Our 2013 Graduate - and soon to be Kindergartener!

Here she comes!

What a great day it was yesterday!  My beautiful girl graduated from Preschool yesterday, and I guess it's a good sign that this morning she asked me if she was going to Kindergarten today!  Sorry kiddo, you have a couple months...

She and her school friends sang songs, one from each month of the last 8 months.  They did such a great job!  Then they sang the song that really got to me... and the rose she brought me did me in.  This is her singing "I love you Mommy".

After the singing, Jocelyn got her diploma!

Once the ceremony was over, we all sat and watched a 25 minute video compiled from pictures taken in the classroom throughout the year.  We will be getting copies of the video soon.  I'm so glad I'll get to bawl my eyes out in the privacy of my own home next time around!  If you look really closely, Jocelyn is in the bubble on the screen.

After the event was over, all the kids got their pictures taken with Ms. Kathy and Ms. Judy.   We will miss them so much!

There will be many "firsts" and "lasts" in Jocelyn's life, but this last day of school was one of the toughest for me so far.  I tried not to cry, but I didn't make it...  Jocelyn's teachers have been so good to her, and to me.  They have always encouraged me to be involved in Jocelyn's education and I have gotten to share so much with her because they have been so open to me being there.
This morning I met with Ms. Judy for a parent - teacher conference.  We talked about how to maintain what Jocelyn has learned through the summer so she is ready for Kindergarten.
Oh Kindergarten...   don't even mention it or the water-works will start again!!

Proud Mommy and Daddy

Mommy Moments

Since the last time I posted, my birthday and Mother's Day have gone by.  I have worked my last co-op day at Jocelyn's preschool, and tomorrow she will "graduate".

I am dealing with so many emotions.  The first of which is PRIDE.  I am such a proud Mommy of my baby girl.  In the last 8 months she has learned so much!  I have seen her go from a preschooler, to a kiddo ready to take on the world in Kindergarten.  I am so proud of her.

Unlike other Moms, I chose to wait until Jocelyn was 4 to send her to preschool.  I am a stay at home Mom to one child.  I just couldn't justify it in my mind.  Was it a good choice for her or a bad one?  I think she will do just fine.  But having only that one year meant so many firsts this year!!  First day of school, first field trip, first bus trip, learning to ride a bike (and now a big bike with training wheels), learning letters, numbers and writing her name.  First Halloween Parade, first school birthday celebration, first field day, and first Mother's Day party.

Now that the year of firsts is over, I am feeling such sadness.  Real SADNESS for what we are leaving behind in preschool.  I have loved her teachers so much.  You can always tell the teachers who love what they do and love the kids.  Jocelyn's teachers love her, and genuinely care for her and the rest of the kids.  But they have also been so good to me.  They encouraged me to be involved whenever I wanted to be.  All those firsts I listed above?  I was a part of every one of them.  I didn't miss out on anything.  What a great gift they gave me allowing me to share this time with Jocelyn.

I will miss Jocelyn's teachers.  I will miss her school, and as I've said before, next year when I send my baby off to Kindergarten, I will miss HER with every inch of my being.  I can only hope her teachers in the years to come, are even 1/2 as wonderful as these two have been.

So think of me tomorrow.  I expect it to be a sob-fest.  Yes I am so, so proud of my girl.  But I'm so sad to see this time in her life come to an end.

Here are some wonderful photos from the last couple weeks.

Before the Mother's Day Celebration

Making picture frames together

I love this goofy kid!

Oh, and one other emotion...  a tiny bit of dread.  I have a long summer ahead trying to keep my little one in some kind of routine.  I also don't want her to lose what's she's learned in school, so we have a couple camps coming, including a Kindergarten prep camp.  But there are 13 weeks between now and the start of Kindergarten.  Let's hope we don't both go crazy together!  Playdate anyone???

Down on the Farm!

Jocelyn, Auntie and I had a really fun experience this weekend.  We spent Friday night at a farm.  On Friday afternoon and again, EARLY Saturday morning, we got to work on a Dairy Farm milking cows, bottle feeding the calves, collecting eggs and chasing chickens, feeding the bunnies and visiting the baby bunnies, and sheep and miniature horses.  

Just to add to the fun, we also took a horse and buggy ride, a wagon ride, AND a train ride.  

We jammed a lot of fun into a short 24 hours!  Of course in real Jocelyn style, she already wants to know when we're going back!

This may be my favorite picture!
There was pure glee on her face when she caught her chicken!

Ponies her size!

Doing for a Friend

Last June a good friend of mine lost her baby boy on his two week birthday.  There are no answers to what went wrong, and nothing that could possibly make this easier for her and her family, but yesterday we gave her a gift of love that hopefully helps.

Jocelyn and I and many of our friends created a beautiful butterfly garden in her yard, in memory of her baby boy.  It was a lot of work, but we are so happy with how it came out.  It is full of butterfly attracting plants, and it has a kid painted butterfly house, a memorial stone and a butterfly shaped stone that my friend made with her son.  It's full of memories and beautiful things.  I hope it brings her joy for many years to come.

We had a few surprises.  First Jocelyn and I got caterpillars that we watched become butterflies.  We planned to release them once the garden was finished, and it turned out to be the perfect plan!

In their crystalis

Feeding them sugar water

The kids came over a couple weeks ago to paint the butterfly house.

Anxious for freedom!

The garden took lots of helpers, including the kids.  We discovered that pulling out grass, dealing with good old Maryland clay, and lots and lots of rock, was hard work!  It took longer than we thought, but we went from this...

To this...






To this...

Notice the giant pile of rocks we dug out

To the final, beautiful product.

Jocelyn and I had a long talk last night about charity.  Each week when she gets her allowance $1 of her money gets saved for charity.  It's important to me that she understands that charity is about doing for others.  Often it's about giving to the less fortunate, but yesterday it was about making a good friend smile.  I feel really good about what we did yesterday.  It was something good that could be made from something so sad.  In memory of a precious little boy.

More School Fun

The Co-op preschool set up is so much fun.  I continue to love how much I can be involved with Jocelyn at school and here are a few reasons why.

Last week I went with Jocelyn on her very first bus ride.  The kids all got to go to the Science Center, but the real event was the trip.  I loved being able to share Jocelyn's first bus riding experience with her.

Then came the springtime Easter Egg Fun!  Now we can't call it Easter, so it's just an Egg Hunt, but who cares.  The kids had fun!

In class they made their own Bunny buckets, and then they tore around the playground to collect eggs.  So much fun!  And yes, again, I got to be a part of it.

The last few weeks of preschool are ticking down.  It's over the 3rd week in May and I can't believe it!  The time has gone by so fast!!  Jocelyn has learned so much, it's amazing to see the changes in her.  I think we will both be very sad when the year is over and we have to say goodbye.  I don't want to think about it.  I plan to enjoy every last minute of these last weeks, and celebrate Jocelyn's accomplishments every step of the way.

Aunty Joye's FUN Chaos

Last weekend Jocelyn and I took a trip to Connecticut to visit Aunty Joye and the clan.  As always, the trip was a lot of fun, but so exhausting!!  Joye and I always stay up way too late talking, and Jocelyn is always up late hanging out with the kids, but true to form, she doesn't want to miss anything, so when the kids start moving around in the morning, she's up and ready too.  So late nights and early mornings for all...   not a good combination.  But there's no way we would give up a minute of the fun.

Every kid Jocelyn turned to, and there are five of them by the way, jumped at the chance to play with her -- snowball fights, legos, Nerf guns, ponies, didn't matter what it was.  We pretty much walked through the front door and I didn't see her the whole weekend, unless I went looking for her.  She had a blast!

Looks like she fits right in!

Top row:  Alex and Abbie
Middle:  DJ and Hannah
Bottom: Ben and my happy camper

Abbie is working on an agricultural project in school and she is raising baby chicks in the basement.  The family lives out in the country, by the way.  These 33 chicks will be added to the already 20 something outside, along with the 9 ducks...

Not surprisingly, 33 fuzzy, cute baby chicks were quite the draw.  Jocelyn loved petting them and feeding them.

Throwing snowballs and shooting Nerf guns!

Mommy and Jocelyn are still trying to recover from our lack of sleep, but our trip to Aunty Joye's was so much fun!  The kids want us to come back next week.  Oh how we wish we could!!

NICU Reunion

Today was a special treat.  After 4 1/2 years without, the hospital Jocelyn was born in, finally did another NICU reunion.  It's been 5 years since Jocelyn was born, so it's hard to remember all the nurses and doctors. Over the course of 33 days, there were a lot of them.  But we got to see two of the most important ones today.

Dr. Blechman was Jocelyn's primary doctor.

And Nurse Susan was pretty special as well.  Because of her, we got to hold Jocelyn for the first time when she was 8 days old.

Unfortunately, the one we wanted to see the most, was Nurse Joanna, and she was not there.  Lucky for her, but not so lucky for us, she retired last year and moved to Florida.  I gave Susan my email to pass on to her.  It would be nice to be in touch with her again.  In homage to our Mommy Joanna...

The reunion had some fun activities for kids.  They had some dancing.  And a puppeteer.















And the kids got little stuffed ponies, cowboy hats, and balloons, and they got their faces painted.  No surprise, Jocelyn got a unicorn!















Afterwards, we got our picture taken, just because.

The oddest thing about today?  The last time I was at this banquet facility, was 27 years ago for my prom.  Yikes!

Discovered this news article today about last nights event.  If you look closely, you can see Jocelyn in a couple places!
http://foxbaltimore.com/news/features/featured/stories/howard-county-general-celebrates-years-nicu-success-706.shtml#.UT3O-hzU_2p

When you just have to be WACKY!

Yesterday was Wacky Wednesday in preschool, in honor of Dr. Suess' birthday this week.

Jocelyn got dressed up in polka dot shirt and pants, purple socks and a poofy tu-tu.  She looked great, but I have to admit, Ms. Judy and Ms. Kathy took the prize!