How is it possible?

How could I have forgotten what it is like to have a toddler? And why, oh why, miss juju ? Why do you have to be so especially TWO?
When you wake me up by popping up an inch from face with a  a loud and cheery "time to get up" how can I not? And when you bring me a handful of toys and ask "you play with me mama?" - really, I how can I say no to that? Or when you jump out and yell "purprise", don't I have to give the obligatory hug that follows? I have no idea what I'm going to do with you come November. Because it's not that you are the rotten sort of two, it's just that you are so, so much of everything. And it's going to be mighty interesting to see how that mixes with a newborn

snugs

I was going to write something about her habit of having to rub bare skin but then I decided she doesn't ever need to know how I really feel about that. Let's just say that when juju needs cuddles she has to be touching bare skin so she can love and that she doesn't particularly care if the only place she can reach is your face - with her foot.

back to school picnic

 

So, how do celebrate back to school when you're not feeling good and while trying to be responsible about spreading  your germs around? You head to a state park and have a picnic dinner that you picked up from the subway drive through. You skip rocks and you roll down hills, staying out till bedtime because you don't have to get up at the crack of dawn to catch the bus!

It's that time again

Yesterday we had our first day of school. Meant to start last week but we had a delay with a curriculum shipment and then the older 2 got sick.  Of course Juliana had to wait a bit to come down with what seemed to be the flu (yes, the flu, in August!) so we again delayed a bit but I was tired of waiting. I'm not going to lie starting school with a sick 2 year old was not my best idea ever and neither was not checking that the drink at the table was water instead of orange juice or leaving an opened bottle of glue atop the science folder unattended. So yesterday felt exactly like the bottom row of pictures, except imagine you have a cold yourself(we visited a museum last monday and apparently it was a hotbed of germs).
I know everyone is always curious about what we do so I thougt I'd share, we tend to do a mix of different curricula at whatever grade I feel is appropriate. I'm toying with the idea of adding a couple of things but first we'll see how this goes.

• History - picking up at Greece 
• Science- new approach this year with premade lab sheets, previously Nate had been doing it but I needed something a little more um, non science person friendly so I could tackle it 
• Phonics. Handwriting and Math are done with workbooks from the same company 
• spelling
• grammar  - finishing up from last year
• Evie reading 

Appropriate, no?

I realize it's more a judgement on my parenting than her but it was still amusing that while I was making this outfit she was dumping out an entire jumbo size box of cheerios. And a carton of cottage onto the kitchen floor but I didn't document that.