One Year Later

I don’t know about you but these Facebook memories that pop up every day are such a sweet reminder of how fast life goes. How quickly the kids grow, how cute they used to be (well I mean they’re still just as cute, of course), and how much things have changed.

But today was different. The first Facebook memory that popped up was my very first blog entry one year ago. And in one year I have only written three times. I realize I can’t actually call myself a blogger if I only write once every few months. So from this day on, I am challenging myself to write more – a lot more. I am not sure how well that will work since I feel like our days are just chaos, but I am going to give it a shot!

A lot has changed in a year for our family. Bryson started kindergarten, Brystol started PreK, we moved, we got a puppy, and sweet baby Bryn isn’t a baby anymore.

First of all, no one can prepare you for sending your little child to Kindergarten. I didn’t think something so normal would make me so emotional. The school looked huge and my sweet little five-year-old was so tiny compared to those big hallways.

The first few weeks he was an angel. It makes you feel like such a good parent when your child is so good at school. Like pat myself on the back, I have this mom thing down! Then the first couple weeks of school pass and he gets comfortable, he makes friends, and he starts pushing the limits! Don’t get me wrong, he isn’t always bad, but we have had our share of walking laps at recess, red points, and even a LONELY lunch!! And scissors??? Little crazy boys should NOT be allowed to use scissors. In the past two weeks we are down four shirts and three pairs of pants from “accidentally cutting himself.” I mean come on!!!! But hey, he’s surviving, and we have met so many wonderful new friends through him starting school, plus I couldn’t have asked for him to have a better teacher!

And my sweet Brystol was made for school. She gets irritated that I have to walk her in to class. Mind you, she’s four, and in PreK. We HAVE to walk her in – it’s the rule! She has yet to have a bad day, has yet to complain about waking up to get ready, and hasn’t once complained about the dreaded “learning” Bryson warned her about. She spends 15 minutes every day before school trying to pick out the perfect outfit. Her new favorites are blacks and whites, because that is what “teenagers” are wearing these days. She has no idea what she is actually talking about, but this momma is just so proud of her love of fashion!!

Brynlee is a year and a half now. And poor Bryn, when you are the youngest you just get dragged around from soccer to dance to the car line. She never knows what her day is going to be like but for the most part she always goes with the flow.

But make no mistake, as easy going as she is, that girl is crazy. I’m talking standing on the table, throwing food, yelling, pulling the dogs ears kind of crazy. We are constantly chasing after her to try and save ourselves from the next disaster she’s about to cause. The other day I walked into Brystol’s room to find Bryn covered in permanent marker from head to toe. We have often found her throwing the oranges she claims are balls and getting into her sisters nail polish. She is at that dreaded age where she won’t sit in a stroller or a high chair. And let’s be honest, Jamey and I are too exhausted to fight her.

So she often gets her way. And we often find ourselves telling the big kids, “just give it to her so she’ll hush.” I know what you are thinking; you guys are going to regret that. Trust me, we do already. But she is so darn cute, we can’t help it. When the other two were her age I worked, so they stayed with my grandparents most days and went to daycare part time. And if I am being honest, I am pretty sure my grandparents had these toddler years way more in control that I do now. And if there was chaos like I experience on a daily basis, they didn’t tell me about it!

I always feel like when I walk in public people are just staring at the five of us. Like whoa, what a disaster. The kids are always so loud (I swear they don’t have an inside voice), my hair is always in a ponytail, my six-year-old dressed himself, and the baby is just in a world of her own wreaking havoc, and I am just hoping no one notices – that maybe they are too far into their own state of insanity to even see us.

And I am praying my kids don’t notice that I am almost always on the brink of my own giant fit. If one more child cries over the color of juice box they get, I may lose it. Yes, I give my kids juice boxes. So sue me. I am praying that they won’t remember the time mom yelled at them over something crazy, I am praying they don’t remember the day I let them watch the iPad for three hours straight so I could get some things done. I am praying that they always remember how much we love them, how much we did just for them. How every night we sit down to dinner, pray and have great silly conversations. I pray that those are things they remember.

I guess that is all for today. It took me 30 minutes to write this. In those few minutes, the puppy ate a colored pencil, Brystol ate at least five snacks (which she knows she is not supposed to do), and I can only hear Bryn but can’t actually see her! Wish me luck J