1st Day of School

Today was Cecilia's 1st Day of School and my first day back to work. It was easier to drop off this time since we know the school and the teachers. Most of Cecilia's classmates are siblings of Maeve's friends so we know the parents too. On Friday I stopped in to see the set up of the room and noticed that they spelled her name wrong - Cecelia instead of Cecilia - so I had them correct that. I'm sure I would've been mad about it this morning if I hadn't caught it earlier but they had it all fixed! The school even sent me flowers to work which was so sweet!

We were worried that she wouldn't drink all of her bottles but she took all 10 ounces so the teachers said to bring more tomorrow! She only slept 3 hours so she's currently sleeping in my arms as I write this post. We'll see how the night goes tonight!! Maeve also loved helping drop off her sister in her room today.

Here are the pictures from her day.

Maeve also started in the Early Pre-school room earlier this month.

She's having a great time with friends that used to be in her classroom and other kids that transitioned with her from her toddler room. They took school pictures a few months ago and they all came out great! We even hired the photographer to take family pictures of us in the Fall because we loved how they turned out!

Fun with Kirchner cousins

As a family we've been busy enjoying some extra time with one another to close out Kate's maternity leave.  2 weekends ago the 4 of us went to the cabin to spend some extra time enjoying the sun at the lake.  We figured we better go now because it was going to be challenging once Kate returned to work to get any extra days up there.  We were fortunate to have Uncle Scott, Aunt Morgan and Cousin Payton join us as well.  The girls traveled great on the way to the cabin but both seemed to have a bit of issues with the summer solstice!  2 of the days Maeve skipped her nap all together (neither Mom or Dad are ready for this yet when she consistently wakes up at 6am or earlier every day) and 1 night we couldn't get her to fall asleep until after 9 pm.  It's safe to say she was enjoying summer and her time at the cabin!  Unfortunately we had more wind than we would have liked but that didn't stop Maeve from getting on the new iPlay oversized floating raft.  Once she realized there was both a pink and blue side she was far more interested in the pink side versus blue and insisted on Dad turning it over.  Dad managed to get in his first few runs of waterskiing. Thanks to Grandpa Steve for driving the boat and Grandma Jan for assisting in watching the girls.  Mom managed to develop some type of eye infection over the weekend that required us to use technology to connect with a doctor.  Fortunately, Dad thought of this genius idea to use an iPad to connect with the doctor virtually and after about 10 minutes and $8, we had meds and we were on our way to recovery...or so we thought.  We gave the local pharmacy enough time to begin filling the prescription prior to going to pick it up.  As a family we all headed into town and Dad decided he would wait in the truck while Mom quick ran in to pick up her medicine.  After about 25 minutes Mom still had not come back to the truck and didn't have her cell phone with her and Maeve was getting impatient.   Turns out, so was Mom.  There was little communication about the hold up, and Mom insisted I just take the girls to the town park to play.  I came back 20 minutes later and she was just finishing up.  No one expected a 45 minute wait for some simple eye drops - turns out the delay was related to insurance hold ups more than the local pharmacy, but still extremely frustrating and not the way we intended to spend the morning.  Maeve still isn't quite understanding the fact that we can only watch Frozen while driving to/from the cabin versus running errands around town.  The DVD player built into Dad's truck has come in handy for our road trips this summer!!

Yesterday we celebrated the wedding of Eric's cousin, Brent Pomeroy and his bride, Leslie Sabbann.  It was a beautiful day but also a scorcher!!  Dew points were easily in the low 70's and the temperature was approaching 100.  It made for a tough day to put on a shirt and tie but the special occasion called for it!  We took the girls to the MN Zoo in the morning hoping to wear them out so they would take an early nap and cooperate with us for the wedding later that afternoon.  While it was a good idea, our toddler Maeve helped remind both Mom and Dad that advanced planning/scheduling doesn't always work with young kids!  Maeve fell asleep before we even got out of the zoo parking lot, and the transfer didn't go so well.  A 30 minute nap and she was ready to read books and play.  The ceremony was a beautiful ceremony where we got to see many of our extended family members that we had not seen in a while.  It's always great catching up although both Kate and I feel as though we did not get to socialize as much as we would have liked to because we were chasing around 2 kids - 1 of which did not nap well earlier either!  It was an afternoon ceremony so between the ceremony and reception we were able to head to Downtown Stillwater for some pictures and light appetizers.  With the 2 young kids we were home by 8 to keep bedtime routines - my how times change!

Enjoy the pictures and wish us luck as we work to develop a new routine with 2 kiddos in daycare and Mom's 1st week back at the office!

Cecilia's 1st trip - West Palm Beach

We had a great family trip to Florida with the 4 of us. Grandma Jan and Grandpa Steve gave us their timeshare points to stay in a wonderful 2-bedroom unit in West Palm Beach, Florida.

We had a great 1st flight with Cecilia and our pro flyer, Maeve. The only meltdowns we had from Maeve was when Mom went to the bathroom and was stuck in the back of the plane by the beverage cart. She was tired so we'll let her have that one. She also wasn't happy when she went with Dad to get the rental car and they were leaving and I wasn't in the car yet.

Once we got to the hotel, we let Maeve go to the swimming pool right away. Pizza by the pool was also fun and then Cecilia slept for 6 hours the first night and Maeve slept all night in her own room and bed with toddler rails. Our girls like to travel!

Overall the trip was a lot of fun. The hardest time was dinner time but we made it through with the iPad and laying Cecilia down in the booth to look around. She was probably tired of the carseat as most naps were spent in there.

Highlights:

• Maeve liked the pool more than the beach (bummer for Mom right now but hopefully that will change with time!) but she did enjoy collecting seashells and looking at the sea turtle nests.


• Maeve loved using her floaties and floating 'all by herself' in the pool


• Mom enjoyed walking on the beach with Cecilia during Maeve's nap time


• Maeve was such a great big sister. She wanted to hold Cecilia and at times it actually seemed to calm her down.


• Dad won bingo twice and we enjoyed ice cream sundaes as the prizes


• Maeve loved playing with the big girls in the pool while Cecilia napped on the pool chair. She said things like 'want to jump with Maeve' and would hold their hands and jump in together.

The weather forecast said it was going to rain everyday because of Tropical Storm Colin but luckily we missed it all. The only time it rained was during dinners or when we were in the pool on Tuesday. Maeve could've cared less so we stayed in the pool.
Our favorite restaurant was the last night. Maeve ate all her shrimp (she preferred that over burgers and tacos that she had the other nights) and drank half her pineapple juice. She loved it and we loved our Mahi Mahi, Grouper, mussels and clam chowder.

On the last day, we were the first ones in the pool and on the beach. It was hard to get everything ready to go with 2 kids and then 20 minutes into the car ride Cecilia wants to eat. Maeve had fallen asleep but woke up when we stopped and never slept anymore. We pulled over to feed and it poured rain so we had to maneuver in the car to put Cecilia back in car seat. We finally get to the airport and it's funny how your kids know you so much - I was frustrated because I bought yogurt for Maeve that was expired and Maeve knew it and asked Dad why I was frustrated! Then it starts pouring as we are taking off and we get delayed for 1 extra hour on the runway. But they did great on the flight. And that's what "vacation" or time away is like with an infant and a toddler! It was fun seeing Maeve's personality and having fun with both girls!