the road called parenthood

sometimes you can be chugging along down the road of parenthood when BAM! suddenly you collide head first into reality. it's funny to think that something that has been there all along could be so surprising. maybe that's what we call "denial?!"

we recently received taylor's inter-district transfer request to attend ACMS. i'd type the whole thing out, but remember, i'm in denial. :) i'll give you a hint... the MS stands for middle school. *gasp!*

of course i've dreaded known that taylor would be going to ms next year, but i haven't thought that much about it. honesty though, it freaks me out just a bit. okay, a lot. i asked taylor's teacher to retain him, but he said no. bummer.

then today i was filling in important dates on the calendar when i see that coming up at the end of february is the family life preview night for 5th grade parents. OH.MY.WORD. my son is not old enough for that discussion!! please say it's not so. here we go again. *fingers in my ears* denial, denial, denial.

on the road of parenthood, i feel myself chugging along, slowly approaching a bridge. i have no idea what's on the other side. clearly i'm terrified. but i find comfort in knowing that many a mom and dad have crossed this bridge before ... and survived.

is this what i felt like 10 years ago, tucking my newborn baby into his car seat for the very first time, carefully loading him into our car and then pulling out of the hospital parking lot... onto the road of parenthood for the first time ever?

i don't think so. babies are cute. middle schoolers, not so much! ha!

so all you veteran mamas and papas out there... do you have any pearls of wisdom to share? what got you through this "exciting" (ha ha) time? what should i do? what should i definitely not do? my stomach is doing flip flops here, people!!

as a side note, can i just say that i'm incredibly relieved that i teach first grade and not fifth!! hello, the grossest things we deal with are nose picking (and eating... ewww!) and potty talk. thank goodness!!!


here's tay building a volcano for a school project

16 months... the sweet and the stinky of it

it has been a monumental week so far.

on monday natalie told me "i love you" and gave me a hug--without prompting! awwww, how sweet is that?!

then on tuesday she walked up to me and said "stinky" indicating that SHE was stinky, not me. what a smart girl!

i am loving this stage. 16 months old and absorbing every single thing that goes on around her. sometimes she just sits and watches. other times she is up and exploring. she is always learning. it is fun to observe her take it all in, process new knowledge, and then do something with it.

i'm finding that i'm missing the baby stage less and less and enjoying the now more and more.

i love my sweet and sometimes stinky girl!

happy thursday everyone!!

so much...

has changed with natalie the past few months and since blogging has taken a bit of a backseat, i have lots to share. this photo post is dedicated to all of the things i've wanted to blog about, but didn't.

enjoy!

nat had her first big girl bath! that's right, i finally grouted and caulked the hallway bathroom tile and tub!


she was so sad when she had to get out.


nattie got a new hat in the mail... so cute!


she had a terrible habbit of going "boneless" when you tried to help her walk.




but pushing her stroller around was lot of fun!



and now this girl is a walking machine! she walks all over the house. she still falls a lot, which is so scary. but it's amazing how much better she's gotten in just a few weeks.

my baby is now a toddler! WOW!

who is that boy?

on a saturday in september, the events unfolded like this:

me: ben, do you want your hair cut?
ben: yes!


before the hair cut


mom and dad posing with ben and his "benny fro" for the last time


look at the length!


he can fly!


ready, set...


go! the first snip




that was a big chunk






it's clipper time!






bye bye "benny fro"


almost done...


just a few finishing touches


and wa-la!


look at all that hair


(he wanted to make a beard like taylor)


after the hair cut


it's a whole new benjamin!

as a sidenote, i purposely didn't tell my mom about the big haircut knowing she would pick him up from school on monday and not recognize him. i thought it would be funny. i had no idea just how funny her reaction would be. after she asked the teachers where ben was and then took a good look at the only kid left in the room, she apparently screamed very loudly and fell back against a table. ha ha!

sorry, mom. but not really :) 

do you think he looks more like a parker now?

i'm a school boy now!

for as long as he has known that his big brothers leave for school each weekday morning and he doesn't, ben has wanted to go to school.

we told him he'd get to go when he was 4. big mistake. ben turned 4 in february and school started in august. that was 6 months of him not understanding why he couldn't go to school when he was 4. poor guy.

so when august finally rolled around and we told ben he was really going to start school, he wasn't all that excited. he was probably thinking, "you said that when i turned 4."

but the big day did come and ben was ready.


he styled his own hair



all the boys wore their tie-dye shirts in honor of ben's first day--they were excited for him

in the car and ready to go


once at school, ben had to wait a little while before preschool actually started. luckily dad, taylor, and zachary were there to keep him company.



they posed for more pictures

they walked around the track


and acted a little silly, of course

finally it was time to say goodbye to mom and the brothers and walk over to the preschool classroom. ben was getting really excited now.






not even a rock in his shoe could take away from his special day


taking a sneak peek through the window


yep, still excited


let's do this thing!


signing in


laying on the carpet (ben has a lot to learn!)


there we go!

ben had a great, but tiring  first day.



he has been in school now for 4 weeks. he loves being a school boy so much. he's had to sit in the "thinking chair" a few times, but he always tells us about it and seems to understand why. he loves his teachers and we are grateful for that. it's hard to believe i have three kids in school now.

did you go to preschool?

do you remember it?

the only things i remember about preschool are a girl who bit her lip and swinging on some swings. weird!