Thoughts of the Sleep Deprived...

I cannont believe that another week has come and gone. This past week I decided that the boys and I needed one day a week that we left the house to do whatever we wanted - it takes a little planning as that means we have to take Cliff to work and go get him in the evening....but it was well worth it. We did do a few errands, but we also took time to just have fun together. We went to TOYS R US - Zane's favorite spot because he can play with the trains on the table. As we were walking through the mall to head somewhere else he spotted an older gentleman with an icecream cone. I knew before he even asked that he would want one and decided that it would be a fun treat to share one. It was so simple and yet as we sat at one of the tables in the little seating area I could just see Zane's eyes shining at me as he passed the icecream to me for my turn. I've been thinking about this a lot - how I want my children to have those kind of simple, warm fuzzy memories of things we did together when they are no longer children - and this has influenced to an extent how I have responded to things for the last couple of days. I have also been thinking a lot of the responsiblity we have as parents to pass our knowledge, love and testimonies of the Saviour and the Gospel onto our boys. Our Relief Society lesson was on Faith yesterday and I really hope that the things we are doing with our sons are planting seeds of faith in their hearts.

Grammie S & I learned a lesson yesterday - not to tease Zane with hollow threats of tickles if you don't intend to follow up on them with a visit! Mom and I were talking on the phone and Zane had a brief stint before bouncing off to whatever it was he was doing when we interrupted him. Mom made a comment about having to come up there and tickle him if he didn't come back to the phone and I relayed the message. He shrugged and didn't really react and we went back to our conversation. About half an hour later Zane looked up from his blocks and asked me if Grammie was coming to our house tomorrow to tickle him. When I told him no, Grammie was just teasing, he dissolved into tears. Poor kid - he was sure that his Grammie was coming to tickle him. We managed to stem the tears by sending an e-card to Grammie but it was definitely a pale second to the preferred visit. Tickles will come soon enough if all goes according to planned. As long as all is good with the building and such, the boys and I are planning on coming home for a visit on the 19th (Monday) and staying until Saturday. Mom will come home with us and stay for a few days - she has to come back for her truck as Cliff will have it here. Hopefully we will all be healthy enough...Rhett has yet another cold. Sigh. Snotty nose and hacking cough spell little sleep for mom...at least I can usually catch a short nap if I need to.

Ok, the above was written on Sunday....and today is now Saturday. Every time I sat down to write more and finish so I could post I had a very curious Rhett right at my elbow trying to push buttons and getting quite upset with me when I didn't want him on my lap typing.

As I mentioned before Rhett has a cold...it is still with us and he has shared with Zane. I think this is the first time that both kids have been sick at the same time. I think I prefer the one at a time thing. I think we're on the tail end of things and hopefully all will be healthy soon.

I went to a literacy enrichment with Leslie on Thursday and really enjoyed it. The lady teaching it was a kindergarten teacher and really focused on things that we can do and read with our kids to get them ready for kindergarten. As this is something that I need to start thinking about - I'm not kidding - we have less than a year to decide what school Zane is going to go to and get him registered - I really appreciated all the info that she was able to give us. After the lesson we went to Chapters and I picked up a couple of new books. Zane's new favorite is "Going on a Bear Hunt". He can recite almost the entire book.

Lots of Fun!!!

New steps

Well the past couple of days have been ones with a few baby steps and a few big steps in our family.
A big step was finally getting a leather sectional couch for our living room. It's great - even if it's a little big. We actually have to keep it seperated right now but we've got tons of seating now and it's soooo much easier to keep clean. (Very important with my hooligans) It came with the matching (huge) ottoman included and Rhett's new favorite thing to do is to stand on it with his little hands on our big window to see outside. All he can see is snow, snow, and more snow but occasionally a bird or a squirrel moves and he thinks that that is fantastic.
Rhett has also started going to sleep again without me holding him or a bottle - a habit that we got into before Christmas when he was so sick and it carried through. I think we are also getting close to seeing the end of his soother. He's only getting it to go to sleep with now and it seems not to bother him at all not to have it during the day.

Zane learned how to use a glue stick all by himself today and was thrilled to make some fabulous art to send to Grandma and Grandpa - he hasn't specified which grandparents yet but I suspect that I will be able to persuade him to do at least one more masterpiece so each set can have some new art. Between his felts, scissors and now glue he occupies himself for the better part of an hour sometimes.

The biggest step would be Rhett taking his first steps. Yep, that's right. 8 1/2 months old and he took three steps to me today and one more later on. He is determined to keep up with Zane and nothing is going to stop him - except maybe gravity. After the first 3 steps he was just thrilled with himself and didn't want to sit down for the rest of the day. He was either running me over in the walker (a newly acquired skill as well) or talking to me from one of the couches. He also knows exactly what it means when we strip him down and he hears water running. Cliff poured his bath tonight while I got him naked. Then I told him to head for the bath and he took off like there was someone after him. He had made it to the bathroom before I caught up. Silly boy. But he sure loves those baths.

It never ceases to amaze me the rate at which my boys progress to some new skill or understanding. I only wish that I could say the same for myself in some of my trials as I struggle to learn the lesson that our Father wishes me to learn. I read a few blogs that had suggested a single word could make a huge impact in your life in one year if you pondered and acted upon it. I thought a lot about this concept and decided that SHINE would be my word for the year. I loved the number of definitions it has - to shed light on, to polsih, to bring light to etc. All these things are what I hope to do in my life this year. I hope that I can bring light to my family, that I will learn how to polish the areas in my life that need polishing, and that anyone will be able to look at me and think that I bring light and joy wherever I am. Lofty goals? Absolutely - but if we don't reach and strectch in our quest for improvement we won't go very far.

My new phrase

I read a phrase in an email last night...."I am too blessed to be stressed & too anointed to be disappointed". I really liked the message of that and have actually chanted it in my mind a couple of times today and it worked great. I immediately felt a boost to my spirit and the thing troubling me seemed not so bad. It really amazes me what the power of the mind can do if we let it. Now if I could only figure out how to send thoughts from my mind to Rhett's to make him sleep through the night. Hee Hee. I know we're getting close to the end of the tunnel - Zane started sleeping a lot better once he passed the year mark and I'm hoping the same will be true of Rhett. (who is currently in his walker growling like a tiger because he's backed himself up against my eliptical) Too cute.

Zane has been in a very creative mood lately and today I took picture of his latest creations. The one he had help from me but the other one with the happy face he did all by himself. He also has tons of block creations everywhere that he sometimes shares with Rhett and sometimes jealously guards from Rhett. Usually he tries to share when Rhett is no longer interested and then can't figure out why Rhett won't take them.
Much to my delight he really likes to sing and is starting to pick up words to songs pretty quick now. It's really fun to hear him sing and I hope that this is something he'll keep doing through his life - and of course be athletic and smart and handsome and everything other good thing a mom wants her kids to be.

Rhett made me laugh while I was in the shower today - I had left the kids playing in the living room and went to take a shower. I was almost done when all of a sudden I could hear Rhett outside of the bathroom door just howling because he couldn't get in. As soon as I got out I openend the door and he immediately quite the commotion then peeked around the corner to find me and trucked right on in. He loves to find the bath toys that we keep in a bucket next to the tub and if he's fast enough he'll tip them out and start to chew on them. Unfortunately for him I was too fast and foiled his plan real quick. He is also starting to figure out that he can make his walker go forwards. I don't know why it has taken him so long to grasp the concept - maybe because his big brother likes to push him around in it or maybe he just likes to drive backwards.

My laundry bell just dinged at me so I better go and get stuff changed around!

3rd Time the Charm?

Ok....so I am once again attempting this blog thing. For some reason my computer and I just can't agree on how this is supposed to work. Maybe the new version will be of some help to me. I really enjoy keeping up with Whitney's family and the common friends that we have and would hope that if i can get this working that they will have the same pleasure from my few words!

Life here in Red Deer is cold and snowy. I remember being in high school and cursing the chinook winds as I walked home. I would gladly take them now if they would just rid us of the snow that we have had since October. I am not a winter person. I am a spring and fall person! But enough griping!

On to the joys of my life - Zane and Rhett! It is amazing to me how fast a baby grows. When I play with Rhett and watch him learn new things I remember the same things with Zane - and now Zane is mastering a whole new set of skills - from recognition of numbers and letters to drawing shapes and cutting with scissors without help. I am so blessed to have them in my life and pray that I will be a worthy mother for them. They humble me, teach me, and remind me that life is about the small things.

Having two little boys is a constant adventure and I realize just how different raising these two boys is from growing up with sisters! But I wouldn't change anything about them! I'm going to try and put some recent pics in with this post and if all goes well I will become a regular blogger!

The Beginning

October 26, 2006

Well, I am attempting to join the world of bloggers....I guess we'll see in a few minutes if I'm successful or not!

Today we were very busy - lots of time spent in our van (which I am still loving even though I swore that I would never ever drive one - goes to show you should never say never!) Rhett has yet to become a fan of the van but he was a pretty good trooper today as we ran errands and such. Zane now has all the makings of a terrific pirate costume...I need to do some modifications to it but that will be Saturday's project. We also had to get Cliff a sword and hook so that he can go trick or treating as a pirate as well. He says I'll pay for this but secretly I think he's thrilled that Zane wants him to dress up like him.

Life is here is very different from home - or maybe it's just because Zane is getting older and I am entering the world of preschoolers that things are different. Talks with friends now include discussions on preschools, kindergartens and beyond - sometimes I feel that the rest of them have all the answers and that if I don't make decisions soon Zane will be left behind. But then I hear him counting almost to 20, singing his alphabet and picking up more and more words of songs that he hears everyday and I thank my Heavenly Father for giving me such a bright, funny and life-loving child. It's difficult to remember what life was like before the boys - minus the spit-up, dark bags, and diaper bag that can almost always be counted on to have the perfect snack or toy for distraction. But then, I don't think I ever felt as satisfied and happy at the end of most days as I do now. I am living the dream I always wanted for myself and although I don't always remember that at 3 am when Rhett is screaming or I discover that Zane wet the bed....that thought is there and sustains me through our trials. It makes me very sad to think of children who know no love in their life and I sincerely hope that if nothing else my children know how much I love them and that I would do anything for them!

Here I am getting all mushy and stuff. On to more fun stuff to read! Zane has been so cute lately in his pretending. he loves to "order" me around in pretend games and orchastrates some pretty good schemes...of course I do kibosh a few when he decides we're shooting and blowing things up. I'm still not used to that part of "boyhood". He's also starting to negotiate - something that I'm not so sure is a new skill that I like. I have to remind him sometimes of who exactly is the boss. Rhett continues to improve everyday on new skills. He's sitting pretty good and is starting to reach to the sides and front and bring himself back to a sitting position. He definitely seems like he wants to be mobile but hasn't mastered that art yet. He loves to stand in his exesaucer and plays and talks and yells from there. He is also making progress on the solids and seems to like most everything that I've tried.

I guess the bottom line is that I'm so thankful to be a mom and for my two boys. I went to a baby shower for a friend last night who adopted a baby at the beginning of September and i was so thankful that the Lord has blessed me to be a mother without having to go that route.

So until next time.....I will continue to try and remember how lucky I am when the boys are driving me nuts and think of more good things to post!