{This Moment} & a Favorite

{This Moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment in time. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. 

I recently stumbled upon this video by Sara Bareilles and I love the song and the video. I used to "Kelly Dance" in high school to embarass my sister and this reminds me of that dancing. 

I leave you with this video to start your weekend. Enjoy!



Kelly

College Football season officially starts today!!!

 

Actually, it starts today!!! We will pause while you try to contain your excitement like me....

This is my favorite day of the year!  College football is something I wait for with bated breath since the last season ended. 

Now, I will admit that I am also a girl who can't wait for season to end.  About half way through the season, my beloved Seminoles will break my heart. They will lose a game they had in their hands, they will make some awful play calls, or they just won't play up to their potential. At this point, I will be tired of my whole weekend revolving around what game came on when. I will be tired of not being able to talk about anything else.

But, until that time comes, I am jumping out of my skin waiting for 6 pm when UNC takes on South Carolina. 

Here are 5 reasons that I love College Football Season.

1. The Enthusiasm:
These boys don't (technically) play for money. They play for love of the game and put their heart and soul into these games. They get so excited when they make a big play.

2. The Colors.
Ok, so clearly I am a little partial to my Garnet & Gold but there are other great team colors. I love Carolina Blue or Michigans Blue & Maize. I am such a college football fan, that I pretty much associate colors with teams and colleges. 

3. The Boys
Oh, the boys. I know that they are about 10 years younger than me by now but man, there are some attractive boys that make watching the game a little more enjoyable. 

4. The tailgates 
I don't even think I need to explain the fun of drinking and eating with 50,000 of your closest friends right before your team plays. 

5. Sheer pleasure I get from watching.
I love watching the hard hits. It goes against everything I feel as a mother, but man, I love to watch a guy lay another guy out. I know kinda understand the attraction of the gladiators in Rome. 

I love watching a good play over and over again. No matter the team, it amazes me the things these young guys can do. They are very athletically talented. 

Also, I really watching the underdog win. To feel their amazement and joy at what they just pulled off and to watch them celebrate as a team is great!

No matter what team you are routing for this season, I hope that you enjoy it as much as I do!

What team are you routing for or excited to see play?

Happy College Football season!

KK

A is 10 months old!!

A Cakes is 10 months old! She has grown by leaps and bounds this month and it close to walking. This blows my mind because H crawled for 2-3 months before even making attempts to pull himself up or walk. 

H started school this past week which has been great for A & I. We actually get to spend a few house just the 2 of us on a consistent basis. I am really treasuring this time because I was not home with H while he was young so I was not the one to work with him on crawling and talking during the week. I am really just enjoying getting to know the day to day of her personality and watching that change. 

Weight: 17 lbs and 1 oz so she has gained a few ounces this past month.

Sleep: She continues to sleep through the night! She is a great sleeper. The other day I put her down to sleep and she wasn't tired. I stood outside her door for a few minutes and watched her crawl around the crib, stand up and try to reach things. It amazed me that she wasn't crying. She entertained herself until she was ready for bed. H is almost 3 and still cries every night. 

Talking: The usual Mama and Dada but I don't see it directed at either JJ or I purposefully yet. 

Teeth: No new teeth. I think another top tooth is starting to make its way down because she is drooling a lot but it hasn't shown itself yet. 

Eating: She still prefers the stage 2 baby food. I have been pretty lazy and the only solid food I have given her is bread. I plan on working on that this month.   

Right or Left handed: Pretty much only uses her right hand. 

Eye Color: Still blue. Pretty sure they are staying a deep blue with some hazel around the pupil. 

Crawling: Last weekend she started to finally crawl off her stomach and within a day was pulling herself up and walking along couches and tables. My mom says that I didn't crawl long and I can see A walking soon because she does not like to be left out. 

Nicknames: A Cakes, Baby (thanks to H), and Anns BaDans (thanks to my neice C) and now Strahan Jr because of the Strahan like gap between her front teeth

Bestfriends: She still idolizes H. If he thinks that something is funny she is laughing right along with him.  Darby (our dog) is also her favorite. Oh man, if Darby comes anywhere near her, she gets the biggest smile and laughs. 

Darby & H are definitely going to be the first things that she really walks to.

She and H have started to play together more and I love watching him actually pay attention to her and have fun with her. I think that they will be good friends. 

Personality: She is very particular. I have watched her look through a whole box of legos just to get one specific lego. It blows my mind that at 10 months she knows what she is looking for and will look until she finds it. 

She is becoming very specific with the toys she plays with. 

She is starting to love music. Any song that is played she moves her feet and when it ends she will try to sing. She has discovered a recorder and loves to play it. 

She is my little love bug and I can't wait to spend more time with her. 

I hope you have a great Wednesday!

KK

{This Moment}

{This Moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment in time. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. 

First Day of School: The Aftermath

Ok. So the Aftermath sounded a little extreme. 

H had a fantastic first day at school! I knew he would be OK since he would be going to my Moms preschool so if he got too upset, she would be there to make sure that he was OK and comforted. 

I didn't realize how much I would miss him. We had orientation after dropping him off so I only had about an hour and a half to kill between the end of orientation and when I had to pick him up.  A and I just came home and kinda walked around in a daze. Pick up time is noon for the 2 year old program.  I was so excited to see H and hear about his day that I left the house at 11:30 and was one of the first 10 cars. I was so giddy to see him and hear all that happened to him in the 3 hours since I had left him. 

As soon as I saw his smiling face I knew it was going to be a good year. They put him in the car in the pick up circle and then we go back to buckle the kids in. I am a little proud of this but the first thing that H said was "buckle. buckle. buckle!" He was so freaked out that he was not buckled in. It was really kinda cute. 

On the way home when I asked about his day, he let me know that he played on the playground with a dump truck but one of the wheels was broken. I told him that I would mention it to NiNi and maybe she could fix it. He just shook his head and said "No. Broken."

The 2 year old program also eat lunch at 11 so that when you pick them up they aren't cranky. If you follow me on Instagram, you saw that I had packed H's lunch for the first time on Tuesday night. So, one of the first things I asked is if he enjoyed eating his lunch out of a lunchbox. He let me know that he had to eat his grapes with his hands. Evidently this really offended him because he next proclaimed "pack fork!" So, I am to pack forks for his grapes.... talk about high maintenance. 

He also learned that you do not play on the elevated, stage area. One boy went up there and H just could not understand why he would do that when they told the kids not to. 

As soon as we got home, he crashed and slept for 2 hours. He woke up and was still tired. All he wanted to do was lay on the floor and watch Toy Story. I try not to let him watch too much TV but I knew how stimulating this morning was for him so I figured resting was a good thing. 

I am very excited for what the year has to bring for my little man. I am excited to see the friends he makes. I am excited to show him how wonderful his art creations are and I am excited to see how he grows. Clearly, I am on cloud 9 right now with how the day went. No one cried and everyone had fun. Win-Win.

His backpack is almost as big as he is but he loves it!!

OK. Gushing done. Did your kids start school? Did they have a great day?  

I am off to have a girls night. Margaritas and Mexican food to celebrate my first back to school as a stay at home mom! I hope your Thursday is as good as my Wednesday!

KK

H First Day of Preschool

Oh man, Oh man. My first born has started Preschool and could not be more excited about it. 

We went yesterday to meet his teacher. All morning long H kept asking "Meet teacher? Meet teacher?" As soon as we walked into the classroom, H just left my side and I didn't see him again until it was time to leave an hour later. 

H goes to the 2 year old class Monday, Wednesday and Friday. There are 18 kids in the class. 13 boys and 5 girls. I pray for the teacher and the 2 aids. That class is going to be crazy. 

H already knows a few of the kids from Sunday School but didn't seem to really recognize them in the new setting.  He didn't care. He was having a ball. 

Today was his first day of school. I don't know who was more excited, me or H!

Clearly, H dressed himself. I was going to switch his shirt around but I loved that his collar was popped and the shirt was on backwards. I knew that JJ & I would treasure this picture of the real H at this moment than the one that I put together. 

I only stayed in the room for 15 minutes to socialize with the other parents and make sure that he remembered where the bathroom was. H was too cool for me. He immediately put a baby in a shopping cart (I am assuming like I do with A) and went about his business. 

After he had the shopping cart and baby in order he went and sat down to "breakfast" with some new friends.  I love the freedom that kids have. There didn't seem to be any worries of whether someone would like them. All 4 of these kids just plopped themselves down at the table and pretended to eat together. 

As soon as I saw this, I knew that he was OK and A & I left to start our own adventure. 

So far it has been a quiet morning. A keeps crawling around the living room playing with whatever toy she wanted and laughing. I think that she was really enjoying being an only child for a few hours. I know that once this gets more routine she will miss him more but right now she is loving not having her toys taken away from her and I am enjoying a few minutes of quiet. 

As much as A and I are enjoying ourselves, I will admit that I can't wait to pick up my little man and hear about all his day had to offer for him. 

We have entered a new era and I think we are all going to enjoy it!

I hope that your Wednesday is as good as mine (and H's)!

KK

On my mind today

H was a holy terror yesterday. I blame it on the end of summer and his desperate need to start school ASAP (which happens tomorrow). 

He started the day whining for his new toy rotation box to be taken out. I let him know that the new toys would be out after quiet time. That answer did not satisfy him so he went into our bedroom and asked JJ to get the toys out! That is the first time that he has done that and it blew. my. mind.  Next he wanted to take a walk. I let him know that we would go out after A woke up from her morning nap. So, he proceeded to close all the doors in the house, very loudly, and then yell down the hall about what he was doing in the bathroom. Amazingly enough, this didn't wake A up so he decided to cry and call out for Daddy until she finally did wake up. Then, he proceeded to spend the whole morning keeping all toys away from A. He would take toys out of her hand and at one point he took her hands out from under her to keep her from getting to a toy he wanted to play with.

Right before lunch he asked me to take the top off his water bottle so he could drink it like a big boy. I took it off and turn around 2 seconds later and he has spilled water all over the table (books, my phone, the laptop, etc) in his attempt to immediately put the top back on.  At this point, I flipped my lid. 

My patience was shot from dealing with his antics all morning that I could not handle it. I yelled at him and made him get a towel to clean it up and took his cup away. I didn't comfort him as he cried. I just hardened my heart and went about getting lunch together. In an effort to calm down, I opened Bloglovin to catch up on my blogs and saw this:

This was a slap in the face/heart. It completely spoke to me at the exact moment that I needed it. I don't know which blog posted this (for some reason I couldn't find it again) but this was what I needed. 

While H had spent the morning wearing down my patience, I had spent the morning breaking my son when I didn't respond with understanding or compassion. 

H is only 2 years old. Every thing and every day is an adventure. Every thing is a game. Very rarely is he intentionally bad or mean. This morning, he was annoying most of the time but only mean once. And yet, I treated him like he was purposefully mean and being bad. He doesn't always understand why I am mad so when I react the ways that I was, it was slowly breaking and hurting my gentle-hearted little boy. 

Just realizing that (and typing it now) makes me cry. I love his adventuresome spirit and loving heart but I was not celebrating it when I was yelling at him. I was potentially hardening his heart and I don't want to do that. 

So, I have printed out the above image and put it on my bathroom mirror. I have decided to start my day reading it. It is good for me to remember that "Sorry" doesn't always fix everything. 

So, that is where my head is at today. Is this a reminder that you need? Did this help you in anyway?

I hope that you have a great Tuesday!

KK