November was another busy, fun month for the whole family! We took a trip to the Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia to meet Daniel Tiger. We celebrated Thanksgiving. John and I had Preston’s parent/teacher conference. And the kids all got flu shots.
Aunt Emily filled us in on the special exhibit at the Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia feature Daniel Tiger. Luke is a big Daniel Tiger fan right now, and we were excited to find out that there would be a chance to meet Daniel Tiger! So we all trekked down to the museum, Grandma and Grandpa came too. And we met Emily there! It was fun to meet Daniel Tiger, but the rest of the museum was even more fun! We had been there when Preston was a little younger than Alyssa is now. It was good then, but the boys are really good ages for all the activities right now. We stayed for 4 hours, and probably could have stayed longer! The especially loved the construction site with the foam bricks, and they really got into it with costumes and everything.
Luke and Preston also started swim lessons this month at a new place. Luke is still cautious about swimming on his own and relies on his teachers to help him float while he practices stretching out his body and using his arms and legs to float. I’m hoping that he’ll be a really confident swimmer for the pool next summer, so that he can be a bit more independent!
Luke having a great year in preschool! I only hear about bits and pieces of his day, but he is always excited in the morning to find out if he has a job at school, he loves talking about the weather, and he is learning TONS of new songs. We now sing HIS grace at dinner at home, the one they sing before snack at school. A few weeks ago he was randomly singing it in the bathtub, and I made him do it a few times so that I could write down all the words. It’s easy to memorize once you know it, but it flies right by.
Early in November the whole family went to Preston’s Pack meeting to watch his rocket race in the space derby. He worked really hard on it with Daddy, and it was a fun night for all of the kids. The little ones got bored at the end, but there were snacks as a distraction. Preston’s rocket was in the very first heat and it blew away the other 3 rockets! He was SO excited. Then the second time it raced it went even further than the first time! They measure how far the rockets go in each heat and then add the two distances together, so winning a heat doesn’t matter – just the distance. When it came time for the awards, Preston was super antsy. We thought that he probably won something, but when it came down to first and second prize, and he name hadn’t been called yet, we knew it was going to be good! Preston’s rocket won first place!! He was beaming! That night we finally got home and settled down for bed, but he was SOO amped up. He kept bouncing around, way past his bedtime, and talking about how he couldn’t BELIEVE he won the BIGGEST TROPHY. We ended up giving him half a melatonin pill. I’m not sure if it worked or if the placebo effect kicked in, but he settled down after that. It was SUCH an exciting night!!!!
Right before thanksgiving, John and I met had Preston’s conference with his teacher. He is doing really well in class, which we basically knew. His one challenge area is reading, which we also knew. He’s not falling behind, in fact we see a lot of progress, but he was getting frustrated with the reading group that he was in. His teacher moved him to an easier level group, and he’s less frustrated, which is a good thing! But he tells me that the books he is reading now are easy. Anyway, I asked his teacher if he could stay with the easier level group in school, but send home the harder books to read at home each night. Yesterday was the first day that she sent home reading homework, and he came home a bit confused. He was like “no one else gets TWO books, Mommy.” I told him that it was my fault, and that I wanted him to practice both books. He is totally fine with that, thankfully!! And when we read the harder book at home he doesn’t get as frustrated, because he’s not with his friends who find it so easy. We were also SO proud of him on the trip home from Thanksgiving. He decided he was going to read to Alyssa to help her fall asleep in her car seat for her nap. He read an entire chapter of Dog Man (his favorite chapter) out loud to all of us. It took him half an hour, but he never gave up. When he was having trouble with a word he would spell it for us so that we could help him out. And Alyssa fell asleep. Luke was already asleep and missed the whole thing! Ha.
Alyssa loved the Please Touch Museum. It was really a good thing that we had a 4:3 Grownup:kid ratio. The kids were ALL OVER the place. It wasn’t like they were being naughty or trying to run away from us; it was just that there were a million other kids and a million things to see and do. It also is a very open floor plan, which means there are no boundaries for toddlers. At one point, Grandma and Grandpa were both watching Alyssa while she played in this crazy maze thing. It so hard to describe, but there were big plastic flaps that hung down tightly together. If you wade into them it feels like you could be underwater. But you could exit out of any side of the group, so Alyssa probably followed some other kids out to another section, and then Grandma and Grandpa couldn’t find her. They looked for a few minutes in the same section and then alerted the staff that she was missing. Grandpa found her after 5 minutes (which is kind of a long time when a tiny person is missing) ALL the way across the museum. Luckily for me, I didn’t know that any of this happened until it was over and she was safely found. I was in another section trying to wrangle the boys to have lunch. This child will probably need a leash – she’s too much of a free range chicken!!
All the kids went to the pediatrician for a flu shot. It was a clinic so we all just piled into one room and the nurse went from arm to arm administering shots. They were all incredibly brave, with NO crying. I was so proud of them! Alyssa didn’t cry, but she did sort of yell at the nurse and gave the nurse a dirty look after the shot was over. I’m sure the poor nurse has dealt with a lot worse! They all got a lolli-pop at the end, so we went home happy.
We had a fun Thanksgiving at Aunt LuAnn’s house. The boys got to watch a movie on the third floor, and Alyssa even took a nap in the pack and play. We stayed over at Gigi and Grandpa’s house that night and helped her to get Christmas decorations down. We even managed to decorate our own house that weekend. All we are missing is the tree!
Tomorrow we dive into December, and we already have an action packed month planned. It’s full of concerts, train rides, cub scouts, swimming, Bach Choir, getting a tree, etc. I need to make a Christmas activity list so that I can organize all of the things that I want to do. There are so many traditions and so little time!!!
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