Parties, Post-Its & Power Yoga
In typical Jones-family fashion, 2012 started off with lots of trips, both personal and professional. Brayden started an art class and we are so impressed with what she is bringing home. It is truly frame worthy! We signed up for just a few classes to see if she enjoys it and if so, perhaps it’s something she’ll really pursue. We attended a series of birthday parties (Molly, Valerie, and Roman), two of which were over the same weekend and at different bounce houses. I guess that is still popular with five-year olds. Trent took Brayden to the NCSU/Syracuse basketball one evening and they had a blast. He also continued his saga with his front teeth. One of his crowns fell completely out, he had to have a root canal and then a new crown made. I couldn’t take him seriously for the one day that he was missing that front tooth, even if he was being totally sincere about something.
I went to San Antonio for work and did the most embarrassing thing: when I went to unpack my suitcase in the hotel, I realized I didn’t pack ANY tops. Frantically, I called the onsite boutique and the lady who worked there gave me some amazing discounts on some adorable clothes! Maybe I’ll “accidentally forget” to pack pants next time! We had a girls’ night for Leslie’s birthday and went to Charlotte to celebrate Mom’s 60th birthday. Kyle and I had been planning it for quite some time, tossing around various ideas that we thought she would love. I think our mission was a success. We whisked her away to what we thought was a typical yoga class. When we got there, the room was 91 degrees and we proceeded to sweat like nobody’s business. At first, I wondered why in the world I was even there, but afterward it was nice and I felt like a wet noodle! After looking at some homes with our realtor, later that evening, mom came back to Kyle/Erin’s house for a home-cooked meal (cheeseburgers, salad, sweet potato fries, cupcakes) and we gave her the “big” gift of a weekend at Floyd Fest. It is a world music festival that takes place late July in Floyd, VA. Kyle, Mom, and I will go for a couple of days, camp out in a tent, and enjoy some great music. I’m sure we’ll return with some great stories. I returned to San Antonio once again for another conference to wrap up the month. Lots of traveling all packed in one month. Sigh.
There was a mix of funny, amusing, and heartfelt things that happened this month:
• As a continuation to Brayden “channeling her inner shopping goddess” (see December post), this month Hanleigh was under the weather and Brayden said she was going “channel my inner don’t get sick” so she didn’t get what Hanleigh had. That girl cracks me up!
• Brayden is starting kindergarten this fall and although we have every intention of her starting in Charlotte, I took precautionary measures and completed the paperwork for the schools here in Cary. After I dropped off the paperwork, my eyes began to water. Really, Becca? That was just the darn paperwork. What are you going to do when she really starts kindergarten? I don’t like this one bit.
• Hanleigh LOVES to go potty. She isn’t being potty trained per se, but will pee every time you put her on the toilet. She hasn’t mastered wiping yet as she points to the roll of toilet paper and then just drops it straight in the toilet, but we are making progress. You can tell she is so proud of herself when she does go.
• When we were in Charlotte for Mom’s birthday, Brayden pulled an epic meltdown during breakfast because her fruit was too “wet” and her listening skills weren’t the best, to say the least. I put her up in a room for a timeout and she was kicking and screaming on the way up the stairs. Fast forward about 15 minutes and when she had calmed down, I talked to her about why she was in timeout and she pointed to a post-it note with taped looped on the back (as if she was going to stick it somewhere). On it she wrote, “I don’t like you mommy.” OH NO! I told her that I was proud of her for being able to express her feelings to me in some form. For anyone who knows my history when I was younger, I was notorious for writing nasty notes to my mom when I was upset (mostly about silly things, now that I look back), but I don’t know that I started writing them at such a young age. Brayden has me beat. There should be some interesting notes ahead. My mom kept a collection of my notes to her and I plan to do the same with Brayden. One day, we will both laugh hysterically about the nastygrams!