Giddy Up

A few weeks ago, Sage was invited to Amber's birthday party, and Lori told me that the whole crew was welcome to come.  Good thing.  With football season being in full swing, Travis is usually tied up most weekends and even throughout the week.  Anyway, Lori said that they were just keeping it simple by having it at home and that Kent would saddle up some horses and let the kids ride.  Travis ended up not having a game that night, so we all went and had a great time.  Jaggar, especially, would have ridden indefinitely.

Look at that boy.  No fear.

 I hate that I was not in a good place for this pic because it would've been awesome.  It's still kind of cool though.

 Sage took a run, too, but she wasn't nearly as into it as Jaggar.

 Look at that baby.  Kent put his hat on him and said he'd be good to take lessons because he loved it so much.  Might be a good idea because I asked Jaggar if he'd be interested in playing ball like Sage dances.  He said, "No.  I might get hit in the head with the ball."  :)

Riding Big

Bleu can now ride facing forward in the stroller.  He thought it was AWESOME.  Love these pics of my sweet baby. He's changing, isn't he?  His look.  His hair has come in so much, and he's thinning out, which is probably because....he is NEVER STILL.  Probably why I'm thinning out, too. ;)

Sage's School Work

Sage has produced some GEMS at school so far this year.  If we are "friends" on facebook or you follow me on instagram, these aren't new, but I wanted to keep them here.  This first one was probably the first week of school.  I suppose they had to make an introduction to their family.  I'm looking.  We all look nice.  I've got my highlights and lowlights going on here.  My red dress on.  Red shoes.  Baby in hand.  Bleu has his blonde hair and green outfit going just right. Jaggar's hair is fixed like he likes it.  He's even waving to the crowd with a grin dressed in Auburn colors just in time for football season.  Sage's dress is perfect.  Matching shoes, socks, and bow.  Pretty smile.  Long lashes....and then Travis...who has no color, no clothes, no hair, and no hands and sticks for legs.  I was laughing so hard.  I said, "Sage, what happened to Daddy?"  "Oh, we ran out of time." 

 If that wasn't funny enough, I think I choked on the drink I was sipping while I read this.  She doesn't even know how funny this is and couldn't even really understand why we laughed so much at this.  Of course, after all of that, my favorite line is, "ANYWAY, my dad sleeps on the couch because he snores."  What fun it must be to be a teacher and see a kid' perspective into their own family.  Kids will also throw you under the bus in a heartbeat apparently.

 All the funnies aside, just the next week or so was grandparents' day.  Travis' mom and stepdad ate with her and took her to the book fair.  She racked up and chose several books and a journal.  The first page talked about daydreaming and dreaming big.  Then it left a space to write one of your dreams.  Of course, I cried reading it and so will you.  It's just not right, is it?  This is everyday of my life, these things are running through my mind.  Some days, I feel like it's a struggle to just catch a breath.  I don't get it.  I don't like it.  I feel like something in me died a little over a year ago.  I'm not the same person.  I feel cynical towards a lot some days.  I'm actually too selfish to care if it "helps someone" else by seeing her or me or us.  I'm even more matter of fact than I was before, which can be hurtful....but in spite of all of that, I believe.  Because what else do I have?  And she does, too!  While at the doctor just a few weeks ago, she said something about "When I don't have diabetes, do we have to come here?"  She's always hopeful.  But waiting is hard.  So I'm hanging on to her dream along with her.

A few days later, I heard a song I hadn't heard or thought about in YEARS, but it's one I used to LOVE.  I found it to be even more touching and true now than it was then.  It's like my daily thought process.  Hey God, aren't you strong enough?  I know you are.  I believe He hears us and is working even when it doesn't look like He is.  And on days that I find it hard to even do that, I believe I have others doing it for us.

He Built a Zoo

Jaggar LOVES to build zoos around here.  He was particularly proud of this one.  He will ask for my help, but that means that every piece that I place, he moves it to the "right" spot.  This was all on his own.

Roar

I love this song right now.  Makes me feel good on days that I don't feel so great.  Whether it's obvious or not, everyone is going through some kind of struggle in life.  Mine feels more obvious now than ever, and I appreciate artists like Katy Perry putting a positive spin on it.  Cheers to another day of winning the fight.

It's Fall

Do you know what my favorite thing about fall's beginning is?  Pumpkin Spice at Starbucks.  I love all things pumpkin:  kids' clothing, pumpkin candles, pumpkin air fresheners, pumpkin desserts...I even had a pumpkin donut from Dunkin Donuts the other day.  But my favorite thing is a Pumpkin Spice frappuccino.  So I shared my love with Sage.  She thought that it was the greatest thing in the world.  And it is.  To keep my work of losing the rest of my baby weight in tact (I did it finally!), my friend Heather suggested a  new found love this season:  iced, nonfat, pumpkin spice lattes.  Not as indulgent, but still good.  So do yourself a favor and try one.

Big Boy

Costner Bleu is such a big boy.  He is sitting in the shopping cart.  I actually found this in the store the first time I was needing to get a lot of groceries where I had him by myself.  I found it, opened it, used it the entire time, and handed them the empty box to pay for it.  Can't say he'd sit in this for days at a time, but it worked for me that day, and we got to eat that week, so it was a win.

 He has friends.  :)  This is Laurelynn.

 He feeds himself.

 He climbs the stairs.  Every time that he makes it to this top part, he looks through, and I can so hear, "I'M THE KING OF THE WORLD!"

 He gets his own books.  :)  (Tearing the shelves apart at Books A Million)

 

  He is the cutest boy I know.

Never Boring

Jaggar continues to be the much needed comic relief in my life.  If you don't know what that is, well...never mind. :)  It's clean, by the way, for anyone concerned.

9 Months Old

It's true.  He is.  Costner is 9 months old, as of the 5th of this month.  This was a big deal to me because he has now been here for as long as I carried him during pregnancy.  And he has grown exponentially!  Just thinking back to that tiny baby who couldn't do a THING to my on the move, busy boy who is into EV-ER-Y-THING now is amazing.  I guess he's grown just as much outside as he did on the inside during pregnancy.  :)  He is cutting LOTS of teeth these days.  He went from the two bottom ones to the two tops (thank God they came through) to the two eye teeth now.  One is through, and the other is probably through today.  So, that's what?  6 teeth?  He's not afraid to let you feel those teeth either.  Baby food.  We've come a long way in that aspect.  I've found some things he really likes:  spnach, peas and pears, apples and broccoli..but he does still love table food.  He may or may not have had cheetos.  And Chick Fil A nuggets.  He loved them.  Some days, at the end of the day, I just breathe and go, "Okay...everyone ate again today."  He's still not very vocal.  He doesn't jabber like some babies his age.  He basically does a little squeak that Jaggar will do back repeatedly for many minutes.  And it's like they're having their own conversation.  I say "mama" all day but he just stares at me.  Whatever, mom, just pass the milk.

This is very normal now.  I can tell he's at the steps because I can hear him squealing and laughing as he's going up them as FAST as he can before he gets caught.  It's so funny.  I have no doubt that he will take a fall (or a few of them) down the steps, but our goal is to let the skull completely seal before that happens.

 Rotten.  He looks back while he's climbing the steps to see if he's close to being scooped up. 

 Still not sleeping through the night.  He did once.  Some days, I feel like he sleeps worse than newborns.  I am tired. 

 He loves to look through the bannister.

 He loves his big brother and sister.

 Costner is definitely not close to walking yet, and I'm okay with that, but he's VERY fast at crawling, especially when something is in sight that he is after.

 Everything goes in the mouth.

 He still prefers food that he can feed himself.  The little yogurt melts are like M&Ms to him.

 He's still the star in our house.

Dance Class

This was probably the first or second week of school, to be honest, but Sage is VERY into her dance this year.  And apparently, she wants Jaggar to be as well. So she put last year's shoes that didn't fit her anymore on guess who.  He was a very good student from what I could see.

Hi

One day...maybe, I'll keep the blog updated regularly.   Last week was most definitely not my week for that.  Maybe I should do a video blog (never going to happen) since I seem to find it easier to do videos on here lately.  This was Sunday.  We finally had a break and we took advantage of it.  Costner is so cute these days and getting more and more aware of what's going on around him in his 9 months of life.
Just click the title of the video in the top left hand if it cuts it off too much.

No, No, No

Little Bleu has a new trick.  I couldn't believe that he actually did it on video.  Travis said, "So, you actually recorded that for over 2 minutes?"  Probably over kill but not for me. 

School Days

Yep, still going to school.  Sage is doing great in school and started going to her gifted class last week.  She LOVED it.  The teacher is so nice, and it's not as structured and...there's only like 6 of them in there---all girls---and the first session is on TOYS.  They get to play!

Her favorite person before she leaves.  Costner and Sage are my early birds.  Jaggar slept until 9 the other morning. 

All He Wants for Christmas

Well, CB doesn't have to want his two front teeth for Christmas because he has them!  I was SO glad that they broke through.  I was going slightly crazy with him refusing to lay down and waking up MULTIPLE times in the night.  The combination of him cutting them coupled with learning to stand and climb and MOVE...it was just too much for him to lay down and STAY down.  If I can just get SOME real sleep, I can think clearly and feel more optimistic about life in general.  Otherwise, woah, Jesus take the wheel, right?  I've got some more pics where you can see the front teeth better, but these are when they were just through the skin.  He's also let me feel them by trying to bite chunks of skin out of my hands and arms.  We all love him so much.  I can see the "baby of the family" deal because everyone is just all over him, and he is so rotten.

Jaggar's First Day of Preschool

I'm so behind on this!  Something worth noting in a major way happened:  my little J started preschool.  Can you believe it?  I've said before that I don't regret at ALL keeping him with me his entire life thus far...but kindergarten looms ahead, and I just thought it was unfair to send him straight to that having never done any type of structured school away from me.  Key phrasing being "away from me."  So I'd thought about doing the same place Sage went, and I even had the paper work from there. It was 3 days a week, 3 hours a day.  It gave me no time to get anything done, but I was pleased with that place with Sage, but the issue was that their K-4 was full, and he would be in K-3.  Even though I'm sure it would've been fine...it wasn't EXACTLY what I wanted.  A few weeks later, I got a phone call from Nichole saying that our church was opening up a 2 day a week "Mom's Day Out," but it was going to have curriculum.  They'd do their alphabet, numbers, colors, writing, Christmas program, and she was going to be the teacher through Christmas (until she has another baby). My issue was that all K-4 programs aside from St Mark, where I was going to send him, were 5 days a week, 5 hours a day.  Can we say overkill?  But I also didn't want to just send him to a 2 day daycare.  I wanted him to learn.  I wanted him to have class parties and make things.  If you'd not seen Jaggar singing his alphabet, it's because he DOESN'T.  Anyway, it was the perfect solution.  I'd been talking about it to him for weeks, and he assured me that he was not going...but yes, he was.

So he actually started the day after Sage did. He goes on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9-2.  I thought he'd enjoy packing his lunch, and he did get into that...kind of.

 But then this was the next morning.  READY FOR SCHOOL.  I love this picture, by the way.  Travis went into work later because this was a big deal for our little guy.

 This is better.  Getting ready to go.  He picked out a new Monsters Inc backpack when we were in Louisville.  It lights up and everything.  My baby.

 Such a good looking boy

Here is the car ride.  It appears we're headed to a funeral based on Jaggar's mood.


While Nichole thought that being at church would be nice and familiar for him...that was not the strong point for me.  It's nice that he knows some of the kids, but he does not think this is school.  He actually told me on the 2nd day while riding in the car there, "Um...just so you know, that is NOT school.  It is church.  ALL'S I do is go to church EVERYDAY!"  Needless to say, I was rolling. 

 Look how THRILLED he is.  Hahaha!  He actually did great once we left.  Not to discredit Paisley, but she is all smiles because her mom is teaching the class lol.

 Sweet boy. I told him that when I came to pick him up that I'd take him out for ice cream for his first day of school. 

 When Travis and I left, we stopped and ate breakfast at....Shoney's.  I've come SUCH a long way.  There used to be no WAY I'd have eaten at HALF of the places I've graced lately.  Travis really can't believe it.  I used to be the most difficult person in the world to choose a restaurant with and now I'm like whatever.  And this boy LOVED eggs.  My other kids had NOTHING but baby food until they were like 2, but Costner Bleu is eating off of our plates.  I still try baby food, but he hates it and he has from the get go.  Sooo, if he's not choking, why not?

That afternoon, I had one happy boy.  And you know what they told me?  The kid who won't count, won't say his ABCs, colors, ANYTHING, was the first in the class to shout out the letter A when it was shown AND to write it.  Like he knew how.  Yes.  So I was shocked and excited, so when I showed him the letter A from one of the papers he did, I said, "Jaggar, what letter is this?"  "R!" he shouts.  "P!"  Little rat.  Yep.

 Some of the work he did on his first day.  He was SO proud of his papers.  He ran upstairs and put them under his bed so "no one would mess them up."

 

 Sweet boy after a long day.  So even though he tries to make me think otherwise, I am pleased with the decision we made to send him here, and I know it will be good for him.  (I'm told the second I leave, he starts playing.)  And I still get to spend most of my days with him during the week while the option is still available.  Love my boy.