Anna confusion

Tomorrow Blythe has no school.  A teacher workday.  Should be awesome in the morning when I make Ethan go to school after he knows Blythe didn't get on the school bus.  Anyway, Blythe has made a friend in her ballet class named Anna that goes to her school.  Her mom doesn't have to work tomorrow and so she offered for Blythe to come play with Anna for the day.  Sounded like a good plan to me.  So after ballet I told Blythe she might go play at Anna's house on Friday.  She seemed quite excited.

Tonight I was finally able to confirm plans with Anna's mom, and so before bed I told Blythe again she was going to Anna's house to play tomorrow.  I told her she needed to be nice and say "please" and "thank you".  She seemed a little worried and said she wouldn't be eating dinner over there.  I told her she would be eating lunch there and then Blythe asked if she could bring her own lunch there.  Thought that was a little strange.  So I told her no, I'm pretty sure Anna likes the same things Blythe likes.  Blythe said, "Anna wasn't born in North Carolina.  She was born somewhere else."  Wasn't sure when exactly they had that conversation, but whatever.  She asked again, "can I just bring a snack over there?".  She said Anna knows how to say "Konnichiwa" (I had to look that one up on Google to know how to spell it).  

Then she said she sometimes sees her friend Cassidy (who's in a different class) at lunch and at recess.  I asked her if she eats lunch with Cassidy and she said no because she's in a different class.  She then said she also sees her friend from ballet.  At which point I realized she must have a different friend Anna in her class.  So I told her she was going to Anna from ballet's house tomorrow to play.  She seemed a little embarrassed and maybe a little disappointed.  Appears that she told her friend Ariel and her friend Zury and her friend Owen that she was going to play at Anna's house. She also told the Anna from her class (who I'm sure was excited and a little confused).  Then Blythe said to me, "I wish you had told me which Anna".  Guess that's what I get when I ASSUME she knows what I'm talking about (and when I don't realize she knows more than 1 Anna).  So I felt a little bad.  But she should have fun at ballet Anna's house.  

We've had a lot of rain

Lots of rain means lots of inside time.  Especially when your yard is full of mud (we get sod next month sometime).  Can you tell we've been cooped up a little?

Caniac Carnival

Braden is pretty busy with recruiting weekends all Fall, so the kids and I need to fill our time with some sort of fun activity on Saturday mornings.  This past weekend's fun activity...flu shots!  No?  Doesn't sound all that exciting?  Maybe I need to work on my delivery because the kids weren't all that excited about them either.  Figured I'd go ahead and knock them out since our new doctor's office was doing clinics every Saturday morning and since all 3 of my kids are healthy right now and I sure know that won't last long with the changing temps.  I told them we just had to drive over there to "check out the new doctor's office".  It was a good trick.  And they even liked the waiting room since there was a kids section.  Blythe sort of caught on and asked if they had to get shots.  I told her "maybe...I have to check".  So at the last minute, I said yes, we need to get shots.  Just one each.  And then the wailing began.

Ethan went first because he's the bravest.  He cried, but held still and then it was over and he was fine.  Blythe was cowering in the hall hoping we'd forget about her.  I had to drag her in there as she was screaming.  She wouldn't hold still and it took 3 adults and a lot of coaxing to make her stay still, but we got it done.  She said, "I'm never, ever, ever going to get a shot ever again in my life".  I told her she didn't have to....until next Fall when she'd get another flu shot.  Brynn went last and was the easiest (probably because she weighs the least and is easiest to restrain).  

Maybe this Saturday we'll find something a little more fun to do.  

But Sunday I was determined to find something fun to do that was actually, um, fun.  I saw on the news in the morning a clip about the "Caniac Carnival".  A kickoff to the Carolina Hurricanes (NHL hockey team) season being held at the RBC Center right up the road.  Braden was just finishing up so he met us there.  This was a really fun event!  TONS of inflatables for the kids, free cotton candy, free popcorn.  Even a Taco Bell mascot (guy dressed as a taco) that gave out free coupons for FREE tacos!  We racked up!  And to top that off admission to the Hurricanes Red/White game for free too!  Brynn was tired before the game, so I left and took her home to nap, but Braden stayed with Blythe and Ethan and they watched 1 period of the game, which was really cool.  They had an exciting entrance and then there was actually lots of scoring.  Plus, they were on the 5th row.  They all came home with not-so-free Carolina Hurricanes goods and apparel.  But they loved it and maybe we'll go back sometime this season for a game or 2.  

Here's the only picture taken.  Blythe looks a little crazy, but you get the idea.  She's wearing her new Canes t-shirt and Ethan has his new Canes padded hockey stick.

The rest of the weekend was filled with house projects.  The never ending list of house projects.

Blythe's Ballet class

Last Wednesday Blythe started ballet.  It's a rite of passage for every 5 year old girl, right?  It's only once a week for 45 minutes.  I'm commitment-phobic when it comes to activities for young children, so the fact that it's once a week is a big plus.  There is only one recital and it's in May or June next year, so it's kind of a commitment, but I went with one that doesn't make you sign some sort of contract so we can opt out at any time.  But I think she may actually stick with it.  There were about 6 girls in her class, all 5 or 6 years old.  She seemed to have a really good time, so she may even make some good friends in that class.  It's only a few minutes from the house and I don't have to be there the whole time (though I usually will).  But days that Braden is out of town that means I don't have to bring Ethan and Brynn in there for 45 minutes and entertain them...a huge plus!

Anyway, here are some pics before class last week.

Ethan and Brynn update

I've had quite a few posts about Blythe (and actually still have another to post soon), so what have Ethan and Brynn been up to?  How are they adjusting?

Well, they both started at their new school on the same day that Blythe officially started kindergarten.  Braden takes them both to school in the morning and I pick up.  With no traffic, it takes 7-8 minutes to get there.  The first 2 days took me over 20 minutes.  Darn 1-40 and the wrecks that are on that interstate every.freaking.day. There are lots of ways to go to avoid I-40, so just need to check traffic reports before I leave each day.  Anyway, Brynn of course screamed and cried at drop off, but Ethan did well the first couple of days.  He seemed to like it and was playing well when I picked him up.

Then we were home for 3 days for Labor Day weekend.  Long enough for them both to feel like that was just a visit period and they never had to go again.  Braden was gone Tuesday morning, so I had to take them both.  That meant we had to wait for Blythe to get on the bus first.  Ethan and Brynn both (but Ethan especially) LOVED watching Blythe get on the bus.  Both of them did not love getting dropped off at school though.  All last week Ethan had rough drop offs.  But ever since he watched Blythe get on the bus, now he wants to watch her get on the bus every day.  He gets so excited.  Here's a little video clip and he is actually toned down on this particular day.  Usually there is much more waving and "Bye Blythe!" going on.  I love it.  It's so cute.

So I think he's making some new friends at his new school, but as I suspected it will take him the longest of my 3 kids to adjust.  Being in the middle, he's getting a little lost in the shuffle and is acting out some to get some attention.  Hopefully it won't take him that long to adjust and things will settle down.   He's already ALL about the Wolfpack though.  He got a Wolfpack football at Target yesterday and it doesn't leave his side.

As for Brynn...her biggest accomplishment in the last couple of weeks is learning how to go down stairs.  Our new house has 2 staircases (like our last), but both are carpeted.  I figured it wouldn't hurt that much to fall down them and I really didn't want to mess with baby gates, so we didn't put them up.  She fell down (maybe 5 or 6 steps) about 3 times in the first 2 days.  So then she was scared of the stairs.  It was like we had an invisible baby gate.  She would just call for us at the top of the stairs to come and get her (and by that I mean she said, "Eh....Eh....EHHHHH" until we came to get her).  That lasted a few days and then she got brave and figured out how to go down on her belly feet first.  Now she goes really fast.  When she gets out of the bathtub, I try to dry her off, but she runs away from me, out into the hall, and then down the stairs really fast.  She loves being the naked baby on the loose!

She's doing pretty well though.  I might have to have her start taking naps in a pack n play on weekends.  Her room is positioned the worst for noise, so I turn her noise machine way up.  That seems to work, except Ethan has been going into her room and waking her up mid-nap.  Which is pretty awful when you are trying to get organized and unpacked and only have the 3 hour nap window on weekends to do it.

The first day of kindergarten

As I mentioned in my last post, the start of kindergarten is a little weird here.  Staggered visitation days and actually riding the bus on the visitation day, so I'd say it tones down the first day of kindergarten to not as big of an event.

Aug. 31 was "meet the teacher" day.  We went to the school at lunchtime and checked a list for each teacher to find Blythe's name.  I have no idea who the other teachers are and therefore have zero expectations, which is a good thing I guess.  Ignorance is bliss, right?  So anyway, Blythe has Mrs. Kingston as her teacher.  Mrs. Kingston is the only new kindergarten teacher this year, but she seemed really cool and has been teaching in an elementary school for 9 years.  Her husband went to Radford and is now going to NC State, so what's not to like?  Blythe is now on her 5th day of school and still doesn't remember her teacher's name though.  She had a bag for each kid at the "meet the teacher" with a bit of candy in it, so that's all Blythe was really interested in.

So anyway, first day of kindergarten was Sept. 1.  She was hyped about riding the bus to school.  I was slightly concerned, but figured she'd make it there alright.  She had her Hello Kitty backpack and Hello Kitty lunchbox and was all set!

Here she is getting on the bus:

She has made a couple of friends on the bus.  She says one is 9 and in fourth grade.  2 others are in kindergarten.  One of those 2 is in her class.  They sit together on the bus, but Blythe still can't remember her name.  She has made another friend in her class named Sophia and they sit together at lunch.

She had a great day though.  I'm looking at her picture now and realized she wore the exact same thing today.  Guess that's the "Thursday" outfit.  Blythe is dressing herself now and I guess has a few favorite outfits.

Anyway, she had PE that day and then Music on Friday.  She was bummed about the holiday because she didn't get to do Art on Monday.

Blythe LOVES kindergarten so far.  She is so excited to show me her papers or artwork when she gets home.  But her favorite part about kindergarten is, unsurprisingly, riding the bus.

We made it to Raleigh!

Ok, so hopefully I haven't lost many blog stalkers in my hiatus from blogging.  I tried to fit it in, but something always comes up.  My last blog was on my last night in Blacksburg.  I slept like crap because I was way too excited about he move they had packed up my white noise maker.  So anyway, on Thursday, August 25 the movers came and loaded the truck.  The landscapers finally came (at the very last second) to fix the damage my neighbor across the street had done with her car and in the afternoon I went to the closing and was there all of 10 minutes.  The family buying our house was really reserved, but also very excited.  It was their first home purchase after living in an apartment for 15 years.  They have 2 kids who are 10 and 9.  I was so happy for them.  Gave me a little more motivation to make sure the house was clean for them.

After the movers finished up, my dad drove home and I drove to Durham to stay at Doug and Lynette's.  Our final walk-thru at the new house wasn't until 1:30 on Friday so it was weird not having anything to do all morning and having none of my kids around, especially after being so busy for the past 2 months.  But the final walk-thru went well and the closing was fine too.  The attorney was very comical and actually made it fun.  Our realtor said it was the strangest closing she'd ever been to.

Our stuff wasn't being delivered until Monday, so we had all weekend to knock out stuff around the house.  Hanging window treatments, grocery shopping, etc.  Was hoping to do some painting in the screened porch on Saturday, but Hurricane Irene had other plans.  So Saturday was wet and windy.  In the morning on Saturday I looked out the window in Ethan's new room and noticed a tall tree that was leaning A LOT.  I swear as I stood there, it leaned even more.  The base of the tree was just on the other side of our property line (in the common area) and was going to be in the way of the fence we wanted to put up.  Made me wonder how long it would take the developer to take it down because we wanted to start the fence a few days later.  About an hour or so  later that problem was solved.  Unfortunately it was solved by falling on our screened porch.

The good news is that because it was leaning so much already, it didn't do much damage.  Just a few bent shingles really.  And the builder took care of getting the tree removed, so that was good too.

Sunday cleared up, so we were able to paint/seal the screened porch floor and then head back over to Doug's to finally see the kids and hang out at the pool.  I hadn't seen Blythe or Ethan in 10 days at that point and hadn't seen Brynn in 6 days.  Finally we had our whole family back together again!

Monday our moving truck came.  Gommy and Lynette took Harper, Ada, Brynn, and Ethan to the Life and Science museum in Durham.  Blythe got up early with Braden and I and came to the house so we could be there for the movers at 7:30 in the morning.  At 8:45 I took Blythe to her kindergarten visitation day.  They do a staggered kindergarten entry here, where each kindergartner goes to school for one full day sometime between Aug. 25 and Aug. 30.  They meet all of the teachers and counselors, they get familiar with the school, and they are assessed on their language, math, reading, etc levels.  Then they are placed in a kindergarten class and start officially on Sept. 1.  They also recommend they take home whatever transportation they normally would.  In Blythe's case that is the bus.  I was a nervous wreck about her taking the bus home, considering she'd never even slept in that home or really knew what it looked like.  I put a lot of faith in the school to get her on the right bus and the bus driver to make sure she got off on the right stop.  But she made it and she loved it!  Here she is before school that day:

While Blythe was at school, Braden, Poppa, Doug, and I unpacked like crazy people as they were unloading the truck. The motivation being that any box that was unpacked could be thrown right back in the truck and they would take them away.  The movers finished up by 1:30 though, so although we got tons of boxes out of the way, we were still left with a whole lot.  And mounds and mounds of packing paper.

But we were in our new house!  All of us under one roof again and ready to start our new adventures!

VERY grateful for all of the help provided by Gommy, Poppa, Laura, Doug, Lynette, Grams, and Peep.  Couldn't have done it without you guys!