Good things to know.

 I found this letter that a mom wrote to her son on Pinterest.  I changed it up a bit for my kids.  I think it's great.

Dear Tanner, Carter, & Hadley,

 Tomorrow is a big day. School tarts -- wow. 

Kids -- When I was in third grade, there was a little boy in my class named Adam. Adam looked a little different and he wore funny clothes and sometimes he even smelled a little bit. Adam didn't smile. He hung his head low and he never looked at anyone at all. Adam never did his homework. I don't think his parents reminded him like yours do. The other kids teased Adam a lot. Whenever they did, his head hung lower and lower and lower. I never teased him, but I never told the other kids to stop, either. And I never talked to Adam, not once. I never invited him to sit next to me at lunch, or to play with me at recess. Instead, he sat and played by himself. He must have been very lonely. 

I still think about Adam every day. I wonder if Adam remembers me? Probably not. I bet if I'd asked him to play, just once, he'd still remember me. 

 I think that God puts people in our lives as gifts to us. The children in your class this year, they are some of God's gifts to you. So please treat each one like a gift from God. Every single one.

 Kids, if you see a child being left out, or hurt, or teased, a part of your heart will hurt a little. Your Daddy and I want you to trust that heartache. Your whole life, we want you to notice and trust your heartache. That heartache is called compassion, and it is God's signal to you to do something. It is God saying, Tanner! Carter! Hadley! Wake up! One of my babies is hurting! Do something to help! Whenever you feel compassion -- be thrilled! It means God is speaking to you, and that is magic. It means He trusts you and needs you.

 Sometimes the magic of compassion will make you step into the middle of a bad situation right away. Compassion might lead you to tell a teaser to stop it and then ask the teased kid to play. You might invite a left-out kid to sit next to you at lunch. You might choose a kid for your team first who usually gets chosen last. These things will be hard to do, but you can do hard things. 

Sometimes you will feel compassion but you won't step in right away. That's okay, too. You might choose instead to tell your teacher and then tell us. We are on your team. Asking for help for someone who is hurting is not tattling, it is doing the right thing. If someone in your class needs help, please tell mommy and daddy. We will make a plan to help together. When God speaks to you by making your heart hurt for another, by giving you compassion, just do something. Please do not ignore God whispering to you. 

I so wish I had not ignored God when He spoke to me about Adam. I remember Him trying, I remember feeling compassion, but I chose fear over compassion. I wish I hadn't. Adam could have used a friend and I could have, too. 

Tanner, Carter, & Hadley -- We do not care if you are the smartest or fastest or coolest or funniest. There will be lots of contests at school, and we don't care if you win a single one of them. We don't care if you get straight As. We don't care if the girls or boys think you're cute or whether you're picked first or last for kickball at recess. We don't care if you are your teacher's favorite or not. We don't care if you have the best clothes or coolest gadgets. We just don't care. 

We don't send you to school to become the best at anything at all. We already love you as much as we possibly could. You do not have to earn our love or pride and you can't lose it. That's done. We send you to school to practice being brave and kind. Kind people are brave people. 

Brave is not a feeling that you should wait for. It is a decision. It is a decision that compassion is more important than fear, than fitting in, than following the crowd. Trust us, kids, it is. It is way more important. Just be grateful and kind and brave. That's all you ever need to be. Take care of those classmates of yours, and your teacher, too. You Belong to Each Other. 

You are three lucky kids... with all of these new gifts to unwrap this year. Mommy and Daddy love you so much that our hearts just might explode. Enjoy and cherish your gifts. And thank you for being our favorite gifts of all time. You are the loves of our lives! 

Love, 
Mommy & Daddy
 

First Day of Kindergarten

 Today was the first day of Kindergarten for Tanner.  It was very exciting.  He came downstairs at 5:15 this morning because he didn't want to be late.  Seeing as Tyler had already left for work and I hadn't showered yet, he panicked a bit.  I promised we would not be late at all-it was still pitch black outside so we had plenty of time!

 We were both dressed and ready by 6:45 so we went out to take some pictures before the other kids got up!  

Hooray for Kindergarten!

 Tanner you are so cool buddy!

 He wanted to test out his new school shoes and see just how fast they can run.  Luckily we have a really fun speedometer trailer next to our house so we could see that he could get up to 13 miles per hour!  That's moving right along!

 More pictures!

 Big Kindergartner!

 We met up with his teacher, Mrs. Buxton, in the hall outside his classroom and got a picture with her.  She is adorable, look at that apron! This looks like a great kindergarten teacher to me!

 Out on the playground we met up with our neighbor friends and played while we waited for the bell to ring.  This is Brett!

 Here is Tanner with Brett and Cole, representing the SC at Prospect!

 

When I picked Tanner up from school, this little tag on his backpack finally made me cry.  I'm not quite sure why, but I know it makes me feel incredibly lucky to be able to pick him up from school every day. 

He was full of stories and excitement.  Our car was instantly a reunion party with Hadley and Carter and even baby Chandler.  He missed them all so much he said, there was big hugs all around and his mouth did not stop talking, even now as we have been home for over 2 hours, he hasn't stopped talking about Kindergarten.  It's going to be a GREAT year!

Birthdays and Kindergarten!

 We started celebrating Tyler's birthday on Saturday night with our dear friends and neighbors Jock and Julie.  It was also Julie's birthday which made it even more fun!  We went to Big Al's, it was fantastic.  if you have never been there, please go!  It is so much fun! Tyler and Julie both got buttons that said it was their birthday and so all the employees would say happy birthday to them!

 The TV screen in the restaurant and sports bar area is HUGE.  I'm not sure how big, but it is enormous!

 At the end of dinner they brought out both Julie and Tyler a birthday sundae which was large!  It was filled with cookies, cupcakes, ice cream, whipped cream and sprinkles and was delicious!

 Sunday we went over to Kris and Brent's to celebrate Tyler and Jills birthdays with a fun BBQ. It was great to visit and let the cousins play!

 Monday morning was the meet and greet with Tanner's Kindergarten teacher.  We met up with his neighbor and buddy Cole, they are in the same class! 

 Tanner at table in his seat.  This is where he started to get a little worried.  His teacher is adorable and so nice, I just know he is going to love Kindergarten!

2, 4, & 6 Doctor Visit

 The kids all had their 2 year, 4 year, and 6 year doctor visit, finally!  It took me a while to get that scheduled so we are two months late.  As much as I wanted to have a relaxing summer, we have been very busy with stuff! So I was able to get a "room rate" and take all 3 of then together which was nice.  Its not super fun to go 3 different times.  Everyone is doing great.  All healthy, growing well, and just all around wonderful kids!  I love them! Everyone had a blast getting their eyes checked because they got to wear pirate eye patches and getting their blood pressure checked was fun! height and weight is also an adventure too! They all wanted to stand on the scale together to see how much the Compton kids weighed.  That was tanners idea! The emphasis on this doctors appointment seemed to be car seats and vitamin D. It was interesting to hear all about the car seat laws, and what the AAP has to say about keeping kids in car seats.  We had been toying with the idea of moving carter to a high back booster seat, but that is out.  He only weighs 37 lbs and so he still needs to stay in his 5 point harness car seat.  I was happy to hear that-it saves us money on the new booster! He also said that kids needs lots of vitamin D, I cannot really remember why, but we are all going to start taking it! Carter was the only one that had to get shots this time around, poor little guy.  As I was holding him while he got his shots, he began to cry, and then Tanner began to cry too as he watched his brother in pain.  It was very sweet, and so then I started to cry too!  I never expected my little 6 year old to have so much compassion for his brother.  What a super kid! I don't think I have been able to leave the hospital for a while without tears of some sort!

Here are the Stats

Hadley

Weight: 30 lbs

Height: 35 inches 

Carter

Weight: 37 lbs

Height: 43 inches

BMI: 6%

Tanner

Weight: 50 lbs

Height: 49 inches

BMI: 30%

 

Tanner lost a tooth!

 Tanner lost his very first tooth!  It had been lose for about 2 months and hanging on by a little tiny thread for a week.  He finally got the courage to pull it out, and with a little bit of gagging and a few drops of blood-it couldn't have been more exciting!

  

This was the very first time the tooth fairy has visited our house and so there was a lot of questions.  When would she come? What does she look like?  What does she do?  Why does she take my tooth? What is she going to leave for me?  Etc, etc etc.  He was hoping for a $100 bill, so I had to let him know that the tooth fairy never left that much.  How did I know? I just did! So, the tooth fairy, who really wasn't very prepared since the tooth came out at 8:30 PM and we were already in our jammies, just left a $1 with glitter on it which just so happened to be much more exciting than A $100.