She got a name and furniture all in one day.

 Let me go ahead and get this out there- we picked a name. Elynn Rae. Pronounced like Elin (I just didn't love spelling it that way- enunciate the E. Not like Ellen.) Seriously people, there was a moment or two I thought for sure we would divorce before the kid got a name. Then on Friday I saw the name Elin, brought it before (the-always-difficult-in-the-naming-department) husband, and right there in the McDonald's drive through the decision was made. I'm so glad that we were in such a prestigious location when our baby got a name. Now, of course, Big Daddy said he would continue to call her Peanut because he couldn't pronounce it. Saturday I made her a few things. Ray is my daddy's first name and also my middle name, so there is where that came from. And now that that is finalized, I feel like I can rest.

The furniture came in Thursday and my parents were kind enough to swing by and pick it up since they were in the Birmingham area. Which, really, was an all around blessing because Adam had to work which was going to leave me driving PeePaw's F250 in Birmingham. I think we can all agree that it probably wouldn't have ended well. (And after my sister filled it up with gasoline as opposed to the required diesel, I'm not sure how much more F250 trauma my daddy can stand.)(I just almost typed, "yeah, but we all know they are like a rock" then I came back to my senses and remembered that is Chevrolet, not Ford. I worry myself sometimes.)

Uncle G came by to help with the required heavy lifting. 

Reese could not wait for me to get the mattress in so place so she could play. 

She said, "Ma-ie, make my picture. I sweepin' in baby sisors bed."

Y'all, I made the last weekend of my summer a productive one. I even sorted through all of Reese's baby clothes and got them in the closet.

Reese's rekindled her love for her Nap Nanny. It's going to be an uphill battle keeping her off the baby products.

And then Sunday night I got back stage passes to meet these 2 live in person. It was a duet that I only wish I would have recorded. She always throws her head back when she sings. 

Then there was this....

That's a picture of my almost 3 year old doing homework. Yes, homework. Why you ask? Well because she declared at daycare that she didn't want to color her color sheet, so she had to do it at home. After she got a spanking last week at my parents house I told my mother, "you have no idea." And she said, "Oh, yes I do. I raised her mother." Point taken, MeeMaw. I was telling one of my co-workers about it today, and she very politely told me I was overreacting to the whole situation: "She's 2. If she doesn't want to color, don't make her color." Then I felt bad because I gave her this big lecture this morning and how she would be punished if she couldn't mind. And she will be punished, but really? She was right. She's 2. She didn't want to color. End of story. It doesn't put her on any toddler criminal list which was how I was starting to feel.

As of yesterday I am back at it. Meaning working. And when I say back at it, I mean that loosely because the internet was down yesterday and the copy machines didn't work. Welcome back to the world of public education. But let me say- this is going to be a much better year for me. I don't think I ever went into it here on the blog, but last year was terrible. Every teacher knows you have good years and bad years. I had 4 straight good years, so I was due a bad one. Nothing particularly happened that made it bad, it was a combination of teaching something I didn't love and having all standard diploma classes that took a tole on me. This year I am back in Career Tech and teaching a Financial Literacy class, and nothing makes my heart go pitter patter like teaching kids the dangers of a credit card and living beyond their means. So for the 3rd year in a row I have changed classrooms, but I'm happy to say that this is where I hope to stay. Plus I'm taking November through the end of January off for maternity leave, so that helps my feelings a lot.

Last thing: when referring to her swimming suit Reese says "swimmin' poot" and when talking about her thumb she says "fung." I'll be sad to see the day when she learns how to properly pronounce all her words. On second thought, if she has an ounce of her Big Daddy's DNA, she may never learn how to correctly pronounce words.