i heart faces: Anything But A Face!

Splish Splash I Was Taking A Bath

This week's challenge at http://www.iheartfaces.com/  is Head, Shoulders, Knees, & Toes...Anything but a face!! 

Sometimes I wonder how long Makayla would leave her hands under the running water.  I know she loves the sensation of the heavy water raining down on her skin, the way it lightly massages her baby hands and wrists.  I know she loves the warmth of the water.  It can't be too cold or too hot.  She has a perfect temperature that she loves her water to be at and I have to adjust accordingly until it's perfect.  I know she loves the deafening sound of the bubbles crackling, rubbing, and popping.  Makayla loves her bathtime, but most of all, she loves the waterfall.

 Check out all of the creative pictures of anything but the face!!

My Love, Your Love

Know the strength of my love for you. After all, you're the only two who know what my heart sounds like from the inside.

This Week

You don't really understand human nature unless you know why a child on a merry-go-round will wave at his parents every time around - and why his parents will always wave back.

-- William D. Tammeus

…Over the summer, when Makayla would ride rides at the fair, Six Flags, or any other event with rides, we would exchange waves every time she came around and we would both squeal out with laughter. It definitely ranks up there with one of those things that fill your body with excitement and electricity.

So, anyway, what’s been going on this week?

Kevin had his typical two night trip to Peoria, teaching classes at ICC.
Kevin and I got to sneak away to a movie (and eat really buttery popcorn).
I got to take another trip out to our new ALMH!
Makayla has been in bed by 8:30 the past two nights!
Mason slept in until 9am on Tuesday morning…a morning I won’t soon forget!

The above mentioned are the highlights of our week. While we weren’t ’busy’ with our schedule, we were still ’busy’ raising our kids.

Being a parent is like working and being on-call 24 hours a day - non stop - for the rest of your life. It’s an adventure. It can be exhausting and some days I feel inadequate and wonder how I will survive until my kids are grown. Some days, I beg for a break, for a tiny rest on the couch. Some days, I realize how little I really know once Makayla starts asking questions (anybody who has been around kids knows how many questions they ask)! It’s a challenge everyday…but a rewarding challenge.

When we choose to be parents, we accept another human being as part of ourselves, and a large part of our emotional selves will stay with that person as long as we live. From that time on, there will be another person on this earth whose orbit around us will affect us as surely as the moon affects the tides, and affect us in some ways more deeply than anyone else can. Our children are extensions of ourselves.
-- Fred Rogers

But, oh my goodness!! - Despite those few ‘hard days’ that I think all parents can relate to, children keep our hearts from hardening and they ensure that we never lose our drive to make our world a better place. I never lose site of what I want for my children.

I want them to feel love and know love. I want them to be happy. Simple.

Side by Side, Part 1

 OKAY - I thought it would be neat to compare photos, side by side, of my kids at matching ages.  Makayla is on the left, Mason is on the right.  The pictures go in order, from newborn through 5 months, month by month.  I love observing their similarities and differences!

...And then of course, we've got the kids modeling their daddy's favorite football team, the Kansas City Chiefs!

A Little Bit More

Today, Mason is 5 months old.


Wow.


I can't tell you the funny things that Mason says and I can't talk about his extreme imagination (unlike big sister, Makayla), but what I can share with you is how he means the world to me. 


He blows lots of bubbles and drools non-stop. 
His favorite thing to do is smile. 
He likes to talk and loves it when somebody talks back to him.   
He loves to drink milk and doesn't enjoy eating cereal or bananas as much as I thought he would. 
He shows so much expression with his eyes and is definitely developing 'who he is'.
He is a laid back baby and easily goes with the flow.
He is smart, loves to cuddle, and is the best baby boy ever!

My lips can't wait to kiss him at the end of the work day. 

He is simply the best.

When Mason is laying in my arms, I can't help but get lost in his gorgeous blue eyes.  I hold his tiny fingers in my hand and can't help but think of the day that my hand will swim in his.  I caress his baby cheeks and can't help but think of the day that he'll be a man with facial hair.  My heart almost bursts when we're sitting quietly in the chair and his little hand is moving all over my face, learning every detail of my face, and he 'talks' to me - like he is saying something so important.  

We look at each other and know how deep our love is for one another. 

I embrace today with him.  I soak up every bit of him now.

A Little Bit

Makayla is 2 years old.

This morning her favorite color was pink. Her room is pink. Her curtains are pink. Yesterday, her favorite color was purple. The day before that, her favorite color was blue.

She loves to eat macaroni and cheese, tacos, pizza, and oatmeal. Whenever we go out to eat, she wants to order a cheeseburger, but she never eats it.

Her hair is blond and her eyes are blue.

Her favorite book is “Eight Silly Monkeys” and her favorite song is “Happy Birthday”. She has shelves and shelves of books, but every day, we always read the same 3 or 4 books over and over again.

She thinks that deer live in the jungle and loves to search for her snails in daddy’s fish tank.

She thinks “stupid”, “weird”, and “shut-up” are bad words and won’t allow anybody to say them. She’s quick to scold anyone who speaks those words. Whenever somebody says one of the words, no matter the context, Makayla always says “Don’t say that word! Say ‘goofy’!”

If Makayla gets upset, sad, or mad – I tell her to go kiss Chief or Rascal (her kitties). Kissing them always makes her feel better.

She is smart. So smart. She is funny. So funny. Here is an example when she puts these two together. The other night we were driving home and she was eating a sucker. She was chawing away on her sucker, ruining her teeth. I told her to stop biting the sucker and to just lick it or suck on it. She ignored me and continued to bite down on the hard candy. I told her that I didn’t want to hear her eating her sucker and if she can’t lick it with her tongue, then I was going to take it away. She said ‘fine’. I didn’t hear her bite down again. As soon as we got home, Makayla went straight up to her bedroom and slammed the door shut. She didn’t take her boots off, didn’t take her coat off. She went straight up to her room to eat her sucker and break her teeth. I couldn’t help but laugh at her actions, how she knew better to not bite down again on that sucker in front of me and couldn’t wait to get to her room. She couldn’t get up the stairs fast enough, her coat and boots still on – slamming the door behind her.

I love to watch her play and listen to her talk about her day. She tells me stories with great detail.

She’s a good mommy. She feeds her baby doll (Hazel or Mason, depending on the day) applesauce. She bounces and sshhh’s her baby when it gets fussy. She packs her baby’s diaper bag with every thing that the baby could possibly need. She’s a good mommy.

This is just a little peek into the life of my little girl.

She’s beautiful.

Next time, I’ll give you a little peek into the life of my handsome little boy.

What's An Early Bedtime?

I decided after picking the kids up from daycare tonight that bedtime was going to be at 7pm. Ha. Ha. 

Makayla has had a rough couple of days (burning her fingertips on the stove and battling a runny nose) and she was "in a bad mood".  She clarified for me that she wasn't cranky, but in a bad mood.  If the kids went to bed that early, I definitely wouldn't complain of the down time.  I thought it might be nice to have a couple of hours in the evening all to ourselves.  We could lay on the couch, watch whatever we wanted to watch on tv, not talk, and possibly enjoy a glass of wine.  I need one of those nights.

I know 7pm is early and it was definitely wishful thinking.

At 9:30, Makayla was still going strong.  Kevin took her down to our bed to try to wind her down and every couple of minutes, up until 10pm, I would hear her yelling out "Go Oy Oy (Illinois)".  I kept giggling at myself that I was actually foolish enough to believe this child would go to sleep at 7pm.  It's now 10:30 and this is what my house looks like.  It's a far cry from what I had imagined my evening to be.

A full bag of Chex Mix poured out onto Makayla's kitchen.

A full sleeve of crackers randomly placed in the middle of the living room.



My living room.  Notice the baby passed out in the middle of all the chaos.



Call me lazy or call me dirty, but I'm t-i-r-e-d.  I have no intentions of cleaning this up tonight.  I will pick up the Chex Mix and I will pick up the crackers, but that is it.  I might write myself a note to move the food drawer out of reach of Makayla, but I am not going to pick up toys or fold blankets tonight.  It will all be waiting for me tomorrow...and that's okay. 

 I'm silly for thinking that I could make an early bedtime tonight.  Although it was fun to imagine what I would do with my quiet evening, it was even more fun to watch Makayla use her imagination to destroy my living room, watch Mason play with new toys, and listen to Makayla cheer on Oy Oy. 

Now, I think I am going to carry my baby boy up to bed, kiss him goodnight, and head to dreamland myself. 

Laughter Is the Best Medicine

When we hear the baby laugh, it is the lovliest thing that can happen to us.

-Sigmund Freud

It starts out with this...

Then you hear a little squeal of delight followed by a happy *sigh*



Before you know, you have a chorus of giggles, rumbles of laughter that come deep from the belly...

I can still hear his laughter echoing out of this picture.  Makayla was playing with him and doing all she could to make Mason laugh (cracking herself up in the meantime).  "Sweet Caroline" was playing in the background and Mason would not stop laughing.  It was a deep, can't catch your breath your lips go numb, type of laugh...nonstop...drool flowing from his mouth...the more he laughed, the more Makayla and I laughed.  The harder he laughed, the harder Makayla and I laughed.  The three of us sitting in the middle of the kitchen floor.  Laughing. 

I wish you could hear this little boy laugh right now.  Even for just a few seconds, you could escape any worries and be filled with joy.

Hearing him laugh is...
innocent and contagious
makes me feel like his fingers are tickling my heart
...is quite possibly one of the best sounds in the world.

The feeling I get when he laughs is multiplied by 1,000 when it is his big sister making him laugh.  Ahhhh, I love my babies!!



i heart faces: Hearts

 

A child's love is like the dawn unfolding..bright, new, and full of hope.

This week's photo challenge at http://www.iheartfaces.com is "Hearts". 

With glue, I drew a heart on pink paper.  Then, I covered the paper with red glitter.  How fun was it for Makayla to blow all the glitter off to see the surprise underneath?  Lots!  How big of a mess did mommy have to clean up when she was all done?  Big!  I still have glitter in the cracks of the wood floor. 

...But, it was fun!

 I'm #338.  Check it out and all of the other awesome photos.  Your picture could be next!

Sledding Sledding Sledding

We took Makayla sledding for the first time today, and I'm here to tell you that taking a 2 year-old sledding is definitely a work-out.  

First of all, we didn't park close to the hill (why, I don't know).  We parked far enough away that we had a 10 minute "hike" through the park, down a wooded hill, and around the bend to the bottom of the sledding hill.  So, by the time we carried her up the hill to begin our sledding fun, Kevin and I were already sweating and panting for air.  After quickly catching our breath, as we were walking across the top of the hill, I walked into a snow drift (maybe 2.5 feet) that got my leg and boot stuck to the point that Kevin had to dig me out.  That was funny and actually gave me a couple more seconds to sit and catch my breath.

The first couple of times we went down the hill, Makayla rode with me or Kevin.  She LOVED it!!!  Then she got brave and wanted to go down by herself, so we started in the middle of the hill, so she wouldn't build up too much speed.  She LOVED it!!!  She loved the whole experience!  Heck - I would love the whole sledding thing even more if somebody carried me up the hill every time, too! 

P.S.  The last time I was sledding on this hill, I was in 1st grade. 

I sledded right into a tree and broke my foot.

On top of the hill, excited to sled down for the first time!




Look at the joy on her face!  She laughed all the way down.
(I can still hear her)



Hiking to the hill.



Getting ready to go down all by herself. 



Barbie Pooped

Makayla was in the bathtub tonight, playing away with her 2 million bath toys while daddy was trying to get her squeaky clean for bed.  As bathtime was coming to an end, Makayla grabbed her two barbies and began talking to them, flying them through the air, and swimming them under the water.  Then she started talking about how one of her barbies pooped and she began wiping the barbie's butt.

Kevin comes running downstairs, grabs me, and grabs a tootsie roll.

As soon as we got back upstairs, Kevin sneakily dropped the tootise roll in the bathtub as Makayla babbled on to me about her pooping barbie. Kevin then asked Makayla if we could see the barbie's poop and convinced her to look in the water for poop. 

Well...

She discovered the poop (tootsie roll)!

The look on her face was priceless and definitely one of disbelief.  After a minute or two of leaving Makayla in awe, daddy ate the 'poop'.

It was after the bite of 'poop' that Makayla figured out it was a tootsie roll.  She kind of giggled and let out a big sigh of relief...

A weird experience for her and funny experience for mommy and daddy!

Snowed In

Freezing Cold

Every day since November, at the end of the day when I pick Makayla up from daycare, we get in the car and I tell her how much I don't like this weather.  It's yucky and too cold for mommy. 

I picked her up from daycare this morning around 10am.  10am is also when the blizzard, winter storm began picking up.  The wind was blowing 100mph, the snow was swirling all around us, and I was standing outside fReEzInG my buns off, buckling Makayla in her seat.  Just as I was about ready to shut the van door she looked up at me and said “I like this weather”.

Ugh.  Today was one of the coldest, most arctic, days of the year and I didn't even get a chance to complain.  I didn't get to voice my daily weather dislikes before Makayla so cheerfully told me how much she liked this weather.  Crazy girl!