There's a turtle in our sidewalk according to Kian

Right there.


Can you see it?

Getting Ready for School - cont'd

Kian got to visit his school with his Grandmommie again today. He calls it "Free School"!

Today the whole 2 year old class (Tigers, Pandas and Zebras) all went on a walk around the Water Garden complex. The children each have to hold on to a ring and stay together. It looks like Kian did a great job and had another fun day of adventure. :)

I love mom's photo-documentation style, so I am going to use her captions this time, too - they are too cute!

"On our way to school":

"Going for a walk with his class":

"Walking at the Water Gardens":

"Tired but still walking with great attitude and lots of compliments from three teachers":

"Happy boy loves these toys":

"Slide is still fun!":

"Lunch at Kian's school":

I wish his Grandmommie could go with him every day!

Getting Ready For School

The week after this coming 4th of July holiday, Kian will officially be starting "preschool"!

I call it "preschool" in quotation marks because he'll actually be in the 2 year old room, which is technically not preschool yet. The main differences as far as I can tell are really just that the 2 year olds aren't expected to all be on task together at the same time, although they do have group activities that they encourage them to participate in, and they aren't expected to be potty trained, although this school helps them to do that too when they are ready.

A couple of our main reasons for deciding to take this leap were (1) he has been showing signs that he is ready to be around other kids more and we weren't able to provide that for him with the nanny at home, and (2) we have heard from many sources that it will be good for him to have his own "world" that doesn't change when his baby brother arrives, and its better to make that transition well in advance so that he's not asked to make too many adjustments at once. Still, it's going to be a huge change for him, as well as -- ahem -- his parents, and a big milestone!

We have done our homework on this school, and we feel pretty good about it. It has an excellent reputation, and a very positive approach to working with the kids. It has wonderful communication with the parents, and a lot of fun stuff to do and other kids to play with. Plus, it's just a block down the street from my work, so I can come visit him whenever I want and even have lunch with him. They even serve organic milk! It's like there's a check in every box on my list. But MAN has it been tough making the decision! Mostly just because it feels like it means Kian's growing up in a way. I have to admit I got pretty emotional about it, agonizing about whether it's the right choice for him. I'm doing much better now, but when I went over to sign the paperwork and drop off the deposit, you would have thought I was sending him off to boarding school! Needless to say, I have made a point of keeping positive around him, regardless of my sentimentality. Luckily, Kian is much better at change than I am.

We started off transition phase one last week by let Kian's nanny of almost 2 years go, and he didn't so much as blink. Of course he's been having a lot of fun with his grandmothers (Floria last week and my mom this week) so that's pretty tough to beat any day. Hopefully, the rest of his transition into school will go as smoothly, but I'm not counting my chickens yet. In order to make it as easy on him (and me!) as possible, I have also been taking him over for an hour or two several times a week. They are really great about it, and have welcomed our visits with open arms even though we aren't on the roster until July.

Yesterday, his Grandmommie Jerilynn took him over in the afternoon, and I walked over with them to introduce her to the staff before heading back to work. When we got there the kids were all playing outside, and Kian basically took off and didn’t look back. Even when I told him mommy was going back to work and gave him a kiss, he was like – ok, bye! It was so great to see how so secure and confident he felt, but … I admit, I was sort of expecting he would care a little bit that I left. Not that I am complaining, mind you! I just got a glimpse of how I will feel when he goes away to college: proud but a little misty-eyed! His Grandmommie took him over again today for a couple of hours in the morning, and she sent me some wonderful pictures from her IPhone. It was the next best thing to being there!

Here are some glimpses into Kian's new world:

Inside the 2 year old room, standing by the dinosaurs with Clementine:

Lining up outside with Jules and Maeve, some other "Tigers" from his group (aren't they cute??):

Pushing a ball down the slide:

Crawling under the slide:

Using chalk in the wrong place:

Using chalk in the right place (nice re-direction from the teacher!):

Back inside for some playdough fun:

And some quality time with his very own Tiger group teacher, Ramona:

Last but not least, here's the big boy enjoying an after-school smoothie with his Grandmommie:

All these visits have been good for me, too, because the more I see him in this new environment, the better I feel about it. He seems like he's really enjoying all the new experiences, and it's even helping him learn about cleaning up and taking turns! I just hope he will still be ok when he has to stay for a full day. I have to worry about something, after all!

More to adventures to come....

Father's Day 2010

We had a really full Father's Day weekend this year!

On Saturday we had dinner at our house with Naysan's dad, stepmom and aunt, and two friends and their new baby. It was a real treat for us to have some of our favorite people over to our house, and to enjoy having dinner together in our back yard on the third longest day of the year. Too bad we didn't think to take any pictures! Here's a great make-up shot of Naysan and Massood and Kian together though:

Then, on Sunday, we drove out to Redlands to celebrate with my dad, MKC, and Cherri and family. Luckily, we did take some pictures there, although not nearly enough, as usual!

Here's our daddy with his girls (and Kian):

And here is the proud Grandfather Choate with BOTH of his grandsons!:

Pretty cool-looking group of guys, right?

It's also pretty cool to think that this year was Naysan's 3rd Father's Day as a card carrying member, and next year he will have twice as much to celebrate - right, Naysan?

... Naysan?



Oh well. On second thought, we'd better not disturb his rest. He won't be getting much of it after October anyway.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY to all of the wonderful Daddies in our world! We are so lucky to have you!! :)

It's a BOY (too)

Well, we went for our big anatomy ultrasound yesterday, and we found out that Kian will be a big brother to a little brother! This means I will be surrounded and outnumbered 3 to 1 as the only girl in the house, and I couldn't be happier. I always thought it would be fun to be a mom to boys! Plus, we've already got the clothes. ;)

We've started talking to Kian about it, but it's hard to say whether he really 'gets' it yet. If I had to guess I would say it hasn't really clicked, but then again I am often surprised by how much he remembers and understands. He is very sweet about babies in general, so I am optimistic that he will be a nice big brother to the little one - we will see! We will try to keep the jealousy to a minimum by pumping him up about HIS baby brother, and what a great big brother he will be and how important and how loved he is.

So now I am daydreaming about two boys running around and playing together, getting into messes together and being great friends.... That's the best gift that I could imagine for each of them: that they could be built-in buddies who are always there for each other and have each other's backs, even if they sometimes don't get along. Hopefully they will have that kind of friendship. Since Naysan and I were both raised as only children, we will be starting from scratch, so please feel free to share any sibling raising tips with us!