Birthdays and Big Girls!
August kicked off with a bang as this seems to be the month of milestones, specifically birthdays! We celebrated my 35th (and actually made it out for a movie and dinner), Hanleigh’s 2nd, Kyle’s 33rd, and Aunt Patty’s 57th. Not to mention, Trent and I celebrated our 11-year anniversary! I love you, sweetie! The first weekend of the month was spent at the lake with the family. Brayden rode on a tube behind the “party boat” and loved it and I slalom skied as well. I am not much of a fan of the choppy water, so we always find a nice cove tucked away from the main lake. It was so wonderful to have everyone together!
Brayden took swim lessons for two weeks and made such an improvement in her skills. At the end of the course, she got to go down the water slides. We are hoping by next summer she’ll pass the YMCA’s swim test and be able to go down all the waterslides by herself! One random day, Trent and I decided to take Brayden to Carowinds because we have been talking about how she is tall enough to ride a fair amount of the attractions. That morning, she didn’t understand why we didn’t drop her off at school like we normally do. We asked her, “would you rather go to school OR to Carowinds?” I think she thought we were kidding. We had a great time. We still need to work on the confidence to ride some of the roller coasters, although she did ride a little wooden one and loved it. We went to the waterpark as well, which was her favorite (seems she’s a reincarnated fish like mommy).
Hanleigh had her two-year checkup and is still our little peanut. She was 32 ½” tall (25-50%), 24.2 lbs (25%) and her head was 48cm. Even though she didn’t get any shots, she did get her finger pricked, but was so brave and didn’t cry or flinch at all. She just stared at the blood coming out (she doesn’t get that from mommy). However, she did give the nurse the evil eye. Hanleigh was so proud of her band-aid and showed it off all day.
We decided to use some frequent flier miles that were going to expire on a trip to Atlanta to take the girls to the aquarium. That place is just fabulous! We stayed at the W Midtown, which was wonderful, and enjoyed eating at some delicious restaurants. We went to Piedmont Park and walked around, rolled down the hill, and played on the playgrounds one afternoon. The next day was our trip to the aquarium where we saw every fish imaginable and took in the dolphin show. The girls had a blast and we even got to have lunch with Tara, Marshal, and Carter. The next morning we went to Eric, Salina, Calla, and Eden’s house for breakfast. It was great to see friends during that trip!
We celebrated Aunt Patty’s bday at King’s Kitchen, had a girls’ dinner at Rooster’s, and our best friends, the Mazzolas came to visit us one weekend. We had such a great time with them and even though we were the ones that moved away, we miss them SO SO much! However, we have been blessed to meet wonderful neighbors where we live now. There is a family in our neighborhood that is the same age as us, who have a two-year old girl, and we got along with them instantly. I was worried about meeting new people once we moved here, but little did we know we’d find some good friends just down the street. I look forward to developing that into a really great friendship! We’ve already been to their house twice, once during a school night and we were there until 9:30pm when we realized it was so late, we had to go!
Trent joined Y-Guides with Brayden. In case you aren’t familiar with it, Y-Guides Princesses is a program to encourage dads and daughters to spend more quality time together. It’s not as if Trent isn’t the best dad already, but this gives him and Brayden some one-on-one time with seven other dad/daughter combos to do fun activities, go camping, and focus on qualities that are important to being a better person. They both seem to love it already and have come up with their Indian names: Trent is “Red Wolf” and Brayden is “Pink Wolf” (an ode to the Wolfpack, of course).
One of the more notable items from this month is that BRAYDEN STARTED KINDERGARTEN. I know I’ve said this countless times, but I still don’t understand where the past 5 ½ years went. They did a staggered start, which meant she went there on a Tuesday for a day of assessment, then back to Goddard for regular school for a couple of days. On Thursday night, we had her open house where she found out who her teacher would be and on Friday she began her classes. According to other parents we spoke to, her teacher was “made to be a kindergarten teacher” and is one of the best at the school. I don’t doubt it one bit based on the things they are working on and how well Brayden is doing! She loves it! Be sure to watch the video to see her describe her first day.
Brayden-isms
- When we went for the tube ride, she said, “Is this a shark pond?” (referring to the lake), so I told her “No” and then she started having a blast and saying thing like, “This is some serious fun, for real!” and “Get it, sista!”
- On the way home from school, she saw an ominous thunder cloud and said, “Is God in that cloud? If so, he needs to fly over to that one over there so he doesn’t fall down and break his bone.”
- The day before her staggered start day, she was a bit nervous and told me, “I want you to stay with me all day long.”
Hanleigh-isms
- Whenever you pick Hanleigh up, she shouts out, “Superbaby!”
- Her version of the song is singing “Happy Birthday to you” over and over and over again.