we have a plan

Posted on June 18, 2013 by mommyinthemidwest

First, I must say WOW to the last 5 days. Three friends have had babies and I’m over the moon with excitement for them. Two in-real-life friends and one of my favorite blogger pals, Mindi, gave birth in the past week. Congrats to these ladies and their already beautiful, perfect families.

So, we have a plan.

We went a total of about 10 places and out of those 10, I have to say there was only 1 that gave us that “there’s-no-way-in-hell” kind of feeling. Which was good, I guess, but not so good because we had a hard decision to make. While only one of the places was an absolute “no way,” most of the remaining places left us longing for a little more. Until last Tuesday. We checked out a Montessori school and at that moment, it’s like everything just clicked into place. Are you familiar with the Montessori method? One of our nephews has been going to a Montessori school for a few years and my sister-in-law loves it. Initially, we thought we’d send Theo 5 days a week, which made us both a little sad to think about him and Dexter being separated so much.

When we read through all the info from the school, we realized that Theo would have 2 weeks for fall break, 2 weeks for winter break, and 2 weeks for spring break. Not to mention 10 weeks of summer break, none of which are included in the cost of tuition. Because, you know. You’re paying for the education piece, not the childcare piece. There are camps when school’s out but the cost is additional. Last Tuesday night, we met a friend’s babysitter (actually one of the mamas I mentioned at the beginning of this post) who is licensed and works out of her home. She’s been in business for 8 yrs, has a full-time employee, and has a beautiful home. It’s like we met her on the same day we toured the Montessori school for a reason. All the pieces of the puzzle came together. That night, we sat at the table for 2 hours figuring out our finances and how we could do this or that, compared various options, and finalized our plan.

I stole all the pictures for this post from our sitter’s fb page!

The home babysitter is affordable enough that we are able to pay for Theo to go there full-time in order to secure his spot, send Dexter there full-time, and then send Theo to Montessori just 3 days a week. This arrangement relieves a lot of my concerns about them being too young and too close to be separated 5 days a week. They’ll still be together more often than not, but maybe the bit of separation will help each of them to grow and adapt. Maybe Theo will thrive at the school but appreciate having a couple of down days to spend playing with his brother and other kids at the sitter’s home. The good thing about paying for Theo to go to this sitter full-time is that we won’t have to make any separate arrangements or pay extra during those 16 weeks per year that school is not in session.

I stole all the pictures for this post from our sitter’s fb page!

The school said we can bump up to full time at the beginning of any month. The sitter said she is happy to watch Theo intermittently as long as she doesn’t go over her ratio (but if she does, that spells trouble and stress for us). Ideally, I’d like to see Dexter go to Montessori at least part time when he’s 4 but it would be nice if he could start at 3 as well. He’s just very different from Theo in a lot of ways that are hard to explain and I think Theo needs this now…would greatly benefit from this now.

A nice thing about our “plan” is that they will both go to the sitter for a little over a month before Theo starts school. It will be plenty of time (I hope) for Dexter to get comfortable there and then when Theo transitions to school 3 days a week, maybe it will be easier on Dexter than if they just both started going somewhere new, apart, at the same time. It feels good. It feels right. I didn’t know if we would get to this point the first full week that we were searching.

I stole all the pictures for this post from our sitter’s fb page!

I’m still super sad about our sitter deciding to close, but we’ve communicated a great deal about it and plan to stay in close contact. She’s become a part of our family, just as we have become a part of hers. Theo knows a change is coming. We’ve been trying to talk to him about it without confusing him. The first few days, he’d say “well, today was my last day.” Now he isn’t saying that, but he’ll say “she’s not gonna babysit us anymore,” “she’s gonna do a different job,” “in [insert random number] days, it’s gonna be OVER!” (very dramatic, this kid), or he’ll say things about how he’s going to behave poorly at a new place (I guess to threaten us all with the consequences of this unfortunate scenario). I really hope that’s not the case, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t concerned. I know Theo is smart, but I think he’s probably a lot smarter than even I realize.

If nothing else, it will be very interesting to see how all of this unfolds. As of now though, we’ve got a plan…for what that’s worth.

xo,
~C~

strawberries & fire trucks: 2013

Posted on June 9, 2013 by mommyinthemidwest

I always think about why I started this blog…so I could go back and re-read the things I knew I’d forget and to have a place where I can organize my photos into a virtual scrapbook. It’s all about preserving the memories.

Tonight, I look back 52 weeks to the 2012 White River Township Strawberry Festival HERE. Theo certainly looks small in these pictures, but little Dexter was just under 13 months old a year ago. Now at almost 25 months, he’s a completely different little person who is developing his own interests, talking, running, asking good questions, saying cute and funny things, and peeing and pooping in the potty on a fairly regular basis. He’s still the happiest boy you’ll ever meet and still loves to eat whatever you put in front of him…but the pictures from a year ago are kind of a sad reminder that he’s really not a little baby anymore. Still my little boy, but he’s growing up fast. They both are.

And with that sentimental interlude out of the way, let’s talk about tonight. The 21st Annual White River Township Fire Department Strawberry Festival. Ever since I realized this was coming up, I have been so looking forward to going again with the boys. Dexter enjoyed it last year, but this year I knew he would like it even more. And all Theo has been talking about is strawberry shortcake!

If I’d had it my way, we would have just followed that fancy homemade sign right on in to the school cafeteria but nooooo, these kids wanted to see some fire trucks. Alright, alright.

Every time Dexter got in or near one of the fire trucks, he asked “how do we turn it on?” Not sure if he was talking about the lights and sirens or if he was just ready to take these trucks for a spin around the block.

Dear Fire People: Sorry about all your settings on every single truck. You really shouldn’t let little kids climb up in there if you’re expecting things to be the same when you get back in… this kid is a dedicated switch-flipper, a knob-turner, and a button-pusher!

Oh nothin…just talkin’ about brother stuff.

“How do we turn it on?”

Isn’t he huge? Absolutely, positively giant? I’m sure I won’t think so when I look back at these photos a year from now, but today…this kid is huge. And this is probably my favorite pic of the night. P.S. He’s huge.

Free entertainment.

Dexter is such a little hot body. See how red his face gets when he plays? He’s always been hot-natured, even as a newborn. That’s definitely something he gets from his dad. He needed a stroller & water break from the bouncy slide.

I finally convinced them to go with me to get some grub and we ran into our friends. Dexter was lying down with his head on B’s stomach being all cute, and of course he gets up as soon as I grab my camera. STORY OF MY LIFE!

Same yummy food this year. Neither of the boys could get enough corn on the cob.

Or this yummy goodness. I mean, really. It was SO good.

“Hold me.”

After we ate, we hurried back outside to watch the extrication demonstration. The firefighters and paramedics removed the glass from the windows and used the jaws of life to cut a “victim” out of a van that had JUST crashed. (Not really, duh). Complete with Lifeline helicopter rescue. Pretty cool demo.

Theo grabbed a spot on the grass as soon as the helicopter landed and watched the EMS people load their “victim” into the chopper. It took off, circled around, came back, and landed so we could take a closer look.

The boys’ pretty little friend, M, was the only one who cooperated for pictures sitting on the side of the helicopter. The boys were a little too interested in all those knobs and buttons.

We love that this festival is held at an elementary school where we can take advantage of the awesome playground amenities.

As our friends left to head home, Theo said he wanted to go down “that red slide.” When we walked over to it, he stood there, kicking the mulch. I said, “Theo, what’s wrong? Go down the slide.” He looked up at me, exhausted, and said quietly, “let’s just go home.”

What a fun-filled evening! I hope this will become an annual family tradition. I plan on going every year until the boys tell me they don’t like it anymore. And friends? That will be a sad, sad day.

That day is not today, so happy weekend!

xo,

~C~

breaking: everyone in my house has pooped in a toilet

Posted on June 4, 2013 by mommyinthemidwest

I was pretty shocked to get a text from our babysitter last Friday that simply said:

DEXTER POOPED ON THE POTTY!!!!

Um? He just peed on the potty for the first time about a week before that. Or was it last Monday. Gah, life is a blur. And also? He just turned 2 three weeks ago. Anyway, he’s dropped the Browns off at the Superbowl 3 times since then so apparently we aren’t going to have the same trouble with him that we’ve had with Theo.

Remember this prank? The little jokester has only pooped on the potty 1 time since April Fool’s Day.

But today is not about the jokester, today is all about this kid:

As promised, we took Dexter out for ice cream tonight to celebrate his accomplishment. He is very proud of himself, as are we. Theo is actually very excited for Dexter too. It’s pretty cute.