Her Last First is Her First Last

Do you remember this picture?

It was posted just nine short months ago.
It was her first day of school- Pre-K.
Four years old.

Well since then, I have shared many firsts first with you -

First day of karate
First day of soccer
First Ranger baseball game
First school field trip
First soccer goal
First school pictures
First belt test
First time being a flower girl
First karate demo
First karate tournament
First letter from Santa
First school party
First plane ride
First trip to Disney
First puppy
First time with the flu
First date night
First sparring trophy
First pedicure
First breaking trophy
First talent show
First kata trophy
First first place trophy
First article in the newspaper.

Whew! I'm tired reliving all that!

Well today was her first last day of school. Yesterday they had graduation and today was the final day. She was happy but sad at the same time. She is ready for a short break, but she was really sad to tell Ms. Torres good-bye. She is retiring this year, but even with that, Mattie May still wouldn't see her any more because she will be at a different school next year.
She will be at either Austin or Taylor, we are just waiting to see if her transfer was approved. This year was spent at a school with children all her age. Next year, there will be Kindergarten through fifth grade at which ever school she attends. She will also miss the class room. This child loves to learn. But we have plenty of things for her to learn this summer.
She will also be attending karate camp every day.
She will have so much fun.
They work on karate but they also do fun things like swim, go to the zoo, go to movies, and yes there may even be a trip to six flags in there!

So here is her first last day of school picture!

Where did those dogs ears go?!

God Bless!

January First

January was full of fun!

New Year's day Mattie May's first for the day was her first plane ride. Oh the fun! A few nerve's and a lot of excitement starting at 4:30 in the morning! We rode a shuttle from our hotel to DFW airport where we boarded the plane to Florida.

That was her second first for the day, going to Walt Disney World. Of course you can read about all that in my previous post starting with this one. I don't want to bore you any longer about that trip, but it has to be included in her first.

When we got back home, she got her first puppy. She had asked Santa for a puppy for Christmas and he delivered, sort of. Because of our trip, Santa didn't think it would be right to deliver a puppy only to have to find someone to care for it just a week later while we were gone to Florida. So he left her all she needed to care for a puppy and a letter in her stocking explaining that one of his elves in Abilene would be keeping it until we got home. And he delivered! We got Tramp on Sunday after our trip.

We ended January on a sad note. Mattie May attended her first visitation and funeral. My great aunt, Fonda Day, went on to her eternal life January 25. Mattie May did very good at both. You never know how children will react in situations like this. She even gave Granny a final good bye kiss and told her she would see her again some day. I just love that kid!

So on to February.

God Bless!

Back to the First Firsts

Whew - Holidays. trips, sickness... I think I've posted on all of that. If you think back to before all those things, you'll remember I said I had some more first firsts that I needed to get posted. Some of them are almost five months old, but I still want to get them down so I will remember them.

October 9, Mattie May had two first firsts.

She had her first professional hair style. We had a very special event later in the day and I just knew I wouldn't be able to make her hair look decent. Thank goodness my best friend is a hair stylist. Michelle curled and pinned and twisted and sprayed and got her hair looking great!

Isn't she precious? She looks sad in this picture but was actually very happy, she was just afraid to move. LOL! She didn't want to mess up her hair.

Look at those curls! I don't imagine she will ever have them like that again!

And the other first first? For the first time she was a flower girl in Lindsey and Matt's wedding! She had a good time and looked just adorable. Here is one of the pre-wedding pictures -

And the wedding - well just look...

She and Caleb look so cute! The wedding was absolutely beautiful. Lindsey and Diane planned a beautiful ceremony and God gave us great weather and some special guest - the monarch butterflies. They were flying every where. It was hard to keep your eyes off of them. It was a wonderful night.

More first first tomorrow,

God Bless!

A Few More First

Yes, I realize I have been MIA for a over a week. I don't know why, I guess I have just been busy. So I will be catching up on some of the first from the last 10 days (some of these things are probably TMI, but I do post to have record of memories of Mattie May, so please bear with me. Just skip over the parts that gross you out!)

Friday September 24, 2010 - First Blister Bug Bite

Yes I skipped over this little detail from my last post. I really didn't think it was that big of a deal. While getting dressed for bed, Katie noticed something on Mattie May's...um...rear that concerned her. To her it looked like a cigarette burn, to me a bite. I told her we would check on it the next morning. And we did. OH MY! It was a huge blister and I new instantly what it was. I have had one before. Yuk! We managed to get a band-aid on it (not really a place for a band-aid where it was!). After soccer, we checked it out again and it had burst. We tried hard to keep it clean, dry and covered, but it was just in a terrible place.

Tuesday September 28, 2010 - First School Field Trip

Mattie May's class took a field trip to May Farm. Oh yes, she has been to May Farm on more occasions than I can count, visited the animals (and Mrs. Brenda) at the fair and at church during SBA, so this was nothing new. What was new? She got to go without parents or grandparents and she rode on a school bus to get there! The first thing she did was find Mrs. Brenda and give her a gigantic hug and probably a kiss. Then she got in trouble for putting feed in the water trough after being told not too! Oops! Sorry Mrs. Brenda. She had a great time but no pictures. I really didn't trust her with my camera without any of us around!

Wednesday September 29, 2010 - STAPH and other gross things!!! (Queasy? You may want to skip this part!)

Yes! I know! Yuk!!! After school, karate, supper, then church, it was bath time which Mattie May normally loves! As soon as she sat down, she started crying and saying her bug bite hurt and she wouldn't lower her rear into the tub. We got her to lay down in the tub so we could look and the spot had gotten much bigger and looked like a burn that was healing. Frank told us to get her out and we headed to the walk in clinic. The PA took one look and gasped that it looked like staph. She took a culture, prescribed an ointment and antibiotic and told us they would let us know ASAP the results of the culture. OH!!! Mattie May did not like that ointment at all! We managed to get it on twice a day and on Monday they called us to let us know it was staph, but that they had put the ointment on the culture and it killed the infection. After visiting with Dr. Cooksey, he told us to continue what they had prescribed since it seemed to work in the lab. On Thursday, as I was getting home after picking Mattie May up at Karate, Katie was getting her out of her car seat and noticed her scratching her head. Yep! You got it! Lice! UGH!!!!! So after an extremely quick supper, Katie started the process of treating her head and I started the

process of cleaning beds, furniture, linens, anything that child had touched in the past week was either bleached or treated! (I know this is gross!!! But do some research on lice. They like CLEAN heads!!) Lesson Learned! Now that she is in public school and after talking to Michelle, we now have a product to treat her head with daily! Ask the pharmacy for it if you are interested! Let me tell you a few things you can count on, if your kids go to public school they have a good chance of getting lice and if you come to my house 1) it will always have a supply of treatment for hair and furniture 2) My house will always smell like bleach!

Saturday October 2, 2010 - First Belt Test

Mattie May had her first belt test. She was so excited. Not once did she ever get nervous. She did great! Even though she had a bit of trouble on the obstacle course (she had trouble jumping the bars with her feet together), we think she did great and now has her Little Dragon Yellow Belt. That is a first for our entire family!

Sunday October 3, 2010 - First Soccer Goal

Due to the rains the previous weekend, her team had a make-up game on Sunday. I'm not crazy about having things on Sunday because that is family day, but thankfully it was at 1:00, so it didn't interfere with church activities. And because it was on a Sunday, Poppa and Lorraine were able to be there. She actually acted like she was glad to be there playing. At the time, we were ahead 1-0. They kicked off and Mattie May took off with the ball. We couldn't believe what we were seeing. The only problem was she was headed the wrong direction!!! Yes that's right! The first time she scores, she does it for the other team! We were laughing so hard! But that was OK. She took off and never looked back. And to make it even better, with the next kick off, their team took the ball and scored in our goal so that made it alright!

Thursday October 7, 2010 - First School Pictures

We had no problems getting her out of bed today! She already had decided what she was going to wear - her red "rock star" outfit we had bought before school started and high top sneakers! To many things to describe so I will post a picture once we get them back!

WOW! Are you as tired as I am?! That was a lot for 7 days! This weekend she has another first to look forward to and hopefully, I will get that posted before the news is a week old! I hope you have a blessed weekend. I am going to get a nap before the weekend starts!

Her First First Day of School

Oh, wow! I can't believe it! My sweet little grandbaby started school yesterday! Pre-K. She is not old enough to go to Kindergarten but she did qualify for Pre-K. We were so excited! She LOVES all her teachers/caregivers at day care, but she was ready for the classroom. Unlike her momma, I believe this child will love school. So through the tears and tissue, we made it through!

At first, she didn't want to get out of bed, but when we reminded her what day it was,

she was up and smiling, ready to go!

She usually just has a "snack" at home and eats breakfast at daycare.
No more of that! Breakfast before school starts now!

After breakfast, she got dressed, we fixed her hair (in her signature dog ears no less!), brushed teeth and ready to start the day.

I love the "Elvis" smile in this one!

Buckled in the car. Her last ride as a preschooler.

Poor Grumpy was always at work when her mommy started school, but he got to enjoy his Mattiebugs first day.

The obligatory pose at the door step picture!

"Lolo! Wait! I have to bow."

Mommy filling out last minute paperwork, but Mattie May just can't wait to get started.

Officially a school girl!

Showing her teacher and teachers aide her "flashy" backpack.
(it really does have lights that flash in it!)

Getting started. Writing her name on the top of the page.

Her Teachers
Mrs. Torres and Ms Sarah (in green).
She looks happy to me!

You say to me "But you mentioned tears and tissue. We don't see either!"
I never said Mattie May shed a single tear!
Mom on the other hand had a hard time.
She didn't want any proof, but I tried!

I know every one's first days (M & K) weren't quite what they were hoping for, but I know things will get better. Here's to this school year being the best ever!