When Antonio was little, we lived in an apartment and the kitchen was little, so he really didn't go in there. Well, he did, until he started taking out the stock pot, turning it upside down and banging the hell out of it. While it bugged me, I thought it would bug my downstairs neighbor more. So, I bought a gate and kept him out of there.

The house we're in now doesn't really have a gate offable kitchen. The cabinets all have those child locks on them, but the drawers do not. Along with about 50 new skills and tricks, one of them is opening the drawers to discover that they have things in them, like rice, pasta and beans, all great things to pour onto the floor.

Gramma was visiting a few weekends ago and suggested that I make Julia a drawer with things safe for her to play with. The idea being, if she's into the one, she'll leave the others alone. She did that with Antonio at her house, and it worked pretty well.

Earlier this week, I spend an evening rearranging my little stack of drawers, making it so the bottom one could be Julia's. I didn't get around to putting things in it until last night. So, she'd check it, find it boring, and check out the other, more interesting drawers above it.
Last night I weeded through a toy basket and put some toys in it, hoping to bring her focus back to that bottom drawer~ and to please leave my tidy stack of kitchen towels alone. Oh and my obsessively stacked in order, tabs all facing the same way, Gladware alone too.

Today she checked the drawer as a courtesy on her way up, and was entertained with the new toys for a little bit. Then she found something way more fun to do.





Can I put the drawer locks on now?

Running with scissors

At least she has the points down.

Bubbles

Keeping Antonio busy and Julia entertained for a little bit this afternoon.
I started out with the bubbles, but I couldn't get enough out there fast enough for him.
Plus he was running like a madman and Julia is still a bit wobbly.

So, giving him the bubbles slowed him down and freed me up to chase after Julia.

Barley being able to walk isn't good enough.
She's trying out running too.
And today, during Antonio's soccer game, she kept on toddling over to the extra soccer balls and kicking at them.

I just took this picture, it's the first time she's walked with her hands full of loot. She was on her way to nab more of her brother's blocks.

Julia gets excited about bathtime. In fact, it's a word she recognizes. I can say, "Let's go take a bath!" and she stompy crawls after me, to the bathroom. We have a basket of bath toys next to the tub, and as the water fills, she hucks toys into the tub.
Now, she's thinking she can decided when she gets into the tub. Can't get it quiet yet, but I'll give it a week or so.



Here's Antonio after his. He likes how his hair is kinda spikey

Last week, Julia slept through the night 3 nights in a row.
It was heavenly!

This week, not the case. She's up two, three, 10,000 times a night.
More teeth could be coming, in, man she's half shark, it seems.
Whatever the case, I hope she goes back to thinking sleeping uninterrupted through the night is a good idea soon.
Maybe when she's walking more she'll be more tired?

In other news, Antonio and I have a birthday party to shop for. This will be right up his ally.
Julia will be one here in a few weeks. That with Daddy coming home and family coming to visit, I'd like to get it done now so I don't forget and have to rush to get things together at the last minute.
I'm not sure what to get her though. Being the second child, she has more toys than she knows what to do with. Besides she'd much rather have her grabby little hands in Antonio's matchbox car box. Maybe I could wrap a few of those on the sly...

I can't stop her.
Today, at Antonio's soccer game, she took a few steps on her own.
Then later on this afternoon, she took about four steps towards my mom.
She's able to push herself up from the floor to stand on her own too.

We were hoping she'd hold of until Daddy got home, but she has places to go.

Kids playing tonight.

The girl's 8th tooth finally wrestled it's way out of her gums yesterday. It's one of the top middle ones and has been making her miserable for the past few days. Her smile is still full of crazy mis-matched teeth, but there's hope now that those front ones are in that it'll even out over the next few months.

Last night was also the second night in a row Julia has slept through the night.
Wait, maybe I shouldn't say that so loud, in case she hears and rebels.
Truthfully, she's been a great sleeper, and the past few months only waking up in the early morning hours for a snack. Occasionally, when a tooth was giving her hell, she'd be up a bit more, but not much.
Dare I say I may not be a sleep deprived mess when The Man comes home?

Have I been mentioning how great Antonio is at getting up and getting himself ready?
He is doing so much better. Consistently good sleep is the key with him.
Today he was up and dressed, with backpack on standing in the bathroom, waiting for me to get out of the shower.
I think he had even brushed his teeth & washed his face.
A few weeks ago I started letting him watch Sesame Street in the morning when he's all finished getting ready. We do watch the weather together first to decide if it's a shorts day or not for him.

Oh, and no notes from school about poor behavior, he's doing so much better.
He still asks for a treat every day when I pick him up.
I'm steering away from daily bribes in exchange for goodness at school. Instead we talk about how if he keeps it together at school, how much better he feels and how much more fun it is to have a happy great day at school.

And there's pizza or sushi Friday's.
Kind of like a celebration for making it through the week.
So far he's buying it.

First day of Kindergarten today.
Guess who was washed up, dressed, backpack packed up and in the car at 6:15 am? That would have been at least 15 minute wait before Julia and I would join him to leave. So I bribed him with watching Sesame Street to get him back into the house.

Do I need to say Antonio was excited.
Well he was.
A lot.

Although the school provides all his school supplies, he didn't feel right bringing an empty backpack. I don't blame him. This kept him busy while I got ready, I checked it out when he was done. He put in a pencil set, markers, a water bottle and some paper. Pretty well thought out, he was ready to learn!

Julia's latest trick is to play peek-a-boo
She'll totally start it too.
Here she is playing it with her favorite thing to hide behind.
If she manages to keep from pulling the curtains from the wall, I'm so lucky.



Since I had them both clean, in jammies and they weren't shoving each other, here's a picture of them just before bed.

Antonio's first soccer game was this afternoon.
They played, a team in the Bremerton league, I don't know who, they had blue uniforms though.

Antonio is a super soccer player!
Five and six year olds are so much fun to watch, they take turns being serious players and goofing around. Although, no one was distracted by the sun, or butterflies, or um...that thing over there. One kid asked to be relieved out of the game because he was sweaty. After a sip of water and some encouragement from his mom, he was back on the field in good shape.

His team scored 4 goals and Antonio made two of those.
The look on his face when he scored his first one was just priceless. He totally wanted to run off the field and give me a high five, but I yell and wave my arms for him to get back to playing.
Or maybe I was excited too.

Here he is just before we left for the game.

I am finally sitting down this evening to chill.

I worked until 4:50, just shy of 10 hours today, picked up Julia, who was having a great time playing on a little climby & slide toy in the room She got frustrated that she couldn't climb up the slide and has a new special I'm Frustrated screech.

Antonio had a great day at school. He's loving being a big kid now.
As we were pulling out of the parking lot to go home, he states that he needs a lunch box so he can bring his lunch to school tomorrow. Here I thought I had another week before Bring Your Own Lunch (if you want to) Friday came. I had intended to pick up a lunch box, backpack & get his hair cut this weekend to prep for Kindergarten.

Towards Fred Meyer I drive.
Backpacks were on sale, so we spent some time picking one out. I wish they had packs like this when I was in school.
He picked one that's grey & orange, had a 'music device' holder that has a little outlet hole for headphones, expands for a laptop, and has velcro straps on the back for a skateboard. While he probably won't use any of those features, it's pretty badass and one of the only styles they had that didn't tower above his head and go down to his knees.

After some encouraging he picked out a soft lunchbox that was grey to match his new backpack, instead of the one with pink hearts. Yeah, the pink one was prettier, how do you explain that one to a five year old?
You can't say, "Hey, this one won't get you made fun of."

We made it out of the store without a drama from either kid, or myself. That's is pretty amazing. I think that if we'd been keeping score,I'd totally be ahead in the hissyfit at the grocery store department.

Dinner rolled by quickly it seemed. Julia had bites while I cooked dinner and made lunches for tomorrow, Antonio colored. Working a longer day, plus the trip to the store, it was already bath o'clock when we finished dinner.
While I bathed Julia, Antonio, who is so into self imposed homework, sat beside me, using the potty's closed lid as a desk and did a few pages of a workbook. He is so clever, of course I'm biased (but so right).

Storytime tonight was The Giving Tree, Julia was involved enough with the chair full of stuffed animals in Antonio's room that we were able to finish it. The only interruptions coming from Antonio himself, as he clarified the pictures to me and how they related to the story.
She went to bed without protest either, I'm adoring the fact that these guys are going to sleep at a decent hour. *knocks furiously on wood*

I'm so lucky.

Three day weekends are nice in the fact that we can sleep in three mornings in a row. We relax about bedtime, and can just hang out.
But, we really need to get out and about too, or we get naggy at each other.
This morning we went to a waterfront park. They've recently renovated it by removing the bark and putting down this rubbery/foamy/spongy type groundcover. It's pretty great.

anyway, here's the kids on the swings.



After naps, we, well I headed out to weed the front flower beds. Julia supervised from her stroller, it's the only way I can keep her out of the dirt eating yuk things. Antonio played. As I was cleaning up, Antonio asked for a popsicle. A little bit later, I caught them doing this...

Tuesday Antonio is moving from the Pre-K room to the Kindergarden room. Kindergarden doesn't officially start until next week.
Friday they cleaned out their cubbies to prepare for the move.

Here are my favorites
From the desk of Antonio...

After putting silverware away, I turned around to find this in my dishwasher.





As the dishwasher goblin napped, Antonio and I weeded our little garden.



Antonio picked peas, beans and strawberries. It looks like we might end up with corn. I'm not sure what the celery is upto, it's kinda runty. It's nice to have more variety this year. Last year I had a rude pear tomato plant that hogged up all the space.

How did you spend your Friday night?

Oh yeah?
Well then you missed out on all 158 pieces and 5 pages of directions of pure fun




awwww yeahhh



Why is it that, "Mom can you help me"
Turns into, "I'll find the pieces, you put them on"
Then into, "No, wait, you find the pieces, I'll put them on"
Finally to, "HEY! Look what I built!"

Don't be fooled by the rocks that I got
I'm still
I'm still
Julia from the block...