Wednesday, August 18, 2010

a lot to report

A lot has happened in the Vaughan household over the past week. Last Friday (well, two fridays ago now...) was Roan's preschool graduation. It was such a sweet ceremony. I will admit I was a bit dismissive of it initially. Before we left for it, Arwen asked me whether I was going to cry. "Oh give me a break. The whole thing is silly to begin with." But wouldn't you know, the minute I saw her rounding the bend, wearing her pink cap and gown I started bawling. Oh how our little baby is growing up!

(These are her the morning of her graduation. She looks so contemplative doesn't she?)


Here the kids are on the stage. They were so precious. Notice Roan is the grumpy looking one at the top far right with her hair all messed up, sitting by herself and pouting. Apparently she woke up from her nap just not quite herself. She snapped back to her usual sunny disposition right after all the cameras stopped snapping and the videos stopped rolling. Oh well!



The ceremony was so sweet. They called each child up to get their diplomas, which were watermarked with a photo of them in their cap and gown. They gave each child a chance to say what they want to be when they grow up (adorable!!!). And they performed several songs and dances. Then we had snacks and kool aid, and each child got a ballon and prize bag with coloring books, crayons, bubbles and other fun stuff. But the most touching thing was that each child was given a "Like Book" where Mom and Dad can write down something they like about the kiddo every night. And for the past several months, their teachers were doing that for them once a week. Some of the entries were very touching.

Here's Roan with one of her best buddies Gracie

Hugs

Us with her teacher Mrs. Martha. What an amazing woman she is!

Giving the new coloring book a spin

Sharing kool-aid

Blowing celebratory bubbles


Then we went out to celebrate at a kid friendly pub down the street, complete with ice cream sundaes. It was a wonderful! [PS. I hope to post some videos soon, but they need a little editing and I didn't want to hold up this blog entry any longer.]

On Sunday we got to meet Roan's new teachers, see her new school (Compass Montessori), and meet some of her new classmates. She got a chance to play on the playground and see the fish that live in her class. They also have fire-belly toads that will be returning to the classroom soon. She was really excited about her new school and wanted to go immediately.

After the meet & greet, Compass hosted a picnic at a huge park, complete with bouncy castle, snowcones and cotton candy. It was great to meet some other parents on the playground and give her a chance to make some friends. I have to say it was quite impressive to see the kids playing - in general - very well together. They seem well behaved and respectful, even the older ones. (Roan's campus goes up to 6th grade, and the other campus goes through 12th).

We also did some babysitting for Logan while Jen & Micah were at the Mile High Music Festival. These two cousins love each other so much, it's adorable!

I thought I got a video of them, but apparently I only snapped this one photo of Roan feeding Logan. She so enjoyed herself. Someone's ready to be a big sister!



On Monday Roan had her first swim lesson. I didn't manage to capture much at all, just two short clips before class started. She was SO excited. It was great. I think it's 5 or 6 other kids around her same age all with a 20-something young man named Isaac. At first glance he didn't strike me as someone very experienced with kids, but clearly the guy knows what he's doing. He had all the kids paying attention, doing as instructed, and Roan at least was doing things I never can seem to get her comfortable with. We saw her raise her hand to be the first one to "swim" on her back (with his help) -- something she usually fights us on. It was great to see her really enjoying herself.






And then Tuesday was Roan's first day of school. She was excited, and so were we. We had all her school supplies together, her lunch packed and her clothes laid out the night before. She picked out a dress Lolli made for her with her name on it, so all her new friends at school could learn her name on the first day.




She also took along a new school bag I sewed for her. It was a fun project. The school asks that you get a small canvas bag for your child and decorate it together. I had intended for her to pick out patches that I could either iron on or sew with minimal effort. But the store had a really lousy selection, and they were pricey to boot, so I decided to just do it all from scratch. The best part of this project was I didn't have to buy anything other than the bag -- the rest of it was all scraps I had lying around. She said she wanted an ocean scene, so she picked out what sea creatures she wanted and what colors they should be (a brown & green jellyfish, a pink shark, a yellow fish, a red eel and a blue whale). I think she had as much fun with it as I did.





Being the classic Type A parents we are, she was the first kid in the classroom on the first day. Her teachers were all so sweet (there are 3 for the 27 children). Here's a photo of the classroom before the other kids arrived. It's full of inventive and inviting materials that spark the natural curiosity every kid possesses. The room is also very thoughtfully prepared to enable the kids to be very independent. They are responsible for carrying their own school bags, putting them away in their cubbies, changing into their school shoes, and selecting a work mat and an activity to play with until the school bell. Then at exactly 8 o'clock a kindergartener (the class has 3-, 4- and 5-year-olds) rings a little bell and politely tells the children to put away their playthings and sit in a circle together for "First Meeting." It is a pretty impressive thing to see in action.


This is Roan on her first day, playing with the pink playdoh she picked out and making a new friend, Storey, who is a kindergartener. When we tried to give her a hug and kiss goodbye, she could have cared less. She was in the zone. She is really ready for this next big step!


And in other news, I keep getting bigger. My weight gain isn't too bad, but my circumference is overwhelming! It's weird though how the pics don't always convey the full story. These two photos were taken 1 day apart. And it's not like that grey dress really hides things-- I looked much bigger in the mirror than in the photo. The one in the blue shirt is much more true to life.



This is from this week, Week 22


Literally everywhere I've been the past two days -- post office, grocery school, Roan's class -- complete strangers have made comments like, "Oh when's the baby due, any day now?" And I'm like, "Uh, no, I still have FOUR MONTHS to go, but thanks. A lot." The first 5 times were kind of funny but it's starting to make me self conscious. And it's not coming from clueless bachelors. It's always women. Usually who are toting one or two kids along behind them. WTF?!?

Maybe I'm reaching a plateau. I've heard that with the second you show much sooner, but you don't usually end up much bigger than the first time. At some point the expansion slows down. This is what I have been told. But this is a Schlobohm boy I'm carrying here, so all bets are off. Will the growth curve remain exponential, or will it level off? It's gonna be what it will be so I might as well sit back and just hope I can still fit into my elastic jeans two weeks from now. All I know is if things keep going like they are I'm going to grow out of my huge fabulous maternity wardrobe in no time.

He is kicking a lot more. Today in yoga class he was dancing the samba or something. It was nice. This past week I've also experienced some not so great pregnancy side effects. One morning I woke up with a mystery bruise on my belly. Probably all the extra blood flow and stretching popped some blood vessels near the surface. And then for the past few days I've been experiencing what is apparently "round ligament pain". I had heard of this and always envisioned it would feel something like a tight hamstring, only in the baby belly area. But it's quite different. It feels at times like an intense stabbing pain that in some cases is so great it caused me to cry out involuntarily. Sometimes it's more mild. When it happens - always in the same spot - the surface of my belly there feels incredibly tender. But then it goes away. I'm under the impression that this is pretty typical for around 20+ weeks and that it won't necessarily stick around till the end. I'm starting to wear a maternity belt for support, which should help. Anyway that's it for The Pregnancy Report.

In House News, we have done our final walkthrough on the house, and now have a close date: this Thursday August 26th, just 2 days before Arwen's 37th birthday! Our To Do List has grown quite long as you can imagine. But we'll get through it one thing at a time. This is an exciting time of so many new beginnings for us!


4 comments:

Leah said...

Wow! Great update. so much is going on in your lives right now.

Elisa and Adam said...

Thanks for the awesome update! Wowee - you guys have lots going on. Sounds like you are all doing great. One day at a time. You look awesome! I'm really looking forward to hanging out with you in a few weeks while the boys are running!

Karla said...

Roan is adorable, and her new school could not sound more fun!

You look great! I showed WAY earlier with my second than with my first. And I measured several weeks ahead during all of the second trimester. But I did plateau, right around 26 weeks if I remember right. And then I felt like I was the same size for the rest of the pregnancy.

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