You've Been Waiting...And, Here It Is! Alex's Kindergarten Pictures

Alex had a wonderful week at Kindergarten. He came home everyday full of energy (Excuse me??) and excitement! He has had tons to share...Ask him about the Star Jar, Stop Signs, the Tooty Tah Song, P.E. Class, and Show and Tell. With all the fun he was sharing, we were a bit surprised when on two of the mornings, Alex's eyes welled with tears. He proclaimed that he 'liked Kindergarten, but it was just too long to be away from his Mommy.' A pep talk about transitions and fun helped Alex ease himself back each day...I think it will be a good morning tomorrow!!

Julia...A Fish Tale

Julia, Julia, Julia…What can I say? She fears almost nothing…especially when it comes to water. Sometimes, I used to find myself slightly irritated with Alex when he would be overly cautious about something that I didn’t think he needed to be, but now I find myself having a genuine respect for his cautious nature. Why? Simply because Julia seems bound and determined to take YEARS off of my life with her ‘no holds barred’ attitude. She has no problem walking around in neck deep water while bouncing on her toes with her hands waving in the air. Giggles spurt out of her lips between the small pool waves as she bounces through the madness. Yes, she goes down the big girl slide…not once, not twice, but over and over again. Once, the other day, she didn’t even wait for me to get back to my post at the bottom of the slide after escorting her to the steps to head to the slide. She landed in the water with her feet hitting the bottom. Although a bit shocked, Julia stayed upright…*sigh,* which just seemed her give her all the more confidence. “Wow, I can do this on my own!” seemed to race through her mind. A wave of defeat hit me…I thought “I’m never going to keep up with her now.” The good news…Pool season is almost over. Our last ‘Mommy, Alex, and Julia’ trip to the pool was just today. Yes, we’ll go again…but only for Toddler Time with the gates of the BIG POOL sadly locked until 4:00 (much to Julia’s dismay) or with Daddy on the weekend. Hopefully, this Fall/Winter/Spring will bring more inches to Julia’s height, so I don’t feel so dreadfully exhausted at the end of next summer’s pool season. The good news in all of this is that Julia is a little fish…I wouldn’t have it any other way. She loves the water, she feels more alive in the water, and I think she feels truly free in the water…yes, I love seeing the ‘fun’ in her eyes when she is in the water!

A Child's Confusion

While driving down good ole Rt. 66 one summer evening, I began to tell Alex and Julia about the history of Rt. 66 in its importance to the American landscape and experience (I know, I know…I am a bit different :). I even was all sentimental as I told him how Grandma Mary used to tell me how she would sit on the front porch of a relative’s house, which sat along Rt. 66, and dream about how she was going to drive on that road to California one day. Alex asked about which way Chicago was…and California…and St. Louis…and then after I explained all that…he, in all seriousness, asked me ‘the way on Rt. 66 to Radiator Springs.’

For those of you who may be unfamiliar, the Disney/Pixar film, Cars, is based upon car racing and good ole Rt. 66. In the movie, there is a fictional town by the name of Radiator Springs. To the best of my knowledge, it does not actually exist and I had to go on to explain to Alex that yes, Rt. 66 is real, but Radiator Springs is not.

A Broken Camera and a Sad Mommy

Daddy accidentally broke our camera while in NYC. The LCD screen is completely shattered leaving it almost completely useless. The good news is that I have been taking some pictures over the past few weeks. The bad news is that I have no idea how they are going to turn out and I cannot upload them to the computer because I have to use the LCD screen to do so and we don't have a SD port in our computer. Daddy buy a new camera already!!

So...What does this mean? I need to return to my writing roots. Here we go, enjoy the ride over the next few weeks!!

A Sad Mommy

Summer has once again come and almost gone…It seems almost like a flash of light: A billion things done and accomplished, but a list of ‘to dos’ only about a mile long. I’ve reached my first midlife crisis and it seems as though Alex’s entrance into Kindergarten has spurred the anxiety in me. I feel as though five years has flown by and we have failed to take full advantage of the free time that we had before the constraints of school and life will overtake us. ‘Would of, should of, could of’ is too late now that we have only a two week count down to K-Day.

Looking back over that past five years, much has been accomplished, but it is the past three months that saddens me the most. So much time has passed since the end of preschool ended and we had so much planned, but as you learn quickly, you swing with the punches and you do what you can. Was this past summer all that bad? Actually, no…we had a blast to be honest. My grief is tied to the fact that I wish that the fun could continue…

Daddy in NYC-Part III

Ground Zero

Daddy in NYC-Part II

Wall Street

Tour of Madison Square Gardens

(Seriously, who does this while on vacation?)

Boat Tour on the Hudson

Ellis Island

Lady Liberty