If there's something I've learned as a Mom, it's that.......

Sometimes, ya just gotta roll with it.......

Like when your son takes a purple color to the wall sometime today when you weren't watching.

Or when his new 24 mos PJ's you think will be huge on him fit him already.

Or you had made plans for the a.m. and he is taking a morning nap for the first time in forever.

Or when he has decided 4:30 is a nice wakeup time for 10 of the last 14 days (if I were counting....).

Or he puts his toy in his (really) dirty diaper as you are changing him.

Or he chokes on a piece of apple and you have to stick your middle finger down his throat and scoop it out.

Or he pees on the floor as you fish his poo out of the tub (oh ya, blogged about that already :)).

Or if you're being really honest with yourself, he probably only ate 2 bites of supper and a whole cookie.

Or his face is dirty from eating but he's crabby & you put him to bed without cleaning it off well.

Or he pulls everything out of your bathroom cupboards while you are getting ready.

Or he wants to feed himself yogurt & puts a spoonful in his eye.

You sort of choose to ignore him while he plays on the kitchen floor and you start making dinner.....assuming he's still playing with the book you gave him.......and after only a minute, you look down to this scene:

Yep....pulling all of my Christmas ziplocks

(which I save for cookies at Christmas) out

of the drawer and out of the box.  And he

was so excited about it and concentrating

so hard.  And my camera was there on the

counter, so I snapped a few pics.  Shame

on me :).  I had him help me put them back

in the box and back in the drawer before

supper.  He thought that was fun, too.  Ha.

It's crazy to me how much more relaxed I am with this child than I thought I would ever be! Things that I thought would get me all uptight, and very well may have with someone else's child, I can roll with much easier now that I'm a Mama Bee. Don't get me wrong, I don't let him tear the place apart and get away with everything. It is my strong hope and desire NOT to raise a tornadic monster, but at the same time I've quickly learned to choose my battles.

Now, when he climbs on the speaker, gets on the entertainment stand, and opens the stereo to pull CD's after being told not to.....ya, not so laid back about that. That'd be called 'worthy of diciplinary action' in this house :). Or, when I tell him not to take dog food out of the bowl and eat it, and he proceeds to go back to the dog food and throw some at the wall.....yep, you guessed it. Doesn't fly so well 'round here. But, if he is insistent on being Mr. Independent and feeding himself his yogurt, even though it wasn't supposed to be bath night, most the time I figure what can it hurt if he gets a little yogurt in his hair?? Or, if I'm trying to get ready in the morning and "ignoring" that he's pulling my baskets out of the cupboards and emptying them, having a blast & letting me get ready all the while, what does it hurt? So I have to spend 2 minutes putting it away later. He wasn't doing anything I had told him NOT to do, he had a blast, and I got my makeup on-(ish), and my hair looks a little better than it did when I got up.

So, pretty much, I'm much more chillaxed as a mom than I ever imagined. I hope I'm not too chillaxed. I guess time will tell :). Or those around me will :). Side note......any tips for getting him to eat veggies?? I've tried lot's and am getting nowhere....ugh.

Visiting Caden's Great-Grandma :)

Caden is a blessed little cookie to have lot's (or at least I think so), Great-Grandparents alive.  I have only lost 1 grandma, and both of Jared's grandfathers have passed away, but Grandma's are still here.  What a blessing they are all to us!  I try to capture a picture of each with Caden when they are with him (and I remember my camera :)).  I know that know matter how long we are fortunate enough to have each and every one of them around, these pictures will be a treasue for Caden and Jared and I always and forever :).

Jared's Grandma James fell on Christmas day and cracked her knee cap.  Not only was the timing unfortunate, as she and Sherry missed Christmas with the family and instead were at the hospital, but it is a long recovery for her as well.  She is back home (at Savannah Pines) now, and Jared's Uncle Ken and Aunt Alice are here for a while to help take care of her as she continues to recover.

Tonight we went and visited Grandma and Ken & Alice.  We brought a few toys for Caden to try to avoid him getting into anything & everything at Grandma's, but you can about guess how long that lasted :).  It was a great visit, though!  It was nice to see Grandma back at her place rather than the hospital.  We always have wonderful visits with Ken & Alice.  They live in Florida and/or Chicago throughout the year, so our visits are few and far between.  So, we always look forward to seeing them.  And, for them to see how much CW has changed :).

Alice was sweet enough to make us personalized Valentines Day cookies!  I had to take pictures of them before I would let Jared steal one!  They were so pretty and it was so lovely of her to think of us!

Painting

Since Caden was about 11 months old I've had this giant paper pad that we color on with giant colors.  He has been good at 'coloring' pictures since we first tried with him.  Sometimes 'coloring' becomes hitting the crayon as hard as he can on the paper, so that chunks of crayon fly everywhere, some sticking to the paper.   Sometimes it means lot's of lines and scribbles, making a masterpiece :).

And every once in a while, when Mommy is feeling brave........we get out the finger paints!!  I first did this with him a month or so ago, and every once in a while now he runs to the dining room table where he knows I keep them usually and begs for them.  So, every once in a while we........er.......I mispoke, trust me :).......HE takes clothes off and we finger paint like crazy!  Now that he's a little older, he know the paint gets squeezed out of the tubes it comes in and onto the paper, so he constantly protests for more.  Often times it becomes a giant wet disaster.....errr......masterpiece in no time :).

What a grown up 14 month old!  So proud of his talent, ha :).

TADA!!!  Made especially with love for Grandma and Grandad :).

Pajama Day!!





"Tore the living room apart, Mom!  Ready to go!"



As most of you know, Caden goes to Dimension Early Childhood Tuesday's and Thursday's from 9 to 3.  They are absolutely fabulous and Caden loves it!  Yesterday (Thursday) was Pajama day at school!  So the teachers and students all got to wear pajamas to school for the day!!  I wanted to bring my camera to school and take pics but didn't want to look like a weirdo.  So, I took a few pics before we left home.

Caden is incapable (or unwilling :)) to stand still and face the camera when I try to take a picture.  But, I did my best to get a few.  He looked so cute in his coat and pajamas!  It was so fun!!



 

Still looking a little sleepy, but ready to head to school soon!

Holy Cuteness.









TROUBLE??  Is that what you see too?  About to hit the carbon monoxide
detector (a big no-no of course).....I know, as I quick snap a picture again.
Anyhoo, he thought it was funny till he hit the button and the alarm went
off.  Then, CW didn't think it was so funny anymore :).  Tears galore!!

I've got my lunch packed and am ready to go, Mom.  (Ignore the chaos in
the background.....it just seems to be a constant around here).







Tired and relaxing on his couch after a very

fun and busy day at school :)!!



Left the room for 3.5 seconds, and this is what I came back to....

A wild man on the coffee table.  He knows he's not supposed to do that.  I took a pic.  I'm sure that discouraged him.  Ha!

This child is non-stop....holding a fork and a pen (I think).

As I told him to get down and walked towards him, he began his mad dash off the table.  Which included kicking these candles off the table.  Ya, that helped.

Love him :).

Oh Happy Day!!

...that's what we call it around these parts when Liz comes to visit :).

Great pic - Minus the fact it looks like CW might be on drugs, haha.

I met Liz when I worked at Three Eagles, and she has been a blessing to our lives from the start :).  We have remained great friends and always have a good time!  And CW is pretty fond of her, too!  She drives from NE City every day for work, and boy are we glad God brought her to Lincoln for her job....or we would have never met our one and only Liz :)!!

Craziness

It is crazy to me that we have a 14 month old!  It's still crazy to me that I am a mom!!  Caden is working on getting (I think) 4 top teeth in, and this round has been a booger!  He is pretty clingy/whiney, and not sleeping as late as he usually does.  So, as far as this mom is concerned, those teeth can come in any time now!!

Like I said, it's crazy to me that I am a mom!!  It's what I've wanted to be since I was, oh, three years old, but it still doesn't seem real sometimes!!  And then, I think of all the ways life has changed/I know I am a mom, and it's reality :).  Let me share...

• A shower, drying my hair, AND getting makeup on all in one day??  Oh stop, it's too much :)
• You licking the pacifier off after it falls on the floor or who knows where is now as good as scrubbing it with Lysol
• Your child is dressed well, and you look lame
• Going to Target by yourself feels like an early birthday present
• You cry at pretty much anything
• The crayon artistry he added to the walls downstairs for some reason doesn't upset me too much
• You're in bed every night by the time the news is on, and if not, something is wrong
• You have thousands of pictures you've taken in the last year
• You forgot you had nailpolish and what it was for
• Shave your legs??  You can do that in the winter, too??  That's not just a summer thing?
• You can sing all the theme songs from Nick Jr.
• Your heat is set about 8 degrees higher this winter than it was when you didn't have kiddos
• You can change a diaper without gagging (if I change anyone's but Caden's I gag like mad!!)
• You go downstairs to get something, and completely forget once you get there
• You call your dogs, kids, and husband all by eachothers' names

I could go on, but you get the idea.  I just kept thinking about it the other day and kept cracking up, so thought I'd share a few thoughts I had! 

We are looking forward to having Jared home this weekend after he ski trip last weekend.  He went with the middle schoolers from Church and managed to (so far - fingers crossed :)) not get the flu that many kiddos on the trip did.  Phew! 

I'll post more pics of Wild Man McGee soon!  Happy snow!!