Talking Toddler

Pretty much all the honest truth telling there is in the world is done by children.
– Oliver Wendell Holmes

So, our little Lukas turned three the beginning of October, and although he really didn't say a whole lot before that, it seemed like three was the magic number for him to be okay with learning new words and actually saying them.

Up until this point, we had all kinds of "critics" telling us we should be concerned that he wasn't saying anything, and I will admit at times it made me think I should seek some additional help, but there was that instinct that Jeff and I had that he was just fine and he wasn't talking simply because "he didn't want to."  See, Luke, being the youngest in the family, simply didn't have to talk because everybody else did his talking for him.  He knew that he could get his point across and he completely understood us without having to utter a word.  And there was no doubt his hearing was fine so we didn't panic and let nature take it's course.

Well, within the last month or so he has been turning into a little chatter box.  He still doesn't say long sentences or anything but I truthfully think he is saying two or three new words almost every day and to me there is nothing cuter than listening to a toddler interpret the world around them.

Some of Luke's favorites are:  Daddy, Mama, Doggy Doggy (not Lucy) and a new but rather annoying favorite is Why?  Oh my goodness!  Seriously, if I had $5 for every time he said that word I would have quite a bit of extra spending money.

Others that come out of his mouth a ton are:  Tracty = tractor, boat, uppie = pick me up, cuppy = sippy cup, bale, cow, barm = farm, stop, go, bike, homey = home.  Homey I must say is one of the family favorites.  The first time he said it, I swear it sounded like he was saying "Yo Homey!"  Zach and I were both in the truck driving home from somewhere and all of a sudden he said "Homey" and we both started laughing.

More favorites:  Poop and Pee and apparently he has figured out that cows do a lot of these two things as whenever he starts a conversation about cows those two words come immediately after :)  Truck, cat, ball and the list just keeps going on.

My personal favorite is when he says "Yeah, yeah, yeah."  He says it with a touch of sarcasm as if he knows and he'll get to it right away.  I think he may have picked this up from me as I tend to utter that same response when the two older kids are barking orders at me from the other room to get something for them or help them with homework when I'm obviously in the middle of something else.

And two new ones that he just started saying and I picked up on them when working on puzzles with him this weekend.  When placing pieces in place he would put one piece in the wrong spot and I would correct him and then show him where it should go and he would stop and say, "Oh, oh yeah!" and act as if he knew that and just forgot for a moment.  Two seconds later while deciding where to place a puzzle piece he would stop and go "Hmmmm?"

I don't know about you, but I can't get enough of him right now.  His toddler talk is the sweetest and most honest and pure thing in this world.  Everytime he is playing with toys or going places with us you can just see him taking it all in and soaking every little thing he can up to soon add to his vocabulary.   What a dear and innocent soul.

Funny thing is, he has yet to say Sam or Zach's names.  Every time you ask him to say them or point to their faces in a photo and ask who they are he simply stops, thinks about it and then sticks his tongue between his lips and does a little spit/raspberry with a big smile on his face?!  We find it hilarious, obviously he does too.

The Blues

A certain son of mine has been begging to have his room redone in our house for a while.  I am definitely not the most creative person when it comes to redecorating and what not and Jeff is so darn busy at the farm all the time that if there is anything that needs to be done at our house, yep, you guessed it, I'm the one doing it!  So, the idea of repainting the boy's room has been put off by me on numerous occasions for the simple reason that I just didn't have the time or patience to tackle it over the weekend with everything else I have going on.

Well last weekend I started feeling real guilty for having not done it and I had already purchased new matching comforter sets for their beds and figured it was way overdue.  So, full spead ahead, and with the help of Sam, Zach and Luke (I had hoped he would go down for a nap but that wasn't the case), we proceeded to paint their room.

Zach working on the first wall of his room

Well, I will admit I was extremely optimistic and positive going into the whole ordeal and figured this isn't going to take too long, it's a small room, but by the time we were done I was overly thrilled and relieved.

If there is anything I have learned since becoming a Mom it is that kids often going into "projects" like these with high expectations and good attitudes, but not long into the process they "get tired" or they "get frustrated" and before long you are left to finish the project on your own.  Reminds me a lot of each individual pet we have gotten for our family over the years really.  Thankfully this "pet" only stuck around for the weekend.

Okay, Zach was right, he had a room for the longest time with a girly flower stencil around the top of the walls and he deserved to have a more manly room.

Original walls in their room

I made the mistake however of being too nice to my kids again and let him pick out the color.  I knew when he picked it that it was going to be awful bright when the entire room was painted this color but I thought "What the hell?!  It's a kids's room!!!"  And it does match one of the stripes on their comforter exactly so it works.

It didn't matter if it didn't work really.  Zach had his heart set on this color so I agreed.

For the most part we started off great!  Sam was working on some of the more detailed areas, I was doing edging and Zach was using the extended roller and painting like a crazy man.  We were making good ground.  But then, Zach would drop here, and there, and I would have to stop and wipe it up, and then he would drip again and I would say something, in a polite fashion, asking him to be more careful and to not put too much paint on the roller, and before you knew it he was ticked off and needed to take a break because he couldn't do it good enough for me.  Constructive criticism has never been one of his strong suits.

So, between his attitude problems and Luke trying to get a live and paint loaded device of any kind in his hand when we weren't watching, I was stressing a tad.  Oh yeah and add the dog into the picture.  See she sleeps in that room with the boys at night and seemed to be a bit concerned about what was happening in there.  So on occasion she would walk in, with wet paint on the walls, and I had to kindly turn her ass around and head her back out the door as to not get her happily wagging tail upon the walls.

Luke was instructed on many occasions to stay in this bed.  He didn't always listen.

So, what I thought wasn't going to take us too long, what was going to be a fun and family bonding event, turned somewhat sour.  Oh sure, Zach did come back in and help again, but then Sam would leave to make "very important" text messages to her friends, and then I had to stop and go help at the farm for a while, and then I had to make supper and well, it wasn't a ton of fun.  Not like I had hoped.

One plus to this all, it is complete.  It may not be perfect but overall I think it looks a ton better than it had.  I have one 10 year old son who is more than thrilled and maybe next week we'll actually attempt to put the second bunk up so that Luke and Zach can sleep in bunk beds, up until now Luke has been sleeping on a toddler bed and I think he's ready to move up.

Parenthood...gotta love it!!!

Reorganizing Reflections

Growing up happens in a heartbeat. One day you're in diapers; the next day you're gone. But the memories of childhood stay with you for the long haul. - 'The Wonder Years', Television Series.

So this past weekend I took extended time off from work (Thursday & Friday) and decided to get a few things accomplished around my much neglected little house.  I had decided it was necessary to take our little Lukas to his normal sitter both Thursday and Friday so I could stay focused on the task at hand and get busy.

To say my house has been depressed and neglected as of late would be an understatement.  Oh don't worry, it's not like I have our kids living in horrible conditions that social services needs to be called or anything, but our basement had turned into a dumping grounds basically for "stuff".  If we were cleaning the upstairs area and weren't sure where something went, yep, it went down into the basement and ended up either on our air hockey table, our ping pong table, or in the playroom.  Broken down boxes were strewn all over the place and there was just no organization whatsoever.

I'll admit I'm not the neatest person in the world to begin with and and definitely not a perfectionist when it comes to the cleanliness of my home.  I always figure there are more important things in life to stress over and nobody ever visits our home anyway so what's the point.  But even the disarray was starting to get to me and these days off of work to clean and reorganize were a definite requirement from where I was coming from.

I couldn't have asked for better days.  The fall weather was gorgeous!  The sun was shining both days and the air was warm, felt kind of like summer really.  I had all the windows and doors open, Partylite candles burning in two rooms, Lucy (our dog) was home with me all day keeping me company but not getting in the way and it was great!  It is amazing to me how much one can get done when there isn't anybody around to interupt you.  I also LOVE the fact that I can toss out so much more stuff when nobody is around.  Seriously, I think my kids would keep everything possible if they saw it while I was going through things.  I still have three huge garbage bags in our basement full of stuffed animals they refuse to let me toss out, not sure how we even accumulated that many in the first place?!

I felt great when Friday came around and I could make a trip to the West Bend Goodwill store with a truck load of numerous items that some other family could use.  Kids puzzles, games, old cassette tapes, VHS tapes, CDs, clothes, shoes, etc.  And what a feeling to have so much less clutter in my house.  I am definitely not a pack rat!  If I haven't used it for a while and it's obviously just taking up space it is outta here, unless it has some sort of sentimental value to me.

For example, while cleaning the basement, part of my reorganizing was to go through all of my totes and relabel and consolidate them if I could so I would have less crap in the one room.  While doing this I came across a tote full of little girl dresses.  Awww!!!!  This tote is full of some of the sweetest and beautiful dresses my now 13 year old daughter wore when she was small and still appreciated her Mommy.

The dress she wore to her Auntie Cheryl's wedding.

The dress she wore for her Easter pictures one year.

Just an adorable dress I bought for her "because I felt like it!"

For all of you wondering, no I am not having anymore children and these will never be worn again by any of my own, but I have been saving them downstairs in case my nephew Derek and his wife ever have a little girl in the future, they will then have ownership of all of them.  It was important to me, being that they do hold a special meaning to me, that somebody who is near and dear to my heart receives them to use.  They hold so many memories for me, every single one of them, of first time motherhood, being able to dress the first and only granddaughter in my family, and places we went, Samantha sitting in front of me on the floor so I could do her hair.  So many special moments I'll never get back, ever again.

Amongst the disarray in our house were also totes full of the kid's various school projects and drawings over the years.  Oh I know, these are just pieces of paper to some person but to me they remind me of a time when there was still an innocence to my older two children.  A time when they were changing every single day and soaking in every single experience they could and learning from it.  When they could still be "kids" and there wasn't quite so much pressure put on them regarding homework and getting good grades and all that stuff.  When the love they had for me wasn't questioned and you just "knew" they counted on you and needed you, like Luke does now.

A picture Zach drew.

The front cover of a book Sam made.

A self portrait Zach made.  This actually reminds of my Dad a little.

Another picture Sam made.  Note how she spelled Zachary and that I am much larger than everybody else?!

I have been struggling here and there on occasion with how fast life is going.  More so with Samantha than anybody and before I know it she will be gone and off to college and I'll be hoping and praying every single day that she is wise enough and strong enough as a person to make the right decisions and to not have her heart broken too many times.  That she continues to treat people with respect, but at the same time respects herself enough to not get into a bad situation.  Oh man, I think over the next few years I am going to have to dye my hair A LOT to hide all the grey ones poking through.  I don't look forward to the next few years with her at all.

So, part of my cleaning spree this past week was packing away Sam's dolls, they now have two totes of their own that she plans to take with her in the future.  The porcelain dolls she collected, all of her Polly Pockets, her Barbies and her Bratz dolls.  All in such good condition and ready to hopefully be used for her own children someday.  Bittersweet to say the least but understandable.  Lord knows she has "moved on" as she would say.








Fall Emotions

Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family.  Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one.  ~Jane Howard


So, this past Sunday we had the blessing of taking our two older children, Sam and Zach, to Six Flags to experience Fright Fest.

We had been to Six Flags in July but half of the park was closed that day and lines were long for the rides that were running and it just wasn't a good day.  Thankfully, we toughed it out knowing that they had already given us four complimentary tickets to return by October 30th so we had to make sure we weren't going to pass that up.

Our original plan was to go a little later in October but we had such beautiful Fall weather this past Sunday and were worried if we put it off we would run into rainy and cold weather on a different day and that obviously isn't a good mix when parading around an amusement park all day.  So despite the fact that it was little Luke's birthday that day, and we felt bad leaving him to go and have some fun, we left him in good hands with my Mom and made sure he opened some presents before we left and brought cake for him when we came home.  Honestly, he doesn't get the birthday thing yet anyway so I'm sure he will be unharmed from it all.

Lukas opening one of his birthday presents

Singing Happy Birthday when we got home

So, we headed to Six Flags to experience what would end up being a "roller coaster" of a day, not just because we were riding coasters but because, well, you'll find out.

The park opened at 11:00 am on Sunday and we got there about 11:20 am.  Once again, when we were all getting out of the car we all commented on what a perfect day it was, sun was shining, warmer and not windy.  We all walked into the park with only long sleeve shirts on and pants and were more than comfortable.  What a gorgeous day!

We decided when walking up to the gates we were heading to one of our favorite rides there, Batman.  Zach had never been on this because it was one of the rides that wasn't running when we were there earlier this year and he was finally tall enough.  We got to the ride itself and literally walked right up to it and got on.  No waiting in a long line.  We love that!

I think before the ride started Zach was a bit nervous, not knowing what to expect.  But I can tell you that once the ride was over he was more than thrilled to have rode it and we were all pleased to know that we now had yet another roller coaster enthusiast in our family.  We all knew we would be riding a lot more coasters during the day with Zach excited about each and every one of them.

After exiting that ride we headed as a group to find the next rollercoaster we could and we came along V2 or Virtual Velocity.  In all the years we had gone here none of us had ever rode this and this year Sam was begging me.  Jeff and Zach wanted nothing to do with it.  I of course, not wanting to look like a wimp and let my daughter down, decided to suck it up and take my chances.  Yikes!!!

This ride is interesting to say the least.  It takes off at a speed of about 70 mph and heads up a vertical twist that is nearly 18 stories high.  Once you come to a slight stand still there you fall backwards ay 70 mph and head backwards up a vertical straightaway that goes up, yep you guessed it, 18 stories again.  You do this two separate times and the ride comes to a hault leaving you wondering "Why the hell did I agree to do this?"

Through all of it I kept a brave face, while almost secretly pooping my pants, and acted as if I really enjoyed it (what I won't do for my kids, heh?) and continued to march off the ride with my thirteen year old daughter, to be greeted by Jeff and Zach asking how it was.  They of course had huge smiles on their faces when we met (probably because they were smart enough to stay off the damn thing!), and we then continued onto the next ride of the day.

We then decided we were going to brave one of our favorites at the park, the infamous American Eagle. 

The American Eagle was built in 1981 and it starts you off with the famous 147 foot drop down.  It is a wooden roller coaster so it shakes a ton and at many times you feel like the cars you are sitting in are literally going to fly off the tracks.  It is very exciting and your traditional roller coaster.  Zach insisted when getting on the coaster that he sit with his Mom (I love when they fight over me).  He is pumped to no end.

The ride starts, the anticipation rises and those little butterflies show up in my stomach thinking about what is to come.  We head up the big hill to the 147 foot drop, all four of us ready to scream at the top of our lungs.  The drop is coming slowly and we peer over the drop......all of our arms go up (okay maybe not mine) and here we go!!!!  We are flying down the drop at fast speeds, we hit some of the smaller hills and drops and are having a blast now, we head around the curves and are going real fast now and Zach is screaming like a wild man and all of a sudden...BOOM!!!...Zach's hard head bangs into the temple area of my right eye.  Ouch!!!!  I think I did black out for a bit but thankfully we were almost done.

My eye on Monday morning.

We exit this ride and a confused and not feeling so well Mommy shows everybody where Zach wacked me.  There is just a small red spot where we made contact but needless to say it's not feeling too well.  But, once again, I decide to go on Raging Bull like a trooper.  Raging Bull is by far the best ride there.  The first drop on this ride is roughly 20 stories high but this has got to be one of the smoothest roller coasters I've ever come across.  Truthfully, I have never felt sick to my stomach when riding a roller coaster.  This time was different though.  By the time I got off this ride, oh man, I had all I could do not to toss my cookies over the side of some fence.

At this point I want to lay down, real bad, and the kids are getting hungry anyway, so we head back to the truck for lunch and I decide I am taking a nap.  So after they all finished eating, I allowed them to go back to the park and I stayed in the truck and slept on the backseat for a good hour and a half.  I guess this is a sign of Mom getting old.  Thankfully, after my nap, I did feel a little better and met up with them again in the park.  I decided it would be best though not to go on anymore rides.

The rest of the afternoon consisted of the kids whining about getting something, the kids getting thirsty, Mom still not feeling the greatest, Jeff's legs being sore from not being used to his tennis shoes and Mom and Dad feeling bad for leaving Lukas at home on his birthday.

Eventually, becausee the kids just wouldn't stop whining, Zach talked us into letting him get his face painted scary because of Fright Fest.  I guess he wanted to fit in with all of the ghouls and goblins that were there.  Funny thing is, when we got home I set my Mom up and told her to come in and look at Zach.  I told her he fell off a roller coaster and she fell for it and asked "Well how high was the roller coaster?" when I couldn't take it anymore and told her, "Mom...it's fake."  Hilarious!!!

And then, because you have to be fair when it comes to your kids, Samantha had to go to a store and pick out a new ring for her finger.  I guess she doesn't have any of these and REALLY needed one.  We actually had quite the conversation before I let her get one about how spoiled she is and how unappreciative she can be at times (she didn't care for this conversation at all).  But as usual, Mom decided to be too nice and gave in.  I did, but I hope I got my point across during all of this.

After we got done with the face painting and ring buying we decided to to a trek around the park and check out all of the scary dudes walking around due to Fright Fest.  It was that time of the day when they all started to appear and I look forward to seeing the scary getups and watching them surprise and scare people throughout the park and the kids said they did too.

So we start walking and came across a few groups of scary people and both Sam and Zach were pretty excited to see them but at the same time stating that they really didn't want to be approached by one of them.  I was kind of hoping one of them would just to see how the kids would react.  After all they were the ones so excited to come down for Fright Fest.

Well a little while later we are walking towards yet another group of scary people.  One is a large kind of Bigfoot looking like creature.  Jeff and I walk towards the outside to try to shelter the kids from him.  Sam is next to me and then Zach on her right.  We pass the scary guy unharmed, or at least we thought.  All of a sudden he is stalking Sam on her left side while Zach is curiously watching.  He stares into her face as she tries to ignore him, while at the same time begging to him "Please don't, please don't..."  He continues to walk along side her and says "Why won't you look at me?!" in this scary voice.  At this point I am watching from behind and I see her face start to crinkle up funny...oh boy, here we go.....yep, the tears start rolling and she is obviously not happy with this guy.  He does walk a few steps more and then leaves her alone and Jeff and I being the bad parents we are, start laughing a tad.  I know, it sounds bad, but seriously, it's Fright Fest, the guy obviously is in costume, it's still light out, what's he going to do?!  I'll never forget it.  I think because she always plays so tough with all of us now that she's this big teenager and all, but this big teenager literally just filled her pants.  LOL!!!

The Bigfoot guy that scared Sam looked a lot like this guy.

So, needless to say, shortly after this incident, and having to hide her from a few ghouls and goblins on the exit out, we were headed home for the day.  I still laugh inside thinking about it all. 

So, like I said.  So many emotions throughout the day.  From the excitement of going in the first place, to the fear of the crazy people there, and then the disappointment for me to have to sit out on a lot of rides for enjoying one of the other ones too much, what a roller coaster of a day.

Overall though, it was still a great day filled with fun, laughter and many memories and I look forward to doing it again next year.