Mr. W!

Hailey has her first crush. He's tall, holds a red sign on weekdays and likes to wear hats. He's Mr. W, the school crossing guard at Austen and Peyton's school, and he's probably 75 years old. 

We see him at least twice a day and Hailey likes to yell "Hi W!" or "bye W" whenever we are crossing the street. She often makes me roll down the window too as we are leaving so she can shout one last goodbye. She definitely gets excited to go to school to drop off or pick up and for once doesn't fight me on getting back into her car seat when his name is mentioned. 

He has grandkids of his own so he plays along nicely when Hailey demands another wave or shouts hello from the car. Luckily, for her his last year before he retires from crossing all those kids will be when Hailey is in kindergarten. 

Sporty Austen

It's been awhile since I posted just about Austen so this one is long overdue! At an early age, we knew Austen had an interest in sports. That interest has only continued to grow and does not discriminate between sports. Sure he has his favorites but he loves all sports from golf to bowling to baseball to soccer and football.

In the mornings before breakfast he's either downstairs watching "Quick Pitch," an ESPN show giving all the latest sports updates or some rerun of some classic sporting event. He clogs up our DVR with sports shows and games much to our chagrin. He always has a ball in his hand or at his foot. When we walk Adler, he brings his mitt and a ball and throws pop ups to himself or he'll use the brick side wall of our house to throw or kick balls off of. He shoots hoops with his friends in our driveway or downstairs in our basement when the weather is foul.

He loves attending professional sporting events and was recently invited to a birthday party for a friend at Wrigley Field to see the Cubs play. It was his first time at Wrigley and he was excited to go. On the drive in, he served as the tour guide for the small group pointing out every landmark in the city including the hospital where he was born.  (I guess he was 6 1/2 when we moved to the suburbs so he would remember being a city kid!) He had a great time running the bases at Wrigley and watching the Cubs win after hitting a grand slam. Austen was so excited (see above photo). One of the dads texted Tom that he left our house a White Sox fan, but he's coming home a Cubs fan! Ha! It just goes to show you, Austen just loves to watch games and it doesn't matter which ones.  Chicago is Chicago as long as the Cubs and White Sox aren't playing each other. I'm just glad I pulled out my old Cubs hat so he didn't get beat up at Wrigley wearing Sox gear!

First Wedding for A&P

My brother got married last weekend, and Tom and I went back and forth on whether or not to bring the kids. We knew Hailey couldn't handle it as it would have been a really long day for her but we debated about whether the other two could.

Ultimately, we did decide to bring just the older two as I still remember my aunt and uncle getting married at age 9 and what a big event that was for me. At 5 1/2 and 8 1/2 I knew they would be interested in what was going on and they could handle staying up late too. What I didn't expect was how well they really did - they were going from about 2pm in the afternoon until 11:30pm! Okay, they did take a break at Papa's house for a few hours in between to watch some videos but they really did better than we could have hoped.

They were great in the church - really interested in seeing their new aunt all decked out and what everyone was doing up at the altar. They then went with my parents and extended family to Papa's house for the downtime in between the church and reception while Tom and I hung out with the wedding party for pictures. They arrived at the reception in great moods after only a slight mishap of spilled fruit punch on Peyton's dress from her afternoon snack. They were also ready to dance the night away and sat at the grandparents' table(s). When it was time for food, they willingly chose and ate a vegetable. Peyton danced up a storm and stole her father from me at least once to dance. Austen enjoyed hanging out with his cousins and eating the late night cheeseburgers they delivered from McDonald's. He did seem to slow down for a bit before the cheeseburgers arrived but after he devoured one, he seemed to get a second wind which had us there until about 11:30pm.

A great family wedding and one that I am sure they will remember forever. After all, I still remember my first wedding attended now more than 30 years ago.

Mommy's Coming!

 Last week, Hailey officially started "school" too. Now that she's almost two she desperately needs some socialization with other kids without her mom around. She started in the toddler house at the Montessori school where Peyton attends in the mornings. She only goes Monday- Wednesdays for two hours but it's enough to get comfortable with other kids and learn the Montessori ways like washing hands, drinking from a cup and cleaning up!

I drank the Kool Aid early on about Montessori when Austen was little. Not knowing much about Montessori, I enrolled him in a school only because it was close to our house and took infants.  I was quickly impressed how, at young ages, they fostered independence in children such as putting on their own shoes and coats, toileting and washing hands, etc. It really is an amazing foundation for life and I wanted Hailey to benefit from that too.

So how did she do? During the orientation (when I was in the classroom) she was playing with all of the works and I knew we had made the right decision to send her there. Good thing I saw that too because there were definitely tears as they got her out of my car during car line in the morning once school actually started. I could tell she cried during the morning too like most of the other kids her age that I saw but they noted that she is getting better.

Last week before she left, the teachers asked me to remind her about school over the long weekend by saying their names so I started doing this. Hailey's response when I did was "Mommy's coming!" I couldn't help but laugh. I tried a few more times and got the same response.  So I can only deduce that they try to reassure her that I am coming. I'm just amazed that she associates two teachers names that she just heard last week with "Mommy's coming!" Quick learner!