What we've been up to...

With the increase in popularity of my photography book comes the neglect of our family blog. It's all about finding balance, which I'm still trying to do. I love my new found photography adventure but at the same time I feel like I've been missing out out on some of the other day-to-day things that I'm used to doing. And with Maddie starting school, it has also changed some of my normal daily doings. So, I guess in a nutshell I can say that my life is changing and evolving but I love it.

Before Maddie started school our day didn't even begin until 9am! Yep, our whole household would sleep in until 9am every day. Loved it. Once we all were up we hang out in our jammies for as long as we wanted, eating breakfast and catching up on PBS kids. But now that we have a school girl we start the day at 7am, which is EARLY. :) Well, Maddie and I start the day at 7am, Lyndon is still snoozing. We both get dressed, eat breakfast and are out the door by 7:35ish. I drive her to school and after a week of parking the car and walking her to the lunchroom (where they wait until they all go into their classroom), she decided she was ready for my just to wait in the car drop off lane and she would get out and walk to the lunch room all on her own. It's times like these that it still baffles me that we is really this old. I watch her as long as I can walk into the building. She looks so small but with such a grown-up spirit.

After I drop her off I come home and get a few things done, i.e. make the bed, check my email etc, Lyndon wakes up and we go to the gym to my exercise class. Unlike Maddie, Lyndon LOVES to go the the kids club at the gym. After kids club if we don't go get a prize at the Dollar Tree, we head home.

So many people have asked how Lyndon is doing without Maddie. I must say, I was a little curious how his day was going to be. Maddie has been his entertainer his entire life so what was he going to do all day without her? I'm happy to report that he happily imagines and plays all day long. Yes, he does come and ask Jonathon and I if we can play a game with him or sword fight or whatever he is imagining that day, but only a few times a day. He is really a self motivator and is perfectly happy playing with other kids or by himself. I've also been surprised of the things that he knows how to do without Maddie around. For instance, Maddie has always been the one to either put on a DVD or a Netflix movie for them. But as it turns out, Lyndon knows how to do all that stuff too. He just lets Maddie do it for him.

We also meet our friends throughout the week so he has some other kids to play with. The 2 other boys who are Lyndon's age both have older sisters who also started kindergarden this year. The first day we all got together without the older sisters, all 3 of the boys asked on separate occasions, "Where's Maddie? Where"s Gwen? and Where's Lucy?" It was so cute how they all missed the girls.

I'm also SO HAPPY to report that Maddie LOVES school!!!! Yay!!! I'm so happy. The first day I picked her up from school she bounced in the car and exclaimed, "I. LOVE. SCHOOL!" It's been that way since day one. She loves to learn, she loves schedules, she loves her teacher, and she loves her new friends. She even told us one day that she has a boyfriend. I said, "Oh, like a boy who is your friend?" "No Mom. Like a BOYfriend.", she replied. Then she went on to say that he didn't know he was her boyfriend though. Oh, okay. That was a week ago and we haven't heard anything else about this so-called boyfriend. thank goodness. :)

All in all, things are going so well. Yes, I'm tired waking up at 7am Mon-Fri but I'm happy to get my day started so early. Lyndon is my little buddy during the day and we love to be with each other.  Jon is busily working on music and we are happy. Life is good.

I certainly can't post without pictures so here are a few...