September and Camping with Preschool!

In early September we went to Sunset State Beach for a weekend camping trip! About 15 other families from preschool went too, and we coordinated months ago to book sites in the same section. It was so awesome to let the kids run free between sites, knowing that there were lots of friendly adults keeping their eyes out. We all went to the beach and then had a big potluck. I tried to keep Hadley out of the dirt but eventually let her go for it.

My mom came for the potluck dinner one night. Makena collected a huge amount of sand dollars at the beach and brought them back to the campsite.

Hadley really enjoys climbing and will practice any chance she gets! She likes to use her feet and will try to get them on anything she sees. It's so interesting to watch her figure it out. She is taking more and more steps and very determined to walk everywhere! 

She was thrilled to see she could reach this bar at preschool! She loves the preschool playground and feels very at home there, and in the classroom too where she always goes straight to the guinea pig cage to squeal in delight at Chocolate Orange, the class pet.

I love when they sleep next to each other for a bit before I move Makena to her bed.

I watch a friend's little boy, baby J once a week while his mom takes the big sisters to preschool and works in the classroom. They have 2 cats, and Hadley can't believe how lucky she is that they let her pet them! I loved taking Makena to work with me when I used to watch the boys, she basically got to grow up with them and it was so much fun watching them go from babies to toddlers to real kids! I'm glad that Hadley has baby friends.

We've been getting into the swing of things now that school's back in session. Pam has been either taking the bus to work in the morning or riding her bike, which really makes my mornings a million times easier! I really love all the time I get to spend with my kids. It always makes me sad when I think about the parents who don't enjoy being with their children. Being a mom is everything I ever wanted! There are people who are desperate for children and struggling with infertility, and my heart breaks for them. I have some really tough moments and days, parenting is hard, really really hard at times. But even my most awful days now as a mom are better than my best days I had before I had kids!

I love seeing how Makena is growing up. We visited our old local park and had fun looking through photos taken there when she was little.

Makena hung up her very first posters on the wall above her bed! I feel like this is a pretty exciting milestone, lol. An ABCs of transportation, Strawberry Shortcake, and Pinkalicious "Reading is Pinktastic". Someday her poster choices will be vastly different. I wonder when these will be too babyish for her, and what she will be into at that time. I hope I still have 10 years ahead of her sweet, adorable, loving, silly self!

I turned in all of my volunteer credit hours from Blossom for a mom & baby yoga class! The day and timing are perfect, it's on Monday mornings after I drop off Makena at school. Hadley loves to walk around and play with all the toys they provide and visit all the other kids. She also loves the musical portion where we sing Old MacDonald and do yoga poses for the different animals. It's nice to have something special to do with just Hadley.