Kennedy's Kindergarten Year

The school year officially ended a few weeks ago, but I never got around to this post, so here goes...

Our little darling girl started kindergarten on August 6, 2008.  The doctor wanted to induce me the night of the 5th, but there was NO WAY that I was going to miss my Bug's first day of school (no matter how swollen my feet were or how high my blood pressure was).  This was the day I had looked forward to for so long.  So, on the first day of school, Matt and I took Kennedy to school. Of course, I had to be in my classroom to greet my students and their parents, so I hugged Bug, and Matt took her to class.  She was just across the hall from me, and I loved seeing her at lunch and PE.  Here's how Kennedy looked on her first day of kindergarten.

Case was born two days later, and I was off work until November 3rd.  Matt took Kennedy to school the first week after Case's birth, and when I had to do it the next week, I nearly broke down.  I always kept my girl home with me when I was off work, but now I couldn't.  I watched her walk to the school doors, with her bag on her shoulder, and I wondered how Kennedy ever became five. Wasn't she just born a few days ago?  I felt as though I was deserting a baby. Things got better, and it wasn't so hard to leave her anymore.  Then there were the days that she came home upset because she had been kicked out of another club.  I teach first grade, and I have never had clubs in my classroom, but Kennedy had some sweet little girls in her class who just loved having clubs. There is nothing more upsetting to a mother than when her child is broken-hearted.  I cried with her and for her.  Kennedy is very sensitive, often crying when a sad song comes on.  Making and keeping friends was a challenge this year.  Kennedy wants to be friends with everyone, and she wants to please everyone, so if she feels banished, she becomes broken.  I think part of the reason she was so especially sensitive this year was because of Case's birth. Kennedy had to learn to share Mommy with a new sibling, and Case is a handful, so he wanted and needed a lot of Mommy's attention!  

Kennedy eventually learned that she couldn't make everyone like her, and she gave up trying, becoming content with her circle of friends.  She had fun at her classroom parties.  Here she is trying to pin the carrot on Frosty.  Field trips and birthday parties were a blast!  She loved Spring Fling.  Most of all, Kennedy loved seeing Mommy everyday at lunch (and often swiping my food right off of my plate).  Do you think she'll still do that in middle school? ha!

Kennedy REALLY matured this year.  She was already mature, but she seems so much more so now.  She loves God more than anything (even Mommy), and we often talk about how to please Him.  A few months ago one of the aides who works in Kennedy's classroom began to tell me how helpful and patient Kennedy is with the special needs children in her classroom, and I was so proud to have a daughter who is doing the Lord's work at such a young age. Kennedy is blessed to be intelligent and beautiful, but it is her acceptance of others that makes her light shine!  I have always prayed for and tried to instill in her an acceptance and tolerance of others.  It seems as though God has worked through these actions to give Kennedy such a sweet presence.  She is such a help to us (though she didn't like wiping down the chairs the other day). I never want to take her for granted, but I am sure that I do all too often.  I look at her eyes, and I think about how I was the first person she ever laid eyes on, and I think about how she is beginning to see the world now for what it is.  I wonder what she will do with her life, but as I told her the other day, "We have plenty of time to worry about those details; let's just enjoy today."  If I let myself, I could cry nonstop about how Kennedy is growing up, and about how she will one day part from our home, leaving a hole the size of a crater, but I just can not allow myself to do that.  If I do, I am missing out on precious moments that God means for us to enjoy.  Everyday with Matt, Kennedy, and Case is a gift, and I enjoy opening that gift everyday!

Here Kennedy is on her last day of kindergarten.  I know wonderful things await her in first grade.  She can't wait to see who her teacher is!  She had a fabulous kindergarten teacher!

Super Summer Saturday, Part 3

What a boring, but exhausting Saturday!  Almost immediately after getting up this morning, I actually worked out on the Total Gym that has been collecting dust for MONTHS!  Matt re-set it up for me Thursday, but if I don't use it, I'm sure he'll break it down again, so I am going to try to use it four times a week. Let's see...  We went to Sherwin-Williams and bought paint for the kitchen and breakfast room (burnt orange-ish) and the kids' bathroom (light blue).  The paint was 30 percent off!!!  We went to Hobby Lobby and Bed, Bath, and Beyond, just browsing. We ate lunch.  Kennedy and I wanted Five Guys, but Matt wanted Zaxby's, so we split the difference: Kennedy and I got burgers and took them to Zaxby's.  We ate fries at Zaxby's!  It's kind of embarrassing, but oh well!  Everyone does it, right?  We then proceeded to Lowe's where we bought new light fixtures for the kitchen and breakfast room.  We are still looking for fixtures for the bathroom.  Upon arriving at home, I spent an hour in the flower beds, pulling weeds.  I usually keep up on weeding, but I have fallen behind since about March.  All the while that I was weeding, Kennedy was serenading me with cute songs she made up about Disney characters.  To cap off the evening, a couple from church came over with their five year old and six month old daughters.  It really was an exhausting day! 

Swim for Melissa-Anyone Interested?

Matt and I would love for Kennedy to participate in Swim for Melissa this year.  This wonderful fundraiser honors the life of Melissa George, daughter of Chris and Amy and sister to Ann Catherine and Lily Baker.  In order to participate as a team, you need eight (I think) participants who are at least five and who can swim.  If you're interested in your child being on a team with Kennedy either leave a comment or e-mail me.  The proceeds from the fundraiser go to Huntsville Hospital's NICU.  If we get a team together, I will also be hitting you up for donations. <3!!!!

Huge Haircuts

Kennedy has never before wanted a real haircut (only the occasional trim), so when she told me she wanted it cut, I immediately made an appointment for she and Case to get haircuts.  This was Case's first haircut, so it was huge, though very little was cut off.

Case's hair is wet, and he is entertained with his shoe!  Bring on the scissors!

This is Case's serious, Mom I can't believe you just let Mrs. Brenda get that close to me with blades look.  Doesn't he look so well-groomed?

Here's Bug's new haircut.  It makes her look a lot older.  Now she really looks like a first grader, though I'm still not sure that I'm ready for my baby to be in first grade!

Here they are together, after their huge haircuts!  So sweet and precious!

Thank you, precious Father, for our sweet babies!

Super Summer Saturday, Part 2

Today was not the most fun Saturday ever.  We got up and ate Hardee's for breakfast.  Matt loves their breakfast.  Matt took Kennedy swimming for a little while, and I stayed at home, cleaning as Case slept in his crib.  He has been taking his mid-morning nap in his crib all week (for about an hour and a half)!!!  He woke up just as I was finishing vacuuming.  We all got ready for church, enjoyed a wonderful meeting, and came home.  Matt and I watched a movie.  It was so bad I won't even tell the name of it.  Then I prepared three dishes for church tomorrow.  We have what we call regular meeting on the first Sunday of each month, and we cook dinner for our visitors. 

*children updates that I do not want to forget:

During church tonight, Case couldn't get enough of standing on the pew, turned around backwards admiring a little baby girl.  He is doing great on his standing.  He is holding on to things wonderfully, and he has even begun taking little steps.  He'll probably be cruising everywhere in a few more weeks. He has also pulled up in his crib onto his knees.  He is almost pulling up to his feet independently.  He loves to hold our fingers and walk.  Most times he walks tippy-toe, just like his sissy.

Kennedy can not get enough of her new haircut (pictures coming soon).  As I gave Case a bath the other day, I overheard her doing a freezer pop commercial in front of the mirror, all the while primping with her hands under the edges of her hair.  She has also decided that she does want to go to first grade after all. I'm still not so sure.  She and I have been working on her handwriting (so that I can perfect it, of course), and she told me that I am a really good teacher (though she didn't like me being so bossy about the letter formations).

Please pray for Princess Lindsay.  She just received a new heart this past Thursday.  She will turn one year old on June 11th.  I can't imagine the anguish of Lindsay's family or the donor family, but I know that God can comfort them all.  

Happy 8th Anniversary, Hub

June 2nd is Matt's and my anniversary.  If you've been around us any, you've most certainly heard me refer to Matt as Hub.  This is my name for him, though I've had others, such as Matchbox and Caveman (though that one really offended a co-worker of mine; "You call your husband Caveman?" she asked again and again.  Little did she know that Matt looked at it as a term of endearment; me not so much at first, but since he liked it so much I began to also. Then the Lord found him, and Hub is not so much of a caveman anymore, but Kennedy and I still enjoy telling him he is on the Geico commercials!)  I digress.

Well, today for our anniversary, I sent Matt off to work with a very sleepy kiss. We talked on the phone a few times, I took the kids to get their hair cut (pictures later, but too CUTE!!), I took Kennedy to her first tumbling class (where Matt met us), and then we went to eat (as a family) at Logan's (our anniversary tradition).  Case behaved himself for the meal, Kennedy always does, and as a special treat, Santa and a rock star (by rock star I mean a goth kid that Kennedy couldn't stop looking at; in the car she mentioned the rock star-her words not ours) even made an appearance!  We got home, I took Case to bed, Matt took Kennedy to bed, and that was our anniversary.  Seems a little boring, huh?  WRONG!!!  Let me explain.

Matt and I have a love unlike most people.  We truly know that God designed us and put us together because we best suit each other.  We are married because God wove a path from my childhood home in Atlanta to Matt's home in New Hope.  When my family left Atlanta, we went to Florida and then to Tennessee, before finally settling in Alabama (that's a whole different post).  I was seventeen when Matt and I began dating.  I remember everything about that first date and that first kiss.  Matt had me cracking up all night on our first date (not an easy feat mind you).  Later we danced, and then there was that magical kiss.  A kiss that told me that I never wanted to kiss another man for the rest of my life.  Matt and I fell in love, got engaged in May 1999 and were married on June 2, 2001.  We have a wonderful marriage, made all the more wonderful when God found us a few years ago.  We do not need a special day to celebrate our love.  We celebrate our love everyday.  Sure, there are bumps along the way, but we talk through our conflicts and always compromise.  We love each other enough to try to work on our shortcomings.  I do respect and reverence Matt, and I know that he loves and respects me with all of his heart. He is the head of our household and the one wearing the pants in the family (literally and figuratively ha!).  I am the one keeping the house (halfway) running.  We're a team, and with God on our side we are winning the battle here on this Earth, which runs rampant with sin, smut, divorce, infidelity, and filth everywhere you turn.  

So here are a few things that I love about my Hub (by the way, his nickname for me is Apey).  I love how he looks at our daughter as though she is the most beautiful and amazing little girl he has ever seen (because she is).  I love how he wrestles with her (though I wish they would stop when Case is asleep).  I love that it breaks his heart that she is growing up WAY TOO QUICKLY because it is breaking mine too, and we can lean on each other.  I love how he prayed for our second baby to be a boy so that he could teach him how to be a man (what a great example Matt is to Case).  I love how he has supported me in all of my endeavors.  He really encouraged me to finish my master's degree, and he always reassures me that I am a great teacher, even when I feel as though I have failed in a situation.  I love how Hub has encouraged and supported my efforts to nurse the babies.  I would venture to say that most husbands aren't so encouraging on this aspect, which is probably why a lot of new mothers either don't try or give up quickly.  It has been doubly hard with nursing Case because my milk supply keeps going up and down, but Matt has prayed about it each time that he has seen me in distress.   I am normally cheerful and upbeat, so a distressed Apey is no fun!  I love how Matt makes me laugh!  I love how Matt shows Kennedy new tricks and how he loves to lay with Case on his chest.  I love that he is in Kennedy's bed right now, sleeping with her because he knows a day is coming when he can't do that anymore.  I love how he compliments the meals I prepare and (hardly; there was a green beans incident) never complains about my meals.  I love our funny sayings (such as manaversaire).  Did I mention that I love how he looks?  My Hub is just so handsome!  I love that Matt and I are committed to being the best parents that God will allow us and teach us to be.  I love that Matt (and I) put God first in all things.  We do not waver on our beliefs, but yet we are accepting of the beliefs of others.  I love that Matt is a light to others.  I love that he is good at all activities that require only a single person (such as yo-yo-ing, jumping rope, puzzles, etc.; he's an only child after all).  I love how his face lights up when Case smiles at him.  I love how he sat with a bottle in Kennedy's mouth for a solid hour when we were trying to get her to drink from one for daycare purposes.  I love that he did it again with Case (though it only took a few minutes for Case since he was much older than Sissy had been).  I love that he actually reads this Blog.  I could go on for the next hour or two, but it's late, and I need some sleep.           

I love you, Hub.  Thank you for a wonderful 8 years of marriage.  I know we don't have to have a special day to celebrate, but maybe for ten years, we could get away, just the two of us for a few hours. <3>

Overheard

Kennedy had a friend, E,  to come over yesterday.  If you were a fly (or a brown recluse or a scorpion) on the wall, you may have heard the following at our house:

He's so cute!  ~ I fully expected to see Zac Efron on TV, but it was Kipper the dog (from a Sprout show)

Maybe a bug fluffed.  ~said by K after E stated that something stunk at the sprinkler

You'll never take us alive.  ~said about a hundred times by both girls, as they were running from poor defenseless, walker-bound Case

We should call Orkin.  They kill bugs DEAD!  ~said by K after Matt found a brown recluse crawling across his leg; we do get our house sprayed monthly; Mr. Leon is on his way tomorrow, as a matter of fact

But, Mom, he'll take us alive.  ~said by K after I asked the girls to play in the floor with Case

It's not a race.  ~when doing puzzles

She'll do those puzzles all night.  Please turn the light off in a little while.  ~K was extremely sleepy last night, after having arisen at 6am yesterday morning at E's house

AHHHHHHHH!!!!!  ~a bug was spotted on the wall when the girls were in the jacuzzi tub; they both JUMPED out of the tub and had Matt racing to see who had died/been severely injured

Why does she get tea?  ~to which I replied, "She already drank her healthy drink."  Milk was immediately slurped up so that the other girl could get tea too; I do make GOOD sweet tea

Here's a picture of the girls on a different day.  They sure do love each other!