Ode to the birthday guy

My husband makes me laugh. He often wears short-sleeves on cold days and long-sleeves on warm days. He procrastinates doing projects around the house. He’s gotten cheaper with age. He is motivated. He has trouble saying no. He goes to bed late and has trouble waking up in the morning. He loves bread and cheese. And free t-shirts. He is the best father I know. He will make pretend birthday presents, eat raisins (he doesn’t like them), wear dress up hats, roar dinos, zoom cars, read books, change diapers and give baths all for his kids. He tries to teach his kids things whenever he can - math, big words, about soccer, etc. He will not spend money on himself so there is money other places for the family. He works really hard. I'm sure he misses some of his leisurely Saturdays before having kids, but he doesn't mention it. He takes the kids to Costco so I can work on Saturdays. He is a great person to be married to and I can't believe I've known him for 15 years!

big boy bed

We finally got Cole his big boy bed this weekend. Now this is just the first week, so the matress is sitting on the floor. Hopefully he'll get used to it and we'll raise it up on the frame. There is also his crib right next to it. That is just in case he isn't staying in his bed. Not that I really expect to have to put him in it, but the threat is powerful. He does love it. And so far he's sleeping well in it.

Bad hair day

Kids can sure make you humble. I was having a bad hair day the other day. This one side of my hair wouldn't cooperate. I even wet it down and tried to blow dry it again. But it did not help. I picked Makaila up from school and before we made it in the house she goes, "Mommy your hair is sticking out on this side." Nice.

Teeth

Yes, here is yet another picture of Makaila after a lost tooth! This is number 5. She finally lost this one at school and came home with the coveted tooth necklace. No corn on the cob at our house.

I'll stand

Sorry to disappoint you in lacking a picture (give me a break, there are sickos on the internet), but Cole has reached another milestone. He peed on the toliet for the first time standing up. Yep. Such a big boy. We were headed to the bathroom to go and he said, "I want to stand up." I asked, "like Daddy?" He said, "Like Ryan." (His 3 year-old cousin). Later that day he realized the similarities of how he and his father can do this activity. Daddy got a voice mail message of the new feet.

Big boy bed. . .almost

Part of what got me on the organizing spell is the big changes in Cole's room. It's time to move on to a big boy bed. He's already shown us once he can climb out of his crib. He's woken up in the middle of the night crying to go to the bathroom. It's time. And I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm a little sad about this whole big boy bed thing. Now don't get me wrong, I am happy to use the great quilt I bought on clearance. I know he will love the cars and construction trucks on the new sheets. I know he will love having a big bed like his sister and especially that we can all come sit on his bed to pray for a change. But, this is one of the last big steps from baby to toddler. He, most likely, is my last baby. Moving from the crib to the bed is kind of a good bye to that. Someone once told me as a parent you recognize all the first, but what often slips by unnoticed is the lasts. Last diaper to change. Last time you feed them babyfood. Last time you lifting them up into their car seat. Last time you tied their shoe. I know, I'm not usually a sap about these kind of things, but I moved past the infant car seat and breast feeding without problems. I was trilled to end the baby food for table food. I didn't postpone his first haircut or remorse the highchair leaving. We potty trained when he was all ready. And now the crib will be gone. So, when Chad didn't want to go to the bed store this week so he could watch football, I didn't fight it. Let's keep him in the crib another week. He can still feel like my baby for another week. Maybe I'll be ready by then!

Starting off the New Year

Since I have kids January seems to be the time each year that I get inspired to do some major organizing. Let's move things around, throw away all the happy meal toys, lend out some baby toys, see what we need to donate and/or throw away, and buy a few organizing tub/bucket/hooks to make it all work. I try my best to put these great toys in places the kids will remember they have them and maybe think about playing with more. I will try to move all the art supplies into one place instead overflowing out of 4 different areas of the house. I will try to get my husband to pump up all the flat balls. I've been to the Container Store, Walmart, Target and Ikea. I've finally put those little dividers in my junk drawer. And I do feel happy when I look at it. How silly is the fact one organized drawer can give me a little joy because I can find a pen easily?

Is that like us as believers in Christ? Do we need to organize our hearts from time to time? Do we need to purge what isn't useful any more? What happy meal toy junk am I holding onto in my life? And how come it is so easy to see it in other people, but so hard to see it for ourselves. I know those things my husband or one of my close friends needs to work on. But what about me? Are the splinters blocking my view of the planks? What great toys do I have in my life that are gathering dust? Am I using my home to be hospitible to others? Not enough. Am I selfishly using my time? Yes.

I must say that Cole's room is making progress. The new storage unit looks beautiful in his room. The art supplies are almost all corraled. But Makaila's room in need of work. I guess that is part of our humanity. Whenever I feel I get one room under control, another is calling me for more work spent cleaning, perging and organizing. Or maybe God is the one doing the cleaning, perging and organizing. I guess I'll try to not fight the change too hard.

IKEA

We just went to IKEA today. Cole was taking about it before we went. I couldn't figure out if he was saying, "good idea" or "right here". It turned out it was "go Ikea". I like taking the kids to Ikea AND it stresses me out too. I get stressed out about how they want to sit on everything, lay on every bed and try to turn on every fake TV, computer, DVD player, lamp, etc. I know this is a store that it is okay for them to do these things, but it just takes us a LONG time to get through the store and I don't want to waste their shopping energy before we even get a cart! Plus I still am afraid they will break something. I tried to check them in the kids' club place and Cole wasn't tall enough. So annoying. He just ALMOST reached the green line with shoes (it's supposed to be without). The lady could have looked the other way and let him in, but she wouldn't budge. So I had to deal with my two kids armed with pencils going around writing on all the cardboard. If you haven't noticed, there's A LOT of cardboard at Ikea.

I got the shelving stuff I want for Cole's room. Makaila's toy organization will have to wait for another day. We still have to get a bed for Cole and hopefully we can get that this weekend.. We'll probably go buy him a mattress set this weekend and just get the cheap bed frame. I did find one bed I liked for him, but we're not sure it is necessary right now. I've already sent Chad up to the attic with a bunch of trips for baby toys and I've got another bag of toys to go up and a larger bag to go to donate or trash. January gets me motivated for organization. I've even told the kids we're taking a break from happy meals for a while just so I don't have to deal with the junky toys! Just call me organization mama! Hope Chad comes home with energy to put together our new shelving unit!

where key goes

My son is really into pointing to and telling me all the places "where key goes". There are more places than you think. Doors of course. Locks. His favorite is the toliet paper roll holders in public rest rooms.

We went to the gym the other day. When I picked him up the babysitter told me he had gone to the bathroom. He came to her and said he need the key. She looked at him funny and he said, "I have to go pee pee." He knew that the kids' bathroom at the gym is locked and they have to give us the key every time we need to use it.

Cole also is really good at recongnizing my car. When Makaila was little we got our SUV and we called it the new red car. She was into learning her colors and so she pointed out all the other red SUV's on the road. Now, boys and girls being different, Cole points to SUV's and says, "like Mommy's car". It took me a little while at first to realize how accurate he was because he's pointing at small SUV's of different colors, but the same make and model. Even the other day he said it and I was looking at this white Lexis small SUV. I was trying to be nice and saying, "yeah, that's kind of like mommy's". A minute later I realized that in front of the white Lexis was our SUV.

My son

My brother-in-law got a new camera for Christmas and he's taking lots of pictures. This is one of my favorites that he took. It just really shows Cole's smile and his joy. He is a happy kid with one of the best belly laughs. I love it every time I get to hear it.

Guitar Hero

Okay, this is the proof. I was totally hooked on Guitar Hero over our visit to AZ. A little Eagles. A little Bon Jovi. A little Smashing Pumpkins. A little Cold Play. We don't own any Wii, PlayStation, or Nintendo of our own. None. And there's really not any plans to get it in the future. But now that I've played Guitar Hero. . . hmmm. I like music. And although I've never had dreams of being in a rock band, I do like combining music with trying to master the game concept. I even got Rachelle to play (they own it and she had never even tried it before) and that was amazing. Of course Keith's favorite picture is of Rachelle and I playing while all the kids are watching us. Now, if I could the version that has more Monster Ballads from the Big Hair Bands. . . let's just say I better start saving my monthly budget now.

Polar Express

So, I'm back tracking a bit. I just wasn't into the blogging mood back in December. Too much going on with the holidays and all. Now, I'm trying to start the New Year off right. Okay, so New Year's resolutions don't mean a whole lot to me. But I am working on my anual organize toys and throw out all the happy meal junk and stuff from birthday parties my kids haven't played with for over a month. But I digress. Back to the blog.

While my parents and Grandma came to visit we went to the Polar Express. Now, from what I hear, they do these at many train stations over the country and this one wasn't the most authentic compared to the book, but it was still a fun thing to do. But the day we had bought our tickets for, ended up being one of the coldest of the year! We froze walking to and from the car, it was freezing to go to the bathroom (even though they were indoors) and even waiting in the tent for the train ride, it was darn cold. But the train was fun and Santa stopped by to see the kids. Grandma also got chosen to help the man make a horse shoe.

Hike in AZ

While in AZ we went on a great hike for the entire family. Do I sound like one of the radio commercials? Fun for the whole family? Anyways, we took up the jogger stroller for the boys to ride in and for carrying lunch. We had great weather. We made it up to the top and the dads and kids climbed over the rocks to check out the small waterfalls. We had a picnic before returning, which made Grandpa Rev (the family picnic lover) happy. Bella (the new pug puppy) came along too and Kate and Makaila enjoyed taking turns walking her. Although this was an almost perfect day, it wasn't injury free. Ryan pinched his finger, Cole fell off a rock and banged up his chin and Kate had a minor fall trying to catch up to Makaila and the dog on the way down hill.

Toothless and proud

Over vacation Makaila lost her third tooth. And her forth! While visiting the fam in AZ, her front tooth was so wiggly I couldn't take it anymore and I just had to pull it out. It bled a lot as you can see here in the cup and the bloody smile. That night she bit into a hard piece of chocolate on her yummy smores (done in the back yard of Villa Suprise a.k.a. the Baker's House) and loosened up a bottom tooth. The picture with the fake glasses on shows both teeth gone. She was thrilled to get to show her teacher and classmates when she went to school. Although, I hear there's a little jealousy from her friend D in class because he really wants to loose a tooth and hasn't lost any!

Cole the tool man

The last few days it has been bugging Cole that there is an old nail sticking out of the wall in our guest bathroom. Today, after asking me about it for the 10th time, he decides to go run and get his hammer from the tool set he received for Christmas. He comes running back with the little plastic hammer. I lifted him up so he could tap at it. Love it.

big truck

As we're all in the car driving to the airport yesterday, Cole says "Hey guys, look at that big truck." It was a semi. I just thought it was really cute that he called us all "hey guys".

Christmas

The kids had a great Christmas with Grammy, Grandpa T, and Grandma Maxine visiting. They got spoiled as usual and had lots of fun. They have spent the week having a great time playing with their toys. They are sleeping in their sleeping bags, selling ice cream, drawing pictures, reading books, and crashing race cars. Christmas is grea with kids in the house.

Climbing

Well, Cole finally discovered he could climb out of his crib. He was napping today while the babysitter was here and she was outside with Makaila and her kids. She came inside for some reason to hear Cole crying. She went to look in on him and he was standing beside his bed crying because he fell when he climbed out. We've thought Cole had the ability to climb out for a few months now, but we weren't about to tell him. After our trip to AZ we might be forced to go bed shopping!

Waiting for Christmas

Makaila was so cute the week before Christmas. Two nights before Christmas she tells me that she won't think about THAT and points to the other room where the tree is as she's going to bed. She says that she finally got some sleep last night because she didn't think about it {meaning Christmas I guess}. I told her to think about spaghetti instead.

Snow?

A few weeks ago we got snow. It was great. Last time it snowed was over a year ago so it was like the first time for Cole. We ran out real quick and let him feel it and got some pictures. He doesn't own a hat or mittens. The kid doesn't like to zip up a coat for that matter.That night when we talked about it with Chad, his comment was "hands cold".