Thursday, April 28, 2011

Goodbye 3

Someone in turning 4 in a few days.

Four...

Frig.

Four years ago I was in the hospital on bed rest, anxiously awaiting this child that would forever change my life.
























We were walking along a road near our house one night when I snapped this picture of you.  I watched you and your brother run, play and explore all the while, strong winds were whipping through your hair. It became acutely obvious to me that you were leaving the toddler years behind and moving into the preschool years.   My heart filled with so much pride and love. Looking at this picture makes me reminisce on the year you have had…


Three was not an easy year for you.  It wasn’t so much that it was terrible; it just wasn’t what I was expecting.   You are not a child that I can spring things on and a lot of the times you would like for things to happen on your terms.  Sometimes I accommodated this when it pertained to small things like getting dressed, but a lot of times parenting is not a negotiation and it was really hard trying to teach you this.

We really worked a lot on kindness.  You are such a sweet and loving little boy but you really like your play time not to be interrupted by Jack.  He loves you so much and I know you do too.  I can see it when you decided at a certain point in your day that it is time to run and play with him. But playing with him has to be on your terms.  You do not like it when he tries to play with your toys or investigate what you are doing.  You like to play alone a lot.

You learned to share a room with your brother this year, then quickly decided that that was not for you and come looking for Mommy and Daddy in the middle of the night.  Gone are the days when you would go to sleep on your own, in your own bed and stay there all night.  You have taken up camp in our room.  You fall asleep there, we move you into your own room and then you find your way back into our bed sometime in the night.


You found a new love in Thomas.  We have collected movies and trains for you to play with.  You sing along to the songs and sometimes do a little dance.  Your love of the Wonderpets has diminished but you still like them every once in a while.  You started to watch full length movies but far and few between are the ones that we watch right to the end.  You stop and go back to the beginning to memorize the lines.  Your fav’s are Charlotte’s web, The Bee Movie, and The Lion King.


You liked to play with Playdo a lot this year.  And I do mean a lot.  I liked that you were being creative so I was continuously getting new tubs as the old ones dried out.  You tried your hand at painting as well but your attention span is short and you only really enjoyed it for a few minutes.  Balls and blocks still seem to be among your favorite toys.  You like to build towers over and over again.  Repetitiveness is just a part of who you are.  You could sit at the table and fill a jar full of buttons over and over again for over an hour.


You speak and refer to your self in the third person still.  It’s funny to hear you say “Michael has to get things going!”  I’m not really sure what you want to get going but it makes me mile.  You have funny little accents that you try out regularly.  Grandma says it sounds like you have marbles in your mouth.  I especially love the British accent.  Your vocabulary is coming along.  It isn’t perfect and some days I worry how you will  communicate at school.  You follow direction well and like to help out Mommy with all kinds of things, but you just don’t have that two way conversation that I would liked to have with you.  I know that you will get there when it is your time.


I tried hard to teach you about God this year.  We went to church a lot and learned goodnight prayers and to be thankful for what we had.  One of the most special moments I had with you was one night when you started saying your prayers from memory one night with out prompting.  I especially liked when you said you were thankful for your police hummer.


We experienced some wicked temper tantrums this year.  And I do mean wicked.  Nothing seemed to work to calm you down.  I tried everything.  Some days I felt like the worst mother in the world.  There was one night that I gave up and cried at night at the top of the stairs only to have you come out of our bedroom and crawl into my lap and hug me.  You certainly have the Jekyll and Hyde thing down pat.


You became really attached to me this year.  A lot of the times I couldn’t leave the room without you calling out to me.  You became a very cuddly little boy, often crawling up into my lap in the morning just for a snuggle.  You even started to ask for hugs and kisses.  It always makes my heart full.


  This job of mine to teach you to be a good person is so hard and some days I am so afraid I have messed up.  Other days I see your smiling face and your funny little conversations and I know you will be just fine.   When you leap into my arms, there is a trust in your eyes that reassures me that I am doing an okay job at this parent thing.  I am excited to see what four has in store for you, excited to see you start school and make friends.  I pray that it will be a kinder, gentler year for you and for me, and that your fourth year is filled with much fun.  Where ever the wind blows you this year Michael, remember that I will always, always love you.   





















Night Night.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Close enough

Before I had my two boys I had these three.

They are not mine but I have shared special moments with all of them.

Before mine, they were what I scraped.

I feel like I have stories about them that still need to be shared , but for today I will share this:






















(created for Tina's Scrapbooking Creations)

If I was not blessed enough to have two of my own, I knew with them I was close enough.

Happy hump day!

Sunday, April 24, 2011

A chocolate morning.

We had a wonderful family day here at my house today. 

It started early at 6:30 AM with an egg hunt.
















M was totally into it this year.

He kept exclaiming " I found another one Mommy!"

He quickly learned how to unwrap his little foil eggs.

I let him.
















And J would find a plastic egg, crack it open and stare at the colored foil egg inside in awe.

Then he would shove it in his mouth foil and all.

I let him.
















I don't usually let them eat chocolate before breakfast...Heck I usually save chocolate for a treat.

After they found their eggs they discovered their baskets placed at the table.
















Their baskets were filled with some new trains and a book each with another little egg treat.

One of the boys wasn't much interested in his basket...
















Can't say I blame him.

Its not often they get to eat chocolate at 7:00am.

The rest of the day was filled with playtime, fueled from said chocolate.

My sister came over with the fam and there was another hunt.

The boys found treats hidden in their room and abandoned the rest of the crew to eat their new found treasures.

Needless to say it was 9:00pm before  both fell asleep.

A wonderful day with wonderful company.

And at the end of it all, the chocolate was moved into the garage Man Den for someone else to consume.

I hope your Easter was as blessed as ours.

nighty night.

Monday, April 18, 2011

March Project 12

Egad March blew chunks!

Honestly I had the March blues, cabin fever or the grumpiest of grumpies 90% of the time.


March came in like a lion, stuck around like a lion and then slowly crept out like a Lion.  I really did not feel like myself this month for one reason or another, I didn’t feel like the best Mom and I certainly was not enjoying work this month.  My skin was acting up; my body seemed to be failing me at every turn, or at least my resolve to do something about it.  I gave up on going to Church with two toddlers.  Everything seemed like an epic fail, and Facebook updates didn’t sound that upbeat either:

March 2 at 8:35am: Dear Jack...I am only asking for 10 minutes, Please stop climbing my back.
March 2 at 10:15pm: Ottawa friends...A referral for a dermatologist to fight this redonkulous onslaught of adult acne. 
March 3 at 8:35pm: Michael’s new habit: Clicking his tongue on the roof of his mouth , whilst humming race car sounds. Perfect. 
March 5 at 7:49pm: 3 nights in a row I have had the privilege of having front row seat & backstage passes to the live performance of Michael’s "I'm almost 4" temper tantrums. Sets included, "I don't want to take a bath", "I don't want to go to bed", I need a new band-aid", I don't want to brush my teeth", and my personal favorite, "MOMMY, MOMMY...COME BACK HERE MOMMY!!" I'd like to give away my tickets to tomorrow nights performance. 
March 6 at 8:55pm: Pinning...slightly addictive. 
March 7 at 7:52pm: Tell me please that the almost 4 year old crazy tantrums are going to go away. 
March 11 at 10:21pm: Praying for the people of Japan. Thinking about you Lisa. Stay safe!!! 
March 17 at 6:39pm: Me= grumpiest person ever. 
March 19 at 7:22pm: Learning shapes with Michael.....Quatrefoil is a tricky one. 
March 19 at 8:07pm: Creative juices are flowing. 
March 20 at 8:30pm: Banana Split. 
March 23 at 7:58pm: Michael: Michael is going to school in September!!! 
March 23 at 9:33pm:  mumble mumble mumble....Me: who are you talking to over there? Bruce: Ted Nugent...he's going to get his ass whooped. Me:*crickets* 
March 25 at 10:15pm Longest. Day. Ever. 
March 27 at 7:12pm Love it when my patience fails. 
March 29 at 9:22pm Retail therapy at my favorite store. 
March 30 at 11:33am It is WAY too nice to go to work today. I will go, but it will be grudgingly.

March did leave.  My grumpies left with it.  I’m sure the world rejoices when I am in a better mood.  I’m positive April will bring more smiles then showers and flowers.

So here it is...My Month documented with pictures to prove it existed:

 












(click to enlarge)

I'm happy to report that two weeks in I am in a much better mood.  The snow is gone, with the exception of the freak show blizzard that happened after dinner last night.

Looking forward to the months ahead.

I have it on good authority that there will be some parties around these parts of the Thomas variety in two weeks.

Happy April to you!

x/o

J

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Together, feeding the birds...The scrap version

It's not often that we all get together lately.

With Family priorities, full time jobs, shift work, rare weekends off, its hard to get together.

It's also a bonus to get pictures taken together.

You know what I do with those pictures right???










































(click to enlarge)

Tina gave me these papers from  my little shoebox  to work with. 

So cute.

I laughed when she gave them to me because they were a little outside my comfort zone and that is exactly what she said. 

I think it is because I am so used to using brown, aqua, yellow, red and orange for my pages.


Notice I snuck the brown and aqua in anyways.

Old habits die hard...



And that concludes my drive by blog post for the evening.

As always, thanks for the visit!

Nighty night!


 

Sunday, April 3, 2011

HAWAY!!!

Say what?

That is how my little J says Hooray.

We were driving in the car last month and "if you're happy and you know it" came on.

The song ended and a little voice from the back seat said "haway!"

So frickin' cute.

Tina gave me some Jillibean goodness to create with soooooooo you KNOW what I did....























Off to enjoy this sunny day with the boys,

Happy Sunday!