High Fives ALL Around: It is FRIDAY!

Wooo hoo the first Friday of the school year is HERE!  I cannot wait until 3:10 when the weekend officially begins!  This weekend will be busy with birthday party fun for the kids.  After a change of adult plans I'm looking forward to seeing my sweet Jen for dinner tomorrow night.  Well, we can talk about all that next week.

1.  Sunday - Zoo Fun!

To celebrate birthdays and the last day of summer break we took off to the NC Zoo.  This was our first trip in five years to the zoo.  You don’t get how hard it is for me to wrap my brain around the fact the last time we were there our daughter was three years old.  Holy crap, time!  This visit was great other than our little monkey (the boy) was quite the handful.  I think the coolest part of this trip was the fact the lions were out!  I’ve never seen the lions at our zoo.  They always seem to get a memo I’m coming and they go into hiding.  The gorillas were fun to watch too.  I just learned yesterday they shut down the gorilla exhibit to reintroduce another gorilla who had been gone for a while.  I think that is so awesome.  Yes, I know weird.  I wouldn’t say we have the best zoo in the country because there are way better ones but we do have a really nice one.  You should visit it sometime!

2.  Monday - Baby Boy turns 3!

My son was born after seven minutes of pushing.  Little did I know that that swift entry into the world would mean he would grow from 0-3 years old in seven minutes as well.  I tell you that Is exactly what it feels like!  On Monday we celebrated his birthday.  Actually we celebrated on Sunday and Monday and we will celebrate again this weekend his and his sister’s birthdays.  For the actual day of his birth he had a fun time playing with his best friends then we went for an adventure to the car wash (kid loves that place) and wrapped our day up with spaghetti and meatballs at Nana’s.  It was a fun birthday for a fun little dude.

3.  Monday - Diva goes to 2nd grade!

One baby has a birthday and the other baby is in second grade now.  Really, I’m baffled.  My beautiful girl started her third year of elementary school on Monday – Kindergarten is long gone, first grade vanished, and now she’s a second grader.  I nearly cried when I realized that she only has three years left of elementary school after this year.  It makes your heart swell to see you babies grow and develop but it makes your heart break to realize how fast these sweet years fly by.  

4.  Outside everybody, outside!

The weather is showing signs of transitioning to fall.  I noticed a drop in the humidity and daily highs this week.  Oh it is still 80’s but it’s a more relaxed version of them.  Good weather + being cooped up in school all day = outdoor evenings!  I worked in a couple flower beds and also went through all the outdoors toys and gardening supplies to thin it out The boy enjoyed his toy tractor and carrying the two pumpkins (yes, pumpkins) to the flower bed.  The girl didn’t complain too much about it.  Also, I have to brag on her.  She walked 2.8 miles with me with no complaints this week.  That’s huge y’all, huge.

5.  Back to work.

Wednesday I went back to work with the BIG kids (freshman and sophomores).  It was great to see all the kids from last year.  I read a fantastic book this week at school - The Absolutely True Diary of A Part Time Indian.  This book is fabulous for 9-12th graders.  I cannot say enough wonderful things about it. Alexie really has woven together an awesome story of humor, angst, and pain.  Teens will connect with Junior (the main character) and all the changes he is going through during adolescence.  This book will also open their minds to a bigger picture of the American community and allow them to make a critical analysis of their own community.  The struggles of living on a reservation, poverty, and overcoming fears to forge a path to a better world are key elements.  While I'm talking about it, adults benefit from this book too.  We often get wrapped up in our worlds and this book is the swift kick we need to remember how fortunate we are and to move us to being a force of change in our own neighborhoods.

Alrighty then!  Let's go have a fabulous weekend!  I believe I have childcare and some shopping in my future (birthday shopping that is).  I hope your week rocked and weekend rocks on!

Out here in the middle

Nearly eight years ago I had a significant life change.



I had a daughter.

Best thing in the world?  Of course.  Major source of love?  Indeed.  Definite source of stress?  Completely.

I've watched my "baby girl" morph into this independent roller coaster of growing up.

At times I'm just sad.

I think back on her being a tiny tot like her brother and well....it is a haze.  Time flew by at such warped speed that its just hard to remember when she was my little bitty princess.

I can remember her pretending to be a ghost and walking slap dab into the wall at 2 years old.  She froze in place with the sheet over her and then giggled.  I remember her singing to her dog, George, in the bathtub.  I remember her loving to have books read to her and then her reading me the books at a really early age.

I just hate the times in between are lost.



Now she's wrapping up first grade and becoming more mouthy and more independent than ever.

I remember being like that.  (Sorry, mom.)

In one of my college classes we called these times of change - life stage transitions.

Around age 7 and 8 you transition into middle childhood.  That means you're not a baby by any means and you're not a teenager.  You're caught in the middle.  Today we'd call them 'tweens I guess.

I hate being caught in the middle of anything.

The middle is an odd place to be.  You're not adorable with everyone cooing over you.  You're not an all too awkward something-teen year old with frustration and rights of passages coming at you from all angles.  You don't get all the attention but you spend a lot of time thinking up ways to grab that spotlight without it burning your palm.

 You're in the eye of the storm.  The calm little purgatory that will give you a sense of holding on tight and knowing you're safe from the brutal wind that will eventually blow your way in a couple years. The storm that begins when your shower holds some ProActive and you have to wear that contraption that keeps your blossoming chest in check.

It is a stressor for this mama.  I have been there and I have done that and I trashed the tshirt because that wasn't my most memorable time.

I would like to keep my little girl little but what good is that?  No good at all.  The purpose of her being entrusted to me was for me to raise her to the best of my ability. To guide her into maturity and into becoming a wonderful young lady. A lady who can make a little difference on this big, ugly world.



But I'm not ready for this middle period.  I see signs of the future when she gets upset with me.  And for that matter when I get frustrated with her.  I hear her forked tongue spit mean words my way when things just "aren't fair".  She's getting taller and reading different books and doing different math problems and wanting to be Taylor Swift.

There are moments, though, when she is that sweet little girl.  The times when she wants to snuggle and she wants to read to her brother and when she asks me the cutest most innocent questions.

Like a caterpillar that has to make the change....she's still morphing over.

It is hard to watch this change.  I remember us fixing a yummy snack and curling up together to watch cooking shows because she wanted to be Giada.  Now its Uncle Grandpa and "turn up that song its Ariana Grande."

Take it as it comes...that's what I'm teaching myself to do.  I cannot plan too much for the roads we're going to be traveling soon.  I have to just have faith we'll do a good job navigating in the dark.  I'll be reading more parenting books and asking more questions.  I'll be consuming more wine and asking God for more favors.

This summer starts the bumpy road to the next phase of growing up.  I'm sending her to a day camp. I'm afraid if we have to be in each other's presence 24/7 she'll rip me to shreads or I'll post her on Craigslist for sale. So to keep us both safe and sane, I'll load her on a bus in the mornings and pick her up from that same bus right before dinner.  She'll be with kids she doesn't know and she'll make wonderful new friends and learn all about the world....the good and whatever the more worldly kids can share with her in between activities.

I've already had a hard time just thinking about that first ride to camp.  My little girl getting on a big bus to go spread her wings a little more with mama in the rear view.

Out here in the middle....