1. Meanwhile, Next Door to the Good Life by Jean Hay Bright
2. Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
3. Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
4. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
5. Me Before You by Jojo Moyes
6. Reconstructing Amelia by Kimberly McCreight (Kate’s book club)
7. The Girl in the Photo by Gasper Gonzalez
8. The First Rule of Swimming by Courtney Angela Brkic (Heather’s book club)
9. The Girl Who Chased The Moon by Sarah Addison Allen (Jenna’s book club)
This year there were two book club books that I didn’t even attempt to read. Not because they didn’t look good, but just because: Life. This year was not a banner year for reading for me. Must make more time for reading and less time for interneting in 2016.
I don’t encourage the kids to jumping leaf piles. We have a dog and therefore all I can think about is dog poop mixed up in those piles. But sometimes my mom and my husband are nicer than I am and my dad captures a cute video. Behold – S jumping in leaves. Happy (almost end of) Fall.
We had an amazing time at my cousin Matt’s wedding in Florida. The girls had not met him or his new wife Sabrina yet so we told them she would be the one wearing the princess dress. She did not disappoint. She looked like a beautiful princess and the girls were smitten. S could not wait to get to the “dancing party” and wouldn’t even let a stubbed toe keep her off the dance floor.
It was so nice to be back in Gainesville where we went to college, got married and where my extended family lives. It was doubly wonderful to be included in such a lovely wedding. You could feel the love that all of these people had for this beautiful couple. Absolutely a magical weekend.
We even got to trick or treat with my cousin Ben’s kids. I so wish we lived closer to family.
The girls were mermaids and R was such a good sport to dress up as King Trighton (Poseidon) with them.
We took the girls on the G-ville tour. We visited Lake Alice, the meditation center where we were married, the football stadium, our dorms and finished up with lunch at Leonardos.
I don’t really call myself a writer. I do really enjoy writing and have always journaled. I started writing for CTWorkingMoms.com as an outlet for my parenting angst and along the way I’ve learned a lot about myself and my relationships with my family. Last week I was able to cross something off of my bucket list (I don’t actually have one – maybe I should!). One of my blog posts was picked up by the Huffington Post (Parents).
S started in the Primary program at her Montessori School about 2 weeks ago. I can’t believe she’s already in Primary. No more diapers or pull-ups (even at nap time!) and she’s on her own for bottom wiping. Sorry about all the potty talk, but those are big changes. She’s in with kids from Pre-K3 through K and none of the kids from her toddler classroom are in her new classroom. She doesn’t seem to mind and she at least gets to play on the playground with all of the Primary kids, including her old toddler friends and her sister. She walked right back with the teacher on her first day, which was a big difference from her first day of toddler just one year ago. It’s wonderful to have the girls at the same school and for me to be so active in the school community. It’s a really great place.
Can’t believe my girl is old enough to be in Kindergarten. We held off a year on public school so she can complete the three year cycle at her Montessori School. She’s excited that the dog that was in the classroom for the first year, and absent last year, is now back. Nothing better than having a classroom mascot. She’s now able to play on the big playscape and to go on the school bus for field trips. Life is good.
A few weeks ago we took our first real family vacation! We’ve gone several far away places with our parents or to visit our parents and we’ve done lots of under 5 hour car trips, but we’d never done a full on road trip, week out of work vacation as just a family of four. I anticipated the worst. Two days there and two to three days back in the car with a five and 2 year old sounded like a nightmare. But overall the trip was wonderful, restful and full of quality family time.
We left mid- morning on a Thursday and drove towards North Carolina, stopping for the night in Virginia.
The next day we drove to our first destination – Winston Salem, North Carolina. We visited some of our best friends from high school and finally got to meet their children.
We spent one of our days with the Winston Salem crew out at their river. We had a campfire, hot dogs, scores and tubing down the river.
After three nights in Winston, we drove only an hour and a half to Charlotte to see some of our best friends from college. They have a little girl the same age as S and just had a second girl.
While in Charlotte, we visited the Charlotte Nature Museum (butterfly garden below) and Discovery Place.
After three nights in Charlotte, we left for our final adventure – a day at Sesame Place! We drove one very long day and then spent the next day at the theme park.
We spent 10 hours in the park! By the end we were all exhausted but it was a very fun day! There was a lot more to do there than I thought there would be. The kids loved all of the rides – wet and dry. They were just about the perfect ages. M loved the characters and S was terrified of them, so I am kind of glad that the character meals were sold out by the time I decided to book one. Here’s a fun video of R riding one of the rides with the girls.
After a long day at Sesame Place and a not so great night sleep in a not so great hotel, we hit the road for home sweet home. I thought I’d miss home more than I did, but it was really wonderful to be on the road with my family. We listened to way more than cheesy kids music in the car, but this song is a great example of the fun times we had.
At her 2.5 year appt, S weighs in at 26lbs (10th percentile) and is 35″ tall (30th percentile). She’s back to being pretty good at bedtime. For a while she was coming out of her room several times before falling asleep. She’ll go 3 or so nights without waking up but once or twice a week she’ll wake once during the night and walk into our room. I’ll put her back in bed and she goes right to sleep. She doesn’t allow Ryan to help her during the night. She gets up around 5 or 5:30am and comes into bed with us, often going back to bed until after 6am. She hugs tightly and gives lots of kisses. She loves her baby dolls – and has a special one she calls ‘School Baby.’ She talks a TON, repeating everything everyone says. She is almost fully potty trained, but doesn’t go in to go on her own. She’s quite the camel.
The True Story of What Was 