Vacation- or as I found out- a "trip with the kids"

We just went away to Lake Michigan for a few days for "Vacation". It's in parenthesis because it was anything but relaxing. Traveling with a toddler is hard. Traveling with OUR toddler, this particular toddler is excruciating. I am exhausted. It's going to take a few days to recover. The last day of our trip we went to Michigan's Adventure and it was crowded, COLD, rainy. Never again on a Saturday, y'all. It started rainy right after we got there and I just wanted to turn around and leave. The (older) boys had a blast, though. I may have cried a little at the end, because I felt so stressed and overwhelmed by my youngest.

Still, we got to bond with my Sister's family, and that was FUN. Watching Matthew discover Lake Michigan was FUN. Even the rainy day with all the card playing was fun, even if not so much for the children. (Thank goodness we had a do-over day planned for an upcoming weekend.)

And this:

Makes it all worth it. Until next year, Pentwater.

Complete

I've always scoffed at the idea of a family being complete. Everyone says that as a way to justify their means, right? I never felt that feeling of complete after Jacob, our second child was born, I always had longing and wonder. I assumed it was because I was longing for a girl.

So we decided to try again, even though I was scared about having 3 babies, and I felt so selfish and irresponsible for bringing another being into this world when I wasn't sure I was a good enough parent for two beings already. I also felt guilty about breaking with the status quo. Having two children is "just right" in the eyes of many, while three seems excessive to others. The looks that I received when I was pregnant and people found out I was a having a third boy were not very reassuring, either.

The pregnancy was the toughest of all three and I thanked my lucky stars when I was done with that process (seriously, I smiled through labor, even BEFORE the epidural) and I had a healthy baby boy. Still, I worried about the affect this baby boy would have on my other boys.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that instead of resentment on their part, there was so much love.

 

 

Ten months later, this love is still there, and you know what? Today I am making it official: I feel our family is, in fact, complete. Matthew was always meant to be here, and now our family feels finished. This was right for us, for our family. The picture is complete, and it really is amazing the difference I feel. Now I don't even pay mind to what others think. Dang I'm lucky.

 

The Eights

I'm 6 days late in writing this, but I now have an eight year old son. Eight years, how did this happen? He's no longer my little baby. He now gets embarrassed by his parents acting goofy in front of his friends. He wants hair gel to do his hair. He has certain clothes that just are cooler than others. He had his first "big boy" party with only friends from school. (10 7-8 year old boys playing laser tag... yeah, I'll let that sink in). He has a ton of baseball cards and loves rough and tumble boy things, like fishing and archery.

Yet...

He is still so sweet and considerate. He loves taking care of his baby brother. He is always looking out for his middle brother. He loves and cares for everyone in his family and his friends. He somehow turned out awesome, which is all his doing, because I was a clueless mess with him. I love that little guy. Sometimes I don't realize it, but I am lucky to have been blessed to spend 8 years with this boy.

Thanks for being awesome, Drew.




Baby




Big Boy

Thankful

Everyone is doing this 30 days of thankfulness thing on Facebook, and I decided to do it on my blog. I know I'm a little far into the month, but honestly this is the longest Matthew has napped in a while, and I got a lot of my chores done.

I'm going to do these in video form. It should catch everyone up on the past 4 (!) months.

*BTW This took me all day because of Mr. M. He is sweet but he is a handful!

Beginnings, Endings, and In-Between Things

So this week is the last week of school, FINALLY. It seems like the kids were going to be in school forever, or at least that's how they made it sound.

I will have a 2nd grader, a Begindergartner (yes, we are delaying Kindergarten for a year. Jacob has the academic and social skills of a Kindergartner, but his focus and emotional skills need some fine tuning before taking an all day Kindergarten plunge. Luckily Begindergarten is all day. I am so happy that I will get some alone time with the baby... in 3 months.)

Battlestix is still chilling in my belly. I am 37 1/2 wks. I am feeling pressure from everyone to get the babeh out! as to not ruin their entire summer. As if I have a choice! I am so ready. Also: I am not ready at all! I don't want to go through labor, and mostly the aftermath! Wah! What was I thinking? I feel like this is my first baby, I feel nervous like it is. With the second, it had only been 3 years, it's been almost 5 with this one. Wish me happy easy soon labor fairy dust, please.

7 Years with a lovely boy...

Today is my oldest son, Drew's Birthday. I can't believe he is seven! He is such a big kid. Last night he asked to cuddle with me, once again proving that just because he turned seven, he isn't going to be less sweet.

Happy Seventh Birthday, my wonderful sweet boy. I love you more than words could ever say.

Christmas blues

After Christmas this year, I looked at Mr. B with tears in my eyes (hormonal ball of blah that I am right now), told him as much as I loved Christmas, I was so glad that it was over.

Glad I was done preparing for Christmas while being bone-numbing tired and simultaneously nauseous.

Tired of doing everything alone while he was working 80 hour weeks.

Christmas Decorations went down on the 27th.  So over it this year.

Not to say it wasn't a wonderful Christmas. The kids had a great Christmas, and I loved spending time with my family.

This year my spirit just wasn't in it like normal. I didn't even get to all the activities I wanted to do with the kids. I can't wait for my energy to be back to normal. I'm still waiting, and it does seem to be getting better, along with the nausea, over the past 2 weeks.

The reason my energy is back up could be that Mr. B has been home helping out. He goes back to work tomorrow, and I'm sure we are back to 80 hour work weeks. It makes me want to cry, if I think about it. So I won't.

Luckily it should slow down for him.... at the end of summer.

On better news, Jacob has been coming up for names for the Baby. I'm trying to keep a running tally. Here are some of them.

Girl Names
Battlebug
Keisha
Flower
Leaf Cruncher

Boy Names
Battlesticks
Football Dance
Christmas tree

In the meantime, I am busy planning a Birthday Party for Drew, who will be 7 at the end of January. Can you believe it? I remember when he answered every question like a little dutch boy.

How about all of you? Are you glad the Holidays are over or are you sad to see them go? I always look at January as the beginning of looking forward to spring. The days only get longer from here!

See, look how I am being positive! I'm sure I can keep it up until the end of summer.... or at least I can try.

Slacker

I'm a bum. I admit it, I've been preoccupied and too lazy to post. I didn't even post for Jacob's Birthday! (Hangs head in shame.) I've just been tired and BUSY. Since I can't seem to post any real entries, here is a list post about what we've been up to, because I love lists (and they're easier-again, LAZY).

1. 4 is a good age. Definite  improvements in my little guy has made days with him fun again!
2. The boys are playing so nicely together, it's awesome. Probably due to #1.
3. The dog is driving me up the wall. Seriously, he needs to be entertained constantly. It's very annoying.
4. Trying to get the house ready to sell.
5. Busy trying to get Christmas all taken care of. The decorations are up, some gifts, bought, cards ordered, so we are getting there. I make Christmas cookies in the second half, so I need all my time for that.
6. Trying to keep Drew, who is 6 1/2, to believe in Santa Claus. It's getting really dicey, he keeps asking very sensible questions. My favorite was "I don't know if Santa Claus is real. I don't think he would come down the chimney, ours is so dirty."
7. Trying to remember to move our Elf each day. Remembering is hard, yo.


Uh... that's all I have for the moment.... More to come, I promise!

WW: Pure, Unfiltered Happiness

The result of their first ever convertible ride.

For more Wordless Wednesday, Visit 5 Minutes for Mom.

Not worth the fight

Jacob decided he did not need a booster seat for the booth at the restaurant last night.

Drew wore just jean shorts and slippers to bed (the house was 80 degrees).

Jacob wanted cheez-its for a snack immediately following breakfast this morning.

We went to the library yesterday and my 3 year old son Jacob picked out Ben 10- Alien Force as the book he wanted to check out. Drew asked me why I let Jacob check out a book that was obviously too old for him.

"Because, honey," I told him. "Some things aren't worth arguing over."

After all, that night Drew wanted to stay up past 10pm to watch a show and Jacob wanted to jump headfirst off of the couch. Those decisions did merit a discussion.

What do you let your kids do because it's not worth an argument? Share it with me. I also let them have chocolate milk when we go out to eat sometimes (the horror).

Sherlock Bones and The Mystery of the Rotting Food

photo © 2010 Marianne Szeto | more info (via: Wylio)
There seemed to be a string of rotten food that was being found in the Bee house by our Detective Dog, Louie. Every day it seemed he was bringing me a slimy apple, orange, or the like. I couldn't help but wonder, where he was finding all of this food.

I followed him and discovered that he was finding all of these fruits and vegetables under the pedestal of our table. We had a food waster on our hands, but the question was, who was it?

I had my suspicions.

Mr. B had his suspicions.

Louie had his suspicions....

photo © 2009 Procsilas Moscas | more info (via: Wylio)

.....wait that was just what Louie was hoping to find instead of a rotten banana.

So I confronted Mr. I-hate-all-fruit-and-vegetables himself.

He denied it, of course. I then made a blanket statement to all of the boys: There better be no more food found on the ground or else!
Honestly, I had no plans for or else, but it sounded ominous enough.

Enough to scare Drew the food-waster straight, for a while.

Then one night we had asparagus for dinner. Drew took forever eating his asparagus. As I was cleaning up, I saw he had all of them still on his plate. I turned my back 30 seconds later and voila!

"I'm done!" He exclaimed.

"Really?" asked Mr. B.

"Really."

"I don't believe you Drew, where are you hiding them?" I said suspiciously.

"No, honest!"

"Oh okay... this is your chance to tell the truth, and I won't be mad. Did you really eat them?" Asked Mr. B.

"Really I did!"

"Okay," I said. "We are choosing to trust you."

Drew jumped up from his chair. As soon as he did that, we investigated, and noticed he had thrown all of his asparagus in a cardboard box that held Mr. B's old hats.

Upon further investigation we also discovered old apples, bananas, mushrooms... basically every fruit and vegetable  he was supposed to be eating this week. The boy is going to develop scurvy.

So the boy got a timeout, a talking to about lying and wastefulness, and a supervised eating of some new asparagus.

After our anger subsided about the lying, my husband and I got some good laughs, I got a blog post, and Louie got a treat for being a super sniffer who hates fruits and vegetables as much as Drew does.

The Tooth Fairy is a Jerk

One of the things that has been happening in rapid fire fashion in the Bee house is that my son is slowly becoming a toothless wonder.

Last week he lost his first front tooth. He pulled it out himself it was so incredibly loose. Honestly, this boy was so excited about the tooth fairy visiting, he could barely contain himself. I posted his picture on facebook with a witty caption, put the tooth in the designated tooth pillow, and put him to bed.

The next day when he woke up, he came into my room, his voice trembling. "The tooth fairy forgot to come!"

My first thoughts that morning: Well, shit.

Wiping the sleep from my eyes, I told the sad boy "well, maybe she is running behind. I'm sure she would never forget".

All morning he was the saddest little boy you have ever seen. I have never felt so terrible. The Tooth Fairy is a jerk, and the Tooth fairy is me.

When I called Mr. B at work, hiding in our bedroom, I was beside myself. We agreed to have the Tooth Fairy visit while Drew was at school. Mr. B hurried home to place the dollar (yes the Tooth Fairy leaves a dollar, no she is not familiar with inflation) in the pillow pocket, and then picked Drew up from the bus stop.

Drew greeted Mr. B, saying "I have bad news Daddy, the Tooth Fairy didn't come last night."

Mr. B quickly responded, "Well, let's check- she might have been running late." Drew found the dollar, crisis averted.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cut to last night:

Drew lost his other front tooth.
Mr. B had to work early.
I would have to be the Tooth Fairy.

I was nervous. I had to wait until I knew he was asleep. I kept reminding myself. I got ready for bed, laid down and began to surf the web on my Ipod, and...

Omigod. How did I almost fall asleep without doing this again? My mind is like Swiss cheese, I tell you.

I snuck into his room and placed the dollar. Then I breathed a sigh of relief.

The Tooth Fairy is now less Jerk, more Awesome in our house. Crisis averted.... until the next lost tooth.

To be continued....

Wordless Wednesday- Babies!!

I clearly have behbehs on the brain, but look at how cute (and bald) my little guys were!

Drew

Jacob

For more Wordless Wednesday, visit Two of a Kind, Working on a Full House.

Snowmaggedon 2011 (Subtitled: Why I should not be allowed to play with photoshop)

Thankfully this happened this week.... last week we were at Great Wolf Lodge Celebrating Drew's Birthday!

I'll tell you what, I enjoy snow much more as I'm floating down a lazy river in 84 degree goodness. Fun was had by all. Thanks to the H and M families for joining the B's!

Also, please go enter my Giveaway on my Giveaway blog. You would make me very happy if you did!

Mr. Six

Dear Drew,

Today you are six. I know it's a cliche, but it feels like it was just yesterday that I walked waddled into the Hospital to deliver you. I remember that I had no idea what to expect and I was so nervous. I still didn't know what to expect when I held you for the first time. The only thing I knew was that I loved you. I would sing to you and hold you and get teary eyed because I loved you so much. You were and are my sweet little boy.

Now that you are six, your tastes have matured so much. You love science and building things and nature. You amaze me with your intricate buildings, and your scientific reasoning. Your favorite show is Mythbusters, and you remember every detail of every experiment they complete. Even though you love Mythbusters and science shows, you will watch Fireman Sam with your brother because you love him, and maybe because it is a little funny. You will often spend a lot of time going crazy and running around, that is when you are not putting your Daddy or your Nana and Papa to task for cleaning (you are the best supervisor).

Sometimes you get so frustrated, and I see so much of me in you at those times. Try not to let that anger get the best of you.

Sometimes you get a little nervous around other children, I also see so much of me in you at those times too. Don't worry, they will like you. Your best friends are your cousins, "T" and of course, your little brother, Jacob. Jacob loves you and looks up to you so much, thank you for being such a good role model for him.

Thank you for being my cuddle buddy, my silly boy who always has a smile for me, and who can charm even the grumpiest soul. We love to bake cookies, read Shel Silverstein and Harry Potter, and watch movies together. Even when we argue, you always tell me that you love me. I am so lucky, such a lucky Mama. I hope we are always close.

Love, Mommy

Construction Zone

I like to call this "art installation".

Building 2

Improvising with Christmas tree decorations

Building the tallest tower

What once was  packaging for glass bowls now is a boat.

Most of the mess in our house is Drew construction related, but I let him keep making things, and keep all of the recycling/trash around for him to build with. He amazes me with his ideas, and I can't wait to see what he comes up with next.


Besides, one day I'm hoping he builds me a house. Hey,  a girl can dream, can't she?



The Most Important Resolution

I really enjoyed spending time with my boys this weekend. I loved the pirate fort, the sledding trip and the cuddle time.I loved it so much that I realized something important this weekend. I feel like sometimes I am so wrapped up in myself: my stress, my job, my obligations, that I miss out on things with my children. I often miss out on the ability to enjoy my life and can only concentrate on trudging through.

I'm not sure how to resolve this, but I am hoping that I can spend more time enjoying my family and less time in my head, worrying. I have the best family, and wonderful children. I need to savor every moment when they are this age. I need to be present for this time. Yes, they are crazy and they run and yell and cry a lot, but they will only be this age right now, and I want to savor every giggle, eyelash, hug and kiss, silly story, fight, and tantrum. How could I miss moments like this, drowning in my own thoughts?

There will always be stress in my life, but one day the boys won't always be little, and I will never get these moments back. I resolve to live in the present with my family. To get out of my thoughts and live in the now. It's the most important resolution I can make. I love my guys.

The Tales of the Lost Glove

photo © 2010 Boaz Sachs | more info (via: Wylio) We have lost 4 Gloves at the Bee house already*.  Yes. 4. It's only DECEMBER!

I can't even begin to tell you how annoyed I was that Drew lost a glove the first week of wearing them. I promptly bought another pair, and told him to HOLD ON to that pair, and to look for the lost one. He was so excited when he came home from school the next day to tell us he had found his glove, unfortunately, he had lost one of his OTHER gloves,the replacement glove. I looked in the lost and found at his school for his replacement glove, and found a glove that looked like his spiderman gloves. Surely he couldn't have lost THAT glove, he wasn't wearing them at school, I thought. So I left it there.

I guess you know where this story is going.... it WAS his glove! needless to say, I was a little irate.*

We found a life (and money saver) though, Mitten Keepers Clip - Best One-piece Mitten Clip (Blue)**. These things should be issued to all parents of Elementary schoolers, they are awesome. He doesn't enjoy keeping his mittens on a string, but I enjoy knowing where his mittens are at all times. They are better than mitten clips, they go through the whole coat. Happy times are here again. (Yep, I know I need a life.) Now I just need to worry about his hat, scarves and boots....***




* Not all of our gloves that we lost were of Drew's doing. I lost my glove in the parking lot of the movie theater the FIRST night I wore them. So I really have no room to talk. Still, searching in the morning for gloves can make you become a hypocrite.

**Amazon affiliate link.

***In no way was I compensated for this, I just bought a great product and wanted to share!

Christmas Card Calamities

There are no words for the experience of trying to take my annual Christmas Picture by the Christmas tree, or should I say the three experiences... because the first two times I had no success. The third time I had a little success, enough for me to call it a day!




This collage is my life in a nutshell. We live for chaos er, Christmas.

My Dinner Tonight: A Screenplay

Guess Who's Not Eating Dinner
photo © 2004 Josh | more info (via: Wylio)

Cast of Characters:

Janna: a 30-something harried Mom of two boys, Jacob and Drew
Mr. B: a 30-something Dad of two boys, Jacob and Drew.
Jacob: 3 year old boy. Loves to push buttons. Has an adorable pouty face. Is shirtless to avoid spaghetti stains.
Drew: 5 year old boy, going on 13. Loves to be dramatic. Has been known to be called "The drama king" at times. Is shirtless to avoid spaghetti stains.


Janna finishes putting the last bowl on the table. Dinner! Go potty and wash your hands.

Drew, giggling, runs past Janna. Jacob follows Drew.

Janna: After 5 minutes of running. Come on boys. Go potty and wash your hands now.

Drew: I need to poop! Can I go poop?

Janna: Sighs. Yes.

Mr. B, Jacob and Janna sit down after washing their hands.

Jacob: Spaghetti! Yum! Yum! Makes panting noises.

Janna: Okay, go ahead and eat, Jacob.

Drew sits down at the dinner table. What's in this?

Janna: Food.

Drew: What kind of food?

Janna: Good food.

Mr. B: What does he want to know?

Janna: He wants to know what's in the spaghetti.

Mr. B: It's pasta and spaghetti sauce. Just eat.

Jacob looks at Janna, mumbles something that sounds like Just give me the cheese, bitch.

Janna: Did he just say what I think he said?

Mr. B: No, we must have misheard him.

Janna: Jacob, how do you say that nicely?

Jacob: Please can I have the cheese?

Janna: Here you go. Passes the Parmesan cheese. Drew, why haven't you eaten any spaghetti?

Drew: Because I am soooo cold! Brrrr.....

Janna: Drew, it's 72 degrees in here, it's not cold. Eat your food.

Drew shakes uncontrollably. Drew: I can't. It's just sooo cold. Chatters his teeth.

Mr. B: To Janna Just ignore him.

Janna:  To Mr. B I can't help but want to L-A-U-G-H, he's being so ridiculous.

Drew: I can't t-t-take it, I am sooo cold.

Jacob starts singing at the top of his lungs Jacob: DO DO DEE DO DO DO.

Janna: Jacob, sing in an indoor voice.

Mr. B: Drew, eat two bites and then put on a shirt.

Drew: Nods his head, says in an annoyed voice O-kay!

Jacob: Pouts. Mommy, you make me sad when you tell me to stop singing.

Janna: I'm sorry Jacob, but we are eating dinner, and we need to use indoor voices when we eat dinner.

Drew: I ate my two bites.

Janna: Really?

Drew: Reall-y!

Janna: Okay, go put on a shirt. Jacob eat some food. Drew leaves the table to put on a shirt.

Jacob: I'm not hungry. I want to play with my trains. I like my trains. Bitch Bitch Bitch.

Janna: Pauses.

Mr. B: Jacob that's a bad word. We don't use that word.

Janna: Jacob, what do you think that word means?

Jacob: It means I'm sad because you said to not use that word and I just want to play with trains. Looks nervous. I said airplane. That's what I said, airplane. Pouts.

Mr. B: He doesn't know what that means.

Janna: It does mean that he called me a ____ earlier.

Mr. B: Yeah, but he doesn't know what it means.

Janna: What I don't get is we never use that word. I mean other swear words I could see.

Mr. B: I know, it is weird.

Drew sits down at the table and begins to elaborately tuck in a napkin into his shirt, for 5 minutes.

Mr. B: I think you got it Drew. Just eat now.

Drew: O- KAY!

Janna: I'm done. Stands up. I have to go and blog about this now.

End scene.