September

Sigh.....

   

She was so excited to go this morning, until it was time for Jess and I to leave

Jaxon wants to go to school too!

After school nature walk at home

We have chickens!

Which also means we have eggs!

Trip to the Marine Science Center

Beautiful day at the beach!

Sierra's first sick day.  We tried to scare the germs away :)

School is here.  The first day was rough.  And by rough I mean that my child ran down the hall in tears trying to exit the building, rough.  Her first day of Kinder was such a breeze that I wasn't quite ready for the magnitude of the first day of First Grade.  She woke up excited to go and was in a great mood until it was time for us to leave.  Luckily Jess took the whole week off because he has banked up quite a bit of vacation time because we never go anywhere.  If he hadn't of been there, I probably would have followed her out of the school at a dead run too.  As soon as it was time for us to leave she LOST it !  She was crying hysterically and after trying to calm her at her desk, I took her out in the hall to try and calm her down.  I didn't want to be forceful but I had to let her know that going home was not a choice.  So after I talked to her and told her how wonderful her day would be (praying that was true), that it would go by quickly (thinking that was probably a fib), and that she had to stay and we were going to go, she got up and ran towards the exit.  I was yelling down the hall for her to stop and she just kept going.  I had absolutely no idea what to do.  Luckily, Jesse was able to get her to stop.  After about 15 minutes of this, I was just about to lose it myself when a school "angel" came and saw us struggling.  She was very kind and calm and took Sierra back into her class and told us to go.  We did.  And I cried all the way out to the car.  And then on and off for the rest of the morning.  Whoa.

When Jesse picked her up that afternoon she was in a happy mood and came home with a great report about her day.  I was so relieved.  The first several weeks still were rough for the most part.  She would get upset every time that I would try to leave.  Finally after the first two weeks Jesse told Sierra that if she would hold it together when I went to leave for a whole week, that he would take her to get a new toy.  Bribery.  Thank goodness for bribery.  It worked.  But she also got used to the new schedule, her teacher, her new bigger school, and being away from me for 7 hours.  It was so hard and I am so glad that she was able to get past it.  At the end of the month she actuallly requested that I drop her off at the front door.  She said it was easier to say goodbye that way.  When I walked her in to her classroom (which I had done every day in Kinder) she had more time to think about me leaving and it made it harder.  So I drove up to the drop off spot and watched her walk away and smile and wave.  And I cried again.  Good grief.

Jaxon's been a little bit bored without Sierra, but for the most part enjoys having the run of the house again.  He doesn't get bossed around and can sometimes sneak in and play with her favorite toys.  He usually pays for that after she gets home though. :)  He loves going places and after we drop Sierra off wants to know where we are going.  If I say back home, he argues that we need milk, or to visit GG, or that I should have a coffee.  In fact, by the end of the month when I was just dropping Sierra off, I would just wear my sweatpants and a sweatshirt.  He figured out that if I was in my sweats we most likely weren't going to get groceries or go anywhere else, so before we would leave the house he'd say, "Mama put on your pants!"  Ha! 

After struggling to get Jaxon out of diapers at night, we finally started waking him up to take him potty before Jess and I went to sleep at night.  He's a limp rag doll, but manages to pee when we put him on the potty.  So we are finally done with pull ups. Praise the Lord.  Now we're hoping we can eventually quit taking him and he'll make it to the morning.  Sierra was dry all night at 20 months, so it felt like FOREVER to be keeping him in pull ups at night.  But each kiddo is different and she was a much lighter sleeper.

To be honest, I'm so thankful that this month is over.  It's been very stressful.  I'm so glad that Sierra has settled in nicely and am proud of her for figuring out what works best for her.  Hopefully the rest of the year will go smoothly!