zorich - Stories

Happy Birthday Kelsey: Kelsey had her birthday party at the bowling alley after a last minute change due weather. She and all of the other kids had a great time bowling and running around. The Dora cake was a big hit, too! Our little 3 year old is such a bundle of joy these days and finds new ways every day to make us laugh. She loves her baby dolls and does a great job taking care of them, she loves dancing, reading, singing, and playing with her imaginary friends (Maggie and Bella). She says that her favorite colors are purple and orange (we need to work on that orange thing!). She says that her favorite foods are cereal, pasta, pizza, and popsicles. The doctor says that her verbal skills are well above normal (anyone surprised about that?!?!) and she loves to talk! I asked Courtney what her favorites things are about Kelsey and she says, "She is very loving to me and I love her so much."

Courtney's first day of Kindergarten (8 Sept): Courtney loved her first day of Kindergarten! Last Friday we got to go see her classroom and to say that she was excited is a complete understatement. She had already met her teachers a few days before during her home visit, and seemed to be happy with them. Seeing her actual classroom made it all so real for her and she couldn't wait to go to Kindergarten! Saturday morning she woke up with a fever and wasn't feeling well. She got worse as the day went on and wasn't up to doing much at all. Luckily we had a 3-day weekend to rest and get her feeling better. On Monday I wasn't sure she was going to get to go to her first day of school, but luckily our prayers were answered and she had a speedy recovery that afternoon and evening. I think I would have been more sad about her missing the first day than she would have been since she told me, "Mom, it's ok if I miss the first day of school because I will be going to kindergarten for a lot of days!"

Tuesday morning she woke up feeling well, but was definitely anxious about going to school. Chris, Kelsey and I all went to drop her off. We came to the agreement that we would take her on the first day and she would ride the bus home. She lined up outside with the rest of her class and we said our goodbyes. Courtney was being so brave, trying hard not to cry. She was doing a lot better than me as I hid my tears behind my sunglasses! We assured her that she was going to have so much fun and be so busy that she wasn't going to have any time to be sad. She kissed my hand (She loves the book Kissing Hand), and just melted my heart. The parents were asked to stay outside as they walked into the building (good decision on their part or I might have just stayed all day!) and off she went.

2:50 couldn't get here fast enough. She looked like such a big girl getting off of the bus, and I was so relieved to see such a big smile on her face. She had a great day and "loved everything". According to her, I was asking her way too many questions, but I wanted to hear about everything. I am sure with time I will learn a lot more than I learned yesterday. She did tell me that her four favorite things were eating in the cafeteria (she brought her lunch today), rest time (it was a lot more fun having quiet time at school with her friends than at home by herself), passing a star around the circle (not exactly clear on this one), and riding the bus home. She was exhausted and went to sleep better than she has in a long time. She said she couldn't wait to go back to kindergarten tomorrow!

Kelsey had a fun day with me, but definitely missed her sister. I don't think she realizes that Kindergarten is an every day thing. What I do know is that Kelsey is good at keeping me busy and distracted. She is a little fireball, full of energy and keeps me on my toes. She can't wait to turn 3 on Saturday!

Day at the beach: On August 28 we drove to one of the beaches that is about an hour away from us and we had a wonderful day. The girls absolutely loved everything about it! They played in the sand, built sandcastles, burried Daddy in the sand, swam in the water, collected seashells, and simply had fun. It was a very relaxing day, one that we all needed and enjoyed. The weather couldn't have been more perfect. At one point Courtney said to us, "This is the best day I have ever had." Chris said, "Even better than your birthday?" She said, "Even better than my birthday." He said, "Even better than going to Disneyland?" She thought for a minute and then said, "Maybe even better than going to Disneyland." =)

"Middle Finger Story": Courtney and Chris were playing around one Saturday afternoon and for some reason Courtney kept pointing with her middle finger. This was COMPLETELY innocent, but Chris didn't think that he should just let her keep doing it. You never know when and where she would decide to do that. So the two of them got into quite a lengthy discussion about why we don't stick up our middle finger all by itself. It went something like this: Courtney "Daddy, why can't I put this finger up all by itself?" Chris "Well, it just isn't a nice thing to do." Courtney "But why Daddy?" Chris "It is a mean way of saying that you don't like someone." Courtney "Why would you use that to say you don't like someone?" As you can imagine, Chris was having a hard time explaining it. I walked into the conversation and realized what they were talking about. I explained to Courtney that just like there are nice ways of saying sweet things to people (ie the "I love you" sign) some people use mean signs to say mean things to people. Courtney "Why are some people mean?" Geesh! Can you give us a break here Courtney?!?! This is simply the beginning....We ended the conversation feeling like Courtney understood what we were saying and didn't hear anything else about it until about 3 days later.

Our new friend "Maggie": Kelsey has a new friend named Maggie. No one but Kelsey can see Maggie, but she goes everywhere with us. We have learned that Maggie is 3 and a half, has brown hair, likes to eat apples, likes to wear dresses, and also likes to dance. For those of you who remember "Gina Gina Cha-China, Alex, and Benji" (Courtney's imaginary friends) it was right around when Courtney turned 3. At first Courtney said, "Who is Maggie?!?" and then I asked her how many horses live in her room upstairs that she takes care of everyday and then she got it. The funny part now is that Maggie has become friends with Courtney too. Courtney even got to babysit Maggie today while Kelsey went to a meeting. Pretty funny! No one can question whether or not these girls have a good imagination!

Nasty Bees: Chris gets to type this story...One of our surprises was when we returned from the States. Apparently, a family of large wasps had decided to make one our our window roller-on boxes their new home. Our landlord provided us with one can of bee spray and in our broken understanding of Italian told us to make sure we covered our head when we sprayed them. So, I decided the best course of action when dealing with enormous wasps was to utilize my United States Government issued Chemical Protection Gear! Laura laughed as I donned my chem gear from head to toe and proceeded to stand outside to take on our invaders. Laura seeled the girls in their room and promised to call the Italian fire department if anything went wrong. The "attack" went well, and I only jumped twice as several wasps crashed into my chem mask. Once we couldn't hear them buzzing anymore the next day I dressed myself again to clean out the hive and needless to say it was one of the most disgusting things I have ever had to do. Of note, if you ever have to remove a dead wasps nest be prepared...or you may end up almost vomiting in your chem mask.

Verona: Chris and I went to Verona to see an Opera in the old Arena there. Our friends Carrie and Joe kept the girls for the night and we will return the favor in a couple of weeks when they go to the Opera and we keep Carlie. We saw the Barber of Seville, and actually were able to follow the storyline after reading an English synopsis. The relationship between the music and the singing was phenomenal, but it definitely would have helped if we knew more Italian. It was a nice 24 hour getaway, and the girls had a blast with the Bemis Fam. I was so anxious to go get them, and when we showed up, they said, "Can we stay longer? We are not ready to go yet!" Thanks again Carrie and Joe!

Swim Lessons: We signed both girls up for a two week session of swim lessons. Courtney did a great job and had so much fun. She is definitely more comfortable in the water and loves pretending to be a mermaid (imagine that!). Kelsey on the other hand did what she wanted when she wanted. Most of the time what Kelsey wanted to do wasn't the same thing the instructor wanted to her to do. I don't know where she gets her "strong willed" attitude! ;-)

Getting over jetlag: I was quickly reminded that it is much harder to come this direction when traveling. We had some pretty rough nights, but the one that officially "took the cake" was on July 13th (our 3rd night back). Courtney and Kelsey both had dance class the next morning, so I thought I would use that as incentive to get them to go to sleep. Well, it completely back fired on me! As most of you know Kelsey LOVES Ms. Emma and was so excited about her first dance class. I told her that when she woke up in the morning she would get to go to dance. The problem was that she went to sleep around 8:00, and then woke up around 11:30pm. She had her "power nap" and was ready to go dance! Trying to explain to her that it wasn't time for dance was next to impossible. If you haven't been in a "battle" with an almost 3 year old lately, you have probably forgotten how much fun they can be! If you have a child around this age, I am sure you completely understand! Chris and I were at our wits end and I ended up putting her in the car, driving her to the area of base where the dance class is (just a few blocks away) to show her that it really was closed. That didn't even really help and all she could say is, "I want to see Ms. Emma right now!" She eventually went back to sleep and then I had to wake her up in the morning to go to dance. The only good thing about that was that she wasn't grumpy in the morning, she was ready to go!

4th of July: We had fun celebrating the 4th of July at Sparkman (my parents neighborhood). Courtney, Kelsey, Hannah and Megan all got to ride in a little parade together and they thought that was pretty neat. Then we watched the "Big Parade" in the shade of my parent's front yard with lots of family and friends. My mom cooked her famous brisket, and we even had a surprise visit from Jeffrey and Amanda. The night we met up with friends to see fireworks and the girls loved watching them. Courtney loved the "sparkly ones" (imagine that!) and Kelsey liked the blue ones. The fun continued when we got home and did sparklers in the front yard.

Our Trip to Austin and my little Aggies: On Friday (26 June) the girls and I headed to Austin to visit Jeffrey and Amanda. It had been a while since I rode in the car that long by myself with the two of them, and was quickly reminded how hard it is to hand them things, keep them happy, start a movie, feed them, etc while I was driving. Courtney was a big helper though and we made it safely there and back. We had a great visit with them and there were lots of laughs as Uncle Jeffrey was called "A bump on a (you name it!)" many times. Amanda bought the cutest princess cookie cutter set ever and it was a big hit! They made some pretty fancy cookies! It was fun to see all of the work they have done on their house since the last time we were there and as always, they did a great job entertaining us. My favorite story happened while we were driving to dinner. All of a sudden Courtney started saying, "Blah! Yucky!" and making awful sounds. I had no idea what was wrong with her and then she said, "Look at that car! Yucky!" and it was a car with a longhorn sticker on it! I laughed so hard and Uncle Jeffrey threatened to make her walk home! He can't believe that we have already brainwashed our girls, but I have a feeling he will do the same thing one day! Thanks for a fun visit Amanda and Jeffrey! We even got to stop by and see Jessica, Keri, and Avery on the way out of town and meet Baby Grace. It is alway fun to see them, and wish we could do it more often.

*Cruised the Greek Isles with Emily and the Bemis Family (yes, it was gorgeous!)

*Took Courtney to her last day of Preschool and had a Parent/Teacher Conference.

* Flew from Venice to Frankfurt and then from Frankfurt to Dallas (10 and a half hours) with the girls.

*Laura met Chris in Vegas for his TDY there(our first time leaving the girls overnight)

*Laura flew back to Dallas for one night and then flew to Salt Lake City to meet up with Chris for the rest of his TDY and to see Chris' family

Whew! And the whirlwind continues as more trips are planned and there are lots more people to visit with. Fun times!

Courtney is SWIMMING! Today (20 June) Courtney was brave and decided to go underwater (this is a big deal!) and we are so proud of her! If you haven't watched the video, check it out. She was a little fish when she was little, but the last few summers she has not wanted to go underwater. I have been working with her some, but I am not sure what did the trick today. It doesn't matter! She starts swim lessons on Monday, so perfect timing. I will keep you posted with her status. The cutest thing is that she kept saying, "I am so proud of myself!"