Baby Addy-Cakes

"Baby" Adelyn will turn 18 months old next week. Addy, also known as "Addy-Cakes," is a full-blown toddler now-- even though she still gets treated as the baby of the family. She likes to think that she is one of the "big kids." She keeps herself busy tagging along after the older kids and exploring our house and everything in it. Emptying cupboards and drawers, opening DVD cases, unzipping my purse and exploring its contents, pulling hairbands out of her hair, pushing computer keys, opening file cabinets and dumping their contents, pushing remote control buttons, smooshing bananas in her hair and drinking milk are among her favorite activities.


Other favorite pastimes include dropping food or other objects down her sleeper,

giving hugs or riding around on mommy's hip,

calling random people on mom's cell phone--or turning any object with buttons into a "phone," 

eating oranges (she takes bites out of the peel but she eventually spits those out) and...

giving huge smiles.

She's a busy girl!

For the Record

I rant enough about my less-than-stellar house-cleaning and my children's mess-making abilities that I thought I should put something down for the record. Yesterday I mopped my entire hardwood floor on my hands and knees. (It is a REALLY big floor... it usually takes me two sittings, er, moppings to get to it all.) Although, now that I say that, the fact that me mopping my entire floor is an event of note is rather more incriminating than otherwise.

Dave went to Korea this week and got back around lunch today. I managed to use this as motivation to get Jared and Camryn in action and we were able to clean the entire main floor of the house before Dave got home. Maybe it was just excitement that daddy was coming home, but Jared and Camryn really sprang into action. They helped with the dishes, I wiped counters and swept, Jared vacummed, Camryn picked up toys and Jackson... well, he supervised. :) Actually Jared and Camryn have emptied and loaded the dishwasher every day this entire week. Some prodding was required, it is true, but still, that isn't bad for a seven-year-old and eight-year-old. And at the end of the day, the main floor was still mostly clean. Not too shabby! (Not too typical, either, but hey- we take what we can get.)

Also, today we finally got a good-sized bike for Jared. We've had too small and too big. This one is just right. He's been able to ride for a while but was still a little uncertain in his abilities. He got some good practice in with dad racing around the block to that point that he feels really confident. Then we took the training wheels off of Camryn's bike (Yes, my children are late bloomers when it comes to bike-riding-- rack up another point in the "No, she's certainly not super-mom" category.) and before the end of the day she was riding around the block by herself.

Meanwhile Addy watched the proceedings from her Exersaucer while Jackson spent the whole afternoon outside on his trike with a huge grin on his face, trying to keep up with Jared on his bike. I don't know if I have ever seen someone happier than that little boy conquering the world on his Big Wheel.

Last Day and Leopards

Today was the last day of school. I celebrated by trying to clean up the boatloads of papers and school supplies that the kids brought home and dumped on the floor yesterday. Camryn and Jared celebrated by having a massive 6-hour-long argument-and-teasing-fest, interrupted only by the 45 minutes that Camryn was in her dance class. The end of school simultaneously filled me with relief and dismay: no more mornings of trying to cram cereal down kids while combing crazy bed-heads in a sleepy haze, but if they fight like this the rest of the summer I may have to resort to covering their mouths with duct tape. Let's hope that today was just a transition day and that they will start settling into a summer routine soon!

In honor of the last day of school, I wanted to share a page from Jared's animal report on Leopards. We are not super-talented visual artists in our house, but I thought the report was really cute and the page entitled "About the Author" was classic.

Here is a quote from the page "About the Author":

Jared, age 8, grew up in [town we live in now-- I love how it is past tense.]. His birthday is [date]... 9:00 p.m. One book that he wrote that he remembers is "Two Cool Kids" based on the story by Spencer Adams. In his family, he has two sisters age 6 and 4 months. He also has a baby brother, age 2/3. His favorite pet he ever had was a female hamster. He's also had a praying mantis and a ladybug. And maybe trying to catch a bee wasn't such a good idea. [Wow, he almost makes it sound like his parents are pet-lovers!] His favorite school subject is Math. He just loves stacked addition. During his free time, he likes to make comic books. He likes making "Super Diaper Man." He also likes r.c. He wants to be an engineer when he grows up. he thinks his speciality is Humor. Too bad he couldn't add any in this book...

He finishes at the end of the report by saying, "Well, I guess it's time to wrap up. So, my three favorite facts were..." and then adds "Be sure to read my other books!" [He's learning self-promotion already....]

Jackson's Vocab Practice

There is something so cute about a child who is just learning to express themselves (no, I'm not talking about throwing the bowl of Cheerios all over the floor when they don't get what they want). Like tonight, Jackson was having a hard time going to bed, and when he cried he didn't just cry for mom, he cried, "(sniff, sniff, sniff) My mommy! MY mommy!" Awwww. That even goes beyond the cuteness of "Want shoes. Shoes socks. Go car. Yell's house." (Okay, the fact that it's about me instead of going to see my friend doesn't hurt.)

I also like how he refers to Jared and Camryn as a single unit: JareCammin. "JareCammin at school." Lately he is also given to finding things, "School Bus! There it is! I found it!" He also likes to quiz me to make sure I'm keeping up with my numbers and alphabet. When I read him "Seven Silly Monkeys," he always has to interrupt me and ask "What's that?" (pointing at the 7) He won't let me go on until he has completely ascertained that I can tell him the numbers properly.

But probably my favorite thing he says is when he refers to baby Adelyn. He calls her "Bee-bee a-ee cakes" (Baby Addy-cakes). It almost makes up for every night when I get to hear him wail, "No jammies!!!" and every morning when he wails, "Want jammies!! No pants!!!" He may be fickle, but at least he lets you know what he wants.

On a Good Day

One of the problems of using your blog as therapy is that you tend to not write much when things are going well. I guess days that go wrong are far more interesting. (Or maybe they are not- but at least I get to stay under the delusion that they are....) ;) Do you really want to hear me gush about how fun it is to kiss baby Addy's cheeks or how Jackson is the funniest kid that ever walked the planet? Well, regardless of what you think, most days I would rather kiss Addy's cheeks or listen to Jackson being his funny self than write about it on my blog. When it comes down to it, when I'm having a good day I'm too busy enjoying it to write much on my blog. I suppose that's probably a good thing.

About a year ago I had an anonymous person comment on my blog, "Why are you so negative all of the time? Can't you just look for the positive in life?" I admit that it really shook me up at first-- nobody likes to be viewed as a wet blanket. I try to "keep it real" on my blog --with both challenges and good times-- instead of making my life look pretty and perfect all of the time. But I never have intended to sound --or be-- negative or ungrateful.

But there is part of me that is uncomfortable with saying, "Life is wonderful! Things are going great!"-- even if it is and they are. Maybe I'm afraid of jinxing myself or tempting fate. Or maybe I think that it will sound fake. Or I don't want to come off sounding like I'm bragging "Look at me! Neener neener!" It doesn't help that in my family we have a tendency to understate things. It's kind of a joke in our family that if Dave gets a new shirt, Dave's mom will say "You look fantastic!! Just amazing!!" and I will say, "You look pretty good," and we mean just about the same thing. My family also has a fanatical avoidance of any behavior that could be viewed as mushy or sappy. If we haven't seen each other for a year and we are thrilled to be together again, rather than running to each other's arms crying, we'll wave across the room and give a calm, "Hey, how's it going? Good to see you again!"


But lest all of you readers think that I am perpetually negative or have a life filled solely with toddler shopping disasters, I want to document (at the risk of jinxing myself) that I am having a really great week. No really. A fantastic week! Just amazing!! (See, I can't even type it without feeling like it must sound fake. I really do mean it.) Nothing special has happened. But I just really enjoy doing what I do every day. I really love being a mom, shopping disasters and all. It's a tough job at times but I truly love it with my whole heart. I love my kids and my husband and feel so incredibly blessed in so many ways. (What I say next I say will fly in the face of family precedent.) I love my life! Things are going great!!! 

(Waiting for thunder to come crashing down and burst the bubble....)

P.S. After reading this post, you get one guess as to how long Addy slept today... hmmm... you're smart. =]

Jackson's Growing Vocabulary

A while ago I was starting to worry that maybe Jackson was going to be a late talker. He seemed to have the concept there and had said or repeated quite a few words once or twice, but the only words he seemed to say on a regular basis were "mama," "dada," "nana" or "baba."

In the past couple of weeks his vocabulary has started to take off. A few weeks ago he said his first two-syllable word: raisin. Since then (at least when he gets the desire- there is no possible way to induce him to do it on command) he will repeat it proudly over and over ("ray-sin, ray-sin"), beaming like he just invented the wheel. Since we've been at Grandma's house for a couple weeks, he's added "ga-ma" and "dog" to his repertoire of words. He has also been caught saying "cheese," "shoe," "oje" (orange), and his latest... "water." He has said milk a couple of times, but he finds it much easier at Grandma's house to just open the fridge, get out the milk carton and bring it to you when he wants some (Grandma's fridge is much easier to open than ours and she keeps her milk lower on the door).

It is still -even on my third child- so fun to see them grow up and learn how to interact with the world. It is amazing to see how quickly they grow and figure out how to do things-- and so cute to see how proud they are of themselves when they figure something out.