Preschool or not? That is the question.

Camden has one of those odd birthdays when it comes to school. His birthday is in November, which means that, here in North Carolina, he won't be able to start kindergarten until he's nearly 6 (August 31st is NC's birthday cut off). Honestly, I was completely fine when I learned that; I'd prefer he be one of the older kids in his class instead of the youngest, especially since boys tend to mature a little later than girls. But, I wasn't entirely sure what I wanted to do about preschool.

Camden will be 3 this year-- a good age to start preschool in my opinion. However, I wasn't entirely sure that starting him this fall was the best idea. First of all, he'll have a brand spankin' new sister at home. And that's a lot of changes to deal with at once; he'd be starting school literally a week or two after her birth. I just felt like that was a lot to throw at him: "Hey, here's your new sibling! Okay, now get your bags and head out the door to school!" I know it wouldn't be quite that dramatic, but you get my point. (Of course, the flip side of this argument could be that it would be nice for both Camden and me for him to get out and do his own thing while I adjust to having two children.)

Then there's Camden's temperament to consider. He's a shy kid. Not painfully shy like he used to be and his severe stranger anxiety is gone. But he's still shy all the same. If you put him in a room with 20 other 2 year olds, he will be more likely to observe while sitting next to me than to jump in and join the kids. If he was a super spirited kid, I'm almost certain I'd be enrolling him in preschool this fall. But he's slow to warm up and sensitive, and I feel like I need to be respectful of that.

The biggest factor in my decision, though, was the realization that Camden would need to be in the 2 year old preschool class this fall, even though he'd be only a couple months shy of 3 years old. It's that tricky November birthday getting in the way again. In my opinion, preschool at 2 years old resembles daycare a lot more than it resembles school. This is just my personal opinion; I'm sure some 2 year old classes are more structured than others. But, having worked in a preschool when I was in college, I remember the drastic difference in maturity between the kids in the 2 and 3 year old classes.

So, if it wasn't already obvious, we made the decision to keep Camden out of preschool this fall and enroll him in fall 2013. He will be just shy of 4 years old, but will have to be in the 3 year old classroom. An added bonus is that his cousin will also be starting school at the same time and we'll request that they're in the same class. I think that will help make the transition easier for my shy guy. And since Camden has a late birthday and won't be starting kindergarten until he's almost 6, he will still get in a full 2 years of preschool. I've already contacted the director of the preschool we want him to attend (the same one my older nephews attended) and will be touring the school and filling out official paperwork in January.

In the meantime, I felt like I wanted Camden to start working on some "preschool stuff" at home with me. Finding preschool curriculums online is pretty simple, but I also kind of wing it and come up with my own ideas too. I don't do anything too structured yet; instead, a couple of days per week, I tell Camden that it's "school time" and we sit at the kitchen table and do "work" for 30 minutes or so. Right now, we're focusing on shapes, numbers, and letters, but I'll be expanding our curriculum as time goes on.

Anyone else made any preschool decisions yet?

Gluing Cheerios in the letter A. He is a big fan of glue now.

The finished product.

Drawing an A in shaving cream.

Working with circles of all sizes. But mostly focused on how much he loves glue.

Good Busy

Hi there, neglected blog of mine. Once again, things have been busy here, but in a good way. I prefer good busy over annoying busy or stressful busy.

When we got back from traveling to Northern Virginia for the wedding of a childhood friend of mine, I launched into Crazy Nester mode. Like, no baseboard in our house was safe; if I walked by it, it got scrubbed. About 20 thousand bags of clothes sit in our garage, waiting to make the move to Goodwill. And, we finally did it-- (nearly) completed our game of Musical Rooms.

So, it's official: we no longer have a downstairs master bedroom. And I love the change. Granted, it's only been a day, but I don't miss the downstairs bedroom at all. It's a terrible set up for families with young kids. It's so nice that we're all on the same floor together now. Camden is also now moved into what used to be his playroom. It still has almost all of his toys in it, but it's also now home to his dresser and train bed. Camden's former nursery sits empty for now. It needs a little makeover-- some feminizing to be exact. And our old master bedroom downstairs? It's going to be a combination gym room/guest bedroom. We haven't had a guest bedroom in our house in a couple of years, which means when we have company, they either have to curl up on a couch or get cozy in a sleeping bag on the floor. Not exactly ideal.

In the midst of all of our changes, my parents are moving as well. They have two homes-- one about 35 minutes away from us, and their lakehouse which is about an hour north of us. They decided to sell the home that's a half hour from us. Since they still wanted to be able to see the grandkids often, they decided to rent an apartment locally, even though the lakehouse will be their primary residence. Guess where their new apartment is?! In our neighborhood! You might remember that my sister lives right down the road from me (and that her sister-in-law lives on our street too). To make things even more cult-ish, when my parents learned that they would be building new apartments at the entrance to our neighborhood, they jumped on the chance to be that close to the grandkids. I'm sure some of you are cringing at the thought of having your parents (or in-laws) that close by, but truly, we are so excited. It's super convenient, although Camden will have to learn that we can't stop by Nan & Pop's house every single time we enter or exit our neighborhood.

And there you have it: the reasons why I've been largely absent from the blogosphere. I'll be back soon with a post about preschool & where we stand on that issue.

A picture from our wedding roadtrip-- some of my oldest (and a couple new) friends with the beautiful bride.

Remember these pictures? This is Camden's nursery, painted by my talented mom. As previously mentioned, we've moved Camden out of this room into a larger room. The thought of painting over these animals broke my heart a little bit though. So, instead of doing a total room makeover, we're just going to add a feminine touch. The walls will be a light purple instead of green; the animals will wear bows in their hair; and there might be some butterflies flying around the jungle. I thought that was a good compromise. Stay tuned for "after" pictures.

Survey Time.

How far along? 25 weeks, 4 days
Total weight gain: About 15 lbs.
Maternity clothes: Mostly, yes, unless they're just bummy stretch pants or tank tops.
Sleep: My heartburn has been out of control the past several nights! I sincerely sympathize with people who have this issue regularly and am very thankful mine is pregnancy related. But, due to heartburn and my daughter headbutting my bladder, sleep isn't exactly wonderful right now.
Cravings: M&Ms. Matt bought me a huge bag for Mother's Day and I've been doing more binging than I should admit.
Best moment this week: Getting out of town for an overnight trip to attend the wedding of one of my childhood friends. Lots of belly rubs happened that night.
Movement: Yep. Except at night and early morning. Maybe this means she is a good sleeper?! I can dream, right?
Gender: Girl.
Labor signs: Nope.
Bellybutton in or out: Still in but looking kind of smashed. 
What I miss: Not having to pee every 3.5 seconds.
What I am looking forward to: Our family beach trip in 2 weeks!
Milestones: I'm wrapping up the second trimester pretty soon. Third tri, please be good to me!

Dear Camden (2.5!!!!)

Camden,

I can hardly believe that you are 2.5 years old! On your next birthday, you'll be 3-- no longer a toddler, but a preschooler! Where, where, where does the time go? I still see glimpses of the baby you used to be, but mostly, there's a little boy who's taken his spot now. Here's a look into who you are today, halfway through your twos:

• You talk. A lot. You put together longer and longer sentences every day.
• You've started to ask questions lately. You ask things like, "Where you go, Mommy?" when I walk out of a room, and "Where is Daddy?" after Daddy leaves for work in the morning.
• You have your typical two-year-old asserting independence moments. We often hear, "Me do it by self", and "My turn."
• Your favorite toys right now include: Matchbox cars, trains, Mickey Mouse figurines, and any type of car you can ride in. You also love dump trucks, bull dozers, and any type of construction equipment.
• Now that it's warm, you love to play outside in the water. I simply give you a couple of bowls filled with water and some small cups and you're occupied for a long while.
• You love going to the "yibary" (library) to pick out new books. You like me to read them to you, but you also love to "read" them alone.
• You know most of your basic shapes, including square, circle, diamond, heart, star, and triangle.
• You know most of your basic colors, including red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, white, black, pink, and silver.
• You recognize several letters of the alphabet, partly thanks to Mommy working with you and partly thanks to the awesome Leap Frog alphabet toy we have on the fridge.
• You're starting to get the hang of counting (you've got 1, 2, 3, 4 down pat...), but we're still working on 5-10.  
• You amaze us with your abilitiy to discern between types of cars! If you see a car with a Volkswagon symbol on the back, you will say, "Like Ya-yarn's car" (your aunt, Lauren, drives a VW van). If you see a Lexus symbol on any type of car, you immediately say, "Like Nan's car!" You even corrected me the other day. I pointed out a silver SUV and told you it looked like Mommy's car (which is a silver Highlander). You noted the Lexus symbol on the back of the SUV and said, "No, like Nan's car." I stand corrected!
• You're becoming your own little person with thoughts and opinions. The other day, I walked out of the bedroom after getting dressed, and you looked me over and said, "Like your shirt, Mommy." It made my day! Later that night, we ordered a pizza for dinner and I picked a piece of sausage off of your plate. You scolded me, saying, "No eat my pizza, Mommy. Your pizza on your plate." I couldn't help but laugh.
• Speaking of pizza, it remains your favorite food. You're still a fairly selective eater. Currently, you're favoring turkey lunch meat, bananas, yogurt, fish sticks, chicken breast, hot dogs, pancakes, eggs, and anything sweet. You certainly have your mama's sweet tooth. You also recently started drinking cranberry juice, which I found surprising. I was drinking some at the table several weeks ago, and you insisted on trying it. It has since become your favorite juice drink.
• You know you're going to have a "baby yister", who lives in Mommy's belly. You like to "pet" my belly and we talk about all of the things you're going to do with baby sister once she gets here.
• Nap time continues to be a source of confusion (for me). You're still tired in the middle of the day, and if you skip a nap, you're very grumpy. But when do you DO nap (and most days, you still do), you aren't tired until way past when I'd like you to go to bed. So, you're likely just in a transitional phase right now, and we're rolling with it.
• You've started watching shows on my Kindle Fire, and it's amazing to me how quickly you've picked up on technology. You easily select the show you want to watch "all by self".
• Speaking of shows, your favorite thing to watch on my Kindle is "Peppa Pig", an odd little show about a British pig family. Due to your love of this show, you've taken to calling me "Mummay", in your very best British pig accent. Makes me laugh every single time.

What else can I say? You're sweet, affectionate, and loving. You're mostly laid back and go with the flow, but you certainly can be feisty and sassy too. Without fail, you make me laugh every day. We have our power struggles from time to time, but mostly, we just have a very special bond that I'm so thankful for. Your daddy and I are completely crazy about you.

I love you, little buddy.

Watching Peppa Pig on the Kindle

With Daddy before going to your cousins' baseball game

Being silly with cousin Will

A family shot

Love,
Mommy

She's got hoop dreams.

 

We had our 3D ultrasound this past weekend. I was just over 24 weeks along, which is a little earlier than I had it done with Camden. At 24 weeks, the baby still lacks a lot of the baby fat that they acquire a little later in the pregnancy, resulting in a more skeletal look. However, I really wanted gender confirmation done at this ultrasound (before I started doing any major clothes and/or nursery shopping), and they recommend doing that earlier in the pregnancy. So, 24 weeks it was.

This ultrasound place was awesome. We went somewhere different than we did with Camden. My experience with the 3D place we used for Camden's ultrasound was just okay. The ultrasound itself was fine (although Camden's face was nestled snuggly in my placenta, making for some less than stellar pictures), but the customer service was lacking big time. Looking back, I think they were just short-staffed, but when your entire family shows up at a certain time expecting to get their first glimpse at your baby and you sit in a receptionist-less office for 45 minutes without so much as a "Hey, we know you're here, and we're really sorry but we're running behind...", it kind of sets the tone for the whole experience. So, this time around, I did a little more research and found an office with excellent reviews.

Anyway. This experience was totally different, with the office manager coming out right away to check me in and offer me juice or soda to get the baby jumping. Then we (Matt, Camden, my mom, dad, brother, sister, and me) were called back to a cozy room with leather sofas and chairs and a large TV mounted to the wall. There was a comfortable bed for me to lay on, and then the show began. The ultrasound tech asked if we wanted gender confirmation and then easily identified and pointed out the girlie parts. So, yes- our baby is still a girl.

Unfortunately, my kids don't seem to enjoy cooperating for 3D ultrasounds. Just like her brother, this baby decided to hide her adorable little face, giving us only occasional glimpses. While Camden preferred my placenta as a pillow, this baby had her face buried in my uterine wall. It was still very neat to watch her hold the umbilical cord and then stick it in her mouth and suck on it. She even tried sucking on my uterine wall at one point-- I guess they run out of things to do in there!

Also? This baby is huge. Not weight wise, by length wise. The ultrasound tech said she couldn't talk about measurements because that would be getting into diagnostics and this was an elective ultrasound, but she commented repeatedly that the baby has extremely long limbs for 24 weeks. In fact, she is already head down and is so crowded in there that the tech feels confident that she won't be able to turn herself back around before she makes her debut. She said that her head is right on my bladder and that the pressure on my bladder will only increase as this pregnancy goes on. Fun! She also made a comment about me having such a small frame myself and having such a long baby (yikes!). I gestured to my 6'2" husband in the chair next to me and noted that he is clearly to blame.

We're very excited to meet our future WNBA playing (or runway modeling?) daughter in just a few short months!

Overheard.

Camden has said multiple times lately, "Mommy has a big, fat tummy like Pete!"

As in, Pete from Mickey Mouse.

What can I say? I totally see where he's coming from.

Exhibit A, Pete:

And Exhibit B, my very own Pete tummy:

The Craziness Subsides. For a while.

The weekend has come to an end and, thankfully, so has my school semester. I finally feel like I can breathe again.

Our hosting weekend was hectic, having up to 9 adults and 2 toddlers in our house at one point. Camden handled the company like a champ. A year ago, hosting that many people would have presented a different set of challenges, in the form of extreme stranger anxiety on Camden's part. While he is certainly still a bit slow to warm up (every new visitor that entered our house got a several minute stare down as a greeting), he always does eventually warm up now. Sometimes, he might even get a little too warmed up-- he treated our guests to a streaking marathon, where he ran laps around our house in the nude.

I wondered what the dynamics would be like between Camden and our friends' 19 month old son, Jack. Camden adores playing with other children, but most of his social interaction is limited to his cousins and a handful of neighbors on our street. Having a stranger child come into his house and play with his toys was going to be new territory for him, so I prepped him on the need to share. With the exception of a couple minor incidents, I'm happy to report he did wonderfully. It was almost like he understood that he was the "big kid", as he even let Jack get away with snatching toys from his hands a few times (something he NEVER lets his cousin/BFF get away with). I think he's going to be an awesome big brother.

Camden and Jack's breakfast date.

One of the couples that visited are expecting their first child in a few weeks. It was funny to watch them studying Camden and Jack, taking internal notes. They didn't hesitate to pick our brains about parenting questions either. (Little did they know, I feel just as full of questions myself, even though this will be my second newborn experience.) Some of the questions were practical ("When do you stop nursing every 2 hours?") and some were downright funny. The father, one of Matt's best friends from elementary school, looked at me, seemingly perplexed. "So, Camden can just understand everything you say? I mean, you talk to him like he's an adult. You told him to get his juice off the counter, and he just went and did it." I made sure to clarify to him that he won't be able to instruct his newborn to warm up a bottle.