Weekend wrap up

Friday afternoon I picked Reed up from school. His shoes were on the wrong feet and I told him that and he said “I wanted them that way”. ha! He also has this thing lately where he doesn’t want to smile when it’s sunny outside. It drives me crazy.

We had to turn in many different ways where the sun wasn’t shining and we finally got a smile!

I had a hard day Friday. Drop off was hard because Reed forgot his lunchbox and had a melt down. I was missing Leslie. And work was hard that day. I got home and Zach told me to sit down with this precious angel and he worked on getting the house picked up. I’m a lucky girl!

Also, can someone tell me how this girl is looking so grown up? She lost a tooth Saturday night while she was sleeping. She came in Sunday morning and said it fell out in her sleep. She thought she swallowed it but felt something stuck to her leg and it was her tooth! :)    

We went to a first birthday party for my little cousin Friday night and all three kids fell asleep on the way there!

Reed didn’t want to stop long enough to take a picture! ha!

I got some cute pictures Sunday morning before church. It was windy out a big thunderstorm was about to roll in but thankfully the kids were happy to cooperate!

I got Ava this dress earlier in the spring and it matched one I got last year but I never wore it while I was pregnant. She’s been begging me to match her so we did that today!

We had some family birthday parties this afternoon and my mom and dad were in town on their way home from being with Stephen and the girls. My dad wasn’t able to hold Grant for the first couple months of his life due to his cancer treatment so it’s nice to be able to take a photo of him holding Grant!

At the birthday party, Grant obviously got a lot of love from many others. Right before we left, he was sitting in my lap cooing to my grandma. She held him for just a minute and it was so sweet. It wasn’t too many weeks ago when she was so weak she didn’t even have the energy to hold him when he was teeny. We’re so thankful she’s feeling so much better.

It was a good weekend. We have a fairly busy week ahead including a busy next weekend. That’s life when school starts back up! :)

Three months old

Grant, you are three months old today! Time is just flying by and you are getting so big! I can’t believe we’ve had you for three months. It feels like just yesterday we were waiting on you to arrive, yet it feels like you’ve been in our family forever.

Let’s see what life is like for you at three months old:

• I have put you in some 6 month clothes and you are almost too long for them! You have limited time in your three month clothes.
• You’ve grown a lot this past month, but I have no idea how much you weigh.
• You still wear size 1 diapers but will probably be in size 2 very soon.
• You rolled from your tummy to your back this month. Ava and I got to see you do it and we recorded it and cheered you on and then sent the video to Daddy.
• You nurse in the morning when you wake up and have three 3-4 oz bottles while you are at school and then nurse again at bedtime.
• You like to go to sleep around 8:00 and then you wake up around 6:00. To go to sleep, you like to just lay down in your bed and go to sleep some nights, but you also let mommy or daddy rock you some nights.
• You follow things with your eyes very well and love to look all around.
• You have become obsessed with sucking on your hands. As soon as I unswaddle you in the morning, you immediately put your hands in your mouth. Sometimes when you are laying somewhere and we are doing things around the house, we hear a LOUD sucking sound and it is you eating those hands!
• You are talking and cooing.
• You LOVE your sister! She loves you too! (And so does Reed, but he doesn’t show it as much). They both have to kiss you goodbye every morning before you leave!
• You obviously started daycare this month. You seem to like it there and hopefully will get fully adjusted soon.
• You scream in the car when we are sitting still waiting to turn or at a stoplight.
• You are a smiley boy!
• You have a spot on your forehead that seems to be ticklish and you smile when daddy touches it.
• You are the sweetest, cuddliest little boy.
• You are still such a good baby. People ask me all the time if you ever cry. (The answer is yes)

Grant, you are such an absolute dream baby. You are the most precious little boy and I seriously cannot imagine life without you. You just fit in our family so perfectly and I’m so proud to be your momma. My heart bursts with pride over you and I am so thankful for you. I cannot wait to watch you continue to grow and look forward to what the next month brings us. I hope you always know how much I love you, my sweet little guy.

First day of school 2015

Monday was the first day of school for Zach, Ava, and Reed! It was a big day for each of them! We worked hard to get everything set the night before so that we’d have a smooth morning and thankfully it worked out. Everyone got ready easily and on time and everyone took great photos! That’s RARE so not taken for granted! :)

We got the kids into bed and asleep relatively early, considering we’d been pretty lax with bedtimes over the summer.

Ava woke up earlier than she had to and came running into our room and said loudly “IT’S THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!” She was very excited. Reed was pretty excited, too. Reed is going through this phase where he says he can’t smile if the sun is out at all because it’s too bright, regardless of if he is in the shade or in the sun. I told him we had to hurry up and get outside for our pictures before the sun came up! Thank goodness it worked! :)  

I make Zach take a first day photo every year. I know he probably hates it, but oh well. He obliges. And of course we had to document his first day in his new position.

Since Zach had to be at school early, I had to drop off all three kids. Thankfully Grant got into a daycare that’s close to everything – Zach’s school, the kids’ school, and my work. I dropped Grant off and then took the big kids. They were pretty excited! We didn’t have any tears and if you know Reed at all, you know this is HUGE!

I saw this picture on the school facebook page yesterday. I’m so thankful for a school where they keep us updated on the kids’ progress through the day!

Reed’s sweet teacher sent me this photo of him sleeping that day. That was probably his first nap in months! ha! Too bad it made him stay up until almost 10:00 Monday night! :)

Everyone had a great first day. The kids came home all bubbly and talking happily about their days. They were ready to head back for a second day!

And this little guy…. he’s having some trouble sleeping and taking good naps at daycare! It’s been hard because he comes home and goes to sleep and we don’t get to see him awake.

Thankfully, he slept much better yesterday. He had about three hours worth of naps instead of just one. He was a happy boy and I was so happy to see him awake for a while!    

I mean, really. Is he not just the cutest little thing??!!!!

I’m hoping that the kids’ and Zach’s years are wonderful and fruitful. I’m also hopeful Grant continues sleeping at daycare and thrives there!

Grant’s first day of daycare

August 12, 2015 was the day I had to start back to work after my maternity leave. I looooooved my time at home with Grant and I was really sad to have to leave him. We had such great days together. But, life goes on and time passes and it was time for me to get back to the grind.

I had high hopes for our last day together to be laid back and just a good day, and boy was I in for a surprise. Grant was uspet and fussy all day long. I couldn’t get him to sleep easily and every single time I did, one of the bigger kids would wake him up. Zach had to work that day from about 7:30 – 8:30 and it was a doozy of a day!

Thankfully after a good night of sleep, Grant woke up a much happier baby. We got up and got ready and took some first day photos! He looks so unimpressed!

We were somehow early this first day and had to sit and wait a few minutes! Zach hadn’t seen his classroom and would be the one picking him up that day, so he headed there with me to drop Grant off. The kids were waiting in the truck to next to me.

Grant had a great first three days of daycare! He is adapting well, but he is SO tired! He is used to taking 2-3 hours naps 2 or 3 times a day and there he is just taking little cat naps. His little naps combined were less than one of this long naps at home, so that is going to be a big adjustment. He was pooped when he got home that first day. I could barely feed him that night because he kept going to sleep.

I swaddled him up after I finished feeding him and laid him on the could for a second and he was gone! Sweet baby.

My first days back to work went well. It was a little scary going back just because I was gone so long and because I didn’t know what I was going back to. However, it was a good three days and I’m thankful that since I have to work, that I work somewhere where the people genuinely missed me and were so happy to have me back!

Changes

Today is the first day of school for both Zach and the kids, and for Zach, today is the start of a new adventure for him. Something very exciting happened for our family while my blog was on the back burner. In March, after two years of hard work, Zach graduated with his Masters degree in Leadership & Educational Administration! Not only, that he graduated with a perfect 4.0! The time and effort he put into this took a lot of sacrifice, on both his part and mine. There were many things that he had to miss or sit out on so he could get all of his work done. I had to pick up more of the household duties and go to things with the kids by myself so he could get his work done. We were both SO excited for March to arrive and have this journey behind us!

But that’s not all! Most of my long time readers know that Zach has been a band director at a private junior high for the last six years. He took on a very small, struggling program and put blood, sweat and tears into it to try and revive it. His first couple of years were ROUGH. ROUGH. But, each year he got more and more students enrolled in the program and the talent kept growing and growing!

This past school year, his band received their 2nd set of straight 1s at marching contest. They accomplished this the year prior, also, but fell short in accomplishing 1s in their concert contest. In March, he took his kids to concert contest, and for the first time, they got superior ratings (all 1s), and for the first time in school history, they earned the sweepstakes award, which means they got superior ratings in marching assessment, concert assessment, and sightreading. This was one of the last goals he had set when he first started that he had not accomplished by this point. I was so proud of him and so happy for him that he got to achieve this!

 

It seems only fitting that this happened this past year, kind of the climax of his career as a band director, because shortly after this performance, we found out that Zach would be starting a new job for this school year! He’s hanging up his director baton and is now going to be working in administration. His school has undergone a complete leadership overhaul and his new job is going to be the Dean of Academics and Admissions. He will be assistant to the principal and has completely changed his line of work. We are SO excited for his new role and can see how this has been where God has been leading him the last several years. He has assumed many roles the past few years helping with administrating all while continuing his band role. He will no longer be doing any band work and while I know he will miss it some, he sure is excited for being key in helping to revamp the school. This is a blurb that was sent out to the school community when his new position was announced:

I am so very proud of Zach and the hard work he’s done over the past several years. His new school year starts today and it will be a different year for us with the changes he’s made, but we are all very excited!

Swimming Lessons

Earlier in the summer, the kids took swimming lessons. I lost count of how many years it was for Ava and it was Reed’s second. Ava is officially done with lessons. She can swim and swims really well. Reed will need a few more years. BUT. We made progress this year!!

Last year, he CRIED AND CRIED AND CRIED the WHOLE week of lessons. And I don’t mean little crying. I mean SCREAMING. We tried talking to him to get him ready and he would say he didn’t want to go. The weekend before they started, we took him to the pool and tried to do a few of the things they would do there and he freaked out. FUH-REAKED out. I was hoping for the best, but expecting the worst.

We told him that even if he was scared and needed to cry, to PLEASE be nice to the teacher. And that included not telling him/her that he didn’t like them. Because he did that last year. We also told him that if he could go ALL week without crying, we would take him to his favorite pizza place to eat inside.

The first day came and went and it went surprisingly well! Reed kept saying “And I didn’t even have to go underwater!” Ha! Even though his hair was wet he truly believed he didn’t go under water. We just let him think that~!

Reed did great all week! He didn’t cry one time and even had fun! He had a smile on his face throughout the lessons and came home so happy and proud of himself each day!! He was intent on earning that trip to eat pizza!

The last day they traditionally make them jump off the diving board and go down the slide. The diving board is a little scary. Reed and the two little classmates of his didn’t jump. Ava did and did so great!

I was proud of her because I told her to make sure to tell the coach that she wanted to jump off on her own without him throwing her. I could see her try to tell him that!

Reed did have to go down the slide. He actually did it even though he wasn’t so crazy about it! This photo has both the kids waiting in line for their turn. Reed is on the third step and Ava is in the pink bathing suit!

He was pretty proud of himself after it was over, even though he wasn’t crazy about it! :) But at least he did it and he didn’t cry the whole week!

He earned his trip to eat pizza after the last day and he was happy as can be!

Now we just have to hope that maybe next year the swimming part sticks!

Back to work

Today I go back to work. Grant is 12 weeks old today and my time at home with him is up. (insert big sob) I have been dreading this day because I don’t want to leave my sweet baby.

I know I am so fortunate that I was able to stay home with him for 12 weeks, as I know not everyone gets to do that. We planned ahead to cover my lost wages and I finally got to have a summer home with my family. For anyone new here, Zach is an administrator at a school and it’s always been hard for me during the summer when he’s been at home with the kids. When I found out I was having Grant, I was so happy that his due date was right around summer break. I had him three days before Zach and the kids got out for summer and I’m back to work three days before they start school. God was incredible to bless me with this time with my family.

While I’m so thankful for my job and all that it makes available for our family, I do wish I could have more time at home with Grant. While it was nice having everyone home this summer, it would have  been nice to have some days alone with just Grant. However, I do feel like I have made the most of my time, and held and snuggled him a lot! I just can’t believe how quickly time went. I said the whole time I was off that I wished I had a button that could’ve stopped time. It has been such a precious time that I have positively treasured and I will miss our days at home so much.

I feel like because I have a different level of confidence in my mothering than I did with Ava, and probably even Reed, that I was able to enjoy this time more. I was more laid back and more at ease and I think that helped me to just really soak up this time and embrace it in a way I don’t feel like I did with my other maternity leaves. 

Grant is going to a daycare we haven’t used before, so I’m a little anxious about that. I have several friends who use the same place and just rave about it. I’m sure he’ll be well loved and well cared for, but it’s still hard that it won’t be me doing those things. We went to his school on Monday to drop off his supplies and figure out where we would be going so that things go smoothly on Wednesday morning.  His teachers seemed so nice and sweet. And he is in a class with very small ratios so I know he’ll get lots of loving attention. I just long for more time with my precious baby boy. 

I’m praying it’s a smooth transition back to work for me and that Grant doesn’t have any issues adjusting to his new normal.

So here’s to the start of another chapter for us.