August Mobile Moments!

It's been a while! I forgot one week and then the next was a holiday and I'm sure you know how that goes...anyway, here we are! Since we last met here, Autumn has started violin lessons! She's way excited about it although after 3 weeks I think her homework/daily practice is wearing thin. She thinks she's bored but I'm not sure Autumn really gets that the foundation is super important. I'm guessing that's pretty common with kids. I know a few of my aikido students (of all ages!) think they are ready to be Steven Seagal TOMORROW but they have to do a few other things before they can start tossing people into walls and have movies called something like [student name here IS] DEATH to NINJAS.

Something funny, Autumn had to make up a word rhythm to play on her E string. The teacher had her play "Mississippi Hot Dog" as an example. Autumn's rhythm is "Momotaro-san." The grandfather of one of my students gave me a copy of a beautifully illustrated book he bought in Hawaii many years ago. It's a Japanese fairy tale called Momotaro which means Peach Boy...elderly parents find a baby in a giant peach and he grows up to become a warrior who defeats an island of demons. Autumn is absolutely obsessed with the story and while singing a song written in the back of the book (that we attempt to sing in Japanese sometimes) she decided on that for her spoken rhythm. Too fun.

Other than violin, we're chugging along with school, work, and all of our regular life things. I try to make sure Autumn gets time outside with her friends because she's struggling with the long school day and I told her we'd be sure to have active, fun time every afternoon. This week she's been sword fighting in a yard with the neighbor kids. A couple weeks ago, she and her other friends were raking which was fun? I put a question mark there because it's not MY idea of fun but they enjoyed it.

I've been doing a hanging challenge and encouraging Mike and Autumn to do the same. Mike because it'll be as good for his back and shoulders as it has been for mine. Autumn because kids have so many natural skills that we have to relearn as adults so I'm hoping to help her keep them as she gets older! Hanging, squatting, breathing from the stomach and not the upper chest, those are all things I have to reteach! It's kind of amazing how long she can hang and all the wiggling around she can do.

Kiri is still around! Our friend Amy gave us a cat bed that her cat rejected, thinking Molly might like it. NOPE. Molly prefers shoes or socks to sit on. As a matter of fact, Molly has discovered my mismatched sock basket. She has learned to pull it out and now I am finding single socks all over the house. We caught her carrying one around and it was way amusing. Anyway, Kiri uses the bed as a nest so it isn't a complete waste of a nice cat bed!

For any parents who have kids who hate the dentist: there is hope!! Autumn used to think the dentist was going to take her out with the dental tools but now she loves getting her teeth cleaned. It was a gradual, 5-year change from terror to chatting with the assistant through the tools but here we are. I think having the same person every time was a big help.

Last picture! Autumn was so sad because we had a girls night one Friday. She was all, "so, you're going to have fun? With girls? Without me?" Ha! Heaven forbid I have fun with girls without Miss Autumn, right? Well, fortunately, she had her own girl's day the next day! Aunt Penny came over for snacks and Frozen. Autumn, of course, had to wear her costumes. First Anna, then Elsa complete with wig. As the movie progressed more and more of her Frozen friends joined us on the sofa and we had to hold them all properly.

Well, that's it for August! It wasn't a bad month. I hope September continues on smoothly and that everyone had a great Labor Day!

In which the tooth fairy FINALLY visits the Colleys

You guys! Autumn lost her first tooth! And her second tooth! It's so gross! The dojo folks were making fun of me because, seriously, I have a thing about teeth and I do not like them at all! I have recurring tooth nightmares, for real. Autumn has had these loose teeth forever and, with a little assistance from Pd, they made their way out. I started to try helping the tooth out on Thursday but, thank goodness, it wasn't quiiiite ready. One more day did the trick and it came out on Friday. This photo is from today: Autumn's first day of toothless school.

She asked me to have lunch with her so I brought some Chick Fil A to school because, for one, who can say no to a sweet request like that and, for another, it's kind of a big deal! Autumn has been not-so-patiently waiting for this day because she's one of the last kids in her class to lose her first tooth. I would have let it come out on its own but she has teeth growing behind and the one tooth was flapping around and generally being grosser than a tooth normally is. Autumn still has some sensory issues so it was driving her crazy.

When the one super loose tooth came out, the other one lost its support and came on out, too. I'm totally that parent who loooooves anything magical about childhood. Plus I think I've mentioned before that my best memories of my dad were around holidays and I like remembering how tickled he'd be over Santa or Halloween costumes. So, get ready for silliness. First, Autumn wrote a note. By the way, Autumn is wonderful at many things. Spelling is not always one of those things! I have to say, though, some of her guesses are pretty good and make sense.

Dear tooth fary Thank you for coming to my hose. Plese bring pink picedust. I will cepe 1 tooth and you cepe one tooth. I hope you have safe trivils! from Autumn to the tooth fary

Note that Autumn KEPT ONE TOOTH. I was fully prepared to tell her that the tooth fairy needed both but I consulted Mike, who hates teeth more than I do, and he was okay with it. So one of her teeth is in a random box in her room. LURKING. WAITING FOR ME TO OPEN THE BOX. This is Autumn's second tooth fairy note. The first one was a little bit gimme pixie dust so I had her write one a little more thankful for the exchange.

Then we marked her calendar. She remembered that there was a lost a tooth magnet and nearly flew out of bed in excitement. Hm. Looking at the photo, I noticed she has one date wrong and we aren't  going on vacation Labor Day weekend. We'll have to fix that.

Last, we set up her tooth fairy pillow. Someone gave that to us when Autumn was super tiny. It's been hanging on a hat rack all this time!

The tooth fairy did visit. She took the note, to Autumn's disappointment. I guess Autumn thought the tooth fairy would leave it? I didn't take any pictures of Autumn when she found her stash because I was still half asleep but, man, she was pumped. The tooth fairy left a few gold dollars--more than papa thought was appropriate but 2 teeth in one go seemed like a big deal--a tiny, glittery note, and some rainbow pixie dust. The note just said, "Thank you for your sweet note. Don't forget to brush!"  There was even a little glitter on the monkey pillow where the tooth fairy sat.

All in all, it was everything I'd hoped for. I seriously think I had more fun than Autumn. Maybe. I don't know, she was so excited. And, guess what else? She has a lisp and IT IS SO CUTE. There's another loose tooth on the bottom so I suspect this is going to be the reverse of when she got her teeth. Nothing for, like, ever and then suddenly she had allll the teeth. Autumn will probably be gumming her meals by winter. Anyway, that's it for this week! I'll leave you with our growing up girl doing some homework on the computer. She looks pretty intense, huh? The homework was to type each spelling word in a different font. There were different items to choose from but Autumn did this last week and loved it. I like fonts, too, Autumn.

Beach Fun Again!

Well, walking back in time a while, we had a short trip to the beach last month! Of course, here was the main event: Uncle Brad visiting from Doha!! It was great to see him and I am so sad that all my entrance photos are terrible. These two were pretty cute the whole weekend. :)

This was a secondary event. How crazy is the raft? It held all of us but I could only stay on for short bursts or my stomach would get a little unhappy. A couple people had to hang out and anchor the raft though. Without an anchoring chord or an oar we would have floated into what Autumn called "the deep blue."

The kids had a great time with the slide. Autumn eventually figured out that she could do rolls into the ocean and awesomeness ensued. This...this actually doesn't have anything to do with rolls. I just think Autumn's head while she's swimming is funny.

Going...

Going...

GONE. Autumn laughed SO HARD at her face in this picture. She cackled until she was rolling on the sofa. I mean, it's pretty funny but I'm not sure it's quite rolling in the aisles funny!

We were only able to go down to the beach for 2 days but we got a lot done. Saturday morning EVERYONE, all the Colleys, got up before dawn to get dressed and prepared for family photos. We each did photos with our little branches of the family and then everyone together. We don't have any previews or finished photos yet but here we are some time after we started sweating completely through our clothing.

 All the grandkids had individual photos except for Miss Ellie who wasn't have ANY of it. So, at the end of the day, we took her down to the beach and I tried to get a few photos. With Autumn's help, we got some cute ones! Ellie was loving this hairbrush so we sat her down and let her play while I worked on my settings and de-fogged my lens. Then Autumn very gently took the hairbrush.

Here's my photographer assistant! After the hairbrush removal seemed to go smoothly, Autumn slooooowly took the pacifier.

Ellie wasn't sure how she felt about that. We did get some fun photos. I'm waiting to see what ours look like from the photographer and then I'll edit the ones I got of Ellie to try to match the brightness he goes with.

Autumn had other fun with Miss Ellie. Seriously, she's a little Mike with the kids! And can you believe how stinking long her legs are these days? Autumn is not, by a long shot, the shortest kid in her class which is pretty unexpected.

She also had fun with Hudson and Tyler! They giggled and yelled and had all kinds of fun sitting in the hallway playing HedBanz. I need to get a copy of that game...even though the spelling of the name makes me stabby!

Sigh. And now it's off to bed. Tomorrow is week 2, day 2 of second grade!

Back to School

I know I said we'd do beach photos today but today was the FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL. Crazy! Can you believe Autumn is in SECOND GRADE?? Mike didn't get to go with us this time, so sad! Most of his team is newly in the US so he went to work so they could have first days of school with their kids for the first time here in Memphis. Autumn didn't like the break in the routine but I still got a smile.

At school, I was in and out quickly. I did get a hug and a kiss, though! Autumn doesn't have any friends from first grade in her class but there are 2 from kindergarten. One of them is Kasey.

You might remember Kasey from this photo two years ago at the Bon festival.

When we left for school, Autumn asked me if we could take pictures when Mike got home. So we did! But not in our nice stuff. We changed for the gym before we remembered to get our pictures.

We failed at taking a selfie this morning so I totally had to have my own. I look like I'm about to joint lock her or something.

With the new routine and the emotions of Autumn starting second grade (seriously, how can she be this old?), I am beyond tired. Plus we added a step in kickboxing today which kicked my butt and I am BEAT! But, one beach preview photo before I head to bed:

Yay! Orange Belt

I have beach pictures to share but I absolutely had to post these first! Autumn got her orange belt and she did a fabulous job. She had to do some extra training to get all the elements down. A couple of piece of footwork gave her some trouble but she knocked it out of the park on test day. She had to demonstrate two versions of one technique in addition to basic footwork, strikes, etc. and it's one of the harder ones. I think we learn it first because no one ever really masters it, ha! Of course, I just say that because it's one I still have trouble executing on certain people. This is the version where you move to your partner's front.

And it ends in a pin. Look at that posture and those cute feet!

This is the back version and it's fun because your partner ends up kind of flying around like a helicopter blade! Stephan took these pictures and I am so excited that he got this one. It's excellent ukemi on Jeffrey's part and Autumn looks good. Her knees should be more bent than her back but, seriously, this is fantastic.

And this is one happy student. She was so excited about her test that she put on her uniform and belt before lunch time! She's lucky we're in summer uniforms or she would have had to wear the jacket around! I found out that Jeffrey was pumped, too. He wore his uniform to get a hair cut. I love it. Autumn hasn't always loved aikido and not every day is as great as this one, but I'm glad we were persistent and kept at it. I don't want to *make* her do martial arts but so far my plan of making it casually part of our life is working. Perhaps not forever but for today and hopefully long enough to give her some good tools. As a side note, I have no idea why my uniform is so scruffy. I blame it on the preschoolers!

Other than testing, last week was a full week! We had swim lessons with Mrs. Christy and we rescued a doggie. Autumn has been playing Nintendogs on my old DS and she was absolutely thrilled to get to walk a dog for real. I know she was hoping that we'd never find the owner but with some detective work we did. The dog had on a LEASH (so dangerous!!) but no tag. I called our vet to see if they could scan for a microchip if it came to it. I would have also had them bathe the dog because he was, while adorable, smelly as all get out. I walked around a bit asking people if they'd seen someone walking the dog and ended up at a stretch of apartments across from where we found the dog. We were looking for a yard with dog things when the owner came our whistling. She seemed alarmingly unconcerned that her dog had been wandering with a leash on across a busy parking lot. :( But, Mike is just glad we didn't have to bring the dog home!

Speaking of animals, Autumn is a cat. She's sitting in the cat bed the our friend Amy gave us. Her cat wouldn't sleep in it. Molly won't either. But Autumn uses it to look out the window. We had a random, terrible storm blow through Wednesday. We watched it come in until Autumn got nervous and then we did some chores to take her mind off it.

This is just cute.

I believe that's it for now! Next week we'll have beach photos and some long lost Uncle Brad! While we were gone I think Molly realized that the betta fish is a real, live fish. I don't know if this is going to end well but at least I didn't throw away the lid. Molly was watching the fish HARD this afternoon. Autumn and I laughed about it and then she said, "Are you getting a nervous feeling?" Hahahaha.

Friday Field Trip Fun

Friday was 66 degrees. In July. IN MEMPHIS. I was so disappointed that it was raining because we were supposed to meet friends at the zoo. We ended up over at the Pink Palace for their new bug exhibit. Oddly, Autumn liked the real spiders better than the fake ones which is oddly consistent. Remember this? And you should totally click that link because it's adorable. Back to today, Autumn and I did the spider cutout. Look at her side-eyeing my happiness.

Because I'm an embarrassing mom, I made her pretend like she was going to eat me.

Um, the kids had fun, too.

I promise I wasn't hogging the stage. :)

We went to lunch after the Pink Palace and by the time we were done eating, the rain stopped. It was only 1pm, we were already in East Memphis, and, seriously SIXTY SIX DEGREES. So we went to the zoo. Mimi had to go on home so Aurora could nap which was too bad but Sara was able to stay so Autumn had someone other than her crazy mom to hang out with. We saw this new bird feeding spot. It was a dollar for a feeding stick so I let Autumn get one. I am so glad I did! Check out the three birds!

Autumn was pretty good with the birds. She stood still and stayed calm the whole time. She was also patient with holding the stick out to tempt the budgies.

I had to include this because Jeffrey looks so happy and look at that cool bird takeoff! Plus, check out Autumn's travel outfit. She decided to be Fancy Nancy that day. She wore about 6 necklaces and some bracelets. Plus rain boots and rain coat.

The zoo was really empty so there was no line for camel rides. Last year I asked Autumn if she wanted to try and she said no. I can't remember if we were there with friends so it was either Autumn getting braver or the confidence of having a friend. Autumn loved it. They got to see a baby camel with a back mohawk running around, too!

Sara and I laughed so hard at the kids because they were all about pictures. They kept stopping for photo ops, like we were paparazzi or something.

Autumn doesn't quite have majestic explorer pose down but check out Jeffrey.

I might have to edit this one a little and give Jeffrey a copy. So cute!

More majestic exploring. I thought I had one of Autumn venturing forth but I seem to have caught her in the process of becoming majestic.

Look at the wolf!! She was chilling there on the ledge so we could see her so close up. There's a plexiglass wall in front of the rail where the kids are. It kind of looks like the wolf could just hop over!

SIGH. School starts in 2 weeks. I am not ready. I love having Autumn at home. Hopefully it'll be an easy transition. We have been doing some math, science, and writing over the summer to keep us both in practice. This is one of the projects from her Young Scientists Club subscription. I got it half off and so far we're enjoying it. We're enjoying it more than the math book we're working through, that's for sure!!!