September started out full of activity and excitement as Rylie started 5th grade (top grade in elementary school) and Madelyn started 2nd grade.
We had a bit of a shocker walking into Rylie's classroom seeing that she had no friends from last year in her class. It really hit her hard since she was new last year and was just making headway in establishing friendships when the school year ended. By God's grace, her principal came into their classroom on the first day and noticed she wasn't looking too excited about the first day. Upon asking her what was wrong, he volunteered to move her to another class. By the end of the week, she changed teachers and was back with some friends. We were so grateful that he was so perceptive and took action to help get her beyond that obstacle so she could start the new year well. Now, if we could just get that girl to write her homework down and stay organized...
Madelyn is doing great. I helped in her class yesterday and it was fun getting to know the students. She spent the first week of school in her splint, but we were cleared to take it off three weeks after the fracture. She's totally back to normal. Hooray! Please no more jumping off swings, girl! We also had a follow up appointment to a surgery she had in May to remove a benign cyst from her cheek (pylomatricoma) and everything is healing beautifully. The work was done by a plastic surgeon and he cut an inch diameter circle of skin, deep into her skin and then did a facelift stitch to close. I didn't realize this at the time (a good thing or I would have been super stressed), but because the cut was so big, he checks her for muscle movement and facial symmetry (do the muscles still work right and did the skin stretch like it was supposed to). Here I was concerned about the scar*. Guess that's why they get paid the big bucks! As I was uploading pictures for this blog post, I was struck by how beautiful my little girl is and was so thankful that I didn't even KNOW to be anxious about this aspect of the surgery. [*which she calls her "chicken wing" for some reason]
One week after the girls started school, my Kai started pre-school (9am-12pm everyday); he leapt out of the car on the first day and hasn't slowed down since. Because he was so excited, I didn't even cry. I cry at everything, so this was quite a surprise! He loves telling me about his classroom rules and is militant about making sure I check his communication folder everyday ("Mommy, you HAVE to check it every day and every night.")
I am so happy to see them all meeting new friends, enjoying their teachers and loving learning!
Just after school started, Jan and Leon came for a visit. We were able to sneak in a last trip to the beach and celebrate Kai's 5th birthday while they were here. On his actual birthday, I took cupcakes to class and we went to the Children's Museum in the evening for more cupcakes! Don't even get me started on the fact that my baby is 5!
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| First day of 5th grade |
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| First day of 2nd grade (taken after school because she was in a grumpy mood in the morning) |
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| First day of pre-school |
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| Enjoying his Batman cake! |
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| He loves his new baseball mitt, Uncle Brian and Aunt Sandi! |
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| Now, I'm ready for school! |
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| This Batcave is awesome, Mam-ma Louise! Plus, we needed more bad guys so now we have Mr. Freeze. |
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| Again, loves the mitt |
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| A favorite beach activity: sandcastles with Boppa |
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| I love this picture! |
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| He relished being the star of the show for his birthday celebration at school |
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| The prince and his subjects |
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| Dance party after cupcakes |
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| Rylie and her friend Ana |
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| Happy Birthday, Kai, with your weird chicken/baseball face paint! |
