Kindergarten already!?

So yesterday I just so happened to check on the school website to see when kindergarten registration is and boom to my surprise its March 1st! Whoa that came at me like a sack of bricks. In just a week and a half I will be registering Brooke for kindergarten! You know the saying is true they really do grow fast! Brooke will be turning 5 in less then a month and its crazy to think that my 2nd child will be turning 5 and starting kindergarten this year, shoot I'm now freaking out that my oldest is going to be 8 and in 3rd grade! Were does the time go?

I was nerous and excited when Devin started kindergarten but she was ready and super excited. I think I'm a bit more nervous for Brooke because she has so many anxieties and fears and I'm afraid she may not be ready. She goes to pre-k once a week for a full day, and it took a long time for her to be okay with going to school, for the longest time she would cry every time she was dropped off or found out I was taking her to school. I don't think it will be so bad with kindergarten since she is very excited to be able to ride the bus with Devin.

Its amazing how different each child acts to the same experiences, I mean obviously it has alot to do with thier personality's but to have my first child so excited about starting school, when she start preschool she was so excited and didn't even want to kiss me goodbye she just wanted to get into class. It was the same for the first day of kindergarten, she was so excited. But Brooke her first day of pre-k she was nervous and scared and cried, I never thought I would be the mother of "that" child. I feel badly, I feel bad for the teacher having to deal with my crying child and I feel badly for my child who is scared and upset. But its experiences that she needs to experience, she needs to conquer her fears. Thankfully she has some really nice teachers right now that help her get through that.

Wow if Devin and Brooke are so different on how they act with thier first days of school I wonder how Kara and Carly will react?


Have an Oh So Wonderful Day!
Catrina

updates of some sort.

Carly Mae is now 18 days old and she had her "2 week" check up yesterday. She is now 8lbs 3.2oz and 20 3/4 inches long. She is healthy and looking good, they said she is right down the middle with all of her stats and her color looks great. Which alot of people have told me that she has great coloring. I'm so happy that she is no longer in pain from the gas and that the formula is working so well with her tummy! I know its a bit TMI but she's finally pooping! We've had issues with bedtime and her lately. Okay well its not really issues, she normally wakes up about 10pm and stays up till almost 12am, which means I sleep less because I am still up at 10pm. Last night she actually went to bed before 11pm (thankfully) so hopefully she will be waking up earlier so I don't have to stay up till midnight every night since the kiddos will be starting school next week.
Devin starts the first day of 2nd grade on the 7th! I can't believe my big girl is in 2nd grade already, okay I admit it she is still my baby. No matter what age they are they are still my babies. Brookie will be in preschool again this year. Since she won't be 5 until March she can not start kindergarten until next year. We'll send her back to the preschool she was in before summer vacation, although its a little more expensive. For us (okay more for me) its more convenient because although we pay by the day, I get to pick what day I want to send her and its all day long and really close to the house and since I will still have two other children at home to take care of it will be alot easier for me. She'll go one day a week for about 8 hours, instead of 3 days a week for 2-3 hours. Of course Kara and Carly will be at home with me all week long. I'll have to get back in to helping my Brookie learning her alphabet and writing her letters which she does really well with but we will keep working on it, so she knows what she is doing once she gets to kindergarten. I think I may work with Kara as well even though she isn't even 2 yet I think she may be able to learn a little bit. She knows how to count already, I believe to 10. But that is thanks to her older sisters counting with her.
So once school starts I will probably have to make myself a schedule, and then adjust it to fit Carly's schedule. I'm not good with schedules, actually I am horrible at schedules but hey maybe that is what my life needs now that I have 4 children and 2 that are in school. I need a little more stucture and consistancy in my day. But then I know bummer, I'll have less time for you all, Haha like I really post that often anymore. I have been trying to post more, I guess I could post during nap time, I'll find time for you all.
But I don't think I will start making a schedule for myself until Devin goes back to school because that will be when I will be forced to wake up early every morning so I can get Devin ready for school.
Do you have a schedule? What is it like? How do you handle it? Like I said I have never been one for schedules so I'm not sure how to do this. How do you keep to your schedule when you are exhausted? Shoot how do you get off your butt when you are exhausted? I'm so tired right now, I need to shower and go to the store so that I can get some more formula (don't worry we aren't out... yet). I just want to nap!
Okay I am going to get up and start getting things ready. I swear this is not an illusion!

Have a Great Day
Catrina

Easter and other such things....

First off let me say Happy Easter to everyone since I didn't leave a post sooner.

Did I let you all know how Brooke's first day of school went? I didn't think I did, so sit back and enjoy (hehe it shouldn't be that long).

First the morning started off like any other morning getting Devin up for school and ready to go except that day (3/31/10) was a little different I was getting to kids up and ready for school. Even Devin was Happy for her little sister to be going to school for the first time. My mom told me to go ahead and take Brooke in and she would get Devin on off to school (which she didn't have to do much since the bus stop is our driveway).

So we drove to Brooke's school (which thankfully is only like 3 minutes away from the house )

As you can see in the picture of her getting out of the car she was super excited to be going to school. It was funny though because when we first pulled up in the parking lot she was like this isn't my school. I had to remind her yes it was her school.

Here were were getting ready to go into school, I'm actually surprised I wasn't more nervous about sending her off to school (maybe because I went through this with Devin and the fact that its one day a week). Once we walked through the doors she realized it was her school. " look mom there are the umbrella's!" (they have umbrellas in a bucket next to the door for rainy days). The school director Miss Melody met us at the front door. It was sweet she remembered Brookes name (of course she only had two new students that day). She walked us back to Brookes classroom, Brooke got really excited even just walking down the hallway (which is all decorated with all the students and kids projects from different classrooms). We made it to the end of the hallway to her classroom, and Miss Melody showed Brooke were to hang up her coat. We walked down to the toddler room were all the kids that had arrived were playing. (did I tell you that this is actually a child care center? but they have a pre-K class & even a Kindergarten class). Miss Melody introduced Brooke to all her classmates and we even seen our neighbor there (he is in the toddler room). I was a bit upset because Brookie didn't want to say goodbye to me but I think it was because she really didn't want me to leave. I left and went home. After big sister Devin got home I went and picked up Brooke from school. We couldn't wait to hear about how her first day went. When I first got there Miss Melody had me fingerprinted. Their securty system is really good! If you have a child that goes there you have a code you enter then put your finger on the coder for the door to open, and if your kid doesn't go there or you haven't been printed you have to ring the bell and wait for someone to answer the door. After getting printed and sighing Brooke out we went back to her classroom. They were just about to go outside and play. As soon as we walked in they said look whos here! Brooke looked up and yelled MOMMY! It was so funny though because she didn't get out of line she just stood there. I told her to get her backpack, as she did that her teacher (who I later found out her name is Miss Meagen) told me how her first day was. She did really good and had lots of fun playing and painting. They played kitchen, and did all sorts of things. Brooke told me that she got upset and cried for me for a little while because she missed me and didn't want me to leave (I'm guessing that is when I left in the morning).

The next day when I was checking my email I noticed an email from her school, I did not know that they send out daily emails to let parents know what the kids did. I really like this about the school to. They let us know about what the kids learned and what they ate for breakfast and lunch (they also feed them breakfast, lunch and snacks). and they sent me some pictures of Brooke.

Here is Brooke playing with one of her classmates.

They even took her outside to chekc out the play ground during the day.

Saturday morning we went to the school for thier Easter party. It was pretty packed so we didn't stay for very long.

We spent the rest of the day at my grandmothers. I will share some pictures from that later. I also have to update my pregnancy photos (did you know that I am 20 weeks preggo, only 20 weeks to go!).

Have a Great Day!

Catrina

Preschool or not?

So my Brooker-doodles turned 4 last week and I have been looking into preschools, I would love to send her to preschool because mainly she needs to get use to the teachers and students, and learn to interact with children her own age. I'm not so much about the learning aspect of it all because we have been working with her a little here and there and I can easily start working with her more and get her to learn her alphabet and write her alphabet and teach her, her numbers. The main issue I am having with were we live is that preschool is SO expensive around here were we live. When we were at our old house it wasn't bad, Devin went to a vocational school for preschool so it was really cheap, but they don't have any of those out here so its going to be ALOT more expensive then what we paid for Devin. We were actually able to send Devin to preschool for 2 years. Problem is Brooke is only going to be able to take one year of preschool because we could not afford to send her there this year so we will have to wait till fall to send her to preschool and then she will start kindergarten the following year. But I am beginning to wonder should I bother sending her to preschool? I almost wonder if we should just teach her at home all that she would learn in preschool and hope she does alright in kindergarten? Or what about teaching her at home and sending her preschool or daycare once a week or every other week to interact with children her age? Or should we just suck it up and pay for her to go to preschool and pray we have the money to pay for it? I have alot to think about..... I'm glad that its only March (well the end of March) and I have a little bit of time to think about this and see what others think about our situation and what we should do. If we decide to just send her to prechool/daycare once a week or every other week then we could probably start her now and not have to wait till the fall so she can begin interacting now and it would give her a chance to get out of the house and play with someone other then her sisters, like Devin.
What do you think? I would really love some input on this because it has really got me wondering what I should do. I know if I push myself to stop being so damn lazy and work with her at least once a day (or even twice a day) I can teach her what she needs to know. She already has most of the letters and thier sounds down and she knows how to write some of her letter and we are working on writing her name now as well. The more and more I think about iit the more and more I think I would rather teach her what she needs to learn and let her go to preschool once a week. My mom thinks its a good idea as well. Now I need to talk to the hubby and see what he thinks. I still want your opinions though. Thanks in advance!

Have a great day!!
Catrina