One Small Step for Brady....One Giant Leap for Momma!

My baby went to school today! I can not believe it...Chris and I have been talking about how fast he got here...to this point...wow!

We had a blast preparing for this new chapter in Brady's life. Brady and I made a paper chain to count down the last two weeks leading up to school.


A couple of days after we started the paper chain, Chris and I found that our clever little boy was storing his paper links in the base of his locker lamp....


Mrs. Janey, Brady's teacher, called last week to introduce herself. We missed her first call so we played the message for Brady to hear...he was beaming hearing the message from "his friend, Miss Janey."


I found a really cool rocket ship back pack for Brady a LONG time ago and put it away to surprise him with it the night before his first day of school!


He LOVES it!!!


Chris and I wanted to make his VERY first day of school a special time in his life...something fun, exciting...something to celebrate and look back on with fun, wonderful memories. We bought him new pajamas for the night before the first day....rocket ship p.j.'s, like his backpack and we purchased him 3 new books (he LOVES books) about starting school...Maisy Goes to Preschool, The Berenstein Bears Go to School, and Curious George's First Day of School.


Brady woke up to a special, yummy treat for breakfast...strawberry muffins and a whole new dish set..a Cars plate, bowl, and spoon and fork set. He already had a Cars place mat so we bought new dishes for his fun, new morning. The lunchbox he picked out for school was Cars...he is a big fan of this Disney movie and the characters on it. I went to the Parent Teacher Store and bought a large cut out of a school house and a set of vinyl reusable school-themed stickers to decorate the kitchen for him to see when he woke up. I hung up the school house on the wall and stuck half the stickers on the kitchen window and the other half on the window of his van door to see when we headed out the door to drop him off.



Our big boy heading to school.....


It seems like yesterday he finally took his first steps (at 16 months) and now he is walking into school........



Today was one small step for Brady.......


but one GIANT leap for Mommy.....


We had orientation yesterday so he spent an hour in his class with his teacher and classmates and Chris and I sat in a meeting with the director and the other parents in the sanctuary. That was good for all of us...start out small and prepare for today. That helped because he LOVED it, as I assumed he would. That made it much easier today. One hour first before the full four hours...a nice way to ease in to our new routine.

Letting my baby go one baby step at a time was hard today. Brady is my buddy. It has been he and I all day, every day for three years. It is definitely going to be a transition for Mommy and an adjustment. I think the biggest part for me is knowing this is just the beginning of letting go and that is hard to swallow. I pray for protection for my little guy and I thank GOD for trusting me to take care of one of his special children....what an amazing gift! LORD help me to make you proud, reflect your love, and be the mommy YOU want me to be!

I finally caved and agreed to the shaved head...Daddy has been sporting it for several months and wanted to cut Brady's hair this way for a while but I couldn't give in....not my baby's curls. I finally agreed. I think it looks handsome...a little man!

This is my baby boy right before...


This is my baby boy during....



This is my baby boy right after....



This is the evidence...the sweet curls...




My first thought was "he looks like how I would imagine Brad Pitt looked as a little boy!" (biased Mommy) and fractions of a second after that, I thought "he looks so grown up...like he jumped from age three to age five or six."

Brady had a hard time giving Daddy permission to touch his locks as well. He kept saying "Daddy you are not a haircut person. I need to go to my haircut person, Miss Brenda, (the lady that has been cutting his hair at Great Clips) she cuts my hair, the nurse cuts my hair." We found it very funny that he had such an opinion on who cuts his hair and was so aware of the fact that Daddy is not "a haircut person". "Nurse"? not sure where that correlation came in...funny!

Brady loves the idea of having the same haircut as Daddy. The next morning...it was hilarious...he asked first thing when he woke up: "Daddy is my hair still like yours?"

Hyperfocused

"Hyperfocused" - I will never forget the first time I was called that. I was insulted as I took it instantly as an insult. Perhaps it was the context, perhaps the messenger, perhaps the ignorance in its definition, maybe - as is often the case - the truth behind it. This was some time ago and I haven't really thought TOO much about it since then.

Recently that word has come up again so I decided to look it up - according to Webster what does this mean? It is not in Webster...so does it not exist? I tend to live by the "if it is not in the dictionary it is not a word" philosophy. So I decided to use what brain I feel like I have left these days - I do have an 11 week old - and I used Webster to look up "hyper" - adjective - "high-strung, excitable, extremely active". Then I looked up "focused" - the intransitive verb form is defined as "to concentrate attention or effort." So if I now use my math skills (not so brain fried after all) and add these words together, I can assume hyperfocused means "extreme in actively concentrating attention or effort".

I would say "yes, I can be hyperfocused when something is important enough to me". I have also decided that, unless I am "hyperfocused" on something bad, being hyperfocused is not a bad thing, rather a good thing when I am actively concentrating my attention and effort on something good, important, valuable, etc.

Our "little" lineman

Evan went for his 2 month well check up on Wednesday and weighed in at a whopping 13lbs. 9oz. and measuring 24 1/2 inches....that is a gain of 4lbs. 4oz. and 3 inches in just 2 months.......90th percentile for both height and weight! Chris may get his dream of having a football player!

Family of Friends

I have gone through a lot of my life thinking family is always there for you, family is the most important thing, the relationships in your family are incomparable, "blood is thicker than water". I have come to a place in life where I believe there is nothing better than a true friend; not a sweeter compliment than someone sincerely looking you in the eye and calling you "friend".
You do not get to choose your family but you do get to choose your friends. When a friend is standing beside you in hard times it is because they WANT to be there, not out of some familial obligation.
I know many sisters who are best friends, mothers and daughters who are best friends, aunt and niece, etc. So when you look at a family member and call them a friend, that is a choice...that is elevating them above their family title and saying "I choose you." How sweet is that?
I love my friends!

Happy Birthday USA!

Brady enjoyed his first Fourth of July Fireworks Show last night. We enjoyed the Fourth of July Festival in downtown Homewood which is a great location to view the largest display of fireworks in the state of Alabama...the fireworks show over Vulcan!


My SUPER heroes had a BLAST enjoying the festivities!

BQ's (Brady Quotes)

So, as always, this journal is loaded down with great sayings from the first lil' guy to capture my heart...Bradester! I just love the wide open, honest statements that flow from lil' ones' mouths so matter-of-factly; those statements you can not wait to share with someone because they are so endearing or so hilarious! This was the drive for my journal as I knew I would never remember those quotes from my babies and I would later want to sit around smiling and say "remember when Brady said...." or "remember when Evan said...." and I know I will want to share with them the moments that warmed my heart!

Brady, on the way to church: "my teachers love me at church, Mommy, and I can not wait to get there and tell them that I love them too."

Brady, out in the yard with Chris and I, kept saying "Mom" this, "Dad" that. Mommy: "Brady you call me 'Mom' all the time now." Brady: "Yeah, I do." Mommy: "Well, you used to always call me Mommy, now you are always calling me 'Mom'. I didn't think you would call me that until you were older. Are you too old to call me 'Mommy' now?" Brady, very matter-of-fact like: "Yes, Mom, I am too old."

I was out on a walk with Brady and Evan in the sit 'n stand stroller and Brady and I were talking about obedience. He said: "Yeah, mom, and we say 'yes ma'am' to moms and 'yes sir' to dads and we say trufe (truth) to everyone." LOVE it!! Mommy: "yes, buddy, we do say the truth to everyone, all the time."

Such insight for such a little munchkin!