Singing with Daddy

Lately, Connor has started trying to sing, particularly songs he has heard before.  Bedtime songs like "Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star" and "Jesus Loves Me" but my favorite is when Jason sits down at the piano and plays "Amazing Grace."  Connor grabs a book (not a songbook, mind you, but rather a Dr. Seuss or some other children's book), holds it up, and sings (not necessarily in English) with lots of feeling and fervor. 

I had been trying for a while to catch it on video, but Connor usually gets shy when the video camera comes out (see below...the first video is much less successful than the second), but I managed to catch it one day last week.

First try:  Daddy plays, but Connor is not feeling it



Really feeling it on the second try:

He might be mine, but I think he's pretty precious.  :)  I pray he continues to sing God's praises when he actually knows the words.  Have a blessed week!

Up, Up, and Away

Let me start off by saying that I am by no means a talented or creative artist when it comes to photography.  My camera is not fantastic (It's a 10.1 mega pixel Kodak.), and I only play around for fun, but I do love taking photographs and capturing the special moments of our little family (and friends and nature and other random things I see).

All that to say, we went to Lindsay G.'s baby shower today (best friend of my sister and basically a part of the family), and with Connor in tow we were sent home with lots of fun balloons (thanks to Lindsay's sweet sister-in-law, Kim). 

The second I stepped out of the car I thought that with the beautiful, sunny day that taking some pics of Connor holding the balloons in the yard would be precious. (I think I have photography on the brain because I am SO excited about one of my best pals Candice taking Connor's two year photos next week...yippee!)  The bad news...he wouldn't hold on to them, and he cried when they were tied to his wrist.  So my next plan was to have Jason take some pics of both Connor and me, which was okay, but still not great.  My third and final plan was to call my sis (who was already wearing an adorable outfit from the shower) and take photos of her with the balloons.  I was determined to get some cute pictures with those balloons, and I think I did.  She took a few of me as well, which you will see below (Disclaimer: I am not particularly photogenic.).

It was so much fun that I hope Linds will let me use her as a guinea pig again.  :)

Happy Saturday!

Friday Facts and Photos

This week has been a long but productive one.  It was our first full week of school, and I am definitely feeling the toll that circulating on concrete floors does to my feet and back, especially after being away for a while.  However, all in all, it has been a great week, with wonderful new students and a little boy who has adjusted better than I ever anticipated to Jason and I being gone all day (the guilt, however, is not totally assuaged).

Last Saturday Mom, Linds, Connor, and I attended a surprise birthday party in BG for Lindsay's best friend (and basically part of our family), who also happens to be a Lindsay.  We had a fantastic time shopping a bit beforehand, seeing the shock on Lindsay's face when she walked in, and a few treats on our way home (Gigi's Cupcakes and Sweet CeCe's).  It was a great day with people I love, and Connor was a trooper traveling.

Mom, Teresa, Linds (sis), Lindsay (birthday girl), me

From top: Gigi's Tiramisu cupcake, Linds enjoying frozen yogurt, and a Gigi's Summer Fun cupcake

On Sunday I made my first ever carrot cake, which turned out much better than anticipated.  Jason loved it, which was the goal, since it was per his request it was made, and I'm hoping to find time to blog the recipe this coming week.

Monday marked, as I mentioned above, the first full week of school, which is always tiring.  It was made even more busy due to the fact that I had an after school faculty meeting on Wed., and a meeting at my Alma mater until 7 p.m. on Thursday. 

Speaking of my college, being back on campus reminded me why I loved that place so much.  The campus is beautiful, the people are wonderful, and it still feels like home.  Sigh.  I'm hearing there might be a Master's program in English starting up there, so I either need to start saving my pennies or convince them they need me back there badly enough to give me some financial help.  :)



chapel at LWC

 Back to the school week -- By this morning I was exhausted, but at the same time I knew that if I could get through this week, I'd be back into a routine, meaning that this coming week will feel more familiar and a little less tiring.  I feel so blessed this year to have fantastic students, an amazing and hard-working student helper for one class (shared with another teacher), and fantastic people to take care of my Bug while I'm away.  Here's to hoping that this school year continues to be as fabulous as the first week and a half have been.

Which brings us to the last big event of the week, which I just returned home from.  Lindsay (from above surprise party) came home this weekend to attend her baby shower (She is due at the end of September, right around Connor's birthday!), so all of the Egnew/Morrison girls (plus Connor) went to eat at our favorite Mexican restaurant and then headed to Lindsay's mom's house for cake, ice cream, and lots of talking.  Connor had the most fun playing with Lindsay's iPad (Fortunately, he's too young to ask for one at this point.).  :)  It was the perfect ending to this long but wonderful week.



Random happenings this week:

-- One of the bloggers I follow, Megan at In This Wonderful Life, just had twins today!  Although I have never met her, after following her blog for more than a year and reading about the loss of her firstborn, Cohen, due to a heart condition, it filled me with such joy to see a photo of her beautiful babies!  Despite her loss, she has remained so faithful and positive.  This is why I love blogging and reading others' blogs.  It inspires me.

-- Connor is growing like crazy.  He is almost 23 months, and his 18 month-old clothes are finally starting to fit him.  He has always been on the teeny side, but all of a sudden he has gotten taller, and his face has lost that baby look.  It makes me sad and proud all at the same time.

-- Connor got his first wasp sting this week.  He did not handle it well (He gets this from his father.), but he hated the Bandaid we tried to put on it worse than the actual sting.

Random photos for the week:

Tractor time!

enjoying some after school rest and tv time

So proud that my roses are still alive.

"helping" Daddy pick up limbs



This kid loves Mommy's big bathtub.

Hope everyone has a blessed weekend!

Top 2 Tuesday

My friend Melanie has started a new link-up called "Top 2 Tuesday" and it's her first week, so I thought I'd try it out.

This week we are sharing our top 2 hobbies.

#1: Reading

Lucky for me, one of my hobbies is also my job.  As an English teacher, I get to read some of my favorite books over and over (and over) again, all while discussing the life-altering themes with my students.  It really is a dream job.  Outside of school (whenever Connor is in bed, usually) I like to read just about anything I can get my hands on.  Whether it be reading fiction, Bible studies for my Sunday school class, blogs I love to follow, or the occasional historical nonfiction (Jason's influence), there is nothing more relaxing than getting lost in a good book.
I am currently reading:

and I would love to read this next (I need to check the public library or borrow it from someone):

#2: Kickboxing

For the past 5 years or so, I have cultivated a love for exercise (particularly kickboxing/taebo) that I never anticipated.  I am not, by nature, an athletic person.  In 4th grade, I scored 2 points the entire youth league basketball season.  Despite being relatively tall for a girl at the time, I was not (and still am not) particularly coordinated.  Therefore, throughout most of my life, I believed that exercise was my enemy, sweating was yucky, and I pretty much stayed away from physical activity, unless it involved playing baseball with my cousins or taking a walk (which is the only "exercise" I could tolerate before). 

However, when a fellow teacher started a class after school in the band room and then expanded to the local gym, I decided to give it a try.  I was hooked.  The ladies with whom we worked out were fun and sassy, our instructor made us believe we could work harder and push ourselves more each time, and I actually started having fun working out.  At the peak of my fitness, we were working out during the week for two hours, and then on Saturdays we would sometimes workout for up to 2+ hours.  Before, this would have been completely out of my comfort zone, but I came to love it and look forward to going to class.

While pregnant with Connor I continued to kickboxing up until the week before his surprise (three-week early) arrival, and I like to think that being in the best shape of my life helped make delivery so easy (that and the epidural, for sure).

With Connor, I don't get to go as often as I'd like these days, and our routine has changed a bit, but I still have a love for this specific form of exercise that I never would have before.  Hopefully once we settle into a fall routine, I can start going more regularly, and get back to feeling as great as I did before.  I still have 15+ pounds to lose, but even with that extra weight, I feel better when I am exercising regularly.  I have more energy, I feel more confident, and I am stronger.  I am so thankful to my kickboxing girls and our instructor for showing me that exercise can be fun and empowering!



They even threw me a surprise baby shower when I had Connor!  Love these folks!



Our Little Houdini

Jason and I were cooking dinner last night, when all of a sudden we heard, "I did it!  I did it!" followed by clomping footsteps on the stairs.  We both ran over to the living room from the kitchen to see our son halfway up the stairs to the second floor with a huge grin on his face.

Might I add that the gate was still CLOSED.  Jason immediately opened said gate, grabbed Connor, and asked him how he did it.  He replied, "I show you," and then turned to me and said, "Mommy, picture." (I suppose either he is used to me photographing everything or he knew this was an important moment.

He then proceeded to do this:

How this big-headed munchkin figured out how to maneuver his body through the spindles I don't know, but no longer is the living room safe territory to leave him for a few moments.  No room is safe with Connor, it seems.  Gotta love his ingenuity, though.  :)

Friday Facts and Photos

I can't believe it's already been a week since I posted about our last weekend before the start of school.  In some ways this week has flown by, but in others it feels as though we have done so many things that there is no possible way it could all fit into a week's time.

The main highlights of the week include:

- Friday night and Sat. afternoon/evening were spent at our church's marriage retreat.  The focus was on love languages, both discerning them for ourselves and our spouse, and then learning how to appeal to the primary love language of our spouse.  Not surprisingly, my primary love language was words of affirmation, and my secondary was acts of service.  Jason's primary language was a tie between words of affirmation and gifts.  We learned practical ways to help our spouse feel loved in "their" language, and Jason did a great job.  On Monday, after a long day at school and taking care of Connor, this is what I found, which I blogged about here:

I was blessed to not only be a part of the retreat as a listener (at least for the first night) but am a part of the marriage team, so I was also involved in decorating, cooking, serving, and even performing in a skit for the retreat.  It was lots of work, but even more fun, and I love the other people with whom I work.  I learn so much from them about serving the Lord in small ways.  Even if I am behind the scenes, pouring drinks or washing dishes, I love being a part of this ministry devoted to helping couples have a romantic, affordable, beneficial night out.  Yet another reason I love our church family.

- Monday was the day I had been dreading for weeks.  Our entire district (elementary, middle, and high school, as well as central office, vocational school, etc...) was meeting as a faculty to begin the school year, and I was on the program to update the district on the progress of our English Leadership Network.  Give me 125 students every day to talk to and I am fine, but other adults make me NERVOUS.  I was anxious, but I had lots of people praying for me, and I made it through the 10 min. or so, said everything I intended, only nearly dropped the PowerPoint remote once, and didn't fall or pass out.  I considered it a successful speaking engagement.  :)

- Tuesday was our last official day of summer, and we spent it grocery shopping, lounging at the pool with Connor, and appreciating the last day of being together, all three of us, all day long on a weekday.  It was a little bittersweet, but I try to always remind myself how blessed I am to have so much time with Connor.

- Wednesday was the day most teachers dread, the first day of school.  It is always awkward to introduce yourself and explain who you are, what you expect, etc... to a group of teens who are often looking at you as though they either don't care or have no idea what you are saying.  However, my year got off to a smoother start than ever before.  The students were wonderful, attentive, and even participated without hesitation on the very first day.  It was wonderful.  I was exhausted by the time I got home, but it was a good day.  Connor stayed with Dad on that first day, and of course, instead of crying for me, he cried when "Pots" (my dad) left our house to head home.  Great job making me feel missed, Connor. 

- Thursday and today I was actually able to start working on our first unit of the year, short stories, and I already feel in a groove with these new freshmen.  It is remarkable how comfortable I already feel teaching them.  This is the best start to a year I have had in quite a while.  I am hoping that means even better things are to come once I truly get to know them, their needs, strengths, weaknesses, etc...

- Tonight Mom and I were invited to a Pampered Chef party hosted by one of the sweetest people I know and her daughter-in-law. Teresa and Kim Morrison.  It was a joy to meet Kim, the food was delicious, and best of all, there were cupcakes from Georgetown Cupcake (They are known from their show on TLC, DC Cupcakes.) at the party...seriously!  You probably have noticed by now that cupcakes are one of my favorite things in life, and I was super excited to try one.  There were way too many flavors for my mind to comprehend, so I chose strawberry.  It was delicious, probably the third best cupcake I've ever had, behind Sprinkles' black and white cupcake and SugaSisters' chocolate with vanilla buttercream (SugaSisters are a local cupcakery run by two lovely ladies.  Check out their blog here.).

strawberry cupcake from Georgetown Cupcake

Random photos for the week:




We recently bought Connor a potty.  He has really done nothing but 'pretend' to use it, but maybe it's a start.



Once Connor found out that we were going back to school, he had to put on his "packpack" and get ready for his new daycare.



This proud mommy had to show off how well C did on his first day with a new sitter.  We miss our previous one, but C has adjusted so well and loves his new spot!  Such an answer to prayer...finding someone who loves our little guy just as much as our last sitter is priceless.

Connor loves wearing Daddy's sunglasses



This morning Connor decided that since we were leaving him for the day, he's get up at 5:45 and keep us company by watching "Yo Gabba Gabba" while Jason and I got ready.

Hoping for a restful weekend and an easy first full week of school next week!  Hoping you are blessed as well!

Goodnight Moon

Bedtime at our house is very important, and we rarely detour from our typical routine for Connor, which is: bath/shower (showers are his favorite), a little bit of Gabba, book reading in his rocking chair, being rocked and sung to by Mommy, laying down with Muno, being covered by his "guppy" (Gabba blanket), kisses, and, finally, time for sleep.

His favorite book as of the last couple of months has been Goodnight Moon.  After reading it every single night, Connor has memorized the last word of nearly every page. 

A few nights ago I caught it on video, and it is simply too cute not to post.  Enjoy!  :)

Goodnight Moon read by Jason and Connor

Here's to hoping he continues to love books forever!