Maggie

As I had said previously, Maggie loves to create!  Here are some pictures of her and another of her masterpieces she had worked on a few weekends ago:  

Lydia, the Artiste

Some may know that Maggie is a rather artistic person.  Her preschool teacher when she was 3 described her as a "creative soul".  She loves to create and it is always interesting for me to see the world through her eyes- like when she sees objects in the clouds, makes shadow puppets by the light of her nightlight, or the particular way she will eat her cinnamon toast so that it takes on the shape of a dog or a boot.  

Somebody else's creativity is in overdrive these days we are finding.  It seems Lydia has a fondness for painting and drawing too.  She will get down her water colors, paint brushes, fill herself a bowl of water and just have at it.  Here are some recent pictures of one of her latest creations- she is so proud of her handprints.  

I love it!

Another round of teeth

Poor Jack... just when he seems to catch a break from all these new shiny white teeth coming in, another round pops up and we are right back to where we started.  This picture is actually from 2 weeks ago when he was hit with a double whammy- a head cold and new teeth.  No bueno for sure and he looks very similar at this very moment. 

I am keeping him filled with Motrin, the teething rings are chilled, and the biscuits are at the ready.  These are his first molars and hopefully they won't take too long to make their appearance.  The waiting is agony for all involved and sleep is hard to come by once the sun sets.  

Any day now... 

Dear Mr. Ben and Mr. Jerry,

I'm pretty sure this isn't what you had in mind when you decided to start putting Strawberry Cheesecake in single-serve cups, was it?  

Nope, I can clearly see each cup is one serving.  And I ate 3 of them.  Would you mind asking my husband to stop by Kroger on the way home tonight to get some more?  And remind him that I have yet to wean our baby from mamma's milk so I really need the extra calories and calcium.  Yes, that's it, the calcium.  Each cup has 10% of my daily allowance, so instead of "glass half empty" (as in:  I ate 3 single serve cups of Ben & Jerry's while the kids were at school today), I prefer to see this as "glass half full" (Look at me!  30% of my calcium in 20 minutes!!!)

Randomness

Fall foods are now available at Starbucks!  Get thee there on the double for a mini pumpkin bundt cake.  And don't be afraid to try the chocolate banana Vivanno.  Yum. 

Jack is intent on making people like him.  "You can never start too early" is his motto, hence his fascination with Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People. 

Hmmm, purple socks... what will match my striped purple socks?  

Little Maggie Bubbles

And making his first appearance in the blog is Mr. Dublin Bray!  Affectionately known as "The Beast",  Dublin is turning 8 this fall.  He is much loved by all of us and has been very tolerant of each of our children as they entered the "getting-to-know-you" phase of childhood.  Well, except Lydia.  But I think she still pokes him in rude places so who can blame him?

Our Trip to the Memphis Zoo

jack loved watching the chickens at "the farm"

cousin ronan, lydia, and maggie- mesmerized by the panda bears 

lydia watched the panda with her trainer

Last Sunday my in-laws treated us to a morning at the zoo.  The kids all had a great time- it seems they enjoyed our visit more than I have ever seen them enjoy it before.   It was Jack's first visit and even he seemed to be enjoying watching the smaller animals- the nocturnal building was his favorite, probably because there are so many little critters running around the exhibits in there.  

New teachers, new preschool, first day!

Lydia started back to preschool this past Thursday morning.  She is at a new school this year, the same as Maggie (her classroom is just around the corner from Maggie's actually!).  So far the transition has been seamless for her and she seems to enjoy her teachers, Ms. Mary Francis and Ms. Donna.  Last night Lydia was pretending she was Ms. Mary Francis and insisted that she needed to teach Brian to "sign in" when he came home from work and that she needed to help him practice writing his "o's".  Adorable.  

Lydia's imagination has really been taking off the past few weeks- lots of imaginative play!  Just yesterday she filled her shopping cart with her Webkinz toys and invited me to go to the zoo with her and her "kids".  We had just been to the zoo on Sunday morning so this was all still fresh in her mind.  She guided me through the house and pointed out all sorts of animals to me- a cow eating grass, a scary snake, and a little brown bear.  It's a lot of fun for me to have a few days a week to spend some one on one time with her and give her the attention she needs- sometimes I worry that as our middle child she gets a little lost in the day to day shuffle.  

Maggie continues to do well in Kindergarten.  She adores her teacher, Ms. Margaret, and has made lots of new friends.  She has homework each evening- usually nothing more than a worksheet or two to practice writing her name or numbers/ letters.  I can tell she feels like such a big kid getting to do big kid things.  She really enjoys eating lunch in the cafeteria; we check the lunch menu each evening to see if it is something she might like to try and go from there.  I must say I have been quite impressed with the things she has been willing to try.  For those of you who don't know, Maggie can be quite the picky eater.  She has gotten better... Brian and I make it a priority to encourage her to try new things.  I am so proud of her for so many things!  She is so gentle and loving with Lydia and Jack since starting school.  I have really noticed a new level of maturity in her that I haven't seen before.  She and Lydia can still get into it and fight only the way siblings do, but for the most part they have been getting along great as of late.  I think Maggie might actually miss her little sister when she is away at school.  :)

And Mr. Jack- so fun, so happy, and so busy!  He is just a ton of fun to have around.  He is cruising now, really fast I might add.  His sleep patterns are becoming a bit more consistent- longer naps during the day and longer stretches during the night.  Now that we are into more of a daily schedule with the girls and school I have been able to make his schedule a bit more stable.  I get 2 days alone with him while Lydia is at preschool and I have been enjoying that.  Jack is really interested in the dog right now and I am quite pleased at how tolerant Dublin has been of him.  He was great with Maggie when she was a baby, but he was never really all that interested in Lydia when she tried to get to know him.  Not only do they look a lot alike, but Jack and Maggie are nearly identical personality wise- perhaps that has something to do with it?  I don't know... 

I think that is it for now!  I have about 30 minutes before I need to get going to pick up Lydia from preschool.  I do have pictures of the kids from our zoo trip this weekend that I will post later on.  

lmb