First Day of Kindgergarten

Boo and I were both up early yesterday preparing for school. He was so excited and I was excited and nervous. As I was showing him everything in his backpack and lunch box, he looked at me and said, "I'm so surprised at how much stuff I need for school." 

Yeah.  Me too, buddy!

We dropped Lil Bit off at hourly care and drove up to school. I walked him to his room and he got busy putting all of his things in away. I just stood back, watching him to do it all by himself.  He got settled in his desk and started right away on a coloring sheet that was at his desk. I walked over to give him a big hug and then stood in the back of the room with the other parents. When it was time for the parents to leave, the children all turned to us and waved goodbye. That's when I couldn't hold back the tears any longer. My Baby. 

A friend of mine who has children in the same school invited me to coffee after drop-off. So, I met her at the coffee shop and we had a nice time drinking our coffee and catching up on things. I did feel like I was missing something...like 2 people attached to me. But it's something I think I could get used to. Wink.

Lil Bit and I spent the rest of the day waiting on the maintenance repair man, playing hide and seek, eating lunch and napping. It was such a long day of waiting. I couldn't wait to pick him up and hear all about his first day.

When we were finally able to pick him up, he was all smiles. That said, I could tell he was tired because he was a bit snappy in his communication with us as we drove home. I expected this. He is my child, after all. He talked about music class and lunch and PE and recess. He said he wasn't allowed to eat his sandwich because it had peanut butter on it and there were children with allergies. Oops. My bad.  I asked the teacher about it this morning and got some clarification...he can't have peanut butter during snack time which is in their classroom but he can have peanut butter at lunchtime in the gym/cafeteria. So yesterday, when she told them at snack time that they couldn't have peanut butter, he thought that meant for lunchtime as well and didn't eat his sandwich. Poor fella. He ate it as soon as we got home from school. Lol. 

I did follow through on the chocolate chip cookie after school snack. He was pleased. 

It was a lot less stressful getting ready this morning!

We're off and running...

Kindergarten Eve

Batman starts kindergarten tomorrow. Batman's Mom is having a hard time getting used to the idea of her little super hero being gone ALL. DAY. LONG.

First of all, he's my baby. I can remember the day he really searched my eyes for the first time. He was about a week old. Maybe 2-3 weeks old. I was sitting on the edge of our bed holding him with my hand supporting his head and I was just talking to him. And as he scanned my face he stopped, in recognition, and searched my eyes. It was if his eyes were saying, Mama? And I said to him, "Hey there! I'm your Mama. I'm gonna take care of you and I love you so much." A lot of things over the last five years have been a blur, but I remember that moment. The moment he saw me and knew it was me. My baby.

And here we are five years later and he's going to be away from his Mama all day. I think it's the all day thing that is the hardest for me. I'm just gonna miss the little guy so much. I feel like I'm never going to see him again. It's a very conflicting feeling because as a SAHM, I often just want to be away from the children for a little while. Maybe even all day. But all day everyday? That's a big leap for us.  
Who is going to be there to help him clarify things when he's misunderstood? Or to encourage him when he can't get the words out? And who is going to help him maintain his innocence and sweetness in the real world?  He really is a sweet boy. And he's reaching an age where sweetness and tenderheartedness is starting to edge out the innate selfishness we display as human beings. Will that all be lost at school?
 
I'm a helicopter mom. I know it. I own it. I hover.
But I also know he needs to go.
He needs to figure it out on his own and be given the opportunity to do so.
As hard as it's going to be, I know he needs time away from me.

And he's ready, too.
He woke up this morning wanting to know if it was Tuesday yet because he's ready to start.
He's going to love it and thrive, I'm sure.

So tomorrow, I will take him to school and WALK HIM TO HIS ROOM.  There will be no drop off line for this Mama on the FIRST DAY, thank you very much.  I will try really hard not to cry. I don't want to upset him. And then I will drive back to post and pick up our beautiful butterfly (see her photo below) from hourly care.
We will spend the day together. I will look for Boo subconsciously and swear that I hear him calling me from upstairs throughout the day. And then, we will drive to school to pick him up. He will be all smiles and I will still try not to cry. He'll tell us all about his first day on the way home. Minute by minute, I'm sure.  ;)

And when he gets home, I will serve him some homemade chocolate chip cookies. Probably for the last time this year. Let's be real. And that will be that. We'll be off and running with no looking back. It will be a great year for him and I will adjust. I always do. I can hear PawPaw now recounting the times of transition in my life..."You cried when you went from Elementary School to Middle School, and from Middle to High School, and again when we dropped you off at Clemson.  And he'll go on to say, you just have to do this. The crying part. This is how you do it, and then you'll be fine. You always are. It's just your way." And he's right. We'll I'll be fine. 

And as much as I'm sad about Boo going off to school, I'm excited to have some special time with this little lady. I know we had time while Boo was in preschool,  but that time was usually been spent grocery shopping and running other errands. Now we'll have time to do more quality things together.  She's a fun gal!


His last hurrah before school was a day at the AK State Fair. There was a break in the weather (August is our rainy month for sure), so we had to take advantage of the sunshine yesterday. B-man had 24 hour duty and wasn't able to join us. He was definitely missed. That said, I'm happy to report that we had a great time. All three of us. They're getting older, which makes it more fun and less work for me, which is quite nice. I even got my face painted with them, which they thought was so funny. :)

We took a lunch break and stopped to eat under a tent, in the shade. The music from the "big kid" rides was so loud and these guys couldn't help but dance and bop around. Enjoy this little clip...

Happy Kindergarten Eve!
We're off to the grocery store because I will have to start packing lunches!

Just Some Stuff

After B-man got back from the field, we went on a family date to see the new Disney movie Planes.

Learning to tie shoes!

Bike chains 101.

It has been raining the entire month of August. That's no exaggeration.
The other night, I saw this rainbow in the sky.
It was so pretty.

More Junior Ranger Fun

You might remember that Boo earned his Junior Ranger badge at Denali National Park and at Kenai Fjords National Park this summer. Well, when he earned the one at Kenai Fjords, he told the Park Ranger that it was his second one. The Ranger went on to tell us that if he earned three badges in AK, he would earn a Junior Ranger patch.  So of course, he has been asking since then to get his third badge and patch. It turns out there is a National Park building in Anchorage, the Public Lands building. You can earn a badge there. Whew! So, we set off this past week to the Public Lands Building. Boo completed his activities (with a little help from Mom on a word find that was WAY too hard for his age group) and was sworn in yet again as a Junior Ranger. He's an Alaska expert now, I think.

They even swore in Bit this time. She's really too young and the other places were pretty strict about their program and would not swear her in at her age, which I understand. Boo earned his.  And when she is older, she can earn hers too.

But they swore her in and she was so excited. She kept telling me that she was a big girl because she got her badge. :)

The Ranger checking off his work.

Getting sworn in.

Alaska Greatland Junior Rangers

They've really played so well together this summer.
Bit is gonna miss him when he starts school.

THE PATCH!

Sandy Girl

Our Sandy Girl gave us quite the scare recently. She was having some difficulty breathing after coming back from a walk in the hot, humid, south. After some time, BeBe and PawPaw were able to get her calmed down and breathing okay. But the next day, she had a similar episode and so BeBe made an appointment for her to see the vet. Well, Sandy Girl doesn't like going to the vet. As soon as you get there, she starts panting and shaking. And she did just that when Mama took her in, which sent her into another episode and she was really struggling to get any breath. They took her from Mama and tended to her in the back and had to put her on oxygen and sedate her to calm her down.

The diagnosis: laryngeal paralysis (common in older, large breed dogs). Her vocal chords aren't moving as much as they should and they were getting swollen and inflamed when she would get hot or worked up/stressed out. It was causing her airway to close. The vet described it as trying to breathe through a collapsed straw. They had to transfer her to the emergency clinic because her condition required specialty care and perhaps some further tests that they could do there.

PawPaw joined them at the regular vet and helped carry BeBe and Sandy to the ER vet. My understanding is that Sandy was so excited to see PawPaw, that she got too excited and they had to get her calmed down again. They were finally able to transfer her. The ER vet recommended a tie-back surgery. They would tie back one of her vocal chords so that she would always have an airway. The complication with this procedure is that she wouldn't be able to close her airway when eating and drinking and could aspirate.  After some time though, the dogs seem to get used to it and don't have any difficulty. Hopefully.

Of course, B-man was in the field during all of this. I was a nervous wreck. BeBe was too. PawPaw, as usual, was our voice of reason. The surgery was big bucks too. I didn't know what to do. So, I decided to send her home on sedation meds until I could talk it over with B-man. So BeBe and PawPaw took her home and she did pretty good on the meds. B-man called and I talked it over with him. He made the choice so easy for me. Thank you, Honey.   We had to give our Sandy Girl a chance. She's old, yes (13). But, she's so healthy and spry otherwise. She could go on to live her happy laugh after the surgery. So, we scheduled the surgery and waited.

I thought of all of our times together. My Sandy Girl. She was born under BeBe and PawPaw's front porch. We've had her from the beginning. She moved with me to Colorado and was my first battle buddy. She is always happy to see you. Always. She is so loyal too. Before we moved here, she followed me everywhere I went and joined me to and from the baby's rooms on multiple nighttime nursing missions. I would try to tell her to stay, but she would come anyway. Following me anywhere. I think she's following BeBe around the same way now.
She has THE softest fur of any dog I've ever met. And it' still soft at 13 years old.

I'm happy to report that she's recovering well. PawPaw said they must've given her a bath and groomed her up real good b/c she looked so pretty when he picked her up after surgery. They are having to prepare her foot in meatball size portions for now and she's on a limited activity restriction for a couple of weeks. But seems to be doing well.

I miss my Sandy Girl and our Mur Mur!!! The brown one has reportedly been a little jealous of the attention Miss Sandy has been getting. :)
Siblings.

Also, BeBe and PawPaw, feel free to correct me on any mistakes I've made in the telling of her story. I was kind of a blubbering mess during the whole thing and might not have it all right.

I also can't thank you enough BeBe and PawPaw for taking care of our 4 legged babies. They love it at your house. In fact Sandy would sleep in the car all the way across country and barely even look out the window when we would drive home for visits. But the MOMENT we would turn down CCR, she knew it and would perk up and start wagging her tail. She always knew when we were close to home.  And was/is always glad to be there.

Thanks to technology, I was able to Face Time with her throughout the ordeal. She can't really see me, but she can hear me. :)

After her visit at the ER vet. She was pretty zonked out here.

I had to see her one more time before they took her in for surgery.

HOME!

After surgery.

We love you Sandy Girl and Mur Mur!!

Fishing

B-man encouraged Boo and I to take a fishing trip. He's so busy with work and studies, it's hard for him to get away for a full day of activity. B-man went fishing our first summer here (although it was really late in the season) and really wanted us to have a chance to go. So, while B-man was in the field, I got a sitter for Bit, and Boo and I set out on a fishing adventure.

It rained and rained the night before our fishing trip and on the drive up to the fishing spot. Rained. Rained. Rained. I kept thinking, what are we doing? Boo is going to be miserable and then I'm going to be miserable. We arrived at our destination and the guide was all get your rain gear and let's go. Ok, so we were really doing this. Boo started to cry when putting on his boots. I swore I would never take him anywhere ever, ever again if he didn't get it together (not my best parenting moment, but it's true). Turns out he wasn't crying about the rain, but b/c his sock was all bunched up in his boot and he couldn't get it on. Cry-worthy? Probably not. But it was easily fixed.

We hopped on the guide's boat and headed up the river.  It was wet and chilly. And Boo didn't complain at all. I couldn't believe it. We arrived at our first spot and got to fishing. A guy that was also fishing with us caught one first and when Boo saw it flapping around in the water, he was outta there! He kept saying, those fish are WILD! So, he would help me cast and reel, but when we got a fish on, he would head to the front of the boat. Lol.

It stopped raining and the sun came out! Yay! We continued to fish and we caught our limit. 2 per/person. We were fishing for silver salmon. The guide was slightly bossy. He was helping one gentleman whose license was going to expire in just a couple of hours and he was barking orders at him to the point where the guy just froze. No matter which way he moved, the guide was hollering something. I thought to myself, oh hell. This is not going to go well.  Just wait until he tries to help us.  I don't even understand the fishing terms he's using.  And from the looks of the guy the guide was "helping", he didn't either. Which actually made me feel a little bit better. We were all novices. Now, I know the guide just wanted us to CATCH FISH. That's his job and that's what he gets paid for, so I just had to let it go and listen and hope to God I could follow his instructions! We started catching fish right away, so I think that took some pressure off of all of us, guide included. In fact, we all caught our limit in 3 hours. Pretty awesome!

The rain came back in on our ride back to the landing. But we were happy as clams because we had our fish! Boo and I caught the biggest ones on the boat.  It was a big adventure and one that I was glad to share with our Boo. I hope it's one that he will always remember.

Anchorage Museum

Boo starts kindergarten on Tuesday. I'm not ready to talk about it. Just know there is a lump in my throat as I sit here and type and think about him going off to school.

So, rather than talk about that, I'll fill you in on our recent adventures. B-man had to go to the field for some training for a couple of weeks in August. The little ones and I tried to stay busy by checking out some things we haven't done yet. The Moms Club was hosting a play date at the Anchorage Museum, so we joined them. The kiddos had a blast. And they were quite well behaved. I rather enjoyed myself as well.

Giant bubble making was a big hit.

Keep it steady.

Starfish!

Anemones. All of the creatures were found along the shores in Homer.

Picnic lunch afterwards.

I'm trying to get caught up on posts again, so there will be several over the next couple of days as we near the start of school.

Jumping in the Rain!

The temps outside are getting cooler. Which means one thing...time to prepare for winter.
The little ones have outgrown their boots.

Let the search begin.
I found some for Bit from last season on sale at 6pm.com.
I had to do some more searching for Boo's boots. They're still being shipped.

They day after Bit's arrived, we set out to play in the rain.
If we wait for it to stop raining, we might run right into snow. That's how fall works around here. Rain.....snow. 

And I'm not ready to hibernate just yet.

Lil Bit was more than enthusiastic about playing in the rain in her "new flower boots".
Boo was not as excited, but in the end he couldn't resist.

Backyard Fun!

Ring around...

...the rosie.

A pocket...

...full of posies.

Ashes,

ashes.

We all...

...fall down!