Birthday Celebration

Micah's birthday fell on Wednesday this year. I didn't want to do too much since his party was set for Saturday, but I still wanted to celebrate. A while back I'd seen a post on Oh Happy Day where the author had made tiny party hats for her kid's miniature animal collection. That gave me the idea to make little hats for Micah's stuffed animals. I grabbed a couple sheets of scapbook paper and spent a couple of nights after the kids went to bed cutting and taping and tying everything together, the sofa littered with tiny scraps of paper and tissue and string.

(The best part of making the hats? Trying them on the cats.)

On Tuesday night, Todd slipped by the store and grabbed a GIANT Cars balloon. When Micah woke up on his birthday morning, his animals were all lined up on our stairs waiting for him and he had a huge balloon in his spot at the kitchen table, right next to his favorite breakfast of cinnamon rolls.

Micah loved it.









You should have seen me sneaking all these guys out of his room while he slept.
I was like a ninja. I needed theme music or something.

The Annual Rocking Chair Photo

Apparently he's alternating between smiling and not smiling. Also, MY BABY, WHERE DID HE GO?

Pre-K, Week 3

This morning, Todd signed Micah up for soccer.  It's a program called SoccerShots and it's held Wednesday afternoons in the gym at his daycare for the next 14 weeks.  He's been asking to play for a while now. Several of his daycare friends are enrolled, and his cousin Daniel, who is in first grade this year, plays with a local group.  Daniel is actually really talented at soccer, and I think Micah's been paying attention whenever we're talking about how Daniel's games or practices are going.

I would have preferred karate, since that doesn't lead to a life without Saturdays, but we'll see what happens.  Today's the first day (yeah, nothing like waiting until the very last minute), and Micah seemed excited when I dropped him off this morning.

This is our third week of Pre-K.  I wish I could say that I have some sense of how things are going but I really don't.  Micah's already writing more clearly.  He's gotten better at recognizing words.  He's been drawing a lot more.  But he's also been more defiant at home and less happy about going to school.  He occasionally asks to go back to his old class. He told me the other day he sat in the window and watched his old friends playing outside without him. 

I can't really get a sense of his teacher or of what the class is doing.  She seems nice, but the only time I see her is in the morning, when things are completely crazy in the classroom.  She leaves at 3:30 and another teacher takes over, one who never has any information on how Micah's doing, what his day was like, or if there were any problems.  I ask Micah what he did, but I rarely get much more than, "I built a big tower."  Three-year-olds, man.

Right now I'm just waiting.  It's only been three weeks and it's been a huge change for him (and for me).  I hope I'll get to know his teacher and his classmates a little better, or at least get a feel for how the class is structured.  I'm trying to accept the transition from Preschool to a class with more organization and less feedback.  Next week they're supposed to start sending home "classroom connection" folders that cover what the kids are doing and include activities for us to do at home.  I'm hoping that will help me, because right now I feel like I'm dropping my kid off at a black box.  I have no idea what goes on inside or how it works.

Backyard entertainment

Back at the start of Spring, in order to torture the cats to the greatest extent possible, we decided to move the bird feeders to right outside the kitchen window. We've spent the last six months or so watching an endless variety of gorgeous birds come and go, all while the cats freak the hell out beside the breakfast table.

BIRD! BIRD! THERE'S A BIRD RIGHT THERE RIGHT THERE I'M GONNA EAT HIM I CAN GET HIM JUST LET ME OUT ERMAHGURD THERE'S A BIRD! BIRD! THERE! AND THERE!

And so on.

Lately, Aerin's been fascinated by the hummingbird wars. Tuesday, she was home recovering from a nasty 12-hour stomach bug, and I took full advantage of her interest. She and the cats had a lovely time comparing notes on which hummingbird they'd like to catch the most.  Since I had nothing to add to the discussion, I just took pictures.

New shoes

Much to my surprise, my greatest weakness is cute baby shoes. 

It was bad with Micah, but now that I have a girl I find myself completely giddy over all the insanely adorable shoes out there.  I mean, JUST LOOK AT THESE:

If those don't make your heart go pitter-patter, I don't know that we can ever be friends.

This is despite their ridiculous cost.  To be fair, the shoes I choose are durable.  Micah's old ones are currently on their third child and still look great.  But still, I hardly ever pay $36 for shoes for myself. To pay that much for shoes that will only be worn for a few months...well, I admit it's a sickness. I try my best to limit it to one pair at a time, but a well-made, adorable pair of baby shoes is my kryptonite.

Anyway, these were Aerin's first shoes:

Oh, I loved them so.  So much that when the dog ate one, I got another pair. (I know. I know.)

Last week I was finally forced to admit they were too small for her to be walking in. It wasn't quite to Chinese-foot-binding levels yet, but they were clearly not right. So on Wednesday we officially exchanged her first shoes for these:

By Saturday, she was walking like a pro.

For the record, I love these too.