Oh the joys of motherhood...

The last couple weeks has been hectic to say the least. Rushing to get two kids up and out of the house by 8:30 is a lot harder than I thought it would ever be! A few tricks I've learned over the past 2 1/2 years have helped out... packing our bags the night before, getting myself up and ready a 1/2 hour before I get the kids up... things like that.

Joshua isn't doing so well at school now. Scott took a day off work last week to take him, and Joshua didn't understand why he couldn't stay at school with him. He threw a full out tantrum as we were leaving, and apparently got worse as the day went on. They had to call us to come get him early. He was an absolute mess. Needless to say, Daddy won't be taking him to school any time soon, again. We went back yesterday, and he wasn't quite as bad, but he still didn't want me to leave him. I'm hoping tomorrow will be a bit better.

On a positive note, he has be enjoying the art class portion of preschool! He has come home with some fun projects. I am taking pictures of everything he brings home, and I'm keeping a separate album. This way, I can just make a scrapbook of the pictures, and not have to keep every single project. Here is the album of Joshua's preschool artwork.




We went to the Pittsburgh Zoo this past weekend. We had a great time, and saw all the babies. The baby tiger has outgrown his original enclosure, and has taken over the snow leopards area. I'm not sure where the leopard went, though. The baby elephants are absolutely adorable. Joshua loves them. We spent quite a bit of time looking in the windows of the Elephant Family Room. You can see the complete album of pictures from our zoo trip here.

Last week we had some restructuring of the parenting organization we belong to. I am happy to announce that I have been named as the new President! I am very excited about my new responsibilities. It's going to be a lot of hard work if this week has been any indication, but I'm up for the challenge.

In Chelsea news: We had our 12 month well baby appointment yesterday. She is 17 1/2 lbs (6%) and 29" (50%). The doctor keeps insisting I feed her more, but the poor girl eats constantly! I'm looking into finding some higher calorie/fat kid-friendly drinks / snacks for her. She has a milk protein allergy, so that cuts out a lot of options. I guess I'll figure it out.

We have a lot of fun fall and Halloween activities planned in the next couple weeks, so I'll be sure to update soon!

School Days & a Birthday!

We have had an extremely busy couple of weeks! Labor Day weekend, we met friends at Raccoon Creek State Park to go swimming. Steve & Patti met us there, too. We had a great time. Joshua and Chelsea can't get enough of the water! It's going to make for a fun summer next year.

Joshua started pre-school last week. He did much better than I thought he would! He loves his teacher. She is so much fun, and completely understands the separation anxiety that 2 year olds have. His first day, he didn't even really seem to care that I left when he realized Miss Teresea would be staying with him to play. The fact that she lets him paint, play with play dough, and takes him outside to play is a big bonus, too! The first week was only an hour a day with 1/2 the class, to help the kids get used to things. This week is an hour and a half with the whole class, so we'll see how it goes. I'm looking forward to be able to do some shopping and run errands with just Chelsea in tow.

Chelsea's first birthday was this past Friday. My baby has turned one. It's hard to believe a year has gone by so quickly. I'm having a hard time dealing with it, actually. My mom, sister and I took her to the mall for a special present. Chelsea had her ears pierced! She did extremely well, and hardly cried at all. It was kind of like she was excited about it, if a 1 yr old can realize what was actually going on. She lets me clean them, and twist them twice a day, and she doesn't pull at them or anything. I'm really pleased at how well she is doing with them.

On Friday, we celebrated at home with just the four of us. We had cupcakes and opened presents after dinner. Joshua was happy to be able to have an "un-birthday" present. It made things a lot easier in explaining to him that it wasn't HIS birthday, but Chelsea's, and the presents weren't all his. He doesn't quite understand the whole "sharing" thing, but we're getting there.

Saturday we celebrated with the immediate family at CiCi's Pizza. Chelsea's favorite toy right now seems to be her baby doll, so I made her a baby doll cake. I fully expected her to smash it, but she's such a little diva, she didn't want to get dirty. She did want to play with it, though. *laugh* We had a nice time, and she got a lot of really nice things from everyone. She came home and had a tea party with Joshua with her new tea set from Aunt Julia. It was so cute watching Joshua "pour tea" for her.



We're looking forward to some fun things in the next couple of weeks with fall coming. Joshua is looking forward to dressing up for Halloween, and getting candy. He plans on dressing up as a farmer, and he insists on Chelsea on being a cow... I have plans on making that work *laugh*. It's going to be fun.