TEN

Pieces of the life we've been living for the past decade have been falling away for a while now and I've barely noticed.

Suddenly, I realize that everyone in the house is capable of eating, bathing, dressing and completing numerous other tasks on their own. No assistance needed.

There are less and less little toys found laying around in random places. I smile a little when I do find the odd Lego here and there, I'm not ready for it to all be over!

There is no need to go to the baby aisle unless we are shopping for a friend. No need for diapers, bottles, rattles, or binkies. Those things have been long gone for quite some time. I feel the toy aisle becoming less and less of a draw. I know our days there are numbered too!

I rejoice in each new milestone and in each step we make.

But, at times, like the eve of my baby's tenth birthday, I step back and see where we are and think about where we have been. The Hubs and I are now parents to two very capable kids. Kids who are growing tall. Kids who are smart, funny, loud, quirky...and ours.

The countdown is on, we have passed the halfway point for having kids at home. It is beautiful...but can also make the heart ache a little...

Images like this one don't help with the melancholy...but the nostalgia sure feels good!

9/16

A Mama's Prayer

I was remembering this prayer, as I marked another inch he had grown on the wall.

4/12

Dear Buddy

Snips and Snails

At Two

Now I Am Three






I guess it's normal to feel this way, like time flies. We've just had so many changes, so many LIFE EVENTS since finding out that we were expecting Buddy. I finished grad school, Hubs changed jobs, I changed jobs, Hubs earned his doctorate. We moved across the state, to a new city with new friends and new jobs (again).

The one thing that remained consistent was our little family of four. We stick together, fight, laugh, play. These kids have a funny habit of growing up and it's incredible to watch.


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The birthday doughnuts just keep getting bigger!!

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4/11

The Buddy at 2 weeks

We spent a full day celebrating the birthday of our Buddy.

He's 8! On their birthdays, I like to tell my kids about how little they used to be. We talk about their quirks and firsts. Today was no different.

He's almost done with second grade and now I can barely lift him off the ground without a 1-2-3 jump count.

If I close my eyes, I can still remember this little guy. My tiny Buddy.

2/25

2011

Just because.

2/15

Spent a little time tonight with a friend who's got a baby and a toddler. It reminds me so much of those days when I had a baby and a toddler. She's got a girl and a boy too. Then my own two, now ten and seven, independently bathed, brushed their teeth, and got into bed. As I tucked them in and kissed them goodnight, I realized how great it is to enjoy each phase we are in. This phase has some definite perks!!

1/15

Now ages ten and seven, sometimes I get a little nostalgic about those two baby faces.

We have had ten smiling years of parenthood...

Buddy at 6.75

My Buddy amuses me daily.
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In the car, on the way to school - he informed me that my car is NOT a girl and he would be calling it a boy name (I always name my cars and they have all been female). "Mom, it's a boy. I can tell by his NUTS. And by nuts, I mean gaskets." Pretty sure he added that last part when he sensed my fatigue at yet another mention of male genitalia.

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I asked him today if he had thrown away his wrappers downstairs. "Yes, mom. ASK GOD. He will tell you that I did." Okay then.

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This Phase

July 2012 ~ Bee's birthday

No, Bee did not get glasses this summer. She sure likes to wear pretend ones though! She is a fourth grader with her own distinct sense of style.

Buddy is in first grade this year. He now takes spelling tests and tells us about lines of symmetry.

We are definitely getting used to being parents of school-aged kids. There is a new found independence, but also a new sense of busy-ness. Balance is something I am still seeking.

These days it's piano and flag football on Monday. Church on Wednesday. Volleyball on Thursday. Youth sports games on Saturdays. Mixed in with the work and recreational things we try to accomplish as well.

I looked at the calendar today and said out loud, "What??!". Can't believe we are halfway through this month. And that I do that every month.

Savoring each day for the day that it is.

And trying to capture the moments in a photograph, if I can, for when it is all a big blur later!

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blurry but good

June is gone. It was a blur of activities, all fun, but a bit exhausting. Baseball, softball, swim lessons, library trips, splash park, swim pond, playground, free school lunch, a grown ups only trip to St. Louis, a few nights of 4th of July fun.

I'm trying not to be one of those moms who is forever complaining about all of the stuff we are doing when we're the ones who made the choice to do it all! Instead we find joy in each day and sleep really well at night.

It is a really fun phase we are in right now. The kids enjoy most everything we do and are so much more portable. I think we are in the magical period of time between the exhaustion of having toddlers and whatever having teenagers will be like. I had read once that it is a very contented period of time to be in as a parent.


I plan to savor every second.

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SIX

My Buddy turned six. SIX. We are now the proud parents of two full-fledged school-agers.

There were cupcakes on Easter, a birthday cookie at his party on Tuesday, six candles in his birthday doughnut on Wednesday morning, and birthday singers with his ice cream sundae out to dinner Wednesday night. Celebrate, yes we celebrate, how could we not?! Life is grand.

On Thursday morning, he woke up to huge excitement. "MY TOOTH IS LOOSE!" Six for twenty-four hours and he's got his first loose tooth.

"It feels good to be six," said Buddy. I'll bet it does.

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SIBLINGS

It should be fun, right?! An egg hunt in the yard? No cousins here this year, but I hid our decorated eggs and set them loose to find 20. But no, it has to be a race. A competition. There must be anger and tears.

????

I love my kids, but man. They can drive me nuts sometimes.


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Wanting a little winter

It had been so warm, all through December and January. We loved being able to be outside all the time, but it didn't feel like winter...

We felt very lucky when we got snowed in a few weeks ago. It gave the kids huge piles of snow to play on and the grown ups an excuse to stay in their jammies for two days straight. Or maybe that was just ME.

Now if the warm weather would like to return, that would be just fine by us. We just needed a little winter.

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What we're up to....

 Daddy Daughter Date Night is a new tradition for us. The community parks and rec program puts it on each year and they have such fun. Hubs is a great dancer and Bee just raves about what a great date he is. It's a dinner and dance night and a great excuse to get all dressed up!

 The weather stayed so nice for so long this year. We had Marigold, the kindergarten traveling pet, a few Mondays ago. Buddy took Marigold for a bike ride and they played Legos. Never thought we'd be riding bikes in February!

Both kids had big school projects. Bee had to make a planet project (she chose a mobile) and Buddy had to make something for the 100th day. He chose 100 marshmallows and wanted an ELEPHANT. We did our best and it turned out okay. His teacher was surprised because their sound that week was for the letter E and we had written 'E is for Elephant' at the top. It worked out perfectly!

Basketball, piano lessons, family time...it has been a crazy couple of months.

I'm looking forward to spring (gardening! sunshine! being outdoors!) and of course, summer break. It will be here before I know it!

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48 months ago...

Four years ago, they were lining up animals and making a meal for them.

This morning, they are dressed as pirates, playing in the junkyard (toy room) with the animals all lined up, being fed.

Feels so good that everything doesn't have to change all at once.

Because honestly, so much has.

That same month, we took the front rail off of Buddy's crib.

He was nearing age two and kept climbing out. He would only have that binkie for two more months.

Tonight I'll tuck him under that same dino blankie. The same one he has slept with since he was in that crib.

Thank goodness it doesn't have to change all at once.

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Things that are always in short supply at my house: scotch tape, markers, printer paper, glue sticks.

But hey - we are all decked out for Halloween!

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A Fun Little Game

I realize that not everyone has this fun box of cubes, but you could use just about anything. Legos come to mind immediately.

First, Buddy would roll the dice. I had him tell me which two numbers came up, then he would count out that many cubes. Once he had the cubes, he found the corresponding card to put into the number sentence.

Then he would count up the total cubes and put the answer into the equation. At that point, he would read me the sentence. Six plus four equals ten. He touched it, he counted it, he saw it, he heard it.

His attention span was good for about five turns. We didn't play this game a lot over the summer, but I thought it was a fun idea!

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FIVE

"You melt my heart." I told him that, just now. "What's melt?" he asks me. I pat my chest and tell him that he makes my heart hurt, I LOVE HIM SO MUCH. Then they were playing a game, they are running away. He actually stopped to make sure I was okay. I pretended to be distraught, and his eye began to water for real, he didn't want to upset me. "I wouldn't really want to leave you", he wanted to make sure that I knew.

And now my baby is five. His birthday was Monday and we're spending a birthday week of family visits and a friend party and cakes and cookies and doughnuts.

I've registered him for school. We've got the kindergarten round up on Friday.

When he was first here, just newborn, we spent 10 tired days sleeping on the couch. I could lean over and lay him in his carrier and he would cry. He just wanted to be right there, up on my chest. I would pseudo-sleep, propped up, so terrified that I would let him slip or fall. I joked to J that he would think his name was Buddy, because I called him my little Buddy. Wherever I go, he goes.

It's been that way a bit this year. We spend hours and hours together. Buddy and me. It's been the perfect, perfect way to spend the year before kindergarten. The bond is solid, he has no question where we stand. If he will allow it, he will be my Buddy for as long as I live.

Sigh.

So he's five. And the years he has spent on earth have been beautiful and wonderful and fantastic.

And the other morning he informed me that herbivores eat only plants and that his eczema is complicated.

Oh the places he will go.


I love you, Buddy. With all of my melted heart.
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Lots of Tiny Messes Making for a Messy House

I love it that my kids are imaginative, creative, and honestly...pretty wacky. It's great that they are constantly creating new "games". They play puppies, homeless kids (set in different places, an alley, the dump, and other depressing type settings...as imagined from their centrally heated suburban home), they are super heroes, or shop owners. Today they are using some cardboard from recent online purchases to turn one of their bedrooms into a clubhouse. The styrofoam from inside, a mansion for their action figures, pet shop pets, etc.

I honestly do love it.

But, but, but...did you feel the but coming?!

Nice and neat

It is such a MESS! I love toys in their categorized bins. Labeled and tidily stacked on shelves. I enjoy clean floors and sorted toys and tidy rooms. It just doesn't happen very often without a lot of work on my part.

Can you see what's under the step stool? Take a closer look...

Apartment living at its finest, Wall E's come for tea...

I struggle for the balance between nagging them about picking up and sitting back to enjoy their creative process. They just ran past, I think this morning they are super heroes. Apparently my little guy can turn people into lemons...his sister can turn into a baby wolf or a grown-up wolf. They are currently howling at the moon.

Last night's adventure,

turning packing materials into a luxury condo...

The pet shop friends scored a corner penthouse suite...

Who needs a clean house when you can have fun like that!

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'09

One more year of memories, then I can get up to date with all of the fun we've had so far this year.
It seems a little silly, considering there is a post from last year I can look at. Merry Merry. But it's the PICTURES that I love to look at! They tell such a story all on their own.

Last year, it was all about snow. And snow. And snow! Luckily we had already had lots of family Christmas celebrations before the big storm, so no plans got ruined and we really did just enjoy the time at home.

I can't believe Christmas is next week already! In my head, we've just moved here...school has just started...I honestly have to look at the calendar every day to remember that it's mid-December!

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