First day of FIRST grade!

I cannot believe that my SEVEN year old "baby" started FIRST grade today! It's amazing to think back at how much he has changed in the last year. I was totally freaking out last year about him starting kindergarten. I just wasn't sure if he was socially/emotionally ready.

I opted for him to be transported by the school van (which he "qualified" for due to his visual impairment and having an IEP and all that) because I could not imagine him riding the bus and I had no way to get him back and forth myself. This year I can SO see him riding the bus...and he will once we move in to our house.

Oh wait...I guess I haven't really updated on our living situation at the moment! I've really been slacking when it comes to blogging :-P. We found another house (one we like even more than the last one). A few things were found in the home inspection that we want fixed and we're waiting to hear back on if they're going to take care of hem. On Friday the 20th, the kids and I moved from our apartment to Joe's mom and dad's where we're staying until we (hopefully) close on the house, (again hopefully) the beginning of October. Ryan could be enrolled in school in the district "our" house is in even though we aren't living there yet. I just have to drive him back and forth until we move in (it's between 10 and 15 minutes away). And then he will start riding the bus and he is so excited. If the bus doesn't work out then I'll start taking him and picking him up again. The school is only a 2 minute drive from the house.

Back to today....I had to wake Ryan up at 7:45 this morning to get ready when he's been up by 7-7:30 pretty much every day all summer long. Of course. This lead to him being "in a mood" for the first 10 minutes or so of being awake, but luckily he snapped out of it and got dressed and ate breakfast and "got happy"...lol. I took his picture (above) before we left...I probably should have taken it inside. He's so sensitive to sunlight even when he's not directly in it. Still a cute pic :-). I wanted to walk him in since it was the first day and I wasn't sure what he was supposed to do or where he was supposed to go so I couldn't prepare him and wasn't sure how he would react. We went in to the office and the secretary told me I could walk him to his classroom. I stayed long enough to let his teacher know I had written her a note and put it in his backpack because I knew if I stayed too long that he would end up crying. Brooke was pointing in classrooms the whole way out yelling "I need to go in there!". LOL. She really missed him today and couldn't wait for us to go pick him up.

We went to the school about 20 minutes early to get him because I wasn't sure how crazy it would be. It doesn't seem like it will be too bad, but I'll probably try to go that early every day because I think it will just be easier. He was smiling when he came out of the school and told me he had a great day :-). His teacher ended up calling me this evening, which scared me at first, but she told me right away that she just felt like there was more I wanted to say to her this morning but it was so hectic. So we talked for a good 10-15 minutes and I filled her in a little more on Ryan and how last year was for him. She hasn't gotten his IEP yet, so I was telling her more about that. She told me she was really glad she called and I am, too. Seems he's gotten lucky two years in a row now, getting teachers that really care and don't just do the bare minimum to get by. Here's hoping for another awesome year of school for him :-).

Tomorrow the plan is to *just drop him off and he will go in to the school by himself and to his classroom. I am hoping he doesn't freak out, but I'm pretty sure he'll be ok. At least he knows what to do and where to go and his classroom is really easy to find.

I'm going to *try to blog more often again! ;-)

Wordless Wednesday - Proud Big Brother

I absolutely LOVE this pic :*). It was his first time holding her.

Chuck E. Cheese

Ryan had been asking for a few months to have his birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese, but I wasn't really planning on it. With the upcoming move and uncertainty of it all, I was stressing out over when and where to have his party and who all to invite. Last weekend I finally decided he would get his wish and I called and scheduled his birthday at the place "where a kid can be a kid" ;-). I talked to him about whether or not he actually wanted Chuck E. to come out and do the birthday stuff or if he wanted more time to play games instead because I thought maybe we would just go for his birthday and not schedule an actual party. But he wanted the whole shebang. I wanted to keep it small and simple (and admittedly cheaper) so it's just going to be immediate family this year. His party is Friday and he can't wait. We went last week to pay the deposit for the party and we had some extra tokens from the last time we were there, so we let the kids play some games.

Both their expressions crack me up here.

And Ryan's expression is hilarious in this pic.

I let her play skeeball this time.

And walk up and throw it in. Until she threw one sideways somehow and almost took Ryan's head off :-X. Then she was done.

Hugging Chuck E. She LOVES characters!

Ryan loves this basketball game. Yes, I let him stand on the machine :-P.

Cole playing the Dunk N Alien game....Ryan's favorite.

She just loved running around checking everything out.

My boys ;-).

In love....LOL.

A Little Update on Brooke

She woke up last night right when I was about to get in to bed, so I got her calmed down and tried putting her in her crib and laid down. She woke up like 3 times in 5 minutes and the 2nd and 3rd times I had to go in and comfort her, so I decided to try putting her in bed with me. She fell right to sleep as soon as I laid her down. I put some pillows beside her to keep her from rolling off the bed, even though she probably wouldn't have since she doesn't move much in her sleep. She fussed a couple times not long after we laid down, but then she didn't make a peep until almost 9am! Not sure if she would have slept that well in her crib, so I'm glad I let her sleep in bed with me. She woke up in a great mood and is still in a good mood. Her nose isn't near as runny today and she's not sneezing as much. I think tonight will be better for her :-).

Back to the Drawing Board

Looks like we're not getting that house after all. There are gas lines that need replaced before anything else can be done (that includes appraisal, inspection, etc.) and the bank (the house is a foreclosure) wants us to pay for half of it. And there's just no way we're doing that without knowing if there's anything else major that is going to need done. So we are back to house hunting. And I am trying not to freak out over the time crunch. There is a house we're going to see on Saturday that looks very promising. In fact I am loving it from the pictures, but trying not to get excited. I know that the other house didn't work out for a reason. Everything happens for a reason and I really believe that. Just have to remember it!

In other news, Brooke is sick :-(. It's just a cold, but she's sleeping terribly tonight. She started sneezing last night and this morning when she woke up, her nose was runny. She was in her usual ornery mood today and eating great...so not acting sick. She only took a 15 minute nap (vs. 1 1/2 to 2hrs) because of her sniffles and despite that she was in a good mood all day and didn't even go to bed until 8:30 (about her regular time). But she's been waking up a lot since she did go to bed. At one point I was holding her to try to get her to calm down and she was arching her back trying to get away from me and just crying and crying. I tried putting her down and then she flipped out because she wanted me. She just did not know WHAT she wanted. I finally got her settled by me on the couch and after about 20 minutes she got in to a deeper sleep. I was going to leave her there and head to bed and try to get some sleep and then she woke up again. Now she is back in her crib sleeping, but I know as soon as I go to get in bed, she'll wake up again, lol. She doesn't even really want me when she wakes up. She was up a few minutes ago and I waited a minute and she passed right back out. But even if she doesn't need/want me, I'll still wake up when she does. Maybe the rest of the night will go better. And if not, oh well....we'll get through it :-). I just want her to feel better!

In Limbo

That's kinda how it feels right now as far as the house situation. We hit a snag last week that may mean we walk away and start our search all over again. We're still waiting for an answer. I'm freaking out a little bit now since school is less than a month away. If we knew we were getting the house, we could enroll Ryan in the new school and get his IEP stuff all set up...the sooner that happens, the better obviously. But we can't do that yet. I also don't know whether or not to start packing up my apartment or not....not to mention I gave notice that I was moving at the end of the month. I wanted to let them know ASAP even though it wasn't official since we planned on being out by the beginning of school even if we don't close by then. I'm just feeling a bit stressed out over it all. I keep telling myself it will all work out, even if it doesn't seem like it right now!

The kids and I have spent the last week or so at Joe's. We originally planned on enrolling Ryan in his new school last week, but then hit the snag with the house. My van that my (awesome) aunt and uncle gave me in November bit the dust (it was old) at the end of June and at that time Joe and I bought my brother-in-law's car from him for Joe to use (since it's a standard and I don't know how to drive them). It sat for a year because they always used my sister's truck and it's been in the garage now more in the last month than it's been out. LOL. Hopefully it gets all the "kinks" worked out soon from sitting for so long. So "we" were down to one car and my parents were out of town all of last week visiting a friend. We were supposed to go too but it just felt like too much with the house and everything. I didn't want to be "stuck" in my town with no vehicle (Joe obviously needs the car...for work...more than I do right now), so we decided to come spend the week here. It's been great and I'm not looking forward to going home tomorrow (we got the car back today). But we really should. Ryan's TSS is coming tomorrow afternoon/evening and I have to pay my rent and the kids are with their dad this coming weekend so we would have to go home by Friday anyway. I am really looking forward to seeing my parents too, though :-).

Hopefully the house situation works out and we get this one and don't have to start looking again. I'm really trying not to think about having to do that right now, lol.

:::fingers crossed:::