Raising Watsons

Heather and Ben,

Hello!  Hope you had a great weekend-mine has been busy trying to catch up with everything since I was gone for a week.  I am including a couple of pictures from my trip so you and the kids can see what I did all week when I was gone.  It was a very successful trip-46 patients helped, 53 surgeries in 4 days-and all patients up and mobile the day we left.  A very humbling and awe inspiring experience for sure.

I am including pictures from the week I left as well as the past week of school.  It seems like the kids have grown so much since I left.  We had a good two days together this past week and enjoyed painting with toothbrushes and creating “monsters”.  Be sure to take a look at our room…new artwork is going up daily!

Tucker is really getting into playing cooperatively with his friends and is “sharing” much more than before.  He loves playing with Maddox, Lily, and Luke-but also enjoys playing with Lucas, Natalia, and Madeline.  He also loves any art project that we have and loves creating…especially with paint!

This week, of course, will be all about Halloween.  Tomorrow we will be baking cookies, Tuesday is pumpkin carving and creating, Wednesday is our Halloween Party, and on Thursday and Friday we will be talking more about fall and the changes it brings.

I will send out an email letting you know the details on our Halloween Party tomorrow.  I expect it to begin at 9:30.  If you bring Tucker before 8:30, please do not dress him in costume-we will do that closer to 9:00.  We would love for you to join us at 9:30 for our annual Halloween Parade and then treats afterwards.

Have a good rest of your weekend and I will see you tomorrow.

Ms. Cami

As long as we’re talking about siblings, here’s some pictures of Tucker and Uncle Dan from Ben and Tucker’s trip to Seattle.

I can not believe it’s been almost a month and we haven’t mentioned Aunt Lindsay. Lindsay came to stay with us and bailed us out from having to put Emilia in day care at 3.5 months. We are so grateful. And also thankful.

Ben and I have never known what it’s like to raise kids with family near by, though we always suspected it would be better. And WOW! It is amazing. Having another person means five minutes of time to think, a few extra minutes to make dinner or pick up the never-ending supply of toys that are all over the house. Big big hooray for Aunt Linds, we want her to stay forever (and I mean that in the creepiest way possible).

I kid, but in all seriousness I grew up with FAMILY. Aunts, uncles, cousins, in-laws, we lived together, took care of each other, fought and laughed ourselves to tears. Watching family get to know your children is special, it’s a relationship that Tucker and Emilia will always have with their Aunt. The disconnect didn’t hit me till we had children, realizing that (plus the awesomeness that is Aunt Linds, HOLLA) makes me sentimental and suddenly grateful for the gift the universe gave.

And here, two firefighting buddies saving the day.

And two ladies doing some day time reading.

Photos from the nice camera take a little longer to process and get up to the site. So forgive the delay, but here are some pictures from July.

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Two quick bath time shots!

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This is about a month old, but we went to the beach the day before I returned to work. It was too hot in the house and we all just needed to get out and enjoy the weather a bit.

Somehow, there are only pictures of me and the kids. Other people at the beach include: Grandma Cupcake, Debbie, Lisa and Ben.

Here’s some more super cute baby photos of Em.

This is my favorite –

This is the baby we know.  Happy, silly, giggly.

And hungry.  Everything is in the mouth right now, even her favorite bunny.  Lately, I’ll slip a finger full of whatever sauce or a little avocado into her mouth, she doesn’t flinch.  I think she’s gonna be a good eater like Tucker.

This onesie might look familiar, cause it is.   Big brother Tucker rocked this one in 2010.  Emilia is going retro!

As mentioned by Ms. Cami, this is Tucker’s Apple.  It’s a hand portrait of our family.

Wow, time has flown and we have already spent our first month together here in the Monkey Room. Last week was all about apples! We enjoyed counting, sorting, printing, and tasting them during class time. The children took great pride in bringing in their “home fun” and showing their friends how they decorated their apple and telling us who helped them to create them. I have put them up on the board along with several other “apple” projects that we worked on this past week. We also had fun building (and ultimately knocking down) a sand volcano on Monday and on Friday took turns at the water table “washing” the babies that live in our outside housekeeping area. The first activity required large motor skills (digging and shaping the sand mound) and cooperation (working together in a small space, waiting for and taking turns). The second activity helped with our fine motor skills (squeezing the sponges) and developed empathy (taking care of the baby). Of course we had to include some shaving cream play, one of our favorites and playing “bus driver”. The kids line up the chairs in the sand box and take turns driving their friends. The bus driver is in charge of deciding “where to go”. Some of the places visited this week: the grocery store, the dinosaur museum, the bus station, and the sandwich shop. We finished the week by making mini Apple Pies on Thursday. The kids loved getting to make their own snack and had a great time shaping the dough, filling it with apples, and sprinkling on the cinnamon and sugar.

Tucker loves to be the bus driver-if we’re not going to the bus station then we have to stop and get a sandwich. Sometimes we do both! He also really enjoyed our cooking project and loved both the shaving cream and washing the babies!

This week we will be talking about fall and the changes it brings. We will be playing games, reading stories, singing songs, and doing projects that focus on leaves and squirrels. If you are interested in helping with our garden project, please let me know.

Have a great week,

Ms Cami

::We got a “boo boo” report on ditch digging day. Tucker told a little girl he didn’t want her in the ditch (loudly, in her face) and she hit him in the nose with the shovel::

[Ben and Tucker are playing on the floor as Heather watches 2012 WFTDA regional tournament in Bay Area and sees a particularly awesome play]

Heather: AWESOME!
Tucker: no. No Mom, that’s not awesome.
Heather: Whaddya mean that’s not awesome? That was totally awesome, bub.
Ben: He doesn’t know what awesome means.
Tucker: Yes I do.
Ben: Am I awesome?
Tucker: No.
Heather: What about me, am I awesome???
Tucker: Ummmm no.
Ben: Okay. What’s awesome?
Tucker: My lawn mower is awesome.
Ben: Welp, guess he knows what awesome means.