Overheard

This came while we were sitting downstairs in our pajamas this morning playing Zachary's little Thomas the Train computer that teaches letters, among other things.

Mom: Which letter is different?
Zachary: The h (He was right too)
Mom: You're right Zachary! How did you know that was an h? You are such a smarty pants!
Zachary: No, I'm not wearing pants, I'm wearing pajamies!

Ah, I love the literal world of 2!
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Overnight

Kyle has been getting up at night. He usually just gets up once, knocks on our door, we take him back to bed, and he stays the rest of the night. It's a little annoying and we're working on a solution, but it's pretty easy to deal with. Last night, he did this once. Later in the night we heard screaming. My hubby went to check on him and found throw-up on his blanket, pillow, and pajamas. However, he gave him some Motrin for his fever and he went back to sleep until morning. He seems a little lethargic today, but no fever and hasn't thrown up at all. He won't eat, but that's another story. Hopefully we are not gettting the dreaded flu that has been going around, but if we are, I will not complain because we have been extremely healthy this winter and anything that we do seem to get, goes away quickly, with Zachary taking the brunt of it. Hopefully, there will not be too much laundry associated with this (if you catch my drift), and we'll be back to normal tomorrow.
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Easter Sunday

Yesterday was Easter, and while we were on the move, it still felt very peaceful. I guess that is how God wants us to feel. We had a wonderful breakfast at church and then an Easter service full of Alleluias (my personal favorite). Afterwards we went to my mom and dad's for dinner, an egg hunt (the eggs contain a little cash, always tons of fun and greatlly appreciated), and then coloring eggs. Kyle really liked the pink and blue. I have to get the pictures from my mom, so look for those later. My sister's fiance was supposed to spend the day with his family, but his mom got sick and he decided to come out instead. Not fun for his mom, but we were glad to see him. Zachary didn't nap, but I didn't let it bother me. We had everyone home and in bed by 7:30. My hubby and I were in bed by 10:30, which lately is early for us. I don't know if my mom felt overly rushed or busy, but I fully enjoyed the day and was able to concentrate on the wonderful and mysterious resurrection of our Lord Jesus. To Him be all the glory. He is risen! Alleluia!
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Peace & Quiet

Everyone is napping right now. There is such a calm that settles over me when I know that everyone is asleep. We have decided to go to the Maundy Thursday service at church tonight. It doesn't start until 7:00, Jacob and Kyle's bedtime. I know that we are making the right decision to go. Jacob and Kyle have really started asking questions about Jesus and what happened and how it could happen, so we are going to have them listen and hopefully get a little better understanding of what happened and why it had to happen. It's really exciting to see Christ working in their lives. I have the same prayer every Christian mother probably has for their children, and that's that they grow up to know and love God. That is the greatest peace and quiet that there is.
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Nightmares

As I watch my kids sleep this afternoon, I started thinking of all the things that can go wrong. I know that this is a dangerous place to go, but they are just so beautiful when they are sleeping that sometimes their waking moments truly give me nightmares. I decided that I needed to put this one event in writing, just as a reminder of what could have been.

We were still living in Woodridge, and Jacob and Kyle were about 17 months old. It was early spring and I was itching to get outside. We had hardly been outside at all last summer because I just didn't know how to do it with 2 babies (8-10) months who didn't want to sit in a stroller all day. Anyway, so this was one of our first trips outside when everyone was walking-the boys had gotten some push toys for Christmas and were dying to actually use them. I got Jacob's shoes and jacket on and was having some trouble getting Kyle to cooperate with the plan. So, I took them both out, but sat down at the edge of the garage to get Kyle's shoes and jacket on. In the meantime, Jacob had grabbed his push toy and had raced down our driveway and over to the driveway next door. We had been over there a few times before and while I was aware of where he was, I wasn't too concerned.

As I was wrestling with Kyle to get his shoes on, I heard a garage door open. I looked out and saw another garage on the court opening, no big deal, it was really far away, so I didn't think anything of it. Next thing I know, I hear a crash and I hear Jacob crying. I jump up and find that the garage door next door had also opened up and the husband was backing up in his great big pink pick-up truck. He had knocked Jacob's push toy over with the back wheel on the passenger's side and Jacob had fallen over. Thank goodness that the man had stopped when he felt the crash or I don't think that I have my Jacob today. I truly believe that was one of the scariest moments in my entire life.

Kyle, on the other hand, just sat and watched me, and as I came over holding Jacob and crying, Kyle began to cry too. He seemed to sense how scary this all was. I decided that I had had enough excitement for the day and we trapsed back indoors for the rest of the afternoon.
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Overheard

This was while I was driving my hubby's car. I had Kyle sitting in the back seat.

Kyle: You can go 45 on this road Mom.
Mom: Thank you.
Kyle: Then why does it say 50?

Ah, my Kyle living in his world of absolutes. I don't know how to explain to him that we all go a little faster than the speed limit says, and the only reason is because we can!
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Irrational Fears

Okay, so after the disaster that happened at bedtime with Kyle a few weeks ago, I think we may have bedtime figured out (again). It seems that Kyle is afraid to be in his room by himself with the door closed. Now, he has been sleeping for the past couple of months with his closet light on. Everyone in my neighborhood knows when Kyle goes to bed because he has a nice walk-in closet with a window right in the middle of the front of our house. Anyway, even that wasn't pacifying him. So after talking with my mom who put him to bed one night, she discovered that he just wanted his bedroom door open. Anyway, we have been leaving it open as he falls asleep and he hasn't gotten out of bed once. Then we close the door and turn his closet light off after he is asleep.

Since he lost his clock in his room (he couldn't get out of bed in the morning until the hour number said 7--and he was pretty good about it), he has been staying in bed at night, but not in the morning. He has been waking up before 7 and coming in our room asking why it is taking so long to get to 7. Finally we have convinced him to stay in bed and if it feels like it is taking a long time to get to 7, then he should probably go back to sleep. He hasn't been out of bed in the morning or evening in 4 days. If he continues this tonight, he can have his clock back tomorrow night.

I have no idea why he is scared, but I know how to fix it, and sometimes, being a parent just means fixing the problem, even if you don't understand it.
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Overheard

This one comes from Jacob. Both Jacob and Kyle are infatuated with speed limit signs. When there is a car on the same road as us going the other way, Jacob has started to say,

"That car is going way too fast. Maybe he didn't see the speed limit sign and said, 'Oh, I guess I'll just make it up!'"

Occupying Time

In this long, long, long winter, we are constantly looking for things that we can do inside that don't involve running. My kids love to run the circle, but with three little ones in the house, it is just asking for trouble. They can occupy themselves for short bursts of time, but they inevitable need an adult to step in and keep the peace for longer periods of time. Jacob and Kyle love to play games, but often Zachary is too small for them and it becomes a balancing act of helping the boys follow the rules and finding Zachary something to do.

This is the new game we have found. I used to play this game at my grandparent's house when I was little. It's obviously been updated since then. It's called Hi Ho Cherry-O, and even though Zachary isn't technically old enough to play it, it's a counting game and Zachary loves to count. He is getting pretty good at it. The highest they have to count is 4, so Zachary does pretty well. We have to basically tell him what to do with the rules of the game, but it occupied time in our house for about 45 minutes. Yea! Something else to do! See you when the weather warms up for sure!

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What? We Can Go Outside?

Yes, that was the question asked by my children last Friday. We had such beautiful weather, warm enough for no coats, yet it has been so long since we were able to be outside for any length of time, my children actually asked why we were going out. For the last couple of months we have gone outside with a specific goal in mind-shovel the driveway, make a snowman, go sledding, that we have forgotten how to just be outside and enjoy it.
Up and down our street people started to venture out. Even though we live within a few doors of each other, we never know what we are doing in the winter and it was nice to get out and chat and find out how everyone survived their lockdown.
Kyle finally got to get out that baseball glove that he has been dying to use. He's pretty good too. He loves to throw the ball up in the air and catch it. Is that how the great players started? He always wants to play catch, and sometimes I am all about doing it, and other times, I feel like the grinch and tell him no. Luckily, there is an 8-year-old boy across the street who loves to play catch with him. There is truly a blessing in that.

Zachary thinks he is all that. He loves his tricycle. We just have to figure out how to teach him how far he is allowed to go on our block. It will come!

Jacob still hasn't quite figured out what he is going to do outside all summer. He loves to ride his bike, but with his limited space, he bores of it easily. He wants to go on bike rides, and I'm sure we will go on many, but he needs to find something to do when we are home as well. We'll find something!

All in all it was a great day. Everyone had fun and slept really well that night!

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Time Change

Although this is definitely the easier of the two time changes for our family, we still had some trouble. I think the picture tells all.

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Overheard

Just a quick one from lunch yesterday. I had asked A, the little girl I babysit for, to finish the last few bites of her sandwich. She was being a bit uncooperative. The following ensued.
Kyle: A, do you want to take a bite with me? Here we go! (Chomp)

My hubby often does this with the boys at dinnertime when they don't want to eat what is being served. I love that Kyle was able to pass on the same things that work for him to someone else. I know that he is definitely going to be well-liked as he gets older, since he seems to have empathy for others and can recognize what to do with it. What a lucky momI am sometimes!
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The Rush

Do you ebay? If you do then you know what I am talking about. That rush you feel when you are about to win an auction, and then the relief when you know you have won.

My sister is getting married. For her bachelorette party, she wants to go to the Cub game with her fiance and all their friends and then separate in the evening for seperate evening activities. Of course we have to go on a Saturday which makes tickets more expensive.

The tickets were sold out the first day they went on sale, so I began checking ebay to see if there were any available. Of course there were. We had to wait six long days for the auction to end. See, my hubby is really the ebay king and knows how to get just about anything we decide we want on ebay.

On the day the auction ended, the boys and I were eating lunch and my hubby was pulling up the listing on his work computer. We use that because our computer at home is way too slow. With about four minutes left in the auction, he heads to the bathroom. I couldn't believe it! I was so nervous and I wasn't even the one doing the bidding, and he was going to the bathroom! Anyway, he got back in time and put in our max bid with 30 seconds. He spent the next 30 seconds refreshing his screen over and over and over again until the auction had ended. We are all watching him in the kitchen. You can see him just getting more and more anxious about it. Finally we won. My hubby had to take a few minutes and calm down because his heart was racing from all the excitement. Mine was too and I didn't even have anything to do with it.

After we both calmed down we talked about the rush that comes from bidding this way, we talked about what had transpired. He worried that he had actually put the bid in too soon. I guess it's his calm demeanor beforehand that helps him win almost every auction he enters.
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Parenting 101

Seriously, I need a course in this. Tonight at bedtime, Kyle made a decision to come out of his room within minutes of being put to bed. As usual, I walked him back to bed and locked his door (we have turned the lock around on his bedroom door). Usually, he gets a little upset but goes back to bed and falls asleep. Then when I go and check on him, I leave the door unlocked. Never do we leave it locked overnight when we are not awake. Tonight was a whole different story.

After coming down from locking the door, I immediately heard a hard thunk on the door. This is Kyle's new thing. He was throwing things in his room at the door. It started with board books and cars, the few toys that he actually has in his room. So, I went in there, never looked at him or spoke to him, and took those out. Next he was throwing his little suitcase that his clock sits on (I had already taken the clock out with the toys) and his monitor, so I took the suitcase, the bulletin board that sits on the floor, and the monitor. Next he found some storage containers that are part of his captain's bed and he threw those at the door. I went in and took those out. Then he went in his closet and pulled out the bins that are in there that I have been putting clothes in as the boys have been outgrowing them. He threw the lids at the door. I went in and took out all the bins, laundry basket, and little basket that I keep their socks in. Then he started jumping and taking things off the wall. We have thermometer secured to his wall. He jumped and pulled that down and threw it at the door. So I went in and took everything off the wall or shelves that he could possibly get to. He took the crank shafts off of his windows and was throwing those at the door. Again, I went in and removed them. Finally, he has a low and high hanging bar in his closet. He pulled the low hanging bar out of the closet and was hitting the door with that. I went in and took it. All the while not looking at or speaking to him. He then resorted to just banging on the door and throwing things that didn't do damage, such as stuffed animals and his pillow. Finally after and hour and a half, he was asleep and we unlocked his door.

I don't know how else to handle this. He just seems to want attention and is obviously willing to do whatever it takes to get it. Rest assured there are going to be big consequences in the morning for what happened this evening. Also though, I think that I am going to try and give him some more one-on-one time during the day so that maybe we won't have to go through this again. We have never had any kind of serious problem at bedtime before. In fact, my mother has often commented on how well my children go to bed. Where have I gone wrong?

Pretty sure this takes me out of the running for Mother of the Year. Darn, and I know that I was so close too! It also means that I have clean up outside of Kyle's room. That's where we stacked everything as we took it out of his room.
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Haircuts

Today I took the boys (all three of them) for haircuts. We went to the SportClips because that was where I had the best coupon. I am not opposed to shopping around when it comes to their haricuts. We'll do the Great Clips, SuperCuts, whatever I can find. I don't feel connected to any one place. I am always so amazed at how well they sit and how excited they are to go every time! Jacob always wants to go first, followed byKyle. Today Zachary was asking, "When my turn?" I am telling you, getting a 2-year-old to sit still for that long is truly an accomplishment in itself, and he looks so stinking cute, I almost don't know what to do with myself. Anyway, the rest of this entry is me gushing about my boys, so if you can't take that, stop reading here!

Now that they have their cute little buzz cuts, I can't believe how old they all look. I know that I am a bit biased (yes, just a bit) but I really think that I may have some good-looking boys. I am afraid that they may break a few hearts as they get older, not that I am ready to consider that age yet. We are struggling enough with learning how to wipe our own bottoms! Anyway, I know that God has given me these boys to raise and I (we) are doing the best we know how, but if they really do end up to be quite handsome, is that going to change the way I need to parent. I know that looks aren't everything, but if the girls are going crazy for your boy, does that mean that some lessons are going to have to come early, even if I don't feel they should be ready for it? Kyle is going to be popular no matter what because he has one of those personalities that makes everyone look to him as a leader. I guess we'll just have to rely on God for guidance and see what the future holds!
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A Maze

My 4-year-olds have a new passion! They love mazes. Now, what kid doesn't like a good maze? We had one of those Kumon books and they pretty much finished it in a matter of half an hour, granted there were two of them doing the mazes, but still. So, today I printed out some free mazes on the internet and Jacob and Kyle worked hard on them, if they only took them 10 minutes. This was after they waited so patiently for them to print out, which took about 5 minutes as well. Oh well, it gave me at least 10 minutes of free time!

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Bad Back?

Okay, so I have been troubled all my life with a bad back. I can remember feeling it even in high school. My mom also has back problems, so it seems as if I have inherited it. Anyway, I always just kind of lived with them, taking it easy when my back was hurting and such until one day after Thanksgiving of '06. I woke up and I had no feeling in my right foot. My back had been bothering me some, but the numbness really scared me. Anyway after seeing a specialist and having some tests I found out I had a herniated disc in my back. I had spinal injection and then three months of physical therapy and fortunately was able to fix the problem without surgery. In fact, the physical therapist even found that if I played volleyball (my lifelong love) my back would look and feel better the next day. Since then my back has flared up two times. Once last fall. I did my exercises and it seemed to get better. Then again, this week. Monday night I could hardly move. I was getting a little worried. I started up my exercises again (I know, I should have never stopped them) and tried to figure out what I was going to do if it still hurt this badly on Wednesday. I have been playing volleyball for a friend every Wednesday for the last few months. As the week went on, I decided that I would be okay to play. After playing last night, my back feels better than it did all week. Is this just my body's way of saying it's time to get moving again? I hate that I don't do much in the winter. Also, I am not supposed to lift much (i.e. Zachary is too heavy, but how can I not lift him?) and I am definitely not supposed to lift and twist at the same time. It's just so hard to expain to everyone (especially my sister) that I cannot lift things, but playing volleyball actually seems to be good for my back. I feel as though people are wondering if I am just saying my back hurts to get out of doing certain chores (bathtime--too much bending, twisting, lifting, etc. plus, I do hate bathtime) or if I really have a problem. Well, I have the MRI, on CD-ROM nonetheless, and there is defintely something wrong! But look how long it just took to explain it to you!
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Geography Lesson

Okay, so we were doing some cutting today. Kyle asked for just a piece of paper and started cutting, with the words, "I'm going to make a picture. I'm going to make the ut." I had to ask him what "ut" was as it is not in my vocabulary. He said, "You know, what God made." We had just read the story of creation and the fall of Adam and Eve a few days before, so I figured out that he was talking about the earth. Well after a carefully placing each piece that he cut, I asked him about his picture. Here is how he described it.

Kyle: "This piece (the piece next to his right hand) is Florida. This piece (the long skinny one above it) is Colorado. This (the big square in the middle) is a bridge and there is water underneath it. This piece (the one way over on his left) is.....where is longer than Florida Mom?"

Mom: "You mean Mexico?"

Kyle: "Yeah, this piece is Mexico. That's my earth."

I have a good friend who is a geography teacher. I really hope that he doesn't see this. He will lose all his faith in me as a mother and a former teacher. But hey, at least he's trying!

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