Noah's last day of Kindergarten (and reminiscing)

How did I go from worrying about how to cut his new baby fingernails and how long to go between feedings...to all of the sudden him being done with Kindergarten?  I swear it all happened in about 5 minutes.

It's such a strange thing to experience those mixed feelings as a parent - the pride and delight at watching your child grow, develop, and become more their own person...while at the same time lamenting how quickly they are growing up, and with each stage relying on you less to some degree.  It's still such a strange, sweet sorrow that I feel watching my kids grow up - and perhaps that's the primary reason why I carry a camera everywhere with me and feel a need to keep this blog, because things are going by so fast and in some small way I can try to freeze these moments in time just a little bit.

Because when I look back through these pictures, and read about little things my boys did or said, I am there kissing their sweaty hair or smelling their banana covered hands.  I remember what it was like to hear my first child learn to read, or to watch my "big boys" hold our new baby.  I remember what it was like for the rest of the world to cease existing as my baby's laugh echoed through our kitchen.  Because I treasure the love notes my boys make for me more than anything I could ever purchase. Because right now I still have a baby that I wish would sleep through the night every night without being rocked back to sleep...but that I also know that it won't be long before he will be too big to hold and rock back and forth.

Every stage that I document on this blog, and perhaps subconsciously wish away (sleepless nights, needy toddler, drawn out bedtime routines, picky eater kid, arguing siblings, etc), becomes part of the fabric of irreplaceable memories that I wouldn't change for anything.  And even though being a full time mommy is sometimes a bit redundant and thankless...it's all these little memories and moments that I am collecting that I feel like make me so very rich indeed.

End to sappy mommy speech.  For this post anyway.  Now on to show a few pictures from Noah's last day of Kindergarten (that catalyst to all of those nostalgic words in the first place):

6/1/12 We put a little gift together for Noah's teacher and he made her a card to tie onto it.  Here he is before leaving for school that afternoon...

Noah with Mrs. Burton.  I love his "I love this, but still feel a little bit shy" smile.

After school was out one of our neighbors had an ice cream social that all the kids in the area went to and we celebrated the first day of summer break!  Here is Lincoln, Tyler, and Noah.

Now bring on summer!

May 2012 Wrap Up

5/2/12 It was just novel to see Max pull himself up to play with something that interested him.  You go, handyman.

5/3/12 Every now and then it's nice to just stop and watch your baby sleep.  These pictures certainly don't do the sweetness justice, but they do kind of show how big my 10 month old was getting.  Slow down time.

I feel the same way about food, buddy.

5/9/12 Noah actually requested this impromptu photo shoot of Max on the kitchen floor as he ran to grab him a hat...

5//13/12 Lincoln and Noah with great-grandma Shirlene on Mother's Day.

I took this picture because I loved my grandma's weeping Japanese Maple...but have to post it now that she's moved from this home.  I love how my grandma has always found beautiful stone statues that she loves to display in her yard also.

5/14/12 My parents were watching Ezra while Chris, Chelsey, and Audrey were in Hawaii with Chelsey's family.  We decided one day to take all 4 boys to the zoo!  Here are Linc, Noah, and Ez climbing on the gorilla statue.

Ezra was a little hesitant to climb up onto this big elephant that was making noises and spraying air out of its trunk (it sprays water later in the summer), but Linc and Noah were all over it.

Ice cream!

Max was a happy little guy in his stroller...

...and this is what he looked like 30 minutes after the previous photo was taken.

The boys always love the playground at the zoo.

5/15/12 Max sure does love the bath.

 

5/23/12 Max turned 11 months old today!

 

After Max was done with breakfast it was bath time and I ended up putting him in the shower with me.  He cut his finger pretty bad on the corner of the door's running board, and boy did it bleed.  I think it upset me as much as it did him. We took him to Mark's office and he decided he didn't need stitches, so he cleaned it up and bandaged it.  Here is a picture of Max later that day, giving a mischievous grin, with his bandaged up finger...

5/24/12 My little monkey.

Noah's school had a program that they put on at the high school, and then we walked down to the elementary school for picnic lunches and popsicles.  Lincoln was pleased to find his "best buddy Tyler" there too!  Here they are:

Noah.  My sweet kindergarten boy.

Max just loves being out and about in the stroller.

I love when Lincoln and Noah share...

 Such cute brothers.

They boys had been diligently helping earn and save money to help pay for a family trip to Disneyland.  On May 29th we spilled the beans that we were going!  And that we were leaving in just a few days!  We pulled out their mickey ears and they were so happy and excited!

We gave the Noah and Lincoln each their own lanyards with some pins to do pin trading at Disneyland...

Here is the video clip of us telling the boys:

5/31/12 was field day at Noah's school.  I enjoyed volunteering to man one of the games (ended up being tug of war).  When Noah's class rotated through I snapped a few pictures...

 

I love this picture of Noah.

 

Noah's very pregnant teacher jumped in to help in the tug of war (in front of Noah's friend Rachel)...

It was so fun to watch Noah playing and having fun with all of his friends and classmates.