Transitions

 Maggie started kindergarten two weeks ago and what a time it has been! Prior to this, I have been looking at all the different schools available in our area for two years, so about the time she turned 4. Doing tours, talking with other local moms about the options, and doing my research. What it came down to was Maggie getting chosen at some of the schools we applied to and deciding which route to take in the end.

She started at the California Montessori Project and we got the teacher we requested, having heard from multiple families that one in particular was wonderful. I'm really happy with our choice. I am getting used to the new schedule, new commute, and trying to support Maggie as best I can on this new adventure. Maggie is also adjusting. Such a big change for a little five year old but she is handling it well. There were tears the first week but no tears on the 6th day of school. It's a big change for her to go from 3 to 5 days a week and move from a really safe, comfortable environment of home preschool to public school. She is making new friends, one in particular that she eats lunch with every day. This is a little girl that I have seen since the early days when I first started taking Maggie to story time as a new parent at our library (she was 1!). I always took note of this family at story time and I know the girls had an interaction or two but that was about it and I don't think they remember it. It's pretty cute to hear her talk about her days. After the first day when she was shy and sitting alone in the cafeteria (I know, so sad to imagine!), she got a pep talk from dad that night in the dark about how to make friends. Little did I know, my little girl went to school the next day and made this new friend on her own. She asked her if she could eat lunch with her, and since then they have been a pair. Now they trade off picking where to sit in the lunch room and it seems a boy or two sits with the two of them every day. At back to school night, her friend's parents chased after us introducing themselves and telling us they had heard all about our family, even our old cat! Oh Maggie.

I am thankful for the community we have already become a part of since school started. Part of the reason I chose this school was because of the community but also because of the learning method which is different than a traditional public school classroom and smaller class size. I wasn't planning to tour this school but I did with the encouragement from a friend and when I went into the kindergarten classroom (Maggie's now!), I was amazed. I had already seen other public school classrooms but this one was peaceful, not crowded, organized, beautiful, and it smelled good! I remember telling people after that tour how the teacher must have had a candle burning somewhere! I also remember a little rabbit in a cage in the corner, it was so fluffy and healthy looking :-) It was just a world of difference from what I had seen up until that point and I never forgot that. That was the type of environment I wanted for Maggie and we lucked out on getting in, it felt like getting a golden ticket! I also liked how the before and after school program is on-site taught by teacher's aides who are in the classrooms during the day. I knew even though this would be a shock to Maggie at first, that it would be a good fit for her.

So now I am a mom to a school-age child. She is not with me in the mornings anymore and I feel like I am becoming a mom who is in the car a lot transporting kids and running errands like a crazy woman much of the time! I'm sure we'll just get into a new routine. Moms to kids under five, cherish those years! They go by really fast.

On the back to school note, this is beautiful. I follow a few blogs of woman who have gotten involved with Noonday Collection in the past year or two and it was inspiring me so I decided to host a trunk show for Noonday next month! We have a new patio being put in so I figured once that was done, it would be a great time to throw a party! The story is amazing as are the jewelry and accessories. I can't wait!

(Courtesy of Noonday's website, not a link)

Seen and Heard

Maggie: driving to our first camping trip this summer, we arrived and rolled the windows down and Maggie said "mmm, it smells like nature."

Maggie: "I'm not going to run, my feet are still tired."

Maggie: "I loved it when I was little, Max."

Maggie: rolling over from waking up a few days after kindergarten had started and saying "I don't want to go everyday. I'm getting tired of it."

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We did lots of travelling this summer, here is a quick smattering of some of the places we've been!

Packer Lake (fishing derby)

A yurt in Hiouchi (tip top of California)

Mom's club progressive dinner - Summer 2014 (we all rode bikes!)

Busy bodies

We went camping in May! We never go camping that early and it was awesome. We were invited to camp nearby, but in the mountains, with my mom's group. 6 families. 12 adults. 12 children under 7 years old. I would have never imagined how fun it could be and camping-wise, how easy, but it was. You have 10 other sets of eyes watching over your kids and meals were split up by family. So, over the course of 3 days, we made one meal for the group and then sat back and were fed by the other families. Yep, awesome. There is something to be said for hanging out with people going through what you are going through. The sites were planned out near a kid-friendly beach area and if my kid cried at night, which he did, I didn't feel too bad because it was happening with the other families. It was beautiful weather and it started sprinkling right as we were leaving on Memorial Day.

More family photos from April. They were taken in a local botanic garden. I've started a photo wall in our hallway that is being put together kind of haphazardly but it works :-)

Summer is quickly approaching and so are the 100 degree temps. Swim lessons begin next week, can't wait for the cuteness there and Maggie is going to try soccer this summer. We have 2 trips down, a few more fun ones to go.

We're getting better sleep and I don't feel like I have to go to bed when the kids do every night like I did over the past year. Max wakes about once at night if we're home, every once in awhile it's two or none. He's easier to predict with his sleeping patterns now. Away from the house, a different story but that's ok. I am so enjoying watching them grow up. Every day Maggie says the funniest things as she learns to put words together into sentences and I'm always thinking how I need to film it or write it down and it rarely happens. I would have never known before having my two what was involved day to day with kids discovering and learning. Witnessing it is one of the greatest pleasures of my life right now as an adult, it just feels very satisfying to lead and watch. Sometimes I think about the things I used to want to accomplish before I decided to get pregnant and how those things have been put on hold or have gone out the window altogether. Maybe one day I'll get back to those things, maybe not. My yarn is used more now for kid's craft projects or Max gets into a yarn drawer and pulls some of it across the house.

Just from this morning:

• Maggie woke up from the garbage truck going by outside and said to me "I could use a little more rest."
• Maggie laid out her clothes for the day, pointing out the hot pink in every piece  (saying "hot pink") and used the word "snazzy" to describe her outfit once she was dressed. The girl has style. 
• Max took my toothbrush outside (this has happened before) but then rubbed it in the fire pit/gravel and Maggie brought it to me telling me what happened while walking in her princess dress up shoes. Don't worry, it went in the trash.
• Max ate some of his breakfast, then proceeded to throw it from his highchair (happens every meal). What a waste of cherries!
• Max has figured out how to get up on both toilets, lean over the sink, and turn on the faucets full blast so that he can run his fingers through the water. Yikes.
• Max and Maggie digging in the garden and Max swiping green tomatoes to his father's dismay. We're working on that one.

{More cute pics}

 

+ thoughts

Suprise if you haven't heard but I'm preggers with a kidney bean. Unfortuntately I'm experiencing a yucky first trimester where I'm nauseous all day, every day, can't eat normally, and doing what I need to do to get by with the help of others. Would love to fast forward a few weeks so that I hopefully come out of this and enjoy food again and have my energy back. I experienced the same yuckiness with Maggie but it seemed to start earlier this time and I must have blocked out how how horrible it felt to be nauseous all day because I remember a really nice pregnancy with her.

We got a nice camping trip in the weekend after I got the + test. I was just starting to gag at smells or things people said that were gross. After that, the "morning sickness" settled in and my weeks have been a blur. I was coerced to go on a second camping trip of the summer to Big Sur with my co-workers. I did it but not without feeling like crud sometimes. Driving adds to my stomach pains but the distractions of camping and doing fun things helped take my mind off things. It was our first time to Big Sur. I wish I'd seen more beach and the lighthouse but the weather was on the chillier side so just driving along the coast was fine. I was suprised to see how busy Big Sur was, it reminded me of Yosemite village. Big Sur is pretty, and don't quote me on this because of how I'm feeling, but it's not my favorite. We took the afternoon to visit Limekiln State Park, about 30 miles south, and that was really beautiful. Supposedly this little park is on the list to be shut down next year. 

Group campsite

Michael hiked up to this gorge on the Big Sur River with Maggie precariously balanced in the backpack. I caught a few glimpes of him on the way up and it scared the crap out of me. She was a trooper.

Our crazy curly haired girl





Finishing up the smore a co-worker made for her - she was in heaven

I simply cannot wait to feel good again and by then, I know I will be really starting to show. I don't think I ever lost a little bit of tummy after Maggie and as of last week, I couldn't hold the tummy in any longer. What's with that? I know things look different to everyone on the outside, but on the inside I'm still coming to grips with being pregnant even though we were trying! It's a big committment and with working, feeling sick, taking care of a toddler and our home, it's no joke.

To all my friends out there who have done this multiple times, my hat is off to you. We very well may be a happy family of four.

Other things to note:

-threw together fun date in a matter of hours and saw Sugarland last week!

-Maggie is almost potty trained!

Cheers :-)

Two's setting in

About a month ago, I started noticing subtle changes in Maggie that were showing that the her two's we've heard about were starting to show their colors. I'm not going to say terrible two's because that just sounds negative. She is still our sweet Maggie but with a little more umph! Reading a friend's blog today and I could relate. Parenthood is bittersweet and it is hard to be completely in the moment when there is so much going on around us but I also try to enjoy and appreciate these special moments when they happen. One thing that had me laughing the other day is the potty training process. We had a friend over so my attention was divided and we were practicing underwear/no underwear-time in the house. Next thing I know I find Maggie using the toilet but a little too late. She had the wiping down but then told me "there is poop everwhere!" and then proceeded to show me where it was. Good times.

We've been on the go a lot. We're in the middle of swim lessons as it is that time of year that we hear of very tragic events in the water involving children and I just don't want Maggie to go down that road. She also showed a huge exhuberance for water this spring so I knew it was time. Lessons have been great. The pool looks so inviting but dad has been having fun in the pool.

My goal this summer is to get out and go camping a lot and spend time outside with family and friends. So far, we're doing good. We are having friends over for meals, riding our bikes, walking to the park, and enjoying our yard and garden.

Appreciation for life



Tired eyes on the climb!

 This is a hard post to share because of the nature of the situation but I can't let it pass because it has affected me.

Yesterday hubby and I got back on our mountain bikes together, back to the same trail where we used to spend our early days falling in love with eachother and me with bikes (Michael was already in love with bikes way before I met him :-). We had family watch Maggie for the better part of the day so we set out to get a ride in after lunch. We were headed to one trail and then at the last minute opted for another that I knew would be a little easier on me, as I calculated it out afterwards but knew it in my mind all along - it'd been about 30 months since I did my last mountain bike ride. My last ride had been Downieville, first time I'd ever done that ride after hearing so much about it, and it was awesome. I fell kind of hard in a technical section, which pissed me off because I'd just seen a woman get through it, but all in all, it was a great ride with friends who we'd been camping with over the holiday weekend. I was a mess of hormones, as the following Monday I found out I was pregnant with Maggie. At that point, I was thankful to have done that ride as it looked like my life was about th change change:-)

Back to yesterday's ride - we parked, suited up, and headed out on the Clementine Loop, starting from the confluence. Michael knew something was off when we passed through the gate and it was open. I didn't notice. I did notice however the 4 or so police/State Parks vehicles parked up ahead on the trail with no one around. Michael scooted ahead of me and came across two packaged body bags (white with black zippers) on the trail. He moved them to the side and we proceeded slowly. It was then ahead that we saw a couple of the policemen and a few more down the embankment near the river. I remember at that moment looking up at the Foresthill Bridge, maybe Michael said something about it, and seeing groups of people staring down the 730 feet drop to where we stood. We were informed that someone had just jumped, committing suicide, landed right in front of where we stood, leaving a torso-sized imprint in the damp earth just to the side of the trail, and then tumbled down the embankment to the water from the force of the impact.

We think we rode up just after the police got there, so probably not too long after the incident actually happened. Michael tells me that it took about 20 seconds to happen, start to finish. 20 seconds to go from life to death. I gazed down by the water trying to make sense of the situation and saw the body of the young man that killed himself. I've never seen anything like this before and I felt calm, just taking it in and trying to get out of the way. Michael was ready to leave the scene and continue on the ride, saddened by the situation, and he eventually convinced me to move on...but I haven't stopped thinking about it since.

What is really wierd is that this happened about 2 minutes into our ride and so, for the rest of our ride, things felt surreal from what I'd just witnessed but I also felt grounded in what I was doing. I haven't given myself the chance to get in a good workout in ages and so I was doing something I used to do all the time and it felt so good to be alive and be doing this with someone I really cared about, knowing that our child was being well cared for at the same time. As I rode, I felt every rock and the damp firm soil under my knobby tires. I felt the resistence it created but also how easily I could maneveur around. It felt really natural.

What I had witnessed though put things in perspective right away and made me think about the value of life, what goes into nuturing life, and at the same time, wondering what that man who did this was thinking or living leading up to that choice. It boggles my mind. I am so grateful for what I have in my life and I am deeply saddened that there are people out there suffering so much that they end up making these choices.

By the time we finished our ride, the officials were cleaning up and leaving the scene. It began and ended during the time that our ride began and ended, at least from my point of view. I'm not sure what the meaning of this was, that we happened upon it like we did, but I am thankful for the time we had yesterday to get out and do something we loved together. I felt so alive, more so than I've felt in a long time, and I see this as an experience to show me how fragile life is and to not take it for granted ever.

Humbug

We embarked on our first camping trip a couple weekends ago and what I hoped was going to be a ton of fun turned out to be a ton of work. Hubby says I have a "unicorns in the sky" way of thinking and I suppose I do, but come on, can't I look forward to getting away anymore? There were bits of fun interspersed with all of the parenting moments that left me exhausted by the end of of the weekend. Then came Monday, a week of hormones, followed by a cold on Friday, which Maggie caught and has carried on to today.

I need a break.

I've been wondering whether it's worth it to go anywhere besides home with a kiddo this age. Then I think I'm weak sauce compared to the other families we see out there with more than 1 kid.

We subjected our friend Ken to our "family fun". From the looks of it, he doesn't seem to have suffered too much.

He brought dark chocolate covered pretzel bark to share. I think Maggie enjoyed it.

It was nice to spend time with our friends, escape the heat, be in the mountains and smell all of the wonderful alpine smells, and see Maggie have a great time exploring. We heard lots of singing and talking to herself while she puttered around.

Maggie on the go

Michael and Maggie in rigged baby tube

Me knitting (gasp!) during her nap

I admit to liking being in control, making lists to stay organized, and all that jazz, but I also love spontaneity. Travelling with a toddler + spontaneity isn't a great combination. Bummer. So I try to be prepared as I can be but then one thing leads to another and I'm thrown for a loop. My friend Jessie said that she just looks at it this way: she expects the worst and then when the experience isn't the worst, it actually had tidbits of fun and was better than expected, she is pleasantly suprised. Oh jeez!

One thing is for sure. I've hit my 30's and I definitely need a good night's sleep. Maybe it's the fact that I'm a parent to a toddler and need a good night's sleep to keep up with her and not lose my marbles by the end of the day. Either way, I need a functioning aerobed (not one that has such a slow/small leak that you can't find it but by the wee hours of the morning it's 3/4th's deflated but I wait a few more hours trying to get some sleep trying not to move a muscle so that I don't wake the baby and the whole time I really had to pee) or I need a $100 3.5 inch camping thermarest to get me through the next few years of sleeping on the ground. Even better, how about we spring for one of those camping trailers everyone and their mom complains about? Those look just about my style these days. I'm starting to see why people do what they do, no matter how ridiculous it may seem. 10 years ago, I scoffed at so many of these things. Now I'm swallowing my words. You really can't judge until you've lived a day in another persons shoes.

Next time we go camping, I'm bringing new toys. I'm looking for the element of surprise. Bubbles, tonka truck, you get the idea. I'm pre-cooking her food and I'm not going to let her OD on fruit or juice. That only leads to suprise moments at the lake.

In other words, I'm going to be more prepared. See you later spontaneity. Ugh.

Ken wants to plan another camping trip so that makes me think it wasn't that bad but then again, he's not the mom. But it makes me realize I need to loosen up and lower my expectations. I know Michael is smiling right now.

Mammoth

Last camping trip of the season (thank goodness!). We joined my co-workers on a group trip to Convict Lake, just outside the town of Mammoth. It was nothing what I expected. I pictured a forested landscape but it was high desert with a nice shimmery lake and such a vast rocky backdrop that made for some incredible scenery. Highlights from the weekend included the pretty drive, the group dinners, visiting with co-workers and their families and seeing all the kids play together. Unlike some of my co-workers, we were campground-bound most of the time but it allowed us to get to know one of my co-workers and her mom better. I work with some really great people. Maggie got her sleepy time in and we were happy campers, literally!

Little camper

1st camping trip of the season and 1st time for little Mags. She LOVED it. And we're pretty happy about that because what would we do if she didn't?
She cooed and talked while on walks around the campground, in her playpen looking up at the trees, and in the tent when we'd put her down for a nap. Two other families near us brought their little ones too. Lots of people were suprised we were taking her at 4 months old but on the contrary, it was really easy since she doesn't crawl or walk yet. We just weren't as mobile as we once were. I consider this trip a trial-run since we have a few more planned this summer and I came home with a list of things to pack next time to make it more fun/easier. Michael is thrilled about that. He already thinks I'm packing up the house :-)

Next time we head up to the mountains I think we're going to shoot for a site along the river that doesn't cost anything. We scoped out a few of these spots, including the one I camped at for years as a kid with my family, and had a good chat with a couple forest service employees about primitive camping. As we talked, they couldn't believe how much of a happy girl Maggie was. One of them commented that he loved her "bracelets" (a.k.a. chubby wrists) and that she was "ridiculously cute". A mom and dad always love hearing this stuff!