Welcome little Jack!

I'm pretty sure when my sister woke up this morning, on the third to last day of school, she didn't expect that by the end of lunch time, she'd have a baby.  But, stranger things have happened.  Can't say that I'd be too interested in having my water break on the job and have to figure out how to get out of work as undetected as possible, but my sister is tough like that.

She's actually super tough.

Hangin' tough.

And she has beautiful children.  Children that I love very much.

We love you little Jack.

In a nutshell...

Visiting my Grandma, and letting her know that her gift to me, little twitchy, is doing just fine.

Best hair day in weeks....has to be on a Saturday when I'm not going anywhere but the car dealership to sign papers.  Ug!

Practicing animal husbandry.

Instagramming at church.  Who knew Rudyard Kipling wrote a hymn?  Oh, that's right, my husband and my sister did.  At least I learned something on Sunday.

Visiting a few other graves, particularly my Grandma P.  Man alive I miss my grandma's!!

Sunday was just breathtakingly beautiful.  Those mountains are part of the reason I love where I live.

Yummy treats for the family Memorial Day BBQ.

One tuckered out 5 year old.  (Note:  That other kid of mine was also with us all weekend, but he was sort of evil and I just didn't take his picture).

Note 2:  

I'm awake very early this morning because I had one of those crazy dreams.  I was in Switzerland with Elliott and my in-laws.  No husband, no other children.  My son and father-in-law had led the way and decided to walk across a strange bridge, straddling a wide river.  We got onto the bridge, me with much trepidation because the thing had wide gaps in it and was being held up by a small string.  I had just taken a picture and as I was putting my phone/camera away, Elliott ran ahead of me and missed the gap.  In order to catch and save him, I sacrificed my phone and it fell to the bottom of the large body of water.  As I was sobbing uncontrollably (apparent the phone contained all our documentation and we were now unidentified in a foreign country) we continued along this bridge, dipping into the water, floating on barges, being pulled along by a string.

Eventually, we go to the end of the line, in a very industrial and coal infused part of the city where we got off.  We had someone been part of an art installation.  It wasn't a real bridge at all, we had just gotten in the way.

Then I woke up.  I had to go to the bathroom and the Nestle Quik was calling my name.

Today is my birthday!

Today is my birthday!   I am 34!  Thirty-four years old doesn't seem nearly as old as it did when I was 24.  I love my family.  I love my life.  I love the life experiences I've had so far and can hardly wait for all those that are yet to come.

I'd just really like another nap like I had yesterday.  In my old age, that was pretty awesome.

Birthday lunch with my three favorite boys

Birthday visit to my grandma.  I've been thinking about her a lot lately.  That must mean she's been thinking about me, too.  (I hope!)

Birthday dinner with all of my favorite people.

2:00 in the am

Nearly every single night, I wake up at 2:00 am.  It used to be 4:00 am, but things change.

Usually, it's to go to the bathroom and then head back to bed.  Occasionally, it's for a drink.  Sometimes, it's because I've got low blood sugar and need something to eat.  Every once in a while it's because of a charlie horse in my leg or a twitchy back muscle, or a swift kick to the kidneys.

Regardless, If I'm lucky, the wake-up call lasts about 40 minutes and I'm back to sleep, waiting for 6:30 when I have to get up for real.  If I'm not lucky, it's a rough night, with at least 4 hours awake.  I watch movies on the computer, catch up on TV shows and read blogs.  I pace the house, peek in on my kids, and listen to my husband snore - him upstairs and me down.

These days though, I rarely get frustrated...or at least as frustrated as I used to.  Maybe it's because I'm lucky to be alive and have a quiet house to wander and a safe neighborhood to live in.  Maybe its because I know that in a few months, I'll be up anyway so it isn't a big deal.

Maybe it's just because I'm getting older and insomnia is just something that life throws at me and I'm learning to deal with it.

Either way, I'm going back to bed to try it again.  Wish me luck.  I've only been up 29 minutes.

The Squirt: 3 year old stats

On Thursday, the little Chick went with his dad and brother to the doctor.  I had my own series of appointments to attend (the little twitchy one is already measuring 2 weeks ahead...and, well, I need A LOT of insulin to cook him properly).

(Incidentally, he gets to play t-ball in the summer league, but he can already hit a coach-pitched ball with a good deal of accuracy.  I'd say that means he's a show off!)

Anyway, the stats.  Elliott, at his 5 year old appointment in April was finally, for the first time since birth, on the charts for height and weight. He's always been in the 100 + percentile for his height and he's finally in the 95%, meaning that he is currently, at 5 years old, as tall as most 7.5 year olds and his weight, is well, skinny.  The kid looks like he just got out of a concentration camp, but I promise he hasn't.  Just for dinner on Friday night he ate a small rack of ribs, french fries, 4 chicken nuggets, a icee push-pop and 4 e.l. fudge cookies.  So, the kid is a lean, mean, fighting machine and is going to be at least as tall as his parents when he's 18 (I'd say by the time he's 14 but we'll have to wait and see).

The Chick?  He's a little more average, and poor guy, might only be six feet tall.  He weighs 37 pounds (only 7 less than his brother who is 2.5 years older) and is 38.5 inches tall. This puts him in the 50th percentile for weight and 75th for height.  What's interesting though?  The kid has grown four inches since last June.  His legs have got to hurt - that seems to me like some speed growth.

And guess what!  He's got the attitude to match.

sometimes I swear he's got to be older than five.

A charm off of his bracelet (that he made without any help) broke the other night as I was getting Wyatt out of the bath tub.

"Mom" he yelled LOUDLY as he walked down the hall back into the bathroom.  In his underwear no less.

"What?" I replied returning the loud.

"Mom!  Another charm fell off my bracelet.  Can you work your magic on this one like you did the other day and fix it?"

.....

Yes my boy, I can work my magic.


>>>>>>>

I'm behind on reading the happenings in the twitter-verse, but this morning I was catching up on the tweets of my brother.  My boy said the following to his uncle willie over the weekend and it was worthy of a tweet by the president.

Sharks eat everything! Kind of like goats. I call them the goats of the ocean.

The Squirt: 36 months

I'm a few days late (busy weekend) but on Saturday at 1:39 pm my little Chicker turned THREE YEARS OLD!  Oh, how time flies.  I can remember the day this little ball of goo was born like it was yesterday and in a few short months, his life will forever be upturned by a new little twerp taking his baby status away from him.

It's okay though, I think.  THis kid has left baby-dom behind, for sure.

What to say about this crazy boy on his third birthday?  I really am at a loss of words.  Wyatt, you are a ball of contradictions.  You cuddle on my lap and then yell at me for getting you the wrong drink.  You play animal hunter and vacation with your brother and then you hit him on the head for "taking your toy".  You only want pepperoni pizza to eat but then you pull all the peperoni's off your pizza and just eat the cheese and sauce.

You love to sing and dance and play.  You practically live your life laying on the floor.  You love to go to target even more than I do.  You love french fries and root beer, cars and trucks, and watching tv.  I think that you could draw and paint pictures all day...and run around the house and blow bubbles.

Your favorite song these days is "pumped up kicks".  You say your favorite tv show is "Dora the Explorer" (go figure!).  You love the color orange, wearing basketball shorts, and running, running, running.  Toilet training is a thorn in your side (and mine), but you and I are making progress....maybe you won't be in pull-ups for the rest of your life.

You have an amazing vocabulary,  a wacky sense of humor, and a contagious enthusiasm for all things boy.  You'd live outside if you could and getting into trouble these days seems to be the thing you are best at.  Within half an hour of waking up on Saturday morning, the birthday balloons got stuck in the ceiling fan,` you are constantly trying to break my computer, and your toy gun can no longer go in the car because you wave it out the window like a gangster.

For your birthday you had specific requests.  From mom, a giant robot dinosaur.  From Grandma, a football helmet and jersey.  The dinosaur had been a weekly request since Christmas and the helmet a near weekly request for the last 12 months or so.  Good thing that you've got a great mom and grandma who didn't disappoint on the big day.

Little brother, I love you.  So do dad and Elliott and everyone else that knows you.  The chubby cheeks and sinister laugh are contagious.  And who can help but smile when you bust a move.  Life as a three year old is going to be full of changes for you - a new family truckster, a new bed, a new bedroom, a new room mate, a new brother, preschool....man it's going to be quite a year.  Hope you can handle it.

Happy Birthday little boy!

Happy Mother's Day!

Mothers are typically recognized today for all of the 'physical' things that they do.  The list is endless - cooking, cleaning, shopping, feeding, dressing, doing laundry, shuttling to school / activities, etc.

Not only does Annie do all of these things (very well), but she is an excellent mother from the perspective of all things 'emotional'.

Every day she sets aside her own desires to help to teach and train our boys.  Their intelligence and good natures are a direct result of the time that she spends with them each day.  They are kind, well behaved, creative, and fun loving.  She deserves the credit.  There is nothing better than seeing them working on a project (of her invention) at the kitchen table or seeing them leaning on her shoulder or listening to them laugh as she teases or tickles them.

I would like to recognize Annie's sacrifices today (time, career, interests) on behalf of our boys and say Happy Mother's Day and we love you.

just because....

Just because my boy had a cough and because I'm fat and tired....we cuddled up on the bed to watch a movie of my choosing.

Just because my island looked like a crap bomb exploded on it....

I cleaned it....

Just because I was overcome by an insanely crazy craving for a buttery and salty biscut from Kentucky Fried Chicken around 3:00 pm this afternoon....I made my own and they were delicious!

Just because the really cool lady I go visiting teaching with is awesome....She sent me this, wishing me a happy mother's day.

 

I'd say it was a pretty good day.  (The Chick and I didn't watch our movie today but we did yesterday and it was good, too.)

Happy Birthday, Ross

I know for certain that he feels like an old man today...at the ripe young age of 35!  He's been bemoaning this birthday for months and weeks, that it somehow marks the complete disappearance and decline of his youth.  Regardless of what he thinks, he is still young and active and perfectly healthy.

He will always look younger than me, be skinnier than me, be blonder than me, tan better than me and whine less than me.  That's pretty good for him.  His ear drums may explode and his ears fall off from the weight of constant headphones, but I'm pretty sure that when he's 40 (really old!) I'm going to throw all the head phones away and he has to be a real adult and participate in the sounds of life with us, instead of Big O and Dukes and Dave Ramsey.

This boy that I married is a good husband, a hard worker, and an excellent father.  He is so good with these boys of ours that the thought of him being the dad to a third little twerp is rather exciting.  He'll know just what to do.

In the anniversary card he wrote for me last month, he said he "loves me, etc. etc. etc."  I'm not sure what the etc. is, but ditto to him on his birthday.

etc.

etc.

etc.....

The Averary

First of all, Tracy Aviary is expensive.  I forgot how expensive it was.  In talking to my sister last night, she reminded me that last year we went only because she had a coupon.  Duh!  I should have taken that into consideration.

Admission was $17 for the three of us.  The itty bitty plush owls I got suckered into buying (named Snowy and Frosting) cost me $14. Thirty-one dollars is a lot of money for the hour of entertainment we got.  But, we did have fun and we did get to meet our dad for lunch (another $17) on the way home so that made the whole morning excursion worth it.

We just probably won't be going back....without a coupon.

It's not like we really like birds, anyway.

But, my boys do enjoy excursions that involve maps and navigation.  It's fun to let them be in charge and figure out where we are at and what we are looking at.  It is also fun to see them get nervous (along with their mom) in a space with free flying birds and get excited to see raptors and birds of prey.  Condors are cool, but red-tail hawks are awesome.  And we saw pelicans being fed big fish and we saw flamingos doing this weird dance where they would wave their heads in unison, squish together in a group and then peck the crap out of each other.  Pretty fascinating actually.

And, for whatever reason, I still remember this crazy story my old fart English teacher in 9th grade made us read, "The Scarlet Ibis".  It was a super cool story and ever since, I've been a bit obsessed with the beauty of that particular bird.  Good thing there was a whole herd at the Aviary....

Which of course, Wyatt cannot pronounce.  "Averary", "Aveararrry", and "Avvvvrary" were his best three attempts during the day.