Happy (belated) Memorial Day

We've started a yearly (okay, the past 2 years) tradition of going to the local Memorial Day parade. It's not a big parade or many entrants, but it's meaningful in so many ways. After the parade, we walk to the cemetery and the local band, boy scout troops and local VFW have a little ceremony with the 21 gun salute at the cemetery. This year, we took some little friends with us...

watching the Boy Scouts carry the American flag.

At the cemetery, the girls had many questions, the most popular one: "Why did these people die here?" They thought that the people buried at the cemetery actually died right there in the spots in which they were buried. Then they wanted to know where the people lived before they died, what did they die from, how old were they when they died (okay, I could figure that one out), will I die, when will I die? (and on and on and on....) I had to tell our little friends parents that the girls would probably have a lot more questions to come....

The best statement was from the 5 year old friend on the way to the parade. We talked about the parade and why we were going and that we were going to go to the cemetery as well to honor those that "fought the bad guys to keep us safe". The 5 year old said, "Well, my Uncle Mark is really old, I mean really, really, really old. He's like 19 years old!" I had to chuckle under my breath...

Minor League ballgame

Each summer, we really enjoy going to our local minor league baseball stadium and buying lawn seats and watching the game. Although, the kids and I don't really watch too much of the game, we all have a blast! There is always fun entertainment between the innings and ball park food is so fun to eat!

sitting in the grass during the game...

big sister and little brother (he's in the front pack there)

Daddy and his little buddy!

our traditional 'dessert' at the end of the game: Dippin Dots!

I can't believe she actually wanted to go and meet "Bird-zerk" -- she's usually afraid of people in costumes -- she couldn't get enough of him!

Laughing Baby

The little brother is growing up so quickly! I have forgotten all the 'milestones' that infants reach and what age they are supposed to do certain things -- that's the beauty of not remember from the big sister 4 years ago -- life is all new again!

Hostas

Our yard is FULL of hostas -- the previous home owners must have LOVED hostas, because I'm not kidding you -- we must have at least 100 or more!

My sister in law emailed the other day and asked if she could have some of my hostas -- SURE!

The preschooler insisted that she needed to pick a flower for Aunt Lolo as well!

Not sure if Aunt Lolo wants ALL of these.......any takers?

Daycare is secured!

I've been searching for a new daycare provider for a couple of weeks now, or at least seriously looking for the past 3 weeks. It's a much harder decision than I thought it was going to be.

The first place I interviewed in person is a place where a friend of mine takes her year-old daughter. It was a very clean home, nice neighborhood, wonderful caregiver...but, there was only one other child there the age of my daughter -- the rest of the kids were younger. It would be the perfect location for my infant son, but since we're not sending our daughter to preschool this next year, I really want a place that sort of 'feels' like preschool.

The second place I interviewed was set-up like a preschool with Montessori stations and educational activities all around. But, this place raised a lot of red flags -- 2 dogs running around in the house amongst the children. I'm not opposed to animals, I actually like my kids being around animals. But, in a daycare situation where there are 10+ children in the house, I think letting your dog run around is a huge liability. Then, there was the sleeping situation -- grungy, grimy pack-n-plays for the infants. The infant area of the house (there are 2 adult care-givers in this home), was full of snot-nosed 2 year olds and I just pictured 4 two year olds with their fingers in my infant son's mouth -- not a reassuring feeling. The final blow was that the caregiver told me she took in a friend of the family who lost his job and his home due to the economy. Now, I'm all about helping a friend out, especially in this economy, but I just can't put my daughter into a house where a strange man is living. She didn't introduce me to the man, she just said, "he stays in this room all day". A HUGE red flag....

The third place I interviewed (today) was the place I will be sending my children come June 4th. She has a preschool-type atmosphere, where each child has a 'job' for the day. She does a monthly theme -- this month is the alphabet, last month was bugs and they have a caterpillar habitat, waiting for butterflies to come out of their cocoons! They have story and music time each day, they have a fenced in back yard with play activities and a park just a couple of blocks away.

Each time I went to interview a home, I prayed that I would just 'know' if it was the right locations. The first home I didn't get a feeling positive or negative, the second home was definitely negative and this 3rd home -- I got that feeling -- the feeling as I walked out the door of, "I can't wait to bring my daughter here to meet Miss Connie"

Happy Mother's Day, 2009

What a WONDERFUL day at the "We are Reilly" household today!

played a little soccer...

contemplated a little life...

took baby doll for a little bike ride...

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

A Talking Baby

Okay, well they aren't REAL words, but heck -- he's talking! (big sister was in bed, that's the only way he can get a word in edgewise)

Laugh of the day:

The preschooler is saying some funny things these days (between the moments of complete sassiness and backtalk.....but, we'll save that for another day!)

She was having a bad day and was a bit crabby, so I told her, "You're being a crabby patty" (you know, from SpongeBob)
Her reply, "I'm not a sandwich!"

She didn't appreciate me laughing after her response....

"Firsts"

We celebrated a couple of 'firsts' yesterday:

Our first 'garden':

planting the seeds in an egg carton, getting an early start on the germination.

covering the seeds up with dirt...

Watermelon and pumpkins....let's see if we get some yummy treats from the garden this year!

Then, we went to our first movie experience last night:

I know, we lead a sheltered life -- we've never take the now-4-year-old to a movie in a movie theater before!

We went to see Disney's Earth -- a really good choice for the 4-year-old crowd...

the baby wasn't too thrilled...

the big sister LOVED sitting in the comfy seats -- and I didn't realize that the seats in movie theaters 'rock' nowadays! I think it's been ~4 years since I went to a movie too!!

The search is on...

After 3.5 years of wonderful care from our current daycare provider/babysitter, we have to look for a new situation for the big sister and little brother beginning in June when I go back to work. Our current babysitter's youngest son is starting 1st grade in the fall and will be gone all day and she is ready for a change and doesn't want to babysit anymore. I have to say, I don't blame her! I could never care for other children out of my home -- I'm not cut out for that type of work.

So, after a period of mourning and sadness, I've begun the search for a new daycare provider. It's an interesting experience. Last time, when my daughter was an infant, our current provider went to church with us -- I didn't 'interview' anyone, we just sat down and decided the particulars and there you go -- we had a babysitter.

This time, it's a bit different. I'm looking for a home situation in which the big sister can get some education stimulation as well as the love and support of a home situation. I think the big sister would actually thrive best in a daycare center, however I'm not too fond of taking an infant to a center -- plus, the cost! It would cost us over $80 a day to have 2 children in a daycare center!

So, in my quest, I've run into some interested situations:

Situation #1: I called a lady who advertised in the local paper and this was her response to my call, "Oh, that would be great if you brought your kids to my house. I have a 3 year old son from my second marriage that I'm looking for a playmate for him. I do have 2 older children from a previous marriage, they're in their 20's so they won't be around. Then, sometimes my husband's son from his first marriage is here.......(and on and on)" I really just want a daycare provider, not a tangled personal mess.

Situation #2: I've wised up a bit on my cold-calling of daycare providers. I'm really looking for some sort of structure or preschool curriculum for the big sister, so I ask this question right away. One lady told me yesterday, "oh, I don't have a curriculum we do, but at lunch time I take the preschool-aged kids to the cupboard and have them pick out what they want to eat for lunch and then I have them spell the letters on the boxes." Not exactly what I was looking for...

Situation #3: this just happened today. I was at the park with the kiddos and another mom was there and we started talking about kids, her soon-to-be new baby and various other 'mommy' stuff. We started talking about working and staying at home. I told her I was on maternity leave and she told me she was a stay-at-home-mom. She then began to inform me that there was no reason to really work, because any home daycare I chose would be horrible and that she wouldn't trust any in-home daycare. She told me of a story of when her son was in daycare and the provider would go to garage sales while the kids slept, etc, etc. She looked at me and basically said, "why would you even work?" I ended the conversation and we ended up leaving (we were ready to leave anyway), but I wanted to say to her, "I like working....so there!"

So, the search continues...