Eli is officially a PRESCHOOLER!!

Today was Eli's 1st day of preschool and it went great!! We had been counting down the days and have talking about preschool all.summer.long. so it was awesome to actually get this party started! I know he'll continue to love going every week (twice a week) to learn and be with his buddies and teacher, Ms. Stacey!

As I knew he would, Eli was just fine with us leaving him at school. I've grown accustomed to Eli being an independent kiddo and being okay without his mama :) It is so interesting how he was a pretty high needs baby and very attached to me, and now as a preschooler, he just enjoys being engaged, is super social, and loves learning! I guess all the sleep less nights and clingy days were worth it! I only could hope my attachment parenting would pay off some day!! :) Preschool will be great for him! Now granted he'll have THREE years of preschool prior to kindergarten, so hopefully he'll stay as excited as was today!

The preschool we chose is a Christian based school that has been in the community a long time. In fact, the center also has a daycare and it is the one we had Eli signed up to attend when I was planning on returning to work after maternity leave, but never did due to me staying home for a year. They follow state guidelines and have even lower ratio than required with Eli's class having 8 kids to 1 teacher. Eli is in the 2-3 year old class and just missed the cut off for the 3-4 year old class of August 1st. This month his class will learn about themselves in comparison to fall leaves and how everyone is different! They will have special themed days throughout the year and each month has a theme, specific letters, numbers, colors, shapes, songs and bible verses. The school seems really organized and gave parents a schedule of what each day looks like including center time, circle time, snack time, large motor play, and school time.

What else is great is Eli already knows 3 of his classmates from our playgroup. Yay!

Eli wore his Hot Wheels shirt that my friend Tori made for his first day since it had his name on the front along with his race car socks and Hot Wheels back pack! He was set!:

In the parking lot of the preschool:

Walking in:

Looking around the halls:

Entering the room (he knew where to go due to open house last week):

Hanging his backpack:

Joining friends to play:

Anna watching her brother's big day:

Kissing mommy bye-bye!:

But with all this great fun, learning, socializing, etc., comes exposure to more germs. Eli came down with a fever this afternoon which thankfully has gone no higher than 100.5 degrees. I think he probably was exposed somewhere else other than preschool since it came on so fast, so I hope he didn't expose any of his classmates! Regardless, I know he will probably be sick more often this winter due to school and I think we'll boost his vitamin and probiotic intake to help counteract sickness as much as we can.

Sick Eli watching Toy Story 2:

We are excited for our big boy and I'm sure you'll be hearing much more about it throughout the school year!!

Anna's 14th week & Almost-preschool-boy Eli!

This Thursday we attend Eli's preschool open house. We are very excited to meet his teacher & see his classroom! We have all his supplies, except his backpack, which we are having a hard time locating what we want. Hopefully we'll find a race car backpack soon!

In preparation for preschool, Eli got a cool haircut! Yes, our 3 year old is wearing hair gel! This haircut is partly due to a bald spot that has mysteriously come about near the front/middle of Eli's head. At his 3 year appointment we talked to the nurse practitioner about it and she made a referral for us to a dermatologist. She said it could be from all the hair twirling he is doing or it could be that he will always have this bald spot. The dermatologist will make a diagnosis and we'll go from there. We took Eli to Great Clips and the stylist was great and she thought it was a stress spot which she said she sees a lot. She said if it is, it could take about 6 months to fully grow back. She worked great with his hair and you can't even see the spot so that is awesome. He looks so grown up with his new do' and loves it because he gets to wear hair product like his daddy! Too cute!

At Eli's 3 year well check he checked out great! He weighs 36 lbs. and is 37 3/4 in. tall! This fall we need to make dentist appointments for all of us and I can only hope it will go better than it did at age 2. I think it will as he brushes his teeth okay and gets haircuts just fine now, which last year were quite the struggle.

A couple funny Eli lines lately have been:

"I love you girls" while giving Anna and mommy a hug :)

While driving by a garage sale that he wanted to stop and play at, I reminded him that mommy had no money. His response was "You got that right!" HA!!

As for Miss Anna, she is getting to be quite the conversationalist and growing so LONG!! She now can only wear 6-9 month clothes (besides a few 3 month Carter onesies which always seem to be more accurately sized anyway) and I've already pulled out her fall/winter clothes just to make sure we have what she needs due to her length. I recently attended a consignment sale and got Eli some great outfits (4T, I might add!) and got Anna just a couple items as we are pretty well set. At the next consignment sale next weekend I may get her some long sleeve onesies since the shirts that are hand-me-downs are more single shirts and not oneies...but my cousin's girls were smaller than Anna so therefore really WERE 6-9 months when they wore those clothes and were sitting up and even crawling. I like onesies because then their shirts don't ride up all day long when you carry and hold them. Just my preference :)

Anna has also discovered her feet and holds them while lying her back and even puts them in her mouth. She hits and grabs her toys well now and loves to have my hair brushed over her face. When doing things like blowing raspberries on her tummy or brushing hair over her face, she really anticipates the next time you do it by making her eyes big and breathing in fast. She talks so much to us and her toys and is starting to use "n" and "m" consonants. She's quite social like her brother was! At the same time, she is thankfully pretty mellow most of the time. She's pretty content and loves to be held over the shoulder and just rests her head there. Cuddle bug! Facing out is still her preferred position, though :)

Thankfully, Anna decided to finally take the bottle a little over a week ago with perfect timing as I started my full 4 hour daily shifts last week. She is taking anywhere from 4-6 oz. while I am gone with no issue, which is such a relief for me! Woohoo!

Now for some pics of our little girl.

Changing table is still a wonderful place to have conversations with her....she loves it!:

She LOVES her feet!:

Changing table videos:

Dinosaurs!

This weekend, Grandma & Grandpa Clarkson treated us to the "Dinosaurs Unearthed" exhibit at Union Station. We had been wanting to go and we were excited when we were invited to attend as an outing for Eli's birthday. It was great fun and I think it's safe to say that dinosaurs are now on Eli's "awesome" list :) Enjoy the pictures!

Eli, mommy & Anna standing outside Union Station in front of Mr. Dinosaur:

Eli with Grandma & Grandpa Clarkson:

Searching for dinosaur footprints:

Grandma & Eli:

"Roar!!!":

Yikes...nice teeth!:

Hilarious picture....although he never got really scared during the whole exhibit!:

Holy smokes....quite the hair twirler these days. You'd think he was a nervous kid or something!:

After the exhibit, Eli & Anna were treated to a Build-a-Dino doll. We've never been to Build-A-Bear so this was new to us. I must say it is too cute who they do it. The kids take part in making the dino even pushing the pedal to stuff it. They do this cute little rhyme when the heart is put inside and even stuff in the bar code so if the dino ever got lost, it could be brought to a Build-A-Bear store anywhere in the world and would be scanned and sent to us. Too cute!:

Miss Anna's "Sweet Girl" dino that I made her:

And here are the kiddos posing with their dinosaurs. Anna's is as big as she is!!:

Thanks Grandma & Grandpa Clarkson for a fun afternoon! We love you!

Anna & Eli's professional pics

Check out our kiddos!

Thanks, Debbie!

Anna is 3 months!

Miss Anna and Eli shared their "3rd" birthday today....which won't happen again EVER!! Anna is 3 months today while her brother is 3 YEARS....pretty cool! Anna is doing awesome and continues to just grow and grow! She is such a long little girl that she is now needing to wear 6-9 month sleepers so her toes aren't poking through the ends :) She can still wear 3 month onesies, but barely. I need to go through her and Eli's clothes this weekend to see what they are in need of so I can attend the upcoming consignments sales.

Anna continues to coo, smile and laugh and is a happy little girl! I started work last week and my split shifts have been going well. It hasn't been easy, on either of us, but she is doing better with my absence. The bottle is another story and let's just say she has had to be syringe fed just to get some milk in her tummy! I've been stressed about this transition and while it is not fully resolved, she does better and better each day. I feel so lucky to have stayed home a year with Eli and am sad I cannot do the same with Anna, but must remind myself she is in loving hands and will adjust. We just need to win the lottery so I can stay home!!

Anna is doing great with weight gain and as of Monday weighed 13 lbs. 14.2 oz. Nursing continues to go very well and pumping while at work is good, too. Thankfully I have an amazing supply so our freezer is starting to overflow! Her sleep is up and down as far as how long she sleeps but I'm showing no worse for the wear. Her naps have been a little up and down to, but that is to be expected with the change of me being gone part of the day. Most days she will still do one morning and a longer afternoon nap with cat naps here and there in between. Being a tummy sleeper for naps has proven well for her as she can lift her head and neck up while on her belly well now...unlike Eli who couldn't for quite awhile. Here's some video of her tummy time:




Anna is now worn by daddy in the mornings in the Baby Bjorn which is great. I now wear her in the moby wrap but not as often since I started work. I'm thinking about a ring sling sometime in the future or maybe a mei tei....we'll see. Here is Anna today at the park:


Anna did really well with her 3 month pictures as you can see below...what a cutie!:

Now here is Eli at 3 months:


Just a random changing table picture:

Fun times in the swing!:

"Hangin' with my bro!":

And some fun laughing videos of our little girl:

Here's a kinda long video of Anna discovering her toys on her swing...

Just for fun, check out the post I did about Eli when he was 3 months! They are similar in their development besides the fact that Eli was 2 lbs. heavier and just overall a chunkier boy! We got out the Jumperoo and Bumbo for Eli at this age but Anna isn't quite ready for them....maybe at 4 months!

Happy 3 months sweet girl!