Letter to Little Man

Dear Little Man,

My sweet, sweet boy. You were sick on your birthday this year and so was I, but that didn't stop us from celebrating your birth. We were going to go to a bounce house or a soft playroom but when I saw the dark circles under your beautiful green eyes, I pulled out the Toy Story Movie and the Elmo Christmas Countdown (because you don't know that it isn't seasonal, you love Santa all year long) and let you and your brother snuggle up and watch TV all morning. I felt bad that we couldn't do something more fun, but you wiggled onto my lap and told me how great it was to get to watch all of a movie in one day. I hope you always find such pleasure in the little things. You are still content if you get 3 or 4 M&M's instead of the whole bag. You get so excited with the promise of 2 whole cookies or 2 George's instead of just one. I love seeing the world through your eyes because you simplify it down to its very core. Happy or sad, easy or hard, long or short, 1 or 2 and help me not get so caught up in the minutia.

You are so sweet and sensitive and still want to make everyone happy which I think it is getting trickier as you get older and realize that pleasing everyone is not always easy. You still ask me "Are you happy with me Mama?" at random times because knowing that I am happy with you gives you security and makes you feel good. I always tell you that I am happy with you but might not always like your choices. But to be fair, you are amazing for a 4 year old. Your restraint and poise and love you have for your siblings make me so proud. I often tell you that you can be whatever you want to be as long as you are nice to others. We talk about you being a zookeeper as long as you are a nice zookeeper or an astronaut as long as you are a nice astronaut. And you are, nice and sweet to everyone even your brother when he tries to take your favorite Buzzlight Year toy. Although the sassing is getting worse it is tempered by your sweetness and the love you have for everyone.

You have a special love for each of us. Your love for your sister is the protective kind. You hate to see her crying or sad and will spend 30 minutes dangling a toy over her head just to get her smiles. Your love for your brother is the friendship kind. You so enjoy being the ringleader to your brotherly antics of flying around the house or pretending to spy on me. Your love for your Papa is full of admiration as you want to be just like him even down to making a hole in your sock because you think Papa's always have holes in their socks (yes, I need to get your Papa some new socks) and your love for me is the sweet bond of a mother and son. You slept in my arms for the first year of your life and even though you are more independent now, you always find your way back to my arms 10 or 20 times a day.

Tonight as I tucked you in and leaned down to inhale the smell in the crook of your next, you wiggled and giggled and asked me why I was sniffing on you. Oh I made up a silly reason at the time, but the truth is that I wanted to remember that moment. The moment you turned 4 so that when you turn 16 or 20 I can pull this memory out and remember the you of 4 because you are such a special, smart, sensitive little 4 year old and I want to stop the clock for just a second. You are going to do wonderful things in your life, but they won't wait until you are an adult. You are already making a difference to people today with your ability to love and understand those around you and your desire to see the world a happy place.

I am so proud to be your mama and I love you so much!

Love

Mama

5 Months of Sweet Pea

There are moments when I inhale the pure baby smell of baby wash, A&D ointment and milk breath that I wish I could just stop time so that the baby days wouldn't fly by quite so quickly.

Sweet Pea is so different from the boys and Papa Bear and I always remarking over how different girls are than boys even at such a young age. When we put her in the jumperoo, she gently dances and sways while playing with her toys while the boys would jump so hard we were worried they would break the machine. If any object comes within 6 inches of her face, she is immediately reaching out to grab it and investigate it, pulling it in. We call her "handsy" but the truth is that she is just different at 5 months than we have previously experienced. She is her own worst enemy because she can pull out her binky and put it back but it much much better at pulling it out than putting it back. She doesn't need constant attention but will immediately protest if she is left in a room all by herself.

Things I don't want to forget about Sweet Pea at 5 months:

1. She wants to be a finger sucker even though she takes the pacifier. She wants this so badly that when she nurses she somehow manages to stick her finger in her mouth so that she can suck her fingers at the same time as she eats.

2. When you take her diaper off to change her, her feet and legs spring up into the air as if she knows what to do or as if the diaper release is so wonderful that she must stretch to celebrate!

3. She loves her biggest brother more than anyone else and can immediately be cheered up by his crazy antics.

4. When she sees me coming to pick her up, she gets so excited that she starts flapping her arms as if she is going to fly away and she is almost shaking with excitement by the time I get to her.

She can be a superhero.....

The love she has for her biggest brother is 100% mutual

Her gummy, open mouthed smiles are what heaven is made of...

She is sitting up with support...

sometimes....

Our Sweet Pea, our angel on earth, is growing so fast. We think she is close to 20 pounds now and most of that chunk can be found in her thighs and at the nape of her neck. She is still sleeping well although her napping abilities leave a lot to be desired. She is just a joy and has made our family complete.

PS - if you think there aren't very many pictures of Peanut these days on this blog, that is because THIS is the only picture I can seem to get of him these days.....

Letter to Peanut

Dear Peanut,

Today you turned 2 years old. Today we went to run a few errands and I let you walk next to me through the stores as we got a few items. When I asked you to take my hand you would yell "do" up at me, making it very clear that you could do it all by yourself. You carried our bags to the car even though one was clearly too heavy for you. When I asked you if you needed help, you yelled "do" at me once more. You climbed up into your carseat and wouldn't let me buckle you in. Your chubby hands pushed mine away as you once again declared "do" and proceeded to buckle yourself in all on your own. I love your independence streak even when it is inconvenient.

When I put you to bed tonight, you were so excited to go to sleep. Then an hour later you were calling to me from your bed. When I went in to check on you, you were standing up and laughing asking me for more water. You laughed because you hid your water cup from me and loved that I had to get down on the floor to find it. Then you laughed when I brought it back to you filled with water. You laughed some more when I tried to find your binky's and when I found one you declared " There they are! More!" and made me find the other 5 you like to have in your bed with you. After you laid back down and got tucked in again you giggled your silly laugh and said "night night" one more time. I love how silly you can be even when you are being naughty at bedtime.

You are my independant, silly, sweet little boy. I cherish each time you wrap your chubby arms around me. You don't give them out easily or often so I savor each snuggle that I get. You are so stubborn and fight me mostly when I challenge your independence. You insist on being the one to close a door and if I close it by accident you insist on opening it back up and closing it yourself. As independent as you are, you also worship your big brother copying his every action even when it is something you can't do like a cartwheel or handstand. I love catching you looking sideways at your big brother while watching TV just to make sure you are sitting exactly like he is sitting.

I don't want to let you grow up, but I also can't wait to see everything you are going to achieve in your life. You can accomplish anything you put your mind to. I am so proud of who you are and who you are going to grow up to be. Just remember that as many times as you insist on doing things on your own, you always have me and Papa if you should need a little help. We love you so much!

Love,

Mama

Ups and Downs and lot of laughs

I don't really even know how to take everything that has happened in the last few days and put it into one post. This is probably 3 different posts but to make my life easier - I am just going to break it up within one post.

Downs

Sweet Pea spiked a super high fever on Wednesday night which was especially scary because she is so young. She was laying on my lap and I realized that it felt like she was burning a hole in my jeans. So we took her temperature and it was 103. Tylenol, a call to the pediatrician, cool baths and many temp checks through the night led us to the doctors in the morning. I had Sweet Pea and Peanut with me so you can imagine that doctors visit was a little bit of a circus act. Finally after finding out we were going to have to do a series of tests for her that would keep us there upwards of two hours I called in reinforcements and Papa Bear came to our rescue. He kindly took Peanut across the street to play the playground so that I could concentrate on the tests for Sweet Pea instead of keeping Peanut from licking the germ infested toys at the doctors office.

Ups

Sweet Pea got spots!! Yay! That means that it is roseola, which is a common childhood virus that is an unexplained super high fever and when the fever breaks the child gets a rash. So now we know what it was and can relax our vigil over our little girl. We are relieved!

Papa Bear is my hero and during his heroic rescue at the doctors office he also got to enjoy some one on one time with Peanut at the park. We were talking about how much fun it was to have that time at the park with just Peanut and it got me thinking that I need to take more time to focus on him. Yes, we have our speech therapy but we don't have much other one on one time just me and him. So after dropping Little Man at school this morning we had about 30 minutes to kill before we had to be home for speech therapy and I took him to a park. We had a blast! He was a delight! He ran and played and talked up a storm and when it was time to go he slipped his sweet chubby hand in mine and walked to the car. It made me realize that I have to take more time like that with him - not on playdates, not with Little Man...just me and Peanut (and of course Sweet Pea who just slept on me in my baby carrier).

Little Man is our "watch me, watch me" kid and Sweet Pea being so young makes it such that they both demand so much of my attention. Peanut doesn't ask for much attention so hearing him say "Mama Watch" before going down the slide and giggling while playing peek a boo through the bars of the playground warmed my heart.

I am certainly looking forward to every good weathered Friday because we are going to start going to parks for 3o minutes before speech every week. A good thing like this must be worked into our schedule more often.

Lots of Laughs

Little Man is hysterical with his adult sounding sentences and sentiment. This morning I sat down to inhale my breakfast (egg white and salsa burrito) and he looked like he was going to try and steal it...again. So I told him to not even think about asking for a bite. He looked at my thoughtfully and said "Ok, I will make a deal with you. I will eat everything that falls out of your burrito and you can keep anything that stays in it." I might have let a little fall out on purpose because of how adorable his negotiating techniques are.

He is also my little helper. Today I told the boys that it was time to "lock and load" which means to get in the car. I grabbed Sweet Pea and followed them out only to find that Little Man had helped Peanut get up in his seat and had buckled him in for me even pulling the strap to tighten the harness. Then he climbed down, got in his own seat and buckled himself in and entertained Sweet Pea the entire way to our destination. Don't get me wrong, he can be a typical almost 4 year old a lot of the time but I love when his selfless, nurturing and caring side comes out in these types of ways. I am truly blessed to have my Little Man to help me out each day.

Recipe for a Perfect Cousins Weekend

Take these wild and crazy kids (ages 5, 4, 3 and 2) and add a laid back Sweet Pea....

A heaping tablespoon of a funny, adorable Q

A pinch of some crafty snacking project that include eating which will always satisfy my Peanut and stickers that keep Little Man occupied...

8 ounces of a sweet M whom Little Man idolizes and follows around like a puppy dog...

Two pints of chubby tummy tickles and hysterical laughter...

As much Peanut charm and kisses that one can handle....

Finally add in 1 sleepover with two exhausted cousins that love being with each other...

And you truely do have a recipe for the perfect weekend with my cousin and her rock star kids.

Chicken..Farm Animal or Dinner

Peanut is off and running on his speech these days, we can't stop him not that we are trying. I know that he is progressing because I keep track of all of this one word and two word phrases, take copious notes on his frustrations and how we overcome them, how long it took, and meet weekly with his speech therapist. But the one sign that has stood out among the rest is that he is saying funny and cute things that I want to note on this blog.

Earlier this week we were playing with the farm animals and naming them and their sounds. I held up the cow and he yelled "Moo", I held up the dog and he yelled "Ruff" and then I held up the chicken and he yelled "yummy"! I couldn't stop laughing. And in the same vein, tonight I was reading a bedtime book to him and he was naming things on the page and when he got to the pig he said "hotdog". Well yes, dear Peanut, you are quite correct but not everything has to relate to how you eat it. Although with his appetite and love for food, I am not surprised! I love how his little mind works.

Little Man is getting so grown up in his speech too. Today I was listening while he was playing with his toys and I overheard him say "Spiderman, my friend, that is just not going to happen". And his new favorite phrase is "Are you thinking what I am thinking?" Unfortunately he expects that every IS thinking what he is thinking and we have had a few meltdowns when I had to explain to him that I wasn't thinking we should have ice cream for dinner. But you can't blame the boy for trying.