Five on Friday

1. Yesterday we had a fun Valentine's Day.  We started the day with donut holes for breakfast.... and then some scrambled eggs with sausage a little later because I figured donut holes wouldn't keep the kids full for long.  They opened gifts from Poppy & Nana and G-Pa & G-Ma (Thank you!!  They loved them!!) and then we headed out to meet Matt for lunch.  I think we've done that about once/month and it's been a fun treat.  I am excited to picnic with him at a nearby park once it warms up!  We stopped by my mom's on the way home to drop something off and then came home for naps.  After I put Anna Reaghan down, Asa and I did preschool.  He LOVED what we did yesterday.  That was fun to see.  I had introduced some new activities this week, and he's begging to do them again.  So his excitement when I presented alternate versions of the same activity was so sweet.  I WANT it to be fun to/for him, and I'm so glad we're accomplishing that so far.  We fed the kids dinner when Matt got home, and then they opened a card and gift each from Matt & me.  Anna Reaghan received an adorable mommy and baby cow that play  music and say sweet things to each other when you bring them near each other.  It's adorable and her face LIT UP when she saw it.  For Asa we purchased a small RC helicopter like Matt (and my dad) have--but removed the remote from the packaging. ;)  He's been playing with Matt's by flying it by hand all around the house.  It's completely entranced by it.  In order to hopefully prevent a major accident with Matt's and give him a smidge more freedom in how he plays with it, we bought him his own.  He played with it from the minute he opened it until he went to bed, and at bed time he kissed it goodnight and set it under his nightlight so he'd be able to see it from bed.  After the kids were in bed, Matt and I had dinner and enjoyed a relaxing, low-key evening.

2.  Asa has been introduced to Snoopy and in typical Asa fashion is now quite smitten.  His Valentine's gift from Poppy & Nana has Snoopy on it so I told him a little about Snoopy.  He asked to see a video of Snoopy, so I started Snoopy Come Home on Youtube for him while I got everyone dressed yesterday.  The rest of the day he asked me, "What was that name of that dog again?  The white one with the black ears coming down?"  And he asked to see Snoopy again first thing this morning. :)

3.  Asa is also reigniting his enjoyment of Busy Town.  I got out the Sgt. Murphy he received for Christmas, and now if Sgt. Murphy comes up in a storyline, Asa gets his out and "matches" it to what is going on. :)  He did the same with his Huckle driving a car figurine yesterday.

4.  Anna Reaghan has added another word to her repertoire:  purse.  :)  She is such a girly girl.  It cracks me up and is adorable to see her walking around the house with a purse on the crook of her elbow with her arm cocked just so.

5.  We registered Asa for preschool!  ACK!!  He'll be going 2 days/week next year from 9-1:30.  I know he'll thrive and absolutely eat it up.  He's so social and will do great, although I'm sure there will be some transition involved.  *I* am croaking, but I know it'll be good for him.  I've been with him 24/7 every day for 3.5 years at this point--except for being the hospital to deliver Anna Reaghan and her stint at Children's hospital for croup when we first moved here.  Other than that, we're always together.  And I love that it's been that way.  I love soaking up every second I have with him; I know these little days are all too fleeting.  In 3.5 years, I've had only one of those anecdotal stay-at-home-mom days where the thought occurred to me, "It would be nice to run far, far away for the day."  Only ONCE.  I just really, truly love being with my  kids as much as possible; it's just how I'm wired.  But this is one of those things where what's best for Asa is in opposition to what feels good to me, and so he'll go.  At this point, we intend to homeschool.  But we also believe that is a decision we'll pray about each year for each of our children.  Since we cannot possibly know how God will lead us from year to year, we believe it is important for our children to have the skills necessarily to succeed in a traditional classroom setting as well.  So in addition to thriving with more social time at preschool, we'll be able to give Asa a taste of expectations and procedures in a classroom.  But how in the world is he old enough already??  I can't believe he'll be FOUR this summer!  Whew!