Middle of the Night Love

Posted June 30th, 2007 by Mom | Comments (0)

You know you are truly loved by your child when he comes to your side of the bed in the middle of the night, touches you gently to awaken you and then says, “I want you to rock me.”

I got up and he asked, “pick me up and carry me.”  He then wrapped his arms around my neck tightly and snuggled his head into the crook of my neck as I carried him back to his room.  We settled ourselves in his rocking chair and I wrapped him in his blanket since he was cold.  While we rocked, I sneezed.  My precious boy told me, “bless you” ever so softly.  I rocked him until he was drowsy again and then placed him in his bed.  After I hugged and kissed him, I told him, “I love you!” and started to walk out of his room.

Then I heard a little voice say to me, “sleep tight, Mommy.”  I had to go back and give him another hug and replied, “you, too, my love.”

6-27-2007

Posted June 27th, 2007 by Mom | Comments (0)

Around 10 this morning, my mom came over to help me do yardwork. For the last few days we have had afternoon/evening rains. It has been great considering we need the rain, but it has been making mowing the yard difficult.

It turned out to be just as difficult to mow with C and J as it has been with the uncooperative weather. While I was mowing and my mom was weed-eating, the boys took the jar of M&M’s upstairs (that I am using to aid J in potty training) and dumped them out, and obviously proceeded to eat as many as they could! C also decided to take my sample of perfume and spray it all over the counter. Granted, I love the smell (in SMALL quantity), this caused me to need to leave the doors open as I mowed, just to air the house out. The scent of cut grass wasn’t as potent as my kitchen was this afternoon! Also, considering it was so hot today, I got C and J a popsicle each one time I came in the house. This led to them getting popsicles on their own (a no-no!). After I was finished cutting grass, I came in to wash my face and inquired as to where my rolling desk chair went to. J showed it to me in front of our extra refrigerator. He stood on it to get to the popsicles in the freezer… I don’t know how many they ate. (I did find 2 empty wrappers in my drawer where I keep my scissors.) As my mom said, “I don’t know how you get anything done with these boys!” One good thing is that C is a really great water boy. He would get me and my mom glasses of water as we worked (a clean glass each time – I hope the dishwasher holds all of them!). Thanks, Sweetie!

After the boys and I got showered from doing yard work, I called my mom to make sure she wasn’t overly tired and to profusely thank her for her efforts to make my yard beautiful. She was fine and inquired about the boys. I told her, “C and J are naked playing with a toy wrecker in the living room floor. They have had a lunch of fritos and ham and are about to get dressed and take their naps.” Can life get much better for little boys?

This evening I heard J screaming/yelling outside. I looked out the window half expecting to see a stranger and could see what looked like limbs moving behind the fence in the backyard. As it turned out, those weren’t limbs moving, but the antlers of a stunning buck. He was accompanied by at least one doe and 2 fawns. I rushed C outside to see the deer. J was standing, naked (as this seems to be the only way to get him to use the potty currently – I hope to graduate him to dry -that he keeps dry- underwear soon) in the fort looking out the window screaming at the deer. The deer turned to look at him and continued grazing. The deer showed up about the same time yesterday. I am so glad that they are back. After the town cleared the land behind our house of the brush, the deer moved deeper into the woods to the north of our home. Now that the leaves and brush are growing thicker, they are returning frequently.

Well, I am off to put these rug rats into bed. They chose to rest quietly in their rooms instead of napping today. Not a big deal, I just want them to have their own quiet time to reflect and think, imagine and have alone time. The only problem is that they are really tired and grating on each other. C has already fallen and has a baseball bandaid on 1 knee. J has fallen as well, at a later time, and has baseball bandaids on both knees. Talk about “falling down tired.”

Oh, as an aside to my friends that have legos… I took one of the boys’ lego books to the store yesterday and had the staples removed and the pages laminated. I then poked holes in the sheets and put them in a notebook so I could help the boys make the lego creations over and over again. This keeps the sheets intact and together for future uses… Just an idea to share. Ta Ta for now.

When it Rains it Pours

Posted June 26th, 2007 by Mom | Comments (0)

Yesterday late afternoon we had quite a storm. I thought it was going to be just a “summer rain” that would clear the air and raise the humidity level. Plus it would prevent me and B from doing yard work, which needs to be done.

When the rain started, I knew that the boys would be occupied inside watching a little television while playing with legos. So I decided to take a quick shower. As I was getting dressed, I heard hail hitting the frosted window in our bathroom. I ran to the living room to look out the window and found that the boys had left the back door open. Rain, leaves and hail were blowing in and making quite a mess.

I sat down at the computer to turn it off, in case of a power surge and heard the garage door open. B was home. I asked him if he got the mail and his response was, “Ha! My shirt got soaked just walking from my car to the garage!”

A few minutes later we heard fire engines. A friend’s house (Lisa’s) a few doors down from us got hit by lightening. They are fine, but it was a realization that I shouldn’t take a shower while it was raining.

Want to ride a cow?

Posted June 25th, 2007 by Mom | Comments (0)

I love hearing stories about my parent’s and in-law’s lives. I have heard about dating times, childhoods, and raising their children. But, this morning, while talking to my Dad, I heard the most hilarious story yet. My Dad’s attempt at riding a cow. My side was hurting I was laughing so much.

My parents, the boys and I were sitting on my parent’s screened in porch. The whole story started with me telling my parents that C had been signed up at church for “Terrific Tuesdays” in July. One Tuesday his class is going to go to a Dude Ranch. Mom was asking C if he was going to ride a horse. My Dad started telling about the horses and mules that his grandparents had. My Dad told about how his Granddaddy L had fat horses and mules and they were more fun to ride than his other Grandparent’s horses that were skinny and had hard, prominent backbones that were uncomfortable to ride.

My Mom asked him if he ever tried to milk a cow. My Dad answered that he tried it once, but wasn’t very good at it. He did managed to get a little milk. My Mom then wanted to know if my Dad drank the milk. Dad replied that he preferred milk that came from the store. I can’t imagine drinking hot milk directly from the cow. Ugh! Like my Dad, I like my milk extra cold, just not with the ice cubes that he likes.

Anyway, back to riding the cow. My Dad was about 8 years old when he tried to ride a cow. I asked my Dad how he managed to get up on the cow. He replied, “I was sitting on the fence around the barn/corral and the cow came close so I got on it.” I don’t think the ride lasted too long. The cow shook until my Dad fell off. So, I guess the moral of this story is, well, I don’t know what the moral of this story is. Just be sure to ask plenty questions of your parents. The stories can be quite entertaining and can tell you a lot about the prior generation.

I’ve heard of dog day summers, but now I have heard about cow riding summers.

C's Eventful Day

Posted June 23rd, 2007 by Mom | Comments (0)

Yesterday morning, C had a friend from Sunday School over for a playdate that included lunch. “T” and C and J had a really sweet and fun time. They played in the playroom, in the fort, in C’s room and with legos in the living room. It was so hot that for a treat, I made ice slushies for them. After T left C and J were exhausted and took a 2 hour nap. C woke up telling me how he wanted to play with T some more.

Yesterday, late afternoon, C, J and I went to the park. We were invited to go with a neighbor and her 8 year old daughter that C and J play with. On the way to the park, the daughter rode C’s bicycle and C rode his razor scooter. I rode my bicycle with J in the trailer. On the way to the park, C stopped a couple of times because, “I’m tired and need to rest a little.”

While we were at the park, C climbed up the play equipment and overcame his fear by succeeding in grasping and sliding down the “fireman’s pole.” C had slid down it before with me holding him from a firm footing and helping him grasp the pole, but this was the first time that he trusted himself. Great job, C!  C repeated going down the pole about 15 times.  Each time with a huge smile on his face.

On the way home, C rode his scooter again. Before we even left the park, C stopped and sat down on the grass to rest because he was tired. I knew it would take awhile to get home and it was mostly a slight incline, so I asked him if he wanted to ride in the trailer. He said that he wanted to and so we folded his scooter up and put it and C in the trailer for me to pull home. (I hope I will remember that this is a bad idea and not to ask him again – my lower back is still hurting this morning from pulling an extra 40 pounds!)

At bedtime, I put J in bed first while C watched a little more television. After J was in bed asleep, I started with C’s bedtime routine. While we were rocking in C’s rocking chair, I sang a few songs and then we talked about his day. While we were talking, B came home (B has been in Philadelphia all week.). C was SO excited to see B that I thought C was going to start crying. He held onto his Daddy for a long time and wouldn’t even left B go change clothes without him. While in our room, C climbed up on our bed and wanted to sleep with us. I’m sure that C was afraid that Daddy would leave again for a long trip. The three of us sat on our bed for awhile and talked about all that we did this week – water spray park, movie, play time, etc. C then asked B to put him in bed. B was so tired that he wanted a quick bedtime. B tried to bribe C to go to bed quickly by telling him that he brought C home a new Transformer. C ran FAST out of his room to go find it. (B told me that telling C about the Transformer backfired – duh!) B and C spent the next 20 minutes opening and working the new Transformer named Rachet.

This morning, C and J woke us up, only AFTER locating J’s new Transformer, Optimus Prime.

Welcome back, Daddy! We all missed you!

The Point of No Return

Posted June 20th, 2007 by Mom | Comments (0)

This evening I overheard the boys whispering. This is a first for them to plot, plan, execute.

Then they went into C’s room. They returned to tell me that lions were in C’s room.  At least their plotting, planning and executing wasn’t destructive.  However, life will never be the same again.

Also, in J’s fortune cookie tonight (J had sausage pizza, C has leftover tacos, and I ordered chinese food) was this: “Where’s there a will, there’s a way.” This should be made into a song – maybe it already has been – and it can become J’s theme song!