My BABY BOY is starting Kindergarten tomorrow.

He's so excited too. We've already purchased his school supplies and dropped them off at the school, we met his teacher and got to see his classroom and where he'll be sitting. He says he's most excited about eating lunch in a cafeteria (at his preschool, they just brought his lunch to his room, so this cafeteria stuff seems like big business.) He picked out a backpack and we're getting his lunch box today. He is all set! But am I?

Of course I tear up just thinking about how he's officially in school now, attendance being counted and a curriculum set by the state. He'll be learning about how mean and cruel some people can be, and how wonderful a true friendship can be. He'll be learning about Independence and making his own choices. He'll be receiving enrichment classes like art and music, and have regular library visits to choose his own books. I know he'll be wonderful at all of this. He is so special.



The school itself seems really fun. They even had a "teachers parade" through the neighborhood, which both boys thought was awesome since the teachers threw candy.

 This is not just a big day for Aden tomorrow, but for Ethan too. He's leaving our beloved Miss Oana's class and will be in the Two's class now. Tomorrow, he officially begins potty training and will be introduced to the potty. How is he growing so fast? 

We sure have been busy this past month at Casa Elwell. I started a new job that's only a 6-mile commute from home! This has saved me tons of time, I even get to sleep in a little.

We've also been trying to either stay out of the heat, or make sure we're in water of some sort. It's been record breaking heat for weeks now with temperatures reaching 109 and 111. Completely miserable to go outdoors.

Ethan is a chatterbox, and speaks in complete sentences now most of the time. He's also lately been going back and forth between people's names and the nicknames he's given them. Aden can be Allie when they are friends, and Aden when he's not happy with him. Ethan also goes back and forth between Lee Lee and Lindsey for Aunt Lindsey, depending on whether he's serious or not. (sometimes he means business).

Aden starts kindergarten in 15 days! We managed to get all his school supplies - except he still needs a backpack. We can't agree on this. He is adamant that he wants a backpack that rolls with a handle. I think getting on and off the bus and through the halls would be easier if he just had the bag on his back. Aden is very stubborn and once he gets something in his mind, there's just no changing it. So we still need to get that, but we'll pick that up next weekend.

Here are a few pictures from the last four weeks:

We took a trip out on the lake in Papa's boat and Aden jumped right into the tube. I was a little freaked out for him. He was a long way out there going kind of fast and I... am a mommy.

Once Aden got past the "swimming with fishes" thing (and made us swear there weren't any sharks in the lake), he had a blast swimming in the lake. This actually became his favorite part of the day. Particularly the part where he could dunk his daddy's head in the water.

The next week, two of our Taekwondo friends had a birthday party together, complete with a huge water slide. Aden was the smallest kid to go down by himself, so all the others were cheering him on. Ethan also went down - with his daddy.

This one is of Aden's first trip down (with one of the birthday girls). After this, he was a pro.

Ethan went down and then kept saying, "One more time."

Recently, while in the kitchen, I heard Aden say, "You might want to come take a picture of us." So I grabbed my camera and went into the living room and found them like this:

A couple weeks ago, Ethan and I had a date. We went to the movies to see "Winnie The Pooh," and we played some air hockey. We had so much fun. It took me a while to convince him it wasn't "Winnie the Poop." For the rest of the day, he kept telling everyone that he saw Winnie the Poop.