argh, i missed posting about halloween, one of my favorite holidays!! micah went as a mermaid (thanks to my friend, kim, who gifted us an old favorite dress-up item of her daughter's), and rowan went as... one guess... the batman. vesta snapped a pic of micah with her phone, i'll have to get her to email it to me. rowan did not make the photo op at daddy and vesta's house because he promptly stripped his costume off and climbed into daddy's chair to watch a scary movie when we arrived. my little guy is a major homebody. but the kids had fun, scored lots of candy, and stayed up late. i wish we had a camera so i could've gotten a picture of our across-the-street neighbors' house. it was done up right again this year, and the street was PACKED with people hanging out in and around his yard. so much fun. :-)

let's see... micah is still enjoying school, and drop-off has gone from "incident free" to actually pleasant and enjoyable. she smiles in the mornings, says bye and "i love you" to me as she gets out in the carpool line in front of her school. i never thought this day would come. okay, maybe that's dramatic, but... really. i never thought it would. she has been such an absolutely joy lately. she is beginning to read, and wants to be read to all the time. she tells funny stories and draws pictures for us. she is amazing with a hula hoop. she is still so strong and fiery and spirited, but... it's less challenging, nowadays, to nurture those traits in her. and she seems to have moved past the unsettling phase where she would ask me multiple times a day, frantically (usually after getting in trouble about something), "do you still love me?" that was heartbreaking. glad it's over.

rowan's first week (maybe two, hard to remember) of school were a breeze, then it seemed to hit him and he started having a little trouble at drop-off time. for a few days i had to hand him off to his teacher, miss kathy, and leave while he cried. that was very difficult, but - and it sounds uncaring - i was used to it, because of micah. but rowan is a different creature and "recovered" very quickly from his bout with separation anxiety. week before last, he was getting teary as i got him dressed and ready for school, and he asked me with a quivering lip, "mommy, will you come right back?" i said, "of course, every time." and he drew a deep breath and looked at me so bravely and said, "okay. i'm not going to cry this time." and he didn't. he paints and plays nicely with his friends at school, and pretends the plastic fort in the play yard is the batcave. miss kathy regularly comments on his good manners. :-) rowan is so affectionate and cuddly, and is soothed by physical touch when he's upset or angry. i love this about him. he and micah start out the night in their room, but rowan almost always ends up in bed with us. during the day, rowan and lina alternate between playing in-depth imaginary games together, and tearing toys out of each other's hands and screaming. never a dull moment!!

i'll brag about lina for a sec, even though she's not mine... she is learning to use the potty! smart as a whip, that one. she's truckin' right along with it, too; today i took only one wet diaper off for her. she is fiercely independent and willfull. i don't know anything about that at all... it's hard to believe i'll soon be in a house with all toilet-trained children. wow-weee!!!

josh likes working at whole foods, and i like his schedule. it changes from week to week, but most weekdays he's home by 3pm. we are planning a little family road trip to colorado in june. we are so excited; it'll be our first vacation with the kids. actually, it'll be our first vacation since our honeymoon. by "vacation" i mean a trip planned solely for joy, leisure, and sight-seeing. josh and i have taken little weekend trips and stuff, but one was to austin for an accounting conference, and another was just to wichita falls to see his sister... those don't count. oh, we did drive to oklahoma to surprise josh's other sister when rowan was a few months old... i guess what i mean is, this'll be our furthest vacation? whatever. i'm excited.

working in micah's classroom last tuesday was so much fun! mrs. barrett had me stuff the tuesday folders, then i cut some red construction paper squares in the workroom and came back to the classroom to glue picture squares onto those (they were pictures of items like glue stick, markers, crayons, scissors, etc.). after that there were still a few minutes till lunch, so mrs. barrett had me sit out in the hall with a little guy in micah's class named aaron and work on letter recognition. i was supposed to work with another child after aaron, but there wasn't time. the kids lined up for lunch and i followed them out. it impressed me that micah continued to do her work and follow mrs. barrett's directions, even with me in the room!! i wondered if she would run over to me and not want to sit in her chair, but aside from smiling HUGELY at me when she saw me, she acted like i wasn't even there! it was great.

wednesday morning was josh's turn to have crosswalk duty, so he needed to take micah to school. she had HUGE meltdown over it, had to be put into the car kicking and screaming, then held by a teacher in the cafeteria at school kicking and screaming. josh and i decided that i'm going to do all the crosswalk duty from now on (whenever his work schedule allows), and he's going to take opportunities during the evenings that he's at home to connect with her. he feels really hurt that they don't have a close relationship right now... it's hard.

thursday was largely uneventful. friday we shopped for food and supplies for rowan's birthday party, saturday i worked and we had a little family party for rowan at mama and wesley's house. we ate mud pie ice cream cake (just about the most delicious thing i've ever tasted). he got a beautiful wooden tricycle, a wooden sword, a sweater, shirt and socks, and some batman guys (of course). we all had a great time. my grandparents told us about the car accident they had last week - their FIRST, at around 80 years old. they were driving down the highway and a car in front of them lost control and spun into their lane. somehow my grandfather managed to brake, swerve, and only hit the car right behind the driver's side door. no one got hurt, and none of the oncoming traffic behind them piled into them. pretty incredible for going 60 MPH.

sunday i worked again, then went into overdrive as josh and i rushed to get stuff ready for rowan's "friend" party at heighs park. i thought scheduling the party at 4pm would give me plenty of time to get things ready, but i still felt rushed. the party was super fun. the weather was PERFECT, josh made an amazing birthday cake for rowan, daddy and vesta brought balloons, and a fun time was had by all. the park was packed, but it didn't seem to bother anyone. rowan made out like a bandit: hot wheels, batman guys & stuff galore, a batman costume, a leap frog "scribble & write", and a bat cave. i loved watching his face as he opened the bat cave. he gasped and shrieked "A BAT CAVE?!" haha :) :) :)

and yesterday rowan projectile vomited all morning. good times. :)

tomorrow i'm volunteering for a couple of hours in micah's kindergarten classroom, while rowan is at preschool. i'll be helping micah's teacher, mrs. barrett, put notes and things in the students' tuesday folders, then i might read to some kids or help them with work. i'm exciting! i hope to do this on a fairly regular basis.

i remembered a lot of stuff i wanted to blog about earlier, but now i'm so tired i can't remember any of it... :)

josh and i just watched a dark, depressing, violent movie about gangs. the fact that michael caine was in it was the only redeeming quality. i hope i don't have nightmares.

this morning i did something very responsible, and something i've needed to get done for two years - i transferred the station wagon title to MY NAME, and got it registered. AUGH!!! the chevy's registration was up for renewal too. it feels so good to have that done. jill and her ex-boyfriend, richard (from whose grandparents we bought the station wagon) drove it down here to us in September 2008, the week that rowan was hospitalized for epiglottitis. needless to say, we were a little distracted and didn't make it to the tax office that week. no worries - one has 20 days from the date of purchase to transfer the title of one's new vehicle into one's name, without penalty. well, this "one" is a master procrastinator and sweep-it-under-the-rug-er.. sooooo... yeah, it's been two years and the thing was still not in my name. still had the handicap plates on it from richard's grandparents. so i got up this morning, folded the paperwork up in my purse, loaded up rowan and lina, and headed to the tax office. the kids behaved beautifully. i told the lady, "i need to renew the registration for my two cars. one is simple and straightforward; the other one's going to be a huge hassle." she opted for the chevy first... and as it turned out, the station wagon wasn't THAT big of a hassle. she just had to make copies of the paperwork i brought. she asked me when i'd bought the car, and i told her: "september 27, 2008." her eyebrows shot up and she told me there'd be a penalty for waiting so long. i said fine, but i only had so much cash to spend. she entered the data into the computer, then her eyebrows shot up even further and she stepped into the back for a minute, presumably to ask advice of someone higher up. she came back to the computer, scratched through the 9/27/08 date on my title transfer and wrote today's date instead. she grinned and said, "you don't want to know how much the penalty was." i said, you're right, i don't. my little tax office angel. :)

anyway, YES, both my cars are legal and in my name now. feels good!! maybe i am growing up.

after work today i came home to an empty house. josh and the kids were at his dad's house. i sat down and wrote a home study from start to finish (it's due first thing tomorrow). then i picked up the house real quick, changed into comfy clothes, and went for a walk/jog. i plugged some of josh's headphones into my iPhone and fired up the pandora app. i chose a rage against the machine station. it was WONDERFUL - jogging to RATM is very instinctual. :) i even forgot i was jogging... and that's really sayin' something, for me. only problem was, after a couple of songs the app quit responding when i pressed the thumbs-down button to skip the song, so i got frustrated and took the earbuds out. after that, it was much harder to focus. when i got home i showered and sat on the bed, half surfing and half working on revising a questionnaire for daddy to take when he does kinship studies.

eventually, josh and the kids came home and we went to a little snow cone social at terrace park for rowan's school. we got to mingle with other ELC parents, and josh got to meet rowan's teacher, the director, and a couple of the moms i'd already met last week. it was a fun evening. rowan had fun playing with the other kids and soaking his t-shirt in snow cone syrup. we took micah's friend, hannah, with us so micah would have a playmate, and they had a blast making up songs and mixing "salads" in plastic cups out of wood chips, water and grass. i am starting to really love rowan's little school. the people there are all so friendly and personable... the director sat down with us for a bit and chatted with josh about his artwork... i thought that was so neat, especially since i happen to know she only knew he was an artist from reading the paperwork i turned in. neat that she remembered, and cared enough to ask him about it.

rowan's first day of preschool was wonderful!! the night before i packed his little backpack with a sippy cup and a change of clothes, and i didn't even get emotional. we started the next day by dropping micah off at school (which is going so smoothly these days, thanks to her friend, hannah, with whom she walks in every morning), then we headed to samantha and christian's house to get lina. it was only 8 AM when we left with lina, and rowan's school doesn't start until 8:45; the doors don't open until 8:40. there really wasn't time enough to go back home, so i just drove to the school and parked. rowan and lina busied themselves with playing in the back of the station wagon, and i read my book and talked to josh on the phone. at 8:35 rowan could not wait one more second to get out, so we walked to the gate and played on the sidewalk a bit. a few minutes passed and jessica, the school director, opened the door for us and said, "good morning!" rowan grabbed his backpack and ran inside. he looked back to see if i was following him, and i was, with lina on my hip. he headed down the hallway in front of me, and walked right past his classroom. miss kathy, his sweet teacher, said from inside the room, "you're right here, rowan!" rowan turned and went inside, and never looked back! i hovered near the doorway, out of sight, and listened to him. i could tell he was looking at all the neat toys and things, and miss kathy was chatting with him and showing him things. jessica and another teacher, kim, who also happens to be my good friend and co-LLL leader, hovered in the hallway with me while i made sure he was going to be okay. and he sure was. so lina and i left, and i STILL didn't get emotional! lina and i bummed around the house; she played, and i mainly worked on a home study. at some point while milling around the house, i realized micah had left her teddy bear, layla, at home. she was supposed to take layla to school that morning for a teddy bear sleepover. mrs. barrett had this cute idea to have the kids bring their bears to school and leave them overnight; the note she sent home said, "rules for bears: no eating honey in the classroom, no growling," etc. and the bears with good behavior would have teddy grahams (presumably sitting in a baggy next to them for the students to snack on the next day). soooo cute!! anyway, there was layla sitting in the living room, and micah had seemed so excited the night before about taking her bear to school. so lina and i left the house a little early so we could take layla to school. we dropped her off in the office, then headed to rowan's school. once again, we were a little ahead of schedule, so i stopped by wendy's for a snack, then parked at the school. lina played in the back while i ate and read. my friend, susan, whose little boy, michael, is in rowan's class, pulled up next to us, so lina and i walked up to the school with her. i peeked in the classroom before rowan knew i was there, so i could watch him for a few moments. he was playing with some trains. miss kathy joined me at the door and told me he'd had a GREAT day, used the potty successfully, and had wonderful manners!! that was so nice to hear. rowan's had a bit of a stubborn streak lately, so i worried about how he'd do with the teacher. anyway, rowan heard my voice and turned around, and gave me a huuuge hug. he was really happy to see us. he said, "i'm ready to go home!" which i thought was so sweet. i thanked miss kathy and jessica, and we headed out. while we were loading up in the car, susan and michael came out too and invited us to mcdonald's down the road for lunch. i knew we didn't have much in the way of lunch at home that rowan would be excited about (plus, he'd overheard the invitation and got excited), so we said yes. i got to meet some of the other ELC moms at mcdonald's, so that was really fun. rowan had a good time playing with his new friends and classmates (although he did get stuck at the top of the play stucture, and cried, and i had to crawl up and get him). all in all, it was a very fun, exciting day, for me and for him. :)

change of plans - rowan's first day of preschool is tomorrow!! i'll be taking him at 8:40 in the morning. today we've chatted a bit about how he'll go by himself, and he'll get to have a snack and play on the playground. i don't know how it will go tomorrow, but i've decided not to make him go if he ends up crying every morning. he's only 2, and i've got two more years before he starts kindgergarten, so he's got plenty of time to get used to school. if he doesn't like it this year, we'll try again next year - or maybe even after christmas.

josh is babysitting his nephews and niece until saturday afternoon, so i'm on my own again this weekend. today, we played hide-and-seek at home then walked down to holford park. the kids played on the playground for a while, and tried unsuccessfully to get away from a little girl (who, incidentally, goes to micah's school and recognized her) who insisted on chasing them and splashing water on them from her water bottle. i even asked her to stop, and she ignored me. :/ anyway, when we got home i stuck the kids in the shower, fed them, then snuggled them till they fell asleep. now i'm going to make micah's lunch for tomorrow, and get rowan's little teddy bear backpack ready for his first day. josh's dad ordered the batman backpack for us, but it hasn't arrived yet. rowan was disappointed when i told him before bed that he'd have to take his teddy bear backpack to school; i hope that doesn't push him over the edge tomorrow morning! :)