the day before "the" day

Tomorrow is The Mayor's surgery so I wanted to make sure today was a really great day. He will have to take it pretty easy for the next week so I really wanted his last fun day for a week to be a jammed packed one. And it was.

We started the morning with some fun play time with The Mayor and Love Bug. Love Bug was cracking us up with the goggles. She normally wants them on and then immediately takes them off, but this morning she just walked around with these big ole goggles on her face. The daintiness of Love Bug with the big goggles just got me tickled.

making her "big eyes"

Soon our favorite little cousin from Charlotte (soon to be Nashville) came by for a play date. Bennett was supposed to join in on the cousin fun but he came down with a nasty virus. We missed our Bennett but The Mayor, Love Bug and Sydney had a blast playing together. They were all so cute sharing and following each other around...especially Love Bug. She loved having her older cousin here. Love Bug wanted to do everything Sydney did...she played with the trains Sydney played with, followed her around the room and even wanted to wear Sydney's hair bow...and Love Bug doesn't like to wear hair bows. But she wanted to do what her big cousin was doing. Hoping to see Sydney again this week before they head to their new home in Nashville.

sweet Sydney

After our fun playdate, we went to lunch with The Mayor's BFF. It had been weeks since we had seen Blake so we were long overdue. We went to our favorite lunch spot and enjoyed a yummy lunch together. After lunch, we hit a local playground to burn off some more energy. The weather was beyond perfect and there wasn't a soul at the playground. The kids had so much fun running around for an hour...and sweet little Love Bug tried to keep up with the big boys...she isn't quite as fast as them...yet. Time flew by and before we knew it, it was time to load up and get Love Bug home for a nap.

The Mayor has been resting while I finished up some chores and now we are waiting for Love Bug to wake up. D should be home in about an hour and then we will get working on dinner. We have an early morning tomorrow so we all need to get some good rest tonight. Totally dreading tomorrow but prayerful it will help The Mayor feel better.

lucky number 7

Today The Mayor earned his 7th smiley face sticker. To be honest, he really deserved half a smiley face/half a sad face, but since we haven't quite nailed down the system and we finished on a good note, I settled on the smiley face.

enjoying his "7th smiley face special treat"

The morning started out rough. We had the pre-op appointment (which was just the disaster I knew it was going to be...I seriously do not know what it is with this doctor's office and The Mayor). A small meltdown on the way to Target followed by a face-to-face meeting with The Mayor telling him to shape up or ship out and the day actually improved dramatically. The end of the day was ok...he is just so tired and it is really affecting his behavior. The physician's assistant told us that a lot of kids that have this surgery turn out to be different kids afterwards because they finally start getting good sleep. We laughed and told her we needed this surgery to be a "miracle surgery" (which probably means our kid will be the first kid to actually end up being worse). I am seriously praying once the infected adenoid is out of his system he will breath better and sleep better...resulting in a happier and well-rested Mayor.

After the trip to Target, we went to Meega and Bennett's house for a play date. I love seeing the cousins playing together. They all just love each other and play so well together. Precious.

family movie night

Today was a great day.

We all slept in, except D, he woke up at 7:30 to do some yard work. But the rest of us slept between 9:30 and 10:00. Perfect way to start the day. Unfortunately, Love Bug's diaper kind of slipped off during the night, so we had a little bit of a wet mess to clean up. She needed a bath and her sheets needed to be washed. Of course this meant our resident 3 year old wanted to assist with bath time. It actually went better than we thought. Love Bug only needed to be washed from the waist down which was perfect since that is really the only place The Mayor kept dumping the water.

After some breakfast, we loaded up and ran a few errands and then went to lunch. After lunch, we came home so Love Bug could take a nap. The Mayor and D played trains together and I made some cookies. I know, how very June Cleaver of me.

After dinner we decided to have our first ever Shirley Family Movie Night. We all went into the basement, turned off the lights and cuddled up on the couch to watch Tangled. Tangled is easily becoming my favorite Disney movie. It is so adorable. Love Bug isn't quite ready for movie night so she went from sitting and watching to running around the room. The Mayor was pretty calm and watched the movie but then he would feed off his sister and want to play. But I loved having all of us together on the couch watching a movie. Looking forward to many more movie nights in our future.

Tomorrow is The Mayor's pre-op appointment. I am dreading it. He hates going to the doctor and he especially freaks out at the ENT (I don't really know why - she has never done anything except look in his ears, nose and mouth). Thankfully D is going so we will have extra reinforcements to get us through this 30 minute appointment.

no smiley face

The Mayor is 2 out of 3 on good behavior at school this week. So deflating. His teacher said she was going back and forth on whether to give him a star for good behavior today until he started ripping out the pages of the classroom Bible. Seriously. The kid has never torn a page out of a book in this house...what the heck is going on with him?

She said she thinks he just had an off day (duh) because he kept lying down and sucking his thumb. Like maybe he was really tired and just irritable. He would go from tackling people and stealing their books to being super sweet and sharing his swing with a little girl he didn't even know. But alas, it was the Bible tearing that left him without a star.

We got home and I drew a huge sad face on his chart with a red Sharpie. I told him I was sad because he wasn't listening today and tearing out pages of books so that meant he didn't get a smiley face sticker. And because he got a sad face sticker, there would be no special treat this weekend (which is when day 7 would have fallen). He looked at the chart and said "whoa momma! That is a BIG face!" And then he counted "1, 2, 3, 4, 5!". He clearly isn't grasping the behavior chart in its entirety, but we will keep working on that.

lesson learned

The Mayor and Love Bug aren't the only ones in the house learning lessons the hard way. Pretty much it boils down to this: don't let your preschool aged child, playing with your old iPhone (which has a camera that he knows how to operate) into your bathroom while you are changing your clothes. Thank goodness I heard the camera 'click' otherwise the next person thumbing through those pictures would have been in for quite a surprise.

We had a great day today. Another star on The Mayor's behavior chart at school resulting in another smiley face sticker on his behavior chart at home. He has 4 smiley faces...3 more to go before he gets his special treat. While The Mayor was busy at school, Love Bug and I enjoyed a girl's day. We hung out with Hayley and Carolyn today; totally impromptu...just the way I like it. Looking forward to another girl's day tomorrow with my favorite little lady.

The afternoon flew by and we had a quick dinner of quesadillas and chocolate pudding for dessert. A near perfect day in my book.

her way

Love Bug is ditching the baby and attempting to be a big girl. She wants to do things her way. I have no idea where she gets that from.

She really spreads those big girl wings at meal times. She is no longer interested in being fed; she wants to feed herself. And it doesn't matter what the meal is.

This is the result. I don't care; she is still the cutest girl ever.

The Mayor had a great day at school today. He came home with a star on his behavior chart. He did have his name moved to the yellow light due to some recess shenanigans, but he was able to move it back to the green light. I was so happy. And so were his teachers. We came promptly home and put a smiley face sticker on his behavior chart at home. He has 2 on his chart so far (one from yesterday and one from today)...when he gets to 7, he gets a special treat.

The fence is done! We love it. I can't wait to get some grass put back there and a play set. It is going to be awesome having a space where the kids can safely play without having to drive anywhere.

fencing in the crazy

Our fence is being installed today. It looks amazing and I am so excited. They should be done tonight or tomorrow morning. It is a 6 foot privacy fence that will be saddle cut. I really wish I had been taking pictures of the backyard from when it was a huge wooded mess until now...but oh well.

Here are pictures of the progress of the fence. When it is complete, I will put up a picture. After the fence is in, we will have grass put in the backyard and then a play set for the kiddos.

before

during...posts being put into ground

during...horizontal supports being put in

during...dog-ear privacy fencing being nailed in. Once complete, they will come back through and saddle cut the top

Love Bug supervising

We had a pretty good day today. It was pretty lazy since the fencing people blocked me in, but we still had a great day. At 12:30 this afternoon, The Mayor told me he wanted to go to sleep. He slept for about an hour and 20 minutes. This usually means a late night for him but at 6:15 he came into the kitchen and said it was time to go to bed. He is fast asleep. I really hope he isn't coming down with something and that he is just really tired from yesterday's 5 hour pool party.

The Mayor and I said our prayers and prayed especially for his behavior at school. We prayed for The Mayor to make good choices and for his name to stay on the green light. Oh, I really pray he has a good day at school tomorrow.

The Mayor's Adenoidectomy was scheduled for Thursday, September 1. We go in on Monday for his pre-op. It is crazy to think next week he will be having surgery but I will be happy to get it done and over with especially since his sinuses are acting up again after being off the 30 day round of antibiotics for a little over a week. Hopefully since his adenoid is infected and swollen, having the source of infection removed will make him feel like a new boy.

5 hours at a pool...

...will wear two kids (and two adults) out. We spent the day with our friends The Cartwrights. I grew up with Josh and Jed and Jed's wife Kim and Josh's girlfriend Kim were there. We cooked out hotdogs and hamburgers and enjoyed the afternoon and catching up. The kids had an absolute blast. Thankfully, there was a pack-n-play there so Love Bug was able to nap. I can't believe The Mayor lasted 5 hours. Needless to say, as soon as we got home, he was more than ready for bed. He got into bed, rolled on his side and went right to sleep. D and I are not far behind.

Tomorrow our fence is being installed. I am really excited! D has been working so hard on clearing out the backyard. By next spring it is going to have a playground and our kids will be able to run free. It is going to be great.

This week will also be The Mayor's first full week of preschool. Praying, praying, it will be a good week.

praying...

...that Tuesday is a much better day at preschool than today. I don't even want to blog about what exactly happened because to be quite honest, I don't want to remember it. I am praying today was a blip on our radar and The Mayor will settle in and the rest of the year will be a good one.

Looking forward to the weekend. We have a lot of pool time lined up and a trip to the store to get materials to make one awesome behavior chart for The Mayor to coincide with the behavior chart at school.

i love this strong-willed child

1st day of preschool 2011

Today was The Mayor's first day of school. Such a difference from the first day of preschool last year. Last year The Mayor had to be bribed each day for a month to go into class...and he still cried. Today, no tears. He was a little shy; he hid behind my legs for about a minute, but once he saw his friends he went over and starting playing. I snuck out like a good mommy and prayed his day continued to be a good day.

When I picked him up, he was excited to see me and we celebrated a great day by getting a vanilla milkshake. His behavior chart in his folder also had a star sticker which means he was well-behaved. Great day!

Yesterday was The Mayor's CT scan review with his ENT. His sinuses are completely clear after the 30 days of antibiotics but his adenoids need to be removed. They are blocking his airway by about 60%. The doctor's secretary is getting the surgery approved with our insurance and will call within a week to schedule the surgery. Not excited about thinking about my baby being under anesthesia and having surgery, but this doctor is highly recommended. The anesthesiologist who put The Mayor under for his CT scan sends his daughter to our ENT, so that made me feel good.

Tomorrow is another school day for The Mayor. Hoping tomorrow is just as good if not better.

checking out his reflection in the oven. He was excited to be wearing sneakers...first time all summer

1st haircut and meet the teacher

We had a big morning here in the Shirley household. We had "Meet the Teachers" day at The Mayor's preschool and then Love Bug's first haircut. Both were a success.

The Mayor was a little shy when we first walked into his new classroom. He hid behind my leg and then stood outside the classroom door, but as soon as he saw the toy cars on the play carpet he felt right at home. Love Bug even loved playing in the classroom. I think she will have no problem next year when it is her turn to go to preschool. I am very excited about his teachers. His lead teacher is the teacher I was hoping he would get and both teachers are certified teachers with many years of experience. This is going to be a great year for The Mayor. And I am very excited (and nervous) because this year they send home a behavior chart each day...so let's see how our boy does!

checking out his new classroom

in heaven

how cute is this igloo? It's made out of milk cartons...

Love Bug loved crawling around the igloo

We left school and went to get Love Bug's mullet hair cut. I was sad to see those baby curls get cut off but excited about how cute I knew her hair would look. And boy, does it look a million times better. Her bald spot is not nearly as noticeable with all that length cut off. She did amazing. She sat in the big chair with the cape and let the hairdresser do her job. Every once in awhile, Love Bug would catch her reflection in the mirror and just smile at herself. She cried for about 10 seconds when D walked in...I think she is used to her daddy rescuing her so much that she felt she needed to be rescued? Who knows...but she settled back down and let the hairdresser finish. Since we were only having the back trimmed up, the hair cut only lasted about 5 minutes. It was quick and painless...just the way I like it.

It is only lunch time, but we have had an eventful morning. Love Bug is napping and The Mayor and I are chillin'. Tomorrow is the last day of our summer vacation!

happy birthday poppop

Tomorrow is PopPop's birthday so we celebrated tonight at Mamie and PopPop's house. Uncle Bobby is in town and Mamie's best friend from college was also here. We had a great time celebrating PopPop's birthday and as usual, The Mayor and Love Bug loved playing with Bennett. It was such a great night that as soon as we got home, we took the kids upstairs to get them ready for bed and The Mayor asked to go to sleep. He didn't want to read or rock in his chair, he just wanted to go to bed. That was one worn out boy.

Yesterday was a long but good day. The Mayor's CT scan went well. The test itself was only 10 minutes, but we had to wait (what seemed like forever) before we finally met with the anesthesiologist. His name was Dr. Wiseman and he was very nice. He explained how The Mayor would be put under and how one of us would be allowed to be in the room while he was sedated. The Mayor chose me. I warned the doctor and nurse The Mayor would fight the mask, and they said it was expected and totally normal for his age. And he did. But with the fighting meant deep breaths of the air and he was asleep within 30 seconds. I got to kiss him goodbye and had to leave the room for the scan. We were back in recovery with him in 15 minutes, and while we were walking in the room, he was coming out of the anesthesia. He was a little groggy and cranky, but he actually snapped out of the anesthesia pretty well. No vomiting and a pretty good mood for the rest of the day. He ate a little breakfast (he wasn't allowed to eat or drink after midnight) and then we went home for a pretty relaxing day. We had a few errands to run and then went out to dinner and then came home and played in the basement. The Mayor came up to us at 6:33 and told us it was time for him to go to bed! He was tired from the early morning wakeup call and from the day he had.

This week means the end of summer...The Mayor starts preschool Thursday!

Meega really needs to learn to use an ironing board instead of her leg

just the three of us

Tomorrow morning The Mayor has his CT Scan for his sinuses. Because he will have to be put under anesthesia, we have to go to the main campus in Atlanta and be there by 7:15 in the morning. Meega was kind enough to let Love Bug spend the night so we didn't have to make everyone in this house miserable with the early wakeup call.

We dropped Love Bug off at Meega's house in time for her to eat dinner with her best buddy Bennett and D and I took The Mayor for Mexican. Why did I ever complain when I had just one child? D and I really enjoyed the one-on-one time with our boy and he was so well behaved. Maybe because he wasn't having to compete for attention? Either way, we loved every second of our evening with our boy.

We left Mexican and went to the grocery store to get some yummy snacks. Nothing like spoiling the child with some M&Ms. When we got home, The Mayor helped D water the trees and then The Mayor chased D around the yard with the hose. It was so cute and hysterical to hear the sweet laughs coming from The Mayor while he chased his dad. D was a great sport and then took the hose and chased The Mayor.

Thank you to Meega, J and Bennett for watching our sweet girl, and we are so happy to have the night with just our boy. Need to have one-on-one time with each of the kids more often.

summer time...drinking from the water hose

Meega sent this...Love Bug enjoying her mac-n-cheese