Two Blogs in a Day!

It has been awhile since I have blogged so I am going to blog twice in one morning! I have one special blog for today and another one of random stuff I wanted to roll together!! So, here we go.....

Yesterday, I truly experienced one of those "parent feelings" I had never felt before. Grayson got an assessment from his daycare. At first, I was just glancing at it and it and didn't think much of it but then we got home and I started to look at it more and thought to myself...."This is like a report card!" It set in pretty fast....the paranoia. All of a sudden I went from, "Oh, that's neat!" to "Is he on level for his age?" There were two ways that the skills were assessed, either M for mastered or S for still working on skill. The top of the paper was basic skills, like:

Can they get dressed?
Do they use the potty? (He is still NOT going on the potty consistently so he got an S)
Do they use 2-3 sentences?
Can you jump with 2 feet?
Can you hop with one foot?

There were a lot more really basic things....and then the bottom was academics, like:

Do they identify all letters?
Do they identify all numbers 1-20?
Do they know all their colors?
Do they know all their shapes? (the shapes were square, triangle, circle, rectangle, heart, star, oval, pentagon, hexagon, octagon)

We work with Grayson a lot and he has known all of his letters and sounds since he was around 2 or 2 and a half so we thought he would do pretty well! He got M (mastered) on every skill (basic and academic) EXCEPT these:

He could not jump on one foot....He did not identify those rascal-like hexagon and octagons and the potty issue. So right away I thought...oh my goodness...is he on level? What can I do to help him hop on one foot?
The panic set in...haha! But then I quickly calmed down and realized that he is just turning 3 and he has plenty of time to work on those things! I was really proud of him but I wanted to share that experience because it was quite interesting to me because I understood where parents of my students came from when they got report cards!!!

Well I would like to leave you with some sweet pictures of Grayson and Ella! They are both getting so big and I am loving every minute with them! Joey just can't get over Ella....he carries her everywhere and is happy to have his sweet boy and a little girl!! Also, I am posting some great OWL finds. If you know me, you know I LOVE owls and we have them in our house and I did an owl theme in my class! I have always loved them and when I was a Chi Omega I loved them even more!! So here's a hodge podge of pics of owls and my kids...lol!

I love my niece's expression in this pic!

This dr. set has been Grayson's favorite thing lately!

Ella is getting so big!! She will be 3 months on the 24th!

Watching a Disney movie and enjoying popcorn in the office while we were having bible study!

Canton

This past Saturday, I had my first REAL visit to Canton's First Monday. I had been to one booth to buy a teacher sign once and that was it and left and the other time I just went to get a dog and left. So Saturday morning, I called Lauren (my sister in law) since she and her husband were in town and asked if she and Nana (Joey's mom) wanted to go to Canton because I really wanted to check it out. I got even more brave and decided to take Grayson AND Ella. I thought it wouldn't be as bad since I had Nana and Lala with me. Joey was not as interested in going and had yardwork to do.....well I must say that Canton is pretty neat but a bit overwhelming. It was also hard now that I have a girl......with Grayson I usually say..."Grayson, do you like that?" and he will say, "No, thank you, Mama!" He usually never wants much....he did, however, want food. I think he had sprite, a soft pretzel, some leftover funnel cake, some nachos, and ice cream. He is definitely such a BOY! Ha! ha! So buying for him was easy (and FYI-we usually never let him eat like that but I thought it was a special occasion!) But having a girl is tough....there are SO many cute things and you want to buy it all.....it was mostly all clothes. I usually get Grayson stuff at Children's Place because they have the cutest boy stuff I can find but Canton had TONS of the most adorable girl stuff. Luckily, I didn't see anything she HAD to have and I only took a certain amount with me but I will definitely be going back....and it helped to kind of scope it all out! At least the kids did great and they seemed to have as much fun as an almost 3 year old and almost 3 month old could have!!

Enjoying the Food!

Can't Go Back....

I was just thinking and wanted to blog....I was thinking of all the cute things that Grayson did today:
*He was reading his books making up words but saying the letters aloud!
*He was cuddling up to me with his adorable grin saying..."I love you, Momma!"
*He was putting on his Cars house shoes and kept coming up to me and saying "Happy Birthday!" even though my birthday is not until December.
*He held Ella's hand and gaver her kisses and then they watched Super Mario Brothers the cartoon on the couch. (He picked it out at Walmart today...he's kickin' it 80's style)

....then there's Ella...
*She got compliments almost everywhere we went today!
*She has been cooing and smiling up a storm...
*And I love feeling those little, baby feet!

It made me realize that you can't go back to this. These sweet moments with our kids, you have to just embrace and be thankful for, even the tiniest things! Tonight, Joey and I relaxed and just spent time with the kids focusing 100% on them and baked cookies and just enjoyed every second with them and it made me realize even more that we are so blessed beyond words.......

Simply Sweet!

I guess I really can't brag anymore about how I have been so up to date on my blogging. Reality has set in! This week, school has officially begun with kids and everything! It has been exhausting and Grayson has been sick and now Joey and I are not feeling good on top of teaching all day and taking care of our kiddos when we get home! So....I am off to bed because I feel like I am coming down with something along with Joey! :(

I want to leave you with two faces that are...simply sweet!

Grayson and Ella's First Day of School!

Today was a tough day....I woke up and began getting Ella ready for school and she was cooing and smiling and then it hit me....the tears started to roll down my cheeks! I felt like I have not had enough time with her. With Grayson I cried when he went to daycare for the first time....BUT...I had him all to myself at home for 6 weeks. With Ella, I have been in training for 2 straight weeks and trying to get a class together so I feel like I have really only had barely 4 weeks and it has not just been us alone. I was not as worried about Grayson because all he has talked about is going back to school to see Ms. Holly! So we got them ready and headed to their daycare....

Ella as happy as can be!!

Sleepy Grayson in the car!

Joey and I dropped them off together and Ella was fine and just cuddled up to her new teacher. While I was giving them my directions and telling them how paranoid I was, Joey walked Grayson to his class (we thought he would run off to see his friends and leave us behind). Yet Joey said he started to cry a little and they asked him if he wanted to come in and play and he said.."No, thank you!" and cried a bit. Of course Joey told me that when we got to the car so I would not feel any worse! I thought about them all day today and really missed them but at the same time it was also nice to be back in the elementary world. I have applied for a couple of professor positions at some online universities and local universities that offer online classes and some evening classes....if something comes through, maybe I will be able to stay home with them if that's God's plan but otherwise I will keep doing what I am doing!

At the end of the day, Joey and I (we work at the same school now)went to get the kids and we were happy that Ella did great and seemed really happy and taken care of and Grayson was all smiles in a cute little hat he made! So they had a good day back! Well I am off to bed since I have training in the morning...but I will leave you with this....lol!

Ignore the red lips....he won't stop licking them!!! : (

Flight Museum, A Great Grandparent Visit, and a Goat Named Jackie!

Wow....I must say I am getting better with the whole blogging thing! I am actually remembering to do it! Well where should I begin? We have had a busy week finishing up things on our "to do list!" One of them was to visit the Frontiers of Flight Museum. My past assistant principal told me about it because she has younger boys and she said they loved it so we decided to take Grayson since Ella did not have a preference in where we went...haha! The museum is at Love Field and is fairly new. It was so neat and very kid friendly. Usually the words museums and kids don't go together but this place was awesome. They had a huge, open play area! It was an answered prayer because with the extreme heat Grayson has not been able to run around outside too much! When we let him loose it was like a little puppy running through a yard...lol! He was so happy and we were there at a good time because he shared the whole play area with only like 5 or 6 other kids. They also had a lot of neat exhibits with huge planes and you can even get a guided tour with veterans from the military that flew planes! It is definitely a place I would go to again!

Joey with the kiddos getting ready to go

Ella is ready!

Grayson is ready!

This is what Ella did!

Practicing Flying!

Today we went to visit my grandparents on my mom's (Filipino) side. I was so happy because I feel like I have not seen them in so long! They really enjoyed meeting Ella and seeing Grayson. My Grandpa has been sick so it has been hard for him to get out so we brought them lunch today. They are in their 90's but boy were they able to keep up with Grayson. Grayson hated to leave! We were just happy to spend time with them before everything gets crazy again!

Great Grandma Fabon meeting Ella for the first time!

Me, Grayson, and Great Grandpa Fabon

Now to A DONKEY NAMED JACKIE.....My dad got 2 goats and a donkey last week. Vann (my nephew) named the donkey "Honey," and Olivia (my niece) named one of the goats "Barbie," and Grayson named the other "Jackie." It's funny because we don't know a Jackie and we have not heard that name so we thought it was pretty random and funny!Tomorrow we are going to go see Jackie in person....so that should be interesting.....

Ella's 6 Week Appointment

Yesterday was Ella's 6 week (she will be 7 weeks tomorrow) appointment. It's actually like a two month appointment which would be next week at 8 weeks but we did it early since she will be at daycare starting Monday! :(

She did great and the doctor stayed in the room quite a bit playing with her! Here are her stats.....

Weight: 11 lbs. 6.5 oz
Height: 22"
Head Circumference: 15"

She is in the 90th percentile in weight and the 75th for height and head circumference.

Here's Grayson's stats at that age......

Weight: 12 lbs 3.5 oz
Height: 23"
Head Circumference: 15 and  half"


So although Ella was born 10lbs 5 oz and Grayson was born 9lbs 2 oz, it is interesting to see how much bigger Grayson was at this age than Ella. The Dr. was concerned that she hasn't gained more because they are supposed to gain half a pound a week but we had to keep in mind that she lost almost a pound when she came home. We will just feed her more if she wants it and keep an eye on her....other than that, Dr. Reddy said that Ella is just wonderful and beautiful!!