64 days later

Last Thursday was the final day of preschool for Myka this year. We were both very sad as she LOVED her teacher and class that met two days a week at "Daddy's church." I was sad as I had become very productive in my two and a half hours of free time twice a week - (Eli's morning nap lined up perfectly with Myka's preschool day!)
As I was copying the preschool calendar into my planner last August I realized she would have 64 days of school this year. I remember wondering if that meant 64 days of trying to convince her it would be fun, 64 days of a couple tears of uncertainty as we dropped her off, 64 days of a grumpy girl when I would go pick her up. It turned out that most of those 64 days were filled with fun friends and learning experiences she will remember well into the summer, and memories saved forever in the pages of the wonderful scrapbook her teacher made for her.

We are already counting down the days until we start again next fall.

Sweet Tooth?

I think I have created a monster.
I will admit that I did not follow the "What to Eat when you're Expecting" guidelines (oh yes, there is a book by that name) while I was pregnant. It is no secret I enjoy some chocolate now and then. And when I say some, I mean a lot. And when I say now and then, I mean daily, and actually hourly. And so while I was pregnant with Eli I didn't worry too much about it because I ate healthy otherwise, gained the right amount of weight, didn't drink any caffeine, and already had one child who was formed in the same womb and now will eat pretty much anything that is in front of her.
And now we have Eli.
A boy who won't eat anything except for rice cereal and banana flavored Gerber puffs. Not any other flavor, not any other brand of puffs, and not a regular banana in any other form - even if it's mixed in with his daily dose of rice cereal. And if you think something is wrong with me and you could get him to eat something else, please come over and try.
So today, I was carrying Eli and getting a cookie for Myka (because she had finished all of her lunch, of course) and he grabbed at it and broke a piece off. Normally, I would take this away immediately, but I wasn't worried about him actually putting it in his mouth. I haven't even moved the dog dishes off the floor yet because he crawls over to them, realizes they are meant to be food, and crawls away. I'm not even kidding. He just doesn't put food up to his mouth. Except for this cookie. It went right in. I just stood there and watched. He did spit it back out, but then found the piece on his shirt and RETURNED IT TO HIS MOUTH! That never happens. He then lunged toward the rest of the cookie I was still holding in my other hand, and started trembling, like if he didn't have more of that he might go into some sort of fit. He did get one more bite before the "no fake sugar until age 2" side of me took over and I gave the cookie to it's rightful owner.
I'm still trying to figure out how he knew that cookie would be good, and why he wanted it in his mouth so bad in the first place. I had even tried a new Gerber baby snack about 5 minutes before this that he wanted absolutely nothing to do with. In fact, I have tried about everything a baby is allowed to or is supposed to be eating (according to all of the books about feeding babies after they are out of the womb.)
I guess I will just have to write my own book.

Building Memories

Myka moments

As I was cleaning her room one morning, Myka decided to try on her cousin's leotard and dance to the radio to keep herself occupied. We went from sweet and innocent and quite cute one moment...

to this.

It was all downhill from there...

She also finally had a bath to herself again after a couple months of sharing bath time with her brother. Since he only sits in a couple of inches of water, she was excited to fill it all the way up and add a few bubbles. Or all the bubbles.