Preschool Begins!

Last week we traveled to Austin, TX for my Grandpa Jack's memorial service (more photos to come!).  We arrived home from Texas on Saturday evening, and on Sunday was the Primary Sacrament Program that (as the Primary President) I have been praying and sweating over for the last few months.  I can't even tell you how many hours have gone into that one project - so many that when it ended I wasn't even sure if it had gone well or not.  Kind of like recognizing your own family's bad habits - it's just hard to see clearly from the inside out, once you become a thread in the tapestry.  And then in case life wasn't difficult enough, I decided to run our primary teacher training in two sessions immediately after the primary program.  It was a long, very full, and gratifying day.

Which is why I was super grateful that my mom friends in our Preschool Coop were fine with waiting until this week to kick off preschool.  Here's Gigi, ready for her first day of school, which was Tuesday.  Can I tell you how excited I am about starting this up again?  It worked really well last year to have us rotate homes and take turns hostessing preschool one day a week, and this year we're upping the ante to two mornings a week for two hours.  It requires a bit more preparation on our part (the price we pay to keep things free) but it will be so worth it.  

Last year Gigi was the youngest in the group at two and a half, and she had the hardest time sitting in her space for even a brief circle time.  It was torture (and not just for her).  Now, a year later, she just sat through her Tutu reading aloud her first chapter book and she has learned how to settle her body through circle time, easy peasy.  It's amazing what one year can do...  On top of that, last year our kids were at the level of A is for Apple, but this week my friend Kim did A is for Attribute, and taught about the 5 senses.  Can you see where I'm going with this?  Engaging with a few kids who are eager to learn, who can settle their bodies and grasp more complex concepts is fun!  

So that's our news for the week.  Gigi will also start back in with Kindermusik again on Saturday, which is the icing on the cake.  I love fall, and I love jumping back into a weekly rhythm and schedule.  We have learned the hard way that being frenetically busy does not do our family any favors, but having a few meaningful things on the agenda for the week helps us to move about engaged in life, like the hum of a bee.

And finally, a few of Gigi's hilarious creations.  With the fashion she adds to her characters, it looks like they could start a parade!

Three and a Half

On the side of our refrigerator I keep a magnetic pad of paper for making grocery lists, and I always have a page of Gigi quotes that I'm collecting and saving for the moment I have a chance to write them down somewhere more permanent.  We host dinners with friends off and on, and on one such occasion I was stuffing away the never ending eruption of extra papers and artwork lying about and I misplaced my list of Gigi quotes.  I rarely misplace anything, and it upset me for days.  I felt like I had lost a chunk of her childhood.  I remembered the gist of a few of the quotes, but because I can usually get them down word for word in the moment, I knew that my memory wasn't capturing them right.  It was so relieving to find them again a few days later.  Here they are.

***

After I told Gigi it was time for quiet time upstairs.

Gigi: Well, I don't like quiet time upstairs.  It's like jail!  My room is like JAIL!

***

During our family home evening discussion about Mormon pioneers, Gigi summarizes her version of what we covered.

Gigi: And then...  they walked, and walked and they passed the Pyramids of Giza, and then they arrived in Salt Lake City!

***

Me: Gigi, L-O-V-E spells love!
Gigi: Okay.  But how do you spell "djembe drum"?

***

Discussing the future.

Gigi: I'm going to play with my children all day when I'm a mommy.  I'm not going to clean up, or anything like that.  'Cause I love my children, so I'm going to play with them all day.

***

In the car, Orion suddenly starts screeching and I am driving and can't look back.

Me: Gigi, can you check on Orion?  Is he okay?
Gigi: Yes, he's just trying to sing.  Opera!

***

Gigi doing one of the things she loves best: yoga.  One of the great Prieto mysteries is where Gigi got her love of yoga and how she managed to learn any of the poses.  Demographically speaking I should be all over yoga, but I'm not sure whether it is really my pace, so this interest has been fueled solely by her.

Summer Wrap Up

I wrote this a month ago, and just remembered to finish it up and publish!

Marcos is home for good now that his summer internship in Charlotte is finished (hooray, hooray, HOORAY!).  Somebody asked me if there isn't a small part of me that is sad that he's back and I have to adjust to having him around, like military wives have to adjust back to having a husband back in the house after a deployment.  I said yes, there is a tiny part of me that is having to adjust: Marcos is a hairy guy, so the bathroom floor is suddenly strewn with little Marcos leg and arm hairs and we need to sweep it more often.  In other words, NO.  Having him home is the best.  I'm slightly less productive since I have someone to enjoy my time with in the evenings, but it's a price I'm wiling to pay.

Some randoms from my largely photo-free summer.  Above are the heavenly from-scratch pancakes my mom made for us one morning, with ricotta cheese and orange zest.  Below is Gigi "giving Orion piano lessons".  I am starting to love them together again.  After a sweet few months of baby brother love, there were a few hairy months when Orion started crawling and tearing down all of Gigi's buildings and creations.  The way she responded to him made me not trust them together because she was constantly having to defend her work - and not always kindly, but now she's starting to see him as just a baby again, and not The Enemy, so they play side by side without much friction.  She is patient when he ruins her things, she retrieves him from the stairs, and tells me when he's crawling up on the table, and they can now make each other laugh.  It's great.

Outside play with my mom, the superhero.  Super, super, super hero of the summer.  My mom made it possible for me to have girl time on a few occasions, she helped me make a million meals, she watched the kids so that I could go to exercise classes, and she watched Orion so that Gigi could do swimming lessons.  And she does it calmly, and well, and makes healthy food while she's watching them.  It's amazing, really.  And I think she even enjoys it.

Miss Anna the 16-year old YMCA swimming teacher, and Gigi, her faithful pupil.  It was Gigi's first time with swimming lessons, and I think it was a good go.  There was definitely a difference in her level of comfort in the water, from day one to her last day of class.  The promise of family night out for a piece of cheesecake once swim lessons were done didn't hurt either.

Drummer boy.  Orion has rhythm moving through him and he loves to drum it out.  We've noticed something funny about him - if you put spoons, or sticks, or any kind of drumstick in his hands and put his hands in the middle of the stick, he will grab it with his other hand, and move his hand down to the end of the stick for better leverage.  I didn't believe Marcos when he told me, but I tried it one day, and sure enough, he adjusted his grip right in front of me.  He is all kinds of surprising.

Orion at Eight

Orion just turned 8 months old.  It feels like a milestone because at this point he's been a pleasant baby as long as he was a colicky baby.  Four months of hard, four of lovey.  

I have been home full-time since Orion was born, and he is definitely growing into the age where he is concerned when I am not around.  Childcare at the YMCA has been a challenge (read: "Metta, come settle your screaming baby"), but luckily my mom recently returned from her travels and he feels comfortable with her, so she has taken the kiddos a few times when I needed an evening mental break at the gym.

Orion has been pretty good at eating, and I found a system I really like for freezing the foods I steam and blend up for him.  I think the trick is: if you steam a vegetable the right way, it tastes like candy.  They say to start with veggies and not fruits so that your baby doesn't refuse things that aren't sweet, but I'm pretty sure that veggies can be as sweet as fruits.

Orion pulls to standing on just about anything, and although he doesn't cruise laterally along a couch yet, he can stand independently without holding onto anything for about ten seconds before he slowly drops to the ground.  I think that he will be walking before he reaches ten months or so.  I can't tell if this will make my life easier or harder.

One of Orion's new tricks is that he grins really big, and shakes his head back and forth really quickly.  We've started saying "no, no, no, no" when he does that so that someday when he's enough of a Pavlovian dog we can say the no's first and he'll shake his head.  Anyway, kind of adorable if you're the mom.  Or the dad.  Or the grandma.

People always ask if Orion is a good sleeper or not, and I'm not sure what to tell them.  He seems good to me, I guess, and that's all that matters?  He goes down around Gigi's bedtime, between 9 and 10pm, and then he's usually up at 1am to eat, and then again at 7am or so.  All of his night feedings are purely about eating, and then rolling over and passing out, so I'm not losing too much sleep.  He also sleeps a solid morning nap, and another one in the afternoon.  I know that as an 8 month old he no longer needs to be waking up in the middle of the night, but the process of weaning from night feedings will require a few days of letting him cry it out, and I've decided to wait until the fall when Marcos is home and I have moral support.  Besides, my naturally independent, curious, and social children are not the type to enjoy a prolonged cuddle, so I take all of the night snuggles with sleepy baby that I can get.

Wouldn't you?

Gigi Says

Here are some things you can hear around our house.

Gigi: Papai, where did you get that owie next to your nose?
Marcos: I got it shaving.
Gigi: Oh.  You better be careful next time!  Chuckling mischievously.  I'm trying to be the boss...

Gigi: Mom, we haven't been to the Timothy's in a long time.  We should go there.  They're missing us.

Gigi has positive reinforcement down pat.  While eating some cookies I gave her after lunch.
Gigi: I love you Mom!  It's so fun to be around you!

After telling Gigi my grand plans to some day make bento boxes for her when she goes to kindergarten, Marcos walked into the room.
Gigi: Papai, did you know that one day my mom is going to be the bento queen?!

Climbing into the car, after leaving the grocery store.
Me: ...But those balloons belonged to her, so she got to choose whether or not to share them.  That's how the world works.
Gigi: No it doesn't work that way!  Everything belongs to ME!

I made a comment about how much better Gigi was becoming at eating spaghetti, now that she is a big girl.
Gigi: I'm trying to show you that I really like you, and I'm growing.  And I really love you.

Summer of (mainly) Fun

We're on week 6 of my 12 weeks of single parenting this summer, and we're hanging in, but sometimes only by the skin of our teeth.  My survival strategies tend to change each week, depending on what sort of glitches came up the week before.  We've toned down the frenetic activity of the first few weeks, and are trying to have only one or two exciting things each day, cushioned with lots of down time, art time, quiet time, and book time.

For the most part, I think that this summer is contributing to a happy childhood for Gigi and Orion instead of destroying it (although on some days when I am flustered and at the end of my rope, it is a little hard to tell).  We have been to the lake with friends, enjoyed many story times at the botanical gardens, pool days with friends, trips to our local museums, lots of practice riding Gigi's new bike, Monday preschool club, picnicked at a million parks, attended puppet shows, and since we just joined the local Y, I have been leaving the kiddos in the child care so that I can catch a break with a zumba or a kickboxing class here and there.  Since I am usually carrying three or four bags, holding the hand of a 3-year old and pushing a baby in a stroller, there is absolutely no way I can schlep around our good camera.  At first I was disappointed that I was not able to capture our summer activities, but it has actually been relieving not to have great photos.  It is when I have a backlog of photos that I feel inclined to blog, and guess what?  I just don't have very much personal time to blog this summer either.

But speaking of photos.  I have taken a few...

Kissy Gigi with her Papai.  We used to have busy weekends.  Now we try to take it slowly and give Marcos as much time with the kiddos as possible.  I loooove weekends.  Even after a long week at work Marcos spoils me when he is home with our family.  

And here is Gigi's new best friend, Michael.  Every once in a while you score the best neighbors in the world, and we are so lucky this time around!  Michael and his family just moved in a few months ago.  When they first moved in I was sad to hear that they only had a 6-year old boy, but it has turned out to be a great match.  Michael is calm, sweet and very much like an older brother to Gigi, minus the fighting.  When I suggested that we write "Friends" over the rainbow on the sidewalk, Michael said, "No, let's write BEST friends".  

Little Man is all over the place.  This photo was taken a few weeks ago, and already he is so much more stable on his feet than he looks in this photo.  He's not quite cruising, but he pulls up on everything and he is starting to move around a bit.  For being such a darned colicky baby, he has become so even tempered, smiley and lovely.

And that's us!

Flying Solo

We are well into week two of twelve weeks of flying solo on the weekdays, as Marcos rocks his internship down in Charlotte.  Week one, day one, had a few horrific moments, specifically at dinner time, so I rewound the tape, watched the ugly moments and made some changes.  Every solo mama evening since week one, day two, we have eaten over at someone else's house.  We always come bearing some combination of fresh fruit salad, french bread, green salad and brownies, because I can manage making one or two dishes, just not an entire meal.  This experience has made me thankful for so many good, kind friends who open their doors to us.  Combining dinner forces, and letting the children play together has been balm for the soul after a long day of taking care of the littles on my own.

Along with parenting solo, a few more things have been thrown into the mix to ensure an extra fun summer.  You see how baby boy is looking all comfortable laying down in these photos?  Well, he's just posing for the camera.  Baby boy in usual mode is crawling all over, trying to climb up on things, scale walls, and chew on our nightlights.  Gigi's fun twist is that she just stopped napping, and my fun twist is that I was just called as the President of the Primary children's organization at church.  It's just how we roll this summer.

But with all of this potential madness, things are (miraculously) relatively happy.  Patience isn't my strongest trait, so I think we were all a little worried about what might happen when all of the "Good Cops" left the premises (with Marcos gone, and our moms also off on adventures this summer...), but the absence of Good Cops has helped me to reconsider my Bad Cop role.  I like to think of myself as a loving mother, but I have an impatient streak that will turn small offenses into big deals, and I can become Bad Cop in a second flat.  So it's taken a lot of inner dialoguing with myself, but I've been able to coach myself out of a lot of scenarios that would previously have left me as The Hulk, big and green, with damage control to do afterwards.  I don't mind being firm when it comes to the important things, but I think the wisdom is in deciding what is important.  Being all the parent these two beautiful children have during the week has inspired me with more calm and clarity than I have ever had in this area.  Without being tried and stretched, I don't think I would have had the know-how to start making these much-needed changes.

And so, we aim to take this summer by the horns.  My daytime strategy for success is to simply tire us all out with good activities.  I'm already sunburned from our outdoor play, my legs are crazy itchy from bug bites, and yesterday we went to three different parks throughout the day, so I think things are coming along.  If you're local and you want to play or have dinner together, let's chat.  You know I won't say no.

The Internship

I'm feeling sentimental tonight.  It is my first night alone, of many this summer.  Marcos has an internship in Charlotte working for a company called Premier, and since the commute is over two hours from here, Chapel Hill is going to be his weekend home, and he'll stay in Charlotte at our friends Aline and Dwight's home during the week.  I have friends who function single-handedly with even more kiddos to balance, so I am trying not to complain, but this will definitely be an experience.  I miss Marcos something fierce already, and it's hour number two.

This internship is something of a miracle, really.  Marcos had applied and interviewed for internships with recruiters from big-wig companies all last fall, but one by one we received the news that he was not one of their final picks.  Considering that Marcos has 8+ years of work experience on the other students who were also applying, and well gosh, he's Marcos the amazing, we were starting to wonder if something was just wrong.  Finally a company had the courtesy to tell him that he was not a good fit for their internship because he was too over-qualified, and that he would get on a better track in their company if he just waited until he had graduated, and then applied for a higher level job.  Then another company said the same thing.  Oh.  Well, then.

Then Dwight asked Marcos one day if he wanted to be an intern at the company he worked for in Charlotte.  Marcos applied and interviewed, and again he was not a good fit for their current internship program, but this place knew gold when they saw it.  They created an internship just for Marcos, and had him apply.  It is the only technical internship they have this summer, out of 31 different positions filled by undergrads from around the state.  Marcos will be programming, and working with the big boys.  Or at least, that's how I understand it.

And so that is where you find me - somewhere in between grateful for this opportunity, and frightened that I may go out of my mind this summer without my usual team player.  When I say that it is a 12 week gig it sounds doable, but someone today translated it into the words "three months" and it sounded forever long.  One entire quarter of a year.

Here we go!