My Perfect Parker Valentine

Dear Parker,


Oh, Parker, you light up my life!  Did you know that you started smiling when you were just two weeks old?  At first I thought that maybe you were just a bit gassy, but no, the pediatrician confirmed that you were just one happy baby and the smiles have continued day after day.  Your laughter is so easily provoked that I am privileged to hear it often.  Even your baby sister knows you are the funny one.  No one can make her laugh like you can.  Even just saying a few words to her in a silly voice gets a giggle out of her while I nearly have to perform acrobatics to get the same result.

You are silly, it is true, but you are just as sweet.  You frequently express your love to me which is more than I feel I deserve. Empathy is not usually found in a five-year old, yet you have been concerned for other's feelings for years.  I remember watching Kung Fu Panda 2 with you.  There is a scene where the mother has to leave her baby and you burst into tears and hugged me so tight and I burst into tears and together we were a blubbering mess.  You are always energetically bouncing off the wall, yet you can be, and very often are, quietly thoughtful.  You are quite the contradiction.

You always want to know how everything works and have proudly declared that you will be a robot inventor.  You very well may be with your mechanical skill.  Your ability to understand things amazes me!  Your questions are very coherent and you listen well when I give you as scientifically accurate answers that I think are just slightly out of your ability to understand, but you surprise me often and understand anyway.  Your Daddy and I very impressed with your knowledge of energy conservation and your Lego-instruction-following ability.  I know your Daddy was just like you when you when he was younger.  You are both very silly/smart individuals with a great capacity for love.

Suffice it to say, I am very, very proud of you!

Love,
Your Mommy

It lives!!!

That's right, my blog lives once more! I can almost hear the surprise. "What? You have a blog?  I had no idea."  Well, that's because it's been, well, let's see....two years since I last posted.  So after a long hiatus, I decided to return.

And why am I returning? This blog will now be my gift to me.  Honestly, I have been having a hard time lately.  I have three kids and I love them more than anything, but they have sucked my soul dry.  Too harsh?  Ok, let me rephrase.  I have given them every ounce of myself and I feel like there isn't anything left ... that isn't better is it?  I am trying to make more time for myself and one thing I would like to do is write, just a chance to use my mind in a more intellectually creative way (not that figuring out how to get my son to poop in the potty doesn't get the creative juices flowing).

I feel like I need to explain...I love my children more than anything and wouldn't change any of my decisions leading up to this life if it were possible (well, maybe I would have told my pregnant self that going crazy on pizza probably isn't a good idea).  This job of motherhood is just incredibly difficult.  Some days it feels like I'm perpetually repeating myself a la "Groundhog Day."  Fortunately, the monotony is peppered with moments of such unbelievable emotional fulfillment that I can't remember why I would ever complain.  Moments so heartbreakingly perfect that it completely overcompensates for the hours I spend cleaning up bodily fluids (Two potty references in one blog post...too much?).

So here I am, writing about any darn thing that comes into my mind and you know what?  It's nice.

To clean or not to clean

Life gets crazy, right? I know everyone is different, but if I don't write something down and make a plan, it doesn't happen. For this reason, I created a cleaning schedule. I would say it takes about 40 minutes a day - that seems reasonable. I am always all or nothing. So I either follow this schedule and have a spotless house or I go weeks without cleaning and live in a pig sty. I'm sure my children will grow up confused by this. Hopefully one day I'll find a happy medium, but until then....

I'm back

So I'm back from my unplanned blogging hiatus. Life just got busy and I just stopped blogging...and I'm sure nobody really missed it. I didn't even miss it, but I've decided to use this blog as a fast and easy way to document my family's life. Novel idea. I know. So, keep an eye out for my posts.

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Learn and Play: Wheeler Farm

Once a week, Parker joins a group of friends to learn something new. It is a "joy school" like group that me and the other moms put together. We rotate weeks to teach the alphabet and go on a field trip once a month. Parker looks forward to it every week...and so do I.

On May 5th, we went on a field trip to Wheeler farm. Parker is so enthusiastic about everything and ran from one animal to the next laughing.

My Beautiful Baby Boy

1 day old

3 days old

1 month old

2 months old

3 months old

Tommy is now 3 1/2 months. He is growing so fast. He now loves to make all sorts of happy noises, especially if I smile at him. He just started laughing this month. Baby laughter is the most beautiful sound. He has also discovered his hands and how to put them in his mouth. He loves to suck on two fingers at the same time, his index and middle finger. Hasn't figured out the thumb thing yet. He is sleeping through the night most of the time. Sometimes he will sleep around 9 hours at a time. He is so easy going and pleasant and now loves to smile at his Mama. He also thinks his big brother is pretty funny. He has adorable little dimples in his cheeks when he smiles. I've got to get pictures of them. His eyes are changing color. They are turning green with some brown specks. I'm sure he will have hazel eyes like mine. He also has a flat spot on the left side of his head. It was very pronounced last month, but it is rounding out. That is the side he loves to sleep on. All I have to do is rub in between his eyes and down his little nose to put the kid to sleep when it is his nap time. What a great little boy! I love love love my beautiful little Tommy.