Paige's 7th Birthday Party

Most of the fall, Paige talked about wanting to have her birthday party at our house, like we did when she turned 6 and when she turned 5.

But then around mid-November, she changed her mind and asked if her party could be at a local bounce-around party place (where we had her 4th birthday party). I was a little surprised that she changed her mind, but it was fine with me — having big birthday parties at home takes a lot of exhausting prep work!

So her party was the afternoon of Saturday the 19th. Kids attending the party included Raquel and Leina, Reese, Scarlett and Erin, Kaitlin and Joe, Lydia and Wyatt, Landon, Ella and Eli.

They were a good group of kids and ran around like crazy before cupcakes, punch and presents. We also collected canned-food items for our church's food pantry.

After the party, we had family over for dinner (taco soup) and a few more gifts, and the kids played.

Before she went to bed that night, she had to get into a headband-maker craft set and make two headbands, one for herself and one for her friend Kaitlin.

On her birthday, Scott and I worked. Paige was out of school for Christmas break so she spent the day with Becky. But I got off work early and she and I spent a couple of hours at Chuck E. Cheese. Then we met Scott at Becky's, and Becky made Paige a birthday dinner (Paige's choice: Nana's meatloaf).

Because of the way we traveled for the holidays this year, we didn't get to have a separate birthday celebration for her when we went to my hometown. That's a departure from how we've celebrated her birthday every other year, but it was just a logistical reality this year.

Paige enjoyed her celebrations very much. She is very blessed with family and friends who love her.

Surgery

I had surgery earlier this month.

I had a cyst on my neck that my dermatologist removed. I see my dermatologist once a year for a skin cancer scan and skin checkup, and he had looked at the cyst a couple of different times. He told me it was benign, a common type of cyst in people of all races and all ages, and said he recommended removing it only if it started to grow or bother me.

A few months after I last saw him in May, I noticed that it seemed bigger than usual. So I made an appointment to see him again in late October. We decided to have it removed, and set a surgical appointment for early December.

I was happy to have it scheduled but a little anxious about the surgery; the cyst was located on my neck where my neck meets my jaw right under my ear. The idea of him cutting into that sensitive spot made me a little anxious, but I really became extra anxious when the cyst started to hurt.

Before that, it had never felt like anything. It didn't hurt. It was never tender; it just felt like skin —nothing unusual. But about three weeks before my surgery, it started to turn red and hurt, so I called my doctor again. It was inflamed, so he gave me an antibiotic and a cream to put on it, and kept the scheduled surgery date. He wanted the inflammation to be under control before he tried to remove it.

So I took powerful antibiotics for a couple of weeks, and then I had the surgery. Scott was there in the room, and I was glad he was. I felt I was pretty calm but I attribute a lot of that to the fact that he was there.

The surgery lasted about 20 minutes. It was uncomfortable but not unbearable or painful, since my face and neck were deadened. I felt more pressure than anything, and luckily that side of my face was covered so I couldn't actually see anything.

My right jawline and neck were still numb when we left the doctor's office, so we went to Target to buy the extra-strength Tylenol he recommended and then to Best Buy to peruse new iPhones.

Later that night, I was in a fair amount of pain, but after that recovery was pretty easy. I had to keep it covered for nine days, only airing it out at night until the stitches were removed. Luckily, my hair pretty much covered the bandages so no one even noticed it unless they already knew about the surgery.

It is healing nicely; at the 9-day mark, the nurse who removed the stitches was impressed with how smooth it was and told me to scarring should be minimal.

Of course the best news is that my doctor was right: pathology on the cyst showed it was benign and of no concern.

A person's health is of such importance, and not something I take for granted. I know I am lucky to have good health insurance, a doctor I trust, and a nursemaid in Scott to rip the bandages off for me literally.

Copey 2016

Paige continues to be delighted with Copey the elf.

He returned this year after we put up our big Christmas tree, as is his tradition.

Paige enjoyed the morning game of finding him every day. A couple of times, he brought her something, like this elf-themed art and activity book.

And sometimes he was silly.

This morning, he brought Paige a letter, telling her he would lift the magic if she wanted to briefly hug him before he flies back to the North Pole for the last time tonight.

Elf "bubble bath"

This is the fourth year Copey has been our guest over the holidays (first year here), and he sure is a fun addition to our Christmas traditions.

Seven Years Old

Dear Paige,

Seven years ago today, I saw your sweet face for the first time. I thought my heart could never love anyone or anything more than what I felt for you in that moment.

January 2015.

I was wrong. As any mommy or daddy would tell you, my love for you grew and grew and continues to grow now, even after 7 whole years of knowing you.

February 2015

And you are a wonder to watch grow, a wonder to simply know. You are such a fun-loving kid! You are so full of life and happiness.

March 2015

At 7 years old:

• You weigh 46 pounds and are 50 inches tall. (You're 4 inches taller thatn a year ago. And it's ALLL leg!)

April 2015

• You wear mostly size 6 shirts and pants, with a few 5T pants (still) and a few 6X pants. You wear a size 12.5T shoe.

May 2015

• You love all things involving cats, especially Sunshine Pretty of course. (Man, she is a wild cat. I need to write an update post on Life with Sunshine.) You still love arts and crafts — your favorite subject at school is Art — and you love to travel and have little adventures.

June 2015

• You love to read, read, read. You are almost always up for trying new things (unless it's something you decide is scary), but you also enjoy the habits of our life too.

July 2015

• You are a rule follower. I will recognize that you do test the boundaries with me and Daddy, but you follow rules everywhere you go: at school, at Sunday school, at ballet class, in public. You automatically hold our hands without question when we enter a parking lot, and you would never run away from us in a crowded public place. It's simply not in your nature. (This makes you more like me than, say, your Uncle Gary, who went through a stage of hiding in clothing racks at stores and driving GranJack crazy.)

August 2015

• You love being social. This has been the year with the most playdates you've had, and you love spending time playing with friends like Kaitlin, Allison, Raquel or Emma, Ella or Eli. You very often will ask to have a playdate with Kaitlin on Sundays after you see each other at church.

September 2015

• You also love being home. You crave those "jammie mornings" we often have on Saturdays, and after a busy week of school, I try to make sure we almost always have them. We schedule nothing on Saturday mornings whenever possible, and you start the day by snuggling in Mommy & Daddy's bed before we make muffins or biscuits and watch TV for a little while before you move on to drawing or playing while I do chores. You generally get dressed for the day around lunchtime — and almost always protesting to "pleeeease, can I stay in my jammies all day?!?"

October 2015

As I have every year since you turned 3, I interviewed you on video this weekend. I need to compile them into one video loop so we really can see how you've changed.

November 2015

You love me and Daddy with your whole heart, and your preference is still to be with us over anyone. And that's our preference too! I would love to win the lottery simply to spend more time with you, sweet Babylove — partly because I miss you when we're apart but mostly because I know these innocent days are fleeting and I want to soak them up.

Today, Dec. 22, 2015

I've told you this so many times, but being your Mommy is the most important part of my world, and I'm so blessed to have this role. Daddy and I are so proud of you, and we are looking forward to seeing what 7 brings!

Love,

Mommy

Christmas 2015: Holiday Activities

We've been busy with lots of holiday fun around here.

Copey returned this year, and Paige has been having fun finding him every morning.

He's also brought a few trinkets for her — Christmas window clings, for one.

Paige has been practically obsessed with this Charlie Brown Christmas board game. It's one I gave to Scott years and years ago, and she's the perfect age for it now.

We've been playing it about every other night.

We went one chilly weeknight and rode the holiday train at a local park. It is a holiday tradition in our area; we've ridden the train at least once every Christmas season since Paige was born.

We've visited Santa, and told him we want Shopkins, Shopkins, Shopkins.

We spent an afternoon at the local performance of "The Nutcracker," where Scott bought Paige a nutcracker ornament of her own.

I got a holiday manicure — so festive!

We've made holiday treats and cookie-cutter ornaments (out of cinnamon and applesauce! They smell divine!)

We've posed for holiday photos with Sunshine.

And on Friday, Paige wore her PJs to school and I came in the afternoon to take part in her class Christmas party.

These are special days. I love the holidays with these two.

Raquel Turns 5!

Raquel is now FIVE years old!
These years are flying by.

We celebrated with her at a local gymnasium and then at dinner at her home, and we had a great time.

I'm so glad these sweet girls are such sweet friends. Just like their parents! 😍😍😍😍

Christmastime Is Here!

After we returned from our Thanksgiving weekend, we put up the rest of our Christmas decorations (which really was everything except the tree in Paige's room).

Paige hung the majority of ornaments on the trees in our living room and dining room, hung the stockings on the mantle, helped Scott put the wreath on the front door, and put Santa and snowmen window clings on windows in our dining room and living room.

And now it feels like Christmas!

Thanksgiving 2015

This year, we had an early Thanksgiving meal with Scott's family and then took a trip over the long weekend to visit mine.

We had a great week. Paige loves time with her cousins, and she had plenty of it.

Secrets with her great-grandma

While at my parents', we had a leisurely amount of time to spend visiting with everyone — no rushing around this time, which isn't always the case.

On Thanksgiving Day, we had a brunch at Mom and Charles'. Perhaps not traditional for Thanksgiving, but it was really nice. I love eggs and bacon and breakfast pastries and Irish coffee. It really says "vacation" or "holiday" to me! Gary, Holly and Luke, Aunt Carrie Mae and Papaw were there as well. While the kids played that afternoon, Holly and I took a long walk on a nearby walking path, which was also nice.

That evening, we went to my grandparents' house for turkey and dressing and pies.

Over that weekend, Paige and Luke decorated Mom's Christmas tree and made a mess decorated giant gingerbread men Mom had gotten for them. We returned home refreshed and ready for the holiday season.

Always fun at GranJack & Pop's!

We are so blessed. The older I get, the more thankful I am for these blessings, blessings I know I have too often taken for granted, blessings I know not everyone has. Our extended families are two of our biggest blessings.
Happy Thanksgiving!

'Medium Kid'

Paige has been talking about her upcoming birthday a lot, and in doing so, she recently told me that she will no longer be a "little kid" when she turns 7 next month.

The rest of our conversation follows.

Paige: Mommy, when I'm 7, I'll be a medium kid.
Me: A medium kid? What are you now?
Paige: I'm kind of in between a little kid and a medium kid. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 — those are little kids. Six is in between. Seven is a medium kid.
Me: How long will you be a medium kid?
Paige: Hmm, until I'm a teenager. Seven, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, I'll be a medium kid. (Note: When she said the numbers, she said them really fast: seveneightnineteneleven-pause-TWELve)

Me: Well I guess that makes sense. What happens when you turn 13?
Paige: Then I'll be a big kid.
Me: And how long will you be a big kid?
Paige: 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19. Until I turn 20.
Me: OK, so what are you when you turn 20?
Paige: Well, then I'll be a grown-up kid.
Me: I think that makes perfect sense, because you will be in college. So you'll be almost all the way grown.

Paige: Well, I'll be a grownup kid when I'm 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29.
Me: Wow, so what happens when you turn 30?
Paige: Mommy! Then I'll be a grownup! Thirty, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38 39.
Me: Well I'm 40 now. So what am I?
Paige: Mommy, don't be silly. You're still a grownup.
Me: Well how long will I be a grownup?
Paige: Until you get gray hair and you retire.

Oh this girl! I write it here all the time, I know — but oh how I love her.

Party Squad: Quick Visit

On their travels to Katie's parents' home to celebrate Thanksgiving, Katie, Craig, Trevor and Izzie stopped for a quick overnight visit last weekend.

Our house doesn't have a true guest room since we had Paige, only a den with a futon and a blow-up bed in our living room floor, so I know they don't stop here for the awesome accommodations. But I love when they are here. I love when we are all under one roof.

Kids' dining tables, and playing.

I ordered pizza from our favorite local place, and baked frozen popcorn chicken and cookies for the kids, and Chris, Karen and the girls joined us for the evening.

The kids played, the adults visited and reminisced and enjoyed the company. And then they left the next morning to continue their drive.

The scene in Paige's bedroom:
Four girls on the bed shrieking and screaming, and Trevor covering his ears.

These days. They are by far too few and far between for my liking, but oh they are sweet.

Sugar Plum Fairy Tea

Paige's ballet school hosts a "Sugar Plum Fairy Tea" each year, usually on the Sunday before Thanksgiving.

We'd never gone before, as we often would be in my hometown on that weekend to celebrate an early Thanksgiving. But traditions evolve as schedules change and kids grow, and so we found ourselves planning to be home that weekend.

So I bought tickets and planned a Mommy-Daughter afternoon, and it did not disappoint.

The tea was held in two adjacent rooms at an events center, and I think Paige was in awe as soon as we walked in. The tables were decorated in a frilly, ballerina theme, and stacked high with tiny tea sandwiches, fruit and treats such as chocolate-covered-and-sprinkled marshmallows on a stick. They served lemonade — always Paige's favorite — and even had coffee and wine for the adults, along with a spread of more sophisticated hors d'oeuvres, like brie and prosciutto.

We had a snack, with Paige happily informing me that the lemonade was "the Chick-Fil-A kind," aka the best lemonade, and we ran into my friend and former colleague Jamie, who was photographing the event for the newspaper. (Anecdote: Jamie also took the photos of our wedding!)

After the snacks, we went into the next room, which was crafts galore. Paige was in her element; each table had a different craft, and I am pretty sure Paige did all of them. She made Christmas ornaments and a fun Christmas tree out of strips of wrapping paper glued onto a canvas and then ModPodged.

At all the stations — the snacks, the crafts, an auction of wooden Nutcrackers, and a photo station with the Sugar Plum Fairy in which Paige had no interest — were "Nutcracker" ballerinas milling around in costume to help the younger girls and take photos.

We had a really wonderful time. On the way there, Paige told me she wasn't sure she wanted to go. I think she was wanting to be home and be low-key as we'd been running around after church. But as soon as we sat down with the marshmallow tower, she excitedly told me she was glad we were there, and when it was over, I had to practically drag her out.

And, I'm so glad Jamie was there because he took photos of us :)

Fun memories.

Ballerina

Paige has been taking ballet almost 3 years now.
She's not as obsessed with it as she was when she began, when she talked about being a "ball-wina" every day, but she still enjoys it.

And she's quite the little dancer.
Her ballet school has an observation month in November, when parents can come into the classroom and observe the lesson.

Scott observed recently, and took these photos. She is so lovely, and is really growing up.

I hope she sticks with ballet for a few years at least, because I think former ballerinas carry that grace with them throughout their lives.

Today

After lunch today, I stopped and got a coffee.

This is not my normal routine; I usually have 2 or so cups of coffee in the morning and then switch to water for the rest of the day.

But with a chill in the air and the first week that truly felt like "fall," an after-lunch coffee sounded good.

I stopped at a gas station on the way back to work, one I rarely visit.

And standing there at the coffee station, using a gas station cappuccino maker to mix some "English Toffee" cappuccino with a splash of half-n-half and a lot of regular coffee, I had a major sense of deja vu and was flooded with memories.

Isn't it weird how that happens, especially when it's unexpected?

It's closing in on a year's time since I left the newspaper business and made a career change. But I was flooded with memories of those newspaper days and visiting the gas station a block from the newspaper office, where I often would make the same kind of coffee concoction. There were times I would do that two or three times a week on my way back from lunch.

Today, I finished filling my coffee cup, paid for it and got in the car to head back to work.

As I drove, I reflected on this past year. I am not the same person I was — but I also can see now, at 40, that I could make that statement every year. Maybe anyone and everyone can.
Some years, the changes are minute; others, bigger. Becoming a mom: biggest change, biggest year of change. But I've also changed in other ways over these past few years. I am no longer the girl Scott married.

And, weirdly, sometimes it takes gas station coffee to make me realize it.

A Day In The Country

Scott's family owns very rural property and a cabin about an hour away from us; it's been in their family for generations.

The men in his family (his dad and uncles, his brother and cousins) use the property primarily as hunting ground. As deer season approaches, he and Mark spend time up there loading deer feeders, checking game cameras, etc.

Paige and I haven't been up there too much, but Scott was going up there on a recent Sunday afternoon and we decided to join him.

Scott's dad was there too, so Paige rode on a side-by-side with him while Scott and I took the other one.

We drove around the property, grabbing SD cards out of game cameras and showing Paige some of the deer stands.

Later we hiked around a little bit, seeing if the small waterfall on their property was flowing (it wasn't; not enough rain recently).

It was a quintessential autumn day in the South as far as the weather goes, and we enjoyed both the weather and the scenery, and the family time.