The Nelson Narrative

I don't know about the girls, but I love, love, LOVE preschool!  Ha, I'm kidding--they love it too.  But I am really loving it.  It's so nice to have those couple of hours to do whatever.  Unfortunately, I have spent 2 out of the first 3 days grocery shopping.  Last Friday, their 2nd day, we were getting ready to go out of town for the weekend and needed some stuff, then on Monday I needed to shop for the week.  Wednesday and today were better, though.  Wednesday I wanted to look at storage containers so I went to Fred Meyer, then to Target, then got gas at Costco then went to Trader Joe's (more grocery shopping, gees).  Today I would have liked to just come straight home and do some things around the house but I had to go back to Target to pick up a prescription I forgot to pick up Wednesday and also they charged me for something that was supposed to be free with the purchase of something else.  I ma...

It's finally here!  The day I've been dying for for 2 years, since the girls stopped napping.  It went really well.  Quick and easy drop-off, and, just as planned, straight to Starbucks for my first Pumpkin Spice Latte of the season.  Ran a few errands then it was time to pick up again.      

Yesterday we drove up to Deception Pass to hang out with our neighbors who were camping there this weekend.  The girls had a blast playing on the beach and building driftwood forts with their friend Abby.  And since we were in the area we went and had dinner with my mom.  She no longer drives and can't ever come to us so I'm trying to get up there at least once a month.     Saturday was a nice, lowkey day.  Paul took Olivia to the farmer's market, and then I took Kayley to the outlet mall, the grocery store and the library.  We haven't done as much of that (separating them and doing things one-on-one) as we'd like, but everyone enjoys it.  They are so much better behaved when they're alone versus together.  I absolutely dread taking them to any kind of store or restaurant (other than McDonald's or somewhere with a playground) anymore, even if Paul is with us, because they act like total monsters.  But by themselves, t...

It's the end of the last week before preschool and I wish I could say that we've been living it up but unfortunatley we haven't done much.  The weather has been nice but not quite hot enough to go play in a lake or the splash park.  We've mostly just hung around here and played with our friends a lot.  I guess we still have Tuesday for a last hurrah.  I'm thinking about taking them to the Ballard Locks, but it's a good 45 minutes away, though, so I don't know. Yesterday we did the drop-n-go at Dizzy Bus since I had a Living Social voucher, so I went and browsed in Old Navy then went to Target for some essentials and then I had just a few minutes to browse in TJ Maxx before I had to go pick them up again.  It was still fun, and they of course had fun at Dizzy Bus.  When they are in preschool I will have about 20 minutes more than I had yesterday but I know it's going to go so fast.  I'm probably still going to feel like I can't get...

It's the start of the last week before preschool.  I was trying to decide what fun thing to do (from my list ) when the girls decided they wanted to ride their bikes/scooters (Olivia rode her bike and Kayley rode her scooter) to the library to claim their prize for completing the summer reading program.  Then they of course had to get a cake pop from Starbucks since it was right there.  They had never ridden that far before (probably about 3 miles round trip) but they did really well.  On the way home we passed a park that we used to come to back when they rode in the stroller but now is a bit far for when they're on bikes/scooters, and I was hoping they wouldn't want to stop but of course they did, but it was lunchtime and I was hungry so we didn't, but then they really wanted to make a picnic lunch and go back so we did (we took the car).  Then after being there not very long Olivia had to go potty and it's a small park with no bathroom so we got back in the ...

When the girls were first born, one of the things I couldn't wait to do with them was storytime at the library.  We went for the first time when they were about 14 months old and have gone fairly regularly since.  Today was the last one until early September, at which time they will be in school on Wednesday mornings, so I made a point to go one last time.  They have a Monday afternoon storytime that we could still go to, and a Thursday evening pajama storytime, but after 3 1/2 years, today was it for Wednesday mornings.  So weird. Another thing we'll never do again is the Sno Valley Indoor Playground.  We didn't go nearly as much last year as we had the previous year or two, but we did go one last time in May (they don't have it in the summer) because I had a punch card freebie to redeem.  They only have it Monday-Wednesday-Friday mornings during the school year, so that's now out for us, too.  It's kind of the end of an era.

In exactly 3 weeks, the girls start preschool!  I am SO excited.  I've been fantasizing for months about all the things I can do in those couple of child-free hours 3 days a week.  Such as: Grocery shop (by myself!) Run errands (by myself!) Read Exercise Clean Projects around the house Maybe get around to doing a scrapbook of our wedding (that was 6 years ago). On their very first day I've decided that I'm going to go straight to Starbucks after I drop them off and sip a latte while reading a book.  Most days I'll do productive things like clean, grocery shop and run errands, but I'm setting aside that first day for something fun and relaxing. My excitement isn't completely selfish, however.  I'm also excited for the girls--for the opportunity to make new friends, learn lots of new things and have fun, new experiences.  Can't wait!

The girls start preschool in less than a month.  I took them to Walmart on Tuesday for backpacks.  Kayley is so proud of hers and wears it around everywhere.  It's bigger than she is, but she wouldn't go for the smaller ones because, heaven forbid, they didn't have any characters on them.  They both had to have the Disney Princesses.  Then Wednesday we went to the outlet mall for some school clothes.  I thought it would be fun to have our very first mother-daughters school clothes shopping experience, plus I wanted them to be able to pick out stuff that they'll actually wear, but it turns out they have the attention span of a gnat, so we didn't last long.  At least at the Gymboree outlet they have a video playing.  I guess I'll keep doing the clothes shopping by myself for awhile. They did enjoy a ride on the carousel, however. In other news, we are experiencing another major bedtime battle.  For the longest time now, t...

We are in the throes of searching for a preschool for the girls.  I thought I had it narrowed down but then I found a few more to check out and just today I got a flier in the mail for a brand new one just down the road, like literally 2 minutes away at a church we briefly attended when we first moved here.  I really want to find out more about that one, and hope maybe they're a little less expensive, but probably not.  They also have classes starting in January, so maybe I won't have to wait until September to get a few hours to myself a few days a week!  Not that I'm counting down or anything.  Besides, we maybe would wait until September anyway just to save money.  Anyway, I've been busy calling and emailing and we're hoping to make a decision soon so that we can get on a waiting list if need be.  Preschool already (well, not already.  Most kids their age started this year).  What happened to my babies?