Dreary Weather

The rainy cloudy dreary day (weather wise) that we had today did nothing to improve my attitude. It definitely didn’t start out as an icky day, nor did the afternoon start out that way, but let me tell you… it was one of those days where my child seemed to push every button he could on his momma and not in a good way either! And the icky weather didn’t make me any happier.

Work went fine this morning and the first part of the afternoon breezed by. I took Ayden to the dentist and even that went well, well mostly. He was a champ and went in all by himself (because it is a pediatric dentist and so forth they like to encourage child independence and have the children go alone). He did great and the hygienist that worked with him was very nice as well. Actually all of the ones that I saw come get patients had that super nice demeanor, which is pretty much standard for children. Anyways, like I said, Ayden was awesome! His teeth… not so much. I’m even too down about it to actually describe what he needs done. Nothing so drastic as getting anything pulled, for the most part his teeth are pretty healthy, except for a few spots. I don’t know if he will like the dentist so much after his next appointment. At least he gets out of school for it. Do kindergarteners like that?! Haha!

Anyways, after the dentist we needed to make a quick run to Walmart and because the dentist was so conveniently located right down the road (I’ve never noticed this until I looked up the directions today) I told Ayden we needed to go. He was adamant that he wanted to go home and well that should have told me our little trip wouldn’t be so productive. Not even 10 seconds after we walk in, I’m already trying to get him to follow me. Argh, not good! For the most part he wasn’t completely unruly in the store and improved his behavior tenfold by the time we walked out which I was grateful for. I thought maybe it was a sign our afternoon was going to go good… not so much.

I guess maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad had I given in to his requests for what he wanted, but you parents know… can’t and won’t always happen. It is not as if he was asking for anything I couldn’t easily give him, but that was besides the point. He wanted a glass of chocolate milk and I offered him water. I could have offered white milk, but he probably would have refused that as well. I have decided that he can have one juice per day (not that he was guzzling much more than that anyways) and two/three glasses of chocolate milk. He gets one in the morning when he wakes up and today I decided he could have one with supper (he had juice for lunch) and so when he asked for one as just a drink I wouldn’t cave. Anyways, that ensued with a lot of ‘you and daddy always say no' etc etc etc… it was just a whiny afternoon and despite my best efforts to ignore it, he was slowly wearing on my nerves.

The rest of the night was horrible, but it wasn’t idyllic either. I’m hoping that tomorrow is a better day.

I finally got a hold of Ayden’s potential school today. The lady who answered the phone (assuming some sort of administrative assistant) stated that she was going to mail the classroom assignments for kindergarteners this week. So we should know Ayden’s teacher by Friday at the latest. Talk about waiting until the last minute, eh? Yeah, that is what I thought. As soon as I know for sure that he is in a class at that school it is off to the Y to make sure his before and after school care is all set up and good to go, not to mention an email to our new case worker to make sure all the proper child care authorizations go through, if any go through at all.

Ayden is sleeping in the basement tonight. I think this will be the second time since moving in that he has wanted to sleep down there. Since he wasn’t a total hellion tonight, I talked with Jay and we agreed that it was okay. Actually, right before it was bed time we was coloring a picture of our cat Diesel, it was too cute.

I also managed to get a few more things together for school, like things actually in the binders. And only because one of my new professors ALREADY assigned homework! Homework even before school starts! Are they nuts?! Yes, probably certifiably so, but what can I do about it. I don’t know how I am going to do in a class of three students. No one not answering questions that is for sure, lol! I’ve never been very outspoken in class before, guess I don’t have much of a choice now. Sometimes I wish there were the other three students that were supposed to be with us, but then again not. With only the three of us, we will get a lot of one on one attention, especially in labs and I am sure that will help with the learning. At least I hope so.

Oh and guess what else happened. My engagement ring cracked! It is not as bad as it sounds, but I was outside on Sunday night writing a letter to my friend Victoria and had stopped writing to just do some thinking and was looking at my ring. It was rather light outside yet and I thought I saw a tiny crack in part of it. And sure enough after closer inspection… there was one! I was a little taken back because I didn’t think rings could crack like that and wondered how it had happened or how long it had been there since it is pretty small and hard to notice. I am totally in love with my ring so I spend a lot of time just looking at it and imaging a future wedding. Anyways, I told Jay and said I would take it in on Monday to see what the jeweler could do. Thankfully we have a few local ones. I took it to the same place that I got it resized at and they said they would be able to fix it and for a very nominal price. The only downside (besides it being cracked in the first place) is that I am ‘naked’ for the whole week. For those of you who wear jewelry on a daily basis, do you ever feel like that when you don’t wear it? I’ve had a ring on that finger for like the past how many years and one week without it, ugh! Lol! I suppose I could put one of my other rings on that I used to wear on that finger, but it just wouldn’t feel the same now. I know, just me being crazy. I’ll get it back at the end of the week…

CIAO! LOVE ME!

I’m a total nerd!

I labeled all my binders with nice ‘cover sheets’ and even made my own planner for this fall! Ah, what an organized neat freak of a nerd I can be sometimes! I even went so far as to email the first year grad students from last year to ask them what to expect… well I mean they just went through it and all! And you know what? Three of the five have already gotten back to me and even better… I feel about a MILLION times better already! Like today I was have some serious anxiety issues about the end of summer coming and the fact that I only have one week left before grad school starts! It just wasn’t going over very well with me today and well now I feel like I can sort of breathe again!

This week will be all about getting the final touches done for Ayden and myself regarding school. He needs some Kleenex and crackes/pretzels for school and I just need to review some material. However, I still need to call his school to make sure he is enrolled there. It wouldn’t be so bad, but since we moved and he was transferred, I don’t want us to show up at ‘meet the teacher night’ and him not on any teacher list and then us screwed because school starts the following day and us not knowing which school he is enrolled in. Crazy, right?! So, it’s just overly organized freaky nerd Ashley making sure all the cards are in order!

And then I need to stop by the YMCA to make sure all of his before and after school care stuff is in order. Oh, and then there is registering for soccer and possibly hockey (although at this point in time Ayden says he doesn’t want to play hockey), but I think he would have lots of fun playing it. I don’t want to be one of those moms that makes their child play a sport that they don’t want to because I swore that I wouldn’t be… but I think he just doesn’t know the full extent of what he would be doing. Who knows?!

Here is what happens when Ayden concentrates… I love me some Hoerth tongue! Okay, definitely not what it sounds like, because face it, you thought that way too (or at least I know I did when I typed it). Maybe I should have written ‘I love me some Ayden and his look of concentration!’ Hehe!

 

Because whether or not you think so… I think it is way too darn cute!

And here’s my cutie in all his birthday glory with his wonderful shirt on, although by the end of the day the iron on was starting to peel off and I was rather disappointed and he was pretty upset that the shirt was ruined, but I’m going to see what I can do with it because he really liked it! And his oh so yummy ice cream cake!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Happy Birthday Ayden!

Today my little big boy turns FIVE!!! It seems like the last five years have just flown by my eyes! Ayden has been the best blessing and I am so grateful for the opportunity to call myself his mom!

I can’t believe that five years ago I was introduced (face to face that is) to the little guy that wants to dig into his ice cream cake today more than anything, well maybe after he digs into his gifts!

He has quite the personality these days! For those who really get to know him can see him pop out of his shell and become the talkative and sometimes sassy little boy that I see every day! He has this sweet soul and often surprises me with wanting to just sit outside on the swing with me or passing out hugs and kisses! But mommy also sees the tantrums he throws and just laughs when he thinks he is going to get his way! He has his mom’s determination and his dad’s knack for wrestling!

His little mind often wonders about the craziest things and I’ve already had some pretty deep conversations with him. He has a superb memory when it comes to events he really had fun at! He still talks about a water park trip with his auntie and uncle more than six months ago! And he often reminds me of things I said that even I have forgotten!

Every day brings something new with Ayden and I look forward to the phrase (and nose poke) ‘wakey wakey eggs and bakey’ each and every morning! Ayden often wakes me up every morning and I always ask him the same three things… ‘how did you sleep?’ ‘what did you dream about?’ ‘did you stay warm enough?’ And he smiles just the same! A smile I will never get sick of!

So no matter how much I want to freeze time and keep my little guy nice and little and cuddleful (yes, I made that a word) forever and ever… I look forward to the years and years that are to come… the years in which my little guy will grow into a young man and so on and so forth…

I hope you enjoy the picture montage I’ve put together… Ayden on his birthday for the last four years (well at least at his parties because this year is the first year we’ve actually had his party ON his birth DATE)!

 

 

(Picture/s to come for five!)

CIAO! LOVE ME!

I heart these eyes…

…and cannot wait to see them tomorrow at precisely 11am!

Check out some of the scrapbook I made for Ayden’s 4th year…

Like I said… nice and easy! Yet pictures in a book for a nice keepsake! I’m relatively pleased with how it turned out!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

One More Day…

…and my little boy will be back home! One more week and hopefully we will be able to attempt settling into a routine with school starting! Next week will be busy as Ayden will have to accompany me to work two of the four days that I work, he has a dentist appointment and a doctor’s appointment, and we will need to get everything ready for school. (Not to mention the fact that I’ve put off any studying until the LAST week of summer vacation!) What is that you’re saying Ashley, studying? I thought you were on summer vacation?! Well, see here my dear friends… I didn’t think it would be the best idea to hop back into the semester not remembering a lot of what I had learned last semester, particularly stuff pertaining to clinic.

It is not as if I have a TON of stuff to relearn, but there are some things that I would like to go over again to refresh my brain on. Like the degrees of hearing loss, what acoustical reflexes we need to measure, so on and so forth… I really should have been doing that this week while I was Ayden free, but well you know how that goes!

I’m happy to say that I am mostly complete with Ayden’s scrapbook. I’ll take some pictures maybe tomorrow. I just need to reprint the cover since the first one smeared and do some journaling it in and it will be complete. The emphasis on this one is definitely the pictures and not the art of scrapbooking which is okay with me.

I started a book yesterday (The Choice by Nicholas Sparks- love his books!) and finished it today. It was good. Predictable for his books, but good none the less. You know, one of those easy reads and that is what I was looking for. I have one other one (The Lucky One by him as well) that I may or may not start tonight. I would like to get at least that one read before the semester starts, but who knows.

It has rained on and off pretty much ALL day today, with more rain forecasted for tonight! I don’t care how much it rains today or tomorrow (okay well maybe not ALL day tomorrow because I don’t want the back yard to be all mushy and muddy for Saturday) as long as Saturday is nice and sunny! The good weather for Saturday is holding out so far, I know I should probably stop talking about it because sooner or later I will jinx myself and it will be horribly rainy on Saturday too, and it isn’t supposed to be too hot so yeah! Sunshine and halfway decent temperatures! Now I just need the road to our house to open up!

Road construction is something you cannot get away from in the summer, but do you think I would know that they were going to close the road to our house for two weeks before Ayden’s party when I sent out the invitations and directions two months ago?! Heck no! It is not the ONLY road to our house, but it is the main one that I told everyone to take! And it’s not as if they can just go down a block and them come around the construction… this is the only road within a half mile and either side that crosses the river! Which means my friends, that if they don’t open the road tomorrow, Ashley will be going mad writing up new directions and emailing/calling everyone that is coming to let them know of the new way to come. Ugh, just keep your fingers crossed that the road will open up!

We got Ayden’s bus schedule in the mail the other day. It stated where and when he would be picked up by the bus. Originally we hadn’t planned on him riding the bus at all, but we think we have reconsidered. Jay will be taking Ayden to school on Monday and Wednesday’s because he will be attending the before school care program as Jay and I have class before school starts. Ayden will also be staying after on Wednesday nights as I will be in class later and Jay will be at work. All of the other days we had planned on dropping off and picking him up, but I think it might be wise (and easier) to have him ride the bus. At some point he will have to, so why not start now? I won’t be one of those crazy moms following the bus to school, but I did tell Jay that the first day he rides the bus, I wanted Jay to drive to the school and then wait to make sure he gets off the bus and knows what to do. Theoretically this will be the third day of school. I guess we will just wait and see…

Tomorrow is laundry day, clean the bathroom, vacuum the upstairs, put odds and ends away, find party decorations, grocery shopping day (well need to make the list first), maybe get some school stuff together, and finish scrapbook… ah, but sleeping in is the best! MUST take advantage of it whilst it last, hehe!

CIAO! LOVE ME!