Hide And Seek

We love playing hide and seek with Ryan, because he tells us exactly where he is:

"I'm Under The Blanket!"

Reunion

Girls Day Reunion! We met up with my besties from the infant room at daycare all the way to VPK this weekend for a fun Sunday afternoon festival in the park.

I have missed them so much! We all went to separate elementary schools for Kindergarten and haven't seen each other in a month. Our moms want us to stay in touch forever so that when we're 40 years old we can say we've been friends for 40 years.

We shared our big kid school stories and laughed nonstop for 2 hours at the pizza place. I'm sure the other people in the restaurant loved us. Sophia's class has a kid who is known as a "runner" because she screams and flails and kicks with over the top separation anxiety in the mornings, and the principal has to stand outside her door to make sure the kid doesn't escape. Reagan boldly cut both sides of her hair with scissors in art class and nobody noticed because she discreetly tucked the 2 handfuls of 5 inch pieces of beautiful curls into her crayon box. Even her Dad and grandma didn't notice at bath time. It was her Mom who had a heart attack the next morning when she saw the damage.

The crazy thing was that we all dressed alike in black, white, and pink, and we didn't even plan it!

The only bad part of the day was when it was time to say goodbye. Our moms promised to schedule another girls day, but we still walked back to our cars holding hands like this. They felt bad for laughing because we were sooooo dramatically devastated.

Bedtime Story

Ryan loves to bring Teddy Beyah and Blanket to my room for a bedtime story. He listens quietly while I read the whole thing. It's so sweet, I don't know why Mom stands in the doorway crying and taking pictures.

Secret Life of Little Man

We think Ryan is keeping secrets from us. At home he is our loving, hilarious, carefree little brother.  But at school he is shaping up to be a natural leader. His teacher said whenever he does something, all of his classmates follow. He runs a circle around the playground? They all line up behind him and run a circle. He runs to the fence to shout at the tractor across the street? They all line up at the fence and start shouting. She said he likes to be The Classroom Enforcer, and will repeat any reprimands by the teacher directed at other kids, even if he is across the room, like "No, Carson! We don't hit friends!". She also mentioned his love for pretty girls, confirmed at his preschool Open House when two families stopped us to say their daughters talk about him nonstop. He talks about them, too- when asked who he plays with at school, he says quickly "MAGGIE" and "Madison hit me".

It's no secret that he's going to be an avid talker- his language has exploded into full sentences (mostly commands and repeating your words back as confirmation). He still calls all firetrucks, police cars, and ambulances "woo woos". And lately he loves waiting for the "gibbij truck" on Fridays. He is still obsessed with all the characters from Disney's Cars movie. Sometimes we try to correct his articulation, like "Wa-keen (say "Ma-queen") okay... MA-WA-keen", and "Saddy (say "SaLLy") okay... I said SaDDy". The word "Oh-kaay" is used frequently and adorably. He has developed a love for his Teddy Be-yahs, and sleeps with an average of 3 furry friends every night. He is very strict with them, they must lay down and be covered by the blanket. 

 

Then there is potty training. He has surprised us with unbridled enthusiasm for tackling this new milestone. Every night he demands to "go potty", and he will literally sit on the potty, straining diligently for 20 minutes. The fact that there is no actual pee or poo from this effort doesn't matter, he is so proud of himself when we stand around and clap that it's totally worth it. Mom says she will probably be criticized for putting this picture up, but she never wants to forget this captured moment of awesome commitment to the task.

Settled in September

We are officially settled into our new routines. We have mastered the new "processes" and expectations at our new schools, and have made many new friends. And I am embracing the mature role of Kindergartener with gusto.

We have a color coded behavior scale at school, with green being neutral "Ready To Learn". I was on green, yellow (good), or orange (great) every single day until Week 5. Literally the day I told my parents for the first time "I really like Kindergarten!" was the first day I got moved down to purple "Think About It". My parents were thrilled, because they know it means I have finally come out of my shy shell and am getting in trouble for talking too much!

 

Ryan and I had our Open House days, and had a blast showing each other all the cool stuff in our new classrooms. Ryan's preschool even had a HARP PLAYER in the lobby. They play for keeps.

 Mom has had an equally amusing time learning about elementary school social etiquette. She was a psychology minor in college, so she always thinks she is qualified to make grand observations like these.

• Moms have to wear cute exercise gear in the mornings, because it is assumed that you will be doing Cross Fit and eating Paleo at some point in the day.
• The car dropoff and pickup line is an intensely competitive hierarchy, with harsh punishment for those who break line or otherwise inconvenience the Queens of The Car Line.
• There really is such a thing as Queens of The Car Line, designated by the PTA.
• The PTA is comparable to any of the best sororities at huge universities. Mom is confident she will win them over by bringing Ooey Gooey Bars to the bake sale. 
•  If your child is a repeat offender on the bad behavior scale and you get called in for a parent teacher conference, your best defense should be to insult the teacher by saying your child is "just bored" and "not being challenged enough to pay attention".
• If you are a child who is a repeat offender on the bad behavior scale, it is probably because you constantly tell your classmates "I don't want to be your friend because my house is bigger than yours.", or "You're not invited to my birthday party.".

  We've already dealt with a bully in my after school program. She's a first grader and she was mean to my old VPK friend the first week of school. Mom loved the fact that the group of us from VPK banded together and told her we won't be her friend if she is mean to anyone else. We simply won't have it. I'm going to teach Ryan how to have a No Tolerance policy when he goes to elementary school, too.

 

 My parents love all the learning I am doing in big kid school, like writing my own sentences. I keep a journal at home where I like to jot down my thoughts, like "I once went to walk my dog around the block." I just sound out the words and put the letters wherever they fit on the page.

And "I was swinging on the monkey bars". This whole writing thing is really fun!

This weekend I took an entire block of Post It notes and wrote little messages with Dad. I hope Kindergarten stays this fun! Here is a sample of my writing so far:

• "I like puzzles and coloring."
• "My favorite thing to do is color."
• "I want to go see a dolphin."
• "I can go to the library and pick out books."

 

And: 

• "I want to go fishing with my Dad."
• "I went to the Disney store with my Mom."
• "I want to go walk Maggie around the block."

Sweet Old Maggie

 

Maggie has been just as sad as we were to lose her best friend. Mom says that she's always had doggie generalized anxiety disorder because she is such a Nervous Nelly. So, she has taken the loss of her favorite companion harder than anybody.

  We've made a concerted effort for the last month to take her on extra walks, give her extra treats, and shower her with more affection than she can handle. She is definitely an old lady, preferring to curl up on her orthopedic dog bed most of the day. She scrambles to her panic room (the spot in the corner next to Dad's night stand) when Ryan goes on a rampage or when a thunderstorm is within a 100 mile radius. But, slowly, slowly, slowly, she is adjusting. It helps that I know her favorite spot to scratch.

Now she will sit in the den with us for a little while at night, and starts the night sleeping in Mom and Dad's room. Hopefully we can still make her senior years her best years.

Moxie

We said goodbye to our buddy on August 26. It was the saddest day, ever.  He was 10 years young, and still full of his trademark enthusiasm.

 The vet said the problem was in his spinal cord, causing his hind legs to stop working. She said it was time for him to go to the Rainbow Bridge, and I said he was going to heaven. Mom still misses him most of all, and it has taken her a month to finish this blog post without getting too emotional. She said it's important to focus on the happy things we want to remember about him.

 

Like, how, even as a puppy, he had this blank stare that made you wonder if his brain was completely empty. Mom said the fact that he was intellectually challenged made him that much more lovable.

  Independent Maggie loved him instantly, as if he was her baby. She would spend the day curled up at the gate to his crate while Mom was at work. Then they would play for hours at night.

He had a habit of sleeping in the funniest places.

 

 

 

 His life spanned the first decade of my Mom and Dad's relationship. This picture was taken the weekend after my parents met on a blind date in North Carolina. Mox was 7 months old.

 Mom thinks Dad liked dating her because he liked her dogs, especially when Moxie brought him gifts of little dead squirrels he caught in the yard. Mox gave his stamp of approval to Mom's prospective Boston in-laws.

He was so proud to be included on the hike up Whiteside Mountain where Dad proposed to Mom.

 He and Maggie were like their first children.

 They tolerated the cross country move to Austin.

They loved the new parks and lakes where they could swim and chase angry hissing swans.

 

 He was patient and gentle when the first crying baby arrived. He probably knew that I would grow up to love him and give him yummy snacks from my highchair. 

 I think he thought of himself as the firstborn son, and had no problem taking his royal place on the couch, even after human babies started showing up.

 

He was happiest when sitting as closely as possible to us or things that smelled like us.

 He tolerated our human rules, like having to get a bath after playing in the hail storm damaged yard. 

 Or getting haircuts to control those golden retriever hair tumbleweeds that littered our house.

He loved having kids around to dress him up.

 

And he was ecstatic when a baby boy was introduced to the family. These two were inseparable.

 

 

 

  He loved being a part of our family.

We'll miss his soulful eyes, pink nose, and compulsive need to be near us. We'll miss hearing his clumsy tail wagging on the hardwood floor in the morning as soon as he heard the first stirring of kids waking up. We'll miss being trampled in the front door by his overenthusiastic greeting every day when we returned home from school and work.

He was a great dog and we were lucky to have 10 years to love him. Rest in peace, Buddy.