First Day of School

Our school district has a uniform policy. Hence the reason why he's dressed this way. :)

Yesterday was Garrett's first day of kindergarten. He didn't really seem all that nervous. Right before we parked to walk him into the classroom, he said he wanted to be sure Keith and I both gave him a hug and a kiss before we left.

He went right into the classroom, sat down and started playing with the Playdoh that his teacher had set out for us. Even though I tried to talk to him a couple of times before we left, he was in "the zone" and didn't respond. We stood at the doorway, waving and saying goodbye and he never looked even once at us. I'd much prefer this to him clinging to my leg and crying, so I'll take it.

When I picked him up, it was a little crazy. You have the option of parking and walking up to the front of the school and escorting your child back to your car, or you can stay in the car and slowly make your way around the parking lot until you get to the front and someone helps your child into the car. I opted for the second one. With a 2 year old and temps over 100 degrees, trying to make my way through a crowded parking lot did not appeal to me. I had warned Garrett that I would not be one of the first parents there to pick him up, so he would be prepared for the fact that other kids would leave before him. I was in the parking lot about 10 minutes before the last bell rang, but it still took awhile before I made it to the front to get him.

He was super excited about his first day. He said it was his "best day EVER" and he told me about a couple of new friends he made. One he couldn't remember the boy's name and the other's name was Lucas (which is Garrett's middle name). Garrett was really excited about that. He also has another boy in his class named Cooper.

He didn't bring anything home in his backpack, so I have no idea if that's good or bad. Did he forget a folder he was supposed to bring home? Surely not since it was the first day of kindergarten, I can't imagine that his teacher wouldn't check on that sort of thing. The beginning of school has forced me to become more trusting. Trusting that my child is bringing home what I need and doing what he is supposed to and trusting that his teacher is doing what teachers do and not needing any input from me. :) I have to say that after just a couple of days of being the mom of a school kid, I would have changed several things I did when I was teaching. If I go back to it, I know a few things I will definitely do differently based on what I'm learning from the parent side of it.

The remainder of our time at home that afternoon and evening were so pleasant! Cooper acted out a little towards Garrett, trying to hit him or push him. I'm not sure what's up with that other than he was trying to let Garrett know he wasn't happy that he had been gone all day. But Garrett was so well behaved and excited and happy about school. It was really nice! They both went to bed really easily and slept great last night.

This morning, Garrett got up without any problems and was ready to go to school again. We had a few issues with drop off. His teacher had said we could walk the kids to their classrooms for the first 2 days and then after that they have to be dropped off at the school door. So I walked him to the classroom one last time this morning. Keith waited in the car this time with Cooper. But when we got to the classroom, the door was locked and no one was there. There were 5 other moms and kids waiting in the hallway for both of the kindergarten classes. We stood there for probably 15 minutes before the classes finally showed up. The teachers were in the cafeteria with the classes. I wish I had known that because I would have just dropped him off. It was a little frustrating because I had a couple of questions I wanted to ask, but by the time the teacher got there with all the other kids and the other moms were standing around, I just didn't get the chance. Garrett was a bit more clingy because of the mix-up and he asked a few times if we could just go out to the car and wait. But once the rest of his class and the teacher got there, he joined them without hesitation, so that was good.

I'm hoping every day will go smoothly.

Happenings

• Last week, we had a birthday party for Garrett. His birthday isn't until the end of the month, but it seemed like a good idea to get it out of the way before school starts. He had so much fun with all of his friends at the bounce house place. And I'm happy to have another year before I have to deal with another birthday party. (Does anyone else dread them? No? I'm a horrible mom...)


• 5 days and counting until life changes. Kindergarten. I'll blog more about that once we have a few days under our belt. Garrett says he's excited about going and learning new things. He did have a moment of being unsure and apprehensive about it, but I forced myself to be chipper and upbeat about it and that seemed to help talk him through it. I'm really trying to restrain my own apprehension and nerves.


• We never ended up getting to take a family vacation this summer, which bothers me some, but we've been looking through the school calendar to figure out when we might squeeze in a family getaway sometime soon. Garrett is starting to ask more and more about going to Disney World. We watched "Tangled" for the first time yesterday and he wants to know if Flynn Rider (or whatever the guy's name was) will be at DW if we ever go there. Maybe in another summer or two we can plan a fun trip like that. Keith and I have never been either, so we're both excited about the possibilities.


• This morning, I started reading "5 Conversations You Must Have with Your Son" by Vicki Courtney. So far it's an amazing book. It's opened my eyes to things that I know are issues today, but never really considered the impact they could have on my sons. If you're a parent of a boy, I highly recommend this book. I'm about 1/3 of the way into it and have already learned quite a bit. (She also has one for conversations with daughters. I haven't read it, of course, but I would imagine it's just as good.)


• Keith and I have become addicted to the show "Pawn Stars." We've been watching episode after episode on Netflix every night. You learn a lot about history, plus you see some crazy people on there. And Keith is a big pawn shop fan, so he enjoys the show simply based on that. I have to admit that I'm just as into the show as he is.


• This Sunday, we will start a year of teaching one of the kindergarten Sunday School classes at our church. I'm hoping that will go smoothly.


• Cooper has become Mr Polite lately. He says Yes, ma'am, Please, Thank You, etc. It's really sweet. Of course, he's also full-blown into the No phase too and that's not polite or sweet. He also is great at counting down from 10 to 1, but he has no idea how to count from 1-10. It's amazing how much they learn from older siblings. It's funny to hear him countdown like he's launching a rocket or something.

2 Years

Dear Cooper,

5 weeks ago you turned 2! This is what happens when you're the second born. It takes mom 5 weeks to finally blog about your birthday. Sorry, but I still love you!

In the past 6 months or so, you have truly been teaching me what a strong-willed child looks like. I always thought Garrett was my strong-willed child, but apparently he's pretty passive and compliant. Who knew.

You love to tell me no. About everything. You throw fits on a regular basis. You make regular attempts to beat up your brother. All in all, you're a very typical 2 year old.

You love anything that remotely resembles a gun. You turn toys into guns, you "shoot" us frequently and say "pow pow". It truly is genetic because this is not something that you've been taught. Garrett does have some toy guns, but rarely plays with them.

You've begun the "eats like a bird" phase. You exist on a couple of strawberries for breakfast, some cheese for lunch, and crumbs you scrounged off the floor for supper. Of course I offer you legitimate food at each mealtime, this is just what you choose to eat.

You attempt to take off your own diaper now and want to sit on the toilet whenever we'll let you. I'm so not ready for potty training yet, so I'm trying to distract you from this for now.

You LOVE Garrett and want to be doing anything and everything he is doing (when you're not trying to beat him up that is.)

You are an absolute, 100% Daddy's boy. You love your Daddy more than anyone else on this Earth. If Daddy is around, he must do anything and everything for and with you and no one else will do. This is a bonus for me, since that means diaper duty for Daddy when he's home. But everybody better watch out when Daddy leaves for work in the morning. I'm dreading when Garrett leaves with Daddy in the mornings for kindergarten starting next month. You'll be left with your least favorite person in the house.

You talk more and more all the time. You copy a lot of things that we say and we can understand about 60-75% of what you say. It's harder for other people to understand you though.

You love anything that you can cuddle. You have a good number of stuffed animals in your bed and you're happy to cuddle with any of them at bedtime and naptime. You also enjoy carrying around your (full-size) pillow and laying down on the floor or the couch and just chilling for a bit.

You did great when you moved you into a regular bed and we haven't had any problems since then. You sleep great in it and you rarely get out of the bed until someone comes into your room to let you know it's time to get up.

I cannot believe you're 2! We love you very much and can't wait to see what your future holds for you.

Cox Family Reunion

After we got checked into the hotel, we all headed out to my grandparents' house for a visit. They've lived in the same house since I was about 8 years old. My Grandpa worked for IBM and they used to live in Indiana, but then he was transferred to Pennsylvania. Their house out there literally sits on the side of the mountain. There's a small level area in their backyard and then the rest of it literally requires hiking to get to the back of their property. They're just a few miles off of the Appalachian Trail. Needless to say, it's a pretty area.

We all ate a yummy spaghetti dinner and enjoyed a lot of visiting time while the kids played with toys that I played with as a kid (and that my dad played with when he was a kid). When we got back to the hotel, we all changed into swimsuits and headed down to, what is probably in the Guinness Book of World Records as the smallest, indoor, hotel swimming pool. The sign on the wall said that the pool's capacity was about 15 people. And hot tub's was 3. Thankfully there were just the 7 of us down there (though we did all get into the hot tub at the same time because the pool was COLD!)

Thankfully the full day, combined with the swim time, made for sleepy boys and they were both out almost as soon as their heads hit the pillow. (And can I just add that hotels are super smart if they have at least 1 all-cartoon channel? This hotel had the kids' channel Sprout which was great because there was always something good on. Even the Disney channel can sometimes have questionable shows on for little ones.) The next morning, we all ate breakfast at the hotel, which was insanity because apparently everyone in the southeast portion of Pennsylvania was staying at this hotel and they were all eating breakfast at the same time. Things got a bit dicey around the waffle maker is all I'm saying.

After getting ready, we headed out to Walmart to get some last minute things for the family reunion, then we went to the church to help get everything set up. We had a great time eating some yummy grilled hamburgers and visiting with everyone. My aunt Beth brought a bunch of stuff to entertain the kids with, so part of the afternoon was spent sitting outside watching all of them play in a wading pool and sprinkler. There were 7 boys under the age of 7 there. Not to mention 3 girls under the age of 10. So the kids all had plenty of playmates and lots of people to keep them company.

After cleaning up from the fun, my parents, me and the boys, my sister and her family, my 2 brothers, another sister and my sister-in-law (enough people for you?) all went to Hershey's Chocolate World in Hershey, Pennsylvania about 45 minutes away. Along with, again, everyone in the southeast portion of Pennsylvania which probably included all the people staying at our hotel. We've been to Hershey plenty of times over the years and have never seen it as crowded as it was on that Saturday evening. It was crazy. But thankfully they're very well equipped for the crowds and we waited maybe 10 minutes before boarding their Chocolate World tour where you get to see the process behind the making of the chocolate. Fun stuff! If you're ever in that area, you must check it out. The tour is free. And you get a free sample when it's over. Of course they get you in their shop, where the tour essentially drops you off. Candy galore along with anything and everything with the name "Hershey" or "Reese's" or something else along those lines printed on it.

During the night, that night, I woke up to a crazy storm pounding outside. I grabbed the computer and checked to see if we were under any sort of warnings because we were on the 5th floor of the hotel and I really didn't want to die while wearing my pajamas. The electricity went out at one point, but it either came back on a few seconds later or the hotel had a generator that kicked in. Thankfully between the a/c running and the sound machine that I use for the boys, they never moved a muscle during the storm. Neither did my sister.

The next morning, we again ate breakfast with the state of Pennsylvania and then got ready for church. My dad was asked to preach at my grandparents' church so it was nice to get to hear him speak. We all went to eat lunch at an Italian restaurant. They had a special that was 2 pieces of pizza and a drink and since their pieces were really big, I thought that would be plenty to split between me and the boys. That was so wrong. They both packed away the pizza. Thankfully my parents and my brother had gotten a pizza to share amongst them, so they found pity on my "starving" children and gave us a few pieces.

After a few pit stops, we finally were headed back to Indiana after lunch. The drive home was uneventful and we got to see some fireworks once it got dark since it was July 3. The next morning, my parents, me and the boys went out for breakfast and then my mom and I ran a few errands. We just lounged around the house for the rest of the day and then the rest of the family came over for burgers for supper. All the kids played with poppers and sparklers afterwards and then we had to say goodbye to my sister and her kids. I packed up my SUV and got everything all prepared for us to leave the next day.

At 5am, we pulled out of my parents' driveway and started the trip back to Texas. It's always sad to say goodbye after a fun visit like that. Thankfully the trip home was also uneventful and went by relatively quick (as quick as an all day drive can be). We actually made really good time and managed to shave off half an hour from the typical drive time that this trip takes, so that was nice. I'm sure the boys hated it because at both of our stops we were in and out with no dawdling. But when you're traveling alone, it really is easier that way.

I'm glad we made the trip for many reasons. Of course I got to see all of my family, which is always great because we only see each other once or twice a year. But I also proved to myself that I can make this trip on my own if I need to. So watch out interstates, I'm sure we'll be back out there again next year! (And here's hoping Cooper is potty trained by then and proves to have great bladder control like his brother has!)

Indiana and Pennsylvania

We had a great visit with my family! Just to refresh your memory, my parents, my youngest brother and one of my sisters and her family all live just outside of Indianapolis. They moved up there about 5 years ago to start a church.

The week that we were visiting, my parents had to work a few days. (They work "real" jobs outside of their church in order to pay the bills.) On Monday, they went to work, my brother was sleeping (he works nights for UPS) so the boys and I walked over to my sister's house for the morning. She lives about 2 blocks from my parents. The kids had a fun time playing while we visited. Then the boys and I went back to my parents' for lunch and then down time for the afternoon. It was nice to just spend a day doing little after a full day of driving the day before.

On Tuesday, my sister and her kids took us to the Indianapolis Children's Museum. It's the BEST museum ever. Seriously. If you're ever in the area, I highly recommend you check it out. It's expensive, but very worth the time and money. We had a lot of fun there and then ate lunch together at McDonald's. Once we got back to my parents', my dad came home from work and we left and went to visit my aunt Pat. She's not doing very well, health-wise, but it was very nice to get to see her. We went straight from her house to Pizza King for dinner with the rest of the family. The best pizza ever. I insist on eating there at least once every time we're in Indiana for a visit.

Wednesday, my mom was able to leave work early so she went with me and the boys and my sister and her kids to eat at Fazolis for lunch. They're very rare in my area and I love their food too (are you seeing a pattern for our trip?). After letting the little boys nap that afternoon, we all met back up at a local park. The parks up there are only about 99% better than any park in our area. And the weather was awesome. I actually enjoyed sitting outside at 4pm at a park. If I were to do that here, I would be passed out from dehydration and heat stroke.

Wednesday night was their church's prayer meeting and then we all had brownies and ice cream sundaes at my parents' house. So yummy! On Thursday, my mom, the boys and I went to Walmart to pick up a few things and then we met my dad (who got off work early), my sister and her kids at the movies where we all saw Cars 2 together. It was a lot of fun! Our kids had never been to the theater together before and my parents enjoyed seeing a movie with all of their grandkids. Cooper slept through part of it on my dad and Tyler (my sister's youngest who is Cooper's age) ate almost an entire tub of popcorn. It was pretty funny. The big kids were all enthralled with the movie and barely moved during the entire thing. It was kind of James Bond meets cartoon type of movie. Very cute!

Thursday afternoon we just hung out at my parents' and then that night we ate at Five Guys for supper. I had never eaten there before but it was really good. On Friday morning, we pulled out of the driveway at 5am, my parents, me and the boys in my SUV, my sisters' family and my brother Jesse in my parents' van, and we started the drive to Pennsylvania. My dad's family had a reunion planned for that weekend. I hadn't seen my Grandma in almost 6 years and she had never met either of my boys before, so we were excited to see them. The trip was fun, mostly because I didn't have to do any driving and the kids were entertained by having other people in the car. When we stopped for gas, we rotated around some and Garrett got to have his cousin in the car with him for the rest of the trip. We got to the hotel around 3pm that afternoon and got all checked in.

Since Keith had originally planned on making this trip with us and since we had figured we were going to be in Pennsylvania for 4 nights or more, we had booked a queen suite. The room was so nice. I highly recommend Fairfield Inn's queen suites because it was big. 2 queen beds, plus a sofa bed. 2 nice TV's an iPod docking station, fridge, microwave, etc. It seemed huge just for me and the boys, so I invited my sister Christie (who's single, FYI) to stay with us rather than sharing a room with our parents. She currently lives in Lynchburg, Virginia where she's getting her master's degree. So she drove up for the weekend and the reunion.

This is getting long! I'll finish up the reunion, the 4th of July in Indiana and our trip back home tomorrow (or the next day)...

The road less traveled

I'm really behind with my blogging right now! I'm sure the crazy summer schedule has nothing to do with it.

A few weeks ago, the boys and I took a trip up to Indiana to visit my family. Keith has been super busy with work and wasn't able to come with us, but I really wanted to be able to go see them before Garrett starts school next month. So I decided to bite the bullet and make the trip with just me and the boys. For a variety of reasons, I decided to drive us up there rather than fly. Unfortunately it's a 14 hour drive. I debated between breaking the trip up into 2 days or just driving straight through and decided to just drive straight through. The hassle of checking into and out of a hotel and all the complications that come with corraling 2 kids in a hotel room just did not sound appealing.

The day before our trip, I got our SUV set up in a way that would be convenient for me to attempt to keep them entertained, fed, etc, without having a wreck and without needing to pull over every hour. In the seat between the boys' carseats, I put a soft-sided box with a variety of toys in it ranging from small cars to coloring books to stuffed animals. Next to each boys' seat, was a small throw blanket for when they were tired or cold. In the middle of the floor, within my reach, I put a second soft-sided box and filled it with easily dispensible snacks along with a container of wipes and a roll of paper towels. Then in the front passenger seat I had a small cooler with sandwiches and drinks. I pre-filled cups of water and put them in the boys' cup holders in case they got thirsty. I had DVD's in the pocket of the seat in front of Garrett and the portable DVD player was strapped to the headrest of the passenger seat in front of Cooper. Since we've had the same DVD player for years, I have the buttons memorized and know the play and eject buttons by touch, so I was able to change and start DVD's while driving. (I promise I was extremely safe with all of this!) Garrett had the laptop to watch his own movies on so I didn't have to listen to them argue about what they were going to watch.

We left at 4am on a Sunday. We carried the boys out and strapped them into their carseats. They stayed awake for an hour or so and then went back to sleep and slept for a couple of hours. We were almost to Arkansas when they woke up. We ate breakfast in the car (granola bars) and then settled into a routine of movies, toys, coloring and snacks. About 5-6 hours into the trip, we made our first stop to fill up with gas. After I started the gas pumping, Garrett picked up the toys that were thrown around the car and in the floor while I changed Cooper's diaper in the driver's seat. Once the tank was full, then we all walked into the gas station for a quick bathroom stop. We were back on the road minutes later.

The trip went really smoothly. We only stopped one other time, in Missouri, just a few miles shy of the Illinois state line. At lunch time, we ate the sandwiches I packed for lunch while in the car on the interstate and we had our snacks later in the day and the boys did amazing! My biggest concern was the weather because the weather channel was forecasting 40% chance of rain for a good part of the area we were driving through. Thankfully we only were sprinkled on in northeast Arkansas and the rest of the trip was sunny.

We crossed the state line into Indiana and ran smack dab into road construction. Road construction that had our side of the road down to one lane which was traveling at approximately 3 mph. By this point, we had been in the car for 13 hours and we were 1 hour from our destination. I grew up in this general area of Indiana and am vaguely familiar with the roads, so I called Keith and told him to walk me through how to get from the interstate I was on, to a 4 lane highway that I knew was close by. I just could not handle sitting there any longer. It may have cleared up minutes later, but my sanity was holding on by a thread at this point.

Traffic finally crawled up to an exit where I was able to get off and manuever my way around to the other road. At some point along the way, I had to pull over and change a dirty diaper. The poor kid had attempted to hold it as long as he could, but it wasn't happening any longer. (He has a pretty good "schedule" with this and normally takes care of business in the mornings. By this point it was about 7pm. For a 2 year old, this was good.) Once we made it to my parents' house, we were only about an hour behind schedule, which isn't too bad since we had to take a different road which cuts through small towns with traffic lights, not to mention at least half an hour was spent virtually sitting still on the interstate.

Truly, my boys behaved so well on this trip. I was really surprised. There were only a few whining moments (at least one of them was mine during the road construction. I will completely own up to that) along with a handful of times where I had to explain to them that I could not come back there and help with this or that, they would need to figure it out. Thankfully there were no tantrums thrown and no screaming. This is a huge achievement.

Tomorrow, I will share about all the fun stuff we did in Indiana. If we're friends on Facebook, I've already posted quite a few pictures from this trip.

Preparing for Kindergarten

We've had a lot going on around here lately, so I have several things I need to blog about. But I thought I would focus on something different first.

Kindergarten.

6 weeks from Monday will be Garrett's first day of "big school". That is very hard to believe! Back at the beginning of summer, I made a mental list of all the things I wanted to do before school started that would specifically be getting us all ready for kindergarten. This week, we have begun marking some of them off the list.

Today we headed out in search of school uniforms. Our local (public) school district has a dress code policy which requires uniforms to be worn at all times unless otherwise stated. The uniform is khaki, navy, or black Docker-style pants or shorts with polo shirts that are red, navy, white, yellow, or black. There are a few more details that go into the dress code like acceptable footwear and other things. I personally love the idea of uniforms. I used to teach in a school district (not the same one) with uniforms too and that's when I saw how great they are. My goal is to have a pair of pants/shorts and a shirt for each day of the week, then do laundry on the weekend and repeat. I may end up buying more than that, but for now, that's the plan.

Thankfully The Children's Place sells school uniforms so we went there first and they were actually on sale! I had to get Garrett to try on some things to check the sizes. He's tall and skinny so that makes sizing him a little tough. But praise the Lord, TCP has adjustable waist bands in their pants. The ones that fit him well in the length look a little gathered at the waist when I have them adjusted where they need to be, but we have no other options. In another year or two, he may be ready to wear a belt on a daily basis, but I have no plans of sending my kindergartener off to school wearing a belt. Bathroom breaks would become much more difficult if I did and the last thing a teacher needs is one more child who needs help dressing and undressing just to use the restroom. Hopefully between a little laundry shrinkage and a tucked in shirt, the gathering will be kept to a minimum. The only thing TCP didn't have was a very good variety of colors in their uniform polo shirts. We didn't end up buying any shirts there because of that. At least shirts can be bought online without worrying quite as much about the size, so hopefully I'll find some with a good deal.

This week we have also started reviewing several basic things since it's been over a month since he was in preschool. We've started with letters and how to correctly hold the pencil. We'll move on to reviewing numbers and shapes once I think he's got a good grasp on everything again.

2 other things that I plan on doing between now and the first day of school are: 1. to pack his lunch exactly as it will be packed for any given school day and have him show me that he knows exactly how to open everything up and can handle it all independently. And 2. to wear his uniform a few days and practice with tucking his shirt back in after using the restroom along with buttoning and unbuttoning his pants. Most of his current shorts/pants either have an elastic waist or a snap.

I know I sound like a crazy person, but these are the things I think about. If I do all of this then on the first day of school it won't hit me at 10am that Garrett may be getting a bathroom break and walking down the hallway of school with his pants undone needing his teacher's help to fasten them.

I've also started slowly making my way through the school supply list as well. Hopefully I'll be able to find everything on the list without needing to make extra runs to many other stores in the area.

Anything else you would recommend I do to prepare him (and me!) for this big day?