First week of Kindergarten!

Hannah started kindergarten last week.  She's going to a public school here in Ankeny.  If you haven't read about our agonizing decision of where to send her for school, click here.

The night before her first day was rough for me.  I cried and worried that Hannah would be scared, she'd not eat her lunch, she'd have to go potty and not tell anyone...ya know, normal mom worries.  Joel quickly made fun of me reminded me that Hannah is perfectly safe at school and Kindergarten teachers love kids.  They've seen it all, done it all, dealt with it all.

So the first day of school came.  Her school day starts at 7:55am.  (Why the heck they don't just make it an even 8am, I have no clue!).  Joel told his work he'd be a little late so he could come with me to drop her off.  We got there about 7:45, along with about a thousand other kids and parents!  It was chaotic slightly insane.  After getting Hannah to her locker (yes, she has a locker in kindergarten!), we took her to her classroom.  Now at this point, it was madness in the hallways.  The kindergarten wing is wonderful in that it's just a hallway with the 5 class rooms right there.  There aren't a million older kids pushing and shoving their way through.  I think I would have gone all mama bear on some 5th grader if he had pushed my baby.

So we go to the classroom and of course, Hannah has to pee.  *sigh*  Luckily there's a bathroom right in the room (it's like the designers knew kindergartners pee a lot!).  After that was finished, she was thrilled to see her one friend in the class was there and saving a seat for her right next to him!  She was all shades of excited at that point.  We quickly said our goodbyes and off we went.  I stood at the door for a minute to make sure she didn't start crying.  Nope.  She was fine.  Really?  Is it too much to ask that my child be a little sad that she'd leaving mommy for an entire day/5 days a week!?

Noah had a rough time that first day.  He cried and cried wanting "hehe" to come back.  He kept grabbing my phone to look at the picture of Hannah I have as my wallpaper.  My poor baby.

So now Hannah's been in school for a week and a half.  There are some mornings she really doesn't want to go, but she's loving it.  She's so tired though!  Usually once a week, she goes to bed about a hour earlier than normal.  On the weekend, she needs a nap.  I'm amazed at how quickly she's learning.  Her teacher is amazing, making learning fun.  It's like she has a college degree in elementary ed or something.  Oh wait...she does.  :)

Zoo Pics

Since I couldn't upload pictures of the zoo the other day, here are some now.  Enjoy...

Noah and Hannah standing in front of the polar bear statue.  I don't know if the statue is true to size or not.  If it is...WOW!

These sheep LOVED to be petted.  They would follow us around the pen and nudge our hands to rub them some more.  It was super hot the day we were there so I bet the sheep were HOT

This particular sheep fell in love with Hannah.  He/she/it followed her around  for a long time.  

On the boat ride.  Noah was getting a little tired.

Introducing her stuffed lion, Midas to the real ones.  They were all sleeping but Hannah really tried to wake them up by yelling "HEY!  I brought your son, Midas home to you!"  It didn't work.

Noah had had enough!  Notice he has a PB&J sandwich in his hand.  He was too tired to finish it!

We had such a great time at the zoo.  If you ever go, I would highly suggest paying for the all-ride pass.  You get unlimited rides on the train, tram, boat, sky glider, and carousel.  It was well worth the money.  The zoo is pretty spread out so our kids would never have lasted as long as they did if they'd had to walk the whole thing!

Kansas City Vacation!

Last weekend we went on a short family vacation to Kansas City.  We wanted to do something with the kids before Hannah starts Kindergarten (sniff, sniff).  We left Friday morning and got to KC around 1-ish.  From there it was a whirlwind adventure.  Here are some highlights:

Our first stop was the Wonderscope Children's Museum.  It's in an old school so all the rooms are different activities.  It was small, but the kids LOVED it.  Noah especially loved the music room, probably because he could make lots of noise and be loud.  He's such a boy!

Hannah playing in the water room.  Noah's shirt is off because he REFUSED to wear the little smock.  Plus we were in MO, so why not fit in with the locals?  :)

Noah thought he could paint his own face

My little surgeons.

Noah painting his own face while I drew on Hannah's.

So then on Saturday we went to the Deanna Rose Children's Farmstead.  It was awesome!  It's free on the weekdays and just $2 per person on the weekends!  I was a little worried that it'd be some dump of a place with a sad, old pony giving rides.  I was very impressed with the farm!  It's huge!  There's fishing, feeding goats, petting lots of animals, a butterfly garden, tons of play equipment, and a bunch more that we didn't even get to!  You do have to pay to fish and feed the animals, but it's not too expensive.  We ended up staying there for several hours.  The only reason we left was because it was WAY past nap time and the kids were losing it.  Plus, Hannah had fished and the hook went through the fish's eye.  She was done after that.  (So was I since I had to put the worm on the hook and it was so gross!)

Hannah in her glory riding a horse.  The girl LOVES horses!

Noah in the one room school house.  There was a lady dressed up as the teacher who came over and helped him to erase and draw again.  

Feeding the baby goats.  Notice the bottle was on the ground.  I think the kids had given up wrestling with the goats.  They were fierce!

Fishing!  Hannah ended up catching 4 fish.  Luckily the "hook through the eye" situation didn't happen until the last worm.

Petting a duck

Grinding corn in an Indian hut

Petting the horse after our hay-ride.  

That night we went to a really fun restaurant in Crown Center.  It's called Fritz' Restaurant. One of my friends had recommended this restaurant as a fun place to go.  It was amazing!  Little trains bring your food out on an overhead rail then a little elevator lowers it to your table.  My kids thought it was the best thing in the world.  Plus there's a train in the wall that goes around and around.  Every time it went by, Noah would squeal.  We were there about an hour and my kids weren't bored at all!  The food isn't that great but the ambiance more than makes up for it.

If you look closely you can see the little red train on the rail.  It's what brings the food.

Our food being lowered

My little munchkins!

After eating, we went to a chocolate store where you can watch them make chocolate.  It was really fun to watch!  The kids LOVED eating a treat too.

Sunday was our last day in KC so we went to the zoo.  We had been warned that it's pretty spread out so take as many trains and trams as possible.  We took their advice and bought an all-day ride pass for unlimited train, tram, boat, sky glider, and carousel rides.  Man did that come in handy!  It was super hot and humid that day so we were drinking water by the gallon, then sweating it out!  We were really impressed with the zoo though.  It was a ton of fun and the kids loved it.

**For some reason my zoo pictures aren't loading to my blog so I'll have to post those later.  Needless to say, my kids are adorable and it was a blast!**  :)

I'm a K.L.U.T.Z.!!!

Seriously, I don't know what my problem is lately!  I've ran into way more things than normal.  Let me be clear...normal for me is tripping on my own feet at least 5 times a day.  It's also normal for me to trip on something directly in front of my feet, simply because I'm not paying attention.  This can be detrimental if the thing in front of me happens to be one of my children.  I've been known to knock them down.  Oops.  I'm not winning any mother of the year awards.  Darn.

So here's my Bamboo Story.  It's going down in infamy, I think...

I went to the Aveda Institute for a hair cut the other night.  Like most Aveda places, it's decorated very nicely with all sorts of "natural" stuff lying around.  Also, the clientele seems to be a little on the uppity side.  That's probably just my impression, but whatever.  It's my blog.

So after I checked in, I was told to take a seat.  I looked around for somewhere to go.  Unlike many salons, there isn't a waiting area in an Aveda salon.  There are a few stools scattered around the tables, ensuring you'll look at their merchandise.  And of course, those are all full.  So I see a bench over in the corner with just one guy sitting on it.  Now, the normal path to get to the bench was blocked by some kids playing grown up, so I had to cut around the make up counter then bypass a giant bamboo display to get to the bench.  No problem.  Like everyone else in the salon, I whip out my cell phone and start fiddling with it while I'm walking towards the bench.  I should have known better.  I need to focus all my attention on my feet while walking.  When will I learn.  So as I'm completely not looking where I'm going, it happens.  WHAM!

I've ran directly into the bamboo display.

Immediately I try to contain the damage by grabbing the bamboo poles, but of course that's a problem since I'm also holding my cell phone and purse.  So then it because a juggling game of wrestling the bamboo back into place, keep my purse on my shoulder and don't drop the cell phone!  Finally after what seems like 20 minutes (probably more like 30 seconds), I get everything back into place and try to nonchalantly sit down.  It was then that I realized that the entire front waiting area was staring at me.  Yep, I'm a klutz.

It doesn't end there.  Today was pretty bad too.  Here are all the things I ran into:

• copy machine
• wall
• door frame
• co-worker
• husband
• patient
• another patient
• another wall
• shopping cart
• chair
• child or 2

Seriously,  I should win an award for all that.  

Because Dr. Oz said so!

I have a love/hate relationship with Dr. Oz.  You know, that celebrity Hollywood doctor that got his big break by being on the Oprah show?  Kinda reminds me of Dr. Phil's start up too.

I love Dr. Oz because he brings light so medical issues that may otherwise go unvoiced.  For example, women's health.  I think women get scared to go to the doctor for something like a pelvic or breast exam.  He shows women that it's not such a big deal to go and some major problems can be diagnosed and treated quite simply.  For that, I think he's wonderful.

Here's why I hate him.  Because he sensationalizes everything!  I mean, seriously.  If I have a dollar for every time I scan a patient simply because "Dr. Oz said so"...well, I'd have several dollars.

Here's a few situations...

• a patient came in for a thyroid ultrasound.  The diagnosis was "nodule".  Now, before we all get excited, let me just say that almost everyone in the world has a thyroid nodule.  They're benign little growths on the thyroid.  I have 3 of them.  Not a big deal.  Unless they get large or your blood levels show a problem, we leave them alone.  So this patient comes in.  I ask her why we're doing the exam.  She starts off with "I was watching Dr. Oz...".  Right about then was when I rolled my eyes.  She continued to say that this particular episode of Dr. Oz was about thyroid disease and how it can be a silent disease.  He recommended that all viewers go to their doctors.  So she did, even though she had no symptoms of thyroid disease.  She insisted that a blood test and ultrasound be performed.  So they were.  And guess what?  I found a nodule.  Woo-hoo.  Her blood test was normal.  There was nothing wrong.  So how was that helpful for her?
• A patient came in for a pelvic ultrasound.  Guess how she responded when I asked why she was there?  Yep.  Because "Dr. Oz said so".  She had watched an episode about ovarian cancer.  So there she was, getting an ultrasound to look for ovarian cancer, even though her pelvic exam was normal and she had no family history of cancer.  
• The best was one I heard today.  My mom is a nurse in the GI department.  So she talks to patients when they call in with a problem.  Today she got her first "Dr. Oz call".  A patient had just watched a Dr. Oz episode about treating Crohn's disease with...parasites!  Seriously?  So guess how this patients wanted her Crohn's disease treated?  Yep, parasites.  My mom had to tell her that was not something these doctors were comfortable with doing and to contact a teaching hospital, like U of I.  Perhaps they knew more.  

Now, I do believe that Dr. Oz has some good topics.  But let's remember.  He's a talk show host.  He's also a Hollywood doctor.  Would he be a Hollywood talk show host if he talked about yeast infections and heavy periods?  With the rise in health care costs, do we really need to rush to the doctor simply because "Dr. Oz said so"?