Updates from Everyone

So far the boys have had a great week. Josh & I both went to drop Liam off Monday morning. Much to our surprise, it appeared that Liam was the first child there. And I mean in the WHOLE school! It would seem that there are a lot more SAHMs at this school than at any other place we’ve been. His teacher wasn’t there left, so we had to leave him in a different classroom, with a different teacher. I wasn’t sure how this would go, but he always surprises us! She told him that she had legos, and as we were hugging him & saying goodbye, he said “Where’s the legos??” and we knew he would be OK. He seemed happy & excited that afternoon when I picked him up. Yesterday was pretty much the same story – he was very excited to be dropped off, and was in a great mood when we picked him up. The funny thing about Tuesday was that when we pulled out of the neighborhood in the morning, for whatever reason he thought we were going the wrong way (to get to the old school, we would have turned left – but to get to the new school, we turn right). He started to FLIP OUT. He thought we were going to the old school, and he said, “I want to go to my NEW school!!” One more feather in our cap for making the right decision to leave. Apparently this morning’s drop-off was a little rough. They got a later start, and by the time they got there, Liam’s teacher was already there. But he’s had 2 days of being dropped off with this other teacher, and apparently he did not want that routine disrupted, and apparently he got a little clingy & fussy at the thought of being dropped off in his own classroom (even though I think he really does like his teacher).


And Zachary is thoroughly enjoying his staycation! On Monday they went to the pool and watched Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (which he LOVED and could not stop talking about it when we got home). Yesterday they went to see How to Train Your Dragon with his friend Peyton & Peyton’s mom. I guess he liked the movie – he didn’t talk about it nearly as much as he talked about the Turtle movie though, so who knows. After the movie they went to the mall, where Zachary was apparently in HEAVEN (I just LOVE that my child loves the mall – it brings a tear to my eye…). Going to the mall was one of the things on his list of things he wanted to do while he was home. Random, I know. But they have a fun little play area there, and they have a train that drives around the lower level. And they have Auntie Annie’s Pretzels. And they have Build-a-Bear. MomMom went all out & they apparently did it all. Zachary told me all about how they rode in the RED train car, and they had a cinnamon pretzel, and she even bought him something at Build-a-Bear – a monkey with a Clone Trooper costume. He had a great time! Later in the afternoon she took him to karate. I think he probably slept pretty well last night! I know Liam has slept well the last 2 nights – normally he’s already awake when we go in his room each morning, but he’s still been asleep the last 2 mornings (which is weird because he’s used to being in a school environment…there must be something about this environment that just wears him out more?) Today I think Zachary & MomMom were just going to take it easy. Maybe a trip to the pool…maybe some bike riding (for Zachary)…I think they needed a break after yesterday!

I still can’t believe that we have another week & a half before he starts kindergarten! It seems like everyone else has started already and we’re still having the fun summer staycation. And I thought I’d give a little update on where we are with the Shred. We finished day 27 last night (although I think it’s been more than 30 days since we started, but that is because it is just not possible, with our schedule, for us to do it for 30 straight days…I traveled a couple of days at the end of July, and we’ve had stuff going on some Saturdays…but we have never skipped more than one day at a time). Anyway, after about 5 days of doing level 1, we decided to move up to level 2. We stayed on level 2 for about 20 days, I think. We were not loving it, but we just didn’t feel like we had “mastered” it yet. But then Friday a new co-worker was telling me that she actually thought that level 3 was easier than level 2. So that evening we decided what the heck, let’s try level 3. We did, and we loved it. Well, “love” is probably too strong of a word – but we definitely agreed with her that it was easier. Not that it was easy, but I think it will be easier to “master” than level 2 was. So that’s where we are – level 3, and almost to the end of the 30 days. I doubt we’ll just quit when we hit 30 days, but maybe at that point we won’t feel the pressure to do it every single day if we decide we just want a day off here & there (for no particular reason).