Simon is in Kindergarten.

Simon kind of cracks me up. Going to his first day of all day school was honestly no. big. deal. to him in the morning. He was completely whatever about it and didn't have a care in the world. His mother, on the other hand, was fighting back tears all morning and making that first lunch felt like entirely too much. I was on the brink all morning and then the damn bus tipped me over the edge (not unlike his first day of 4K). It was really no big deal, he just wound up being on a different bus from the neighbor boy but in that moment it was the straw. 

The poor neighbor boy's dad had to see me cry about it. Not my finest moment.

{No clue what he is doing in half these pictures...just being a goof!}

The rest of the morning I felt like crying and I couldn't even tell you exactly why. Sentimentality? Anxiety? Sadness? Happiness (haha)? Maybe a mixture, I don't know. It was unexpected, this I know. My friend Julie whose daughter had her first day of 5K as well yesterday met me out at Target and that helped for sure. 

By nap time, my only concern was that my dear daughter was boycotting a nap for the third day in a row. I'm hoping today doesn't make four because the chick is CRAZY come dinner time when she doesn't nap. Like total bat shit. Not crying, just all over the place and literally walking into walls over and over.

Anyway, back to Simon's first day. After he got home he wanted to play with the aforementioned neighbor boy and I said I wanted him to come home first to decompress and have a snack. This didn't go over well. He wouldn't tell me anything about school and was just scowling and talking sassy to me. You may have seen this on FB, but I'm repeating it here...I sent him a note in his lunch that read "I hope you're having a fun day" and I asked him if he got it and what it said...Simon replied angrily, "yes I got it! It said I hope you're having a LAME DAY!" and he stormed off.

Okay then, I guess you're still mad at me for not letting you play? Ha. Eventually he was able to talk calmly to me and told me about a penny system they have for good behavior and that one kid lost his penny that first day (not him). He didn't have a lot more to add, but I'm sure more information will trickle in each day. 

{Finding a cicada shell....and getting ready to throw it at me. Look at that naughty face!}

So that's it. My boy is a full time student. We will see how much he's grown by this window at the end of the year! (Thank you Macey's teacher for the idea!)

---

Love you, kid. 

Top 10 for a boy and a girl

I was just sitting here thinking about all the things I love about my children. I mean, they're kids, so they are going to drive me batty plenty but, they're kids, so they're going to be uber lovable all the same. Now seems like as good a time as any to mention the top 10 things I love about each of those little people I have the privilege of calling my own.

The boy:

1. The way he plays pretend allllll the time. He is constantly in his own little world doing who knows what and I love every second of it. 
2. The way it kind of looks like he has a widow's peak because he has two white blonde patches where his receding hairline will presumably be some day. 
3. That he needs about 90 seconds to be put to bed at night.
4. That he is so confident he can say with zero jealousy that his sister is "the funniest."
5. That he runs outside to greet the people he loves because waiting for them to get to the door is just too hard.
6. That he is always thinking two steps ahead in order to get what he wants.
7. That he will play with his sister when I need her to be distracted, that he watches out for choking hazards for her, that he tells me when she has something she shouldn't, that he is her protector (and antagonizer, but that is for a different post). 
8. That he regularly says "guess what?" and "um, um, um, um" and "did you know that?" and "I'm really good at (fill in the blank)" and "I'm having a rough day" and "okay mumma." I'm sure there are many more things he says that are just so Simon, but I'm drawing a blank now.
9. That he will give me the biggest, full on body hug any and every time I ask.
10. His laugh, his voice, his greenish eyes, his perfect teeth, his sense of humor, his confidence, his everything.

The girl:

1. The way she runs around and laughs and everything and nothing all day.
2. That she still runs as though she has no control and looks like she will fall any second, but usually stays upright.
3. That her smile is so big and bright and shows off all her pearly whites (even the molars, it's kind of crazy huge).
4. That she has more hair than any other kid I've ever seen at her age...and even lots of adults.
5. That she says "thank you" when she hands you something. 
6. The way she says the words Berta, shoes, whoa, swing, Cecilia, cheese and hello. I don't know why they stand out to me but I love the way they come out.
7. That she likes to be in her stroller 90% of the time it's required of her.
8. That she will pull Bryan into the living room and start dancing so that he puts music on for her, so that she can really start dancing.
9. That since she could smile she's been particular about who gets to see it. If she doesn't see you regularly, chances are you're not going to see that beautiful grin of hers....you're likely going to see a cold stare straight in the eyes (which is why I understand when people call her "serious" even though I would never, ever in a million years describe her that way). 
10. That she too goes to bed in 90 seconds, her deep brown skin and even darker eyes, they way you know she loves her brother and will say "bradah" if you tell her to say Simon, that she gets wild and loopy rather than crabby when she's tired, her laugh that I could never explain in words but could surely pick out of a line up, her everything too.

Camping Trip (From Hell)

Ok so when the sun was up, it wasn't hell. It was actually pretty fun. We took the kids up to Door County to go camping on Sunday night and planned to stay through Tuesday. Simon was in heaven finding dead snakes, "deadly" caterpillars, playing with sticks, swimming, kayaking, biking, roasting marshmallows and cheese curds, eating junk food, having fun with Grandma and Grandpa and generally just doing what you do when you camp.

Cecilia was being an 18 month old at a campsite, falling on everything, running into the road, finding herself in the stroller a lot, etc. She had fun, though, and behaved better than expected actually. Like I said, when the sun was up it was pretty fun - with both of them.

Then the sun went down.

Now Cecilia has always been an excellent sleeper so I probably shouldn't complain when we have a rough night, but this was beyond a rough night. So rough that we refused to endure another one and went home early.

For whatever reason the night before we left she talked to herself until 10pm. Weird for her, but not that big of a deal except that it meant she'd be a bit sleep deprived the next day. So 7:30pm rolls around the following evening and she's ready for bed so I put her in the pack and play in the tent and let her cry it out for awhile. Eventually she calmed down and then started calmly yelling out the side window for everyone..."MAMA?! DADDY?! BAPA?! UM UM UM UM BAPA?!" (She's developed the "um" stutter already thanks to Simon.)

By this point it was about 8:15 so we decided to try going for a drive with her to see if that would shut her up. It took her a solid 30 minutes to close her eyes so we drove another 30 to make sure she was good and asleep before taking her out. She hears the zipper to the tent and she's up. She could not stop moving. She was rolling around, kicking us, sticking her diaper in our faces, flapping her legs around, etc. She could NOT. STOP. MOVING. Just couldn't. And every time we'd try putting her in her pack and play again she would cry, which we didn't want to let her do for too long since we were in a campground. At one point she starts going through all the ways to say Daddy while climbing all over him, "Dada! Dadeee! Da! Dadeee!" I believe this is when my delirious laughing fit occurred.

I forgot to mention that it was STIFLING hot in the tent. Like suffocating, can't breathe kind of hot. We had all the windows open but the cross breeze was missing us somehow. Plus, it was too small for 2 adults, 2 kids and a pack and play. It all just added to the misery.

Then around midnight Bryan took her back in the car again to see if it would work a second time. After all, it is midnight and she HAS to be exhausted, right?!?!! This can't go on forever, RIGHT?!?! So he took her out and again she stayed awake for almost a half hour before giving in. And again, when she heard the zipper she woke back up. After another hour of much of the same as before, we tried the pack and play (AGAIN) and after who knows how long of walking around it she finally collapsed. I think this was around 2am or so. I don't even remember how she wound up back by us by morning come to think of it. I think she started crying again at some point so we took her out.

And here she is finally snoozing away in the morning...

So that was fun. I know that was quite a detailed account, but it was quite a night. One that I'm not probably explaining that well, but I tried. Ha. I should mention that Simon was awesome throughout all of this. He fell asleep and stayed asleep through all the nonsense. Phew.

I forgot my camera sadly, so I have very few pictures from our little adventure, but I did whip out my iPhone when the kayaking adventure commenced!

They had a ton of fun and I'm glad they got to do it! All around it was a fun little trip, but not one that I want to repeat anytime soon. I have no idea how we will approach the sleep situation when we go again! What can I say, the girl loves her crib. It's 8:45am and she is still sound asleep. Thank God :)

Ten is the magic number?!

Things have been a little crazy for me lately, and the next couple of weeks are going to be my craziest yet. When I launched Theresa Hermus Photography back in early June I thought I'd be lucky to get a few sessions a month, with a goal of booking 21 sessions by the end of the year. I didn't expect to have more than double that less than three months later, including some into 2014. Yowza.

It's all a little overwhelming and feels a little too good to be true. In case you're wondering, this is my TENTH job since graduating from college in 2003. I've been like a little lost puppy trying to find my way for the past decade. I didn't leave college with a clear direction and set up a career for myself; it just didn't work out that way. I kept floating from thing to thing until something better came along. Finally it seems like I found a "thing" that I want to stick with and hopefully people will keep wanting to hire me so I can keep at it.

Thank you so much to everyone who has been sooooo supportive and encouraging; your kind words about my work, your "marketing" for me and even your likes on facebook mean the world to me....it all makes me feel so incredibly lucky to have you in my corner!! :)

Off to work! :)

Ups and Downs

Lately Simon and I have been having a lot of ups and downs. He can be so sweet, hilarious, creative and awesome so much of the time. The rest of the time? He's whining, complaining, crying, bothering his sister, bothering me, talking back, throwing toys, lying, manipulating and generally making my hair turn grey.

I go back and forth between feeling sentimental about school starting and feeling excited. Today I'm excited. This kid is BORED out of his mind. We do things, go places, visit people, play outside, play with friends, do art projects, etc. but the second we aren't doing one the aforementioned activities he is looking for trouble. To be fair, he does still play well on his own and get absorbed into his imaginary world but it takes longer for him to get to that place. Once he's there, we're good, but it doesn't start up as easily as it once did. And while we're waiting, it's just trouble.

Funny, a month ago Cecilia was giving me a run for my money and one day it switched. Just like that. She became normal (for an 18 month old), and the boy lost his damn mind. Thankfully, whenever we have phases like this he always finds his way back to normalcy eventually. I'm sure that will be Cecilia's cue to crank things up a notch :)

Here are some of our brighter moments over the past few days....

He was reading to Cecilia - how cute is this?

He actually helped me clean his room with little complaint, even getting under the bed thoroughly:

We were babysitting for some friends and they set up a farmer's market (I bought strawberries from myself). After it was all set, he went to the end of the driveway and started yelling "FOOD FOR SALE!" at the top of his lungs and was mad nobody was coming. He was hellbent on it being a REAL store and not pretend and was very adamant that he got paid with real money. The whole thing was just pretty cute.

And finally a little video of him...this is not how he normally is, but this is Simon trying to be funny. He laughed heartily at himself when looking back at his several times:

Like I said, we've had ups and downs :)

State Fair 2013

What's a summer without State Fair?

I don't know, but I do know that this year was not all that fun if I'm being completely honest. Only because it was so much more crowded than it normally is that we just didn't get to see/do as much as we normally would. I don't know what the crowds were all about, but they were insane. We didn't go through animal buildings, didn't see pig races and didn't get a cream puff. We did, however, go on the big slide, spend a lot of money on food and watch a monkey show.

Simon and his cousins were sitting right up front at the start of the monkey show and the SECOND Simon saw that baboon emerge he was on his feet and running to the back.

After a few seconds of realizing he wasn't going to be attacked, he slowly inched his way closer and loved every second of the show (frankly, so did I).

I couldn't get a good angle because of damn crowds but you can see his laughter in his neck :)

Here is Auntie Allison's "this is how I feel about going to State Fair with children" look :)

This is my "a little eyeliner and mascara go a long way so I should really take 30 seconds to do this every day" look:

So that's State Fair 2013. I might request a report from the State Fair people to find the least busy time and day next year :)

18 Month Pics

To see Cecilia's 18 month pics (and a bunch her with Simon), go to http://thermusphotography.blogspot.com/2013/08/cecilia-18-months-and-big-brother-simon.html

I love these kids :)