A Little Elbow Grease

The boys are all about helping... Usually it's helping themselves to making a bigger mess, but every once in a while, they pitch in and get things done.  It's so refreshing when they tackle a little project; they're proud of themselves and I'm happy just that things are gettin' done up in here!  This weekend, we tackled their bedroom.  It needed a good vacuuming and the cups of milk that accompany them to bed were piling up.  I think some sort of a happy little circumstance happened where they had the attention and desire to be helpful and I had the patience to let them.

These pictures crack me up, they really did do a good job and now that I know that they can do a good job when they want to, it's surely something that I will be having them do more often.

And I couldn't resist reminding everyone of another time when the boys were showing off their vacuuming skills, albeit when they were much younger and not as skilled with the vacuum and it was really more work for me... But at any rate, they were cute and working together and it was freakin' cute, so eat it up. 

It's All About The Milestones, Baby!

We're hitting those milestones, left and right.  In a few weeks, Cullen turns five.  F-I-V-E.  I cannot believe it.  Cullen is wonderful for so many reasons, he's happy-go-lucky, he's hilarious, he has the best laugh, but he lacks a little bit of discipline and focus.  So, we signed him up for karate.  The first class was rough, he spent the majority of the time falling on the floor; apparently, he already knows what karate is all about- hitting, he's seen it on Power Rangers.  But the instructor had patience and made sure that he was focusing on the actual sport of karate and not just the action-shot highlights. He did a lot better during his second class, his focus and participation was much more refined.

Arden got signed up too.  He's a natural athlete and needs to harness some of his athletic skills for screaming, "watch 'dis!" as he jumps off of any spot that he can find. Arden has taken on the role of the younger brother: you fall, I fall; you laugh, I laugh; you make fart noises, I make fart noises.  Karate helps Arden harness some of his energy and also find constructive ways to show his talent, rather than just jumping from surface to surface.

And finally, the baby.  She's getting teeth.  Not going to lie, I thought for some reason that maybe she wasn't going to get any teeth, like they hadn't formed or something, so I was real happy when she started cutting the bottom two.  And as luck would have it, girl likes to eat.  She gets that from her Mama.  We started off small, baby food and what not and we've now moved up to anything Gerber that doesn't require teeth or small pieces of anything that's soft; bread, cake, pie, you name, she's tryin' it.

It's a very exciting time for our family, we're all learning and growing together.  The boys are becoming more athletically inclined old boys (Cullen yells at me when I say that he's a young man) and Jameslyn is chewing and once there's chewing there's talking and then there's everything else...  And that's what I'm looking most forward too: the everything else.

Mom Powers

Since I was little, I've wanted super powers.  Big ones like flying or lesser known super powers like Ma-Ti had on Captain Planet... and incase you're wondering, Ma-Ti's powers were Heart and Telepathy.  When I was little, I thought Heart powers sucked.  As I grew older, I realized that these powers may have been less dazzling, but they were no less important.

So, after my desire for super powers like flying, X-ray vision and invisibility waned, I thought that maybe I could come up with something more realistic and equally as impressive.  Recently, I came to fully understand a super power that was so unassuming, it nearly passed by me without recognizing the awesomeness of it's impact.  Drum roll please: I know the size of any article of clothing that my children are wearing, including accessories.

Harnessing these powers usually results in conversations like this:

Me: Did we wash those clothes from H&M?
Jim: Yes.
M: Did we wash her shorts?
J: Everything for her was too big to wear right now...
M: No, it wasn't.  She had shorts in there that were a size 4-6 months.  Can you please look again.

5 minutes later....
J: You were right, she did have shorts in there, they're being washed now.

Do all Mom's have this power?  It seems more than likely that they do.  As a mom, you get asked that a lot.  What size clothes does so and so wear?  Or what size shoe is so and so?  And almost always, a mom can not only tell you the exact size her child is now, but she can also give you their sizes for the next two seasons.

So for all those other super mom's out there, this talent might seem unassuming, but cheers to us who keep our children not only clothed today, but clothed in the Summer and Fall too... now we just need to figure out our costumes.

Wanted: A Baby Sister

Not too long after we told the boys that they were going to have a sibling, the gender talk started.  My husband was firmly in the boy camp- thought it was a boy and wanted a boy.  I, on the other hand, thought that it was a girl and said I wanted either a boy or a girl... but I won't lie now, I really wanted a girl.  As most things went in our household at the time, I figured I would be outnumbered in the wish-upon-a-baby-boy-star, but surprisingly that wasn't the case; the boys really wanted a baby sister.  Obviously, there's nothing that we could have done at that point to grant their wish, but they were the first two people I thought of when we learned it was a girl; her big brothers were going to be happy.

So far, they love having a sister and it probably has a lot to do with the fact that she's great.  On the rare occasion that she cries for longer than 30 seconds, one of them comforts her by saying, "I'm here Sissy, don't cry."  I realize that this kindness and concern may only last for another few years, and eventually they may become the cause of her tears, but for now I'm sincerely in love with their love for her.  They are much more gentle with her than with anything else in the whole world.  When they talk to her, they both use a soothing, higher pitched voice.  They, above all else, show me that they love her and that's all that I've ever really wanted, love for my children.

This week, I've been nearly ready to put her in her crib.  (I know, I know; that beautiful nursery that I'm so proud of hasn't gotten any real use...) We've been hanging out more in her room and she's spending little periods of time in her crib to grow accustomed to it, but when all is not well and Sissy is done with the crib, her brothers come rushing in and soothe her and tell her not to cry.  And she stops and watches them and then everything is right in the world again.