Save it for Sunday | 9.2.18

The Highlights

It's the most wonderful time of year...college football is back! The first Michigan State game of the season makes me feel all kinds of homesick for the banks of the Red Cedar. Usually I feel like I am out on an island cheering by myself while my whole family is caught up in the excitement of college game day on campus. Not this year! Our friends out here are fellow Michiganders and huge State fans! Watching the game together and sharing favorite tailgate recipes made me feel just a little closer to my East Lansing home. At our house, Brad tosses Eloise in the air for every MSU point scored. It is a touchdown celebration tradition that dates back to my dad tossing me and my sister in the air when we were her age. Mr. Eric even graciously filled in for Dadford to complete Eloise's touchdown tosses. It was such fun to plan our Sparty Party as sweet Addi so perfectly named it, and you better believe there are many more to come as our Spartans play on. Go Green!

As usual, Mr. Cheeks is just here for the treats

On Thursday we had meet the teacher day at Eloise's preschool. She has been bubbling with excitement about meeting them ever since we enrolled her. She woke up that day like it was Christmas morning and asked to have her hair "fancy" (blown dry). It was surreal to see her name amongst her future classmates neatly written on a cut out of a s'more on the door to her woodlands themed classroom. Her teachers were delightful. They both noted in the short time they sat to play and get to know her one-on-one before the first day of school that she is not shy and she is a fast, eager learner. Bingo! That's our Eloise. I feel so reassured that we chose the best place for our girl and look forward to watching her grow. Say some prayers for my heart on Tuesday morning! Even though I know she is so ready and excited, I can't help but be reminded that those precious, brief first years of having her home with me 100% of the time are over. My mom promises me again and again that each next phase is just as good as or better than the last, but I still just cannot believe how fast the time flies by. I know as soon as she has waved goodbye and is out of sight I'll be counting down the minutes to hear all about her day.

The Small Moments

I hate every minute of time the Army separates our family, but in an effort to always find the silver lining, I do love the appreciation for each other that the time apart always seems to rebuild. It is the little things your spouse does for you that are taken for granted until he or she isn't there to do them. I always read before I fall asleep. Most of the time "read" means open my Kindle and get through a paragraph or two pages if I am extra energized before I pass out. Every morning my glasses are neatly folded and set on Brad's night stand. This week I woke up a few mornings with my glasses still on my face. A sad reminder of my loneliness, or a happy reminder that many of my days are spent with a man who looks out for me in both the big ways and the tiny every day ones. Have I already written about this? For some reason I feel like I have. Someone please tell me if I am losing my mind. You guys are probably like sheesh she really loves the way he takes her glasses off after she falls asleep. Ha! Hurry home, love.

Just because the number of pictures I take of my fur babies has drastically reduced since 2015, that doesn't mean the number of times I am grateful for their unrelenting love is any less. This week in particular I found myself in awe of them and thankful for their company. Nothing major, just a sunny afternoon on the patio with Ruby and folding laundry on my bedroom floor with Oliver and Lola. I will never stop loving the way cats seek out a tiny, single ray of sunshine on the floor. Now if only Ruby would quit barking every time a leaf blows by the house and the cats would quit peeing on the floor two feet away from their clean litter boxes. Hey, we have to take the good with the bad right? They're so worth it.

Every morning before I dive into another busy day I read my Guidepost devotional. My Grandma gets one for my mom, sister, and me every year for Christmas. This week Eloise asked what I was doing, so I read that day's story out loud to her. Now every morning if she is up already she helps me make my bed and asks to lay with me while I read. Her quiet presence (because her presence is hardly ever quiet) is such a gift and the perfect way to start the day.

The Ways We Grew

New favorite Harvey words: jammies, Tigger, I got it, "meeka" (Mickey Mouse). He still uses "cooze me" (excuse me) at both the right and wrong times. The other day I overheard this conversation in the tub as they were creating Santa Claus beards with bath bubbles:

"Harvey, what do you say?" -E
"Cooze me." -H
"No, you say ho ho ho!" -E

In his defense, he did use it correctly the other day after he burped at the table. My friend was over for dinner and his tiny man manners just about blew her away. I am glad someone else witnessed it! It is definitely my favorite thing he says right now. My current favorite thing he does is bend his knees and spring with all his might, trying to get off the ground but never quite making it. Maybe next week jumping will be in the ways we grew category. In the meantime, watching his delight as he thinks he is getting air is my favorite thing in the world. Now accepting suggestions for how to purchase a 28 pound bag of dog food you came to the store for when you refuse to put down 25 pounds of sleepy, snuggling Harvey.

In Eloise land, we struggled with some big emotions this week stemming from movies. I am learning that the magic of the movies can be both good and bad at her age. She takes everything very much to heart and dwells on it for a long time after the show ends. She burst into a full on sob on the way home from dance on Wednesday. She told me after she caught her breath it was because she was remembering that the greatest showman's house caught on fire with him in it and the girls (his daughters) were feeling scared. Then again later in the week she had a full melt down when Bing Bong dies/disappears into the memory dump in Inside Out. In all fairness, that part makes me ugly cry every time I watch it too. We talked about movies being pretend, and if anything I guess I am thankful that her emotional response is appropriate. When we were probably pre-teens my parents let us watch The Green Mile with them. My mom literally had to drag me out of my room and from my puddle of tears after I ran away in horror to show me the mouse that was squished came back to life. Eloise is totally my kid.

The Eloise-isms

Getting ready for quiet time: "Will this be a short nap? Like two weeks?"

"What is that?" -E, pointing to the baby monitor mounted on her wall
"I don't know. Looks like a space ship." -Me
"Silly goose. I know what that is. It's a mom-itor." -E
"What does it do?" -Me
"When I need to talk to my mom but you're not here, I just shout through the mom-itor." -E

Happy September

Bring on the pumpkins! 

Bring on the sweaters! 

Bring on the crunchy leaves!