Juergensen Family Blog

Just a quick note to mark a few major milestones that have happened in the past few weeks. On June 13 Zoe lost her first tooth, which was met with excitement and panic by me. The panic is the realization that everything is permanent now, so the mistakes we make can’t easily be undone. I’ve started reading up on many child books to get prepped for kindergarten, something I skippped entirely in the younger years except to see if a behavior was normal.

The other milestone is that we are without a nanny or regular babysitter for the first time in 5 1/2 years. We said goodbye to Mary last week, and this week the girls start summer camp (i.e. 5-day childcare outside of the house). Starting in September school is the new babysitter, and I’m looking forward to it, though it is unclear how our house will handle the lack of regular sweeping and tidying that she did.

A few other things that happened this week were that I successfully took the girls to Manhattan, and walked them down a few streets to pick-up my passport. I was so happy for all the street training we’ve done, and relieved that whatever the behavior, I knew they wouldn’t dart into a street. (A personal accomplishment is that I parallel parked the minivan on Varick street with heavy traffic.)

Another milestone is that I took them to see a movie, all by myself. While this may not sound hard, with bathroom trips, etc. it has the potential to be. The movie was Mr. Popper’s Penguins and after the Kung Fu Panda fiasco (way too violent for Sabrina), I had carefully researched it to make sure it was not scary, which it wasn’t. It was also nice to take a break from animated films, and test the girls on a regular film.

That’s it for now!

By now I’ve realized it is difficult to keep up with the logging of special moments, so I’m going to pick a few to focus on. Here are a few of my favorite things for each girl, going in reverse order this time.

Sabrina Grace
Sabrina is really wired differently genetically than her two sisters, possibly attributable to the lack of red hair. I never fully realized it when she was a baby, though a good playdate friend pointed out that she had never seen her cry, at least on playdates. Sabrina has a great ability to find her own happy-land, and plays quite well on her own, refusing to get dragged in to whatever fight Kate and Zoe are having. On vacation when her sisters were having a typical squabble, she simply walked out to the deck, found a nice lawn chair, laid down and looked around at the scenery, with her typical “la-la-la” voice.

To be fair, she does seem to have the greatest rage of the three and sometimes you can’t even imagine it is the same girl. But the rage is rare relative to the la-la-la times, so the overall assessment is easygoing.

Kate Sophia
Kate has a certain zest for life and language, and is by far the most likely to make pronouncements such as “I love you” randomly while walking down the street. In a restaurant recently she said “Thank you Mommy for paying” and which brought a sweet reaction from a nearby table. She is very earnest about using her new words, and will often say things like “Zoe, I am impressed” instead of a more typical “good job” or “wow”. She understands movies and laughs in the appropriate times. If you laugh at something she’ll often ask “why did you laugh” as if she wants to make sure there is nothing she is missing.

Kate is also very focused and self-sufficient. If you promise her something in the morning, she wakes up remembering it. She was the first to walk down the stairs when she woke up vs. waiting for someone to come and get her. The downside is that she can be quite stubborn, like most 3-year olds, but has a longer memory and more stamina on the stubbornness.

Zoe Hope
Our first child is the hardest to write about. She is an emotional kid which manifests itself in many ways, with both the positive hitting her with much more impact than her sisters. When she is happy, your heart sings and her smile is golden. Recently she cuddled in the blankets in our bed and said “sometimes I’m so happy that it makes my eyes wet.” Sometimes her sweetness with her sisters just makes you melt.

Zoe is very into her artwork, which started with drawing rainbows and has evolved into much more complex creations. She loves cutting and taping her creations to the wall. She is enjoying pre-k and is very excited about starting kindergarten.

Time is going by very quickly as the girls grow up. This post is my new attempt to make sure the favorite memories don’t slip by without us remembering them.
- Moving up to to the 3rd floor
- Marty & Alex
- Summer camp
- Knock knock jokes
- “I love you” (Kate)
- The story of princess Zoe
- Zoe makes good friends
- Swim class and pool party
- First flight for Kate & Sabrina
- Summer vacation in Florida
- Family fourth of July fireworks
- Zoe’s New House
- Coloring in the lines (end of innocence)
- Artwork taped throughout the first floor
- Ladybug, Monkey, Bumblebee
- Mother helpers!
- Princesses, including Cinderella and Tianna
- TV show, movies
- Three umbrellas and rain boots
- Oblivion is Bliss (Sabrina)
- Potty training (Sabrina the fast learner, Kate a little later)
- Kate’s earnestness
- Zoe’s concern for sisters
- trip to NYC with Uncle Lee and beach with Margo
- Tree decorating/redistribution
- “Big Girl Stuff”

I just dropped all three girls at summer camp, which marks the beginning of a new era of everyone going to school at the same time. Given that they are only two blocks away and it is only for four hours, it was a great moment rather than a sad one. Adding to my readiness was the early wake-up at 6:30 am (typical wake-up is 8:00am), and a week of family vacation, aka childcare on the beach. I diligently packed lunches, which is not my favorite activity in the world, to say the least.

Enough for now – I’ve got to get to work!

the rain, and the first two (almost three) weeks of school. Today was a torrential downpour and all three girls walked to school with their umbrellas of various sizes and conditions. Fortunately one thing that went well was the rain boots, and I’ve decided rain coats will soon follow. I had to make a decision as to whether to be a driving or walking mom, and inspired by a friend this past weekend of scrapbooking, decided to be a walker thereby hopefully teaching my girls that they can walk in the rain.

We also made it through the first few weeks of school. While Kate and Sabrina like school, they haven’t quite mastered the transition to the room, which is why I didn’t write about their first week immediately. They also had meltdowns after returning home, but now seem to have settled into the routine. Sabrina as usual is always the first one ready to go to school – I think she gets tired of listening to her sisters squabble, and would like a change of scenery. Every day but one that I have picked them up, they’ve been playing together on the playground. It would be nice if they made new friends, but who can blame them for playing with the familiar and at least they are friends with each other. They both love their teacher (Miss Danielle) and Kate seems very willing to tell me what happened during the day, which is a nice bonus.

Today was Zoe’s first day of pre-school, which ended the generally long month of August. Despite a rocky start of anxiety (captured in pictures), I picked up a happy Zoe at 2:30, which was 5 1/2 hours after dropoff -a new record for time in school. This evening she wanted to write and read books on her own and much of the negative recent behavior seemed to have vanished, which was a very promising start to the first day of school. Perhaps I am just seeing what I want to see, but that’s okay.

The only semi-surreal moment was a mom taking a picture of one of Zoe’s classmates who was wearing a Dartmouth t-shirt and holding a date sign that said “first day of pre-k” for the picture she was taking. At first I thought – why didn’t I think of that (the sign) given that I scrapbook and routinely held signs up for pictures of how many months pregnant I was. Then anxiety set in – is she sending that picture with the application to college and am I already behind? Maybe the parents are just enthusiastic alums and that’s the end of it, much like I took the girls to my reunion. Kind of funny that a picture provoked that much thought.

That’s all for tonight. More later on Kate & Sabrina’s first day of school on Wednesday.

We just wrapped up a week of family vacation, which I would call a success. There were so many milestones to report, and I will admit to resurrecting my old “things are getting easier” thinking. Here are just a few of the highlights:
- It was our first vacation with three girls, without an au pair. As such we were prepared to rely on grandparents for babysitting, but found it wasn’t really necessary. However it was nice to go out for my birthday dinner and know they were in good hands
- This was the first flight for Kate and Sabrina, though it was Zoe’s fifth roundtrip. We’ll blame their lack of flying on the cost of buying five airline tickets, without any type of discount for kids.
- I bought all three girls luggage with wheels, in part because I was determined we weren’t going to be charged for bags when we had bought full price tickets for girls that weight only 25-30 pounds. (i.e. we should get at least 100 lbs of luggage weight free ? They really loved wheeling their luggage through the airport and were so cute doing it. It was one of those times you see everyone else looking on adoringly, and you think, gee I’m luck to have such cute girls!
- We made major progress on beach time, with the girls playing up to 3 hours in the sand, usually in the morning from 9 to noon.
- We rented a boat (a pontoon?) and they all seemed to have sea legs walking around comfortably and eating their snacks. It was at least an hour in before someone asked when we were going back. In contrast, on last year’s boat ride Kate and Sabrina stayed glued to a parent’s lap, and Zoe refused to put on her life jacket and had to go home.
- By the last day, I got some chairs low to the ground, planted them near the water and then went and sat in the shallow area. Kate and Zoe had a lot of fun playing chase in the water with Daddy, while Sabrina enjoyed sitting on Mommy’s lap in the wet sand, while some waves made it to us and created puddles.

Now that we know we can take all five on a flight, the possibilities for next year’s vacation seem endless!

This has been a great school year and sadly it is coming to an end in just a few days. (written week of June 14) A fellow mom said it is all downhill from Miss Noelle, which I can understand. All three girls have her this year (at different times), so we will definitely have an adjustment next year. This seems like a good time for reflection on the current school year.

Let’s start with Zoe. She entered school in the fall as a shy kid who still clung at the point of goodbye. Within a few weeks she was talking about new friends, i.e. ones she met on her own rather than through a parent-arranged playdate. That fall she went to the marsh with a good friend – Josie and her mom (my friend) Julie. It seems funny to say now, but having her go somewhere without me was a big step towards big-kid status, and she really had fun doing it. The pictures were so heart warming. Seeing her make new friends was a huge relief, given that just a year and a few months earlier she seemed very isolated at her first summer camp. (The camp where she waited until all the other kids finished eating lunch before she started.)

By the end of the year, some new developments were not so great:
- “you never ___”
- nail polish, though fortunately no princess

Sabrina
Sabrina loved school immediately, though I initially thought she was going to be the hardest. On one morning she had her backpack and shoes on at 8:00am and I had to break the news to her that we still had to wake Zoe up, and that it would be awhile (school starts at 9am.) It’s almost as if she needed a break from the social order of our house. She loves her sisters and they love her, but Sabrina lacks the crazy red-head gene and doesn’t always choose the activities that might make her sisters happy. Plus she is a little slower, though still an exuberant walker. At any rate, she started the year sitting down at one end of the room next to the doll cribs watching the activities go on. By this last week, she actually sang the A-B-C song to the whole classroom. Yeh Sabrina!

Kate has also done well at school, but doesn’t seem to relish it in quite the same way, probably because she is at the top of the social order at home and not at school. Her language is quite good, and she has always put a lot of effort into building complex sentences. At school she is still a bit on the shy side (which is hard to imagine), and at least for the beginning of the year liked to be near an adult. We know about the differences because two of our current babysitters are assistants at school, so they give me the scoop on how they are at school.

The experiment in separation has gone well, but takes a break next year due to scheduling difficulties. At least they get the concept that school is an individual activity, as is making friends.

My favorites:
- K/S running out, Zoe hug
- solo time with each girl

Z and Kyle sitting on steps.
Dinosaur museum.

To be finished later.

I just dropped all three girls at summer camp, which marks the beginning of a new era of everyone going to school at the same time! Given that they are only two blocks away and it is only for four hours, it was a great moment rather than a sad one. Adding to my readiness was the early wake-up at 6:30 am (typical wake-up is 8:00am), and a week of family vacation, aka childcare on the beach. I diligently packed lunches, which is not my favorite activity in the world, to say the least.

Enough for now – I’ve got to get to work!

I don’t know when the phase started, but everyone has started saying “I love you” a lot, even Sabrina who is the last hold-out. It seemed to coincide with Mary, our original nanny, returning and it may just be coincidence but she certainly does have a positive effect. The best part of all is putting Zoe to bed. When I ask for a hug, a kiss or an “I love you”, she says “all three” and gives me them all. It is such a wonderful feeling, which more than offsets all her talk about growing up to be 14 or 16. (Yikes – my girls are going to grow up!) They have been saying it to each other a lot too, and sometimes to both Mommy and Daddy. I hope it keeps up.