Preschool and Pismo

It's been a long time since I've blogged. I'm horrible at keeping up! Too busy, too tired, too much Facebook! Anyway, here's what I remember from the last week....

D started her new school on June 22. She was a bit apprehensive but willing. And what a great place! The teachers smile, are engaged in what they are doing and all of the kids are happy and compatible with D. The director is awesome too. We see her every day! It does not even compare to the old school. The first week was camping week. There were tents set up on the playground! They made bags, tie dyed shirts and supposedly made s'mores although I never heard about them. Every week there is a water fun day on Thursday. She wore her little tankini, which I will have to take a picture of, and had fun playing in the water with her new friends.

This week is Ocean week. I was snack mom today. When I got there the kids were learning about tide pool creatures. An organization brought crabs, sea stars, and even a shark for the kids to see and touch. It was great! When I got there, D was with her teacher looking upset. Apparently the scuba tank had scared her. Fortunately, I was able to get her back to the table to see the creatures. Then she came to the room with me to help set up for snack. I bought goldfish and "tunafish" along with raisins and string cheese. The kids gobbled it up! I wanted to bake or something but it wasn't meant to be. D hadn't been feeling well the day before (after Pismo) and I went with what was easy. Turns out, the kids loved it. D is enjoying her school. Right now she is in bed and I can hear her in over the monitor seeing the goodbye song that the teachers sing everyday when the kids leave. WHAT A DIFFERENCE IN SCHOOLS!

So last week, I had a spontaneous moment of wanting to go to see the Prestons for T's first birthday. I booked us a room at the Embassy Suites in SLO for the weekend and on Friday, we loaded the car with all of our stuff, and got on the road. D was a great traveler as she has always been. B was fussy, no surprise there. But he did much better than he did on our first road trip with him when he was 5 months old. We stopped in Santa Barbara for lunch and then drove to SLO. D napped, B did not. Thank goodness for the DVD player which kept D's attention once she woke up. We got to the hotel around 3:15. T's party at the Sea Life Center was at 4. We unloaded and saw the room, changed and then drove to the aquarium. It was in Avila Beach and what a gorgeous day! Grammie and Grandpa were there and it was nice to see D warm up to them immediately. It was a fun party. D enjoyed the sea life and the ice cream cake! We ate Costco sandwiches and said our goodbyes as we were getting on the late side for bed. B took a bit of convincing to get him to sleep but he slept all night. D did great in her queen size bed with bed rail. And as for potty training? She is trained. She did GREAT the whole day! Even went pee in the potty in the big toilet at the hotel. After a few books and cuddles, it was goodnight for the 3 of us...at 8!

The next day, we had a chaotic and early morning. D woke up to pee at 5:30 and didn't go back to sleep. She kept wanting her pancakes and we told her the cook was still asleep but that didn't seem to phase her. After showering and mass chaos to get out the door, we went and had breakfast. Afterwards, D and Dad went to the Farmers Market and I tried to get B to sleep. HA! He wanted nothing to do with it. So, after 30 minutes of listening to him cry, I gave up. So I got him up and dressed. Dad came back with D and roses for me...hoping to make me feel better. I was not a happy camper. Too much chaos. After much craziness, we headed to Avila Barn to meet the Prestons. It was fun to hang out with them and play with T. And D peed there too! We then went to lunch at a place near the water. It was getting late and the kids were fizzling. We probably should have gone somewhere else but alas, we went to a very loud place that wasn't really good for little kids. D kept wanting to go to the bathroom but it would freak her out because of the noise. I was on the edge of crying much of the time and finally, David P took me outside and I melted down. Big time. Then, we saw David B carry D out. She had fallen and whacked her head on a chair. Could it get much worse? I ended up having to take their food out to them on a bench because D was afraid of everyone cheering for the World Cup soccer game. Somehow B was unphased, ate all of his food and then some and we managed to leave without a major issue. D had a knot over her ear but nothing a little tylenol couldn't help. We went back for nap. D slept, B did not. I took B out in his stroller while D and D slept. And of course he pooped while we were taking laps around the courtyard. A fun time! D could have slept all afternoon. We had to wake her to go to the Prestons for playtime and dinner. Grandpa paid for Alex's and the kids had mac and cheese. B did exceptionally well and we didn't get back to the hotel until 7ish. He cried for exactly 30 seconds before he went to sleep. D crashed as well. Frankly we all did after a couple of books. Oh, D brought a Hanukkah book and she was singing it while pooping. It went something like this...."on the 5th day of Hanukkah my daddy gave to me, two pieces of toilet paper...." She cracks us up at the oddest times!

So Sunday came after a great night of sleep for all of us. D slept until almost 7! The chaos was less. Of course the last day of the trip and all was easier. We should have stayed another day but Dad had to work. We had our breakfast and much to my amazement, B actually took a nap! Once he was up, we packed up and left the hotel for the Prestons. We were going to take family pictures. The photographer that took their great family photos was going to come and do ours along with pics of the grandparents and everyone together. The kids were difficult to say the least. All weekend, D was really tired. She had been like this for several days before the trip as well. The littles were just fussy but food seemed to help keep them busy and not crying. I'm sure I'll have teething biscuit all over my shirt in most photos. After photos were done, the kids ate and David P and I went to get food for the rest of us so that we could get on the road. We finally did around 2. Thankfully the kids both took naps. Traffic was horrible, we had to stop twice but we finally got home just after 7. The best part of the drive home was that B napped and D peed in her potty in the back of the minivan in Camarillo. Picture to follow. What a trip! The pisser of it....Dad ended up not working on Monday. We could have stayed! However, D wasn't feeling well. Some stomach thing. She ended up pooping a bunch (it was green!) and felt much better today. In fact, it's almost 9 and she's still awake!

One more funny from D...

While playing with B who was playing with a bowl which was "made in China," Dad said, "don't chew on that, it was made in China." D then said, "I'm made in China." She was holding her vagina. We snickered and said, "No, that's a vagina, not China!" D said "oh" and looked confused. Goes back to when she was about two and China and vagina were confused in the bath. Too cute!