Little Artists/Back to School Night

Jacob's school had a Silent Auction Art Sale on Thursday and all of the kids made art projects to be auctioned off to raise money for Bright Horizons.  Jacob's class did canvas paintings and I must say, I was quite impressed!  I especially liked the title of his piece: "I Like Blue"  Bwahaha!  SOOOOO Jacob!

After the Silent Auction we had Back to School Night...Elementary School just got REAL!!!  Did I mention that Riley spiked a fever the first night of school and had to stay home sick Thursday and Friday???  Poor girl was so sad!  She really wanted to go to Kindergarten.  At Back to School Night her teacher saw us and came over and asked how Riley was, that she was worried and to tell her that she didn't miss much.  SO SWEET!  She also sent home the art project that they did on Thursday so Riley could do it at home.  The principal and vice principal did a presentation and we were super impressed with them, then we headed over to Riley's class and learned all about the homework, class, schedule and etc.  We have heard great things about Riley's teacher and so far we are SUPER impressed! 

First Day of School

Well our drop off went off without a hitch.  I held myself together until I got into the car and then started bawling the entire drive home.  I took a walk for a coffee after I got home and it felt so weird to not have one of the kids with me. 

We took Jacob to school and then headed over to Riley's school for the first day of school.  I can't believe my 4lbs of fury is a kindergarten, time really flies by!

We got to school super early because we had a ton of supplies and they had record number attendance this year, at her school in particular.  As we're walking in kid after kid is saying hi to Riley, I was like "Riley do you know everyone at this school already?"  She says "I don't know everyone, but they're all in the Stingrays or EDCC with me."  I asked her why she was so nervous if she knew so many kids, I honestly had no idea how much networking Riley had done this summer!  My little social butterfly!

Riley told me her teacher came over at lunch yesterday and sat at the table with she and her friend Ryan and chatted with them for a while.  This morning she saw Riley and put her in charge of telling all of the girls to put their snacks in the green bucket.  I am so excited for her to have this teacher, I think she might get Riley and appreciate Riley's spunkiness.  (We had to fill out a student profile and I was very honest about my child, they then tried to match the kids up with the appropriate teacher while balancing the classes based on the assessments.)  A few minutes later we were invited into the classroom to get the kids settled and take pictures.  Riley is seated next to her friend Quinn and knows 5 of the 26 kids in her class from the neighborhood, EDCC, or her old school.  We'll see how long she and Quinn stay seated next to each other!  When it was time for Marc and I to leave she didn't even care.  She was beaming.  Oh and did I mention her teacher has the room decorated in owls, I'm in heaven in there!

Can't believe my 4lbs of Fury is off to kindergarten!

A little support from baby bro!

Room #3!

With her friend Quinn!  (They're sitting next to each other!)

Time moves too fast!

She was getting sick of the pictures

Owls

At her seat, putting her backpack away

As you can tell, she's miserable!

More owls!

With her teacher!

 



From walks in strollers as newborns to classmates in kindergarten



Well I picked Riley up after school (oh and I got there right as the bell was ringing to let them out and all of the parents were already lined up, working mommy fail!  No one told me you had to be there 5 minutes before the bell rang and I didn't ask since most times she'll be going to EDCC afterwards) and she had the BEST day!  She said she almost cried a little because she missed Jacob, which I didn't buy since she hasn't gone to the same school as him in 3 months but ok, but that Kindergarten was awesome!  They read 3 stories, did art projects, only went outside one time (I explained to her that she was only there for 4 hours) and that her teacher told her she was her best girl and she loved her teacher.  All in all she was in an extremely chipper mood!  She also told me that everyone looked so pretty and handsome today, good thing I made her wear a skirt to school today!  (See mom does know best!)

I took her to Fuddruckers for lunch (her pick, a switch up from The Habit which I was a little disappointed about but it was her special day).  Then I took her to the mall to pick out some clothes for her Build A Bear as a special treat, we grabbed some ice cream cones on the way out to cheers a successful day at Kindergarten.  Then off to Target to grab some stuff, home briefly and then we got Jacob.  When we got home, Riley requested popcorn and a movie on the couch where she promptly fell asleep despite the best efforts of her brother to keep her awake.  Anyone who knows Riley knows this is NOT like her, I asked her if she was ok and she said "Yeah, just tired.  I had a rough day!"  LOL! 

A little Fuddrucker's for lunch to celebrate making it through her first day!

Cheers to kindergarten (and earning two stars on the first day for good behavior!)

Exhausted

Jacob was pulling her hair here and she's still sleeping!

To My Riley-Roo on Your First Day of Kindergarten

Riley,

Daddy and I just dropped you off at kindergarten for the first time, you have been in day care your whole life and have been on campus all summer but still, today, dropping you in your kindergarten class, it felt as if time has flown by.  I'm sitting at home and the house feels so big and empty knowing you are at school, which is weird because I've never stayed home with you full time but knowing you're now school age it feels like a void exists.  I can't wait to pick you up a lunch and hear all about your day.

 I feel like yesterday we were bringing you home from the hospital as a newborn, my 4lbs of fury, and here you are exuding confidence on your first day of public school.  Words can not express the pride I feel for you Riley.  I am so proud of the beautiful girl that you have become - on the inside and outside.   I hope you love school as much as I loved school and I hope that you find your way academically.  You are a bright, social, fun-loving girl who brightens whatever room you walk into.  You've overcome a lot in your 5 1/2 years of life, you have strength that people can't dream of having and you have a smile that glows. 

I know you are destined for great things and today is the beginning of that journey. 

I love you Riley and I know you will have a fabulous year in kindergarten!

Love
Mommy

Twas The Night Before Kindergarten...

and all through the house not a creature was stirring, except for a very choked up momma
The supplies were packed with great care, in the hopes that Riley would have a great year
(And mommy wouldn't get called into the principal's office too often)
Her backpack was hung, outfit carefully chosen, the jitters worked out
Can we get the year started without so much as a pout
New teacher, new friends, new learning,
Let's get Kindergarten off in full swing
Reading, writing, arithmetic,
I can't wait to see all of your new tricks!

Happy 2014-2015 school year!







That's an entire bag of "suggested" donations.  So much for a free public school education!

One Last Hurrah

Riley got invited over to her friend Madeleine's house for an Emmy/First Day of School (Pleasanton started school today) Party.  Jacob of course spiked a fever while he was napping, I say of course because it was just yesterday I thought to myself "Jacob hasn't been sick in forever."  I also took the week off from work (thus all of the blog posts) and besides today when Riley had no day care and Wednesday, her first day of school, I was going to have some much needed "me" time.  Silly me for thinking I could get a bit of a break, de-stress, de-compress, because I will now have a moody, not feeling well 2 1/2 year old wanting to be held non-stop.  Oh well, I know Jacob could use the mommy time so I'll make the best of it, I was really wanting to go shopping but considering I have no idea if I will have a job in the next few months because of Safeway's merger with Albertson's, I guess it's for the best (oh yes, and that's the stress driver right there, I have no idea if I will have a job, just got a new boss who I am not a fan of, and I really don't like sales, so I really needed to decompress this week.  Hoping this is a very quick virus for little man and he can return to day care soon!)  But I digress, so Marc came home from work early and watched Jacob and I took Riley to the party.  I didn't bring her suit because a) she's not a good swimmer and b) we needed to get back to put Jacob to bed.  But....I got sucked into this!

 

One last hurrah for the summer!

End of the Summer

Wow, this summer has flown by!  Thursday we got invited back to Jacob's old day care for their annual end of the summer party.  Jacob still talks about all of his old friends and last weekend Riley asked if he missed anyone from his old school and he said "I miss my Ami!" (His teacher from his toddler class whom he adores) so we decided to stop by.  Everyone was so excited to see the kids and even more importantly, they were thrilled to hear that Jacob is doing so well at his new school.  Riley ran around with her old friends and we learned two kids from her Pre-K class will be in her kindergarten class, I think she now knows like 6 kids in her class.  I pity her teacher!!!  Jacob ate his way through the afternoon!  On the way home he said "Momma, me had fun party." 

Double fisting it!

Found a nice park bench to relax and snack

Snacking with his friends, that's Isaac, his buddy!  Jacob talks about Isaac all the time!

He cracks me up!

All smiles!

And FRIDAY, Riley's summer program had a parent's potluck at lunch time so I popped over there to have lunch with her.  Our neighbor Shari couldn't make it so I played surrogate to Ryan and Riley's friend Quinn's mom couldn't make it either so I ended up taking mommy duty with her too.  It was so much fun, though Riley wanted to come home with me after and I had SO much work to get done before I could go on vacation.  It was fun to see her interacting with all of the kids, even though she's only been there 3 months, they've gotten quite close and she has her own little group.  She can certainly hang with the boys!

Riley and Ryan, always together!

Lunch with my girl!

Riley and her boys from the 'hood.  All of these kids live on our street plus a few more not in the picture.  What a great group we have!

Nothing Says Official Like...

A teacher and room assignment! 

I went over to Riley's elementary school on Tuesday and finished registration and as a prize we found out who Riley's teacher would be.  I really can't believe my little preemie is starting Kindergarten in 6 days!  It turns out she's in the same class as her buddy across the street, Ryan, another little boy from our street, Lucas, and a friend from EDCC (we also have a mutual friend) Quinn.  I can't believe that there are 3 kids from our neighborhood in her class, poor teacher!

I took the afternoon off because apparently every year we have to do fall check-in to confirm that we still live in the neighborhood so the lines were long, I got there at 2:30, the doors opened at 3:00 and I was done by 3:45!  I decided to get Riley early since I was off for the afternoon and I took her by her classroom so she'd feel more comfortable next week when she starts.  I was getting ready to pick her up to look in the window and the door opened, her teacher was in there and invited us in and showed Riley around.  It was super sweet!  It turns out her teacher is the teacher who assessed her for kindergarten.  There are 5 kindergarten teachers and 2 of them are fantastic, she's one of them.  Lucas' brother had her last year and they loved her and my couple interactions with her were awesome!  She was great with Riley.  So I am VERY excited that she has her!  The downside, she does everything alphabetically, and well, Riley doesn't like to be last.  Sensing this, the teacher told Riley that she would rely on her to make sure no one got behind her in line.  She needed Riley to be her helper and that was her important job for the year, suddenly being last wasn't so bad!  :)  I also warned Ms. Kiernan that Riley should probably be in the front of the class so she could easily be reminded that she shouldn't be talking in class, especially with Ryan in there. 

Kindergarten is SO real now!  Ahhh, what happened to my baby!?!

First Week

Well Jacob survived his first week at Bright Horizons, he more than survived, he thrived!  So far he is doing so well!  He still talks a lot about his friends from his old school (luckily he went to a birthday party this weekend with all of his buddies so he got to see them and he as another one this coming weekend) but he is doing fantastic at Bright Horizons.  He's playing well with other kids, he's more social, his verbal skills skyrocketed this past week (our neighbor even commented on it and we even skipped speech therapy last week), and he just seems lighter and happier.  He loves to show me all of the different things that he does there and drop-offs are still hard but they aren't as hard as they've been before KinderCare.  On his 5th day when I picked him up, his teacher told me that he loves to dance, whenever they turn music on he runs over to dance, I never knew this about him or else I would have turned the music on more often!  So far all signs point to this being the right place for my little man!

They make up Daily fliers every day and Jacob made two pictures the second day and got called out for playing well side by side with another friend doing trains, this never happened at his old school!

The infamous marker table on the way out, at least there are no crackers at this school so my car is much cleaner.

Mr Man's cubby

The Journey Worth Traveling

She's had 19 casts over the course of her life, I've driven countless miles to orthopedic surgeon appointments, we've probably had 100s of Drs appointments between casts and check-ups, we've had dozens of brace fittings, I've felt like I've failed her too many times, I've spent countless nights awake with worry about her feet, she's been through two surgeries, she has a killer AFO tan, but today it all culminated in two perfect feet and today it was all worthwhile.  Today, Riley, for the first time in a long time, is brace free with two feet in perfect position with perfect flexibility. 

We are nearly 6 months post-up, we've been monthly since her surgery for check-ups, we waited over an hour today to get into our appointment, all signs were pointing to a bad day.  But we got called back to our room and all the nurses fussed over Riley as usual, commented on how tall she looked since last month and joked over who got to have her as their favorite patient.  Then Dr H came, had her do her walking exercises, checked her flexibility.  I mentioned that Riley has been complaining a bit about her AFO hurting her heel so she may need a new AFO or could it be stretched.  He said "Why don't we just stop the AFO all together?  She looks good, really good."  Riley has been hoping for this day for months now, so needless to say she was ecstatic, as was I, I told him how happy we were with her feet, everything about them from the scars to the position, to the shape.  She gave Dr H a big hug, he said "Riley, I've had a really bad day today, but this, this made up for it all."  For me, I am so relieved, a huge weight feels like it has been lifted, I nearly broke out in tears, it's been a long, uphill battle to get here but we are here and I am so thankful.  Riley and I skipped through the parking lot hand in hand singing "We are brace free!" 

There's still the possibility that she could need more surgery but today I am relishing in the fact that this is not on the table right now and that Riley can start kindergarten AFO free, that she can do all of the activities that she wants and that I don't have to remember to check her backpack every morning for her AFO.  It didn't seem like we would ever get to this point, but we got here, and I am loving it!!!

After waiting for over an hour, this is what she would give me!  Check out those awesome feet!

On the way up to Dr H she was telling me about checkers and chess, I told her we'd go get Checkers at Target after her appointment if she behaved (she had a field trip and no nap so it was questionable).  Well she did great so we got a checkers/chess combo game, she tried to teach Jacob how to play.

I think her smile says it all!

First Day Jitters

...for Mommy that is!  Jacoby started Bright Horizons on Monday and I couldn't have been more nervous for him.  But it all went very smoothly, despite him having to start the day in Pre-School and he had never met that teacher.  Fortunately, for me that class has a guinea pig in it so he was fascinated by Lightning the Guinea Pig and I was able to leave without him getting upset.  I called at lunch to see how he was doing and they said he was having a really good day, that he cried for me a little especially when he got bumped on the playground but overall he had a great day.  He loved taking his big boy lunchbox to school like Riley does and he told me the next morning that he had fun.  He also went the whole day without an accident!!!  Fingers crossed we made the right move!

End Of An Era

Friday was Jacob's last day at KinderCare, I was more sad than I expected since we haven't been happy with his care there for a few months.  But we've been a family there since Riley was 4 1/2 months old.  We know all of the teachers and they know us, and maybe we were all just a little too comfortable with each other.  I know moving to Bright Horizons is the right thing for Jacob, he's really enjoyed his visits there and I think his teachers are going to be great for him.  He's completely different than Riley and we've been trying to fit him into the mold that worked for her for so many years and we finally realized what works for her isn't working for him.  I've observed his new teachers with him and some of the other kids the past few days and I am just floored by their ability to engage with the kids and how they handle even difficult ones.  Friday when we were visiting, one of the teachers came in and said "Good morning Jackson, I'm so excited for you to have a great day today."  He said "Thanks."  She said, "I just know you are going to make great decisions."  Then Jacob got upset when Jackson tried to play with him and was yelling and getting upset and she very quickly and effectively talked him down and got them playing together.  She also called me yesterday afternoon to tell me she and the other teacher would be in late so they wouldn't be there at drop-off for Jacob's first day but she spoke to the Pre-School teacher and told him about Jacob and he would be ready for him and to help with the separation anxiety.  So all of these are the reasons we are moving him, these are things he needs.  He's not as carefree and easy going as Riley, he's not as social, and he's definitely more stubborn and upsets easily, he needs a calmer environment. 

But still it's sad to end one chapter and a little scary to open another when we don't know what the ending will be. 

A last day chair ride from Miss Brenda and Miss Kristy

Ri had a field trip to the Children's Discovery Museum in San Jose, I couldn't chaperone but my friend, Alicia went and sent me this pic.  Thank goodness for friends to keep an eye on your kid when you can't! :) 

Playdates

Jacob is finally showing interest in being sociable and has been asking for a play date with his friend Isaac from school.  So last weekend we met at the park (early to beat the 100 weather) for a playdate.  I let Riley tag along because Isaac's older sister is Riley's age, it was a fun, albeit hot day!

After a morning at the park, we headed to meet Joey and Alex for lunch!  My busy bees!

Best buds!



These four, so much fun!

I don't know about these two...they are pretty darn cute together!!!