New Post on XOVain

You guys, things have been crazy over here. It always is the last week of school. However, I didn't want to leave you empty-handed for our long weekend. Recently, I started freelancing with XOVain, a beauty website. Today they are featuring my article on OCM- Oil Cleansing Method for the non-initiated out there!

Check it out here!

This is what I clean my face with!

In a Cinch: What to Wear to a Graduation

I have blogged about Kiyonna's Ciara Cinch dress recently and loved it, so when I saw that Gwynnie Bee had it in a beautiful teal color, I knew exactly what I was going to wear to Sean's Pre-K Graduation Friday night. The dress looked great as I crawled around on my knees looking for the best place to catch a glimpse of my proud graduate (of course, the total opposite side from where I was originally sitting!) and it was perfectly fresh and unwrinkled for family photos after the ceremony.

Ciara Cinch Dress- Kiyonna c/o Gwynnie Bee

I promised I wouldn't cry, that I would remain stoic, but as "Pomp and Circumstance" started up and the kids made their way out, smiling widely in their crisp white robes, searching and waving at family, I felt a little weepy. Then they showed a 7-minute collection of photos from the past year set to sad country songs and I couldn't help but cry!

Sean was very concerned that we wouldn't be able to identify him in the crowd of white robes, so during the day he concocted a plan. He told my mother to tell the entire family that we would be able to find him because he would hold up the letter "L" in sign language, a.k.a. the "Loser" sign to anyone who lived through the nineties. My mom tried to dissuade him, but he was adamant- "You will know it's me because I will be doing this", proudly thrusting the universal sign for loser proudly above his head. So it was on.

The kids lined up and as we searched the crowd for Sean, he found us, and "losered" us and the rest of the audience for a solid 3 minutes. We, appropriately so, held up our own loser Ls for him, as the crowd tittered. My sister-in-law leaned over and whispered, "I feel like we are tributes in the Hunger Games!" That automatically made it way cooler!

The weekend ended with Sean losing his very first tooth, as if I needed more evidence that he is growing up way too fast! He spent the night Saturday with his grandmother and when we picked him up Sunday, we didn't even get to the front door before he rushed out to show us. Of course, I had no fancy tooth fairy magic a la Pinterest, but since he swallowed the tooth during breakfast, I don't think he will mind if he just gets cold hard cash without a lot of glittery fairy dust ;)

Today is a Milestone

Just like I can't emotionally steel myself to watch the last Harry Potter movie (hey, Brynn!), I also couldn't bring myself to write about Sean's graduation from preschool tonight. He woke up an hour earlier than usual and keeps walking around saying he can't believe it's finally his graduation.

I am bittersweet- I am excited to see him grow and learn. Every day he becomes more of a person with attitudes and beliefs and likes and dislikes. I cannot wait to see him flourish in a classroom. But at the same time, I want to freeze this moment... or at least play the rest of my life in slow-motion.

Curtis (the real writer in the family) shared a post this morning that expresses the way I feel better than I could. I hope you will hop over and read Baby Steps and share some love with the best dad and husband in the world!

Sean and I both started school in August of 2008.
This is the picture we took for our first day of school.
I've never taken another first day of school picture.
I need to.