September 19-24

September 19: Dottie and I had plans to go to Great Adventure. We were able to get 2 people in free so we had made plans to go on the only day that really worked for us. We planned on meeting just after lunch and it worked out perfectly. Tyler had a great time with his cousin Carli. He even got to try out a ride he had been waiting for, the Runaway Train (I think that's what it was). His Aunt Dottie helped him spike up his hair and stand tall to make it through the height requirements. He loved the ride and they ended up riding again with me. We fit in quite a bit of rides in the short time we had (about 3.5hrs) before the boys and I had to leave for a boyscout thing with Tyler.










We literally arrived at Camp Ockinickin in the nick of time to get Tyler quickly changed in the car and run to the campfire. Even so, we were a couple of minutes late, but thankfully not the latest to arrive. Poor Jason apparently was jealous, so he ended up wearing Tyler's tiger scout t-shirt. He is quite convinced that he too is a scout. He happily bopped about to the songs and "performed" during skits. He had a grand time, and I'm pretty sure people got a kick out of him, even though he was a bit of work for me. LOL. Tyler had fun at his first big event, probably due to the smores!




September 20: After dropping my mom off at PT I took Jason to the library to pick out some books. Apparently it was more fun to line up dinosaurs.

Then a quick trip to Freedom Park before picking up my mom again.

That evening I took Tyler to the new Monday night Kids Fit at the gym while Beth and I exercised. Jason was quite jealous that he had to stay in the nursery.

After Ty was in bed I had to do something that I had hoped to avoid...or at least in 1st grade. I don't want to go into too many details here in my blog, because our town is a small town and I don't want to spread rumors. Short story is that Ty's behavior since school started had been poor...really poor. Eventually I dragged it out of him that he was being bullied (not his word, mine). I tried coaching him through responding in a different way, with no luck. So this day, after another incident, a wrote a nice long letter to his teacher about the interactions. I since learned that the bullying is not limited to Tyler, which in some way makes me feel better to know that Ty isnt' the sole target of this child's inappropriate behaviors.

September 21: I'm assuming Jason had his typical Tuesday therapies, but otherwise I have no idea what we did. Probably hit the gym? I did get a letter back from Ty's teacher and was hopeful that that would be the end of that situation (turns out, I was wrong)

September 22: On the first day of fall, after school, we decided to enjoy what would probably be our last day at the lake. It was too cold for me for sure, but not for Tyler at all.

Another round of soccer practice that night. Getting old. Getting really old, especially since Tyler doesn't even seem to enjoy it at all.

September 23: Today was the first day of fall, so after dropping my mom off at PT and running some errands it seemed appropriate to kill some time at dunkin donuts while we waited for my mom to get done PT.

I had been discussing with my parents the possibility of signing Tyler up for Karate, but after the bullying incident we decided it would be a good time. Not cause I want him to practice karate on this kid, but because it's supposed to be good for building confidence and strength and discipline. And, later down the road, if necessary, he would know how to defend himself...NOT in first grade and certainly not unless necessary. Anyway, my dad came home from work with information about a local karate studio run by a friend of my dad's friend. We decided to check it out. We just watched a class that evening, but Ty was happy to see another fellow first-grader there.

September 24: After taking my mom to PT I finally tried an official storytime at the library again, after fleeing quickly after Jason's meltdown at the last one many months ago. He did pretty well, and was quite happy with his carpet square. LOL.

Afterwards, a little chick-fil-a lunch. Yummy. Always nice to have a little playdate with my youngest little man.

That afternoon I brought Tyler in to meet with Master Turley at the karate studio. They had a brief lesson, which Tyler liked, so I took the plunge and signed him up for 6 months.

We were back there an hour later, in the new uniform, for his first official class. I must get back there with my real camera because the iPhone photos are unfortunate.



That night I think I was able to get out and finish up some shopping for Jason's birthday party.

September 12-18

September 12: We started a yucky rainy day with Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Yes, the original. Still haven't seen the remake and I'm in no rush. At 1:00 Tyler had his first Tiger Scouts meeting. He met his den leader, who is a really nice guy, and it seems like they have a good group of kids. They learned the motto and handshake and all that fun stuff, as well as obtaining info on future events and such. Luckily it was timed right so that Jason could stay home with my parents while he napped.

September 13: Monday had arrived and I was happy to get back to a regular routine with our first full school week. I took my mom to PT (she couldn't drive for a bit after her surgery) while I went to the gym before going back to pick her up. Afterwards I walked Jason down to the lake. He discovered acorns. Life is grand.

We went to the playground after school as it was a beautiful day. That night my grandparents came over to help out my mom with the boys while I went to Back to School night at Ty's school. Met his teacher, as well as the special education co-teacher, and the student teacher. Still trying to remain positive about the school year and things were relatively uneventful. They had a cute little way of letting us know where they sat, as they each had brought in a shirt from home and decorated a plate to make it look like they were there sitting at their seats.


September 14: Jason had speech in the morning before we rode the bike over to Maria's for a little playdate with her kids, Julie and her daughter, as well as another friend of Maria's and her daughter. After school Jason had OT. And I had a long night not being able to sleep, which I suppose can be blamed on the coffee I had at 10:00am. Sad, huh? Apparently I'm very, very, VERY sensitive to caffeine.

September 15: I know this is an odd thing to be excited about, but Jason wet the bed. Aside from the mess, this was a very monumental event because this meant that Jason actually drank enough fluid to wet through his diaper! Way to go Jason! He had also been babbling a ton more than usual, which is quite unlike him...and very cute!. That night Ty had his first soccer practice, which went slightly better than the first game had gone.

September 16: While Ty was in school Jason and I took a long adventure to go buy Tyler his Tiger Scout uniform. What a trek out to nowhere! At least we were successful, $81 later. Sheesh! The only good news is we passed a Taco Bell on the way home. A rare treat. We had time to briefly stop at Bob Meyer park for Jason to play. I had been frantically trying to find a location for Jason's 2nd birthday party, and this is what we had finally settled on so I wanted to check out the locale. Adorable playground, which had been recently received a handicapped accessible addition. This immediately became my favorite local playground!

September 17: I spent all my "downtime" (what the heck is that?) working on gathering stuff for my brother's garage sale. Many thanks to Jim who came over and helped me load all the stuff into his truck and transported it to his house.

September 18: I was up bright and early and spent my whole morning at my brother's for his garage sale. In all honesty, totally not worth it. Next time I'll go back to my regular practice of listing the big items on craigslist or ebay and then donating the less valuable things on freecycle or give them to Vietnam Vets. Meanwhile my dad took Ty to his soccer game that day. That night the weather was too beautiful to pass up, so despite being exhausted, we stopped at WaWa and picked up some food for the makings of a picnic at Bob Meyer Park. Tyler declared this "the best playground ever".

September 5-11

September 5: Went to go visit my grandparents, and ended up having an impromptu lunch there.


That afternoon we had a BBQ to go to at my Aunt Maureen's house. The boys had a nice time playing with my cousin Beth's son Patrick. It was nice to see extended family as well.


That night I got a much-needed night out. After the boys were in bed I went to Beth's house and walked over to PJ's with her brother's girlfriend and her brother-in-law's girlfriend. My friend Melinda met us as well, and we enjoyed some appetizers, some nice conversations, and a few much-needed drinks! It had been a long time since I had been able to actually drink (9 months of pregnancy and almost 2 years of nursing)! Of course I didn't actually drink much anyway, for fear that I wouldn't be able to respond to Jason in the middle of the night, not to mention that of course I'd be expected to be up with the boys in the morning. But it was a nice night out.

September 6: Labor day arrived. We spent the morning labelling school supplies and getting ready for the start of school. It's amazing how long it can take to sharpen and individually label 24 pencils. Yes, individually label. My hands were tired for sure after all the sharpening, sorting, bagging, and labelling that took place!

We decided to spend our unofficial last day of summer at the lake. Seemed fitting.




Afterwards we walked up to the Sand Stand for hot dogs for dinner, and topped it off with some yummy ice cream! Not a bad end to a very fun-filled summer!





September 7: Today was the big day we had been waiting for, the beginning of first grade. Tyler rode his bike to school, excited for his first day (half day). He was a little leery, being as most of his Kindergarten friends were not in Mrs. Hubner's class with him, but he showed no hesitation once we got there. My baby is growing up!





While Ty was at school, Jason finally got to have a speech session without Tyler's interuptions. A welcomed change for sure!

Ty was all smiles when he got out of school. Loved his first day!


After I got Jason down for his nap, I left him with mom-mom for a quick lunch date with my little man at McDonalds.

We had time outside for a little soccer prictice and a bike ride before dinner, baths and bed. And even managed to fit in time for some time-outs. Yes, that much fun. Apparently first grade was going to take some getting used to.

September 8: Another half day of school, and I was ready for it after Tyler's behavior the day prior! The day seemed to fly by, even though it's the same amount of time they always had in Kindergarten. After school Jason had OT, and then later that afternoon we went to the Ritter's house to enjoy the beautiful weather and a BBQ and bonfire. Smores. Yum!



September 9: I had originally planned to go to the Cape May Zoo on our day off of school, but I had a really rough night with Jason. However the weather was too beautiful to pass on, so we ended up going despite our late start. We also decided to bring along Ty's friend Mackenzie for our adventure. We packed lunch, which we ate on the drive, and arrived in early afternoon. The weather was gorgeous and all 3 kids were very well behaved. They particularly liked feeding the goats and watching the snakes and turtles.









We stopped on the way home for Wendy's..including frosties for all!


That night I took advantage of the break in the really hot weather and finally ran another 5K again. It felt good to run after a long time and I did better than I had done in the past, so that was good. Wish I could get faster, but I suppose that requires far more dedication than I have to give at this time. LOL.

September 10: The first day of full 1st grade school. And to top it off, it was cool enough that I could wear jeans comfortably. Woohoo! Some parents say that they are sad when their kids go to school and they miss them and it's too long of a day...I'm not gonna lie, I LOVED it! We had time to drop stuff off at the library AND go to walmart before our "tot storytime" at Vaughn Hall. Jason had fun with the kids, and of course was very pleased with our reader of the day, Sherri!


Afterwards we had a little impromptu playdate at Beach 1, before lunchtime and Jason's nap. I even got to take a little nap too, which is quite the luxury (rest assured this trend did not continue after day 1). Picked up Ty after school and he came bounding out. Apparenty he loved first grade as much as I do! We had time on the playground after school, a quick dinner, bikeride, and BED! Did I mention that I love first grade???

September 11: Wow, will we ever be able to type that date with being flooded with memories of images from that fateful day 9 years ago? 9 years, hard to imagine. We will NEVER forget.

Today was Tyler's first day of soccer. They got their uniforms and had a little practice before their big "game". Ty sorta stood out on the team, as being the smallest by far. Teams are 1st and 2nd grade boys, and being that he's young for his grade to begin with AND short wasn't a good combo. There were kids who easily had a foot on him. He does WANT to try soccer (I've never pushed him into playing a sport) but he gets very intimidated, which to some degree makes sense. Aggressiveness is apparently not a skill he possesses. He wants to be good, bless his heart, but I'm fairly certain that professional soccer will not be in his future.



That afternoon, after soccer, we met up with Melinda at McDonald's for a quick lunch and then to Great Adventure. Even though I had just been last weekend I had 2 free passes that I couldn't let to go to waste. We had a nice relaxing day with beautiful weather. Ty got to ride lots of rides since there was always an adult to stay with Jason. Got a nice up-close look for the tiger show. Very enjoyable day, minus a major breakdown on Tyler's part during dinner.