New Years Eve 2017
This year has been a big one for us. I quit my day job for a much busier one carting the kids all around. I’m now working for a fundraising consultant. I help her with presentations and documents for her clients. I love it! I can do it whenever I want, and it is work that changes every day. I also have some level of expertise which she appreciates. Anyway, it’s good for now, and my hope is that I can find some time to get Cherry Lane Designs back up and running with a more diverse product portfolio.
John is very happy at Olympus, and keeps himself busy at home with various projects: computer, home improvement, fixing things, etc.
The kids are all having great years too!
From Preston:
My favorite part of 1st grade is recess. You get to RUN. I also like to get on the bus in the morning. My bus number is Bus 10, and I leave the house every morning at 8:08, and if I am ANY later than that I have a small meltdown. My teachers name is Mrs. Mollica, also Tara. We have a fun system called Class Dojo where you can earn dojo points for good manners, and you lose dojos for bad manners. Sometimes you can earn special rewards like: eat lunch with your teacher.
For Christmas Preston got a 20 gallon fish tank. It’s been a big project for us to get it set up, but it now has 2 tiny fish in it as testers, and hopefully we’ll be able to add a few more over the next few weeks.
From Luke:
My favorite part of school is Calendar. My favorite job at school is snack helper. My friend at school is Sam and my teacher is Mrs. Gross. Sometimes I get to stay longer at school for Lunch-a-bunch!
Luke got a Polar Express train for Christmas, which he really loves, and also his own balance bike from Uncle Joe! It has been below freezing here for over a week now, with no end in sight, so we haven’t been able to play outside much to test the bike. He loves school, and he’s getting to be a great helper around the house. He plays best when he is all by himself, add a sibling and there is a lot of screaming. He’s also very interested in letters right now, especially L, U, K and E.
Alyssa:
Alyssa is nearly 2 and definitely showing her 2-ness. She throws tantrums sometimes, and has opinions about what she wears and what activities she does during the day. Her new favorite phrase is “NO, I don’t LIKE it!” She speaks her own little language still, but I spend enough time with her that I know what she is talking about most of the time. She loves CHOO-choos, babies, and puppies. She also still really loves Jack, but the love is not reciprocal. She is very independent. Today we made Luke some scrambled eggs for lunch, which he of course didn’t eat. But 5 minutes after he abandoned them at the table there is Alyssa, with a giant fork, standing on a chair, eating Luke’s eggs. This happens a lot during the day. She helps herself to her sippy cup in the fridges, gets the step stool so she can reach the snack basket in the in the laundry room. She feeds the cat by giving him one grain of dry dindin at a time (which makes Jack both crazy and excited at the same time). She cleans up her dishes and her garbage when she is done eating. She’s basically a tiny functional human.
John also switched her bed to a toddler bed last week. She loves it. She thinks she is such a big girl!
Sometimes when I drop Luke off at preschool, Alyssa wants to participate in the morning drop off routine which includes “signing – in” for the day. Luke can sign in all by himself, but when Alyssa wants to do it I help her write her name and tell her all of the letters. She caught on a bit and now insists that her name is spelled A – L (skip a few) A. And she loves to tell you that she’s two, even though she has a few weeks to go.
From Mommy:
Christmas was really great this year. I think it’s nice that Alyssa isn’t a baby anymore, and all of the kids can really enjoy the experience. It, of course, lasts the entire month of December. We make cookies, have a million parties with all of the activities that the kids do. With the help of my Mom I made the boys Christmas shirts for church, and a tie for John. Mom also whipped up matching dresses for her 3 granddaughters, and hosted Christmas, all while working on a ton of tailoring for a local dry-cleaner. I don’t know how she does it.
We went ice skating with Ted, Liora, Talia, Debbie, and Grandpa while we were all on Christmas break. Liora is an awesome ice skater, and Talia is super comfortable on the ice especially for a 4 year old! I was super impressed! This was the first time Preston or Luke have ever skated, and I explained up front that they would do a lot of falling down. Preston took to the ice like a baby giraffe. He legs were everywhere all at once. One of the rink employees handed him a traffic cone pretty quickly, and that was a huge help. I was incredibly proud of him. He fell SO many times, but just picked himself up and stuck with it for the whole hour that we were there. He took small breaks on the bench, and then he was right back at it. For the final loop around the rink he was still using the cone, but he didn't fall once! I think we'll have to go a few more times!
Luke liked it, too, but he always wanted a grown-up to hold him. He was too nervous to even try a cone. He LOVED it when Uncle Ted zoomed him around the rink at top speed!
Maybe I’ll blog more in the New Year! But either way, I hope 2018 brings joy to all.
This year has been a big one for us. I quit my day job for a much busier one carting the kids all around. I’m now working for a fundraising consultant. I help her with presentations and documents for her clients. I love it! I can do it whenever I want, and it is work that changes every day. I also have some level of expertise which she appreciates. Anyway, it’s good for now, and my hope is that I can find some time to get Cherry Lane Designs back up and running with a more diverse product portfolio.
John is very happy at Olympus, and keeps himself busy at home with various projects: computer, home improvement, fixing things, etc.
The kids are all having great years too!
From Preston:
My favorite part of 1st grade is recess. You get to RUN. I also like to get on the bus in the morning. My bus number is Bus 10, and I leave the house every morning at 8:08, and if I am ANY later than that I have a small meltdown. My teachers name is Mrs. Mollica, also Tara. We have a fun system called Class Dojo where you can earn dojo points for good manners, and you lose dojos for bad manners. Sometimes you can earn special rewards like: eat lunch with your teacher.
For Christmas Preston got a 20 gallon fish tank. It’s been a big project for us to get it set up, but it now has 2 tiny fish in it as testers, and hopefully we’ll be able to add a few more over the next few weeks.
From Luke:
My favorite part of school is Calendar. My favorite job at school is snack helper. My friend at school is Sam and my teacher is Mrs. Gross. Sometimes I get to stay longer at school for Lunch-a-bunch!
Luke got a Polar Express train for Christmas, which he really loves, and also his own balance bike from Uncle Joe! It has been below freezing here for over a week now, with no end in sight, so we haven’t been able to play outside much to test the bike. He loves school, and he’s getting to be a great helper around the house. He plays best when he is all by himself, add a sibling and there is a lot of screaming. He’s also very interested in letters right now, especially L, U, K and E.
Alyssa:
Alyssa is nearly 2 and definitely showing her 2-ness. She throws tantrums sometimes, and has opinions about what she wears and what activities she does during the day. Her new favorite phrase is “NO, I don’t LIKE it!” She speaks her own little language still, but I spend enough time with her that I know what she is talking about most of the time. She loves CHOO-choos, babies, and puppies. She also still really loves Jack, but the love is not reciprocal. She is very independent. Today we made Luke some scrambled eggs for lunch, which he of course didn’t eat. But 5 minutes after he abandoned them at the table there is Alyssa, with a giant fork, standing on a chair, eating Luke’s eggs. This happens a lot during the day. She helps herself to her sippy cup in the fridges, gets the step stool so she can reach the snack basket in the in the laundry room. She feeds the cat by giving him one grain of dry dindin at a time (which makes Jack both crazy and excited at the same time). She cleans up her dishes and her garbage when she is done eating. She’s basically a tiny functional human.
John also switched her bed to a toddler bed last week. She loves it. She thinks she is such a big girl!
Sometimes when I drop Luke off at preschool, Alyssa wants to participate in the morning drop off routine which includes “signing – in” for the day. Luke can sign in all by himself, but when Alyssa wants to do it I help her write her name and tell her all of the letters. She caught on a bit and now insists that her name is spelled A – L (skip a few) A. And she loves to tell you that she’s two, even though she has a few weeks to go.
From Mommy:
Christmas was really great this year. I think it’s nice that Alyssa isn’t a baby anymore, and all of the kids can really enjoy the experience. It, of course, lasts the entire month of December. We make cookies, have a million parties with all of the activities that the kids do. With the help of my Mom I made the boys Christmas shirts for church, and a tie for John. Mom also whipped up matching dresses for her 3 granddaughters, and hosted Christmas, all while working on a ton of tailoring for a local dry-cleaner. I don’t know how she does it.
We went ice skating with Ted, Liora, Talia, Debbie, and Grandpa while we were all on Christmas break. Liora is an awesome ice skater, and Talia is super comfortable on the ice especially for a 4 year old! I was super impressed! This was the first time Preston or Luke have ever skated, and I explained up front that they would do a lot of falling down. Preston took to the ice like a baby giraffe. He legs were everywhere all at once. One of the rink employees handed him a traffic cone pretty quickly, and that was a huge help. I was incredibly proud of him. He fell SO many times, but just picked himself up and stuck with it for the whole hour that we were there. He took small breaks on the bench, and then he was right back at it. For the final loop around the rink he was still using the cone, but he didn't fall once! I think we'll have to go a few more times!
Luke liked it, too, but he always wanted a grown-up to hold him. He was too nervous to even try a cone. He LOVED it when Uncle Ted zoomed him around the rink at top speed!
Maybe I’ll blog more in the New Year! But either way, I hope 2018 brings joy to all.
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