holy time gap-kids, activities, NYC love



waiting for bus



I had not realized it has been so long since my last post. I sit here in the family room in the dark, miserable, sick and listening to my two kids fighting and crying at one another. Now they are here next to me telling on one another. Come on antibiotics-work. I thought I was having a really bad case of fall allergies...nope. Full blown sinus infection with the added bonus a side of double ear infections and of course a third course of strep throat. I am not feeling on top of my game and really do not want to play referee right now.



ready for lunch at the club



Done complaining.

Dev loves kindergarten. Loves, loves loves it. He does come home tired and crabby, but he is always excited to go back the next morning. He is gone from 8:15-3:25ish and that is a long day for a just turned 5 year old. I was worried at first, but he digs it and I dig the quiet time with Riley. Dev got his time before she was born and now it's her turn. He has learned so much Spanish and art terms but they are still going over basics in the classroom. He's ahead on the stuff he is doing now so he did comment that he is bored when they do math and writing.

Riley loves her school too. She would like to go more often than she does. She has two very nice teachers and they seem to really like what they do. It is not as formal as Devin's old school was, but it still is regimented which is good. She is learning the days of the week right now and its funny to hear the songs they teach them to remember things. Some things you never forget...like ROYGBIV, or Oscar Had A Heap Of Apples (or Olive had a hit of acid) for sine, cosine and tangent. And of course no one can ever forget that 6.02*10^23 is a mole(in my sing songy voice.) Funny thing is I never could remember the song for remembering the classification of biology terms from freshman year b.c I HATED my teacher. I know its kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species but cannot recall the acronym. Riley is in the midst of doing this for days of the week, months and seasons. Its adorable....and the cycle begins with learning through creativity.

I think tomorrow we are going to go and see Nemo in 3d since Dev's school will be observing Yom Kippur and we were not able to go to Baltimore like I had planned since I am sick and still contagious until tonight/tomorrow am. I am assuming the theater will be busy but not crazy since two rooms will be showing the movie. I know the kids have been amped up to see this since the previews started coming around we just have not had a chance to go plus it is forecasted to rain.



my all time FAV bridge



Activities wise-Devin plays soccer on Saturday ams. Its 30 min of clinic then 30 min of scrimmaging. Good for the lil guys since it is a cluster f on the field. It is painful to watch when you have an idea of what it should/could look like. He loves it and that is all that matters. Plus weather is amazing so any way we can get outside to play-I am game for.



Riley will be starting gymnastics in Oct. I was going to sign her up for ballet, but she told me she would rather do tumbling. She cannot do both so gymnastics it is! I am glad she will have an activity just for her. She had to watch Devin play tball and now soccer while she sat on the sidelines....now she will have her own. I have to grab her a leotard next time I head out. :)

 Other than that, gymbucks redemption and Janie and Jack's friends and family is this weekend. Baby Gap is having their big sale and I will be listing my eBay sales soon. Thank god b.c the kids need fall/winter stuff. This came around a lot sooner than I am used to since I am used to the desert weather. We have not had our heat/AC on for two weeks and it was 63 in the house this am. BUUURRRRR! I have been in pants and hoodies. Doesn't help that I am under the weather.

I did get to drive up to Long Island this past Saturday for the bridal shower of one of my very best girlfriends from college. She is marrying a man she met during her residency. He is from Flushing so there was a bridal shower in NY as well as Cleveland where she is from. It was so great to be able to see her and meet some of her inlaws to be. They are VERY Italian. Meaning most of the 50+ did not speak English. They thought I was Italian b.c of my dark hair, dark eyes and olive skin. I only wish. :( I am very happy that I am back by NYC. Love the city. Love all cities....but mainly two...NYC and SF. Sigh. Cannot wait until Frankie and I can go up sans kids for some adult fun. I will say I made it up to the city in no time...but took For-ev-er to get through Staten Island and midway through Long Island. Boo to NY traffic!





new trade center



Kindergarten-The "best school ever!"

Devin did not sleep well the night before his first day of school. He was too excited to get his first day going. He received sequins and a story from his new teacher to read the night prior and put the sequins under his pillow. He woke up early and said they did not help :). He got dressed and I got his back pack ready and off we went outside for pictures. Riley was very excited for Devin to get on the school bus too so she hurried outside with us. Devin's bus was scheduled to be at the house at 8:00am on the dot and due to first day delays at homes and a new route, it did not pull up until 8:21am.

Devin was SO amped up and anxious to for the bus to arrive that every car sound he was on full alert to look for his bus. Ever since he was 2.5 he has been waiting for his chance to board one....and yesterday was his turn. After weaving it's way through our neighborhood and picking up a few kids it drove up to our house. (Since he is in kindergarten, it comes to your house). He was adorable and waved the whole time the bus turned the corner and stopped out front. He got on with no hitches of course and went right into talking to and meeting "Driver John." Frankie, Riley and I walked around to wave good bye and all we could see was Devin standing next to John and talking to him. Who knows what he was asking him about but Lord knows by Christmas John will be ready for Devin to take a week off from sitting behind him.

Riley and I stayed home and got a lot of things done. Dev only had a half day and was scheduled to leave school by 1:10. I had no idea what time he would be home so I figured if we stayed home all day and got stuff done, I would not chance missing the bus drop off. He ended up getting home about 1:25 and I was out front waiting at the front door. He saw me and was waving his little heart out the whole way coming down our side street to turn to our actual drop point. He had a GREAT day and was so excited to show me his pictures he drew/colored and explain how "kindergarten is run by Mrs. Trauger." He got to meet the gym teacher and got his shuttle group. I am glad that he is in full day since that means he get to have all the enrichment classes. Gym, Art, computer, library, comprehension class and music. All in all, he loves it and cannot wait to get to go back.

 

First day of Preschool-Got to see AGT Live!

Riley woke up later than her usual yesterday at 8:07 am. She typically is up between 6:45 and 7:00. I guess the rainy dark day allowed her to get some extra sleep. She woke up, came in my room where I was getting dressed and simply said, "Mom, I am going to school today." I smiled, and said yes you are. She walked back to her room and got dressed in the dress she picked out the night prior. She came with with bow and cardigan in hand for me put in her hair. I of course started to get teary because my baby is no longer a baby and she is getting so big so fast. I did get all choked up when she asked if I was ready to go. No, I was not. I did not want to take her simply because that meant that she is slowly growing older and needing me less. We went out front, took the official first day of school picture and got in the car.

She walked right in, sat right down with another girl and started to color. She was ready, I was/am not. I met her teacher who seems nice (a little too much candy sweet for me) but great for kids. Riley is one among 10 kids in her class. She is March 13th and the youngest is March 17th, while the other 8 are this fall turning 4 and in the winter. There is another threes class across the hall and I am glad that Riley got put with the older group for a few reasons. 1. There were a lot of crying kids in the other class 2. The other class was more full. Riley has two teachers since the law cuts one teachers max at 9 students  which is awesome for Ri. I gave her a hug and a kiss and Dev and I walked out hand and hand.

He wanted to go grab a bagel and hang out so that is what we did. We had breakfast dine in at his favorite bagel store here and then went to the library. We spent about an hour walking around picking out books and reading in the bean bag chairs. We ran up to go to Trader Joe's and he wanted to go to Janie and Jack. I couldn't say no since it was his morning. He walked right in, walked to the back sale section. Then asked me if we are looking for clothes for fall for him size 5 or spring next year 6 top, 5 bottom. I was cracking up. The sales associate just looked at me and said, "so I guess he likes clothes and shopping?" I smiled and said yes, he loves clothes and picking out his stuff. I told Devin we were not shopping and told him I was waiting for Friends and Family to start in 3 weeks. He said he would "Look around to pick some things out." He found an aviator line with a button cap. He put on a tie, belt and hat and was walking around pulling things off the racks making outfits. The sales lady was a manager and was cracking up the whole time with how specific Devin was with what he wanted to coordinate.  We never made it to Trader Joe's since he insisted on looking at every line. I haven't shopped much there as much since moving to NJ since they couldn't wear nice clothes while playing outside all summer. Now that they are back in school I can dress them nicer again.

Pick up was fine and Riley told me that she met two girls, Melissa and Madelyn. She said it wasn't, "Her Maddie from Las Vegas or Madeyln from down the street but a new one." She said there are soo many Madelyns. LOL. All she could tell me about was they played duck duck goose and sang the ABC's and read a story. We went to lunch at her place of choice-PJ's and then we had a quiet afternoon since it was monsooning at our house! I haven't seen rain like that in a very long time. We had a river outside of our house!

Got to go see a live taping of America's Got Talent last night in Newark at the NJPAC. That was a super fun thing to see in person....I am anxious to see what the clips look like at the results show compared to what it was like live.  I think the "talent" at the other semi show was better than last night and my favs were in the last taping so I really just want to fast forward to next week to the finals :)
 Devin headed off to Kindergarten today. More on that once he gets home and tells me all about his first day. Bus was 21 min late and of course Devin was asking a bazillion times where it was