Milestones

Milestones

...the ones we don't want...
...the ones that surprise us...
...and the ones we get to celebrate!

One recent milestone none of us want is Braces!!!  Apparently in the olden days (otherwise known as my childhood) the dental professionals waited until all your adult teeth were in to put on braces.  Of course, back then, they came with torture devices, otherwise known as headgear and rubber mouth pieces among other joys!!  Yuck!  Don't get me started!!
Well today's dental professionals are now of the mind that earlier is better.  Preparing for space issues and where teeth will **eventually** end up, is apparently better than dealing with the adult teeth AFTER they are in place.  Who knew??
Jocelyn's top 6 front teeth have decided to compete for space and timing (which is why she had two baby teeth removed in October) and we have already had the "braces" conversation with her dentist and 2 orthodontists.  The first orthodontist was ready to go!  Let's put in expanders and braces in the top front teeth, then this.. then that.. then the other will happen.  WooHoo!!  Let's go!!

WWHHHHHOOOOAAAA!!!  Slow down!!!  So...we got a second opinion. 

The 2nd ortho is happy to wait and see for a while longer.  His opinion is, generally Mother Nature knows what she's doing.  Jocelyn may need the next two teeth pulled to make sure everything falls into place correctly.  And there's no guarantee that the expanders / braces path, won't ultimately be necessary, but let's take a breather for another few months.  We like his method better!  Stay tuned!

The other milestone I don't want it the girl issues that come with growing up - arguments with friends, bullying, and social pressures that all kids go through, but that I so want to protect her from.  And then there's the "joys" of growing up - periods, bras, finding appropriate clothing in a world that wants to sexualize our young girls.  Ugh.

And then there are those milestones that surprised me (and maybe one I'm not ready for!)...

At Jocelyn's physical appointment with her pediatrician we found out that at 10 years old, Jocelyn has FINALLY reached the 33rd percentile for height!!  :)  In 10 years, she's never made it out of the 20's.  Maybe she's going to copy me and head for the 5th grade growth spurt!!

That milestone I'm not ready for?  This coming weekend, Jocelyn's Girl Scout troop is doing the Mall "Sleep" In.  "Sleep" is in quotes because that's a complete misnomer.  There will not be any sleeping Saturday night!!  The girls go from activity to activity all night long.  There will be 1000+ girls and 350+ adults taking over the mall.  And the part that's hardest for me?  I will not be following her around all night.  She will have a buddy, and I can tell her where to find me for most of the night, but I won't have any way to reach her and she and her buddy will be roaming the HUGE mall without me...  ALL NIGHT!!  I can't remember a time when I didn't know EXACTLY where she was at any moment.  Needless to say, I'm a little freaked out! 
We already took her on a tour of the mall, and her buddy is much more familiar with the mall, so I think she's going to handle it much better than me, but that's why I say it's the milestone I'M not ready for!!


And of course I get to celebrate the happy milestones!
Like the 10th year of my baby's life!

I get to celebrate her fabulous report card of all A's and B's.

I celebrate the opportunities she gets to show the world how amazing she is.  For example, recently she was chosen to have her picture with her reading teacher on the front and back pages of a training guide for teachers!  Every teacher in our county got to see her shining face!  She was so excited!!

Jocelyn and Mrs. Lee

And of course, every day, I celebrate the amazing kid she is!! 

No matter what I do, there will be milestones to come.  I can't avoid them, I may not like them, but they will come.  I just have to remember that being Jocelyn's Mom every day, is the best part!

Happy Birthday to My Amazing Girl!

I don't know how we got from this...

To this...

...so fast!!  

How do I describe this amazing kid in just words?  Jocelyn is sweet, kind, smart, sensitive, loving, and funny.  She loves Minecraft and Roblox, animals of all kinds, and she hates bugs!  Her favorite subject is art and she loves to draw and color.  She has an analytical brain like her Daddy, and a sentimental streak like her Mommy.  Her best friend is Kate Deiss, and she's read almost all the Magic Tree House books.

For her 10th birthday, she wanted a dog adoption party.  Her friends Drew, Ryan, Parker, Ayaka, Lily, Kate, and Auntie of course, helped her celebrate.  

Today she has a field trip at school to the Walter's Art Museum.  Unfortunately I wasn't chosen to chaperone.  But after the field trip, Daddy and I will pick her up from school, take her to her favorite restaurant, Red Robin, for her birthday lunch, and then maybe a little shopping with her birthday money.  

And at 5:26pm, I will remember where we all were 10 years ago, when my miracle baby came into this world and changed my life forever.  

Happy Birthday Sweet Girl.  I love you more than words can say.

It's Only Been 3 Months!!

Sometimes I just can't make time to update this thing.  I realized it's been since September, and really... how far behind can I be in only 3 months??  Plenty, apparently!!

Since September, Jocelyn has been on numerous Girl Scout outings and events....

Geocaching.

Learning about the life of a girl in the Patapsco Female Institute boarding school in the 1800's.

Fall Camping (right up to Smores and
then we went home to our comfy beds, of course)

Selling GS cookies, including unloading the truck. 

Scouting Day at our favorite horse farm, with her favorite horse, Officer Barney again!

This years Investiture.  Of course no one is surprised that I am her Junior GS Leader, right?

And we can't forget, a trip to see ICE! at the Gaylord Hotel.

And then of course, there was Halloween with our friends, and the Festival of Trees with a visit to see Santa.

In between all that, I worked in a trip to Michigan to see my stepmom friends in October.  So yeah, not much going on around here!!  Maybe there will be something to share in January?  

September 2017

School is off to a good start so far.  The 4th week begins tomorrow and we have been keeping pretty busy already.

Last weekend, on Friday night, the Girl Scouts went to scouting night at Clark's Elioak Farm.  We love that place and will always take any opportunity to visit there.  It was a fun night for all the girls.  The Farm has a new train, but it wasn't running that night, so I think we'll be making one more trip before the end of the season to ride the new train, and take a hayride and pick our pumpkins.

On Saturday of last weekend, we went to another one of our favorite places, the Days End Farm Horse Rescue.  It was their Fall Festival and this is one of our favorite events.  The work they do at the farm is amazing and we are happy to support them.  They offer a wrist band for rides and games, so if you buy the wrist band, you can do as many as you want.  Jocelyn did no less than 6 horse rides, and played the games until she had earned enough tickets to get the prize she wanted!!

By far, her favorite ride was on Officer Barney.  He is a beautiful HUGE horse that is a retired Baltimore Police horse.  He lives the life of spoiled luxury at the farm.  This is not the first time we've met him.  Last year Jocelyn got to brush him during Scouting day.  He loved all the attention!!  But at the Fall Festival, she got to ride him.  How do you think she was feeling about that??

Over the last few years, we have been following the story of Quest and Rio, two horses brought onto the farm after they were discovered severely abused and neglected.  No one had taken care of their hooves in years.  I had no idea that they grow like finger nails and have to be trimmed and cared for regularly.   Both the horses had hooves so long they could barely move.  They weighed about 30 pounds a piece.

Rio had been adopted about a year and a half ago, but on the day of the Fall Festival, Quest's adoption was announced and he was presented to his new owner.  It was so heartwarming to see how far he has come since he was rescued - and since the first time we saw him on the farm.  There wasn't a dry eye in the bleachers.  Including mine...

Our fall will include many other fun events. We already have planned lots of Girl Scout activities, including another visit to the Horse Rescue Farm for Scouting Day.  So stay tuned!

First Day of School - 4th Grade

On September 5, 2017, Jocelyn headed back on the bus for her first day of 4th grade.  I can't believe how time flies!  We had the longest summer ever, 11 weeks!  And it still seemed to go by in a blink!

Jocelyn has two primary teachers this year.  Ms. Rachel Dorchak is her Homeroom, Math and Science teacher, and Ms. Helen Lee is her Language Arts and Social Studies teacher.  It's a bit of a change for her in the way her daily schedule is laid out, but she seems to be adjusting to it pretty well.  

So far, they haven't had any homework, so it's been a more relaxed transition in the evenings, but the homework starts tomorrow, so we'll see how that goes.  I've been assured it's not supposed to be as painful as in past years.  We shall see.

My beautiful girl is off into the big world again.  I manage to fill my days just fine with things to do around the house, and with volunteering at school and as Girl Scout Junior Leader this year.  It's hard to believe I have a 4th grader, but as always, I'm so proud of her!

Summer 2017

Another summer has come and gone, and once again, I find myself missing my girl so much when she gets on that bus every day.

We had a great summer as usual.  We spent a few days in Butler, PA with Pat's family.  And we went to the Pittsburgh Zoo for the day.

We went swimming many times with these kiddos.

 Jocelyn and Colin had a blast at a Pottery and Art Camp.

Jocelyn had her first official sleepover with her best buddy Kate.  I think we're still trying to recover from the sleep deprivation!

We watched the solar eclipse.  It was about 80% for us!

We went back to Patapsco State Park with friends -  Ayaka, Lily, and Colin.  And my friends - Ann, Kinu and Nicki.  It was like a MOMS Club reunion!

We made our traditional trip for pedicures!

And for the first time in years, we decided to bring Jocelyn and brave Kids Weekend at the the MD Renaissance Festival.  We had a blast!

We made a visit to the MD State Fair.  Jocelyn's new favorite ride is the bumper cars.  She's vicious!

We also got back into our Passport Howard County History Tour.  They updated it a bit this year to include a number of places we had never been too, like the original HoCo Jailhouse, the Lisbon Hotel, Whipps Cemetery, and the Benjamin Banneker House and Farm.  Jocelyn wanted to go to every location this year.  We have two left!

School started later this year.  They didn't go back until September 5th.  Once again I've said goodbye to my sidekick and hope she has a great year in 4th grade.  I'm already busy with my long list of things I want to get done, and I'm hoping that we ALL have a good year this year.