Preschool Open House

Yesterday was Claire's very first preschool open house.  To say I was emotional is an understatement.  Next week when I actually have to leave her will be a whole other story.  Claire will be in preschool 2 mornings a week to get her into learning social skills and interacting with other children more.  We are excited for her to start! 

 

Claire will be going to the same church preschool that I went to 30 years ago.  And that her aunts and uncle went to too.  It's a good preschool and small which I like.  There are only 6 kids in Claire's class and that includes Claire.  I think she will be the oldest maybe but if you go off of her adjusted age, she's right in the middle of the other kids' birthdays.  So it should work out well. 

 

Claire has 2 teachers - Mrs. Caroline and Mrs. Dana.  Granny Mary taught this same class with Mrs. Caroline for several years.  I think there will be 4 boys, Claire, and one other little girl who will only be there one day a week in Claire's class.  So she will have to show those boys who's boss! 

 

She did well at open house.  I was nervous she was going to hit someone or throw something at another child while their parents were watching yesterday.  But she played nice.  No snatching, throwing, or temper tantrums. 

 

 

Getting ready to head inside!

"A Star is Born"

She loves this kitchen set

Claire and Mrs. Caroline

Claire and Mrs. Dana

Snack time

Claire's basket for her school work

 

Yes I took a picture of her hook for her bag

Prayer that they will work on learning every day

We are excited to see this new chapter start for Claire.  It's so hard to believe she's old enough for preschool!!  But thank God that she is here and ready to play!

Love,
The Scott Family

First Ponytail

 

I was able to put Claire's hair in somewhat of a ponytail the other night and it was super cute!  She didn't even mind the ponytail holder in her hair.  The front pieces of hair have to grow a little longer to be able to pull them back, but it was a start!  I even pulled out the big camera to take pictures of this momentus event.  I never knew I would be so excited about a ponytail!!

 

 

 

 

Claire has her very first orientation today at preschool.  I am so excited but so nervous.  I will post more about preschool later!

 

Love,

The Scott Family

Changes happening and prayers needed

Things are changing.  Claire is changing.  She is growing up so fast.  And with growing up, transitions are taking place.  I can’t say that I am happy or sad – I feel like I am both.  It just seems so bittersweet sometimes. 

For example, I have always rocked Claire to sleep at night.  It’s kind of our quiet time together.  It’s when we pray together and I pray over her.  It’s the only time during the day that I can hold her for longer than 10 seconds at a time without her squirming out of my arms.  It’s a time that I reflect on things and thank God for blessing us with Claire and for blessing her. 

Well the over the past 2 weeks I have noticed that some nights Claire wants to be rocked, some nights she can’t decide if she wants to be rocked, and other nights she just wants me to put her in her crib so she can waller herself to sleep on her own.  Now while I am happy that she is learning to soothe herself to sleep on her own at night, I am also sad that I am starting to lose that snuggle time with her. 

Like last night, she actually let me rock her and sing to her for a few minutes.  Then she popped her head up, slithered out of my arms, reached for and grabbed my hand, and led me over to the crib waiting to be lifted into it.  I put her in the crib and she laid down and played with her musical elephant and put herself to sleep.   I am proud of Claire for being able to do that and I know that is what we want her to do.  I am just being selfish and sad that I am starting to miss out on our snuggles and cuddles. 

So as things transition in our house and Claire continues to grow into a toddler rather than a baby, I am sure I will continue to miss those little baby needs and things.  And I am having to learn to adapt and change myself. 

PS – Please keep the Mills family in your thoughts and prayers.  Their unborn son has been diagnosed with some problems and they need lots of prayers.  Also keep baby Evan in your prayers.  He had his open heart surgery yesterday and needs prayers for a quick and easy recovery.

Love,

The Scott Family

Sunday

Claire getting ready for church on Sunday.  Notice how cute she is!  This is the same dress she wore at her first birthday party almost a year ago.

 

 

Love,
The Scott Family

Play Dates





 

Claire had a few play dates this past week.  She played with Emma on Tuesday at Emma's house.  They had a lot of fun my mom said! 

 

 

 

Saturday, we made the trip to Pink Hill to play with Ava and Noah.  We had fun there too! 



 

Love,
The Scott Family

Happy 86th Birthday Grandpa! (post a little late)

Claire's great grandpa turned 86 last week!  The post and pictures are late and I apologize.  We had a blast at his party playing with Connor and Anna.  All 3 kids ran in circles around Mimi and Grandpa's house giggling and having so much fun!!!

Claire is so lucky to still have 4 great grandparents to enjoy and to get to know.  We hope Grandpa (or "Pa" as Claire calls him) had a wonderful birthday!

Love,
The Scott Family

Every Heart Has A Story {3}

Thanks to my heart mom friend Stefenie for hosting this wonderful blog event again this year!  It's where I have found a lot of heart mom friends!!!!  I have already added Claire's site to the link up.  Check it out!!

Go to:

http://whenlifehandsyouabrokenheart.blogspot.com/2012/08/every-heart-has-story-3.html




Love,
The Scott Family

Heart beat

I know this is going to sound so crazy.  Crazy enough that some people might think I am insane.  But here it goes.......

Tuesday night was the first time in Claire's life that I have put my hand on her heart and felt her special heart beat. 

There.  I said it. 

Call it crazy, call it weird.  But I have honestly been terrified to put my hand on her chest and feel her heart beating.  You might ask why and I have a simple answer.  Fear.  Fear of feeling "something" that didn't feel just right.  Fear of feeling a beat that felt strange and that scared me into thinking something else was wrong with her heart.  Just plain fear. 

But something compelled me to feel her heart beat that night.  I was scared to do it, but once my hand settled on her chest, I couldn't take it off.  The breath literally left my body and I couldn't breathe.  I sat as still as I could as she slept so I could just feel her special little heart beating inside her sweet chest.  Tears fell and fell as I tried to control my convulsive crying as not to wake my sleeping baby (that took a long time to fall asleep). 

And I just fell in love all over again with that heart of hers.  And I wonder why I let fear keep me from feeling that beat - the one that keeps her alive.  It still scares me to wonder what is going on inside that chest of hers on a day to day basis.  If I could afford an echo machine, we would own one so I could check it out for myself quite often.  But that is insane.  (I sense a theme here in this post.....)

It was hard to pull my hand off of her beating chest tonight.  I need to learn this beat.  I need to know it like the back of my hand.  I need to feel her heart beat as it is what makes my own heart beat.  So maybe I will start learning her special beat (technically she probably doesn't have a true "heart beat" but more of a "heart swoosh" - but you know what I mean). 

Any other heart moms out there have this same fear or is it just me?

I thanked God over and over again for this sweet baby we have been blessed with.  I had always told Trent I felt like I was put on this Earth to be a wife and a mother.  And I truly believe God chose Claire to be our child.  She is definitely my purpose in life. 

Love,
The Scott Family

Friends for life

Monday evening, my high school best friend Leslie came to visit along with 2 of her children.  To say I was super excited is an understatement.  We were supposed to get together last Saturday, but I was afraid Claire was still contagious from the hand foot mouth disease so we rescheduled to meet this past Sunday.  Well Sunday was the day full of storms and Claire's tantrums.  I am not a good driver in the rain so I didn't want to risk driving on Hwy 43 to Winterville in the storms.  Leslie agreed to come to our house Monday afternoon and I was so grateful. 

Leslie and I have been friend since high school.  I was adding it up in my head tonight and I think we have been friends for almost 20 years.  Over the years we have lost touch and then fallen right back into each others lives again.  She has moved half way across the country, but gets to come back to NC to visit her family, so we try to get together then. 

Through God's divine intervention, Leslie was in NC the week Claire was born.  She was actually down visiting family and her uncle who was dying of cancer at Duke.  She found out by chance that I had been admitted to Duke in premature labor and showed up at my bedside either Wednesday or Thursday night after I was admitted.  I can't remember because I was so doped up on mag sulfate.  But I remember her being there and holding my hand and praying with and for me and Claire.  It meant the world to me. 

She came back to Duke on October 5th and I was more alert then.  She was there around 9 pm that night and visited for a while.  Little did we know Claire would be born only a few hours later.  I wish she could have been there to meet Claire that night.  But she was back on a plane that morning to Minnesota. 

So today was the first time Leslie was able to meet Claire and that did my heart good.  We caught up on life (she's had her 3rd child since we saw each other almost 2 years ago at Duke) like we had never missed a beat.  It was a lot different this time as we entertained our children and talked at the same time.  I miss my friend and cannot wait until she and her family move back to Winterville.  Maybe it will be sooner than later. 

Leslie is one of those life long friends that you can always count on.  She's always been someone I admired for being true to herself and her faith.  I look up to her and hope that we can always remain in touch and good friends and raise our children together as friends.  And one of these days we will get our husbands together because we just know they are so much alike and would hit it off!!

I thank God for friends like her. 

Love,

The Scott Family

Terrible Twos or just a bad day??

Days like Sunday are days that I question my parenting ability. 

Claire woke up happy in her crib, but it seemed like as soon as she started her day outside of her crib, her world just fell apart.  One minute she would be happy and playing so nicely, and the next minute, she would be screaming, falling on the floor, throwing things, etc.  An all-out fall out or heeny hiney as we say in our house (also known as hissy fit).  Trent and I would just look at each other like we couldn’t believe this was our child.  Then she would eventually get straight for a little while.  But if something didn’t go just her way, it was screaming match again. 

I thought maybe she wanted to go outside since that is her favorite thing to do and always makes her happy.  We put shoes on and walked out the door, but she would not let me put her down on the ground.  She had a vice grip around my waist with her legs.  So I finally got her on the ground, she turned and walked up the front porch steps, and walked right back in the front door.   Nothing was making her happy. 

So as a last resort, I took her out to the car.  We just sat in the car and watched her DVD and she was content.  We did this for a little while as Trent came out to check on us frequently.  I even pulled my car into the shade.  It was time to get ready for church, so I took Claire back in the house where she had another fit.  We finally got dressed and I told Trent we would just meet him in the car whenever he got ready.  That was the only place Claire seemed to be happy. 

She was an angel at church.  Happy, dancing, singing, smiling.  She almost sat through the entire service which normally doesn’t happen.  I took her out about 10 minutes til noon just to let her run around the nursery for a few minutes before the ride home.  She was so happy!  She fell asleep on the ride home and slept about 45 minutes in her crib.  But then woke up from a sound sleep to screaming her head off. 

At this point I am thinking maybe something is hurting her like her ear or molars.  No more than about 10 minutes after she was awake, the power went out with the storm.  Seriously???    More screaming ensued with flailing and throwing.  I called pediatrics and asked if we could be seen since I had no idea what was wrong and thought maybe her ears were hurting.   The receptionist could hardly hear me over Claire’s screams.  Y’all know how much I HATE to take her to the doctor because I know she will freak out.  But I thought something seriously must be wrong. 

We loaded up in the car and she was completely happy again.  No tears, no fits, nothing.  Happy as a lark.  We rode around in the pouring rain watching Elmo until it was time for her appointment.  Of course she started crying as soon as we walked in the door this time.  The nurse could hardly weigh her without Claire almost falling off the scale.  The nurse didn’t even try to get a rectal temperature on her this time.  No way that was happening.  So she got an ear temp of 99.5. 

Claire was shaking from crying so hard by the time the doctor came in to examine her.  He checked her ears, mouth, throat, and listened to her heart and lungs (not sure how through the bloody murderous screams).  He said everything looked ok.  Her right ear was fine and her left ear was a little inverted but not infected.  Her throat looked ok.  Not sure if he got a look to see if those 2 year molars were coming in.  It took me holding Claire down like restraints for him to even try to look at her.  He mentioned how strong she was and that even he was sweating trying to wrestle with her.  Doctor appointments are NOT our favorite things y’all. 

So after all that, he pretty much said she maybe had some gas but everything else looked fine.  He asked if I had changed her diet and I laughed because even if I tried to change her diet, she won’t eat anything but the same fruits and cereals every day for all 3 meals and snacks.  After we left though I remembered I had run out of her organic milk and had to give her some regular milk this past week a few days (too lazy to go to the grocery store).  So could the non-organic vs. organic milk maybe have given her gas or a tummy ache??  I don’t know.  But I won’t do that again. 

When we got home the power was finally back on.  Claire freaked out again when we got home and got out of the car.  I thought maybe she was hungry since she wouldn’t eat lunch earlier because she was too busy rolling on the floor.  I got her to eat a banana and some crackers.  After that and the rest of the night she was happy.  Like nothing had ever happened. 

Needless to say, she wore both Trent and I out yesterday with her tantrums.  It’s like one minute she’s perfectly happy, then the next minute it’s like someone has ruined her entire day.   We both just looked at each other in disbelief and confusion after she went to bed.  Like what in the world just happened today?

Someone at church asked us yesterday if we were going to have more children.  On days like that, it’s easy to answer the question with a “no”.  But then I look at Claire and she is so precious and pretty in her sweet curls, beautiful handmade smocked dress, white sandals, and big hair bow all dressed up for church.  And I question my “no” and it turns to a “maybe, we’ll see.” 

Not sure if this is the start of the “Terrible Twos” or not.  But I was warned yesterday when I posted something about it on Facebook that the threes are much worse than the twos.  And that’s just groovy great. 

And I stop and think how in the world did we make it through all of those hard, stressful times at the beginning and not feel this crazy!?!  Or maybe we were that crazy, it was just so common and on a daily basis, we didn't realize it.  Now when it gets out of control one day, it seems so hard.  I guess that's a good thing - that life is getting more and more "normal" for us. 

I didn’t stop to take pictures of the tantrums so you get lots of the happy church moments yesterday with one hissy fit picture thrown in when I wouldn’t put her in the car fast enough.  Enjoy!!! 

Happy hanging out in the car in the driveway

Not happy at all

You can take the girl out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the girl!  (Meaning she is all dressed up so cute and sweet but has a big Mac truck book in her hands)

If you think I was going to try to take the big Mac truck book from her to get a really awesome picture, you are so  sadly  mistaken. 

Enjoying the church nursery (note still has book).

Running through the halls at church

Love,

The Scott Family

A little sunshine through the rain

Aunt Sarah's sunflowers are blooming like crazy and are beautiful!  Great backdrop for some pretty pictures and some sunshine after it has rained so much.  Claire really was not into the photo shoot that evening and HAD to hold the "Hide and Seek on the Farm" book throughout the entire time.  But I think they turned out cute anyways!!!  I did the best I could with a busy little bee!  :)

Love,

The Scott Family

Rained out

Saturday, we tried to go to the playground at Granny and Big Daddy's church to play.  But we could only stay about 15 minutes before a black cloud rolled up and a storm was coming.  Claire had fun while we were there, except she doesn't like the sand.  

I knew she needed to get more energy out so we headed to the mall.  Our mall never has people in it so I knew she could run free!  She ran up and down the mall about 45 minutes until I was sweating and she kept falling because she was tired.  She even ran along some of the mall walkers.  I think she provided some entertainment for them!



The only time she stopped was when she ran infront of TJ Maxx.  She would just stop and stare into the store.  She wouldn't go in.  But it was like it amazed her with all the stuff in there. 

So atleast she got to "play" a little bit.  New Bern really needs some indoor play places for small kids. 

Love,

The Scott Family