He joined the club!

During fall break, Zach was seen by a new (to us) eye doctor at Children's Hospital. We came home with a glasses prescription and eyedrops for every night. The eyedrops are meant to blur the vision of his good eye some so that his lazy eye will be forced to work harder. So, Zach joined the club of glasses-wearers about a week ago. It was fun to watch him pick out his frames. I had no idea what to expect, but his opinions were pretty cute i.e. "These make me look like a teacher." or "I look like a girl." or THE ones of choice ... "I look goooood." as he checked his profile in the mirror. He wanted wire rims like his dad, and he kept coming back to the same pair even though we tried on at least a dozen. I won't forget that visit. It's fun to watch him become his own little person ... he is so kindergarten!

After his first day with them, his teachers felt like his attention span was longer making his focus more consistent with their expectations. Sweet. He likes to wear them. It helped that Uncle John texted a pic and said, "Welcome to the club!" Before he even got his pair, he was noticing all the people in "the club". He's been responsible about wearing them always, cleaning them, putting them in his case at night, and leaving them on his school desk for lunch and recess. He's only forgotten them one time ... as we pulled up to school last Friday, he exclaimed, "Mom, I forgot my glasses." I hadn't even noticed.

So here he is ... we are so proud of him!

Morris Jeff

Whenever Doug talks about his public education while growing up in New Orleans, he has more stories than most. He tells of his parents seeking out THE best school for him (and his siblings to follow). He sings the songs that started their days at Jean Gordon Elementary School. He relives memories made at weekend school-wide camping trips at Land O' Pines. He emphasizes that color never mattered when it came to friends, teachers or the like because his first school experience represented his city as a whole. While my school experience was equally perfect for me and my family, it is so drastically different than his that there is rarely an equal comparison as we swap stories. Not surprising since Lancaster County culture is just a tad different from the Big Easy.

Zach's first morning meeting

In the past 11 years as I have learned to love this grand city of New Orleans by being exposed to it closely through marriage to a die-hard New Orleanian, I have found appreciation and joy in Doug's stories of his childhood. Especially the ones that had to do with his education. (After all, I possess a teacher gene or two.) Those earliest experiences have been significant in the man that I share life with today. It's no coincidence. It's God's hand on Doug's life even before Doug or either of his parents knew Him. God's faithfulness has proven itself again  ... to our children. And, it's not surprising that my heart has grown to match Doug's as we have dreamed about what kind of elementary school our boys would attend in this city we love. We wanted our boys to attend a strong school academically that represented the population of New Orleans.

Both Doug and I are so pleased to be a part of Morris Jeff Community School, a charter school that embraces our values in education for children in New Orleans. This journey to find THE right school was not without headache (see this post, then this one), and in the end ... it fell into our laps as we were "done" with the numerous application hoops necessary to attend New Orleans' best performing schools. Honestly, we weren't all that excited about the first seven options anyway. Smile.

Morning mtg., 1st & 2nd graders, teachers, and parents

Every morning, the school day begins with a morning meeting when the principal talks about the school's values interactively with the students and teachers, followed by a song and the pledge to our country's flag. I love that our principal is good ... really good. She's approachable, kind, a strong leader and has put in some amazing hours to get this thing off the ground. I love the enthusiasm of the teachers. They get the school's mission and are excited to be a part of it. Almost every morning, I have found my eyes wet as I realize what a gift this environment is to MY children let alone to the children of New Orleans. I am simply amazed that we get to be a part of this institution that was built by a group of strong, dedicated, and courageous community leaders for several years.  We are only meeting some of these influential people now that school has started. The ironic part is several of those key leaders don't have children of their own, yet they have spent amazing amounts of energy and time to this mission. We are so exceedingly grateful.

And just to remember, when I asked the boys if they liked Morris Jeff better than Terry (their school in LR and only school experience) ... Zach quickly and heartily said, "YES!" Sam was more hesitant and said, "...when they have a real playground." Love those two.

sweetness of Zach

So, we're in New Orleans for spring break. Last night we had dinner with the fam at Mimie's house. As Mimie is literally surrounded by the four grandsons present and she's feeding the youngest, she tells us that the prize of parenting is grandchildren. As she smiles at the faces around the table and assures us that this is really true, Zach looks at Mimie from her right side and says, "You are my prize, Mimie." Priceless. Precious.

A funny one

Generally, Zach has shown some disdain and irritation about trying so many new things. Being in pre-k all day has stretched him and I understand that sometimes he's plain tired of being so capable. One afternoon, the hall bath (which he normally uses) was occupied and so I told him he could use the master bathroom. He started "grouncing" about it and I quickly replied, "Zach, it's a potty. You can use it. It's no big deal. It's a piece of cake." I flipped on the light for him as he tugged on his pants and said, "Where's the piece of cake?"

I left him looking for the cake while I chuckled down the hall.

Long weekend

No school for the Sam and Zach yesterday and today. What a nice long weekend! Sadly, the residency calendar doesn't work around LRSD calendar and Doug leaves for a trip with the other guys on Saturday morning through next Thursday. So, it will be a "staycation" for us. Yesterday was a pretty typical day for me, so the boys came with me to "work" at Fellowship childcare. It was fun for them to see what Eli and I do while they are in school. They met some new friends and enjoyed a long day (until 2) since I had lunch w/resident's wives and Carolyn yesterday too.

Today, Doug is off ... just got back from a 13 mile run. Eli was up early (I took the bumper pads out of his crib recently since he was getting closer to climbing out and now his paci falls out through the slats in the middle of the night). He couldn't find his paci at about 5:45, so I stumbled in to rescue him. It didn't take long and he was back to sleep. If I could be certain that he wouldn't bother i.e. climb onto the boys while they were sleeping, I would convert his crib into a toddler bed. But ... I'm not certain. I think Sam's sleep would be interrupted (since he's on the top bunk) often which would add a new dynamic. Neither of the other two were in a crib at this age, but neither of them were avid climbers like Eli either. So, everyone will stay put for a little while longer. Oh, the joys of three little boys sharing a room together.

Anyway, so when I heard Sam and Zach stir around 7:30 and no peeps from Eli, I was happy to snuggle under my covers a little while longer. And then, a sweet little face pops into my bed and says, "Mom, can you get down [from the top of the frig] the Kix? I can get the milk, and then you can go back to bed. I just need some breakfast." I love that middle man, he loves his breakfast, and he knows that Mom likes to sleep in. I did go back to bed after retrieving the Kix, but not for too long since I couldn't stop smiling at how wonderful it was that the two of them had made their own breakfast all by themselves. And, I might try remembering to put the Kix on the table the night before a morning that I can sleep in. Working myself out of some of my job is okay with me, even if it's little bits at a time.

Creating new habits

When Zach saw the eye doctor here in Little Rock in August, he "prescribed" patching Zach's good eye for 45 minutes a day. Because Zach was having a hard time at school and generally with the adjustment to Little Rock, this new routine had to wait until life got a little bit better for Zach. Since our New Orleans pediatric ophthalmologist didn't seem to think it made much of a difference and we haven't been patching for several years, I figured a couple more months wouldn't matter. At our visit this past spring with Dr. Balkan, he warned us that within the year it would be time to do a little plastic surgery on Zach's eyelid. His biggest concern was not his eyesight but that he was adjusting his neck and head to see more level. We figure it's nice to get a second opinion so we moved to Little Rock. Wink. Our next appointment is with the Little Rock Children's Hospital in early December. We'll see what happens then. At both doctors and the school vision screening, Zach showed signs that he couldn't see the images they showed him. I'm not sure if he recognized the rotary telephone in the picture or if he really was cooperating at school, but we're told that he needs some corrective lenses soon. Knowing what to do with his lazy eye is the step before that. When we ask him to see things far away, he says he can see them, so we're simply unsure about how his vision is affected. Answers will come soon.

Anyway, all that to say, we're patching again. And, we have a little pirate. We've started at 30 minutes a day and created a chart so that he can pick out something fun at the toy store when he fills the squares. I was surprised at how well he did with it today. It definitely took some self-discipline not to rip that thing off. I could tell it was aggravating him but he's doesn't complain about much. He colored, played a little, looked at some books, and ate dinner with the patch on.

Not to be left out, Sam has a chart too. He's learning so fast and so well in kindergarten. He's read several small books with mostly sight words and pictures since the first week, but recently he's been put in a reading group (with a workbook! Big deal for him.) and has been learning to sound out words using the sounds he knows. It's harder for him and he keeps forgetting to bring his book home to read to us for homework. The teacher in me wants him to learn responsibility for homework right away, so we figured a bigger reward than a lollipop is maybe what he needs to develop his "homework habit".

We haven't done sticker charts since the potty training days, so it may be just what they need for this stuff. Thanks, Renee, for reminding me about them. No chart for Eli yet. That kid is so darn smart, though, he might be pottying sooner than I'm ready for. He definitely knows how to produce on the potty if I catch him in the act. You should see the faces he makes. Oh, and how about he's the first of the boys to know how to blow his nose. Seriously. How crazy is that? He doesn't dislike me wiping it (yes, he's 18 months old) and he will literally blow, when I say, "blow". I'm fascinated with what he can do in comparison to the others at this age.

First Pre-K field trip

Strangely enough, the following Monday was the Pre-K field trip to the same Pumpkin Patch. I was happy that Zach got to go too. We did all the same things as the kindergarteners. It was really fun for me to spend the day with Zach and the two friends he chose to be in our little group. He has had a difficulty adjusting to school this year, but is doing really well now. It seems that he needed an environment where he was on his own (without Sam) to grow up a little and interact as an individual socially. His teacher and I have had a couple conferences and that communication helped both of us do what Zach needed to enjoy school. He's learning so much! It's so fun to listen to his words after school. He's busy with his self-declared homework at the kitchen table most afternoons. The picture below is part of his class drinking "pumpkin juice" while waiting for the pig races to start. Andrew is the friend on his right that he picked to be with us that day. Lauren and Kate (two girls to his left) are mentioned a lot when he talks about his class.

Weekend at the beach

Once we returned home from the wedding hoopla, we switched gears and did the final prep for a youth retreat at the beach the following weekend. We stayed at Gulf Shores Beach Retreat, and I'd recommend this place for any other church groups that want to do a beach outing. The facilities, location, and staff were excellent. The weather wasn't exactly ideal, but the sun showed its face for a decent portion of our time. It's amazing how much bigger our kids looked and acted at the beach from last year. Here's a couple of my favorite snaps of them. Although Eli started walking earlier in the week, he gave up trying his new steps at the beach and just took off crawling. He liked the sand but kept putting sandy toys in his mouth so we let him have his paci the whole time we were on the beach. Zach thought that being buried was great fun. He didn't stay buried very long, but he thought it was the coolest thing. Sam really understood his dad's role in the weekend. He still gets a little intimidated when Doug is around all the youth, but he sure enjoyed watching everything go down the whole weekend. It's so nice to be able to take the boys along on a weekend like this. It always ends up being more crazy than I think it will be. Between preparing meals and keeping track of three little boys it's hard to have real conversation at any point which is always frustrating to me. However, it goes with the territory and I'm thankful for what I can do to partner with Doug in youth ministry even if it doesn't look like I'd prefer.

An addition to the tradition

Related to previous post ... I now find the boys like this after their morning romp in Eli's bed. Silliness. Sam gets Eli out of his pajamas. I like the extra help. And, Zach doesn't complain when it's a group activity (he's notorious for not wanting to change clothes, esp. in the morning). He could stay in his pajamas and eat breakfast all day long. Not surprising, Eli likes to be "one of the boys". It's a great way to start the day.

Charlotte's Web

We read a lot at our house. I bet that we read close to an hour a day to the boys. At least six books a day are worked into our schedule. Our routine has been each boy gets a pick and I get a pick to read before they rest in the afternoon. I love children's books so much that "my pick" is usually something we haven't read a million times before. Doug adopted this practice at night (he puts the big boys to bed while I get Eli there), except he usually lets them pick his "pick".

Within the last month, I decided to start making my "pick" in the afternoon a chapter book. Not surprisingly, I picked Charlotte's Web to read aloud. I still remember being captivated by the story when Mrs. Takamori read it to us in second grade. I was surprised at how much they got into the story. Zach (3 1/2) had a hard time sitting still to listen but that wasn't a surprise. Sam (5) captured all of it. And, in the end, Zach knew all the characters and the jist of the story too. I love all the big vocabulary words.  

Today, the movie (1972) based on the book arrived in the mail from SwapADVD (great site, btw). So, they were eager to read the last three chapters straight through so that we could watch the movie. Fabulous. I even pulled out a couple of old high school medals for them to play with once Wilbur wins the prize at the county fair. Wilbur has captured their little hearts (and mine again, too).

Now, I'm excited to figure out what we should read-aloud next. I have some ideas but would love to hear any suggestions. My guys LOVE animals, but they love all kinds of books too. 

Hold that tiger!

A fun little clip from the other day ... silly antics from everyone. Don't miss Eli crawling ...

Yellow cup

Zach's favorite color is yellow. Sam's is orange. We have yellow and orange plates. We have an orange cup. No yellow cup. So, naturally, Zach had been asking for a yellow cup.

Over the weekend, I pulled many boxes down from the attic in an effort to minimize clutter and create more storage space for stuff that really needs to be stored. Lo and behold, I found THE yellow cup.

This is a yellow cup with a history. At home, when I was growing up, we used these yellow cups for every meal time. When my sister found that Mom had them out to sell at a garage sale several years ago, she scooped them up (along with the signature Moyer blue [ice cream] bowls). Being the nostalgic type, she passed them out ... each of the siblings received one yellow cup and one blue bowl. Mine came in the mail and had made their way to the attic to tell their story to my kids one day. The time came.

And, now Zach has a yellow cup. Who knows? Maybe Eli will like blue.

Not so much alike

These three were interesting to put aside each other ...
and made me thankful that they're not triplets.
Here's my response to all those comments
about Eli looking like either of his big brothers. Smile.

Four months old is such a fun age ...
The one thing in common is happy baby-ness.
Yep, I'm the mom. This is my work.

Zach is three

It's hard to believe that our second son, Zachary Harleigh, is now three years old. I'm a couple weeks late in posting about it. I can't get over how quickly time has passed in these last three years. Zach was 3 months old when Katrina hit, so I have a hard time remembering details of his first year since we all were in "survival mode" for awhile.

He enjoyed a "zweebwa" birthday this year since "zweebwas are his favorite". It was just as much fun to anticipate the big birthday week. Aunt Joy was here for a visit, so we enjoyed the zoo. We sang to him twice on his birthday and enjoyed Little Debbie zebra cakes. The big party with friends and cousins was the following Saturday. He enjoyed the fun.

We're so grateful for how he's grown in the last year. The biggest milestone (at least for me!) is that's he's learned how to be a pottying expert. I'm still amazed at how easy it is for him. He has learned how to play with his big brother and little brother nicely. He loves animals just like Sam so they explore many imaginary adventures together. He is pretty adamant that a hug and a kiss cannot be given alone. His appetite has slowed down since last year, but he's still a big breakfast eater. Honeycomb and "Bunches" with milk are his fav. Often, he's the earliest riser in the house. But, if Daddy beats him to it, he is certain to catch Dad to get him breakfast for he leaves for work. His favorite CD is Go Diego Go Live and is often heard singing songs on his own while he's playing. He loves being a "big boy" and wants nothing to do with even pretending to be a baby. He's a ham in front of the camera and loves to be silly and loud. He brings joy and laughter to our family... our middle man, Zach-o.

Doin' just fine

The meals stopped coming, thus the blogging time dwindled. Smile. Here's what's new with us ...

• Our friend Em was here for almost a week ... lovin' on our kids, washin' our dishes, lookin' for a teaching job for the fall. We love her and are praying that God's best for her is a job in NOLA. Wink.
• Doug preached ... love hearing him. (scroll down)
• Celebrated our 9th wedding anniversary. I used to think that people that were married for almost 10 years were old. I was wrong. We enjoyed our traditional anniversary dinner conversation with reflection over the past year and dreaming about the next. Good stuff.
• Also celebrated Mother's Day with a fundraiser luncheon after church. Not so fun, but it was good to hang with the church body for a couple extra hours.
• Enjoying having Damien (Doug's brother), Renee and their two boys in NOLA. The cousins can't seem to get enough time together. I'm so thankful for great sisters-in-law.
• Lilies are blooming beautifully and we've been watching one green pepper grow bigger and bigger. Enjoyed some fresh basil in a main dish the other day. The veggies in the containers are struggling -- blooms but no fruit.
• Fan up, New Orleans -- Go Hornets! Boo Spurs! Since we don't have cable anymore, it's been fun to "find" a friend/family's house so we can watch the games.
• Btw, good thing we cancelled cable and downsized our bills since our mortgage went up $120/month. Ugh. God knew.
• Started using cloth diapers (got all my stuff from here) on Eli. It's going pretty well ... the biggest transition is to remember to wash them when the clean pile gets low. I have 12 w/some back-ups so that's roughly every 2 days. Lovin' my new washer and dryer.
• Eli is 6 weeks old. AMAZING!!! We have survived and are doing great. We've all adjusted quite well and easily to each other. Saw my OB and have been cleared for all activities. Smile. Littlest man has been smiling every so often much to our delight. Love him.
• Favorite lines from Zach (almost 3) lately -- Mama, I think the baby needs you. (after he's tried to soothe him himself with toys, talking, singing, etc.); Mama, I need to give you a kiss and a hug. (sometimes after he gets in trouble but mostly just at random); Mama, he's so cute or he's so soft. (heard through the monitor when he checks on Eli)
• Going camping this weekend (yeah, I'm crazy...it's okay). My sister arrives on Monday for most of next week. Can't wait. Zach's birthday is 22nd; Doug's is 1st. You might not hear from me for awhile again.

Two very different reactions

Last night, we put the boys to bed about a half an hour earlier than normal in anticipation of the "lost hour". I've been so looking forward to more daylight at night and less in the morning, mostly because of my little early-riser who loves to declare morning as soon as the morning pee stirs him out of bed. Sadly, though, sometimes that was at 6:15am. Ugh.

With the time change, I didn't hear our bedroom door pushed open and the adorable yet annoying, "I have to go potty! Hurry! Hurry!" until 7:30am. Beautiful. The sad part was Doug had already left for church so I really had to get my whale-ish body out of bed and fast. The fun part was that he didn't mind returning to our bed to cuddle for another 30 minutes. When we finally got out of bed, he seemed thrilled that his day was starting out "on time" ... instead of waiting for me to be ready.

The eldest boy, however, didn't stir until I went into help him at 8:30am, and he definitely wasn't ready to eat breakfast. Since he needs extra time to get into the mood to get his clothes on and start the day, he wasn't so happy that he had about a half an hour to get his game-face on. But, we made it ... in the car at 9:15am, just 15 minutes later than desired departure time (I'm never sure how that last 15 minutes disappears). Wouldn't you know it ... we were one of the first cars to pull in the parking lot. Thank God they serve coffee at church.

And, thankfully, we'll have enough time to get adjusted before we add the baby into the schedule to really mix things up. Smile.

Blog vacation

I have several posts running through my head, but no time to finish the ones I've started or compose the new thoughts. Doug and I are off to Seattle tomorrow for the long awaited trip to Seattle for just the two of us that was delayed in January. Doug says he's taking a vacation from his phone, so I'm taking a vacation from the internet. Well, except for finding out pertinent information related to our adventure in the Pacific Northwest. We're excited. We'd appreciate prayer for safety as well as good health for the boys while in others' care while we're gone. Zach is on medication for double ear infections that we found on Monday. Hooray for mama's instinct that something just wasn't right.

In other news, in case you were wondering and I don't want to leave you hanging for a whole weekend. Our ultrasound today was great! Everything looked beautiful, to use the term of the doc. All three of us were pretty relaxed as we waited for him to come in after the initial view of the technician ... our little guy yawned for us. No irregularities in his heartbeat detected this time, but we do have the fetal echo scheduled for 12/19.

All that to say ... see ya next week!

Hundred Acre Wood friends

To make you smile ....

Day 3 (yesterday) was astounding. No accidents at all ... everything went where it was supposed to be. I could get used to this... fast. I don't want to speak too soon, but ... so many moms said (during my long endeavor to train Sam), "One day it just clicks." Well, that did happen for Sam, but it was a long time coming. I think we may have found the click already with Zach. Is that even possible. We're doing well and he loves to be dry. He popped out of his bedroom door yesterday before his nap and said, "Mom, I'm happy." Aaah. He's such a sweet kid.

Here's a little clip of our excitement before simultaneous yellow deposits from both before we donned pajamas for the night:

Yellow and brown

We did it. The potty training for Zach has begun. I couldn't help taking this early morning picture of the boys while Sam sat with Zach on his first attempt on his little potty.

A couple notes/observations for my "mothering journal" ...

1. Yesterday, when I was pulling down a box from the attic, Zach yells up to me, "I need my potty. I need my potty." As I lowered it to the ground, I could have sworn he said, "How? How?" Yeah, so I felt like I didn't have a choice.
2. Sam's been completely trained for a little over 6 months. It's been bliss. And, after a year of the process with him, I wasn't anxious to begin with the little one. That year had a lot of unplanned stress but still a year is a long time to be riding a poop/pee rollercoaster.
3. On the crazier side, Sam's had 3 accidents in the last 36 hours. Totally out of the blue. One at church, one last night (not really his fault since he was half asleep and the seat was occupied!), and another (ugh, brown) tonight. What's with that? Making a mental note to spend some quality time with him tomorrow. Wondering if that's a normal thing...
4. I'm not sure I like the method I chose this time ... give them more to drink so they'll "produce" more in a short amount of time. After so many extra salty snacks (in order to help the liquids go down), I don't feel like I really know his normal pottying schedule. I do like the concept of many trips to the potty to reinforce the routine and feeling the underwears for dry or wet. But, I really wanted to throw the timer out the window by dinner time since it was set to go off almost every 5-8 minutes.
5. I think they should stop selling little boys' briefs. The boxer briefs are so much easier for little hands to pull up and down. Plus, the neighbors can't tell the boys are running around the yard in their underwear cuz they look like shorts. Or am I kidding myself? And why can't I find any boxer kind with the loved TV characters? Do Scoop and Thomas really help them learn bladder control, anyway?
6. Zach's bottom is wider than Sam's at this age. Not sure how long he can really use the little potty. He sure doesn't mind sitting on it though. Smile.
7. Seems strange for 4 people (even if 2 are little) to be using the same tiny bathroom. I wonder if our toilet will hold up.
8. The day's tally: 6 pairs of underwears, no diapers, 2 pullups all for one big boy in training.
9. I like not having to change diapers in the midst of potty training ... different from our first round. Makes cleaning up the accidents a little more bearable.
10. Overall, I think it was a successful day. A little yellow deposit first thing this morning in the company of big brother aka cheerleader. Lots of accidents ... last one was right after he got off the potty. A little gun-shy maybe. He doesn't like to be wet now. This morning he didn't hardly notice. A final deposit of brown after dinner. We all needed that. Final yellow was in the bath. Oh, well.
11. Practice, practice, practice. We all need it.
12. Reminder to self: read this post often in upcoming six months. ;)