First Day of Kindergarten

Yesterday was Benjamin's first day of Kindergarten. He seemed a little nervous (even though he wouldn't admit to it), but we could also tell he was really excited. It was a little nerve-wracking to mom and dad with it being his first day of school in a new school in a new town. But he did GREAT! Of course, he found some dinosaurs in his classroom right away. His teacher is really nice and she is, also, a science-lover. So I think he is going to have a GREAT year.

I, of course, did not want to leave him. One of the ladies from our church came over and watched Madilyn and Jacob so both Lou and I could take Benjamin without any other distractions. If Lou hadn't been there with me, I probably would have still been there when he got out at 3:15. I really wasn't expecting to cry so much. I mean, I knew I would tear up...but, man, once we started to leave the tears just kept on coming. I'm hoping the pregnancy hormones had something to do with it. Oh, who am I kidding, it's just hard letting your "baby" go sometimes. Dropping him off at college ought to be real "fun".

And Baby #4 is a.....

Well, despite my feeling that baby #4 was a girl, we are having a BOY!!! Holy Cow! I'm still trying to process it. I am stunned! So, this mama, who grew up with three sisters--no brothers, will have 3 boys and 1 girl. What the heck do I do with THREE boys? I'm already up to my eyeballs in dinosaurs, cars, pirates, trains, and soccer balls. This ought to be interesting. I know I'll get use to the idea of having three boys (I'll have to because, ready or not, #3 will be here in a little over 3 months)--but I think I'm just shocked because I REALLY thought it was a girl. Shows what I know.

Benjamin and Madilyn did get to come with us to the ultrasound. Benjamin, especially, thought it was really neat and seemed to enjoy getting to see all of the baby's body parts. When we saw the "boy part", Benjamin said, "It looks like a turtle." The doctor got a big kick out of it. I'm really glad they are old enough to experience this with us. Now if we could only think of a name...

End of Summer

Well, summer is coming to an end here in the Ellerbrook household. We only have two more trips planned out of town--one this coming weekend to Lubbock and the other one next weekend to Fort Worth. Then, I think we are home for a while (at least I hope). Madilyn's gymnastics class has already started. Fall soccer starts for Benjamin in the next couple of weeks. Our big boy starts Kindergarten in less than a week--therefore, I have been fighting crowds to finish up shopping for clothes, shoes, and school supplies.

While I am excited to get back into a routine, I am also dreading the fact that we can't sleep late anymore. Now when I say sleep "late", I mean 6:45 or 7:00. That's about as "late" as it gets around here before our alarm clock (we also call him "Jacob") goes off. But starting on Monday, we will have to get up around 5:45, at least Mommy will anyways. And while I am really sad that Benjamin is going to school, I know he is super excited about it and ready to be around more kids his age instead of little brother and sister all day.

So, with summer coming to a close around here, we are gearing up for a very busy fall--school, soccer, gymnastics, MOPS group, playdates, Lou being out of town for meetings, church stuff starting back up, oh, and preparing for a new baby. Man, I'm already tired and it hasn't even started yet. Is it too early to be anticipating next summer?