It's, like, ya know, that one thing

Jeff: Do you want a cracker, Marley?
Marley: Yeah, but I don't want that kind.
Jeff: What kind do you want?
Marley: Like, ya know, that kind that's brown and white?
Jeff: I don't think we have any brown and white crackers.
Marley: It has, like, ya know, brown on the top and bottom and white, like, ya know...cream.
Jeff: You mean an Oreo?
Marley: Yeah, that's what I want!

note: this conversation has been edited to include fewer "like's" and "ya know's"

It's Official (mostly)!

Jeff and I have decided that I will take next school year off!  I love teaching, and I really love my job at Highlands, but being home with Marley and Amelia is just so much more fun than going to work every day!  Here are a couple of sample days from last week, just so you can see what I mean.

Day 1
*woke up late due to daylight savings (around 9 am)
*played and read books until about noon
*headed out on foot to the community center park
*picked up some fresh fruit and lunch from Metropolitan Market
*hung out at the library for a while
*walked to another playground at a nearby elementary school
*arrived back home around 5:30 pm
*ate dinner
*took a family shower and got ready for bed
*kids fast asleep by 9 pm

Day 2:
*woke up around 8
*dropped Marley off at preschool at 9:30
*came home and played with Amelia
*picked Marley up from school and headed over to the beach
*played at the beach until we got too cold
*sat in Pioneer and had hot chocolate and coffee to warm up
*came home and ate lunch around 2:30
*spent about an hour looking under the hood of the car (This was just for fun, since Marley's really interested in cars lately.  I showed him how to check the oil, which he proceeded to do over and over!)
*Marley watched a DVD (Franklin the turtle), while Amelia napped, and I did chores
*ate dinner, got ready for bed, and kids fast asleep by 9 pm

It's not always easy, but it's a million times easier than my job as a teacher (teachers have a really hard job!).  And it's trillion times easier than teaching and raising two kids. 

There's a small chance that I will return two days a week to job share, but if that doesn't work out I won't complain.  I do really miss my colleagues, though, especially carpooling with Nancy, chatting with my team each morning, and planning together on late-start Fridays. 

Plus, I keep getting ideas that I want to try out in my classroom.  I guess I'd better start writing them down:)

10 months

Marley at 10 months

19.5 lbs, 28 inches

Amelia at 10 months

20.5 lbs, 29 inches

Existentialism

Marley: Who will be my little boy and baby when I'm a grown up?
Me: I don't know.  They haven't been born yet. 
Marley: Maybe Grandma and Grandpa can be.
Me: Sure, if you believe in reincarnation, I guess they can.
Marley: Yep, I do.
Me: Well then, I bet Grandma and Grandpa would really like that.
Marley: Yep, they would.

A bit about my 3-year-old

Has Marley been 3 for a quarter of a year already?  Yikes!   A few Marley tidbits, for the record:

Skills
*counts to twenty (still often skips some numbers and sometimes includes eleventeen)
*can spell his name orally, and can recognize it in print
*can write an M
*knows all 26 capital letters and most letter sounds
*is beginning to recognize lower case letters
*can do a 12 piece puzzle by himself
*uses a tripod pencil grip
*prefers his left hand for eating, writing, and throwing.  (This takes some real concentration on my part as I'm helping him do things like pour liquid and twist caps - both feel really odd for a righty such as myself.)
*can dress and undress himself (needs help with snaps, zippers, and buttons)
*can wash himself in the bath or shower
*goes potty and *usually* washes hands without prompting (still needs help wiping)
*no longer wears diapers at night (hasn't had an accident, day or night, since turning 3 - I just jinxed us, didn't I?)
*still has a little trouble with 's-consonant' words (spider, small, slippery), but is correcting himself lately.  (For the longest time, spider was "fider", then "fa-pider")
*has a pretty incredible sense of direction (always knows when we're near Tiny Tribe or Alki Co-op)

Sleep
*still loves his "car" bed
*no longer takes naps (since turning 3)
*sleeps roughly 12 hours, from 8:30 - 8:30 (ish)
*prefers one of us to lay down with him each night until he falls asleep (this happens relatively quickly)
*wakes 1-2 times a week with nightmares (see below), but falls quickly back to sleep when "a grown up" lays down with him.

Likes
*when asked, his list of favorites includes: "Spiderman, scary things, baseball, and pink"
*still really loves pink
*likes things to 'match' (dinosaur socks with dinosaur shirt, Dora bowl with Dora spoon)
*prefers to 'be' something when getting dressed in jammies or clothes (Batman, Spiderman, Elmo, Thomas, Cookie Monster, a guitar, a dog, or a dinosaur)
*the Disney movie, Cars
*reading books (prefers to be read to, but will sometimes 'read' the pictures by himself)
*'reading' environmental print  (he loves to read a magnet on our fridge that says "Dawn's Kitchen")
*circle time/story times at school (is usually pretty focused in preschool settings) 
*most every food we put in front of him, or is at least willing to try (see below)
*playing with Thomas trains, dress up clothes, Cars/Lightning McQueen, puzzles, Legos (Duplos)
*going to the beach
*'helping' me do just about anything around the house (laundry, dishes, cooking, etc)

Dislikes
*loud noises (covers his ears for flushing toilets, vacuums, loud cars, etc)
*spicy food, bell peppers, pickles, avocados
*being left alone (his recurring nightmare is that we've gone somewhere without him - he sometimes wakes in the night yelling, "Wait for me!  You forgot me!")
*getting dressed in the morning
*brushing his teeth (though this is getting a little better)
*when Amelia tries to "play" with his carefully set up toy scenes ("She's going to eat Lightning McQueen!")

edit: I just wanted to clarify that when I put 'grown up' in quotes above, it wasn't because Jeff and I aren't really adults (though some may disagree).  Rather, it's what Marley often calls out when he wakes up in the night: "I need a grown up to come in here!"

Hummus Yummus

Eating is not just about filling your belly - it's a whole sensory experience. And for babies, yes, it is messy. But can't you just see the wheels turning as she experiences her hummus in so many different ways? It's like a science experiment right on her tray!

Travel Log

When my sister was around 10 years old, she (with Alicia's help) decided to look through all of my parents' old photos and files and make a baby book for herself.  I guess by the fourth child, record keeping starts to slip a little. 

I can't blame my mom one bit.  I wasn't really that great at record keeping for Marley.  He has a baby book that documents most of his first year, an unfinished scrap book with a random assortment of photos, and a small scrap book documenting his NICU stay (that would never have been finished without the help of my sister!).  And things are even worse for Amelia.  She has a 2010 Woodland Park Zoo calendar with notes like "A's first tooth" and "A pulls to standing" scrawled on it. 

Thank goodness there's also the blog.  So, in the interest of record keeping... 

Marley's Air Travel Log
In Utero: China (1st trimester), Wyandotte (2nd trimester)
6 months: Wyandotte, MI
10 months: Wyandotte, MI
16 months: Boulder, CO
19 months: Europe (Reading, Cornwall, Paris, Nice, London)
22 months: Wyandotte, MI
2.5 years: Oahu, HI
2.5 years: Wyandotte, MI
2.75 years: Boston, MA
Coming soon...
3.5 years: Florida Keys
3.5 years: San Diego, CA

Amelia's Air Travel Log
In Utero: Wyandotte, MI (1st trimester)
2 months: Oahu, HI
3 months: Wyandotte, MI
4 months: Boston, MA
Coming soon...
12 months: Florida Keys
15 months: San Diego, CA