Happy Birthday Baby Girl

My baby turns one tomorrow. I can't believe it. Much more on Julia soon, but as tomorrow is going to be a busy day I wanted to get this up today. A year ago I went to bed pregnant, and woke up in active labor. We had waited almost 40 weeks to meet this child ....wondering if I was carrying another son or our first daughter, and after a fantastic labor and delivery we were shocked and thrilled to welcome sweet Julia Elise into the world, and into our hearts. It has been a wonderful year, we could not imagine our lives, or our family, without you, sweet girl. Thank you for all of the joy and all of the smiles. We love you so much and can't wait to celebrate your birthday with the whole family on Sunday.


My Montage 3/16/09


Here is a recap of your first year on Earth. This song is special to me and my Dad, and I hope that one day it is just as special to you and your Dad. Happy birthday, baby Jules.

Birthday Eve

Luke turns two tomorrow. Two years ago I was waiting and wondering when the baby I had been carrying for some 39+ weeks was going to make an appearance, and just who that little one was. I went to bed tonight, and woke up to my water breaking around 3 am.

Sap that I am, I put this together the other day. Its long. If you aren't related to Luke you probably won't make it through it (and even if you are, you might find it an annoyingly long 7 minutes, I know full well that no one elses kids are as interesting as your own ;).

Just looking through our past two years of memories brought me incredible joy.

Happy Birthday Nate!

Happy 34th to my wonderful husband! I hit the jackpot in the husband and Daddy category, and I am forever grateful. To celebrate their Dad's big day, Julia took her first step (!) and Luke climbed out of his crib (!) for the very first time. Big boy bed here we come tonight (I am terrified).

Nate, may your 34th year be the best one yet. Thank you for loving us the way that you do.

We love you.

Happy Birthday!

Schooled

These pictures are unrelated to anything, but they will serve as a belated happy 30th and 25th birthday post to my wonderful brother and sister. It was fun celebrating with both of you. Thanks for being a great Aunt and Uncle (And Godmother and Godfather) to our children. Pete, I know that this pic is of Samantha, not of you, but I didn't get any good ones of you at your party, just a few of Sam. You are great, but not quite as photo worthy as your adorable daughter, apparently.

In other news, I have officially registered Luke for pre-school. He will start in a 2 & 1/2's program and will be in school from 9-12 two mornings a week. I don't know why this felt like such a big decision. I mean, it's like pre-pre-pre K. Coloring and singing and the like. I started where every first time Mom starts anything..........with my friends. A few of my friends already have their Luke's age tots in a preschool program, most are starting in the fall, and a couple are waiting or did wait until after age 3 to start. My girlfriends are pretty well spread over about a 25 mile radius from my house....so many of the schools that they were looking at were out of my driving range for a bi-weekly commitment. Many of the schools in my immediate vicinity have cut offs of Feb 1st for their 2.5 class. As Luke is Feb 13th, he didn't make the cut. So....to the Internet I turned.

I found Chesterbrook Academy. There is one about 1/2 mile from my house, and practically adjacent to our gym. I called. Turns out that "Academy" is fancy faux school talk for daycare. Now, in no way do I have anything against daycare, but I want a true preschool, not a daycare where my child joins all of the other full time daycare kids two mornings a week. Plus, it was clearly priced at daycare prices. Ouch. I didn't even go look.

Then I found a Goddard School about a mile from our house. Set up a tour. Was totally impressed. Clean, organized, safe. They have kiddy yoga, and music, and computers, and Spanish and all sorts of fabulous things. Super duper. I was totally lapping up the Kool-Aide. Their program seemed a little long to me (8.30 till 12.30) and I wasn't sure that I was ready to commit to that much school at only 2.5. Only after they suckered me in with the facilities and curriculum did we got to price. Oh! Over $500/month for pre-school? Oh! And it's year round! So I have the great opportunity to send my son to learn how to color and sing and do some downward facing dogs for $6,000/year at the age of 2.5. Super.

I kept talking to other Mom's. I found programs with waiting lists, and crazy lotteries, and parents who have to show up at 3 am to stand in line to get their kids into a preschool. I found a couple of church programs, but they were only from 9-11. By the time I got there and dragged both kids of the car and dropped Luke off, it seemed like it would be time to pick him up again. One friend in DC had highly recommended getting involved in a co-op. She said that it was a great way to really know what was going on at the school, to be involved, and vested in your child's education and educator's. She raved about the like minded parents and kids who were a part of her children's co-op.

I finally found one in our area that would take 2.5's. We did the tour there two weeks ago. We liked it. It's in an old farmhouse. It's homey. It's warm, and inviting, and the kids appeared to be well taken care of, and loved. At this age, their focus is more around encouraging play and exploration and expression (art, music etc) than a rigid curriculum of the 3 R's and computers and the like. It seemed more my pace, and Luke's pace. We signed him up.

I live in the NE. We have probably 25 secondary schools in our relatively immediate area that cost well over $25,000/year. There is a lot of mania about going to the "right" schools, and about knowing the "right" people. It can get a little crazy, to me. One of my biggest fears is buying into that Mommy Mania. The parent trap of 3 bagillion "exclusive" sports camps, the most expensive schools, the pushing and pulling and performance-chasing that can happen as we all want what is best for our kids. I'm scared of it. I really am. I truly believe that it will take a concerted effort on our part to remember what is most important to US, and to OUR kids, and not worry about what other people are doing with their kids. I feel as though we are spoon fed this thing about giving our kids the "best", which all too often, at least around here, simply means the most expensive or most exclusive. I want to be able to remember that the "best" to us is whatever will enable our kids to best become the people that they want to be. I admit, not proudly, that there was a part of me that worried, for one brief fleeting moment.........."But will Luke be BEHIND if he isn't learning Spanish and computers and trigonometry at 2.5?". I only entertained the thought for a second, but it was there, before I resolutely buried it. I don't know where this dread fear of "behind" even comes from. Is it just from growing up around here? Is it a total innate parent fear thing? Do the schools plant it in us as they trot out their fancy curriculum's and shiny brochures? Is it my own issues as I didn't go to a school that I enjoyed or related to from 6-12th grade, and want my kids to be somewhere that they feel loved and supported and challenged? Is it the "Joneses"? Damn those Joneses.

I firmly believe that Luke and Julia will be the people that they are because of who they are, innately, and because of the time and care and love that they get, from us, and from all who love them. I can't believe that the worry about the "right school" already flirted with me, and he isn't yet 2 years old.

I hope I did okay. I hope I found a good balance of play and structure, and safety, and kind teachers, and great classmates and parents, and all the rest. I hope that it's a place that Luke loves, and I love. And I hope that I only get more confident as I face many, MANY more school/camp/sports/tutoring/music/art or whatever decisions down the road. These are the easy ones, these preschool decisions. It only gets harder. Sigh.

PS - To any Blogger users out there.........do you have any idea why my paragraphs sometimes don't stay separated into paragraphs, and why I can't indent my paragraphs like normal? I type it out that way and then when I publish it it comes out as one big post lump. It's maddening.

Luke is ONE

I think that I have been putting off this post. I can't believe that my little guy is already one. I'm living in this strange emotional overload land ~ reminiscing about "this time last year" for the past month now, and thinking about "this time next month" ~ running the emotional rollercoaster between missing my tiny newborn Luke, to loving the big strong funny toddler that he has become, to anticipating just who will be joining our family in a few short weeks. I understand that I am having a baby, but to date, all I know of having a baby is having Luke. Its hard to fathom that a different baby, a Non-Luke baby, will be born very shortly. I have no idea if that makes any sense or not, but its how I feel.

Luke had a fabulous birthday. His actual birthday (Wednesday) was spent alone with me all morning as Nate was down in DC. I made him a special banana waffle breakfast with fruit and syrup. The dog loved it. (Have I mentioned the special joy that Luke gets from sharing his food with the Dog? Something about sitting up high in his highchair pelting the ground and the dog with food seems to give Luke some sort of God complex as he bestows his wealth of food upon the lowly plebes below him). We had to skip playgroup, which made me sad as it was his birthday ~ but coming off of the illness streak we had been on I just really felt the need to let his little body recover without introducing any new illnesses. (Every gathering of small children is simply an experament in germ warfare this time of year, in my opinion). We were sad to miss out on seeing all of our friends on his birthday. Anyway. Nate came home to see his little guy that afternoon, and Luke opened his presents that night. I was a weepy mess as the night went on....thinking of being in labor and his birth. One year already! My little guy.

His birthday party was on Saturday. Ever the showman, Luke LOVED being the center of attention and played the perfect host to the 30 people we had at the house. He loved seeing all of his grandparents, and cousins and Aunts and Uncles in one place. As you can see from the pics above, his cake was a huge success. I could go on and on, but Nate is impatiently awaiting me in the living room so that we can hang out before he leaves for Boston tomorrow. Thanks to all who came to the party ~ Luke (and I) love you like mad and cant even imagine our lives without all of your love and support!

Oh Daddy~O

Happy birthday Nate!

I had a hard time picking one or two pics of you and Luke as I went looking through our pictures. Seeing the pictures of last Feb and you telling everyone in the waiting room that "ITS A BOY!", to you being passed out with a newly born Luke in the hospital, reading to him on the beach in Cape May, taking in the ocean in Myrtle Beach, rooting for the horrible Jets's with your son, playing in the leaves this fall, to celebrating the 7 fish dinner this Christmas after moving into our new home..........needless to say I could not just choose one or two. I cried looking at them all! Luke is incredibly blessed to call you his Dad. I am incredibly blessed to call you my husband.

I love the way that his entire face lights up when you come in the door from a business trip and he runs to you and grabs your leg. I love the way he lays on your chest and has that last bottle of the evening with you in the big chair. I love the way he sits on your lap and peers into your face if you are paying attention to something other than him for a moment. I love the way you make him belly laugh. I love it that you can clean up spit up OR puke without gagging anymore. Seeing you as a Dad makes me happier than anything else on Earth. Thank you for being this little guys hero. You are mine too.

Happy birthday.