Well, Well, Well

....can we just pretend that I haven't been ignoring this blog?  I've honestly thought about not writing it anymore, but every time I click on "memories" and am awarded with pics of the boys and silly stories from the last ten years, I don't want to quit.  (SHUT UP....ten years???)  I know that I write mostly for myself, and my husband, mom and maybe a friend read, but really, it's just to preserve what I want to preserve:  time.

So anyway.....here goes.

1. I successfully said "no."  Mostly by non-action, but a "no" nonetheless!  I swiftly avoided the school fundraiser.  The kids came home from school all excited, saying "MOM!  We could win a Nintendo Switch!  We only have to sell like a million items in the fundraiser to win!"  Well bud, we have a small family and not a big need for cookies, wrapping paper and magazine subscriptions.  Mom does a great job ignoring the magazine subscriptions that she already has.  (Except the knitting ones, of course!)  So the deadline quietly slipped by and I triumphantly recycled the materials. 

2.  We're having a really weird Autumn.  No foliage, and warm temps.  I keep forgetting it's October.  Until yesterday, we were still using air conditioning.  Usually by now I'm bringing out the cooler weather clothes.  Not that this has stopped Sean from wearing long pants and a henley shirt every morning.  And no matter how many times I send him back to change, he's unhappy about it.  That boy is always freezing....he's the only person I know that needs a sweatshirt at the dinner table if the window is open.  My sweet, chilly boy. 

3.  Speaking of Sean, he had a great solution for being out of chip clips the other day.  He grabbed a toy wrench to keep a bag of frozen strawberries from rolling and spilling the other day.  Nice.

4.  In less than two weeks, I'm going to have a pre-teen.  That's right....Will's turning 11.  I wonder if he'll get a Hogwarts letter?  I'm prepared to be super jealous. 

And finally,

5.  I'm not knitting Christmas gifts this year.  Yes, you read that right.  I'm giving myself a gift of less stress at the holidays, and I'm knitting what I please instead.  Which turns out to be shawls for me actually, who knew? 

Maybe the next post will be about Halloween.  We shall see.

Thursday Ramble

I've been wanting to post and have been busy!  So Let's just settle into a random ramble for this Lovely Thursday....

1.  I misplaced a sneaker.  Yes, the ones that I just bought a couple of months ago to replace the old, crappy, unsupportive ones.  I'd gotten more serious about exercising and losing weight in the last six months or so and this is part of what's derailed me in the last couple of weeks.  Anyway, I figure the best way to find a sneaker is to buy a new pair.  I brought home a new pair from Kohl's last night and now we wait....

2.  Oh yeah, I guess I did brush by that quickly.  Have I told you that I've lost sixteen pounds?  I have!  Before you ask "How did you do it" I'll tell you:  I eat less, and move more.  It seems to work, and I don't deprive myself of the occasional ice cream or whatever.  I'm wearing jeans a size smaller, and today I'm wearing a summer skirt that was tight on me last year.  It's the most progress I've made in a very long time and I couldn't be happier.

3.  School's out for summer!  Last day of second grade was on Friday.  It's really hard to believe that next year I'll have a third grader and a kindergartner.  The boys are in Pennsylvania right now, having a great week with the grandparents.

4.  And despite having to work....we're having a great week with just Brian and I.  So far we've gone out for sushi, stayed up late watching movies, laughed and talked a lot and just enjoyed being together alone.  It's good to rediscover "us" once in a while.

5.  That being said, the house is eerily quiet and it feels a little like the Twilight Zone occasionally.  Kind of like this is an alternate universe.  I will say this though:  it's much easier to clean a kids bedroom and get rid of stuff when they are out of the house!

Happy Birthday, Will!

As with every October 21st...I greet the day with happiness and just a hint of sadness.
It's my older son's 8th birthday, and I'm thrilled that "his day" has arrived.

I love the person that he is becoming.  He loves learning about things, and has a ridiculously strong memory like his  Mom.  He's really creative, and loves to draw and build things.  He is curious about how things "work" and loves conversations with Dad about these things.   He's a voracious reader, now that he's discovered a genre of books focusing on magic and fantasy.  He has a great sense of humor, and some of the things that he comes up with leave me in stitches for days.  He is a kind soul and really goes out of his way for his friends and family.  Although there is definitely some of that "brotherly love" present and they bicker sometimes, he really includes his brother when playing with friends and loves to hang out with him.

The sadness for his birthday is what all Moms face.  My baby, my first-born, is growing up.  Which is of course what I want, but it's hard.  He's still affectionate, still gives bone-crushing hugs and isn't (yet) afraid to be seen in public with his old Mom.

Tonight my parents are coming over for his favorite dinner (cheese ravioli!) followed by chocolate cake and presents.  We're having a Pokemon-themed birthday party this weekend.

Happiest of Birthdays, Bubby.  Your dad and I, plus Sean, love you to the moon and back.

Unexpected Milestones

When you have kids, you have all of the normal milestones.  First time sleeping through the night, first time sitting up, first birthday.  Potty-training being done, going to preschool, kindergarten, learning to read.  All of these things make you both proud of your kid and kind of sad that they're growing up.  Well, except for the potty-training one.  That one takes a while to feel "nostalgic" about.  Nostalgic isn't the correct word in this sense, but for lack of a better word, I'll use it.

But then you have some "unexpected" milestones that you find yourself getting a little misty-eyed over.  Here they are for me today:

Suddenly realizing that your kid isn't yelling "I'm done!!!" after using the bathroom.  The call to Mom or Dad to come and finish because they don't want to.  Don't get me wrong....I'm thrilled to not have to do the wiping anymore.  But he's not a little guy any more.  He's a BIG BOY.  Or as he says, "not big, Mom.   I'm a MEDIUM BOY."

Last night, I took the boys to the library after school pickup because Sean has been begging to go.  And I've had a bag o' books that were overdue, too.  I should probably clarify that the boys like our library because the children's room has toys.  A big train table, a lego station....both boys usually make a beeline for it and I have difficulty in getting them to pick a couple of books first.  Not last night....Sean went right for the trains and Will...Will went over to the Charlie and Lola book bin, sat down and starting choosing books.  And asking me questions about what books we should bring home.  "Mom?  Let's look at some nonfiction today.  Ooh, can I get that book on weather?"  This is really big for me, as I am a sucker for books and libraries are one of my favorite places on Earth!  I'm ecstatic over having a kid that's over the moon about books.  But wow....that is the very first time that he's chosen the books over the precious legos!

I'm sure that I'll be adding to the list periodically.  And though I'm "sad" over them growing up, I'm having a great time on their journey.  Maybe not all the time, but most of it.

The "True" New Year

September has always felt like the beginning of the year to me, much more so than January 1st.  I'm sure that it stems back to going back to school myself, and now it's my kids' turn.

Will actually started second grade last week, our town goes back EARLY!  He was pretty apprehensive the night before but was all smiles at pickup from the afterschool program the next day.  He wasn't really chatty, but did tell me that his new teacher is "Great!,  She's really great, Mom."  Considering I had already gotten at least one phone call home at this point, I'm already feeling more positive about this year in general.  And honestly, I think that he is, too.

Seanie's in his last year of preschool.  Where has my baby gone??  He's thrilled to have moved up to the "Big Kid" class and tells me all about his friends and what he's doing in school every day.  I cannot believe that this time next year he'll be in kindergarten.  It just doesn't seem possible.

This week everything goes back to the full swing of the fall schedule.  Karate, soccer, yoga classes for me, volleyball....it'll take a few weeks to get there but we will arrive in our own fashion.

Another thing that September brings....Christmas knitting!  I've got my list sorted and am in full force, with one item almost completed.  I smited the Knitting Gods by proclaiming this one item "Quite Possibly the Best thing I've ever knitted!" when it wasn't quite complete.  Now eight rows need to be frogged and started over because I was paying more attention to "Rizzoli and Isles" than I was when counting the number of stitches that I was picking up.  It still has time to be the Best Thing.

Summer's Inevitable End

Three weeks of summer left.  Then it's back to school, back to routine.  Shopping with Will, haircuts, summer homework assignments (that we forgot about) all this week.  Karate camp coming to an end, bedtime enforcement laziness grinding to a halt, etc etc etc.

Is it me, or do summers seem to get shorter as time marches on?

Last Day of First Grade!!

For the last day of school today, let's show the evolvement of a photo.

 Yes, I know that you're sad this morning.  Let's be happy for a minute and do our annual "End of the School Year" photo.  Remember, this summer we're going on vacation, and you have a list of things that you want to do that you wrote yourself?  Focus on that for a minute.

 Cheese!  What, you don't want Dad in the picture?  C'mon buddy, a little smile.  We're gonna watch the last Star Wars movie today!  I only take pics a few times a year.  Indulge your mother, huh?

 Ah, you perk up at Star Wars huh?  Awesome.  Now let's work on a smile that doesn't belong on a robot.

He's laughing because I said "Great.  Now give me a smile that doesn't look like The Joker from Batman." And we have our winner:  a big natural smile from a kid that's looking forward to summer.

It's been a long year with a lot of adjustments.  But we're coming through the tunnel on the other end of the school year and we all survived.  And there's lots of good things that happened this year, too.   I can't believe this kid is going to Second Grade in August.  (Is it me, or are summers shorter than when I was a kid??)

Happy Last Day of School, everyone!