The Daily Grind Part II

 

Ella hugs are one of my new favorite things.  She crawls over to me when I'm cooking and pulls herself up until she's hugging one or both of my legs and buries her face.  And since Ben is her favorite person (or is it Lily?  Some days I can't tell) he gets lots of Ella hugs.  I think it's safe to say that Ben is a complete Ella pushover.

 

**Ella, if you're reading this when you're a teenager please be aware that Daddy and I will always love you, even when we say no to things you want.  Okay fine.  You want to go to Paris?  Let me find my credit card....**

 

I snapped this candid photo during lunch today.  When Ben is home this is what it typically looks like: having fun until we then remember that, Oh yeah, we're eating lunch and you kids should probably actually eat.

 

Around here I try to keep things healthy and on a budget (for the most part, anyway).  This means my kids have had very very few individually packaged foods.  But with Lily going to school (it's full day Kindergarten here) I knew that there would inevitably be packaged foods in her lunch box (i.e. tubes of yogurt).  So for the last week we've been pretending to eat lunch in the cafeteria and she has learned how to open all sorts of things, including her tupperware, and then she has had to figure out what to throw away and what to put back into her lunch box.  I'm so proud of her!  She's doing great!

 

I am a college drop out, and I have mixed feelings about it.  I know it was definitely the path that I was supposed to take, but I always imagined myself finishing school and it was sort of a bummer that I didn't.  BUT, majoring in Elementary Ed was one of the best things I think I could have done.  It has proven useful to me over and over again as a mom.  I've done a "sort of" preschool at home with the kids and have tried to keep them interested in learning, in all sorts of different ways.  So in a way, I really try to use my college experience as a mom since I know I'll never use it in a class room.  I'm hesitant to put my kids in preschool because I want to put what I actually learned in college to use.  Plus it saves us money -- another perk.

 

That being said, I spent a lot of time volunteering in Kindergarten, first grade, and second grade classrooms between my high school and college days.  I mostly worked with Kindergarteners and I can remember how annoyed teachers would get when it was time for recess and there would be a line of kids who needed to have their shoes tied or their coats zipped.  I kept that in the back of my mind all these years and so Ben and I have been working hard with Lily on being independent all around (hence the lunch box eating at home) and I'm really impressed with her progress.  She's wanting to grow up so quickly it's almost killing me. 

 

And in case you're wondering, yes, I have already cried about Lily starting Kindergarten on Monday.

 

Ugh.  WHY?????? 

 

 

 

 

 On top of her hugs, Ella has also learned how to give open-mouth-and-tongue-out-kisses.  Yum....