Hannah's First step

Ok actually it was her second - after the first Mark grabbed his phone.... about a week later she is cruising around with her walker - too cute!

Getting there

Hannah isnt quite walking yet but she loves to cruise - its so cute!!



Life with a Toddler

Scissors+toddler =bad news!

Sleepy

napping with Grandma

Happy Valentine's Day

For Valentine's for Sam's class I ended up just using these little conversation heart boxes that I picked up last year and filled them with M&M's - then put them in little bags and added a tag

The night before I headed to the dollar store and grabbed some balloons for my little munchkins - just as expected when Sam saw them he had a huge smile -he loves balloons!!

I also gave each one of them a little bucket with a few goodies in them

Sam checking out his loot from school

Hannah's 1st Valentine's Day

Hannah's 1st Valentine.... her daddy!

Please Touch Museum

Sam rcvd a gift certificate to the Please Touch Museum for his birthday and we finally got the chance to go!  I must say I was tempted to say "Dont touch that"  like 100 times but had to remind myself this was the PLEASE TOUCH Museum - they are suppose to touch things! haha

Sam had an absolute blast!!!  The morning was kinda busy but around 12:30 all the school kids left and it was nice and empty =)  There was a huge water play area, rockets, cars, buses, mazes, Alice in Wonderland, construction area, grocery store, barber shop, hospital, cafe..... just about everything - it was so cool!!  There are tons of pics and it was hard to just pick a few but here they are:

water play

Construction area

shoe shop

McDonalds

 Lots of places to play music

 

A Toddlers dream - tons of switches!



11 Months old

Not too much longer till Hannah Banana turns 1 - here she is at 11 months - no more trying to get her picture while she lays down - I had Mark stand her up for these - too cute!



Painting

Sam loves to paint -sometimes its gets a little messy but you know what they say "The BEST memories are the messiest!"

Of course he wanted to paint my hand too!



Transitions

Sam's classroom is on the top right

Sam started at his new school today – The Malvern School – its similar to the Goddard school so I think I will be very happy with him here.  I have been very anxious about this day – hoping for the best but expecting the worst – I knew he would revert to his old ways of screaming and holding on to me for dear life as I walked out the door….. boy was I wrong!!

When he woke up this morning I told him he starts his new school today!  He asked if he was going to still be a “puppy” (his classroom at Goddard) – I told him nope, no more puppies – you are now a big boy in pre-school!  We get there and he is excited to ring the doorbell – the school is secured and during our visits there we didn’t yet have a pass code – we go in and he runs to the Fascination Station area (for kids 0-2) and starts playing  - I tell him we need to go upstairs (another bonus, BIG kids get to go upstairs – he loves this!  =)) 

I go in the kitchen to heat up his breakfast and he runs out to the Discovery Center (for kids 3 and up) and then comes running back and shows me a huge giraffe he found.  Miss Sharon tells him he can take it into his classroom.  We put away his things then I put his breakfast on the table – there are only 2 other kids there so far.  He is acting shy but isn’t crying, or whining, or anything like that.  I go to leave and he follows me to the door – I tell him I have to go to work and I will see him later – he isn’t buying it but still no tears and no clinging.  Miss Amberleigh comes over and asks him if he wants to look at the cars and he says yes – so he takes her hand and walks to the window – I say goodbye and leave.

Wow. 

It was the BEST possible outcome! I called around 9:30 to see how he was doing and they said great!  He was playing with other kids and helping the teachers – just like he had been in the class for months!  Yay!! When I picked him up he was playing outside in a gigantic sandbox – like 10 ft by 10ft!  I knew he was loving that!!  Sam came over to me and I asked him if he had a good day and he said yeah it was fun!  =)

Update:

Day 2 went just as well – In the morning Sam told me “Mom, I am ready for school” – I was like ummm, what?  Ok!  Lets go!  He has never asked to go to school before!  We get there and I am making his breakfast and he disappears… I find him in the classroom playing… just like he has been there for years!  I kiss him goodbye and tell him I love him and as I walk out the door he says “mom” – I turn around and he says “I’m not gonna cry”  awwww… I gave him a big smile and left…. He walked over and started eating his breakfast…. Wow, did I luck out with this transition or what!?!  ☺