Expectations, judgement and kids...

Well hows that for a happy Sunday afternoon topic...haha! I promise the post is not as dreary as the title sounds.
Something has been on my mind a lot lately and seems to continue to be in front on my face is the expectations we have for our children, the judgement that comes with what our kids do and the choices we make as a family.

There are a lot of things they don't tell you when you want to try for your first baby...besides all the trials and tribulations of actually getting pregnant there is all the 'judgement' that comes from outside sources. EVERY single person you know in your life and even those you don't know have the BEST advice out there.

According to them.

Let me tell you even doctors aren't on the same page and they all have different advice too. We are on our 6th pediatrician in 4 years, not for any reason other than moving or changing insurance, okay I take that back one we switched immediately from because she was baffled that I nursed my 2 month old and didn't supplement and said she couldn't imagine how...that was a red flag for this mama.

Anyway all 6 had something different to say about everything.

I have quickly learned that the one right person for MY children is me...occasionally Daddy has a say too ;) I'm kidding, partly, my husband is very complacent in this matter and leaves all the vaccination, diet/nutrition, activity planning up to me with a nod of the head and a sign on the check. Not that he doesn't care he just trusts me to make the best choice for the kids.

Anyways what's my point, well judgement comes in all forms. Too many activities, not enough. Starting school too young, starting too late. Too many vaccinies, not enough. I could go on but I think you get the point.

We as parents, and hopefully most of us are intelligent ones, make the best choices we can for our family. We are the good influences on our kids. I know my kids can handle somethings but not other things. K does gymnastics twice a week for a total of 3 hrs. She can handle it and she loves it. It's a good choice for us. I want her to do the mission adventure at church on Wednesday nights, but it's from 7pm -8:30pm. Her bedtime is 7:30pm, she cannot handle going to be at 9pm on a week night and not being a total bear the next day.

A wise friend told me about planning and how she plans for one thing at a time and re-evaluates onto the next. Now I don't know if this is a quote or not but this is what just came to mind...
A plan is never written in ink, but in pencil, with a large eraser.

And for me that sums it up, I expect my kids to do this today, I shall face the judgement with grace and learn as we go forward. Sometimes that eraser will be very handy, other times we can tuck it away confident in our choices.



Today we studied the parable of the weeds and the wheat, if you're interested read Matthew 13:24-30....it all came together for me today after reading that story.

gone but not forgotten...

Yikes, it's been too long.

With an on the go toddler and a million other things going on in this house blogging has become nonexistant.

I miss it

I think I put too much pressure on myself to be writing over here and took the fun out of it which is upsetting because I did do like to write, I have a silly amount of children's stories sitting in a folder waiting for me to do something with them, like delete or send to a publisher...

Pictures are taking forever to upload too though I'm getting a new tablet in a couple of weeks so maybe I will be able to upload faster and make this blogging a lot more fun.

stay tuned...I will be back!

over-scheduling and under-scheduling and sanity!

There are many big debates over the scheduling of kids, over-scheduled, under-scheduled and just plain scheduled. This is one of those times where I said 'oh I never would' and yet here I am looking at our summer schedule going woah.

Step back a moment and since K turned 3 and I became a SAHM I have had the forever question of 'is she in preschool', like I'm some crazy lady for not putting her in...erm the whole point of staying home was to stay home with my kiddos, not stay home so I could send them elsewhere. I mean if you work, they have to go, but if you're home I'd feel weird sending my kid to school when they don't have to go.

But a 3 yr old has a lot of energy and being home with a baby brother and an OCD mother can't always been fun right? So we looked at different options, we did dance for a little while, library time, MOPS, Awana and various playdates but *I* felt totally over booked and living where we were at the time it was a long drive to all these activities! When we moved we stopped everything for about 2 months and just spent time at home, it was nice for a break.

Now we're back to doing stuff! We started with church playdates which are every other Friday at various places (parks, indoor play areas, etc) that lead to joining music classes on Thursday mornings for both kids which is a great time and they both love it.
Now that summer is here we've just finished a week at VBS (vacation bible school) for Kaitlyn from 9:30-noon which to be honest was pretty awesome for me, we dropped her off and came home for B to nap and me to clean up without a tornado following behind me. My house was clean for a good 3 hrs a day.
Next week K's starting gymnastics on Mondays for 8 weeks
Thursdays are music for both kids for another 4 weeks
July 5th K is doing swim lessons everyday for 2 weeks
Then we're likely going to the beach in Florida to meet up with some friend from Denver for a long weekend.
K's 4th birthday party is the end of July.
Then it's Boston for a long weekend.

And summer's over

So maybe a bit of over-scheduling going on...but K's excited and my little social butterfly (who swims up behind kids in the pool taps them on the shoulder and says hi my names Kaitlyn want to play) will have a BLAST!

Happy Weekend!

The differences

When I first found out I was having a boy I was excited, partly because my husband was over the moon and partly because it was better than being anxious about having a boy! I mean I'm a girl, I have two sisters, my daughter is (obviously) a girl...I didn't know boys.

When he was placed in my arms, all the anxious feelings disappeared and he was my sweet little boy! In many ways he is still so sweet and kind hearted...he is however ALL boy!  He is destructive, loud, busy, silly, messy and rough.

My house is never clean anymore, which if you really know me is difficult for me to handle.

K is not this way. Case in point right now she is happily playing in the playroom with her dolls by herself.  She's contained and fairly quiet.

My little man does not do this, he pulls everything off the shelves, throws stuff around, pulls things out, leaves stuff everywhere and does not play alone! Currently his favourite activity is playing with the glass doors on the fireplace and putting random things in the fireplace. I mean really? Oh he also loves to climb and bang his head against the wall.

In our last house, in Denver, we had barely any child proofing...a simple elastic band around the chemicals kept K out, a foam pad on the fireplace just in case and the essential outlet covers....she never messed with anything.
In this house we have outlet covers, all chemicals in the top cupboard, baby gates everywhere, doors must be closed to rooms, etc. B gets into EVERYTHING!

Amazing how different they are and also how much of the same characteristics they have, just now they are starting to play together and while K is still pretty rough with her baby brother it's sweet to see their interaction. And I will take as many pictures as possible to torture them with when they are older and fighting like cats and dogs.

So much for planning...

I had this great idea I'd post all the time and be this awesome blogger that everyone would want to read...yeah last post was over a month ago. Reality kicked in and I have two kids, one high energy and one quieter and into the cuddling.
Here are some updates on us and a potentially broken promise that I'll be back more often than not...

My shaggy little almost one year old was in dire need of a new haircut, a friend reccomended Pigtails and Crewcuts. Tucked away in a small strip mall about 20 mins from our house we found the shop, it's a franchise and this one was awesome. The ladies whisked the kids right away into their car off choice and started cutting...B was none to thrilled with the thought of scissors near his ears but we walked away unscathed and a pretty even big boy do.

New do and helping mama with the housework...since apparently I don't do a great job, B makes sure to re-do it :P Love this sweet kid of mine and wondering how long he'll enjoy pushing a vaccum around!

 He loves to climb. He loves to climb. He loves to climb. Everytime I turn around he's figured out how to get onto something else...fireplace - check, coffee table - check, big sisters art desk - double check, couch -working on it!

Easter weekend was awesome. My mother-in-law came in on Friday late afternoon and hung out with us through Wednesday. Saturday we checked out a local church festival and K had a BLAST at the egg hunt, took her a minute to catch onto the concept and then it was game on. She even managed to help out baby brother with a few of his own, though my little man did manage to grab two on his own.

Easter morning the bunny had paid our house a visit and the kids happily gathered up eggs. B found a couple and then was more interested in opening his stash to see what was on the inside.

 Grandma bought a Tangled, it's a new favourite.

 It is awfuly painful to get a family photo were we all look decent...this was attempt 3 or 4 I believe and about the best of the bunch.

Been slowly working on my camera skills and attempting to get better, and was recently added to a photographing mamas group which gave me a nice little ego boost and I didn't think I was 'cool' enough to dip my toes in that water. One of the questions was what is our goal as a photographer in the next year...think it would have to be simply to get better. I'd love to be able to sell my prints and have people interested in what I capture...but that may be a long term goal when I have more time to play and shoot and not have my attention called in other directions. 

My little man turns one on Saturday...we're in preparation for his day. I'm faced with lots of bittersweet emotions. For now it's semi-denial :D

Sickies!

Blake started with a snotty nose last week, that ran like a faucet. That night I heard the horrible, deep barking that gives the tell tale sign of croup settling in...my boy had the sickies!

He wanted nothing but mama's lap or shoulder and lots and lots of cuddles. I would wake up in the middle of the night his little body as close as it could get to mine with deep breathes fighting off the sickies. We were going to try out a music class but decided with that deep barky cough we'd be better off at home. No fever and my boy fought it well, still has a big of a runny nose and some junk in the chest but he's a trooper...Daddy could take some lessons!

With Summer right around the corner the weather was kind to us the last few days and the little red line on the thermometor travelled past 80 last week bringing lots of outdoor time and sunshine full of vitamin D to help fight off those icky sickies.

We have a large lot with plenty of room to run and play and it's being put to good use, both the back and front yard! We love to people watch out front and most neighbors slow down to wave or check out the silly littles in the front yard being followed around with the crazy camera lady.

 I love the flowers in the neighborhood...I would say our yard but this bush is just over the property line, thank goodness for zoom lens right? Pollen is everywhere making my poor husband sniffle and snuffle and me ever so grateful to have avoided allergies. I drug the garbage can out yesterday and instead of the brown lid I was faced with a yellow speckled one! I like the windows and doors open with fans running and will avoid the air conditioner as long as the humidity will allow...but if that's whats on the garbage can outside I may have to re-think open doors and windows for fear of what will float indoors!

The better part of the spring is the thunderstorms, just when the heat gets to be a bit much and I start to think 'man it's going to be a hot summer' God prevails and the skies open! I love me a good thunderstorm, sheets of lightening and the clash of thunder so loud the house shakes and the kids move closer wide eyed and curious at the sounds mother nature brings!

Sometimes so loud we hide under the couch...well not really, a discarded toy under the couch caught his eye, and he went in after it only to realize the space was quite small and his arms not quite capable of getting him back out. Of course mama needed a picture of the sillies before coming to his rescue!

 

Indoors and out we are taking advantage of what the weather brings and having fun! Sickies are gone and we hope they never invite themselves back.

The big hand and the little hand

Eating breakfast last week Kaitlyn suddenly looked at the clock, our awesome $5 gold clock that hangs nicely on the kitchen wall and has survived moving 3 states, and said 'Mum it's 8 o'clock, that ones pointing to the 8'.

I explained the hands, little hand and big hand and we talked about the hours and minutes in our day...now everytime we sit at the table she will tell me what time it is, or at least give a very good guess.

"The little hand is pointing to the 6 and the big hand is pointing to the 4 so that means it's 6 o'clock"

I then correct and explain that it's 20 past 6 or 6:20.

Pretty good for a 3 and a half year old, right?

I want to encourage this, so last weekend we found a very cool electronic clock at the consignment sale, the tag said for ages 5 and up...but we're ignoring that since it seems my girl is ready.

Makes me think of all the things she's going to be ready for...starts off small with telling the time and tying shoes, to riding a bike with no trainig wheels to riding the school bus and eventually ready to drive a car and leave for college.

 Pre-K starts in August and she is ready, to get out of our neighborhood we pass the local elementary school and every time we do I hear "Mum I want to go to big school, am I 4 yet" and I answer "no hunny little bit longer and you can go" while screaming on the inside, NOOOOOO it's coming too fast! :( I know she'll love it, I know it's what she needs and my little smarty pants and social butterfly will have the time of her life. But doesn't make the heart break any softer.

That big hand and little hand seem to move awful fast these days!

Happy Friday!