First Grade - For REAL

Y'all, I have a child in the first grade.

FIRST.

GRADE.

No more tables, now we have desks.

No more "E's" or "S's," now we have A,B, C,D,F - real grades.

No more carpet and circle time, now we are big kids.

My sweet and precious baby was quite excited to hop on the bus for her first day of school this year. She was anxious to meet her new teacher and see her friends. I know that many kids and parents take it for granted, but you can't underestimate how incredible it is to be a returning student. My little Army Brats don't often get that opportunity. Jessa's confidence level was so much higher. She was not at all nervous or anxious. She was PUMPED!

She was so excited that she wanted to go to the bus stop at 6:45. Her bus did not arrive until almost 8. I had to force her to stay in our driveway instead of walking across to the bus stop. I was afraid she would hop on the middle school bus and end up in 6th grade.

She was so excited that she could not stop talking. She was talking so much and so fast that she made my mouth tired!

She was so excited that she actually allowed us to go to the bus stop with her. We were not relegated to sit on the porch like we were the entire year last year.

She was so precious with her new backpack. It is a "sling" type that we just had to have so she could have one like Freddy's from iCarly.

And it is personalized with the words, "Jessa Lynn."

She decided she wanted people to start calling her Lynn. So she asked for simply, "Lynn." I told her that she would confuse people. So I came up with the idea of putting "Jessa Lynn," to make us both happy. She then asked if we could have the word "or" put in the middle of her two names so people would know that they did have a choice. Nice try.

I can't believe she is so big.

She was just born yesterday, wasn't she?

Clean Up on Aisle 12

I am a klutz. I trip. I drop things. I wreck my bikes. Once I actually fell down the stairs in front of my dorm. I have scars. My scars have scars. I have bruises that I don't even remember getting because bumping into things is sort of my normal.

So the other day, Spencer and I were in the midst of a super busy day of many errands. We had been all over, and our last stop was the commissary. I am not a huge fan of grocery shopping in general, but Spencer is an awesome helper and shopping companion.

We were powering through the list. And we had already had to backtrack because I forgot a couple of things here and there. Not my most efficient shopping trip. And Spencer was alternating between walking, riding in the front of the cart, riding on the back of the cart, and his most favorite of all spots, sort of resting on the place where you put your hands to push the cart with his arms tightly around my neck. This is a new favorite shopping spot. I love it because I am steal his sugar almost constantly while we shop. And he giggles and puts his head on my shoulder, and I relish every second because before I know it, he is going to be too cool to snuggle with his Mom while we shop.

So we are on Aisle 12. It is pasta and soup and canned chicken and tuna and chef boyardee and tomato sauce and spaghetti sauce. I was nuzzling my giggling boy. I grabbed a jar of Ragu Spaghetti Sauce and absent-mindedly placed it behind my sweet boy in the cart. I knew that I put it in the child seat portion. It seemed like a good idea at the time. But when I put it in, the weight of the jar shifted the other items that I had placed in the child seat area. And worst of all, I was too busy giggling with my son to notice that chain of events that the spaghetti sauce placement had started. I heard a bottle of Gatorade hit the floor. I grabbed Spencer to pick him up out of the way so that I could see what happened. And just as we looked, the 26 ounce glass jar of Ragu Traditional Style Sauce hit the floor and proceeded to go everywhere. I was slightly embarrassed (only slightly because when you are as klutzy as I am, you tend to get immune to embarrassing yourself). Yep, we are those people.

Spencer immediately told me not to worry. He also told me that "accidents happen, Momma." Such a sweetheart. And as we left the cart to try and locate someone who could make the dreaded "Wet Clean-Up" announcement, I looked down. I noticed that as the jar busted, it spilled ALL OVER my feet. One of my shoes was completely covered. The bottom of my pants legs had sauce on them. It was attractive. AND I left a trail everywhere I walked. Nice. Just my way of spreading the joy, you know? I wiped them off as best I could with the used tissue I found in my purse. And once we alerted the appropriate authorities, Spencer and I just sort of stood there, guarding my mess, waiting for the dude with the mop to arrive.

The funniest part was that after several people passed and smiled at us and made little comments, I realized that they all thought SPENCER had done it! I got so tickled. Mainly because if it had been Spencer, he would have curled up in a ball in the corner. He cannot stand to make a boo-boo like that! He once caused a baby food jar to break at the commissary and he nearly went off the deep end.

Once we got home, I thought to take a picture of my feet before I changed shoes and pants.

Max is licking the shoes every time he goes by.

I think they'll be all clean any minute now.

Oh and David came home and saw them by the door and very cautiously asked, "Uh, what happened to your shoes?"

So I told him:

Klutzy wife + Snuggly Son = Clean Up on Aisle 12

Another Milestone

Right now, I am sitting in my bed with my babies. We are watching a movie. My sweet baby girl who is growing up way too fast and right before my very eyes is laying her precious head on my shoulder. We are watching a VERY special movie. I got the DVD months ago and set it aside. I put it in a special place in my closet with another secret surprise. About a year ago, I ordered 2 personalized pillows - one for each of my babies. I wanted to have them ready for each of them when the time came. So the movie and the pillows spent a lot of time in the dark of my closet. They were waiting for today. And I was prepared for today. Then there is Jessa. She has been more than ready, I mean, way beyond ready and so prepared for this day for months.

The new and special DVD we are watching is "The Tooth Fairy."

Jessa is alternating watching the movie and staring at the small white thing pinched between her fingers.

When she is watching the movie, I can see her still stroking her little tooth.

I must admit that I am completely uncomfortable with this whole thing. See, my crazy childhood dentist pulled every single one of my baby teeth. I never had a loose tooth, and I never had any say so over how my teeth came out. Not true of my daughter. Jessa has embraced the whole loose tooth thing. She has been wiggling and twisting and hoping for this day for MONTHS. She has kept score of which friends have already lost teeth. Lately, I could watch it move when she was talking. And I have been cringing and trying to keep my cookies every time she pushed it out with her tongue. And by the way, my discomfort tickled her to death.

Tonight, she decided it was time. For weeks, she has been asking David to check and see if it was "ready." He has told her to be patient. We have even watched videos about pulling teeth on YouTube. She had David feel it tonight and I said, "Why don't you let Daddy get a Kleenex and try to pull it?" She said, "How bout you do it, Momma?" So Spencer handed me a Kleenex, I closed my eyes, and I held on to her little tooth. And she pulled her head back, against me. I gripped it and just like that, my baby lost her first tooth.

It was the first tooth she ever got,

and now it was the first one she lost.

I think that Spencer was just as excited as she was.

And man, she is excited.

She wanted me to take pictures.

And of course, I obliged!

She even said, Will you post it on Facebook?

And then she called May and Bay to tell them!

She is cracking me up.

She will out of the blue say, "I lost my tooth!"

She looked in the mirror several times just to check out how she looks.

And she cannot wait to show everyone at school.

Here are my favorite things that she has said tonight:

Mom, remember in Toy Story 2 when that thing knocked out one of Woody's bottom teeth? Now I am like him. And he's still a good lookin' guy!

This is the first time I ever lost a tooth!

Hey, listen, my S's sound better now.

Hey, Mom, come feel the air I can blow out of the hole where my tooth was.

I really lost a tooth.

I lost my tooth, my first tooth.

I am thrilled for her because she is so beside herself, but it makes me a little sad, too.

Another bittersweet milestone that means my baby is growing up. . .

Madness

I feel like every time I turn around I am apologizing for my unplanned absence from my little old blog. I don't want to be absent. I don't plan to be absent. But I am absent, none the less. And I miss it so much!

I have a sneaking suspicion that my duties with the PTO this year are going to seriously interrupt my blogging. Even though I am a fly by the seat of my pants kind of girl, I am thinking that I may have to figure out a set schedule to get things done this year. Or else I won't get too much done. Like I may have to go back to having set laundry days. And I may have to make a schedule for when I load the dishwasher, or it may never get loaded. Or unloaded. Uh, note to self, go unload dishwasher when I am finished rambling.

I have many, many things that I want to post. And it is my most sincerest hope that I get back in the swing soon. My memory is not what it used to be. And while I can recall every thing that David has ever said or done to hurt my feelings in the last 15 years, I tend to forget cute little day to day stories that I want recorded, dang it.

So I am going to do better, I hope.

Just suffice it to say, the past few weeks have been madness. MADNESS.
We had the craziest couple weeks, well, ever. We had swimming lessons, all the back to school prep and meetings and orientations and registrations, Daddy's retirement festivities, lots of family time with folks coming into town for said retirement festivities, Jessa's first day of FIRST GRADE, multiple vet appointments for Dunken's chemo and Max's crazy health issues, oh man, it has been madness.

Being prepared

So my neighbor had to leave unexpectedly to go out of town. When I saw them packing up and getting ready to head out, I offered to look in on their cats. They were planning on taking them on a 32 hour round trip car ride. Yikes. I am human, and I cannot imagine that. She said she hated to ask, and I pointed out that she did not ask. And I won, we have 2 sweet kitties to check on. The kids L-O-V-E this. They remind me about 32 times a day that we need to go check on the cats. So we walk across the street and feed them, clean out their litter, etc.

Tonight, it was time to head over and I could not find the children. Anywhere. I thought, maybe they were waiting for me on the porch. Nope. I called for them and they hollered from upstairs that they were "getting ready." Getting ready? To walk 25 steps across the street? I heard Jessa say, "Spencer, put your coat on." In summer? Well they FINALLY got ready. They came downstairs dressed like, well, I'll just let you see for yourself.

Jessa had her pockets filled.

"Mom," she said, "we have to be prepared."

Spencer had an interesting addition to his hat.

Not quite where you normally see a propeller.

He is holding a rubber snake.

Now that is prepared.

And in the next photo, my 6 year old uttered the lovely phrase,
"It's tight, yo." Note hand gesture.

I don't even know what she was referring to or really what that even means.

I am so old and unhip.

Then on our way out the door, to walk ACROSS OUR STREET, Jessa pulled out and consulted "The Map."

They are so crazy.

It was a pirate map.

It didn't even look like our neighborhood.

Oh, and Spencer said, "Mom, the 'X' is the treasure. And the treasure is the cats."

Then they proceeded to walk 10 paces behind me the whole way there and the whole way back. When I asked why, Jessa sighed, rolled her eyes, and said, "Mom, we are spies."

Overdressed, extremely conspicuous, very prepared and absolutely precious spies.

Like a hole in the head

I have never really liked the phrase. You know, "I need a (insert something here) like I need a hole in my head." It always makes me laugh because of something that someone said this one time at Band Camp (yes, I really went to band camp, AND I tell band camp stories AND I did all of this before American Pie even came out, thank you very much). Our very diminutive band director sat down with the Flag Corps and cracked open a cold diet coke and said, "I know, I know. I need a Diet Coke like I need a hole in my head." Does that ever happen to you? Someone says something at a seemingly insignificant moment, and you remember it forever. Something that is not even that meaningful. And then someone tells you something really poignant and then you cannot remember it for the life of you. I guess that is one of those things about life, huh?

Anywho. I have always liked Barbie. And you? I had this friend in elementary school. Her name was Tracey. And the entire basement of her house was like a Barbie Fairy Tale Land. I am not kidding. It was a finished basement and there was nothing in it except her Barbie Stuff. No furniture. Just Barbie. She had it all. Dream houses, Corvettes, shoes for every outfit, oh, and she even had those teeny pink hangers to hang the clothes on. And she actually hung all the clothes up on the teeny pink hangers. It was like little girl heaven! So the fact that Jessa enjoys Barbies is not all that surprising. She even had a Barbie birthday party once. The cake was an actual Barbie. Oh, wow, I wish she could have seen Tracey's basement. Jessa would love it.

Another thing you need to know is that I have a family member who does not think that it is OK to let little girls strip Barbies naked and put them in the bathtub. This poor soul only had boys, so it is hard for this person to really even imagine a little girl playing with dolls, you know? Well, lucky for Jessa, I have no such hang-ups about naked Barbies being all over the house. And for some reason, these naked gals seem to congregate in MY bathtub. And it is a running joke throughout my family about the person I am talking about who does not approve of naked Barbies.

So the other night, Jessa and Spencer were enjoying a lovely bath. There is always a great deal of laughing, giggling, and playing in the tub. I was in and out of the bathroom, putting away laundry in my room and tidying up the bathroom.

One time I walked back into the bathroom and I found this:

Wanna see it from another angle?

Well, OK.
Here it is. And I could not even get them all in one picture!

The line was too long.

My first thought was that a scene like this would absolutely send a certain family member of mine right over the edge.

My second thought was that Jessa Lynn needs a new Barbie like, you guessed it, a hole in the head!

I e-mailed the picture to May and cracked me up with what she had to say back:

Seeing the one of the two babies in the tub made me wonder about something...Do you think Jessa might like a Barbie doll? Most little girls, by the time they're her age, have one. I just feel like she might be missing out on something, you know? Maybe I'll get her one before I come back to Scott. What do you think?

Sorry this post is sort of rambling. I am feeling pretty rambly tonight.

I am not really sure what the point I was trying to make was, but I will say this:

If you are ever in need of a naked, but very clean Barbie, give us a call.