Don't ask if you don't want to know!

I continue to learn some of the same lessons over and over in motherhood. One of the most valuable is don't ever ask a child a question that you don't want an honest answer to. And then brace yourself because you never know what you might get!

Recently I received an email from my best friend about Mother's Day. She was sent one of those generic forwards where children had been asked a series of questions about mothers and the answers are always so cute. Well being the great mother that she is she got that email and decided to ask her 2 oldest children the questions in that email and send their replies to her friends. It was one of the sweetest and cutest emails I'd ever received. So in the spirit of her email I decided one night to ask Cullen one of the questions and see what his answer would be. I only asked 1 question. Here's how it went. . . . . . . . .

Me: "Cullen, why did God make Mommies?"
Cullen: slight pause "Because they don't have wee-wees."
Abrupt end to conversation followed by hysterical laughter!!!!!

Now you see why I only asked 1 question! :-)

What do you pray for?

Tonight at supper this was one conversation we had:

Cullen: "I like to pray."
Mommy: "That's so good! What do you pray for?"
Cullen: (hesitates for a second then does his wide- eyed, raised eyebrow happy face and says very excited. . .) CANDY!

Honesty. . .children can teach us a lot about it!

Anatomy 101

The following is Facial Anatomy 101 by Cullen, age 2:

Cullen climbs in my bed this Sunday morning, greets me with his sweet smile and wide eyes and says "Good morning" then snuggles close. He was quiet for a few seconds and then suddenly starts reaching for my ear furthest from him and says "ear" then he goes to the other "ear". I then realized as he was reaching for the rest of my face that we were going to go through the litany of facial features that he knows. I thought it was so cute the way he touched all over my face so proud trying to show me that he knew the names for everything and so I listened as he touched my face and said "cheek", "lips", "eye, "nose" and then he sort of sits up with his hand still on my nose and says with great delight "and there's the boogers in there"!

What can I say. . .boys will be boys and all body parts will be appreciated for the ability to produce gross contents!!!

Food Glorious Food!

I'm dedicating this post to all those people who dearly love me and worry whether or not I eat! All of you will be happy to know that a Jr. Hamburger, regular onion rings, 7 packs of ketchup and cup of ice water later I have consumed an outrageous amount of calories for lunch today and have loved every minute of it! As I lathered my onion rings with ketchup, I thought "Wow, this is so delicious and even though in a few hours my stomach will be protesting my food choice with indigestion. . .it's soooo worth it!" I ate an "All-American heart attack disguised in nifty little paper bags" kind of lunch that everyone should indulge in from time to time!

Amazing!

Yesterday morning Cullen woke up and advised me that he would be wearing big boy underwear to daycare! Since we haven't been working on potty training I was quite surprised. Don't misunderstand me, he does know about pottying since he has a big sister and he has even shown some interest from time to time sitting on the potty and coincidentally having good timing and actually using it twice. However, it is not something I've tried to get him to do other than encouraging that one day he will get to use the potty and be a big boy with big boy undies and all that. I don't stress about potty training though because I don't feel like it's worth it. You can't "make" someone go potty so what the use in stressing out a kid until they are ready? Just my opinion! Anyway, I digress! My point is that he must want to go now because he wore big boy underwear ALL DAY LONG yesterday without any accidents!!! When I went to get him I was fully expecting him to be wearing his spare outfit and when I saw he had on the same clothes from the morning I just stood there in the doorway of his classroom stunned. I asked the teacher if he had on a diaper and when she said no it was like I had won the lottery. I scooped Cullen up and told him how proud I was of him and went on and on to everyone in the room and then every person that walked in. Almost every person we passed on the way out got a report on Cullen's achievement for the day (we do live in a small town and yes I was talking to people that I knew)! I'm sure everyone thought I was nuts but I didn't care, I was a proud mommy and a shocked mommy. . .my kid potty trained himself! What's even more comical and puzzling to me about the whole thing is the way the teacher said the acted during the day. She said that morning they asked him not long after he got there if he needed to use the potty and Cullen held up his little hand and said "not right now" and then about half an hour later the teacher saw the bathroom door opened and walked in to find Cullen sitting on the potty. She said they just couldn't believe that he did it and then continued the whole day. He is such a strong willed child and this is just another example for me of what a blessing that can be!

When we got into the car I continued to praise Cullen's new accomplishments and told him that we needed to share his news. Immediately he started listing off all the people he wanted to know about his potty success. I grabbed the cell phone and called Tripp and then my Dad and Cullen told him and then I heard Cullen say "Amazing". I assumed at first that my Dad had responded to Cullen that way and that Cullen was just repeating it but after I asked my Dad and he said that he had not said that to Cullen I realized just how proud of himself Cullen really was. . .he was AMAZED!!!
I am too!

Emerson and The Parrot

Monday we had snow day although we didn't actually have snow. The schools here closed in anticipation of a snow event and therefore the kid's daycare was closed, absurd I know! That meant that I had to find some place for the kids to stay yesterday since I didn't get the day off. Oma and PaPa graciously offered to let the kids stay there in the morning and Aunt Judy (renowned animal rescuer!) came to visit with her new friend. Emerson has consistently said for several months that she wants to be a veterinarian when she grows up although the child is more of an animal observer than an animal lover. So you can imagine my surprise when I see this picture! At first glance you may be thinking that she looks just like a future veterinarian but if you really look at it I think you will see that look in her eyes that is shouting "I am brave. . .I can do this. . .this bird is creeping me out. . .oh goodness, don't move bird. . .wonder how long I'm going to have to smile for this picture. . .I hope this is almost over. . .what was I thinking when I said I wanted the bird to sit on my shoulder?" thought process that was truly going on behind the toothy smile! However, I'm pleased to say that according to Oma Emerson really was brave and admired herself in the mirror, let Oma take a picture and at that point she was, as Oma put it still "unbitten innocent". Can guess what happened next? Yep, the bird thought Emerson's fingers looked like a good snack and OUCH! that was the end of the bird interaction! Looks like Emerson's going to have to look for a different future profession.

Good morning

This morning, like most, I was nestled close to a warm little 2 year old lump of sugar when I woke. Cullen wakes up most mornings around 5am and climbs in bed with me. Thankfully he does go back to sleep for an hour or so! This morning he woke up around 6:45am started wiggling around, got up and walked around the room, I closed my eyes again and then I felt 2 little fingers prying my right eye open. When I focused on the chubby little face just inches from my own face I saw Cullen's bright eyes and long eyelashes looking intently at me. Without taking his fingers from my eye he smiled and said "It's a magical morning, Mama". Now if that doesn't make for a good morning, I don't know what does!

Alive

Yes, I am still alive. I'm sorry for the recent lack of posts but sometimes inspiration is hard to come by. However having 2 adorable children means inspiration is only an tiny hug away. I think that I will start to try to blog again although I'm not sure what the content will be yet. I'm sure that most of it will continue to be silly stories about life with 2 young children though. And I promise to get some new pictures up soon. Sorry for keeping everyone out of the loop for so long.

Okay so on to updates on the kiddies. I enrolled Emerson in Pre-K starting in August. This was really hard for me and really exciting for her. I know most people say that letting go of the last child is the hardest but with Emerson being dubbed the NICU baby she is the hard one for me to let go of. Emerson continues to be my "girly" girl wanting to wear high heels, jewelry, dresses and most importantly lipstick! She loves her teacher at daycare (what a blessing!) and loves all things school related. She has continued to come out of her shell and plays with several children now and even has a boyfriend, yikes!!! She is my typical 1st child enjoying structure and routine and I love her for it. I love her sheer determination and stubborn streak although it makes parenting difficult at times. One of my most favorite things about her is that she really does love all things girly and isn't afraid of what anyone else says. She is confident in her cuteness and will not hesitate to agree if complimented. I love being a mommy to a frilly little princess much more than I ever could have imagined. Cullen is Emerson's complete opposite as a boy in every sense of the word. He loves to be rough, pretend to be a monster, jump from high places and do anything remotely dangerous. He also is my quirky child carrying around and sleeping with a silver slotted serving spoon as long as his arm which morphs into anything his mind creates. . .sword, gun, baseball bat, golf club, etc. He also loves money and was recently carrying around his "pigga" bank as he calls it until it had a tragic accident and broke spilling it's pork bellies all over the floor of Olive Garden. Now his "monies" are contained in a plastic 1 cup measuring cup which he tells goodnight each night and wakes in the morning to immediately retrieve even before he snuggles in the bed with me. I love that he has such a fun personality. He is the jokester of the family always making us laugh with his extreme silliness. I love that he is such a "boy" he cracks me up with his constant activity but wears me out too! But my favorite thing about Cullen is his kind heart. Although he can be quite a difficult, very strong willed child he is my most sensitive child. He is genuinely concerned if someone is hurt or upset and he loves to show his love with words and hugs. He is unashamedly honest with all of his emotions and will immediately tell you if he is upset but in the regard he is just as expressive when he is happy. He truly is a mama's boy!

Now that we're all updated I'll make sure to post a silly story soon!

Strange Dream

Emerson has recently realized that she is having dreams. Obviously she's had them before but she's never vocalized what they were about until now. Most mornings she gets up and comes to see me while I'm putting on my make up and she tells me about her dream from the night before. This morning was no exception. She comes and plops down on the rug in the bathroom and says:

"Last night I dreamed that my kids (she thinks she's a teacher) got tattoos. They all took their shirts off and put them in their cubbies and got tattoos on their backs. I painted (she did her raised eyebrow 'wow' look and said it with added inflection) the tattoos on their backs and they had to wait for them to dry."

Is it just me or does that seem a bit odd? Emerson is a 4 year old aspiring teacher/tattoo artist. If this is what she's dreaming at 4 I shudder to think what 14 will bring!

Goodbye Nemo

Last week I started to notice that our beta fish was looking a little pale. I thought maybe he was cold or old or a combo of the two. A few times I noticed him hanging out in his bowl sort of catywompus (as PaPa would say). I would get his attention with a gentle nudge on his bowl and he would start swimming. Then finally the other day I came home from work and was getting supper ready when I reached for the fish food to feed our dear friend only to realize that his little grey body was resting peacefully on the bottom of the bowl. I just left him there for the time being not wanting to have to address it with the kids. I thought I had made it through the evening without anyone noticing when all of the sudden I see Cullen pulling a stool over to the counter for his daily fish feeding time. I rushed over to him as he was dragging the bowl towards him. He was looking for Nemo and kept repeating his normal request "I wanna feed the fish, I wanna feed Nemo". I grabbed the bowl and told him no and of course he cried. I told him Nemo couldn't eat right now. Thankfully Emerson's hearing is affected to the point where she didn't hear me and no questions were asked. After our normal bedtime routine I tucked the kids in and sauntered back to the kitchen where I knew I would have to address the bloated fish. In a very brave moment I poured the fish into the net, did a quick exam, why I don't really know? I guess I thought I was working for the fish CSI lab or something. No, there was no internal exam given! I wasn't about to fillet a beta fish the size of my finger. Anyway, I didn't know what to do with him and I actually briefly thought about putting him in a box and letting the kids bury him. Then I pulled from my own childhood experiences with fish deaths and remembered exactly what we did. . .send him to the big toilet bowl in the sky! Yes, I flushed Nemo! But just like the movie I told him "all drains lead to the ocean, go be free!" Not really, I actually just held my breath and flushed. The next morning rolled around and no mention of the fish. Whew, I thought I had dodged a bullet. Then after work we got home and about an hour went by and Emerson came up to me and asked:
"Where is my fish?"
Me: "huh?" complete avoidance, I thought this tactic might work
Emerson: "You know, my fish, the one named Nemo?" which means "duh, Mom, the same darn fish we've had for a year"
Me: hesitantly "well, Emerson, actually Nemo died"
Emerson: "What did you do with him?"
Me: "ummmm. . .(I was really searching for something but I'm not a good liar so I just said it) I flushed him down the potty" oddly enough I sort of chuckled, how morbid?! Maybe it was one of those "not supposed to laugh at death moments"?
Emerson: "You flushed him down the potty? Which one?" Not sure why that's important?
Me: "mine"
Emerson: "okay" she turns to walk away and chuckles and says as she's walking into the other room in her growny nonchalant way, "You should have just put him in the trash."

Lesson learned: Don't sweat the small stuff, just put it in the trash!

Cullen turns 2!

Cullen turned 2 on October 2nd. I really cannot believe that 2 years have flown by. It has truly been a blur. I hope that the next few years slow down a little so I can have time to soak it all in!

Cullen is amazed by the candles!

Blue icing is the best! Playing with the loot. . .Go Diego Go!!!

Better late than never

I finally took the time to upload a few new pictures. These were taken about a month ago. Here it is 2 weeks into November and I'm just now getting around to posting pumpkin patch pictures. At this rate maybe I'll have up Halloween pictures by Christmas, Thanksgiving pictures by New Year's and Christmas pictures up by Easter!!!

Emerson does this silly smile that cracks me up!

My favorite pic of the day!

Boys and Boogies

Warning: Descriptive boogie story to follow!

Tonight I was sitting on the couch reading a very sweet bedtime story to the kids when I noticed Cullen becoming restless. He usually sits in my lap very peacefully and quietly while I read the bedtime story. (Emerson is my wiggle worm.) Cullen scooted over away from me and I spied him out of the corner of my eye doing something with his hand close to his face. I turned just in time to see half of his finger buried in his right nostril and then I watched as he pulled his finger out of his nose, held it out, took a good look and then WIPED it on the couch! I just sat there staring at him during the few seconds he took to find the culprit of his breathing obstruction, bracing myself for the moment he shoved his dirty little finger in his mouth (mind you all of this happened in a split second) and as he wiped his finger clean on the couch all I could think was

"Thank goodness he didn't eat it!"

I was kind of proud and disgusted all at the same time. I mean, he is a boy and tasting odd things comes naturally so when he smeared his boogie on the couch I was almost impressed with his self-discipline! He may yet prove me wrong about boys just being boys! ha ha However, he still did rub it off on the couch which is gross enough and if he were a girl he would have held out his finger for me to wipe. It definitely shows his independence and resourcefulness though. He's probably thinking "why use a tissue when you have a perfectly good surface to clean your finger"? But now I'm wondering if I should do a boogie check on all of the surfaces in the house. Better yet I'll just spray everything down with Lysol and call it a night!

One day. . .

. . .I'm going to post some more pictures, but it's not going to be today. Unfortunately I can't get the pictures to load on the computer. I'm so disappointed because there are some super cute pictures from this weekend's adventure to the pumpkin patch. As soon as I get the computer problem fixed, I promise to post them!

J U M P!!!

There is the coolest place called Monkey Joe's close to our house and we decided to take the kids one Saturday to jump and jump. It was cheap and loads of fun. You should take a kid there just so you have an excuse to go down the gigantic slide!

This is when Emerson still had in her hair bow!

This is really hard work on an air-filled giant balloon (note: no hair bow and we've only been there 15 minutes)

Here's the gigantic slide, SUPER FUN!!!

Wee, let's do it again Mama (someone had to hoist him all the way back to the top)!

Slip sliding down!

Yes, he did this on purpose without anyone giving him the idea first. . .Boys will be boys!!!!

An ice cream to finish the day! Don't you just love their expressions, it's a combination of shock, exhaustion and exhilaration!

(YES, that is pink eye shadow on Emerson from her play make-up set and NO it does not come off easily. Why don't they make that stuff parent friendly since we're the ones scrubbing it off the kid's eyes as they scream in pain and agony that you're ripping their eyelids off?)

The story

I figured after my last post it might be fun to explain my adoption story to you, the reader of this exhilarating blog! When I was about 8 or 9 I suddenly realized that there were hardly any pictures of my around the house. There were a couple of school pictures and then maybe 2 or 3 of me as a baby, mostly with my brother in the picture but no wall or shelf devoted to me, the little sister who was a whole 5 years younger than my brother. Instead the hall walls looked like a shrine to my brother, "the chosen one"! I began in typical dramatic girl fashion to inquire into the case of the missing pictures. I meticulously questioned each member of the family and a few family friends about my birth and babyhood. When I asked my then teenage brother he lead me to believe that I was adopted. Since I didn't look exactly like my parents and I kept wondering where I got my nose I started really thinking he could be right. I started analyzing each picture of myself in comparison to pictures of my parents and brother to figure out whose eyes I had, whose nose I had, etc. I was truly obsessed and would even ask my grandmothers if I looked like other people in the family I had never met. Finally after what seemed like forever I finally broke down to the point that my mother brought out the video of my birth. Now, you have to understand something about my mother, she is a free spirit, independent and not worried about what people think of her. When she gets an idea in her head, it is not easily changed. When I was born there was apparently a movement of women wanting to reclaim the birthing process and my mom was front and center. She decided after a very horrible birthing experience with my brother 5 years prior to my own that she would go through Lamaze classes and have a natural birth. Thank goodness for her that she has a high pain tolerance, that her labor was quick and most importantly I was relatively small! She gave birth to me in a hospital, probably because my Dad wouldn't agree to a home birth and video taped the actual event. So since there was actual proof of my birth my mother, in her infinite wisdom, decided to teach me 2 things when she showed me the video #1: Sex will do this to you. #2: Don't ask a question unless you really want to know the answer! As I watched the video, which I'm not sure I've ever seen since I realized that I wasn't really adopted or at least they loved me enough to show me the pain that my mother went through to give life to some baby. Even then I remember saying as I saw the video "how do I know that's me?" All my mom could do was sigh. My poor parents, if I'd been the first I'm sure I would have also been the last! Unfortunately I've always been WAY too analytical and even when I see proof I question it. But as I've gotten older and started looking more like my brother (you should see the male yearbook pictures I did, YIKES!) I finally came to terms with the fact that my parents are truly my biological parents and my brother only really psychologically tortured me once and after all he was only doing his older sibling duty! One day Emerson will be trying to convince Cullen that we found him on the side of the road (what my brother told me about myself) and that we felt sorry for him and picked him up. Of course that's when I will break out the video of Cullen's birth, which is G rated, for my son to learn the same lessons I learned all those years ago. However, the most important lesson from the whole experience that my parents probably didn't even realize that they taught me was. . .TAKE PICTURES OF YOUR 2ND CHILD!

Here it is

I thought I should post the picture that I used in my yearbook photos. Everyone keeps telling me they don't believe that it is me, but it really is my face. Tripp took the original picture and still didn't believe it was me in some of the photos. My own mother didn't believe it was my face and she gave birth to me, or so I think?!! That's a story for another time, my brother had me convinced I was adopted! Anyway, for some real proof here is the picture of me without my glasses on. Since no one ever sees me with my glasses off it really has confused everyone.

So, here it is. . .

Just one more

Somehow I managed to miss posting this picture previously. I have laughed so hard at this picture that I had to share. The hair, the shirt, the earrings, oh how fun it is to look back at the styles and wonder "why?" Once again this woman was a teacher at my middle school and I think she might still be sporting this hair style (and probably the blouse to match). By the way, I did not upload pictures from my past yearbooks so the peoples faces who have been erased with mine replacing are not people I know personally. Oh and yes, I look completely different without my glasses. It's throwing everybody off, even my husband!

Prayer time

Like all children, Emerson is a creature of habit. Each night she recites the same bedtime prayer but then peppers in her own little thoughts. She sometimes surprises me with her kindness and thoughtfulness when she prays for a friend or someone who is sick. The theme of her prayers lately have been about her classmate's mother who is in the hospital waiting to have her twins. Tonight I was expecting more of the same when she started her "God bless. . .," she started to whisper, at first I could hear her rattling off the names of her favorite people but then the whisper became indistinct. After a couple seconds of that suddenly she said aloud "Susie the dog, I don't know any dog named that?" I couldn't contain my laughter and then she started giggling and needless to say the prayer stopped there. Where does she come up with these things? Every day that child makes me laugh at something she says. Her little mind is always turning and who knows what's going to come out!

Another good laugh

Although I truthfully hesitate to post any more "yearbooked" pictures of myself, I do so for my own amusement. It seems that I have been made aware by many that I look quite manly. Well, that really is my face which apparently means I'm much more masculine looking than I ever thought. However, it is my face and at least I can laugh at it. So laugh with me, it's good for the heart!!! :)

1980 There was a teacher at my middle school with the same hair, scary!

1984 Is it a woman or a lion?!

1988 I have a 5 o'clock shadow!1990 Same do, more hairspray!1992 Has anyone seen my chin? 1994 I can't lie, I wanted this hair in 94!1996 Wait, I went to school with this girl, no really, I'm NOT kidding! 2000 Definitely the most hideous picture of all but I had to include it because I can't stop laughing at it. Was this really the style in 2000? I guess I blocked it from my memory. This picture explains exactly why I can NEVER be a blond!

Hopefully this silly little adventure with photo shop was fun for everyone. I am now finished humiliating myself, for now anyway! HA!