Firsts

As I mentioned in my last post, the sexual assault training was pretty intense. Thank goodness we just discussed adult sexual assault and not children, because I think I would have had lots of nightmares. I only had nightmares one night and then I was just disturbed by the things they were talking to us about.

Anyway, now that I am training, I will be able to better help victims of both sexual and domestic violence.

This past weekend my wonderful friend Sylvia, her husband Ryan and son Jackson came in town for the weekend. Sylvia and I studied abroad in China our Junior year of college, which is surprisingly 11 1/2 almost 12 years ago. That is absolutely crazy how quickly time has flown by. We stayed pretty busy on Saturday. We went to World's Fair Donuts on our way to the Missouri Botanical Gardens, spent time at the Japanese Gardens and Children's Garden at the Botanical Gardens, we went to Ted Drewes, ate BBQ and just relaxed. It was a great weekend and it was fun to see our kids hanging out.

Today has been a rough day for me emotionally. Samuel and Joseph started their first day of Mother's Day Out. Samuel surprisingly remembered the place and went right in and started playing. No tears, nothing. That was such a relief because I don't know if I could have handled it if he cried too. I think his lack of tears were due to the fact that we have been discussing that when I drop him off at school I will always pick him back up. Last Thursday when I dropped him off at school and picked him up I told him "When Mommy drops you off at school, I will always pick you up again." This morning when he got up, I told him he was going to school again today. He started crying, which broke my heart. But then I asked him if he remembered what I told him, that when I dropped him off at school...then he interrupted me and said "Mommy will pick me up again." I am always amazed at the memory of children. Instances like these really remind me the impact parents have on their children and how children can really be comforted and influenced by their parents.

Anyway, after I left Samuel in his room, I went to drop Joseph off. Of course he went right into the room and was fine, but after about a minute he started screaming and crying. There are about 8 little kids in his class and they are all boys. Joseph is by far the youngest. I felt like I was going to have a heart attack leaving him, but I told them to call me if they couldn't handle him. We will see how it goes. I pick them up at 3:30 which is a super long day, but I need it and they need it.

So far I have ran two errands, vacuumed the entire house, ran on the treadmill and have been working on the computer for the last 30 minutes. I can't believe how much I have already gotten done. I have so many things on my "List of Things To Do." I know I will not nearly everything done, but it is nice to make a big dent.

Samuel had a "first" as well today. I was putting Joseph down for a nap this morning and I could hear Samuel moving things around downstairs. I was wondering what damage he was doing because it sounded like he was dragging chairs around in the kitchen. Once I put Joseph down in his bed, I ran downstairs to find Samuel in the bathroom, filling up his potty chair to rinse it out. I looked at the toilet and he had his other potty chair on the toilet (that one is used on the actual toilet seat). I looked in the toilet bowl and there was poop. I said "Oh my gosh Samuel, you went poopy in the potty alone?" He replied, "and pee pee too mommy." I can't believe it. Oh how my little boy is growing up.

I am off to shower and run some more errands. The new Cooking Light magazine has amazing looking dishes, so I think I am going to try several out this week. Need to make a grocery list and head to the store alone. It will be so nice and quick!

Here the boys are this morning before heading to Mother's Day Out:

All the boys, Joseph, Jackson and Samuel. This was the best picture I could get of the three of them:

Joseph's 7 month picture (meant to post this a long time ago):