"It just takes patience."

At my Grandma W's wake in 1993, my dad got up to share a little story. (If you know my dad, you are not suprised he got up to tell a little story.) Anyway, I remember this one well. He was talking about how hard it was to teach my brother how to ride a trike when he was 2-3 years old. Andy (brother if you are wondering) would wear out the toes of his shoes because he would drag his feet.

When my parents went on vacation, Andy and I would stay with Grandma. When Mom and Dad returned this one time, Andy was pedaling his trike. He asked Grandma what she did to get him to ride it and all she said was, "Patience, Jim. It just takes patience."

I've often looked back on this story for guidance in trying to teach my kids to pedal, balance, steer, etc. Hayden is stubborn, wants to go at his own pace. Maya tries, figures it's not going to work and finds it easier to go a different route. I admit to getting frustrated while trying to get H to ride his bike without training wheels, I am in the mindset that he's 5 and should be able to. In my head I try to revert back to Grandma. Patience, Jennifer, patience.

Maya has become taken with the trike lately. She just used her feet to walk it, not pedal. I kept telling her, put your feet on the pedals and push. She'd try and realized her feet walking worked better. Patience, Jennifer, patience.

Hayden has become one with the bike. Although the training wheels are still on, they are bent so he has to lean awkwardly to use them. He is doing great balancing and riding!! He has trouble on the turns, but that will come soon enough.

Maya took off this weekend on the trike! All of a sudden she's pedaling like mad and going.

Just a little patience, some time, a little bit of frustration and a little more patience.

He's ready, I'm not

This came in the mail yesterday:

He's all registered and has seen the school, but now it seems more official. We've gotten the invite to come and look at where my baby boy will be spending half days, every day for the next year and then year after year after that.

As much as I love and enjoy this guy:

I so wanna have this guy back in my arms:

Hold on to them tight. It goes by in a flash.

Miss Maniac

A fun afternoon was not had on Tuesday. Maya, in all her adorableness, became a devil.

She looked so pretty in her Springy floral bubble dress that she has been begging to wear. She decided to color on it. With pen. Not all over, just a few choice spots on th chest.

Later on, she wanted something to drink. Particularily Grandpa's juice. This is what we call the Crystal Light concoction of lemonade and iced tea w/ lemon to create a diet Arnold Palmer, that was discovered at Grandpa B's long ago.

Before I could get to the fridge, Maya decided a drink was not good enough, better to take a shower in it.

She's a warm water kind of girl, so this wasn't the batheing experience she was hoping for. And yes I let her stand there crying while I got the camera.

Since I now had the chore of cleaing the floor and then cleaning out the refrigerator, the kids had to get outside. Just about done cleaning the fridge, on my last couple of door shelves, I hear a blood chilling scream.

WTF! It's Hayden. With H you kind of have to feel around the crying to see how serious it really is. I got him to calm down a little and notice a little scratch near his eye. I had heard Maya's name mentioned in the sobs, so came to the conclusion she scratched him. He already has scratches on the other side of his face from her last weekend. A scratch was not worth the scream I heard. THEN, after hugs and calming words, I look again at his eye. Not just a scratch, it was puffing up. I looked at Maya who is standing there holding an iron rod!!

Where she came across this is beyond me, but I finally figured out what the scream was for. She had whacked him with the rod right near his eye.

This is two days later, the lid is purple now, and the scrapes are healing. Thankfully it wasn't the actual eye and nothing was broken.

I have a rambunctious little diva on my hands.

Silent Sneaker

Maya has a small checklist of things that have to occur for her to go to bed: lamp on, Scentsy night-light on, sound machine on, sippy with a little water and ice, and lately, she wants her slippers with her too. We don't have to put them on her, she does that.

Tonight was no different, except for when I went in to check on her. I don't shut her door completely, just close it to where the latch hits, but when I got to the door, it was completely closed. Upon opening, I didn't hear a thing; the sound machine was off. Okay, maybe I didn't turn it on, but could have sworn I did; I turn it on, again. I then head towards her nightstand to shut off the lamp, which is the second reason I check on her, and I noticed her feet were bare and her flip-flops were nestled by her. I turn and see her slippers placed neatly on the floor and another glance up and her nightlight is off.

The little darling got out of her bed, quietly shut her door, turned off her sound machine and nightlight, took off her slippers, placed them quite neatly on the floor, grabbed her flip-flops and got back into bed. All by herself, without a peep.

Stinkerbell

This is my name for Miss Maya lately as she has been quite a big stinker. I am having a hard time coming up with specifics, but here's a rundown:

She has an attitude, a big one.

She throws fits, almost once a day. Throw down, lay or sit on the floor crying fits. 2 last week were because I got the pop-tarts out of the box, not her.

She wants to dress herself. This takes forever!! Mostly because everything has to be done twice because it's backwards.

She is constantly taking my shoes out of my closest and not the flat healed ones.

She does not tell us when she poops and then gets her normal butt rash because it's been sitting so long and we haven't smelled it.

She refuses to potty train. We are not forcing it, but geez, it's time. And she wants to wear underwear. Just over her diaper or on her head.

She touches the TV screen constantly!! Man is this annoying!

Clean up? What? What's that?

She wants to be carried at unreasonable times. She will just sit herself down in the middle of: a parking lot, hallway, sidewalk, store.

She is addicted to gum.

She has stopped napping.

On the plus side, I think we are done with the Nuk. She refused it last night because they are now "too hot." She fell asleep just fine. (I'm using Thum on her Nuk's. It's a bitter tasting liquid used for nail biters, thumb suckers, etc. Did it w/ Hayden too and it worked great!)

She is very sassy, fun and becoming more outgoing. She is starting to like "dress up" and gets into her tutu's and legwarmers often. She is tough and dainty all in one.

You're Awesome

Buddy and I moved a tree today. This involved digging a hole, digging up a large tree root, moving the friggin heavy tree to the newly dug hole, filling in around the tree and filling in the old tree hole. Both kids "helped".

As Buddy dug the new hole a little deeper without my help because the ground was really hard. I mean really hard. My weight jumping on the shovel barely cracked the surface. Anyway... As Buddy was jumping onto his shovel and breaking up the dirt Hayden said, "Daddy, you're awesome."

Buddy says, "thanks Bud."

Hayden: Is that why you became a Dad? So you could be awesome?

Buddy: Yep, that is exactly why I am a Dad.

Hayden: Cool.

Yesterday, Hayden told Buddy that he didn't love him anymore.

Apparently I am not awesome.

How did you grow so big overnight?

Have you heard this song? I have known it since November and I still tear up when I hear it. I first heard it in the slideshow our photographer put together with our family pictures along with a few others. The refrain started up just when it was flipping through pictures of Hayden.I completely started to bawl. Not cry, bawl. Luckily Buddy wasn't home so I didn't have to explain myself. I have since put this one and others on my ipod. The kids enjoy them as much as I do. I do have to keep my composure when listening to this one.

Now, before you click on it, get some baby pics of your first born or second, third, forth, all of them, whomever, and start flipping through them. You'll see what I mean. Seriously, I tear up every time. Every. Single. Time.

http://new.music.yahoo.com/frances-england/tracks/you-me--187707912

Four Wheelin'

So the Dude is still on training wheels and it's kinda driving Buddy and I nuts. He has no desire to try the two wheel thing. The funny thing is, he had a smaller bike that he was totally on two wheels with and since we've had this one (last Spring) he doesn't want the trainers off. Ever. Literally.

Today I asked him if we could start practicing with two wheels maybe this weekend.

H: No, I think I just want to wait until I am 17.

M: 17? Your gonna look pretty weird being 16 and on a big bike like Daddy's with training wheels. Can we maybe start trying when you are 5 and a half? (He has a big think about turning 5.5. He's like super excited. I think he may be expecting a party.)

H: (insert big sigh) Fine, we'll do it the easy way.

Who grew the neck?

This morning I took told of Hayden's neck and gave it a nice squeeze from the back. No calling CPS, it wasn't hard! Geez... Anyway, he asked why I squeezed his neck.

M: Because I made it and I can.

H: You didn't make my neck.

M: Yes, I did. How else did you get a neck?

H: You didn't make it. I just had a head when I was a baby and then my neck just pushed it up. Then, I had a neck.

M: Alrighty then.

I jotted this done on my facebook and then got to thinking and I remembered these pictures from when he was about 2 months old. He may be right:

It's funny how we can remember taking some pictures and can't place when others were taken. These I remember. Buddy was holding him and being the new mom that I was, I basically had the camera attached to my hand. I snapped the first one to take note of all the chins. Right after, he got a little wiggly and Bud held him up a little. All of a sudden, this neck appears.

And now he's five. Excuse me while I curl up into a ball in the corner and cry about how time nevers stops.

Such a Hayden

Hayden had knee slappers rolling off his tongue today. I wish I would have had a pen and paper handy so I could jot them all down. However, I did not, so I only remember a couple pretty close to exact.

1. We picked the rest of the oranges and lemons off the trees today as I was pruning them. Hayden asked to make lemonade. I told him I really didn't know how to make real lemonade with lemons and sugar. He says, "just watch Ni Hao, Kai Lan and she'll tell you. She knows how, she'll show you."

2. I was cleaning up the kitchen as H and Maya are playing and being extremely loud and crazy. Then, he gets quiet and says to stop. "Maya, we have to stop playing like this, I'm allergic to sisters."

I may start wearing a fanny pack equipped with that pen and paper, there were a few more today that sooo needed to be documented.

Two Years Ago and Now

Two years ago I had an almost 6 month old:

All she did was smile, eat, poop, sleep a little, poop and smile. She was so fun, so happy and so stinking cute!

Now, I have an almost 2 and a half year old that:

Smiles, eats, poops, talks back, sleeps, has a head full of curls, smacks her brother, gives amazing hugs, gives adorable kisses, poops, says she loves us, sings, dances, laughs, loves, is joyous, poops, eats, learns, never sits still, talks amazingly and just absolutely not matter what brings a smile to our faces every single day.

She is so fun, so happy, and so stinking cute!

Mr. Popularity

I don't know what it is with my son, but he seems to have something about him that attracts other kids. I know he didn't get it from me. At the daycare at the gym, he has made so many friends. Most of them I don't know the names of and he doesn't either, but I see him playing and having fun with so many kids. He looks forward to going anywhere where kids will be, even if he doesn't even know them; school, daycare, soccer, camping, anywhere. He gets super bummed if we aren't going to daycare on given day, like Saturday or Sunday. He just has so much fun!

Last week, I over heard him ask one little guy if he would be his friend, the boy said "Oh yes, that's great." Monday a different boy asked if Hayden had to leave and yes we did but we'd be back tomorrow. Sure enough, the same boy was there when we came in, spotted H and just waited for him to come in. Every day we go there he asks if specific kids will be there.

Yesterday at school, this adorable boy was saying goodbye to Hayden and his mom says, "Oh my gosh, we hear about Hayden all day long at our house." (this was his fourth day.) She said she took her son to get his haircut and the boy said he had to get it cut like Hayden. It had to be spiked like Hayden. Then as we are getting to the cars, H's new little friend says, "can we have your phone number so my mom can call you and ask if Hayden can come over to play because that would be so cool if Hayden could come over and play with me." Seriously, didn't take a breath.

I LOVE that Hayden is making friends so easily. I am hoping this will help with the transition to Kindergarten next year (did I really just say that?!) I always had a hard time fitting in and making new friends because I was so shy and it takes me a bit to really "let it all out" I guess. I'm still a bit like this and it bugs the crud out of me. I probably come across as a big stuck up b*#&@, but really, I don't mean to! =) Thankfully, Hayden gets his friend magnet from his dad.

Anyway, I meandered a bit there, huh? I am just quite proud of my little guy and his ability to make friends of all ages! Way to go Dude!

No more Shirley, temporarily

Maya took an evening shower Saturday night. I don't like putting her to bed with a wet head because it's just a mess of tangles in the morning. She was sitting quite nicely when I was combing through her hair so I asked if I could braid it. She said sure. I was halfway done and she got wiggly, but I was able to somewhat finish and her hair was easy to comb through the next morning.

As I just started to comb through, I thought I would give in to the urge I have had for a long time. Since it wasn't in ringlets, I got the flatiron out and ask Miss if I could straighten her hair. She didn't seem to care. She plopped right down on my lap on the floor of my bathroom and let me get to work.

It is AMAZING how different she looked with it straight! Not only does it go halfway down her back, but her running and it flowing behind her was so weird. She would brush it out of her face with her hands like it's always there. I found myself just staring at her thinking how just hair can change a little face so much.

It was a fun two days with her long, straight locks, but her face and spirit was made for those curls.

Home for the Holidays

Our little vacation to Minnesota came to an end on Sunday. We had such a great time will all of our family, it was very, very hard to leave.

The kids were worn out with all the fun they had. They have 6 cousins on Buddy's side, all older than Hayden by two years or more and both Hayden and Maya kept up. From playing outside, inside with toys, all eating at the same table for dinners (not always all 8), up and down stairs, opening gift after gift, Monday morning was so lovely for me to have silence until after 8.

Sadness hit me a couple times at my family's home. It was the first year there that my Grandma wasn't present. I felt her in spirit and through food, but it tugged at my heart a couple times missing her.

Christmas Eve mass was eventful with Maya unable to once sit in the pew. She was on the kneeler, on the floor, in the aisle, in the pew ahead, grabbing hymnals one after the other, playing by her baby cousin, Maggie, and she even belted out a few notes singing along with a couple songs. Hayden fell asleep halfway through the homily (holy longness) and was a great boy the entire service.

Christmas Day was the traditional brunch and relaxation, followed by saying good by to my family and traveling to Buddy's. Caos, cooking, cards, laughter and fun were had by all.

Presents were aplenty and great, the kids had a blast and we are all thankful we were able to be HOME for the Holidays.

I am rambling all over, but I am tired and wanted to post my two favorite pics of the trip. Both are from Christmas Eve. We tried for a nice picture of the two kids by the tree....

Nothing says Merry Christmas that strangling your sister and, well I am not sure what Maya's hand is doing.

Baby it's cold outside, but they love it!

I made a trip to the Thrift store in Olivia today. I was on a hunt for boots for Hayden as he has been begging for some for three days! I lucked out and found some a little big, but he will be able to wear them next year, so all is good. I even picked up a pair of snowpants for Maya. $9 well spent.

After begging, whining, beggin some more, finally cleaning up toys and stopping whining, we broke out the sled. They loved it and I got a good workout in. Pulling over 70 pounds through snow covered streets isn't as easy as it may look. We had fun though. Totally worth it.

It's obviously not a fashion show here. Red jacket, light pink snowpants, dark pink boots. But do you see that smile?! She loves her little ensemble from head to toe!

Maya's hands were up like this through most of the ride. A few times I caught her with them on the ground shoveling through the snow.

See, I'm here too! Not quite the pic I was going for, but can you tell how cold it is? It was about 16 degrees when we were out. It's Christmastime and it's worth it.