Smile!

This morning as I got into the van after dropping Teah off at preschool Carter said, "Mommy, smile!". I smiled and asked him why I was smiling and he replied, "Because I love you". He can turn on the charm when he wants to :)

Teah's Gymnastics Class

I took a few pictures of Teah in her gymnastics class back in November and am just now getting around to posting them. She has been taking Gymnastics at Kids Gym in Portage now for 3 months and she has a great time (as you can see in the pictures).

Quote of the Day

"This bowl isn't big enough to fit on my head anymore. When I was 4 I could fit it on my head."

~Teah, who just turned 5 years old

Teah's 5th Birthday!

Teah turned 5 on December 21st and had 4 separate celebrations. Teah celebrated with her preschool on the 17th (the last day of school before their holiday party since her birthday was over break). The Montessori birthday tradition is called "Walk Around the Sun" and is a beautiful way to celebrate a child's years on this earth. All of the children sit in a circle with a candle in the middle. Around the candle they place 12 different cards for each month of the year. The birthday child holds a globe and stands next to the month of their birthday. At Teah's school they have you bring in a newborn picture of the child as well as a picture for each of their years (1, 2, 3, 4, etc). The candle is lit and then the teacher walks around and shows the students the newborn picture. Then all of the students recite the months of the year as the birthday students walks around "the sun". When they get back to their birthday month they stop and the teacher shows a picture of when they were 1 year old and then the months and walking again. This continues until their age. Then they sing happy birthday and the birthday students blows out the candle and everyone claps. Teah was really excited for her turn to walk around the sun and I was able to sit in the classroom and watch. Teah even decided she wanted to wear her princess dress for the occasion, which was big, since she rarely wants to wear a dress. Here is a video of the beginning of the celebration. I ran out of space on my card on my camera, so unfortunately I didn't tape the whole thing.

The weekend brought more birthday celebrations. On Saturday we drove to Flint and celebration Teah's birthday with Robert's parents, his grandmother, and his Aunt Marilyn, Uncle Dennis and their children Emily and Sarah. Emily and Sarah are Robert's cousins, but they are 4 and 7 years old, so they are very much like first cousins to Teah. We also celebrated Christmas with them and they had a great time! I forgot to bring my camera, but hopefully I will be able to get ahold of the pictures Teresa took and post them soon. On Sunday we had a small family celebration at our house with my parents, my sister Annette, her daughter and granddaughter, and a few friends of theirs. Teah has a piece of pretend cake that she plays with in her pretend kitchen and she told me that she wanted her birthday cake to look just like it except that it should have little Einsteins on the top. She also told me that she wanted a surprise party. So, I made a yellow cake with chocolate frosting and filling and my mother did an excellent job piping on the pink frosting to make the cake look just like its plastic counterpart. Before bringing out the cake and lighting the candles we had Teah go down into the basement. We got out the cake, like the candles, and hid around the corner of the kitchen. We told her to come back up and jumped out and said, "Surprise"! It was exactly what she wanted :) Teah has been wanting pet mice for a long time, so I bought her 3 for her birthday (sorry Robert and Leslie!). She has named them Uno, Dos, and Tres. We returned the original cage shown in the video to get a bigger one which is shown in the pictures. Finally, on Monday, which was Teah's actual birthday, we had Teah's best neighbor friends come over and finish off the cake. That night when I was tucking her into bed she told me, "Mom, I don't feel any different". :) Here are some pictures and video from our Sunday celebration:

Two Year Old Manners

Teaching a two year old manners :) I took this video in mid-November, but just found it again on our old camera. Enjoy!

Breakfast with Santa

The morning after getting home from vacation we had breakfast with Santa at the Moors Golf Club put on by Robert's practice. Teah had her list all made to give to Santa and I thought I had convinced Carter to ask Santa for a dump truck. After a yummy breakfast we stood in line for to talk to Santa. As soon as Carter saw Santa he decided that he wanted nothing to do with him (we weren't even to the front of the line yet). I told him that Santa wouldn't be able to bring him a dump truck if he didn't tell him and Carter responded by telling me that he didn't like dump trucks. I told him that Santa brought presents and he told me that he didn't like presents. This kid was having nothing to do with Santa at any cost! He sat on my lap for a picture with Santa and all was well. At some point during the affair I thought that Robert was watching Carter, Robert thought that I was watching Carter and it turns out that he had escaped into the golf store at the front of the clubhouse. I went to get him and found him with a child's golf club and a ball just putting away all by himself in the store. A lot of damage could've been done with that club, but instead he was just gently putting the ball across the floor. What a funny guy! Here are some pictures:

Tampa - Day 5

Thursday was our last day in Tampa before flying home on Friday. We spent a very relaxing morning at the rental house and then headed over the Marj and Eric's apartment to hang out and see their place before dinner. We helped them put up their Christmas tree and toured the apartments, which included 3 pools, one of which is ON Tampa Bay. As they say - location, location, location. We all had dinner together and spent the evening hanging out at the rental house after putting the kids to bed. A great last day!

Friday was our travel day, and although it was long, it went very well. While we were gone we missed a snow storm of over a foot of snow. There was NO snow at all before we left and here is what we came home to.

Outtake

Here is an outtake from our Christmas card photo session in Tampa. Of course I love how the kids are both laughing, but I love how Carter has his hand on Teah's leg. So cute!

Quote of the Day

Our conversation while sitting at a gas station. Teah was obviously perusing the signs in the window...

Teah: "Mom, what does b-u-d spell?"

Me: "Bud"

Teah: "Mom, what is Bud Light?"

Tampa - Day 4

Wednesday we returned for our second day at Busch Gardens. The first day was pretty chilly (for Florida) with a high of 60 degrees, so it was perfect that our second day was sunny and 80 degrees. This time around the kids were able to put their suits on and play in the water play area. We also went on the standard flume ride as a family. Teah wasn't a big fan of the idea, but we convinced her to get on and I decided she would sit in the back with me and hopefully be less afraid than if she were in the front. Robert sat in the front of the log with Carter. Teah was pretty scared the entire ride, but Carter loved it - until he was splashed in the face at the end going down the big drop. He was having a great time and when the water hit his face he just started crying and saying "I got wet". Thankfully he got over it pretty quickly. We checked out our picture that was taken on the way down the big drop and Teah had a look of pure terror on her face. Eric was working during the day, but Marj was able to get the day off and come with us again. She was brave enough to watch both of the kids (while the kids went on the kiddie rides) and let Robert and I go on SheiKra again. This time I kept my eyes open for most of the ride and was even pretty steady on my feet afterwards. We had time to go on the rides we missed the first time around and I of course was able to get some good old souvenir shopping done. It was another great day at the park! Here are the pictures from the day:

Tampa - Day 3

Today we decided to take advantage of the nicer weather and with a high of 80 degrees headed out to find a beach. We took the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, which is something like 4 miles long crossing Tampa Bay over to the St. Petersburg area. We ended up finding Pass-a-Grille Beach, which is a nice public beach with lots of shells on the white sand beach. The water was too cold to swim in, but the kids had a great time collecting seashells, digging holes in the sand, making sandcastles, and kicking their feet in the water. Mom and Dad had an enjoyable time too being able to relax while the kids were entertained by nature. The beach was pretty empty, so the kids had a lot of room to explore. Teah helped me find seashells to take home with us and Carter mostly enjoyed picking up sand and putting it somewhere else. It was a tropical day! We headed back to our rental home for dinner and grilled out by the pool. The pool was only 70 degrees, but the kid still put their suits on and stuck their feet in. Carter gave us a bit of a scare when he fell into the deep end of the pool (while the cover was still on). Robert ran over and scooped him out without any harm done, but it took Mom just as long to recover as Carter. Carter wore his swim vest after that even though he wasn't in the pool! After the excitement it was nice to have a "home-cooked" meal and relax for the evening. Here are some pictures of the kids at the beach:

Tampa - Day 2

Marj and Eric were working today, so we had a lazy morning at the house. The kids and I investigated the fruit trees in the backyard after breakfast. I thought they were orange trees, but when I cut open a fruit (it was orange in color, so I figured it was ripe) it tasted more like a lemon! The debate is still on as to whether it is a lemon tree or an orange tree - google here I come. It was a bit of a gray and raining day, but the temps were in the mid-70's so I am NOT complaining! But we did decide to do a mostly indoor activity. We made it out by 11 to have some Cici's pizza for lunch before heading to the International Plaza Mall (very near the Tampa airport). This mall seriously has every store imaginable as well as an Earl of Sandwich (very yummy) and a Cheesecake Factory. Robert was nice enough to watch the kids while they played in the play area or Build-a-Bear and I was able to get a pedicure (really, what's a vacation without a pedicure :) and do some shopping. A great time was had by all. On the way back to the rental house we played a game of "I Spy". Carter mostly gets the concept and even wants a turn to "spy" something. Here's a video of the kids playing:

Tampa - Day 1

Saturday we spent the day traveling to Tampa, first with a two hour drive to the Detroit airport, then a two hour flight to Tampa, hauling 2 kids, 2 carseats, and a carry-on through the airports. After almost every possible form of transportion - van, bus, tram, train, plane - we made it to our rental home after just over 8 hours of traveling. It was a hectic night picking up a few groceries, meeting Marj and Eric for dinner, and trying to get the kids to calm down and go to bed in a new place. Teah slept like a log after she fell asleep, but Carter woke up crying 4 or 5 times throughout the night.

So, today was our first full day of vacation and we spent the day at Busch Gardens with Eric and Marj. It was absolutely great! The park is part zoo, part theme park, with animal exhibits, big roller coasters, and two childrens areas. We started off the day by taking the train around the park - as you go you pass by several of the animal exhibits. Carter started asking me "What amimal next mom?". We then found Dragon Land, the childrens area designed for the littlest of kids, so it was perfect for our 2 and almost 5 year old. Carter was just tall enough to go on the little kiddie rides like the mini flume ride, the carousel and the flying dragons. Teah could ride them by herself. The mini flume ride was probably their favorite (definitely Carter's, although Teah liked the flying dragons almost as much). Surrounding these rides were an insane amount of climbing tunnels and general play things. There was a HUGE area that had an inflatable bouncy floor. For folks familiar with Chicagoland, it was like Odyssey Fun World on Crack. The kids were obviously obsessed with this area. The adults decided this was a good opportunity for two people to take off and ride a coaster, while the other two supervised the kids in Dragon Land. I was concerned that Carter wouldn't accept anyone but me, but when I told him he could go play with Eric, he went without hesitation and had a great time! Robert and I rode the SheiKra coaster first. It has probably been 6 years since I've been on a real roller-coaster and this was perhaps not the best one to try out first. You'll know why once you read this description of the coaster straight from the Busch Gardens website:

"Do you know what it means to be brave? Brave enough to stare down a skilled predator, eye to cherry-red eye? Brave enough to be carried 200 feet up toward its lair, only to be dangled precariously over the side for endless seconds, before...

Before what?

It's not a dream - or a nightmare. It's SheiKra: A fierce, floorless, blazing-fast thriller in the heart of Busch Gardens.

After a 200 foot climb, this cunning coaster takes you just over the edge of a true 90-degree drop. And stops. For 4 seconds, you find yourself looking down - straight down - at the ground below as you're held suspended above it.

Then, like the sub-Saharan bird of prey for which it's named, you plunge straight toward the ground, racing at speeds of more than 70 miles per hour. An Immelmann loop and a second vertical dive into an underground tunnel end with a surprise twist for those who look on - because with SheiKra, even they cannot escape."

It was seriously a great day to be at the park, because with a high of 59 degrees in Tampa, most natives thought it was too cold for a day at the park, so the place was all but deserted. We walked right onto this coaster with only a short wait to sit in the front car (yes, we sat in the front car!). All I can say is that it was a good thing we had to wait a few minutes before getting off for the car in front of us to load because it took awhile for my legs to return to full strength!

After a full morning we took some time to have a restful lunch and check out some more animals - all together in the park we saw orangutans, chimps, fish, alligators, crocodiles, tigers (bengal and white), lots of birds (feeding the ducks, walking through the Lory exhibit where the bright colored birds would land on your hand, pink flamingos, peacocks), zebras, giraffes, wildabeasts, elephants, rhinos, ostriches, tortoises, and numerous kinds of safari grazing animals (their names I can't remember). In the afternoon we checked out the other childrens area to find that it was designed for older kids, but we still hit another coaster (one that turns you upside down 7 times!) before heading back over to Dragon Land a final playtime before the 6pm close.

It was a full but awesome day for all and the kids were definitely DONE by the time we left the park, but they passed out fairly quickly this evening and are sleeping peacefully after a great first day of vacation! Here is a slideshow with pics and a few videos.

Quote of the Day

Teah: "Carter, you have to go quick or the witch will send magic at you."

Carter: "Why"

Teah: "Because that's what witches do."

They grow up so fast!

Check out these two pictures of Teah. The first one I took today and she is almost 5 years old. The second picture I found while browsing through some old pictures. It was taken 2 years ago, when Teah was almost 3. I didn't plan at all to take almost exactly the same picture. I guess some things never change, but kids definitely do!

Sleeping Carter

Lately Carter has been falling asleep in random places in his room with his light on. Of course I always have to snap a picture before moving him into bed.

Teah the Event Planner

Maybe Teah will be an event planner when she grows up... At least once a week she decides to throw Pacibear (her teddy bear) a party. She makes invitations and delivers them to each member of our family, asking us to sign OK on the invitation if we want to go. When she gives Carter his invitation she tells him he can write whatever he wants, "since he doesn't know how to write letters", she says. Then she decorates each of our invitations with glitter glue and gives them back to us. Today she added a new twist to the party by telling me that I had to bring my invitation with me, "so that Pacibear will know who you are and that you're invited". Many days she never actually gets to the party part, just making all of the invitations, so maybe she'll be an artist of some kind and not an actual party planner :) Well, off to the party I go!

Hilliard's Quote of the Day - 2009

Back in 2009 I decided to create a whole new blogged called The Hilliard Quote of the Day.  I have no idea why I thought I would keep up with two blogs!  So, for posterity's sake, here are the entries from that blog, written between 8/09 and 11/09.

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"Mama, look Teah's iPod"

~Carter, while watching Teah listen to music. You know his vocabulary is really increasing when he uses the word "iPod" :)

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"Oh no, Carter doesn't have his underwear on AND he's running with ice cream!"

~Teah 4 yrs old

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Carter points to his juice in the fridge and I say, "Yep, that's Carter's juice."

Carter points at an Oberon (beer) in the fridge and says, "Da Da".

Yep, that's Daddy's juice :)

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"Mommy, Why are you so old?" ~ Teah

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"Mama on couch too" ~Carter's first four-word sentence

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I love listening to little kids try to find the words to describe something - they're so creative!

"I played on the monkey bars that look like half of a soccer ball."
~Teah, talking about what she did at preschool today

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"Mommy, Carter is drawing on the carpet." ~Teah

These are words I never want to hear again!

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"Mommy, I can see the whole world from here!"

~Teah, said while on the carousel

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"Carter, why are you naked?"

~Patti, said to Carter after going up to check on why he wasn't asleep yet

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Teah: Mommy, I don't want to work.

Me: It's OK, Teah, you don't have to work for a long time. Not until you're a grown-up.

Teah: I don't want to work when I'm a grown-up. Daddy can work and pay for my things.

Me: Why don't you want to work?

Teah: Because it's hard and I don't like to do hard things.

Wise words.  Also, I have a sneaking suspicion that Daddy won't be OK with that plan!

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"It feels like there are little balls on my skin Mom"

-Teah, describing her goosebumps

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"Guess what rhymes with kitchen? Bitchin!"
~Teah, oblivious to the fact that the word "bitchen" means something

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After finishing trick-or-treating in our neighborhood, I asked Teah if she wanted to trick-or-treat some more in another neighborhood. She said, "No. I have plenty of candy is my basket. Let's go home."

Tonight we had this conversation:

Teah: "Mom, next year I don't want to go trick-or-treating. I want to stay at home and hand out candy with Nana."

Me: "But Teah, if you don't go trick-or-treating, you won't get any candy for yourself"

Teah: "That's OK. I'll have plenty of candy leftover from this year."

Teah thinks the half of a plastic pumpkin worth of candy that she got is more than it actually is :)

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Comment from 2013:  Teah did actually enjoying handing out candy for many years with Nana instead of continuing to get more candy.  RIP Nana.

Carter Update

Carter is 2 years and almost 5 months old now and finally speaking! He says just about everything now in up to 5 word sentences, although he still requires a lot of translation by me for other people to be able to understand him (especially those not used to speaking 2 year old). During the day he will turn to me and say, "Mama, where dada go?". Or when I give him yogurt he'll say, "What ki ih it?", the translation being what kind is it. I know, for those of you who have 2 1/2 year olds this is not much speech, but it's been a long time coming for our little Carter, so I'm so glad that he can finally communicate with words! Other favorites include:

- "What's that"? He says this every 5 seconds as he points at EVERYTHING

- "Where's Teah?" He says this every morning when he wakes up or generally whenever she's not with us

- "Mama, Come Back!" He says this as soon as I walk out of his room for bedtime

- "Mama, let's play"

Here's a video of some of his new words

Carter is really in a very cute phase right now and I am reminded of how much fun a 2 year old is. I don't know why the term "terrible twos" was every coined because it's such a fun age. He mostly wants to do everything by himself and being more savvy than I was the first time around, I let him. It's amazing what he can accomplish without any help at all. He used a butter knife to cut up an entire banana into pieces to make a smoothie with us yesterday. He vacuums our floors almost everyday with an old dirt devil that I found which is the perfect size for him. He uses glass dishes at the table and sets them nicely on the counter when he's finished eating. He's started using Teah's safety scissors to cut small lines around the outside of a piece of paper. He has mastered the skills of jumping and running and climbing. Obviously, I can go on and on! Some of his favorites are:

Animal: dinosaur

Food: sausage links or bratwursts

Color: Blue

He loves dinosaurs and will roar like a dinosaur and pretend to eat me. Then he'll tell me that he's a big t-rex. If I tell him that I'm a t-rex, too, then he'll tell me that I'm a little t-rex :) He's not all perfect, he does run away anytime I attempt to change his diaper or put new clothes on him and he thinks that game is hilarious. When he's overtired he likes to play a game of running at you and slamming into you and he also enjoys sitting on (and squashing) his sister at times.

Preschool

Teah's first day of preschool orientation at The Montessori School was today. Yesterday she met with her teacher, Mary, for 45 minutes of individual time. Mary showed Teah around the classroom and then gave her some "lessons" for her "work" - as they say in Montessori. Everything that is available for the kids to work on is a specific Montessori learning material and the children have to have a lesson on the material before they are allowed to use that material during class. For those of you who aren't familiar with the Montessori method, one of the ideas is that the child drives their own learning. So, everyday the children are able to choose from the learning materials they have had lessons on or get new lessons from the teachers. Mary let Teah choose whatever she wanted from the "manipulatives" section and gave her lessons on how to use the ones that she chose during the 45 minutes, so that she would have somewhere to start for her first day. The items that I saw her working with (before I went to turn in some paperwork) included a basket full of different types of pouches from around the world - each pouch having something from that country inside of it, two bowls of small beads - the children move all beads from one bowl to the other using one hand, and a tray with small plastic rings of different colors that you can sort into different compartments based on color. Today, Wednesday, and Thursday are orientation days only for the new students in the classroom (each classroom has 3, 4, and 5 year olds). There will be 30 students in Teah's classroom (w/ Mary and 2 assistants) - 16 of them being new this year. So, this week there are the 16 students taking some time to learn how things work before everyone shows up next week.

So, I helped Teah hang her stuff up, take her shoes off, and get her slippers on and she was off! I watched her play for a few minutes and then went to the scheduled coffee w/ the director of the preschool and the other parents of new students. There were about 20 parents there and we used the 2 hours to introduce ourselves, talk about why we chose Montessori, and have some social time. It was really great and I remembered why I love the director of the school, Pam Boudreau, who founded the school and has been there 37 years! I was also reminded of why I love the Montessori method and it was great to meet some of the new parents.

Everyone picked their kids up on the playground and Teah was having lots of fun playing a game of "tumbling monkeys" on the jungle gym. She told me all about her new lessons that day - consisting of some type of rubber band box that you could hook up the different colored rubber bands to make patterns and some type of shapes that you put together to make certain pictures. I asked Mary how Teah had done and she told me that Teah was a "Tester" (i.e. likes to test the rules). Mary has been teaching at this school for 29 years, so she is very wise in the ways of preschoolers. She said that of course all preschoolers are testers, but that Teah was a bit more-so than others. Of course, I already know that! Mary didn't say it as if it was a problem, but just as if it were part of her little personality. She also said that they had plenty of experience with the "Testers" and that Teah was going to do great this year.

Some things I found out about the school:

Every month one of the preschool classrooms works together to make the food that is eaten by the parents at the monthly parents coffee.

Teah and I will be responsible for bringing (homemade or otherwise) a healthy snack for the class once a month.

The 2nd Saturday of the month is a planned family fun day for all of the families at the school, including their 4 preschool rooms and elementary classroom.

One of the Fathers of a student works for Bell's Brewery and will be hosting an adult-only Octoberfest! :)

The price tag for the school is a bit hefty, but I was reminded that almost all of the tuition goes to pay the teachers professional salaries with benefits and retirement - something that most preschool teachers don't get! I am really looking forward to this year and next when both of the kids will attend together.