He did it!

Jack went to his first full day of preschool! Which he will go to once a week-1 full day. In addition to 3 half days.
He is used to sleeping in but when we woke him up this morning he was excited.
Instead of having to gently beg him to eat his breakfast, he ate it promptly.
He got dressed without protest and minus the usual naked laps around his room or our petite house.
He wore his big boy underwear and I held on to my optimistic hopes he would follow the lead of the other kids in his class and become even closer to being 100% potty trained.
He joined in with the other boys in his class and didn't look back. (I tried not to linger too long hence why I am not sure if there are girls in his class)
I wasn't sure if lunch was provided or not. I knew snack was twice a day but learned lunch wasn't so I ran home to make him a quick lunch. I didn't have a meeting until 10 so I had a little extra time before work. When I came back they were walking in from the playground. I could see the teacher had her hands full but was doing her best for the first week. The boys lined up to wash their hands and when they finished the Spanish teacher was welcoming them into the class by singing a song in Spanish. Jack was eager to follow in line and sat on the carpet mesmerized by the singing. He again didn't even notice me. So I left him happy sitting on the carpet with his new friends.

After my meeting it was hard not to stop by to check on him but I needed to get to the office. My focus was off but of course by the time 3 rolled around I was finally getting some work done and had the option to stay instead of making a mad dash out of the office as usual. I stayed until 5 and picked him up at 515.

I couldn't believe my eyes when I walked in and he was still in the same shorts I had sent him in that morning. Meaning NO ACCIDENTS!! He was still wearing he same underwear as I quickly inspected him. I immediately ushered him to the bathroom where he gladly peed in the urinal-another new experience for me. Later that evening he continued his success. I have sort I been waiting for preschool for the past few weeks I knew Jack would thrive and hoped his potty training would be successful.
Now I'm being super optimistic and I know I still have many more accidents in my future but things are looking up and I'm happy!

I could tell he was a little tired but he was really excited to tell me about his day. We picked up snow cones from the stand on the corner as a special treat. Then went to Granny and Bopas to tell Bopa all about Jacks first day at his new school!

We enjoyed the rest of the evening and Jack went to bed before 8:30! Another new trend I hope that sticks around.

(another late night post-hence why I gave up blogging in the first place-this is better then nothing I hope!)

End of summer 2012

I'm attempting to blog for the first time from my iPhone...
Summer has been winding down and tomorrow is Jack's first day at his new preschool. Due to our interesting work/school schedules one day a week Jack will be attending full day school! 9-6 yikes! I can't help but feel a little guilty about this but it's worth trying something new. Will I pull him out at 3? Will I make him stay until 6? Will I stay later at work (most likely because I already do). I have to stay at work until 3 but I usually don't leave at 3 but I could...will I nap? Will I go to the gym? Will I go to the store?
Jack is familiar with the school we have visited and walk right past it when we go on walks so he is really excited to go there and make new friends. He will finally be able to play on the playground they lock up after hours!
He will be returning 2 mornings a week to the traditional preschool he was enrolled in the spring. Then one morning a week he will be going to the bible study preschool that he has been attending since he was one.
4 days, 3 preschools. We might sound crazy and have gotten some criticism but since Jack is already familiar with two of the schools and talks regularly about how he misses them we think he is more then ready for school after a long summer break.
And like I said the school we are adding on Jack is one he has visited often on our walks and is eager to join the kids he regularly sees.
We will we still have our part time babysitter who we all love and are lucky to have family in the area who have provided countless hours of free babysitting as well.
It's tricky when you don't need a full 40 hrs a week of day care how to make school schedule work for your child but we are excited for this next phase in our lives and are lucky to have a bright boy who is so ready for school.
My 3 yr old is super sweet but is challenging. I think we will all thrive with him being in part time school including finally being done with potty training! And no more sleeping in for us! Now if we can only get to bed earlier...on that note forgive me for the quality of this post, its late. And hopefully I'll update soon! (I need to learn more about iPhone blogger-hence random pictures...)

Ps. Laura and Eloise have started school too! So proud of them, we are going down Friday to visit them in Williamsburg!

Halloween 2011: Thomas and Friends

A few things we have been up to...

We went to Collie Rescue Day

 Jack, Tessa and I competed in dog relay races...

 We went to Williamsburg to visit Lala who started graduate school at William & Mary this fall. I miss her so much!

We have been going to art class which also has an indoor playground...

Jack asks to go "Art Cass" all of the time and he will tell you he is a good artist. 

On Saturday we went to St. John's fall fest, Jack will tell you all about riding Hazel.

On Sunday we to Cox's Farm...

It was a last minute decision after church to go. I was a little skeptical as we pulled into the huge parking lot and could barely find a space but the farm was huge so it didn't seem crowded. It was worth the admissions price including a scary tractor ride, tons of slides, animals, free apple cider, free apples, free small pumpkins, gourds and much more. 

 "Blue doggy came back from Nana and Papa Jay house!"-Jack exclaimed this morning

Bella came back from Aiti's house-Jack explaining how Bella used to live at Aiti's house. 

Then Bella ran away again today. She was probably only gone for 10 minutes she came home once she heard my mom shake her dog food bag. Thanks to my mom for watching Jack as I bathed Bella outside  in the dark then had to go back to work! It was raining this afternoon so I did not rake leaves like yesterday. Gabe's morning raking skills put mine to shame anyways. 

I am trying to get back into blogging. Most of these pictures are from my new camera that my in laws bought me for my birthday, it is finally back from the repair shop where it lived for 2 months!

I have to upload the rest of the pictures from my mom's camera too. I will probably start a picasa album so i don't take over facebook with my honeymoon pictures from Santa Fe, New Mexico :)

And dog makes four...

Late afternoon scene at my house:

Thanks Dad for the pictures and watching Jack for me! 

Bella is back and stinkier then ever!

Good thing Jack's turtle pool can double as a dog bath.

Bella is back living with me and my little family of three.

My mom has been working long hours so it is easier if Bella rejoins me in my life circa 2011.

Life is a bit more exhausting now then when she joined me as a college student circa 2007, making me feel slightly pathetic as I struggle to adjust to adding a dog to our family.

Bella ran away today.

"Bellwah run away to darden(garden)!"-Jack

"Tweat Bellwah! Tweat!"-Jack trying to call for her to come back

"Where'd are'd you Bellwah dog?"-Jack

This isn't the first time she has run away and she always comes back.

She comes back VERY STINKY.

She always runs behind our house into the woods and creek and gets very dirty.

I used to get concerned but now I know she will come back, the other week when she was gone I went to the gym-Gabe might have thought my priorities were off.

Jack gets very upset when Bella runs aways and says, "I MISS HER!"

He likes to repeat the story of Bella running away to the garden, how we look for her, calling her name and how we are glad that she came back!

I was happy it was a beautiful day so I could wash Bella outside. It was so beautiful I even raked leaves! Neither jobs do I enjoy after a stressful day at work but at least it wasn't cold out. 

After a visit with Granny and Bopa, Jack and I came home exhausted. 

I put on his favorite movie:

And I failed to notice when he fell asleep a few minutes into the movie at 6pm with a dirty diaper and no dinner.

I changed his diaper as he slept, but I had to wake him up to eat. He had a second wind after his 30 minute nap. Which brings us to the next missing doggy:

Blue Doggy had been at Gabe's parents house since Sunday. Jack was surviving ok until last night when he woke up in the middle of night screaming for Blue Doggy. 

I'll just say bedtime didn't go well. Even his favorite book, The Little Engine that Could, couldn't do the trick. Gabe picked up Blue dog on his way home and put him in his crib so he will wake up to Blue Doggy back again! 

Sweet Dreams. 

I want this:

I want(read need) to cook more. I feel disorganized about my spices. I always buy the small size spice jars or fresh spices. I even have a dill and rosemary plant (I hate rosemary by the way, Gabe bought the plant and does the gardening in our family.) But that is the problem I ALWAYS forget to buy the spices on the occasion of when I go to the grocery store. Gabe is a saint and often goes grocery shopping when he gets off of work. Today I went to the gym instead of grocery store.

I know spices don't keep well, even though everyone always seems to keep them forever. Once in college when my friends where moving I inherited a large amount of spices in large quantity jars and felt guilty a few years later when my mom insisted I throw them out.

Anyways I want this:

http://www.crateandbarrel.com/kitchen-and-food/food-containers-storage/15-jar-tiered-spice-rack/s539708

• Powdercoated steel rack
• Glass jars with tin spice caps
• Comes filled with spices (free refills available for five years to in-store, online and catalogue customers in the U.S. only)
• Jars are dishwasher-safe
• Made in China

See the part I enlarged, that is a bonus. I can attempt to keep my spices fresh for free?

This may be the lamest post ever. But I need to get back to blogging again. Jack is two. Work is overwhelming. Gabe is an amazing husband, he does so much(laundry, cooking, painting, writing, working, daddying, cleaning, grocery shopping & much more).

Jack didn't want me to per him in his crib tonight (per usual) and he begged me to sing the ABC song to him over and over. 

His favorite book is The Little Engine that Could we read it everynight. 

He repeats everything you say. In church the priest was talking about the wedding garments that were worn in biblical times, and Jack repeated the phrase "wed-ding  gar-ments, wed-ding, gar-ments"

His listening skills better then mine. 

Blue doggy seems to go everywhere he goes now. He went to preschool today, Nana & Papa Jay's house & backyard, gym day care, etc. 

I collapse after I put him to bed and waste time until Gabe gets home from work/grocery store. 

I am just going to stop right here before this post gets any worse. I finally have my new camera back from Penn Camera where it was held hostage for 2 months after breaking after a windy/sandy day in Taos, New Mexico after owning it for less then a week (it was an early bday present from my in-laws-thanks!). 

I'll update soon.

Tomorrow I will attempt to cook with the guacamole I made with 6 habanaro peppers in it. I even added more avocado and tomatoes to dilute the heat.

The peppers came from our garden I followed Gabe's instructions to put ALL 6 of them in the guac its way too spicy. Now I will attempt to cook a chicken and avocado casserole with it? (not very many recipes out there for how to cook with way too spicy guac)

We have all kinds of different peppers in our garden, which brings me back to starting to cook more and the spices I want so I can follow the recipes I google.

Christmas seems so far away, do I buy the spice rack now? I cook up all the food from this latest grocery trip then decide. 

Happy Father's Day round 2!

After uploading for the last time on Christmas eve to make more room on my memory card I didn't attempt to upload again until almost March. When suddenly my camera went from in my purse to not in my purse. I lost many great pictures, too painful to think about (i.e. Christmas, etc.) I kept hope that my camera would just show up. I looked high and low, prayed 

Nam-myoho-renge-kyo  and to St. Anthony. See I was raised Buddhist and I married am marrying a Catholic. Which brings me to my first photo below, my mom generously has lent me her camera once I finally gave to mine being lost. (I miss you little blue camera!) This is Gabe and Jack at Church on Easter Sunday. Jack is wearing a little suit that used to be Gabriel's!

 So, why haven't I gone out and just bought a new camera? Because we are getting married!!!! (and we are on a really tight budget) I have been going to church with Gabe's family since I was 16 and we have been meeting with a priest for the past two years and on Thursday, July 14, 2011 I will be baptized Catholic! Saturday, July 16, 2011 I will be getting married to the love of my life in the Catholic Church. We will say our vows in front of god, our family and friends just like we have always dreamed.

Now rewind.....to Wednesday, March 24, 2009. This is the day we got married in a lawyer's office in McLean close to J.Gilbert's where we proceeded to meet up with Gabe's parents who didn't happen to make the wedding because we gave them about 30 minute notice. Our witnesses that day were my mom, my sister and Peter Comstock.

Thank you for forgiving us about the short notice, and for raising your son to be the man he is today and for agreeing to be my god parents!

So I haven't blogged because I've been busy planning a wedding! Today I am missing Gabe, he is at the 2011 Wesleyan Writers Conference (at Wesleyan University (in CT)). He even was awarded a half scholarship :) Which is wonderful because we are planning the wedding on a super tight budget! He has been gone since last Wednesday afternoon. I did a good job of keeping myself busy but then Saturday night after Jack went to be around 8 the loneliness struck hard! It wasn't any better in the morning either. Then my dad came over and I made us brunch and we went to a Buddhist meeting. Yes this aspiring Catholic went to a Buddhist meeting. But i love my dad and I admire his devotion to his faith greatly, he chants two times a day, how could I not respect that. And it was father's day and my main man was out of town so it was a great day just spending time with my Dad and Jack. I really like all of the people in my dad's practice and most importantly I think it is important to value other religions. Especially coming from someone who has the opportunity to choose my religion at age 25.
Now Gabe has been writing up a storm today in Wesleyan and I decided to exercise my poor writing skills.

Here are some pictures of the man who is celebrating his second Father's day!
Like father like son...

 Jack likes to pretend to be daddy and read the paper...

 Had to throw this one in, Gabe now goes to the gym!

 Memorial day weekend we took a trip to Wilmington, NC to visit my sister...

 My three favorite people about to board the U.S. Carolina

That's enough writing for me, hopefully I will blog again soon!

We love you Gabe and thanks for being a loving father and devoted husband.