Last Day of 1 year old preschool

I remember signing Kiley up for "preschool" back in September as a way to give myself a little time to do errands/get stuff done around the house with just Ella.  I can't believe how MUCH she learned this year and I am so proud of her.  I know it's only 1 year old preschool, but I still did get a little teary knowing that it was her last day.  Oh, man I'm in for it when it's a real graduation :) 

Here she is on her first day this year--September 9th, 2011 (18 months old)

And here she is today--June 8th, 2012 (27 months old)

Kiley--we are SO proud of you and all that you learned this year.  You're speech has come such a long way and you now talk in sentences and are so observant to your surroundings.  You are really sweet to all your friends and you loved your teachers this year (especially Ms. Amanda, Ms. Becky and Ms. Sara).  Next up--2 year old preschool and 3 mornings a week!!!!  

We celebrated her last day with some ice cream with Grandma and Papa and then a stroll around the zoo to see the monkeys, giraffes, and polar bear.  Tonight--I'm pretty sure she talked daddy into a pizza party.  I think ice cream and pizza may be our new end of the year tradition.  Good thing I like ice cream and pizza too :) 

We have a fun, busy weekend planned as usual :)  I can't believe how much stuff is going on in the city this weekend.  Hope you have a wonderful weekend and a nice kickoff to summer!!!

Patience

If you know me, you know that patience is not my strongest asset.  I want things and I want them now.  Well, let's just say that motherhood is definitely giving me a crash course on patience.  They say that love is patient, but they don't say that patience is easy.  Take for instance, going on a simple walk around the block with a two year old.  Sounds pleasant enough, right?  Well, when said walk around the block (1.47 miles to be exact) takes oh 1 hour and 7 minutes, you know there has to be some patience involved. 

 The stroller with baby had to come along for the walk of course, however, so did the purse filled with all the animal which was much to big to carry on one's shoulder so we had to rig it to the stroller like a diaper bag--purse drug on the ground the entire walk but there was no way the purse could ride in the big stroller.

 Baby was in and out of the stroller.  I'm not sure why-maybe she was crying, guess the over the shoulder, behind the back hold calmed her down.  Let's just be thankful that's not Ella :)

 Oh, then there was the block that we decided that we should pick up non-existent dog poop and wear a dog poop bag on our hand for the rest of the walk. 

 Baby's back to being carried over the shoulder.  I swear I don't carry Ella like that-I don't know where she picked that move up.

 Crossing the streets tends to be difficult.  Nope--Kiley can't ride in the stroller across the streets, she has to walk but doesn't yet grasp the concept of walking quickly or that the light changes and that cars want to drive down the street.  I'm pretty sure I did pass one man walking who muttered an obscenity under his breath as he saw us crossing the street--I probably would too.  I was walking two dogs, a double stroller with one baby in and one toddler walking down the street with her stroller. 

And, then there is always the need to break to dance when you walk by the house blasting music. 

To say my patience was tested a time or two is an understatement, but we made it back to the house.  Everyone talks about the terrible twos, but in times like these, I must say just letting Kiley be independent and not having to be hurrying from one place to the next showed me that it may not always be about getting my two year old to conform to my timeline.  Maybe what's terrible sometimes is my lack of patience to let her get out and explore the world the way she wants.  Today we had the time, the weather was beautiful, all I needed was a little (ok, a lot) of patience.

30 in June

So you know that I love making lists-so here's my list of 30 things I want to do in June.  Some are no-brainers/already on the calendar, others may not get crossed off, but I'm going to try to get them all checked off.

1. Do something active for at least 30 minutes everyday
2. Go to a street fest
3. Run a 10K--hello Sunday!
4. Attend a Bachelorette Party-good thing I have one to attend, that would be weird if I didn't and just had to randomly find one :)
5.  Have a date night
6.  Have a girls night/brunch, whatever.
7.  Read at least one book-ha, remember I was trying to read a book a week, yeah well that didn't happen.
8.  Go to the nature museum.
9.  Go to the zoo.
10.  Get a pedicure
11.  Write a handwritten note and mail it to someone.
12.  Take the girls to a water/splash park.
13.  Have a playdate with friends.
14.  Have a pizza party.
15.  Clean up my inbox-hello 7000 messages to delete.
16.  Cook a new recipe.
17.   Go for a walk to get ice cream.
18.  Clean out my closet and take clothes to goodwill.
19.  Do a craft with Kiley.
20.  Run a 9:30 mile.
21.  Drink a glass of water 2x a day.
22.  Go through and pack up girls winter clothes.
23.  Walk the dogs every weekday (at least)
24.  Do colored bubbles outside.
25.  Go to the swingset store to play and pick out a swingset :)
26.  Go to the botanical garden or Morton Arboreteum
27.  Take a nap.
28.  Read a magazine.
29.  Say "I love you" to someone everyday
30.  Give a compliment everyday.

Whew, that was a little hard to get up to 30.  Let's see how many I get done now.  I hope all of them :)

Have a great weekend :)  The sun is starting to shine and we are off soon to have some apps and drinks.  Yum. 

Let's Start Again!

Ok, ok, I know--my last post was February 29th.   So, you ask, where have I been for the past 3 months?  Well, let's just say in a house selling frenzy (or lack thereof) since our house is still on the market.  Seriously though, house selling has been the worst.  We have had tons of showings, open houses, a second showing that didn't result in anything because of the stupid dumpsters.  Then there was a 2nd birthday for Kiley, a trip to Arizona, our first house falling through which resulted in us putting in an offer on another house (which thankfully, we got and are for sure moving in August, a 1st birthday for Ella, running my first half marathon, cleaning, cleaning, and oh yeah, more cleaning.  As of this point, like I said we are for sure moving in August and I am starting to get excited.  The girls are signed up for preschool for Kiley three days a week and Parent's Day Out for Ella two days a week.  I found my new gym, which of course is oh so important!  So as of tomorrow we have 2 months left in the city and I plan to make the most of it--in between packing up some boxes of course.  I swear I think that home selling process definitely put me in a rut for the past couple of months.  If you know me--uncertainty is not a great place for me.  I am a list maker, planner, schedule follower, so when things are up in the air, I am not in a good place.  I know the next couple of months will be a little crazy with the move, but I think that it will be nothing compared to the unknown.  So, I'm back, and promise to be better about not taking a three month break again.  I remember my reasons for starting my blog in the first place--which was for me to have a place to document this and that around the Pollack household.  Maybe someday I will get back to refreshing everyone on the past couple of months, but then again, maybe I won't so I guess it's just better to start from present day and go with it :) 

We had our family pics taken last Sunday with Katie.  She does such an awesome job captured the true sense of everyone's personality.  I just love looking back at the pictures that she has taken to see how the kids have grown and see their personalities develop in the pictures.  Here's the link to the ones that she posted on her blog http://katieryanphotography.blogspot.com/2012/05/ella-is-1.html.  Check them out--gotta love Kiley and her purse, tounges sticking out, Ella being a picky eater (she barely would even touch the cake!), and the girl's love for their Daddy :) 

Kiley's favorite things

In keeping with Kiley week, I thought I would make a list of some of Kiley's favorite things at age 2.  Here they are, in no order of importance, just how I can think of them :)

1.  Dogs-Kiley is OBSESSED with dogs.  She loves Morgan and Madison, but she also just has a love for dogs in general.  When we go for a walk or are at the park, she spends most of her time looking for and pointing out dogs.  Maybe we have a future vet on our hands.

2.  Garbage trucks.  Kiley loves to watch the garbage man out of her window.  This morning she wasn't even up yet when I heard the garbage truck pull up in the alley, of course, a second later I heard Kiley screaming truck, truck.  Kevin went to get her up and had to immediately show her the garbage truck.  Perhaps we have a garbage woman on our hands :)

3.  Elmo!  Hence her 2nd b-day party theme of Kiley Street.  She loves Elmo.  She really watches no tv other than sometimes requesting to watch Elmo and even then it is only for a few seconds.  I think her fondness of Elmo came from the Ipad app. 

4.  Favorite songs--ABC's, wheels on the bus, Itsy Bitsy Spider and Pat-a-cake.  She requests these all the time and must do all the hand movements with them as well.

5.  Taking pictures.  She loves to hold the cell phone up to "take a picture."  She just walks around saying cheese.  She sometimes does it also with things that she thinks are cameras--such as flashlights, remotes, etc.

6.  She is really into labeling whose things are whose these days.  For instance, she recently has decided that all the remotes are daddy's.  She is very particular on who can use certain things--and of course, does not like when Ella touches things that she has deemed as hers.

7.  Babies--I think this one is because she is such a great big sister.  She just loves babies and points them out all the time.   I was watching the Today show this morning and they were covering the election and she pointed out the one token baby in the crowd--ha, how's that for observant.  She also loves to change diapers and feed and burp babies (and sometimes her friends as well).  We are trying to work on her not checking other kids diapers or burping them--what a little mom she is.

8.  Running.  She loves to run these days and points out people running all the time.  She has the funniest run that I will have to get on video sometime.  It's kind of like those people that are serious speed walkers. 

9.  Books.  She loves books.   She doesn't always have the attention span to sit and listen to books all the time, but she loves to look through them, pass them out to everyone (dogs included), read them to herself.

10.  Purses, jewelry, all things girly.  This one has been a favorite for awhile.  She just loves being girly.

She is so funny these days and as her speech is increasing she is getting funnier by the day.  Oh the things that she says and does just make me laugh. 

8. 

Kiley's Birthday week

I am dedicated this week to all things Kiley as this Sunday my baby will be two years old.  I know, how is that even possible?  It seems like just yesterday I was in the hospital on a Thursday evening getting ready to go into surgery to have her and now she is turning two.  I guess like every parent, I wonder where time went, but I think people are right when they say the days can sometimes feel like they are going on forever, but the years fly by.  I look back at her pictures though from her first birthday and she seems like such a baby to me then.  She is turning into such a big girl.  She is funny and smart and keeps me on my toes.  I love her so much and can't imagine my world without her.  I am so blessed to be her mom.  Much more Kiley to come this week as we celebrate her big birthday week!!!!

Don't mind the bad picture.  This was the best I can find that's somewhat recent and this I believe is from December.  That is how behind I am on keeping up to date on things these days.

Now back to cleaning.  Two showings today--please someone love this house, fingers crossed.

Blogger Break

Wow--it has been a while since I blogged.  Over a month to be exact--well, to be exact, over a month and a few days.  But, I do have an excuse. I was busy--and when I say busy I mean buying a house busy.  Yes, remember when I said we were looking at houses, and then I said we were staying put, and then we decided to just look, and then we found a house we love, and then we bought it, and then we now have to sell our house.  So yes, all of that in one month, which is why I have not blogged.  I have been busy getting my house ready to sell and while I can't wait to move and I really, really hope that we sell ours so that we can move to our forever home, moving is also a little bittersweet.  This is the house that I moved into with my boyfriend, got my dogs, got married, had one kid, had two kids, went from working to staying home and WORKING!!!!  This house has a lot of memories for me and I have loved it, but it is time to move on.

But before moving on, I will share my one memory of this house that stands out the most for me.  It was the day I came home from the hospital after having Kiley.  Now, as most know, my girls were both preemies which meant they didn't come home with me.  Not something that you really envision when you think of bringing your baby home from the hospital. Yes, she was healthy and I was grateful for that, but I was also really sad that she didn't get to come home with me when I came home.  So I remember distinctly coming home from the hospital, without my baby, and feeling so sad.  I had just had a c-section so I really wasn't feeling great and wasn't supposed to do stairs, but I remember coming home getting up the stairs and just sitting on the couch in the family room--and I started crying.  Of course, things were good in life.  Kiley was healthy, I was healthy, family was good, but I wanted my baby home with me.  The one thing that really sticks out though is sitting on the couch, crying, with my husband and dogs beside me.  You  never know what a house is going to bring you.  This house brought me my family.  I am really grateful for this house and I know that it will bring someone else some pretty profound memories-so hopefully we will be able to sell it and I can make new memories in a new house.  But until then, here we are, on a Friday night, watching tv in the comforts of our home with my two babies fast asleep, and my two other babies (dogs) asleep on the couch.  People may say my kitchen is too small or the master bath doesn't have two vanities but it's been good to me. 

Hopefully now that we are on the market and things are ready to go, I will have more time to blog again.  I have though become a master cleaner--one of these days I will share some favorite cleaning tools (oh don't you go getting too excited!)