2nd Grade Starts Here

Today was the first day of the 2nd grade for my little Brynnbug. She was excited and nervous at the same time, though she'd never admit that she WAS nervous. But nervous she was. So nervous in fact she posed like a 7-year-old diva:

I should point out right now that I didn't teach her any of these moves.



And while my brand new 2nd grader was enjoying her first day of school where was I? I was relaxing at the spa getting a well deserved pedicure in celebration of my 28th year in the world. Really? 28? Where have the last almost 3 decades gone? Somewhere in the past, I know. After my pedi, my mom and went out for a girl's lunch. We finished in enough time to pick up my baby.


There were plenty of stories of new friends and old friends. Not enough math for her, but I have plenty of worksheets to keep her mind occupied. After catching up, we all headed to Texas Roadhouse for a nice family dinner. That of course meant me sitting on a saddle and wearing a cowboy hat (happily I have no blackmail pictures of that). At home, I got my presents. Well, present. Brynn got me the cutest purse that's fully wearable under all conditions and can fit my entire life in it (just the way I want my mom purses to be).

My other present couldn't be wrapped as my mom bought it for me when I was in desperate need of a phone that didn't do things all on its own. My extremely early birthday present is my Blackberry. Most important part of today was spending time with my family and not worrying about work.

All in all, it was a great birthday for only turning 28 the first time. We'll see how 28 it in a couple of years.

It's All In The Genes . . .

Every parent always looks for similarities between yourself and your kids. It's a given to find more things in common. I can see myself in B, in a lot of ways. I used to think that it was her just copying me, but I've found lately that's not true at all. Her dirty looks are all me and the fact that she's always talking (not a bad quality, it's something I really love about her) and she's a big fan of being overdramatic. The last one I chalk up to the fact that she's a girl and it's just what some of us do sometimes. She catches onto any new kind of technology pretty quickly. Like scary kind of quick. She's the girliest girl I've ever met, dresses, skirts, and boots and all, but insists she's a "tomboy girl". She's a tomboy because she likes to play baseball and watch football (she's a huge Patriots and Tom Brady fan, just like her mama. You don't want to be in our house on game day). I love it.

But, I digress. She loves to read. I'm really loves to read. She can sit and read for hours if you'd let her. Everyone on both sides of the family are big readers, so it isn't much of a shock. She started reading "Harry Potter" around the end of June. She finished the first book about a month later. She really wanted to watch the movie (and all the rest, too), but we had a deal that before she saw the movie, she had to read the book first. She can be very stubborn (another family trait) when she wants to, so she finished, and we watched. She was absolutely enthralled and started reading the 2nd book the next day. She was done reading three weeks later (Tuesday afternoon, to be exact) and immediately began reading book 3. As part of our deal, we had a slumber party watched "Chamber of Secrets". She loved the book more, but the movie was pretty good, too.

She's finally starting to understand why I'm such a big fan of reading the book before I see the movie. I'd rather compare the book to the movie, so I at least know where the author was going with their idea. As silly as it seems, the whole books ruinned for me if I watch the movie first because then I'm always comparing the book, thinking in my head "well, that's not what happened in the movie". My brain works a little funkier than most.

It's amazing, though. She's really enjoying those books and is practically eating them up. She can't get enough of books in general. It's great! I love everything about my baby girl, because everything about her is just so her, but this is one trait I'm really proud she has.