Preschool

Gavin started preschool this week. Whaaaat? I know!


The verdict is: he totally loves it! (Shocker, I know, but still!)


Funny story: for two months (at least) I have thought that Gavin started school on Thursday, January 5. I don't know how I got that specific day in my head, but I was convinced of it. Well, the night before the 3rd, while we had people at our house to watch the Super Bowl, it suddenly occurred to me that there was a small, tiny chance that Gavin could start school the next day (Tuesday) instead of Thursday. I got on the phone with the school's principal and just casually asked when the first day of spring term was - fully expecting her to say Thursday, just like I had always been planning.


Um, no.


She said school started the next day! She actually said, "School starts at 9, the doors open at 8:50. Will we see you there?" I cooly laughed (inside, though, I was dying...), said "Of course!", hung up and panicked. Just like that, the extra 48 hours I thought I had to plan outfits and shop for school supplies was just gone. To make it that much worse, we had people at our house and I couldn't fly out the door like I wanted to!


I restlessly sat through the last quarter and a half of the Duck game, cheered for their victory, bade my guests goodbye, grabbed my purse and supply list, booked it out the door, flew to two different stores, and feverishly snapped things up. Oh, and I might've called a girlfriend from college who currently teaches preschool to 'talk me off the ledge' (as I call it). I was already feeling major butterflies. =/


All of this to say, yes, come Tuesday morning, we had everything we needed, Gavin was woken up on time, and we sailed in to the school doors right at 8:50 AM.


(Ha - don't let the 'collected' tone of the last paragraph fool you, I was a wreck that morning. Ask B. I tried to internalize it as best as I could, but you can't blame a mama for being emotional! I will say, though, that one of my proudest moments of the day was that we made it without tears from anyone! Success!)


My boy is loving being in preschool. He's making friends and learning so much. I know it sounds so 'my kid is so awesome" to say this next thing - but, really, Brent and I already see differences in his speech, word usage, and sentence construction. He is happy and because of it, we are thrilled and feel so fortunate that he is in a school we all love so much!

Me and G - all smiles at drop off! :)

gavin says #1

So, Gavin's got this elephant that he just loves. I mean, loves. He basically doesn't go anywhere or do anything without this thing. Lately, he's been into treating Elephant like a baby. He asks us to put diapers on it and sometimes he even asks that we dress the thing. Being suckers for anything he asks of us so earnestly (think: big, big brown eyes above a mouth that says 'puh-weeeaze mommy'), we do it. Who wouldn't? ;)

This morning Gavin was proudly carrying around his 'baby' and I asked if I could hug it. He looked at it, then back at me, and said, "Noooo... but you can hug Gavin!" 

Cue the mommy puddle all over the floor. I just love that kid so much!

four years and counting...

So thankful for my life with this wonderful man. Here's to a lifetime of choosing each other!

dear gavin

The text below is from a blog entry I wrote to Gavin just ten day after he was first born. At the time, I clearly thought that writing without using proper capitalization was cool. ;) I adored him then and I adore him now. Hopefully one day he'll come across this and read my words for himself.

~~~~~~~~~~

dear gavin,

today, you are ten days old.

it continues to be incredibly mind-blowing that just a week and a half ago, you were inside me. it's impossible to describe how it felt to be finally meeting you after months of feeling you grow, our only interaction being when you kicked or moved in my womb. the moment you were placed in my arms can only be described as pure joy. love. wonder.

in just ten days, you have changed so much. today i noticed you tracking -- i can move my hand back and forth above your eyes and you follow my waving fingers. it's amazing to watch. earlier today your umbilical cord came off... when i change you, it's so fun to see your cute little tummy button. :)

you look nothing like the infant you were last week. oh let's be real, you never really did look like an infant. you were born at a whopping 8 lbs and 10 oz and you were 21" long with a 15" head diameter. you were a bit of a challenge to push out, but oh man, are you ever worth it.

you are such an incredibly sweet and good natured baby, gav. you aren't fussy and you go down for naps and bedtimes with fair amounts of ease. i love your many facial expressions, but i have to admit that i have a favorite: you open your mouth wide like you're going to yawn and then you close your mouth until your lips form a perfect little O and you hold it there for a few seconds. it makes me melt every time i see it. i call it your monkey face and as a result, it's why i call you 'monkey'.

i feel so incredibly blessed to have the opportunity to be your mom. your daddy and i love you so very much -- we couldn't have fathomed just how much until we had you in our arms. as i'm writing this, we have you in our room and it's so fun hearing the little sounds you make in your sleep. sweet dreams, sweet baby. i'm already looking forward to tomorrow.

xoxo,
mommy

catching up and a dr's visit

One of the less pleasant things about having multiple (abandoned) blogs all over the interwebs is the overwhelming feeling that comes with the thought of consolidating it all. This is tres importante because I'm starting to forget all of the individual URLs that house my old entries and while it's true that I haven't so much as glanced in their direction in months (ahem, years) there's still some pretty good stuff out there.

It'll be dusty around here for  a small while. In addition to fighting with my HTML to get it to bend to my will (so far, it's an uphill battle) and trying to unify my fonts (for the love of love, why are there so few options and why are they all different in different views?), I will be merging some old stuff here and who knows how long that will take and how tedious that will be.

For now though, let's discuss Gavin's 3 year check up:

 

Here he is, fine and dandy, cooperating with the RN while she takes her stats. This, my friends, is not the same child who saw the pediatrician a mere 5 minutes later. No sir. I don't have a picture of that child because I was too busy holding him down (Gavin, not Dr. B. Just clarifying) with both arms. Apparently, toddlers remember exactly where they were the last time they were delivered a shot. Screams of: "I'm all done! NO DOCTOR!" could be heard all over the place. I was that mom. The one with the crazy, out of control child. Lord have mercy, we could not have been out of there fast enough and of course, the second we left, he was back to being our smile-y sunshine boy. Typical 3!

We learned, over the din of uncontrollable screaming and sobs, that Gavin is healthy and growing - albeit, a bit slowly. Poor little is only in the 25% for his height - but! - sitting heftily at 75% for his weight. Here's hoping for an extreme growth spurt during puberty. And maybe for a tiny dose of amnesia the next time we go in for a wellness check.