Last day of summer break

Today is officially the last day of our summer break and my maternity leave for that matter. I officially report back tomorrow morning at our district breakfast. I am experiencing a whole range of emotions about returning to work (and after I began typing this realized it very closely resembled my friend Tiffany's back to school post! so I am crediting her for helping me. :) ) When I think of actually having to fix my hair, do my makeup, and look like a presentable person each day, that kind of makes me excited! I am tired already just thinking of how early I have to get up to make myself presentable, but such is life. When I think about not being with my kids all day that makes my heart hurt and I want to cry! I am going to miss them so much, even though there are days that I can't wait to get back to work! :) BUT I know they will have a wonderful time at Miss Amanda's, our daycare provider, and that is a huge relief. And I know that I will enjoy having a job that is in addition to Mommy and another little person's constant food source (and I mean that in the most loving way possible :) ). I will thrive on the adult interaction and I will enjoy (and procastinate) teaching and planning. I am also really nervous about everything I need to do to my room to prepare for the little people entering it next Monday.

I also know that this school year will fly by--and why wouldn't it? (Everything else is and has!) The last year of my life feels like a blur, but that could be because of the events that took place as well. I am excited about what this school year has in store; to watch the kids change and grow so much in those nine months. May will be here before I know it!

time

Monday afternoon Joe insisted I take Sydney out for supper for some Mommy and Sydney time. I jumped at the opportunity! I haven't had a chance to just spend time with Sydney...just the two of us....alone...together since before Gavin arrived. We went and ate pizza, shared a salad, and enjoyed some ice cream before coming home. It was wonderful. I have felt guilty all summer long about not being able to spend the amount of time with her that I wanted or that I was used to before having Gavin. Of course I wouldn't change a thing about having him with us--that isn't my point at all. I have just struggled most with balancing the time I need to spend with him and the time I want/need to spend with Sydney. Anyhow, it was great just to enjoy Sydney at dinner and afterwards and get to have some lovely uninterrupted time with her. Now that we know Joe and Gavin survived each other maybe we can do this more often! Thank you Daddy/Joe for making our night possible!

"I'm not beautiful!"

This was the conversation between Sydney and me this morning....

Me: "Sydney, why don't we go change out of your pajamas and find a dress!"
S: "oh yes! so I can be beautiful!" (or "boo-ti-full")
Me: "oh Sydney you're beautiful no matter what. You don't need a dress to be beautiful."
S: "I not beautiful--I need a dress!"
Me: "Sydney come here, I want to tell you something special..." and a mother-daughter moment ensues, where I tell her that no matter what she wears--even if she wears leaves or Gavin's clothes or pajamas--that she will always be beautiful...to which she responds....
S: (thrashing on my lap, whimpering/whining, etc. etc.) "no! no! I not beautiful I need a dress!" and the tears flow...

My heart was sad because of course I think she is beautiful always, no matter what and I don't want her to think that she needs a dress to feel beautiful, etc. but maybe I could have saved my speech for a few years down the road. As of now, she needs a dress to be beautiful and I will be picking my battles. :)

numbers

I have been paying much closer attention to a certain 3 digit number as of late. Ever since I had Sydney I hadn't been monitoring that 3 digit number very closely...and I have paid for it! At my first doctor's appointment when I was pregnant with Gavin, I honestly about croaked when I saw the number on the scale. I sheepishly gazed at it, probably blushing I'm sure. I know, I know, it's not all about weight and the weight I was gaining at that time was a good thing...but for the 18 months prior to that I had no excuse and I was ashamed of myself. Of course now I was pregnant and couldn't even think about trying to lose weight, so I embraced it and told myself that after I was pregnant I would work harder at getting back to a more...appealing...number!

About a month or so ago I finally bought a scale to keep in our room to weigh myself every morning. Before even going downstairs I weigh myself and much to my surprise, astonishment, joy, insert-all-other-synonyms-for-HAPPY-here, that number has been going down, and down, and down some more. I'll give you one of the beautiful numbers I saw this morning that I hadn't seen in awhile...but that is all I'm going to give you....: 4. I am not feeling confident enough just yet to share the other two numbers, but maybe if that 4 becomes a 3, you just might luck out. ;)

Now I wish I could say that I had discovered some fantastic workout routine/ritual--I wish I had the time in the day TO have a fantastic workout routine, but sadly, this new number is just a result of luck (I guess?) and Mother Nature. I have to give all the glory to breastfeeding actually--that and my small amount of willpower to just have one bite of cake instead of three or four. Breastfeeding is the only thing I can think of that I am doing that is actually burning calories!! lol So here's to more wonderful surprises on the scale...I sure hope I didn't just jinx myself!

big day for our little guy!

Today began like any other...up for the day around 7:30 (well Joe let me sleep in since the night was not so great with Gavin!) and proceeded to be like any other day....until around lunchtime when Gavin finished eating and was placed on his playmat. He has come so close to rolling over! He will get up to his side and kind of wedge himself there because he can't get his arm out from under himself (going either way!) but today, he started and just....

.....kept....

going! until...
SUCCESS!

Here's the proud little man himself!

As if that wasn't enough work for him in one day we decided to try some rice cereal with him. (Can it be? My baby boy is old enough for that?!) He did all right with it, it is his first time! Towards the end of the bowl he was doing pretty good...messy, but pretty good.

Oh yeah...and he held his own bottle. Such a big boy! :)

Gavin's Baptism--August 8th

This past Sunday was a very special day for our family as we had Gavin baptized. It's easy to get caught up in the planning and preparation of having a large amount of family in your home (the cleaning, the cooking, the rearranging, the straightening up, etc.) and forget the real reason for the day. It didn't really hit me until we were up at the front of the church and our son was getting holy water scooped on to his head....all of these emotions came rushing at me catching me by surprise. Amazement, calm, happiness, sadness (wishing my mom were there), pride (at how well he was doing!)...it is a very touching moment in a very wonderful milestone in Gavin's life. We were so blessed to have shared it with so many of our family who had come to celebrate the day with us. It touched my heart for Gavin; that he has so many people who love him and care about him to get up really early and travel with a newborn (not an easy task, right Traci?) and spend the day with us celebrating. Thank you to our wonderful family who shared in our happiness on Sunday--it would not have been the same without you! We love you!

Our family with our pastor and Gavin's godparents, Aunt Ginny and Uncle Michael

The whole gang! My dad, Aunt Dee, Bailey, Grandma Dodo, Traci and Piper, Aunt Rhonda, Sydney, me and Joe, Gavin, Ginny, Michael, and Alex

Gavin and his godparents

Our family of four!

The yummy cake made by our cousin Jessica

The main man with his cake...that he could not even enjoy :)

Zoo trip with Miss Kim and Evan

Our daycare provider, "Miss Kim" and her family moved to Topeka this summer. Once they got settled in we had talked about getting together before summer was over. So last Wednesday we headed up to the Topeka Zoo and met Kim and Sydney's friend Evan.
It was Gavin's first trip to a zoo and he was just thrilled about it! ;) Actually he couldn't see much of it because of our rigged up visor. (The silly sun wasn't high enough and when we walked in to the sun poor little man was blinded!)

...and how he spent most of the trip:

Sydney and Evan looking at the orangutans

Next--the baby giraffe!

Sydney was bound and determined to see an elephant...as soon as we'd leave one animal she'd mention the elephant. She would barely cast a second glance at most of the animals..because she wanted to see the elephants. Sadly, the elephant was inside the elephant house when we walked by and we only got a very brief glimpse of his back end. Luckily, she was over it pretty quickly. :)