I'm the Only One Not Coping Well

In twelve hours Ella will start her first day of kindergarten.

She's excited; nervous but over-the-top excited! Sam's excited for her, Anna's excited for her and I am excited for her. I'm just really not ready for this. I'm not ready for her to head to school even if it is only half-day. I'm not ready for her to have a different teacher - a teacher that isn't me. I worry she'll be bored, there won't be enough new and interesting and exciting and I worry that I won't be able to give her teacher a fair chance.

Sam has his theories on this - my favorite deals with me being a great natural teacher :)

So - here is a picture from October of 2004 and then a picture of October 2005 and then a picture from August 2009 - YIKES!!! It's Too Too Too Fast!!!!!!



October 8, 2004
(Ella's in the orange pants ;) )





A bit harder to keep them still the following year :)



June 28th, 2009



If it doesn't work out for some reason I'll just bring her home and do the schooling myself - I'm doing my very best to have a positive attitude!

What do you think of this?

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200904/case-against-breastfeeding

This article has been out for a few weeks now. I find it fascinating and at the same time somewhat disturbing - kind of like a big practical joke played on Mothers but yet - I can't just take it at face value - seems too defeatist. Now I have something else to research - not that I have a reason to need this information but it is always good to know something new and really, this seems like, if it is even partially true, just another way of subjugating women. Maybe it's too late to be reading and responding to this and I'll have a better head after a few days of letting it percolate...

A thought - I'm thinking it might be disturbing b/c where I am, as a wife and mother - this is what 'good' moms do and so not to, the corollary - you aren't as good but if you are vested in being a good or better mom and then it turns out that it really isn't better or Best than there is one less thing to 'qualify' or quantify good mothers and really, how helpful is that in the Mommy Wars? ;)


ETA: As a sidenote, I found the origins of La Leche League, extremely amusing. What a difference a few decades makes :)

Think She's a Cute Baby?

I do!


We ended up with enough votes for her to move onto Round 2 of this contest.

Please, if you wouldn't mind, go ahead and click this linky and sign up and vote, vote, vote for Miss Anna!

I wouldn't even care if you used all ten votes every day to vote for my sweet girl :)

OH! And before you ask, the day the photos were due was the day Sam managed to roll his truck...unfortunately I never managed to get back to upload an Ella photo.

Thanks!!!

ACK!

We're buying a new house!!!

It's more than a little bit scary, especially with the current economic situation but we think it is a good move for our family (obviously)or we wouldn't be taking on this.

I pine for my old house while looking at new homes, but I love where we live now. I didn't love living there and we don't think a house is a good reason to stay someplace you don't want to be :) (Not sure that run-on even makes any sense!)

The Deets:
New house is officially Eastside ;) (although definition of East side depends on which side of the state you live) split level, 4 bedrooms/2.5 bath, smallish kitchen, smallish house but has all the things we wanted. A yard to play in but not so big we wouldn't take care of it, space for a *little* garden, three bedrooms and room for an office/scraproom and an additional space for a playroom. Plus there is a little swingset in the back yard - which may be replaced with a play structure in the near future depending on stability. The best part of this house that neither Sam and I are in love with - it is in an Amazing! Location. Seriously. Fabulous schools, great parks, good neighbors - all within walking distance. Sam is excited b/c every year they have a bridge building contest at the elementary school - one for students and parents AND one for parents :) It seems like a wonderful community and one of Sam's co-workers actually lives just a couple of blocks away and is the one who gave him the idea of looking there.

The house is currently owned by a bank, after foreclosure or something...not sure of the technicalities of it all except that the bank currently has owned it since at least April of last year so they want a fast closing. There is NO way we would be able to buy into this neighborhood if the house wasn't bank-owned and a spectacular deal. The house two doors down is currently listed for $80,000 more than what they were asking for ours!!! We decided that since we can't get the house we want and the location we want - we'll opt for the location and make the house 'ours' as the years go by... It is close enough to the city we can head over anytime for the ballet or the zoo or a game or whatever but far enough away to not deal with the traffic and the horror of the schools.

The sad parts about moving are A.) mainly being away from the grandparents - the girls love seeing them so frequently (and so do we :) ) and B.)being away from the two great-grandmas that are here that we don't visit nearly enough and C.) making friends and having to move - Again! Not just the girls but also the mom, not so much Sam as he's either working or commuting so he has no friends that live here - he'll be happier to be Eastside closer to his friends.

What's also really sad is that Sam's maternal grandma really really really wants to move back home - to this house - that we are living in. We visited her yesterday and just don't see how it's a possibility for her to live on her own. She asked us about the house because as she told us, in no uncertain terms, that as soon as we move out - she's moving back in - regardless of what anyone thinks. There are just a whole myriad of reasons why that shouldn't happen but it is sad because it is what she wants and without full-time care we can't see how that would happen. :(

Okay - and here are some pics:

Today was a good day.

One of those days with pretty much everything going right :) I like those kinds of days. Happy Day.