Three Milestones in Three Days

Last week was an emotional roller coaster of a week, as each of my kids hit a pretty big milestone. Truly, any of these events could make for their own full blog post, but I’m going to try to keep my reflections somewhat brief and condense them into one post here.

A few years ago, I blogged about the firsts and the lasts in my motherhood journey and those words from years ago still resonate deeply with me today. Last week was full of both firsts and lasts and it was a lot to process as it was happening – writing this blog post was very therapeutic for me and it finally allowed me to feel all the feelings (I didn’t cry during these milestones, but I sure cried writing this post!) Before I jump in, I do want to share what you’ll probably notice – after careful thought, Justin and I have decided we are no longer going to be sharing our older children’s full faces on my blog or Instagram. Ollie is still a baby and will continue to change looks in the future, so we’re okay sharing his face for just a bit longer, but for Vi and LJ, we have decided to keep their face private going forward. I will still be sharing our life and family here, particularly as it relates to my home projects and how we live in our home, just with a little more privacy for my kids.

And with that, let’s take a look at last week’s events:

Vi’s (unexpected) First Haircut

On Monday, Vi got ahold of scissors and chopped off a significant amount of her hair. I discovered a huge clump of sweet little blond ringlets on our stairs and was distraught – she’s never had a haircut! Her hair is fine and very slow-growing and it felt shocking that what took four years to grow out was suddenly gone. No more cute ponytails and braids, at least for quite a while, and I had to grieve the unexpected loss.

Tuesday we got her in for a real haircut to fix the damage and I decided to make it a special occasion. I hired a babysitter for the boys, and Vi and I got dressed up in dresses and headed to the salon. She absolutely glowed in the chair – she was so happy and excited for the experience!

Now she has a sweet little bob; it’s actually very cute and we were both happy with the outcome. Afterwards we got some ice cream and I was thankful to have turned the situation into a special memory with my girl.

LJ Started Kindergarten

The day after Vi’s first haircut, LJ had his first day of kindergarten.

To be honest, this was the milestone we prepared the most for. We have been talking about it for months. LJ is very interested in time and calendars and knowing what to expect; he is constantly asking how many days until x or how many minutes until y or what to expect at event z. Suffice to say there has been a lot of counting down to kindergarten and talking about when it will start, how long are the days, will there still be time to play, etc.

As the day approached, I really enjoyed going through the preparations with him. We had fun shopping for school supplies together (except for backpacks, but that story has a good ending!) and going to registration. It was an exciting day when we got the introduction letter from his teacher. Justin and I hired a babysitter to watch Vi and Ollie so we could both go with LJ to Meet the Teacher night and give him our complete focus and attention. All these little experiences helped us prepare our hearts and minds for this big transition.

A few days before the first day, I asked him if there was anything he was still nervous about and after thinking a bit, he said recess. He remembered that when we came for registration, the playground was full of kids and he was used to just his one small class being outside at preschool. I had to drop off a couple things at the school so we asked in the office how many classes go at once and if we could play a bit on the playground right then. LJ and Vi spent ten minutes running around and checking out all the equipment. That little experience helped clear the rest of his nerves – he felt he knew pretty much what to expect and was totally ready to go!

Justin was off work on the first day so we all got to spend the morning together and then take LJ to school. He was so excited and that helped us also be hyped up and excited with him. I expected to cry but didn’t – I felt a few bittersweet twinges but overall the whole experience felt joyful. I think we were all really well prepared for this transition so it just truly felt positive and exciting. The day did feel a little long for me and I was itching to go pick him up, but we were glad to find out he had a great first day and was excited to go back again!

Ollie’s First Birthday

The day after LJ started kindergarten, Ollie turned one.

Oh boy. I don’t even know how to start this one.

Ollie is my last baby. Every milestone with him is exciting, but a little extra bittersweet because his firsts are also my finals. His was the final time I heard a first word or saw a first tooth poking through or cheered for a first crawl. He isn’t walking yet, but I know soon I will be reaching my hands out to catch the toddling fall after the first few steps. There will soon be a final bottle. Someday there will be a final diaper and a final stroller ride and a final night in a crib (if you’re wondering if I’m crying now writing these words, the answer is YES!) I will celebrate each milestone wholeheartedly, even as that heart breaks a tiny bit at saying goodbye to the previous stage.

So all that to say, his first birthday was celebratory but also very bittersweet. The night before, I held him a little longer before putting him to bed, knowing that it was my last night of my last baby year. And then in the morning, I had my final one year old! We kept the celebration pretty simple with a family dinner and a cake that Vi and I made earlier that day, and will have a joint party for both Vi and Ollie in a couple weeks.

Ollie is the sweetest, most easygoing baby. When I drop him off in the nursery at church I often get asked “is he always like this!?” because he’s just content the entire time. He’s happy, he plays, he observes, he snuggles, he interacts – he is just along for the ride and unless he is hungry, tired, or sick, he generally isn’t fussy. For basically his whole life, he’s been carted around to one activity or another and he adjusted to sleeping in the car and having a somewhat flexible schedule. He thankfully doesn’t mind the car seat and travels well!

He is very curious and enjoys getting into things. He just started crawling on both hands and knees within the past month. Before that, he kind of did an army crawl where he drug his right hand along and just used his left hand to pull himself around. His little teeth crack me up – his canines were actually the first teeth to come in so he looked like a little vampire at first!

He loves clapping and doing “pat a cake” and “so big” with people. He also really loves music and will bop along to just about any beat, although I discovered he jams the hardest to Blink 182’s “All the Small Things” haha! He is by far our best sleeper and has been sleeping consistently 7 pm – 8 am for most of this year (I know, I know. I have no idea how we did this but it was amazing!) He still loves his bottle but he also loves food and will eat anything we put in front of him. He does great staying overnight with my parents (took a little while to warm up to my dad for some reason but they’re besties now!) and that has really allowed us to have a bit of freedom back this past year.

He didn’t initially like baths but now he really loves them, although we just tried a bath with all three kids and I think that was a bit overwhelming for him. The older two absolutely adore him. He is smothered with hugs, kisses, and affection all day long and mostly takes even the more aggressive sibling love in stride. He loves daddy and he loves mama and we enjoy seeing his toothy smile light up whenever we come into the room.

He surprised us on his birthday with a new trick and started crawling up the stairs. We started following behind him and realized he could go the entire way up by himself! So that’s another first/last…and now we have to figure out a gate situation one final time.

My sweet little Ollie, I am so so thankful you are in our family. We love you so much and are so grateful for this year of your life!

Whew! Now I’m ready to transition back into project mode . . . and no one is allowed to have any more milestones for at least a month so my mama heart can recover. 😉