Birthday weekend

Ah, another birthday. The age just doesn't fit with the image I have of myself, but even more than that I can't believe another year just flew by. Crazy!

Bryce's cute, cute, cute present for me. It's our family of four+doggies

My present opening helpers.

Dinner at Bonefish:

Sister fun

It's not always fun and games with these two girls....we are still working on sharing (Charlotte) and not pulling your sister's curls (Emily) but every once in awhile they will just get along so well that it makes me say "See! Having a sibling can be fun!"

Emily actually IN her toys!

Charlotte taking Emily and her toys for a ride

One of Charlotte's favorite things to do with Emily is feed her

Charlotte flipped her Dora tent upside down and filled it with balls

Add in a sister.....

And you have lots and lots of giggles!

Here Kitty Kitty!

Charlotte's favorite thing to do every evening is go "searching for kitties". Our neighbor has three cats, so she is usually rewarded in her search!

Big girl school

Big girl school has not gone as well as I anticipated. At the beginning of July we started driving by the building and pointing to it "Look, there's your new school". Then we started pulling into the parking lot, "Look, there's a playground at your school. You'll get to play there every day!". Next, we actually went in and met her teacher. We started talking about Ms. J for about a week before pre-planning started and Charlotte was really excited to be a big girl at a "real school". As much as we adore Mrs. D, I knew Charlotte was ready to move on and was so happy to see her excited about going to a school.

I had to accept that Charlotte will be one of the oldest kids in her class. She is not starting pre-k this year because of her birthday. You have to be four BEFORE September 1st in Georgia to enroll in pre-k, even in the private pre-k sectors (because you also have to be 5 before September 1st to enroll in kindergarten, 6 in first grade, etc.). So after much searching for theright place we finally settled on a place that is close to home, felt very clean and friendly, and has a class for four year olds who are also in Charlotte's situation. All the kids in her class have birthdays from September to December, and they treat it like a "pre" pre-k. I should have written a blog about my search for the right school, that is a whole post in and of itself!

So, day one comes around. At the very last minute, I ended up being the drop off person. Once Bryce realized how early he was going to have to be at school the first day of pre-planning, we decided it just wasn't fair to the girls to have them out the door that early. I should have been more mentally prepared, but I wasn't. I went to Charlotte's school for drop off first since it is the closest to our house, and from the minute we got out of the car Charlotte was attached to my hip. We went to sign in and walk back to her classroom and I was basically dragging her along with me. When it was time to say good-bye she hugged my neck so hard. I could feel her little heart beating hard and she was taking big deep breaths. The look on her face was fear but she was trying SO hard to be a big girl about it. I got out of there as fast as I could so she wouldn't see me cry. As soon as the door closed behind me it was a flood of tears down my face. I walked out of there with my head screaming "I just left my precious child with people I don't know!". I had to keep telling myself over and over again that this was the best place for her. I cried the whole way to Mrs. D's house to drop off Emily, and all the way to work. With Emily, my sadness came from knowing that I will be at work for the rest of her baby days. I will be at working while she is learning to crawl, talk, walk.....I'll have a little mini toddler by next summer. You realize how fast it all goes the second time around.

Even one week later, Charlotte is still not loving her day at big girl school. She is so verbal that it hurts my heart to hear her say she is scared, or sad, or lonely while she's at school. She's been having nightmares at night too. I know it just takes some getting used to, but man it's hard!

Back to school, back to school.....

This seems to be the story of my life. Back to school and the bits in between. Whew, going back to school is rough. My day starts at 4:30 AM (or earlier. Emily likes to wake up about 4:15 now that we are on a new routine). I feed Emily, get myself ready, pack up our cars with all we'll need for the day, and help Bryce get one girl ready then head to school. Bryce drops both girls off and we work all day. I leave school as fast as I can and go pick up both girls. We come home, I feed Emily, and start cooking dinner-which Bryce may or may not be home to eat depending on how his day went and the traffic. After dinner I clean bottles, pack bags, lay out clothes and give the girls a bath. Then I'm in bed around 9:00 so we can do it all again the next day. I'm tired just thinking about it.

The good news is I've got a job that helps us pay the bills and not have to count every penny. I've got GREAT students this year, this is seriously the best feeling I've had as a teacher after the first week of school ever. And the oh so famous line I tell myself every time I start to throw a pity party, I get lots and lots of breaks during the year that I can spend with Bryce and the girls. We're gonna make it.

Half of a year!

Half of a year has FLOWN by. Emily was six months old on the day we went back to school, and it is amazing how much she has grown. Half of a year sounds so long, but it sure doesn't feel that way. Emily is such an amazing child. Her temperament is so sweet and loving. She adapts very quickly to new situations and is pretty happy go lucky. As long as someone is willing to hold her or show her attention she is a happy girl. She is sitting up on her own now. She topples over every once in awhile but for the most part she can sit up and play with her toys and eats in her high chair now. She is still getting six feedings a day, but mainly because that's when my schedule at school works out with her feedings. I feed her before we leave, she has three bottles (of hard earned breastmilk that I pump at work) while she's at Mrs. d's, I feed her when we get home, and one more snuggle feeding before she lays down for bed. Before we returned to work she was sleeping from 7:30pm to 8:00 AM with no feedings in between, but of course now that we are back at work she is waking up again. I am hopeful that she will figure it out soon and start sleeping through the night again. She is eating solid foods like a champ. She has oatmeal and a fruit for breakfast, a vegetable for lunch, and half a fruit and half a veg with oatmeal for dinner. I've shied away from rice cereal for now because she broke out in an awful rash right before school started and I still can't tell for sure what it was from. The most likely culprit was laundry detergent but her skin still isn't completely back to normal.

Little Emily smiles all the time. She loves to laugh and giggle. She loves to put anything and everything in her mouth. She is content to be in the car, she is content to play with a toy, she is content to walk around in your arms....as long as she doesn't think she is alone. The minute she thinks she's been left alone the tears start. I call that second child syndrome. Charlotte is becoming much more animated with Emily (as long as she's not reaching for one of Charlotte's toys! We're working on that.) and loves the role of big sister. Life is good with these two sweet girls around.