Chaperoning the CDCLR Trip to the Duck Pond

Grayson has been attending the Child Development Center for Learning and Research at Virginia Tech (commonly known around here are the "Lab School") since early August and Luke will join him on October 23rd when he turns 15 months old. I put Grayson's name on the list for this daycare before he was born. It has 4 stars with the Virginia Star Quality Initiative - the highest of any daycare in Virginia. A spot finally opened for him this past summer - 3 years after making my initial inquiry. The center uses the Reggio Emilia approach for learning and it has been a terrific match for Grayson! I encourage anyone interested in knowing more to google Reggio Emilia - it really is a neat concept. I couldn't be more pleased with what we've experienced thus far. Each day when we arrive the teachers have 3 "investigations" already setup in the classroom. The teachers design the investigations around interests the children have recently expressed. The children are free to roam among the guided investigations until "morning meeting" at 9:00 when the children discuss things as a group. They spend TONS of time outside on a super-nice playground that even includes a solar happy sunshine face that some of the electrical engineering students came over and installed when the kids were learning about the sun. I get to go over during my lunch hour often and watch and listen through a two way mirror that is also equipped with headphones. I love being able to spy on him unnoticed! In the observation booth you also get the chance to read through all of the lesson plans and research notes from the teachers. I don't know how these teachers find the time for all of the documentation and planning! But it's awfully fun to be able to look back and see the things Grayson said during certain investigations, etc. It's also really neat to see, on paper, how the teachers pay attention to the interests of each child and try to develop investigations by taking cues from the kids. The center is also attached to an Adult Day Services program for VT employees who need daycare for their elderly parents. As a result, the daycare and adult day services have a "Neighbors Growing Together" program where Grayson gets to visit his "neighbors" and do projects with some older folks. The daycare uses the VT campus as a classroom, often taking trips to learn about things nearby. Today I helped chaperone a trip to the duck pond to collect fall leaves and other things from nature for collages. Here are some pics from the trip...

Busted

AES Playground

After we enjoyed the orchard and ice cream with my Mom, we stopped by my old elementary school so the kids could enjoy the playground.


Nuk and all...Cameron showing off on the monkey bars.

Grayson making his Mommy nervous.

Grayson showing off how he can swing all by himself! (Really - even from a dead stop now, Grayson can swing all on his own and he's not yet 3! He's already to the point where he makes me nervous by saying "look how high I'm going Mommy!") And Nana helping Addison.

Seaman's Orchard with Nana

Last weekend I took the kids to my Mom's house in Amherst. She was also keeping Kim's kids so we had a houseful! We took a little field trip on Saturday to pick apples at a local orchard. It's actually a commercial orchard, but one day a year they let locals come and pick from the trees before they strip the trees. The kids had fun and the orchard is beautiful. Wrangling 5 kids under 8 in an open field with lots of hiding places kept us busy, though!

Mom with all the kids.

Cameron wanted to use the apple picker.

Luke opted for the old fashioned way.

Lots of space to burn off energy!

After picking apples we stopped at a little ice cream shop and enjoyed some ice cream on the way home!

Back in Christiansburg, we turned some of our harvest into an apple pie. And while Grayson absolutely LOVES plain apples, he will have nothing to do with them baked in a pie.

1 Year Portraits - Luke

We were a month late getting Luke's pictures taken, but we're still calling them his 1 year portraits. My sister actually has some really good shots of him from the beach which was closer to his birthday anyway. One day I'm hoping she'll send me those :-) In the meantime...here are some that we attempted at a studio. Luke was NOT a cooperative subject. He would scream everytime I would put him down. I was afraid I was going to have to be in all of his pictures with him! Fortunately, I was able to run away really fast for a least a few shots that are at least acceptable...

Kings of the Mountain

Rich and Jolene's neighbor is developing their neighborhood and had some extra dirt delivered the other day. Yey! Free entertainment for the boys. Grayson has had fun playing King of the Mountain!

Luke now insists on doing everything Grayson is doing.

So we have two Kings of the Mountain - one just also has his Nuk and stuffed doggie along for the ride.

Future Blackmail

Fun with Caitlin

As the kids get older we're finding that having neighbors with similar aged kids is priceless! Caitlin lives across the street and both Grayson and Luke love to see her! She's a cutie! Agewise she's right in between the two. Uh oh.

Luke loves Mack

All tuckered out.

Grayson loves it when we let him watch a movie at home. He needed some down time after a really hard day of work outside this weekend. Unlike usual, he didn't actually make it through the whole movie...must have been his Mimi's touch!

Are you ready for some football?

Go Hokies!

Birthday Pics - 6 Weeks Late

Well, Luke turned 1 year old on July 23rd, but the pics from our camera were deleted. I've been trying to gather pics from others there and have been fairly successful, but still haven't managed to upload many to my computer. Below are a few that my Mom sent. The party was actually quite fun! Kim and her kids were able to come, along with my uncle Russell, Mom, Angela and her kids, a friend from work, and a neighbor from across the street. My sister brought the inflatable moon bounce which proved to be a big hit with all the little kids. I managed to keep my Mom's tradition of baking birthday cakes alive for at least one more birthday. Mickey wasn't perfect, but I think everyone knew who he was!

5 weeks later I finally managed to get Luke to the pediatrician for his 1 year checkup. He weighs 22lbs. 14 oz. (40% percentile). He's 31.5 inches long (84% percentile). And his head is HUGE -literally off the charts. His weight went from about the 90th percentile to the 40th, so the doc says I need to try to get a few more calories into him. He still loves milk, so that shouldn't be a problem. We go back in two months to have his head measured again to make sure it's not growing too quickly. I'm sure it's fine - the kid just has a big head. Luke continues to be a big snuggler. He loves his Mama and loves even more to be held by his Mama. He still has a Nuk and, unfortunately, unlike Grayson, Luke uses his most of the day. At some point I need to work on that. Luke has the attention span of a gnat. He goes from one thing to the next and rarely finds one particular thing to play with for any length of time. In this way, he's a bit needier than Grayson ever was. In contrast, however, Luke sleeps very well. He starts getting tired at about 6:30 and it takes a group effort to keep him awake and happy until 7:30 at which point he practically leaps into his crib and we generally don't hear from him again until 6:00 in the morning. Neither of my boys sleep late, but I'm just thankful they're sleeping through the night now (most of the time). Luke isn't a bad eater - as long as you feed him what he likes. If he doesn't like something, he throws it on the floor. He lets you know when he's mad. He has two words - kittycat and Mama. Cat was the first word for both boys. Luke, especially, loves the cats. They are to be commended for not harming him yet. He has most certainly deserved it on a few occasions. He chases them and likes to bury his face in their fur. Overall, he's a pretty cool kid. I can't wait to see how he develops in the next year!