Sunday School!!!

OK so I get that the first day of Sunday School may not be that big of a deal to some, but to us it is HUGE for a million reasons. The biggest reason is that Jamie is being immersed into the Christian community. He is now a part of our routine of going to church and learning more about the God we serve. I want him to have a church family and to grow life long relationships with other believers. It is so important for his faith. Another reason I am so excited is that he is now developmentally ready to be someplace without me, Timmy or my parents, at least for a short period of time. And we allowed him to do it in his own time. He was never forced, never left to cry in a strange environment. This is a major goal of our parenting. And another reason this was such a big deal is because Jamie is being home schooled (at least for now) and so he won't have a "first day" of pre school, he'll just go downstairs!

This is the postcard addressed to Jamie that came in the mail letting us know about his class

So here's how it went...

I knew exactly what I wanted him to wear and of course he looked as cute as ever. We also had been talking to him for a long time about Sunday School. What it is, why we go and that Mommy and Daddy would be at big church while he was in his classroom. I tell him stories about Fluffy the cat every night before he falls asleep and Fluffy has been going to Sunday School for quite some time now!

We got to church super early, even before the previous service had let out. We were the first ones to arrive at his classroom, even before the teacher. At first Jamie looked at little nervous, we can tell when he is anxious because he will pull on his shirt. But he warmed up very quickly. The teacher , Ms Jennifer and her helper Mr. Nate (about 14 years old I would guess) came in. I explained to Ms. Jennifer that he had never been left like this before and that if he got even a little bit upset to put our number up. (Our church has about 3,000 people in it so they have a system where they put your child's number up on a screen if there is an issue.) I explained to her also that he was potty trained and may need to go potty. (she seemed surprised that he wasn't in a diaper.) So then we gave him a hug good bye and he said "Bye I love you!" and that was it. No tears, no "stay mommy" nothing! I wasn't really sad that he didn't mind me leaving. I was really happy that all my research on attachment parenting is true! I have read that attached kids will stay places without mommy easily when they are developmentally ready because of the trust and confidence they have gained in always getting their needs met from day one.

After church we bolted and went straight for his room. We hid so we could see how he was doing. He was just as content as he could be right in the mix with all the other kids. He was happy to see us, but stayed just a minute longer to help clean up. He came out into the hall where all the pictures were lined up that the kids had colored. He found the one with his name on it and showed it to us. He said "the lady write my name." Then we proceeded to ask him what he did in Sunday school. He told us "i eat goldfish and drink water. the boy take my goldfish. i tell him that not for you that for me" He also told us he sang "Jesus Love Me" which he already knows all the words to so of course he's a genius ;) Then he said "i go someplace for lunch, I not go home" So we went out for pizza. It was great and we are so happy for our big little man. God is good.

Mini Holiday

I always wanted to say that! But since I'm not from the UK I guess it was just a mini "Vacation." Okay, now that we've established that I'm a super dork... We just got back from National Harbor. Technically its in Maryland, but it feels like DC, although it is nothing like DC. Okay, now I'm making a lot of sense. Anyway, once again Aunt Gail took us to one of her 500 timeshares.

Who needs a resort when you can just play on the luggage cart?

Jamie and Caleb trying out the shower.

Of course there was plenty of na-na to be had! We're a little obsessed with nursing in our family so we like to document it often!!


It was beautiful and National Harbor is just the neatest place. It is definitely a resort. And it was SO clean, very Disney like. We arrived Wednesday afternoon and went out to lunch where Jamie and Caleb decided to scream with delight the entire time. Thankfully we were just about the only people in the restaurant. Let me interrupt here and say how delighted I was to be on a little vacation because if I was still teaching Wednesday would have been my first day back! Moving on... After lunch we walk around the little town of National Harbor. We looked at the boats checked out the times for the ferryto Old Town Alexandria for the next day. We even found the prototype place for the National Children's Museum which will open in 2013 in DC. So the babies had fun there! Then we went back to our room and headed to the pool. Lots of fun of course. Then it was time for dinner. The Gaeng's contributed nothing to the food and got fed for 2 days by the Whites and Wilsons. After dinner we hung around the room (which had 4 bedrooms in it!) and went out on the balcony which was 10 floors up. I couldn't stay out there very long because I was terrified!!! And when the kids went out I wanted to pass out! The next morning we woke up to breakfast casserole, thank you Eric and off we went to Old Town.
For whatever reason I was very adamant about having a picture of just the three of us. Who knows what I'm thinking and why? But we are cute!








The boat ride over was super fun for everyone!








Please notice Sarah trying not to barf. Baby Miller is reeking havoc!!!! Don't worry Sarah, only 7 more months!!!!!!!


We had a super time walking up and down King Street shopping and ate lunch at the most yummy place ever. It was all organic and delicious!! I so wish they had places like that around here, although Timmy and I did have a brief conversation about moving to Alexandria on the way home because we loved it so much and then of course I looked at real estate in that area and if you don't have 1 million dollars there's not much you can do! Oh but it is fun to dream.Jamie in front of the Alexandria Town Hall
Ahhhhhhhh, young love! It's the best! Yes, I know they are cousins, but they are distant OK!!!


We found the neatest toy store on King Street! It has everything I could possibly want for Jamie.

Not sure whats going on here with Aunt Gail and Mattie. Guess They're just really happy to be in Old Town.

Just before we got on the boat the kids joined a band! They are very gifted for their age!

After a full day in Old Town we hopped back on the boat and headed back. We had another yummy dinner and then packed up to come home. Everyone else stayed the night again, but Timmy had to be at Ravens Stadium at 8am this morning. I would really love to go back there sometime. It was super fun!

Activities Galore!

Oh my, Jamie and I love our activities! We had really been out of touch with our local toddler group over the summer, but this week we dove right back in. On Monday we did story time at Barnes and Nobel, Tuesday we did playgroup at FUNdamentals, Wednesday we did story time at our library, Thursday we did a mommy and me class at local toy store and today we did another story time at Barnes and Nobel I get such a kick out of seeing him sit in a group of kids listening to someone else than me!Nothing like making cupcakes at 10:30 in the morning! Thankfully all he did was decorate his cupcake. After that he said he was finished with it and I trashed it!and free play at MY Gym. We had Jamie's birthday at My Gym this year and he sooo loved it. They are my favorite place for classes, but are also the most expensive. With our toddler group we just pay $7 to go play for an hour so its great!

Sorry for the not so great pics, all I had was my cell phone on my today...

Oh How I Love To Plan!

It's just actually doing it that becomes the issue! I really love to plan at the end of the summer going into fall. I'm quite sure it comes from being a teacher... Now if I was planning for my actual school year going back to work I would be quite depressed, but that is not the case. I'm planning for my little man! I really hope we get to do all of this "stuff" I have planned. So here's what I've planned thus far

• Monday- Nature class at a local nature center
• Tuesday- Gymnastics
• Wednesday- home school pre-school with a few other mommies (I am hosting this at our home and I am super excited about it)
• Thursday- mommy and me class
• Friday- home school pre-school

And starting at the end of this month Jamie will go to Sunday school instead of staying home with Pop Pop on Sunday mornings. This is kind of sad, as Jamie and Pop Pop love their Sunday mornings together, but seeing as I am now a "Discussion Group Leader" for MOPS they can still have their special time together at least a couple of times a month.
Yes its true, I am committing to something where other people are depending on me (MOPS and the home school thing.) I know the Lord has been calling me to serve and I really wasn't trying very hard to figure out what He might want me to do so He just went ahead and threw this straight in my face! I went to the meeting today to learn what exactly I'm going to be doing and I must say I am really looking forward to it. I kind of have a knack for keeping a conversation going even with people I don't know very well. I am also able to be very transparent very quickly with new people so I guess that will be good for this MOPS thing too. I am also really looking forward to sharing Jesus with other mommies. Speaking of being transparent I'll go ahead and do that now. The reason I joined MOPS in the first place (2 years ago) was so I could break out of my "Attachment Parenting" bubble that I so comfortably live in. Now that is not to say I'm looking to parent differently, I am definitely not, however I am looking to accept everyone for who they are and see all mommies the way God does. So while I love and always will love having 4 hour conversations with my cousins about natural birth, breastfeeding, co-sleeping, cloth diapering and baby wearing fantasticness, I want to loose my pre-judgment of other mommies that don't do these things. I just want to love other mothers like Jesus does. And I am much, much better than I was 2 years ago! So there's my transparency for the day! I just love being honest. It should be the law!
Well gee this turned into a bit more than just a post on planning!

River Beach, Dinner, Scratch Offs and Smoothies

That's what we did yesterday. It almost felt like we were on vacation... which if you know us, is our favorite thing to do!!!!! Timmy had 2 days off in a row so we made the most of yesterday!!! I had heard of this place about 30 minutes from us called "Hammerman Beach" but I had never been. Its so funny what you don't know is right in your own back yard. Anyway I packed a yummy lunch, and the beach paraphernalia and off we went. Jamie fell asleep on the way, but was happy to see we were magically at "the beach" when he woke up. It was $3.00 to get in, so it was a cheap, lovely way to spend the afternoon with our little family. The water was really warm (it would have been nice if it was a little cooler actually) but there was a nice breeze. It was lots of fun!!!!

After the "beach" we came home and got showered up and decided to go to Buffalo Wild Wings (which is super weird because the only other place I have been with a BWW is Virginia Tech, my college). We ate really fast because Jamie was really not all about being there. Then off we went in search of ice cream and we ended up at the "Smoothie King" which is conveniently located next to a liquor store with lots of Lotto scratch offs. Timmy and I have developed a recent obsession with scratch offs. Hey if you don't play, you can't win right? I think everyone fantasizes about what they would if they won. I know I do on a daily basis! Well we had lots of $10 winners yesterday which we kindly reinvested back into the Scratch off business! We had a blast anyway!

Another Birthday Party!!!!

(So Mattie's eyes are closed in this one and...)

(Aunt Gail's are closed in this one. OH WELL!)

Last week my beautiful Aunt Gail turned 60 years young. Now lets get this very clear if you saw her you would never think she was 60. I think because she is so very young at heart... the biggest Disney fan I know. In fact our last trip to Disney, this past May, was just Aunt Gail, Timmy, Jamie and me! We had a great time. She is definitely my 2nd mommy! I love you Aunt Gail!

(Even Aunt Sherry came all the way from Salisbury just to spend and hour and 1/2 for Aunt Gail's big day... and apparently to push Jamie in the tractor!)

I guess I'll take some time here to take a stroll down my favorite memory lane from my childhood... spending time at this very house with these very people. Throughout my childhood I would spend at least one week per summer at my cousins' in Westminster. I remember every time I would turn on Uniontown Road I would get so stinkn' excited and actually the excitement has never left, it still happens and I'm 31 years old. We would spend the days playing made up games like "The Daisy Club" and making hit records with our group "The Beach Girls." We would swim and ride horses and just run around barefoot on the acres and acres that surrounded us. I can't even explain the joy I have when I watch Jamie doing the same exact thing at the same exact place I did when I was little. I love that so much is the same when I go there. Even down to the 1980 something trailer we use to camp in!!! (Notice it sitting in the far left of the pic below.) I am very blessed to have my Aunt Gail "mommy" and my Mattie, Sarah, Melinda and Cameron cousin "siblings."