Enough Said....

I'm a lucky lady.  Do you want to know why?  This is currently my husband's Facebook profile picture...

Enough said :)

There's No Place Like Home

I like to consider myself a homebody.  I prefer to be home more often than I'm out and about.  That can be tricky with a two year old and an almost four year old.  I am still working on finding a balance between being home to keep the house in order and being out and about.  You have to be a parent to truly understand how much work goes into both. 

Today I decided to stay home to straighten up the house.  The weather has been so nice lately that it was tempting to take the kiddos to the zoo or the park.  Well....my plan didn't really pan out.  The photo above is of my living room.  Every time I try to get something done a larger mess seems to appear.  I have to say that it's a little frightening how quickly my children can destroy a room.  You would think they could clean just as fast, but no....not so much.  It will probably take at least an hour of "guided clean up" time.  I will have to point out each and every item that needs to be picked up, and remind them of where it belongs.  About half way through I will realize that somehow I am cleaning and they are not.  It will take everything in me to stop and get them back on track.  They might be in the mood to clean (a girl can hope right?).  They might sing the "clean up song" and make a game out of who can clean up the most toys.  The more likely scenario involves a lot of tears and a time-out or two.

I will now attempt to put my house back in order.  Hopefully with two willing assistants.  Wish me luck!y

Wonders Never Cease

Every once and a while I have to just sit and stare at my children and wonder to myself, "how the heck did I have anything to do with creating these perfect little beings?" Then a moment or two later one of them will spill an entire container of yogurt on the floor, run into the corner of the kitchen table, or snort when they laugh and I think..."yeah....they're mine alright".

My children are amazing. Amazingly intelligent. Amazingly funny. Amazingly sweet. And yes...there are times when they are amazingly frustrating. There must be a reason that God made children, kittens and puppies so darn cute. My guess is that it has something to do with the fact that they all ruin your stuff at one point or another.....or with the fact that they aren't born potty trained.

I can't even begin to imagine the many ways that they will amaze me in the years to come.  I knew what to expect when they were babies (first words, first steps, and so many other milestones), but I wasn't prepared for how amazing I would find it all.  I'm sure all parents feel this way.....we know that millions of children have reached the same milestones, but it still seems like some kind of miracle when our own children grow and change before our eyes.

Wonders never cease.

Preschool Projects Photo Book

Sometimes I feel like I'm the verge of becoming a hoarder.  I have an overwhelming desire to save EVERYTHING.  So far I've managed to keep the hoarder inside of me under control...but there is one area that I have a little trouble.  Artwork from my children.  How can I throw it out?  Their cute little hands made these masterpieces.  Can I really be expected to part with them?

My son started preschool this past August.  I've saved everything he's made up to this point.  It was getting kind of hard to manage, so I decided to take picture of everything he's made so far.  I'll keep taking pictures of the projects he brings home.  Then at the end of the year I'll make a photo book of all of the projects.

I've given myself permission to keep a handful of the originals too.  Now I just have to decide which ones to keep and which ones to throw away.

I also posted about this in my photography blog.  If you are a snapaholic mama like myself feel free to check it out!

Someday

Someday I'd really like to have a coffee table again. Just somewhere to put a magazine or two....or even a cup of coffee if I'm really feeling crazy. Before I had children a coffee table seemed like a harmless enough object. It might bruise a shin or two if you are a hopeless klutz with horrible depth perception (which I happen to be), but it's a fairly safe piece of furniture, right? Wrong. Soooo wrong. I can only imagine what my three and a half year old son and two year old daughter would do with a coffee table. Chances are it would involve climbing, jumping, and (eventually) a head wound. Any drinks placed on said coffee table would surely be spilled within moments of being set down.

Maybe if we had a separate living room and family room we could get away with having a coffee table. I guess that's the not so great thing about the "great room" concept. Open floor plans make it hard to close off an area to keep your kids away from objects that might lead them to do something Emergency Room trip worthy.

Am I being overly dramatic?  Probably. Are their safety measures I could take to make a coffee table safer? Sure. I could make the entire thing padded....and it would need to be low enough to the ground that they couldn't hurt themselves jumping on it. I'm pretty sure I just described a carpet....which we happen to have in our living room. So there...I have a coffee table. It covers my entire living room floor, it's really soft, and super low to the ground.

Someday we'll move. Someday the kids will be older. Someday we'll have a coffee table...and maybe even a coat rack...

Here We Go Again...

I want to be good at this...I really do.  I keep telling myself that I'm going to make time to blog.  I like to blog....it's just hard to find the time.  There are a lot of things I'd like to do, but there seem to more things that I HAVE to do. 

So I'm starting over again.  I'm going to make the time to do something that's just for me.  Really.  Seriously.  I mean it this time.

Ready or Not....

Today was my son's first day of preschool.  He's three (going on thirteen) years old, and SO ready to be away from his mama at HIS school.  I on the other hand am wondering where the time has gone, and how my little tiny baby boy could possibly be old enough to be anywhere without me. 

Even as I write this I realize that I am being totally ridiculous.  This is three hours twice a week we are talking about here.  It shouldn't be this hard for me.  Especially considering the fact that there have been several days in the past few months when I have wondered if there is such a thing as boarding school for toddlers ;)  I think this has been hard for me because I am starting to see him need me less and I am having to get used to that.  It's crazy really...I have spent the last three years looking forward to having him be a little less dependant on me.  I know that my job as a parent is to teach him how to be self sufficient...but it's still hard to accept that he doesn't need mommy like he did before.

I am so proud of my little boy...even of the fact that he was more than ready for me to leave him in a new place.  I love the fact that he can jump right in and know that I'll be back to get him later.  I also really enjoyed some one on one time with my 20 month old daughter.  It isn't often that I get to sit quietly and play tea party with her :)  Plus I am loving the fact that both of my kiddos went down for a nap without a fight.  Preschool is a good thing.  Preschool is a good thing. Preschool is a good thing....