He once was lost

Last week we spent several days at Grandmother's house.  For those of you who don't know who Grandmother is, it is Patrick's mom.  Here's a picture of her.

A great one too I might add!

Anyway, back to my story...  We were visiting at her house.  She is always so generous and patient with all of our messes and noise.  Of course no trip to Grandmother's could be complete without a pit stop at the toy store.  So we headed off to Target and Toy's 'R' Us to shop.  We looked at all of the cars and rode all of the  battery powered 4 wheelers and touched a lot of things.  Finally when Samuel had had enough, Matthew decided on a new Lightning McQueen car and a Mack tractor trailer truck.  When it was time to go home to Waco we pack our things including our new loot and headed for home.

On the way home we decided to stop at Mighty Fine for a chocolate shake.  It was late in the evening and we were tired so we thought a pick me up would wake us up.  Of course Lightning McQueen had to go inside to share the shake with us.  And boy did he make the rounds...from the ordering counter to the hands washing station, to the table, back to the washing station several more times and I think he even might have made it into the bathroom (yuck! remind me to tell Matthew to leave the toys at the table next time!) and then of course to the washing station again.  In all of the activity, we lost Lightning McQueen.

We didn't notice until several days later when Matthew kept asking for him.  I looked everywhere I could think of but could not find him.

So, those of you who know me well, know that I become a maniac when things go missing around this house.  I become a complete nutcase...an obsessive crazy person.  (By the way, we are working on this.)   So there was no exception in this case but even in my mad search, Lightning McQueen was nowhere to be found.  Matthew did end up telling us that he left him on the hands washing station at Mighty Fine so I called them but he was not in their lost and found.  At that point I gave up and decided that we might have to buy a new car for Matthew.

But let's fast forward to two days ago, Wednesday, when Patrick had to go to work really early.  Well that means my day starts really early too because our boys have not learned the joy of sleeping in yet.  The morning started out rough.  It had been a hard night with Samuel unexpectedly not sleeping through the night and then waking very early.  So needless to say, I was cranky. But Matthew woke up unusually cranky too and I found myself wanting to snap at him for being a 3 year old.

Instead of snapping, I did something that I wish I did much more often.  I called Matthew into the living room and we sat on the couch together.  I told him that we were going to talk to Jesus so that he could help us have a good day.

I spent a few short moments (short because a 3 year old does not stay still for very long) praying and thanking our Lord for the day he created.  I thanked him for the boys and asked him to help me remember they are a gift from him...a blessing he created for me.  And I asked him to be my patience and love for the boys.

It was not but 10 minutes later that Matthew came running out of Samuel's room saying, "I found Lightning McQueen!.  He was in the Micky Mouse toy".  Oh the delight on his face was priceless.  Well I guess you can imagine that the delight on my face was priceless too!

"I once was lost but now I am found."

I know the Lord loves to surprise us.  I truly believe that the Lord gave us back the Lightning McQueen car because we spent time that morning being thankful.  He loves to bless us in ways that we are not expecting.

It is so good to have a God that loves us so much.  Sometimes he can love so simply.

It is sometimes so hard to remember the simple things like being thankful.

As you can imagine after Matthew found Lightning, he would not let go of him.  Above you can see the progression of the pictures.  I snuck into the living room while he was watching the Cars movie, go figure, and took these pictures of Mack and Lightning McQueen.  You can see Matthew is in the background not paying any attention to me in the first picture and then he realizes that his car is gone and spies me with it.

We spent the rest of the day playing with Lightning.  Here are some pictures.

Samuel had some fun too.  While Matthew was driving Lightning around on trees and in the grass, Samuel hung out in the swing.  I think he liked it!

Dear Lord,

Thank you for being a God that looks for ways to bless us.  Thank you for returning Lightning McQueen to us.  You are so good.  

Amen

Got Worms?!

Today when I told Matthew that we were going to the YMCA so that I could work out he started crying and said, "I want to go dig up worms".

"What"?!, I said.

"I want to go dig up worms" he replied again.

He was very persistent and had really big fat tears.  It was pitiful!

So we got dressed and went outside before going to the Y and dug in the dirt for worms.

Happy to have his rake and shovel.

A big one!

And some more...

 "I got one, Mom."

"It's wiggling in my hand."

What can I say.  Being a girl and with Matthew being my first son, I can say that I was not prepared for this. I have seen commercials with dirty boys playing in the mud and with frogs in their pockets but I was taken off guard when Matthew wanted to dig for worms today.  

He is all boy!  And we had so much fun!

I MADE A MESS!

Last Tuesday while I was making dinner Matthew ran into the kitchen with something very exciting to tell me.  

He said "Come show me mommy".

Translation:  I have something to show you mommy.

He was so excited for me to see what he had done that I just had to turn the stove off and let my culinary masterpiece (ha ha ha!) wait.

So I went with him to his room and this is what I saw...

"I made a mess!"

He kept saying this over and over and over.  And he was so excited about it.  So proud of himself.  He did it all by himself.  What an accomplishment!

 I asked him where the mess was and he replied, in a very excited high pitched voice, "It's right here!" and pointed to it to make sure I could see it.  

You can see the delight on his face.  It was hard work making all of that mess.

You might be thinking, what's the big deal...his room is not all that bad.

Well just wait.  It got much worse before the night was over...before the hour was over...before 10 minutes was over.

The finished product.  His masterpiece.  

I think almost every toy in his room is out.  It didn't really take long to clean up though and the artist himself was actually very helpful.  

Ahhhhhh the joys of parenthood!!!

Fever all through the night!

We took Samuel to the ER last Friday evening.  He was running a high fever of 103.8 and it seemed to be getting higher.  The previous hour it was only a 102.4.  We went to the doctor's office first and when they failed to obtain a urine sample, he had already gone in his diaper, they sent us to the ER.  

It is alarming when your baby is is running that high of a fever with no symptoms.  

So we dashed off to the ER and there waited a very long 2 hours (at least the Olympics were on) in the waiting room until we were finally called to be seen.  The only room available was the psych room.  It was a barren room with one plastic chair and the bed.  The walls were bare and white...kind of creepy.  But we were out of the waiting room with hopes that the doctor would be in soon.  

After a very long night with a very fussy baby, we were given a clean bill of health.  They drew blood and urine, swabbed his nose and throat, and looked in his ears.  If you want to know what torture is like, take your infant to the ER.  Nothing was found.  All tests came back normal. So we were sent home with instructions to alternate between giving him Tylenol and Advil every 3-4 hours.  

Babies are so MYSTERIOUS!

If they could only talk and tell us what was wrong.  

We got home around midnight and walked across the street to get Matthew.  Oh yeah, we were lucky enough to not have to take him with us to the ER.  That would have been disasterously (is that a word?) exhausting!  Rishi and Amanda so graciously kept him for us.  

You could say we were all tired the next morning.  Samuel slept through the night and when he woke Saturday morning, I brought him to bed with me.  He went right to sleep...and guess what I did...

Even though the circumstances to this picture were not so great, I loved cuddling with Samuel.  He was clingy for several more days and although it was hard, it was also wonderful.  You know they are only little for so long.  

Matthew too ended up getting the fever and his only lasted a short day and a half.

I knew he wasn't feeling well when he fell asleep in this chair at 11:00 in the morning.  He rebounded fast though which was very fortunate for us.  

catching some zzz's

We recently decided to join the YMCA...mainly so that I could go to Zumba, but we have also been using the outdoor pool.  It has a beach entry that gets about 2 feet deep and then a step down to a deeper pool.  There is a water slide in the shallow part of the pool that Matthew loves.

We thought Samuel would love splashing in the pool but he did not want to be in the water at all.  This is where we ended up...

 Five minutes after getting into the pool, we got out and then it was lights our for Samuel. He zonked out right away and slept for the rest of the time that we were there.  

Matthew on the other hand loves the pool but I was not able to get any pictures of him that day.  Samuel has also since decided to like the pool but not on that first day.  There were a lot of kids running around so I think he was also overwhelmed by all that was going on.

I can't complain though.  I was holding my sleeping baby...something a mother never gets tired of.

Sam's room

When we found out that I was pregnant with our second son, we had to start thinking of where we were going to put him.

• Would he share with Matthew? 
• Would we move Matthew to the spare bedroom? 
• Would we convert the spare bedroom into another nursery?  

We finally decided that Matthew would graduate to a big boy bed and stay in his room and the crib would move across the hall to the spare bedroom.  I had always liked the color of that room and thought it would work great for a baby. The room was painted Wintergreen Ash from the Laura Ashley collection at Lowe's.  

So I set out to find some new crib bedding that would match the color.  I know this is backwards but I liked the wall color so much and did not want to repaint. Finding crib bedding proved to be much more difficult than I had imagined. Most that I found was more of a true blue color and not a greenish aqua.  After searching for weeks I found this fun alphabet bedding called Migi Alphabet.


Here is a picture from a site that I found.  Isn't it cute?

After Patrick gave me the okay, I bought and awaited its arrival.  I was so excited when it finally came!

I am really happy with how is room turned out. And I am really glad that Matthew got to stay in the room we created for him. These boys are so different in personality and I am glad that they each have their own space for now.   

Sam's Room

 We got the tree wall decal from wall sticker outlet.  There are lots of tree decals available but I thought this one was perfect.  When we got it the color of the leaves did not look good so I bought another tree decal at Target that had polka dot leaves in two shades of green.  The Target tree leaves looked much better against the wall so I traced the leaves that came with the original tree onto the polka dot leaves and used them instead. I also varied the size of the leaves which gives the tree more texture. 

The birdies came with the tree I got from Target. 

I really love how the combination of the two trees are perfect for his room. 

We used the same rocker that was in Matthew's room.  I bought the chair and had it covered in this material that I found at a local fabric store called Frankly Fabric. It is hard to see the design but there is a green squiggle pattern all over the chair.

My friend Sandy made this banner with Samuel's name.  It makes me smile every time I go into his room.  I love it!

The reason I finally got around to taking the pictures is because this little person started to pull up and we needed to lower the crib.  
By the way you started pulling up on June 3rd.

 "Look what I can do Mommy."

 I think he is pretty proud of himself!

And I am proud of the room!

Samuel {7 months}

My dear Samuel is 7 months old.  Life is moving so fast that I never posted or even took official pictures of him at 6 months.  I wish someone could invent a pause button for life...a way to freeze time.  If I could just keep them little for a bit longer. They are only all mine for such short time.  Then I have to share them with the rest of the world...teachers, friends, a wife (OMG, I am not ready for that one) and so on and so on.

But for now here is my sweet Samuel at a mere 7 months old.

 1...2...3...pictures laying down and then...

 "I'm done mama."

 On the go again.

 Now time to stop for a snack.

 "Can  I eat this grass, Mom?"

 "How about this block?"

"I want that camera."

 "Ba, ba, ba, ba, ba!  Did you get that everyone?"

 So adorable!

three handsome boys

high five

my other sweet boy

Dear Samuel,

The last two months with you have been wonderful and challenging.  Two little teeth have been trying to come in for a while now and they are causing you some considerable discomfort.  It is so hard to see you having a hard time. Mamas never want to see their babies suffer.  Plus you are still not sleeping through the night.

So in review...

teething + not sleeping =

unhappy baby

But we have new developments...you are crawling everywhere. You are so happy that you can crawl and get the toys that you want.  We have to be careful though. One day I found you chewing on a lamp cord.  It was a good thing those teeth weren't in yet.  It did not take you long to master crawling. Now you can get to the other side of the house in no time.  You always look for me in the kitchen first. 

You have a lot to say and are talking all of the time.  Ba ba ba, da da da...two of your favorite words.  

Transiting to solid food has been so easy.  If there is a banana in sight you have to have it.  I think they are your favorite.  (They are my favorite too!)  You like all kinds of food...apple cinnamon oatmeal, yogurt, pears, butternut squash, you even tried a saltine cracker, and carrots to name a few.  We tried to feed you some chunkier stage 3 foods but you did not seem to like the taste or texture.  

You love toys and have figured out how to push all of the buttons to make songs and sounds.  And of course all of them are covered with slobber. Matthew calls you to come into his tent and turns on his cd player and the two of you listen to books together. He tells me to go and closes his door. He loves to play with you.

"Can we listen to this one, Matthew?"

You have also graduated to the big bathtub and have so much fun taking a bath with your brother.  I have decided that you are going to be my water baby.  You slip and slide and get water in your face which does not phase you a bit.

 This was your first bath in the big tub.  Since then you have gotten very brave and splash and swim all around.

Well that's all for now...

As always we are thankful that you are part of our family.  We would not be complete without you!

Love Mommy