staggered start

fin started school yesterday! as a bus rider!! i can't believe my baby is ready to ride the bus, he is barely big enough to carry a backpack.

it was not the smoothest of first days of school. the bus stop is at the top of our street. he was to board the bus at 8:37am. eagerly, we packed max and keegan in the stroller and walked up the street at 8:15am and began to wait for the bus. and wait, and wait and wait. the county now has what they call a staggered start. so fin and 5 of his 20 classmates attended class yesterday, but dont attend again until next thursday when all the children collectively have their second day. i imagine this is confusing for the bus drivers, because the bus never appeared. so at 9:05 another mom eagerly waiting called the school. we were instructed to drive our children in. so, with max and keegan in tow, we ran down the street, stuffed everyone in the minivan and made our way to the school. thankfully there were teachers outside to meet the car riders. they knew about the delayed bus already, met fin at the car and walked him to the spot where his classmates were awaiting his arrival. he was so wrapped up in telling the teacher his bus driver forgot to pick him up that he didnt even say goodbye to me. not exactly the teary eyed first day i had anticipated (even if the tears were to be mine alone). on my way home, i did pass by fins bus, which still had 5 stops to make and would surely be at least 20 minutes late and we were 15 minutes late ourselves.

so after a morning with quality max and keegan time i was prepared to pick fin up at the bus stop. i thought surely the afternoon pickup would go smoothly, after the mornings chaos. how silly of me. school ends at 11:55. max and keegan were totally off schedule after the mixed up morning, so they were passed out cold by 11:40. so i called a neighbor to sit with them while i walked up to meet the bus. i left my house at 12, figuring the 2 minute walk to the top of the street would be sufficient. after a good deal of waiting, a neighbor passed by and told me it was 12:20. hmm. about 5 minutes later, fin arrived, his bus headed in the wrong direction. and then the bus driver proceeded to yell at me to be on time to meet my child. apparantly, i need to be on time, but they dont. considering the school doesnt post a scheduled drop off time for the buses i am not sure how i am supposed to know what on time really means. at any rate, i guess we will figure it out as this staggered approach eventually smooths itself out.

here is is, the big pre-k bus rider...

yummy toast

we are working on teeth. max already has two - keegan is still trying to push one through his gums. in the meantime, this cement toast is great to chew on. yes they are nakie babies, the only way to keep the laundry to a minimum.

tennis pro in the making?

these lessons were perhaps the most unorganized "organized" activity fin participated in this month. and of course it was the hottest week of the summer. nonetheless, he had a good time. and that is all the counts.

feeling brave

ok, it might not sound like much of an accomplishment, but i am feeling fairly accomplished today. i got my brave on and decided to head to the grocery store with fin, max and keegan in tow. it was quite a task for me. since i was in bed most of the weekend, the cupboards were bare - so off we went. watch out safeway and TJs here we come, i thought. all in all, it wasnt too bad. with all three boys full on breakfast (the last morsels of food in the house), i had high hopes for cooperation. keegan had his first ride like a big boy in the grocery cart. thank goodness for that neat little contraption that covers the germs and keeps them strapped in all in one. fin rode like a really big boy in the back of the cart, unteathered with promise of listening dollars if he was good. and max rode in the bjorn. i got a few stares that radiated "my goodness how many children does she have". but there was one kind mom who knowingly gave me the nod in the bread aisle. safeway was the first stop. apparantly they were doing some kind of inventory, so there were about 3 workers and about 50 boxes strewn about in each aisle counting stuff and reorganizing shelves. so fin was in charge of saying "excuse us". self-delegated i might add - ahh the manners are returning. i see just a glimmer of that. max and keegan, face to face, kept each other occupied. aha, success - off to Tjs we go.

well, the mere trip from safeway to TJs put m and k to sleep. all two-tenths of a mile of it! so i had to re-evaluate my set up. fin agreed to stay with the cart if he was walking. thankfully TJs is not too big! max went back in the bjorn and keegan stayed in his bucket seat sitting atop the cart. m and k slept through the whole TJs trip. nice! so car loaded, stickers in hand for fin, back home we went. all in under 1.5 hours! now that is impressive. am i right?

knocked out

it has been a rough few days here in the van doren household. why do illnesses always seem to creep up on weekends? fin and i have both had the worst stomach bug ever. poor guy, i hate to see him sick. but it is even harder when i feel so bad myself and cant comfort him the way i want. i spent most of friday afternoon until this morning in bed - ugh. it reminded me of my bedrest days - a memory i thought was long gone. jon was a trooper though, and not even too whiney. max and keegan are cutting teeth, so j really had it coming at him from all angles. a sick wife and 4 year old and 2 cranky 8 month babies. kudos to him for making it through the last few days.

happy 8 month birthday boys!

i cant believe that max and keegan have now been in the world longer than they were in my belly. it is crazy, and totally not supposed to end up this way. but they are doing great. the physical therapy is going well and we are noticing improvements at every session.

i tried to capture a bit of the chaos here these days...

ever wonder what happened to...

that sweet little baby you used to haul around on your hip or tow around holding hands. lately, i have been wondering what happened to fin. he used to be such a sweet boy. and so polite - everyone would comment about how polite he was. and honestly, it wasnt that long ago. just in october we spent a night in the ER with him. he woke up around 2AM having trouble breathing, and the poor thing was scared out of his mind he was doing the ugly cry as oprah would call it. so we quickly dressed ourselves, scooped him up along with his blanket and speed to the ER. in the triage, the nurse wanted to put the little pulsox reader on his finger. and when she asked him if she could do it he responded, "no thank you". she got the same response, "no thank you," when she asked him to open his mouth so she could take his temperature. now here is a little boy who can barely breathe still taking the time to use his manners. scared as i was about what was wrong with him, there was still a glimmer of being a proud mama. turned out he had croup and needed a steroid shot and a nubulizer treatment once they moved him into the ER. but that triage nurse was so touched by how sweet he was, that when she was off duty she came looking for us to check on him. again that glimmer of proud mama surfaced.

lately that glimmer surfaces less frequently and my face burns in mortification more often. he has always been a talker, but sometimes the things he says are downright embarassing. like this question to an unsuspecting waitress - "why are your teeth so dirty?" poor girl just had braces. thankfully i was not present for that one - poor granny and pop felt the face burn i am sure. yesterday we were in the mall with a friend and he starts the visit off with "i am too tired to do that" and i had a bad feeling about the day would progress. actually his mood did improve and his energy resurfaced. at one point fin and his little friend were running towards the playland area and got a bit ahead of the grownups. i was scared because with max and keegan in tow, i couldnt chase after them. so off went the other grownup to corral them. we both sort of let our charges have it, mostly out of fear. but from then on they were much better. they would walk ahead, but look back over their shoulders to make sure we were still in sight. it was nice to see they had learned a lesson. however, my improved mood was quickly squashed.

here is how it went down...
we were headed towards pottery barn kids, a favorite spot of kids to run amuck. the kids were about 5 paces ahead - a totally reasonable distance. the mall is full of construction right now with this huge expansion in progress. so we are rounding the center court - which is now big temporary walls loaded with ads about what is to come. i feel a swift breeze to my side and this mature woman passes by, weaving in and out of our party and likely the other mall goers as well. so on one of their regular check to see if they are still in a safe distance, fin and his friend turn to look for the grownups. this woman was blocked twice, completely inadvertantly, by fin as she tried to weave through our party. honestly, i dont think he even saw her at all. and she looks at me and the other grownup and says in the huffiest voice she can muster "you really should teach your children some manners!". i was speechless. it was one of those moments where you think of all the great comebacks just a few moments too late. like "where did you go to charm school, because i want to be sure i don't send my child there?" honestly all that was coming to mind was F*** YOU LADY!!, but given the company i refrained and muttered something clever like "perhaps you could use a lesson as well". why is it that things like this can just ruin a day? and honestly, a day later, why am i still thinking about this? part of it, i suppose, is that i am missing the polite little boy. while he was not in the wrong in this situation, he has been lacking manners a great deal recently. its a sore spot right now. at any rate, we got on with our day. and later at lunch, two separate people approached and commented on how well behaved our children were at lunch. nonetheless, i have been left wondering should moms be added to the protected class? is there such a thing as mommy discrimination?

fin and i did have a long talk on the way home about his manners resurfacing and i have noticed a bit of an improvement. i am hoping we are on the way to getting back on track. i miss the no thank yous.