We last left off with a recap of our final weekend with my family and then, earlier this week, we made the drive back to North Carolina. I don’t think we’ve ever been gone from our house for so long but the trip did so, so much for ALL of us and truly rejuvenated our summer. I’m already missing our pool + beach routine and seeing the boys with their grandparents, aunt, uncle and cousin but I must admit I am looking forward to getting back into our usual groove and enjoying the rest of our North Carolina summer.
How have you guys been? Aside from our return to normalcy, like many of you out there I’m sure, I’ve been a little stressed thinking about fall and what it will look like for our children. I know I’m lucky in the fact that I will only have two preschool-age children to consider versus older children but I’m still feeling concerned. With a new baby due in early September, I was admittedly very much counting on preschool to give the boys a place to go where they can socialize, learn and play that would also provide me with much-needed work time and one-on-one time with a newborn.
Prior to the pandemic, Chase was signed up for the 5-day 5-year-old program and Ryder was set to go 2 days a week, with both boys in preschool from 9:30 a.m. – 1 p.m. but we’re waiting to see what their preschool will say regarding our governor’s recent plan for a mix of in-person and virtual learning since our local school district is opting to do remote learning only and our preschool typically follows their lead. From our experience at the end of the school year, virtual learning doesn’t work well for our young kids so I may be looking into pre-K homeschooling options for Chase (I’m not as worried about Ryder since he’s only 2) but it all feels overwhelming. Having both boys home with me 24/7 while trying to work with a new baby feels intense but I know we’ll make it work — we always do. What do plans for the school year look like in your area? I’m hoping for some information from our preschool within the coming week and then we’ll see how things unfold from there as we weigh our options.
But let’s shift gears away from all the stress we’re all feeling at the moment and chat about some things that are bringing some light into our week, shall we? I know I could use a distraction and a smile so my latest roundup of weekly favs are comin’ at you this morning!
Things I’m Loving Friday
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Aviator Sunglasses (2 for $24)
During our time in Florida, I lost my favorite pair of aviator sunglasses. I nabbed them from a small boutique during a trip to Park City, Utah with friends last year and LOVED them! I was majorly bummed and didn’t want to wear my fun-yet-slightly-ridiculous heart sunglasses all the time during our visit so I ordered a two-pack of aviator sunglasses from Amazon that had great reviews and looked to be a similar style to my previous pair and some of the Quay aviators out there that look so cute. (I ordered a two-pack of black + black fade glasses because I clearly lose sunglasses easily and a two-pack was $24 versus $17 for a single pair. They’re the same size though the angle in the above photo makes one look larger.) I’m happy to report that the new sunglasses are comfortable, cute and, most importantly, keep the sun out of my eyes quite well!
My mom had the cutest little place mats set up for the boys during our visit that they absolutely adored! The I’m a Food Scientist Place Mats were engaging, educational and FUN for both Chase and Ryder! We used the place mats mostly for lunchtime after spending the morning at the pool when the boys were ready to chill for a bit and eat a hearty meal. Chase asked us to do the “food scientist game” over and over again during our visit and loved measuring his food on the place mat and telling us all about it. (Of course Chase understood the concept a lot more than Ryder but Ryder still had fun pointing to various boxes and participating.) Since getting Chase enthusiastic about food is no small feat, I just had to give this place mat a shout out in today’s post because it truly seemed to make him excited about meal times!
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Alouette Spread & Snack Wedges
Any other big-time Alouette cheese fans out there? Their soft, spreadable cheeses are so creamy and addicting. I’ve been known to eat an entire 6-ounce tub of the cheese in one sitting. (To quote Elle Woods, “What? Like it’s hard?”) I’m not sure if the Alouette portion packs are a new thing but I haven’t seen them in our area up until now. I immediately bought a pack of the garlic and herb cheese from ALDI and love the little personal portions. I’ve been using them as a spread on sandwiches or wraps for lunch and as a dip for fresh veggies, chips and crackers in the afternoon.
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Interesting Reads
The Power of Bias and How to Disrupt It In Our Children (An interesting read regarding how to help reduce and and mitigate bias in children and how seeing race and color is a good thing because their eyes will be more open to racial discrimination.)
Weight Gain During Pregnancy (I’ve gained more than the registered dietitian and author of this article did at the point in her article where her doctor told her to “slow down” on her weight gain and love her research-based thoughts on appropriate weight gain during pregnancy.)
Sustainability Challenge: Reducing Junk Mail (A helpful guide to removing yourself from junk mail lists.)
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Friday Flashbacks
Vegetarian Chickpea Curry (One of my all-time favorite vegetarian recipes! We made this last night and it felt so good to get a lot of veggies in my belly after neglecting them while we were away.)
No Gym No Problem Workout (No equipment needed!)
Question of the Day
What is one thing making you smile this week?
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I’m so glad you got your blog fixed! I hate that you had those issues. I love your posts! I’ve wanted aviator sunglasses, & those look so cute! For what it’s worth, I think you look amazing. Don’t let anyone make you feel you can’t take care of your body & your baby. I so appreciate you sharing that post by Whitney. I’m an RD & practice Intuitive Eating. I feel good in my body, but I’m considered “underweight” by the arbitrary BMI standards. So when I have our first, I worry if I will be scrutinized. But this helps a lot. Have a great day!
About 2 weeks after my baby girl was born, we went into lockdown here in Australia. So I was home all day everyday with my newborn and then 20 month old son with very limited other people to see (pretty much just my husband and mum- bless her!!). I thought it was going to be so hard, but you know what.. it was kind of great! Intense for sure but it also was a really lovely bonding time. You forget how much newborns sleep, so I was able to do lots of playing and one-on-one time with him anytime she was snoozing. And vice Versa!
So, even thought it’s not what you had planned, you might find some silver linings. Xx
Thank you so much for this encouraging comment, Ash! And congrats to you — hope you’re doing well with your two little ones. <3
Love the Whitney RD article! When I was pregnant with my first I went to a check up around 16 or 18 weeks and was told by my obgyn to be careful with my weight because I had gained a lot that month. Now, what my own obgyn neglected to realize was that I had LOST 5 lbs during the first 14 weeks from the extreme nausea and food aversions. The couple pounds I had gained that month were my body’s way of trying to make up for that and get that baby growing!! I wound up gaining only 27 lbs that pregnancy due to lingering nausea and aversions. The most important thing is my son was a healthy 8lbs 2 oz and 21.5 inches! So was making me stressed, embarrassed, and confused about food during my pregnancy worth it?? I truly don’t understand how obgyns can focus so much on the one number!! I truly believe our bodies do what they need to do to grow these babies and everyone is different. This sh*t is hard! Let’s give pregnant women some grace and support!! So keep rocking it, Julie! You’re doing awesome!
This (and the other articles) resonated with me too. I gained the bulk of my weight in the first 2 trimesters (25-28lbs, not sure of my exact pre-pregnancy weight) and haven’t gained more than a pound since. Thankfully, my Ob/Gyns have focused on my lifestyle and health data overall and explained that weight gain is not linear, so I’ve never felt pressure from them, but even comments from family, like “good thing you slowed it down, you’d never get that baby weight off!” make me so ragey. They’re usually from males lol, so I can roll my eyes and politely let them know that this pregnant lady could still challenge them in the gym, but it amazes me that people think it’s fine to comment on a woman’s body during such a changing sensitive time. Yikes. You are fabulous and strong, Julie, hope you’re not getting anything except positivity during this time 🙂 . And, Lauren, love your comment and very glad to hear your baby was healthy, I feel you on the aversions (some are still around in week 37 for me ha).
Hi Julie! Just wanted to provide some encouragement…
I had my third baby this February, and my other two kids were ages 2 and 4. So about a month later, everything abruptly changed in our world without much warning! Like you mentioned, I was wondering how I was going to juggle this all without preschool/activities/adventures like we are used to for my older two, but you know what? It has been an absolutely incredible time of family bonding as a new family of five!! An amazing and unexpected blessing to just have the gift of TIME. (because how often do we say about how fast our babies are growing, “I wish time could just slow down!”… well, it did!) You are such a wonderful mama to your sweet boys, and yes you WILL figure this out, even if your transitional period to your third baby looks different than you planned. You’ve got this! I also try to remember that it is literally a *privilege* to be able to have the choice to stay home/keep my babies home at this time of global crisis. And remember, by the third baby you really know and trust what you’re doing, and can just enjoy the sweet ride instead of worrying over every little thing! Just keep taking things one day at a time and putting one foot in front of the other. I’m confident you are going to rock it, and also to look back at this time when the pandemic is over, and be so unbelievably proud of yourself ♥️
PS – maybe another unexpected blessing might be having some additional time with Ryan working from home? (i.e. “here hold this baby while you’re on your conference call” LOL!!)
One thing making me smile is cuddles from my nine month old grandson. He makes my heart sing! I predict that you guys will adjust quickly to life with three kids. It may look a bit different than what you originally anticipated, but you will find your groove in no time.
I live in MA and as of right now both of my boys are in preschool/prek. Usually they have preschool and prek in their own rooms with 20 kids per room. However, due to the pandemic they are mixed rooms 2.9 years to 5 years with 10 kids per room and 2 teachers. They are at half capacity, so we’ve only been able to/comfortable sending the boys 2 days per week. Their school is considered a daycare center, so they will be under different rules than the school systems. However, I think the smaller class sizes will continue until a vaccine is out.
Hi Julie,
Those little cheese potions are the best. aren’t they? I sometimes spread them on a wrap when I make a sandwich or I mix one into scrambled eggs. If you try it, you won’t be sorry.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Hi Julie!
I’m a homeschooling mom (pre-pandemic and obviously currently! 🙂). I have three kids, I was a teacher before deciding to stay home and teach my own, plus I was homeschooled preschool to graduation! I always joke my first day of college was my first day of “real” school. Anyways, I know about all the different methods of teaching and homeschooling based on my background and my degrees. There is a company called Abeka who produces DVD and streaming videos of pre-recorded actual classrooms for all grades. It is out of a Christian academy in Pensacola. They are excellent! My mom used the curriculum on my brothers and I and then the videos for us in high school, and I use it for my kids. We always scored grades above our current grade (not to brag, just to say how great the curriculum is!). And when I had my kids tested, they too scored two grade levels above their current grade. I just wanted to let you know that’s an option, especially with the baby! I’m including the link below—it’s not affiliated or anything. I just wanted to suggest this as I’ve suggested it to a few of my friends who were super stressed about the upcoming school year (we are in NJ) and loved this concept! They far never heard of it.
https://www.abeka.com/Homeschool/Products/AbekaAcademy/
Congrats on number 3! Can’t wait to see if it’s a boy or girl. Either way, it will be wonderful!!
Hi Julie! I just wanted to share an idea about a homeschool preschool option. My son will be turning 3 in September and I had planned to send him for his first year of preschool this year but we’ve decided to keep him home for now. I still wanted to do some type of schooling with him and I found a program called Mother Goose Time which is essentially a monthly subscription service where you get lesson plans and learning materials delivered to your home each month. The kits supposedly contain everything you need to conduct the lessons which I’m super happy about because it’s so hard to find time to plan things like that sometimes! Anyway, I haven’t tried out the service yet so I can’t vouch for it personally but it did get good reviews and it seems pretty great. We’ll be getting our first kit in September. They also have toddler and mixed age programs which might be a good fit for you guys so both kids (and baby number 3!) can participate. Here’s the website if you want to check it out https://www.mothergoosetime.com/
I’m so glad I don’t have a school-aged kiddo! Our son, who is just a bit older than Ryder, has been back in daycare/school since late April. We kept him home for 7 weeks and then sent him back after I had my 8wk US for this pregnancy. I was paranoid we’d have a loss and I’d need my mom to come help with our son while I got a D&C. Oh the places a pregnant mind goes after you’ve had a miscarriage… Anyways, he’s been back for about 3 months now and everyone is much happier! Our daycare actually never closed. They had 3 cases in late May – 2 teachers in one room, and then 1 kid out of about 15 was positive (all kids got tested and everyone else was negative). So it really does not seem to spread among young children. Hopefully you’ll be able to send your older son to preschool to free up some time for yourself. It’s such a hard decision but I wanted to share our experience. We have to do drop off and pick up at the front door – no parents are allowed into the center. That was a tough adjustment initially but our son adapted and barely looks back at me when I drop him off honestly!
Thanks for sharing the weight gain article – I will have to check that out. That is something I struggle with a bit during pregnancy. I hadn’t gained much and then I gained like 5 pounds in a week! I keep telling myself that my body knows what to do and I have to trust it. I”m eating well and trying to fit as many walks in as possible.
Also, I wasn’t able to comment on your last pregnancy post but I wanted to comment on how i totally relate to out of breath feeling! I have been sleeping in our basement because it’s the coolest room in our house. I walked up 2 flights of stairs one more and went to help my husband get our son ready. He turned to me and asked if I had just sprinted up the stairs because I was breathing so heavily. I was like – nope, just pregnant! Also, I had an anterior placenta with my first and struggled with not feeling movement. My husband only felt the baby move once because it was very hard to feel from the outside. I am 19 weeks now and have been feeling movement so I think I must not have an anterior placenta this time. I will find out at our 20 week scan next week. All that said, I think you look gorgeous and you look like you are all baby and it’s so concentrated in front. My bump is more ‘spread out’ so I am not loving how i look… but I just keep telling myself to be kinder to myself.
Check out A Year of Playing Skillfully. It is a fantastic play based curriculum both of your boys could do. I did it with my five-year-old this last year to give her another year before kindergarten. I ended up doing some of the activities with both of my daughters. It’s a gentle and enjoyable way to fill your days. We did that, reading a lot, cutting and letter practice, and added a phonics curriculum mid year, plus play indoors and outdoors. I absolutely loved it. You could do the play-based activities with with your boys, and do some extra enrichment stuff with Chase. I work during “quiet time followed by tv time.” (Gets me 2.5-3 hours daily and I circle back around after bed time as needed.) If you don’t have preschool, you CAN do this! It will be hard but it can also be very fun!
Thank you for this info!! Did you follow anything particular for the cutting and letters practice? (Like did someone else make the templates or whatever?) What about the phonics based curriculum? Thanks so much for sharing your insights and your positive experience! <3
I got a Kumon cutting workbook and we worked through that. You could definitely also just make a bunch of crafts to develop this skill (my older daughter did this), but my younger daughter loves using scissors and doesn’t like drawing, and so she liked the structure of cutting on lines.
For letter writing practice, we used the Handwriting Without Tears early level handbooks and their play doh based letter kit. Starting with their name and having them copy over it daily is fun for kids who are 4 plus.
The phonics curriculum was All About Reading pre reading level. I highly recommend it. They have pre-placement tests you can take to see if your child is ready. Don’t start until they are showing signs of readiness (and every kid is different). My one daughter was reading at 5 and my other didn’t start the pre reading level until 5.5. They move at different paces!
I have a 6 year old entering 1st grade, a 4.5 year old going into his last year of pre-K, and a 2 month old (two boys and a girl). We’re in Los Angeles and none of the schools can physically open next month. I have the option to send my preschooler since preschools can open, but I have no idea what to do. I also have no idea how to teach 1st grade to my 6 year old, teach preschool, and take care of the baby. It’s a lot and there aren’t any great choices. I’m so grateful to be home with them but this is a tough time as a parent.
Hi there, I don’t usually comment on blogs, but I’m on vacation with a very wakeful baby so I decided I would! 😊 I’m a teacher, and I just thought a little perspective might be helpful. With no disrespect at all, I’d like to suggest letting go of the idea of a “curriculum” or school for young children. It’s such an American idea that kids need so much educational content at such a young age. Study after study shows that young kids need play. Some of the highest ranking countries in the world for test scores (which you could also get me going on, ha!) don’t even start formal schooling until kids are 7. Focusing so much on pushing kids, which I don’t want to imply you’re doing, but is definitely ingrained in our system, can actually lead to increased burn out in kids and the mindset that school is bad. There are some incredibly excellent books out there about the topic. Love your boys, let them be kids and let their curiosity guide them, that’s so much more important in the long run.
Hi from hot and sunny California. We were just told by our Governor, that we are on the list of counties who will not open for school in the fall (unless we have 14 days of decline in positive results) . Its disappointing because my daughter, who is weeks younger than Chase, is starting kindergarten… The timing is such a God thing thou… I am due with our 2nd ( a boy!) on Oct 7th, so I will thankfully be out on maternity leave for the 20-ish weeks, and now they are offering another 12 wks for covid relief for parents with school aged children. So I will hopefully be off for about 7 months!!! Most of that will be paid. God is good…. she has been in preschool this whole time, California deemed daycare’s/private preschools essential but i am disappointed for her that she will miss tradition kinder, she is very social and LIVES for others, but thankfully she is still so young and will hopefully have a more normal school experience soon. Sounds like you will have a LOT on your plate coming up, can’t wait to see your new baby! Wishing you all well. Id suggest hiring a nanny/mothers helper part time, we will be hiring one in the spring to help out!
We’re in Iowa where if you so much as breathe in our direction you have to quarantine for 2 weeks 🙂 From our perspective we seem to be taking a much more laid-back approach than others so our Governor declared school must be in-person at least 50% of the time unless the school district gets approval for another plan. This works fine for us as our parochial school plans on operating as normal (with new guidelines of temperature taking, separate lunches, etc) and we have a new kindergartner looking forward to it all. However we all know that can change at any given moment.
I have no doubt you will tackle this head-on, but also know it will stressful, tiring, and come with a huge learning curve for you (us) all.