Casper

R and I had quite the adventure this last weekend….. we traveled all the way up to Casper, Wyoming! (I know, I know…. you're super jealous!)  We've had this trip planned for almost a year so that I could go visit my Grandmother and R could meet his Great-Grandmother. It ended up working out perfectly that my Dad and Mom were going to head up at the same time, and my sister and her family were taking their big family road trip and arranged to be passing through at the same time, so we got to see lots of family!

(Downtown Casper… I swear, this town is like stepping back into the 50's!)

I was actually born in Casper, but we moved to Reno when I was only about 6 weeks old. My sister and brother were obviously there until the were in there early teen years, and my dad lived most of his life there. My mom moved there after my brother and sister were born because the rest of her family had eventually ended up there….. the point is, at one point, I had a whole lot of family in Casper. Over the years everyone has pretty much spread out and moved on (It's a really small town, I don't blame them!) and my grandmother (My dad's mom) is pretty much the only one left. I have memories of visiting cousins and all my grandparents there when I was a kid, but I haven't been back since I was probably about ten. I also haven't seen my Grandmother since her and my Granddad came to my high school graduation, and unfortunately my granddad passed away fairly soon after that. 

I was glad to be able to go visit my Grandmother and introduce here to one of her great grandchildren, but unfortunately she ended up getting really, really sick right before I came and had just gotten out of the hospital and had moved into a rehabilitation/assisted facility until she was well enough to go home. It was too bad that we had to visit her that way, and I wish she would have been home so we could have really had a chance to talk and bond more, but I guess you take what you can get. The important thing is I got to see her and R got to meet her.

(R meeting his Great-Grandmother Sharon)

In between visiting Grandma (she was in different therapies for most of the day, so the visits were short) I spent a lot of time driving around Casper with my Dad and sister while they showed me the different sights. Even though I don't remember living there, there is definitely a sense of nostalgia. I wouldn't want to live in Casper now (did I mention how small it is?) but I can see how it was probably a pretty cool place to grow up back in the day. It is the definition of small town, and all the stories everyone told me revolved around kids having pretty much unlimited freedom as the ran around town, riding bike and playing baseball and getting into "kid" trouble. It's also pretty neat to go past all the different houses that various family member have lived in for basically the last hundred years.

(This was the house we lived in when I was born. It was my home for 6 weeks!)

(This is the house my Dad grew up in. That top window on the left? That was his bedroom)

(This was my grandparents on my mom's side house. I remember spending several Christmas's there as a kid, with all the cousins crammed into sleeping bags in the basement! This house also had a laundry shoot that went from the kitchen to the basement….. I'm pretty sure every cousin at one point slid down/got stuck in that shoot!)

We also spent some time "visiting" family members at the cemetery. Some people might find cemetery's creepy or morbid, but I've always kind of liked them. Yes, they are sad, but I also think they are so peaceful. I didn't get to go to either of my Grandfathers funerals, so it was nice for me to be able to visit there graves and "say goodbye". I also visited my uncle, who passed before I was born, and my great-grandparents. It really gave me a sense of peace and closure to be able to finally visit them.

(My Great-Grandparents, born in 1890!!! Also my Grandpa on my mom's side and my mom's brother, who passed away before I was born.)

(And my Grandpa Jim, my Grandmothers who I was visiting husband. This actually makes me really sad. He was a really cool guy and I know he would have loved to meet my boys. I've always been sad I could make it to his funeral and this really helped.)

OK, enough with the cemetery pictures. Again, sorry if that offends or creeps anyone out, but I found it very healing! So that was pretty much our trip. I spent a lot of time going through old pictures at my grandmas house which was very cool, and of course seeing all the family. We got back last night and are now just trying to get back into the swing of things here. It was nice to spend some time with just R, but I missed all my big boys and it's always so good to be home!

L's first day of Pre-K

Today was a big day in our house, it was L's first day of Pre-K!!!

He's been in preschool, at a different school, since he was about three and a half, but it was only two half days a week. It was a great school and I really liked it, but truthfully it had more of a "daycare" atmosphere then a school atmosphere. It was really good for his socialization, and he did learn while he was there, but we felt like he had maxed out his potential there and it was time to step it up a notch.

The whole school thing has actually been a pretty big point of stress for me for the last 6 months or so. L's birthday is September 15th and he turns 5 this year, but the kindergarten cutoff in AZ is that you have to be 5 by September 1st, and in the public school there are no exceptions. So we went back and forth for 6 months debating the pros and cons of finding a Charter or Private school that would let him test into kindergarten. It certainly would have my life easier, in the short term, for him to test into kindergarten. It would free up more of my time to focus on L2's speech therapy and spend more one on one time with R, and from a financial standpoint it would certainly be wonderful not to have to pay the tuition for Pre-K. But my heart kept telling me that, in the long term, this wouldn't be the best choice for him or for our family. It would mean he would always be the youngest in his class, and for many years, probably the smallest. Boys mature a little slower (any woman knows that!), and while I think he is certainly smart enough to start Kinder, I worried that being the youngest would eventually catch up and be detrimental. I also thought a lot about the long term. (I drove S crazy with all of my "what-if" scenarios!) But starting kinder this year would mean he would graduate college at 17 and probably leave home before he was 18. It meant he would be the last one of his friends to get a drivers licence and that would mean he'd be at the mercy of his friends for rides…. I'd rather he be the first where I can be a little bit more in control of how and when and with who he uses a car!

Anyway, we finally decided that we would test him in, but leave the option open for him to just do Kinder twice. It seemed like the best compromise, but I still wasn't totally comfortable. Thankfully, the decision ended up being made for us when the charter school we choose decided not to test any kids into the Kinder program this year. Pre-Kindergarten it was!!!

Today was the first day, and I'm feeling really good about our decision. He will be going five days a week, although only for a half day. He eats lunch there and then comes home at 12:30. I think it's the perfect way to ease in to full day Kinder next year! The school has a Montessori feel, and I feel very good about the academic structure and that he will be learning what he needs to for next year!

He's been excited about starting for weeks and this past weekend we went and got him a brand new lunchbox, and on Monday we had meet the teacher night! He was a little bit shy when I dropped him off this morning, but he makes friends so easily I know he will warm up and be fine within a week or so! 

I can't believe my little boy is officially starting his school career. Like, this is it. Pre-K this year, next year Kinder and before you know it he'll be in high school. I'm so proud of the little man he is becoming, but it's a little bittersweet. Although it will be nice to have a little more freedom during the day (and even more so when L2 starts his preschool, hopefully in September) I'm going to miss being with him all day, everyday. It's also been a little surreal to be doing all those "school mom" things: packing lunches, signing up for the PTA and marking our calendar for school actives!

So, yes, I missed him today, and I was excited to go pick him up. But the best part was seeing how happy he was and listening to him tell me about all the fun things he did! And, of course, what would the first day of school be without mommy taking my boys our for a little treat?

Hope all you other Mama's had good first days of school too!!!!

9 months!

9 months! Our little guy has now been on the outside for as long as he was "on the inside". I seriously fall more and more in love with him everyday. I love all my children equally and differently, if that makes sense. They all have little things that make may heart swoon, and they also all have little things that drive me up the wall! But there is something about this third baby… he just has me wrapped around his finger. Maybe it's the thought that he might be my last, but I find myself really soaking in every moment of his babyhood.

He is still not walking, but he is super close and he really wants to be! He pulls up and cruises on everything and he will let go and hold his balance and you can see him thinking about taking a step! He's also mastered the super fast crawl and if you take your eyes off him for even a second he will be getting into something that he's not suppose to!

He's also recently discovered the stairs. We have a baby gate, but with two other kids and dogs it does happen that it doesn't get latched, and several times I have looked around for R only to discover him halfway up! He seems to be under the impression that we are hiding something from him upstairs and he tried to escape up there to explore any chance he gets!

We are still exclusively breast feeding, although I have notice that my milk has started to regulate itself a little bit.  I was overproducing quite a bit, and was pumping close to 20 additional oz a day, on top of his regular breast feeding. It's always a pain to have to pump, but it was nice because I have a pretty huge freezer stash built up for emergencies. However, in the past week or so I've noticed that I'm not needing to pump as much and that when I do pump I"m only getting about 10 oz a day. At first it really freaked me out that I was losing my milk supply (I even took a pregnancy test… it was negative!) but then I realized that he's 9 months and my body is just regulating! He's nursing about 5 times a day still, but he's very efficient and we can usually nurse both sides in about ten minutes. He has a jar of baby foot at lunch and another one at dinner and we are giving him little pieces of our food at each meal.

Sleep is going OK. We had a bit of a wonder week/growth spurt about a week ago, and that was rough. I felt like we had a newborn again. R was waking up about 4 or 5 times every night and he was not going back down as easily as he normally does. I'm still not ready to move him onto his room, but I have been trying to curb our co-sleeping a little. Normally the first time he wakes up I automatically bring him in, but I've been trying to put him back to sleep in the pack and play and not bring him in until at least 3. It's been hard, but I know we need to start moving in that direction. I do love our co-sleeping though and I know I'm going to miss it when he leaves our room completely. He still nurses about one time during the night, and more this past week with the growth spurt, and he's also been starting to wake up earlier. The other kids usually don't wake up until about 7 or 7:30 so when he's up between 5:30 and 6:30 it's feels pretty early!

He's still loving playing with his bothers and we love watching his relationship with them grow! He's pretty attached to all of us, but me the most these days. He will cry if I walk out of the room and he hates it if we have to put him in his crib, even for a minute. We all adore him and he's probably a little bit spoiled!!!

Happy 9 months R!!!

Reno trip part 2

OK, I know my last trip was a little sappy and little emotional. Sorry about that! Well, no, not really. I'm not sorry, that post means a lot to me, and I'm glad  I documented my childhood home and have that to look back on and to one day show my children and grandchildren.

But, lest you think I spent my whole trip weeping about my childhood and waxing nostalgic about the past, I didn't. We actually had a great trip and got to do a ton of fun stuff. We tend to visit Reno in the winter months, and it's a whole different ballgame in the summer. There is so much to do, and we tried to to all of it! I hope your ready to look at a whole lot of pictures!!!

First, let's just recognize that Nevada is the gambling state. It's what we are know for. And apparently even my 8 month old felt the call of gambling, although I'm not sure what this game is called!

The weather was pretty much perfect while we were there. Warm but not hot. (Well, maybe it was hot to the people in Reno, but when you're used to 115 in the summer it was practically cool!) The nights were perfect for sleeping with windows open and the days were perfect for park dates and eating on patios. We took the kids up to Rancho San Rafeal Park, which has been there since I was little. It's huge, although over the years they have slowly started closing down parts of it. It's a little sad that a lot of the stuff from when I was little is gone, but it's still a great park with tons of play structure, huge grassy areas to run around, and the Dinosaur Park, which is always a hit!

We spent a morning there and were pretty much alone, except for a girl scout troop that came through on a field trip. (Oddly, the troop was from the same girl scout camp I went to when I was little…. even though I was never a girl scout!)

We also took the kids down to the river. The Truckee River pretty much runs through Reno (I don't know where it comes from or where it goes…. geography is not my forte!) and most importantly it pretty much run right in front of my parents house. This is literally a three minute walk from my parents front door and where I spent all me time running around as a kid! It's pretty darn beautiful, right?

The boys absolutely loved it, and it made me wish I could take them there everyday! And, in the spirit of vacation and reliving my childhood and I guess just being "cool" parents for one day, we allowed the boys to strip down to underwear and diapers and play in the river to there hearts content! A little too cold for me, but the were in heaven and L told me it was "just like bathwater!"

My favorite day was our Lake Tahoe Day. S has never been in the summer, and it's really pretty amazing. I mean, not only is it one of the most beautiful places on earth (Truly) it's less than an hour away and it's perfect for a short little day trip.

When we first got there our "Arizona-ness" was showing big time. Windy and 69 degrees is really cold for us these days! Thankfully the wind died down and it warmed up and we all had a great time! My parents even came up and joined us for the day!

I was surprised L went in the water as much as he did (Tahoe water is really cold!) and I was slightly even more surprise when L2 ventured down to the waters edge and was playing in it (He has been pretty anti-swimming, anti-pool, anti-water these days!) and best of all, R loved it!!! None of the other boys have wanted anything to do with sand when they were babies and we took them to the beach, but R was all about it. He was crawling everywhere and chasing geese and burrowing down in the sand. He was also pretty intent on trying to eat the sand, but mean mommy wouldn't let him!

We were in town for Art town, which is a really cool event that Reno does every summer. It's actually a ton of different event ranging from food stuff to music to festivals to plays… it's cool. We didn't have time to do a lot (and we missed the wine walk, I was so bummed!) but we did make it out for a the family night which had a few small booths and then a great musical act which did a bunch of different kid songs!

One of the main places that the Art Town events take place at is a nice park downtown that is right on the river. It is also right across the street from the old church who's basement once housed my kindergarten. I love this old building, and even though the school has long since changed locations I had to get a picture of my two big boys on the steps where I once took school pictures.

Those were the big things we fit in on the this trip, spending lots of time as a family and with the kids, but S and I also managed to sneak away for a date night and we got t see quite a few of my old friends. For our date night we went to one of the casinos and tried our hand at gambling (we lost!) and then went to dinner and a local bar. We were home by 10:30, but it was still nice to have some time alone with no kiddos!

We also managed to see quite a few of my friends, which of course I have no pictures of! Sometimes you just get caught up in the catching up and pulling out your phone or camera is the last thing on your mind! I did manage to snap of few pics of R and his future girlfriend T, who is my best friends little girl. It was hilarious to watch them play…. R is such a boy and made her cry about 5 times by playing too rough, but then she totally retailed and bit him. We were all dying laughing, it was pretty funny to watch them interact!

And, now we're home! It was such a wonderful trip and I truly didn't want to leave. It also reinforce with me that I would love to move back to Reno if we can figure out a way to make it happen. But all good things must end, and now we are back home, getting back into routine and gearing up for some changes around here as the school year starts!

Home Sweet Home

Sorry I've been MIA, but this last week has been pretty crazy for me. 

About a month ago my parents let me know that they were planning on putting their (our) house on the market. The house I grew up in. We moved in when I was two and I never knew another place as home when I was growing up. I was upset when they told me they were thinking about selling, but I honestly didn't put too much stock in it. They have said they were going to sell many times over the years, and they never do it. They usually end up just doing some kind of renovation on the house. 

Imagine my surprise when they actually called and told me they had listed it….. and imagine my surprise/despair/sadness when four days later they called to tell me it had sold.

I understand it's what works for them right now. It's a good time to sell, they want to retire and they want to be able to travel more and spend more time with the kids and grandkids. It was a big house for just the two of them, and it was also a half acre lot that required a lot of upkeep.

I understand all that. I do. But it doesn't change the fact that this is my home. It the place I have always know I can come back to. 

It's a beautiful house. My parents have put a ton into it over the last thirty years. I have actually lived in three of the four bedrooms, starting from when I was two and ending when I was 18, graduated high school, and moved out. I had my first drink (gin, stolen from my parents liquor cabinet) in this house. When I was about 6 I wrote on my wallpaper "this is Leah's room and always will be" and subsequently spent a Sunday morning scrubbing it off. I had my first heartbreak in that house. This has always been my home…. and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little devastated at the thought of not being able to go back there.

Anyway, they told me it sold last Friday. We had originally had a trip planned to Reno for Labor Day weekend, but the closing date for the house is September 1st. Fist of all, I didn't want to come to Reno when they were in the process of moving (they are getting a rental for a year while they figure out what their next move it) and second, I wanted… no I needed….. to go home again. I needed a chance to say goodbye to they place that has been a part of who I am since before I can remember.

We scrambled and rearranged schedules and hopped in the car early Friday morning, drove eleven hours, and were there. It was a long drive and a hectic week, but we made it happen. We got to work first thing on Saturday morning, helping my parents set up a garage sale. This was emotional for me, and made it all the more real that this was really happening, but it was good for me to be able to focus on a job. We set stuff our for two days and watched as people came in to give new life to things we had deemed as junk. There was a whole shelf of stuffed animals from my childhood, and I pretty much gave them away to every child who came through, as long as they promised me to give them a good home. I remember trolling garage sales when I was a little kid and coming home with all kinds of treasure, and I can only hope that I made some kids happy and they will create new memories with my old toys.

I could go on for hours about this house. I love it. I love the neighborhood. I love our neighbors, who have also lived there for as long as I have. That's the kind of neighborhood it is. People move in and they stay. The kids I babysat for family still lives to the right of my parents, and the neighbors to the left have been my parents best friends since they moved in twenty eight years ago. They are like family. They are family. The lady across the street has been their forever, I remember watching her daughter get married in their front yard when I was about 8. You can walk down to the river in less then three minutes. The elementary school is about five minutes away. Their is a local coffee shop and a wine shop, both within walking distance. Wherever you go their are people walking their dogs, or running, or riding bikes and they always wave hello. One day this week, when we driving out of the neighborhood we saw a mama deer and her baby frolicking throughout the yards. It's that kind of neighborhood. It's my neighborhood.

The two pictures above were the last bedroom I lived in. Obviously it looks quite a bit different from when I was there. When I lived there the walls were papered with teen magazine cutouts of N'sync and backstreet boys and Brad Pitt. I had bulletin boards with pictures of friends and soccer trophies and candles and pictures frames. You couldn't see the carpet because it was always littered with clothes. It took my parents about a hot minute after I moved out to clean it up, take down Brad, Justin, and the rest of the boys and make it a proper guest room. And I was OK with that, because it was still my room. I know I get to see my two little boys sleeping in there and it makes my heart feel full. Even if L is the strangest sleeper ever! (Yes, that's him with his feet on the wall, and yes, he's fast asleep!)

This is our Christmas tree room. It's the room we weren't allowed to have food in when I was a kid. It was kind of my mom's room, where she read and drank her tea. I've always been in love with the fireplace, even though I don't ever remember lighting it in this room.

This room is now the office, but before I big remodel when I was about ten it was my room. It as my first room in this house. My parents let my put up pink wall paper that head teddy bears and heart on it. It had a Semi walk in closet with a shelf and a light and it was the perfect place to play house. This is the room where I wrote on the wall.

Our Kitchen and dining room. What can I even say. Family breakfast, Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners. My mom used to make me sit at the kitchen table and do my homework so she could make sure I wasn't messing around. I ate breakfast every school morning that I can remember at that kitchen counter. When I was 16 we were having a family dinner at that table and my Grandma spilled the beans that I had gotten my belly button pierced.

This room is probably where I spent most of my time, besides my bedroom. Our family room. The fireplace is now gas, but years ago it was wood burning. I spent many a night laying in front of that fire place reading or watching TV. This is the room where my Dad introduced my to my puppy Sabra. I still remember her running and romping around the room. (Sabra died a few years ago.) The Bar, which all my friends thought was so cool. I remember eating pizza up there with my brother when I was in second grade. I remember stealing liquor and refilling up the bottles with water when I was in high school. When I was in fourth grade we used to have dance parties in the room with our close family friends and our neighbors, the adults drinking wine while the kids put on elaborate shows.

And our backyard. Really, you couldn't ask for a more beautiful backyard. My parents have put so much work into over the years. The patio and fire pit are fairly new, it used to be just a huge expanse of lawn, surrounded by garden and old trees. And it was a lot of lawn. My parents made me mow it about three times before they decided that listening to me complain just wasn't worth it. There used to be an awesome two story tree house in the corner, with a ladder to get up and a slide to get down. It was so cool. My parents tore it down a few years after I graduated, but I have amazing memories of it. When I was growing up we had an in-ground hot tub on the old part of the patio. I spent hours and hours in it. Again, after I left it didn't get used much and they filled it in, but the memories of it are there.  The back of the yard is all old trees and we used to play all kinds of games back there. I'm sure there is all kinds of "buried treasure" from me and my friends scattered throughout the yard. The tree in the first picture is an apple tree. It's L's favorite thing about the house now, he always goes out and pics tons of apples to eat. He doesn't even care if they are sour, he thinks it's so cool to be able to pick them himself.

OK, I think that's it for the house tour. Like I said, I could go on and on. Twenty eight years of memories and experiences is definitely too much for one blog post. And I'm sure this is probably one of the most boring posts for people to read, but I think it will probably be one of the most important ones to me on this blog. I'm not going to lie, I"m sad. Like really sad. I just can't even imagine what it will be like the next time we go home….. but we don't go home. I cried a lot this trip, and I think I"ll probably be sad for awhile. But, the most important thing is the memories that I have, and hopefully the memories that L and L2 will have. R is too young to remember this place, but we have pictures and stories and I will always be able to tell them about where mommy grew up and show them that they were there.

I'll leave you with a few last photos, and I promise that there will be another post coming soon. Although it was a sad trip, it was also an amazing trip and we did a lot of fun things! That post coming soon, I promise!

(Pictures with Gramps on our back patio on our last night)

(Daddy and L2 in front of our apple tree)

 

(My three boys)

 (A last family photo in front of our fireplace)

And finally, these last photos in front of my home. It was the night before we left, and it's probably the last photos I will have of this house. I'm glad and grateful to S that he took the time to take all these, because I look forward to the days when I'll be able to go through them with the kids…. and maybe even my grandkids…. and tell them about there mommy grew up.

So, goodbye house. Thanks for everything!