Well, Asher is in Preschool! I was so nervous for him because of how hard it's been to get him to try new things. He has had such a hard time with transitions in the past (nursery, primary, anything that involves leaving me...) and so I honestly expected him to cry for the first week of school until he got used to it.
Before the official start of school, his teachers had a little Meet 'n Greet where we could see the classroom, meet the teachers, and they could go over the curriculum and classroom policies. I think that was the smartest thing for them to do! While one of them talked to the parents, the other one had all the kids on a table in the back of the room putting stickers on the first letter of their name. I think that helped Asher feel so much more at ease. Before then when I would ask him if he wanted to go to school he would cry and say he was too scared. But after that little meeting he was actually excited to go! There were zero tears from either of us on his first day! And he has loved it ever since. He loves going to school! I hope it always stays that way!
After the Meet 'n Greet. It's in the basement of one of the ladies house and is such a cute little classroom!
First day of school!
Asher's best friend Monty is in his class. We got there the same time as them so they got to walk in together!
The next big event for us was David's parents came into town for Brian and Brittany's little boys blessing. It was the first time they got to see little Henry and the second time they got to see our girls! It was such a fun weekend and there were so many activities that we were all exhausted when it was over, but in a good way! You can tell that they love that little boy so much and Brian gave him a very special blessing. After church we all went to their house to have dinner.
Henry had the cutest little suit on!
That next day was Labor Day, so everyone had the day off. We all decided to go to a driving range-type place and then to dinner afterwards. I think my favorite part was watching Asher try to figure out those clubs! It was a lot of fun getting to spend time with everyone and just hanging out.
David's mom and Mia
This was the best smile David would give me.
The cute newlyweds!
Apparently there was a point system for which hole you got your ball into. I was sharing my turn with Asher so I lost big time, but Brittany beat everyone!
Grandpa and Grandma Clay with Ava, Henry, and Mia! I think this was my favorite picture from the weekend.
Asher loved riding this pig outside the restaurant we ate at, and I'm impressed Joy could get up there! It was pretty big!
That weekend really wore Ava out. She fell asleep during bath time that night! (don't worry, I was supervising the whole time)
Two days after our fun outing, we had a not-so-fun day. The girls had their 4 month appointment, which included shots. I thought Judy would be in town this day and got a little excited that she might be able to come with me and help play musical children, but they left to go home that morning. So I packed up all three kids and we headed to the doctors! It actually went better than I thought. Mia measured at 13 lb 13 oz (42%), Ava at 14 lb 9 oz (57%) and both are 25.25 in long (80%). They did not like the shots (big surprise) and one of the nurses tried to help me by holding one of the girls, but she just wasn't calming down so I walked around the room holding both girls and trying to get them calm enough to put them into their carseats. It didn't take as long as I thought and pretty soon we were out of there and off to take Asher to preschool!
Taking all three. I feel like a huge spectacle wherever I go.
Mia has been taking after her Mama and started sucking her thumb. It's just the cutest thing ever.
The townhouses in front of us have a garden box they don't use. They let Asher play in it. He enjoys every minute of it and covers himself in dirt from head to toe.
Poor Mia. I was trying so hard to hurry and put Ava to bed, but by the time I got done Mia had already fallen asleep in the bouncer.
Asher making Ava laugh. These girls just adore their older brother.
Last week I watched Brian and Brittany's little boy Henry. He's 2.5 months younger than my girls and very mild tempered. Up until this week, I hadn't seen him awake for more than 10 minutes at a time! It was a little crazy, but my girls are getting easier and he's a pretty easy baby so it was just fine. And Asher loves babies so he had fun helping me out! He would tell me where Henry was supposed to sleep, when he was crying, where his pacifier was, and tried very hard to entertain him.
Asher and Henry
I'm pretty much Henry's favorite aunt.
I will probably post later more updates about the girls because this post is getting to be too long already! The last thing I want to put on here was brought on by something I saw someone selling on Facebook, actually. It sounds kind of weird, but if I had any extra money I would've bought it in a second! It's something that really struck a chord with me:
With the exception of our six month stint in Arizona, we have crammed our lives into tiny apartments. Our first apartment was about 700 square feet, which was fine when it was the two of us but got cramped very quickly when we had Asher. We've lived in basement apartments, apartments where the walls were so thin you could hear the neighbors talking all the time, and had only one place that was actually pretty big. I try to tell myself that Asher and the girls probably won't remember most of this time of our lives and that hopefully soon we can have a place that actually has a yard for him to play in. I feel so much guilt about not being able to give my kids the childhood that I had where we could run around outside all day on our own property and enjoy the outdoors more. That's why I do my best to make sure we go on lots of walks and trips to the park and every other outing that we can feasibly do. It's hard living in a small place. You don't have the privacy you have in a big place. Other people are always about 5 feet away from you, even if you're hiding in the bathroom trying to get a minute of quiet. All these bad feelings have been going through my mind so much, that I didn't try to find the good. Because we are always so close physically, it makes it easier for us to grow together emotionally. From where I sit, I can see David on the computer, Asher on the couch, Millie also on the couch (ugh...), dinner in the oven, and the girls bedroom where they are taking a nap. Oftentimes David will turn on a piece of music that he wants to show me or a video he thought was funny. Asher can talk to both of us with just a turn of his head. I can tell David dinner is ready without ever leaving the kitchen. Our communication is so much better simply because we are always around each other. When we lived in our big townhouse, I could tell that it was harder for us to talk. We each had to make a conscious effort to talk about things because we all tended to hang out in different areas of the house. Don't get me wrong, we are going to take the first opportunity we can to get a bigger place! But for now I'm going to try to enjoy how close we are as a family. How we can spend so much time together and learn so much about one another. I don't know if love grows BEST in little houses, but I do think it grows better. So for now I'll enjoy our little house where we've learned to depend on each other and tolerate each other and love each other.
