A couple of weeks ago I dropped the kids off and discovered that Otto and one of his friends were wearing the EXACT same thing -- the same Hot Wheels t-shirt from Target, black shorts, and tennies.
Funny cute, right? They like the same things, so no surprise.
Then I came home, and Jon said "Hey, did you see the picture I sent you today?"
"Um, no," I said, thinking back and realizing I hadn't checked Gmail since 7am. "What did you send me?"
More boys dressed exactly alike! And no, this wasn't on purpose or for a special occassion, like the... um, Orange Bowl. They just both decided to wear khakis and their favorite orange golf shirts to work. What are the odds, you ask?
Yes, it's true. I have a fashionista on my hands. Given a choice, she will always pick the frilly skirt and fancy shoes. And the Paul Frank monkey. So, you know - whatever.
Otto is not without his own style, however. His usual uniform consists of shorts and a LEGO t-shirt, as previously mentioned. Today he decided to mix it up, wearing black soccer shorts and a black t-shirt with a dinosaur skeleton screen-printed in white. He was quite proud of himself for thinking of color-coordinating to that degree, I think. He made a pretty cute Black Bart, but don't tell him I said so. He's moving beyond "cute." He's so cool now that I'm not allowed a full-on goodbye hug in the morning. I might get a one-armed hug, or a peck on the cheek as he races off to meet his buds.
Yeah, he'll hug the guys, but not his mom.
Such is the thanks I get for all those fruitless hours of labor and subsequent surgery...
Ha ha, though - vengeance will be mine! He'll be trapped in the car with me for HOURS this week, forced to answer all sorts of annoying mom questions like "what are you reading?" or playing slug-a-bug or license plate bingo. I can't wait!
(We're taking off for vacation soon, heading to KS to see some people. If you don't hear from me this week that's probably why.)
My blogging time this week has been eaten away by birthday prep.
Not that we did anything too elaborate today for the birthday party.
We had a few friends over - wonderful classmates and neighbors.
Shelly and I were remembering today that her Reese was due almost a full month before Bel. But Shelly went 9 days late, and I ended up having Bel 3 weeks early. When we came home with Bel, I think Shelly wanted to send me back to the hospital because it wasn't fair that things had been reversed. In fact, if I remember right she marched out of the house next door waving her finger and saying "Oh no, I don't think so!" (Sorry Shelly!)
We drank a lot of pink lemonade (it was warm and sunny) and played in the back yard.
We had cupcakes! Bel had two, as a matter of fact, so the homemade cupcakes were worth the work.
My first go-round with buttercream frosting went OK, all things considered. I need to take a basic cake decorating class to learn how to make frosting look pretty, though.
Jon managed to fit 30 balloons in the Prius -- and boy, am I sorry I didn't get a picture of that.
All in all, I think it went pretty well.
I still can't believe she's 3 already. The next thing you know, she'll be wearing high heels and skirts and taking care of babies of her own.
We are all looking forward to his summer program, and I think I've finally found a little cello/strings class for him. Hopefully he's still interested. It's been awhile since he originally asked for lessons. He's ready, though, and I think a summer session to try things out is a good way to begin.
Next up? The baby turns 3!
I have been crazy busy with work lately, like, overwhelmed. Not sure what to do about it, except keep plugging along.
Because there are also cupcakes to be made, presents and balloons to buy.
Lunches to pack, with frozen juice boxes as ice packs.
Parties to plan, field trips to track, camping to organize.
Woo hoo! Otto only has 3 more days of school left. After that I guess he's officially a 1st grader, right? He's ready!
We helped his teacher box up her classroom on Saturday (they're renovating his school this summer), and she said "By the way -- Otto is a pretty amazing reader!" She asked him to read something to the class a week or two ago, and he surprised her with how quickly and well he could read out loud. He's gotten pretty fluid in the past month or so, and is doing a better job of slowing down and sounding out long words.
He and I played some LittleBigPlanet tonight. I love it! And I'm so relieved! It's one of the first video games I've ever found that I enjoy. The animation is cute, and the music is great, and the adventures and challenges are fun.
It's really adorable. Otto and I had a good time working as a team to get through a couple of levels.
Then Bel and I finished up her birthday invites, which we'll pass out tomorrow at school. They're ...(wait for it)... PINK. With a pink stamp of balloons, and a bit of pink ribbon, and some little stickers of party hats and cupcakes (mostly pink).
I hope the pink doesn't throw off the boys in her class, because they are most definitely invited. The latest development is that Bel is planning to dance for all of us wearing her pink tulle skirt. She told me tonight that we're going to sit in chairs and watch her perform.
Note to self: make a dance party mix for 3 yr olds.
She loves her invites so much that I had to make an extra one for her to take to bed.
I'm up with the laundry again tonight. You know how some parents complain of being eaten out of house and home? I think I'm getting laundered out of house and home. I'm starting to fantasize about redoing the laundry room with custom-fitted shelves, French laundry baskets, color-coded hampers, and wallpaper.
For now I should probably focus on getting the birthday party together. I might have to build a dance stage between now and the party day. You never know.
And what do you do for last-day-of-school (or other similar) celebrations? I'd like to do a little something Thursday night for the kindergrad. Otto shrugged when I asked if he'd like to do anything in particular. Bel thinks we should have red party decorations and cupcakes. I'm thinking maybe dinner out? Hm.
I'm all confused this week. Is it Tuesday? Friday? Next week Wednesday? My self-diagnosis is that I have a bad case of vacation brain, and that 4 days off wasn't enough.
Yesterday we were a little slow getting up and moving after our late night coming home, so I had to walk Otto into school and sign him in. We went to join up with his class in the art studio, which is this great, airy, sunny space on the west end of one wing of his school. There are big tables, kid-sized stools, drying racks, a huge chalkboard and scads of art supplies.
We walked in, and he headed for his seat, got settled, and immediately started working on his current project -- a bird poster.
His teacher (smart, funny, super creative and really nice) showed them how to make a bird by drawing a capital letter B and adding a beak and tail. Then they had to add a branch with leaves, and another branch for the bird to stand on plus some additional embellishments.
He's learned this year how to sketch/draw first with a pencil. Once he has the drawing the way he likes it, he traces over it with a Sharpie marker, then adds color and detail with crayons or pastels. It's such a smart way to draw, and he's become a pretty confident artist over the course of the year.
I just enjoyed getting to spend 10 minutes watching him focus on his work.
He's come a long way since the beginning of the school year, and I'm not the only one who's noticed. Several of his teachers -- even the teacher who runs the drop-off circle in the morning and sees Otto for barely 2 minutes in the morning when she helps him out of the car -- have mentioned his new maturity.
Summer stretches ahead of us, and at the end will be the back-to-school picnic and the return to his classroom and friends. Coming off such a good kindergarten experience, I know he'll feel good about that transition. We all will!
