I suppose you could say that I have a love/hate relationship with Brock's staunch independence.

I love that I don't have to hold his hand through everything.

And I hate that I don't get to hold his hand through everything.

He is, after all, my only little boy. 

Today, he wanted to ride the bus to school.

As he curiously and confidently stepped up onto the bus, 

I was left standing on the street corner watching as the bus doors closed and

drove away with my heart on board. 

For several minutes after the bus had left our street, I stood there,

keys and purse in hand, ready to jump in my car and meet the bus at school,

just to make sure that Brock had made it safely.

But, sometimes you just have to trust you've taught your child everything

he needs to know and he'll be okay. Without you.

For the next 7 hours. At least.

"I'm not going to cry. I'm not going to cry. I'm not going to cry."

"Don't you dare cry," my tough sub-conscience challenged.

Clarke parked the car and our little family of three (and a half) exited onto the grounds of Brock's elementary school, now crawling with backpack clad students and parents alike; the mayhem of the first day of the school year alive and thriving.

We walked Brock to his kindergarten class, where his name was posted by the door on a bright red apple and he posed for the inevitable picture that was the whole reason for me carrying my camera with us this morning. 

We gave him the pep talk about smiling and being friendly and listening; all of which most likely fell on deaf ears as Brock anxiously searched the faces of the hundreds of kids hurrying past us and onto the playground. With a nod from his teacher, Mrs. Hubbard, Brock gave us a quick wave and a nonchalant, "Bye mom!" as he went sprinting in the direction of the playground.

Shrugging and mercifully tearless, Clarke and I walked back through the crowd of children and parents to where our car was parked and began the short drive back home. 

"It's kind of sad," Clarke began.

And that's when it happened. The sudden and insatiable urge to quickly put on my sunglasses just in case a pregnancy-induced tear began to well up in my eye and run down my cheek. 

Gotta save face in front of the hubs, after all. 

Fortunately, we made it home, still tearless, but I did have to swallow down the lump in my throat when Clarke commented that he wished Brock was still a baby and that our boy grew up too fast. 

"Don't you dare cry," the voice repeated in my head. And I didn't.

Instead, we have a lot to cheer about!

First of all, here is to embarking on new adventures...

to meeting new friends...

to wearing new clothes and new shoes...

and finding silly new ways to fashion a backpack.

Here is to growing up...

but not growing up too fast.

Here is to teaching kindergarten the subtle art of the ninja...

to teaching mom and dad that you'll be okay for the 

6 hours and 25 minutes you won't be home today...

and for also teaching your mom and dad that you're an amazing kid!

We absolutely adore our kindergartner and look forward to 

sharing in his kindergarten adventures this year! 

Turns out, we are still seeing pink this pregnancy! 

A second ultrasound today confirmed that the little creature currently beating up my uterus is all girl. 

And we couldn't be happier!!

(insert a huge sigh of relief here)

My doctor waived off all talk of a due date because she believes I will not carry this baby to December 18th; most women who are diagnosed with incompetent cervix do not carry their babies to their due date! Remember, labor and deliver is just one stitch away and when that stitch (cerclage) is removed, probably around Thanksgiving, my body will undoubtedly do it's best to evict our little lady as soon as possible. So, we're hoping for an early December due date (around 37 or 38 weeks)

And of course, our little Miss has a top secret name that we will not reveal until she is born! 

In the meantime, we're playfully calling her "Rapunzel" because if heartburn is any indication of how much hair she will have at birth, then she should come into this world plump, screaming and proceeded by enough hair to wrap around the delivery room twice!!

Last week we celebrated my nephew's birthday with a trip to Zoo Boise!

When I was young, Zoo Boise was a haven to local wild life: bears, elk, and deer. Perhaps a few birds, some monkeys and a giraffe or two. It was an okay zoo. 

Zoo Boise has gotten so much better! Now we have lions and tigers, giraffes, zebras, hyenas, penguins and even a Komodo Dragon. I love that a trip to the zoo is a more exciting, educational and enriching experience for children today than it was when I was young.
Here's our zoo excursion in photos...

BFFs: Brock & Jamin

My *favoritest* picture of the day: Brock, Jamin & Travis

Perhaps one day Zoo Boise will feature real elephants...

Birthday boy Travis!

Safari Bound: Brock & Jamin


Neicie-poos: Libby. Sharing toast with Aunt Coco

Jamin, Brock, Travis & Penguin

Jamin feeding Llamas

The sign read: Do not play on penguins.
Rebel Brock, breaking the rules...

Libby had a wonderful time breaking that rule too!

It won't be much longer that these two can slide together. 

Llamas? Yup, still a "countryish" zoo...

Brock loved feeding the llamas for about 9 seconds. And then he lost interest.

The butterfly house delighted everyone. Except for Travis, who was petrified!


Butterflies were landing all over us! Brock's hat became a favorite landing spot!

A very hallowed moment for Brock and Jamin.
A real dragon.
A Komodo dragon.

This was Brock's sole excitement for our trip to the zoo. He's fascinated with Komodo dragons.

A not-so-real Komodo dragon...

Let's see, who makes the best baby bird? The one who is nesting or the one who is ready to flee?

The merry-go-round was the pinnacle of zoo fun for the kids!
And a great way to end our visit to the zoo.

Part II: ....and Cougars?


I'm of the mindset that dangerous animals should be kept caged at the zoo or live in their natural habitat.
Aren't you?
 The desert, for example, is a natural habitat for foxes and coyotes. Should we spot a desert creature wandering about our area, we hardly think twice about it. But this week my perspective was shaken when a mountain lion (also called a cougar) was spotted within a mile of my house and then chased to within 1/2 a mile of my neighborhood. A MOUNTAIN lion has no business hanging about in a DESERT, let alone rural neighborhoods. How did it get here? Where is it now? For two days, the media and fish and game officials tracked it to and through my neighborhood. Literally MY NEIGHBORHOOD. Police officers were knocking on doors and notifying people out and about that there was a dangerous animal on the loose and to be vigilant.
Lock up your children and your pets, they advised.
Be on the lookout!
And then a second cougar was spotted, presumably, in my neighborhood. The media went wild with their "cougars on the loose" update. However, they later retracted that update and settled on the initial report of only one cougar stalking the neighborhood. And when police lost sight of the animal, the media lost interest and not a word has been reported on the cougar since Tuesday night.


So now, we're left wondering (and worrying) where is the cougar now? 

We kicked off the celebration on Saturday with an amazing lunch at Tucanos.

(And when you're pregnant and carnivorous, Tucanos is like a trip to foodie heaven.)

On Sunday morning, we cozied up to a big country breakfast at the Cracker Barrel before heading out to Veteran's park to walk along, and play in, the river. 

After the river, as the temperature soared above 90 degrees, we headed home for a relaxing afternoon of movies on Clarke's new Blu-Ray player and napping off a busy morning in the air conditioned comfort of our house. The boys went swimming after their movie and arrived home just in time for birthday visitors, a dinner of bbq'd ribs & veggies and, of course, German chocolate birthday cake with coconut icing and Bunny Tracks ice cream. 

Many people would probably just shrug helplessly with a wan smile or pat you on the back with a "gee, that's great." if you were to tell them that you were blessedly 20 weeks pregnant. For us, 20 weeks indicates a HUGE milestone. We lost our Amelia at 19 weeks, so passing that anniversary (of sorts) is a big deal as we held our breaths through week 19 of this pregnancy. If we're very fortunate and heaven smiles down on us, then it's our hope to make it another 17-18 uneventful weeks until we can welcome a living and beautiful, baby girl See into our family. 

We've also chosen a name, but here's the thing....

We'll announce our baby's name after she's born!

Here is my lumpyish, 20 week belly...

It's often been observed that Brock is something of daredevil. He's fearless when it comes to nearly everything...except riding a bike without training wheels. Even encouraging him to ride a bike with training wheels took a lot of time and patience on our part. As soon as he mastered the training wheels, he thought he had it made. Until we went cold turkey on our boy and took the training wheels off entirely; logically thinking that we would teach him to ride his bike the old-fashioned way. It didn't work and in all of our frustrations, the training wheels found their way back onto Brock's bike. 

Finally, we received some great advice from my aunt Diane. She suggested taking just one training wheel off and manipulating the remaining training wheel so that it didn't fully touch the ground. Amidst Brock's childish protests, Clarke took off one training wheel and walked around the neighborhood with Brock until he caught onto the concept of balancing himself on the bike. By that evening, he was all smiles as he went sailing up and down the road on his bike with the one training wheel.

Brock's bike posse...

On Sunday morning, Clarke took Brock on a bike ride and halfway back home, Clarke and Brock both noticed how mangled Brock's remaining training wheel had become. They stopped and Clarke removed the training wheel; Brock promptly spotted a trash can and threw the training wheel away, only afterward realizing that he had to ride his bike home without the training wheel. So, he did. He RODE HIS BIKE HOME WITHOUT TRAINING WHEELS!! And then he raced his bike up and down our road to "show mommy" his new trick.