birthday bus stop

And, we thought we'd surprise Savannah with some balloons at the bus stop. There were supposed to be six, but Gage threw his balloon in there for an extra surprise for his sister. The bus drives past us first and then turns around in the cul-de-sac -- we could see her looking VERY excited as she caught sight of us out the window :-)

 It was pretty windy out, so she laughed the whole way home saying that it felt like she was walking a balloon dog on a leash!

Now she's upstairs playing with her new toys. I don't expect to see her again until she's ready for her birthday dinner -- creamy macaroni (she asked for it, "just like Grandma Rooney makes").

Happy 6th Birthday, Savannah

Six years ago today, during the Valentine's Day Blizzard, we welcomed Savannah into this world!  She was a tiny tiny little very alert baby.  I always love this picture because it reminds me how small she was (her head is smaller than Adam's hand!), and that he was so terrified to hold her that he gripped her by the neck!!!!  Best Valentine's Day gift ever :-)

This year, we celebrated her birthday the night before, because Adam had to leave for a conference this morning. After dinner, we had cake (purple heart shaped cake with pink frosting). I think she was excited..

She must be growing up, this year she did not tell us what she wished for (she always used to!)

she is such a good sport, she let us light the candles again so her brother could blow them out...

and she even let him cut her cake with a sword :-)

A pink and purple heart shaped cake -- it's not my fanciest ever, but she was excited.

And, she was VERY excited to get a purple ipod! She also got a little silver necklace that has a mouse with her birthstone (amethyst). Adam picked it out for her and she LOVES it.  She got some "cheetah" gear (leopard print) from Grammy that she loves, legos, moster high, a squishy dinosaur anatomy kit (thank you Grandma & Grandpa Rapp!), and a dino dig kit!

and she got The Sleep Book (Dr Seuss) from Gram Rooney, and thought it was very silly to read it at the dinner table EVEN THOUGH it warns you on the first page that the book should only be read in bed! 

She opened about half of her presents last night and saved the rest for this morning. She had cake for breakfast (of course), did some more opening, donned some "cheetah gear" and headed to school.  Gage and I stopped to have lunch with her today. We brought cookies in today, and the kids all sang her happy birthday in class. Her teacher apologized to me that they didn't wait until lunch to eat the cookies -- she said they all got so excited about having a Valentine's birthday that they sang her happy birthday early and ate cookies in the morning! Savannah was thrilled.  All the kids were talking over each other to talk to me about what they got for Valentine's Day goodies.  Big Casey sat next to me and rubbed my shoulder the entire time (?). They were all so excited today, it was really cute. It is so much fun to have lunch with her at school -- never a dull moment at the kindergarten table!

look-a-likes

I often think about how much Gage & Adam look alike, what do you think!?!

 

musical extravaganza

For the first, time, Savannah's school held a "Musical Extravaganza" this year to show off what they have been doing in music class! The kids have been practicing their songs, and they held the musical at the local small theater venue - Bama Theater.  She sang 3 songs (my bonnie lies over the ocean, you are my sunshine, hello/goodbye" and then topped it off with a finale "would you be my Valentine." When I asked her what her favorite song was to sing...her response (of course!) was the Valentine song (Savannah is a stern believer that she has a very special birthday, so she loves all things Valentine's Day!). This is her and a few of her classmates that I have gotten to know a little by having lunch with her at school. Aiden (the boy with glasses to her top right, apparently does NOT listen to her teacher and often gets put on red), Casey (two over from her on the left, is who she calls "big Gage" because Adam hand lunch with them and thought he reminded him of an older Gage). This was a mix of half the kindergarten classes.

The dark theater and apparently lulling music knocked Gage out, so he was a sleep on Daddy's lap at 7:10.  It was quite an event to pick Savannah up from the stage door!  I stood in line for a long time while Gage slept soundly in the car and Adam texted me asking how many feet I had moved in the line.  Luckily, I happened to be standing near some people that I know and like (one mom I am in a bookclub with) so waiting wasn't that bad.

When we got home, I put Gage to bed right away and Savannah and I snugged in her bed (with Lola of course) and her busy little brain was working overtime. I cannot even remember the minutia that she was preoccupied with last night - she was asking me question and after question and telling me about things she learned at school. I am always amused at how her brain does not settle down at night.  Thankfully, when her brain finally lets her go to sleep, she sleeps all night. Her Mommy falls asleep quickly and then often wakes up for several hours a night to "work". Let's hope she doesn't follow Mommy's footsteps in that way!

homework

Savannah has homework nearly every day. She has far more homework than I ever suspected she would have in Kindergarten, but....we try to make it fun and she's pretty smart, so she blows through it relatively quickly.

Lately, Gage wants in on the action! He wants to do homework. So, I made up his own little worksheets to do for homework that have shadowed gray large letters and his name for him to trace.  He does not have a very good pencil grip (neither does his father) and he's very stubborn (so is his father), and he refuses to let me adjust his pencil grip. So, his letters are a little shakey looking, but at least this is a first step....I am very excited that he is showing an interest in writing his letters!  He has been very interested in doing the alphabet puzzle lately, but this is the first interest he has shown in writing letters. At Gage's age, Savannah had been writing letters and her name for a while, but they all grow at different paces, I have learned. Here is Gage showing off his name homework :-)

magic school bus

Savannah loves the Magic School bus.  Somehow, Santa knew that and bought her a MSB science experiment kit about the human body.

Tonight, we finally got to our first few experiments. She formed a hypothesis about how synovial fluid helps a ball & socket joint to move smoothly, by taping a paper "bone" onto a ball (ping pong ball), greasing it up with veggie oil, and setting it into a little plastic socket to see what happened (it moved more smoothly). We also stretched tubing along a hinged leg to see how your muscles contract and relax to help move your bones. Looks like we need some more material for the next experiments -- I saw a chicken bone and 2 liter bottles listed in the material needed for the next experiments! 

I have to say -- I never expected a 5 year old to be interested in doing human body science experiments.One thing Savannah is not, I think, is your "average" 5 year old!  Thank goodness we got her out of the Baptist preschool that actually tried to "teach" (I use that word loosely) about her how her heart works by telling her that "God recycles your blood through your heart." Yeahhh....what a way ridiculous way to "educate" our little people! I made sure to explain what is really happening in her heart. I'm so happy that since she is actually interested in anatomy and biology, we have fun "tools" like this to help her dig deeper and keep her interested, but still lets her "play"! I'm kind of hoping that the soda bottle experiment will be for us to mimic the digestive system eating up some food - that would be cool!

We'll keep you updated. 

And Gage will just keep eating.

our pirate girl

Well, we had a follow up for an eye issue Savannah had when she was 1 1/2, and got news that we were not expecting. It turns out she has a problem called fourth nerve palsey. The muscle that controls the vertical (up/down) eye movement has too much slack (like an elastic band), so it has trouble keeping her (left) eye focused at the same place her right eye is focused. That makes her left eye work really hard to (a) keep vertical alignment, and (b) focus on what the right eye is looking at. It causes eye strain, and is making her favor her right eye to see, since the left is always trying correct its vertical alignment. It has to be corrected, and the only option is surgery (they will make a small incision in the tissue at the top of her eye to expose that muscle and shorten it so she can control that muscle). That will happen this summer.

After hearing the word surgery she bolted to the door and tried to leave, begging to go home. But, after we got home I talked her through it, let her look at the inside of my eyelid/top of my eye, and looked in the mirror with her to show her what her eye is doing, talked about surgery, recovery, and what happens if we don't do it. I emphasized that it's always better to have a problem that we can FIX, and even though eye surgery sounds scary, it is only outpatient surgery, and recovery is easy -- one day home and then returning to normal activity except no swimming for 2 weeks. Later, she admitted her eyes get very tired at school sometimes when she is reading and said she gets headaches when that happens. After trying to be as positive as possible with her, she finally came to me and decided that she does want to do surgery to have it fixed (not like she had any choice, but that's okay, I'm glad she is feeling "good" about it).  

The eye doctor (a pediatric ophthalmologist) said she is favoring her right eye now, and is in the window of time when she could develop lazy eye, so she suggested Savannah wear a patch 2 hours a day, 3 days a week. Savannah has been very excited about the patch and about "making her weak eye muscle stronger" - so she is wearing it every day after school (my overachiever) and  I let her pick out some cool girlie patches online. So...not the best news, but thankful that it is a relatively minor outpatient procedure that does not involve operating on her actual EYE, and that she is being brave and positive. Proud of her.

the zoo

Since the forecast was for a nice day in the 60s today, we decided to take a trip up to the Birmingham zoo today.  Glad we did because we got to check out the new giraffe encounter! For a few dollars, the kids got to feed the giraffes some snacks. Savannah did great right from the start -- maybe because of all the practice she has had feeding Grammy's cows! You'll notice she is wearing a backpack. She brought her "zoo cup" - which is a cup that we got at the zoo in Gulf Shores that she now uses to collect pretty feathers in. Mom & Dad did some proactive feather hunting (i.e., sneaking behind the ropes that you are supposed to stay behind) to grab pretty feathers that the birds had lost). She also had a notebook and pen with her, and she was drawing pictures of animals and checking them off as we saw them.

Gage, who has also had a lot of practice feeding cows, had a tougher time, but it was all good and funny anyway. Every time the giraffe would stick his tongue out Gage would chicken out and drop the treat. But, after a few tries, he finally got the giraffe to take it from him. 

I think it's safe to say that they loved this :-)

Now, the zoo was pretty empty today, and so were the animal exhibits, unfortunately!!  There were a lot of animals off exhibit, and the zoo's offerings were rather slim!  We could not feed the lorikeets (rainbow birds), the snack bar was closed (much to Adam's disappointment), and a lot of things were closed up. BUT...we did get to feed the flamingos again, which we love!  We call them the "nibblers" because they just keep pecking at your hand gently until they get a little nugget of flamingo food. Savannah scored some pink feathers, too!  And...whenever I see flamingos, I am always reminded of when Savannah used to tell me that "flamingos poop out mangoes" - I love that :-)

 

 

tea time

We had a playdate with one of Savannah's friends from preschool, and Gage finally got dressed up in the "grandma's attic" exhibit there. Savannah and Audrey were off dressing like brides and refused to let me take a picture, but Gage got snazzied up and had a tea party with me. I have to admit -- I get a little creeped out every time they put a hat on in there. I always wonder if there's anything lurking inside those hats that we need to worry about (yuck!)

grumpy with the bumpies

Last week, Gage came down with the hives and ended up at the doctor for a steroid shot, steroids, and some heavy duty antihistamines. No idea why he got them, but they were itchy, and he was miserable.  Ice cream made it a little better...for a minute. This picture was taken when we were so excited that he was looking so much "better"! 

Bowling

Since the kids had the day off school for MLK, we decided to go bowling with our friends Lani & Ember.  They had a BLAST!  

 

After a few frames, we realized they had these little prop things that kids could set the balls on and just push them into the lane! Before that, they did a combination of granny style, sort of throwing it (yikes!), and just sitting it on the floor and pushing it. Those balls were moving down the lane so slow we were afraid they would stop halfway down the lane! We had to cheer the balls on and yell GO GO GO! But, after they found these little gems, they did great. Savannah and Ember decided to team up. So, they helped each other them up, got balls for each other, and then cheered each other on.   

Gage, well he is a piece of work, as you know.  He figured this whole bowling thing out and was Mr. Independent. He did it all by himself, and then gave me "knuckles" to celebrate the pins he hit down.

 

 And last but not least...I'm not sure what Gage was trying to do here...but I think all of you will agree - the apple does not fall far from the tree. He is definitely Adam's son.

Snowy Savannah

It is a month shy of 6 years since Savannah was born in the Valentine's Day blizzard in Ohio when we got over 2 feet of snow! We have come a long way since then, and 3 inches of snow in AL was a big deal today!  

As soon as I heard her school was getting out early I threw Gage in the car and went to school to get her so she could play in the snow.  We live on a BIG hill, so I was questioning whether that was a smart decision. Then again, I realized, I trusted myself driving in the snow a lot more than I did her bus driver!!! This is how it looked when Gage and I headed out the door to get her...

I blew up the snow tube (thank you Grammy for sending that to us back when we lived in SC!). Savannah was so excited to get outside in the snow!  Her bus drove by and was beeping at us like crazy as we stood poised to take off down the hill. She was so excited :-)

Savannah got in the snow angel action too

The kids were flying down the hill, skipping over the sidewalk and shooting into the road! 

 I think she was having fun :-)

Gage, also loved sledding!  He was much better at walking back up the hill than Savannah was. She would slip and slide the whole way up and whine for me to come help her. Gage was like a Mac truck, he just grabbed the tube and trucked it up the hill with no slipping & sliding. 

We have a BIG hill as our side yard. This picture below is taken from not even halfway down the hill!

It wasn't long before all the kids in the neighborhood descended upon our house sledding. It started melting fast!  Once our hill was a muddy mud pit, we went to the neighbors house and built a snowman.  I ran to the house to get a carrot and a scarf. 

When I got back, he had tipped forward and smashed. So, we started again, but this time my neighbor put him on the driveway, and since it was melting so fast, he was a dirty, grassy mess!  But hey -- we got to make a snowman in Alabama!

And now, not even 4 hours after we had a winter wonderland and 3 inches of beautiful white snow. The sun has been out and it's almost all gone where the sun shines!  Tomorrow, temps in the 50s. Adam says I'm not ready to move back North, but he.is.wrong! I loved playing in the snow today!

Snow day with Gage

Imagine Gage's excitement when we looked outside and saw SNOW!  This was about 2 hours ago, and it has been coming down hard ever since.

He tasted a few snowflakes

He chased after me to throw snowballs at me

He made a few snow angels

After our lunch of tomato soup, "melty cheese sandwiches", and hot cocoa with marshmallows, we are going to head out there again. Can't wait for Savannah to get home so she can play too!!!

reading & writing

Savannah is reading and writing like crazy. As we drive around she reads words on signs and says "Mom, I just read that!" as if she can't believe it herself.  One of the assignments she often does at school is to draw a picture about a story they read, and answer a question about the story.  I think what I love most is that she will try to spell anything -- like "notist" (noticed).  I love when I have to sound a word out to figure out what it was she was writing (her spellings of poinsettia and branches threw me for a loop around Xmas time!).  

She has really taken off with reading and writing. Her penmanship is getting so much better and I love that she reads books to ME now.  When she comes home with a sticker on her writing work (like she did with this one), it means that her teacher sent her to show (and read) her work to another person in the school (the principal, bookkeeper, secretary, other teachers), and that person gave her a sticker for doing such good work. I walked in the office one day and she was in there -- reading to Mrs. Judy the secretary! She LOVES when her teacher sends her to go show off her work.
p.s. you can click on the picture below to make it bigger if you can't read it

Mr. Whiskers

Our neighbors have a cat they call Mr. Whiskers. They don't like Mr. Whiskers that much. So, Mr. Whiskers hangs out at our other neighbor's house so much that they have essentially adopted him, keeping him fed and watered.  They "changed" his name to Whiskey River, but his nickname is now just River.  We still call him Mr. Whiskers, but he "answers" to any name. On the way home from the bus stop every day, Mr. Whiskers comes running out to meow at us, and we stop to go say hello to him.  He rubs all over the kids for a few minutes, soaks up some love, and then we move on.  I'm afraid he might be trying to adopt us -- apparently he ran into our house the other day when the door was open. Then again....every cat in the neighborhood seems to venture into our house at some point or another!

shiver me timbers

Gage got a pirate ship water table for Xmas.  They have one of these at the pool where the kids take swimming lessons, and he loves it.  He doesn't know it yet, but in the spring we can put batteries in and it has a pump that sprays water up through the mast, so he can have fun getting wet. We put it outside to start. But, it keeps filling up with water and it's been too cold to pay in the water outside.  Talk about shivering me timbers -- it's too cold for Mommy to sit outside with him while he plays, and he's been complaining that his hands get cold when it's wet. So, I gave in and brought it inside for the winter.  He puts Jake and the Neverland Pirates in there with TicToc the croc, and has a ball. Thank you Grandma & Grandpa Rapp :-)

New wine rack

We have had this empty nook in between our kitchen and laundry room that only had our cat dishes sitting at the bottom. After Xmas it dawned on me that it would be a nice spot for some shelving and a wine rack. Adam thought it was a great idea and he's never one to turn down a project while he's taking a few days off work, so this is how it turned out.  I love it! Now, to fill it up :-)