Update

DD#2 will also play T-ball and dh will be their coach! Yay! This will make for some cute photos! The girls are sooo excited. They watch their big brother play soccer and want so much to be on a sports team too :)

Summer Plans

I am getting excited! Slowly but surely I am pulling together our Summer activities. Here is what we have so far --

DS is going to Camp Invention for a week.

Family Trip to Kings Island

Both DD's will play T-ball and are sooo excited (and dh will be the coach!)

SEVEN Kid's Day Outs scheduled for the girls (Or maybe these are scheduled for me, but 7 Wednesdays this Summer!!!) with DS's former preschool teacher who runs an awesome Summer program ... this one is lucky for us that DD#2 is potty trained .... and the girls get to be together (always makes me just feel better) and they get to practice being away from ME (to get ready for preschool AND to help me work toward sanity!)

Family swimming in our backyard (often)

Maybe a Summer Kindermusik class for the girls (just 30 minutes of music and instruments and singing and movement) .... this one is cost depending and age depending ..... it is just SO hard to take one girl somewhere cool and have the other one sit something out. So, I am hoping this works out because we need to stay busy or I will surely perish this Summer at home all day with these three adorable kidlinks of mine!

Family cookouts (at least 2 with extended family)

Duckpin Bowling (this is just on my idea list for dh's two weeks off this Summer) ... since the balls are small, I thought the girls could do this fairly easily ....

Picnics (at least 2)

Check out small playground nearest to our house (maybe take a short hike)

Roller skating? (As a family maybe during dh's two weeks off .... )

At least two visits to Jump-N-Play

At least five visits to McDonald's Play Place

Possible Jr. Lifeguarding class for ds (if I can find one that works for his age and our schedule)

Friends over to play for DS

Cousin sleepovers (at least two)

Evening Canoe Trip with ds ($5 per person!)

Insect program at city park (attend at least one and visit the playground afterwards ... might be a good picnic site).

Complete last two coaching classes (me)

Lots of walks

Children's Museum (at least once)

Still working on this list ..... but what do you think? Does it seem too busy? Does it seem balanced enough between activities for all of my kids? Am I missing anything really cool that you would like to suggest for my list? What are your Summer plans?

Infant Swim Resource

It has been a tough road having two little ones and a back yard pool. I don't really recommend the combination in general. It's dangerous and scary, even with a fence around the pool.

However, many of you know that I first signed the girls up for special swimming lessons when Katie was only just 9 months and Ellie was just 1.75 years old. They have gone back annually for updates and I consider their skills to still be a work in progress since they don't normally demontrate them in our pool.

But tonight, my 3.5 year old was helping her father fish bugs out of the pool (getting it ready for Summer). Dh and I were both out there and both girls were fishing bugs out of the pool. Neither dh or I saw it happen, but we heard the splash. DD#1 fell in the pool fully clothed, including her shoes.

I rushed to where she was when suddenly up pops her head and her hand grabs the side of the pool! This exact skill has been practiced repeatedly at her swimming lessons at ever lesson update. The kids are tested at the end of their sessions to swim to survival fully clothed in attire for every season. It is important to not get over confident, but I am so thankful that my dd has learned this skill enough to rescue herself at age 3.5!

Here is the link for information about Infant Swim Resource http://infantswim.com/. This program is just incredible.

The Smoke Is Clearing

I have been in a fog, maybe a funk ... and it is clearing now. I feel so blessed. It is way past time, but here are five today for my gratitude list --

1.) I am thankful for quality children's programs that meet our needs
2.) I am thankful for my kids and my family ... they are everything to me
3.) I am thankful for neighbors and a wonderful backyard
4.) I am thankful that when I do get time to myself, I truly cherish it
5.) I am thankful for good friends who love me even though I am a nutcase :)

Found One!

I did it! I found one! I found a preschool that will take both girls next year at the same time! It is affordable and it is of amazing quality. It is a bit further away than I wanted it to be, but I am hardly going to argue with a 17 minute drive for a 4-hour preschool day!

The school is designed to be 1-4 times per week depending on openings, the needs of the parents/family and the age groups of the children. My girls could technically go twice per week, but right now there is only an opening for both to go at the same time once per week. This is actually a good thing for my budget.

Now, Dd#1 could go twice per week if we choose to sign her up for that at a later time, but I decided to keep this at one day per week for now. If the girls love it and another day opens up and works out for one or both girls, then we may add it .... but always, always, always we have to think about our budget ... ugh! Right now I am not exactly sure what that will look like in August for taking on additional preschool days.

(I am sooooo not used to making educational decisions about my kids in any way related to budgeting or monetary control, but it must be done because now we are living the Dave Ramsey way, and though we aren't perfect about it, we do live within our monthly means now and that feels pretty good from a security mindset, although it is also sometimes just a bit stifling... lol!)

Let's see, to find this lovely little preschool gem of a place, the girls and I have looked at a total of 7 different preschool programs! Whew!

But yikes, we are now signed up with four of these schools! (Since I had wanted to keep our options open; now, we are like signed up everywhere!) Oh well.

And yes, I am a bit nutty about preschools. But I just think it is the best learning fun of all the school years and I was looking for something very exact. This is not to say that all of the other programs I looked at lacked in some big way, but there were just so many factors at play here with having the two girls just less than one year apart (and then crazy me who needs a break desperately). Ah sigh ... crazy stuff! (And then that budget stuff too complicated it all ... ick! No fun!)

But I finally found it and this one is sure to work out very nicely! Whoo Hoo!

Preschool

I have gone back to do more research on local preschools. It probably has something to do with a friend of mine reminding me how preschools can be good for moms too. I began to think once again that perhaps I can find a preschool for both girls that is both affordable and convenient after all.

Plus, the elementary school sent home another flyer about their new preschool program. So, I had to check it out.

And in the last week I have found several new preschools that I did not even know existed before. Today the girls and I visited three new ones. There are many options; however, there are few affordable ones that offer something for both girls during the same time frame.

But I found two more and I checked one out today. The other two we looked at today were for dd#1 only (one was cheaper than where I currently have her signed up and the other was the new public school preschool that I mentioned above). I will check out the other preschool option for both girls soon and see what it offers. Hopefully tomorrow we can check it out. There are so many factors to consider and they go far beyond just having a time slot for both girls in one preschool. The school has to fit our budget, cannot be too far away and must fit into a time frame that makes sense for our lives. Also, the girls seem to be attracted to the schools with the most interesting playgrounds, so I think that is pretty important as well too.

Anyway, it has been fun to see all the new and latest options out there for preschools in this day and age. It honestly makes ME want to go to preschool!

It's getting easier!

With the weather turning warmer and the need for excessive layers of clothing having ended, life seems to be getting a little easier with two little ones less than one year apart.

I think it is more than that though. I think it is their ages too. My youngest is 2 1/2 now and she is eating less things in the house. She and my older daughter, who is 3 1/2, are playing together now and not just fighting or playing only side by side.

The two girls are also much more confident and steady on their feet and tend to be very independent by nature. While this has been a bit painful to allow to develop due to all the messes that have been created by their desire to do things "myself," I can see the payoffs. DD#1 actually cut up a banana and divided it into two bowls of cereal the other day for she and her sister! Later in the day, she poured her own milk from a half gallon jug while I stood ready for a terrible mess that didn't happen (I think this one was luck). But, wow, it is amazing what these two can do already.

I still think early potty training is overrated. DD#2 potty-trained a whole year earlier than DD#1 because she simply was not going to be the only one left in diapers. But with the two girls out of diapers, the bathroom just gets soooo messy. DD#2 is capable but much messier than DD#1 in the bathroom, so that gets a bit old. But I guess I am saving money on diapers, although I still buy them for nighttime and they are still costly!

The best part of having two children close in age like this has been that they have been able to build a friendship and I don't have to arrange play dates for them to have fun with another little one during the days.

But then I also loved raising my son for eight years before they were born and I totally enjoyed the ease with which he and I could hook up with other mothers and their kids .... and I adored the daily one-on-one with him too for all those years. That was pretty special in and of itself and something much, much harder to accomplish with two little ones close in age.

My youngest dd is my cuddle bundle. I guess I am especially thankful for her because she is my little hug baby. DD#1 is 3 1/2 but she thinks she is as old as my DS, who is 11. She doesn't tend to be a cuddle type by nature so if DD#2 had not come along, I might be missing the cuddles big time.

Do you find traits in your different children that tend to be more like you or more like other family members? I find this particularly fascinating. DD#1 tends to be a lot like me by nature. This has been interesting to watch develop. My DS tends to be a blend of both my husband and myself. But I think he tends to be most like my dad, his grandfather, for whom he was named. That makes me smile.

DD#2 is a combination of her dad and her Nana, my mother. This little spirited child is full of energy and will not be left behind. She is active and unafraid of most anything, full of bounce and physical activity. Yet, lovable and cuddly at the same time ... an odd thing to say about someone who never stops moving, ya know? Both of my two girls have traits of their other grandma, my MIL also.

Anyway, I am totally glad that I had these two younger ones so close in age. It has been harder than raising only one child so far. Much, much harder. They do fight and that is hard for me too as I tend to like a more peaceful household. But, they also play and are the best of friends too. And they play with their older brother quite a bit too which really makes me smile.

Probably the hardest thing of all though is having the wide age spacing while also having the close in age spacing between my kids. This makes thinking about being at home with them all for the entire Summer more difficult. It would be easier to plan activities around either an older age child or younger age children. It is hard to plan things for the wider range in ages and makes the Summers much more difficult to plan.

But, Summer is coming soon, so we will see how it goes this year. The nice thing is that everyone shares a love for the pool and we do have one in our backyard. I hope that continues for many years, although DS doesn't tend to enjoy swimming with just anybody in the pool. He prefers to swim with just our family members in there or if he has a friend over, he enjoys it. But he tends to want to go inside when the pool is full of others who are friends of mine or friends of the girls ... so this might be a challenge as well .... ahhh kids .... it can be tough even when it gets easier!