Tappana Times: September

Well, it seems I'm always a month behind these days. I have plenty of blog posts on my mind, but I just haven't gotten around to them. One excuse is that I STILL have been sick. I really hoped I was over it last time, but then my bronchitis came back and then when I was recovering from that with a second round of antibiotics and steroids, I got another deep sinus infection! And this one has been a kicker. I've been pulling all the stops to keep from having to do ANOTHER round of antibiotics, but it's slow going and miserable. Three months of being sick people. It really puts a damper on things.

To get back to our lives last month, we joined my parents on their ward camp out, but that was just after discovering Ammon had pneumonia (poor kid could hardly walk from the cabin to the bathrooms without coughing so hard he was gagging) so only Lydia stayed overnight with Grandpa and Kayleen and Ryan since the rest of us were sick.

One of the fun activities included these blow up balls you could get in and ram others. Lydia loved it. Ammon really got the raw end of the deal. Not only could he not join because of pneumonia, but also because he still had his arm in a cast.

Although he cried because he didn't get to sleep over and couldn't get in "the soccer balls", Ammon soon was able to get his cast off!

He actually cried more about getting the cast off than when he broke his arm! He didn't like how it looked and felt floppy (it actually startled me too, it was SO floppy - it didn't look right at all. And I think my reaction was what made him so nervous...whoops!). He felt like it was unsafe and wanted the security of his cast back on. The doctors convinced us that after a couple of days of use he wouldn't even notice it anymore, and they were right. It took a lot of reminders and convincing on our part to get Ammon to use his right arm again, but now you would never know he broke it. Hooray!

Of course, in September football season is in full swing, so I did an impromptu photo shoot of Kendrick in his BYU outfit.

He wore out after about ten seconds of smiling, but I was able to use our outtakes to describe our unfortunate loss against the Utes.

The game was just bad, in so many ways.

What was good was walking in to this sight:

Two of my favorites: my children and books. Combined, they make my heart sing.

I hope my children develop the love that I have for reading. This makes me think they are on the right track.

Kendrick's hair is getting rather long and after bath time it gets quite poofy and silly-looking.

And this boy started to pull himself up in September.

Now, a month later, he's a madman and pulls himself up on everything and walks along the furniture to get into everything, causing all sorts of trouble. Oh to go back to just pulling himself up onto his knees.

The main excitement of September was the return of school.

Lydia started 2nd grade with Mrs. Sipila.




















Ammon started kindergarten with Mrs. Riggs.












Lydia started a week before Ammon and she was really excited. She loves everything about school and was ready to take on a new year. With her new haircut, she looked much too old and mature.

She has quickly made friends and complained about how boring math is. Her PE teacher, who adores her, sent her home with another prized eagle feather (a reward for good behavior) and it felt like Lydia never even left school.

Ammon had a bit harder time adjusting to Kindergarten. At first I was surprised, given how well he had done at preschool, but then a few days in we realized he had pneumonia and probably had been feeling terrible. Mix that with his shyness, loss of afternoon naps, and the overwhelming busyness of a big classroom, and it's no wonder he wished we were on vacation so he didn't have to go to school.

I thought it would be easier sending my second kid to kindergarten. But I found it was only a teeny-tiny sliver of a bit easier, and only because I knew what to expect. It still hurt just as much to know that now Ammon was starting on the path away from me. He was beginning down the same road that Lydia took a couple years ago, slowly headed for independence away from their mom.

I felt panicked that he wouldn't know what to do, that his shyness would disable him, that his cough would make him throw up at school, and that terrible things would happen without me. The poor guy was going to get overlooked and feel overwhelmed and it would just be terrible. Of course, I was being dramatic, and it did help that I knew his teacher from when Lydia had her, and she is AWESOME. I had faith in her and in Ammon to figure things out, but I had also gotten used to it being me and Ammon together. I missed my bud. And when he came home and said he had cried at recess because he had missed me I felt totally justified - see, he's mine, he's not ready, and we should stay together forever.

But my rational part keeps my in line and I knew Ammon would adjust and he would love school eventually. So I kept putting him on the bus. Though he cried the second day as well, he started to get used to the routine, recovered from being sick, and he now enjoys kindergarten. I love hearing about his afternoons at school. I can already tell that school is going to be quite different with him than Lydia. He's so much like his father and we already got a note home that he's working on focusing when instructions are given and knowing what to do when he doesn't know what to do. (when Brigham read that he said he got all sorts of flashbacks, haha) Ammon can read and do single digit addition and subtraction, but he obviously has plenty of other skills to start developing and I'm looking forward to seeing all that he can achieve and the joy on his face as he excels. He's one smart little boy!

It just stinks that he has to climb up those steps and ride away from me in order to be all that he can be. And yet I'm so happy that he gets to do so. The paradoxes of parenthood strike again!