Natalie wrote Elliott a book today! Its about Elliott and his best buddy, RoRo (his lovey that Natalie gave him when he was born). In the book, they have a birthday cake, swing on swings and play. Alison found Elliott in his chair, quietly reading the book to all 3 of his loveys. And Natalie exclaimed, “the best part is that you can change the words and nobody knows”! Here’s the title page….
After months of waiting….
… it happened! Natalie lost her first tooth!
When: Wed, May 25th at approximate 12:45pm
Where: At preschool, just entering the classroom
How: Just a little extra wiggle with her finger
First to find out: Ms. Bree
The Big Question (at dinner)….
Natalie: Mom, is the tooth fairy real? Or pretend? Real or pretend?
Me: What do you think?
Natalie: It could be real. But it could be a fairy tale. Kinda like the Easter bunny doesn’t really hide eggs. Its just you and Dad.
Me: So, what do you think.
Natalie: Mom, is the tooth fairy real or is it you?
Me: (quietly so Elliott wouldn’t hear) It’s me
Natalie: I thought so!
Me: But its still a fun thing to play, so let’s just play along.
Natalie: Yay!
Me: And don’t tell other kids b/c they might believe its really but we don’t want to ruin the surprise for them.
Natalie: Why did you tell me?
Me: Well I just thought it was more important to tell the truth and then we can still just play along.
Natalie: ok!
(later)
Me: So, if we cannot find your special tooth holder that we got in NY, do you want to borrow your bro’s? I know where his is.
Natalie: Its just for pretend so we don’t need to do that.
Me: (heart sinks) But… you want a surprise under your pillow, right?
Natalie: Oh yeah, right. Let’s use bro’s!
We had a big weekend of wholesome, small town fun. Every Friday in the summer and one Friday a month in fall/winter/spring, our street throws a Flamingo party. The host puts out a collection of lawn ornament flamingos and everyone gathers to kick off the weekend. It was the kids’ first flamingo party – and we were very fortunate that this month’s hosts have 4 kids, including a 3-year-old with an amazing collection of outdoor trucks that Elliott has been lusting over every time we pass their yard on the way to church. There’s a 4-year-old girl on the street, who Natalie likes to play with…. and some girls in middle schools who were teaching Natalie backbends and hot potatoes. She loves them! The night couldn’t get much better… and then the host mom brought out ice cream sundaes! SCORE!
Erin: “Elliott, if you were in Peter Pan and needed to think of something happy to make you fly, what would you think of?”
Elliott: “ICE CREAM!”
Whoops – just a couple drips…
On Saturday, the kids’ preschool had a Peter Pan bus (the local bus line) for the parade. Elliott was very disappointed to see that the bus was red – not green. His plans to ride on the bus almost vanished, until I pointed out that is was a red double decker bus – like they have in London, where Wendy, John and Michael live. The preschool graduates earned the coveted seats on the top, but luckily, everyone knows Elliott is Natalie’s shadow at events like this, so he got to sneak up there too.
The bus led us to the Long Meddowe days festival (no idea why that is spelled differently), for bounce houses and train rides. We saw at least 50% of the people we know in Longmeadow at the festival – its obviously the place to be.
Train ride…. $9 for 3 min. At least it was for a fundraiser….
All in all, Longmeadow is proving to be a great place for our family (to our parents & grandparents – don’t worry, we still only plan on being here for a couple years). Folks have been welcoming – many are not originally from Longmeadow so understand what its like to be the newcomer. And the town is safe and bikeable too.
Um, Mom, why didn’t you bring our double stroller?
I’m so tired Daddy
Natalie had her first dance recital on Saturday! She danced to Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini and a pineapple song. (Jordan to fix this reference please!) She seemed to be the leader of the preschool tap group – you’ll see that she does have an age advantage, but she was still the best! (and in the middle) These pics were from the finale during the rehearsal.
(This is our 500th post!!!)
I’m so proud of my kiddos! Its amazing what they know and how smart they are and how they approach their world. A couple things from the past 2 days that I just want to remember…
1. Jordan is going to NY for work for a couple days. Elliott told me that he wants to go to New York with his Dad so that he could ride the trains. Jordan suggested that he could take a video and a picture and asked Elliott, “what color train do you want me to ride – the blue line, the red line?” Elliott looked at him dumbfounded, as if to ask “what do you mean?” “Dad, the trains are colors – they are letters!” (He remembered that from one train trip back in early March!)
2. When I was putting Elliott to bed two nights ago, he sang to me “Mr. Sun, Sun, Mr. Golden Sun… You’re in Asia now”.
3. Neighbors invited us over for a cookout of (caribou) hot dogs on Sunday. Natalie knows the two girls (ages 4, 2) whose house we went to from church and a couple play dates, but didn’t know two other girls (ages 7, 4). When we talked in, the girls were engaged in swinging each other in this hammock. It was a bit crowded and chaotic and Natalie wasn’t sure how she fit in. So, after observing for a bit, she went up and said “Can I play too?” They said, “of course!” She was so proud and excited about this; she told me before bedtime about how she was kinda uncertain and sounded relieved at the response. It’s not easy being new, and Natalie has just done a great job of connecting with kids and making friends. (As for Elliott, he is happy to be by other kids but he loves to be by Natalie the most. On a side note, we read a customized Frozen book that Nana had gotten Natalie, where she is a character in the book and also had a friend Vivian in the book. He said he would like a “Cars” version of that – and I asked who he would want his friend to be. He thought about it and quietly said Drew, who is the younger brother of one of Natalie’s friends but also at least a year older than Elliott. I then said, “you can also choose Natalie.” He exclaimed, “yes, I want Nat-lee!”)
Happy 3rd Birthday to our best little bro Elliott! He got to choose nearly everything about his birthday:
Place: Bouncetown
Firefighters to the rescue
Loving my little buddy….
Attendees: Dad, Mommy, Natalie, Alison (we offered more but he just wanted his fav 4 in western Mass!)
Cupcakes: Chocolate cupcakes, with chocolate frosting and chocolate sprinkles
I’m 3!
I don’t want to take any pictures
Oopsies Mommy… I sorry
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*Dad additions:
Road Racing: On Elliott’s actual bday, we drove to Holyoke for their annual St. Patrick’s Day road race. It is by far the biggest event in Holyoke. The kids had been “training” for the 0.2 mi race on our street, where I had measured off the distance. On race day, we had had a tough morning getting organized, and like most events, it was very crowded. Elliott decided he didn’t want to do it, and Natalie decided to hold Mom’s hand during the run (which I think Mom appreciated give the chaos). But once Elliott saw that sister got a cookie for participating, he was regretting the decision! So he and Erin went back to run it by themselves, and apparently received a lot of cheer’s and high-fives w/ Elliott smiling (and running!) the entire way. He kept saying to Erin, “I winning Mama?!”
Erin and I then ran the 10K race (6.2) miles while Alison hung out with the kids at the Holyoke Children’s Museum. The first 3 miles were pretty much all uphill and the last 3 miles were pretty much all downhill – not what we are used to! I was about 20 seconds shy of my goal time, and Erin hit hers. So all in all, not too bad for a couple of thirty-something suburban parents! And the event was really fun.
Camping indoos: On the evening of Elliott’s bday, we had a campout in Mom & Dad’s bedroom. Nana had gotten Elliott a tent for his bday, and both kids were all snuggled in their sleeping bags. There were a few mid-night wakeups, and the next day was a little rough, but all in all successful.
At one point, Elliott said, “We need to roast something!” You mean….like marshmallows? So I’m pretty sure the next campout will need to have s’mores made in the fireplace.
—
We are so lucky to have 2 healthy kids. So thankful for this guy in our lives.
My little baby
Happy 1!
Holyoke is about half Irish, half Puerto Rican…. so the Irish Catholic came out strong this weekend, celebrating St. Patrick’s Day. I’ve never seen a town get this excited about St. Patrick’s Day – which is a strong statement coming from a girl who lived in Chicago for nearly 10 years where they drive the river green and went to a college with strong Irish Catholic traditions. Today they had a 10k race (with about 6,000 people running/walking) and tomorrow they have a parade.
It was the kids’ first race…. both ran the whole way holding my hand. (Insert huge mom smile here – so proud!) And our first race since having kids! I think Jordan’s most recent race was an Elvis run 6 years ago and mine was the Chicago marathon in 2007.
Checking out the competition…
(To be honest, Natalie was angry for most of the 2-min race b/c she wasn’t winning.)
There’s nothing like a post-race re-charge like a cookie!
(Elliott didn’t want to run when the under 4 were running… so I went back with him to join the 9 & 10 year old boys. It worked out perfect b/c Elliott thought we won… the boys darted in front of him so fast that we had the “course” to ourselves).
Back in the game again!
Jordan ran a 45-min (average 7:15 per mile!) and I ran a 48-min race (average 7:45 per mile). Not so much slower than my 45-min PR when I was 22.
And the biggest thanks goes to our nanny Alison who watched the kids while we raced!
Life in western Mass….
1. is busy (hence, the no blog for 2 months – working a full-time job in the office 5 days a week in a district turnaround environment… and with a hubby who travels every couple weeks doesn’t lend itself to extra time on the computer)
2. is not as cold as expected (we’ve only had a couple snowfalls – and never made it to a ski weekend. We opted instead for a stay-cation at a hotel 8 minutes from our house in lovely Springfield)
3. has thankfully included a couple visitors (our nanny Alison’s best friend Caitlin was the first to visit – followed closely by Grandma and then Nana and Pop. The grandparents have definitely spent a lot of time playing in our basement – the kids fav place in the house. Basements are a novelty in urban life and they are loving the extra space here)
4. has a lot of donuts (and I’m not referring to Dunkin Donuts like you might expect… but Donut Dip in the next town over. There’s full-size donuts at church the first Sunday of the month, “Donuts with Dad” every 2nd Saturday of the month at the library, and donuts when people come over for a play date! After the church donut days, we have the kids run home to burn off the sugar – and because they are training for a St. Patrick’s day road race)
5. feels like a comfortable suburbia (= less traffic, = more space, = safer, = more neighborhoody and less anonymous, = more reliance on cars, = SWING SET THAT DADDY AND POPPY JUST PUT UP TODAY)
6. is definitely different than Chicago. (We definitely miss our friends and family in Chicago the most – and some big city conveniences like 10 parks within walking distance, a state-of-the-art gym with awesome group fitness classes many times a day, biking to work.)
We’re viewing our time here as a fun adventure – Jordan has a super long list of places we need to visit in the next couple of years. Although, almost all of our vacation time for 2016 is booked for trips to Chicago, Green Bay and Alaska (for my baby sister’s wedding in less than 6 mo!)… we’re taking the kids to New York City next weekend!
We are officially in Longmeadow, and I’ve been without internet access for a week. So, a Saturday date night has turned into Jordan and I working independently on our computers at Starbucks – and I have 9 minutes to post. So, my apologies for the brevity here, but I go back to work on Monday, so I figure something is better than nothing!!
We had a super fun Christmas vacation in Florida with the Linville’s.
A family that goes to Disney together, stays together…
We all flew into Orlando on Sun 12/20 and stayed on the Disney property (the Contemporary – walking distance to Magic Kingdom!) We went to Magic Kingdom on Mon and Wed. I’m obviously a huge fan of the fast pass and the magic hour, where people who stay on the resort get first dibs at the park! We were able to try out a lot of rides and meet a lot of princesses through these…. Natalie met Belle, Merida, Cinderella, Rapunzel, Elsa and Anna. (Elliott met all but Merida – he opted to ride the train around the park with Dad, while Nat and I waited in line.)
So great to meet you – I feel like we’ve known each other for years! Wanna come over for dinner?
The kids’ favorite ride was Peter Pan’s flight – they are very into Tinker Bell and Peter Pan, from what they know of Jake and the Neverland Pirates. Natalie’s second favorite was Its a Small World. Elliott’s second favorite was Goofy’s Barnstormer. (He literally went on it 10 times – its the most intense roller coaster a 2-year-old could go on… I see Space Mountain and Thunder Mountain in this boy’s future. Nat, on the other hand, was pretty upset we even took her on it.)
What do you say? Another Dumbo ride?
FEED ME – I’m hungry!
My favorite time was post-Disney, with a semi-relaxing time in Venice. (When is “vacation” really a vacation when you have a 2 and 5-year-old?!?)
The beach on Christmas day – we’ll take it!
Meet Clara – my newest, most precious little baby (Thanks Mammaw for the awesome garage sale find!!!!)
You are one cool lady
We always say YES to ice cream!
… but I don’t promise to open my eyes for a posed pic! Come on Mom!
