I see the light...

Come Tuesday, we will submit our 2012 business plan & I will be done with my obnoxious work hours.  At least until the next forecast, but that is limited to 1 day, not the entire month as I've recently experienced.

J will get back more mommy time & mommy will get back more mommy time.  The upside of all this is Miss Cheryl has had more than a few opportunities to set a firm routine with little man.  A routine, that I then get to build upon when it is just me & him. 

Mr. M is still not a huge fan of routines & following schedules, but I'm hoping he'll get on board as J gets his groove.

Right now... Right now Miss Cheryl & Mommy are mean & he wants Daddy.

And that is just so sad...

1st Report Card

How is it that my child is already receiving report cards? I have to admit this caught my breath & put Mr. M on his heels when I met him with it tonight to review.

Overall J is doing very well. He is well liked, participates in all activities, seeks to include others & is very well mannered. He does have some room to develop with scissor usage & math sequencing, neither of which I'm worried about at his age.

I'm sure all moms are thrilled to read when their child is doing well, but for me this is a tangible reminder J is not suffering with my working. He is thriving. And that warms this working mommy's heart on the heels of some bad Q3/business planning weeks.

Yikes - Business Plan

It tis the season... October brings long days and even longer weeks, as the work days stretch into the weekends.

The upside for J is he gets time with his grandparents.  Grandma M pinch hit for Mommy this past Saturday, as J had his soccer team picture, followed by a game.

Southlake YMCA - Dynamo (orange) Toddler Team

Aunt Liz & Grandpa joined to sit in J's cheering section.  J must have told Mr. M & me a dozen and half times on Sunday about Grandma & Grandpa & Aunt Liz's visit... His delight was never ending...

Sadly, Sunday was rainy and cold so we had to postpone our trip to the Apple Orchard, but this weekend is looking better - so hopefully we can do it this weekend.  J is definitely looking forward to doing a family trip this year.

80 degree October Fall Weekend - Stealing Moments

Busy, busy weekend... Grandma & Grandpa P came in on Friday to spend the weekend.  Daddy left for Vegas on Saturday after work.  Soccer on Saturday. 

Grandpa P checked off his Daddy Do list for me... Pool is closed.  Furniture is stored.  Power washer is winterized. Check.Check.Check.

Grandma P helped mommy on Sunday make all the fruit kabobs for J's classroom for snack today.  Check.

And mommy got all the laundry done.

Play time in the sunny warm weather?  Loads of it...

We ended Saturday with a trip for ice cream.  We meant to hit Cold Stone, but the idea must have been pretty universal as the line was out the door.  As an alternative, we hit McDonald's.  J was pretty happy having a cone just.like.Grandpa.  Mommy stuck to her Coke Zero.

 The next morning, Grandpa took J to the park to play while Grandma & I were doing the kabobs.  This was a dirty, tired boy at nap time... So when Grandma & Grandpa left, J wanted to sleep in their bed.  I was good with it, as it'd keep his sheets clean.  :)  Grandma had already pulled the sheets & put the room back in order, so we compromised, & just slept on their couch with the blanket - since I need to launder it all up anyway...

Sadly we said our winter good-bye to Grandma, as she is heading to Marco on the 24th.  We'll miss you!

Lazy Sunday's

While this week, we seem to be experiencing a warm trend, last Sunday it was just cool enough for the M family to desire a PJ day.  Matt & J have been fighting off colds, both with the help of antibiotics, and both seem to need another visit to the Dr.  :(

Normally J is ready to roll by 7AM, however, last Sunday he did not wake up until much closer to 8.  I had stayed up reading, so I wasn't quite ready & Mr. M was sawing more logs than the nearby forest has in it.  I was able to persuade J to let us just migrate to the couch, where mommy could grab another hour of snoozes courtesy of Sprout. (or sproutonline.com) as J would say...  

After that, we made eggs & had breakfast.  Matt finally joined us as we were finishing up our breakfast, so the boys rough housed downstairs while I did laundry & kitchen cleanup.  When I was done, I joined the boys to straighten up downstairs.

Once this was all done, we declared family nap time.

And what a blissful nap time it was.  The perfect pajama day!

Y - Soccer

J is so excited for soccer this fall.  Matt has been working with him outside going around the house dribbling the ball, and he's been working downstairs with the net.

I'm not sure who was most excited for how well J did last Saturday.  J, me or Coach Chris (the YMCA program leader).  Coach Chris made the point to say to me how amazing the change is in just 6 months.  These kids grow & change so much it is mind blowing. 

 Notable improvement:  dribbling the ball (when no one was directly in front of him), stopping with his foot, instead of grabbing it with his hands & his two handed overhead throw to the team.

 He LOVED playing goalie this time & had a couple of really nice assists to his teammates.  He has a strong centered throw. 

I'm so happy he seems to be enjoying this more this season.  But I'd be lying if I didn't say... I'm still looking forward to basketball this winter... :)

FRA - Show & Share + a J moment!

I have to start by sharing a recent J moment that happened last Thursday as I was driving J to school... We often say... Monkey see, Monkey do... Monkey says "I love you" and then rub noses when I buckle him into his car seat.  After this normal routine J hits me totally out of the blue...

J:  Mommy, we need to buy me a little brother or sister
Me:  (totally cheating) we do, do we?  Alrighty then.
J:  Yes, I think baby Caleb would be perfect to come live with us.
Me:  laugh (while thinking - I'm sure Aunt Kristi would love that)
J: Mommy, why are you laughing
Me: Cause you are adorable
J: I AM NOT ADORABLE
Me: walking to the other side of the car bewildered
J:  I AM NOT A GIRL!!!!  Girls are adorable, so I cannot be adorable.
moment passes
J:  But Mommy, I am cute
Me:  Yes, J you are cute

Best way to start my day...


Young Scholars have show & share.  Girls have their day on Tuesday's and boys have their day on Thursday.

J looks forward to this every.single.week.  It is so funny.  We spend so much time planning out what he will take to share.  It is supposed to go with the theme of the week and / or color of the month. 

So week one, we geared all up.  J was taking Mac because Mac was red.  And who doesn't love cars. 

So how shocked was I when I got the pictures to see J's first Show & Share to be about Southpaw, who in person J is absolutely terrified of, but a backpack adornment, he won't be caught without...

Now J wants to take him EVERY week.  Mr. M & I have been strategic in removing him stealthy so J doesn't become distracted & talks about his topic relevant item...

Wk 2 was talking McQueen (red month) with Tractors (farm week) & last week was a magnet strawberry (red month & grocery week).  

FRA - Learning Languages

Neither Matt nor I excel at any languages outside of English.  In my defense, my high school Spanish teacher was so mean to me because she thought I was cheating my way through it like (ahem) Uncle Jeff did 4 years earlier.  I tried to explain, if I was cheating, wouldn't I have a better grade?  No dice.  Finally the principle stepped in & move me out of the class, as there were no other teachers.

Anyway, to avoid such fun for J, Matt & I were thrilled to have him start his additional language study this year.  He is not only getting Spanish, but Sign Language.  Mommy has already asked for Sign Language lessons, as one of his awesome before school teachers is deaf, and while she is an excellent lip reader, I would love to be able to communicate to her beyond saying the usual Hi, Bye, and Thank you.  Mrs Bach delighted me with the fact they are in fact developing a book to send home for parents to work on with their kiddos.  Maybe by next year, this can become a goal. 

 Spanish...  First, J has his teacher conned.  She has repeatedly told me what a pleasure he is to have in class & how good he is doing with picking up on Spanish.

 I think he just stole her heart the first week when he demonstrated his "Mr. Mom" mode of recent behavior & told everyone they *had* to wear their sombrero's or Dora would be mad.

As in Dora the Explorer...

 Love this kiddo!

And I hope he keeps his Spanish teacher's good side, as she is super sweet to always tell us how well behaved & good J is.  Actually, Matt & I keep hearing this over & over again from all his teachers.

And yes, that ends the mommy brag moment.

FRA - Mini-Me

Let me start by saying the adorable teacher featured here is J's first crush.  He officially asked her to be his "date" for the bonfire.  They set the date for 4:45 to meet at the park.  When asked by another teacher if he had a corsage for Mrs. Sandoval, he promptly informed mom "we HAVE to go get one!"  As we were leaving school, J asked Mrs. Sandoval to ride with us "because Mommy has a spare seat belt in her car."

Yes, we all swooned over him, and he was left to look at us like we were all crazy.

When I saw the picture below, I saw me.  Anyone who knows me personally or has ever worked with me for any length of time, has seen this exact action commenced with exuberance & excitement over a job well done when I didn't think I could do something or it rather challenged me. 

I like to refer to them as light bulb moments of success.  Seeing J replicating it, well, that just does this momma's heart good.  Everyone needs to cheer their successes.

FRA - Meeting Farmers

As I mentioned, the week we visited Fair Oaks Farms, J's class learned about farms & farm animals. They rounded out their week actually meeting some real life farmers.

The kids were so delighted to have this experience.  As parents, we love that they had this experience.  

 Milking the 'cow'!

 Making butter!

J was so funny because this night he came home telling me how he'd made butter & I was so confused until I saw the picture & then it all became very clear.  This age is so neat because of how excited he is to do all these new things & then come back to communicate it all to me.