Wordless Wednesday

Oh Naptime, Where art Thou?

I am currently mourning what I feel is the beginning of the end of Jake's afternoon nap. He only takes one about half of the time now. All I can say is, mama needs naptime. I love my children, but afternoon nap is the only time I have to myself. I look forward to those couple of hours for multiple reasons. Sometimes, I clean the house or prep dinner or read a book or update this blog. Sometimes I pluck my eyebrows or come up with goals for the future. And sometimes I sleep. I'm not gonna lie. They wear me out and sometimes I just eat enough chocolate to induce a sugar coma and I sleep.

I have friends with kids the same age as Jake who have already given up the nap. I just shake my head in sympathy and pray that it won't happen to me. I know it would free up a lot of time for us to go out and do things together but not really. Emma still needs her nap so what it really does is creates strife with me trying to keep him quiet so she can sleep.

Today, Jake and I have been having power struggles since approximately 7:30am or thirty minutes after he woke up. After two spankings and three time outs I really couldn't wait until naptime. Also, I feel like I'm coming down with something so I knew I needed to take a nap today. Emma went down without a peep. Jake came into my room at least 137 times between the hours of 1 and 3 saying he needed all sorts of things before he could sleep. Things like, his stuffed dolphin (he has four or five so you have to figure out which one first), his Larry Boy hat and water (with ice). I know these are all stalling techniques. When it comes to stalling, Jake rivals the Republicans trying to halt health care reform. If we allowed fillibustering in this household, Jake would be the king.

Anyway, I knew he was stalling but I was too tired to get out of bed and too exhausted for another time out or spanking. So I sort of caved and told him he didn't have to take a nap today but he had to go to the playroom and be quiet and (most importantly) not come out until I said it was okay. This is how Mike found him when he got home from work.




It looks like someone had a great time before he passed out.

Wordless Wednesday

They've got the music in them

Almost every night before bathtime, Mike turns on this Weezer song and the kids both come running (literally!) to sing and dance to it. It is one of the cutest things of all time.

Emma's Birthday

Emma had an entire first birthday weekend. It was so much fun! We all went into her room on her birthday and sang Happy Birthday to her before getting her out of bed. She was so excited. Then we headed off to the donut shop where she got her first ever donut. She was so excited about that too. We spent Friday afternoon running errands, cleaning house and waiting for my parents to get here.

On Saturday morning we had her official birthday party. We had lots of family and great friends show up for the event. I made Pioneer Woman's drip beef sandwiches and Mike made his famous guacamole for the adults. The kids had cheese pizza, mini corn dogs, fruit and veggies to munch on.

Then it was time for cupcakes and singing Happy Birthday to Emma Mae. I think she was seriously overwhelmed. As soon as we started singing she flopped her head down on her highchair tray in her famous "I'm so shy!" move. She was very curious about her cupcake but was so different about eating it then Jake was on his first birthday. He went to town on his cupcake. She just sort of daintily picked at it but she did manage to eat all of the frosting off of it.





We had present opening time. (Jake was happy to help her out with that part.) I asked everyone to write a memory they had of Emma or a current event from the year she was born in her baby book. It was so neat to see what people wrote. I think she will find that very special when she's older. The kids entertained themselves in the backyard most of the party playing with balls and bubbles. Overall, I think they had a great time. I know Jake and Emma did anyway. Now everyone is gone, the house is a wreck again and we are all exhausted. I wouldn't have it any other way!

Look who's one!

I really can't believe this day is happening. How on earth can little Emma Mae be a year old already? This year has flown by! I remember the time after Jake was born going by so slowly. I felt like I didn't know what I was doing as a mama and I couldn't wait for him to get bigger because I thought things would be easier then. But with Emma, I keep thinking SLOW DOWN! She's reaching all of the milestones so quickly and we no longer have a little baby in our house. She is a babbling, toddling, giggling little girly-girl.

I still feel like I remember everything from the day she was born. Everything went according to plan. We had a c-section scheduled for early that morning. The two weird things that happened were after they got Emma out. First, while I was in recovery the nurse helping me out forgot that I was numb from the waist down and while she was checking on me she picked both legs up off of the bed I was on and then just let them go when she walked away. I saw my legs go from up in the air to flopping onto the metal rails of the bed and knew that it really would have hurt if I COULD have felt anything at that moment. The nurse apologized and then came and arranged my legs to where they at least looked comfortable. The second thing was that I got the biggest case of the hot flashes since all four of The Golden Girls hit menopause. I was just drenched with sweat for a few hours after Emma arrived. The nurses didn't know what to make of it. They brought a fan into my room and blew it directly on me until I cooled down. Weird.

Emma was just such a sweet little baby. I'm sure part of the reason I feel so nostalgic about her getting older is the fact that I know she's our last baby. With Jake, we cheered on every little accomplishment. With Emma, we still cheer but part of me thinks "well, we'll never get to experience that first time again." That's the last time we'll see our child take those first steps. Good grief! Will I feel this way for the rest of her life? Because I'm gonna look kind of silly crying at all of her school functions just because it will be the last time one of our kids started the eighth grade or because it will be the last time one of our kids got a driver's license. What lies ahead for all of us? I'm thinking lots of laughter, probably a few tears, the sharing of lots of chocolate and maybe some good old fashioned fighting when she becomes a teenager. (Although I hope we can avoid that.)

For now, she is our princess. Our peanut. Our Little Bit. And I just love her. Happy Birthday Emma! You are SO big! LM

I get no respect around here

Wordless Wednesday

Kid's Corner

Jake and I were out in the backyard the other day when he ran up to me very excited about something he found in the flower bed. By flower bed, I mean the great big dirt pit we have by our fence with absolutely zero flowers planted in it yet. Turns out, he found animal tracks! He couldn't wait to show them to me and said "Look Mama! Brady tracks!" I was very impressed that he knew the word track instead of footprint. Also, that he knew they were Brady's tracks. Looks like I have a budding biologist of some sort on my hands!

Seriously, we spent a good fifteen minutes or so (which is FOREVER! in three year old time) just looking at all the tracks in the dirt. Then we looked at the poop that was also in the backyard. We knew that only an animal the size of Brady could leave tracks and poop that big. However, we did find some poop of unknown origin. My hypothesis is that there is a neighborhood cat who uses our backyard as his litterbox at night. Mike thinks we should set up outdoor cameras and traps for it. I think that's going just a bit too far.

Anyway, a few days later when I took Jake to the park we took a nature walk in the woods behind it. He was so interested in looking for tracks again. We found more dog tracks, deer tracks and racoon tracks. He loved it! So the next time you're sitting at home thinking "we really should get out from in front of the television" take your little ones on a walk and see what you can find. They're short which puts them at the perfect level to find things you don't normally notice. Just watch out for poop of unknown origins.

Wordless Wednesday

I totally forgot to document the snowfall we had last week

Here it is! SNOW! It totally snowed here last week which never happens. I was being very cynical that day because the weathermen around here have been teasing us all winter with possible snow warnings and it never happens. So when I looked out the window and saw great big quarter sized snowflakes coming down I was so excited! I put coats on the kids and we all ran out in the front yard to watch it come down. Jake tried to catch snowflakes on his tongue and he just had the best time running around in the snow. Unfortunately, it really didn't stick but we had fun while it was here. Here are the pictures I got of the snowfall which reminds me again that I should really sign up for some sort of photography class. I promise there is snow in these pictures. Even Brady was happy!

Kids Korner

As a mom, I'm constantly wondering if I'm doing enough with my kids. Are they being mentally stimulated? Are they getting enough exercise? Have they had enough chocolate?

Sometimes we are doing good just to make it through the day without someone getting killed. On those days, we don't work on letters or numbers or sharing or anything. On those days, we work on making it through the day one minute at a time. On those days, there may be television and movies involved. On those days, you might find me hiding in a corner somewhere. Just for a minute.

But on the good days, I like to try to find new things to entertain them with and maybe even find something for them to learn. So if you're in the same boat go to your kitchen right now and get out the food coloring. We did this in our three year old class the other day and I was amazed at how much the kids got into it. All you need is a transparent cup of some sort, food coloring, water and patience.

Fill the cup with water and show your munchkin how a drop of food coloring will turn the water a color. Then if you want to get really fancy you can add two colors together to make a new color! Fantastic! Jake had so much fun with this. He asks me to do the "water painting" every day now. It will literally provide minutes of entertainment for your small child.