Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Had a great, relaxing weekend. We were outside for just about all of it. Finally, the rain has stopped - for now. The boys enjoyed playing in their little pool, the sprinkler, and the slip-n-slide. I don't think I've ever laughed as hard as I did seeing Chris go down the slip-n-slide. Grant couldn't quite figure out what he was supposed to do at first, so I talked Chris into showing him how it was done. See Exhibit A below. Good times!
Grant had his end-of-the-year preschool program last Friday. We were definitely proud of our little man. He sang his little heart out to "I'm a Little Teapot," "The Itsy-Bitsy Spider," and "The Hokey Pokey." "The Hokey Pokey" was by far our favorite. I never knew he had so much rhythm. Looks like we have two dancers in the family.
Hope everyone's summer is off to a great start.
We love and miss you all!
Jen, Chris, Grant and Bean
Friday, April 24, 2009
Everyone kept saying to me, "You have to read them. They're such good books." I was hesitant about giving in. After all, I hadn't read a book cover to cover since before Grant was born. Out of curiosity mostly, I finally jumped on the "Twilight" bandwagon. Needless to say, once I jumped on I haven't looked back. In three weeks I have finished the first two books, and hopefully I will be finished with the third this evening. I'm completely hooked. Every spare minute has been spent reading. I just can't seem to put it down. I don't know what I'm gonna do once I finish the fourth book and am left hanging. The movie was good; however, I don't think I would've liked it near as much had I not read the book first. All of the girls at work are reading them or have read them, and Edward and Bella seem to be the topic of conversation practically everyday. Reading has turned out to be a nice change of pace for me, and I have found a renewed love for books.
So, if you're in the mood for something other than TV, check out the Twilight series. Great fictional entertainment!
On the homefront...
Ben turned 2 last Friday! He's not my little Bean anymore. He's officially a big Bean. He finally hit somewhat of a growth spurt and while he's still on the small side, he has filled out and gotten quite a bit taller. We've started the process of weaning him off of his paci, or should I say paci[s]. For a while now he has slept with two pacis. He puts one in his mouth and holds the other in his hands. As he's falling asleep he passes the one paci back and forth between his hands and occasionally switches it out with the one in his mouth. It's a funny thing to watch. His hands don't stop until he's completely asleep. The only time Ben stops going is when he's asleep.
He runs everywhere he goes and is constantly into something. It's funny to watch him when we visit some place we've never been before. He immediately starts casing the place. He starts at one corner and walks each wall around the room trying to figure out what looks like the most interesting kind of trouble he can get into first. It's amazing to watch his little mind work. All it takes is for him to watch someone do something one time and he can pick up on it. That being said, potty training is somewhat underway. I figured I'd let him go at his own pace with the whole potty training thing, but apparently he seems to be ready sooner rather than later. He's been using the potty for several weeks now. I've not taken the big step to big boy underwear as of yet but figure that will only be a matter of time since he's insistent on keeping up with Grant.
I took down the crib a couple weekends ago and Ben has transitioned quite well into sleeping in a big boy bed. Of course, sometimes he's not quite ready to go to bed when he's supposed to, but he's getting it - slowly but surely. Grant is now sleeping on the "bop bunk" as Ben calls it. The crib was the last bit of anything "baby" that we had. I toted a load of 4 garbage bags of outgrown clothes back to South Point last weekend for my cousin Mark. They'll be having their first little boy this summer. It is sad in a way that I officially don't have any more babies, but I am looking forward to what's in store for our family.
Here are some pics from Ben's birthday party in South Point. We all had a blast, and it was nice spending time with the family. Check out the cake mom and I made. It tasted sooo good!
I'm looking forward to an awesome weekend. The weather is supposed to be nice, and I plan on having all of my housework finished before tomorrow so I can spend the entire weekend with my three guys. Cookout tonight, Salem Red Sox game tomorrow evening, church on Sunday, and tons of playing outside. Sounds like a wonderful weekend to me.
Enjoy the sunshine everyone!
Jen
Monday, March 2, 2009
So... another birthday come and gone. I won't lie. I was dreading turning 30. Every year on my birthday I tell Chris, "I don't want to turn another year older. I like the age I am." I'm not necessarily sad that I'm getting older but am a little pensive about the years ahead. Someone told me last Thursday, "You are living the last few days of your decade." Holy cow... can we say depressing? I recall my mom's "Over the Hill" party, and I remember thinking, "Gee whiz. 40 is old!" Obviously I now realize that 40 is not old but that is where I'll be at the end of the decade I'm now beginning. Sobering. It's sobering to me because I know the next 10 years of my life are just gonna fly by. When I got married everyone said to me, "Enjoy this time because it will fly by." It did. When I was pregnant with Grant everyone said, "Enjoy every minute because your life will change before you know it." It did. When I had Benjamin everyone said, "Take the time to enjoy your kids. They won't be babies for long." They're not.
Chris and I were talking the other night about how much life we've lived in the past six years. I mused, "How are we still married?" I mean... marriage, living together away from our parents for the first time, moving four hours away from everyone and everything we know, new jobs, buying our first house, two babies in two years, and other numerous job changes in between. So many life-changing events in just six short years. How did we not kill each other?
I look back sometimes and think, "I wish I would've gone to college" or "I wish I would've traveled more before I had kids." The list goes on. But then I realize how much I have accomplished in just a short period of time. I may not be rich or have status, but God has blessed me beyond belief.... way more than I deserve.
At the end of this decade, God-willing, I will be 40 years old. Chris will be 41 (still older than me), Grant will be 13 and Ben will be 12. Wow! I can't even picture it. It seems like it was yesterday when I used to take Brianna to the McDonald's Play Place on my days off when she was Grant's age. Now she's about to be 14! It true - time flies! I'd better keep my eyes wide open throughout this next decade. If I blink I just might miss something.
I am excited to see what's in store for me in the coming years. Besides, isn't 30 the new 20?
Jen
Jen
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
I remember it well. Mom took me just about every week, I think. Story time at the Ashland Public Library. She would drop me off in the Children's Room for story time while she browsed through the aisles of books. In the Children's Room there was a big (it seemed like it then anyway), circular area with steps leading down to a colorful carpet. I would perch on one of the steps and listen to the storyteller. It was so exciting to me. Each week was something new. While I don't recall each and every book that was read, I do remember this one - No More Monkeys Jumpin' on the Bed. It was so catchy. I remember Alicia and I singing the words as we jumped up and down on mom and dad's blue, bedspread covered bed in the Ashland house. While in Ohio the weekend before last the words of this book kept playing over and over in my head.
Kim surprised Eric with Rascal Flatts concert tickets for Christmas. Of course, being the pain in the butt little sister that I can be and the huge Rascal Flatts fan that I am, I sort of, kind of invited myself along on their date. (Just like old times huh, Kim and Eric?) We had it all planned out. We purchased four tickets together and made a double date of it. Mom agreed to watch all of the kids overnight so we could enjoy our evening/night out, which was super nice. She and dad treated the kids to smores and a weenie roast in the fireplace. (I was sorry I missed that.)Thanks mom! The concert was so much fun. (However, I could've done without having to sit through Jessica Simpson singing. Blah.) I think we ended up getting home from the concert around 1:30 a.m. (It's been a long time since I was out that late.) The next morning Grant woke up next to me and said, "mom, I have a camp-out last night," followed immediately by, "I not move my arm." I just assumed his arm was asleep and tingly since he had just woken up.
Later that morning I heard that just before bedtime the night before Grant and Ben were jumping back and forth between the beds downstairs in my old room. Grant must have landed on his arm wrong and hurt himself. Mom said he only cried for a short while and then went to bed. He was still complaining about his arm on Sunday morning. Ethan tried to check it and moved it a little, and Grant started screaming. I took his shirt off only to find a swollen and slightly bruised left elbow. So... once again... we were off to the Urgent Care. The doctor there thought that he had just dislocated his elbow but sent us to the ER to get x-rays to make sure there wasn't a fracture before putting his elbow back into place. Getting x-rays was not at all pleasant for Grant as they had to straighten and twist his arm somewhat. He cried throughout he entire process. However, it was nothing that a couple of stickers and some candy couldn't cure - for the time being. The x-rays came back negative for any fracture.
So... back to the Urgent Care we went. In the car on the way Grant said, "mom, my arm feel better." I turned around to see him moving his arm with much more range of motion than he had previously. The doctor said that his elbow could possibly be set back in place during the x-rays. I had my fingers crossed that this was the case. Since there wasn't a fracture, the doctor tried popping Grant's elbow back into place. That really made him scream. The doctor didn't know if it was fully back into place or not because Grant still didn't have full range of motion and because there was so much swelling. We left the Urgent Care with a little sling and plenty of stickers.
We traveled back to Roanoke and figured we would just have to wait a couple of days to see if Grant's arm was better or worse. By that Tuesday his arm was still swollen, and he couldn't straighten it out completely. His regular doc said she didn't think it was dislocated but was thinking hairline fracture (which does not sometimes show up on x-rays). She advised us to wait it out a couple more days and if it wasn't any better by then she would send us for more x-rays. Two days later we were headed for x-rays. This time, the process was a lot easier for Grant and he breezed through it. Not a whimper or whine.
I was so proud of him for being such a big boy. We went for a lunch date at Burger King before I had to head back to work. He loves lunch dates. I think it's just because he never gets mommy all to himself anymore. He's definitely still a mama's boy. I don't mind it though. I love it.
Those x-rays came back negative as well. I breathed a huge sigh of relief as the thoughts of a cast up to his armpit terrified me. How would I have gotten a long-sleeved shirt over top of a huge cast? What would I have done during bath time? Would I have to listen to him whine about it for six weeks? I was absolutely glad his arm was fine. After a few more days his arm is back to normal, and he no longer complains about it hurting. Thank you Jesus!
Every time he and Ben get onto our bed to play now, the words from that book flood my mind. "Two little monkeys jumpin' on the bed. One fell off and bumped his bed. Mama called the doctor and the doctor said, no more monkey's jumpin' on the bed."
Wasn't the weather gorgeous last weekend? We took full advantage and played outside all weekend. Poor Bean. He hated it when we had to come inside. We also went to the red park and used our Coldstone Creamery coupons. I love weekends, especially when my house is clean, I can open the windows to let the fresh air in and spend a quality weekend with my family. Does it get any better than that?
Can you tell how much he loves
having his picture taken?
"Mom, Ben made a mess!"
I am looking forward to a Valentine's date with my Valentine Friday evening. We have lined up Sara (a Godsend) to babysit so we can enjoy an evening out. Sara (the daughter of my friend, Kris) babysat for us once before back in December. The boys loved her. She kept them entertained, played games with them and put them to bed for us. Grant woke up the next morning and asked, "where's Sara?" I pitched our plan to Grant last night at dinner. "Daddy and mommy are going to go on a date on Friday. Sara is going to come and play with you again. Does that sound like fun?" He replied, "Ugh, yeah. I play the matching game with her?" Knowing that the boys are having fun while we are out makes leaving them for the evening a little easier. With any mom the guilt factor is always there. I work all week long and am away from them so I have a hard time spending time away from them on the weekends. However, I'm learning that it is necessary for us to spend time together away from the boys. Since date nights are rare for us, I definitely enjoy the uninterrupted adult conversation.
Please pray this week for a good friend of mine, Emily, who will be undergoing a serious surgery this Thursday in Baltimore. I hope she knows that she is in my thoughts and prayers often. Miss you Em!
Love,
Jen
Love,
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
