Claire started preschool this week! She's going to our town's cooperative preschool, which means that a parent has to volunteer once a week, but that it's over $200 a month cheaper than our parish preschool. They have centers, show and tell, circle time, story time, and outside play. It totally seems like a preschool from a generation ago which I love because I think they were doing early childhood education right back then.
Preschool is on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday afternoons. The plan is for Betsy to nap in the morning, eat lunch, drop Claire off, run errands, pick Claire up, and get Betsy home for her afternoon nap. So far, so good.
Tuesday is our volunteer day, which means Adam goes to work earlier and stays later. We only have one car (he rides his bike to work) so we have to swing by his office to get him on the way to preschool and drop him off on the way home.
Maggie and Betsy will also be doing music class during preschool on Tuesdays. I didn't think we'd be doing music class again, because my original plan was to have Maggie in the cooking class Claire took last fall at the community center that's across the street from the preschool. (The cooking class was $25/month less than music class and I think Maggie would have really enjoyed it, just like Claire did.) But, alas, they aren't offering the cooking class right now and I really wanted Maggie to have a little activity of her own. She'll be three in October, so she just misses the preschool cut-off, and is definitely sad to be missing out.
Adam is going to be the primary preschool volunteer, although maybe we'll switch every once in a while. Siblings are allowed to come for class parties and field trips, so I'll do those for sure. I know Maggie will love going to the pumpkin patch and the costume party next month.
Claire has Catechesis of the Good Shepherd on Thursday mornings. I'm hoping it will work out easily to drop her off, rush home to get Betsy down for her morning nap, and spend a little quality time with Maggie. Starting in November, Claire and Maggie will have ballet and gymnastics on Thursday afternoons. We are skipping the first session because I wanted to wait for Maggie to turn three so that they could be in the same class. And, hey, it's nice to save money too!
Fridays we have completely free to do fun stuff - play dates, the local children's museum, indoor playgrounds. I've heard great things about the free storytelling + art program at the Fyre Musem offered the first Friday of the month. We're going to check out the next one! Of course that will also be our day to go to the dentist, get flu shots, etc.
In the midst of all that, I'm trying to fit in time for prayer, exercise, and cleaning. We finally got the girls one of those clocks that turn green when they're allowed out of their room in the morning. It works unbelievably well. Their clock is set for 7:00 am. Adam and I have been waking up at 6:00 to pray together, get ready, and make breakfast and lunch. This is key to the day going well. Previously I had been using Betsy's morning nap to get ready and make lunch, but now I've been using that time for cleaning or other essential chores, like writing a grocery list or paying bills.
But, man, exercise is just tricky for me. I thought maybe I could get up at 5:00, pray, and go to Pure Barre at 6:00 while Adam worked on those morning chores. In reality, I can't wake up that early while I have a baby who is usually up once or twice a night. For now, I'll just have to stick to the 8:00 pm session, which is hard to make more than once a week. We have been doing a pretty good job with avoiding dessert, eating salad for lunch, and going for walks as often as possible.
My list of Saturday rainy day activities, which we'll have a lot of here in Seattle:
- indoor pool
- bowling
- the aquarium
- the bigger, fancier children's museum
- kids' concerts at the Symphony, Seattle Town Hall, or Kindiependent
- other museums, like the science center and natural history museum
- maybe ice skating? (It would be fun to even take just Claire.)
Our most exciting event of the fall will be going to Houston for Thanksgiving! We haven't been back since Claire was just over a year old, since we've been meeting Adam's family in other vacation spots the last several years. I'm extremely excited about Tex-Mex, barbecue, and Blue Bell ice cream. I'll definitely be rewarding myself with a bowl of mint chocolate chip after a four-hour plane ride with an extremely mobile baby on my lap!
Maggie and Betsy will also be doing music class during preschool on Tuesdays. I didn't think we'd be doing music class again, because my original plan was to have Maggie in the cooking class Claire took last fall at the community center that's across the street from the preschool. (The cooking class was $25/month less than music class and I think Maggie would have really enjoyed it, just like Claire did.) But, alas, they aren't offering the cooking class right now and I really wanted Maggie to have a little activity of her own. She'll be three in October, so she just misses the preschool cut-off, and is definitely sad to be missing out.
Adam is going to be the primary preschool volunteer, although maybe we'll switch every once in a while. Siblings are allowed to come for class parties and field trips, so I'll do those for sure. I know Maggie will love going to the pumpkin patch and the costume party next month.
Claire has Catechesis of the Good Shepherd on Thursday mornings. I'm hoping it will work out easily to drop her off, rush home to get Betsy down for her morning nap, and spend a little quality time with Maggie. Starting in November, Claire and Maggie will have ballet and gymnastics on Thursday afternoons. We are skipping the first session because I wanted to wait for Maggie to turn three so that they could be in the same class. And, hey, it's nice to save money too!
Fridays we have completely free to do fun stuff - play dates, the local children's museum, indoor playgrounds. I've heard great things about the free storytelling + art program at the Fyre Musem offered the first Friday of the month. We're going to check out the next one! Of course that will also be our day to go to the dentist, get flu shots, etc.
In the midst of all that, I'm trying to fit in time for prayer, exercise, and cleaning. We finally got the girls one of those clocks that turn green when they're allowed out of their room in the morning. It works unbelievably well. Their clock is set for 7:00 am. Adam and I have been waking up at 6:00 to pray together, get ready, and make breakfast and lunch. This is key to the day going well. Previously I had been using Betsy's morning nap to get ready and make lunch, but now I've been using that time for cleaning or other essential chores, like writing a grocery list or paying bills.
But, man, exercise is just tricky for me. I thought maybe I could get up at 5:00, pray, and go to Pure Barre at 6:00 while Adam worked on those morning chores. In reality, I can't wake up that early while I have a baby who is usually up once or twice a night. For now, I'll just have to stick to the 8:00 pm session, which is hard to make more than once a week. We have been doing a pretty good job with avoiding dessert, eating salad for lunch, and going for walks as often as possible.
My list of Saturday rainy day activities, which we'll have a lot of here in Seattle:
- indoor pool
- bowling
- the aquarium
- the bigger, fancier children's museum
- kids' concerts at the Symphony, Seattle Town Hall, or Kindiependent
- other museums, like the science center and natural history museum
- maybe ice skating? (It would be fun to even take just Claire.)
Our most exciting event of the fall will be going to Houston for Thanksgiving! We haven't been back since Claire was just over a year old, since we've been meeting Adam's family in other vacation spots the last several years. I'm extremely excited about Tex-Mex, barbecue, and Blue Bell ice cream. I'll definitely be rewarding myself with a bowl of mint chocolate chip after a four-hour plane ride with an extremely mobile baby on my lap!
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You are awesome.