i think i may start this post & work backwards. so let's begin: this morning... i am alone! as in, no one else is in this house. it's quiet & outside is cool & sunny. the perfect time to sit at the computer & jog my memory via blog.
but first, some stories that must go down in infamy.
adeline
- on the way to amelia's first day of school, we drove through otterbein university, during a non-class time. which means all students are walking aimlessly & slowly across west main street, without a care to the cars trying to get somewhere. wes & i are grumbling about this & eventually get through. so, after we drop amelia off, we again try to make our way the same way home. since it's a cooler day, our windows are down. & yet again, the students are milling about, some even hugging each other in greeting in the middle of the street on the cross walk, others looking directly at the line of cars & still walking slowly across. i sigh, wes mumbles about how absurd this cross walk is...so. addy sticks her head out the window & *yells* at the college kids: HEY YOU! GET MOVING! GO! GET OFF THE STREET, GET MOVING! (wes & i laugh, but still tell her that was rude...the students reactions of shock was so very awesome. i think they did speed up a bit, actually)
- mommy, you are making enough money with your bakery to buy me lots of new toys! good job!
amelia
- wes & i had to bring amelia to the meeting with addy's teacher, mrs. f. so...mrs f asked addy to show amelia around the classroom, show her the stations toys. amelia picked the tiny building cubes. while we were in the middle of the intense conversation with mrs f, amelia peeks in & mrs f tells her it's okay, asks her what she made. amelia's response (with a very ornery sideways glance to me): "it's a gun! (pointing it right at mrs f) i'm going to shoot you! bang bang bang!" mrs f: (with a shocked sideways glance at me) "we don't play with guns at school! it can be something else?" amelia: "no, no, i made a gun! see, i'm shooting it!"...i'm thinking just maybe addy put amelia up to that one, lol!
***
so this first picture is a snapshot of our playroom. this is what happens when i have a baking day. to be fair, the p already fell off the word play on the wall. & the best part is that wes & i took one look at this room for the past 2 days & just walked away: let them live in their mess! who cares. so yea, that's on today's list of things to attempt to clean.
***
the girls have started their fall rec center classes...amelia has leaping lollipops again (*sigh* i never seem to get there on time!) & adeline has tumbling. her instructor is totally buff. i have never seen a 45-ish year old woman look so tough. she even did a back flip (back hand spring?) for one of the students & does kart wheels & round-offs all over the room. & she works these kids hard, but in a good way. so far, i think she's what i want to be at that age (now, laugh heartily! b/c we all know that will not be).
here is adeline practicing her handstand. her instructor would say: KICK, ADDY, GOOD! STRONG ARMS! YES! HEAD DOWN! LEGS TOGETHER! STRONG STOMACH! YES! YOU DID IT, GOOD JOB!
& yea, she does look very 80's here, but that's sorta how adeline dresses these days. you know, to be fashionable & all.
***
last weekend we went to wes' cousin's wedding: (congrats john & aubrey!). for the double a's this wedding was one of the most anticipated events of the summer, for several reasons: a) there would be a bride b) we had to take a ferry to put-in-bay, wedding location c) it would be a party-like event with music d) they got to choose their dresses to wear e) there would be a bride! f) we had to take a ferry to get there! (repeat a, b, e, f about a million times...that's how often we heard about this wedding from the girls).
here they are, talking in awe to the bride & groom. if you ask adeline what she thought of the wedding she will say something like "the bride was BE-UUUUUU-TIFUL. i mean, like a princess".
& then wes' parents offered to take the girls back to their place & let us stay on a near-by island, giving us full no-kid party time! sadly, i ended the night by--as wes puts it--christening the sidewalks of put-in-bay with my stomach contents...egads. i was doing just fine until we all visited a bar & i had a few neon looking drinks. but, ah well. it was fun to hang with the gerbick clan for the night.
here are all the mrs. gerbicks at the reception
& then all the newer mrs gerbicks.
i have to say we are a fun crowd...
& yet again, i have to make a stupid face when taking a picture. i like how wes is trying to look at me with eyes only, to see if i'm going to smile or not. so sorry, my dear.
the girls hanging out after the wedding, kid style.
***
so amelia has refused to ride this awesome bike--it's hello kitty!--at home. but after the wedding, we stayed for wes' grandma's 87th birthday party. wes' cousin & his wife were there with their 5 month old, baby rosalie. as you may know, amelia is a baby fiend. at times, i think she actually believes she is a mommy. so she became the mom's shadow (elizabeth, as moms do tend to have names...), helping her change rosalie's diaper, talking mommy talk with her & sharing her abundance of baby knowledge. after dinner amelia hops on the scooter & rides around elizabeth, showing off. elizabeth graciously says: i like how you ride your bike, or wait, scooter. amelia replies: that's not my bike, i'll show you how i ride a bike.
she gets her paw-paw bruce to retrieve their bike, reserved only for ms. amelia, & then gets on the bike, riding it like she's always done this super easy task.
so naturally, i was flabbergasted when she rode this bike for the next 15 or 30 minutes. & now that we're home, with no baby rosalie or elizabeth to show off to? she's back to the 3 wheeler or bike trailer. quite the stubborn one, eh?
addy took all of 10 minutes to learn to ride without training wheels, so now she zips around on her bike like she's been doing this for the past 5 years. love it.
***
amelia's first day of preschool, attempt #2. (remember she was pulled per recommendation of the teachers last year?). but! this year is totally different. she loves it. *loves* it. i see in this picture a bit of a nervous edge, naturally. i walked in, we found her name tag & she just kinda started shooing us away. at the end of the day, if she doesn't have homework, she comes home & makes homework for herself out of workbooks we have laying around (in that messy playroom!) & practices writing & coloring in the lines--which she is very good at. so yea, preschool is going amazing, thank sweet jesus, because i don't think i could take another pre-k drop out this year.
***
amelia turns 4!
this was one excited child, she woke up, saw her gifts & proceeded to sweet talk her way into opening them pronto. but really, i can't believe she's four. the night before their birthdays, i tell them the kid version of their births...so away i went, telling amelia how tiny she was, how shocked we were that she was 3 weeks early. of course, amelia is the one to dig deeper, asking: how did they put your skin back on?
??? so here is our dialogue:
me: what do you mean, put my skin back on?
bean: after i came out of your belly, they took your skin off ( doing a hand motion of someone ripping skin off of her belly--gross!)
me: oh, that's not how babies come out of the mommy. some babies are come out through a surgical incision in the mommy's lower belly, but the skin never comes off.
bean: how did i come out of you?
me: (looking a bit frantically at wes--& addy--who are nearby eagerly awaiting my response) well, remember in that book we read that most babies come out of the mommy's vagina, that the baby travels down from the womb....
bean: (interrupting me & smiling) FROM YOUR VAGINA!
addy: how did you go pee?
bean: from your VAGINA?!
addy: did i come from your vagina? did it hurt?????
me: (thinking, haven't we read that one book about a million times & it says this exact thing?) well, yes, both of you were born that way. & yes, it hurt.
bean: was baby evelyn born that way? were you born that way? did chloe & zoe come out of aunt leila's vagina?!
me: yes, evelyn & mommy, & daddy where born that way. chloe & zoe were born by the surgical incision..
bean: mommy, this is crazy! i came out of your vagina!
me: okay, let's move on...
opening the super gift, a hello kitty wind-up music box. sheer joy! & the dora shoes were from addy to amelia. i love seeing what gifts they pick out for each other, ya know?
later that day, at the water fountains, amelia put together her own birthday party, down to how the cake was decorated. love it.
i think over joyed is the expression here...
happy birthday, my millie bean. you are so, so precious. & ornery.
***
& now, addy's first day of kindergarten!
the entire summer, addy has been begging for school to start, asking why, oh why, doesn't school last all year?! then the first week of kindergarten is over & she does NOT like it. well, truthfully, i think she does like it, but parts of it are very trying to her. a new school, teacher (who is totally not like mrs. rochon, who taught addy for 3 years), classmates... plus the entire first week was dedicated to learning the rules of the class & school. "i learned the rules the first day! why do we have to keep learning them all week?!"
do you see these very special & awesome light up shoes? & her shirt actually smells like a peach!
so far we've she doesn't want to go to school about half of the time, which is a total shift from last year...so we're trying to figure it out, how to get her more used to school & all that...including an impromptu meeting with her teacher after a terrible morning, in which the teacher tells us all students have this adjustment to make (uhm, what about her iep, among other things?)...anyway, i will start being a volunteer in her class once a week, hoping that my presence will give addy a bit more comfort & the let the teacher know i back my kid up *wink*
***
amelia has cut her hair 4 times these past few months. here is one effort:
do you see that look she is giving the camera? it's not because we caught her blinking. that would be her look of "i don't care what state of shock you are in. my hair cut looks fabulous, get over it"...
so then we take her to get it trimmed up, looking a bit short & cute...& she cuts it yet again while at my parents house!
we give up. the morning of her birthday, i say we need to trim her bangs a bit, while i'm brushing addy's hair. next thing i know amelia comes running to me, holding a clump of her hair "i did it for you, mommy! look!" truly, we give up. hiding scissors has no effect on her. it's as if she has a location mechanism on the scissors. she's used my hair trimming shears, then the big adult paper scissors, & also blunt ended kid scissors. *sigh*
***
& voila! you are updated, *smile*
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