first day of "tool time"

Presley had a good first day of school! I had worked the night before, but I went to my mom's so I could get P ready and go with my mom to take her. I didn't want to miss her first morning! I took her picture with a sign stating what milestone it was. Because I love to do that...as evidenced by her first year of life! ;)

She was pretty excited to go and only whimpered when I had to put her down to sign her in. Then I went over to the toys and started showing her things and she got distracted. I just got up and went out the door. Then I thought "oh no I didn't tell her bye. She's going to think I abandoned her and I'm never coming back. She's going to be so distraught!" I wanted to go back in and hug her one more time and tell her bye. But my mom said that definitely wasn't a good idea, and she was right. Presley was fine! I kept peeking in the window and she was still playing. I think it also helped to be distracted by the three other little girls running around! [I totally shed a few tears at that moment. I kinda felt like a dork, but you know what I am her mom and I deserved to cry anytime I want!] Miss Tory said none of the girls ever got upset that day. Presley even said tonight that she wanted to go play at "tool time" again tomorrow, so hopefully it goes well again. I was pretty impressed that she did so good. It was her first time completely being away from our family!

Miss Tory also handed out this sweet poem to all of the mama's. Definitely didn't help with the tears! :) It was a really sweet gesture though!

The First Day
I gave you a little wink and smile
As you entered my room today.
For I know how hard it is to leave
And know your child must stay.
You've been with her
And have been a loving guide,
But now, alas, the time has come
To leave her at my side.
Just know that as you drive away
And tears down your cheeks may flow
I'll love her as I would my own
And help her learn and grow.
For as a parent, I too know
How quickly the years do pass
And that one day soon it will be my turn
To take my child to class.
So please put your mind at ease
And cry those tears no more
For I will love him and take her in
When you leave him at my door.

Open House

Presley is going to preschool this year. That's right, I just typed the craziest sentence. How can my baby be ready to go to preschool? I feel like I just brought her home! Well, she is the youngest kid in the class. All the others are 2 1/2 or almost 3, but we felt like she needed the social interaction since she doesn't hardly ever play with kiddos her own age. And she pretty much has her own personal teacher at home in my mom who teaches her loads of stuff! :) And for that, we are very grateful!

They had open house today and we went a played for a bit and met Presley's teacher, Miss Tory. She hasn't ever taught preschool before so this will be a learning experience for all of us! Ha! Presley will be going Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9am-1pm, and that class is all girls! The M,W,F group is all boys; how funny is that? She already likes going to "tool time"! But then again, we haven't left her by herself yet. Hopefully there will be few tears and lots of smiles in the future! Oh, I almost forgot, Jeremiah took off today so it was awesome that he was able to come too! Poor thing won't ever be actually taking her or picking her up because he'll always be working during those hours. :(

total random side note- You could definitely tell we at a Florida preschool...there were no smocked apple dresses or monogrammed clothes on today. In fact a mom/daughter duo had on swimsuits and cover-ups! Presley still represented her southern mama well in her Castles & Crowns and monogrammed lunch box! ;)


Afterward, Presley and I went with my Mom to check out the train museum where Jaden is having his birthday party next weekend. And of course we had to get some pics, because Presley LOVES trains! I know she is going to love his party!

26 and 1/4 of a month old

When do you stop doing the month updates on a toddler? Apparently at 2 years old if you're a slacker mommy blogger like me! Well, here we are at 26 months and 7 days old and you are getting a Presley month update. I think I'm going to only do them sporadically because it's hard to keep up with things every 4 weeks!

She is the bossiest little thing I've ever seen. She has started telling things (and people) to "hush"! If she wants to talk to someone that I'm talking to, she'll just look at me and say "Mommy hush, I talk to Daddy." Or she'll just randomly be walking through the house and say "hush baby" to one of her dolls. It's hard not to let her see that it's funny, because Lord knows I don't need her going in public telling some stranger to hush...that wouldn't be funny!

And the sweet side of her says "I wub we Mommy" (I love you!) and "thant chu Mommy" unprompted now. I just love it! It's like she such a little person now, well, I mean she always has been but it's more noticeable now that she can have a understandable conversation with you. We're still working on please though.

Presley LOVES my phone. In fact she calls it her phone and treats it like the precious ring from Lord of the Rings. Meaning you have to pretty much pry it from her hands 'cause she's got a death grip on it! However that being said, I totally understand why she loves it. Elmo and Gabba Gabba instantly stream on it, books read themselves to her on it, and she learns colors, shapes and animal noises in other languages on it. What's not to love? But the downside is that Presley deletes photos, people and apps from it. So I'm trying to rein in her usage!

It's getting harder to get her to branch out and eat different things. I feel like we are getting stuck in the toddler diet of pb&j and grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch. At least she is still eating veggies most days. And her favorite foods for dinner are tacos, spaghetti and chicken salad. She eats veggies in the funniest way. She will only eat them while she's running around playing. So that means that you have to take the vegetable into the living room and sit down and make it a fun game...whatever works I guess!

Presley is super into coloring and playing with baby dolls right now. I bought an easel at Ikea that has a dry erase board on one side and a chalkboard on the other...that is a huge hit! She is also loving dressing and undressing herself. I don't remember Kole being interested in that this early. But Presley will take the clothes from your hands and pull them up as far as she can or put them over her head as much as possible and then say "I need help" for you to finish it. :)

It seems like life is moving at warp speed and shows no sign of ever slowing down. It makes me sad that she seems to have grown up over night...and I know it's only going to get worse. Someone hold me!

Women of Faith - Imagine

A few weekends again, my Mom & I headed to Atlanta to attend the Women of Faith tour, Imagine. The tickets were her birthday present. Really it was just as much a gift to me as it was to her....no kids for 3 days! ;) We left on a Thursday morning and got back really late Saturday night.

We went to Ikea for the first time on Thursday. I love that store immensely! When I got home I realized they charged me for an art easel I bought Presley 3 times. I called them and got $3o refunded with no hassle. That was super impressive to me! You have to go there as soon as possible. The one in Atlanta is easy to get to but plan on spending at least 3 hours there. You definitely need that much time to see everything!

I love this kitchen. I want it now. Is that possible?

Love this dining room too...these are my dream colors!

We stayed at the Best Western Plus Inn at the Peachtrees right downtown. I was pretty impressed that the rooms actually looked like the pictures! It was really nice and at only $80/night with a full breakfast buffet (including make your own waffles) AND in walking distance to everything, it can't be beat!

The view from our room. I have always wanted to live downtown in a big city and for 2 nights I got to! ;)

The conference was exactly what I needed. Amazing women speaking the word of God. I laughed and cried pretty much the entire time. And didn't feel a bit out of place with 8,000 other women doing the exact same thing! We saw Sheila Walsh, Nicole Johnson, Lisa Harper and Angie Smith. They are all so gifted in what they do. Google them and fall in love! Mary Mary and Natalie Grant both sang. All extremely talented ladies who can belt out some songs! I wish I could see the conference in every city they go to; it was just that good!

The conference focused on Ephesians 3 :20, "Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine". I need to remember that! ;) I think it was Shelia Walsh who said that "peace is not the absence of trouble, it's the presence of Christ". Amen sister, amen!

a month later...

Sooooo.....I kinda blame my phone for me not having any interest in getting on my laptop to blog. It's easier to get on my mini computer that also makes phone calls! But I kinda blame my own issues too. I have 26 friends (for real, I counted recently) that are pregnant right now. That's a lot of girls to be bombarded with when you desperately want to have another baby. I feel like every day I get on Facebook or read a blog, someone is announcing their pregnancy. And to be brutally honest, it's bumming me out. :( My head knows I'm lucky to have gotten pregnant easily with Presley and we're blessed to have her and that she's enough kid for us if we can't have more. But my heart feels something different. sadness. I trust that when the time is right we'll have more kids, maybe even possibly adopt some day. But I'm human and I want what I want when I want it! crazy, I know.

Well, just wanted to let y'all know we haven't fallen off the face of the Earth and I'm going to try and be better about regularly blogging because I'm missing stuff that Presley's doing. And that's why I started this thing, to journal memories.