It’s hard to believe a whole year has gone by since I’ve shown any attention to this little corner of mine on the Internet. While the hiatus is somewhat related to lack of motivation and creativity, there have been some other changes that have kept me away. So read on to know where we’re at with our family life lately…
Ivy’s finished kindergarten
The last post I made was about Ivy heading into her first year of school. Well the year has come and gone and we’re now getting ready for first grade.
I couldn’t be more happy with how well she did at Kindergarten. A big part of her success was because of her amazing teacher, who Ivy just adored. Outside of meeting new friends, she really seemed to thrive academically. It was so fun to pick her up at the end of the day and hear what they worked on throughout the day. I was also so happy that she got to experience not one, but two, field trips. Those field trips gave her the opportunity to ride the bus, which I think she really looked forward to! (We live too close to the school so she doesn’t get bussed.)
It’s crazy to me how much she grew over the course of the school year. I realized when comparing these two pics that I didn’t put her weight on the first day of school board, but I think she was around 45 pounds, so grew 2.5 inches and gained 3 pounds throughout the school year. She also lost 4 teeth!
Our first summer break between school years
We’re now about a month out from her first day of first grade. I think she’s realizing how fast summers go now that she has to head back to school in the fall. Just a couple of weeks ago she made the comment that “this summer is going by way faster than last summer did”. I just had to laugh because, as adults, we know that feeling all too well.
Outside of her daily “daycare”, we enrolled her in a few sports. This was her first year playing softball through an all-girls league, where they played against other teams. I enjoyed how they set her team up, as all of the girls went to her elementary school and she even had two girls from her Kindergarten class on the team with her. It definitely kept us busy as she had games and/or practices every Tuesday and Thursday from the end of May through the end of July.
But I would by lying if I said I didn’t enjoy it. It was so fun to see how the girls all progressed throughout the season. And it was even more fun to see her excited about being apart of a team. But I think my favorite thing was seeing how she and Mr. H bonded over the game. They spent many nights in the backyard practicing her hitting and catching and he was able to make it to all of her games.
We also continued with gymnastics. We’ve had her enrolled in gymnastics for the last year and a half and, while the progression has been slower there, she continues to enjoy it. She’s even asking for some at-home gymnastics equipment for her birthday so she can practice outside of her weekly classes.
We laid our first fur baby to rest
This update comes with a bit of mixed emotions. In May we had to put our sweet little Pebbles to rest. She turned 15 in April and started getting sick almost daily, causing me to take her in for a checkup. The news wasn’t great: she had a variety of health issues that were causing her extreme discomfort, even though you would never know it by looking at her. Even the vet mentioned how strange it was that she seemed so happy but her tests said otherwise. After that appointment we made the tough (emotional) decision to help her across the rainbow bridge and free her from her pain.
And then we got a puppy
Not having Pebbles around made the house feel a bit empty. However, if I’m being honest, I wasn’t necessarily ready for another dog, but Mr. H and Ivy both were. We made it exactly one month from Pebbles’ passing before we welcomed our newest little girl, Dottie, to the family. The way it all worked out, it kind of seemed like a sign that she was supposed to be ours.
I had started following a shih tzu breeder on Facebook a little bit before we put Pebbles down. I knew eventually we would get another dog and figured it was a good way to keep tabs on when the breeder had litters available. Well, not long after Pebbles’s passing, she had a litter of puppies for adoption. However, all of them had already been spoken for. Great, no problem – like I said, I wasn’t ready for another one yet anyway.
Well, one day I hopped on Facebook and the first post I see is the breeder posting about a shih tzu girl she had available due to a last-minute cancellation. It felt like a sign so I messaged her for more details. Turns out, she was the “pick of the litter” and was supposed to go to her niece. Her niece had some family things going on and realized it wasn’t the right time for her family to have a puppy, which is why she became available. After seeing the photos, I couldn’t say no and she joined our family a mere two days later.
Let me tell you – I forgot how exhausting it is to have a puppy. The first few nights of getting up every couple of hours really made me question our decision. And while she’s sleeping through the night now, that’s the only part that’s gotten easier. She’s a chewing machine, doesn’t want to listen and hasn’t been the greatest with potty training. I’m hoping that all gets resolved before out next big life change this fall…
We’re having a baby!
Saving the biggest update for last: we’re expecting a baby boy this November! It’s been a long road getting there, but we’re so excited to welcome this little man to our family. I’ll have plenty of follow-up posts coming but wanted to share the exciting news before rolling those out.
I plan to focus the next few posts on some back to school content but will definitely share out more news about baby #2 in there, too! I hope you enjoy following along!