Hugs

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Philly

I'm currently in Philadelphia and Nick is taking sole care of the kids. I'm here for a work conference which means lots of meetings talking about concrete (really, not as glamorous as it sounds).

But I did get a chance yesterday to see some of the Philly sites including the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, Franklins grave, the Quaker Meeting House, and Betsy Ross house.







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Riding tricycles

One of the main highlights of Calvin's day, apparently, is riding the tricycles from the storage area inside the school through the daycare room to the playground. He looks forward to it daily and is know to be upset if he gets there too late and someone did the job for him.













He also loves the tire swing!


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12-hour grandma

Grandma Pam came and hung out for an evening and morning on her way to LAX. The kids had fun at dinner with her and were happy to get to see her in the morning.

Calvin was sure to give her a high five before we left him at drop-off.



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Group theory class

Every Saturday Ellie attends a group theory class with her piano teacher and 4 other kids about at the same level.

This past week her teacher shared photos of the kids doing a "composition" assignment.







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Soccer

Despite wardrobe malfunctions (hair ties) she seems to really be enjoying soccer.

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No school

Ellie didn't have school today due to teacher - parent conferences. We didn't have anything too intense planned but we had a relaxing day.

After dropping Cal off at school we went for coffee and pastries.



Followed by a little bit of time at the office.



Then we had tacos for lunch and did some window shopping at Tiffany before our mani/pedis. Ellie got sparkly black and pink nail polish.

Then not having much else to do we came home. She played in her room while I made some calls. Then we practiced piano. And then she wrote a note to Nick (who is in Chicago). The note talks about all the fun stuff he missed that happened over the weekend and that she missed him.



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Teeth

Ellie has not lost any teeth yet. She is the only kid she knows or in her entire 2nd grade class that hasn't lost any teeth. She's sensitive to it.

Well...she has a couple loose teeth. A top tooth and a bottom one. And her adult teeth are erupting behind her baby bottom teeth, two at the same time.

Any day now I think she will eventually lose one!

Also, she is racking up the "good kid awards" at school for good behavior.



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Helping hands

Calvin's buddy at school is Ellie's friends younger sister, Maelin. She is just about to turn 5 and has helped his transition to Meher. She taught him the ropes including the responsibilities of the lunchbox. She is sweet and very kind, he is lucky she is his friend.












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Not listening

Calvin has had timeouts at school both of the pat two days. The report has been that he hasn't been listening and has been disruptive.

So he is either sick, exhausted from the weekend, figuring out what the boundaries are at school, a rambunctious little boy, a toddler, or all of the above.

When I got there this afternoon to pick him up he was in time out. Once he saw me he started crawling to hide from me.



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Baseball

So October baseball is in full swing at our house. Stress levels are raised and superstitions have emerged in the form of rewearing dirty clothes. There is also a noticeably reduced sleep schedule for one member of the household (if you guessed the oldest, you would be right).

We spent the weekend at Disneyland which happened to coincide with the first two Cubs games. So I captured some funny photos. Although they aren't as great as the 2003 photo of him watching the Cubs and Red Sox on two different tvs.












Required cut kid photos of my little kids becoming big kids as defined by being tall enough to ride coasters.






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Ellie got 100% on her spelling test today.

Also, the kids are excited as we are going to Disneyland tomorrow.

On the way home I asked Calvin what rides he was excited about and he responded with, "the little boats with the babies and the coffee cups". Ahh...to see the world through the eyes of a two year old.










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No tears

Lately Calvin has been excited to get to school and happy when I leave...no tears. In fact he barely has time to say goodbye!

Today me met me at the fence for some waves.



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Parent teacher conference

Today Nick and I went to Ellie's parent-teacher conference. Her 2nd grade teacher, Mrs. Chapman, sends home quite a bit of feedback and communication. So we knew what she was going to tell us going in. Also, Ellie is pretty smart and doing well academically so we had no concerns. Ellie is reading, and testing for reading and comprehension, at a 3rd grade level. However, she is a little bit of a chit-chat in class.



Calvin apparently has been taking all his new found confidence in Montessori practical life skills to a new level. Apparently he spilled one lima bean while working on his pouring skills and had to get the whole broom and sweeping setup to get the one Lima bean.

He's also getting pretty good at riding a tricycle.





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Baseball cards

I don't understand the allure of baseball cards. But the bug bit Calvin.















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