Pre-K Graduation

Last year's preschool graduation was a much more comprehensive post than this one will be. You know, with it being Ashton's first ceremony/certificate/all that :) This year followed the same format in terms of parent breakfast, then concert, then the actual graduation.

Perhaps what stands out the most is Ashton's size. He looks huge to me.

Last night I put him in pajamas that are a size 5 and his wrists and ankles were showing! He is taller than pretty much every other kid in his class and lately Jason and I can't believe our eyes at how big he is, the things he says, etc. I hardly pick him up anymore because he's too heavy! Besides that, there's really no place he needs to be carried :(  Luckily I still have Alex, who is Mr. "I want UP!" all the time.

Ashton can do so much on his own now, it's frightening. BUT, he is still just 4. I think I mentioned we are holding him back and he will start TK (transitional kindergarten) this fall at his same school. He has done great there and I'm confident it is the right decision. But considering Alex is starting a toddler program and we still have Jen, the 2016-2017 school year is shaping up to be our most expensive yet! What are your thoughts on a bake sale? Or maybe I can go through the basement to see what we could sell. Sort of kidding, sort of not. 

One last shot of our recent grad...

And we move on! June has been good so far - we "fished" for minnows at Wayland Town Beach (which is going to fulfill all the sun/sand/water needs of the season), Jason had 5 cubic yards of soil delivered to seed our lawn and make our garden (a very exciting highlight that I am still cleaning up after), the hose is out in full force, we have popsicles after dinner, ride our bikes, hunt for bugs and generally play play play! Oh, and Jason set up a huge golf net on our screened in porch. He got the boys real clubs too! Just what I need. 

Summer, here we come...!!

The Story About the Gorilla

By now, most people have heard the story about the three year old boy that slipped into the gorilla enclosure over Memorial Day weekend at the Cincinnati Zoo. The gorilla was shot and killed in order to protect the boy. I admit I am obsessed with this story. I have spent a fair amount of time reading articles and skimming through some of the thousands of comments. Comments that blame the mother for letting the child slip away from her and therefore want to hold her accountable for the gorilla's death. Comments that say we can't possibly blame the mother. Comments that think the zoo could have done something differently or that the gorilla's behavior was misinterpreted as aggressive. The comments are accompanied by nasty criticisms too, like the mom is overweight, black and has too many kids so she's probably on welfare. They should call CPS on her! Clearly she can't take care of her children. Criticisms like the father also has kids with other women and has a long record - what an upstanding citizen (not)! As if that has anything to do with it. But everyone is arguing with each other over which way the finger should be pointed. It's parents vs. non-parents, rich vs. poor, black vs. white.

There has also been a general escalation of issues that goes beyond what happened at the zoo. For example, look how many people signed a petition to hold the mother responsible for what happened. Why has everyone banded together so fiercely over an animal when there are children in our country that are beaten, starved, neglected and hardly noticed? They are innocent, just like the gorilla, and the masses hardly go to bat for their safety and well-being. And while we are on Harambe, we shouldn't keep animals in zoos in the first place! THAT'S the real problem!

And on. and on. One commenter stated that the zookeepers missed when they shot Harambe (they should have shot the mother). !!! It's fascinating to me, and horrifying. Here's why.

Earlier this spring I took the boys to a playground for a quick meet up with friends. The playground is part of a larger park that has baseball fields, basketball courts, etc. So, a very large area and it was tee-ball opening day, so there were kids and parents everywhere, festivities, a parade, etc. The street was packed with cars and the play structures were overcrowded with kids. I stood to the side chatting with two friends while I kept one eye on Ashton and one eye on Alex. At one point, Alex crawled up into a tube and remained there (or so I assumed because I saw him go in and he hadn't come out).

Then a couple of minutes later, out of the corner of my eye, I spied Alex's red and white striped shirt approaching me from the opposite direction of where I thought he was. I had not seen him leave the tube and I remember thinking "Huh, where did you come from? Weren't you in the tube?" It was fleeting and I scooped him up in my arms and continued to chat.

A few minutes had passed when a woman came up to me. She pointed at Alex, who I was still holding. "Is this your son?" she asked me. I told her yes. She said, "Did you know he was just out in the middle of the street?"

I couldn't even reply. I squeaked out a "No, I didn't! Oh my god..." and she proceeded to tell me that he had wandered out into the road (there were no gates), she had seen him and stopped her car. Hadn't I heard all the honking? She said she was grateful that the other drivers behind her didn't try and go around her  - they might not have seen him.

The conversation went on but I was speechless and honestly in disbelief. There was nothing I could say. The truth was that I thought I knew where my son was, I stopped paying attention for a split second, and he escaped me. The woman was very nice about it - she seemed to understand that my horror was probably punishment enough. To this day I still shake a little when I think that Alex could have been hit by a car. I was really, really lucky.

Then this happened with the gorilla. That could have been any parent, anywhere. Little kids are sneaky, fast, and have no sense of danger or consequence. What if Alex had wandered into the street and caused a car accident? And someone died? That's akin to what happened with Harambe. Would I be sued for negligence? Would I be the one responsible for the death of that person? What if it wasn't Alex that ran into the road but a dog who escaped his owner? Would it be the owner's fault?

So I admit, I have been following this story very closely, wondering what would happen. Today at 1 pm, the announcement:

And all I felt was relief. Thank GOD. The event at the zoo was a sad, terrible accident. An endangered animal was killed and it's awful, but I'm glad she won't be held responsible. She has stood enough judgment. I imagine people saying about me what they said about her and it makes me sick to my stomach. I happened to get lucky with Alex and I will never forget it.

May Meanderings

Wellllll hi. I haven't posted in a couple of weeks, perhaps you have/haven't noticed. Either way, there have been a lot of little things that by themselves do not equal a post, but now have added up where I will document them all at once. Totally random, for the most part, and therefore will take a while (lucky you).

1. First, we can't go anywhere until Ashton gets his due. Some of the gems lately:

***
Ashton: When are we going in the rocket?
Me: Um, what?
Ashton: You know, when are we going to blast off into outer space?
Me: Oh honey, I'm not sure. Not for a really long time.
Ashton [thinking]: Yeah, ok, you're right. We should probably wait until Alex is older.

Yes, because Alex's age is definitely the hurdle here.

***
Ashton [checking himself out at bathtime]: What are these two lumps down here? Look, right here (points)
Me: Well, those are your balls.
Ashton: What are they for?
Me:
Ashton: Do they hold all my pee until I go to the potty?
Me [pausing]: Yep, that's exactly what they do.

***
"I am exhausting today." On a day when he woke up really early.

***
"I just did a smooth toot. A SMOOTH toot is when it doesn't make any noise. It feels really soft."

***
Ashton: Give me a snack.
Me: Um, what's the magic word?
Ashton: Abracadabra! Now give me a snack.

***
Ohhh and there are just so, so many more. One time he was waiting for me to go down the slide on the swingset. When I got to the bottom he said "Whoa Mommy! Good thing that slide was so strong!"
Thanks. Thanks a lot.

2. Speaking of offenses brought on by your children, Alex's new favorite thing to do is take pictures with my iPhone. He will take hundreds, usually in bursts, and usually looking like this.

However, last night he took this one, which actually has a main subject!

And that main subject is the huge wrinkle emanating from the corner of my left eye. It probably goes all the way around my head. This is new, I hope the boys are pleased with themselves. Now they can focus on their more obvious goal of turning every last hair on my head gray.

3. Before and Afters: Just because there haven't been any of these posts lately doesn't mean that things aren't going on! Jason has been hard at work on some landscaping projects and this is the current state of our kitchen.

We have another month at least before the backsplash tile comes in, so once that is all set you'll get the full glamour shots/full post on that. Oh! And we got a sandbox!

See it? Allllll the way in the corner back there? ;) Originally we were laughing about putting it there when we have a huge open yard but then realized we HAD to - any other spot and the sprinklers would hit it. I'm told that me and my siblings spent hours in the sandbox growing up so here's hoping this thing pays off. Jason's about to place a 2 week moratorium on playing in the backyard so he can get the grass up to snuff, but after that, the sandbox is open for business and I better see some return in the form of playing by themselves for more than six minutes.

4. Ashton had his annual allergy appointment/skin prick/etc. and there is good news! We have scheduled his food challenges for pistachio, hazelnut and almond towards the end of the summer. Woo! I was happy about the peanut last year but I am looking forward to tree nuts because they are such a good source of protein. A lot of doors open up for healthy snacks that have nuts in them so if it goes well, only eggs and sesame will remain.

5. My sister came to visit Massachusetts this past weekend and stopped at our house for a night. I got to watch Callie for a little bit and introduced her to my favorite game. It's called, "SHHHH! NAPS ARE FOR EVERYBODY."

Heh heh.

Also I am going to be an aunt again! Callie will have a little brother or sister right around my birthday in November! :) I let Kari go through my maternity clothes one last time and posted the rest up for sale (and will donate what is left over). I've been saving every last shoe, jacket, rash guard, hat, etc. for her if she has a boy, If she has another girl, I still know it's time to start clearing out the basement of all our baby stuff. I'm kind of sad, kind of not ;)

6. School updates. Ashton's birthday is August 3, so we have recently had to decide if we are sending him to kindergarten. He does make the cut off but would be one of the youngest in his class and we decided to hold him back. I looked around at various programs in Natick, trying to find him a school closer to home (he remained at Belmont Nursery School after we moved to Natick for a lot of reasons) and ultimately I could not find a school that checked all my boxes. If they had the right location, program, and schedule, they were either full or a TON of $$$. When I thought I had finally found one, Jason and I sat down many times with our spreadsheet (and calculator) to map out when we would both be working, when Jen would come, when Alex has his group class, when he could go to a toddler program (2 mornings per week), and Ashton's TK (transitional kindergarten, MWF) along with his enrollment in Forest Gnomes (Tues/Thurs), which is this incredibly unique waldkindergarten (read: entire outdoors) at the Natick Community Organic Farm. They play in the woods every day, whether it's raining, snowing, sleeting, etc. and if it's too cold, they warm up in the "Gnome Home":



The program was not ABC's and 123's - it was centered around the seasons, the environment, wildlife, helping out with chores, learning respect and responsibility, etc. Jason and I were floored when we went to see it (and equally floored by the long list of gear recommended!). We thought this, in addition to his regular school, would be amazing. How could we not take advantage of a something like this? Especially when it was offered 10 minutes away and Ashton would love it.

But here is something sort of funny. Our ideal schedule, including Jen @ 20-25 hours a week, two programs for Ashton and one for Alex, was $3,400 a month. I say sort of funny but I really mean there was ABSOLUTELY NO WAY we could pay all that. So we made two tough decisions. First, we had to drop Forest Gnomes. It was painful - we had been on a wait list and finally gotten in. The deposit was non-refundable but I convinced them to keep it for Alex some day. Second, we decided to keep Ashton at Belmont Nursery School. It means he will still commute with me 3 days a week all next year, but it was nearly $400 a month cheaper than our other option. Most importantly though, the class is a true TK, designed for summer birthdays or those children that just miss the cut off (all kids are 5 by 12/31). We love the teacher, Ashton will stay with some friends, and part of me feels good that I am just a mile away at work if he ever were to need me during the day. I have a part time toddler program picked out for Alex, 2 mornings a week starting in the fall, but I'm waiting to see if she can make the schedule I requested work for her.

Soooo that's the long boring update on that.

What else. Summer hours have started at Bentley, so I'm off on Fridays now until mid-August. This weekend is Memorial Day and Grandma and Grandpa are coming up to visit. Besides that, we really have no plans for the foreseeable future so I have set two very big goals to give me something to focus on. A) Get Ashton on his bike training-wheel-free and B) convince Alex to eat chicken. Or any meat, for that matter.

Well, take it or leave it, but this has been the May report!

Mother's Day

Well I have celebrated this day, let's see...one, two, three, four...five times now!! Whoa nelly. But Mother's Day is not a super big thing in our house. Historically it is a very busy work day for Jason so I usually spend it with the boys (go figure) and we usually do something outside. This weekend GG came down for a quick overnight, which was a lifesaver because on Saturday I was not feeling great and actually got to lay down for most of the afternoon, worry free. She took the boys on walks, made their lunches, played on the floor, all that good GG stuff. Thanks Mom :)

Plus the weather was crappy. I think by the time Sunday afternoon came the sun had not been out in six days. GG left, the boys and I took naps, and we awoke at 4 pm to glorious rays streaming through the windows. There was only one thing to do - I ran them into the ground on the tennis courts. Spring training!

They did a lot of intervals. Alex runs like a baby penguin, I could watch him all day it is so funny. Hot tip: you can get kids to do pretty much anything with a timer and they wore themselves plain out. Tired boys on Mother's Day is one of the greater gifts I could receive so I was happy :) The other gift I got looked like this.

I CAN NOT look at this picture without laughing. Jason gave this to me last night and I just could not stop. We are a family of alien spiders apparently.

Anyway, Jason also gave me a watch I have been wanting for about 8 years (seriously 8 years) and between him and the boys, I got lots of kisses and hugs. The best though is all the random times Ashton says "I love you Mommy!" totally out of the blue. He did it yesterday twice, once when I was reading to him and once when we were at the playground. I think he says it when he feels happy :) Between that and all the times he announced "Hey! It's Mother's Day!", I felt pretty good.

Because I forgot until it was just the three of us, I had to take my own picture. Here we were, 5:30 pm on Mother's Day 2016.

You know, a lot of people love to say how hard motherhood is, and it really is sometimes. But, parents or not, we all have tough days and they are different for everyone. The boys and I, we have some quiet times just them and me. I'm a very social person - I get my energy from having friends over, meeting people places, and getting out of the house. So quiet days with no plans are sometimes a challenge, although less and less so because the boys are becoming great company. Ashton talks nonstop, and Alex can light up any room. I feel like when we go places together we are our own little group. So for me, yesterday was less about Mother's Day and more about being grateful for my two companions that I enjoy so much. I love you both!! XO Ashton and XO Alex!!

A conversation with a 4 year old about the Tooth Fairy

The other day Ashton, Alex and I were all playing outside but the truth is, Alex was really cranky. Like bad. He was just walking around saying no to the world and swatting things. At one point he was wailing loudly for no particular reason, so I pulled him in for a hug and saw it. A big ole...

Painful lump with half a tooth coming out of it. It alllllll made sense. Ashton watched me give him some Advil, Alex pepped up a little and we all moved on. Or so I thought.

One of the funny things about young children is they can bring something up hours, days, or weeks after it happens, as though they have been marinating on it and finally want to discuss it. You need to be careful when this happens because you are suddenly under investigation with no warning at all.

So later that night, teeth brushing session before bed. Ashton asks,

"Mommy, Alex has a MOW-wer?"
"Yes, a molar. He's definitely getting one."
"Why?"
"Well, he turned 2 and it's just kind of a thing. The two year molars, you know."
"I know?"
"Yes. You have molars too."
"I do?"
"Yes. Back here." [show him in the mirror]
"Oh! I see. What do they do?"
"Well they are big strong teeth. They do what the Dinotrux do: Crush it! Smash it!" [emote verbs like in the theme song] "We use them for chewing food."
"Oh. Do you have any?"
"Yes." [open my mouth and show him, at which point he sees the metal bar along the inside of my bottom front teeth]
"What is THAT?" [pointing at said metal bar]
"That's my retainer. It keeps my teeth straight."
"Where did you get it?"
"At the special doctor called the orthodontist. A long time ago."
"When you were a little girl?"
"Kind of. I was 14."
"Oh. I'm 4."
[pause]
[move into his bedroom, I start tucking him in]
"So the mowers just grow back there in your mouf {"mouth"} when they are ready? When you are two?"
"Yes...well..."
"Then what?"
"Well then you have all these teeth until you are a big boy and then because you grow, your mouth is ready for bigger teeth, so the little ones you have now fall out and new ones come in."
[quiet while there is some very hard thinking about this]
"They...fall out?"
"Yes. But it doesn't hurt! And then the Tooth Fairy comes. You put the tooth under your pillow, and she comes and takes it and leaves you some money. Good night sweetie." [kiss, hug, turn off light]
"But why does she want to take the tooth?"
"Ummm..." [Anyone have answer ideas that don't sound sinister? I'm certain to get asked this one again]
"Why does she leave money? What do you do with it?"
"Well you can put it in your piggy bank. Good night." [standing in the doorway]
"Does the Tooth Fairy ever bring presents?"
"Well...no, just money."
"But what if I want presents not money?"
"GOOD NIGHT!"
[shut door, pray he has no scary dreams about a pixie flying around his room and snatching up teeth]

Oy.

I heard that kids ask somewhere in the neighborhood of 288 questions per day. This never-ending conversation included just 18 of those 288. A measly 6.25%! So you see what I am dealing with here.

The larger concern is that third degree interrogation is happening to parents everywhere. The questions are constant and most adults are not walking Googles. I, for one, would estimate that 85% of my answers are legit. Like I fielded the above questions pretty handily. Otherwise I wing it. Good thing he goes to school.

Ashton, age 4, possesses unknown amounts of misinformation even though his mom has her bachelor's degree and works at a university. 

Holding Pattern

So it's official, we flipped nearly an entire kitchen in 2 weeks. And by we, I mean Manny, Lorenzo, Hector, Brian and Jason. I pretty much did nothing :D

Where we stand now: cabinets, countertops and appliances are installed and everything is functioning! Tonight my main project is to move back in - everything was really dirty from the construction (even inside the (brand new) refrigerator was somehow dusty!). So it had to be vacuumed, wiped, mopped and wiped again. Jason needs to finish up some trim work, the cabinet hardware needs to go on and the long wait for our backsplash tile (8-10 weeks!) has begun. I'm going to wait until it is all 100% completed before doing a full post, but for now I'll leave you with what things look like as of two days ago, right before our faucet went in.

See you after the backsplash tile goes in! (Well I'll see you before that, but it won't be kitchen related ;) )

Meanwhile in Florida...

So if you'll recall, once the kitchen demo started, the boys and I got the heck out. For 5 days we enjoyed all the trappings that Florida, specifically Poppy and Mema's new digs in Palm Coast, had to offer. We went to Marineland (Ashton got to pet a dolphin!), the St Augustine Alligator Farm, two different beaches, an awesome BBQ joint on the intercoastal waterway, and of course spent tons of time splashing around in the pool. Alex basically lived in a swim diaper (I could have put on a bathing suit, but, eh - why bother?). Check out the footage ---> double jump!

Ben, Kari and Callie were there too and we had such a good time. My little niece is soooo adorable, I just wanted to keep squeezing her. And the boys were great. I admit it was a bit challenging doing the solo parenting thing, especially on the flights, but it was well worth it. I loved spending so much quality time with them. Plus Jason told me that it really did help with the kitchen install in that the guys basically worked 7 am - 9 pm and did not have to clean up their mess/tools in between. 

A few (hundred) pictures from the long weekend await you just after this paragraph! The weather was not the best but we did not let that stop us. In fact, it worked in my favor because then I didn't have to take my beach coverup off (the first time you put on a bathing suit after a long winter is mighty scary, amiright?). 

THANK YOU POPPY AND MEMA!! And also to Lilli, for enduring the endless treats that were offered to her :)

So we got back to Massachusetts yesterday on a beautiful Marathon Monday, Jason picked us up and we headed home to check out the progress. It is pretty crazy, in under 2 weeks our entire kitchen will have been flipped. By Friday the countertops should be in, appliances hooked up, sink running and we will only want for a backsplash! Here is the "before" to "in progress" as of this morning!

We are not quite at an "AFTER" but almost...

Kitchen Demo Day

It's really happening! OMG! As I type this there are several men in my house taking out my kitchen!  eeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

Yesterday:

Right now:

Sorry it's a little unreal considering we started the process before Christmas. Renovations take a long time to plan! There are so many moving parts in terms of scheduling the contractors/workers, picking things out, placing special orders and whatnot. Countless hours reading reviews, shopping, learning just how much things cost (haha), and worrying about doing it right. We'd stand in the kitchen, walk around, pretend to do things like open the fridge or throw something in the trash - it had to function or we would die trying.

In the meantime, it turns out that not furnishing the foyer was the best thing I ever did, because now we had a whole separate space to create our temporary kitchen. Geographically, this is the pass-through room to get upstairs:

Temporary kitchen:

Jason took down some of the cabinets this weekend for us to use in here before they (and the old fridge) go in the basement. Overall it took me 4.5 hours to move everything out of the kitchen and into either this room or downstairs. I was getting flashbacks of our move here in the first place!

So we have the old microwave, our toaster, coffee maker, and the grill outside. I will still probably be using 5 Guys and Comellas takeout :D
On Wednesday I'm taking the boys to FL for 5 days and hopefully when we get back, a lot of the stuff will be done. All signs so far point to survival (plus, just got good news that we are actually able to vent our hood to the outside, something we did not think possible). Yay!

Speaking of stuff, here's the mood board I created (or, attempted to create) based on the final choices!

We totally know we are going to the "safe and classic" route with the white and gray, but I think it's going to look so pretty. I'm obsessed with our backsplash tile although it won't be in for 10 weeks :-/
Refer to my comment above that everything takes soooo long!

The appliances came today, the electrician comes tomorrow and then the cabinets arrive on Wednesday, pretty much at the exact same time I'll be boarding a plane (solo, did I mention?) with the boys.

We are officially..

A New Nill, a country in Blogland. Population: 0!

I haven't been around lately ahhhhh!!! If enough time goes by where I don't post I start to get twitchy, like I might lose all four of my readers!!

Things have been super busy at home, super busy at work, we got SNOW, it was Easter and we had all those associated activities, and our kitchen project starts on Monday next week. Two days after that I am flying solo with the boys to Florida to escape the aforementioned kitchen project, but before that, and before Monday, I have to clear out all our cupboards, drawers, toys, etc., set up a makeshift kitchen area, and in general just figure out how all of this is going to go. Our nanny's grandfather passed away so our schedule has been off, there has been tons of drama with Home Depot and our cabinet delivery (everything is coming in two days later than we hoped so we haven't even started and already the timeline is getting pushed), and in general it's just been, like, AHHHHH!!!

The boys are their usual selves, so that's comforting. 

So that's all I have for you today unfortunately. Promise to get a good post in before FL!