Everyone needs a hero

So we're leaving preschool yesterday and Caroline is full of vim and vigor. She runs up to the heavy double doors and says, "I can open these Mom. Don't help!" Of course she needed help as they're heavy as boulders, but the advantage of being three feet taller than your kids is that you can give a little push above their head without them knowing.

Upon getting the doors open, she comes bounding out and gleefully exclaims, "I'm a superhero! I'm Super Caroline!" Then she stops, turns and gets in her ready stance and quickly adds as she races off, "I need to go save 'someting'....or someone."

Cute little monkey. She can save me anyday.

Love you to pieces!

Our member of the family, Duckie, was in kinda bad shape last week. I think this little guy deserves an entry all his own since he really has become a member of the family. As perhaps you all know, this guy is Caroline's lovey/cozy/woobie...whatever you want to call him. If he was lost I don't think she'd ever recover....or me, for that matter.

Flashback to Summer 2007:
Duckie was not actually Caroline's first love(y). Mr. Bunny was Duckie's predecessor. He went AWOL in late summer of 2007 when we took a trip to the Gateway and I erroneously allowed him to leave the car. I was hysterical and re-traced my steps throughout the entire mall to no avail. I posted ads on Craigslist, KSL.com and even "missing lovey" websites (yes, there are such things as this is apparently a common phenomenon among parents of young children) to either find the original Mr. Bunny or a replica of the same model. Target, of course, had stopped selling them.

I received Mr. Bunny and Duckie as gifts from my friend Brenda at a baby shower before the girls were born. Who knew that these little guys would be the chosen ones for Miss Caroline. They came as a set and had cute little robes on them. Anyway, after HOURS of scouring the internet I actually found and bid $50 for a replacement on Ebay for the exact same model as Mr. Bunny. I won! But before I could get him home, Caroline had attached herself to Mr. Bunny's buddy, Duckie Duck (as he was eventually named by Caroline).

I was so excited to present the new "Mr. Bunny" to her after her nap the day he arrived to show her he finally came home from "vacation." But she just chuckled and barely gave him much notice before she grabbed Duckie and exclaimed, "Duckie Duck!". She was smitten...the rest is history and he hasn't left her side since. Except now, under no circumstances, does Duckie leave the car if we are going to a public place!

August 1, 2007 shortly before Mr. Bunny took his "vacation."

Bounce back to September 14, 2009:

If you could actually love a stuffed animal so much that it eventually became "real," as in the beloved children's book, The Velveteen Rabbit, then Duckie Duck would indeed have blood coursing through his veins and be able to quack and waddle like his buddies in the park. Caroline has "loved him to pieces" (her new bedtime mantra....more on that later) quite literally many times. Last week's injuries were just the latest, albeit most serious, results of her "loving" actions. Over the past two years Duckie has been totally picked clean of his stuffing, had holes chewed and picked in all places of his body and now has had his right foot torn completely off, chewed into pieces and sucked dry. The prognosis looked grim, but Dr. Mom somehow pulled off a miracle.

Patient's injuries pre-operation

Post Op. Right foot, sole and slipper reattached. Patient shows signs of healthy weight gain and improved hygiene habits. Strong odor and age spots significantly reduced. Robe's whereabouts currently unknown.

We are glad you are still with us, Duckie. Even though you are a true master at hide and seek, and I have spent countless hours trying to find your latest hiding spots....I hope you never decide to go on "vacation." You are truly irreplaceable!

First Day at Expanding Horizons!

September 15th was a big day for Ava and Caroline. It was their first day at their new preschool Expanding Horizons. It's right around the corner at the Carmen Pingree School for Autism and is an inclusive program that incorporates developmentally appropriate methods while mainstreaming one to two autistic students into the classroom.

I love their approach, as they understand that early learning is best achieved through play and fun rather than rigid workbook and rote memorization techniques similar to those adopted by Challenger School and other programs. Since signing them up, I've had several rave reviews from parents of former students. One mom even said her two boys who went to Challenger cried for 30 minutes every day she dropped them off and had a hard time adjusting scholastically and socially to kindergarten, while her daughter who attended Expanding Horizons loved going every day and was reading by the time she hit first grade. Big thanks to Laurel (La) for helping to make this happen and giving me the recommendation. We couldn't be happier.

I believe they have the rest of their young lives to work hard in the classroom and now is the time for fun! And boy do they have fun!

I was a bit worried in the beginning because they go from 8:15 - 11:15 in the morning three days a week. While I'm ecstatic to have 9 whole hours to myself every week, I was not so excited to wake up so early. We usually don't wake up until 8:30 or 9:00 a.m. so the prospect of such an early morning worried me. But the girls were troopers on their first day (and since). They are so excited to go to school that they don't give me any trouble as I wake them promptly at 7:30 and proceed to dress, feed, style their hair and get them on the potty all before leaving the house at 8:00 a.m. I figure we can worry about brushing teeth until after lunch.

Here are a couple of pictures on their first day. I know it's going to be a good year when Ava proclaims before we even get to the car, "I LOVE Extanding Horizons!!!!!"

Outstanding!

Eating a good breakfast because as Caroline says, "I'm getting my energy!"
(wonder where she heard that?)

As soon as we walked into the classroom this little guy comes running up to say hi. The girls are pros at meeting new kids and didn't skip a beat introducing themselves. Then it was off to wash their hands to start the day off nice & clean (LOVE THAT!). They get their own little cubbies with their names and pictures on them too. So cute!

Me and You and Zoo boomafoo!

That's the song from Ava's favorite show that stars a cute lemur puppet named Zaboo. Anyway, the 3 of us have had a great couple of days involving animals and fun. We hit the last day of the Utah State Fair yesterday and had a great time. Of course, Mom didn't bring the camera to capture all our fun since it was a last minute idea but a few of the highlights include:

* A pony ride for BOTH girls. Ava was brave and got on her horse without a fit...I was really surprised. She asked for a small one and got the littlest guy there. He was probably smaller than a Great Dane and was named Moose. She was a trooper. Caroline's was named Red. They still remember their ponies' names from last year; Scarecrow and Rusty

* Five super fun rides: The racecars that whipped them around the corners and slammed Ava into Caroline (glad I inadvertantly put Caroline on the outside) and put a huge smile and laugh on Ava's face; the hot air balloons that went up and around and tilted (Mom got to ride on that too); the helicopters that Caroline piloted expertly (with Mom's help); the merry-go-round where Ava insisted on sitting on the bench with Mom, and the train (of course)...Mom got to skip that one.

* As Seen On TV products like the Krustbuster that cuts the crust off sandwiches and make great kid-friendly concoctions and can even put smiley faces on their sandwiches, magical invisible and erasable markers for the girls where I can write secret messages to them, and tops for aluminum can drinks that hold the carbonation in for four days and have screw tops and little drink holes for the kids. I'm such a sucker for stuff that will make life fun for the girls (and me).

* Vanilla ice cream and orange dreamsicle treats.

* Petting a billy goat

* Great and scary people watching that makes you feel so good about yourself even on your worst day. (Ladybugs, education is a good thing!)

And today we hit Hogle Zoo. It was a beautiful Fall day and perfect for the zoo since the animals were so much more active. Plus, we got to see all the new babies born in the last few months, notably the cute baby elephant, giraffe, snow leopard and the three baby tiger cubs. Thank you Heather and Mimi for the great gift of the zoo membership. We can go anytime we want and not feel guilty for staying only an hour or so!

Testing balance and climbing skills on the giant web

The new baby Zuri whom upon seeing Ava exclaimed, "I LOVE baby Zuri!" She seriously is super cute and "so tiny!" as Ava likes to say.

The baby giraffe who is only two months old
Goofing around on the big cat statues
Inches away from the real thing. Hope that glass is strong!

Mama taking a snooze with one of her three cubs

I'm Sleeping Beauty!

That's what my little Ava said when she climbed into her new Big Girl Bed. Uncle Jeff came over on Thursday to help transform their cribs into toddler beds (aka Big Girl Beds). I have to admit, I was a bit apprehensive about how they would react and what little sleep awaited us that night but they both surprised me with happy reactions and excitement. I couldn't be more proud of them! They both went right to sleep with minimal shenanigans and getting out of their beds and slept the night without falling out! Good job babies!

Ava worried me the most since she hasn't had any experience sleeping in anything other than a crib and because she's so attached to her bumper and tickle tags, but she was actually more excited and even told me she didn't need her "b" when I put her down for bed because she's a "big girl now!" Way to go Ava!

Caroline got a toddler bed in Eden a few weeks ago and has a little experience adjusting to the idea but she was the one who had more trouble with it. She cried a little bit at bedtime and said she wanted her rails back on her bed. But it was brief and she rallied.

I think it helped that I waited to make the change until after I was able to find some cute new toddler quilts so they looked super cute when they came to see their new beds. They both started pretending to be different princesses because they felt like royalty in their new princess beds! I did get a little teary and nostalgic because I was remembering when Brad and I were putting the cribs together when I was six months along and thinking about Brad tearing up and saying, "I can't believe there are going to be two little babies in here."

Yep, and now there are two little "big" girls who are getting so grown up. Thanks so much to Uncle Jeff for prodding me into the change and getting the job done. He was so good at spinning the whole event into an exciting and happy adventure, it really made it smooth and fun for all of us.

Sleep well, my angels.

So cute and the room looks so much bigger

Ava had a bit of a hard time pulling herself up without the rails, but she's a pro now

Caroline has all her buddies and their buddies :-)

This is when she said, "I'm Sleeping Beauty!"

It's bedtime and silly face time. How cute are those little legs?

Duckie has some competition

She needed her "b" in the middle of the night

You know you're a redneck when....

you create a waterpark in your backyard with a baby blow-up pool and plastic slide. But the kids had a blast! I created this little water wonderland for them Saturday after their naps when the mercury hit almost 100 degrees. Since we have complete privacy in our backyard thanks to the grapevines, I told them they didn't need swimsuits. I don't know which they liked more, the cool waterslide or going tinkle on the grass standing up. Caroline definitely made the biggest splash. Little Ava barely gets enough speed with her tiny body to make a dent. To top things off, I just bathed them and washed their hair right in the pool. I'll be putting their pink car on blocks next week to complete the effect.

Ava's attempt at going backwards

Ahh, summer!

Bite Me!

Not too happy with little miss Caroline's antics today. She bit her sister so hard on the face this morning when she couldn't get a toy away from her, it left some serious marks. Ava was crying so hard you couldn't hear her. This is the evidence. I can only hope it doesn't scar. I guess it's payback for a similar bite Ava gave her on the cheek not too long ago. I wish I knew how to cure them from acting out their frustrations on each other this way. Pinching has become an issue too.

When I told Caroline, "Say you're sorry to Ava" after her time in the naughty chair, she went into the living room and haughtily yelled, "You're sorry Ava!!"

Yeah, not the most heart-felt apology.