.

The best part of my day today was hearing Caleb pray out loud for the first time. When we pray with him we always ask if he wants to pray. Occasionally he'll say yes, but then he gets really nervous and doesn't want to do it. I think the whole talking to someone who isn't visible while we all listen in silence was hard for him. So today he prayed out loud twice. It was so great, it melted my heart to hear him say, "Dear Jesus, please be with Daddy at work and help us all to sleep good tonight." Great Mom moment.

The hardest or should I say most frustrating part of my day ocurred this evening. Nate is working 3pm-11pm this week so suppertime is on my own. I have Zumba class every Thursday evening at 6:15 so I bring the kids with me when Nate's working and they go in childcare. Every time I have to bring them we are late. I was determined to be on time if not EARLY tonight. So I had supper ready by 5 pm. Supper went smoothly and we're done eating by 5:30. Plenty of time to change clothes, get diaper bag ready, check diapers a couple times, spend 10 minutes getting winter gear on everyone and even load dishes in the dishwasher. I remind Caleb that he has to go to the bathroom before we leave. He can be the SLOWEST person in the bathroom sometimes! Anyways, the babies are ready to go when Caleb starts throwing a fit in the bathroom. He comes out yelling that his sock is wet and he needs to change it. I feel the sock and yes, it's pretty wet. I frustratedly ask him why the sock is wet and was he playing with water? He laments that he stepped in potty and that's why the sock is wet. And I ask the brilliant question why did you step in potty to which he says, "Because I missed and there's some on the floor!" Great, not what I wanted to hear as we're heading out the door. So the pee stayed on the floor and on we went. Of course, I was late to class again. Oh well, maybe next time.

Catch Up

Hello countertop! This area is now bottle free.:)

Caleb test driving Cardale's new trike. Such a good big brother.:)

We acquired 3 xylophones over Christmas. The boys are starting a xylophone trio.

Well, the Christmas break is ending. Caleb has missed school and is excited to go back on Monday. The boys enjoyed seeing so many family members over the past two weeks, and we didn't even have to travel much! Our family room is now covered in new brightly colored plastic toys.:) We have double of many toys as Cardale will be taking his with him when he leaves our home. The kids got over their sicknesses and we were all healthy over the holidays.

You may wonder why I took a picture of my countertop. I had a moment where I could visibly witness a parenting milestone and decided to document it. Cardale is now off the bottle! No more making bottles, washing bottles, traveling with bottles- can you tell I'm excited?! I now have a little square of counter that is no longer continually covered with bottle paraphenalia.

In other news, almost everyone knows now that we are adopting! We are adopting a baby from South Korea. We do not know the gender, but the baby will be between 9-12 months of age. We hope to be matched next fall and hopefully will travel to South Korea in December to pick up our child! We are very excited, but it still seems a little unreal since it's a ways off. We started this process with Bethany in the spring. There was a lot of paperwork and social worker visits this summer, but now we're just waiting. If you have any questions, feel free to ask- we love talking about our adoption journey!