(I think Hunter looks just like me in this picture.)

Come on, sing it with me: "...sleepin' the Day Away." We went to Sesame Place this weekend with our friends (and neighbors), J&T. The weather was supposed to be a little cooler, so we started in jeans on Saturday but ended up in bathing suits on Sunday. It was just beautiful!

I don't have much to write about- nothing dramatic happened or funny, really. Hunter got a little scared of the rides, but that's normal at this age.

It was a little different of a trip for Mark and I, since we like more grown-up oriented trips. We were relegated to riding on Big Bird balloons and Elmo fish and eating at Ernie's cafe. We just wished that we had gone on the more exciting water rides so it would have been more enjoyable for us. We enjoyed our time with Hunter, though. He mostly enjoyed it.

When we first arrived at the park, J and I took the kids on Grover's roller coaster. They record a video of you on it, so you can see yourself. Hunter looked MORTIFIED! Poor guy. After that, he didn't want to ride the rides he rode last year when he was just barely 2. He was so nervous. The good part about Hunter is that he warms up to things, usually. He eventually got on some of the rides in Elmo's World.

We were able to see Dan Zanes, from Playhouse Disney. He was really fun and rallied almost ALL the kids and grown-ups to get up and dance. Mark and I got a little boogie time together, which was nice. ;)

This is where Hunter started while we waited for the parade to start...and eating his Dippin' Dots.

This is where he finished watching it. He was, apparently, a little nervous during the parade.

I enjoyed it, though.

This may have been Hunter's favorite ride:

Dinner Saturday night when the kids were wired and Hunter was acting a little crazy...but cute. This is the culmination. (I can't get the picture to move down, so it is the one at the top.)

We go to an Adult Bible Fellowship class at church, called Family Builders. The ladies in the class have a baby quilt ministry. They organize a craft night whenever a new baby is born (and there are LOTS of babies!) and shortly after, a decorative quilt is presented to the parents for the baby.



I had my quilt night in July, er, I mean, Colten had his quilt night then. I was able to invite one non-Family Builder, so I asked Candice to come. I was told this required no talent or creativity, so I was able to actually help! I am not a crafty person, except for what I force myself to do to scrapbook, so I was a little apprehensive about it.



The night was so much fun, to my surprise, being a craft night and all. It was a little challenging, though. I had to use puff paint but it was a good time. We had prayer time for Colten and our family and had some fabulous treats on top of everything else.



Here's the end result:









Thank you, ladies!

Tuesday was our 8 year anniversary. We were married: 9/9/00. Mark loved this date so it would be easy to remember. Thank you for your brilliance, babe, because it certainly does make it easy to remember. :)

We used to spend our anniversaries traveling to places like Mexico, the Carribbean or Martha's Vineyard (where we were during 9/11/01). Last year we were blessed by Mark's parents to leave Hunter with them and we went to Smith Mountain Lake to celebrate. This year, we weren't as fortunate to get away. Two children sure does make for a BUSY life! So, we made dinner reservations and I tried to be grateful for the evening we did have together.

Mark wisked me away to the new National Harbor to a steak restaurant inside the Gaylord resort. We had such a delicious dinner and it was nice to get dressed up and just focus on each other. Let's say it together: "Ahhhhh." I wasn't interested in any of the desserts there but I knew there was a Cake Love there, so off we went. We walked down to the harbor area and found out it closed at 8:00. Can you hear the air escaping out of my balloon? ;)

Our dear friends, Stacy and Greg, were at our wedding and Greg actually videotaped our wedding for us. (We paid for it ourselves, so we tried not to spend money.) He sent us a sweet message in honor of our anniversary with a special link that brought me to tears, although I have seen it before. (It's us, in case you can't tell from the video.)

Here we were:

Here we are now:

Today was Hunter's first day of pre-school, as it was for many of my friends' children, so it was a very exciting morning for us (okay, me). Hunter, my fairly level-emotion child, was indifferent to it, not showing much excitment, which was just fine with me. I kept reminding him of his teachers' names, we prayed for his first day and his friends' first day on our way there. I showed him his lunch box and what was in it, snapped a few pictures and gave him a good-bye kiss. He was OFF without a glance.

I expected everything to go swimmingly, really. I have been "leaving" him since he was 6 weeks old at workout moms (I need to blog about that don't I?), so he's no stranger to strangers.

I went on my merry way to "run errands," a ubiquitous term that I probably overuse for S-H-O-P-P-I-N-G. Either way, Colten was so quiet, obedient and stayed right by mommy. It was a fabulously easy morning! I even read the newspaper while I nursed him!

I pulled up to his school (in the bottom of a church) at 12:30 for his 1:00 pick-up. I couldn't wait to see him! Boy did I have another thing coming. When I went in, 5 til 1:00, he saw me and started fake crying. Apparently, two children had cried for much of the morning and Hunter wanted to join in upon seeing me. He refused to come with me (R, sound familiar?) and proceeded to throw a fit! He let out several ear-piercing screams (knocking me WAY off my high-horse of perfect mommy belief) and answered that he didn't like his teachers, his class or school, for that matter.

Lovely.

All the way home, he answered negatively to every question I asked:

"What did you do in music today?" I asked. "I didn't do anyfing."

"Did you have fun at school?" I persisted. "No. I don't like school."

I reminded him how God wants us to find joy in all things (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18) and that if he couldn't find anything kind to say, he could sit in his room until he did. (Okay, I just said that and don't know how much he could really comply with it. Can you see me now telling Hunter: "SAY SOMETHING NICE ABOUT SCHOOL! NOW!"? Ha!) I think he was either hungry (he only ate a couple of bites of his sandwich and nothing else) or TIRED! He has only napped maybe once in the past week.

Here is his fake crying face:

Maybe Thursday will go better. :)

With the introduction to solids (sweet potatoes and oatmeal cereal, specifically), it happened. Yeah, yeah, I know it's gross, but it's true! It happened this week. It went from what I call the 'sweet, innocent mustard seed' poop to a yellow-brown when I had to start supplementing with formula because of his weigh drop. Now that he's taking in more solids, there went his "innocence".

Enough about poo...It is just proof that my sweet baby isn't a newborn anymore. It seems like just yesterday that my precious boy was born and now when I hold him and caress his head, I realize how big he has gotten. I am really just reflecting on how quickly this precious stage goes by. Plus, he had his Half-Year Birthday Monday, September 1st. Colten is 6 months old now!



The next thing I know, he will be walking and talking. But for now, I cherish this stage, the moments I have with him...especially as a baby, holding him, making him giggle, rubbing him and just snuggling. I know that won't last too much longer, as he would rather wriggle away to go play.

I enjoy having a baby so much more this time than I did when Hunter was a baby. It was nothing against Hunter. He was a precious baby, too, but I had no clue what to do as a first-time mom with no baby experience! I was so overwhelmed. This time, it's a piece of cake most of the time.

I want to take this time to share with you a little bit of Colten. He wakes up almost everyday at 7:30 am to eat (immediately!). Now that he is taking solids, he screams if we don't feed it to him fast enough (just like his big brother did). He is so easy-going to play, be held and naps easily. His most precious trait is his playfulness. He just LOVES to cover himself up and loves to laugh with you. He is babbling now: "ahh..goo: and "daaa daaa" which just makes my heart sing.

He goes to bed with Hunter around 8:00. We still swaddle him but he easily sets his arms free. We think he still likes being bundled. We pray for him and sing him Jesus Loves Me, lay him down and he's off to sleep until the morning...just like I am right now.

Okay, after reading several of my friends' blogs last night, I went upstairs to get ready for bed in tears. Mark, of course, had no idea what was going on and, really, I'm not sure I knew either. I think it was because my sweet, tender-hearted friends blogged about their little ones growing up and moving to the next stage of childhood with their children (i.e., school, no more nursing, etc.). With Hunter starting school next week and "orientation" today, I felt a little weepy. Mark comforted me as best he could and then I vowed... "Tomorrow, I'm going to make them all cry!" I said with a smirk.

I don't know if I am able or in the mood for that, but I do want to share Hunter's "orientation" with you. He was so easy-going about it, except that he continuously asked about 'his' "dispLosible camera." The camera was on his list of "school supplies" but it's really for the teacher to use, not the kiddos. He just couldn't seem to grasp this. So, we met his teachers and new classmates, made a panda placemat and had our picture taken. VERY uneventful.

For those of you who don't already know, I actually did not send him to Bush Hill. Crazy, I know, but when I went to register him, I realized that the schedule for next year (as a 4-year old) would not work for me to do workout moms with Colten. In the meantime, a friend of mine told me about this school, which was very similar and would work with workout moms, so that's why I switched at the last minute.

Let me tell you about the school. It is a Christian preschool, a 5 minutes drive away at a church and he will be going 2 mornings a week from 9 to 1, so I will be learning to pack Hunter a lunch. (If you have any good ideas, let me know.) They have music the two mornings he is there but he will miss Library day. He will be in the Panda room (thus the panda placemat).

Since I was so late to register him, he had to be placed in a transition twos/threes class. He is the oldest in his class but not by much and most of the birthdays are October and December, with the youngest turning three in January. I don't think it will be an issue; however, if it is, I have been told that switching him to the threes classroom can be done.

I am really excited about Hunter's new endeavor, as well as apprehensive to "lose" time with my sweet boy, but I am looking forward to all of the things Hunter will be learning and doing this coming year.

"Mama, I'm disappointed in your life," Hunter said very seriously. What?!? It sounded dramatic but I think it really was a three year old repeating something I said to him. After I questioned his statement, he really was "disappointed you spanked me." Let me explain...

Instead of napping today, he had "quiet time." That's what we call nap time now that he's older and has some resistance to napping. However, he still naps most of the time. When I went in to check on him and tell him he was being too loud, he told me his pictures "fell off" the wall. Um, more like he KNOCKED them off the wall AND he broke a picture frame (the part that stands it up). I told him that I was "disappointed in his behavior" and would get a spanking after his quiet time.

So... that's from where the statement came. Phew! Thank goodness he wasn't really concerned with my life. When he said it, I had a hard time keeping a straight face but really wanted to take him seriously to find out what on EARTH he was talking about.

Now, he had every right to be disappointed in me. After workout moms, I had to rush home to get ready for my podiatrist's appointment and get out the door in 45 minutes. Needless to say, I was rushed! After telling Hunter to put his shoes on at least four times, I lost it! I yelled at him and saying it now (and earlier, confessing to a friend), makes me feel about 2 feet tall, but I humbly admit I did.

When we got in the car and Colten was screaming his head off for his bottle, Hunter started screaming because Colten's screams hurt his ear. I hope my neighbors weren't looking because I think I threw a temper tantrum. Shame, shame.

I took a deep breath and calmly told Hunter, in the midst of Colten's screams, that we both needed to try to block out the screaming as best we could because he's a baby (blah, blah, blah). Then I told Hunter I needed to pray and ask for God's help. That's when I asked God to forgive me for yelling at Hunter and blowing up, calming me in the midst of two children screaming and asking for patience. Then I asked Hunter if he could forgive me for yelling at him and that I make God sad when I yell at him. His response? "Yes, Mama, I forgive you." With God's grace, my stress vanished and I managed a peaceful ride to the doctor. Hunter and Colten were both angels while we were out.

Thank you Heavenly Father and Hunter for forgiving me. With disappointment comes forgiveness...