First day of kindergarten!

First, here's Brady how I left him at 12:32am... On the crib mattress on his floor. I blogged in the glider so I actually didn't fall asleep with him. 

And I vaguely remember him climbing in end with me. Super vaguely. This has happened three times I think. I'm not sure why he normally cries at the top of the atIrs until I come get him, sometimes cries while he makes his way to my room, and occasionally doesn't cry at all while he goes into super stealth mode and climbs into bed without waking me up. He fell asleep around 11:30 or so and then was awake again at 12:25 (that time he cried at the top of the stairs... I was still awake, just watching the most amazing lightening storm I've ever seen in my entire life) but fell back asleep quickly. But I woke up to this a little before 7:30. 

Elizabeth obviously woke up before us but was just hanging out. Brady was still snoozing. And I was trying to catch a few extra minutes. 

Brady gets so excited to unwrap Elizabeth. She's always just this little present that we can't wait to get our hands on. This is as far as he ever can get though because of how well I straight jacket her. 

He fixed his Cinderella sock... That he wore all night. Just the one. 

I came out of my room to see he tried to get at Abigail's party favor treats that we put on top of the fridge. They're there because putting them on top of the washing machine wasn't good enough and he ate half of them yesterday afternoon when we weren't paying attention to him. Abigail was so sad. I locked Brady in his room for time out. Apparently it wasn't enough to deter him to try again. Ha. 

this happy girl on her way to her first day at kindergarten. She's only been looking forward to it since last fall. 

In front of her school. 

The hallways were packed with kids and parents and I had Elizabeth in her car seat and Brady running all over and Abigail doing her thing and Brady is all "Mom! Take a picture of me!!!"  He loves pictures. Also, he loves this outfit. And now anything preppy. He's obsessed with golf... and polo shirts = golf shirts. I won't lie, I love it as much as he does. 

He was hesitant to leave. "I don't want to go home!" And "I want Elle to come to my house!"

Eventually he marched along though. 

We went to kohls. It was my least favorite hour of the day. I lugged Elizabeth's car seat around because they have no shopping carts. And I tried to get Brady to follow me while he cried about all the toys he couldn't get open and all the Godiva chocolate I wouldn't let him have. I didn't find a new birthday dress for Abigail or any good deals and eventually walked out of the store empty handed. Seriously... The most painful waste of time. I was in such a crappy mood after that. Especially because I saw bad spots for a while while I was in the store and then got a bad headache (this happened to me the morning of Elizabeth's blessing too and I'm hoping it's not going to be a regular thing now). On our way home (at 10:40, Brady fell asleep in the car. So I left him in the garage and was just inside making myself a smoothie when my friend texted that she'd gotten out her bags of girls stuff that I could come get. Sweet!  Elizabeth was still buckled in her seat so it took two minutes (I had to finish making my smoothie) and I was on my way to her house. Lisa texted me. I responded with words of wisdom for Abigail's Minnie Mouse and daisy sippy that I borrowed (those thick straws are great for car smoothies. 

I left Brady in the garage again when we got home and he stayed asleep til noon when we went to get Abigail. Sadly for all of us, he pulled Abigail's water bottle from her backpack to get a drink and Abigail flipped. She stayed in the most horrendous mood for the next 45 minutes. So even though she loved kindergarten... Here's our picture. ; ) 

And because Brady loves pictures and can't bear to be left out of one. 

The amazing pile of clothes from my friend, Kristy. Seriously she has such good taste... In everything. And there are so many adorable baby gap pants in here that I'm already impatient for Elizabeth to wear... Even though it'll be a year til she's big enough. 

And crib bedding. 

I finally moved Elizabeth into the brown room. It was a bigger project than anticipated. Raising the crib, changing the bedding, and conpletely switching out the closet. I'm still not entirely done. Elizabeth isn't sleeping as well in her basket anymore because it's getting too small for her and her wiggling so I'm excited about her first night sleeping in a crib. 

A random last shot of Brady's stuff in that closet. 

I could talk about it constantly and it still wouldn't be enough to capture it. Brady is obsessed with Elizabeth and so sweet to her. Constant baby voice and telling stories and singing songs. He wanted to hold her and he couldn't stop kissing her. He never ever stops kissing her. 

And so now Brady is in the guest room. I'd love to get this back to an exclusive guest room eventually but for now, I just need it for Brady. I need him to have his own space for sleeping because he's so loud and disruptive and I'm sick of falling asleep on his floor. Now if I need to lay with him, I'll at least have a bed. We'll see how it goes. It's been musical beds around here ever since Brady climbed out of his crib. Just in the last ten days, he's slept on a crib mattress on his floor, Abigail's floor, my bedroom floor (half a night), and in my bed with me... And now on the guest bed. It's just trial and error with this kid now. Brady's first night in a real bed. 

Elizabeth's first night in a crib. 

And my awesome sleeper Abigail... Just soin her thing on her little crib mattress. She's back in diapers at night but I haven't moved her to her normal bed again yet. It's kinda nice for summer just having this little mattress with no covers. So I don't have to make her bed or worry about her getting sweaty. And it just slides under her bed when we're done in the morning. 

So, that was our day. And I didn't get the kids asleep til 9:15. I was super patient with them until 9:14. I never know if I just need to hang on to my patience for just one more minute, or if it's losing my patience that finally gets my kids to shut up and go to sleep. ; ) 

Speaking of... Thanks for the love and kind, supporting words of encouragement. It gave me the motivation I needed today to keep trying and not give up. Also made me not feel horrible for sticking to my guns and making Abigail clean her room this afternoon before moving on to a new activity. But still... I think we're both going to love kindergarten. Because remember how Abigail started yelling at and crying about Brady from the second we picked her up from school?  That's an all day, every day thing. Especially the "BRADY! STOP SINGING! I DON'T LIKE YOUR WEIRD SONGS!" 

My parents can vouch for the truthfulness of this. Sadly. ; /  But seriously, I texted my Christopher this afternoon and said "if you told me kindergarten was cancelled tomorrow, I'd cry myself to sleep tonight."  We're both going to really love this whole time away thing.