Adorable

While we were eating dinner tonight (and when I say dinner, what I really mean is a frozen meal I heated up because I am so very, very tired), we were talking about after dinner snacks as we were trying to convince Hannah to at least try the chicken enchiladas.

Jack was listing the various things he might have eaten if he finished his dinner, and at some point, I shared the fact that I often eat a bowl of cereal right before I go to bed.  (Don't judge.)

Jack was intrigued by this fun fact: "Really?" he asked.

"Yeah, I do it a lot.  Why?"

"Aww...that's so adorable."

Just like that.  It was the cutest thing, and I immediately smiled and jotted it down.  I'm not sure what is so adorable about me eating breakfast right before bed, but the fact that Jack had that reaction to it was the most adorable part.

Back to School

Today was a very big day.  It was the first day of school, and somehow I woke up to a third grader and a kindergartner!  I was surprised at how smoothly we were able to get up, get ready, take pictures, and get everyone to school in plenty of time.

Aside from a comedy of errors when we were in the Kiss & Ride line, all went smoothly.  Hannah couldn't open the car door, Jack had to climb over her seat, his foot got stuck in her armrest, and then he nearly fell out of the car and onto the curb as Hannah tumbled out after him.  But after they were both firmly on their feet, I said I love you, and I watched as my two babies walked towards the front doors, hand in hand.  And my mama-heart just soared.

Tonight, we are exhausted, understandably.  But I will leave you with some of my favorite back to school photos from our day!

Our babies aren't so small anymore

First Day of Third Grade

1st Day of Kindergarten

They were so excited and happy!

And very patient with my picture-taking

My loves

Excuse my florescent orange shirt, but that was our first day of school uniform :)

Hannah and one of her best friends on the mid-day bus to daycare...looks like she had a good day!

Look, Mama - no tears!

I couldn't have asked for a better first day experience.

Silent Sunday

{printable available here)

Our back-to-school teacher gifts are ready to go!

Too Much Mom Love!

Last night the kiddos spent the night with me in our bed since Daddy was traveling for work.  From the time Jack was a tiny baby, I would bring him into bed with me whenever Brad traveled.  As he got older, he'd look forward to our mommy sleepovers whenever Daddy had to go out of town.  Then Hannah was born, and once she was big enough, she wanted in on the sleepovers as well.  Lucky for me (?), they both want to sleep next to me so that we can snuggle, which transfers to the fact that they sleep soundly on the sides, and I sleep directly in between two little lovelies that thrash in their sleep.  I say this, but I really do enjoy these special nights.

This morning, Hannah woke up before me and Jack, and she quietly sneaked downstairs to watch cartoons.  Jack and I woke up around the same time, and we just snuggled in bed for awhile, chatting, catching up on our Instagram feed, and searching the internet for Minecraft lunch boxes (which for whatever reason, don't seem to exist!).  We got up, went down and had breakfast, and I straightened up the house a bit.  After awhile, I came up to get a few things done on the computer, and soon enough, Hannah Bear came up with snacks to ask if she could have some.  I told her first she had to give me snuggles, so I pulled her up onto the bed and tickled her like crazy.  Then I kissed her little cheeks and her eyelids and her hair and squeezed her little legs.  She was laughing and laughing, and then she started shouting, "Too much mom love!  Too much mom love!  Too much!  Too much!"

"Too much mom love?" I asked her.

Simply not possible.

Justified.

So Brad goes through Netflix binges where he becomes completely obsessed with one show at a time.  Sometimes, I get roped in and enjoy our binge-watching, but mostly, I suffer through however many episodes there happen to be of one show until it's finally over, and I can breathe a sigh of relief.

One of these shows was Justified.

It just wasn't for me.

It was absolutely perfect for Brad.  So perfect, in fact, that somewhere between watching however many seasons it was and traveling to Texas for work, Brad decided he needed a cowboy hat so he could walk around the house, tip his hat, and say, "It's justified."

I'm not even kidding.

Up until this past weekend, Brad decided to keep his hat at work...probably because I laughed when he returned home from Texas with a Justified-looking hat.  But on Friday, he brought it home from the office and promptly made sure that UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES were the little ones to touch his hat.

And ever since then, they've both been dying to do just that.  

If he hadn't said anything to them, they probably wouldn't even have noticed he had a hat, but since it was forbidden, they were chomping at the bit.  (I'm taking this as a lesson learned, that's for sure!)

So tonight, as Brad was wearing the hat during our typical bedtime routine (well, typical, except for the fact that Brad was wearing a cowboy hat), the kids were attempting to reach the hat and Brad was enjoying their feeble attempts.

As I finished reading to Jack and Brad came in from reading to Hannah, he leaned over and teased Jack, "I let Hannah touch my hat!"

I gave him the "stop teasing" look and as Brad allowed Jack to ever-so-carefully touch the hat, I made my way to Hannah's room. 

Hannah, grinning from ear to ear, eyes glowing, whispered to me, "Daddy let me touch his hat," as I snuggled down next to her and she giggled away.

I know exactly what Brad was thinking.  The look on their faces and the happiness Jack and Hannah got from one little touch, made it all worth it.

I'm sure he'd say, "It's justified".

10, yes. 15, no.

This boy - I love him so very much.  I can't believe he's already eight, and every time he snuggles with me, I soak it up as much as possible because I worry that one day, he won't.

Having a sister (and no brothers), I never quite know what to expect from my ever-growing son.  We are very close, but I try hard not to baby him or smother him.  He seems to be at the age now where he's easily embarrassed.  He likes to pre-approve his pictures for my social media...  At the same time, I don't want the fact that he'll always be my first-born baby to slip away.  I don't want our closeness to disappear over time.

The other night, he came up from watching a show to snuggle me.  So as we snuggled, I asked him, "Will you still snuggle me when you're 10?"

"Yes."

"What about when you're 15?"

"No." 

So there we go.  I have at least two, but no more than six years left to snuggle him.

Good to know.

our newest addition

Don't get too excited.  This is not a post about babies...at least, not of the tiny human variety :)

Our newest addition came in the way of a teeny, tiny turtle.

Halfway through our very snowy, very chilly winter, Hannah decided that she'd like another baby turtle.  Mid-winter is not a very good time to get a new turtle, for a couple of reasons.  One, we already had a turtle in her tank that she'd raised since it was a quarter-sized baby, and bigger turtles and tiny turtles can't go together in one tank.  Two, you can't release a turtle to a new home in the middle of winter.  So we told Hannah Bear she'd have to be patient, and that once it got warm outside, we'd be able to give her turtle a new home, and only then, we could get a new baby turtle.

Hannah remembered this conversation very well, and as soon as she could wear short sleeves to school, she'd ask about getting a new turtle.  We'd explain that we needed to let the ponds warm up a bit, and she'd wait another week or two before she asked again.  Until it got to the point where she started to ask every day, and then Brad gave in and finally ordered a new baby turtle.  Just like that.
One Monday night after dinner, he called a turtle guy, and before we knew it we were expecting a special delivery the following morning.  Hannah was beyond thrilled.

This morning, we got up, had breakfast, and got ready.  As we were getting ready to go for a bike ride, I got a text from Brad:

As you can see, Hannah wasn't the only one excited about the new turtle.

We came inside and opened the package, and there he was:

(Hannah looks scared in this picture, but I can assure you, she wasn't!)

We named our new friend Key Lime, but Hannah mostly refers to him/her as Mr. Turtle, which is just as cute.  She checks on Mr. Turtle every so often, just to be sure he's okay...the way I used to check on Hannah when she was just a tiny baby.  It's adorable.

Mr. Turtle is here to stay...at least until Hannah decides she'd like to release him to a happy pond and start all over again.