Tahoe

After the first week of school, I am glad that we are heading out this morning to spend the rest of the weekend in Tahoe. No blogs for a couple days. Happy Labor Day!

Carnival night at emily's school.

Its funny how as an undergrad you think that the first semester is SO crazy. I look back and think how easy those days were. You went to class and sat while the professor went over the syllabus. Its been so busy the past few days. I don't have any classes that I'm taking that I have to go to, but the classes I'm teaching are M-TH until 12:30. This semester, I have made so many changes and I had the most productive first day of class ever. I had them for 3 1/2 hours so I was worried about how I was going to keep them engaged. I used a couple strategies I actually learned to use in childrens' classrooms and guess what...IT WORKED! (I know you're shocked grandma :) For those of you who know, I did a KWL chart. I have a great group of students this semester and am excited about that.

Yesterday something super funny happened. Everyone is always getting Jen and I mixed up and we don't understand because we look nothing alike. For the second time yesterday we showed up to work wearing the exact same pants and very similar shirts. The funny thing is that we don't even shop together, and the pants were Aropastale and I've only been there once (I don't even know how to spell it :) We got a good laugh but didn't even think to take a picture. Here's one of us before presenting at conference in April. I don't know how I would get through school without her.

Gerlach

This weekend, my grandma and I went away to Gerlach. I know, there is nothing out there...BUT THAT'S THE POINT. It is so quiet and desolate; a perfect retreat from the craziness of the city life. Although this weekend it was a bit more populated that normal. Burning man starts tomorrow, so we got to watch "burners" come through town all weekend. We even drove out to the entrance so I could see what it looked like. I am totally going one year!

As for this this weekend, other than sit on the porch swing and watch the people go by, we read, ate, slept, played scrabble, and read some more. It was wonderful.

(below left) My grandma and I in front of the one and only restaraunt, Bruno's.

(below right) a pic I took of the train whil sitting on the deck.

Shopping Trip

Emily and I went out last night for a short shopping trip and she finally found a new way to ride on the cart. She has been bummed for quite a while because she is way too big to ride up front and riding in the back is not always feasible. I know, she's 5 and can walk, but grocery shopping is the most boring thing to a five year, especially if they are just walking around following mom everywhere. I think for now this works J

Today I got to have my first lunch outing in 3 1/2 months without chasing a toddler or entertaining a 5 year old who doesn't eat. My grandma picked me up from work and we went to Carino's..one of our new favorites. They were very slow and by the time our lunch came, we had consumed WAY too much bread, mozzerella sticks, and italian sodas. We had to put our entire lunches in boxes..oops :)

That is one of the luxuries of being a working mommy is that you can take an occasional lunch to sit and enjoy hot food and uninterupted conversation.

Our morning walk

I thought I would take some pics this morning during mine and Alyssa's morning walk to our building. We stopped for about 5 minutes on the bridge to watch the cars go by. Then we got to the stairs and she was determined to make it up alone. She made it up 3 alone then turned around for my hand and I guided her the rest of the way. She is a tough girl. I love the pic because it reminds me that no obstacle is un achievable. This has to be comparable to one of us looking upon a huge mountain we are about to climb.

Emily's updates

Emily had a great and busy weekend, and perhaps too much time with her mom. Monday yesterday morning when I dropped her off at school, she cried :( Of course, as soon as Robyn got her she was fine. The funny thing was that Emily cried and yet when I dropped Alyssa off for her first day at school in over 3 months, she waved and blew a kiss and said "byyyyye." Funny how different they are.

So Emily's hardest thing still has been her transition out of naps. She still wants to take naps and has taken quite a few of them in odd places. Last night, she was drawing in her room while we made dinner. When dinner was done, I yelled for her to come to the table. After 5 minutes, Andrew and I were wondering why she had just ignored our call for dinner. When I opened her bedroom door, she was fast asleep right on her drawing at her table. Poor thing. We went to open house tonight at her school and Robyn and I both agreed taht she most likely does not learn much in the classroom after 2:00 :) Hopefully she gets used to it soon.

Alyssa goes back to school!

Yesterday marked the final end to our summer. I went back to work and Alyssa went back to school. Although the 5 hours a day I have to be at work are going to stress me out, I think it will be nice once we get the routine down. Alyssa and I drop Emily off at 9:30 then go to UNR and find a parking spot. Walking to our building with Alyssa is special time for the 2 of to be together. She loves walking over the bridge and waving to the cars on the freeway. By the time I drop her off and get to my office, it is 10:00, and then I pick her up at 3, walk to the car, and get Emily. The 3 of us are home by 3:45 which is super nice because we can have a snack, relax, go to the pool, or whatever else we decide to do before Andrew gets home. I think I want to work part time from 10-3 the rest of my life :)

So school for Alyssa is good. Her group moved into the ones over the summer and she sleeps on a bog girl cot and sits in real chairs! They say she just lays down on the cot and goes right to sleep..with no Binky!

Alyssa's other new discovery is that she is not even limited to the stool. Now she drags an entire chair around to get up on it. She has realized that this is the best way for her to get things we have put up beyond her reach! The only problem is that she can't get down yet so well, so we have had lots of possible damage to her occipital lobe (I hope she can still see well..hehe).

What a busy day we had...

Boy am I exhausted! Andrew's dad came over first thing in the morning to help replace our sliding glass door.Having a toddler in the house with an 8 foot open space is not fun, so I packed up the girls and went to the park to hang out with Misty and the kids for a while.We came home around noon and our house was 82 degrees!I ran the air just to cool down the rooms so Alyssa could nap and Emily and I could rest. Emily and I ended up reading, watching some Barney, playing Old Maid 10x, and writing the blog below. When the guys were done and Alyssa woke up, we walked down to our neighborhood mexican restaurant, Los Trojes, and had dinner. We were home early, so we all went swimming for a while. The pool was so refreshing after being out in the hot sun for a lot of the day.

Emily's invented spelling

anna,

i love you very much. i kant wat tu se you in lak toho!

love, emily

Adventures with grandma and a bug...

Last weekend, Peg came into town and she rented the coolest liitle car ever. I now think convertible bugs were the coolest car ever invented. Just one more reason Peg and I think volkswagons rock! On Saturday, we picked up my grandma and drove around for 2 hours. With grandma, everything is an adventure. We ended up at the Melting Pot World Emporium. It used to be a head shop (and it still is) but now it is an entire one stop shop for all your burning man needs, just short of a volkwagon bus :) We had a blast looking at the outfits, trying some things on, and laughing our butts off at the funny stickers, pins, and bumper stickers.

Today was the greatest day. Not having any school or work, I almost felt lost. It was so nice. I got to go to bed last night at 10 and start a new book. I should really get back to work on my thesis but I need a mental break for a few days to do nothing that requires my brain to think too hard. So I am going to just hang out with the girlies this weekend. Today, Andrew and the girls got up around 6:45 as usual, and I stumbled out of bed around 7:15 as usual. Alyssa and I dropped Emily off at school, then went to visit alyssa's friends at UNR. We came home around 11, had lunch, and she napped for 3 hours. I actually took a short nap too. First time in quite a while! She ran out of things to get into and decided to move Emily's stool, stand on it, and get into her bathroom drawers. All on her own. What a smart little stinker she is.

Yay! Today I turned in my last paper and took my last exam for my summer class. I only lost 4 points out of 500 for the entire course :) What a stressful class it was while being a full time mommy, but it was probably the BEST yet (and I have taken 162 credits now!). I am now obsessed with brain development. Woo Hoo, only 6 credits to go; 1 class and finish thesis!

Funny video of Alyssa's new trick...

So Alyssa discovered that when in the soumersault position, she can scoot and make us all laugh. Now she moves around the house like this. It is so funny. You also see some of her ruthlessness in the video as she accidentally bumps into the toy basket, looks up, and continues to bang her head on it! What a crazy funny girl she is.

NEVERMIND. That video wouldn't load, so here is a comparable one with both girls playing. You see a little of her trick at the beginning, plus some CUTE footage of Alyssa giving sister love.

Big News...

Emily went potty at school today :) YAY. Of course, I had to Email her teacher to let her know so she could assure Emily that it was OK. When I picked Emily up today, she said "mommy, it was actually a good idea to make new friends because my preschool friends at una-r (her pronunciation for UNR) are my old friends and these are my new friends." She reported that she made a new best friend named "eezabelle" but maybe she means Isabelle. In any case, she is doing really well and still enjoys school after 3 days. She also thinks its cool that she gets to see grandma every day, although we have had many talks as I try to explain to her why the teachers and kids call grandma "Mrs. Hammond."

Emily dancing on the way to school this morning.

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Alyssa destroyed many more things today and got into everything at my grandma's house. My grandma is sad that she only has one more day watching her, but I think she should be saying hallalulia. Watching Alyssa in a very un-childproofed home cannot be fun, but grandma loves it nonetheless.

Alyssa at Gigi's house scoping out what she will get into next :)

Uneventful day..sort of..

Today, I was going to take Alyssa to see her friends at school since she will be going back next week, but the sensitive skinned girl broke out with funky bumps on her face. She is learning to do saumersaults, which is cool news :).

Emily decided to learn how to drive while I was standing out in the hot sun waiting for her to get out of the car :) She also enjoyed her 2nd day of school, although she still didn't go potty!

I just went to class and Andrew just went to work. I am wishing I had more time to knit now that I finally learned how.

Emily's first day of kindergarten...

So nobody warned me just how hard it would be to leave my precious little baby at school. I know she's been in preschool for 3 years now, but this was so different. I cried for 1/2 an hour when I left. She had a good day. I was so proud that she chose healthy options for lunch...carrots, celery, and milk. It's a time to see whether our authoritative parenting style (letting her make her own decisions, logical consequences, etc.) worked :)

The poor girl is so shy she said that she had to go potty but she was too scared so she just held it in all day. It's going to take a while to get used to this. We already had homework tonight.

I think I am really excited about her having this diverse experience. Certainly not the amazing experience she would have had at UNR, but I am positive that it will be amazing in other ways. Her teacher is so neat.

I think her and Alyssa were excited to have alone time after almost 4 months together.

Welcome!!

So, my sister-in-law created this really cool blog, and now I can truly be a part of her everyday life. I thought it was the coolest idea, so I am stealing it (thanks Becky :). At first I thought I would wait until graduation in May when my life won't be so consumed with school, but hopefully I can find a few minutes for occasional posts. If you save the page in your favorites, you can access it very quickly. If you don't know what a favorite is, please ask for clarification (grandma!). And please feel free to post comments!