These past two weeks can forever be known as a season of change in House Holt. While I haven't necessarily done a great job keeping up with the day-to-day developments with two kids running around, I do think it's extremely important to keep track of all the important events for posterity. That and the fact that future Jesse, future Bethany, future Ellie, and future Ethan will all surely appreciate being able to track their lives in some aspect.
The biggest change started last Monday with Ellie starting K2K or "Kickoff 2 Kindergarten" at Fox Hill Elementary. Basically what that means is that Ellie has spent six hours a day at her new elementary school doing various activities. She not only has time in a classroom with an actual kindergarten teacher, but she also spends time in PE class, eats her lunch in the cafeteria, and has recess much as she will in Kindergarten.
While she's ultimately enjoyed it, it was certainly difficult to get her to buy in at first. First of all, she definitely is one that sometimes gets intimidated by change (Don't we all?). Leading up to the first day, Ellie actually asked on multiple occasions why she couldn't just go to her old school (meaning Little Lambs Preschool). She was also worried about not knowing anyone there. Lucky for her, there are two kids from our neighborhood that are actually in her K2K class which is helping her adjust.
Ellie wasn't the only one who had emotions about K2K though. While I wasn't expecting to be affected by her starting K2K, I found myself a little shaken as I dropped her off in the school line for the first time. Even though it's only two week, it's just that reminder that things will soon be changing for good which is requiring some adjustment for all of us.
Of course, there is another massive change afoot in our home that sees us saying goodbye to a cherished piece of furniture. Recently, Ethan has begun experiencing difficulties sleeping in his crib. While it is converted into the toddler bed setup, Ethan is still struggling. For one thing, he's constantly turning sideways and shoving his feet through the bars. For another, it's easy to see that he's quickly getting too big for it as it's not uncommon for him to be hitting both the head and foot of the bed within the span of a few minutes.
With us needing to get Ethan a bed, we decided to go ahead and switch things up for Ellie too by investing in a set of bunk beds. While we had long been discussing buying some bunk beds this summer, it feels like the time came much more quickly than we envisioned. Regardless, we knew we couldn't put it off and finally ordered the beds last Monday and assembled it (with the help of my college friends, Nathan and Brian) on Saturday.
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| The aforementioned Brian a.k.a. Teddy |
While the first night found Ethan moving back into his crib (mostly due to the fact that he was still sleeping on his crib mattress), night two was much more successful. First of all, Ethan had an actual mattress that fit the bed he was sleeping in. Actually, that's probably the primary reason right there.
When Monday rolled around, I had one mission for the day: deconstructing the crib. While it's not a hard job, it certainly was difficult in its own way. First of all, I was taking the thing apart with Ethan for help. While I love my son, anyone knows that it can be difficult to do anything with a two-year-old helping or in Ethan's case, protesting its removal by frequently laying down on the frame as I took it apart. Secondly, it was just weird and kind of hard emotionally to know I was taking apart our crib for the final time.
Bethany and I are comfortable with the size of our family and really have no desire to expand. However, it's weird knowing that you are saying goodbye to a stage of life. In this case, we know that our season of having babies in the house is over. As I reflected back upon the past five years and thought about all of the hours laying on the floor beside that crib, the never-ending renditions of "The Show", "3 Rounds and a Sound", and "Oceans", and the nightly prayers over our children, it definitely was a mixed bag of emotions. Sadness to say goodbye to that season of life but joy for the exciting adventures ahead.
Lucky for me, having that season end doesn't mean that everything changes. For example, look no further than the fact that I've put Ellie and Ethan to bed the past few nights by sitting on the floor next to their bed and singing, yes, you guessed it, "The Show", "3 Rounds and a Sound", and "Oceans".
Also, I feel like this merits mentioning. While our crib is in good shape and we could definitely sell it, the idea of doing so is hard for us. I think it's due in part of all of the time we spent praying over our kids as they laid inside those bars. I think what we want to do instead is hopefully bless a Godly family with it so that they can share the same experiences praying over their kids in that crib just as we did for the past five years. Therefore, if anyone has a lead, definitely let us know. Just act fast though because it's not going to sit in our basement for years to come. LOL. #DaddyWrite
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