Last Day of Preschool: Photo Shoot

Last week of Preschool 2011/2012!

Last week was the kids' final week of preschool for the 2011/2012 school year.  They both grew so much during this year and had a blast in their preschool classes.  We were blessed to have incredible teachers and lots of sweet friends!  

At the beginning of the year, Isaac was still a little clingy to me.  After a month or so, he would stand in the door and wave goodbye to me until I got to the end of the hall.  By the end of the year, he was still waving, but not every day and not long enough for me to get down to the end of the hall.  Another huge growth indicator was that he started the year not wanting to do anything that would center attention on him, such as being the "line leader".  By mid-year, he was comfortable being the line leader!  While I wasn't worried about it, I was encouraged when his teachers told me of his progress.  I knew our little man would take on that challenge when the time was right.  

Throughout this year, I also saw Isaac become increasingly interactive with his peers, other kids, and adults. Until this past 3-4 months, Isaac tended to be very shy around new friends, strangers, and even family members that he didn't see often.  Now, he warms up to others much more quickly, and he is even quite outgoing with strangers at times!  He and Elise will both say "hello" and "what's your name?" to strangers in the grocery store every week! 

I've seen so much growth in the "playing together" arena with both Isaac and Elise.  They both play pretty well independently, but they have recently begun playing together quite well.  They also both have bonded with friends in their class.  Elise had a buddy named Sara who had to move to Raleigh a month ago. Most nights before bed, when asked who she would like to pray for, she says, "for Sara" and then says, "Oh, that's right, Sara not in my class.  She move to another town."  

Here are what my sweet babies looked like at dropoff during their last week of preschool:

Elise, in her class:

Elise's classroom:

Isaac, playing with sand in his class:

Isaac's classroom:

We are so blessed to have such a wonderful preschool for the kids to attend.  This year, they both went three mornings a week (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday).

FUN memories!  Thank you, Lord, for great teachers, good friends, and fun adventures for our little ones!

Sleeping beauty

They're growing SO fast!!!

Mother's Day 2012

Mother's Day this year was another wonderful day for our family. I got to sleep in while Steven took the kids out to get some breakfast for me. As I was getting ready to get in the shower, both kids burst into the bathroom with a card and a gravy biscuit, saying "Happy Mother's Day!" The joy in their eyes was priceless. I ate my breakfast in bed and got ready for church while Steven took care of the kids. We all went to church together, and then we went to my mom's for lunch. We stayed most of the day there, playing and resting. It was a perfect day. (Oh, and Elise wore a cute hairclip for the entirety of the church service, so it was definitely a perfect day!)

* The sidewalk drawing above is thanks to our babysitter and the kids while Steven and I were on a date.  Sweet!

Visit with Grammy and Grandad Mauney

On Mother's Day weekend, we went to visit Steven's parents. We had a good visit with them, and the kids enjoyed playing with their puzzles, candles, and Abby the cat.

Elise somehow got Vance to "color" her leg with the cloth crayons:

One of the kids' favorite things to do is smell Grammy's candles.  Here, Isaac is letting Grammy smell:

Elise went into the room with toys and came out with a chair and a book, carrying them this way:  (maybe she is a multi-tasker, like her mom?!)

And then she decided to get into the entertainment center:

Our kids find adventures everywhere they go!  We are thankful to have been able to spend some quality time with Grammy and Grandad.  

New rugs!

After two of our three kitchen rugs got major spills on them... and they were all three old enough to be replaced, we got new kitchen rugs! This actually made me so happy. (It really is the little things...)  When Isaac came into the kitchen to see them for the first time, he exclaimed, "I love these new rugs! They are so pretty!" And then he said that he and Elise must sit on them to eat their snacks. So they did...

Mommy and Daddy Time!

A couple weeks ago, Steven and I took a trip to the beach, just the two of us. We had such a fun time when we did something like this last year that we just had to do it again. With the help of my parents watching the kids, we were able to have a wonderful, relaxing getaway for three days. Actually, it's one of our goals every year to take two or three short getaways as a couple, so that we can focus on strengthening our marriage, which we've heard is one of the best gifts we can give our sweet babies. So, again, thanks to my parents for helping make this possible. We are so blessed, and we know it. :)

We went down on Thursday afternoon and came back Sunday evening. Thursday and Friday were just fabulous. We ate, walked the beach, sat in our chairs and read on the beach for hours... and, well, just had an awesome time. On Saturday after a run on the beach, Steven started to have acute ear pain that wouldn't stop. We ended up finding a doctor's office that had Saturday hours and we went in. After an hour and a half, we learned that Steven had an ear infection and needed antibiotics.  (by then, we already knew it because the pain was so bad and wouldn't stop - he was in more pain than I've ever seen him in over the past 13 years.)  Once we got the antibiotic filled, Steven took a heavy duty dose of pain medicine and was feeling much better once that kicked in. For those of you who remember my post on last year's beach trip, I'll say this - at least Steven brought his contacts this time. :)

During our time on the beach, we had the rare experience of an injured butterfly coming to us. As you can see, his wing is torn.

He stayed on Steven's hand until Steven placed him on a gardenia plant for his last few moments of life.

Here we are, having taken no other pictures of ourselves, on the last day as we were about to head home...

Another wonderful trip!  Oh so thankful to have this time together.  And to be together...

In Daddy's shoes...

Preschool Mother's Day Gifts!

Friday before Mother's Day, my babies gave me these adorable gifts (with help from their awesome preschool teachers!):

 Flower from Elise:

Close up of my precious girl:

Bag of goodies from Isaac:

In the bag were...

Handprint poem:

Flower:

Thumbprint magnet:

I love them all!  And I especially love the sweet little artists who made them! 

Somebody is hiding in the pillows!

Do you see her?

Not a fun week!

A few weeks ago, this is what went down around here... On Monday, after preschool, I took the kids to the park to play. Isaac went to the bathroom and when I looked into the toilet, I saw what appeared to be lots of blood in his stool. I didn't panic, but while the kids were playing, I chatted with a nurse friend who just happened to be at the park at that time. She said it probably wasn't anything serious and named some things that could cause it, but she said he definitely needed to be seen.

So, we went to the doctor that afternoon. (We couldn't see his regular doctor or her partner, so we had to see a doctor we hadn't seen before.) The doc asked if he'd had anything abnormal to eat over the past few days. I said, well, yesterday was Easter and he had lots of strawberry pie at my mom's, but other than that, no. The doctor decided to chalk it up to the strawberry pie and send us home. She said come back if we saw anything similar on Thursday or later OR if he developed a fever.

Tuesday was fine. Wednesday morning was fine, but when the preschool teachers brought Isaac to the van at pickup time, he looked pale and sick. I took him home and he had a fever. He took a nap, felt better when he woke, but the next morning he still had a fever and was complaining of bad belly pain. So, we went to the doctor again (this time, we were able to see our regular pediatrician's partner.) Based on his symptoms, they tried several things: strep test, which was negative; checking his ears, but there was too much wax to see the eardrums, irrigating his ears so that the wax would come out, checking his ears again - they looked good; finally, a CBC to check his white blood cell count - it was normal. So, we were left without a diagnosis and Isaac pretty traumatized from all the tests (of which he liked NONE). The doctor sent a stool sample kit with us and said to give them a sample to be tested for blood or other bacteria that could be causing his fever and belly pain.

That night, Isaac spiked a fever of 105.3 and was complaining of continual belly pain. We gave him Tylenol and after half an hour, his fever only went down to 104.5. So, we called the doctor, and they recommended that we take Isaac to the ER to be evaluated. We took Elise to my parents' and then headed for the hospital. Isaac immediately got taken back to triage.

He still had a high fever, so the nurse gave him Ibuprofen. Then we got put in a room. The doctors checked his stool for blood - negative; did an abdominal x-ray (to rule out appendicitis) - negative (thank God!); and did an abdominal ultrasound - normal. At that point (after midnight), the doctor determined that it must be some strange virus and advised us to control the fever with Tylenol and Ibuprofen for the next couple days.

Elise and I ended up getting high fevers that weekend, which confirmed it was a virus. Steven was our nurse, and he did an awesome job! Thankfully he never caught the virus and didn't have to miss any work.

Oh, I almost forgot, Isaac woke on Saturday with horrible ear pain. Steven took him into the doctor's (and Elise stayed with my parents because I was having fever, chills and was basically miserable), and Isaac ended up having an ear infection. At least we got some meds out of the whole ordeal! And after a few days on the antibiotic, Isaac was back to his energetic, healthy self.

We are thankful once again for a great ER experience with helpful and compassionate doctors, nurses, and technicians. And we are especially thankful that it wasn't any worse for our little man.  Whew - what a week!

Our puppy neice!

Kati and Ray got a puppy, named Music, a couple months ago, and our family has enjoyed watching this sweetie grow from a tiny puppy into a little dog (with still lots more growing to do!) Steven took some pictures on his iPhone when we first met Music, and I'm just now getting them on the blog. Hopefully we'll get some more current ones soon. She's such a sweet little pup!

Helping Daddy Weedeat...

One of Isaac's absolute favorite things to do is help Steven mow and weedeat our yard. He walks around the whole time and holds onto the mower and weedeater right along with Steven. Recently, I snapped this picture of Isaac helping get the weedeater started:

He had to take his shirt off, just like Daddy, and wear the safety goggles, just like Daddy.

So sweet!

Zoo fun!

We took another zoo trip this past Saturday, and we had another great day of family fun. The kids still loved the tram the most, but the top animals were the elephants, honeybees, giraffes, and zebras.

 Here are some pictures of our sweet babes at the zoo...
   

Backyard Water Fun!

As promised... more outdoor adventures! My dad gave us a plastic swimming pool for our backyard, and this week we filled it up so the kids could play. At first, Elise was nervous about getting in the water, but eventually she got comfortable with it. Except when her swim suit got wet. Then she couldn't take it and had to remove her swimsuit. Hopefully she'll be okay with wearing a wet swimsuit by the time our neighborhood pool opens! But for then, we just let her wear her birthday suit. Here are the pictures I was able to snap during all the fun...

Here's our happy girl:

Trying out the pool! So far, so good...

Isaac loves watering the garden (these are our cherry tomatoes):

Playing in the pool! Isaac loves to run and jump into the pool.

Sprinkler fun! Elise does not like the sprinkler, but Isaac can't get enough of it!

So much fun!

Snackin' outside!

The weather has been so beautiful lately, so the kids and I have spent lots of time outside soaking up the sun and fresh air. Last week, we spent almost all day on Thursday just playing in our yard. Here's a quick snapshot of the kids having a snack of yogurt on their playset picnic table.

More outdoor adventures to come...

Rainy day cuteness...

Oreo's new best friend!

A couple weeks ago, Isaac decided he wanted to feed Oreo on his own. This is how he did it:

Since then, he has started feeding Oreo regularly and putting the food directly into the bowl. He is such a big helper!