Just before 9 am on Tuesday morning, the Little Learners’ Homeschool opened its doors for the first day of preschool.  The children were immediately greeted by the hospitality committee:

I guess you could call him our “Class Pet”.

The children got right down to business when their mother’s left:  PLAY TIME.  But then the small, human chairperson of the hospitality committee suggested crackers, and suddenly it was a toddler cocktail party — almost quite literally.  The boys had their sippy cups in hand while Babycakes circled the room with a plate of Ritz crackers.  Hey, it’s the first day!  What’s wrong with a little extra fuel? 

What a morning!  We sang, danced, read stories, built with blocks, played dress-up, pushed the grocery cart, changed diapers, had “official” snacktime, sorted, worked puzzles, shared hugs, tossed balls, laced beads.  Pfew!  The best part — they were all smiles!  Day one of getting to know each other was a bit like herding cats, but overall it was a HUGE success. 

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It’s that time of year again… Back to School! 

Eager mothers in carpool lines are giddy with excitement as they drop their dear ones to unsuspecting teachers.  They have grown tired of applying sunscreen, entertaining “bored” children, & refereeing sibling squabbles.  Yes, it’s time. 

Unless you’re me. 

Instead of dropping mine off, I’m importing three more.  You heard that right — three AND they’re all boys.  All wonderful little boys, who like my Cakes are just shy of the school cut-off date. 

Tomorrow is our first official school day — I’m thinking of calling us The Little Learners’ Homeschool.  (Any other suggestions are welcome.)  Cakes and I made a trip to the store today to buy some of our supplies like glue, kleenex, apple juice, snacks, & most importantly:  Elmo band-aids.  While shopping for these very few items, which by the way took us 52 minutes to complete, my dearest one came up with a new pose for her series of tantrums.  You’ve heard of diving like a pencil into a pool — well, friends, an almost two-year-old can do a “pencil” in a dress in the middle of the store if you refuse to buy her a citronella candle. 

Fast forward 54 minutes: we placed our purchases happily into the car.  I say “happily” because her tantrums are short and quickly forgotten.  After this, we went to the local Early Childhood Partnership to borrow a few materials.  This is such a great resource!  It’s for parents AND teachers, costs a minimal amount of money, and they allow you to borrow educational materials like toys, puppets, book, manipulatives, as well as use their die cutter & laminator. 

Our August/September theme for preschool is Getting To Know You & On the Farm so we borrowed two flannel board kits and a sing-along book BUT not before someone with two-pigtails in a dress did this:

It was a short trip to the Partnership for today, but surely in the coming weeks she’ll learn to enjoy her time there.  Right? 

Until tomorrow… and you know there’s a story just waiting to unfold!

Please pardon the craziness & random pictures on this blog while I get adjusted to a new theme!  We’re arranging the furniture & hanging pictures — it’ll look like “home” again really soon!

The front room in our house is constantly evolving.  Five years ago when we moved in, it was a lonely sitting room with a bookshelf, a sofa, two chairs & a piano. 

When my gig as a Nascar Nanny ended, I started teaching piano lessons & tutoring, so we bought a desk.  Then I gave birth and suddenly the room was filled with a bookshelf, a sofa, two chairs, a piano, a desk, burpcloths, a swing, the bouncy-seat, and often times a Pack-n-Play or the Exersaucer.  It was seriously crammed, yet tidy. 

Then the said birthed baby became mobile and crazy crap like this happened: 

So we started moving furniture.  The bookshelf & sofa found a new home in the family room — and other furniture found its way to campus.  Determined to have a tidy home again, I tried this:

And it was lovely and inspiring and I rarely sat at the desk except to tutor.  The palm tree died before I ever cut its tag off and as for the little birds on the desk, well they became projectiles once *someone* learned to climb.  So, from deep inside a pile of Fisher Price stackable rings, I raised my hand, waved the flag, and surrendered. 

Without changing any fabric or colors, we headed to Ikea to purchase shelves for toy storage.

We bought two — one for each side of the window.  Total cost: $140.00

On Monday, something came over me — I was like a possessed HGTV Design Star.  I tore at the old fabric frames, took down the photos hanging over the piano, and took out a lamp.  Once the room was cleared, I grabbed my bolts of fabric, my trusty staple gun, and the empty frames and headed to my workshop (the front porch). 

Side note:  Funny story about the pillow on the window seat — I sewed it the day that I found out I was pregnant.  I was so excited thinking about a baby that I sewed a wrong side to the right side instead of right sides together.  Now I’ll never forget what I did that day in January! 

Please forgive the photo quality — they were taken yesterday when Cakes made her first escape. 

Speaking of escape…

As you could see by yesterday’s video, escaping the crib has become a game, a challenge, a big ol’ problem.  In desperation, I strapped that kid in her stroller around 4 o’clock and took the shoelace express two miles into football practice.  She sang herself to sleep within 2/10 of a mile, but I figured that my backside could use the exercise so we kept going. 

Last night didn’t go so well either… she hopped the rail five times before we gave up and put her in our bed.  This meant I had to go to bed “early”, too, which wasn’t such a bad thing. 

Today, oh baby… I was taking back naptime!  It is my oasis in the desert of chaos.  I took the crib rail off and she was thrilled.  “I go nite-nite like Cinderelly!  Big girl bed like Cinderelly!”  She climbed in, pushed me away, and said, “Go Mommy.  I’m going nite-nite.”  As a kid that normally wants rocked to sleep, I knew she was up to something.  I saw her wheels turning as I put the gate up at her door.  She climbed out of bed & dismantled the gate three times.  I closed the door and listened through the monitor as she knocked on the door, which sent the dog into hysterics. 

Twenty minutes later, it was quiet.

So I went to check on her.

Where is Babycakes?

Too bad the only thing that could fit thru the door was my camera. 

Big Girl Bed, Round 2: Attempt 1 = FAIL.

The Football House

 has been in transition for the past few days.

At the tail end of preseason football camp, Tinkerbell came and took Babycakes’ pacifier — her “kinky” as she calls it.  Naptime & bedtime therefore, have become exhausting FOR ME.  Not so much for her.  Apparently without that hunk of rubber and plastic in her mouth, she has a lot to say and she has consistently talked herself to sleep for five days.  It’s cute on day 1, but NOT CUTE on day 4 at 10:45 pm. 

Over the weekend, we inherited two bookshelves for our playroom.  When I placed them in the room on Monday, the colors were all wrong.  So I did what anyone with a toddler and not enough hours in the day would do and I redecorated.  I pulled everything off the wall, started shopping the house, and began the tranformation process yesterday.  Y’all, this is design on a nickel and it turned out SO CUTE.  This afternoon, after I put Cakes down for her nap, I started snapping pictures.  Snap.  Snap.  Snap.  Footsteps. 

Footsteps?

Ack!

I present to you….

Through the magical powers of Twitter, I’ve been attempting to connect with some online friends to have a REAL LIFE playdate with our children.  Of the five children between the three of us, my dear one is in the middle of the age range.  What kind of influence will she have on the babies?  What influence will the older two have over her?  If the other moms read my blog, surely they are concerned that MY daughter will teach THEIR children all sorts of new stunts!

In addition to her physical accomplishments, she may also influence how these children interact with ordinary household objects.  Mommies, lock up your candlesticks — she has broken 3 of mine by pretending that they’re “apple juice”. 

Or like me, one day you might open up your refrigerator and discover a scene like this:

Why are the cows in the fridge?  According to the scenario unfolding at the farm, her cows were “thirsty” so she brought them to get some “mok”.  She played there for a couple minutes – ”Oh, here ya go cows.  Sip!  (*slurp*) Get some mok cows.”  Today, there’s a horse in the refrigerator — apparently they only drink salad dressing. 

After a playdate with my kid, you might find your children dressing funny, too.  Purple tutus, fuschia sparkle shoes, mardi gras beads, and your daddy’s underwear are a VERY stylish look in Holland right now.  She’s so fashion forward. 

And she’s all mine — quirky, cute, & adventurous. 

She was a happy girl.

She busied herself with her home & her sweet little dog.

But then… her joy was found in another and she became someone’s wife.

“This is the life,” she thought.  Being married… she had someone to spend her days with, to share her joys & disappointments.  And there were tests, too. 

What would life be like?

Soon *life* moved within her.

Joy.

Anticipation.

Until finally…

Love overflowing…

And on that day, her joy was multiplied.

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This post is part of SOYJOY‘s What brings you joy contest. Learn more here.

It’s a rainy day here in the South — the girl & I are trying to decide if we should venture out into this wet, humid mess or continue our morning of coffee, jammies, & Cinderella.  She’s watching Cinderella — I’m daydreaming about Fall.  Who else is longing for cool, crisp afternoons?  I love all the smells of autumn that creep into our house when the windows are opened wide. 

In the coming weeks, I’m hoping to bring you a regular “Game Day Style” section to this blog for all you google searchers who don’t know if you should wear this: 

Or this:

 

Longsleeve Tops by Old Navy
Boots by Ash

to a football game.  Of course, it all depends on your team colors, too!  If you need suggestions, leave a comment or send me an email with your team colors and I’ll put together a game day outfit just for you!  Bring on the orange & blue and the gold & black.  Let’s see what we can put together! 

I’m linking up to this series:

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The year before Coach & I got married, I worked as a nanny for a NASCAR driver’s family.  My schedule was unpredictable and the woman that I worked for thought she owned me.  I didn’t know hour-to-hour if I had to work and she became terribly annoyed if I phoned her to see if she needed me.  Planning things in advance became impossible and I had to ask for permission to travel over Thanksgiving weekend.  Three months before my wedding day, she told me that she “paid me too much and just wasn’t going to do it anymore.”  Turns out, they were teetering on the edge of bankruptcy.  Getting fired was the best thing that happened to me — I was able to collect unemployment long enough to regroup and begin working from home. 

With a dual degree in Early Childhood & Elementary Education and experience as a classroom teacher, pianist, & tutor, it was time to put my talents & expertise to work!  I made business cards and called and emailed people that I knew.  Word spread quickly and soon I was tutoring & teaching piano lessons every afternoon.  The summer before Babycakes was born, I received so many phone calls from interested parents.  The first time I had to say “no” was difficult — this mother wanted lessons so badly that she offered to bring her children over after dinner & watch my baby.  If you work from home, you need to set limits and learn when to say no or you’ll feel like you’re working for someone else!  At the beginning of each school year, I look at my calendar and block off my work hours.  If I can’t accommodate someone, it’s unfortunate but I have to keep a healthy perspective – I’m not performing life saving heart surgery.  It’s piano lessons. 

It’s not always easy working from home especially with a little one at your feet.  I’ve considered hiring a mother’s helper to assist me in the afternoons, but decided that ‘Cakes is just part of the package with lessons at The Football House.  So is the dog begging for belly rubs on the piano bench – his comical antics often look like he’s conducting.  I keep my rates lower than the competition, which makes me feel okay about the occasional interruption to refill a sippy cup.   

This school year, our schedule will be VERY different.  In addition to teaching piano lessons, I’m teaching preschool two mornings a week AT OUR HOUSE!  Babycakes is 28 days too young to go to a toddler program and since she’s allergic to weird stuff, I thought it would be nice to host something that includes her.  Beginning in two weeks, I’ll have a group of four almost-two-year-olds coming to the house for preschool.  Again, I never advertised — I just told the right friend who told a friend who then told another friend.  This is how ideas can become a source of income.  Think of what you’d like to do, plan & commit, tell people that you know, and be passionate! 

Working from home — it works for me! 

There is never a dull moment when Little E is around. 

Little E & her VIP posse arrived at my house on Friday night and it’s been controlled chaos set to chase music ever since.  It’s been a monkey-see, monkey-do kind of weekend.  It’s amazing what a 4 year old can teach a 2 year old in just a matter of days. 

But, Little E…  I love her.  She’s so wise! 

“Aunt Sara, it’s not nice to pinch people.  Well, unless they have a pimple.” 

(True.)

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“Aunt Sara, you know Aunt Juju’s boyfriend or whatever?”

“You mean her husband.”

“Yeah, him.  Uhm, Uncle Mike.  He’s the one I have to worry about ALL THE TIME.” 

“Why is that?”

“Because he’s a coach but he keeps forgetting to go there.” 

(Not true.)

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Yes, four year olds… never a dull moment.

“Look!  I have a

cow’s hoo-hoo!”