Reaching Us

A note to the few people that have our home phone number and haven't deleted it in frustration after realizing that we never answer it - nor do we check the messages... Please delete our home phone number from your contacts, as we have disconnected it. We finally got tired of paying money for a device that was only serving to annoy us with it's incessant ringing, mostly from telemarketers. Reach us by cell going forward. I'll try to do a better job of remembering to turn my ringer on at home!

Thomas and Carter Time

Hoping to soften the blow of transitioning from only child to big brother, Thomas has been doing a great job coming up with one-on-one big kid activities to do with Carter. From water play, to attending the local high school football game to camping in the backyard (they made it the whole night in the tent!), this has been a special time for the two of them.

But, Carter doesn't just like weekends because of all of these fun activities. As he said this morning, he also really likes "home days" because, "I get to see my baby a lot."

Note from Thomas: In case anyone was wondering: a two person tent is fine for two adults, but not nearly big enough for one adult and a five year old. Also, for S'mores in the microwave (the grill is broken), 10 seconds is just a few too many. Marshmallows go a little crazy of you're not careful.

Note from Thomas: We left at the half, with Decatur up 57-0. I have not seen a final score yet (they might still be playing....)

Stegaliu Family Visit

Kirstin was able to get a couple of weeks off of school just in time to come down and meet John. The timing worked out well so that they were even able to overlap with my parents for one night. It was great to have the Stegaliu's here to help out. Patrick's cooking was even more appreciated than usual!

Here are a few pics, mostly from our last night, in which we went to the fountains at Piedmont Park and to Cocktails in the Gardens at the Botanical Gardens.

Eavan was quite taken with John (and also with Carter's toys)...

Eavan kissing John's feet

This (the older kid pushing the baby -- and all our stuff) is quite handy!

Carter was "protecting" John from Eavan

John and Family

John has been blessed to have a lot of family visit him in his first week of life. I missed getting shots of a few family members with John, but here are the ones that I got.

Brothers

John

John William Fowlkes

August 16, 2011

12:52am

7lb 10oz, 20.5"

Anniversary

We're being positive about the fact that this baby hasn't decided to join us yet.  He must have wanted to give us time to have an 8th anniversary dinner date.  If he shows up tomorrow, he'll be taking over our anniversary every year thereafter, so it is pretty generous of him to give us tonight. Plus, our midwife has been out of town, so we're actually somewhat glad he's held off.  She got back tonight, so he's welcome to come on any time now... 

In the meantime, here's a (final??) belly shot. 

Baby's Room

When Carter was born, we lived in a two room apartment in Manhattan, so his "room" was a nook for his crib in our bedroom. By comparison, this new kid is going to get... a half a room! While our third bedroom will still function at times as a guest bedroom, the office portion of that room has been moved to either the basement or the dining room in order to give this kid some space. It's been fun to have a half a room to prepare for baby!









However, this kid doesn't have it too much better... Initially he'll sleep (we hope) in our bedroom, but when he's ready for his room, he'll sleep (we hope) in the little closet nook pictured below.  Crib in a nook, just like his brother!

(So, yeah, he's not here yet. And before you ask, no, I have no idea when he's arriving. I'm feeling fine - just as fine and normal as a girl this pregnant can feel.)

Gwinnett Braves

We recently went to see a minor league game in Gwinnett. It's less than 45 minutes from our house and is a great little stadium. Our seats were terrific (and shady), but Carter wanted to spend all of his time at the inflatable fun in the outfield. Next time, we'll just get outfield lawn seats!

Batting Practice

Bullpen

Carter did pay some attention to the field - when he ran the bases

Sweaty kid!

Sadly, I didn't get any photos of any of the other Fowlkes that were with us that day. Maybe they'll blog their own and I can link to more pictures soon...

Update! See more pics (and read a funny story about a pregnant lady running down hill) on the other Fowlkes blog. 

Carter on Kindergarten

According to a couple of the grandparents, my post on Kindergarten was insufficient, so here's some more directly from Carter on his Kindergarten experience, 3 days in:

We have recess. And we go outside. We read the morning message. We read stories about kindergarten. And we can have sports, like PE today. We have lunchtime. You have to get your milk and then you have to get your tray and then you have to go to the numbers and put your tray down and do your number [they have to enter a 4 digit number that debits the meal from their account]. And then you go to your table. I have chocolate milk and skim milk. We have mac and cheese and fish sticks and mashed potatoes. There are good teachers and they are nice and they are my friends. You go to the auditorium in the morning before you go to the class [they have an assembly every morning for 5 minutes, 20 minutes on Fridays]. We say the Pledge of Allegiance. Then after the auditorium we go to the classroom. We never play in centers [in the classroom]. After school, I get on the bus. And then we go to music camp. It's a good time on the bus because sometimes you are sitting behind your friends. My friends are waiting for me when I get off. [At music camp], after snack we have playtime. We do music. We do the moon song. I learn how to play the piano. You have to put all your fingers on the right key and you have to press down. And all your fingers have to press down and that's "smash".

And a little more from me:
I think we'll be quite pleased with his school. It's really picturesque (I remarked as we left the first morning how very different it is from the school he would have gone to if we'd stayed in Brooklyn). It's one of four K-3 schools in our local school district. After 3rd grade, there is only a single school in the district for grades 4-5, 6-8 and 9-12. Our school district is a charter school system (one of the first in the country, apparently), and the elementary schools are all expeditionary learning schools. At the morning assembly each morning, the kids all recite the school motto and the Pledge of Allegiance in both English and Spanish, and then one of the older students (older as in 3rd grade) talks about the expeditionary learning design principal of the month. Apparently the Friday assemblies have more to them, including the school band (which looks, based on what I've seen on stage, like it may be heavy on the xylophone). Parents are welcome to stay for the assembly any day, but are particularly encouraged to attend the Friday assemblies, so we'll learn more about that tomorrow...

Bathroom Renovation

I'm just getting around to posting pictures of our bathroom renovation, which we finished up about a month ago. In the end, we decided not to raise the ceiling height, so it was mostly a cosmetic makeover (though we were able to get more height in the shower which makes it a lot easier for Thomas to take a Thomas-height shower). Also, the new plumbing fixtures we got make it easy for Carter to take a Carter-height shower. 

Here are some before and after shots.

For our reference:

Floor Grout - North American Adhesives #577 Monterey Surf

Kindergarten!

I can hardly believe it, but today was Carter's first day of Kindergarten!

(Yes, part of my disbelief comes from the fact that it's the 2nd of August).

Ready to go with his new backpack!

He tried to tell us to just drop him off, "I know where my classroom is," but we walked him inside anyway.

After school he got to choose his own special dinner...

I'm pretty sure that face is thanking his Cart Cart for introducing him to McDonald's.