First Week, Almost Done

It's been a busy week. Tiring, but busy. I never realized how much Riley actually played with Jeremy until she was gone for the entire day. All that boy wants to do is play. On Monday we spent the day going on three walks, heading to the park, playing bat and ball, shooting baskets, kicking around the soccer ball and playing Frisbee. I think I was more tired than Riley was when she came home!

As for school, Riley is doing great. She loves every minute of it. She gets excited for the bus, and bounds off when she gets home. She's always brimming with news about how school went, and unfortunately some of that excitement wears off by the time Dad gets home.

She did tell me the other day that she needs another blanket for rest time. I asked her why and she said it's hard for her to scrunch up her feet and cover her legs with the blanket. I told her she didn't need another blanket. To which she replied:

"For real, Mom. I'm serious."

Geez. Let the teenage-speak begin.

And Jeremy, let's just say he's all boy. All the time. On Monday, while outside, he stopped playing and started laughing. I asked him what was so funny. He said:

"Me. I had gas and gas is funny."

All I can say is good luck to his preschool teachers!

Parents to a Kindergartner

Riley's first day went better than could be expected. Our little girl woke up at 6 with a tummy ache, which I'm attributing to first-day-of-school jitters. She had a difficult time falling back asleep, so I took the opportunity to spend some cuddle time with her. We both fell back asleep and slept until Phil woke us up to make breakfast. He took the day off so he could see his little girl off for her first official day of school.

We let Riley choose the breakfast of choice, and since Phil was home, he's the master of delicious breakfasts. Me, I'm not so into the homemade breakfasts for some reason. Oh but I will eat them! Anyway, Riley chose chocolate chip pancakes, which were wonderful. She got dressed in her outfit she chose the day before, and I pulled out her lunch that we had both made the night before.

And to continue a tradition that my parents began, I took these pictures of Riley:

Riley, ready to head off to kindergarten.

I still can't believe she's old enough for this.

To compare, this was me oh so many years ago!

Me, ready for kindergarten, standing in front of my parents' house in 1981.

She walked down to the bus with her neighbor friend Lorelei and her family. Lorelei is a first grader this year, so she informed Riley about what she should expect on the bus. Additionally, all the other grades except for kindergarten started school the day before, so Lorelei let Riley know that they have a new bus driver this year.

Standing at the bus stop with the other grade schoolers.

Lorelei's brother, Hayden, and Jeremy point out the bus.

Riley and Lorelei pose for the camera while Jeremy gawks at the bus.

Once the bus arrived, Riley was beyond excited. She couldn't wait. There are about 5-7 kids at our bus stop, and the bus driver took her time to talk to the kids and get everyone situated. We're the first stop on the route, and the kindergartners sit up front, followed by the first graders and second graders in the back. She boarded the bus, gave us a wave, and before I knew it she was off.

Riley boards the bus, ready for kindergarten.

And that's when I started to cry. My little girl. Gone for the entire day. Lorelei's mom saw me crying, and she started to cry a little bit. I gathered myself together, went home, and enjoyed the time with my boys. We ran errands together, to which Phil commented that this was probably the first time it had just been the three of us in the car.

After lunch, the boys played some golf, and then J and I took a little bit of a nap. We had to wake Jeremy up to get Riley from the bus, so I'm going to have to adjust his napping time in the future.

The boys golfing. Jeremy waits for Phil to tee off, so they can do it together.

Phil admires his shot while Jeremy sees
if his golf ball went further.

We met Riley at the bus stop, and she greeted us by showing off a cheesy grin from the window. She bounded off the bus and went right for Dad's umbrella, since the weather wasn't cooperating. She told us all about her day, beginning with the "I'm SO hungry!" comment. The problem I have is that she doesn't have lunch until 12:45 with a snack at 3:15, which is an hour before she arrives home. Why the school couldn't have snack in the morning is beyond me.

Anyway, Riley talked about her gym teacher ("Mom, his name is Mr. Handsome!" Which it's not--it's Mr. Hanson!), about how she almost ate all her lunch (she only had half a piece of apple remaining), and how she had quiet time. I thought for sure she'd clam up and not want to tell us about her day, but I'm glad she did. She was actually a little sad she had to wait two days to go back. And honestly, who decides to have kids start school on a Friday?! Just tack an additional day to the end of the year if you need the extra day.

We capped off the day with a get-together with the neighbors and their kids at our house. The parents enjoyed some refreshments and the kids wore themselves out. Our kids actually stayed up until 11:15, which, I think is the latest they've ever stayed up! Now to get them back on schedule for the first full week of school!

Amblyopia

When I took Riley in for her mandatory eye exam (she needed to have one before she could start school), the eye doctor decided to take a look at Jeremy's eyes. I take the kids to my childhood eye doctor, and he's taken a look at Riley's eyes for the last two years for no charge. It wasn't a thorough exam, but enough for him to have a gauge on her vision. Last year Jeremy went up in the chair for a bit, and the eye doctor did express some concern and told us to keep an eye on him.

I had actually forgotten about the doctor's concern, and after Riley's exam and then mine (both of us are doing well--Riley's vision is still 20/20 and my contacts are super clean now!), the doctor asked Jeremy if he could jump in the chair. And then we got the news:

Jeremy has amblyopia.

It's not the end of the world, but it's something to be concerned with. Basically he has one lazy eye, and the vision in that eye is horrific. His bad eye is six lens powers different than the other; his vision is 20/375. Poor guy. His brain doesn't recognize the vision out of his bad eye because it's so poor. He is really only seeing out one eye. It's a hereditary condition, and my eye doctor knew it wasn't from my side, since he checks my entire family's eyesight, and Phil has the same condition. In order to help Jeremy, we got the little guy fitted for glasses, and here is the guy now:

Jeremy showing off his glasses with Riley.

The good news is that this was caught early. So he only needs to wear the glasses along with an eye patch over his "good" eye while he watches TV. It's to train his bad eye to focus better and to actually work. It's funny, though, because for the first week, we thought J had to wear the glasses at all times, hence a bunch of photos with him and his new glasses.

He does great, wearing them, though. And Riley ensures that he's not "cheating" by peeking or moving the patch from his good eye. We're hoping that since we caught it early his vision will improve. We know that both kids will need glasses at some point due to the horrid vision his parents have, but the longer we can prolong it, the better.
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Me with the little Harry Potter.

Visit with Grandma

Grandma Jill came out to see Riley play T-ball. Although, I think Riley was more excited about going shopping with just grandma. You see, Riley is grandma's only granddaughter, so the shopping goes hand in hand. And before grandma could even put her bags down, Riley was rearing to go!

Riley enjoyed having grandma come watch her play. And both kids loved having grandma read them a bedtime story. Thanks for coming out, grandma!

The kids listen in to the bedtime story.

We love you, grandma!

A Mother's Musings

It seems so long ago that this was our little girl.

And now look at her. Our soon-to-be kindergartner.

Our little girl starts kindergarten in just a few days, and I'm having a difficult time dealing with it. I long joked that I would have a harder time letting go of Jeremy, seeing him off to preschool in just a few weeks. I always thought that having Riley head off to school wouldn't bother me nearly as much because she had a 2.5-year stint at daycare and then two years of preschool. She's always been the more independent child; the child I could entrust to entertain herself when I needed her to.

As the days of summer wane, I find myself wistful. I don't worry a bit as to how well she will do in school. I have no doubt that she needs to go to school for the stimulation, to be challenged. But at home, she is my companion throughout the day. I may go the entire day until Phil comes home without speaking to another person except for the kids. Don't get me wrong: I will still have Jeremy. And everyone knows how tightly I hold him to me!

Riley is my shopping buddy, helping me find the good deals. She's the one who helps Jeremy get his sandals on. She's the one who sits and colors with him at the table (despite the times I hear her telling him to stop coloring on her paper). She's the one who sits with him at lunch, giggling away. At this moment in time, they are best friends, entertaining each other and spending a majority of the day playing. Jeremy has already told me how much he's going to miss her when she's at school. Me, too, buddy.

There's something about watching your children grow up and thinking about sending your first born head off to school for the first time. To have her away from me for the entire day. To watch her board the bus and return several hours later. This is a big step; one that I didn't think would affect me the way it is. And this is just the beginning of a multitude of changes. I certainly don't want my kids to stay little forever. Just until I'm ready to let go.

Brookfield Zoo!

For Jeremy's second birthday, we were blessed to receive a two-year membership to the Brookfield Zoo. We love it there, as there's always plenty for the kids to do and see. I asked Phil to take a look at his schedule to see when he could take a day off so we could go. He found a day in July, and we withheld the information from the kids until the morning of, as we knew we'd never hear the end of the "how many more days" question.

We got on the road, and the kids were SO excited. We had a wonderful time, seeing all the animals and enjoying the beautiful day. The featured new exhibit was about dinosaurs, and surprisingly both kids were giddy to see them. After forking out extra money, we walked through the exhibit, and Riley was able to use the controls and operate a few of the faux animals.

One of the many dinosaurs.

The gigantic T-Rex.

A stegosaurus.

After stopping for lunch, the kids ran around on the playground to try to get rid of some energy. Again, we picked a beautiful day, full of sunshine and not too many people. I think the key is to go during the middle of the week.

Riley scoping out the slide.

Jeremy enjoying himself.

After lunch, we walked around for a bit and actually ran into one of my girlfriends who I went to high school with. She had her three kids with her, and it was so funny and random to see her with her family! Once we said our good-byes, we made our way over to the Children's Zoo. This is perhaps the biggest hit for the kids. Every time we go, they run straight for the goat area to brush the animals. I let Phil take the kids over there, and he got plenty of pictures.

The kids fighting over the brush.

lRiley brushing the goat.

Same goat, different angle.

We decided to hit the road shortly thereafter as all parties were getting tired. The kids fell asleep in the car (as always), and it was another wonderful zoo outing.

Outside the monkey house with the two river otters.

Mom and the kids. Notice the huge dinosaur in the back.
It actually shot water out to guests below.

Family Reunion

Every year we try to do a family reunion at my grandpa's. We schedule this event around my relatives coming in from Edmonton, so they can visit with as many of us as they can. This time we headed down to central Illinois on July 4. Unfortunately my cousin and her boys from Wisconsin came down with colds, so they didn't make the trek. Riley and Jeremy were throughly disappointed, since her kids are their "cousins" they play with every time we get together.

The kids and great-grandpa.

They love their great-grandpa.

Regardless, they had a great time, especially since Papa and Nana were there.

We got a chance to visit with everyone and get a customary family picture, which will adorn the family calendar for next year.

Great-grandpa is my mom's dad. He looks pretty good for 92!
All the cousins (minus 2) and the 2 spouses.

All the family members who were able to attend.