Fall Firsts!

It's been awhile, hi! Just over here blogging while Sister is sleeping and Cooper is at school. Ahhhh, it's Fall (ish), although you can't tell by the weather.

I suppose I have a little catching up to do. We've been mucho busy starting school, traveling to Georgia/South Carolina and going to Carrington's first music class…all within one week! Our Fall has definitely started off with a bang.

Cooper went back to school last Wednesday!

This is the best picture I could get. His Papa gave him a fancy new State Farm brush and he would not put it down! #notaframer but that is one cute mug!

For those of you that have followed from the beginning, you may be curious as to what kind of nightmare adventure I am about to tell you about the first day of school…at a NEW school, I might add. For those of you who don't know, there is only one word to describe school drop offs for the past two years: hellish. The first year he got so anxious he vomited. The second year was marked by crying and clinging. Let me tell you, I couldn't wait to see what year three had in store! [insert sarcastic cackle here]

Cooper had a little preview of his new school this past June during the school's summer camp. Each day they did a different theme: Frozen! Petting Zoo! Water Play! Cowboy! etc., etc. It was a three-year-old's dream. After the camp session was finished, he would ask me all the time when his school would be open again. I was left cautiously optimistic about the new year.

Fast forward to Wednesday drop off…  I had done everything in my power to prepare him. Took him to the class preview party, talked it up, let him pick out his clothes and I even bit my tongue when he wouldn't put down his lovely State Farm brush for a picture. Choose your battles, right? When we pulled into the carpool line my nerves were working but he seemed fine. His teacher came out to the car to greet him and he eagerly hopped out. Gulp. "Bye bud! I love you! Have a great day!" He turned to me, waved and said "Love you! Bye Mom!" Double gulp. After I picked my jaw up off the ground I cried, hard. It was 90% tears of joy and relief that it wouldn't be another hard year of drop offs and about 10% tears of sadness. My baby bird is leaving the nest.

I was first in line to pick up up from school that day. Not because I was crazy anxious to see how his first day went (OK, maybe a little), but because Kyle and I had a plane to catch! We were headed to Savannah to spend time with Kyle's Aunt Phyllis and head up to South Carolina for the opening A&M game.

"Hi Coop! Hope you had a great first day of school! (He did.) See you Saturday! Have fun with your grandparents!" The kids were left in the capable hands of their Papa with a hand-off to Cita and this mom-of-the-year hopped a plane to Georgia. Oh, and did I mention Sister was battling a double ear infection?! And, by the way, she wakes up at 5:15am these days. Have fun!

Savannah had always been on our "list" and it did not disappoint! We ate and drank and ate some more and when we needed to burn some calories we did the tourist thing and walked around downtown. We had an awesome time visiting family and relaxing at their beautiful home.

I'm not sure if it was Savannah or the lack of crazy kids around us, but we sure did the R&R thing right! This view didn't hurt!

The icing on the cake was the Fightin' Texas Aggie win over the South Carolina Gamecocks. Kyle and I do NOT have a great record of wins on the road together. Let's just say one of our first dates was an away game at Baylor that wasn't pretty. We pulled into the stadium conversing about how we "just didn't want to be embarrassed" and walked out with a HUGE win. Gig 'em Ags!

Next up on the list of fall firsts…Carrington's music class! We went for the first time today and she rocked it. She did exactly the opposite of everything that I remember Cooper doing when we used to take him to Gymboree (wanted to play alone, didn't want to sing, didn't want to sit in a circle…). She sat in my lap, tried her best to sing the songs and basically owned the room. She walked around the circle telling people "Hi!" while giving her best head-tilted smile of course and when it was her turn to sing on the "mic" she grabbed it from the teacher and belted out "DA DA DA" in her loudest little 14-month voice. This girl is friendly…and FEARLESS!

Posing before music class!

And, because this had to go on the blog somewhere and I can *kindof* work this into a "firsts" post…will you check out these pink tooters! I mean, ridiculous. 

Happy (almost) Fall!