Food glorious food redux

Oh yes - it is *that* time again!!! Do you remember when Jack started rice cereal? Of course you do. It was SO exciting. See?

http://jackgifford.blogspot.com/2005/09/food-glorious-food.html

Well this time around it went a little differently. Kate's four month well baby doctor visit, much like her 4 month Tad pictures, took place about 3 weeks late. Besides telling me that Kate was basically a genius (no really - more on that later) the doctor also told me that it was just about time to start rice cereal.

Me: What? Already? For REAL?

Then about a week later I remembered to tell Mike.

Poor second child. Last time - SO EXCITING! This time - one more thing to do. Fortunately for Kate she was about the ca-UTEST thing to ever eat rice cereal on this Earth. Wanna see? Sure you do.

The before:


The during:





She LOVES it!

The after:

Rice cereal makes a baby verrrrry sleeeeepy.

She was a pro from the first spoonful. Like the doctor said (no really - more on that later I tell you) - GENIUS!

First school library book!

Tuesday's Jack's class has library day. He gets to pick a book and check it out for the entire week! Here he is with his first offical school library book. It's a milestone. A milestone, I say!

As soon as he took his cute little book out of his cute little backpack I was all "It's your FIRST school library book! HOLD ON let me get my camera!!!" and he was all "Mommy are you EVER going to stop with the school pictures?!" and I was all "NO."

Our little fish

JGif at SwimKids earlier this week ... I love how he makes his coach back up before he jumps in.




He's JUST like Michael Phelps, except without the whole drug scandal thing.

She speaks!!!

Do you hear what I hear (what I hear what I hear ..). Yes folks Christmas came a wee bit early this year. For me anyway. Watch 'til the end and Kate will give you a special surprise. Note: you might not want to see the special surprise if you are currently eating breakfast/lunch/dinner/snack/whateva.



PS: Yes I am totally aware that it's just baby babble and she's not addressing me specifically. But in my mama fantasy land she's totally calling me by name.

PPS: I swear my voice is not that annoying in real life.

FOUR months

I know I know - I'm a little bit late with this one! But with vacation (pictures of that coming soon-ish) and school, etc. etc. (etc. etc. = me being lazy and forgetful) Kate's four month Tad picture just got away from me. I'll post the five month picture late as well to make up for it (does that make sense to anyone but me?).

Drum roll please .....

First day!!!

In case you were wondering ....


A beary special day indeed! It started off with a little breakfast in bed.

When he saw his breakfast he said to me "Oh mommy I feel SO special and happy today. Daddy should be a part of this, can you send him in here please?". HA! Cue the second cry session of the day for mama. The first session occured whilst I was writing the "Happy first day of Kindergarten!" note. Cue the 53rd cry session of the day as I type the story about me writing the note. I know it gets easier from here. Even if it doesn't just tell me it does, okay?

All ready to go!

After I took that picture he said "Alright, bye!" and proceeded to take off down the front walk. Me: "Wait! Me and daddy are going with you to the bus stop!". Him (sounding somewhat annoyed): "Oh, you are??". No fear, this kid!

With his friends, and fellow kindergarteners (whose mom cried even more then I did! Twins = twice the tears.) Matt and Jake.

Yes they are all the same age. Actually they are about 9 months older then Jack! Our boy = VERY tall.

There were approximately 1,352 kids at our bus stop. It's insane. This picture only shows about 1/4 of them.



Bus is here! Lining up ...


Almost there ..


Now boarding, JGif.


He's on!


And away they go .... our "baby" is off to school.


Did that last picture of the bus driving away down the street make you cry? If your name is Granny or Mima I got $100 that says your answer to that question is "yes".

After school we went to the "parent pick-up" area located in the gym to pick up our big kindergartener at dismissal. Here is Mike playing some b-ball while we waited.

And we waited. And we waited. And then we found out that even tho Jack was listed on the "parent pick-up" list for the day he was accidentally put on the bus. Oops! Confusion. Fear. Tears. On my part not Jack's. We tracked him down after about 15 minutes and he was just beyond excited that he got an extra bus ride out of it.

Here is what was waiting for Jack upon his return home.

Yes those are fresh baked from SCRATCH chocolate chip cookies on the little plate. As far as moms go, I pretty much rock. And yes that is a "happy birthday" balloon. I just told Jack it said "happy schoolday". Good thinking, right!?

And the man after a long hard day of learning, with his first day of school surprises.


And that brings our first day of school picture-a-thon to a close. Wishing it would never end? No worries! I plan on documenting every.single.day of kindergarten in the same manner.

Just kidding. Kind of.

Who is ready for SCHOOL??

Jack is!


Me - not so much. My itty bitty BABY is starting Kindergarten tomorrow. HOW!? HOW did this happen? I just cannot believe it. Really I can't even talk about it because I just can.NOT believe it.

He is so very excited. As you might be able to tell I am a little bit of a mess at the moment. But just like NKOTB I'm hangin' tough. I know all will be fine and that everyone he comes into contact with at his new big boy school will know just how amazing he is within 5 minutes of meeting him. They are all so lucky to have him coming into their lives.

By the way is JGif not the CA-UTEST little person with school supplies you have ever seen in your life? You know he is. Note how Tad the birthday frog is gazing upon him from a distance. Tad can.NOT believe it even more then me. That frog has been in tears all weekend. Crazy frog.

Beach teaser

We are back from our week in the Outer Banks. It was an amaing week filled with food, friends, sun and fun. Jack is a fish and spent 90% of our vacation playing in the pool or "surfing" in the ocean. It's late and I'm tired -- but just wanted to post a little sneak peak of my beach beauties.

Don't tell Jack I posted that one. I showed it to him a little while ago and his response was "WHAT is that on my nose? I look gross". Such a diva that kid.

Brothers and sisters

Is it just me or are they pretty much the SAME.EXACT person?

Shrink Jack down, throw some ruffles and the occasional hair bow on him and you've got Kate. Speaking of hair bows, have I mentioned that Kate has 26 of them? No really - I just counted. 26 hair bows for a baby girl who has hardly any hair to speak of. I have issues. Ps: don't bring up the 26 hair bows around Mike. It's somewhat of a source of contention betwixt he and I. Yes I just said betwixt.

Jack loves his baby sister. Loves love LOVES her.

She makes him very happy.


And she makes him very tired.



Kate loves love LOVES her big brother. And also, she loves eating her hands.


They melt my heart, these two.

My heart = great.BIG.puddle.

TGFMPP

TGFMPP = Thank God for McDonalds Playplace! I'm going to have that printed up on a bumper sticker. Actually Mike would put me in time out if I placed a bumper sticker on my car. Perhaps I'll embroider it on a pillow. Actually I have no idea how to embroider. Perhaps I'll just blog about it.

I do, on occassion, take my child to McDonalds. And by "on occasion" I mean "once a week". Don't judge me! On nights when we have somewhere to be after work - like swim class - it is such a huge help as I don't have time to make dinner! Also it is a huge help on nights that I'm just plain lazy. Jack and the drive-thru worker at the McDonalds by my work are on a first name basis. True story. Everytime we go there Jack is all "HEY Rafael!" then proceeds to try to tell Rafael as much as possible about what is going on in his life in the amount of time it takes me to pay for our happy meal. We actually haven't seen Rafael in a few weeks. We went this past Tuesday on swim class night and once again, no Rafael. Jack asks me where he could be and I say "I don't know! Maybe he doesn't work here anymore."

Silence.

Then from Jack "Does this mean I will never see him again?"
And I answer "Well I don't know sweetie maybe we will one day".

Silence.

I look back and HE IS CRYING. Then I almost cried as I was slammed with the reality that I take my kid to Micky Dee's so much that the kid is actually CRYING at the thought of not seeing his favorite drive-thru worker anymore. I'm a baaaaad mama.

Anyway - aside from the quick and easy aspect of McDonalds another big plus is that some of them have play places! Perfect for times when you really want to get the kiddos out of the house but it's too rainy/snowy/hot/cold to do something productive outside. Jack would play for HOURS if I let him - and I can bring my phone and catch up on emails (and/or web surfing) in peace. Amen! We had some workers coming to do insulation in our attic one night last week and I wanted to keep the kids out during that time - and the heat index was approximately 110 degrees - so off to the McDonalds play place we went!

Jack had nuggets and fries for dinner then proceeded to go down this slide approximately 5,432 times.



For dinner I ate Kate's toes b/c they are SO.FLIPPING.ADORABLE.

Excuse me for dropping the f-bomb. I just cannot help myself when it comes to those little piggies.

Kate woke up in the midst of a playplace full of kids screaming and sliding and was all like WHAT is going on?


Then for dessert I had this. Prepare yourself - it's *almost* as cute as Kate's feet. Almost.

SERIOUSLY! How CA-UTE is that!??! And the best part - they are f-r-double-e! I had no idea Mcdonalds even had such a thing until I saw another family in the playplace eating them. They are not on the menu - but if you ask the person behind the counter for "one of those cute itty bitty little ice cream cones" and make the "itty bitty" gesture with your thumb and forefinger as I did, they will totally know what you are talking about.

Best part is that when we got home Jack had a bath, got into bed to watch TV and was out cold within about 1/2 hour. Thank you McDonalds playplace!

You gotta know when to hold 'em.

Know when to fold 'em. Know when to drool on 'em. Know when to cry because you're not winning.

Wait that's not how the song went, is it?


JGif loooooves him some Go Fish. And he's quite good. He wins everytime - and I swear I'm not letting him win! Hmmm - perhaps I'm just quite bad. We played a few hands the other day and he insisted his sister join in the fun.

Yes, Jack is playing cards in his underwear. That is how we do it at our house.

Kate keeping her cards to herself ..


Jack doing much of the same.




Here is what happens when you tell a 4 month old** "I do not have any eights - GO FISH!".


Ohhh the DRAMA. She hates to lose as much as her mama does.


Finally I was like "Fine FINE come sit on my lap!". Little did she know her sitting on my lap = me being able to see her cards. Sucker!

What? People cheat - I'm just teaching her the ways of the world at an early age. She'll thank me one day.

Kate's p-p-p-poker face.




**FOUR months! Already! Tad picture on the way ....