In Your SELF Interest: September Little Things

Yikes! Where do I even start after not blogging for 3 months?! I guess we'll start with September... I actually lost a bunch of my pictures from September as I was trying out a couple new phones and while switching from one to the other, somehow lost all my pictures! Sadly, lost all of Darin's bday pictures as well as most of our Fenway trip pics. Thankfully, I had uploaded a couple to facebook, and Darin took a couple.

Let's start with our back to school night! We made this massive skillet cookie--I think we called it something cool, but I can't remember now (this is what happens when I don't blog for 3 months/motivation for me to keep doing it). I thought that eating it out of the pan would be a cool symbol of our family unity, or something like that, but mostly we all just burned ourselves on the hot pan (thus the frozen peas on Belen's hand).

Practicing tying those shoes for the first day of school (it's still a work in progress). (So crazy to see how light it was in the morning and to imagine having the windows open!)

I had ALL the feels again, sending him off on that big yellow bus after homeschooling him for just about all of kindergarten. I'm going to assume that next year will be easier, after he does a full year of school, but man! It's hard to send them away, when they've been with you for so long. When you see everything they do and hear all the things they say and then you send them away where you don't see ANYTHING or hear ANYTHING. Will he be nice? Will the other kids be nice to him? Will he have a good relationship with his teacher? Will he make friends? What if he gets hungry? What if he can't zip his jacket on his own? What if he feels sad? What if a zillion other things?! Cutting those parent/kid ties as they get older...it's so necessary, but so hard!

Clearly we needed some separation. Just tugs on that mama heart to see them grow up and know that you can't, and shouldn't, be the one providing all the things for them anymore.

Needless to say, he is thriving in school. He is a social kid who likes a day full of structure and activities and people, which is something that school can give him much better than I can.

And just like that--he's a first grader.

The kids wanted to do a little "sleepover" together before school started for the year and bedtime became a bit more strict. The sleepover consisted of them using their sleeping bags on the floor. Only a kid would choose to sleep in a sleeping bag when there is an empty bed and mattress right next to them. Childhood is magic...mixed with a little lunacy.

We got out a good bit in September (as much as I could feeling so sick sick sick with a growing bebe in mah belly). It was so fun to go to some of our favorite Ithaca places after a year without them, and at the most beautiful time of year. After our year aborad, everything just felt extra special, extra green and leafy. I definitely felt extra grateful for so many things that first month back.

Cornell Arboretum, feeding the fishies.

Enjoying all the Halloween stuff at Walmart.

Belen started preschool at the end of September and was BEAMING. She had been begging for friends and school for so long and this little 2 hours, 3 days a week is just so perfect for her. She has all kinds of little buddies now and is--daily--asking me, "Who can we invite over for a play date today mom?" I love seeing her thrive in her own way in her own world. I think being around me and Shae 24/7 the past year with so few friends made it hard for her to really find her rhythm in life, which is exactly what she is now doing. She really seems to have blossomed and grown into her own person so much in the past few months.

Loving playing around with this portrait feature on my new phone.

We had a super fun, super quick trip to Boston to see the O's play at Fenway. Our time is coming to an "end" in Ithaca so we figure we better to get to the last of the baseball stadiums out here, because who knows where we will end up.

Belen LOVED that there was a boy AND a girl mascot.

Overall, Fenway is not my favorite. It was cool to see the Green Monster in person, and to experience a game there, but I just really didn't love watching the game in that stadium. It felt awkward and hard to see, clearly and old stadium. I was also a bit disappointed in the lack of kid/fun activities/games on the jumbo-tron in between innings and the lack of fun cheers, etc.--one of the best parts of going to a game, especially as a kid! It was very fun to see the Orioles win :).