On The First Day of The First Grade...

Johnny began 1st Grade this month.

His Teachers are Mrs. Martin and Mrs. Crosby.

(They each teach 2 days a week and every other Wednesday.)

So far, it's been shockingly uneventful. His favorite buddies Grant and Teddy are in his class and he still works with Mrs. T., so the transition to 1st grade was very easy. And he still gets to go next door to say hello to his kindergarten teacher, Mrs. M.

Here are the required first day of school photos

Maisy gets VERY EXCITED when she sees the school bus turn the corner onto our street.

Today was picture day. Johnny told me he smiled like a vampire. Based on the "smile" he showed me, I'm assuming we won't be ordering extra photos again this year!

So far he's been pretty excited because First Graders get to check out TWO BOOKS at the library. As far as I can tell that's about the only difference.

We have already begun selecting and changing our minds about Halloween costumes. It's going to be a a LLLOOONNNGGG month till Halloween.

Summer Catch Up

Summer is almost over and I have, once again, been terrible about keeping up my blog.

Because of moments like this, I am too busy chasing little people to do anything that requires me sitting in front of a computer for more than just typing a search for "Lego Batman Video Game" on youtube.

Maisy likes to dress up. She also provides sound effects for all of her dress up clothes. Mostly just "ggggrrrrr"

Here is a rare moment where she is being nice to Don. Poor Don really takes it in the shorts! Maisy chases him all day. She hugs him, she tries to carry him, she bites him, (gross, i know) she pets him - and not always soft touching! But, it's not completely miserable for him. Recently she fed him cat food, one piece at a time, and he ate it from her.

Our front porch is done and Maisy loves sitting on it.


More dress up. Bet you didn't know that spiders growl? Maisy Spiders do!


Johnny was invited to be in the pet parade with his friend Grant and their family. Grant's guinea pig, Frederick, was dressed as Darth Pig. Unfortunately Johnny's storm trooper suit is about 3 sizes too small, but he didn't care. He had a great time and he's hoping he gets invited back again next year. (Gabe stepped in dog poop after the parade. Highlight of MY summer!!!)




Cousin Bailey's mother shops...ALOT. Recently I went through the next clothing size and got out shoes and put them in a laundry basket. Maisy came in the room and excitedly exclaimed "SHOES!". And sat down to play. She LOVES shoes and has spent weeks playing with them. She sorts them, she stacks them, she hands them to you and says "SHOE ON!" or "WANNA WEAR IT". If she can't get them off she says "STUCK". She really doesn't play with toys, mostly she just wants to try on shoes and clothes. I can guarantee that never once in Johnny's 7 years and 3 months has he said the sentence "I wanna wear it". Maisy says this constantly. She loves her cow coat that Darla is letting her borrow and she hands it to Gabe and says "Wanna Wear It" almost ever day. And it's not enough just to put it on. You have to zip it up also.

Here is another reason why not much gets done around our house. Maisy is a monkey. She climbs and swings from everything. (Notice the cow coat she is wearing!) Our house has remained fairly child proofed from Johnny and his parents laziness of never taking anything down. I felt confident that we were prepared for another child. I was wrong. We need a padded room for Maisy. She's climbs everything. She swings from the sink. She recently fell on her head while trying to swing from the oven door at a friends house. She climbs up and through the ladder to Johnny's bunk bed. She jumps off the couch. She likes to sit in her little red elmo chair and lean back until she falls over backwards. Basically, she terrifies me. She has absolutely no fear and is strong enough to do whatever she wants.

We got out the gymnastics bar that momo and papa gave Johnny for christmas. Johnny had a blast swinging from it. So much so that his hands started hurting. So, he developed his own pair of "grips"...spider slippers. They didn't really work, but I was impressed with his creativity.

We went to the Point Defiance Zoo and Johnny gave money to the parrot.

Here is Maisy in the Hermit Crab. Remember her in the crab last year?

Johnny posing with the lemurs

Johnny on a spider web

Johnny and Maisy on the slide

Maisy got to go on the slide herself. She had a great time and eventually got very independent. I would walk her halfway up the stairs to Gabe and then wait for her at the bottom of the slide. Before long she wouldn't hold my hand and went running up the steps trying to get away from me and point out that she could do it on her own.

Johnny continued to do swimming lessons throughout the summer and advanced to level 2. He LOVES swimming and might be the only child in class smiling during his lesson...so much that he gets water in his mouth. He likes to jump into the pool by pretending he's chopping down a tree. He yells "chop, chop, TIMBER" and then jumps into the pool. He recently told me that you aren't allowed to dog paddle in his class. They don't teach swimming to dogs at his swimming class.

Johnny loves bugs, especially spiders. Gabe told Johnny that he thought he'd enjoy being an exterminator when he grows up. Johnny said "No daddy. I was to be a mad scientist".

Johnny did a camp at the Hands On Children's Museum and made a movie called "One Last Push To Victory". He played a Robot and had a great time. The film is going to be shown at the 6th Annual Olympia Youth - Teen Fest in September at the Olympia Film Society.

Johnny recently asked Gabe: "Daddy, if you are older than Mommy, how come she knows so much more than you?". (he's a brilliant boy, isn't he?!)

Maisy is talking a lot. She also has a favorite TV show. "Mickey Mouse's Club House". But she calls it "Toodles". Toodles is a minor character on the show, but she thinks it's the name of the show. And the name of Mickey Mouse.

She can often be heard saying "hep!" or "wanna wear it". She also likes to tell you she'll "be right back" as she takes off running down the street. You know she's up to know good when she's silent. I was enjoying a moment of peace and quiet when I realized I had no idea where she was. I found her. Quietly coloring on Johnny's bunk bed. (She's lucky! Her brother had colored on it long ago!) Sometimes when she knows she isn't supposed to do something she tells on herself and yells "mama!". You'll find her in Johnny's room holding a pen just waiting for you to see her so she can write somewhere she isn't supposed to.

Maisy thinks that "mama" means she wants something. When she wants something she points to it and says "mama". I'm not sure how I feel about her equating me with the word she's supposed to use to get what she wants.

She also repeats whatever you say. Recently I burned my hand and learned the full effects of what Maisy will repeat. And Repeat. and Yell. And keep repeating over and over again. Until Gabe, in a truly genius parenting moment, taught her to say "shut the door" so now she just says "shut" all the time. And "shutty door". (feel free to add it to your parenting skills!)

1st grade starts Wednesday. Johnny will have Mrs. Crosby and Mrs. Martin and is very excited because Teddy and Grant will be in his class again. He's also going to teach all the 1st graders who only did ½ day kindergarten how to eat lunch in the lunch room.

Here is a video of Johnny swimming. He's actually even improved since this was taken.

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Johnny Is 7!

We've been building up to it for 11 months!

Johnny is officially 7 years old!

He's been planning his party, making invitations, planning decorations, fine tuning the guest list...SINCE LAST JUNE!

He woke up today at 7:27 am today and yelled "Is it morning? Am I 7?". He got out of bed, and instantly began dressing, by himself, for school. (Johnny still needs help dressing and it is actually quite hard and frustrating for him to dress, so he avoids it whenever possible!) He was so excited to begin his 7th birthday! Once at school he told everyone he saw that it was his birthday. He was also "Person of the Day" today, a complete coincidence. He got to wear a birthday crown, have the birthday bear sit at his table and Mrs. M. gave him a birthday pencil, he chose green - of course! The kids sang happy birthday to him and they wished him a happy birthday over the loud speaker during morning announcements. He requested Daddy come and have lunch with him and bring McDonald's for lunch. We were also in charge of snack today so we brought cupcakes. He then got to be a car kid and the whole family came to pick him up. We returned home where he opened presents. He then watched some TV and then we went to Red Robin for dinner and singing!Johnny has listed this schedule over and over during the last few weeks. By 9:00 am I was pretty certain that he might explode and birthday candles and confetti might shoot out of him! Johnny LOVED having them sing to him at Red Robin. He stood up on his chair and held his ice cream and spoon high up in the air. He looked SO PROUD. It actually brought tears to my eyes. Johnny has been quite shy in the past and never wanted them to sing to him. It was another marker of how much he's grown this year. All in all it's been an amazing year. In all honestly, I think this has been the year I've enjoyed Johnny the most. He's grown so much this year it's unbelievable. He LOVES school. He LOVES his friends, especially Teddy and Grant. He LOVES his sister and is the best big brother ever. He honestly wants to spend time with her and misses her when they are apart. He has a very sweet nature about him and it's so fun to watch.

Johnny will be having a party with his friends on Saturday. In years past we have requested our guests not to bring presents in hopes of teaching Johnny that everyone is here to celebrate him. This year he's on to us and realized that most kids get presents at their parties. He spent a good portion of the year wanting us to write "PLEASE BRING PRESENTS" on his invitations, but we decided to leave that off.

Gabe and I both feel like today was a little kick off party for the rest of the week! It could be an exhausting few days!

Happy Birthday Johnny!

Merry Christmas

I can't believe it's Christmas time again!

It seems like yesterday that I posted this

http://johnnyjohnnyg.blogspot.com/2007/12/merry-maisy-christmas.html

We celebrated Christmas this evening with my family. Maisy and Johnny were very excited! Maisy walked around stealing presents and wrapping paper and standing on boxes. She totally loved the gifts she got and had no interest in sharing.

Johnny also LOVED his presents. He got a new Ben 10 Alien Force T-Shirt and he's very excited to show it to his good friends Grant and Teddy when school resumes. He's pretty sure they will be impressed. He also got a box of Lego's and some helicopters and airplanes and instantly began building an airport and other planes to add to his fleet. We actually had a hard time getting him to leave because he wanted to continue playing with his toys.

Tomorrow we will have the Rutledge's over and Johnny can't wait. He thinks we should open gifts starting with the oldest kids, only after checking to see if Uncle Joel was older than him and if he was a kid or an adult. After discerning that Uncle Joel is an adult he went forth with his plans. I think he mainly just wanted to find a way for him to open his presents first!

Maisy is very huggy right now. Here she is hugging Momo's toy rocking horse. Prior to this picture she was riding it!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!