Home Alone!

So, I am sitting here, at home, by myself. This has happened maybe 2-3 times in the past few years, so it feels incredibly bizarre! I'm at home by myself, because two weeks ago Evelyn started preschool. Oh my gosh! I know, me too : )

We had been talking about whether or not to send her to preschool this fall for months. As some of you know, I'm a bit of a preschool snob (sorry, I just am!) since I taught Montessori for 6 years. But for a variety of reasons, none of the local Montessori schools would work for us this year and so I kept going back and forth over if I wanted to send her to a regular preschool (I know, I said I was a snob!) or just keep her at home. However, she was really starting to go beyond what I could sit and do with her on a regular basis-wanting to spell words and learn numbers, going over her shapes and colors, and lots of arts and crafts. I think I would have been able to keep up for a little while, but closer to delivery and after the baby is born would be a stretch for me. Plus, you may have noticed she is just a little bit social! I knew she would love it.

I found a great deal at a well established church preschool-that actually goes through elementary school-and I know many of the teachers as well as families who attend. So we went and observed, she cried when we left which was a good sign.

Her first day was hilarious. She looked so adorable, like a big girl but still a baby! Bard came with me and when we got to the classroom it was pretty chaotic. Lots of sad little two year olds

: ( Evelyn walked right in, sat down at a table and started to play. She looked around puzzled, at the other children, as if to say, "Why on earth are you crying?" Bard and I said goodbye, which didn't faze her at all, although Mama was a little emotional! I picked her up just a few hours later-she goes twice a week for two and a half hours-and the teacher said she had done great! Evelyn had over told her teacher when she had to go potty, which amazed me.

So now I sit here, alone, the house is quiet and I'm trying to decide whether to do a million things or nothing! I'm using the time to get extra work done and things taken care of around the house, which gives me a bit more freedom when I am with her-to just be with her. It's interesting to imagine what she is doing. Although I have left her in Sunday School many times, since I am the Director, I know what she is doing and who she is with. Plus, I'm just down the hall if she needs me. It's also interesting to think I am now the mom of a pre schooler and have a baby on the way. It feels very stereotypical! Hi, I'm Kristin. I'm white, middle class, live in a mid sized city. We drive a Subaru, have a cat, and my husband has a good white collar job. Sheesh. I tend to rebel a bit against these descriptions, which of course is impossible, since they are all true! For some odd reason it makes me want to wear some crazy outfit when I drop her off at her little church school, tell them I have my tongue pierced, or go get a tattoo. But that would just be fitting into another stereotype. I couldn't quite bring myself to wear the little lanyard that holds our key card, required for entrance to the building. And breathed a sigh of relief as I listened to Lady Gaga while pulling out of the school parking lot. On my way to my church job. Sheesh. Why do we strive to fulfill some stereotypes and run away from others? Maybe I'll learn more from Evelyn's school than she will.

Oops!

Yes, I do still blog, you just wouldn't know it by looking lately! So, since summer is over, let me give you a peak (or a long look, as it may be) at what we have been up to.

June

Well, I can't remember most of June, so that's easy! I was pretty sick for most of May and June; took time off work, gratefully received meals from friends, and spent way too much time trying to remember why on earth I had wanted to get pregnant in the first place. But, I started to feel better towards the end of the month and we were able to still take our planned vacation to Mexico (pics at right.) Evelyn loved it! We spent most of the days on the beach or in the pool. She did great staying at the hotel and on the airplane. I love how flexible she is that way, it makes travel so much easier. It was really nice to get away, with the baby coming, I'm sure it will be a while before we have a trip like that again.

July

Since I was feeling better, why not double my work hours and plan a huge event for our community?! Yes, July, as always, is defined by Sports Camp-our church's annual outreach for elementary age kids. This year we had the help of an intern, Kayla, who stayed with us. Evelyn fell in love with her-still asks where she is-and it was great to have her here. We had over a hundred kids at camp and it was a lot of fun. Evelyn had a blast at camp, she learned the songs and loved dancing with the kids. She never stayed late enough for any of the sports-maybe next year-but was there at the beginning where all the kids would come in and play with her. She thought this was great! I think my working so much wore on her though, so it was good for all of us when camp ended. We celebrated with a trip to Mount Rainier, which was beautiful and fun to share with both Evelyn and Kayla.

August

I thought August would calm down a bit, but between a work conference, a trip to the beach, flying down to California, and doing everything that I had put off for the previous two months (except obviously blogging!) it was a bit crazy too. We went to the ocean with my parents and brother and sis in law, and their two kids. This may sound relaxing, but shockingly it wasn't! I hurt my back the first day and with Evelyn sleeping in our room, got barely any sleep. But, besides being fairly cranky, it was fun to be there, taking the kids to the beach and park. Evelyn absolutely loves being with my family. Cousin Henry is probably one of her favorite people, we don't see them very much, maybe a few times a month, but she talks about him almost every day! She loves my parents too and pretty much thinks that they exist solely to spoil her rotten. Which may not be far from the truth.

The day after we got back from the beach, we got another dose of family by flying down to stay with Bard's mom. Although sadly we were there for the Memorial Service of Bard's Aunt, who passed away over the summer, we were able to have a wonderful time visiting family and celebrating the life of an amazing woman. Evelyn is so social, even in a crowd of people she has barely met before, she is at ease and goes around to people, interacting with them, and yes, bossing them around! I hope she was able to bring some joy to everyone while we were there.

After that it was pretty much time to finish up summer projects-the stairs to the backyard, tiling around our oven, and a ridiculous amount of yardwork-is Evelyn too young to help garden? The answer is no! We also finished up potty training her-she was potty trained back in May but I was so sick I put her back in diapers (cardinal sin of motherhood, oh well) but all summer she would tell me most of the time when she had to go anyway. She has done really well, which is great, although Bard can tell you his story of running her to the (of course) opposite end of the grocery store while she said, "Potty! Potty!" She almost made it : (

And, as you probably know by now, we finally had our ultrasound and found out baby #2 is a girl! I had thought it was a boy, so was kind of surprised, but we had planned to have two girls anyway, and I've come to realize that there are a lot of positives about having them closer together, so that's good. How can I plan that? Oh, I am just so talented! Actually, Bard and I have always planned on having two biological children and adopting a third. Our thought was that if this one was a boy, we would adopt a girl, since it is a girl, we'll adopt a boy. It's fun to think about, just several quick years from now, our family will look so different!

Well, trust me, this blog could have been twice as long! But I hope it provides a little glimpse into what our summer was like. And even though fall just started, we've already had big changes, so I'll be back soon to share those with you, maybe a few days instead of a few months!