Hay Happens and Hay's Happen

Tatum sees me put my hair in a ponytail all of the time, (more like a big ball on my head) and she has been wishing her hair could be in some sort of holding device on her hair. Enter my ponytail holders from *&^* years ago (resurrected from who knows how or where they came from!?) WE attempted the other day to wear to school.

The only problem is that the holders never made it home. The playground must be wearing them? (I inquired)

So, we are sticking with home ponytails right now. 

Well as we rifled through the treasure trough of ancient ponytail devices, she discovered “cupcakes” for her babies. (Her sense of imagination amazes me). Many of them are broken, so I cut off the end and she put them in a baby bottle to feed Amy and Ann (her twin dolls which were mine). 

After this, she found some old post it not flags and made a man (she says) on the board. 

After this, she wanted to play with her new pillow! Mama made her a homemade SUPERMAN pillow, and she can’t get enough of it.

She even took it today to Vivian’s house to play with it. Of course after playing and jamming on the guitar. 

This ponytail, pillow-loving, playful little gal just rocks my world.

Robert brings out the bounce in Tatum.

I think these two will be friends for a long time. Where does she get her bounce?
Well, I showed her a picture of from my high school cheerleading days (AAAHHH!!!!), and she insisted we go to the play place so she could bounce as well. (With Robert, her BESTIE BFF of course)

Well, actually, I do work full time, just not formally at a desk or at a white board. No, I work at being the best mommy to my Tatum every.single.day. And, today, I was reminded WHY I still don’t partake of that full time job thing.

It all started this morning; The usual 6am (or 6:14am) wake up call of Mommy, will you put this on Bella, or Mommy, I have to go (you know), or Mommy, is it Band-aid (to be explained in a later post) day yet? You see, I love this, even though it’s 6 blankin’ 14:am. Why? Because this is being a mom; it’s being the answer lady for all of your child’s burning questions at the ungodly hours of &*%@ am! Yep, that is really a pure delight.

Then, what made it even better this morning? Making a smoothie for my Tot. It turned a bit runny this morning, but she did not care. You see, Tatum would eat a shoe if I put it in front of her because she is so easy about food. But, when she started crying, I knew something was wrong. The runny smoothie was now running all over the counter, the stool, her clothes, the floor and Coti!! (Since he loves to sit underneath her and catch every crumb, drop, and morsel which is usually generously dropped (on accident sometimes, on purpose other times) beneath her.) She RARELY spills anything so this was all new to me. Today, Coti struck GOLD! Since of course, it was a school day, and we were running late, I was BLESSED it was only she who was running late. I had no urgent place to be, so I did not have to freak out like she did, although I did have to remake another breakfast and clean up half the kitchen, a dog, a child, and the floor. Fun stuff. She felt awful!!! (and hungry)

Today, being Thursday, I do go into GCU to teach a cohort. I decided to call a friend of mine who had been trying to reach me. She was waffling on whether to quit teaching or stay with it. We hemmed and hawed, processed, and analyzed together.  I’m so glad I am home with Tatum. My friend is now seeing the value in this as well, and hopefully she’ll be doing the same.

I do get a wee bit sad on Thursdays because  I do have to leave my two kiddos, Tot and Coti. They cuddled to show me they’d be safe. This cuteness makes it IMPOSSIBLE to be away from them.

All in all, I would not change my life for anything. I’m grateful every.single.day for my Tot, Coti, Doug and Mama for loving me, helping me and supporting me. This job is a welcomed job!

Coti had run himself ragged trying to catch that frisbee ball from his box of a zillion toys.

He found a pillow to rest on.

Next thing you know, Tatum is wondering…hey, who’s there?

Oh, just my chillin’ partner.

Aaaahhhhh. It won’t last long because these two run each other ragged!

It was a bright sunny Saturday morning, and we decided to hit the library. As usual, it was packed full of little ones waiting for a class of some sort to start. Tatum and I decided to avoid the play area first and go get her a library card.

We walked up to the help lady, and I said we needed up library card. She asked for her name, and Tatum piped up and said, “I’m Tatum Knight.” The lady was awed by her articulation of her name. The lady asked me if she could spell her name, and I said she could. So off we went to pick out some books.

Tatum decided to go over to the puppet area near the books and entertain everyone with the puppets. The parents were cracking up over Tatum’s antics. I enjoyed listening to her silliness, and so did the crowd apparently.

We picked out some books, read a few, and then Tot checked them out all by herself. First the card scan…

Then the book scan.

She has it down. 

We are ready for more books because you can never have too many, right!?

Today, after her FIRST REAL DAY, Tot did a trial class of Ballet and Tap at the Conservatory of Dance.

We had no tap shoes, so they let us borrow some. Two sizes too big, she was a great sport about it. 

So, off they went, and I kept my eyes glued to the screen to watch her. 

We may continue. The instructor, Miss Leah, commented that Tatum seemed like she had had dance before. I mentioned just dancing crazy with mommy! (Does that count?)

And this is for real. She is starting a FIRST school year in the “young 4’s” class today, and it absolutely freaks me out. Why? Because next thing you know she’ll be in college, then get married and then…..Ok, make me stop. Breathe.

So we walked in and took a quick pic in her little shirt and then…. I left thinking it was going to be OK.

And it was! I walked in (my first mistake) to pick her up and I got a scolding.

You see, Miss Chris is not a pushover at all. After she told me to wait outside the door until she opened it, I noticed ALL of the kids were sitting criss cross applesauce quietly listening to a story. There was no running up to me giving me hugs and kisses. There was no chaos. It was like a well-oiled machine. Tatum was dismissed and came up to me for a hug and the rest of the kiddos got their story.  HUH!? Wow! SO impressed.

Then, she gave me Tatum’s homework! (Actually mine). I was to make a poster for their wall About TOT. Then I was to get a composition notebook so they could fill it with ABC pics for the year.

Being the overachieving teacher, I quickly went to the store to buy what was needed and got to work on the poster.

All in all, a very successful first REAL day of Pre-K at PFT.