Baby Girl - age 3 1/2 -

Mommy, I tried something new yesterday.

Oh, you did? What?

Yes, I did, and it was good. (nodding enthusiastically)

Well, what was it?

It was nuffin (nothing). You cooked nuffin with your dinner and it was good.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I love her

Lovey

JP fell asleep, for the first time since infancy, without his Lovey.

I can't believe it.





Backstory - We have a spare Lovey, an exact duplicate. Sometimes, JP finds both of them and sleeps with both snuggled close to his face. He likes to rub them on his nose. He has to take it to school and to Monger's house. He and Monger have made a 10:00 pm trip to Walmart to try to find a suitable replacement when we've accidentally forgotten to pack Lovey. He used is for naptime, bedtime, and other time we let him. I can visibly see him relax when he gets his hands, or rather face, on Lovey. Tonight, he went to bed without so much as even asking for it. My boy is growing up.

So... it's been a good three months since I've posted. A lot has happened, and there are literally a hundred sweet things I wish I could have captured to forever remember. What can I say, life happens.

We just had Thanksgiving, it was wonderful. Quiet, only one meal for us to eat (as opposed to the sometimes three we have to attend in one day), and lots of fun, quality family time. It's supposed to start snowing in a few hours, and into the night. With a five and a three-year-old, it's magical.

We put the Christmas tree up this afternoon. Full on decorating will have to wait until the Hubs gets home, but the kids and I had fun putting it up while listening to Christmas music. Baby girl found two big stockings, a hat, and a door decoration, put them all on (door decoration used as a purse), and stated, "Look, I'm all covered with Christmas!"

JP helped me assemble the tree and make sure it was "sturdy," one of his favorite words, and was so proud that he got to stand on the stairs and put on the star. Just as he did, L. spontaneously sang, "God is Jesus, God is Jesus, thank you for our Christmas tree, thank you for our Christmas tree, Amen, Amen."

I know I keep using this work, but again, magical.

Life is good, God is good!

Siblings

I saw this on facebook today, it was my status on this day in 2010 (a year ago) and it gave me a good laugh -

"L.'s saying 'Dada' and JP is telling her, 'Dada's at work. Work is no fun. I know you need Dada, but he's at work, and it's no fun.' I think I need to talk to Hubs about what he tells JP about work, otherwise he's never going to want to get a job!"

Love it!

Also, this happened the other night, right after L moved from her crib into a big girl bed. I love how JP takes care of his little sister, he really does love (and like) her -

The kids were getting ready for bed, and they both decided to hide behind the curtain panels in JP's bedroom. I overheard JP whispering to L, "This is how I do it, L. I pretend to fall asleep, then wait until Mommy and Daddy fall asleep, and then I sneak down into their bed. So that's how you have to do it." How adorable is that? And that's NOT how he does it, he most definitely falls asleep, but really does sneak down into our bed in the wee hours of the morning.

And tonight JP is spending the night with one of his grandparents. He just called to say goodnight and asked to talk to L. I put him on the speaker phone and let him talk to his little sister. First he said, "Hi, Poopyhead!" but then he followed it with, "L, tomorrow we're gonna do lots of fun things. I don't have school tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, so we get to stay home all day together!" How do you top that? The bond that those two have is magic. We, and they, are so blessed.

We are a bunch of heathens...

My four-year-old son said "Motha Focker" today (we spent the weekend at the lake with a whole host of characters) and my sweet and brilliant husband left a little love mark in a very noticeable location.

Like the title of the post says...

Anatomy Of My Evening

Mama (me) has a migraine with nausea, The Husband is working until 9, the kids became unruly around 5:00 so I sent them into the backyard while I made dinner, they covered themselves with dirt (I kid you not, they didn't even look Caucasian), I put them into a bath before dinner, one of them pooped into the tub, I picked up the poop while fishing around for the washcloth, they both pitched a screaming fit (remember migraine) when I had to give them a shower, then they lost ice cream dessert privileges due to repeatedly not listening, cue another screaming fit. I presently gave them a dose of Benadyrl (for mosquito bites, not to sedate them, I would never, never sedate my angels) and am starting bedtime at 6:50. Goodnight to all.

Swim Lessons

We signed LM up for swimming lessons this summer. His first week was during the very first week of summer vacation, and he did so well! Before the lessons, he would sit on the pool steps, and that was about it. If his daddy or I tried to get him into the water he would almost have a panic attack, even though he wanted to be in the water so much. So during the first week of lessons he learned how to jump off the side of the pool all by himself, go underwater, safely reach for a toy in the pool, float in his back with assistance, and swim a few feet with his head underwater. We've had lots of opportunities for swimming since then and he's enjoyed the practice.

During this second week, his teacher, Ms. Holly said she just expands on the skills they already learned. For example, now they jump into the deep end and swim all the way to the shallow end. I can't wait to see LM do this!

LM is a little bit shy and reserved (I wonder where in the world he got that from?), and he likes me to stay at the lessons while he's there. Parents are persona non grata, however, we even have to drop the kids off at the curb and wait in the car when it's time to pick them up. Every day, LM asks me the same thing, "Will you stay parked in the car on the street while I'm at swimming?" Every day I say, "Yes," even though I have no intention of doing such a thing. His lesson lasts an hour and it's only 10 minutes from home, so I either run an errand or two or even go home (as I am now). He's caught on to my tricks a few times after he gets back in the car and sees a Starbucks cup or a few grocery bags. He's never happy about it. So today as I was dropping him off he said, "Mommy, just wait on the street, don't go for a walk or go to a store or anything. Just stay in the car. You can even turn on the radio if you want." LOL!! So sweet and so innocent. I love my LM, one day when he's a parent he'll understand and forgive my little white lie.