Preschool (mama) blues

Left: First day MDO 2012 Right: First day Preschool 2013

 

Harp went off to her first day of preschool today! It was a bit hectic in the morning trying to gather her things and get her all ready to get out the door to be on time at 9:00am. We had about a 30 minute debacle about what shoes to wear due to a blister on the back of her foot. Things just can't go smoothly or else it wouldn't be me we are talking about here. Finally after we tried on all her shoes, we settled on the pair that works worst with the playground mulch but best for her blister...sandals.  Thank goodness she just went until 11:30 today because if I were to pack a lunch we probably would not have ever made it there.

J was awesome enough to tell his work he would be in a little later so he could come along to drop her off (best daddy EVER!). We got to the school and were walking in & I tried to grab H's hand to hold and got rejected. *insert the beginning of my eyes welling up*. I then put her gigantic required backpack on her and watched her walk towards school all on her own. *tears were forming* Not needing my hand, not needing my guidance, just her and her backpack and a morning of parentless time.  

We arrived at her classroom and she walked right in with zero hesitation, grabbed the laminated apple with her name on it, stuck it to the velcro board, found her seat, hung up her backpack and was ready to start her school day. I was so sad and so proud all in one moment. My little girl who does not like change was ready to take on an adventure without me. It hurts a little to know that I am needed less than before. It hurts a little to spend that time away from her. However, it fills up my heart knowing how much fun she is having making friends and learning how to be independent.

One of the biggest attributes I want for her is to be an independent person. I want her to be confident and feel beautiful inside and out and to love others as much as she loves herself. I want her to be kind and accepting of all people and to speak her voice when necessary. Most of all I want her to be confident in her decisions and to know she is loved more than she will ever be able to imagine. My tears today were not only because of sadness but mostly for the happiness of knowing the person she is growing to be. 

To fill the void of not having Harper around I went and had my eyebrows waxed (instant facelift!!) and bought myself the cuuuuuutest ankle boots from good ol' Target! Seriously fall weather, HURRY UP! My leggings, jeggings, ankle boots, and oversized sweaters are practically calling my name each time I go in my closet to put on a stupid pair of shorts and tank top (I hate you shorts, I really do). After the retail therapy, we picked up Harp at 11:30. She told us all about her day of playing on the playground, coloring a horse, and meeting new kids. She had a really fun day and that makes all my sadness about being away from my bestie worth it.  I'm so proud of her and cant wait to see what all she learns this year!

Now if it will only be that easy when I start Paxton in Mothers Day Out in a few weeks. Buckets of tears will be shed my friends, he will not be okay with it. To be continued......

Harper's walk down the green mile

I don't know what has happened around here but this week is not my favorite AT ALL! It started off with a bang on Sunday with it being Harp's 3rd birthday. We had fun, we ate donuts, gave her a new bicycle, took her to a movie, played outside, and capped off the night with strawberry shortcake. Man oh man that joyfulness not continue on to the dreaded Monday and yet again this terrible Tuesday.

This morning, Harper had her 3 year checkup. Out of all the doctor appointments she has had in the span of her life, this was to be the easiest. No shots, just a simple checkup. As the infamous Doc McStuffins sings "check your ears, check your eyes, find out how much you've grown, its time for your checkup!!" Harper is one who tends to like to be prepared for things. Therefore I started talking to her yesterday about how we had to go see the doctor for her big 3 year old checkup. She was kind of weird about it & kept saying she didn't want to go. (umm hello Doc McStuffins, you're supposed to help me out with this shiz) This morning I got her up, got her dressed, fed her breakfast, got everyone else together, including myself! Whaaat? I actually had non gym clothes on, makeup done, & hair curled?! Go me!!!

We get to the doctor & things were fine at the beginning. The kids were running around playing in the Wizard of Oz themed waiting room and being silly as usual. The nurse then calls us back and we stop to weigh Harp and take her height as well (95th percentile!!!). Then we basically walked down the green mile. We got in the room and the nurse asked me to set Harp on the table so she could take her blood pressure. We have practiced taking each others blood pressure all the freaking time with the official Doc McStuffins doctor bag kit (she may or may not love her). Harper stood in the doorway & refused to walk over to the table to sit down. I then proceeded to walk up to her to pick her up and she stepped back and stiffened up to make it more difficult for me to grab her.  I then gave her 2 options. *insert mommy's stern/nice voice to be appropriate in public* 1. she can walk over there like a big girl or 2. I will pick her up and hold her while the nice nurse takes her blood pressure. She didn't budge. I proceeded to pick her up and bring her towards the nurse. This is when shit hit the fan. The nurse took Harp's arm to wrap the band around it and Harper opened her mouth and out came the loudest, most blood curdling scream I have ever heard come out of her. I stood there in shock. Surely that didn't just happen, right? My child would NEVER act this way in public. Maybe she was switched with another angry bad child on our walk to the office...right? Please tell me right!!! The nurse gave up because obviously her blood pressure would have been off the charts due to her working herself up so much.

If only I could tell you that was the end of the most traumatizing doctors visit of our lives. Then our doctor walks in. Who, mind you, has been our doctor since she was 18 months old. We've seen her a million times for both kids, been to that office a ton, nothing new, nothing changed. I was holding Harp as she checked her eyes, ears, fingers, toes, & listened to her breathing. This all went just fine until we needed to have her lay down on the table to check her stomach and look in her mouth to see her throat. I had to hold her top half down while the Dr. attempted to tame the kicking while trying to continue on the exam. Yes, I said kicking. She was flailing her feet & kicking to try and get up. OH MY GOD! Not only that but during this time she continued to bloody murder scream for TWO ENTIRE MINUTES. I was at a complete loss. Why in the world is this happening?!? Any other moms out there, please give me the peace of mind that it's not just me that this has happened to.

If you're curious how I handled the situation in discipline form I first off calmed her down and then made her go up to and apologize to the doctor and the nurse. We were planning on going to Deanna Rose with a friend for a play date and nixed that (unfortunately this was a punishment for Paxton and I as well), and last, she gets no TV time for the day. Maybe it's just this week but I am a little extra emotional and this situation has made me really annoyed/embarrased/angry/flabbergasted/and in need for an early morning mimosa. If only I had the supplies for the said mimosa. I do believe there is a Bud Light Lime in the refrigerator. I'll wait 4 more minutes until noon so it's socially acceptable =).

I hope this isn't the trend of what having a 3 year old is like. If so, she may go hang out at her Mimi's for a while. Haha just kidding, well....kind of kidding.

I hope you all are having a better Tuesday than we are around here. I am counting down the minutes until nap time so I can unwind and revamp myself with a better attitude for the afternoon.  Yay parenting!!

Spread the word and take advantage of photo session specials!!

 

This week is Harper's Birth-week!!! In honor of Harper turning 3, I'll be giving away 3 photo session specials for all you lovelies! 

So here's the deal:

*Step one- To participate, you must be a fan of my Facebook page facebook.com/brendapluidphotography  

*Step two- To check out some more of my work and get creative ideas for your session, go to my website brendapluid.com I recently debuted my website and am so in love with it!

Special #1- For those in KANSAS

If you share my status on Facebook, I will put your name into a good ol' fishbowl (or maybe just a mixing bowl since I am not too keen on owning a fish) and one lucky share-r (not a word, I'm aware) will win a FREE session. This will include one 30 minute session with you and your immediate family (or dogs or whatever you consider your immediate family, just no fish, snakes or hamsters please, yuck!) along with 10-15 edited high-resolution images with a copyright release so you can go print as many beautiful pictures of of you and your gorgeous family as you'd like!! If you shared my status, just go to my page and write me a post saying you shared! Easy as that!!!

Special #2 - For those in OKLAHOMA

Crazily enough, your deal is the same as the one above ^^^.  If you shared my status, just go to my page and write me a post saying you shared! Easy as that!!!

(p.s. I am looking to be in town mid-September and am working on the dates to set up session plans)

Special #3- FOR ALL

If you share this blog status on FB and a friend of yours decides to book a session with me, both you AND your friend will receive $50 towards a full session, or $25 towards a mini session, your choosing!

Depending on the volume, entries will be accepted until this Sunday, August 18th (Harp's birthday)!! If you are interested in my pricing on sessions, feel free to email me to brendapluidphotography@gmail.com and I will gladly send you my investment sheet. The weather has been so lovely here and I am hoping for a long, beautiful, and colorful fall, so now is a great time to think ahead and start booking your family/maternity/newborn/senior sessions.

Out of space, school, and saying no.

Its a lovely rainy dark & thunderstorm-y Monday morning. Fortunately the rain began after I was up and at the gym teaching for the 5am class or I wouldn't have been able to pry myself out of the bed. I have been behind on blogging lately. Partially because I have ran out of space on my computer to upload pictures and what is a blog post without a few pictures of my adorable littles? I was crazily deleting things yesterday and emptying the trash and whatever else I could conjure up to provide me enough space to upload 183 RAW images, apparently I need more RAM & memory space on my lovely iMac. Oh iMac, how I love thee! Don't quit on me now. We've had a great thing going and I don't do well with change, my love. My other reasoning for my lack of blogging is partially because I simply wasn't inspired to write anything. A forced post is a bad post in my opinion.

Today marks the first day of school for most kids here in KC! I finally received the letters from Harpers *gasp* preschool/church notifying me her orientation date, teacher, and actual first day of class. Holy smokes the girl needs an actual big girl backpack for school! No more cute tote bag to hold her blankets & Deedee the dino and pirate the other dinosaur (apparently we have a dinosaur thing trend.) It is on to a real backpack that will look too big on her tiny back which will include not one, but two, two pocket folders for her to bring home her work in. It so so exciting and scary and sad and fun and crazy to think about it all. She is going to be gone all day Tuesdays from 9:00-2:30 AND Thursday mornings from 9:00-11:30. Half of my heart is so excited. She grew so much last year while attending Mothers Day Out and loved her teachers, which is big time for the girl who doesn't trust many, and was so excited to show me her art work (when she chose to participate) when I would go to pick her up. The other half of me is sad. It's the beginning of her days that will increasingly be away from me. First 1.5 days of preschool, then 5 half days when she moves on to kindergarten (Kansas City does half day kindergarten unless you pay for a full day...whaaaaaat?), then its full blown real big kid school. *sigh*  Oh and did I mention she will be turning 3 on Sunday? My oh my oh my. I will tell you though that so far each stage and age gets better and better.

We took the kids out to the plaza and we had Harper throw a penny in the fountain and make her birthday wish. This was a tradition that my brother and I always did as a kid.

We also received Paxton's letter for his Mothers Day Out teachers. He is lucky enough to be in the same class with the same teachers that Harper had last year. That in itself is going to make it a smidge easier on me since I am familiar with them and the room that he is in & like I said, Mrs. Shannon & Nancy won over Harper so it will be a cake walk for them to win over Paxton. I had a really hard time when I first started taking Harper but I oddly feel as if it is going to be more difficult for Paxton. He has become much more attached to his me lately *insert smug secret smile* and I am sad to think about dropping him off and then him thinking "uhhhhh when is mama coming back? mama where are you going? waaaaaait mamaaaaaaaa!" Maybe it will go differently in his head. All I can think about is him going through the entire 6 hours waiting for me. Maybe I am overthinking it, I tend to do that, but I just hope it goes well. I am also super curious to see how he does taking naps on a cot instead of being confined to a crib. Now that will be interesting. The kid is a maniac and the crib is a fabulous way to jail him in to sleep, we shall see how that goes! =).

You are witnessing the next Kevin Durant =).

How these littles have changed me as a person is amazing. I will admit though that I am finally starting to become a tiny bit less uptight. I realized that with both of the kids, the year after I had them I was crazy. Crazy about their schedules, crazy about their sleeping, crazy about their foods and milk and play time, crazy about my house looking perfect and dinner on the table for when Josh got home and whatever you could be crazy about. I blame it on the hormones =). I feel like we are finally in a good place where we can be more flexible and maybe, even maybe a tad spontaneous (yup, I said it!)  I really put a ton of pressure to be the perfect housewife and mom. I still want to be that way but I will admit I am less hard on myself. Not everything can be perfect and it is okay to ask for help. With my New Years resolution last year it was to say no to things I didn't want to do as well as speak up and do things for myself. This resolution has literally changed me wholly. I am so much happier, I am communicating with Josh better, I am more fun with my children, and I feel less guilty saying no to things. It's amazing!

Okay so this post is waaaaaaay long enough by now. I hope you have a great Monday and remember to do something for yourself to make you happy! =)