Trip to NH

It had been FOUR YEARS since we had been back to NH, the last time being after CP's grandmother died. I wasn't even pregnant with Wes yet. It was a long overdue trip, although it was a bit annoying for CP to figure out how to jump between his divorced parents while also seeing friends and getting out to do fun things.

We flew in Thursday into Boston, grabbed our rental car and headed up to NH. I tried to tell the kids about all of the cool things in NH, including the Old Man in the Mountain (RIP). The ENTIRE TRIP, despite both me and CP telling Wes over and over that the OMitM was not a real man, but what looked like the face of a man in the side of a mountain, Wes kept asking about "the man." He was very worried about the man. (*sigh*)

Friday we got to hang out with CP's childhood friends and although it had been a while since we have seen them, it was great to see how big some of their kids had gotten and to hang out with them. We told Izzy that we were going to Dennis' house and she said "Why are we going to Dr. Bob's house?" She thought that we were going to her dentist's house. Silly girl. That night we hung out with CP's aunt and uncle and Wes spiked a 102.5 fever while CP was with him at urgent care.

Wes knocked out on the couch with a fever

Amazingly enough, Wes rallied and despite getting a later start than we had planned for, we headed up with CP's mom to hike Franconia Notch State Park (Flume). We told Wes that if he was able to hike the entire two miles by himself without anyone carrying him he would get ice cream before lunch. Amazingly enough, he did it all by himself and enjoyed his ice cream.

Starting the hike

Celebrating the fact they both made it to the top by themselves!

We were super close to where we got married so after lunch, we stopped by the Inn and took some pictures since it is almost our 10 year anniversary! We were going for a nice picture of the four of us in front of the Inn's sign when the kids decided to drop on their knees and pretend they were tigers. We just had to laugh.

The next day we did a 10 mile canoe trip down a local river. CP and I had Wes in our canoe while Izzy was in a canoe with my MIL and her husband. 

They fought almost the entire time and I felt bad for Izzy because she seemed pretty bored. He was being pretty condescending towards my MIL and I wasn't too excited for Izzy to hear that and to think that was okay. We all survived but we were pretty happy to get out of those canoes. Afterwards we took Izzy on a tour of CP's childhood schools so that Wes could get a car nap.

I was supposed to leave that night for Chicago but thunderstorms cancelled my flights so I ended up staying in the hotel to work all day while CP and the kids went to the beach. I had a tremendously hard time getting out of NH the following night and barely made my connecting flight (which was also delayed due to bad weather/lightning) and didn't get home until after 2:30am. CP and the kids came home that night and Izzy had her first day of Kindergarten the next day.

After our trip I mentioned to CP that it can't be another four years before we go out to NH. His parents are getting older and it's a good chance to take a fun vacation and get out to the mountains.

Kindergarten

Trying to catch up on blog posts....

August 21st was Izzy's first day of Kindergarten. I was so worried about Wes and not that worried about Izzy because she has been excited (but also nervous) to start Kindergarten for a while now. Her "first" day was so silly as it was basically an hour orientation at her enrichment class where the kids drew pictures while the teachers talked to the parents. Izzy ended up knowing a bunch of kids in her class and every time someone came in that she knew, she would stand up, give a huge wave, say their name, and beckon them to come over. It was pretty cute. 

I had thought that we would go get pedicures together and then head out to lunch but her best friend and mom said they were going to paint some pottery and go out to lunch so Izzy decided she would rather do that. We ended up having a nice time with them before we headed over to her district Kindergarten orientation. She didn't really know anyone in the class but had a good time decorating a picture frame.

It was such an odd day that I didn't end up crying or getting weepy at all. However, Izzy has been a bit weepy every night she gets home from Kindergarten. Older kid moms have told me that this is pretty normal and that it will taper off soon. She loves the fact that she gets to get on the school bus every day to travel from one school to the other and thinks that she is a super big kid now. 

I was so worried about how Wes would do at daycare once Izzy left and yet he has done great. The first week his friends happened to be in class already so they would come running up to play with him and make drop off much easier. I'm assuming the crying and clingy-ness I had with trying to drop Wes off during the summer (even when Izzy was still there) was just a phase. Some days it takes a few minutes but generally once I can get him to agree to "push" me out the door he is good to go.

So far so good for this school year.

Off to Kindergarten!

Last day at the same school for a few years! *sniff sniff*

You guys, I can’t believe it but Izzy will be in Kindergarten next Wednesday. I had been all casual about it and it seemed so far away until August 1st hit. Then suddenly THIS was the month that Izzy went to K.

WHAT?!?!? 

Today she has one last day at daycare, we head to NH for a quick family vacation, and then next week I will go to two different orientations with her (half day Kindergarten orientation and then the half day Kindergarten enrichment program orientation). I’m going to do my best not to cry....

I’m curious to see how Wes does at daycare without Izzy. I assume we will drop him off first every morning but next week he moves to an older room with different teachers and I know that Izzy helps Wes immensely when I drop both of them off in the same room together. Once he doesn’t have Izzy by his side is he going to meltdown every morning during dropoff? How is he going to do throughout the day? We often found them playing together outside when we picked them up.

Moving to real school also means not taking your kid out of school for random days and a school calendar chock full of closed days throughout the year. Izzy will also have to take the bus from one program to another. Taking the bus is something she has been dreaming about for two years so she should be excited.

Off we go into a new phase of life!

Wes is THREE!!!

Wes is THREE!

Birthday balloons!

He had an amazing birthday by starting with a tour of our local firehouse with friends/parents and then we had a BBQ at our house with everyone. The reason we decided on a firehouse tour is because a few months ago we were at our local ice cream place. Wes saw firefighters in the line and asked to talk to them (he talks to anyone- and I mean anyone)...in the conversation they asked if he wanted to come see the fire truck in a nearby parking lot. I have never seen a kid shove an ice cream cone down his mouth faster. After our private tour with the firefighters, every time we saw a fire truck Wes would yell out "my firefighter friends!" Hence the firehouse tour.

We also had a family dinner a week before where CP made steak and corn (one of Wes' favorite things to eat) and he got to open up his presents two days early because I was a bad mother and had to be in CA for work on his real birthday. He's three so he won't remember that I wasn't there on his real birthday but I still felt bad.

Birthday firehouse tour

Height- 40" (unofficial)

Weight- 39 pounds (unofficial- with clothes on)

Diapers- NO MORE DIAPERS OR PULLUPS! I guess the last time I wrote an update like this on Wes he was two (I'm a horrible blogger these days). A few months ago we took the plunge and even though Wes wasn't interested in potty training, we powered through. He got pee very quickly and mastered poop only two or three weeks later. Since he has been waking up dry for both nap and nighttime, we pulled the pullups as well. We didn't even have to do any nighttime training! YAY!

Milestones- Oh man I feel like he has so many in the past year. He has been able to pedal tricycles and his motorcycle for a while and his hand/eye coordination seems to be pretty good. He is also a fast runner. While camping this year he went on his first rollercoaster at a local carnival in WI and also went on his first water slide (in an inner tube with CP).

First rollercoaster

He is definitely not as adventurous as Izzy and needs us to do something with him at least a few times before he is willing to do it on his own. A few months ago we moved him to a big boy bed with the guard rail however I'm not sure he needs it because he has slept in a bed with no rails before at my parent's place in MI and hasn't fallen out.

Proud of his big boy bed

Wes went to his first movie in a theater- Toy Story 4!

Language- I didn't think that it was possible but Wes talks more than Izzy. He is still learning the art of not interrupting and will often yell "No! I'm talking" if Izzy tries to talk over him. He loves to sing different songs like Frozen (his favorite line? "Frozen fractals all around"), random Raffi songs (like Bananaphone), Sing a Song of Sixpence, etc.

Wes' face when he heard he was getting early birthday presents

Favorite Toy- In the past year his favorite toy has not changed- it is still trains. He will still come home and play with his Thomas trains almost every night. We were not planning on getting him any toys for his birthday this year but he has literally been talking about the Thomas super station for 6 months now- ever since a friend of ours started to give us her son's old Thomas the Trains magazines (which of course has super station ads in them)- so because we couldn't think of anything else, super station it is.

Strawberry picking

Favorite Book- Wes really likes to read the Thomas the Train magazines at night. He is also obsessed with only one story called "Cookies" in the Frog & Toad book.

Sleep- Wes gets to sleep by 8-8:30 every night and has slept in to 8:30am on the weekends (we get him up around 6:40am during the week). When putting him to bed we brush teeth, put pajamas on, read books, sing him two songs, put blankets on him, and turn on his turtle light before hopefully leaving the room. In the past month or so he has started to stall- "I have to go potty. I need some water. I need to give Daddy a hug." etc. He has also become afraid of monsters and bad dreams so we remind him that the cats keep the monsters away and his dream catcher above his bed takes away his bad dreams. I hope this phase ends soon.

Playing on the new climbing dome

Clothes- In 4t clothes and size 11 shoes.

Eating- Wes is a good eater and he has even started to like fish if he can squeeze some lemon on it. We recently went out to a sushi place and he housed some soft shell crab (that I didn't really like) and instead of getting a kids meal he opted for the ramen. It was awesome! Of course he is a regular kid and LOVES mac n cheese as well. If he could eat fruit all the time, he would.

Soft shell crab

Teeth- He now has all of them and it will be about two more years before they start falling out.

Illness- Over the past year? Ha. Nothing major. This year we didn't have an ER visit (woo hoo!) and his lungs seem to be able to handle winter colds better. However, camping this year he got bitten by mosquitos- A LOT- some of them blistered and one of his legs was hard and swollen for a few days so I think he has skeeter syndrome. :-( (We used plenty of bug spray) Not much we can do but to try to keep the bugs away as much as possible.