2013: A Look Back

2013 will be over in just a few hours and I have to say that I’m more than ready to ring in 2014!!   2013 brought with it a lot of personal accomplishments for me.  I lost 38 lbs and completed 3 races, including my very first Spartan Sprint!  The past 12 months have been a fun and busy year for our family filled with parties, vacations and outings, but I’m excited to start 2014 and begin a new chapter in our family’s life.

See ya 2013…..Bring on 2014!!
 

January

• Started Weight Watchers
• Bowling outing with Anthony & Me
• Taylor’s Birthday party
• Family fun day at Sport Time USA
• Kindergarten Registration
• All three of us got sick with the flu :(

February

• Fun in the snow (Nor’easter blizzard)
• Swapping valentines at school
• (another) week with Wally (preschool project)
• Girls weekend trip to Foxwoods & Mystic, CT

 

March

• Tae-Kwon-Do trial lesson
• Trip to Florida to visit my mom & stepdad
• Easter egg coloring & hunt
• My birthday brunch at Xavier’s on the Hudson
• Bowling play date with Anthony’s BFF, Tyler

 

April

• Anthony turns 5!
• RJ’s Birthday Party
• Anthony’s 1^st day of T-Ball

 

 

May

• Mother’s Day dinner at Restaurant X
• More T-Ball games
• Gavin’s Birthday Party
• Crazy hair day at preschool
• The pool opens!
• Memorial Day Weekend BBQs

June

• Anthony’s “graduates” from Preschool
• Gilly’s graduation party
• Matthew’s Birthday party
• More T-Ball games
• Swimming and outdoor fun
• I completed my first Spartan Sprint!

 

July

• Watching 4^th of July fireworks from our window
• Vacation with my extended family to Niagara Falls
• Damian’s 1^st Birthday party
• Anthony gets a new pair of glasses
• Crazy hat day at Preschool
• More swimming
• Birthday parties for Chase & Aiden
• Kindergarten orientation day
• Had family photos professionally taken at a local park
• Put our 1^st house up for sale (eeek!!)

August

• Soaking in the final days of swimming
• Kindergarten bus orientation
• Fishing at the local lake with Daddy
• Birthday parties for Gilly, Vinny & Quincy
• Found a buyer for our house & intensified our search for a new house
• Girls weekend trip to Hershey, PA to see Justin Timberlake/ Jay Z concert

 

September

• Anthony’s 1^st day of Kindergarten
• I completed my first 5k Color Run!
• Stephen & Petra’s Engagement party
• Play date at Sport Time USA with Anthony’s BFF, Tyler
• Attended the world’s largest picnic in NYC (a Guinness World Record) sponsored by Hellmanns
• Hit my weight loss goal!!
• Continue the search for a new house

 

 

 

October

• Family apple picking trip at local farm
• Kindergarten Halloween Parade & Party
• Birthday party for Connor & Paige
• I completed my first Ridiculous Obstacle Race!
• Continue the search for a new house

November

• Celebrating thanksgiving with our family
• Steven & Colette’s Wedding
• Trip to NYC to see Lion King (Anthon’s 1^st Broadway show)
• Found our forever home!

December

• Ride on the Polar Express (Essex, CT)
• Celebrate our last Christmas in our house
• Continue to pack up the house
• Close on the sale of our 1^st home

 

From our family to yours.  Wishing you a very Happy New Year.  Cheers to 2014!!

My Kindergartner – 3 Months Later

We successfully made it through the first week of Kindergarten.  And the 13 more that followed after.  There were no tears, not (much) of a fuss, and after a few funny stories later he is quite comfortable in his new surroundings and acting like he has been going to school for years. 

After completing a quarter of the year, he is excelling in his school work and it doesn’t appear that the common core curriculum has had a negative impact on him (at least not yet).  I’m still quite nervous about all the work that is and will be thrown at him between now and June, but he’s been a trooper thus far and is absorbing everything in stride.  We had our very first parent teacher conference last month and he got a glowing report.  He is (thankfully) minding his manners and listening very well, which I was both happy & slightly surprised about considering he has been completely the opposite at home recently.

Since school began in September we’ve noticed a negative behavioral change in Anthony.  He’s become much more defiant than his usual five-year-old self and no matter what we ask of him (even simple questions like “please get dressed”) are answered with “I don’t wanna” or simply “no” which ultimately leads to an argument.  In talking to some of the other Kindergarten moms who are experiencing the same situation with their kids, we’ve attributed this new attitude change to the constant listening that he is doing all day combined with the stressfulness of all the work that is being asked of him as part of the common core.  Between school and his after school program, he is following someone else’s rules from 9 am to 5 pm.  By the time he comes home he’s just had enough and is taking out his frustrations on us.

In the last 3 months we’ve seen a slight improvement in his grumpiness, but we’re hoping that it will just take a little more time for him to adjust and for our sweet boy to return.  I’m honestly on the fence on how to reprimand him for this behavior because part of me feels like it’s not his fault that he’s being overworked but at the same time I need to address it so that he knows his behavior it’s not acceptable.   Who knew Kindergarten was going to bring with it such challenges!

Kindergarten School Picture