Cell Phone Photojournalism...

I downloaded our photos from our cell phones... What better way to show you around our daily life?

Here is Tylor's new office at work:

This week I took the toddlers (Emmalee and Isaac) to the Portland Children's Museum. It was amazing! A toddlers' heaven! There was so much to do, for newborns through school-age, but most of the exhibits seem just perfect for children Emmalee's age. We can't wait to go back with our friends and family. Here is Emmalee playing in the water at the Children's Museum:

They had face painting for children to use on themselves. Emmalee thought she was putting on make-up in front of the mirror like Mommy does. It was so cute:

Some shots of Emmalee and Isaac...

Some other shots from Tylor's phone:

Isaac and Soren

I cannot believe how nervous I was about this new job. I was also dreading the early schedule (leaving the house at 7am scared me as we weren't used to even waking up until after 8am.) On Monday I started nannying, with Emmalee, for two little boys full-time. Isaac is Emmalee's age and Soren is 5. It is going wonderfully! I am so excited and it seems the family feels the same way. They are long days (4 ten-hour days) but we are busy-busy and the time flies by, and we enjoy ourselves throughout the entire day. Emmalee and Isaac connected right away and play together very well. And I actually miss Soren and am looking forward to seeing him tomorrow morning! We go on outings to parks, playgrounds, swimming lessons, preschools, restaurants and soon will be visiting the library, Children's museum, OMSI, and the Zoo. I am able to implement a toddler curriculum, create art/craft projects on a daily basis, and help Soren learn how to read, among several other enriching aspects of this position. This new experience actually has me feeling like I can be a better mom and educator as well. The family i'm working for is organic, supportive, encouraging and they provide unbelievable benefits for Emmalee and myself. We are feeling very blessed!

At the same time that our new routine started, Tylor's first tax season ended. What a gift! It is so wonderful to have a husband again who has more time at home. He usually gets home from work an hour before us so we usually come home to a generally clean house with dinner started! I'm loving it!!

Easter 2007

We spent our Easter morning at home. We decorated eggs the night before, it was fun and surprisingly not too messy. Emmalee got to peel boiled eggs (which I figured she would enjoy since she loves to peel the paper off of all our crayons -grrrr...) and she tried a boiled egg for the first time. She didn't seem to mind the egg white but the yolk made her shiver. Ick! Uncle Scott and Auntie, Gramma and Grandpa Tim all came over Easter morning for coffee and coffeecake and a egg hunt. I seriously thought I did a good job by putting very little sugar in those little plastic eggs, but even a couple of gummy bears here and there and a few jelly beans here and there turned out to be a ton of sugar for one morning! She would have been happy enough to open those up only to find a couple of green beans inside, so why didn't I go that route? We really enjoyed ourselves and I think Emmalee looked adorable dressed up for her third Easter Sunday. She continues to remember Easter morning by saying "Easter bunny come!" whenever she sees something that came from her basket. Around 1pm, I packed up Emmalee and some suitcases and we hit the road. We spent the next few days in southern Oregon visiting with Papa, Nana, Great-Pa and Great-Ma, and Uncle and Auntie Rachel. It was quite a relaxing trip for me! So nice to have nothing to do for a couple of days except for visit with family. It was just what I needed before starting a new job. I unfortunately didn't take many pictures during our trip, but believe me it was enjoyable.

Sweetness of the day

Emmalee dumped a whole box of blocks on the floor. I sat down and told her I'd help her clean them up. As we are both cleaning up she says to me, "Good job, Mommy. I so proud of you Mommy."

Bye "Tick-Tock"

Today is actually our last day at the preschool Emmalee calls her "tick tock school". She had a really hard time adjusting and when she'd start crying as soon as I put her in the van to head to school, I got worried. I think it's very possible she just took a long time to adjust, but 2.5 months later, she never truly got comfortable with 'going to school'. But again, this is probably totally normal too, I guess it's separation anxiety, just hard for me as a mom. But that's not why we left. Like I wrote earlier, I financially had to replace my two part-time positions with one (higher paying) position, but also I found throughout the 2.5 months working at the preschool that I apparently have high standards. I'm hesitant to associate myself with a school that I don't feel operates acceptably. I'm a snobby ECE teacher I suppose, but that's just how it goes. They've only been open for a bit over a year, so unless they want me to step in as director and whip that place into shape, i'll have to step down. At this point, philosophically, we're not a good fit, that's all it comes down too. I feel bad for Emmalee, she had a love/hate relationship with the school, but she will make new friends and I will do all that I can to expose her to as many learning opportunities and developmental enrichment thoughout our days together with the boys. At least until it's time for her to go to real Pre-K.

Full-Time

Someone recently asked me if my life was stuck back at Super Bowl Sunday since that is the last blog I posted (and it was a boring blog indeed...), but YES, I guess that was the last time I had a few extra minutes to 'blog'. Life felt so busy and hectic yet we were financially drowning, so I had to make a change. I replaced my two part-time jobs with one full-time nannying position. Emmalee and I will start a 4 week trial with two little boys on the 16th, one is her age and the other is 5. They take very good care of their nannies and seem like a great family. It's going to be 4 10-hour days (leaving Wednesdays open to pack in as much photo business as I can) so we are going to be up and at 'em very early! I know we will adjust eventually to the new schedule of getting up at 6am (we lived through the 'newborn' days, didn't we?) but i'm still dreading it... I plan to keep us all busy and active throughout the day so I know this is going to take a lot of hard work and energy, but looking forward to it for sure!