Peaks and Valleys

I probably had the absolutely worst day as a mother to date. I don't want to talk about it. It did not involve any physical abuse, so don't worry about that.

I just had to write it down so I remember.

For the record, five years old has been the hardest age for me to date. Well, at least until adolescence. A friend of mine told me that her pediatrician told her that 5 yrs old was similar to adolescence.

If so, I am in for trouble and am going to enjoy age 6-12 for as long as possible.

We were having a great day - he had school and then we went to an awesome playdate at a school mate's home where he had this huge blowup water slide with a climbing wall and everything. We had so much fun.

And then from 4:30pm on - I had the worst day as a mother.

DONE.

Advancement

Last Tuesday, Michael got moved up to the next level in his swim class! Sweet! So proud of our little guy!

2 weeks ago, they handed us our pre-registration slips for the next swim session and I was handed a slip for the same class. AGAIN.

SIGH.

I did not make a big deal out of it but just realized it is a process to learn a life skill. So I continued to encourage Michael because I didn't want to DIScourage him from trying his best.

He is having so much fun in the water and has gotten so comfortable in it. He is getting braver and braver and his teacher is good about challenging him and encouraging him!

Yea!

What to do in the country

Michael loves making tents out of our dining room chairs:

Apparently, one blanket wasn't enough.

Watching a flashlight going around in a circle:
We don't get out much around here. :)

Here he is pretty pleased in there:
It was a bit dark inside. SO I moved his little lamp from his room into the tent. THAT made things a LOT more cozy! :)

After about a week of not having dining room chairs and having to walk around it, the tent has been moved to a corner in our living room using only 3 chairs. The inside square footage is still the same, but it is much more liveable.

Now, we have 2 dining room chairs and a piano bench instead of a piano bench and 1 person standing to eat.

A day in the life. A day in the life!

3/30: Easter Par-tay School Style

On Friday, 3/30, I got to volunteer at Michael's school for their Easter party! I love being a SAHM!

Here are the kids, all lined up and ready. Michael wanted to use his own Easter basket and not the one he made in class:

And they are off!
Michael's pretty competitive when it comes to Easter Egg Hunts:
Peeking at loot:
Michael was the first kid to get his 8 eggs. Here are the first 3 winners inspecting each other's baskets:
Then, it was snack time:
The teachers came up with a super cute idea to put green dyed coconut flakes on top of the brownie and a peep on top - like a little nest. Michael (and some of the other kids) were not terribly impressed:
After that, it was my turn to read books for storytime! Talk about 2 birds with one stone!

Love this little guy's school! He loves it too, so I am glad it was such a good fit for him. After our first experience in Paris, we are so thankful for his current school arrangements!

Check - Philadelphia Independence Hall, et al

Good Friday - April 6, Brian took a day off, just for the fun of it. Miracle of all miracles!

So we reserved tickets to tour Independence Hall and took the day to explore Philly. I think Michael had the best seat in the house:

We arrived 45 minutes early as recommended by their website to get through security.

If Rick Steves had a book for Philadelphia, he would have told us to just get tickets for free at the booth and show up about 10 minutes prior to the tour time.

So in our waiting time, we took a picture:
Michael terrorized his father, and Brian did his best to defend himself:
When we got in, we sat through a short history lesson. Then, we saw the first (of two) room on the tour. Michael got the best spot, and I resigned myself to take some pictures from my back row seat for a 5'1" person:
I ran into the hall and took some pictures of this blue room. I loved this light powdery grey blue, but now I'm sick of it:
And it's all over my house. AAK.

Next up, the room in which the Constitution was signed:
Michael enjoyed most of the talk on this windowsill:
There he is being a putz for the camera.

After this, gift shop time:
He didn't buy these, but it was fun anyways:
Instead, he convinced us to buy him a mini liberty bell that works. Something about Michael - he is a knick-knack collector. He's started himself a little collection in his room.

After purchasing said knick knack, he finally stopped whining and was excited to visit the Liberty Bell.

AFTER Mommy said, "Photo OP!"



We waited in the long, but fast moving line to see our famed liberty bell:

Michael thought the liberty bell was the BEST because it was bigger than his DAD.

After this, we had lunch at La Scala's Italian restaurant because it was recommended in my "Walks of Philadelphia" card. The best thing they had was pizza, which isn't too much of a compliment.

Then, we decided we needed to walk 19 more blocks EACH WAY to see Rittenhouse Square. People had said it was cool and my little "Walks of Philadelphia" card said the flagship store of Philly based Anthropologie was there at that Rittenhouse Square.

Say no more, my friends. Say no more.

So we went and Rittenhouse Square is just that - a square with a diagonal through it. Just one. Nothing pretty. No playground. Just some park benches and a protest.

I'll pass on that next time.

I bet you are reading in anxious anticipation for my account of the flagship Anthropologie store.

It.Was.A.Letdown.

5 floors, each with about 1200 sq ft each and only about 30 different items on each floor. It was A LOT of work for not much payout.

I won't be back. And that was the case for most of the shopping in this "fancy" area of Philly. They even had a Zara, but the store had about 100 things in it TOTAL. RIDICULOUS.

I realize this post has a bit of a negative tone to it (imagine that). We did enjoy our day "in the city!" It was nice to get out and do something different for a change instead of just lounging around in the country and working on the house. It reminded us of how much we do enjoy to travel and see things!

I'm just thinking Philly just wasn't what we had in mind as far as "travel" is concerned! :)

The lean-to

Michael has told us he wants to be an engineer like Daddy when he grows up, which is fine.

However, we don't push it because it's hard to know what you want to do in life, and the last thing we want to do is pressure him one way or another. We don't want a Lifetime movie on our hands here.

Seeing that Michael is decent at math and interested in science-y stuff, I do want to encourage an engineering-minded thought process because learning how to think as an engineer is one of the harder things to learn. If you learn it inherently growing up, it might help one day if he really does decide to be an engineer. I think it helps in normal life to begin with!

SO - what does that mean?

Lately, when Michael has a problem, I try my best not to solve it for him. I ask him:

What is your problem?

What do you know about your situation?

What do you have to work with?

How can using what you have to work with help you towards a solution?

Well, when our little cardboard constructed taped house started falling over (big surprise - a chemical engineer could not build a structurally sound house), Michael fixed it by doing this:

I didn't ask him the questions up there this time, but I did encourage him to "find a solution" to his problem.

So when he said to me, "Come see Mommy!!! I found a solution!!"

I was pretty pleased to see our lean-to.

Faux-Homeschooling

I am not disciplined enough to homeschool. I am barely disciplined enough to take a shower regularly.

However, with the summer months approaching, I am trying to come up with some flexible "lesson plans" covering reading, math, science, language, and arts.

Gosh - that sounds crazy. Honestly, it's very lax and kind of built around play. So don't worry about me over-achieving. I'm not super good at that anymore!

Anyways - I brought in our easel that has been sitting in the garage. It has a blackboard, which seemed appropriate...for...roadkill hangman!

I don't call it that in real life. Michael came up with putting the letters on that road for hangman.

But we have been having fun with it and I wish I had started when he was 3. I am using the Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading. It's slow going, but it's going!

Back soon!

I am awfully behind behind behind in my blogging!

I volunteered at Michael's class for his Easter party - that was super fun! Definitely want to blog about how neat it was to see Michael at school! And also - document Easter Egg Hunt #1

Michael's tent that has overtaken my entryway. Finally couldn't take it anymore and moved the tent into the corner of the living room to reclaim my entry way and take back 2 of the chairs to our dining set. And now, I'm onto pinterest and going to attempt making a teepee for michael. Maybe this weekend.

Egg Hunt #2 at Nilda's this past Monday.

Egg dying at Katiey's yesterday.

First t-ball practice today. Brian did GREAT as head coach/manager!!

We haven't even made it to Easter yet! We've got all sorts of exciting things happening like a trip to philly to see the independence center/liberty bell, first t-ball game, delivery of dirt, church, and all the Easter traditions we want to start (egg dying, sugar cookie frosting, easter egg hunt).

AND dinner - Easter dinner. I have never really done an "easter dinner" before - so any suggestions are WELCOME!

Love to all -

Surprise

Every year, I have a fantasy baseball draft in March and I typically make the effort to join up with my old friends from high school for a weekend of hanging out and discussing baseball.


This year, I went to Surprise, AZ outside of Phoenix to take in a few Rangers games and have the draft with my buddy Jason Schumacher and his eldest son, Jack, pictured below. I've known Jason for a little over 2o years, ever since I moved back to Texas in 7th grade, and we've been good friends since. We missed the other guys but had a great time watching Rangers BP, fielding drills and games at beautiful Surprise Stadium.

Jack was an autograph hound. He got 2 Josh Hamilton autographs, Derek Holland, Joe Nathan, Mike Adams, Yoshinori Tateyama, Mark Hamburger, Martin Perez, Ronald Guzman and two scrubs hoping to make the team, Brandon Snyder and Luis Hernandez. He was a little jackrabbit hopping around, finding the holes to get to the front of the line and get the autograph. Here he is with Tateyama and Nathan.

We got to see the Rangers play the Cubs, Reds, Giants and Angels. I think we lost every game but the one against the Giants, though Mark Hamburger did his best to blow a 4 run lead.

Back at the hotel, we found they had a nice little basketball court and after destroying a couple of teenage girls from neighboring apartment complex in a few games of rundown, we decided to show off our jumping prowess. You might have noticed that we are white. But we can still get rim.

Then we slept about 1 hour on Friday night in preparation for the draft Saturday morning. And my team stinks to show for it.

Also, during our break at the end of round 10, Schu decided he would fry up some bacon for Jack. Except he forgot to turn on the vent so smoke built up in the room and the fire alarm went off. It was so loud that Schu and I had to hold towels up to the alarms (it was 7am) to muffle them while Jack harassed the front desk to turn the alarms off, which they finally did about 15 minutes later.

Constant

I am a constant work in progress, especially in regards to my faith. I feel like I am corrected all the time - happily - because I really do need it.

With all the struggles with this new phase in michael's development, I have kind of lost my parenting way.

However, it is through the good words of the bible, amazing and supportive mom friends, and advice from those friends that holds me up and encourages me that no permanent damage was done!

Michael's school sends out a weekly devotional and this week's was what I needed to hear:

Scripture: Ephesians 5:1-2 (The Message)

“Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn't love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that.”

I was recommended by one of my supportive mom friends a book called loving our kids on purpose by Danny silk. It has come at a perfect time for me! I need a refresher course on how I like to parent after accidentally slipping into the totalitarian hitler-esque style of parenting.

Hope this encourages you to keep marching on!

P

Counter

Today, Michael countered my post from yesterday by listening and even helping to carry all the folded clean laundry upstairs. Without being asked. And this was no small feat. I am talking about a back log of laundry that covered the entire couch, including arm rests. I am talking in the neighborhood of 8-10 loads of laundry.

Was pretty impressed with him!

Then, we went to swim and I saw him floating on his back pretty dang well with his noodle after lesson during his pool time. Then, he let it go and floated all by himself. Awesomely. With no help. Seriously awesome for Michael who had the hardest time floating a year ago.

Then, he didn't listen when I told him it was time to get out of the pool and he spit at me under the cover of spitting out water from his mouth....hmmmm....sly that one.

We went to see the lorax today! Super cute. Thought we were gonna get a Rita's free water ice but sadly, the 200 college students already in line dissuaded me from that.

P

xoxo

Around Valentine's day, Michael showed me in his classroom something he made that included the letters "xoxo."

He said to me, "Mommy! Did you know that xoxo means hugs and kisses?"

At the time, I thought it was cute, but not blog-worthy.

However, since then, Michael comes up to us and says, "XOXO!" And we give hugs and kisses. He is so enthusiastic about it and it is TOO too cute. And he REALLY squeezes. You can tell it is a big deal to him!

So now it is blog-worthy.

While being cute at the same time - Michael is entering a difficult phase and I'm not quite sure how to handle it. He gets easily frustrated, cries at the drop of a hat about being said "NO" to, and screams at me from time to time.

Not quite sure where my cute little boy went, but it's replaced by this more willful little guy that asks me "WHY" FOR EVERYTHING. By the 60th time in the day, I am a bit tired of explaining everything.

SO - how is this different necessarily than the "terrible two year old" stage? Not quite sure how to explain it, but it just seems that since Michael can express himself quite well - we spend too much time talking about stuff. Lately, it's like he forgot how to listen and obey.

Sigh - I am just really tiring of it. I find myself mentally exhausted and DONE by the end of the day, with just my ONE. I am extra short with him because I'm 1) tired of being interrupted EVERY 2-3 minutes and 2) having to explain myself for every freakin' WHY I get. I think this is where the "Because I said so!" got birthed.

Lately - Michael just gives up on whatever task he's doing SO easily. He can't find the remote - Unmmm: he's only been looking for 2 seconds. GO BACK AND TRY AGAIN. Oh, you can't open that piece of candy? Well, how badly do you want to eat it? If you want it, I suggest you figure it out. I am not here to wait on you hand and foot.

Ok, I'm done venting now. Yes, I love my son. Yes, I think he is wonderful most of the time. But I'm not going to blog every time about how awesome he is and how perfect he is. Because he's not. And it would be misleading for me to present him that way.

Before I forget

Two days ago - when a bunch of the neighborhood kids were over - it neared 6:00pm.

AND I hear hollerin' from the 2 different houses next to me:

"CONNER!!! TIME TO COME HOME!!!"

"ABBEY!!! TIME TO COME HOME!!!!"

It sounded like voices coming from the woods and were so clear. But it cracked me up - like the triangle cattle call to eat.

And it made my heart happy.

Because we don't live with our neighbors within arms reach of our walls. One house is so far tucked in the back, people don't even see it. The other is at least 50-100 yards away. So the people were really hollerin'!!

Most of the time, I really rag on our land. It's sloped, needs new grass seed, and is wooded (ie filled with disease transporting ticks). But the kids love it.

Frankly - it photographs so dang well - that it's hard for ME not to like it either. I am now working hard to earn the thousands of dollars needed to have my property landscaped by a professional with the idea of an outdoor studio in mind. It would be awesome. And would set me apart from the other photographers in the area. Plus, I love it and it would increase our property value while the market is tanking. :)

Performance Review Part Deux

SO today's haphazard question for my performance review to Michael was:

"Does Mommy spend a lot of time on the ipad?"

"Yes! You spend a lot of time on the ipad so I think it is cool and that I should be doing it too."

In my mind:

F*$*(W*#&$

I KNEW that thing was trouble!!! I love it and it's a toy and I am apparently not leading by example.

In all honesty, I really don't feel like I am on it all that much. However, perception vs. reality is obviously at play here.

Here's the first (of what I assume will be many) items for me to work on.

Performance Review

Now that Michael is old enough - I ask him questions that are areas of concern for me as a parent. How he views me reflects a bit on my behavior so I like to perform these very informal "performance evaluations" with him.

I don't necessarily sit down with him and a 20 page questionnaire detailing my metrics on a 5 pt scale with a review of my progression towards my yearly goals.

Hardly.

But I ask random questions now and then, just in our everyday conversation.

Today, I chose to ask:

"Michael, does Mommy yell at you a lot?"

Because frankly - I always feel like I yell at some point in the day. It's not often, but it happens.

"No Mommy, you do not yell a lot. And I am happy."

Awww....but then he continues:

"And even when you do yell, I am still happy. Because I love you."

So when Brian walked in the door at 9pm after his little league coaching meeting and said, "Hey - Michael - who let you stay up so late?",

I just kind of sheepishly move my monopoly pieces along as if I'm not the parent that just got played by my 5 year old. Happily played at that! :)

Slowly but surely, more neighborhood kids of all ages have started playing with us. It's not everyday and it is just starting, but it is enough to make me excited!

Michael ran into the house and said: "Mom! We need snacks!"

So I raided most of what I had and set out a bowl of goldfish, pretzels, and dark chocolate petit ecolier and I hear,

"AWESOME!!! THANK YOU!"

"THIS IS AMAZING! You are the best Mrs. B!"

"Thank you MOMMY!"

"I LOVE goldfish!"

I don't even want to think about what I would have heard had I set out my pre-cut cauliflower that I have on hand for a healthy snack.

But yea! So happy for my little guy who had a wonderful idea! So happy for him to have some people to run around and play with him. So happy for the warmer weather where we can significantly reduce the screen time.

Next question for Michael, which should garner a much less favorable response: "Does Mommy say NO a lot?"

Uhhh.....

Michael is not a fish

Swimming has always been a challenge for him. We do not spend lots of times in pools. We are not avid swimmers. Swimming just isn't a big deal to us. Michael's first attempt at swim lessons was frustrating in his progress although he was having fun.

Well, all this may be the case. However, swimming is an important life skill so I decided lets do this again.

Especially since most kids his age can already swim a little bit.

We have been at swim lessons. The first - he was definitely anxious.

Now, 2 weeks later, he is playing around in the shallow kids pool (basically a ramp that goes from 0" to 2.5 feet) all by himself. He is floating on the noodle all by himself. He will go underwater just to play around and stand himself back up out of the water. His teacher says he will swim like 1 ft by himself and can push off of the wall.

Today, he decided to spend an extra 1.5 hrs after swim lesson paddling around. 2 hours all told in the pool all by himself (with me watching with hawk eyes). And I had to make him get out because I was hungry and now we were well over 2 hrs late for lunch. You must feed mommy before she gets cranky. It is a known rule in this house.

Is this the same kid? Goes to show - Michael is not gonna learn something until he is good and ready to do it. Since we are not proactive about swimming, it is partly our fault. But frankly, I am not big on pushing things on Michael when he does not want to learn it. While he was happy to play and go to swimming, he was not interested in learning it quickly and efficiently.

This leads me to an interesting fact about Michael - when he does not want to learn something, it is like pulling teeth to teach him (like reading - which he is getting better at!). But when he WANTs to learn something, the baby cat is fast at picking it up. Now just to figure out how to motivate him. That is the good question here as his parent.

Thoughts?

P

Jesus

Michael was listening to his VBS CD from last year and there's a series of questions that the song asks:

"Do you believe Jesus loves you?"

Michael, surprisingly, yells out "YES!"

"Do you have Jesus in your heart?"

"YES!"

Well how about that. We are starting to talk more and more about God's love for us and it is amazing watching how he is wrapping his mind around that. We have been reading You Are Special by Max Lucado (thanks to his great godparents!) and talking about how God has made us all different and he loves each and every one of us. We are loving that book!

Keepin' It Real

It is well known that I am not the most neatest person there ever was. However, I am on a quest to change that in 2012.

I would be well on my way, had I not felt awful and sick last week and spent a majority of Mon-Wed on the couch.

Thus - you need to know what my house can look like.

Let's start out easy for the very neat people who are easily faint at heart:
Moving onto the kitchen - yes - that is wet clothes hanging on the back of my breakfast room (and only dining area) chairs:
The living room looks only very slightly better:
Still undecided on the wall color and rug.

Moving to my piano room, I decided to make it a laundry room instead:
Laundry room - slash - piano room - slash goodwill pile.

Michael is moved into the guest room temporarily and it is deceivingly neat because all his stuff is piled up on the OTHER side of his bed:
A sneak peek into MY bedroom:
In case you want to see more teal from the tray ceiling:
I changed out the lamps recently. I will take more pictures when I do not have 30 stuffed animals laying next to my bed.

The basement was not spared:

I sold those recliners! Hallelujah! That glider is going next at the resale!

And there you have it. The truth. It is looking better - and I can only imagine it will improve over the week as we finish up painting/etc.

Love,

P

I'll Pinterest That

I've been craigslist-ing the ever livin' with very little to show for it.

However when this little guy showed up, I nabbed him!

Basically, any furniture that only is 12" in depth has my attention. My house is actually quite small (by American standards - we were shopping by French standards!) and the proportions in each room are very petite. Thus, I am always on the lookout for shallow furniture.

Eventually, I am going to Pinterest the bejeezus out of it until it looks something like this:
However, I am happy to have it look the way it does for now. It's now project #1029 on my list.

Well, The King of the House decided this cabinet showed up for his express purposes:
At least it's organized.
Here he is proud - proud of his organizing accomplishments:
Michael's been wearing that outfit for the last 3 days. You heard that right. He's got his dad in him after all.

Yes, that also means he has not had a bath in 3 days. Yes, he also slept in these clothes last night.

I am hoping you are reserving judgement right now and letting yourself not bathe your kid every now and then too. Do not feel guilty.

Michael did not know that this was my idea for my new little guy:
I've been wanting some cabinet space to organize Michael's craft and my "home office" supplies for a while.

Here's a peek at the inside:
Michael was pretty pleased to see his supplies were neatly arranged in the cabinet:
With his crayons, glue, and stencils in the drawer. He was REALLY excited to have his own space.

And I was very excited for Brian to have a home for all his stuff from his pockets:
Which I love that white porcelain serving dish because I bought it in Paris and it reminds me of that. AND the white in the dish matches well with the white in the dry erase board. Scroll up to see. I lined it with parchment paper so I could still just wash it and use it as a serving piece for a party if I needed to.

And to keep it real - not everything was organized:
Next up - what a house looks like when mom is holed up sick on the couch.