He has been deemed Jersey

We finally found a name.. after going through Burly, Guffy, Skeet, Kelsey, Kelton - I thought that was funny. Kelton is supposed to mean veal payment. Hee hee. Anyway, just a bunch of names I got off of a pet internet site. I did this with Zach and Asia, too. I wrote down a bunch of names and John and I would mull over them, add some more, put little x's next to some we didn't like but not necessarily crossing them out since we might like them a week later. Finally narrowing down to one or two that we would say over and over til it sounded right. So now, we finally weaned it down to... Jersey. After New Jersey. Zach wants to make it sure you know it's not after the name of T-shirts.
So we gave Jersey his first bath (from us) today. He needed a bath because this morning he woke up with some dried poop on his bottom. I think he tried to hold it when he was in his crate. Anyway, I gave him a bath in the sink. He was so good about it! No whimpering. He did stand up on all two's when I took out the plug to let the old water out. It makes a loud sound when all the water suddenly goes down. But the second time it did that, he was fine.
Now he's all clean. And I didn't get too wet. Very nice. The shampoo is coconut-scented too. We'll see how long that lasts.

New Addition

Well, we did it. We finally got a dog. Yes, a dog. I always thought of myself as a cat person. When Zach was born, we had Dizzy. He was a good cat. But when Asia was born, I had Susan take Dizzy back to Columbus because I felt he was getting ignored. He was probably happy going in and out of the house and doing whatever he wanted, but I didn't think it was too healthy for him. Well turns out that Zach and Asia are allergic to cats anyway. So no cats for us.

John had been hinting about getting a dog for quite some time. So I finally decided to research dogs. If we're going to get a dog, I want a good breed that I can rely on. One that is good with little kids, small, not yippy. The last thing I want is a dog that is constantly barking whenever someone goes by or the neighbor's dog is out, etc. Not when I work at home and am on the phone a lot. So I narrowed the dog search down to two breeds - Havanese and Coton de Tulear. I had John check them out to make sure he was okay with these two breeds. What he wanted at first was the typical dog - Labrador Retriever. They're beautiful puppies, but they're only like that for a few months. Then they're a mass of muscle and energy. Sure, if we were an energetic young couple or with older kids who could help out, that kind of dog would be great. But I knew I wouldn't have energy for such a big dog. So eventually John was fine with the two breeds I picked out.

The next step was further research on the breeds to see the pitfalls. Then find breeders nearby. For the Cotons, they were all about 5 hours away in all directions. They're a rarer breed. I emailed one to find out the cost. The breeder emailed me back that the show-potential puppies went for $3000 and the non-show for $2000!!!! So I went for the Havanese. I found two breeders who were in West Virginia - an hour away. One was actually out of town so I never made contact with her. The other breeder was actually babysitting the first breeders dogs - they were friends! That seemed weird since I'd think they'd be competing, but the breeder (Laura) said that they don't compete. The dogs are just available at different times. Anyway, Laura and I emailed for quite some time and then set a date for my family to come up and see the two dogs she had left to show.

When the kids saw the two dogs, they were a little apprehensive at first. John got attached to the male pup right away, then Zach. Asia hid behind me at first. Mostly because she was afraid of the girl pup who kept barking. The girl pup was more excited and liked to bark to talk to you. Zach and Asia kept putting their hands over their ears. Laura, the handler/breeder, started to hold the girl pup after that to keep her quiet. Then Asia and Zach were all over the boy pup. Asia kept saying she loved him. They would throw a ball and he would go running after it. They were both like, "Mom, I just love this dog! I love him!" So I was sold. We brought the little guy home. He was so good in the pet carrier! And then coming into the house, he was really good. And he's sleeping in his crate right now. We'll see how tomorrow goes. And we have to figure out a name for him. The kids were calling him Fluffy at the kennel. John's not for that name. So we tried a couple of other suggestions - Max, Sidney, Crosby (yes Penguin players), Fleurry, Custard, Sam, Sammy. Still haven't agreed on anything yet.

Asia's First Day of Soccer

Last Saturday was Asia's first day of soccer. She, Zach, and Ethan are all in the same team plus some girls from Zach and Ethan's Kindergarten class - Summer, Addison and Jessica. But at the beginning of practice, all the teams that are 6 yrs and under are together learning drills. So Zach and Asia's friend Emme is also in the same soccer league. Asia was all excited about being in soccer. She got to pick out her own soccer ball - a pink one, of course. But when the actual practice happened, she got all intimidated. That's natural of course. She's never been in any organized sports. I don't think she was expecting so many kids around her. At first, it seemed like maybe Asia would participate.

She looks like she's listening right? But then as the coaches were telling the kids what to do, she spent most of the time like this:

Her hands in her pocket, just standing next to her ball and guarding it. She'd look around and see what others were doing. The coaches were pretty good about it. They'd try to help her out or explain things to her. I could tell that she liked the coaches though because she would talk to them.

It was tough for me not to run out there and hold her hand and show her how much fun the other kids were having. All the other parents were talking to each other or enjoying watching their kids play. My daughter was the only one out there standing there. I had to practically tie myself to my chair. John said that in the past years, they'd even have kids out there crying. I guess that made me feel better.

I kept telling Zach to go over to Asia and help her out since this was his 3rd season in soccer. He would but she wouldn't respond too much. She spent quite some time in this position too:

Finger in her mouth. But again, she is listening. And she's not crying. And she's not sitting in the sidelines next to me or wanting me to hold her hand. She's out there, observing, getting comfortable. The coaches were pretty good too. They had some neat games to help the kids practice dribbling and stopping the ball. In one, they were dogs and some of the kids were dogcatchers. The dog catchers had tshirts that they would use to tag someone (a dog). Then the coach made Asia the ultimate dog catcher. She ran around with another coach and if they caught you, they got to take your ball. That really warmed her up. I thought at first that she'd freak out when the coach pointed her out and everyone was looking at her as the special dog catcher. But the coach was wise. Asia wanted the attention.

The last few minutes, two teams would actually play against each other. That's what Asia was waiting for. She had a blast. And Zach scored quite a few goals. As did Ethan's classmate, Jessica. This last picture is the end of the soccer practice. The kids love snack time. Usually, they get a ticket that they take to the snack stand for a drink and chips.

interesting year

It's been an interesting year for my family. My grandfather (Dad's dad) died in February. My dad's aunt died shortly after that. Today was the memorial service for my Uncle Noel (my mom's brother). My Uncle Noel found out he had cancer in December/January. Most of his liver was removed in January but he never got strong enough to start chemotherapy. The cancer spread and other infections. He passed away last Wednesday. The memorial service was very sweet.
I was a little worried about the kids going to the funeral/viewing/memorial service and just approaching the subject of death. A few days ago, for example, Asia told me she didn't want me to die... ever. I tried to explain to her that everyone dies. She said she would be very sad if I died. She said she'd rather die. But then I told her that would make me very sad. So we agreed that we both wanted to live forever.
Asia also asked me another difficult question this week. She asked me if God was bigger than Jesus. Tough question eh? I tried to explain a little about Jesus coming to the earth as God's Son and then returning back to be with God when He died. And then tried to say that they were now the same and then quickly changed the subject. I wasn't ready to try and explain this subject to a four year old.

Zach and Asia Go Shopping

Today, Zach and Asia had their first real shopping lesson. Or maybe it would be the second. I think the first was actually two summers ago when I gave Zach and Asia some coins to spend at a garage sale. Asia got two Barbie dolls and a magic wand. I believe Zach lost his money rummaging through stuff. John got him some books though. So Zach failed that first lesson. This time, they had to finish lunch and then help clean up the living room. It was quite a job. They both took quite a few trips up to their rooms to put toys away. Then they both had a blast operating the vacuum cleaner. First Zach did some vacuuming while Asia held the cord. I told her it was her job to not let Zach vacuum over the cord or trip on it. Zach's vacuuming strategy was to go around in circles. That left lots of dust left for Asia to vacuum up. It was pretty funny watching her try to push the vacuum. I don't think she knew how heavy it was. Her eyes got all big the first time she tried to push it by herself. Once she got the hang of it, I tried to show her the right way to vacuum - up and down along the rug. I figured she may as well learn how to operate a vacuum cleaner correctly more than Zach since it seems that it's something moms and wives and sisters do more than their male counterparts. Why is that? Giving you a Y chromosome means you don't have to vacuum or do the dishes? I rant...
So the kids did a great job on cleaning and as a reward, they got to spend some of their birthday money. Isn't that a great idea? They get to spend their own money. Anyway, they both have these piggy banks that they got when we moved here. Asia's actually gone through two piggy banks. Her first was a glass one. Then I moved her and Zach's money to these plastic ones I got from PNC bank. Well, it was the plastic one that broke. So now her money is back in the glass one. The glass one that has no way to open it. So I think John used a knife to pry some money out if it today.
You'd think that I would have started small - like let's all spend five dollars each! But what can you get with that? I guess if we went to the dollar store... I didn't think about that. I was thinking more that all you can buy with five dollars is candy. So Zach and I agreed to spend 20 dollars or less at Toys R Us. I figured they'd definitely find something they lucked for under twenty dollars. And boy, was I right. First Asia picked out this megablocks Disney princess set that was for 1 year old and up. It was 19.99. Then as we went through the store, Zach kept picking things that were too expensive. Even one Lego set that was 20.99. I explained, he only had 20 dollars and how to look at the price tags. Then Asia decided she wanted a fairy dancing princess Barbie (after going through some other things that were over budget). The Barbie was 9.99. So she had 10 dollars left to spend. Both kids took a detour in the bike department trying out new bikes. Zach almost spent his 20 dollars on a bike helmet. I asked him if he really wanted to buy a bike helmet instead of a toy. He agreed he really wanted a toy. He already had a bike helmet at home.
I pointed Zach towards the cars and trucks aisle and told him to find something there. Then Asia found a princess Dora for 6 dollars and then a Barbie princess ball for four dollars. She was set. Zach found two race car sets, each 9.99. Then he saw a power ranger sword and decided he wanted that instead of one of the racing sets. So then we went to pay for the toys. When the receipt was printed, I balked at the price. Seemed a little high with the tax and all. Then I realized that one of Zach's racing sets was actually 19.99. So we returned it and went shopping again. Zach decided he didn't want a race set. It took some time, but Zach finally decided he wanted 3 toys like Asia, so he had to get something under ten dollars so he'd have some left over for something else. He ended up getting a tow truck that was on sale and then a Marvel heroes ball. All in all, the kids did good with their purchases. Thanks to the people who gave the kids money. :)

Like Father Like Son

The picture says it all.

January 2007

Bejeweled

Zach and I share a new pasttime. It's an internet game called Bejeweled.. Actually Bejeweled 2. And Zach calls it Bejewels. I know, the last thing a mom wants is a six year old getting hooked on video games. That will come soon enough. But I can justify it... ummm... he's learning to match up his patterns! You have to get at least 3 gems in a row to get points and have more jewels cascade down. And I could say that it's fostering our relationship. Whatever. The fun thing is that we'll play it together. It's not a game that two people can play at once, but we'll sit side by side, one watching the other play. Sometimes, the player will get in a hard spot, and the one watching will help out with hints or point to some gems that could be moved to be three in a row. One day, I had both Asia and Zach trying to help me. Asia would say, move the green one and the white one. There's lots of green and white ones, Asia, which ones in particular? Or they'd both be pointing to the screen so that I couldn't even see what I was playing. But again, I was treasuring sharing something with my two kids. I figure each moment counts because when they're teenagers, they probably won't want to share anything with their outdated mom.

Another thing we share is loving to go to the mall. Of course, I'd love to actually go to the mall to shop for stuff for me, but the kids usually can't stand waiting for me to try on clothes or something. I took Zach once to buy a coat for him and some other things, and when we were going through the women's section, he kept asking, "Mom, why do we keep stopping?" He didn't get why I stopped at practically every aisle. He tried to be patient, but he was the one pushing the shopping cart and wasn't appreciating not getting too far. Anyway, today we went to the mall. The goal was to get a birthday present for Zach's friend, Steven. The other goal was just to kill some time without exhausting myself.

A few days ago, Zach had the stomach flu - hit him around 11 PM. So that night was sleepless for John and myself. Luckily it was something like a 6 hour flu. Zach was fine in the morning. Asia slept through the whole thing. I'm not sure I'd be able to sleep to the sounds of the person in the bunkbed above me, puking away every 1/2 hour.

The mall here has a great little play area for young kids. It has all these rubber slides. Rubber! So they're really slippery yet if you fall, you won't get hurt. So all these little kids are running around them. Asia and Zach love playing chase, catching each other and pulling each other down the slide. I try not to watch in case they accidentally roll over some little one year old or younger who's crawling around the play area. We also always do two things when we're at the mall. Stop at the food court for ice cream or frozen yogurt and stop by the toy store - in this case, Kaybee toy store which supposedly is moving out of the mall. So today everything was 20% off. And after visiting the Disney store and coming out of there without purchasing anything, I thought KB toys was very cheap. So Zach and I haggled over a few things til we both agreed on some toys for Steven. Then I told Zach to choose one thing under 5 dollars. A nice young worker there pointed out that everything was on sale, so he could get something nice. So Zach learned how to read price tags as well as picked out a nice sword and shield. Asia picked out a fairy doll that was actually over five dollars originally, but I think with the sale, it neared five dollars. There was no use reasoning with her, I took what I could get. She was eyeing all these other dolls that were 20 dollars and up. So when she found one that was something like seven dollars, I took it. She really liked this Dora toy that you push the buttons and she reads them off, but she already has something similar at home. Luckily she didn't put up much of a fuss when I said we weren't going to get it. I had let her play with it at the store for at least 20 minutes while Zach was trying to figure out what he wanted to get. Again, I am so lucky that Zach is so reasonable. Both my kids could have laid on the ground and cried and made a fuss. I worry that I spoil them because I can afford the things they want. I feel like they have way more toys than I ever had. But then I wonder if that's true. I had my Barbie dolls. I might not have had the Barbie Corvette or Barbie's horse, but I did have my dolls - at least 2 or 3 of them. I remember my brother had a Nintendo system that he then upgraded to a Sega system. So again, it's not like we didn't have toys. I don't know how my parents did it. I never felt poor, but looking back, I don't think we were ever financially strong. I guess John and I both have our parents to thank as to why we raise our children to be the same - to not be spoiled, selfish, thankless and instead to be grateful for what we have or what we get. At least we try.

CandyLand

One of Asia's favorite games is Candyland - her version, so maybe it should be called AsiaLand. She picks the cards for you and moves you to where she thinks you go. And she always gets Queen Frostine. Sometimes you get the Queen Frostine card too, but only after she got the card and is much farther ahead. Sometimes you get the Goose, which means you get stuck in the Gooseberry swamp or something. You lose a turn. Most times I get sent back to the beginning, but I always say that way I get more gumdrops. Plus the game lasts only a few minutes because after Asia gets Queen Frostine, she only needs maybe 3 more cards and the game is over.

Winter Cometh

It is now officially winter.

Birthday Party at Chuck E Cheese

You just gotta love having a small birthday party during the middle of the week at Chuck E Cheese. There were hardly any cars in the parking lot, almost leading me to believe that the place was closed for some reason - electrical failure, pizza oven fire, something.

Zach invited a few friends from school - Sean, Nick, and Steven A. Then other friends he invited - Zach F, Ethan, and Emme. And of course, Asia was there, holding her own amongst all the Kindergardeners. :)

The Chuck E Cheese host, Will, was awesome. He was the young guy, maybe college age? He had all this time and energy for our little party. Another good thing about booking during a weekday night. We were the only party there. And there were maybe 2 other tables filled in the entire place. That left the kids to run around without worrying about bothering too many other people or waiting for the games. Anyway, here's a link to a video of the kids dancing, led by fearless leader Will.

Happy Birthday

My son is now six years old. Six! My little boy is six. I can't believe it. I have a six year old. That just sounds old. :) You can still pretend to be a young mother when your kid is like pre-elementary age, or like 5 and under. Once you have a six year old, you're just lumped together with older couples. Even if you're still in your twenties, which I'm not.
Anyway, we're celebrating Zach's birthday on Wednesday at good ol' Chuck E Cheese. Zach invited a few of his friends to the party. We've heard from all but one so far. So we have Sean, Emme, Ethan, and Steven.
We still had a small family celebration today. Asia made Zach a card. She wrote on it, "Dear Zach. Asia." That's alot of words for her to write already. Zach, in turn, made Asia a card. It said, "To Asia. Yoor cool." I love his phonetic spelling. It's so cute. I hate correcting him but he needs to learn to spell the right way. I haven't figured out yet how to encourage his initiative yet not discourage him when I try to correct him. Anyway, I digress as usual....
I bought a bunch of toys at ToysRUs. Half are for Christmas and Asia's birthday. I figured I'd just buy them all at once. I also made a stop at the dollar store. Spent 1.50 on a blue gift bag. Stuck a Power Ranger outfit in it and two shirts (Power Rangers again and Incredibles). I don't know why I bothered with the gift bag. Zach doesn't care about the wrapping. He put that Power Ranger outfit on right away. Then he proceeded to zoom around the house and wore it til bathtime. The kid is so easy to please. Luckily. After dinner, we also had a little fudge cake that Asia and I had made. I put some Cool Whip on it and then stuck a candle in it. We sang Happy Birthday and Asia told Zach to make a wish. For the next 10 minutes, Asia and Zach re-enacted the blowing out of the candle, switching off on who would be the birthday kid and who would turn on and off the lights when the candle was blown.
I'm lucky that these kids are easy to please. I was fretting about what to buy Zach. A few days ago, I took Zach to Target with me and had him go aisle by aisle down the toy section and tell me what he wanted. He liked the remote control cars and planes, the puzzles, the pirate swords, and the Power Ranger outfit. I told him that I would surprise him with one of those. The Power Ranger outfit at Target was a fancier muscle suit that cost like 35 dollars. I found a simple one at ToysRUs for 10 bucks. I am so lucky that Zach didn't care that I got a cheaper one. I don't think he totally knows who Power Rangers are anyway, he doesn't watch the show. He's just one cool kid.

Happy Thanksgiving

The mornings usually start with Asia coming into our room, climbing over me and plopping herself down on my pillow with her pink blankie. Then she'll rub her eyes and say, "Mom, I want to watch TV." I'll scooch over because she's practically laying on me and because most of the time, she prefers to lay on the covers instead of under the covers. I predict this every morning, so once she gets into bed or onto the bed, that is, I'll hold on tight to my side of the covers as she preceds to kick herself out of the covers, if she ever got in them. Once the TV is on, within 15 minutes, Zach's up and in our bed. The next few minutes depends on whether Asia is in a good mood or bad mood. If she's in a good mood, then she'll let Zach lay in between her and John. If she's in a bad mood, she'll complain that he's squishing her or that he's got all the covers or that she wanted to be next to dad or that his leg is touching her or anything related to his existence. At that point of time, I have to get out of the bed since I'm going to fall out anyway. This gives Asia room to move over and take my spot and give her brother some peace.

This Thanksgiving for some reason, the kids are all excited. Yesterday, both kids kept asking if it was Thanksgiving. Then this morning, Asia asked if it was Thanksgiving and when she found it was, she was really happy. Zach came in to our room this morning with a big smile on his face and said, "It's Thanksgiving! And then it'll be my birthday!"

Another funny thing that happened this morning. Asia is recovering from a cold so her nose is a little stuffy. She announced, "I have a booger." I hurriedly gave her a tissue so she could put her treasure in there. She then said, "I'm going to put it in here to save for later. Then I'm going to put it back in my nose." At breakfast time, Zach asked Asia if she put that booger back in her nose. Hilarious!

those darn preschool starter memories

Every now and then, I get a flashback of Zach's first day of preschool in Chicago. Especially when I look at his old preschool pictures. I see the first day when I sat with him in class. I snuck outside for a little bit to see how he would be without me. For a few minutes it was fine. Then the teacher put on a record of Bert & Ernie on a safari hunt. Suddenly, I heard Zach screaming. I looked in and saw Zach in the middle of the floor with his hands over his ears, crying and screaming. The teacher and kids were marching around him. It was like some cannibals in the jungle, marching around their captured prey, getting ready for dinner. I'm sure it wasn't really like that. I know the kids were following the teacher and doing actions according to the record - look a tiger! Shoot the tiger! But at that time, Zach had a fear of unknown noises - as in where is that noise coming from. You have to explain to him that the sound is coming from the record player. What also amazes me is why one of the two teachers didn't try to comfort him. I know they want him to be more independant, but come on! This is the first day of preschool! I compare that to his first few days at day care at Taylor Tots. He would cry, and the teachers would pick him and hold him, hug him. That's comforting to the parents.
Then I picture the 2nd day of preschool at Children of Peace. I drop Zach off and to try and make it less painful, I exit right away and run into the car. I look out the window and see his little head popping up and down trying to look out the window. I see him crying.
On another day, I drop him off and he's lying on the floor crying.
So then I compare that to his first day at preschool hear in Pittsburgh. Yes, he's older. But he basically went willingly and ran right into the kids and I'm not even sure he looked back. Asia was basically the same.
It really makes a difference with how the school looks like - brightly painted walls, etc. And even more, the teachers. All of the teachers so far for Zach and Asia here have been so smiley. That's a big thing. Zach's montessori teacher at Children of Peace - I'm not sure I saw her smile once. She wasn't mean, just strict. And this was her first time teaching this age. I heard she was a kindergarten teacher or something. The previous teacher at Children of Peace went on maternity leave and decided not to come back. Maybe it was also the curriculum - Montessori. I think it taught Zach some good practices for his studies, but it just wasn't something he looked forward to going to at his age. On top of that, Children of Peace was a Catholic school. So that probably added another strictness or gray factor.
Anyway, I am so glad that I haven't had to go through that same experience again of the screaming and tears. It's been what... two years? And I still have those bad memories. Thank goodness my little boy wasn't traumatized. Just his mom.

First Tooth

Yes, usually you see a blog post saying - baby got his first tooth! Well, now it's - Baby lost his first tooth! Zach's bottom two adult front teeth are already growing in. You'd think they'd wait til the old baby ones were out. Anyway, the first baby tooth came out today. John had to pull it out since Zach was having difficulty eating pizza with his tooth twisting everywhere. So anyway, big day today! I wonder if this has anything to do with all the Halloween candy he ate yesterday... :) I'll talk about that tomorrow if I get to blogging it. The little tooth and the pizza slice the little guy was trying to eat, as well as the pliers John tried to use to pull the tooth, are all on John's nightstand right now. Would make a great picture. Yuck.

Kindergarten?

Or is it kindergarden... a garden of kinder kids? Anyway, John and I am thinking of putting Asia in Kindergarten next year, if we can get her in. I'm sure it'll be a lot of red tape and whatnot. The question is whether she's ready.. as in ready for first grade the year after. She can write her name, though her S's are backwards. She can also write the letters F, T, M, O (she can write out the word MOM). Today, she counted on her own to 29. Then after that, it was 20-10. :)

zach's shaker

The other day, Zach was watching TV. There was a small segment on a craft that you can do with your children. Well, Zach needed no prompting. And I'm not sure if he saw this TV segment several times or not. If not, then this boy's a genius. I was in the bathroom getting ready and he yelled, "Mom, I'm going to make a shaker!" So he found an empty toilet paper tube. I'm not sure he found it. I have a stash I keep for church crafts, but it's in a plastic bag covered by other plastic bags in the linen closet. Or maybe there just happened to be an empty one in the trash. Anyway, somehow he found this toilet paper tube and then put a napkin over it. Then he wanted a rubber band. I told him to look in the drawer next to the silver ware. He shouted out joyously, "Mom, you're right! There are some here!" See, mom does know some things and is often right. So he wound up a rubber band around the napkin. Then I'm sure the TV show said to put rice or beans or sand or little pebbles in the tube or oatmeal carton. My son goes outside, probably doesn't see any little rocks or sand (that's dry) and comes back in with his hands full of cedar mulch. I'm not sure cedar mulch is supposed to make lots of sound in a shaker, especially after it rained. Anyway, in goes the mulch. Then we had to leave, so I told him we'd finish the shaker another day.
True to my word, we finish the shaker at lunch time. I suggested he put some rice in his shaker. Zach agreed that this was a good idea and proceeded to dump some rice in his little shaker, the rest went on the floor. He and his friend Daniel spent the next 20 minutes picking up kernel upon kernel of rice and trying to put it back in the rice bag. I saw Daniel picking up one little kernel at a time! It didn't dawn on me what they were doing until after Daniel and his parents left. I was cleaning up and noticed all this rice on the floor. So easy to sweep up, but must have been quite a task when using little fingers to pick up each kernel.

So here's a picture of Zach's shaker. I offered to trim the napkins around it so it would look nicer, but he said that if I did that, all the rice would fall out. He proceeded to show me how the rice was falling out. It didn't matter that it was because the rubber bands weren't on tight enough. He was convinced that it was because the napkins weren't covering the entire tube. Also, he was shaking the tube so roughly that half of it was already caved in. But the thing I like is that he took the initiative to create this shaker. There are some good things about TV. :)

taking over my desk

Asia is slowly taking over my office desk. She likes to use my laptop, which is why I'm probably on my 3rd laptop. The keys fall off. The hard-drive went bad over the summer, but luckily the data was all recovered. A year's worth of pictures! And yet, I still haven't backed up recently.
Anyway, enough of that. I wanted to show the little things I find on my desk from Asia.

Ballet, Hockey, Soccer, TaekwonDo....what else can we add?

Look at these! Asia's first ballet slippers! She starts dance at the elementary school tomorrow. She was all excited about getting these. Of course, she wanted the pink ones, but I told her that the teacher said she had to get white. Luckily, the shoe store still had her size. There were maybe 5 boxes of white shoes left and a gazillion boxes of pink and blacks. I put in two pictures - one to show her shoe size. I think these ballet slipper sizes run big.

So this is going to be a very busy year. We've got Zach in tae kwon do on Tues, Thurs, and Saturday - two classes, one being a weapons class. Then he's got soccer on Saturday. And just started hockey (deck hockey) today. We'll see if he can stay in hockey or not since Mondays is not a good day for him to be playing. I've got band practice. Then on Tuesdays, we also have Asia starting up her dance class. Then I've got pottery on Thursdays. We also have a family vacation in Gettysburg this weekend, a family wedding to go to at the end of the month. Another family get together and Zach's birthday in November. Fun fun fun! I think we'll take a break in May.

Loving kids

Aren't these two adorable? I'm going to love showing this to them when they're like 12 and 14. "Mom, get that picture out of my face!" "But look how loving you two were! Why don't you two hug again for me?" That'd be me begging. You only have your kids once. Once they're grown, they're grown. Yeah, that's a duh statement but it hits when you remember your babies taking their first steps, first words, all of a sudden they're not hugging you all the time any more. They don't need you to tell them what to do, what to wear. So I gotta get what I can now. :)

Starting school again

Zach started Kindergarten last week. No problems so far. No crying. Nothing. No overjoyous moments either. No coming home and saying,"Mom, look what we did!" so we'll ask him to empty his backpack and show us his crafts. I'll ask him what he ate for lunch, knowing already what he ate by looking at the menu. His answer is usually PBJ (not on the menu) or one time he said shrimp (which was dinner the night before). He seems to like it. I say this because he doesn't fight to not go to school.
Asia started preschool today. Just a one-hour session with parents. She seemed to like it, though she was all clingy to me. That's why I have to have John take her to school. I'd love to be able to drop her off and see her run off with her friends to play. But she'd drag me in with her. With John, it might be more like, "see ya!".
We're considering having her go to Kindergarten next year instead of waiting another year. We'll see how this year goes and how Zach is in Kindergarten. I think Asia would be fine if she went half-day. She'd be 1/2 year younger than her friends in class, but she was like that last year and was fine. As long as we work with her on her letters. She can already write the letter A for her name. Then I 'll write the rest of the letters in dots so she can connect them.