IJ graduated from pre-K!

Friday, May 23 was IJ's last day of pre-K and his graduation ceremony was the evening of the 21st.

During the month of May there were three bulletin boards in the hallway outside the two pre-K classrooms where their art projects normally hang.  The first board had the kids' baby pictures, the next had their latest professional school portraits (which I've never purchased) and the last had these cute black and white pics of the kids with their chosen future professions.  My favorite is the "nail and toe lady" one.




The ceremony started at 6:30 pm and seemed pretty long for pre-K kids, not to mention the difficulty in managing ZJ whose bedtime is 7:00 pm. NJ videotaped the entire ceremony and it is posted below, minus the picture slide show segment.


I managed to take very few pictures of the event and most were blurry. This was IJ after exiting the stage right after graduation.
 

His diploma:
 

And ZJ the next day not wanting to feel left out.

May 2014 Pics

IJ used chopsticks (with plastic helpers) to eat his entire lunch of veggie fried rice at a local sushi restaurant.

IJ completed his 3rd season of soccer.  We moved him up to the 4-5 year old group this time which definitely gave him tougher competition and quicker transitions during practice.


ZJ is absolutely horrible during practice.  Luckily his practices this season were an hour later so most weeks NJ could take IJ and leave me with ZJ.


We finally tried out the bike trailer.  The kids liked it.


IJ had his 2nd ever dental check up, just about a year after the last.  He did wonderfully just like last year and had no problems.


ZJ on the other hand freaked out a bit upon entering the room and even though she watched her brother handle it all fine, she had no intention of having her first dental exam.  She tricked us long enough to sit in the chair and get a new toothbrush but then all she would do is brush her own teeth, refusing to even open her mouth to show the hygienist how many teeth she has.


We had a fake bday party for IJ at school.  Since he has a summer birthday he had the option of celebrating at the end of the year.  I made him a chocolate muffin or "cupcake" to him and we shared goodie bags of fun school supplies with the other kids.


ZJ's been sleeping in her own room for the entire month.  She's still waking during the night and I end up falling asleep with her frequently when I have to get her back to sleep.  She's taken to coming to me when she wakes in the morning but occasionally going back to sleep in my bed.  It has caused her to wake much too early, sometimes prior to 6 and sometimes just after.


Our first summer garden edibles.  Tiny Wild Texas Cherry tomatoes.


IJ chose flowers for his 3 classroom teachers, his music teacher and his Judaics/Hebrew teacher.


We went kayaking with our friends.  It was mine and ZJ's first time.






I finally bought a new popsicle mold since I hate my current ones.  So far we've made pina coladas and healthy fudge pops.


Our summer break started with lots of rain.


We went to the zoo our first week out of school mainly to visit the new bug house and see the animatronic giant bugs.
 

April 2014 Pics

C and I ran the same 4 mile race we had run 3 years ago, only this time much faster.


IJ's been using the computer for games for several months now but I added sending emails and playing in word documents to his computer activities this month.


Daddy's birthday party...we had homemade vegan banana splits.


Our neighbors/friends took a family photo of us the evening of our block party (also NJ's birthday.)

We went to an earth day festival.




We all got sick this month.  ZJ fell asleep in the stroller before I got past the next door neighbor's house one evening.


This is how they play pirate.  Duplo swords and Easter egg pegs/hooks.


ZJ thought this up all on her own.  She was driving her car.


IJ's caterpillar went into cocoon and came out a moth a few weeks later.




ZJ going to the YMCA to play while I workout.  We finally joined the Y in our neighborhood, a 10 minute walk away.  The kids went to the childcare room together twice with no problem but on this day we went without IJ and I was paged to come get her because she was screaming and crying.  We haven't tried again since.


IJ now brings the garbage and recycling cans in all by himself.

trip to the zoo

I took the kids to the zoo last Monday since IJ's school was closed for Passover. First we walked into the park to check out the art installations celebrating the park's 100th anniversary.

 





Then we went to the zoo.  We made sure to visit the baby elephant and the baby lemurs (one baby lemur pictured on mama's back below).







We tried out zoo story time.





Watched the turtles eat.



And of course, the kids' favorite part, the carousel.

video: ZJ @ 2.5 years

ZJ is 2 1/2 years old!

4.6.14

ZJ is much easier to communicate with now.  She understands everything and can often use complete sentences.  She says lots of funny things because she has a combination of normal 2 year old talk mixed with 4 year old boy talk from emulating everything her brother does.  A few months ago she started answering all "why" questions with "because," then added an "ummmm" and weeks later switched her answer to "I don't know."  She seems to be over this now and is back to answering questions.  She says "nother gain" when she wants something repeated.  She calls strawberries "strawbabies."  She also likes to sing and loves playing her brother's guitar or pretending ANYTHING in a guitar.  She is now quite into TV and gets to watch 2 shows each afternoon with her brother.  Current favorites are Yo Gabba Gabba (she loves to sing "party in my tummy" among other songs from the show) and Dora.

ZJ got very familiar with counting between 1 and 20 but does so randomly and skips around.  I've tried to teach her colors for months but she recently seems to be getting it a bit.  She definitely knows orange and other colors are being identified correctly more often.  She is recently into matching and when she sees two things the same color she yells "it match."  She loves puzzles and reading as opposed to playing with toys.  She does puzzles for 3-5 year olds with a bit of assistance but has some up to 24 pieces that she can do on her own.  She will lay in her or her brother's room flipping through book after book for long periods of time by herself.  She's not into building with duplo but will play a bit with the duplo people sitting them on chairs or in cars.  She seems to like playing with her brother's tiny legos more.  She likes to play outside with her brother and likes to ride her tricycle.  We often ride the length of the block and back.  Inside she will play along with any strange game her brother thinks up but has been hitting and hurting him much more often, even when not provoked.

ZJ is eating great.  She tries everything and likes almost everything I make.  She even likes raw vegetables.  She doesn't nap and has finally gotten used to it, not falling asleep on late afternoon car rides.  She falls asleep nursing at 7 easily and up until a couple weeks ago had still never slept through the night.  She started sleeping through the evening very consistently and then sometimes waking at 10/11ish pm but a few nights sleeping straight to morning.  It seems like she's back to her early morning waking but still waking less than she had been a few months ago.  She is usually up between 6 and 7 am.  She nurses back to sleep at each waking and a few times during the day too.

ZJ stays dry all day long typically and has recently begun taking herself to the bathroom to pee on occasion if she feels the need.  She's gone months without pooping on the toilet, only in diapers but a few weeks back it seemed like we had a break through where she actually pooped on the potty some.  But, we're back to refusing to do so.  It doesn't matter if she's naked or diapered or in underwear, she refuses the toilet.  She'll look me in the eye and agree not to poop on the floor and do just that when I turn around.

ZJ has had 3 colds in the last 3 months.  She had a follow up appointment with her cardiologist in February and everything looked good.