Last Friday morning Big Al came to visit Anderson's school. Thanks to Jeff's secretary, Anita, Anderson and Lydia had matching smocked Alabama outfits. I couldn't wait to dress them up for pictures with Big Al! The preschool director was kind enough to let me bring Lydia so that they could have their picture taken together. Anderson didn't cry, but he was really wanting to keep his distance from the massive elephant! The next day in a much hoped for buy completely unexpected turn of events our beloved Crimson Tide beat the bejesus out of number three ranked Georgia. I swear Anderson thought we had lost our minds we were running around and screaming so loud. Coach Saban lives in a neighborhood about 1/2 a mile from ours and Jeff swore he was going to go sit at the entrance to his neighborhood just so he could say he saw him that night! Low and behold Sunday night the rankings came out and we are #2 in the nation!!! Roll Tide!!
I can't believe that I haven't posted about this sooner, but Anderson has started a new school. It all happened the first week in July when I was very pregnant and too tired to post and since then, well, we have been a little busy! The school he is attending now was my very first choice when I was pregnant with Anderson and thought I would be returning to work. Well, I never went back to work and the waiting list was a mile long, so I just put it out of my mind.
Meanwhile, Anderson turned one and I was able to get in a MDO program at St. Mark Methodist called Noah's Ark Preschool. We loved it there and Anderson was very well taken care of by Ms. Alicia and Ms. Suzanne. Then this April my top choice school that I had nearly forgotten about called to say Anderson was up on the waiting list and that they had a three morning a week opening. It took 2 and a half years to get in for just three mornings! Initially Jeff and I leaned towards turning it down. Anderson was happy with his school and so were we...but in the back of my head I remembered how impressed I was when I had toured the other school while pregnant with Anderson. The new school only gave us 24 hours to think it over and this was one day before we left for San Fransisco for a week. Talk about bad timing!
We agonized over it because I was scared to change everything in his life at such a time. In a two month period he would be going to a big boy bed, changing rooms, changing schools, welcoming a baby sister and turning two. We prayed about it, and I think I called everyone in Tuscaloosa who had a connection to either school to get every one's opinion. We finally decided to bite the bullet and move him. Thankfully, a space opened up the first week in July and he started early, otherwise he would have started the week Lydia was due and I don't think I would have felt as comfortable with that. This way he had three full weeks to get used to his new school before we threw his whole routine out of whack! It is also on the way to Jeff's office which we knew would come in handy with a newborn. Jeff could get Anderson up and ready and take him at 7:30 while I slept in from being up with Lydia all night. At his old school we couldn't drop off until 8:30 and it was across town. So with weepy eyes I took Anderson to his last day at Noah's Ark to tell his teachers. They were very understanding and knew that location and time were our deciding factors. However, they gave us an end of the year CD of pictures from school set to music. Jeff watched it first and warned me not to watch it. Of course, I did anyway and spent the next 24 hours crying and wondering if we had made the right choice. He had so much fun there and he was on his own turf with teachers he knew and friends he was used to. However, we still decided to pros of the new school outweighed the cons of moving him.
Since Anderson has been at his new school we have been so impressed!! One thing I love is that they teach units and base all of their activities on that units theme. For example, they did a farm unit and there artwork was all about farms and animals, so were their lessons on numbers, letters, shapes and colors. He loves show and tell and I love trying to be creative about what he takes depending on the theme. They have done so many creative things to learn including using texture, color, story time, etc... He also goes to chapel once a week where they learn simple bible stories and songs. Both of his teachers have B.S. degrees in early childhood education, and I trust them completely to challenge Anderson academically. I know he is just two, but as a former teacher...I also know you can't start too early. The facility is newer with great space and separate playgrounds for little and big kids. They have tons of fun activities every month like Big Al and a pony ride party coming up next month, not to mention the fun stuff they do for the holidays. I'm sorry for not calling the school by name, but I am a little leery to do that on the blog.
Anderson calls firefighters "fighter fighters". So cute...anyway- After a very nasty bout with a stomach bug we sent Anderson to my mom's for last weekend. I was sick, sick, sick! Jeff took care of Lydia and off Anderson went to Gigi and Pop's. On Sunday we drove back up to Birmingham to pick him up. The Chelsea fire station near Mom's house had an open house Sunday and we decided to take Anderson to see the Fighter Fighters... :-) They were so nice to us and let Anderson climb all over their truck and even work the firehouse, which was great right up until the point that Anderson decided to try to get his hair wet and stuck his whole head under the hose! The firefighter who was sooooo hitting on my mom (which was weird for me to watch Ha!) made mom put on all of the garb. Anderson was kind of scared of her when she got it all on! Lydia just hung out in her new favorite spot - the Baby Bjorn. I hated that thing with Anderson, but for a mom with a toddler it is a must!
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So...last Wednesday after 4 hours of packing (don't judge us! we are just trying to survive!) we left for the beach to meet my Mom, Mike, both of my sisters and their husband/boyfriend, my stepbrother Todd and his wife Susan and Mike's nephew Shawn and his wife Renn. It was a full house...14 people to be exact! Luckily we had a great house. It was three floors with each having its own set of three bedrooms, a living room, a kitchenette and three bathrooms. We were able to spread out nicely! 
On our way down both of our babies were perfect angels. We only stopped two times and that was really more of us needing to go to the bathroom or get a drink. The lovebugs were everywhere. As we got south of Thomasville they were plastered all over our car. Apparently this is an annual event where they come out to mate and are EVERYWHERE! We were glad to find that out. We thought for a second we were seeing some sort of weird plague! HA!
Overall the weather wasn't great, but the guys all got in a day of golf on Thursday and then the girls headed for the outlets for the day on Friday. Saturday was pretty much spent watching football and eating yummy seafood. Lydia even put her cheerleading outfit on for the game! :-) It was a great time to visit with family!
