Love, Erika

Family time!

Another highlight of my trip was to go visit Derek and Jill at their new place. It's so lovely and I think they're going to be very happy there, especially since it's so much closer to all kinds of stores and restaurants, and family!  They are so cute:

And then we went to eat at a Mexican restaurant called Mont Del Rey. It was yummy and super cheap, and super quick. They even brought out these sweet little dessert nachos at the end, with whipped cream and strawberry drizzle. They were delish. Looooooove all the colors in that place.

   
 

Sassy Ladies of the OG

One of the highlights of my trip home was getting to go to dinner with my AWESOME best friends from high school and college. I was soooo excited to see them all since we haven't seen each other in five years at Kelly's wedding in 2005! That's just way too long. But you know what changes when four women who have grown up and gone about their lives get back together?  Nothing at all. :)  It seemed like the years had just vanished and it was just us hanging out again like old times. Loved it.  I had the most fantastic time and I think my face hurt the rest of the night from smiling and laughing so much.  One thing missing was our friend Sara who lives in the area, but she was on vacation at DisneyWorld so we accepted her excuse as valid. :)

We planned our reunion at --where else? The Olive Garden!  We have been to the OG a zillion times together over the years so it seemed fitting that we'd end up there again. The sun was setting right through the window over our table, so I can't do a thing about the neon yellow light coming through those curtains!

It was all just too fancy..... which was Ella's catch phrase of the afternoon during her photo shoot. She's only just two and she's already adding to the inside joke vault!  So here are the four of us, cheesing it up as always..... Jenny, Kelly, Emily, and me:

 

And the food. We came there to eat, and eat we did! Emily and I both had the longtime classic Ravioli di Portobello (but where was the sauce!???) and Jenny had the Parmesan-Polenta crusted steak, and Kelly had the chicken alfredo. YUM.  Awesome choices all around. 

 

We go for the full meal, so dessert was in order also!  We don't play around. We ordered up a smorgasbord of sweets and everybody had a bite of everything. We do miss the old Chocolate Lasagna they used to have!

Laughter, laughter......

 
 

Then we went outside and made effective photos in the soft grass. It was just a couple minutes before 9:00 and the sun was setting and made such lovely warm light!

 Emily the Triathlete:

 

 
 
Then we said our goodbyes and vowed it will not be another five years before we do it again!!  Love you fancy girls!

And then ironically and somehow not surprisingly, I got lost in the shopping center going home. IN THE SHOPPING CENTER.  I spent 20 minutes driving around trying to find just how to get out. That place is so huge.

I'm Back!

Hope you all haven't missed me too much.  I have spent the past few days on a wonderful mommy-cation back home in North Carolina, visiting family and and friends and doing a lot of catching up. Just me this time, no kids or hubby. Big thanks to Dave for taking care of the kids while I went jaunting off to have a good time.

Pics and blog posts to come soon! I have amazing memories to share, after I download them all.

And in news from back at the ranch, we have put Drew's crib rail back on his bed. Apparently he is not ready for the transition, or is really stubborn, because he simply would not stay in his bed to go to sleep and put poor Dave thru hell of each night constantly getting out of bed (and at 4am.....).  So back in the cage he goes and maybe we'll try again in 6 months or so.  We feel bad to take that away from him since he really did seem to enjoy it so much. But he is exhausted.  He wouldn't fall asleep until so late, and then wake up super early to get out of bed, and he is just fried each day and beyond crazy-overtired.  We can't have him like that, it seems so cruel to have a poor kid so crazy just because he's so tired.

Night 3 in the Toddler Bed

For the sake of keeping things real, I thought I should add an update about how it's going with the transition to big boy bed. The first night went as I described in the previous post. Easy Peasy.  Nights 2 and 3, however, were very different. Now he's TESTING, and fighting sleep. We spent no less than 1 hour each night constantly putting him back in the bed, time after time after time. We stopped counting. I would guess no less than 40-50 times, if not many many more. :)

We know we have to stay consistent and not let him get away with anything at this point. We WILL break him, oh yes. We will. :)

Drew's Big(ger) Boy Bed

Yesterday we decided to put the toddler rail on Drew's bed and liberate him once and for all. He's one of those kids who was late in transitioning from crib to bed, and as the books all say, as long as he's not trying to get out and hurt himself, there's no reason to rush it. But at his age and size, it did seem pretty comical and/or mean to keep him caged up, so we went for it.

He LOVED it. When Dave got the pieces switched out, Drew spent the longest time just getting in and out of his bed, in and out, in and out, and rolling around and wallowing in it. He freaking loves it. One of the first things he did was drop his favorite stuffed dog over the side, and jump out and say "I'll get it!!" He loves being able to get his own toys that he drops.

 

That evening after supper I took him to the park to burn off some energy so hopefully he'd be tired when he went to bed. ;)

Bedtime was interesting, we were fully prepared to be up ALL night taking him back to bed. But we weren't!  When I first left his room, we started counting how many times I'd have to go back in there before he settled down.

In rapid succession, I went back in seven times in 10 minutes. As soon as I'd leave the room, we'd hear his feet hit the floor and he'd come open his door and peek out. So seven times I went in there and (very quickly) escorted him back to his bed, and simply said "It's time to go to sleep. Stay in your bed."  So seven times I did that, the same way each time, and after the 7th time he stayed.  It was awesome!

It took him an hour to fall asleep, which is not unusual for him, but he stayed in there and didn't get up again. Good boy.

First week of preschool

I'm happy to report that Drew has completed his first week of preschool (2 days of it) and seems to be liking it! Last night he kept asking to go to school, even though it was bedtime. So the fact that he doesn't run away and fling himself on the floor when we mention "school" is a very positive thing!

His teacher sent home the following update:

"Hello, Wanted to let you know that Drew had a very good couple of days at preschool. He cried a little at arrival, but we were able to get him engaged in some play activities and he got involved. He is beginning to learn and respond to the routines. Especially today, he did a very nice job and seemed to really enjoy himself. Our theme is Chef Woody (named after the school mascot "Woody" the Woodturtle) and we have been practicing role modeling and dramatic play by playing restaurant, making playdoh cookies, and exploring with beans in the sensory table. Enjoy the weekend!"

We looooove updates! It's so hard to know what goes on in there since we can't be there. But the fact that he is LIKING his school means so much to us. We love seeing him enjoy things!

First Day of Preschool

Today was an exciting day for Drew!  He started his summer program in the special education preschool. He goes 2 days a week for 4 weeks, and then starts up again in the fall for the regular school year.

We left bright and early to get there at 8:00. Here's Drew ready to go (with his mouth full of waffle). He's starting to like his backpack.

Walking with Dad up to the building:

As we stood there with the other parents and kids arriving, Drew started to get a bad feeling about the whole thing. He's looking a little wary here.

Then they started escorting the kids back to the classrooms and we had to part ways. On this first day they allowed Dave to walk back with him. He kept looking back at me and crying "MOM! MOM!" and that was when I got all teary. This was the last I saw of him.

So that was sad. But it's for the best. I hope he gets used to it soon and starts having fun, for his own sake. The four week program is much like summer camp with a laid back curriculum, and has a different theme each week which goes like this:

Week #1 : foods and healthy eating
Week #2:  To the rescue--safety, with visits from police and fire depts
Week #3:  Farming
Week #4:  plants, animals, and caring for the environment, i.e. trash disposal and recycling

Two and a half hours went by quickly and we didn't get any phone calls so we were thankful about that. :) Dave was talking to one of the parents when he went to pick Drew up, and she was raving about what a wonderful program it is. She said she would move here if she didn't already live here, so her kid could go there. I hope we like it as much as she does!

One of the aides reported that Drew eventually settled down and spent a lot of time being preoccupied with a rug with the ABCs on it. :) Whether they frown upon that behavior, I don't know, but that's typical of what he does at home too.  I think he finds a lot of comfort in letters and numbers.

We got him a couple of new Thomas engines for this week. At Target I picked out a few that he could choose from, and he weighed his options for a few seconds before deciding on Deisel. He was so happy to come home and play with Diesel again. :)

A pleasant find in his backpack today: a beautiful colored picture! Proudly displayed on the fridge, of course.

Wedding photos posted!

In case anybody is not already a fan on Facebook (thank you very much to those who are!!!), you may have missed that I posted last weekend's wedding photos on my photography blog. Check them out if you would like to see, I'm kind of proud of them.  I reckon they're decent for someone who isn't even a wedding photographer, LOL. I totally enjoyed the experience, and loved getting to travel up north to the Lakes.  Thanks for looking!

Carrie & Jay's Wedding

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Parker at the Y

Monday was Parker's first gym class. He's doing the same gym class that Drew has been doing since he was Parker's age (except in the group for his age range, obviously).  Drew isn't participating this time around since he's starting preschool next week and we figure he'll have enough going on. Maybe in the fall he can go back if he's showing improvement with his social/emotional stuff. He just still can't participate in anything like the other kids can.

So Parker's first time was lots of fun. I could barely keep up with him. Whereas on Drew's first day, he pretty much walked around in screaming hysterics, but Parker was running, laughing, squealing, trying to jump on the trampoline, and getting into fights with little girls over the big blue ball. :)  

He was too funny. He even kept trying to go off the edge into the foam pit. And finally succeeded.

 

 

   

Pizza Hut!

On Monday we went to the Pizza Hut lunch buffet with the kids. I think it was the first time we've all been to a restaurant together (besides McDonald's).  We thought a buffet might be a better choice since we could run up and get the food immediately and not have to wait for it to be brought out to us. There's no way our kids could sit there at a table and wait for 20 minutes and do nothing while we waited for food. So the buffet worked out well, and everybody stayed pretty happy and occupied.