First Day of School! First Day of School!

As much as we totally loved the preschool we did during the summer where all three kids and I stayed the whole time, it was pretty challenging for me to monitor Nathan, hold/nurse Benjamin, and also run a station or do the snack. I was tense and exhausted by the end of every preschool day. So...

Last week Caitlyn had her first day of preschool at Jones Elementary!

In San Diego the coat and backpack hooks are outside. And why not, when the weather is great pretty much every day of the entire year?

This is Miss Barbie. Another family in our ward who's had two of her boys in Miss Barbie's class recommended this preschool to us and said Miss Barbie is fantastic. So far we haven't been disappointed.

Yes, Caitlyn is eating breakfast. Nice that they serve the kids breakfast! Quinn drops her off at 7:15 on his way to work, and he loves the daddy-daughter time. He says Caitlyn is a little chatterbox and talks his ear off the whole way to school.

When we left on the first day of school, Caitlyn had already pulled out a puzzle and barely looked up to say goodbye. No time to waste, people!

Preschool

Tara, your text requesting some pics of our family motivated me to open up our blog page for the second time in like 7 months. Wow!
We'll do a preschool theme...and a couple other posts.
We've started a preschool where I stay and help run learning stations and siblings come too. It's so fun! Nathan loves it as much as Caitlyn and it's great for him to already be getting the preschool structure and doing the crafts and projects.
There's a theme for every day and last week one of the days was "backwards, inside out, mixed up day". So we wore our clothes backwards and inside out, etc. The art project for the art station was "upside down coloring" so the mom at the art station taped the coloring pages to the underside of the table and the kids colored laying on a mat on the floor.

p.s. Tanya, I don't know if those cowboy boots were originally Joey's or Kylan's, but Nathan insists on wearing them everywhere we go. :-)

Today during goodbye circle time the kids did tapping sticks to a song, which my kids love. I decided to whip out my camera and take a video because Nathan was following the instructions really well and I thought it was especially cute that he really closed his eyes the whole time when Teacher Marina said to for that part.

What happens when...

you allow your child to play in the water at Seaworld on a chilly San Diego evening in May even though you didn't bring extra clothes into the park?

He ends up looking like Yoda in your jacket while you walk out to the car to look for something else he can wear.

Thumb Sucker

Benjamin is a thumb sucker! They say every family gets at least one, and it looks like he's our one! I know I should try and prevent it, but it's so darn cute!

Natey's B-day

My little baby Nathan (who suddenly seemed huge once we brought Benjamin home) turned two!
He got a little learning center thingie (which our friends who were moving actually gave us and we hid it til his birthday -- when they're 2 you can still take advantage of the fact that pretty much anything is cool and exciting and they don't know or care that it's a hand-me-down, right?).

For his cake he picked out chocolate cupcakes...and wanted to eat them for breakfast. And why not? 

Happy Birthday, my sweet baby Natey!

The Birth of Baby Number Three

Yes, it's been 7 weeks, but better late than never right?
Benjamin Daniel Disparte.
The receptionist at his pediatrician's office said, "That's a good strong name."
6 lbs, 10 oz, 19 1/2 inches.
Perfect.
Benjamin's birth was pretty much the birth of my dreams. After having safe, smooth and positive births at a hospital and a birth center inside a hospital (ok, actually in the car and the ER on the second one), I felt good about giving birth at a free-standing Birth Center this time, Best Start Birth Center here in San Diego.
The few things about the first two births that I hoped to have happen differently this time around went perfectly. It was such a peaceful, calm atmosphere to labor and birth in. I LOVED giving birth at a Birth Center.
We went home four hours after he was born and got a great night's sleep with no nurses or doctors coming in and out.
Life with three kids has been, to my overwhelming relief, genuinely happy and pretty smooth! (As a side note, I found that leaving the computer off almost all the time is a major contributing factor to family and home life being smooth and happy; hence the 7-week-late post about Benjamin's arrival.)
Benjamin is a super smiley, happy baby and I am a waaaay more laid-back, calm, and relaxed mom than I was with one and even two, without sacrificing the level of orderliness that I like to have at home.
Caitlyn and Nathan looooooove the baby.
Life is good.

Benjamin, we are so incredibly happy you are here!

First Haircuts

Before:

 Notice the lovely little rat tail shining in the sun. :)

After:

I had heard so many horror stories about little kid haircuts that I put off cutting his hair for a loooong time. We did several bang trims and I did cut off his little rat tail while he was in the bath one night, but we didn't bust out the clippers until a couple weeks ago.
And guess what! It was a smooth and pleasant experience for all involved! Quinn just took him in the bathroom and said, "Sit down on the bench Natey." He sat down on the bench and held still the whole time while Quinn buzzed his little locks off with the clippers. Nice and easy. Woohoo!

Next up -- Before:

 Oh my!

After:

Funny that Cait's first haircut wasn't until she was three, but she just never had enough hair to cut until then! She had a serious baby mullet, poor thing. I actually cut her hair after giving her a bath on the night that Nathan broken his arm (the first arm). Nathan had finally cried himself to sleep in Quinn's arms and I was so stressed and upset about it that I think I just needed something to occupy myself so I pulled out the scissors and gave Caitlyn a haircut. She's due for another one sometime soon. Me too for that matter....