Transitions

After four happy years at the SEC child care center, we decided to move the children to a new school closer to home.   After Labor Day, Henry started in classroom 4A (preschool) and Vivian started in classroom 2A (toddlers) at St. Anthony’s Day School in Old Town Alexandria.  Both kids have been at the SEC since they were infants, so it was not an easy decision to switch schools.  But we were looking for a five-year-old Pre-K program for Henry (given his late birthday, we will likely hold him back a year), and St. Anthony’s came highly recommended.  Although privately owned and operated, it is modeled on the parochial school system (the children wear uniforms, say morning prayers, etc.).  Initially, we were only planning to switch Henry.  However, once Henry got a spot, Vivian went to the top of the waitlist with sibling priority.

We always knew it might be a tough transition, and in the end, it turned out to be just as hard, if not harder, than we expected.  Henry had a particularly rough time adjusting to the new environment.  He had been with many of the same children since he was a baby.  Vivian had an easier time, but even she had a tearful first week.  And it wasn’t just the kids: Bryant had to adjust to commuting to work by himself and no longer socializing with fellow parents during morning drop off. 

By the end of the first week, Henry was really unhappy and saying he didn’t want to go back.  We feared we might be facing a long adjustment.  St. Anthony’s has “nanny cams” in the classroom which allow you to watch the children from your computer.  Worried about our little guy, we spent many anxious moments monitoring Henry’s progress.  At one point, Elise called Bryant to say that Henry was sitting alone, looking sad.  We watched online for several minutes and fretted over what to do.  Then the child stood up, and we realized that it wasn’t Henry. At that point, we decided to take a step back and be patient with the process.

In the end, it wasn’t so bad.  Over the second week, things got much easier.  By Wednesday, Henry and Vivian had stopped crying during the day.  By the following week, the teachers began remarking on how loud Henry’s voice could be—the kind of feedback we were used to hearing!

A month into their new school, both children are doing great.  Henry is making progress with his letters and numbers and even surprised us by reciting the blessing one night at dinner.  Vivian also is doing well and has been adding new words to her vocabulary every day.  Thanks to her brother, she can say “spider-man” and “pirate ship.”  We’re pleased with the new school and enjoying the convenience of having the kids closer to home.  Fortunately, many of the children at St. Anthony’s go on to Kindergarten at St. Mary’s (our parish school), so hopefully the next transition won’t be so dramatic.

Below is a picture of Henry receiving a group hug from his teacher and friends on his last day at the SEC. We will miss our Harbor buddies!

Earthquakes, Birthdays and Other Natural Disasters

At approximately 2pm on August 23^rd—Henry’s birthday—a rare 5.8 magnitude earthquake shook Washington, DC.  The quake lasted several seconds and resulted in only minor damage to the area (the exceptions being the National Cathedral and the Washington Monument, both of which sustained some structural damage; also, part of the ceiling in our church collapsed, severing an arm on the main crucifix).  The most immediate collateral damage to us was that the kids had to be evacuated from their daycare center in the middle of afternoon nap.  By the time we got home (after spending most of the afternoon camped outside SEC headquarters), they were both tired and cranky.  Henry cheered up after opening his birthday presents.   He’s been infatuated with Spider-Man for several months, and he got plenty of Spidey-wear for his birthday, including a full body costume, light-up shoes, and snow boots (thank you, Mimi Mimi Pauline!).  

Henry’s birthday party was scheduled for the following Saturday.  He requested a Spider-Man party (naturally) and, as entertainment, we booked a live reptile demonstration.  However, Mother Nature decided to wreak havoc with our plans.  Hurricane Irene began churning up the East Coast on Friday and was scheduled to arrive in the Washington, DC area by Saturday evening.  With the storm bearing down, we frantically rescheduled the party for Saturday morning.  Unfortunately, the rain began just as the party started, so we had to move everyone indoors.  It was a tight squeeze, but the kids seemed to have a good time nonetheless.  The reptile demonstration was awesome: the instructor brought lizards, turtles, frogs, a tarantula and a Burmese python for the kids to see and touch.  As the birthday boy, Henry got to help the instructor hold the animals.  Afterward, we all had BBQ, hotdogs and, of course, Spider-man cake.  We were fortunate that our friend, Christine Lee, kindly offered to assist with the party logistics.  Without her help, we would have never survived a house full of preschoolers and live reptiles in the middle of a hurricane!  As an added bonus, Mimi Joanne and Paw Paw Bill drove straight through from Mobile to attend the party and helped us weather the storm (which, in the end, was only “a little rain storm”—as Paw Paw predicted).

 

  

Below are some additional photos from the party:

New Castle Redux

We returned to New Castle, Pennsylvania at the beginning of August for the wedding of Elise’s cousin, Jimmy Janacone.  We went back and forth about whether to break up the drive (about 7 hrs).  In the end, we decided to drive straight through to New Castle.  Overall, the kids did really well in the car and were mostly content to read and play with their toys (although we had the DVD player standing by just in case).  Still, it was a long haul to western Pennsylvania.  Between rest stops on the turnpike, Henry decided he needed to use the potty.  We asked him to wait and he replied: “I’m worried.  The poop is talking to me.  It says it’s time to come out.”  So, we immediately pulled over and dug out the travel potty from the trunk (note to self: never, ever leave home without it).  We arrived at the hotel sometime after 1am and transferred the kids to the room.  Somehow Vivian bit herself while sleeping, and we turned on the lights to find her lip swollen and bleeding.  She didn’t seem too bothered (just a little confused), so after icing down her lip and making sure there was no more blood, we all crawled into bed.

In New Castle, after some much needed rest, we had lunch with Tweety and Denny Richards and their granddaughter Kathy.  Later, we saw the extended New Castle family at Jimmy’s wedding. During the reception, Henry enjoyed making multiple trips to the “cookie table,” and both Henry and Vivian spent a good amount of time on the dance floor.  Vivian, in particular, did not want to stop dancing. (You can see some additional photos of the dancefloor action here.)

Before heading home on Sunday, we stopped at the Living Treasures petting zoo in New Castle.  We thought this would be a quick detour.  It turned out to be the best zoo we’ve ever visited!  The kids were able to pet and feed most of the animals (deer, kangaroos, camels, monkeys and birds), and there was a horse-drawn safari ride with zebra, ostriches, and water buffalo.  At the lion enclosure, the male lion was sleeping on its back right next to the glass.  As you can see from the picture below, you don’t get much closer to a lion without becoming lunch!  We got a late start driving back, but the kids had so much fun at the zoo, they slept for over three hours in the car. Sometimes the best days out are the unplanned ones.

 

  

 

 

Dog Days of Summer

July was busy and very, very hot.  In fact, it was the hottest July on record in the Washington DC area, with temperatures regularly in the high 90s and sometimes exceeding 100 with the humidity.  Despite the heat and increasingly ferocious mosquitoes, the kids enjoyed playing in their new backyard.  The swings have gotten much use, as has the plastic kiddy pool that we bought at Walmart for $12.  Vivian is particularly fond of stripping to her diaper and taking a dip.

Over the month, we welcomed several visitors to our new home.  In early July, Mimi Pauline drove down from Michigan and brought several pieces of antique furniture for our living room.  Thank you, Mimi Pauline!  She also gave us a new handheld vacuum, which Bryant quickly fell in love with it, much to Elise’s scorn.

At the end of the month, the Baker-Brown family (Dawn, Emily and Alexander – we missed you Stokes!) paid a visit.  To keep cool, we hung out at the pool and went for a boat ride on the Potomac.  At noon, the local river boat company does a pirated-themed cruise around Alexandria Harbor, which involved donning eye patches, brandishing plastic swords and accosting the local yachtsmen with “Ahoy, there!  We be Potomac pirates. Prepare to be boarded. Aaaaargh.”  Not sure if it was the heat or the ridiculous pirate costumes, but Henry didn’t seem too impressed.  He did, however, enjoy spending time with his cousins, and was particularly excited to show Alexander his action figures, cars and dinosaurs.

 

Between visits, we also celebrated July 4^th with friends from our daycare center, hosted a BBQ with the Powell family, and celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary.  To mark our anniversary, we had dinner (sans kids) at the Columbia Firehouse restaurant in Old Town.  There was a slight break in the heat, and we were able to eat on the restaurant terrace.  It was a nice, low-key meal, during which we enjoyed trading smug comments about the childless couples seated next to us.  They seemed blissfully unaware of what lay ahead!  Afterward, we strolled down to the river where Alexandria city was having its founder’s day fireworks celebration.  We lingered on the waterfront to watch the fireworks, which seemed like a perfect way to end the evening.

Vivian Loves Shoes

Vivian is the Imelda Marcos of our family – she loves shoes.  Henry views shoes as a necessary evil, but Vivian can’t live without them.  She insists on wearing them inside the house and even to bed!  At a recent outing to the Disney Store, she virtually ignored the toys and went straight for the Princess slippers.  And it’s not just the frilly shoes: she loves sandals, Tevas, tennis shoes, slippers, boots – if it fits on her feet, she will wear it.  We’re not sure where this comes from, but Elise does own half a dozen pairs of clogs.

Our New House

Finally!  We’re in.  After weeks of planning and preparation, we moved into our new house on June 15th.  It was a hectic week, but we managed to vacate our old home and get mostly unpacked at our new place in a few short but intense days.  Bryant’s mom came up from Alabama and was invaluable in helping us to manage the move.  We love the new house (especially the extra space), and the kids are really enjoying their backyard playset.  The only difficulty has been getting them to share the swings (see below) and come inside for dinner.  We still have a lot of unpacking and organizing to do, but below are some pictures of the new place.

 

 

  

 

Note: When we told Henry about the new home, he immediately asked if it would have a “dolphin swing.”  Our friends Brad and Tonia Powell have an outdoor playset with a bucket swing shaped like a blue dolphin.  Henry LOVES swinging on this, so we decided to get one for the new house.  It turns out Step2 no longer makes this particular type of swing.  However, Bryant found a few for sale on eBay and, after missing out on several bids, finally managed to secure one.  Now both kids love riding the dolphin swing (Vivian calls it a “shark,”, but that’s close enough).  As you can see, it’s really quite a superb swing:

Henry Does Yoga

In addition to soccer, gymnastics and music class, Henry also does yoga at school (one wonders when they find time for old fashioned things like numbers and ABCs…).  In June, his instructor invited parents to a demonstration.  Henry showed off various poses, including downward facing dog, but seemed more interested in making animal noises than poses. Below is our little yogi in action.