Summer!

Summer has finally arrived! Max is off from school June through August so it has certainly thrown our routine for a loop. All of those errands that I'd wait on until I just had Mya with me? No such luck. That group of preschoolers that would wear Max out? Nope, gone as well.

I'm convinced that we're not going to waste this summer. I made up a calendar filled with events and ideas for activities. No, we won't get around to all of them but even if we check just a fraction of them off the list, it will make for great memories! Strawberry picking, county fairs, bring 'em on!

Max started soccer class this week at our local park. I am always hesitant to sign Max up for classes. He's just not a structured kid. He wants to explore and do stuff on his own and cares very little about impressing some stranger giving orders to a room full of kids he doesn't know. (Thankfully he has a much better attitude about his own preschool teachers and classroom.) Although he spent the first 5 minutes of class sitting on a picnic bench by himself, he did join in the soccer class and did an awesome job of learning new skills. I was nearly teary eyed when he ran the obstacle course on his own. He's growing up!

Today I took Mya to Preschool Rides Morning at our local amusement park. I wasn't sure what to expect from her. When I took Max for the first time, he was about 4 months younger than she is now. He was an animal, rode every ride, even the ones by himself. Mya was much more hesitant today. She decided the carousel (sitting next to me) and the slide were super but there was no way she was riding anything else. We had to get off 3 rides after she burst into tears. Including the train which is about as putt-putt as it gets. I'm convinced to get her to ride that one by the end of the summer though.

I'll admit I can relate far more to Mya's timidness than I can Max's "who-are-you-and-why-should-i-care" attitude. I was super shy as a child. That said, I do want to push Mya a bit to explore and have fun. I'd also like Max to learn to like classes better because there is so much fun to be had!

Either way, I'm looking forward to a super fun summer this year. The kids are getting older and it's getting easier for me to take them places on my own. I can't wait for the adventures ahead. Let's go, kids!

Smaller Than I Remember!

I was thinking the other day of the bedroom I shared with my sister until I was in 5th grade. I can remember it welll, the knotty pine paneling, the fabulous shag carpet, our bunk beds, etc. However I was wishing I had some good photos of the room because it's never quite exactly as you remember it. So here you go, Max and Mya. Here were your bedrooms in 2011.

Max's room (with Mya!)

Miss Mya's room as well!

Spring 2011

Maybe I should just start titling my posts in quarters since I don't seem to get to them otherwise. What can I say, being a stay-at-home mom is like having ADHD. You get so few breaks and when you do, your mine goes into hyperdrive with the millions of things that need to get done. It's as though you can't focus and make a decision because it's all so overwhelming to your poor little brain! ;-) Not to mention you feel like any activity you do choose should be something requiring minimal focus since you could get torn away from it at a moments notice.

So here we go....my smattering of thoughts as I keep this as up to date as I can.

-Max has finally stopped (mostly) his night waking and is back to sleeping through the night without needing a 1:00 a.m. tuck-in.

-Mya is back to sleeping on the hardwood floor just inside her doorway. Her pad sits right next to her and she has a beautiful low-lying twin bed but refuses them. In hindsight, I wish I would have bought one of those crib tents but I was nervous about the recall they had undergone.

-We're getting close to the end of Max's school year which is hard to believe. He's on the 3 year preschool plan so plenty more to go. I'm hoping to find some fun activities for Max and Mya to share in during their summer off.

-I've been a stay-at-home mom for 9 months now. Hard to believe. It has gone by fast yet feels like the most natural thing in the world. I can't tell you how much it means that I get to be there and share in their worlds as much as I do. Yes, even the tantrum filled ones. When I feel like losing it, I remind myself of how much I'm going to miss them when they're gone and how much I'll wish I had enjoyed that precious time with them. They'll be gone too fast I know.

-Alex and I got a way for a night for the first time in 2 and a half years. Yikes! We went to Salishan, south of Lincoln City, for a night and it was awesome. We know we need to do it more.

-I can't wait for the arrival of summer so that the kids and I can get outside and enjoy new adventures. We went to the Tulip Festival today and had lots of fun. Part of my desire to be a stay at home mom was to give them the opportunity to get out and explore the world in a way they wouldn't if they were at daycare all the time. Especially as they're getting older and easier to corrall, it's fun to take them places, try new things, see new sights and meet new people.

-We're headed to Sunriver for a 4 day weekend with my dad, his wife and my sister's family. Should be a great time!

-My baby girl turns 2 a week from Saturday! Hard to believe yet I am so enjoying getting to know her more as she expressing herself through words. She's such a sweet, fun girl.

Okay, enough of a brain dump for now. Nothing terribly exciting going on but it's a good life!

Day in the Life Update

The other day I was digging through my linens and came across a sheet of paper that had fallen into the drawer from above. It ended up being a schedule of Max's day that I had written up when Max was 6 months old or so. I believe my dad had agreed to watch him for a day while my mom was out of town. Anyway, it made me tear up to have that memory in my hands of what life was like when he was little. Quite a souvenir. That reminded me that I love recording our day in the life because it changes so much from post to post. I think the last one that I did was when I was still working and Max and Mya were in daycare. So, her goes, a day in the life....

6:30-7 Mya wakes up. If I don't hear her shuffling about in her bedroom, directly above ours, she's soon enough squawking, "Mommy, Mommy." until I arrive at her door. She has picked up her green blanket and her baby and is calmly sitting on her bed waiting for me. Her immediate request is "downstairs". I carry her down to our bed and turn on tv. Barney is a recent favorite. If I'm foolish enough to crawl into bed she'll turn to me and demand, "bah-bo". Ugh. Up the stairs to fill a sippy cup with milk. Back downstairs to crawl in bed with her. She chugs her first bah-bo then demands a refill. Apparently sleeping makes her parched.

7-7:30 Max wakes up. I hear the pitter patter of little feet, the screech of his door opening, running feet, then "Mommy!" at the top of the stairs. Party's over, Mya. I carry her upstairs where we take Max back to his room to use the bathroom and change into his clothes I put out the night before. Then it's off to the bedroom to make breakfast together. Max still loves a waffle with peanut butter and jelly, folded in half like a taco. Mya is pickier and we vary what we offer her. The kids sit at the dining room table and finish off their food.

7:45 We all head downstairs and watch a bit of tv before it's time to leave for school. TV goes off at 8:15 so he has some downtime before we leave. It doesn't go well if we turn off the tv right when we leave.

8:40 Time to head to the kitchen to get ready to go. The kids are both plopped on the counter, shoes, socks and coats manage to get on with the help of Mom. Don't forget to grab Max's lunch bag and his show and tell backpack.

8:50 What does the weather look like? If it's clear we walk to school. If it's raining we drive. Sad I know that I drive 2.5 blocks but I've given up on walking in the rain with a 1 and 3 year old. Besides, many times Mya and I head directly from school to run errands, drive to class, etc.

9:00 The school doors open up and we hustle inside. Mya strips off her coat and starts down the stairs without a backward glance. Yes, that was Mya, not Max. Max requests help with his coat and likes me to hold his hand down the stairs. We put his lunch bag in one bin and his show and tell backpack in another bin. Then we walk over to the wall, he finds his name on the floor (this month is Mother Goose month so it's on a Humpty Dumpty cut-out). Max picks out a push pin and directs me to pin it as far up on the wall as I can.

9:05 I find Mya playing in a corner of the room, pick her up only to hear her screech and arch to get back down. Sorry, Mya, you can't stay yet. Max follows us over the stairs where he gives me a kiss then a giant shove up the stairs. This routine is from our daycare days. I think it helps him to feel in control and add a bit of silliness. As I go up the stairs with Mya, he stands at the bottom, bouncing, waving and blowing kisses. I blow them back, tell him goodbye and to have a good day!

9:10 Mya and I head out. Tuesdays we head to the community center. This month she's taking a music class. She has also taken an art class, a tumbling class, etc. She loves them and does well with the other kids. Wednesdays we may just head back to the community center because it's preschool swim day. For less that $5 (she's free) we can hang out in the pool with other kids and parents. Not bad. Other days we have a Starbucks date or run errands which are so much easier with one child versus two.

11:20 Head over to the preschool to pick up Max. We wait outside the door and chat with the other parents and siblings. Mya loves to chase Josie, one of the other siblings. Finally Mrs. Jolene opens the door, gives a smile and starts calling out kid names down the stairs. Mrs. Karen releases them up the stairs and they come out in a stream of cute little kiddos with big grins. Max is always smiling and has a big hug for me. We talk about his day and head back to the house.

11:45 Time for lunch. The kids head to the table while I put together a quick lunch. Max doesn't eat much since he has a snack at school. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, macaroni and cheese and hot dogs are obvious choices.

12:15 Max usually finishes first. I take him downstairs and settle him with a movie in our room for his "quiet time". (Don't get me started on him not taking a nap. He gave those up in the Fall.) I go back upstairs, clean up Mya, fix her up a sippy cup of milk and we head to her bedroom to lay in her bed and read books. It's Snuggle Puppy, Tumble Bumble, Time for Bed and the Goodnight Moon finale. Mya lays quietly next to me until the quiet old lady says hush. Then she bolts out of bed and rushes for the door. She gives me a kiss at the door and likes to close the door behind me. She might play around for 15 minutes but is usually asleep within 10. 75% of the time she sleeps in her bed. The other 25% she sleeps on her rug. Odd.

2-2:30 Mya wakes. Max has tired of his movie by this time and is usually hanging out with me in the family room. When she wakes if the tv is on it goes off. I stick my iPhone in the docking station, we turn Pandora to the Raffi station and run around the first floor dancing, playing Spiderman tag and making forts in the living room. Max is infamous for bring armfuls of books to the finished fort and dumping them on our heads. He's not aiming for our heads, he just blindly dumps them under the sheet cover. My favorite moments are the 3 of us cuddling in the fort, reading a book.

3:30 By this point I'm staring out the window wishing the weather was nicer so that we could walk to the park or just play outside. Ugh. No luck. We keep playing inside and wait until Daddy arrives around 5:00. The kids seem to have a great time and don't ask about the tv. Yay!

5:00 Daddy arrives home. The kids screech with glee and run to the front window to see him getting out of his truck. Max races through the house to unlock the back door for Alex. Daddy come in, gets settled and I start dinner. We eat at the table then head downstairs. Or, if it's nice enough, we might take a walk to the gelato shop. Max can play a game or 2 on the laptop if he has had a good day.

6:30 I head upstairs to put clothes out for tomorrow, turn down the covers, turn on the kids' space heaters and pack Max's snack for tomorrow.

7-7:30 We wrestle the kids into pajamas, brush their teeth and Mya hands out the fluoride multi-vitamins. "Medicine, medicine" she chants as I open the bottle. She receives 2 purple tablets, crams one in her mouth then runs off to find Max and hand him his.

7:30-8 I put Mya to bed following the same routine as bedtime. Alex reads to Max and indulges his many requests for Alex to "tell me a story about Spiderman/Scooby Doo".

8-10:00 Alex and I have a bit of quiet time to catch up with each other.

10:00 The day is done. Off to bed!

Mya's Fun New Bed Routine

Sweet, sweet Mya is still giving us a run for our money with her bedtime routine. She jumps out of her crib in a single bound so that option was ruled out weeks ago. We ruled out a tent crib and she quickly refused the crib converted to a toddler bed and the twin mattress on the floor next to it. Most of the time she spent halfway on one or the other, then moved to sleeping on her rug, then moved to the most pathetic of all....sleeping on the hardwood floor in her doorway.

We quickly took pity on her and placed her pack and play mattress in the doorway although the toddler bed and twin mattress remain as options for her. Now at bedtime she and I lay on the twin mattress, read 3 books, then turn on the music soother in her toddler bed and Mommy says goodnight. Mya erupts into tears for a few minutes, collects her Baby and blanket from the twin mattress, then scuttles over to the pad in the doorway where she settles down and falls asleep. Whatchagonnado?

As I type this I'm looking at the video monitor. The camera has now been turned to face the doorway. There in the doorway I see my little girl curled up on a 2" thick mattress pad, cuddling her Baby and blanket. She's happily babbling away about "nye, nye" this and "nye, nye" that. Hey, if it makes her happy and she's safe, I've learned to roll with it. Sweet Dreams, Mya Lynne!

Good News...I Think

Mya, Mya, Mya. She's giving us a run for our money this week. During our stay in Bandon she learned to jump out of her pack n play. I was frustrated but knew that once we arrived home all would be well again because the rails on a crib are higher. Well, that may be but Mya was still able to catapult herself out of the crib in 0.86 seconds flat. Oh no!

We first took the approach of walking in the room, putting her back and walking straight out. We did this a dozen times in a row with no success. We then placed her mattress on the floor and when she finally did get to sleep it was a pathetic sight. She managed to get her upper body on the mattress but her lower half was sprawled on the rug below.

Certainly she doesn't put herself right so sleep either. She usually prances around for 30-45 minutes, playing with her baby, rocking herself in her chair, climbing on her trunk to wave out the window, etc. Eventually she crashes to the ground and falls asleep. She has taken a few naps on her rug but is gaining accuracy with making it on to her mattress on the floor.

Mya's crib was made in 2001 and we assumed it didn't convert to a toddler bed. To make matters worse, it has drop sides. These types of cribs have been involved in a massive recall so we weren't sure what we could do with it. Our happy news of the day however is that we CAN and did convert her crib to a toddler bed. The structure of the drawer below adds enough rigidity once the rail is removed. The other good news is that the manufacturer drilled holes into the sides so that you could insert the screws provided to make the rails stationary. This means we can sell the crib once Mya is finished with it. Hooray. After the drama of the past few days, it was nice to catch a break.

In Max news, he has been ill. We received a call on Friday from school that he had been sitting in a chair for the past 30 minutes, not participating in playtime. We picked him up and he had developed a fever within a few hours. Apparently there was a stomach virus going around his school. He never had any GI issues (please add to my list of items to be thankful for) and kicked his fever within 48 hours.

Max's fever leaving is also a blessing because it means he can attend the Sample Family Extravaganza. This was/is always the highlight of the holiday season for me. My Grandma Barb and Grandpa Earl gave birth to 4 lovely children who in turn married and have birth to 14 lovely grandchildren who in turn married and gave birth to...where are we at here....17 great-grandchildren and counting. It's a big chaotic mess of the most wonderful family members you could hope for. Shelby is bravely hosting this year. After all, there are only so many houses that will hold a family our size. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone this afternoon. Bring on the madness!

Merry Christmas Eve!

Merry Christmas Eve to one and all! I'm super excited to celebrate Christmas this year since Alex and I are introducing some new traditions for the kids. Christmas Eve is important to Alex's family who celebrated in the German tradition of opening their gifts on Christmas Eve. The kids will open a few of their mom and dad gifts this evening. We'll also open a new book, 'The Night Before Christmas' to read with the kids. I bought cocoa with mini marshmallows for them to drink for the fireside reading. Can you tell I have a whole vision going in my head? Yet I'm also savvy enough to realize it may not go that way. These are toddler we're talking about.

Christmas Day we'll open Santa's gifts. I don't think I'll ever forget telling Max about Santa. We were in the living room a few weeks back and I was stuffing some gifts under the tree. I pointed out the fireplace and was sharing how Santa comes down the chimney with his sack and puts gifts under the tree. Max saw nothing wrong about a strange, jolly man entering our house and wondered if Santa would come to his room to wake him up and say hello. For the record, that wouldn't be my first request of a stranger entering our house. Anyhow, he asked lots of questions and was excited to share this grand news with his daddy when he got home.

Max was excited to visit the man himself at the mall a few weeks back. I prepped him by telling him that he would sit on Santa's lap and that he would be asked if he was good or bad and what he would like for Christmas. Max's response to the latter? "A gun. A big gun!" Sigh. Now part of me wanted to squash that request and tell him not to ask for a big gun but it is Christmas after all. Hey, I've seen Ralphie in A Christmas Story enough times to know better. So indeed he did ask Santa for a big gun. In the past week he has upped his request to an arrow gun. Great, his arsenal is expanding.

Mya is enjoying the holidays as well. She loves the Christmas tree and made quick work of figuring out how to pop the ornaments off of their holders. It's quite something. I can't tell you how many times I've said, "We look with our eyes, not our fingers" to no avail.

I hope you all enjoy a wonderful holiday season. See you in 2011!