Friday, August 15, 2014

Update on the Kids

The kids are growing way too fast for my liking! 
Anna will be 14 months old this weekend. She's not walking yet, but loves to push her walker all over the house. She loves to pull up on everything and uses my hands to pull her up in the middle of the room. She loves her babus. She only gets a paci at bedtime and naptime and we leave her main one in the crib during the day. She throws him back in there after she wakes up and says Bye Bye Babu. It's so funny. She always laughs at herself.  If I leave my diaperbag on the floor or chair, she'll pull down the paci purse where I keeps spares for roadtrips and will pull them out. I tell her to put them back and she does, sometimes.  She is talking non-stop! Her new favorite is ready, set, go when going down the slide. She loves to say shoes and put them on.  She is such a happy child. Her laugh and kisses are the best! She still makes her duck face when she wants kisses. It's usually first thing in the morning, then after she's eaten dinner.  She calls David "Day Day" and Pres "Pres Pres." She adores them both. She's the sweetest little girl! I'm so glad I get to spend all day with her!
 Such big kids! 
 We went to the USO Sesame Street Experience this week. It was such a cute show with all the Sesame Street characters. The kids loved it. They high-fived the characters, danced and jumped their hearts out. Anna screamed "HI Elmo" the entire time and waved at him. 
 David loved the toys they passed out.
 Clapping to the music. I am so grateful for events like this. The kids look so forward to it and are so entertained. 
 David is almost 3. He has grown by leaps and bounds these past few months. Completely potty trained and doing wonderfully with all that. He is talking so much and really soaking in a lot. The other day before Presley started school I was asking if she remembered her teacher's name. While she briefly hesitated, David said, "Miss B." He just soaks in everything, even when we're not speaking directly to him. He can be such a clown. He loves to make us all laugh. He loves to play soccer and have me and Cameron play trucks or cars with him. He's very into construction equipment and can name any piece of equipment we pass while on the road. He checks out 10 books, usually all about construction equipment, trucks, boats or trains from the library every week. He also gets a Thomas DVD every single time. At bedtime, he always adds on to his prayers to pray for each of us in the family, and has started including Samantha too. He then tries to delay me leaving and grabs my arm and says, "I want to keep you all night." He's such a nut. Whenever I can't understand what he's saying, Presley can usually interpret his little language for him. He still has a huge appetite. His favorites lately are granola bars, apple sauce, any form of noodles, and tacos. He also loves Honey Nut Cheerios in the morning and wants to eat as soon as he wakes up. He still naps once a day, but usually gets woken up when it's time to get Presley from school.  He loved telling Mal about his new school. He hit all the high points- "Mallie there's two airplanes, there's lots of toys, there's a playground right outside my room with a tunnel I can hide in and no one can find me and there's a potty right in my room." So funny the things he picked up from our tour. He's so big, all of a sudden. I don't know when he went from my little baby to this happy, sweet little boy. I'm so proud of him and excited to watch him grow and make new friends of his own.
I took him and Anna to a new park the other day before we went to my stroller fitness class. He loves to be outside. I can't wait for the cooler weather so we can enjoy all the parks on post.
Anna and I enjoyed the playgroup and all the fun toys they have while the older two were at school.
My sweet, sweet Presley. I cannot believe how grown up she is. She reminds me of myself so much. She gets shy and a little nervous when there's a lot of other kids running around. She's shy to make friends, but I'm so proud of her for being so brave at school. She's done so well opening herself up. She's made two really good friends. She definitely looks forward to routine in her class and loves having the structure of school. She's been so excited for school and her new ballet class. She's very smart and I know she will do so great.  She's so sweet with David and Anna. She loves to "mother" both of them. She takes great care of Anna while I get stuff done and she's always helping David by turning on the sink water, helping him find a toy he lost... anything. She even watches Thomas with him and will push her DVD for later if he wants to watch it. She's such a gentle, thoughtful little kid. Her prayers at nighttime are the sweetest. She always prays for Cameron if he's in the field and all the other soldiers. This is the first move where I really worried how she'd adjust since she experienced so much change so quickly- moving, new house, starting kindergarten and Cameron being gone right off the bat. She's handled it all really well. She's always on her best behavior and tries to help me. The other day when she could tell I was tired, she surprised me by cleaning up the playroom and the kitchen tupperware Anna had pulled out. She's such a sweetheart and I couldn't be prouder! Loving on sweet Cobalt. 

Thursday, August 14, 2014

Kindergarten and Preschool

Presley started kindergarten last week. I can't even believe we are already to this point... I feel like it's the beginning of the end. That the years will fly by now that she's officially started school. I'm so excited for her and to see her flourish. She is so ready for school and was so excited to start. She had a great first day! The second day was a little rough. She got a little anxiety in the cafeteria and outside at recess. She was worried she was going to get lost :( Breaks my heart, but everyday it's getting so much better. She's made some new friends and is starting to get into the routine. She loves school and loves when she gets Coyote Dollars for good behavior.  This is her first "homework." An All About Me poster so if she gets sad and misses me while she's at school, she can look at the pictures. It's actually worked pretty well the first few days. She said she looked at it and laughed cause I was probably feeding Anna crackers, doing the dishes and playing trucks with David. It was funny. 
 First Day!
 She got to pick her seat.
 Coming out in the pickup line.
 So happy to see her new friend, Taylor, on the playground.
 Beautiful picture she drew at school of our family.
 Then, today David started preschool!?! Where did the time go and how in the world did he turn from a baby into this sweet toddler! I am having a very hard time with him starting school. We toured his school Tuesday and today was his first day. He was so excited because they have toy airplanes, cameras and a playground right outside his classroom :) So easy to please! He went right in and grabbed the airplanes. He ran back over to hug Cameron and I then headed back for the toys. He told Mallie he was excited about school cause they had airplanes, cameras and a park outside with a tunnel that he can hide in. Such a fun, sweet boy. I'm so proud of him. He didn't even cry one tear this morning and had a lot of fun! He goes for 3 hours every Tuesday and Thursday. I'm glad I still get a few days to have him home and play with me and Anna. I'm excited for him to start school and make some new friends. I know it'll be good for him.

Cameron's Birthday and Los Angeles Beach Trip

We celebrated Cameron's birthday last Monday. We had some friends over for dinner and brownies, then we opened gifts that night. He got matching Bronco's t-shirts for he and David. 
 We've had a little playtime before Presley started kindergarten. We tried to get outside early before it's too hot. 
 Presley started ballet. She loves dancing and is quite the natural!
 David, Anna and I started going to a playgroup on post. It's held in the gymnasium and they have tons of soft baby toys, along with wagons and little tikes cars. He loves all the toys.
 We went to Orange County with Samantha last weekend. Cameron started his first rotation in the box, so it was a great time for us to get out of town for a few days. We enjoyed cocktail hour downstairs when we first got in. The kids love staying in a hotel. 
 We met my good friend from college, Kim, at a children's museum in LA called Pretend City Saturday morning. This place was so cute! The kids could pretend to work in all kinds of different careers. David loved the farm the best. He played in the dirt digging up veggies, then moving the dirt to the dump trucks. 
 He quickly turned into a musician and played on his guitar.
 Presley loved the beach area. 
And David loved the water tables the best. He had to change clothes after this area. He was soaked, but I'm so glad they had fun. It was really nice to catch up with Kim and meet her son. 
 We went out to the Newport Beach Pier that night and had dinner.
 These babies LOVE the beach!
 We had so much fun with Samantha. She is SO helpful and so loving to our kids. I couldn't imagine now having her on post with us. It's been so nice to already have a friend here. We've been doing most meals together and she's always helping me with the kids or watching them for me so I can run one here or there.
 Sunday we went back to Newport Beach. It is such a nice area. The kids absolutely love the beach. The ocean was ice cold, but they didn't mind. They loved jumping waves, while Anna enjoyed piling sand on her legs and toes, then knocking it off. It was such a fun day!! Wish Cameron could've come with us.
Lunch before we had to head back to post. 
 Getting so tired after squeeling and playing in the waves for a while!
They all crashed as soon as we got in the car to head home.