Poor Misled Child

I like the Veggie Tales. I think they can be cute and silly. 

But they're misleading my child. 

Poor Sammy thinks that there was really a worm (caterpillar!) 

named Carlisle with Jonah 

and that he must have disobeyed God too 

because he was also swallowed by the whale. 

(yes, I think it was a whale, not a big fish. No nasty letters, please)

“Anticipate the difficult by managing the easy”

**Title compliments of Chinese Philosopher Lao Tzu.**

I was planning on making Pork Fried Rice last night for dinner. I knew I didn't have any sprouts in the fridge (who am I kidding? I NEVER have sprouts in the fridge!) but what I didn't realize was that I was out of eggs! DRAT! (I should have realized since I had used the last ones in the morning for breakfast, but to admit that would be a blow to my sensitivity about my horrible memory...so let's pretend I just didn't realize it.)

Either way it turned out quite yummy, but I was afraid that Sammy wasn't going to eat it (too many snacks yesterday was making him impossibly picky). So rather than fight with him to eat his dinner I whipped out the trusty chopsticks. He loved eating with them. His father doesn't have the patience...I mean...doesn't care for them, but I love using chopsticks.They were kind of cheating chopsticks since they had the little paper rubber banded between them, but still he did really well.

New camera pictures at the park

Mommy, Wow! I'm a Big Kid Now!!

Ok, lame title. So what!

Sammy started preschool last week. Where has time gone? Seriously?! I can't even believe he's going to school (albeit just over 1 hour, just 3 days a week).  

He absolutely loves preschool. I bought a big blank calendar at the most awesome store (Lakeshore Learning something or other) last week and we put little school buses on it to show him which days he goes to preschool (I'd show a picture, but it's still a work in progress since I want to laminate everything and make some other things to put on it). I'm hoping it will help him straighten out the days of week in his mind since he randomly chooses what day it is (don't think it works that way!)

I would love to put up a picture of him as a sweet innocent little baby to show you the then and now kind of thing, but long story short I can't get to them because of a piece of junk laptop that is keeping all of my pictures from me. 

There's my big boy!

The sun was in his eyes. Poor kid.  

He finally looked away to keep the sun from hurting his eyes (or as he says "Mommy, the sun keeps looking at my eyes!")

Tomorrow a fire truck is going to preschool for them to climb on and explore. He's so excited!! He said they're all getting fire hats and rides on the fire truck. I didn't hear that and seriously doubt they're getting rides. What can I say? He's a dreamer like his Mama! ;)

Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to get some pictures of that.

SAHM Syndrome

One of my favorite bloggers posted this today and I totally relate so I thought I'd share it with you.

She talks about feeling like she was once a somebody when she worked outside the home and learning to see being a stay-at-home mom the same way. (my paraphrase - I hope I didn't change her thoughts on that!)

I couldn't agree more! I sometimes feel like a nobody being a SAHM. Although I don't like to work so I love being at home! My struggle is with the survival attitude (SAHM Syndrome), going about my day just trying to make it though and not really taking advantage of the time that I have with my boys. In my head I know that there's no better place to be than at home raising them, but in my heart I feel like a snot, spit, cheerio covered toddler keeper who doesn't have a real purpose. 

That couldn't be further from the truth and I'm learning to set goals. I've been forcing myself to focus on where I'd like our family to be in the future, what type 

of family I'd like us to be and that helps me in the little daily things to keep my perspective as to why I do what I do. When I remind myself that I want my boys to being loving I'm able to deal with them more lovingly rather than get frustrated and annoyed at their whining or fighting (not that my boys ever do those things!! It's just an example!)

I've been thinking about writing out my goals and putting them up somewhere so I can see them constantly and not forget that how I live and treat my boys now will, to a great degree, determine what type of fathers, brothers, sons and husbands they will be someday. (total run-on! sorry!)

(this picture is from July, but I don't think I've posted it yet and I just love how Sammy is holding onto Caleb and kissing him!)

A Nose in Need Deserves Puffs Indeed!

Sammy has a cold and he apparently thinks that his stuffy nose is visible on the outside. When he woke up during the night to use the potty he pointed to one side of his nose and said "Mommy, see that big ugly thing there? That needs to go away!"

Then when Daddy went in to get him up this morning he said "Daddy, my nose isn't working right....both of my noses aren't working right!"

Poor kid!

Sammy Says Part 3.....

....yes, it's because he talks a lot!

Sammy: "Mommy, when I grow up to be a grown-up you can't hold me anymore."

Me: "Nope, because you'll be too big. But I'll always hug you like th

is" (proceed to hug adorable little sweet boy) "What do you want to do when you're a grown-up?" (hoping for another cute answer)

Sammy: "I don't know, Mommy. We can think about that later." (ha! got another cute answer!)

Sammy: "Mommy, Daddy's at the boys' soccer game?"

Me: "Yes"

Sammy: "Mommy, you help the girls soccer team"

Me: "No, buddy. I don't play soccer" (do not explain that it's due to being fat and out of shape largely [no pun intended] because of giving birth to you, my 11 pound wonder!!)

Sammy: "Mommy, you do play soccer a little bit. But I can teach you to play soccer! Tomorrow I can teach you to play soccer outside. You have to start the ball and then 

kick it into the goal!"

He's a sweet boy! 

He drives me insane when he talks so much, 

but the benefit is the cute things we get out of the constant chatter!

Sammy Says Part 2

In the car on the way home from church last night:

Sammy: "Mommy, it hurts me!"

Mommy: "What hurts you?"

"There's a mosquito in there!"

"In where?"

"In my sock, Mommy. It's biting me!"

"Can you reach it and get it out?"

"No, he's stuck in there! He doesn't know how to get out!!"

This morning:

"Mommy, can I have one pooshoo kiss?"

TRANSLATION: Hershey kiss

Sammy Says

"Mommy, what am I going to do when I grow up?"

"I don't know, buddy. What do you want to do when you grow up?"

"I'm gonna drink coffee and eat hot peppers just like you and Daddy!"

"Oh really? Ok! What else do you want to do? Are you going to work? Maybe be a doctor or a baseball player?" (we have this all figured out for our boys. one will be a doctor and the other will play baseball so they have enough money to buy us a nice house and take care of us!)

"I'm gonna play baseball and get lots of strikes"

"You want to be a pitcher?"

"Yeah.......and a batter too and get lots of home runs!"

Simon, a.k.a. Samuel Says...

After being stung by the bee yesterday I asked him if it was a small or big bee and he said "It was really, really big and it was like a circle (I assume that means round although I've never seen a round bee myself!) and it had crumbs on it" (We figure he meant fuzzy! =))

Bzzzzzz

Unfortunately, the bee that Sammy encountered today wasn't as friendly as this little guy! He was playing on his water slide and the little buzzer (heehee) was lying in wait in the grass and stung him on the side. The crying didn't last long at all and it's only swollen up a bit around it. We'll watch him very closely though since I'm allergic and this is his first sting so we're not sure if he is as well. They say it isn't a genetic allergy, but who knows! My being allergic has made us vigilant (ok, somewhat psycho) about bee stings and the like.

This'll make you smile!

DISCLAIMER: Please forgive the lack of clothes!=

We picked blueberries till we were blue in the face...

...not really. We actually picked less than $3 worth since we saw that the already boxed up ones were only $1.50/lb and the pick-your-own were $1.80. Seems so backwards! If it weren't for the boys we would have just bought the boxed ones and called it a day, but we had a good time picking.

We rode on the wagon out to the fields. Caleb was really sweet (what else is new?!) and waited patiently for a taste. Grandmom showed him how to pick them himself and before we knew it he was picking and eating almost as fast as his brother! By the end he was grabbing them off the bushes as we pushed his stroller along the aisles!

Sammy was really funny. I noticed he was eating a lot so I asked him how many he had in his basket. He looked in and then looked back up at me and said "oops!" His basket was empty after about 15 minutes of picking! It's so true that if they were smart they'd weigh the little ones before and after to make more money!

YUM!!

He and I have very different ideas of what saving for winter means!! =)

picking...

...eating...

...grinning because his basket is nearly empty!

Walking back to the wagon (to buy the pre-boxed blueberries!!)

HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!

Fruity Fun

About half what we ended up with

This wasn't posed or anything! ;)

Look at that sweet boy!

Today we went to pick strawberries and cherries with Grandmom, Aunt Sarah and "my cousin baby Josie" (as Sammy calls her). You'll notice that there are no pictures of picking strawberries. That could be because Caleb was a crab and Josie wasn't thrilled with the carrier so Grandmom put the two of them in the corner which left Sarah, Sammy and I to pick strawberries. Well, actually it mostly left Sarah since Sammy was running up and down the aisles and I had to stop quite frequently to make sure he wasn't getting too far. Sorry, Sar! It was pretty hot and we didn't get a ton of strawberries, but the fun was to come!

Next we went around to the other side of the farm and picked cherries. I love to pick cherries! It's so fun! We picked from just one tree and ended up with TONS of cherries. We parked the two strollers under the tree in the shade and had a blast picking bunches and bunches of beautiful, delicious cherries. Someone (who will remain unnamed) even climbed the tree to pick. The kids were great and we came home with more cherries than I knew what to do with!

Silly

Sammy and I were doing laundry this morning (which in itself is awesome. He loves doing it so much that I get tons of loads done because he's constantly asking to go put more in!) and he said to me "Mommy, we don't get in the dryer. That wouldn't be very good...because I'll get trapped and someone will cook me!" Huh! How's he know he'll get cooked if he climbs in there? I'm not gonna fight it though! Maybe he'll never try it...wait, he's a boy! Regardless of what he knows about dangerous things he'll still try them won't he?! Oh well! I tried it when I was a kid and didn't "get cooked"!

I think I passed on the Accident Prone Gene!

Growing up I was always hurting myself (wait, now that I think about it, as an adult I haven't done much better)! I've split my head open two times, torn muscles in my thigh and pulled muscles away from my ribs (super painful!) I've destroyed the tissue around the knuckles on my hand, broken my toe from dropping a very large jar of peanut butter on it, broken a finger from closing it in a sliding door of a minivan, popped my shoulder out of it's socket, had a number of sprained ankles, wrists, etc., got 2nd degree burns from my eyebrows clear down to my belly button while 9 months pregnant (whatever you do, don't try this one at home!!!)
So, I was vacuuming on Wednesday and Sammy was running around and climbing on and off the furniture having a blast like he usually does when I vacuum. He loves when it's time to get out the vacuum. He insists on dragging it out for me and turning it on and off. Well, I don't think he'll be so enamored with the vacuum after the experience he had with it! I kept telling him to stay out of the way (because it was taking twice as long - not because the thought had even remotely crossed my mind that he could get injured!!) I didn't realize that he had come up behind me and was trying to get to the couch, but he ran into the handle of the vacuum as I pulled it backward. He got wacked right in the face! It hit him so hard I was waiting for the black eye and blood to pour out of his nose. I felt horrible! I injured my child!! It turned out that it only left a red mark down his face from his eyebrow down along his nose to just above his nostril and it wasn't even real dark or noticeable.
Then tonight we went to my parents to pick up my dad's lawn edger (I am so excited to edge our lawn!!! but that's for another post!) My parents have a disappearing screen on their front door (kinda cool idea, but a little strange if you ask me!) Anyway, to get it to go up you tap it with your foot (the lazy way, I'll admit, but it's how we've always done it) and it zips up the door and rolls away out of sight. So, I tapped it and up it flew, but not before the handle wacked Sammy on the forehead! Again?!?! This can't be happening! Now he has a one inch raised red lump on his forehead. I'm such a bad mommy! My only consolation is that the poor child needs a haircut so bad that it covers most of his forehead so I don't think many people will see this lump!
*Aimee, if you're reading this I hope it makes you feel a little better that you're at least not the only mom who's kids will need therapy some day for the injuries their mothers have caused them!! =) *

Conversations with Sammy

The other day while we were all eating dinner Sammy started asking some deep questions about Jesus. He asked what we do to make Jesus happy and so we talked about how sharing, being kind, telling people about Him, taking care of each other, etc are all things that make Jesus very happy. He asked if Jesus was coming to our house and if He would eat with us at our table (Dining Room). We said we were pretty sure He wouldn't be eating with us. =) We tried explaining that we can't see Jesus, but that He's always with us and loves us and takes care of us. It's a little hard for his 3 year old mind to understand, but it's really cool that he's asking all of these questions and hopefully will be concerned with making Jesus happy so disciplining will go better! ;) I really wish I had written the whole conversation
Today we had a conversation that went something like this:
"Mommy, we're not going to work?"
"No. We're not going to work"
"Just people go to work?" {Wait a minute! What's that supposed to mean?! We're people!!!}
(Sammy again) "I work, Mommy!"
"You do? Where do you work?"
"Downstairs, Mommy! I work with my tools downstairs!" (he has a toolbench and tools in the basement! funny kid!)

I also want to brag a little about how well he's doing with potty training! We started on Monday. He had 3 minor accidents (one was after going on the potty just one time and another he ALMOST made it to the bathroom!) Yesterday he didn't have any accidents at all! He has woken up dry from naps both Monday and Tuesday and both Monday and Tuesday night he stayed dry all night!! Today he did have an accident. He did #2 in his undies...needless to say it wasn't very pretty! =/ Overall I'm THRILLED at how well he's doing and wondering why I didn't start sooner (ok, truth be told I was scared to death!!!)
Seriously, the kid makes me nuts, but he's a blast!!!

Awwwww! My little twin sister (ok, she actually came out first, but she wouldn't have had I not been suffocating her!) is having a baby soon! She finally made it to the end! She'll go into the hospital tonight to be induced so by tomorrow there should be a new little baby in the family! Hooray!
For months now Sammy has been asking me what Aunt Sarah's baby's name is and I've told him that I don't know yet (Sarah and Mike decided to not find out the sex of the baby...yay! we love surprises!). I tell him that when God says it's time for the baby to come we'll know if it's a girl or a boy and it's name. He always says to me, with such confidence, that it's a girl! We'll soon know! Today I told him that Aunt Sarah and Uncle Mike will be having the baby real soon and I told him that this baby will be his cousin. Mind you he already has three cousins (my brother's kids) but I don't think he understands the word cousin yet. Anyway, later when we were eating our lunch he asked "Mommy, I'm still a boy?" To which I obviously replied "Um...yeah! You're STILL a boy!" What in the world kind of question was that??!! Then he said "but soon I'll be a cousin". Ok, now it makes a little more sense! "Yes, soon you'll be a cousin!" He's so funny! He's the kind of kid you need to have a video camera on constantly because he's always saying and doing the funniest things!
Anyway, congratulations Mike and Sarah. We can't wait to meet the new little cousin! We're praying for you!!

The past few weeks

Ok, I promised details of some of the things we did these past few weeks so here's my feeble attempt.

Sammy had his 3rd birthday on Monday while his grandparents were visiting. I do feel a little guilty that I didn't blog on his birthday, but things were nuts here! We had a nice day together.
He opened some gifts in the morning.


We went to the zoo which is easily Sammy's favorite place to go!


Yeah, he's brushing the goat's butt! Whatever!


Just look at this sweet little bundled boy!


We went to Pat's for cheesesteaks for lunch (passed the Rocky statue on the way and had to take a pic for my father-in-law who thinks it's just the coolest thing!)


We went to dinner together and just had a really nice day.

His party wasn't until Saturday and he was so excited! We had family and a few friends over and Sammy had a great time!


This was Sammy's big gift. We had it waiting in the basement for several weeks and he was beside himself he was so excited to set it up! Once it was ready he got in and jumped for nearly 2 straight hours!!


Sammy asked for a Boz cake for months before his birthday. He wanted a "Boz cake with Mickey Mouse candles" (we got one because it was insanely expensive to get more than one!). He decided he liked the Mickey Mouse plates and things so it became a Mickey Mouse party, but with a Boz cake. I must say that it was SOOO much work to make that cake that during the 2.5 hours it took to decorate it I got him the say that next year we can get a Friendly's ice cream cake!!


Opening gifts with one of his friends


Caleb picked a doozy of a weekend to get his (and our) first ear infection! We had my parents over for dinner Thursday night, a house full of friends over Friday night, Sammy's party on Saturday and Caleb's dedication at church on Sunday. He was feeling much better though by Sunday so it was a really nice day.

He squawked a few times when he saw Grandmom up front taking pictures. He gets so excited when he sees her! =) So cute!


Overall we had a busy, but great weekend. Caleb's dedication was another time for me to get all emotional and grateful for all that God has blessed me with. I can't begin to tell how blessed I am to have such a wonderful and loving husband, two sweet beautiful boys and so many extended family and friends who love and care for us! God has been so amazingly good to us! I was also reminded of all we went through during my pregnancy with Caleb and thank the Lord for His protection and healing and for a happy and perfectly healthy little boy who is an absolute joy!