First Day of School - 4th and 1st

Josie

4th Grade

9 years old

Wants to work at PetSmart

Gabe

1st Grade

6 years old

Wants to be a police officer

Our 8th Gotcha Day

Last weekend we celebrated the day we became parents.

8 years ago, when we got the call that changed every single part of our lives.  Little Josie Girl was on her way and it will forever be my most favorite day of the year.  So many dreams came true that day.

Josie has always been interested in her adoption story (unlike Gabe who looks at us like we are nuts when we try to tell him about his).  This past year was a big one for her in terms of dealing with what it means to be adopted.  She found out she has older siblings and her birth mom's name and had a lot of questions that we just couldn't answer for her.  There were tears and "Mommy I miss them" even though she'd never even met them and, man, there are some big emotions that come with adoption.

We've always been open with her.  We wait for her to ask and we divvy out details based on what we think she is mature enough to handle.  And sometimes we second guess ourselves.  Should we have kept that to ourselves?  Should we have waited for that information?

There are a lot of blogs about adoption that show you the miracle of Gotcha Days and finalization and the glory of saving children from places that aren't safe or good.  But not many dive into this hard stuff.  The questions you'd rather not answer and the statements that cut you right through your heart. The idea that there are other people out there that your child shares a connection with and how to reconcile that in your own heart, let alone help them work through it.

That's the stuff where redemption can happen.

And there is no easy way.  Like one of my favorite children's book says; "you can't go over it, you can't go under it, you can't go around it, you've gotta go through it."

But you know what is easy?

Celebrating the day the journey started.

The day we first held our miracle girl and a family was born.

She decided to celebrate by going to Build-A-Bear followed by pizza and yogurt with one of her buddies. 

First Day of School

It's here!

Third Grade:

And Kindergarten:

Our first real First Day of School.

It was adorable and nerve wracking and I cannot wait to go get them and hear all about their days!

And my favorite part: Last August to This August

 

  

Where I Come To Terms With The Face I'm A Stage Mom

I nearly cried when Josie said she was done with ballet.

But I got it.  We had just moved across the country and everything in her little world was new and strange.  A new dance studio felt scary and she just didn't want any part of it.

And I am not a Stage Mom.

I won't project regrets of my childhood (e.i. no dance, no rhythm) onto my kids.

So we hung up the ballet slippers and packed up the recital costumes and that was that.

Until two weeks ago, during a dance sesh with Andrew, when Josie exclaimed, "I want to do dance again!"

And, y'all, I hit up Google to find a new studio so fast that I obviously am a Stage Mom who lives through her children.

We just barely made the deadline for a week long dance camp intensive where she got to try jazz, hiphop (please pick hiphop Josie), lyrical, tumbling & cheer, and ballet.

Yesterday we got to go in and watch them and I couldn't believe all the stuff they learned in 4 days.  They did four or five full dances and a cheer routine.  I was majorly impressed.  It was an excellent sales tactic since I beat a path right to registration to get her enrolled in a few classes.

This girl.

Hoarders - 8 Year Old Edition

As a bonafide Throw It All Away-er it pains me to admit this, but I'm raising an Everything Is Treasure-er.

Receipts, rocks, every tiny nicknack she finds on the street.  It all has value to her.  Everything is either A) beautiful or B) able to be made beautiful as part of a craft.  Which is a pretty awesome way to look at the world, but lends itself to a bit of a clutter problem.

It's a clash of the titans type situation.

Think I'm kidding?

This was her room last week:

bear bed crafted from 700 paper bags and 8 blankets

vacuum box that became a robot, construction paper "tv" for when

screen time is over, box behind robot for her stuffed animal daycare

I struggle to find the sweet spot between her need to collect and create and my need for order and blank spaces.

My current solution was to find more storage options so she could keep a good portion of her treasures, but they could have homes.  Our rooms here aren't small, but they aren't large either.  And since Josie is in love with her Princess Sized Full Bed (what she calls it), there is limited room for containment.  

I searched for months for a dresser.  

Did you know these puppies are expensive?  

Goodwill to the rescue.  

$20 for the dresser, $18 for the paint, 2 years off my life for sanding and painting in 115 degree weather.

Worth it...

Would you believe that after adding a ton of shelves to her closet, that there are now empty drawer?  We should take bets on how long they stay empty.

And once I started I just couldn't stop.

So her entire room got a Almost Tweenie Bopper redo.  And I love it.

Disclaimer: Josie has been on vacation all week and hasn't set foot in this room yet.  It will probably never be this clean again, but I will always have these pictures to look back on and that's good enough for me.

My Favorite Butterfly

First School Play.

Another milestone for our family.  Another way she's braver than me.

* 1000 pardons for the upskirt shot of the music teacher.  Trying to control 

Gabe while shooting wasn't all that easy.

Adventures With The Class Pet

On Josie's first day of school, she came home unhappy about most of her new lot.

The only thing about it that brought a smile to her face was Mocha, the class guinea pig.

Thankfully, her opinion on school changed within that first week.  And her love for all things guinea pig has grown too.  The librarian even found a series of books about Fluffy the Guinea Pig that got her to read 14 books in two weeks.  Unheard of for my reluctant reader.

Josie's been waiting for weeks for her turn to bring the class pet home for the weekend.

And when that weekend finally rolled around, Mocha was given the royal treatment.

It was a fun weekend that almost, almost, made me consider getting the kids a pet.  Then she wouldn't get in her carrying case Monday morning and made us late for everything and I quickly snapped back to my senses.  I'm just not a pet person.  I think we will stick to weekend visits.

gabe begged to hold mocha, but since i refused to touch it, i told him he had to wait until 

andrew was here to catch it if gabe let it go.  when he finally got his turn, 

he screamed, "get it off!!! get it off!!!" as soon as it was in his arms.

sidenote: guinea pigs don't run away and are actually pretty mellow pets.

Rewind

The past couple of weeks have flown by.

Like, I cannot believe that it's already the 13th.  I'm glad it is though because I've got a hot date tonight that I've been looking forward to all week.  We are getting all dressed up and have reservations and there may be flowers involved.

A lot has been going on around here.

We've had visitors and my little part time company is more on the side of full time now.  Our school plans are changing again and we celebrated Josie's birthday about 700 times.  The weather is fabulous (83 and sunny every dang day!) so we've been squeezing in some swimming and biking and all the patio living we can.  Lots of action and moving parts, not a lot of time to blog about it all.

So to condense my to do list while still hitting the high points here on the blog, here's a quick rewind.
 
Andrew's Mom came to spend a few days with us.

We loved having her here, even if it was a total whirlwind of a weekend.  We hit the Desert Botanical Gardens, the farmer's market, Waffle House, threw Josie a very pink party, and went out to dinner.  Thankfully we squeezed in a good Southern meal before she flew back to Atlanta.

We will never be able to top Josie's 8th Birthday Week.

Yea, week.  The child had 3 different, big celebrations.  And her gifts were off the charts.  We usually don't do big gifts, but there were a few things she needed (like she'd outgrown her bike) and a couple big wants that we found deals too good to pass up.  So she was spoiled in a big way.  She had no clue and hadn't really asked for much for her birthday, so it was super fun to get to surprise her with each one!

Next year is sure to be a disappointment after this!

And lastly, we had yet another change in plans.

When Josie started school we weren't quite sure what Gabe was going to do.  And when I started working, I fully intended to just start part time until he started Kindergarten in the Fall.  But things took off way faster than I thought they would and I'm loving every part of my job.  Except the part where I feel like nothing is getting all of my attention.

So we decided to enroll him in the most adorable preschool right up the street from our house.  He can go play at school while I work then have my full attention once I pick him up.  I think it will be the best of both worlds.  We haven't picked exactly when he will start, but likely next week.

So that should get us all caught up.

I'm excited to share a little about working and how it's going for me.  But right now, I have a date to get ready for!

Have a great weekend everyone!