The Growing Caldwell Family

August 16th was the first day of school and Charlie was ready! He was very pleased with his new "glow up" Star Wars shoes! My buddy who usually doesn't want his picture taken was all smiles! He may not look it, but he was excited to have a picture with his new Minions lunch box in front of his cubby.  After the picture he told me goodbye and away he went excited to play with his favorite magne-tiles again! My baby is growing up!

After much anticipation, August 16th, the first day of school, finally came! Sarah Graves was so excited to have Ms. Muller as her teacher. When she got the postcard in the mail welcoming her, she exclaimed, "that's the teacher that I wanted!" She was so excited and posed so cute with her sign! She unpacked her backpack and hung it up like an old pro. I just love how cute her backpack turned out thanks to Lovie! Her first day went great and she seems quite happy!

Charlie had a meet and greet in his class the day before school started. All summer he said he wanted to go back to Froggie school, but when the day came, he seemed on board with at least meeting his new teacher. When we arrived, we immediately saw Miles who was in Char's class last year and the only boy who ended up in his class this year. They were excited to see each other and all appeared to be going great. The door closest to us was locked, so we went around to a side door and in his excitement to get there, Char tripped and fell on both knees.  They were not hurt too bad as in there was not much blood, but he was thrown for a loop. I gave it a minute and consoled him hoping it would get better. I carried him to his classroom and walked around pointing things out, but the wailing continued. We walked the hall and saw a few teachers from last year and the sobs went on. We went in the bathroom and perched on a step stool and the tears continued. A friend of Charlie's came...

Aaron and I took Sarah Graves to orientation for first grade! We started off in the chapel with a welcome from the administration and then moved to her classroom. She is on the same hall as her kindergarten classroom and so excited to see Ms. DeHart, her teacher from last year! SG and Daddy! She was very excited! Charlie and Sarah Graves have known each other since they were babies and this year they are in the same class! He is quite a character and was very excited to see her! Sarah Graves is "O fish ally" a first grader in Mrs. Muller and Ms. Parks' class! Here she is at her seat at the table where she sits with Callie and Ethan who were friends from last year a new friend named Luke.  She and Ethan were good buddies last year and very happy to see each other! Olivia is in her class this year and SG was very excited to see her since they had a great time at American Girl Doll camp this summer! We had nothing but smiles during orien...

Alexis is my dear friend from high school and I cherish the time we get to spend together. She lives in D.C. and is awesome about making time to come see me and the wild crew! She brought SG these awesome olympic swimmer and gymnast outfits for the girls to wear! I think she loves the AG store as much as Sissy! So much fun to see them pretending the girls are winning medals and performing routines in the Olympics.  We have been friends since we were 13 and have had some crazy fun times together (we're pretty tame now!) We brought Lex to the lake for the weekend she was here so we could hang out with Flip, Trish, and Jeanne' too. As it turns out, Trish, Flip, and Char all came down with a stomach bug and oddly it affected each one of them differently. Mom had it Friday night, Char had it Saturday, and Pops had it Friday night and into Sunday. Thankfully, Lex did not get sick! Lovie took SG for a water ski lesson at Lake Lanier and SG was anxious to try out ...

The week before school was spent getting caught up on appointments. I took SG to the eye doctor and for a physical. Dr. Lee is a little concerned that she is needing more correction for her vision than she did last year and she can't quite get 20/20. As someone who has never had 20/20 vision, I'm sure she still sees pretty well, but I want her to have the best vision possible. We are trying new glasses and will re-evaluate in 3 months.  She was nervous to go for her physical. She worried about getting a shot and I can understand that. She was great on blood pressure, pulse, height, and weight.  Sissy is growing just great! She is 48 inches tall (75th percentile) and weighs 47 pounds, 6 ounces (52nd percentile). The doctor did a finger stick to check her blood glucose levels and she also got a Hepatitis B shot. SG was a champ for both of those needle sticks. Her blood sugar levels came back a little high, so in a couple of weeks we will do a fasting blood sugar ...

The week before school we had some fun seeing friends. Charlie had a playdate with his buddy, Evan. They weren't into taking pictures. They had Batman videos to watch together! Charlie was so very excited to have Evan over and they were so cute looking at his Batman toys and showing Evan his room. So very cute! Sarah Graves had her friend Caroline over.  Charlie and I made cookie cake together and he graciously shared it with the girls.  Sissy and Caroline wanted to make sugar cookies! That was an adventure to do at night.  They worked hard and thoroughly enjoyed making those cookies!

 We have really enjoyed going to Hurricane Harbor, the waterpark in Six Flags.   We got there when the park first opened and had a chance to have run of the smaller waterslides that Charlie rides. Aaron and Sarah Graves went off to ride bigger slides and Charlie and I had a blast riding each of the 4 slides over and over again. It is a big structure with lots of ways to climb up and he loved taking the lead and guiding us there. I loved seeing him so happy and confident, just loving life. I wish I had pictures of the look on his face, but I was grateful to just be in the moment with him.  Sarah Graves had an even better time when her friend Caroline was able to meet us there! They were so excited to run around together and try out the different waterslides.   We took a break for lunch before heading out into the park to ride some rides, plus there was rain coming making the water activities shut down! A little more love from my ...