SURPRISE!!!!

Yes, that's right, BABY NUMBER 3!!!

I still can't really believe it.  It's still sinking in, for sure.  By the way, I'm writing this Monday, May 9th, two days after I found out.  This will be published at a later date, and I'm sure there will be updates at the end. But I wanted to document this before I forget any details, because pregnancy brain is REAL!

So I'll start off by saying my cycles have changed a lot since I had AJ.  For the past 6 months, my cycles have only been 26-27 days. And I hadn't had a ton of success pin pointing ovulation. I had actually been starting to think I was probably ovulating too late in my cycle to get pregnant on my own.  But we were so busy, we basically had been sort of trying/not preventing.  I figured once the house was ready we would start focusing more on it.

So I wasn't really focused on my period, but I knew it was probably due around the end of the week before Mother's Day.  By the end of the week, a thought had entered the back of my head, but I still really didn't think much of it.  I had looked at my tracking app earlier in the week and it had predicted I would start Saturday, but it's usually more optimistic than I am, and usually I beat it to the punch.

Saturday morning, I woke up at 5:30 and couldn't sleep. My brain started whirring and so I got up and went to the bathroom, because I knew there was only one way to stop thinking about it.  The trouble was, I'm not in the habit of keeping pregnancy tests around and the only ones I had were from an auction Adam bought, and they'd expired in June 2015. I figured it would be negative anyway, so why not use it up?

Except it wasn't. I never look at my tests while they are processing--the whole "a watched pot never boils" thing....so I fiddled around in the semi-darkness, eventually counting to 120 so I knew three minutes has passed. I flipped on the light and there were two solid lines staring back at me. I think I whispered oh my god a bunch of times, but I was also reminding myself that the test was EXPIRED and therefore unreliable.  I snapped a picture with my phone and hid the evidence, then when back to bed. I used my phone to post a picture on my facebook group with my old Infertility buddies.  Their consensus was it was probably positive, but to get some more tests ASAP!

Now, I have had a BFP (big fat positive) three times before this.  With the boys, of course, and with my miscarriage in 2011. And each time, we had been really trying to get pregnant and Adam always knew when it would be time to test. This time, I had a slight edge. This time, it would be a surprise.  So I didn't say anything and acted casual. He needed to finish mowing the grass, so I was going to run errands with the boys by myself, then he was going to meet us for lunch and we would go to the hardware store to pick up somethings. So I had the perfect opportunity to buy pregnancy tests in secret.  I bought an 88 cent test to take that afternoon and a package of First Response.

After all of our running, I got the boys settled and Adam went upstairs to work on installing our closet doors.  I slipped back out to the van and grabbed the bag with the tests.  I put the First Responses and the box for the cheap test in my purse and took the test downstairs to the bathroom.  The test showed up positive right away!  I had a little moment by myself there.  It was really true.  And we weren't even trying hard. Somehow, on the day before Mother's Day, when there was only ONE possible day it could have happened, here I was, pregnant.

No doubt about it!

So now I had news to tell.  I planned on telling everyone together on Sunday, revealing it to mom through her present.  I had bought a kit of little foam owl crafts for Tyler to make her for Mother's Day/her birthday (her birthday fell on Mother's Day this year). So after AJ was napping, I took Tyler upstairs and told him the news!  We've talked about it before, and his friend Luke's mom is expecting, so he knew what it was about and was excited!  He won't stop talking about how he hopes it's a girl because we don't have any girls!

So Tyler made an owl for Gaga and I make two more. On the backs, we put the boys' names and on the third, I wrote "Baby #3, January 2017".  Later we were hanging around downstairs and Adam said, "Aren't you supposed to get your period pretty soon?" I tried to play it cool, casually checking my phone, looking at my app.  "Yeah, probably today or tomorrow." I said.  So he said we should play around that night, because he thinks that makes my period come. Uh oh. I decided I had better tell him. So I said I wanted to go up and see the new closet doors he'd hung. I snuck the test out of my purse and into my pocket and went upstairs. He came up after and so did my mom.  We looked at the doors and then mom when back downstairs. I closed the door and pulled out the test. I don't even remember if I said anything. He just started laughing and we hugged and laughed about how it only took once this time around!  I think he said are you kidding or are you serious or something.  LOL Then he admitted that he'd gone to get a receipt out of my purse and seen the box of tests. He thought I was going to test though, he had no idea I already knew!

So I still planned on telling my mom Sunday, but Adam started saying we should go ahead and tell her. I didn't need much convincing!  So I went upstairs and wrapped up the owls and gave Tyler the package. We took it to her and said, "Tyler made this and he didn't want to wait to give it to you." She opened in and oohed and ahhed over the owls. Then I told her he'd put his name on the back. The first one she turned over was the one that said baby.  She looked at me and then back at it and back at me. "Are you pregnant?" I nodded.  "Are you really?!" Then she screamed and jumped up and hugged me. Michelle came in too and everybody was talking and laughing and I was telling them about the whole day.  It was great!

Our family of owls

With the new addition!

On Sunday Angie came over and we showed her the owls too.  She BURST into tears!!  I was surprised, she'd never gotten so teary before, but she said it was because she wasn't expecting it.  It was really sweet!

So that's it for now!  I'm 4 weeks and 2 days according to my last period, but my guess is that I might be a couple of days further along than that. I don't know exactly when I ovulated. My OPK was close to positive on day 12, and less so on day 13, and I pretty sure it wasn't positive on day 11 (which is the day we conceived), so I don't know, somewhere around there.  I don't even have a doctor's appointment yet.  I called my OBs office but they haven't called back yet. I have a call into my rheumatologist too, just to be sure there isn't anything I should be aware of, given my lupus. I know my medication is safe to take.

So as of now, I'm due around January 14th. Given my history and previous C-Section, I will just schedule this one, which is kind of a relief.

What a ride this will be! Goals before baby number 3 arrives: Finish the house, sell it, move, and potty train AJ!  God help me! :-)

UPDATES:
 
WOW, I wrote this over a month ago!  A lot has been happening!  Tomorrow is my first Doctor's appointment. I will also have an ultrasound.  It's not my first ultrasound, however.  This post will get very very long if I tell the whole story, so it will get it's own post that I will publish in a day or so. Last Monday night (June 6th), I suddenly started bleeding.  I went to the ER and long story short, blessedly baby is okay!  The ultrasound showed the baby with a strong heartbeat (185) and actually measuring ahead at 9 weeks (by my last period I would have been 8 weeks, 3 days then).  I was diagnosed with a subchorionic hemorrhage (SCH). It was SUPER scary, but they aren't uncommon.  I was instructed to take it easy, NO lifting more than 10 lbs (no more picking up AJ), and put on pelvic rest.  We were SO relieved!

Symptoms: Morning sickness started about a week after we found out (BOO!). Also major gas (sorry), sore breasts, serious fatigue and many many food aversions.  I'm just hoping and praying these subside at some point, since with Tyler they really never did.  No throwing up yet, so that's a plus, I guess.  I've been taking the Vitamin B-6 and a half a unisom at night, per my doctor's advice, but it's not completely alleviating it. We'll see how it goes.

FIRST DOCTOR'S APPOINTMENT W/ULTRASOUND
Everything went well today (6/14)!  The baby still looks awesome, with a heartbeat of 183. We could see it wiggling it's little arms!  When I asked if I was really seeing it move it's arms, the baby bobbed it's head and the ultrasound tech swore it was nodding!  SO CUTE! Adorable profile!  My SCH is still there and had grown a tiny bit. They'll continue to watch it with weekly ultrasounds until it starts to get smaller and resolves itself. She gave me some samples of dyclegis (which is similar to the B-6/Unisom combo I've been using) to see if it helps my nausea a little more. Everything looks great!

Already so photogenic!

Traditional New Year Post!

 Predictably absent from the blog for most of November and December. Seriously, that ALWAYS happens!  Anyway, updates to come shortly (I hope), but for now, obligatory New Year's post!  It's 2016!?

1. What did you do in 2015 that you’d never done before?  I traveled outside the U.S. for the first time, to Canada.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I don't really make resolutions, per se, but I wanted to refocus on fitness and I didn't really manage that.  My focus for most of the year was making progress on the house, and we did make some good progress.  This year, I really want to FINISH the home improvement projects and sell this place!!  Next New Years I hope we are in our forever home!  I would love to get back to my fitness goals as well, and Kelly and I really want to get closer to trying to get our book published. I think of these as goals more than resolutions. Is there a difference, really?

3. Did anyone close to you give birth? My dear friend Mandy had her adorable son Kellan!!

4. Did anyone close to you die? Hmm, I don't think so, not this year.

5. What countries did you visit? Canada!  It was fun and cold!

6. What would you like to have in 2016 that you didn’t have in 2015? I would like to be able to buy a bigger house that suits my growing family better! (same answer as last year AND the year before)

7. What dates from 2015 will be etched upon your memory, and why? Hmmmm...I don't know of any particular date this year that sticks out.

8. What was your biggest achievement of this year? We made some awesome updates to the house.

9. What was your biggest failure?  :( Gained back some of the weight I lost...Boo

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?  I hurt my pinkie finger over the summer while painting Tyler's room...it still bugs me a little bit. 

11. What was the best thing you bought? I guess I'd say my Galaxy S4, so much better than my old phone.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration? Always Adam for rolling with the punches and putting up with me!  Tyler doing so awesome in school!  AJ for learning so much!

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? SOOOO many terrible shootings! Depressing!

14. Where did most of your money go? Bills, diapers, food

15. What did you get really excited about? House hunting, which keeps getting put off, but is still fun! 

16. What song will always remind you of 2015? Fight Song by Rachel Platten

17. Compared to this time last year, are you: a) happier or sadder? b) thinner or fatter? c) richer or poorer? Happier! Fatter (Boo)  I'd say slightly richer (money isn't tight quite so much).

18. What do you wish you’d done more of? Eating better and working out more

19. What do you wish you’d done less of? Stressing out

20. How did you spend Christmas? We stayed home with mom and my sisters. We had a big breakfast and a big dinner and relaxed.

21. Did you fall in love in 2015? More and more every day with my husband and kids

22. What was your favorite TV program? Big Bang Theory, Dancing with the Stars, and The Little Couple

 23. What was the best book you read? The Little Couple's book

24. What was your greatest musical discovery? Rachel Platten

25. What did you want and get? To make progress on the house

26. What did you want and not get? A promotion and a new house!

27. What was your favorite film of 2015? Mockingjay Part 2 and Pitch Perfect 2

28. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I turned 33.  I worked as always (end of month), and my family celebrated me and twin.  I am happy to know that THIS year, my birthday is on a SATURDAY!

29. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? If I had had more time to take care of things

30. How would you describe your personal fashion concept of 2015? I am currently OBSESSED with Leggings!  They are seriously so comfy!  I swear, I only wear them with long sweaters though. I'm also in love with the boots gifted to me by work, which are super warm.

31. What kept you sane? My hubby, my kids, my mom, my sisters, my family, my friends, and my coworkers! Talking and writing and laughing and music!

32. What political issue stirred you the most? I do not get involved with politics if I can possibly help it, but please God, please Lord do not let Donald Trump become President.

33. Who did you miss? My sister, my grandparents and my great aunt. My family when I traveled

 34. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2015.  One thing at a time

 35. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year. "Even if we can't find heaven, I'll walk through Hell with you. Love, you're not alone, cause I'm gonna stand by you" Stand by You-Rachel Platten

The State of the Fair

Shew, we are feeling the heat in the midwest!  Or maybe it's just because I'm coming off a weekend of yard sale and State Fair?  Well, it's hot, regardless.  We did a 3 day yard sale and then the very next day we spent the entire day at the State Fair.  I learned my lesson, we were almost too tired to enjoy the fair this time around.  My feet hurt after about an hour.  Still, we had a good time, especially the kids, at least until AJ's naptime came around, then he MELTED DOWN big time, so we called it quits.

I'm feeling short on words today, so I will default to pictures! :)

Pony Rides! (I want to crop myself right out of these pics)

AJ is excited for his turn.  Daddy is excited watching Tyler ride, I think.

Ach, he's so big!

He LOVED it!  Grinned and chattered the whole time!

AJ running, free of the stroller for a moment

Farmer Tyler--This tractor had a TV screen inside that simulated the view from a real tractor, so cool!

Goofing around at lunchtime

This was a remote controlled robot-thing.  AJ was terrified of it.

Another type of horse!

Tyler and Daddy take on the Ferris Wheel

AJ loved the train! Until it was over, anyway.

Staycation 2015

Thanks for the comments on my last post ladies!!  You're so sweet!

Last week, Adam and I took off work to spend some time with the kiddos (before Tyler goes back to school NEXT WEEK) and to accomplish a few things on the house.  The weather wasn't exactly cooperative (rainy, stormy at times and HOT) but we did manage to paint our bedroom (which included the walls, ceiling, and trim) and Tyler's room (just the walls). I feel pretty good about that, as I wanted to tackle two projects and that qualifies, although I would have liked to tackle something bigger that will be more of a challenge on a weekend.  We went with a warm tan/sandy color in our room and although I'd planned to do white in Tyler's room, he convinced me to let him pick a color (with guidance) and chose a light blue, which I ended up being happy with.  I was very sad to paint over his stamped paw prints, though!  It broke my heart a little bit! We did leave one behind, at his request, and I'll just paint it over before we move.  Oh, I did have a bit of an issue when we were taping off Tyler's room.  I was finishing taping the ceiling and had just one piece left to put up. I was trying to reach, using a three step step ladder.  As I was reaching, I thought "I'd better just get down and move over, or I'm going to fall.  So I started to get down. And the ladder tipped over and I fell.  Oops.  I actually cracked my head pretty hard on the door frame as I went down, which was a little scary.  Luckily, aside from a bad bump and a headache, I felt okay, not dizzy or anything.  I had put my hands out though, and the pinkie on my left hand got sore pretty quickly and swelled a bit.  I sat down for a few minutes to make sure I was okay, and then we went ahead and painted.  I felt fine, just a little sore and then a lot sore the last few days, pulled muscles and stuff. My head is still tender and muscles in my upper arms and neck are pretty sore.  My pinkie is still swollen, stiff, and aching, so I am wearing a little splint on it, which makes typing interesting. My backspace button is getting a workout!

Other than painting, I tried to take the kids to the park, but it was too muddy, so I let them play a few minutes at the indoor playground at chick fil a, but that was pretty awful--crowded and the lack of manners of the kids there made me crazy.  Instead, we took the kids to to Monkey Joe's on Friday, which of course they loved.  And they are still young enough that they are tired after about an hour, so that works for me!  Adam and mom both go auctions, so they spent some time on that.

Friday was our 11 year anniversary (can't believe that) so we planned to go out, but it was really storming and literally POURED for like 5 hours, so we stayed home and went out Saturday night instead.  We had dinner at Texas Roadhouse and then drove around for awhile, looking at houses for fun.  Then we got some fro yo at Orangeleaf (YUM).  After that we hemmed and hawed over what to do and ended up at Goodwill, where Adam found some awesome deals to sell on Ebay.  Then we stopped at Walmart to get a curtain rod for Tyler's room and got AJ some socks (I swear, he has dragon claws, he gets holes in all his socks) and got the kids some PJs.  We laughed at how dull the evening probably seemed, but we had a really good time anyway.

So there you have it, our staycation!  I leave you with pictures!

AJ got ahold of my phone. He also erased all my pictures. Thank goodness for auto back up!

Tyler at Monkey Joes

AJ getting ready to slide!

Whee!

Farewell Pawprints! (And our initials, which Adam put there way back when)

Painting-Adam, you're doing it wrong

Bedroom color-it's actually a bit lighter than this. The other pic I took, you can't even tell it's not white

Tyler's room--it's blue, I promise. #bad lighting Also pictured: Coconut the Monkey's whole family and my old friend Whiskers the seal

My boo-boo

Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho, it's off to work we go

Shew, we have been BUSY!  When we aren't at work or out running, we are working on the house!  We've been trying to get ready to list our house for sale for AGES, as I've mentioned here before, but we weren't really making much progress.  We finally sat down and made a list of all the projects we wanted to do and actually put them on a calendar.  That put things in perspective, because with mainly only have time to work on things on the weekends....well that was going to take a lot of weekends.  We've been hard at work for about 6 weeks solid and we've actually made a lot of progress!

We have work to do in every single room in the house.  A lot of projects are just fresh paint and curtains, but we knew that both bathrooms and the kitchen needed major overhauls.  We've already redone the floor and countertops and sink in the kitchen, but the raggedy wallpaper needs to be removed (yeah, I talked about starting this in the Spring of 2014 and I'm ashamed to say only one wall got done back then), the walls and cabinets need painted, new hardware will be installed and new lighting will need to go in. 

I'm thrilled to say that the upstairs bath is DONE!!!  Well, we still need to install one more towel rack, but I'm calling it done anyway!  We replaced the flooring, shower surround, vanity and counter, both lights and painted the walls and I think it looks really great!

BEFORE:  Sadly I lost the other before pics I took when I accidentally deleted all the photos on my phone

AFTER:  Vanity cabinet purchased at auction, top from the Habitat for Humanity REstore, and the faucet was an auction leftover!

AFTER: Shower Surround after!  Also bought at an auction. The shower head and faucet are also from plumbing auctions

AFTER:  New lighting, purchased at the REstore for I think $15.

The downstairs bath is basically done too!  It was a HUGE huge HUGE change.  The downstairs bath is really a half bath with the laundry and utilities also housed in it.  Until recently, it had mis-matched paneled walls, exposed rafters, icky flooring, a cheap accordian door, a bare lightbulb, and the heater and water heater were very much out in the open.  With the help of Adam's coworker/contractor, we now have clean white paneled walls, new flooring, a drop ceiling, can recessed lighting, a newly stained vanity with a new faucet, a sliding paneled door (like a pocket door, but it just slides against the wall, and a the utilities are now tucked away in a closet with slatted wood doors.  I'm thrilled with how it turned out!  I love the doors and the lighting! It was so dark and dingy before and now it's bright and clean!  I need to put a coat of paint on the door and hang curtains, but then it's done too!

BEFORE: Dark, mismatched walls, exposed ceiling

BEFORE: Exposed utilities (excuse the litter box)

BEFORE: accordion door, exposed duct work/pipes

AFTER: New sliding door, enclosed utilities with slatted doors (REstore, $10 a door)

AFTER:  Stained Vaniety and added hardware, new walls and towel rack.  Mirror Walmart $15

AFTER:  New flooring, drop ceiling, recessed lighting

This weekend we painted our hall (just white, not very exciting, but fresh and clean) and finished up some things on the bathrooms.  I feel like we've made progress, but there is still a lot to do. We are taking next week off work and we plan to work on the kitchen walls and also outside.  Outside we want to paint the shutters and front door, remove the damaged outdoor carpeting from the porch and stairs, clean out the gutters, power wash the patio, porch and siding, put up a new porch light, and do some basic pruning and weeding.  I also need to put down a little grass seed in a few places. Eventually I'll plant some flowers in the pot at the curb, but I'll probably leave that until right before we list.  Of course, these outdoor plans are hinged on the weather, which has been really crummy here lately.  Enough rain!  Don't make me call Noah!

Over the next few months, we have more painting to do (master bedroom, Tyler's room (sob!  Goodbye pawprints!), living room, downstairs hall, and mom's room), flooring (stairs and upstairs hall and new carpet in the family room), change out the ceiling tiles in the basement, lots of lighting (family room, entry, hall x2), and putting up curtains in basically all the rooms.  It's overwhelming at times.  I hope we can keep this momentum going and I hope the money holds out (actually that's it's replenished, because Adam has been working so much on the house that ebay has suffered).  I touched base with our realtor and she's happy with our progress and they're going to update our information to give us a better idea of our budget and what we might expect to get for our house, so fingers crossed for some good news there!  Michelle started her new job awhile back and it's going well so she's starting to look for a place as well, so it seems like things might be beginning to fall into place. I hope I'm not wrong about that!

10 Favorite Things About Being a Mom

I'm such a thief, I'm stealing this idea from Amber at Old Lady No Baby again!  It's such a great idea and with Mother's Day just having past, I couldn't resist!

1. HUGS!  KISSES!  SNUGGLES!  I can't get enough and it seems like my kiddos agree!

2.  I love it when my kids master a new skill or accomplish something new.  That rush of pride is amazing! Watching Tyler read an entire book with almost no help amazes me!

3.  The things kids say! The other day, I was changing AJ's poopy diaper and he said, "Oh AJ!  What a mess!"  I cracked up!

4.  I love when other people think my child is cute/smart/funny.  It just thrills me!  Tyler got to "pin" my sister at her graduation ceremony last week and he went bopping down those stairs and giving thumbs up and everyone laughed and I was like HE'S MINE!

5.  Laughter!!!  We do a lot of tickling in our house!

6.  Unconditional love.  I have it for them and they have it for me and it is THE BEST.

7. Watching my boys bond.  They really do adore each other!

 

8.   Falling in love with them and their daddy all over again, every day.

9. I'm a special person in their lives.  The cries of "Mama!" from AJ when I get home from work or Tyler's face when I surprise him picking him up from school is AWESOME!

10. My kids make grateful.  They make me want to be better.  I want to be a good mom for them and a better person.  I'm a work in progress and they make me strive to better myself.  I really think that being a mom is the most important thing I will ever do and it's up to me to give them a good start.  I don't always do as well as I'd like, but because of them I keep trying!

Sensing a trend here

It never fails, in late November and most of December, I get crazy busy and therefore don't post much.  I guess it's understandable, work is crazy busy at the end of the year and of course, there are the holidays.  I don't even know what I have missed blogging out, so here are some bullets of the goings-on around here--in no particular order:

• My older sister is thankfully (and amazingly) fine after hitting a patch of ice and ROLLING her SUV (several times).  Her Blazer was predictably totaled, but she escaped with some cuts and a black eye, for which we are eternally grateful.  It was extremely scary.
• Tyler had his first toothache, which led to an odyssey of dental surgery on the day before Thanksgiving. Poor guy had to have four crowns, two fillings, and two sealants. The dentist says that his acid reflux is to blame and we'd been putting this off for a little while, so it needed to be done.  It was rough, his throat was SUPER sore (they had a hard time getting the breathing tube in apparently) and was super pathetic for days, but we go through it.  I hate the crowns, because you can see them when he talks, but I'm glad his teeth don't hurt anymore and I am hopeful that this work will hold him in good stead as long as he has his baby teeth.
• AJ has also had his share of injuries.  He had a bruise on his cheek, multiple bumps on the head and one on his upper lip, just in the last two weeks.  He's always on the move and he is definitely my climber/daredevil.  
• Adam also makes the injury list, after he sliced his index finger last night.  He was in the garage, opening the battery case on something he got in an auction and instead of hunting up a screwdriver (in the GARAGE, where we KEEP THEM) he used a knife.  Oops.  The doctor used some special piece of foam to close it and then gave him a tetnus shot (which he says hurts more than his finger does).
• I think that concludes the injury list--Please let that be the end of it! Onto less negative stuff!
• I'm still working the Canadian invoicing at work.  They are planning to start interviewing soon and I've been told to get a passport, so it looks like a trip to Canada is in my future!
• I'm about 85% done with my Christmas shopping, but completely done buying for the kids!  I did have to spend about $25 more than I wanted on one particular gift for Tyler, because we waited too long and everywhere was out.  But  I got it!
• I'm super anxious because they are switching RX companies on my benefits.  Remember this post where I wrote about my triumph over the RX company not wanting to cover Tyler's reflux meds?  Well I was supposed to be set, because the guy I spoke to said just to call him once a year and tell him the medication was still needed, and he'd take care of the approval.  Well, now this is happening.  And there has been some sort of hold up, and we don't even have our plan information yet, so I can't even find out if the medication will be covered or not.  I'm praying it is, this company is supposed to be better than the last, but I'm terrified it won't be covered at all and then I'll have to start all over again and go to war.  Ugh.
• I am literally counting down the DAYS until I can get a new cell phone (42 days).  My phone was just a basic model, whatever they were offering for free after rebates. It probably could do with being reset, but it seems too much hassle when I don't have much longer to wait. Honestly I've been cursing it for at least 6 months anyway. It's slow and very buggy lately.  Hoping I can get a good deal on a galaxy (probably a 4, not the 5).  I cannot wait!  The Black Friday sales (the S5 for $0.99) killed me!
• We finally put up the Christmas tree YESTERDAY!  We are total slackers.  BUSY slackers.  The boys LOVE it and Tyler even decorated his room too.  Pictures to come!

I've been reading blogs, but I've been a bad commenter lately!  Hopefully the busiest time has passed for now!  I'm sure I have more bullet points, but I can't remember them, so that's it for now!

First Day Of Kindergarten!

I can't believe it, but my baby started kindergarten last week!  He's getting so big and I'm so proud of him!  It was a rough week for him, though, harder than we'd anticipated.  Since he's never been in daycare or preschool or anything, he's never really been anywhere without a family member.  He had moments of missing us and also moments we didn't predict.  He was anxious and worried about random things, like breaking instruments in music class or getting put in time out.  Poor guy was putting a lot of pressure on himself! 

Tuesday was the first day.  He was really excited!  Adam and I took the day off work so we could drop him off and pick him up and I'm really glad we did.  We got up, made his lunch, got him dressed (so cute in his khaki shorts and polo shirt!) and took lots of pictures.

Check out the Turtles Backpack--It's almost bigger than he is!

With Gaga

With Aunt Chall

So big!!! :*-)

Love this picture!

After our photo session it was time to go!  We drove to the school and Adam and I walked him into the school. He did great, finding his classroom pretty easily, meeting his teacher (Mrs. M), and putting his things in his cubby.  Daddy had to go back to the car because we'd forgotten the bag of extra supplies, so we went on and found his desk together and he got settled in to color a little while the kids were arriving.

Here we go!

So Brave!

Meeting new friends!

Sweet Selfie

Silly Selfie!

LOVE HIM!

His own cubby!

Still working on holding the pencil right

It was hard to leave!

He did great, even when it was time for us to leave!  He was brave and happy!  And I made it out of the classroom before I started crying.  I was happy and so proud but also worried for him.  The first day was a mixed bag. He had good moments and was bubbling over about it when he got home, but he had a few moments where he missed us too. 

The second day was rough.  Mrs. M called me and said he'd just been having a bit of a sad day.  He missed us and he seemed insecure and cried easily.  Thursday was much the same.  Unfortunately, Friday the sore throat he'd been complaining about had turned into sneezing, congestion, and a sore throat!  We took him to the doctor and they checked him for strep, which luckily he didn't have, but he had to stay home instead of going to school. Over the weekend, he continued to talk about being nervous. We talked a lot about it and it seemed like most of it was being afraid of getting in trouble or doing something wrong.  Bless his heart, he was so worried about that!  We assured him that getting in trouble is okay and happens to everyone, but that the things he thought he was going to get in trouble with just weren't really bad things (such as playing tag in gym--he thought that playing tag was hitting, which is against the rules).  We told him that if he did get in trouble, that was okay. That we'd talk about it and it was okay and we'd just start again.  Seeing how much he was struggling, I left a message and sent an email to Mrs. M. She was kind enough to let us stop by the school today and the four of us talked over all of it again.  Now Tyler says he isn't scared at all!  I'm so relieved and hopeful that this week will go much smoother. I know it's going to take time for him to be totally comfortable and to stop missing his family. But I'm just glad to know that his teacher really cares and is being patient with him.  Boy, this week I've seen just how much he is like me!  Easy to cry and can't always hold back the tears, sensitive and sometimes insecure.  And he is just so sweet, he melts my heart.  I know he's going to do great, we just have to get him used to the routine.

Unfortunately, I have to disrupt the routine already!  I have to go to Chattanooga tomorrow for work. Adam's a trooper and between him and mom, I'm sure they will handle it fine, but I'm definitely feeling the Mommy Guilt!

I'm so proud of my baby boy!  He's getting so big and he's so smart!  LOVE HIM!!!

I'll leave you with the very first picture Tyler did in Kindergarten.  It's pretty darn good in my humble opinion!

A work of art!