Having Two Finally Pays Off

I'm not gonna lie. Most days having these two boys in the same house makes me crazy. They are 5 years apart so you would think that they wouldn't find much to fight about. But you would be wrong. Whatever Nathan has Sam wants it. Whatever Sam has, Nathan doesn't want him to have it. Nathan never puts his stuff away, Sam gets it, scuffle ensues, Nathan is too rough, Sam delivers a blood curdling scream, I resist bolting out the front door and staying gone for a few hours. They wrestle, they are LOUD!

And sometimes it is all worth it. Sam hates the car wash. It's really quite sad. I usually go when Nathan is in school. I try to console him, but he just ends up screaming until we come out the other side away from the scary foam and brushes. The other day Nathan was with us. He was very concerned when Sam started to whine as we approached the entrance to the car wash. Once we got in and Sam started to cry Nathan got out of his seat and went to Sam. He held him like this through the whole thing assuring him and saying "it's okay, shhh, shhh". Of course I cried. This is why we wanted two. This is why everyone needs a sibling. When I dried my tears I took a picture to look at later; when they are wrestling and screaming and I want to run from the house and never look back.

I guess I could load them in the car and take them to the car wash!

Sam Walks The Dog

Sometimes the dog just must be walked.

Another White Dash

Another White Dash is a song by Butterfly Boucher. The lyrics are:

There is something exciting about leaving everything behind.

There is something deep and pulling leaving everything behind

Something about having everything you think you'll ever need sitting in the seat next to you.

And I watch another white dash, another white dash, another white dash, fly beside us.

I think about this song every time I get in the car with my family. I love to go on road trips, just the four of us. And it doesn't really matter where we go. Okay, it does matter where we go. It has to be somewhere a few hours away. I do not relish the thought of packing up and driving to Utah, Florida or even Mississippi. All too far. But a few hours in the car on our way to discover something together is fun.

We took one of those little trips in February. We went to Chattanooga. Perfect distance. Kids don't' get too cranky. I don't' get too anxious. Dave and I don't' run out of things to talk about. Perfect. We visited the Incline Railway, The Aquarium, Red Robin (mmmm), and the Vandeheis.


Incline Railway - Overrated.
Aquarium - Loved It.
Red Robin - mmmmm.
Vandeheis - easy

Time in the car with everything I will ever need...priceless. Afterall, I did have my iphone. ;)

Sam = Funny

I think my last post about Sam was about his "sweetness". He is still sweet. It's his nature. But now, if someone asked me to give them one word to describe Sam, I would say "funny". Everything about him is funny. The way he walks. The way he talks. And especially his facial expressions. He has two famous faces. The "stink eye" and "big lips". At some point the two became one and we couldn't get enough of it. Anytime I needed to relieve some stress or just have a good laugh I would get Sam to give me the face. This was taken on the way back from Mississippi after Christmas. He had been crying. Hates the car. I was trying to entertain him. I was failing. I got the camera out to capture the moment. This is what I got. Sweet Sam. Sweet, funny Sam.

Christmas In Mississippi

We spent Christmas this year in Mississippi. (Dave's comment to that would be "this?" Christmas?) There were lots of kids (can someone say Valium?), and TOO much food. Oh, the food. On and on with the food. Actually the picture here should just be a truck load of food, but it didn't stay around long enough to take any pictures of it.
Most years thinking of something to get Dave for Christmas leaves me with a massive headache and him with a new tie. This year I came up the the perfect gift. I was so excited! I started working on it months before and I had to be really sneaky to get it done and to my mom and dad's without his knowledge. It was so much fun! Tis really better to give than to receive. (when you're not giving a lame present that you are ashamed of) Who'd a thunk it?
This double seater tricylce is one that Dave and his brother got back in 72. His parents bought it in Australia. And thanks to them for holding on to it all these years! His mom even had the assembly instructions and bolt etc. taped to the handlebars. We've been talking about having it restored for years, but never got around to it. Okay, when I said "working on it" before, let me clarify. I looked through the phone book and found someone else to "work on it" and took it to him. He did a great job. To add to the "excitement" for me, we were coming up on the week before we were to leave for Mississippi and it still wasn't finished. I had yet to work out the tiny little detail of how to get it there. Traditional shipping at this late date was going to cost me one of my children. I considered taking it with us in the van but couldn't think of a clever enough story to explain the huge box in the back. My dad rescued me by telling me that Greyhound will ship packages. Greyhound, you say? Yes! It cost me $40 bucks and got there the same day.

It was also a surprise for the kids. It was Dave's gift, but he has grown quite a bit since 1972, so I doubted that he would be able to actually "use" it. That would be up to the kids. I knew he would enjoy seeing them enjoy it the way he and his brother had. I also presented him with a picture of he and his brother Darrell on in back in 72 as the tricylce was rolled out. He may or may not have teared up a bit. It doesn't happen often, but I felt pleased with my offering. I had found something he would remember getting. Incidentally, he did think he was getting a XBox 360. I had been telling him that he was getting a big surprise. So the tears might not have been the sweet, happy kind. They might have been the "my wife tricked me" kind, but I prefer to think that they were the happy kind of tears you have when you know that someone loves you by the thought they put into a gift. Anyone can buy an XBOX....and HE did.. for himself.

"Back" Bloggging

So I have been a bad, bad blogger. Like every other area in my life, I struggle with consistency. But after a lot of reprimanding and peer pressure I feel like I can tackle this thing again...for today.

So I am "back" blogging. As I searched through pictures to remind me of the eventful things that have happened since my last entry, I found my first tasty little nugget. My family's personal history could not be recorded without this.

The story behind this is that I asked Nathan to get dressed. This means that he needed to take the long, long trek upstairs. ALL the way upstairs to find some pants. Nathan has many great qualities, but Nathan is very, very lazy! I have a basket on the stairs where I put things that need to go upstairs on my next trip up there. (hey...maybe he came by the lazy thing naturally, I'm not saying he didn't) Anyway, he found Sam's 12-18 month jeans in this basket and managed to squeeze his 6 year old body into them. The frightening bit of this story is that he was serious about wearing them. He just went back to what he was doing. It took me a few minutes to figure out what he had done. (I didn't recall buying him knee length, crotch hugging pedal pushers) It took some convincing to get him out of those things, but I did seize the opportunity for a few photos first.

My How He's Grown

From the first moment we laid eyes on him, Nathan changed our lives in more ways than we thought possible. He has already, in his six short years, taught me more about myself than I managed to learn all those years before him. He was long awaited and well worth the wait. We've spoiled him at times, been too rough on him, expected too much and tolerated more than we should, but he IS our first and thus has been somewhat of an experiment. All those things you tell yourself about how you will be as a parent BEFORE you are a parent come back to haunt you in ways you never thought possible. I've laughed more and cried more for and because of this little person than I ever thought possible. I've made lots of mistakes and am certain there will be more. Because of that, I am grateful that children are so resilient and so very forgiving. It's been six years since the day he came into our lives. It's going by all too quickly.

Nathan is a unique character. He is wise beyond his years in many ways, and more silly than I've ever seen. He's compassionate and worries about other people's feelings. He's trying to be a good big brother. He struggles sometimes, but his eyes light up when he sees his little brother. He's wild and has lots of energy. He's bright and likes to do things perfect on the very first try. He's up for anything and has a real adventuresome spirit. He will try anything once. He has a vivid imagination, and always has us in stitches with the things he says. To that end, I am going to post some of the funny and most often embarrassing things he has said lately.

One day after asking him the same question three or four times with no response, he finally looked at me and said "Mom, is your mouth broke or something because I think it's stuck in rewind."

He's also very fond of saying to me, when he thinks I've interuppted him, "Well, as I was saying..."

He barged in on me in the bathroom the other day just as I was pulling back the shower curtain and said "I feel like I should cover my eyes or something. Your chest looks really 'funKAAAY.'" (funky)

He has this ongoing dialogue about his bathroom business and why it takes so long. Somehow he has related moving his bowels to people at the carnival. Sometimes the lines are long. One time he said "Attention passengers! Keep your hands and feet inside the vehicle at all times." On another occasion, when it was taking him a particularly long time and I was pretty sure he was stalling because he didn't want to go to bed, he explained to me "Mom sometimes there are old people in the front of the line at the carnival and you know old people are slow".

On a more serious note he frequently has bad dreams and prays every night that he will not have them. A few days ago he told me that he had a dream that Heavenly Father came for a visit and gave Nathan a big hug before He left. Nathan said that he was pretty sure he had that dream because Heavenly Father was trying to keep the bad dreams away. I love his innocence and faith.

So, Happy Birthday, Nathan. I love you.

Thanksgiving

We had a quiet Thanksgiving at our house this year. Dave had to work the night before and after so we stayed here and enjoyed this holiday alone. I made enough food for a small to medium sized army and we did a few things to try to make it more memorable for our family. It was a nice relaxing day and I am thankful for all that I have and especially for the three boys I shared a table with that day.

End Of Summer

We marked the end of summer with a trip to Orlando. We drove down as a pre-birthday trip for Nathan. We took his cousin Oliver along because in Nathan's world Oliver makes everything better. Sam stayed with Grandma & Grandpa while we spent a few days at Islands of Adventure & Universal Studios. We had a great time and it was a trip we won't soon forget. To sum it up, here were each of our favorite things about the trip.

Nathan - having his cousin Oliver along

Sam - having Grandma let him drink out of a big boy cup. She is SO patient

Dave - being able to show the kids such a great time

Me - my first (and hopefully not last) full body massage. ahhhh

Kindergarten Fishes & Kisses

Just thought I would add an update on Nathan's progress in kindergarten. Since my last post about it we hit an all time low with two trips to the Principal's office in two weeks! One trip to the Principal's office was because he hit another child in the lunch room. Upon further examination I discovered that what started the conflict was that he tried to kiss this little girl. She didn't like it so she hit him and he hit her back. When I talked to him about it he said very matter of fact that he just wanted to kiss her and "actually mom there is another girl in my class that I want to kiss." We worked with him a lot and had lots of talks about keeping our hands and lips to ourselves. Dave blames the kissing on me. I'm a kisser. I kiss on my boys lots. Nathan kisses everyone. His teachers, his friends and it often gets him in trouble or puts him in awkward positions to say the least. His teacher has also been really great and he respects her tremendously which is a lot for Nathan. Since then he has only had his fish moved down a few times. He made it four out of five days last week. He has even learned to "turn the other cheek" so to speak if someone is bothering him. In his latest episode he took the "turn the other cheek" thing very literally when a little girl in his class kissed him several times. (5 times to be exact according to Nathan) He said he just told on her because kissing is a "no, no NEVER".

So... for now our fish woes are on the back burner, never far from my thoughts, but not keeping me up at night either. Through all of this he has taught me about faith. He reminds me each morning that we need to pray that he can be good at school. He says that if he listens Heavenly Father tells him not to do things sometimes. We have forgotten a few times and one of those times he had a not so great day. He immediately told me that it was because we didn't have prayer. What can I say to that? Out of the mouths of babes....