Easier Mornings

There is not a morning person in this family. We really, really hate mornings. One day this week, Carter literally punched Thomas in the face when Thomas attempted to wake Carter up for school. (He was pretty much still asleep when he did it). And I totally understand how he was feeling.

So, naturally, mornings are hard around here. We tend to sleep as late as possible and then rush to get out the door. We've taken a few steps that have helped our mornings run more smoothly. Buying a coffee maker with a timer was a great move. I've also recently started making an entire week's worth of breakfasts on Sunday afternoons. Egg and cheese sandwiches get assembled and refrigerated, ready for 40 seconds in the microwave before we run out the door.

It may not be the best routine, but it's getting us out the door. And until my mom decides to move in here and start waking us all up gently with a glass of OJ or coffee in bed every morning (please?!), it's going to have to do.

Choir

Carter has been rehearsing with the Preparatory Choir at church and generally seems to enjoy it.  He sings the songs at home, was very excited to get a practice CD with their songs that he played many times, and rarely complains about have to go to rehearsals on Sunday nights.  This past Sunday was their first performance during the service on Sunday morning.

As some of you may know, Carter has some serious stage fright, though he does not appear to realize it.  Remember this recent event.  Thankfully he doesn't get too nervous and after the fact swears he had a good time.  So he was all smiles when it was time to head to church VERY early.

New shirt and his first tie!

(The tie was all his doing, he wanted one at Target and picked it out himself.)

The choir warmed up in the small chapel and Carter took a liking to the altar and prayer book. Not sure what it means that he didn't seem nervous up there in front of all the people in the room!

Final practice in the big church before the service.

Obviously there are no videos or pictures of the actual performance, but while he didn't sing much, he did sing a few words here and there, stood mostly still, and looked very handsome.  All in all a successful performance that we celebrated at the Varsity with slaw dogs, chili dogs, and orange drink!

Popularity

I'm not sure who is the most popular person in our family. But I'm pretty sure who is the least. Three scenes from today:
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Decorating the house for Christmas:

Me: Oh no! We only have three stocking holders.
Carter: This one is for John, this one is for me, and this one is for Daddy!
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At Five Guys, where we were having lunch. We are standing at the self-serve drinks. Carter is holding three empty cups, one of which had been dropped on the floor.

Carter: Looks at the cups. This is the one that fell on the floor. Here, mom. This one is yours.
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At dinner, Carter is talking about his imaginary animal friends.

Carter: I have infinity friends. Daddy has one hundred friends.... Mommy has one.
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This was not an unusual day. Always the odd woman out around here.

John's First School Performance

The daycare/preschool we use has programs for thanksgiving and Christmas every year. All the classrooms participate, even the babies. The babies just get rolled through the auditorium to up the cuteness factor. We didn't go to the program this thanksgiving, but our friend Stephanie got some photos of John's role/roll. We'll plan to attend these things for John when 1) he starts to have any idea what's going on or, 2) when we can take Carter along to watch. In the meantime, it's good to have friends who can capture the cuteness!





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Recent John Pics

He's super drool-y, super smiley and generally a very nice baby. Supposedly he's rolled over a few times, as reported by his teacher a couple of weeks ago and spotted by Thomas last week. He clearly hasn't mastered it since he doesn't do it with regularity. And it doesn't count until he shows me. 

NOW it's the Season

As soon as thanksgiving dinner was over, we broke out the Christmas pajamas! Because now is the appropriate time to start celebrating the Christmas season. Not back in early October when the retailers started. You may remember the pjs that John is wearing.

Road Trip

Our boys are excellent road trippers. This weekend, we made the drive home from Arkansas in record time despite traveling with two kids and stopping at the world's slowest Wendy's. That's thanks to these good travelers and the future I22 corridor. Also thanks to the DVD player, the iPad, the Leapster and good old-fashioned pen and paper distractions.

Two conked out boys, one pipe-cleaner bow tie

Thanksgiving

This year, we spent a full week in Arkansas for Thanksgiving, thanks, in part, to Thomas not having to be in Atlanta to work on the Nutcracker this year. We had a pretty lazy week. We ate good food (everyone), played bad golf (Thomas), practiced swimming (Carter) and generally got in a lot of low-key family time.

We had a few days of rain, followed by a few beautiful days

Decompressing after a rough day on the golf course

We took a trip to Garvin Gardens to see their lights

Carter loved "driving" the train-o-lights, but I got a better picture of him with a peacock

My baby can play triominoes! I can't believe it. He's actually pretty good.

Carter made ice cream pie with Mama Helen, and we celebrated his half-birthday with a candle.

Dad-on-the-couch 2.0. The Kindle edition.

John didn't sleep through everything this holiday. But he did let me eat thanksgiving dinner in peace. And then let me nap with him!

During the rainy days, Carter and I made place cards for everyone.

Mom attempts to serve as Thomas gets a photo op with the canned cranberry sauce (ridges intact)

Mimi got to meet her newest great-grandbaby

First Expedition

I blogged previously about Carter's school. It's an Expeditionary Learning school. During an expedition, much of the learning is shaped around a particular topic.

Kindergarteners do two expeditions during the school year, and the first one just finished up. The expedition was on Signs, Symbols and Self.

I chaperoned a field trip at the beginning of the expedition back in September. We walked from the school to the town square where the kids had to complete a scavenger hunt for symbols and signs and had to find community helpers and try to spot their tools.

The expedition culminated on Friday with a learning celebration in which the kids got a chance to be the teacher, taking their parents through the classroom to show off their work. Every surface in the classroom was covered with work related to the expedition, and it was easy to see how they had integrated math, reading, social studies and Spanish into the expedition. One thing I loved was that they worked a lot on revising their work, so all the final products were on the walls, but each kid also had a folder that contained early drafts of their work.



Each child used created their own family flag. The symbols on our family flag represent our family members, our love of dancing, pepperoni pizza and birthdays.




The key for the flag symbols was written in Spanish.




As the kids explained their work, a slide show displayed photos from the 6 week expedition.




Another project: Drawing well-known US symbols. Carter really wants to visit DC now. He drew the Washington Monument, but he mostly wants to visit the Lincoln Memorial. As he told us many times, "That's Abraham Lincoln. He was president but he died."




Another project: Community Helper puppets. Carter's is he first one pictured.




Another project: They used a key to look up and copy Native American symbols onto a vest for thanksgiving.


There was more, but that's a little taste of Carter's first expedition! The main final product was a legacy flag that the Kindergarteners created together for the school's weekly community circle. The kids were all so proud of their work, and Carter was particularly excited to get to play teacher!

Chatterbox

John, at about 2.5 months.