Building Blocks

Thought I would send along some pics of Meline's daycare (Building Blocks Learning Center) so you can see where she spends part of her day.

This is her classroom....

This is Meline's crib.

This is Meline in her crib...happy as usual...

This is Meline with her teacher Ali. Not a bad home away from home...

Moody Star Student

The school year is wrapping up and Nathan's elementary school had its end of the year "Star Student" recognition assembly. Each child who earned enough 'stars' throughout the school year (by doing good deeds) got a certificate. Here's Nathan being awarded his certificate. On it was listed one of the 'good deeds' that Nathan did.

In case you can't hear it, the principal is saying "Nathan Bears, star behavior at an assembly."

Here's Nathan with his certificate.

The New Addition To My Face

Oh, I had so many blog titles running through my head...always wear sunscreen....say hello to my little friend.... 3rd times a charm.....frankenkaren......mini-face lift part 3....

for those of you who may not know, I found my 3rd spot of skin cancer on my face so needed to get it removed. soooo... I spent my Monday morning getting yet another slice of my face chopped off. I'm hoping the brow ends up drooping a little bit after the swelling goes down. Otherwise I am going to be left with a permanently curious look on my face! ;-) Needless to say, I now know what Botox must be like as I can no longer make a brow frown on the left side of my face.

Nathan's Stories

The end of the school year is wrapping up and so every day Nathan is coming home with a folder full of papers. I found these 3 stories in the mix and thought they were worth posting. I have typed them exactly as Nathan has written them. Enjoy!

Story #1: Speedy Sam, by Nathan Bears

One day in 194231 a baby named speedy sam was born. He was unlike any other boy, he was faster then any other baby. He could run in a circle so fast that he caused twisters. He could swim so fast that he caused tidal waves. His parents got so many complaints that they anchored his crib into the harbor. But he just rocked it so fast that he flooded the town. by now his parents had given up because the damage was too big a responsibility for them to handle. So they did what any other parents would have done they abandoned him. They left him in the forest all alone. They left him with just an axe and a fishing pole, and then he started to cry. He cried so fast that had cried a lake in just one second. suddenly fish started jumping and he started fishing. He got a lot of fish. He ate and ate. He ate 2 fish in all. He got older and older then he died. [a fast forward ending as Nathan was running out of paper!] Folks in Tornado Alley say that this place had tornadoes made by Speedy Sam and folks in Hawaii say their tidal waves were made by him.

A Tidal Wave

Story #2: My Little Sister, By Nathan Bears

[Nathan was asked to write a story about something special. I like to think this was a cathartic experience for him...helped him work through the new addition to the family. This one did get us pulled aside by his teacher, who wanted to know how we thought Nathan was adjusting to Meline.... ;-) ]

(Dedication Page: This book is dedicated to my little sister with care.)

Before my little sister was born life was great. No baby crying to wake me up at night. Once I wake up I can never get back to sleep, ever! When she was born, at first I did not like her because she kept on waking me up at night. Either she pooped her diaper or she was lonely or she was hungry. things right now are getting better. We are getting along better now. She does not cry alot. Her poo is yellow now. It used to be black and soupy wich was sort of disgusting and gross and yucky. After she pooped her diaper I watched some cartoons on cartoon network. part of it is action and the other lots of laughs. Har Har thursdays is super funny to me and the action part is very cool [a little digression here in the story.... ;-) ]. Five days later my little sister came home. I got to ride on the cart, it was fun! I even asked if they could turn on the train. I had to wait with mom and my little sister for dad to drive the car so we could go home. It took a while to get home because we needed to get some gas. Once home, my little sister started crying it was was very loud. It was because she pooped her diaper again. I think this is special because it involves my little sister being born.

About the Author: (Nathan wrote this) Nathan Bears was born in 2001 Feb. fith, four-twenty in the afternoon. He has 2 cats, he used to have 3 fish. He cant remember their names. it was a long time ago. Now he has a little sister named Meline.

Story #3: The Big Bang, By Nathan Bears

Long ago all space was, was nothing. It had taken awhile for the big bang to take material form. Gases and air mixed together and started to make this bright light that was white and then it happend. BOOM!!!!!!!!! That was the beginning of time and the many years of the generations that were yet to come.

Dinosaurs were the first symbol of life. The first kind were unknown for their species, but they passed away. Then new ones came like the mighty, the ferocious T-rex he was, big bad and scary. Next came the Brachiosauras, along with the Diplocous. Raptors were nastier than T-rex was.

Many years later a meteor hit earth causing a dust to rise, killing all the dinosaurs. It also made the continent Pangea split into 7 parts. That was definetly the end of Pangea. Today sientests are trying to find dinosaur fossils in many parts of the country. Then they put the fossils together like a puzzle with many pices so that they used to be without the skin.

Karen Junior???

Here's a picture of Meline at 3 months and a picture of me at 3 months. Can you tell which one is which??? The resemblance is uncanny! :-)

Watermelon Dress

So it has been an incredibly cold, wet, cloudy, and miserable summer so far (think the temps have been lingering around the high 60's). This is all extremely unfortunate as I happen to have a closet full of adorable dresses for Meline in sizes 3-6 months. I have been dying for her to wear them but figured I could potentially get in trouble if I sent her to daycare grossly underdressed. Well, finally we had a decent, low 70 degree and sunny day so I took advantage of it. Here is Meline in her first (of what I hope is many) days in a cute summer dress. I LOVE IT!! :-)

Of course, it went back down to the mid 60's with rain the following day (and we're forecasted to have another 10 straight days of rain), so she's back to her long sleeves and sleepers. It was nice while it lasted....

Field Day

After three cancellations due to weather (see Watermelon Dress post), Nathan's school was finally able to hold their field day. I stopped by and took some pics. Brought back some memories....

Remember the parachute!?! One of my favorite special activities in PE. Here is Nathan's class doing 'popcorn.' Nathan is on the far side of the parachute.

Here's Nathan doing an obstacle course. He starts off waaaay in the distance, but approaches like a speeding bullet (that jumps through hoops and does somersaults).

Here's Nathan! All in all a fun day!

Meline Talking

Here is a quick snippet of Meline 'talking.' I took about 5 takes and still couldn't get what I was after (a laugh). She never wants to perform on cue. She was laughing out loud right before one of the video recordings which, of course, I couldn't actually get on video. Please excuse all the ridiculous noises and questions I'm asking in the name of trying to get her to talk....

The Babysitter

Michael is out of town over the next couple of days which has me pulling single mother duty. I had a late meeting at work tonight which means I needed to call in reinforcements. Luckily we have an eager babysitter that lives just across the street. When I came home tonight, I asked Nathan how things went and what they did. Amongst other things, Nathan mentioned they took some pictures. Guess the babysitter discovered the PhotoBooth program and all its special effects on our computer.... here's just a snapshot of the fun that ensued.....

I don't know who had more fun this evening, Nathan or the babysitter.....

My belly

Was going through some old pictures and realized some of you may not have seen me in "all my pregnant glory" so here are some belly pics....

This was December 08, so I would have been about 7 months pregnant....

Here's Jan 09, so 8 months pregnant....

Here's Feb 09. Think this was taken just a week or so before "D (Delivery) Date". I managed to keep things a little more under control this time around (considering I gained 40 lbs when pregnant with Nathan). The one constant in these pictures appears to be the messy room in the background....(notice the dirty laundry RIGHT NEXT TO the laundry basket on the floor....)

Story Time

Nathan and Meline got a fun treat in the mail today from Grandma. Nathan loves the Peanuts series. He's been reading all of the books that were Joes and mine when we were little, so he was very excited when he got a new Peanuts book in the mail today.

Nathan was reading Meline's new book to her, which she enjoyed!

Its a 'touch and feel' book, so here's Nathan helping Meline feel the picture.

Here are my most recent pics of Meline at 3 months. As soon as they see her, everyone, and I mean everyone, says "she looks JUST like Nathan!!". Fortunately, I'm also getting some comments that she kind of looks like me. This is after years of hearing that Nathan looks JUST like Michael. I like to think that I contributed SOMETHING to my kids!!

A closeup of Meline with her pretty blue eyes :-)

Meline Smiling

She's been doing it since she was about 4-5 weeks old, but we haven't been very good at capturing it. Here's Meline smiling!

Another Typical Day

Here we are again, another typical day in the Bears household. Think its the weekend. Lots of laying around in bed. Nathan's in his underwear, as usual, hanging out with his little sister.

Meline's New Sweaters

Michael's aunt and his cousin Rachel knitted some adorable sweaters for Meline. Here she is modeling them! Thanks so much!!!

Vegas Baby, Vegas

Michael and I never, and I mean NEVER, go on vacation, just the two of us. Last time was our long weekend to Savannah, GA when we got married. Needless to say, we were well overdue for a trip! My mom was kind enough to fly up on short notice to watch the kids, and Michael and I flew out to Las Vegas to celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary (can you believe we've been married for that long!!?!?) Below are some pics of the view of our hotel. We stayed at the Wynn. I just needed to mention that we were celebrating our 10 year anniversary and we got an upgraded room with a view (ok, really we had to pay a little more for that).



thats the big fountain on the ground floor of our hotel.


Thats the Palazzo which was right next to our hotel.

Another view from our hotel room. Couldn't get any night pics because the flash kept reflecting off of the window...

First day we spent all day walking the strip (and enjoying some light 'refreshment'). Since I'm working on my third spot of skin cancer (yea.....) and I forgot my sunblock (wonder why I have such problems with my skin?!?) I spent the afternoon with my hoodie up. Not very stylish, but it did the trick... "Dry Heat" or not, it was VERY hot in Vegas.

The MGM Grand actually has real lions on display. They have tunnel you can walk through and look up at the big cats....

We planned a special dinner at Michael Mina at the Bellagio on our 2nd day there. Before our meal, we wandered around the hotel. Here is a massive chocolate fountain. YUM!

Here's the beautiful indoor garden they have. They change the flowers out every couple of months.

Here's a pic of Michael as we waited for our dinner reservations. I should have known by that mischevious look on his face that we'd be up for a CRAZY evening....

Here's the dessert they gave us. How sweet (literally and figuratively)!

The Bellagio fountains at night. We finished up eating and were full and tired. Hadn't yet adjusted to the time change. We planned on heading back to the hotel to crash, but the taxi line was so long we decided to walk a bit. Well..... that was the beginning of the end.... On the way home, we walked past a casino that was having a karaoke night and cheap drinks for sale.

flash forward an hour or two, and Michael was on the stage singing "I'm Just a Gigolo" (with a casino 'regular' playing air guitar along to Michael's singing). The rest of the evening spiraled downward to more karaoke, meeting a bunch of people from all over the world, Karen sneaking away to try her hand at blackjack......

and ultimately leaving one casino to go to another with a group we met at the first place (at 4am, mind you) so that Michael could learn how to play beer pong. (If you're wondering what beer pong is, just meld ping pong with beer, kind of....) So much for an early evening.....

You know what they say, "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas" (unless you post it on your blog...)

Kids Korner Show

Nathan is in an after school program called Kids Korner, which is housed right at his elementary school. This year all of the Kids Korner's from all the elementary schools in Middletown put on a performance. Each school did their own skit. Here's Nathan's group doing a 'dance' to Elvis' "You Aint Nothin' But A Hounddog." Nathan's the peanut in the middle. Needless to day, I don't know that he has a future in the performing arts. He thought he was brilliant! I love his enthusiasm :-)

Typical Day

If you were to peek in the windows of our house on any given day, this is what you are likely to see. Getting ready for the day, Nathan in his underwear, trying to make his baby sister laugh. :-)

Mugshot

Meline and her big brother. He's always watching out for her!!


Nice pic of Nathan.

Better than this mugshot!!

Baby Mozart

Do you think this is how Mozart, Bach, and Beethoven started???