Back in the Swing of Things

We are a week and 1/2 in to yet another school year, and we are slowly getting back to our typical school night routine. Cory was out of town last week, so I was really on a schedule. Get the girls by 4:30, cook dinner, eat by 5:30, play, baths at 7, watch a short show, read books, and in bed by 8pm. Writing it down like that sounds dismal and blah, but really our nights aren't too bad! Even though we are tired from our days, and we don't have very much time together after cooking and all the things we have to do, I really try to make our hour or so of playtime enjoyable. Sometimes we dance to silly songs (that's my favorite), sometimes we play outside and ride bikes, and sometimes we just play with dolls and Barbies. Whatever we choose to do, as long as I have a few minutes to hear those sweet giggles and see those sweet smiles, I am good for the day! Being a working mom and knowing that I am missing out on some special times with my kiddos is hard at times, but I try to make up for it by making the time that I have with them, quality time!

Tears...After FOUR Years?!?!

I love, love, love summer! What I don't love is getting back in the routine of school. When Cory dropped her off all last week, she was fine. He said that both Kacy and Adilyn would walk right in, sit down at the breakfast table and wave goodbye to him. Everyday when I picked her up, and she seemed excited to be back in school. One night when we were going upstairs, she even randomly said, "I am having fun going to school." This week has been a totally different story. Cory is out of town, so I have taken them the last 2 days. The mornings are a little more stressful when it's just me, but we have done pretty well. Monday, Adilyn got a little sad when I went to leave. She held on to my leg, and I had to pry her off. That was sad. Today, though, was even worse! She followed me out into the lobby and would not let go of my leg. I told her to stop, and I peeled her off of me. She started to cry, so I told her to stop crying, and of course, she cried harder. I just couldn't believe that after going to school for all these years, she was crying like this! I had to leave her in a big crying pile on the floor with her teacher trying to calm her down. Staying would have made things worse, but it just about killed me to walk out those doors. I called about 30 minutes later, and they said she was fine, but it didn't make me feel any better about the morning. I have to remember that it has to be hard for her to be home with me 24 hours a day for almost 3 months, and then be separated again. Still sometimes, I seriously question my choice to be a working mom. :(

Pajama Jeans?

If you haven't seen the commercial advertising pajama jeans, you are missing out! They are stretchy cotton pants that look like jeans. I think the commercial has come on a few times when Adilyn has been around. We never made a big deal about the commercial, and we never really talked about these amazing pajama jeans. The other day, I had Adilyn try on a new pair of capris. The minute she put them on, she said, "Hey, these are like those pajama jeans!" I couldn't believe the girl remembered that commercial and connected it to her pants. The power of advertising and infomercials!!!

Blocked!

My job as a PE teacher has a lot of down time. I feel kind of bad about it, but believe me, I put in enough extra hours and stressful years when I was coaching! I know some people would kill for a little time to do nothing at their job, but sometimes it gets pretty boring. Last year, I used some of my extra time to catch up on my blog entries. Of course, I was planning on doing the same thing this year. I went to log in yesterday, and something tragic happened - I was blocked!!! Then, I started looking into my other favorite time-wasting websites...blocked, blocked, blocked! I couldn't even get to a restaurant website today to check their menu! Blocked by the man...Oh well, at least I have my Smart phone :)

That's Alright For Me

Adilyn usually gets on these little streaks of saying certain things all the time. One of her new things is "That's alright for me." She will say it in all different situations. I will tell her that we are out of milk, she replies, "That's alright for me." I will tell her that her shoes are a little too big. she replies, "That's alright for me." She might find a clip, put it in her hair, and say, "That's alright for me." Sometimes I think she is reassuring herself by saying it. Sometimes I think she is reassuring me, and sometimes I just think that she is trying to be a brave little one. Whatever the reason is, I think it's super cute, and it' alright for me. :)

Potty Problems

Kacy really wants to wear panties, but she really isn't completely ready to be potty trained yet. I have been putting her in panties when we are at home, but she isn't very successful. I don't know if she is doing it on purpose, but when she pees, she usually pees on the tile or the wood. She tells me when she pees and takes me to it. She is not embarrassed, and she is not upset, just very matter of fact about it. Tonight, she was sitting on my lap. She says, "Pee pee, lap?" I reply, "Don't pee in my lap, pee in the potty." She says, "Oh." Then, she pees in my lap. Great!

Adilyn is having her own pee issues. She still wears pull-ups at night, which is fine. The problem is that she just realized that not everyone wears pull-ups at night. I guess she really thought that everyone just slipped on a little pull-up before they went to sleep. When we were in Canyon Lake, she found out that Emily (who is younger than her) wore panties to bed. She came to me all offended and said, "Why does Emily's mom let her wear panties to bed?" I had to explain to to her that she still pees at night a lot, so she has to wear them. She then says, "Well, I won't pee tonight." Poor girl...she just sleeps too hard. I keep telling her that one day she will be able to wear panties all the time!

One day, both girls will be diaper and pull-up free! I think I will be just as happy (if not happier) than they are! :)

Summer is over. So sad!

Every year there is a little sadness and laziness when it comes to going back to school. Some years are harder than others, but this year it is really difficult to get excited! I remember the years that I went back after having Adilyn and Kacy so well. Those were definitely hard, but I really loved my job at Beck, so it made it easier. I looked forward to seeing everyone, getting the volleyball season started, and just meeting all my new students. Last year was exciting because it was my first year in elementary school, and I was really looking forward to a new chapter in my career. This year, however, is just nothing but blah...Don't get me wrong, I am definitely happy to be in elementary PE because I would be really bummed if I had to start teaching 7th grade English all day like I thought I was going to. There is still something in me that just dreads this year. I don't know if it's because I still haven't met my teaching partner, and I have been getting some weird vibes about her from other people. Maybe it's because it's really hard to be the "new girl" again. Maybe it's the fact that the job I took is in the place of a guy who was terminated because of the budget last year. Maybe it's that I just had such an amazing time with the girls this summer. Maybe I still feel a little disenchanted by all the stuff that happened in Katy last year. Who knows? But, whatever the reason, I'm bummed. I hope that it will be a great year. I hope that my teaching partner and I will get along. I hope that I actually find some friends in the school this year. I know that God put me in this position for a reason. Whatever that reason is may or may not be clear to me one day, but I just hope that I can enjoy the ride that He has put me on for the next 9 months!

Lubbock Road Trip!

The girls and I went up to Lubbock to visit Ashley and her new baby, Cash. Cory was originally going to go with us, but he was invited to go to Sturgis at the last minute. He has always really wanted to go up there, so of course, he jumped on it. I was a little nervous to embark on this journey with them alone. 8 hours or more in the car...yikes! I had high hopes of it being a smooth trip. My thought was that if we just keep moving, maybe they won't even realize how long we had been in the car! I had back up plans for if things went horribly wrong. Back up plan #1 - We could stop in Abilene at a state park to swim. Back up plan #2 - Give them as many toys that make noise as possible, as those usually keep their attention. Back up plan #3 - Movies, lots of movies. Our car DVD player had broken, and I really didn't want to spend the money on another one, so we rigged up the computer to play a few movies, but it wasn't an unlimited supply. Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast were on there, so I figured we could blow through those a couple of times, if needed. Anyway, we packed up, and headed out. About an hour and a half into the trip, Adilyn had to go to the bathroom. I really had hoped that we wouldn't have to stop until Waco. Here it was, College Station and we were all unloading just for the restroom stop! We got back on the road, and things were going great. The girls were pretty content with their dolls and their music. Around I-20 (about 4.5 hours in), they both started to get a little whiny and antsy. I figured that now was a good time for a movie. Adilyn chose Cars, which surprised me. About halfway through, she decided it was not a good movie, and she wanted to watch Cinderella...that's more like it! Kacy fell asleep, and all was well. We got to Ashley's after only one more stop for gas and restroom break exactly 8 hours after we left. I was so happy that the trip went so well because it could have gotten ugly, very quickly! The girls were crazy when we got there! They were running everywhere, playing hide and seek, and getting into everything. We loved seeing Cash! They kept calling him Baby Cash, and Adilyn said, "I just knew he would be super cute!" Both girls got to hold him, and they felt so proud to be his big cousins. We hung out around the house, went swimming, and watched some TV. It was great to finally see Ashley and Gerad's new house, and see them as a sweet little new family! Our way home was pretty easy, we stopped in Fort Worth (only a five hour trip), went to Terilyn's 1st birthday part, and spent the night at Pops and Mimi's house. Nammie drove back to Houston with us the next day to spend the last week of summer with us. Overall, I was so proud of my little road warriors!

Goals!

In a previous post, I explained about the lofty goals that Adilyn and I made at the beginning of the summer. Well, she has now completed two of them! Of course, the two she accomplished were not the "academic" ones, but at least I feel like we accomplished a little something. A couple weeks ago, she finally decided to become a swimmer instead of a professional water treader. We were swimming in Cory's mom's pool, and she just looked at me and said, "I am going to put my face in the water this time." She did, and she swam, and now she is a little fish!

She also finally figured out to ride her bike. She still gets stuck every now and then, and I can't even imagine how we will begin to teach her to ride a bike without training wheels! Maybe that will be my goal next summer :)

We never got very far on the letters or the learning, but I pretty much gave up on the idea. It was such a struggle every time, and I really didn't want to turn her off from learning. I just know that she is stubborn and just like how she decided to put her head in the water, she will decide when she wants to let me help her learn. Hopefully, that happens sooner than later!