Another long update

Well, as is completely obvious it has been forever since I last updated again. I am rarely home with both girls asleep and a husband at work in which I have time to update (and 9:00 at night is generally time for TV and wine- not blogs). But, with Monsoon 2009 striking last night I am surprisingly off of work and at home with the two girls napping while Clint is at his work dealing with literally 15 leaks in his store. Fabulous!

Life around here remains chaotic but it is great! Our routine is settling in quite nicely and both girls have adjusted amazingly well. I couldn't ask for anymore.

Natalie's teacher is back and has been back for a while after about 2 weeks out to deal with her father passing. Natalie loves her. There are only 3 full time kids in Natalie's class and 2 part time kids. So, there is just the one teacher from 8-5 so Natalie has developed a great relationship with her. Natalie is also pottying like a pro there. She has 1-2 accidents a day. She continues to eat like there is no tomorrow but she's getting taller (all in her torso just like Mel) so her belly isn't quite as huge (but it still is QUITE prominent!). She is saying more things and finally signs regularly for me. Her favorite two are more and help and she signs and apprx. words for them constantly. Her new fav thing to say is "One more" She'll hold up one finger and tell you one more for EVERYTHING until she gets 20 more of whatever. She needs "one more" book forever before bed. We've had to scoot her bed time WAAAAAY earlier to prevent some of the meltdowns. She is down now between 7:15-7:30. It makes life easier for EVERYONE!

Melanie is continuing to be a smart, social butterfly at school. She takes dance and an activity called PlayBall there where they learn various developmentally appropriate pre-sport skills. It is so cool to watch how they teach different things- they teach in ways I would have never thought of and they just jump into a sport b/c they claim a child's body is not developmentally ready for most sports, just certain skills of each sport and they only teach as the body shows it is ready for the next skill. Also, just part of the Legacy curriculum is a "special" of the county librarian coming in 1x per week for 1 month of each season, and a Spanish teacher coming in 1x/week every week of the school year (Ms. Lucy- I'm learning alot from her too!), and a music teacher coming in 1x/week. The ways all the various teachers teach things teaches me so much. It's so neat to see things taught in a developmental fashion in a daycare rather than in an academic fashion in a public school. It just goes to show that it is really best for the kids that can socially and cognitively handle it, a daycare is a more appropriate place for a 3-4 year old rather than a public elementary school.

I love my job these days. I got all of the kinks worked out from the first few weeks and it's been smooth sailing since then. The people I work with have been nothing but super nice to me and I've learned a lot about the GA Pre-K system, which I have to say again, I've been quite impressed with! My run is in just a couple of weeks. I think I am ready! I was in for quite an adventure when Elizabeth and I got stuck in pretty heavy rain with thunder 5 miles in this past Saturday. We ended up having to call Clint to bail us out. It was quite a funny hour.

Clint is trucking along figuring out things at work as Sherwin William's tries to weather all of the economic changes taking place in the world. But so far his company and his job all seem pretty secure so we couldn't ask for more. He is slowly settling in to the reality that he truly lives with 3 girls. These days Natalie isn't often found without a purse, sunglasses, her lovey, and a baby. Clint thinks to himself, "Dear God, her too?" I think he was secretly hoping she would be a tomboy...so far it is not looking too promising :)

Last weekend we watched the Teck's kid and the Jackson's dogs. So we had a 1,2,3, &5 year old kid and 4 dogs for the weekend. It was crazy. I don't think I will ever want 4 kids (ages 5 and under) and 4 dogs...EVER! It was a bit too much "kid planning" and a bit too little "adult planning." I told my dad I have no idea how his mom did it. Though the boys were not quite that close in age they were pretty close. I bet she was tired for many of her years of life!

The random pictures were from a family activity we did a couple of weeks ago I found in one of my teacher magazines. You make flashcards with numbers or number words on them and then you make fish (with a paperclip that is magnetic) with numbers on them. Then you make a fishing pole and go fishing for the fish that matches your flashcard. Clint and Melanie had the task of creating the fishing pole. I didn't give any instructions or show him the picture from the magazine- which was my error. He came back with a pole made out of the broom handle (quite large for the girls to handle). After quite a laugh by me I explained the whole activity and he came back with 2 poles made out a spatula, dental floss and our magnets at the end. The girls were so funny fishing. They could care less about matching to the flashcards after about 5 rounds and just wanted to fish. It was fun.

Back to School

What a busy and hectic life we've led the past 2 weeks. Life with 2 kids 3 and under and working full time is, well, a full time job! There is a balancing act that I haven't quite grasped yet...I'm working on it. The bills, house, and Clint seem to be taking a backseat to children, work, and food.

Melanie is doing so great at her new school. She is the star of the show (partly because she is constantly running her mouth for a full commentary on the show). She gives me such a detailed report when she gets picked up of who behaved well, who behaved poorly, what craft they did, what they talked about in circle, what they ate, when she saw me, etc. She has 3 main friends: her 2 girlfriends and 1 boyfriend and they are the "cool friends." They did a science experiment on Wednesday and she was so proud of it and couldn't stop talking about what happened and what each person's part was in the experiment. I love her teachers. They are super nice and full of energy.

Natalie's go of the whole school process is not quite as positive. Natalie is quite a crier and always has been. However, when you are in a classroom crying can be very trying on the people stuck in there with you. The teachers are great trying to hold and comfort her as she drags around her lovey. I spy on her constantly. It seems that most of her crying is during transitions. Her morning playground time occurs at the same time as my class. Our playgrounds are separated by a fence and I spend the whole time trying to hide from her. If she happens to see me she'll cry. Then her afternoon playground time is at the same time as Melanie's and if she sees Melanie leave she'll cry. Then her mealtimes are the same as Melanie's and she cries when Melanie leaves or if she happens to look in my classroom door and see me. Finally nap was difficult but seems to be getting better. She sleeps on a cot. Her daily report says that she is sleeping anywhere from 1.5 hours to 2.5 hours. I'm sure the teachers really value this time! She apparently loves the food there. They write and "A" if the child ate all of their food and an "x" if the child ate extra. Natalie supposedly eats "Axx" for many meals! Each day her daily report paints a little better picture than the day before so I hope she's adjusting. I just feel bad that she doesn't understand when and why she gets to see Melanie and myself.

As for me, my class has many amazingly exciting new features for a job. I have a couple of students that were a bit more difficult than I was expecting for this type of classroom so I am very exhausted at the end of the day from trying to control them. However, with some trial and error hopefully we'll figure out what works best for them and myself and get everyone under control and successful. The hardest part of my job is coming home. Both girls want my undivided attention when we get home and it's hard for me to give it to them. Thankfully, Clint has changed around his schedule and he is here a few afternoons a week and he can really help out with the girls and house things.

Melanie started dance again on Thursday. She is taking this one at her school. I've learned various companies contract with childcare centers to bring their lessons to the center for children to sign up for. Melanie's school offers: Playball, Piano, and Dance. I let Melanie pick an activity and she picked dance. She really likes her teacher, Ms. Christina and I like that though I am at work I can spy and watch her in her dance class. The girls start gymnastics back on Tuesday. Clint and I are going to tag-team the gymnastics and each take one girl to gymnastics (the classes are back to back) and then take that girl to dinner so they can each have some one on one time. I feel that one on one time is the one thing they are missing with school. During the summer I could give it to them when one was napping but not so much anymore. And, this will be a good way for them to get some Clint time too. We are going to switch off girls each week.

Melanie also had some difficulties staying dry at night. She would have 1-2 accidents/month. So, Clint and I made a deal with her if she stayed dry one whole month she could sleep one night in our bed. The deal came to fruition this weekend. She had to make it through Thursday night and Friday night was the big night. She knew all week and was so excited and proud of herself. Then she came in our room Thursday around 11:30 PM crying and was so upset saying she tried, it was an accident, she really wanted to sleep in our bed. She was so truly upset. It really broke my heart. So, I gave in and let her sleep in my bed Friday night. It probably was not the best teaching of a lesson but she did go 30 nights which is quite difficult- poor baby. We re-set the chart of another month so we'll see what happens.

Natalie is still trucking along with her toilet training. Her class works very hard on it when they or the parents believe the child is ready. The main teacher in Natalie's class had to be out last week b/c her father is in the process of passing away so I am not pushing it at Natalie's school right now. I'll let everything get settled first. But at home she'll still go 3-5 times per day on the potty. Basically every time I change her she'll attempt. She really knows when she goes b/c she'll ask to wipe "/p/" for paper or "/wi/" for wipe and then will put her hand up for a high five. However, she has no concept of staying dry. But, she does know if she pooped. You can ask her if she pooped and she will correctly answer you yes or no many of the times.

We had a neighborhood end of summer festival yesterday. It was so much fun. They had food, horses, a pool party, dj, games/prizes and a giant blow up water slide. The girls had a blast and we had great family time. Melanie of course loved the horse, Lady was the horse she rode, and Natalie liked them from afar but wouldn't touch it or most certainly wouldn't get on it. Melanie had a great time dancing to the DJs music with her friend Caroline. Melanie idolizes Caroline. Caroline gave us another set of outgrown clothes the other day and it's all Melanie wants to wear. She thinks Caroline hangs the moon. It was a really fun day!

I'm absolutely loving not being in school. Sometimes (rare times) when I sit down with nothing to do I have the fleeting thought, "I should probably go work on some school work now." But then I smile and realize I'm done. I'm really glad I did it last year working at Partee with Elizabeth b/c the setting I'm in now doesn't really have access for me to use a computer or phone on a regular basis. Running is going great. I'm waking up before the family each morning to go to the gym. I LOVE this time. It is all my time with no one to bother me and no noise. I run all of my weekly runs during this time. My long runs are on Saturdays. Next weekend is an 8 mile run. That will be the longest I've ever run. Elizabeth and I are doing it together. I hope it goes well! Our race seems to be getting closer and closer and our total miles to run during the week is steadily increasing. I can't believe I'm running the distances I am. Not that I feel I have any drastic weight to loose or anything but I really thought this training would change my body more than it has. I guess it goes to prove you really do have to make sure your eating is pretty close to perfect b/c even hard core exercise can't do it all! But, boy do I love to eat out....yummmm! I wish it were free!

Okay, the end to the longest post ever (which as you see is super early Sunday morning when no one is up but the dog and the gym is closed) that I finally had time to write. I'll post 1st day of school pics later.

Is It Really Over?

pictures are:
Clint catching them playing in the backyard: they love to play throw the mulch out of Shelby's house so Natalie can get in- what mess!

Modeling the new vests Nanna got them for back to school

Playing in the rain (and catching rain on their tongues!)

Well, this time tomorrow I will be at work. I can hardly believe my first summer with two mobile kids is actually over. Clint and I were sitting together yesterday while the girls played together for almost an hour and just looked at each other and said, holy cow- think how much harder last summer was than this summer. Naps, nursing, baby food, crying, etc. Though some of that has not changed our life keeps getting easier and easier by the day as the girls become increasingly independent. Now, don't get me wrong- the drama increases daily as Natalie asserts her independence but boy what next summer will bring is exciting! I went for a LONG training at my new school last Friday. I am so excited. There are a lot of things I need to learn (Ga PRE-K is very regimented program...it seems so far that they really have their act together!) but a lot I feel I can bring to the program. I had to go through the Legacy Academy training that is create corporately. So far I have to say that Legacy is really stringent but in a good way. I have a really good feeling about sending the girls there. Melanie is less than thrilled telling me "I've already graduated school, I don't want to go to Legacy." Too bad the 2 year MMO program doesn't negate the rest of school for life :) I am keeping my fingers crossed for them to do great. It is great how detailed I know about their day since I am trained how to conduct a similar day for my students. If my girls have to go to daycare I couldn't ask for a better situation. I totally feel for all the parents out there paying full price for their kiddos to be in daycare. I paid for the first 5 weeks at 1/2 price and it is sooooo pricey. More power to you all out there!

Last week was rather uneventful. I am a volunteer coach for a special needs cheer squad this year. They had camp last week and so I did that each night and Clint and the girls came to watch the final performance on Friday. Melanie is really excited about cheering one day in life. The high school girls that help make me feel really old- I am so out of the loop!

The girls' highlight of last week was playing in the rain on Monday. Melanie has really wanted to play in the rain recently and I told her one day if it was warm enough and not thundering we could. Well, Monday was that day. They really couldn't believe it at first and just tried to catch rain on their tongue but they eventually figured it out and had a blast. I had so much fun watching them!

The girls are growing-kind of. On our home scale it seems as if Melanie has lost weight. Her legs are finally catching up with her torso and we finally went up to 4T pants though they are a little big on her. The 3T were just getting too short but fit her in the waist. Her long torso has called for a 4T top for a while. And, we just got her resized for back to school shoes and she finally broke out of a 9- she was in it for almost a year and now wears a 10. Natalie has slowed down on her weight growth and is just getting taller. Some of her 18 month clothes are long enough in the torso for her (just like her sister). However, 24 month pants are far, far too long on her. Her foot however, is in the crazy growth time that Melanie's went through. She is now in a 6 wide. Her foot is crazy wide- even wider than Melanie's was. There was 1, count em, 1 shoe in Stride Rite wide enough for her. The last style, which I thought I was going to have to re-buy to have them wide enough is now too narrow so she is wearing a clunker. It looks huge and heavy- poor thing. But it fits which I guess is the most important thing!

I GRADUATED!

Well, I am FINALLY finished. After 13 months of work I am now officially a "Specialist." I graduated and have my Specialist's in Education Administration and Supervision. Basically if I ever want to be a principal or assistant principal or have a "high up" county job I at least have the credentials to go for the job. Right now I am 100% content where I am at the level I am at and excited about job that is approaching in only 1 week- can you believe it- where did time go? What's great is I always knew after my Master's I would probably go on to further school. But now, I truly feel finished and don't feel like anymore school is looming. Clint has only not been dating/married to me not in school for 3 semester of our life. He is SO ready for me to be out of school.

Not too much new in the world of the girls. Natalie is PACI FREE. I have to give her credit. It was relatively uneventful. I decided to take it away one Tuesday morning after Clint and I had been discussing/dreading it for a couple of weeks. We took Melanie's away at 17 months and I wanted to have Natalie's gone by the time she started school. So, I just one morning didn't offer it again. From that point on, no biggie. She cried at nap, "paaaa" "paaaa" over and over- I played dumb. Then, at night she has been staying up about 1 1/2 hours later playing to wear her out but all in all no issue. She has a tiny bit self-soothing issue right now. She woke up one night around 2:30 crying, but not for anything. She didn't know how to get herself back to sleep without the paci. I rocked her for about 3 minutes and she was out. But, she has only woken up the one time. I think it was a great plan to get rid of the paci with both girls so early on b/c they can't argue or try to barter with me. They just understand oh well, it's gone.

Melanie is loving her new haircut and says she likes me to fix it in "a lean over." This means she just likes me to pull back one side out of her eyes. Clint didn't know and yesterday he told her he doesn't do lean overs. He caught her playing yesterday and she had all of the blocks around a cow and he asked what she was doing and she said building a "corral around the cow." I swear she picks up so much from TV as bad as that sounds. She told him she learned about corrals from Mickey. So, she's busted out "corral" "improvise" "hypothesis" and "produce stand" just to name a few.

Melanie's First Sleepover & Haircuts

Last week Melanie had her 1st sleepover with her BFF Caroline. She was sooooo excited. She stood by the door downstairs looking out the window waiting on Caroline's car to pull up. The girls took off upstairs and were perfect. Melanie thought it was so neat to have Caroline sitting at the dinner table with us and telling us stories. Then, after dinner we had a bit of drama. Caroline was a bit homesick, Natalie decided she wasn't so tired, and Melanie decided she didn't want to share all of the attention. But, a movie to the rescue. The girls all calmed down and were so sweet. We pulled Melanie's princess castle into her room and the girls slept in sleeping bags inside the princess castle.

This week has been preparation for back to school week. I am working on getting the girls on the schedule of their new school (which includes waking up early, napping right after lunch (11:30ish), and going to bed early). So far we are doing okay. They are not too sure why I am making a) Natalie stay up to wait for a later nap when she is tired and b) why I am making Melanie take a nap when she is not tired. But they are not fighting me too bad. And, of course I am got them some "back to school clothes" okay, maybe they were just "on a great sale clothes" but to justify them they are back to school clothes :) I met with the school last week and I am going back next week but all seems in place and I am getting more and more excited each day.

Yesterday I took the girls to get "back to school" haircuts. Natalie had 1/2 inch cut off and she screamed like her head was being cut off even though we gave her a lollipop and it took less than 3 minutes. Melanie really wanted short hair so I gave in and the back of hair is stacked and the front is kind of layered towards the front. Super cute. She was great and will probably be the cutest kid in her class :) J/K...well kind of!

I am ALMOST finished with grad school (Saturday is my last day) HOORAY HOOORAY HOORAY! I can't wait.

Running is going great. I am running short-average length runs during the week (3x) 2-4 miles and one long run on the weekend (5-6 miles) right now. Starting in August it gets harder b/c the training program sets a total number of miles to run during the week and steadily increases it to get you race ready. So far though, going well and I'm just trying to stay the course!

My Photo Album

Well, today I was able to have my girls day with Natalie b/c Melanie was at the Little Gym for a camp day (at her camp they learned about animals while doing gymnastics and a petting zoo came- what fun!). Natalie and I went to the Yellow River Game Ranch and then went to get icecream. It is amazing the behavior differences when they are together and seperate. They are amazing seperate- what a crazy plan they have worked up when they are together. Natalie's latest skill is words these days...here is her current list
1. mama 2. dada 3. no 4. more 5. bye bye 6. hi 7. ball 8. bubble 9. "b" box for juice box 10. "gn" drink (not sure how she got this sound but she uses it well) 11. a snort sound for pig 12. moo 13. nana 14. pawpaw 15. mamaw 16. pops 17. lolli for lollipop 18. pop for popcicle 19. "ni ni" for night night 20. "tada" 21. wow
She's getting better and better!
Okay the pics are from:
1 random reunion pic
Our 4th of July celebration at the Gwinnett Braves
The wedding
The Game Ranch

These are all from my camera more from other people's will appear :)

Fun Girl's Day

A sneak preview of the fun/funny wedding pics to come!

After gymnastics today the Gilbreath's wanted to take Natalie for a little bit of bonding time. I got to spend some alone time with Melanie with no agenda. We thought and thought what we wanted to do and it was decided on Ice Age 3- The Dawn of the Dinosaurs. And, to top off the fun apparently Carmike Cinemas have a "Stimulus Tuesday" where drinks and popcorn are only $1 each. So, in the spirit of healthy eating :) we each had a small popcorn and a drink (and much to Melanie's excitement it was Sprite- about her 5th ever in life- they didn't have Lemonade and she didn't seem to mind!) for lunch. She was great in the theatre- no complaints at all- she sat in my lap for a while b/c it was a concerted effort for her to keep the seat pushed down she is so tiny. I realized she was pretty much clueless about dinosaurs during the movie so we headed to Target and Borders for some dinosaur lesson reinforcements. We shopped sooooo slowly- it was amazing! We had no time frame. No one was crying, hungry, bored, no husband watching the clock at home, etc. Melanie would stay in Target all day (as would I!). We ended up getting 2 plastic dinosaurs ($1/each) and some clearance shoes for Melanie ($3 each b/c apparently in GA it is not hot anymore and the summer things are 75% off- whatever!). We played in purses (I got one- I think I am about ready to be FINISHED with diaper bags so it is a rather large purse to hold Puffs, diapers, wipes, change of clothes, toys, and oh yeah some lipstick, wallet, keys and phone), jewelry, sunglasses, shoes, baby supplies, books, EVERY toy aisle, kid clothes, dishes, just fun fun fun! But, they didn't really have any dinosaur books so we were off to Borders where it is oh so easy to get caught up and want to buy everything! We went to the kid section and we each had a task to find dinosaur books. We each found about 3 and we sat and reviewed them and each selected 1 to buy- too cute! We came home and played with our dinosaur figurines (which of course immediately became a mommy and daddy) and read dinosaur books- it's like I had a boy child for a couple of hours! All in all a great fun day!