Kindergarten Looming

Apparently sometime between now and the last couple of years I blinked.. and something happened.. my babies grew from little itty bitty babies that needed me for everything into almost big kids who are going to be heading to Kindergarten in September.

I knew that this was going to happen. I just am suddenly not feeling all that ready. The girls are excited and I feel ready and if they were allowed would go to Kindergarten tomorrow (ok on Monday). What is making me feel so not ready for Kindergarten... I went to a Kindergarten Info Session last night and I saw many mommies and daddies that I haven't exactly seen in a small while. We all met for the first time when all the kiddos were babies that we could carry in infant carseats and put them on the floor together to interact as best they could. Over time there were playdates, birthday parties, and random meetups at the park. Last night though we all filed into the auditorium and listened intently as the school principals talked to us about their buildings and then the Kindergarten Curriculm was outlined to us along with the Registration process. Then they let us ask our questions.. We had a few then they sent us off with papers with some FAQs about the process itself.

I went home (ok to my mom's) and one girl was sleeping and I couldn't believe how much she looked like the little baby that I held not so long ago and I started feeling sad since I'd be sending her and her sister out into the world in just a few short months. I got melancholy and weepy at work today as I kept thinking about how quickly my babies have grown and how much their Daddy would be loving this time in their lives. They are both potty trained (with the occasional accident), are very chatty, seem to be so smart and are extremely funny.

I really hope that there is a program of some sort for the Mommies who thought they were ready to send their kids to Kindergarten but are reluctant to truly let go of those little hands and trust that their babies will be ok in a classroom filled with so many other kids and a couple of teachers. I'm betting that I won't be the only Mommy fighting back the tears as her babies enter the classroom, but I know that I'll also be fighting those tears because their Daddy isn't here to shed those tears alongside me and help keep me calm and  distracted while the girls are in school for the first day.

Even typing this all out is making me weepy and needing to get the tissues, and this is just Registration. The first true day of school is still 7-8 months away and I think that I will be doing my best to not only keep them little by snuggling with them as much as possible but to get them ready for the independence that they are going to need to have once they cross the threshold into the Kindergarten Classroom and become school kids.

I think that's enough rambling on this topic for the moment.

Sweater Knitting

So one of my gifts for Christmas was some money from my BIL ... I intended to spend it solely on myself and for a spiffy new knitting bag.. since I really need one.. so I took the girls to the knitting store with me that I know has some spiffy knitting bags and they were basically out of those.. Instead I fell in love with a sweater pattern and some yarn and needles... $23 over my gift amount and I was in business.

Here's the thing... it's not a regular sweater pattern of make the front, make sleeves, make the back and now sew it all together (hate that part btw) and hope it fits correctly.  THIS pattern is for making the sweater in the round and all at once..

It's my first time doing it though... so there's all sorts of fun anxiety for me as I am figuring it all out. I'm about to start the 14th round.. of many many rounds... ok it's only 52 rounds plus all the shaping and ending stuff that happens once you have everything done.

I've already learned my new thing for this project.. it's basically called a bar increase but the direction for it written out was sounding a little funky to me and I had to go to knittinghelp.com to see a video of how to do it (I needed to turn 1 stitch into 4 stitches - though a bar increase as seen in the video only makes the 1 stitch into 2 stitches).

I'm hoping that I'll get the project (or the majority of it) done before Spring arrives since it has shorter sleeves and will hopefully be weather appropriate too.

Here's a link to the pattern for the sweater... http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/rusted-root



Mine will be Pink and made from Cascade Superwash 220.

How I spent My Winter Break

So my work had a shutdown for the holidays... from the 21st of December till the 2nd of January (this means I go back tomorrow).. This meant that I got to spend lots of time with the girls... something I don't get to do very much at all now that I'm working.

I feel like I got a lot done and yet still got nothing done at all.. but I had a great time. We started our break with one last dance class for Lily for 2012. Then we had a bunch of visitors the next day... Noreen and Natalie showed up with a Gingerbread Castle to put together, a Princess Candy Land game and Princess decorations for the girls room. They no sooner left and our friends Joe and Peggy showed up to take us out to dinner and then a visit to the Zoo for a Christmas lights display followed by opening presents from them.

Christmas Eve brought a visit to the Cousins house to have dinner and open a few presents..

We got home just in time to leave out some cookies and Chocolate milk for Santa before going to bed with visions of all the fun new stuff that Santa was sure to leave us.

Christmas Day was really nice.. Santa gave us lots of fun stuff.. like Princess Duplo building sets, new baby dolls, a new baby stroller, more Calico Critters, games, Mini Lalaloopsy sets...

We spent the next day in Boston with a visit to the Children's Museum and getting to participate in a play in the Kidstage area. We also got to visit a Kindergarten Classroom exhibit. Both girls loved that quite a bit. Afterwards we headed over to South Station to have a Pizza lunch and got surprised by getting to see a Train Display in the station itself.

I sent the girls to Daycare for the next 2 days so that I could get my Will signed and notarized and see the movie Les Miserables. I also got a chance to go to the mall by myself and have lunch out with my mom. The next 2 days were full of 2 more trips to the mall and finally some snow...

We ended 2012 with a sledding adventure and then going to get some Hot Chocolate and Pizza to warm up. The sledding was lots of fun for all of us.. Both girls didn't seem too sure about it at first but after a couple of trips down the hill with Mommy in the back of the sled, they warmed up to it and kept wanting to go again..

We spent our last day of the break going to an indoor play area with all sorts of fun bouncy houses.  We even met up with a co-worker of mine from work and then I noticed a HS friend and her son there too. Before we went though we had an impromptu snowball fight that Lily started.

I'm not exactly looking forward to going back to work tomorrow but I like the fact that I won't need to play referee to anyone and that I'll get to have conversations without 20 interruptions happening.