After looking back at my blog and realizing that Jaggar also refused a bottle until he was 4 months old, I decided to try again with Costner. Honestly, I don't think I had ever tried to give him one because...well, why would I? So one day last week (the day of Sage's awards), I got out the bottle, put some milk in it, and gave it to him. And do you know what he did? He made everyone that talked about his screaming fits with a bottle look like a liar. He was like, "Oh, my bottle. Thank you. Not my preference but it will do for the time." I showed Travis a few days later, and he was like, "Woooow. Thank you!" I made sure to try it when he wasn't throwing a fit and overly exhausted already and it worked out perfectly.
On Thursday, May 24th, our sweet friend and favorite baby-sitter, Emily, graduated from Oxford High School with honors. We took the whole crew to the graduation, and we survived. It was interesting to watch, as I hadn't been to a high school graduation since...possibly my own, no kidding. My graduation was in Freedom Hall, which is like the BJCC, so to be sitting on concrete bleachers in a football stadium was quite a contrast. Jaggar, having no prior graduation experience, was also unimpressed because he immediately said, 'This isn't even a chair! I'm sitting on the ground!" :) I remembered the feelings I had right before and after I graduated. It wasn't just an "I'm free!" type deal but more, "I'm free?!" Because until then, I HAD to go to school. Now, no one really cared what I did or didn't do. I could work. I could go to school. I could be homeless for all anyone cared. But it was all my choice, and that was a bit scary. I wondered if any of the graduates could comprehend that. It was funny because at that point, graduating IS the biggest thing they'd done, but as I've been out of high school for almost 12 years, it's really small. That's not to lessen their accomplishment because it IS definitely one, especially in this day where some girls have more kids than I do by the time they SHOULD graduate. As I listened to the principal call out the hundreds of names in a sing song fashion "Emily Ann Schaefer," I said my own kids' names "Sage Alexandra Spence" "Jaggar Cruiz Spence" "Costner Bleu Spence..." and Sage joined me grinning. I imagined where they'd sit, what they'd look like and sound like, and if it would even be from here...and then I stopped. Because I don't want that to be here any time soon...and yet, it will before I know it.
At one point, Jaggar spotted these balloons going up. I thought someone had just lost their grip, but then I realized as more and more sets flew away, that parents were letting them go after their kids' names were called. Talk about emotional for me!
We had a nice long visit with Nonni and Mema here for 2 1/2 weeks (minus the end when Sage pulled Mom's back out minutes after this photo below was taken). Sage jumped over the side of the cart, and Mom mistakenly helped her like a reflex. I didn't see it happen because I was talking to someone I knew, and when I realized what happened, I said, "Why would you do that? She weighs like 60lbs!" Mom was almost sick with pain, and Sage goes, "Mommy! I do NOT weigh 60 lbs!" Ha! We had a nice time and lots of laughs. I am, however, glad that my kids aren't waking up at 6 am anymore (except for Bleu, who seems to have reverted to some crazy wake up before 6 am schedule...ugh!) to greet them.
We made it through another year of school. 2nd grade came and went by so fast that it was scary, but it was a great school year. I have to admit that after giving birth to my 3rd child, I was more than ready for EVERYTHING to come to a break: School, Dance, Church, Meals...you get what I'm saying. It is crazy to me how much Sage has grown, both physically and academically, this year. She is a kind, smart, sweet, articulate girl, and I genuinely like her, and so does everyone who gets to be around her more than I do during the school day. I get compliments from other adults about how wonderful she is. Makes a mom's heart happy. So we embrace summer time now! Jaggar, in particular, was SO thrilled when we went to pick her up on that last day when I told him she didn't have to go back for a long time. Although she was very upset that Nonni had just headed back to Kentucky, and Jaggar's repeating "Sage, Nonni leaved!" over and over was pouring salt in a wound, she is now really enjoying being home.
Last week of school
Her report card...3rd grade?! How'd that happen? I swear it just seems like it was kindergarten.
Her teacher had this in with the report card. Look how much she grew! And if you can't tell by that, just look here.
As the final week of school wound down, Sage had an awards program the day before the last day of school. We didn't know what she was getting, but Mom, Mema, the boys and I all headed to the school gym to find out. I hadn't planned on checking her out early because I'd already checked her out for field day and to get her hair cut (and I had to get her on the last day), but the principal said, "If you're checking out your kids after this, just go to the office and sign them out." Apparently, the last week of school is just a formality.
She was excited we were there.
The first award that she received was All A Honor Roll for the entire year. This is all the students in the 2nd grade that got that, which you can see, isn't many.
She also received a Most Improvement for Math. She's like me in that she finds reading and English to be a breeze and has to work some in math. We were very proud of her accomplishments for the year.
And the 2nd grade flocked to the fact that there was a baby in the house.
Sage and her wonderful teacher, Mrs. Robbins, who I'd really like for her to keep. She was blessing to us this year, and I believe God has all of Sage's teachers (and all of my kids' for that matter) picked out. It was nice to have a teacher that had a passion for what she did and a love for her students. Thankful for her this year.
I didn't think that she was going to do it this year, but as the weather heated up seemingly overnight, Sage decided that she wanted to cut her hair off. I thought we'd just get a much needed trim and keep it longer, but once it was cut, I was again reminded how AWESOME it looks like this. Sage has so much hair, and it's really great hair too. It virtually fixes itself, and if it weren't for dance and that stupid bun we have to have for recital, I'd keep it this short because it looks amazing, and Sage LOVES it like this.
What pure joy Jaggar Cruiz has been to me. He makes me laugh more than anyone I know. He is so wonderful. He really only seems bothered when there's a thunderstorm (sheer terror) or if a toy just won't do what he wants it to do. If I'd known how wonderful having a son would be, I may have preferred a boy before I ever had children. (I was the typical, "Have to have my girly girl" as a newlywed planning children one day...not that she's not wonderful too) My life would be missing so much if I didn't have him. Some of my favorite phrases he says are, "He waked up." "My feets hurt." "Can I sit with you?" "My tummy just wants chocolate!" He is just content and easy and...wonderful. I can't say it any other way. He is my heart, and I am so proud he is my son.
After the excitement of presents had worn down, Jaggar's attention turned to cake. Paisley didn't make it to Chick Fil A because her sister fell asleep, but it was okay since we were there for such a short time due to the heat. But they came over later that afternoon for cake and ice cream. Jaggar chose a Toy Story cake (after choosing about 1000 other cakes including but not limited to Lalaloopsy). And let me just tell you, if you haven't had a Publix cake, do yourself a favor and take care of that. I love icing, it's true, but their CAKE is so amazing that I could have just had that and it would have been wonderful.
Here's a few pics of the birthday boy with his cake.
Notice his Toy Story cake and balloons. Sage would have kept her balloons for weeks until I finally got rid of them. I came home last night, and they were all popped. They were still up in the air because we had the high float, so I said, "Jaggar, why did you pop your balloons?" He said, "Because I love popping them." So...note to self, don't waste money on balloons for Jaggar.
His cake
Singing happy birthday
Enjoying his cake...which he just scraped the icing off of and was done with.
Enjoying her cake.
What's a cake?
Paisley riding Jaggar around on his own bike.
Travis' parents came over right as Nichole left and brought MORE presents...which I have no pics of, but they were air planes that converted into dinosaurs (and they roar), and he loves them. Anyway, at the end of the day, Jaggar had ONE more present.
Thrilled with another opportunity to open a gift.
It is the REAL Buzz! He had issues with the smaller buzz that was in his Easter basket because only one button was real. The other 3 were stickers. So "it wasn't a real Buzz." This Buzz has a certificate saying it was made and designed exactly like the movie. It has sensors that respond to your voice and how loud or soft you speak. It makes flight sounds when you fly it through the air. He was in Heaven. What a wonderful birthday this precious boy had.
Jaggar asked every day after his zoo trip when his birthday was. He would say, "UGH! But it's SO hard to wait!" Every day, we'd count down another day to when his birthday was. Truth is, I wanted it to be here too, because I wanted him to get what he wanted. Oh, one of the reasons we did his zoo trip a week before his birthday is that Travis went out of town on a 6 day shoot for MTV and wouldn't return until the day before Jaggar's birthday. May was SO busy. AND Jaggar's birthday was field day at Sage's school, AND I had a meeting at 7:30 in the morning for Sage being in the gifted program. So he woke up and I had to leave! I think he was like, "I've waited this long, and I'm still having to wait?" I hated to leave him, but field day was over by 10:30, and I checked Sage out after that. We went and picked up some balloons and his beloved Toy Story cake from Publix and had plans to eat lunch at Chick-Fil-A and play on the playground with Sage and Paisley. Travis had come home to help Mom with the baby, as I could not take him to field day, so we decided to go ahead and do some presents, as this boy had waited long enough. He didn't even care about the balloons once we mentioned presents.
Isn't he beautiful?
This was from us, and it was his "big present."
I don't know how he even knows who Spiderman is, but he does, and he loves him. Spiderman climbs up the wall and then flips up to stand on the roof. I wish I would have known that was going to happen so that I could have gotten Jaggar's expression. It was awesome.
He got new blocks from Mema so he can build things on his work bench. He loves that thing.
And then came the bag of Octonaut goodies from Nonni.
This was a MAJOR Fave. Kwazzi and the shark Gup. That came to Chick Fil A with us. It was so hot outside, and normally I can't get Jaggar to leave. But when I asked him if he was ready to go home, he left in a heartbeat to get back to his presents that we'd left behind as soon as he opened them.
And THEN...oh, what could this be?
Isn't that wonderful?! He was so excited. And he's so sweet. When we got home, Sage, of course, wanted to play with it...and actually set it up her way. And he let her! She'd ask to play with all of his new things, and he let her! I'd never have let my brother do that.
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