My Brother...My Stepstool

Before Sebastian was born, I saw a picture in my doctor's office that brought tears to my eyes. It was of two little boys in bib overalls - the older one hugging the little one and titled "my brother...my protector." I loved that picture. While in Springfield today for a post surgical appointment, I made my usual stop at Macy's. While in the bathroom, Seth needed to wash his hands but couldn't reach. So I told Joe to be a step stool for Seth. It was so cute to see the boys working together. After sterilizing Joe's hands, we headed to CHuck E Cheese and Joe remembered his lesson. It was so cute.

A successful outing!!

Against my mom's advice to not take the babies out of the house until they're 15, I missed our library story time. (this is different than the one here in Forsyth) I have taken the kids to story time since Skyler was a baby. We've had the same story time teacher and she makes me feel so good everytime I talk with her - she makes me feel that I'm doing a good job in raising the boys. When I had the daycare, she affirmed me then also. So as hard as it is with the boys at times, I'm always glad I went to her story time. Miss Susan was in a terrible car accident about 5 years ago and lost most of her memory - yet she remembers me, my boys, Spencer's birth story, my first born Skyler and his best friend whom I babysat AND their favorite requested song "Old MacDonald." She even remembers how they went through their cowboy boot phase together. She really is a special person.
Whats best is they respond so well to her and behave like angels in her class. There are 3 regular attending girls. And girls tend to babble more than boys. So by doing nothing but listen intently to her books, they were better behaved than the girls. You don't know how good it feels to not be the mom chasing and scolding the boys. I got to be the gloating mom of the "well behaved" kids. (referring to a previous post, I refrained from giving anyone well meaning parenting advice during my momentary gloat)

An extreme coaster

This thing is so cool. Our painter ran out and bought his daughter one after seeing it!

Bunnies, Birthdays and BBalls

Have ever noticed how February seems to have 120 days but March flies by? Our March has gone quickly. We have 2 birthdays in March and Easter was early this year.
We took the next step with Seth and moved him out of the crib before he turned two. He has done well and Sebastian enjoys having a bunkmate. I've only gotten up once in the night to find him descending the stairs. I think he was going for juice.
Naptime is more of a challenge though. I could put him in his crib and he'd happily comply. A bed gives him more freedom to exercise his free will.
Easter was wonderful, but I was amused at all the spring/summer dresses on such a cold day. The kids hunted eggs with snowflakes falling this year, after we changed clothes of course.
Sethie got this cool roller coaster from Grammy that all the kids play on - heck even I had to try it out. This is the perfect toy to keep kids active all winter.
Sethie even got balls for his birthday - and lots of them. The child is crazy about balls. He calls basketball "shootball" from our season of cheering the kids to "shoot the ball."

A Perfect 10

Having much pity on me, my mom treated me to a day out last Friday. It was about as perfect as a day gets. It started with a massage - while she babysat the puppies. She then took me shopping for clothes and a new Easter dress. We topped it off with lunch. I could get used to days like that. She realizes how difficult it is to try on clothes while 2 little people destroy everything within arm's reach. Usually if I need something new to wear, its grab and go. Worry about sizing, perfect fitting later - or not. I must have spent an hour in the dressing room trying on everthing in the store.

On Saturday, Sierra had 8 girls over for a sleepover slumber party. She turned 10 years old! The girls ate pizza, cake and ice cream, sang Karoeke, painted nails, wathced a movie - all the good slumber party stuff. They were very well behaved - even helped clean up the mess the next morning. We had to pull out the parent voices about 11:45 though as Jeff had to be at church at 7:30 to lay minister.

Daily Log - Friday March 14

So I was relaying my daily antics to the rest of my family at the dinner table last night. After we all had a good laugh at my expense, Jeff says I need to make a diary of my life raising Joe and Seth. You see parenthood was easy until we had "the puppies." My firstborn, wonderful child - can do no wrong (in our eyes of course) - second child, sweet, sweet baby girl, wants nothing more than to please us - third child and second boy - and fun loving, sweet as can be, gentle soul. He is the one that cried at the movie theater when Tinkerbell died in Peter Pan. He was only 2 years old. The child's middle name is "empathy." Some woman will thank us for him (great husband material). Jeff and I could have gotten big head - boy did we know what we were doing in the parenting department. I read all the parenting books "your 3 year old" "your 4 year old" and up to 10 year old.
And then Spencer was born. But he wasn't even born right. He quit breathing before birth, sent all the staff into a frenzy. He gave up on descending the birth canal and had to be pulled out. He then had to be prompted to breathe, went straight to the nursery who sent him to NICU because he wouldn't quit irrately screaming. The first time I got to see him was before his trip to Springfield as we baptised him - a bedpan holding the holy water. We know this was all a tantrum because the NICU doc said he screamed his head off until I walked into the room. I did not leave his side during his NICU stay and he did not cry once.
Seth wasn't as bad as Spencer but he was delivered by the Canadian hospital nurses (both about 20 years old looking scared to death). Not only could he not wait for the anesthesiologist, nor the OB, but he decided he didn't want his first look of life outside to be the floor, so he was born face up.
I am most certain that these boys will be what sends me to the luny bin. We are pefectly fine if we don't leave the house.
But being the glutton for punishment that I am, I venture out to take them to the library story time. Upon arriving, I notice that Spencer did not bring his shoes. He is very responsible for getting his own hat, gloves, coat and shoes on. All but today. So since the story time has started, I quickly take off Seth's shoes, squeeze Joe's feet into them, and carry Seth into the library (thinking it doesn't look as bad for a baby to not have shoes as a 3 year old.) The group is painting dinosaurs. spencer won't have his picture taken by the librarian and won't paint. Seth, however, would love to paint but the class is only for 3-5 year old and the directions were very specific on this. So Seth grabs the brush, gets a big dunk of yellow paint and waves the brush. Oh he happens to hit the dinosaur amidst swings but he definately needs to work on his fine motor. As it happens, Joe now inists on painting. So here the puppies are fighting over the brush, Seth won't give it up, Joe desparately wants it. I'm thinking why do I bother. Then a very smart young mother with her first child offers me advice on how to cure Seth's red cheeks. With every ounce of my self control, I just smile give her a "wow, I'll have to try that" and continue juggling my puppies.
After story time, we headed to the mall to pick up gifts for friends. In Bath & Body Works, I'm studying a product and the clerk say "excuse me your boys are putting something on each other." What I see is Spencer holding a bottle upside down and squeezing with both hands over Seth's head and Seth holding a bottle upside down and squeezing onto the floor. Mind you, these two are properly strapped into the stroller and I've been looking for 1 minute. Luckily the products were testers and the clerk didn't make me pay for them. Not having a towel handily placed in my double umbrella stroller, I take off Spencer's shirt, sop up the mess, put his shirt back on, pay and quickly exit. Seth now looks like Albert Einstein and I'm not done with my errands.
After relaying this to my mom, she tells me to bring the boys over and go get a massage. Thank God for moms.

The Joys of Parenthood

You gotta love being a mom. I hop into the car, turn around and see this. We were going to Walmart. Humility is my middle name.


You also gotta love being parent. This is my youngest brother Justin holding his 6 month old baby girl Laney. Parental adoration begins immediately ......then wanes.
9 more days until Spring!!!

He's not a baby anymore :-{

I have postponed this for as long as I could. Jeff told me, grandma and poppo told me but I couldn't bring myself to do it. Until Sunday. Sethie got his first haircut. I had put it off because as soon as you cut the child's hair, he looks like a bigger child. Or should I say older. Seth is still my baby and I don't want him to look like a toddler. We also have been dragging our feet about taking the crib down. Skyler was out of his crib at 19 mos because we anticipated his next milestone. But with Seth, our baby, I feel I am being pulled, heels planted toward his growing up milestones. With our balcony, I also enjoy putting him in his crib and knowing that's were he'll stay for the night. We'll potty train this summer when he can run "au naturel."

Basketball video

Yes, it is as exciting as this clip looks.

2, 2, 2, 2

I'm trying to bring the jock out of my ballerina. We've tried softball, soccer and now basketball. She grasps the concepts of the games but is just too polite. It seems outrageous to her to take the ball from another girl while she's bouncing it. And even rude to get in her face when she's trying to make a basket. We have made progress though. She will now grab the ball if it happens by her and she politely waves her arms in front of the girl she's guarding. She still won't swipe the ball but there's always next year. Our incentive for this last game was that if she made a basket, grandma, Sierra and I would have a girls day out with manicures and lunch. We were all pulling for just one basket; the people around me even on the opposing team were cheering to "get the ball to Sierra." It was a fun season and she had many attempts but no scores. The school is having a short bball season just for girls for the next 3 weeks so our nails may get pretty after all.