Hello, my friends. I hope that all is well in your worlds. It’s been a minute since I checked in so I wanted to bring you up to speed on what life has looked like over here lately.
FINN’S FIRST DAY OF FOURS!
My sweet boy had his first day of school today. He’s in the fours class and this will be his third year at the same preschool. We love it for its play-based learning along with how small and personal it is.
I won’t lie…I had a lump in my throat and fought back tears as I walked him in. He gave me a long lingering hug, a kiss and then bravely walked into his new classroom. The emotions that were coming up for me were positive. The passage of time is a crazy thing when you are raising a child but I couldn’t be more proud of Finn and excited for exactly where he is right now at four years old.
And because I am who I am…I didn’t have a special sign for Finn to take a photo with this morning but I did take a picture of his lunchbox. 🙂 I asked him if he had a special request or wanted a surprise lunch and he chose surprise lunch. I packed cheese and crackers, veggie straws, carrots, chocolate chips and his favorite banana muffin.
LABOR DAY WEEKEND
Finn and I had a very relaxed and slow Labor Day Weekend but it was a good one. Friday looked like a playground outing, a bakery trip and swimming. The playground was surprisingly empty so Finn recruited me to play.
Saturday was a bit of an off day. Finn woke up in the middle of the night Friday complaining of leg pain and wouldn’t put weight on his leg all day Saturday. I didn’t freak out because we had a bout with transient synovitis last year. He was also moving his leg and it wasn’t obviously swollen or inflamed. We took a long stroller nature walk where Finn asked me to take butterfly pictures.
Later that day we snuggled on the couch for some college football. I was so excited to watch my Georgia Bulldogs take on the Oregon Ducks. The Dawgs looked so good and we dominated Oregon. Finn hung with me until the fourth quarter when he dozed off and took a nap. That is a very rare occurrence these days so I knew he wasn’t feeling great.
I got him off to bed around 8:30p and thank goodness he woke up feeling back to normal on Sunday.
Sunday looked like hanging out around the house and then Finn joined me for a gym strength workout. That afternoon we did the pool again even though it was mostly cloudy. Kids 100% do not care if pool weather is less than optimal so I was glad he got to swim! The highlight of the day was a dessert trip to Krispy Kreme for donuts. Finn definitely has my sweet tooth and I let him have a dessert or treat most every day. I thought it would be fun to mix up dessert and do donuts instead of ice cream. He loved it! And of course I couldn’t resist a fresh and hot original glazed myself.
Labor Day was a crazy rainy day. I taught yoga at Charlotte Yoga at 10:45a while Finn hung out with one of his favorite babysitters. I shared the quote above in class and the overall theme of my messaging was about putting down heavy things and doing less laboring and more living.
I rushed home after class to get showered and ready to take Finn for a back to school haircut. How handsome does he look!? For my Charlotte readers, we love Ms. Robyn at SnipIts in Park Road Shopping Center. She not only does great kid’s cuts but is so personable and great with them.
Since it was so rainy, I stretched out our time at Park Road Shopping Center. We got cookies at Suarez and then walked to Park Road Books where we spent an hour hanging out and reading. Finn picked out a fun shark sticker book to take home. It makes me so happy that he asks to go to the bookstore and enjoys being there so much. I have fond memories from childhood of going to Waldenbooks with my grandmother and picking out new books. My love of reading was always so supported and promoted by my family and I want to do the same for Finn…especially in this age of screens, screens, screens.
We got home around 4p and spent the rest of the day doing things like laundry, changing sheets, picking up around the house, etc. At one point when the rain was pouring down after I’d changed the sheets, Finn asked me to get in bed with him and we just laid there for an hour and relaxed. While the rain put a damper on our plans to enjoy the end of the season pool party at our swim club, it also felt like the perfect excuse to have a relaxing one-on-one day before Finn started his new school year.
And that brings us to the end of my update. I am about to break into a pint of a new to me Jeni’s ice cream flavor that I bought at Whole Foods today at Joy the Baker’s recommendation and then head upstairs to read my book. I am reading How to Fall Out of Love Madly at the recommendation of Melissa Urban on Instagram but I am very undecided about how I feel about this book and if I would recommend it to others. Will let you know once I finish it.
QUESTIONS
What grade/class is your child in this year? (If you have one!) How did the first day go for everyone?
What did you do for Labor Day Weekend?
If you had to choose…donuts or ice cream? (And have you ever had a hot Krispy Kreme?)
My oldest son is a kindergartener this year! He started a few weeks ago and he has the sweetest teacher and his bff is in his class!
My little one is only 10 weeks old so he has awhile before school begins! We also watched college football this weekend and did some things around the house!
I wonder if his leg pain is “growing pains.” A friend had mentioned her son complaining of those pains. They tend to happen at night. Our oldest is a couple of months older than Finn and he will sporadically complain of leg pain and it is always in the middle of the night of course!
Our kids are in Spanish Immersion daycare, so it’s business as usual for us. The oldest moved into the Pre-K room this spring and the youngest is in the toddler room. I am amazed at everything they are learning. Our oldest is drawn to numbers so they seem to lean into that interest and have him working on math already! It kind of blows my mind! He will start kindergarten next fall and he is already talking about how excited he is.
My girl turned 1 in July and she is in daycare. She’s “only” 1 but it still goes by WAY TOO FAST… next month she’ll be transitioning to the toddler room from the infant room and that’ll be big for all of us 🙂
LDW was lots of outdoors time (reservoir, paddleboarding, bingo night, pool) – it encompassed everything we needed!
Ice cream ALWAYS! I finally tried the brambleberry crisp by Jeni’s and it is SO GOOD. I’m glad Whole Foods is a 15 minute drive away so I can’t spend all my money on the fancy ice cream 😉