Project 52 {45}

My favorite thing about you:

Your persistence  

f/1.8 ISO-100 1/200

We have high expectations for our kids.  Really high.  I've (kind of) joked that in having Jeff and I for parents, did anyone really expect our kids to be dumb?  I mean, I first met him in our series of honors courses in 8th grade.  We took many honors and AP classes together throughout our educational career.  I can't imagine my kids not being honor students as well.  In fact, if given the choice between best kid on the (insert sport here) team, or in honors/AP courses, I'd pick the academics every time.  Life is just easier if you're not dumb.  So I work with the kids.  A lot.  My goal was to have Haley reading before she started kindergarten, and she was.  We'll do this with Kale as well.  I try my best to have intelligent conversations with them, even if we're just driving around in the car.  When they were babies we'd talk about what color something was on a walk.  I strive to use adult words with them.  They're not afraid to ask if they don't know what a word means.  I've never had to tell them what a word means more than once.  Sometimes I have to explain things a bit more simply, but they'll grasp it and down the road we can get more complex.  We don't avoid topics, and if I don't know, we ask Siri, or look it up on the computer.  I want them to understand that curiosity makes you smarter, and it's okay not to know something as long as you seek the answer to it.  

So, persistence.  Yes, I have high expectations, Haley's teacher's are higher (LOVE).  Especially when it comes to handwriting.  I'd sent Haley off knowing that she knew how to write upper and lowercase everything.  Her teacher expects perfection.  Not kindergarten perfection, real life perfection (on one of my room mom days she needed to see my handwriting before she would let me write out sentences).  Part of her phonograms is knowing all of the sounds that correspond with the letter, the other part is being able to write the letter.  She can tell you rote what each letter sound is, in the order of common use for the first 26 letters of the alphabet.  She can write each letter such that you know what letter she's shooting for.  Perfection?  We're not quite there yet.  She had a test this week on her most recent phonograms and needed to write the letters, so we drilled.  And drilled.  AND DRILLED.  She knew the sounds so I didn't focus so much on that, but we printed out many a writing sheet, and I wrote out the letters, made her copy them, gave her the dots then she had to do it all by herself.  You could see the improvement right there on the page.  She's getting there.  And she wants to do it.  She knows what's expected of her and really tries her hardest to meet those expectations.  

How will you know what you kids are able to accomplish if you don't place those high expectations on them?  And not just academically, but physically, and behaviorally.  In our house we expect academic success (even in preschool and kindergarten).  We expect them to treat their body in a healthy way, eating the right kinds of foods to help them grow, and to exercise to be strong and capable.  We expect good manners at all times.  My job (like I've said a million times on here) is to equip them to go into the world and be successful adults.  With the persistence to meet the expectations we put on them now, they'll be ready to meet them in the future as well.  

Want to check out some other super great Project 52 eye candy?

 . Styleberry . Wicked Kate . Adventures in Mommyhood .  Lucas & Mahina . Heather Marie Portraits . Something Insightful . Truly Dedicated Mommy 

Can I link you too?  Leave me a comment.  

Project 52 {43}

My favorite thing about you is:

Your memory.

f/2.8 1/80 ISO-400

Here's the thing:  I'm in a conundrum.  Your memory is Ah-maze-ing.  Like, close to photographic.  I'd like to believe that it's just how great you are, but then there's this part of me that wonders if it's only because it has roughly five years of life to remember.  For now, lets assume greatness.

This week your classroom hosted Mother Goose (your principal).  It was your assignment to find a rhyme, memorize a line of it and come up with a costume.  Caution: Rabbit Trail:  Can I just tell you how much fun it was to see all of your classmates dressed up as nursery rhyme characters?  So much fun!  Everyone went way above and beyond to make sure they truly dressed the part.  But I digress (at least I warned you this time...).  Anyway, you chose to be Jill (of "Jack and Jill").  And you didn't just memorize one line, but all of the most common part of it (it wasn't till later we learned there was more to it - now we know).  We practiced it, and you even decided to do a curtesy at the end (naturally).  So you were one of the last ones to go (you got nervous - yes you, the lead in your ballet class because you couldn't stand anything less) got shy in front of kids you see every day.  I think Mother Goose did you in, it was like standing next to a celebrity - I get it.  But you got up, said your lines like a champ, took your pictures, and went back to your seat.  It was great - I was SO proud.  

So anyway... this memory of yours.  It's made me lazy.  You're like my Siri that never runs out of battery, and understands most everything I tell you.  I rarely have to repeat myself.  Your mind is a steel trap.  Can't remember how an event went down?  Ask Haley.  Want to know about a show you watched six months ago?  Ask Haley.  Seven things on my grocery list?  Tell Haley.  It helps that you're a pretty fallible liar too.  So long as you're paying attention, it goes right into your brain and that's where it stays for that moment forever from now when you (or I) need it again.  

I hope your memory stays as clear as it is now.  I hope all of the wonderful things you're remembering stay right there in your brain just as bright as they are today.  What a great gift you've been given.  

Want to check out some other super great Project 52 eye candy?

 . Styleberry . Wicked Kate . Adventures in Mommyhood .  Lucas & Mahina . Heather Marie Portraits . Something Insightful . Truly Dedicated Mommy 

Can I link you too?  Leave me a comment.  

Project 52 {42}

My favorite thing about you is:

You're strong.

f/2.8 ISO-100 1/4000

Not necessarily physically, although to ask you, you'd say you're the strongest person in the world.  But strong in character.  To be strong in your character at this age is no small accomplishment.  You know right from wrong and in your world, it's pretty black and white.  There is good and evil, and you unfailingly fall on the side of good.  You're like a preschool superhero.  I should make you a cape.  

Everyday when we pick you up from school, we turn the music off in the car and do our best to have a good long conversation about your day.  What was your favorite part?  Was it a good day? What did you have for snack?  Did anything bother you?  With your sister this conversation almost always lasted the whole way home.  With Kale, if I can squeeze 5 minutes and anything more than one word answers, I chalk that up in the win column. The win column has very few points in it.  But Friday afternoon, you had lots to tell me.  

Here was (according to my memory) a recounting of the conversation:

Me:  So what did you do today?

Kale:  We went outside (a VERY common qualifier of a good day).

Me:  Oh yeah?  What did you do out there?

Kale:  I told *Boy* to stop teasing my buddy!

Me:  What was he doing to your buddy to tease her?

Kale:  He was saying mean words.

Me:  That's great that you saw someone being mean to another person and you told them to stop.  That's a very big boy thing to do.  It's important to stand up to people being mean to others.  Buddies or not.

Kale:  What does stand up mean?

Me:  Uhh...  You saw something you knew was wrong, and you did your best to make it right.  

Kale:  Oh, yeah.  I did that.  

I was so proud at that moment I wanted to cry.  Kale is significantly bigger than this other boy, and sometimes (at home) he forgets his words and uses his actions instead.  Jeeze, is that a montessori sentence or what?!  But this time, when it counted, he used his words and stopped the boy.  You hope as a parent that you're raising good kids.  On the whole, if I could pick the characteristics of my kids, cute and athletic would be pretty far down on the list.  Are they good people?  Hard workers?  Smart?  Do they make good choices?  That's what I'm after.  Someone, who, when I turn them loose to the big wide world, will contribute to the greater good.  Productive members of society.  Now, here's where I jinx myself:  I think we're on the right track.

Want to check out some other super great Project 52 eye candy?

 . Styleberry . Wicked Kate . Adventures in Mommyhood .  Lucas & Mahina . Heather Marie Portraits . Something Insightful . Truly Dedicated Mommy 

Can I link you too?  Leave me a comment.  

Project 52 {38}

My favorite thing about you:

Is that you're back in school.

f/1.8 1/1000 ISO-100

Lets play "State The Obvious".  The reasons I'm loving that you're back in school are three fold:

1) Last week.  I'm happy you're anywhere but the hospital.  

2) You love school.

3) I need you gone to miss you.  

Yes.  Finally. Three weeks into September and both kids in school.  For this I'm thankful.  Ugh.  What a terrible mom, right?  But seriously... Aside from the 50% discount on responsibility, I appreciate the one on one time I get with each kid.  For about two minutes this fall, I thought I was going to get some time to myself three days a week (I had a mid-morning date with my garden tub - or more realistically, time to clean said garden tub), but that didn't happen when Haley got PM kindergarten.  So, if I can't have undivided time with myself, I'm thankful to have it with one kid at a time. 

This summer we spent a lot of time the three of us, which was great.  But we get sick of one another and need a break.  Yup, I said it, I get sick of my kids (and truthfully, they get sick of me too).  School is just the remedy to keep me from the crazy house - or a job outside the home.  I can't miss their presence around the house if they're not gone.  Why would you want to miss your kids?  Anyone asking this question isn't a stay-at-home-mom.  Because I can't use the ladies room between the hours of 6am and 7pm without the door being flung wide open, for starters.  For finishers, it's the three of us for most of the day (even with school), and I'm left out.  With just one, they're forced to come to me for entertainment and they entertain the crap out of me.  I get to know them better as individuals.  We work on school skills that need extra attention.  We hang out, run errands that are easier with one (so everything), and wonder what the missing one is up to.  

And once we're the three of us again, they have a million questions for the other - they hate not knowing what the other one has been up to/what they missed out on.  I love those conversations; I turn the radio off and just listen, because I'm in the same boat.  

Want to check out some other super great Project 52 eye candy?

 . Styleberry . Wicked Kate . Adventures in Mommyhood .  Lucas & Mahina . Heather Marie Portraits . Something Insightful . Truly Dedicated Mommy 

Can I link you too?  Leave me a comment.

Project 52 {34}

My favorite thing about you:

Is that you're off to Kindergarten!

f/2.8 1/1000 ISO-100

A quick observation, having now gone through two first days of kindergarten:  The book "The Kissing Hand" was written for the express purpose of being read on the first day of kindergarten, in front of the parents to make the poor emotionally fragile mothers cry.  It's fact.  

I have a kindergartner.  Am I old enough for that?  Yeah, probably.  Seeing as how I'm a few years older than my mom was when I started, and if you've ever watched MTV, then you'd know that you can be far younger than I, and have a kindergartner.  But still.  My first baby, my smart little girl, is (officially) starting her educational career.  How have 5 and a half years already gone by?  I swear she's going to be running the world next week (though, if you know Haley, you'd know that starting kindergarten or not, that's still a completely viable possibility).  13 years till I send her off to college. 

Long, long ago, we parents here in Colorado Springs, began planning our children's schooling (or at least those of us living in District 49) as though where they head off to Kindergarten determines whether they matriculate to an ivy league college (or at least a nice service academy - wink, wink).  Here in Colorado Springs, we have good neighborhood schools, but we also have charter schools.  Charter schools that you need to get on the wait list for pretty much at birth (okay, so Kale got on at 9 months, but still...).  Haley was number 700 something.  They take 250 kids.  We were kind of a long shot.  However, we got the e-mail that she'd received a spot in this school the afternoon after her first day at the neighborhood school.  

So.  Like I mentioned last week, Haley is on her second first day of Kindergarten.  As you can see, the new school has uniforms (although according to a Charlie & Lola book, and thus Haley too, they're Schooliforms).  I love this, the type A in me that lives for organizational systems, had a hay day.  Sunday night I ironed and hung up all of her outfits.  I hole punched a gallon size ziplock, to hang on her hanger to include all of her accessories:  socks, undershirt, hair accessory and shoe card (a laminated picture of the shoes she's supposed to wear with the outfit).  Each bag is labeled with the day of the week and what "special" she has for the day.  The night before school, we hang it on her hook and there's absolutely no discussion about what she's wearing for the day; she just puts the outfit on.  Perfect!  One week of school down, and the system is working out quite nicely. Ask me about it in December.  

Here's the thing.  At this new school, since we were lucky to get a spot, beggars couldn't be choosers.  We're afternoon kindergarten.  If you know one thing about my kids it's that they're morning people, and they still take naps.  Yes, my 5 1/2 year old still takes a nap.  This is a wrench in our routine to say the least.  But we're making it work.  Kale seems to be napping about 2 of the 4 days that she's at school (quiet time the other 2), and Haley has dropped them all together (oh, she's so tired by 7:00).  Does this mean she's sleeping in?  Nope, not a chance.  I still see her bright and early at 6:00. Morning people, I'm telling you.  I need to teach them how to make Mommy's coffee.  But I digress (again).  

Haley's new school is a great fit for her.  Each day she gets in the car is the BEST. DAY. EVER! And that makes me happy.  I loved school, and I pray that my kids do too.  So far, I have no reason to think otherwise and the little boy who brought in Red Velvet cupcakes for his birthday on the 2nd day certainly boosted my cause.  

Want to check out some other super great Project 52 eye candy?

 . Styleberry . Wicked Kate . Adventures in Mommyhood .  Lucas & Mahina . Heather Marie Portraits . Something Insightful . Truly Dedicated Mommy 

Can I link you too?  Leave me a comment.

Project 52 {33}

My favorite thing about you:

You're constantly saying "I love you".

f/1.8 1/125 ISO-100

A couple of weeks ago this was a conversation I had:

Kale:  Mommy, I still love you.

Me:  Thanks Buddy, I still love you too.

Kale:  Even when I'm bad, you still love me.

Me:  I will always love you.  

Moms, say it with me:  I may not always like you, but I'll always love you.  My mom used to tell me this all the time.  It's another one of those things that you have to be a mom (or, possibly a spouse) to truly understand.  Like when you're at the third store trying to pick up last minute school supplies that are impossible to find.  Seriously?!  Unscented disinfectant wipe refills?  2 gallon zipper top Hefty bags?! Sometimes I think they put these things on supply lists as a joke.  Do you really believe that I have all the time in the world to play into your twisted little scavenger hunt?  It's the end of summer and I just want them to go to school.  I don't believe there is a difference between the Westcott and Fisker brands of blunt tip scissors.  That said, I will always buy Crayola - there's totally a difference there. But I digress.  This is supposed to be about how, at the first store the kids lost control, I had to get these things, and by store number three, I really didn't like them much.  Anyone to blame for their lack of decent behavior at the stores besides me?  Nah.  They're my kids and I take responsibility for that.  But when the man at Office Max told me they had a corral we could throw the kids in while I shopped in peace, I almost kissed him.  He was messing with me.  I almost cried.  

This week Haley started Kindergarten the first time.  There will be a second time on Monday, but more about that next week.  They read a story and were sent over to say their goodbyes with little heart shaped stickers to remind us while they were away that our little kindergartners still loved us.  I held it together, but only just barely - I really thought I'd be okay, but it was definitely emotional.  I did keep it together though, which is more than I can say about some moms in there who totally lost their shit stuff (as in: the background sound of the video of their kids' first day of school is going to have profuse and loud sniffling - not coming from a kid or a cold).  I proudly wore my sticker all morning, and last I checked it was on the corner of my bed.  My kids are always telling us that they love us.  And it's great.  It's one of those things I feel like I can pat myself on the back about.  If their behavior is any indication of what they're seeing modeled before them, then I'm not a total mom fail all the time.  If they know one thing, it's that we love them (even when we don't like them).  And that is worth a giant high five!

Want to check out some other super great Project 52 eye candy?

 . Styleberry . Wicked Kate . Adventures in Mommyhood .  Lucas & Mahina . Heather Marie Portraits . Something Insightful . Truly Dedicated Mommy 

Can I link you too?  Leave me a comment.