Conferences and Swimming Lessons

This morning we had Jack's first preschool conferences. They couldn't have gone better! The teachers love Jack and he cracks them up daily. Which is really no surprise to us. The kids are split up with different teachers for group time, so we only met with his group teacher. She said Jack is always so busy (yes I know he is!) and she said he loves the routine, he always knows what is coming up next. She also said he loves going outside and is very disappointed when they can't go outside. She said one day he pulled a chair up under the clock and kept asking what time it was and what that means. haha. He is very friendly and social. He participates in all the activities, but knows how to sit still and listen when he needs to. Things we need to work on are his name writing, scissor skills, and dressing himself. He can do all of these, he just needs a little more work. The other day he put his coat on and zipped up his jacket all by himself. But then we switched over to our winter jackets and now he thinks he can't do it. He says, "maybe when I get bigger I can do it."

 I know preschool conferences may sound silly to some people, but I left feeling so proud of Jack. I was worried sending him to preschool of what kind of kid he would be. Would he be a bully? Would he disrespect the teachers? Would he not be able to sit still and follow directions? Would he be insecure? It makes me so happy to hear how great he is doing. And I feel like for one of the very first times in my stay at home mom career I have something to "show off" for these past 4 years of raising Jack. That may sound silly, but it's true. Staying at home is one of the hardest things I've done in my life. And it is NOT a confidence booster job at all. I'm always second guessing myself, worrying if I'm doing the right things, are they watching too much tv, are they getting enough one on one attention from me, blah blah blah. But I chose to do this, or I should say WE chose for me to do this because without Tom's support I'd go mental. I choose to continue doing this every day. Because trust me there are days when I want to go back to working full time and send my kids off to some sort of boarding school. So all in all, today was a great day and I am so proud of Jack.

Every Tuesday night I get to take Jack to his swimming lessons. I LOVE this. I love having time to just watch Jack be so happy. I love that Tom is at home with Finn cooking dinner. And I just love watching Jack have fun! His class has three boys including Jack in it. One of the boys had a really hard time at the beginning so they brought in another teacher to help out with him. Jack and another boy are hilarious together. Seriously, it's like they are brothers. They crack the teachers up every week. I have a huge smile on my face the entire half hour of class. Here are two videos. And I'm happy to say that Jack is moving up to the next level for the next session! (He is still doing skating lessons on Monday nights too, I don't have any videos of those right now but again, he's hilarious).





I'm working on teaching Finn Justin Bieber's song "baby" hahaha. It's hilarious. I'll try to get some good videos soon. This will definitely help Finn succeed in his preschool years. bah ha ha ha.

First Snow and Haircut

Hola. We had the first snowfall this weekend. Tom was gone for most of the weekend, but I was prepared. I took the boys to Target on Friday and we got Jack some new boots and snow pants. Saturday when Jack woke up from his nap, he was SO EXCITED to see the snow.  The first thing he said was, "But mom....I thought it was going to snow on my BIRTHDAY" ha ha. It probably will Jack, it probably will. Here are some shots from Saturday right after the snow had accumulated on the grass, and some from Sunday when Tom was home. Finn's first reaction when we went outside was "ohhhhhhhh. Shnow mommy. It's shnow!!!"

Jack instantly made a snow angel

It took Finn a few minutes to realize that he could still indeed walk with his boots on him

Finn hailing a taxi cab

Eat shnow. Eat shnow.

Jack insisted on sledding down this one bump on the side of our house.

Then he made another snow angel

It was beautiful

We also gave Finners a haircut on Sunday. His hair was getting out of control. It was constantly looking like we never washed or brushed it. This kids hair is awesome.

Ummm hi. Are you my almost two year old? He looks WAY too old.

On a last note. I'm making my blog private again. I think what happens is that until you actually visit my blogs website (www.starkeyfamilyblog.blogspot.com) my latest updates and posts won't show up in your reader. I'll switch it over tomorrow. All of the email addresses are all saved from before!

Happy Monday!

No Sleep and Crafting

I'd like to have a little chat with the person that invented daylight savings time. I cannot stand it. Why can't we be like AZ and not participate? Come on.  Finn was already an early riser. I'm talking like 5:30 - 6 AM for the past few weeks. But on Sunday, he was up at 5:30, or what my mind thought was 4:30. UGH. Today it was 5:15. And there is no "let him cry himself back to sleep" with Finn. When he's up - he's up. I think we are almost ready to convert his crib to a toddler bed, so maybe that will help. Who knows.

Today when I thought it was almost time to start making lunch, I looked at the clock and it said 9:15 AM. Worst feeling ever. So I threw the kids in the car and we were off to the craft store. We ended up making a thankful tree today. It turned out pretty cute.

It was pretty funny listening to Jack's responses for what he's thankful for. I also bought a cute Thanksgiving book about being thankful.

At school, Jack is obsessed with arts and crafts. The teachers have to practically limit his art projects. And I feel a little guilty because I hate doing arts and crafts with the boys. I mean if they sat and colored nicely, I'd do it all day long. But they just want to tear, cut, demolish, and glue everything in sight. So I'll leave the messy stuff up to the professionals. But today was a fun little craft to get into the Thanksgiving spirit. And the boys loved having their hands traced, especially Finn.  Jack just wanted to do it himself. ha.  I have another cute little idea planned for the Christmas season too.

I never thought...

...I'd be washing my shower curtain multiple times a week because Jack misses the toilet while going to the bathroom and stains the white curtain.

Ahhhhh the magic of boys.

I dressed Finn up in Jack's old costume for Jack's preschool Halloween party.