Rackie Notes

Today was H.U.G.E. in William's world.  He got the "Rackie Note!"

Rackie the raccoon is a puppet who lives in a tree inside William's junior kindergarten classroom.  Every day, Rackie watches the children and writes a note to one child who's shown outstanding character, friendship, manners, sharing, etc. throughout that particular day.  In JK, the Rackie Note might as well be Christmas morning.  The kids are crazy about Rackie.

Today when I picked William up from school, he came marching down the hill without saying a word to me, but with THE BIGGEST GRIN on his face.  Seriously.  He put his book bag down, pulled out a piece of paper and with a smile as long as Heaven, he BEAMED while proudly opening up the paper. 

My best boy GOT THE RACKIE NOTE TODAY!  He looked right at me and reached out for a high five.  He was SO delighted Rackie noticed him.  I asked a million questions about how Rackie presented the note to him.  William said the class played a clothes game where everyone started out standing on the rug.  A teacher would say, "if you are wearing white, please sit down.  If you are wearing a pink hair bow, please sit down, etc."  As the kids started dropping to the floor, William was still standing!  He said, "it got close when it was just 3 people and I was so excited that I maybe got the Rackie note.  So, I just listened to the game and hoped so much!"  And, William was the last kid standing which meant the Rackie Note was FOR HIM!  He told me he jumped up and down a million times!  Apparently, the note was hidden by a cup of tea in the teacher's area, but William found it and Ms. Holland read it out loud for everyone to hear:

Dear William,

I like you.  I know I can always rely on you to follow the rules.  I can see that you always try to be a friend.  You take good care of my Jr. K toys and you listen to our teachers.  You are my kind of Junior K. student.

Love,

Rackie

William reminded me that he received the Rackie Note on the 17th day of school and he said it would be a day he always remembers.  This proud Mama sure thinks Rackie picked the perfect person for his extra special note.  I love you WBB!

Adeline is super proud of her big bro too!

Adeline is 6 months old!

My precious doll baby is 6 months old.  Half a year.  Oh how you are growing way to fast for me!  I have enjoyed every single day with you and I am content knowing that I have absorbed every stage, every milestone, every smile, laugh and chubby ounce of you.  But time is passing way to quickly.  I say it every time, but I wish I could just freeze this moment with you.  I LOVE the baby stage and you have made this mama's journey priceless.

Adeline, you are 19 pounds and wear a size 4 diaper.  You wear 6-12 or 9-12 month clothing.  Your hair is turning light brown and your eyes have turned a darker shade of blue with some brown (hazel maybe?).  You still have two teeth, but you are drooling all the time and put your hand in the back of your mouth.  This makes me think that you are working on a few more teeth!  You roll from side to side, but I have not seen you do a complete roll over yet.  You also prefer to sit up whenever possible and now you don't need assistance! 

You go to bed at 6:30 p.m. and wake up between 4:30am and 5am.  If I give you 3 ounces of milk, you will usually go right back to sleep until 6-6:45am.  I don't mind still waking up.  I enjoy the quiet time with you and love to hold you and stare at your sweet, sleeping face.  It's one of the most peaceful times of my day.

You love to play in your exersaucer and yell at the toys.  I taught you to raise your arms in the air when you want to get "up" from playing or sitting somewhere.  I usually say, "UP! UP!" and then you make the motion with your arms to let me know you are ready.  You LOVE music and really have fun pounding on the Leap Frog learning table.  You can move some of the buttons to make the music, but you mostly enjoy watching the lights move around the table.  You belly laugh all the time and love it when I dance around the room bouncing you up and down while I sing a random song (Boom Boom Theta, When the Saints Go Marching In,  ABCs, etc). 

You also LOVE your baby dolls and I see some of your biggest smiles and loudest laughs when I dance the dolls in front of you.  You LOVE IT and holler with excitement.  You talk to your babies and poke their eyes to watch their eye lids open and close.  I think it's so cute that you love dolls because baby dolls were my most favorite toy as a little girl.  I have vivid memories of playing with my dolls and I still have them.  I am going to give them to you one day so that you can enjoy them as much as I did.

William is probably your favorite person in the world.  You look for him every morning and watch his every move while he plays airplanes and army guys.  We pick William up from school together and while we wait outside, I ask you "where's William?" and you look up with great big eyes.  Then when you see him running down the hill towards us, your whole face beams and you laugh when he gives you a big hug! 

One big milestone this month is BABY FOOD!  You find it incredibly delicious!  There is not one food you won't try and more often than not, you grunt and bang the tray in anticipation for more servings!  The first thing you tried was squash and your eyes lite up like, "wow, bring it on!"  You like bananas, pears, squash, peas, carrots, and sweet potatoes.  I let you off the hook on green beans - they look pretty yucky to me.  I can tell you like the food because milk bottles just weren't enough to keep you satisfied for a long stretch of time.  The rice cereal seems to be a winner and you lick the bowl clean every time!  So far, none of the foods have created an allergic reaction which I am grateful for.  I was holding my breath because of the eczema issue you have on your leg.  You have also shown interest in table food but I am sticking with the baby food for now and going slowly. As far as table food, I just give you graham cracker crumbs and you think those are DIVINE! 

One of my favorite things is when I am holding you and talking to someone at the same time.  You just stare up at me with the biggest smile on your face and listen to my voice.  When I bend over to kiss your nose, you giggle and bury your face in my shoulder.  When you wake up in the morning, you lean into my body like you are giving me a big hug.  I hug you back so tightly and you rest your head on my shoulder.  Sometimes I will be holding you while you play and all of the sudden you lean back on me and look up at my face with a huge grin.  Melts my heart every single time.

Adeline, you continue to light up our lives and make our hearts sing.  We love you beyond the stars.

6am - wake up

7:30/8am - 6 ounce bottle

9am - nap for 1-1.5 hours

10:30/45 - bowl of rice cereal and half a jar of baby fruit

1/1:30pm - 6 ounce bottle

3:30/4pm - small bowl of rice cereal and half jar of baby veggie

6:30pm - 6 ounce bottle and asleep for night

4am-5am - 3 ounce of milk

Blumont Country Fair

The day we headed out for apple picking, we ran into our neighbor, Lisa.  She was headed to Blumont, VA for the Blumont country fair.  She showed us the flier for the event which included a children's fair, food vendors, train exhibit, and live music.  We thought it sounded fun so on Sunday we headed for Blumont!  Like I said, there is a ton to do in VA during the fall season.

Blumont is about an hour away and both the kids slept most of the ride (YEAH!).  We love to take the back roads through VA as much as we can, especially when we are heading to the country.  Blumont is out near the horse farms and the scenery is gorgeous.  There are rolling hills, big ol' farm houses, bright red barns and trees that form arches over the roads.  It is so easy to get caught up in the views.  The weather was fantastic - breezy, cool with a touch of sun.  

We got there about noon and even though the fields were packed with cars, it really didn't feel terribly crowded.  We waited only a minute in line for our tickets and decided to eat lunch first.  We picnicked over by the railroad tracks and William had fun climbing on the old caboose.

We ran into an EMT display and William got to board the ambulance and meet the rescue team.  He asked a million questions and earned a bright blue fire hat!

Next we hit the children's fair.  The first thing William wanted to do was get his face painted.  It had the longest line, but we moved pretty quick.  As we got to the front, he noticed that the face painter was a clown.  He looked at me in total disappointment and in a quiet voice said, "Mom, I don't like clowns."  I reassured him that the clown was only a person in a costume and showed him all the other children getting their faces painted.  I told him all the kids looked really happy which meant the clown was good person, not a scary character.  When it was William's turn he slowly walked up to the clown and asked for an airplane on his cheek.  The clown had never had an airplane request, but I think her first attempt was pretty good.  William was hoping for a jet engine plane, but I told him I thought the propellar plane looked like a real neat army plane.  He went with it.

Over in the corner was a rock wall.  LOTS of kids were in line to climb and out of nowhere, William said he wanted to try it.  Dan and I were so excited to hear his interest, so Dada took him over to wait in the line.  When it was William's turn, he walked right up to the instructor and put on the harness.....I was SO proud of him.  Last year, he would NOT EVEN CONSIDER attempting such an activity.  Dan and I were really thrilled that he was willing to give it a whirl because we both knew he'd really love it.  We reassured him that he didn't have to go all the way to the top, and told him to go as high as he wanted.

We estimate he climbed about 10-12 feet or so.  Adeline and I cheered him on from the sidelines and I could see the happiness in William's face as he got higher and higher.  He was so confident and proud.  I was thrilled!

Before we left the children's area, William fished for a prize and grabbed a red balloon for good measure.

We decided to walk over to the train display and check out the model trains.  After 3 hours of partying at the country fair, we ended the day with a scoop of ice cream.  

Adeline was a gem.  She rode in the stroller and took a few cat naps.  When we got to the general store for ice cream, she woke up to the loud band outside.  So, I took her out of the stroller and we danced on the sidewalk with William.  She loved it and just hooted and hollered the whole time.  

Thanks Blumont for making our Sunday a Funday!

Apple Pick'n

It's finally FALL in VIRGINIA!

I LOVE FALL!  It's my favorite season.  VIRGINIA -There is NO other place I would rather be to enjoy fabulous fall foliage, crisp weather and many a fall festival.  Today was the first cool day (high of 60) and slightly cloudy so I decided to kick off our fall festivities with a trip to the apple orchard.  September is the best month for pick'n, and I knew we'd miss our window if we didn't take advantage of this weekend.  There are just not enough weekends in the fall to explore every fall activity Virginia offers.  I am tell'n ya, Fall fun is endless out here.
Despite the cool temps and chance of rain, we left around 8:30 am in hopes of being early bird pickers and avoiding major crowds.  As we got closer to the orchards it began to pour rain.  I was slightly bummed, but I knew the orchard would be open rain or shine.  And, William was excited to try out the handy pick'n stick, so I figured Dada could stay in the car and I would venture out to the trees with WBB.

Once we got there, the rain had reduced to a slight trickle, so we grabbed out pick'n stick and our apple map and headed for section #2.  The ground was wet and it was chilly, but that was not enough to keep us from having a great time.  We found wonderful trees just busting at the leaves with red and green apples! William tried out his pick'n tools and I got a few shots of him in action.




Adeline slept the entire one hour trip to the orchards.  When she woke up and found herself outside among some trees and a damp drizzle, I think she was slightly confused!  I couldn't get her to smile (which is so unusual) the entire time we were there.   She just stared at us, stared at the trees, and watched intently as William hoisted his stick up into the trees.  I am pretty sure she thought we were crazy.  Dada picked an apple and offered Adeline a bite.  She got REALLY excited and licked it a few times.  She waved her hands a few times and reached out to the trees like she wanted to pick a few Red Delicious herself.
William had a great time wandering through the trees.  He studied the tree limbs and thought up strategies for shaking the apples down from the tallest limbs.  Once our bag was full, we headed to the orchard's general store for some fresh baked bread and apple fritters.  YUM!
The apple orchard adventures will always be some of my favorite memories about Virginia.  I love the idea of living off the land and hiking through rows and rows of God's Golden Delicious gift to us.


I think William was 7 months old the first time we took him to the orchard and today, 3 years later, we returned with our baby girl.  For a moment,  I stood still in that damp drizzle on top of a hill surrounded by those beautiful apple trees and I just watched.  I watched the joy in William's face when he would shake an apple off the tree and I watched the wonder in Adeline's eyes as she studied the fruits of the earth. 

And my heart rejoiced.

My Favorite Things by William Barron age 4.5 years

William Barron - 4.5Years old, September 15, 2011
 
"My Favorites"

• color - red and blue
• animal - zebra
• airplane - American Airlines
• number-100
• food- hotdog
• candy -Tic Tacs
• train - bullet trains
• toy - airplanes
• friend - Campbell
• car - Lexus like Mom Mom's
• thing about Junior K -dressing up in the costumes
• thing to do with Dada - play Ipad
• thing to do with Mom Mom - play with her
• book -Airplane reference book
• song -Bitter Sweet Symphony
• Thomas trains -Thomas
• about Bebe -giving her great big hugs of love
• about Pops -fixing stuff around the house
• about Gram -finding all the airplanes for me
• about Bubba -playing army guys with me
• about Adeline - giving her kisses and showing her how to do stuff
• drink -milk and water
• at night - stay up late
• about morning -I love to play Ipad after my checklist
• to wear - shirts
• place to go in the car -school
• on a trip -to Oklahoma so I can see everybody
• about Santa - giving me great presents

WBB Just Talkin' age 4.5

William was riding in the car to a birthday party and we were having a casual conversation about what it means "to host" a party.  I explained that when you are the host, you are throwing the party for other people to enjoy.  I said that William was the guest and that the host for the party was the little girl's mom.

On our way to the party, we saw a wedding.

Me: "Oh William, look over there.  Those people are going into that church for a wedding."

William: "Oh yeah, I see it.  But what party are they going too?"

Me: "A wedding"

William:  "I know but who is the party for?  Do you think the host is inside with the presents?"

Me:  "Oh, well at wedding the host is usually the the bride's parents and everyone will go to a party after the bride and groom are married."

William:  "Mom, were you ever a bride? When was your party? I think I missed it"

Me:  "Yes, I was a bride.  Mommy wore a white dress and walked down the aisle to meet up with Dada.  Then we were married and Dada gave me a ring to wear everyday of my life."

William: "wow Ma Ma, every single day? That is a ton.  What happens if the ring gets lost because you are responsible all the time.
Me:  "I don't know.  I haven't lost it yet."

Me: "After we got married, we went to a big party and Pops and Bebe were the hosts."

William:  "I don't remember going to that party so that must have been before I was around. Did you have goodie bags?"

Me:  "Yes, it was 8 years ago."

William (after a huge gasp): "Well, 8 YYYYYEAAAARS ago?!  Geeze, that was way back in the olden days.  Did you have a car or ride a horse?"

Look out Junior K, WBB is on his way!

Today is William's first day of Junior Kindergarten at Grace Episcopal.  He woke up excited and ready to explore a new classroom, meet new teachers and make 7 new friends who joined his class this year.  Dada takes William to school in the mornings, so after a hearty breakfast the duo set out for Junior K.  Dada reported that William was fired up when they arrived.  He was polite and shook the Principal's hand before walking into his new classroom.  

Scrump-did-a-lee-umptous and I spent most of the morning watching the clock and wondering what William was doing every second.  We were chomping at the bit to pick William up and got to school 15 minutes early in great anticipation of his departure.

William walked out of the building like an old pro.  I asked him a million questions about his day and this is what I got:

• the snack was cheese crackers "oh, it was cheese crackers and you couldn't see the cheese but they were the best cheese crackers ever."
• he didn't get a turn in the costume area because there is only room for 5 people "maybe tomorrow I can have a turn and if not, I will ask the teacher for a turn."
• "this is the best news ever mom!  In 7 days the teacher is going to get out the airplanes because she knows that I am the Junior K person who loves airplanes.  I can't wait."
• the circle time rug is weird looking because the letters are upside down
• the teacher rings a bell for a 5 minute warning that playtime is over.  "the 5 minutes are faster than you can blink your eyeballs"
• three teachers - Ms. Holland, Ms. Fraiser, and "some other lady"
• a preschooler thought his lunchbox was cool
• he played at recess two times

And the highlight -

"Geeze.  I am so glad I don't have to go back to the preschool room.  I would have to start this whole school thing over again if I did that."

Three cheers for Squash!

On Sunday evening, Adeline enjoyed her first taste of baby food.  We decided to go with squash and William was in charge of giving her the first bite.  She LOVED it and gave us several grunts of excitment! She would have eaten the entire jar, but we stopped after about 10 bites.  I didn't want to overload her on her first day of big girl food.  Next week I think we'll try peas......stay tuned!