If Only I Could Read His Mind

I need some help distinguishing the motives of my 2 year old. Whenever he is misbehaving and I have completed my disciplinary action, he tends to find a way to make eye contact with me from his little "time-out spot," reaches out both hands, and in the sweetest (or most pathetic) little voice he says, "Momma, hug? hug?" So, my question is...is this manipulation or is he sincerely wanting to feel secure in my arms? Now, one would think that I have figured this kind of thing out by now...he is my third child, after all, but each is so different. I know that I am not going to scar my child by not immediately going over to him, but I would love to know what goes on in a 2 year old mind...as scary as it may be.

Pirates of Praise

Check out this "infomercial" that my brother-in-law and his brothers put together. My brother-in-law is the "truck driver" that gives a testimonial at the end, and my precious little nephew has a cameo to end it all.

We were all sick and didn't make it to church today, but we had church with the pirates. Watch and see what I mean. :)

I Am So Fickle

When I started this blog, my intent was for my posts to give an accurate picture of my life as a whole - not to just relay happy thoughts, but real thoughts. Well, after I published my last post about how much I enjoy my family, the tides quickly turned. That evening this thought crossed my mind, "If I hear the word 'momma' one more time (especially in that whiny tone) I am going to lose my ever-lovin mind." I feel so guilty at times because I eagerly anticipate 8:00pm. The last thing I want to be known as is a selfish mom. I sure hope I don't come across that way to my kids.

And just to drive this point even further, I just had to get up from the computer to change my 7 year old's poopy underwear - something I absolutey do NOT enjoy. For those of you who have never done that, its disgusting - far different from 1 year old poop.

And if I ever saw my husband, I'm sure he would have done something to irritate me over the last few days. I don't say all this because I hate my life...just being real.

Family Time

This is one of the fun family-time adventures we took part in this past weekend. And I say adventure because when I take my three crazy boys anywhere there is never a dull moment. I would highly recommend this movie. It was great!




We had alot of fun. The last movie we saw in the theater with the entire family was Cars and although Jacob sat appropriately and behaved very well for the first half of the movie, I ended up taking him for a walk during the second half. Not this time. He sat, stuffed his face with popcorn and coke, and actually enjoyed himself for the ENTIRE movie. It was wonderful!

I really do have an awesome family. I just feel like bragging a little. We have so much fun together. And although my kids (and husband :) ) challenge me in many different ways, I enjoy them so much!

Just Call Me Mrs. Frugal

I just now got around to uploading our Easter pictures onto our computer, and in the process of deciding which ones to post to my myspace page I was reminded of something that I was quite proud of. Even though I may be guilty of wasting money here and there, like at Starbucks or the frequent run through a drive-thru for a fountain Dr. Pepper, I do have a desire to be frugal.

Shortly after Valentine's Day I began picking up little things for my kids' Easter baskets everytime I went into Target. I'm usually accomplishing this particular task the day before Easter, but I wanted to spread the expense out over a few weeks this time. Josiah and Micah love stuffed animals. They can pretend play with these "pals" for hours. So, they usually get some sort of stuffed bunny in their baskets. This year, I thought I would try something different. When all the Valentine's Day "stuff" was 90% off I found 2 cute little stuffed lions with hearts attached that contained some mushy Valentine's phrase. After some minor surgery, they looked like any other (red and purple) lion and the kids loved them. I got so excited when I saw the stuffed bunnies in the store Easter weekend and they were mostly between $5.99 and $15.99 and I only paid .50 for my lions.

This may be a normal situation for some of you moms (or dads) out there, but I don't usually plan this far in advance and it was quite exciting to see the savings. Hopefully this is the beginning of a new practice.

Here To Stay?

...the nice weather, that it. What a beautiful day we had here today! I was unable to enjoy it because I was indoors at work all day, but Alex and the boys spent the afternoon tossing a baseball, kicking a beachball, running around the yard....what wonderful signs of spring. I am so thrilled because Alex will probably be taking Saturdays off from now on. He has worked 6 days a week, which includes evenings, far too long. And what perfect timing with the weather improving. We've already purchased our season pass to the zoo, we went our for ice cream on Sunday evening, and have even begun some spring cleaning around the house. Our schedules have been such that we are never all here at the same time. Thats not a good thing! Josiah was setting the table on Sunday afternoon and he paused for a moment, looked at his dad and me, and said, "Hey, this is going to be a nice family dinner." Yes it was, and there will be many more to come, including picnics on the beach, Josiah's favorite "meal."

The Fairy Tale Begins

The introductory sentence to Josiah's short story:

"Once a bono tiyme there wus a king..." :)

I am truly amazed at how much information has been soaked into that little brain so far during this kindergarten year.

One Out of Four Ain't Bad

Today when Jacob got home from school there was a little plastic bag in his backpack with a tiny little treasure chest in it. As many of you could probably guess, it contained a tiny baby tooth that Jacob had lost at school today. Now, its not the first tooth for him to lose. Its his fourth, but its the first that I have actually seen outside of his mouth. Where the first three have gone...I have no idea. Imagine going to brush your son or daughter's teeth at night, realizing that something is missing and he/she didn't come and tell you about it, he/she may not have even noticed, and he/she has no interest or understanding of a tooth fairy. Jacob may have no interest, but I am so glad to finally have a tooth. And Josiah is excited to finally have something to put under Jacob's pillow tonight.

Is It Actually Happening To Me?

As I was putting my makeup on this morning, I made an awful and actually very surprising discovery....my jawline is no longer defined! I mean, I know I am not at my ideal weight, but I had no idea that my face and my neck had developed such a close relationship. And a few months ago I began to notice the wrinkles around my eyes, and (sorry, Mom) my hands were beginning to look like my mother's. Does this sort of thing really start at age 34? I had no idea. I don't think I have ever really thought about getting old. And now that the signs are around me, its not that pleasant of a thought. But, I then look at my mom and dad, who are in their late 50's, and they are in great shape, better than me, and are very active and "young." So, hopfully genetics will play a part in my aging process.

When I noticed the not-so-perfect condition of my eyes, Christmas was right around the corner. I told my mom I wanted a really good skin care treatment, anything that would help start reversing the aging of my skin. I have a great life, but it is a stressful one. So, I expect my face shows and will continue to show my struggles. I've been using the product my mom got for me and I love it. Thanks, Mom.

I guess, to be fair, I must mention that my co-worker and I were talking the other day about having babies and I mentioned that I had my first at age 26. And knowing that I have 3 children, she asked, with a confused look on her face, "How old ARE you?" I told her 34 and she, being in her mid-20's, told me she thought I was her age. I really needed that!!

So, maybe there is hope for me. If I continue to lose weight and keep using my skin care products....who knows. Maybe I'll be mistaken for 21 next time. Ok, back to reality.

For Those of You Who Don't Know

Check out the following video post from Just a Girl. She is another Southerner living in New England and she has created a wonderful tutorial explaining the conjuction "ya'll." Its really funny. Hope ya'll learn something . :)

Wise Beyond His Years

Just thought I would share Micah's most recently learned phrase...."Yankees Yucky!" His father and I are so proud! :) "Train up child in the way he should go...." :) Go Sox!!!!!

I Love Good News

As many of you know, my youngest son was born with a congenital defect of one of his vertebrae. During the process of his getting diagnosed we also found out he only has one kidney. This was all discovered shortly after he turned one. He is now 2 1/2 and over the past year and a half he has undergone many x-rays, and MRI, an ultrasound, an ecocardiogram, a series of awful tests to check to see if his only kidney was functioning properly (and it was...perfectly :)), and many evaluations. Fortunately his doctor, at Boston Children's Hospital, is one of the top orthopedic surgeons in the country - one very good benefit of staying in this area.

After ruling out some congenital syndromes that could have been much more serious than a defective vertabrae, his doctor told us that surgery was inevitable. Now my oldest son was born with a cleft palate which was repaired when he was 12 months old, and I was a complete basket case the night before his surgery. And while what Jacob went through was major surgery, it seems minor compared to back surgery. Needless to say I am a bit anxious about the whole thing.

Initially his doctor thought surgery would need to occur within 6 months. He assumed that every time Micah came into his office to have an x-ray/check-up, that his back would have gotten progressively worse. Well, in September the x-ray showed a slight improvement, which was not "normal" for this condition. Last Friday he had another x-ray and there was, again, a slight improvement, which gave his doctor the confidence to tell us that Micah didn't need to be checked again for an entire year. I am so thankful! Surgery still seems inevitable, but the older he is, the better I'll feel about it. And who knows, this "flicted" vertabrae (as I like to call it) could continue to improve. I'm just grateful for any good news that comes my way. The doctor told us last week that Micah's got about a mild a case as one could get with this condition. Thank God!!!!

It reminds me of when I had an area of basel cell carcinoma removed from my arm. The doctor told me, "If you going to get cancer, this is the one to get." To me, that is good news!