Taylor's First Day Of Daycare - Back To Work For Me

Yesterday marked the day I went back to work from maternity leave and Taylor's first day of daycare.  Up to that point I thought "I can do this, I've done it twice before and it will be ok"...then it hit me.

She is still MY baby and no one will snuggle her or hold her like I do.

No one can comfort her like I can.

Is she going to cry all day long?...etc.

All the normal thoughts that go through a mothers head when she is about to leave her baby for the first time with total strangers!  Well guess what...I cried like a baby when I dropped her off (in her room! At least I made it to the car with Colton and Lauren) and some last night just thinking about it.  I know she is in good hands as we have been very impressed with Bright Haven and I knew if there were any major issues they would call me. 

This is Taylor Sunday while she and I were out shopping.

Here are our 'first day of school' pics

Lauren is 5 years and 3 months

Colton is 2 years and 11 months

Taylor is 11 weeks and 4 days

The good news is we all made it through the typical Monday and I'm only working 3 days this week so I get to snuggle Taylor all day Wednesday and then Friday I get a day with my girls as Lauren doesn't have school for teacher in service.  God has blessed me that's for sure!

Arkansas vs. Alabama - Taylor's First Razorback Tailgate

Yesterday was a busy day for all in our family (a wedding, school and people traveling) so Taylor got to go tailgating with me!  Since Lauren started Kindergarten and no longer sees Miss Janete from BH, we asked Miss Janete to watch Lauren and Colton while I went tailgating.  Lauren was SO excited!  I didn't take a headband with me for Taylor as I was just trying to get out of the house looking half decent :-) so I found this little headband in her diaper bag.  It makes her head look HUGE!  It was a pretty good day as I got to spend time with my friends and family, the kids got to have fun with Miss Janete and since I just stayed for the tailgate, I got home, put L&C to bed for naps while I watched the Razorback game from the comfort of my couch (while it was raining on and off at the game).

Great day!

My girls!

You can see Lauren had been crying because she was sad Miss Janete was gone and she thought she would NEVER see her again.  :-(  I quickly told her that we will see Miss Janete every week when we drop off/pick up Taylor and Colton and we will ask her to babysit again.  :-)

Kindergarten!!!!!!!!!!!

Lauren is LOVING kindergarten!  She has been so hyper the last two nights after school because she is just so excited to tell us all about what they did that day.  She LOVES the pick up line system they have at school for when we pick her up.  We don't get out of the car, we just drive around and they call her name on the walkie talkie and she comes outside to us and gets in the car.  She asks to ride the school bus daily but we live so close that we can use that as an excuse for her to not ride the bus yet (she is just too little in my eyes).  She LOVES taking her lunch each day and is so proud to help me pack it each morning.  After the first day I asked her how it went and she said one of the best parts was that they don't take naps anymore!  She had a grin on her face when she said it almost like "mom did you know that" or "guess what I got away with today!" so it was pretty cute! 

I will admit I did ok the first morning and didn't even cry...however I had Kraig and Taylor with me and we had a busy day ahead so I never had time to stop and think about it.  We were also able to walk her all the way into her classroom so I knew she was nice and safe.  Tuesday, Taylor and I took her to school without daddy and she was already like "ok mom see ya later"...that's when it hit me that she is at the first age of "I don't need you as much as I did in the past" so I made it to the parking lot so she would not see me and I started tearing up.  My baby girl is growing up too fast!  Today I walked her to her hallway (instead of her classroom) and tomorrow I'll walk her to the door and by Friday I'll just drop her off in the car line and let her walk in all by herself (she asked to do that today).  So little by little I can get used to the idea that she is a big girl.  :-)  One step at a time people.  LOL

We are so proud of you Lauren for being so independent and just going in and being the big girl you are becoming.  You light up our lives with all your funny stories, smiles, laughs, etc and we love you more than you will ever know!  Here's to a wonderful year of Kindergarten!

Little brother getting in on the action showing me his car (even if it is without clothes on)

Singing in the car on the ride to school the first day

Day 2

Just us girls

Miss Schleisman with Lauren

Day 3

Super happy to be wearing a dress today with her new Twinkle Toe shoes!

She had P.E. on Monday and Tuesday so we made her wear shorts those days.  :-)

Walking down the hall by herself

Lauren's Pre-K Graduation Videos

Lauren's Pre-K Graduation

Friday night was Lauren's Pre-K Graduation from Bright Haven.  My baby girl is growing up and is super excited about starting Kindergarten in the fall!

Singing a Song for the audience

waiting to get their diplomas

Teachers Miss Janette and Miss Mandy

Family Shots

Mommy I Flushed It!

This past Monday we had a first in our house.  The kids and I had been painting so Colton and I were in the bathroom washing our hands.  I washed his hands and noticed paint was on his shirt so I took his shirt off and threw it in the floor while I washed my hands.  I heard him say "Unna flush it" and I know he likes to flush the toilet (which didn't have anything in it thanks goodness) so I said "Ok".  I'm washing my hands and the next thing I know he says "my shirt...I flush it!"...I stopped...looked around and didn't see a shirt and it hit me!  I said "you did what?!?!" and he said "My shirt, I flushed it!".  Yep he sure did!  He flushed his (luckily small) cotton t-shirt down the toilet!  I did what any self respecting woman would do (not wanting her husband to be mad at her) and reached in the toilet trying to pull the shirt out but it was already too far gone and I felt nothing.  So I had to plunge the toilet a few times and boom...the shirt moved through and the toilet has worked fine ever since!  Silly little BOY!  He just wanted to see if the shirt would flush...and he got his wish.  So if anyone has a blue cotton t-shirt show up in the sewer system anywhere lets just say it's courtesy of my son.  :-)

Fire Truck Friday

Last Friday, April 27th when I picked up the kids from school I heard a teacher talking about having a 'fire drill' at school today and the fire truck coming to school and all because a little boy had pulled the fire alarm.  She was telling this to one of Colton's class mates mom's and letting her know it was not her son.  She said "I would have put $20 on this kid or this kid but it was not either one of them".  I'm thinking in my head 'ok...if it was not the kid standing at the door with his mom...and it was not one of the two other boys that is limiting the number of boys left in Colton's room...could it be my son?'  Well sure enough, I opened Colton's classroom door and his teacher had a huge smile on her face and said "Colton tell mommy what happened today" and I instantly knew and said "oh no...was it Colton!" and she said yes and laughed.  I told I over heard the other teacher talking about it at the front door and wondered.  She said Colton's class was about to go outside and the teacher had all the kids in the buggy but had to go to the bathroom so she parked the buggy by the door so the up front teacher could watch them.  She said she just got sat down and the alarm went off.  Miss Erin (the owner) said they had to view the tape to see which kid it was and she copied what the first teacher said by saying "I would have put money on this kid or this kid but not Colton!".  She said they were sitting there just waiting and Colton looked up and saw the red fire alarm button and probably wanted to know what it was so he reached up and pulled it down.  She said it is not supposed to be easy to pull so she didn't know if we would be mad that he pulled it or happy that he was strong enough to do it!  I told her it was just 'another first' so we laughed!  So needless to say daycare as well as the kids had an exciting day last Friday because they all got to see the Fire Truck!  Now Miss Erin just hopes other kids don't remember how to 'call the fire truck'!  :-)

Lauren's Kindergarten Tour

I'm a little behind on this post but better late than never.  Good Friday we took Lauren to her soon to be Elementary school for a tour.  She was so excited in the car...but then was VERY shy once we got inside.  I was amazed to see all the things that have changed since I was in school.  They have an indoor gym (without bleachers) for the kids to play basketball with a rock climbing wall (small but there) as well as a computer room.  Kindergartners will have computer class, Music and Art once a week and PE twice a week.  Kraig knew the PE teacher Mr Park from playing Golf with him.  I later found out that two kids from Lauren's current class at Bright Haven will be going to the same school as their mom's are first grade teachers there...so that will be nice.  I ran into one of them this week when picking up the kids and she is so nice (Mrs. Chesser is having her 2nd baby in August while I'm having my 3rd in July so that's another thing for Lauren and Joshua to talk about).  It was a great tour and we are looking forward to a great 1st year (with a few tears from mama in August I'm sure)!

First Trip to the ER - Colton

Last night was our first ever trip to the ER with a child. Luckily the ER was not busy and we got right in! Here is what happened.

I had to take him to the ER last night at 11:30 because he woke up with a cough and congestion like I have never seen or heard and was just crying and crying. We were worried he had pneumonia or something as he could not stop coughing and the more he coughed the worse it got. So I took him in while Kraig and Lauren stayed home (and he said Lauren was worried so they prayed for Colton…so sweet!). We were lucky and got right in and were done by 1:30 a.m. and back home and in bed by 2 a.m. They ran chest x-rays, strep test, flu test and some other test. The X-ray was cute in a way to see my baby boy stand on this stool like an adult with the exception he only had a diaper on (I had to wear a cover and stand outside the doorway due to baby #3). The strep came back positive and he is going to be on in inhaler thing to open his lungs, a steroid to help his body fell 'normal' and get more oxygen to the blood and a antibiotic to clear up the strep for a few days. So I'm glad we took him in! They gave him a breathing treatment that night which helped him start breathing normal again. Thanks Nona for the coloring book packets at Christmas! Those saved me at the ER! We colored and read books while we were in our room.

Colton's 1st Dental Appointment

Tuesday was Colton's first dental check up. Everything looked GREAT!

He will be 2 this month!