Butterfly Gardens!

Anna received a butterfly garden a few weeks ago. We sent our coupon in the mail for baby caterpillars and have been watching them grow over the last few weeks. We saw the whole process of making the chrysallis and then hatching into a beautiful butterfly. Yesterday afternoon we let them go. Good-bye butterflies! Have a nice life!

Summer Swelter...

Please don't hate me, but I have a child who has NEVER given me a problem about going to bed or staying in bed for that matter. Anna goes to bed every night at 8:00, by herself, and happily stays in there until the next morning at 8:00 when I go in to get her up. She's never once tried climbing out of the crib and although she'll call for me once in a while, she will happily stay in there until I come in to get her. The only problem, her bedtime/naptime routine are very strict. Everything has to be done in the correct order and everything (all her toys and clothes) must be in its correct place. This is usually not a problem until last week when I announced 98 degree whether did not require our usual undershirt, long sleeve pajamas, blanket sleeper and four blankets (we keep the heat down low at night here in the winter). My announcement met some serious opposition. To sweeten the change, we headed to Target to pick out some brand new, summer pjs. While I'm happy to report that she gave up the blanket sleeper argument, we still have to wear socks and four winter blankets. Last night when I went to check on her before I went to bed I could have sworn the girl snuck out of bed and poured an entire pitcher of water in the bed with her. She was sopping wet from so much sweating! She now has prickly heat rash all over her body and drinks an entire sippy cup of water the first five minutes of being awake. When I suggested this was not necessary, we had a major meltdown -no pun intended. Suggestions are welcome :)

Back to work...

I decided to go back to work part time since Anna will be in nursery school in the fall. I applied for a teaching assistant position at a nursery school fifteen minutes away from here. They accepted me and Anna will be in another class in the building too while I am teaching. I have mixed feelings about it. It will be nice to be with other adults and get dressed up (somewhat) but I'm going to miss Anna terribly. It is so silly because we'll drive together and be in the same program pretty much but still its making me realize she is growing up. I went in for this morning for the first time because they want me around for just a few days in June so I get an idea of what my responsibilities will be. Anna's program won't be ready till September so my dad watched her. The morning went well. There are ten children in our class however next year, we'll have sixteen. I had a nice morning out but was happy to come home to my sweet little girl again. I think I'll treat her to Dunkin Donuts when she wakes up from her nap :)

New Wheels

Well, we finally have retired the Neon, after ten years. Although it was a very, very good car to us, the last few months were pretty rough and I shudder to think all of the money we poured into it. After a few weeks of car shopping, we found this great deal for Ron. Although its a '98, it only has 33,000 miles and air conditioning -THAT WORKS!!!

Memorial Day

Each year since Anna was born, we take her to our town's Memorial Day Parade. Here are pictures from each year. The girl still has no hair!

Our Little Jailbird

Here is Chloe on Saturday. One more week to go Chloe and then you can come out for five minutes each day girl!

Another Update

So sorry, this blog has been so slow in new updates. Things have continued to be busy, and then our computer died so we were without it for a few weeks. Things are going well. Unfortunately, Chloe is still on crate rest 24/7. She has another two weeks to go and then we can start slowly easing her out over a four week period. She doesn't seem to be in any pain, just stiff in the mornings. Her gait is back to normal and she seems fairly happy -as happy as can be expected while you're in jail! Anna is doing well. She is officially two years and nine months today. I've been doing some subbing at the school I used to teach at full time before having her. Grandpa Dorgan has been very graciously watching her and its been fun watching the whole experience. To give you an example, I called home on my first day to see how things were going. His response was "You didn't tell me I had to lock the bathroom door when I needed to use it, we just had our first major catastrophe!". He has been WONDERFUL though and Anna really enjoys their time together. I've signed her up for nursery school in the fall and I will be teaching the other nursery school class in the center. This should be interesting as I'll be depending on a three year old to get out the door by 8:20 in the morning! We are excited though. Other than that, not much else is new. Ronnie accepted a highschool art teaching position that will start in the fall as well. He's been getting his classroom ready and brushing up on sculpture, jewlery making, and digital photography. Here are some more recent pictures.