Gimme Some Miracle Please-Don't-Grow...

Wow...what a week.  What a month!  Sitting down and recording my thoughts and events is FAR down on my priority list right now, but I keep jotting down things to remember to write about because so much has happened. For now I am going to focus on this week, though.

Partial family pic in his classroom during his open house

This was a momentous week for X-man...my biggest little man started pre-school this week.  Last fall when the buses started showing up in our neighborhood to pick up and drop off the plethora of kids living nearby, X-man started pleading to go to school.  I really hadn't given much thought to pre-school at that point and wasn't even sure that we would do it, but he was so adamant that he wanted some schoolin', so I started looking around a little.  We couldn't have found a better fit.  Sedgwick County Zoo has their own pre-school program and seeing as my children have practically been raised on their grounds, how could we go anywhere else?  Only 15 kids in a class and 2 WONDERFUL teachers that we adore already...it's a great fit.  We had orientation last week which he seemed to handle really well, but the real test would be the first day when I would drop him off and LEAVE him for 2 1/2 hours.  J and I made a big deal about packing up his backpack Monday night before his first day so he would be ready.  He enthusiastically stashed his crayons, paints and Ziploc full of a change of clothes (essential in a preschoolers bag) into his backpack and off he went to bed.  The next morning Gokey and I were up bright and early as is normal and X-man came prancing out in his PJ's wearing his backpack...so adorable.  The excitement was palpable and he couldn't wait!

Mrs. Neal and Ernie captivating their 3 year old audience
during open house.  X-man is right in the middle and
nearly a head taller than everyone else.

I thought I was doing a good job getting everyone ready to go.  All 3 kids were dressed, bags were packed, dogs were put away...but I am still struggling with knowing just how much time I need to get THREE out of the door and buckled into their respective seats!  By the time I was pulling out of the driveway I knew we were going to be late.  I felt HORRIBLE!  He was the last kid to school...I tried to snap a pic of my big man as we were walking in, but he was complaining about the sun in his eyes and I didn't want to hold him up any longer. It was only a couple of minutes and he didn't seem to notice, but it was a total mommy fail.  We walked through that door and he hung up his bag, found his name tag and then he about took off to dive into play when I called him back for some hugs and kisses, and he gladly obliged...and then dove into play.  I don't even think he knew I was gone after I left.  I really thought I would sob on this day...I have sobbed multiple times in the last 4 years when I have merely THOUGHT about this day, but his excitement was so thick it was contagious and all I could do is smile at his enthusiasm.  Gokey, Jilly and I walked off to enjoy a couple hours in the zoo without big brother...we missed him, and Gokey was sure he should be in school as well, sporting his backpack while hunting for hippos, but we all survived.

I wanna go to school too, Mom...

Guess I'll settle for hippo huntin'

Upon pick up X-man had pictures that he cut out and glued and colored all by himself...he was so proud of himself and couldn't wait to show it off.  We met J for lunch and the two of us prodded him for details and we got a few...many we kinda had to piece together to get a real picture of how it went, but it seemed to be a swimming success.

Then came Thursday...day 2 of school.  "I don't wanna go to school," was the sentiment I heard all morning.  Mrs. Costello, one of his fantastic teachers had warned us of this during orientation.  Kids are often full of excitement on that first day, but after that first day passes, there are often tears and hesitations that weren't there before...all normal, but still distressing to all parties.  He reluctantly got dressed and ate breakfast and we loaded up into the van (much sooner than we had on day one).  The whole way there he continued to tell me he didn't want to go, he just wanted to go home, he thought he might need a nap (at 8:30 a.m.).  We made it...on time...and by the time we made it to the front door of school he was all smiles.  He hung up his bag, found his name tag and dove right in again, despite several teary classmates who were also struggling on day 2.

Upon picking up my little champ, he was as high as a kite!  In an attempt to excite him about school that day I had told him that if he could tell me the name of one of his classmates when I picked him up that I would give him a special treat.  He immediately told me one of his new friends was Allie...I haven't checked into his accuracy, but it was good enough for me.  He skipped in circles all around me all the way out to the van in the parking lot.  On the way home he said he wanted to go to school tomorrow.  I told him he wouldn't have school until next week.

"But, why?????" he whined.

Guess he's over his apprehension. :)



In baby news...Jilly is growing like a weed.  She is now 7 weeks old.  How in the heck did that happen?  It seems it was days ago she was taking her first sweet, soggy breaths in my arms and now she's smiling and cooing.  She is an entirely different baby than the boys were.  She is regularly sleeping 5-7 hour stretches at night and that is because she has an abundance of fat reserves to get her from one end of those stretches to the other.  At my 6 week check up with my midwife, she tipped the scales at 13 pounds 5 ounces!  She has gained nearly 5 pounds in just over 6 weeks and grown almost 3

Look at those muscles! :)

inches in that same span.  Apparently I am producing and excreting some sort of liquid Spam to get this kind of weight gain....haha.  This puts her around the 97th percentile for weight when my boys hovered around the 50th percentile at this age.  At a mere 7 weeks of age I slipped her into her first 3-6 month outfit and packed away the newborns and 0-3 month outfits that would no longer snap between her legs.  Any cures for growth out there?  It just goes so fast...

Frogs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails...

Boys...it's just what I know!  I have "known" that this little "Chip" that I carry was a boy from very early on.  I was convinced...I don't know why.  This pregnancy has been much different than both of my previous pregnancies, but I don't put a lot of stock in that.  Every pregnancy is different, right, and shouldn't something be said for mother's intuition?  So...I had my sonogram this morning and, unfortunately, since my whole house seems to be horribly ill right now, I had to go it alone.  It made the whole thing kind of anticlimactic.  It's such an amazing thing to be able to see that little baby from the outside and I have always been lucky enough to share that with my husband, but it is what it is.  I went in, the technician went through all of the routine checkpoints...saw ten tiny fingers and ten tiny toes, saw that little hearbeat flashing away, saw that elegant little spine and even got a little wave from our little "Chip!"  Then the technician asked if we wanted to know the gender, and my response was, "of course!" :)  However, this little baby was MODEST!  That's something new...both of my boys showed the goods willingly, laying there spread-eagle in their pride.  This one had those little legs all tucked up and crossed and wouldn't budge.  The technician said, "we'll come back to that," and found a few other measurements to be taken.  When we returned, we found those little legs still all tucked up and crossed.  I recalled a conversation with an ultrasound technician during my 20 week scan with my first baby.  She said that 90% of the time those innate female and male things are ingrained within the womb already and boys will willingly show the goods, while girls tend to hide it all...interesting, huh?  The technician took the probe and gave baby a good jiggle and, voila!  She pointed out baby's little hiney, and 2 legs coming down and then these 3 little lines..."this is a baby girl!"

"WHAT?" I exclaimed in shock.  "I have two boys and I just knew this was a boy, I am floored!"

"This is NO boy," she confidently stated.

I am STILL in shock!  I have just gotten so used to the boy thing...I have fantasized about a little girl and oohed and aahed at all the adorable, pink, frilly little outfits (which is odd, considering I am SO far from frilly), but just figured that we didn't "do" girls.  I guess I should have listened closer to X-man who has insisted from the beginning that he was having a baby sister.  If you suggested that it might be a baby brother, he would adamantly, almost scold, that he was indeed having a baby sister and refused to believe otherwise.

So...here we are!  Entering a new realm of pinkness!  Time to put away the frogs and snails and puppy dog tails!  :)