Daycare Halloween Party

Well! We survived week one of daycare and work. By far one of the hardest weeks of our lives. It wasn't hard because we were worried about Linnea. We know we picked a great place and that she was fine playing, eating and sleeping with new friends and providers. It is just incredibly hard dropping off a screaming toddler you have spent almost everyday with for the last year and a half. Going from everyday together doing all sorts of fun things to not being together until the afternoon is HARD. Linnea still sleeps until 8 or later so we dont have much playtime in the morning. We need to leave by 8:30 at the very latest. One day she did rise around 7 so we cuddled and played a bit before heading to daycare but overrall she gets up, gets dressed and we leave. I try my best to do a quick goodbye because everyone has said that is better than the long drawn out goodbye. Everyday Chris picked her up she was happy as could be, showed him what she did at daycare and got good reports! She is already improving on playing by herself and talking at home which is sooo cute!

My job is challenging but I think I like it. There are 9 students in my room with three other aides, the teacher and a student teacher. But with the disabilities the students have that still sometimes doesn't seem like enough staff! But we make it through the day helping with academics, behavior and a lot of focus on social skills! Throughout the week the students have music therapy, occupational therapy, swimming, library, gym and lots of sensory time!

Here are Linnea's two lil girlfriends at the Halloween Party on Friday after daycare at the daycare. The party was a great way to end the week! We then treated ourselves to Bascali's!

Linnea loves to play in the kitchen area!

Elmo was thirsty!

Linnea did many crafts this week for Halloween! One was ghosts...

and one was pumpkins! Im sure they did more but these are what we got pictures of!

I hope next week either goes the same or better than this week! Im sure it will be strange after two days of being with mommy and daddy to go back to A Child's View but we know its good for Linnea and us!

Mason City Marathon

I have a restaurant named Whiskey Creek to thank for my carb loading before my 7th marathon! I have set a goal to do 10 in my life...so only three more to go!

Just Chris and I headed to Mason City last Saturday for the marathon. Linnea got to have a sleepover at grandma and grandpa's. We didnt have the camera at the start, but we did have Chris' phone so we got some pictures on that which I will try to remember to post later.

For now...here is me at mile 10! Chris did so great at finding me in three places (5 if you include the start and finish!)

Here I am at mile 14 right before heading into the Lime Creek Nature Center which was a great place to run! I loved it!

It did have a few hills so I was much more tired here at mile 21. I feel like it took me FOREVER to reach the end! Longest 5 miles of my life. But after some nice trails through parks, along a creek and through nice neighborhoods I finally saw the finish line!

26.2 miles in 4 hours and 51 minutes. Slowest time yet. That is a long time to be running! Hopefully I can train a little better for the next one and get it closer to 4 hours or even 4 and a half.

But I am very happy I did it! I had my doubts and walked a bit more than I usually do.

Now what will be my next and maybe final 3???? London, Disney World, Big Sur, Chicago, New York, Germany...the choices are endless and all sound so fun!

We ended the trip with a letter box at the Northern Iowa fairgrounds. This was a nice weekend away before daycare and work started. I was pretty sore my first day at work, but not as bad as I was expecting!

A Child's View

Our big girl started daycare this Wednesday! After many interviews and applications I finally got hired as a Special Ed Aide at Bridgeview Elementary School in St. Paul. It is a school just for special needs students and I will be in a middle school room so we will see how it goes! I felt really comfortable with the principal and in the school during the interview and have worked with many kids with special needs before, just not this age group, but I think I can do it and will like it! So once, I got hired we then had to scramble and find Linnea a trustworthy daycare which was quite possibly the most stressful experience of my life!

But after visiting 7 daycares in 4 days and making many phone calls and doing lots of research we finally found one we love. Of course it was the last one we visited. It is called A Child's View. It's the perfect mix of inhome and center. It is technically a center because it isn't at anyone's house, but the place is so homelike, family run and small. If there are more than 8 toddlers there will be two teachers which we love! So many in home places we looked at took up to 10 and just had one adult and with Linnea being so young still we wanted her to have more attention. Despite how she looks in this picture below, she really does like her daycare!

So this above picture was taken at our house before we left Wed morning. Yes she is crying but she was whining and crying all morning because I had to wake her up and she has an icky cold which was why we kept her home Tuesday. I double checked the teachers thoughts on the cold and she said you can bring her. If everyone kept their kids home with runny noses, no kids would ever come. So Linnea's immune system will hopefully strengthen with daycare :)

The dropoff went much better than I expected. Linnea had been there two times with me so I think that helped. I got her there just in time for breakfast so once I went over everything with the teacher I gave the squirt a hug and I said okay Linnea I'm going now, have a good day, we will pick you up after nap. The teacher scooped her up and brought her to look at the Halloween decorations and that was that. No crying (well until I did a lil in the car). I was very impressed. I enjoyed my day of running and doing errands and cleaning and Linnea enjoyed her day of playing with friends and being cared for by teacher Karen. She struggled with the nap as expected. They sleep on cots and there are so many different noises to get used to. I guess she laid trying to sleep for an hour and a half and then finally passed out for about 30 minutes and then woke up screaming. But the teacher got her calmed down after 10 minutes and when I picked her up she was happily having snack at the little table.

When I picked her up she had to show me how she goes down the slide

and plays with the magnets!

She also showed me the fish they have. She seemed very happy.

The next day (yesterday) was even better. She slept for 2.5 hrs and hardly cried at all. Karen said she was in good spirits but still has a cold. I kept her home today so we could have some more fun together before I start work. We are also leaving her with my parents on Saturday night so we can head to Mason City, IA for my marathon! I know, I was planning to do Mankato Marathon, but the run filled up before I registered. I guess that's what I get for procrastinating! Thank god there were other marathons to choose from this weekend so my training doesn't go to waste.

Here is the website for Linnea's daycare if you want to check it out. She can be here until kindergarten if we want/need to, which we love!

http://www.achildsview.com/

And if you want to see what I am getting myself into for work and this marathon you can check out Bridgeview's site and Mason City Marathon:

http://bridgeview.spps.org/

http://www.ontheroad4edu.org/

Have a good weekend everyone!

Turtle Lake

Last weekend was our annual fall family get away! We normally head up to the North Shore and stay at the Lutsen Sea Villas but we decided to try something different out this year. The drive to the North Shore is so long for all the kiddoes we now have, plus the cabin we rented the last probably 6 years we have outgrown. Anyways...Erik found this nice home to rent on Turtle Lake.

There was even a smiling tree for us!

We had a bonfire one night.

Storytime every night!

And we went on a train ride one day too!

Chris had a migraine though so he missed out...but here is mommy and Linnea on the train!

lovin it.

Looking out the window with her cousin Dylan.

We took the train a small little Pumpkin Festival where they had a "haunted" depot. They played some music which Linnea danced to, there is a video at the bottom if you make it thru all my pictures!

We went through a hay maze, had lunch and then went on a pumpkin hunt.

Linnea found the perfect one! The train ride home was not enjoyable since we had plenty of tired kids and one lil girl (mine) got stung by a bee!!! It was quite traumatic but we survived. It was on her leg and she was convinced her pants hurt her so we did not put those pants back on. She was the toddler in a shirt, socks, shoes and just a diaper.

We stopped for some ice cream on the way back to the house and when we returned we relaxed with some Sesame Street and other shows. Linnea couldnt get enough hugs from her buddy Dylan.

Sunday we watched some football, did crafts and took it easy since most of the toddlers came down with colds. Here is Jake with grandma!

Brian, Megan and their boys made time for the canoe on the lake behind the house.

And we had fun playing on the shore and in the little playhouse.

Then it was time to cuddle with grandma.

crafts!

On the way home Chris, my parents, Linnea and I stopped for two letterboxes in St. Croix Falls and got some nice fall pictures.

We found one of the two boxes and then obviously as you can see in the picture below, someone was very tired!

We enjoyed our fall trip very much!

A New Car

Not a new car for us, but for Linnea!!! Monday was half off day at the Valu Thrift at Sun Ray so we took advantage of it and bought this car for her!

Vroom! Vroom!

She is very happy in it! I had a hard time getting her out of it to buy it but we managed. It was also tough getting it in my Hyundai Elantra. But again we managed to cram it in the front seat!

Costume Party!!!

We had our monthly playdate with my friends from the new parent group! Since it's October, the month of Halloween we put the kids in their costumes! It was hard to get all of them on the couch for a picture but here are most of them! so cute!

Linnea (Vikings Cheerleader) loved the slide!

And she loved hanging out with lil Bo Peep (Sophia)!

And of course a Vikings player.

What a fun day! Linnea even got a treat bag!

Como Zoo

Linnea found a new friend at the Como Zoo this past Sunday.

A cute little monkey! Como Zoo is preparing for Boo at the Zoo so they have all these wooden animals out. Once we got Linnea to pose by one she attempted to pose by all of them.

Below is one of the new summer additions to our family...Allison. Gabe and Courtney brought her into the world August 26, 2010. We got to meet her this past weekend and she is one good baby girl! However, she did miss out on an awful lot of fun at the zoo by sleeping through most of it!

We walked through the tropical encounters and saw some fish, an anaconda, spiders and we looked for the sloth but could not find him.

Ian wanted to show Linnea around. Sweet.

Us Meyers were actually at the Zoo first. I know surprising we werent late?? So we made the most of it and mom and dad got coffee and then we made our way down to the playroom they have there.

Daddy helped Linnea feed the animals and we had so much fun! Linnea also almost walked the whole time which was a first!