Happy Birthday Dad!

Happy Birthday dad!

In the very near future my birthday will arrive and I’ll be turning the ripe ole’ age of 26. And I’ve got to be honest, I’m just not all that excited about it. There’s literally nothing special about the age of 26. In fact, there’s nothing special about any of my next four birthdays (26-29). I’m in no man’s land. We often associate our birthdays with important milestones, right? At 16 you can date, and get your driver’s license. At 18, you’re suddenly ready to be labeled as an adult in society because you’re so much more mature than when you were 17. Twenty one’s a biggie. If alcohol and gambling are your thing, then you've got the legal right to do both. At 25, you get to finally rent a car without paying the dreaded “at risk” fee. Thirty is a biggie too, but it's kind of a mixed bag. At 30 you're entering the beginning stages of your inevitable “physical breakdown.” Your ankles and knees start to wobble a little more and those joints start hurting for absolutely no reason. But on the flip side, at 30 you also start entering the “veteran phase” of life, where you’ve lived long enough to start “lecturing society” and saying stuff like “back when I was young...” “Can you believe the things kids do these days? I never would have done something like that….” And on and on and on.

So, again, what’s so special about 26? I say nothing, but my son said otherwise. You see, as we’ve raised Lucas the last two years, I feel like I’ve had to bite my tongue on occasion. Okay, not just on occasion, I’ve had to bite it a lot. I had to bite it the first time Luke started showing an abnormal propensity for singing and dancing. I had to bite it the first time he strongly iterated to me he’d rather listen to Taylor Swift than any of dad’s famed music like Weezer, Collective Soul, or his instrumental movie soundtracks. The first time he went from walking to prancing majestically around the house on his tippy toes (all in one motion), I almost fainted. Sometimes he flails his arms dramatically while running and it takes every bit of my man control to not think of him cheesily running toward the girl of his dreams on an episode of the “Bachelor.” I bit my tongue to the point of bleeding when he made it very clear that his favorite movie and soundtrack is “Mamma Mia.”

I know what you’re saying: “Why keep biting your tongue?!” “Do something masculine for that boy before it’s too late! And my response is to tell you that I’ve tried, but I want my son to develop his own interests in his own ways without daddy’s overbearing influence. We’ve tried unsuccessfully to play catch, hit a baseball, shoot some hoops, and kick a soccer ball. I figured it just wasn’t his thing. Or so I thought. Daddy got a big surprise recently when he came home to find his son doing…..well, watch the video to see for yourself.

I know, I know. He was half-naked and still prancing/jumping on the bed, but my little boy was shooting hoops! On his own! Long before dad had come into the room to play along. It was a surreal moment, folks. One of the few moments in my adult-life where the the tears could not be contained. And it gets even better. Since this experience Luke and I now shoot hoops around the house for fun. He recently sat down with daddy to watch golf and some basketball games. This morning he threw his container of vitamins through the air, across the entire kitchen, into my waiting hand. The tide is turning and the timing is perfect. Thanks for the birthday present, Luke. No. 26 will certainly be one to remember. But I think what gives me ultimate satisfaction is that you’re you, kiddo, and I’m lucky enough be with you every day.

Kids say the darn-dist things

Last Sunday we had a family dinner with Matt's family. Matt's brother just got back from officer training for the Air Force, and him and his family moved about 3 days later. So we all got together and had some fun. But my very favorite part was what the kids kept saying to me. They have 3 kids, Andrew 6, Emma 3, Olivia 15months (I think those are the ages -forgive me Becky if I am wrong). Anyway, I was in the other room with Andrew, Emma, and Lucas, watching The Jungle Book. Now, I need to preface this story by saying, Andrew never talks to me, I think I scare him. But he was totally not afraid on this day. :) Andrew looks at me, with this pondering expression, then looks at my tummy (since it is gigantic at the moment), and said "you have a big belly" I replied, "Yes I do." The conversation then proceeded like this"
Andrew: It is even bigger than Balloo (the bear on Jungle Book)
Me: Oh....thanks.
Andrew: It is even bigger than mine. Look when I stand, my tummy is flat, but when I sit it goes almost to my private.
Me: (well I couldn't say much, I just laughed)
Through out the movie Andrew kept making comments about how big I am, and how I am going to have a baby. Then Emma decided to join in the fun. So she asked "Do you have baby?" I said yes. And then she asked asked if she could touch my tummy, I said yes, then she asked if she could see the baby, as she is asking she is reaching for my shirt to pull it up. I had to explain to her the baby is in my tummy, and we can't see it yet. It made me laugh, especially since I have had that very same conversation with two other three year olds. All of them asking to touch, and then if they can see the baby, and yes all of them were about to expose my whole tummy. Now it is Luke's turn. I doubt Lucas understands what is going on. He sometimes acts like it; whenever we see a baby, he gets confused and touches my tummy and says "baby sister". It is almost like he is trying to figure out if the baby is still in my tummy. There are random times where he will come up and hold my tummy and say "baby sister", like he is hugging her or something. It is quite sweet....until he wants to lift up my shirt to see baby. We were at out side the other day, and he came up to me and started pulling my shirt, this time it was down, not up. I stopped him and he was very upset, saying he wanted to see baby sister. I told him my tummy is right here. His response, "no, I want the other tummy." Again I was left speechless, how do you explain to your two year 'that' is not a tummy? I tried to tell him where my tummy is again, and then I just distracted him. This has happened 3-4 more times. I am trying to figure out a new way to explain it to him. I know this is a little too detailed for some, but I needed a pick me up moment so I decided to write about these, since they make me laugh! Right now my kid is driving me crazy, he has been crying all day, and has been in his room for over an hour and still hasn't fallen asleep. I am very frustrated, so I decided this would make me happy. I hope it cheered someone else up too. :) (Joel and Becky, I am sorry to use your kids for this post, but their comments were too funny to pass up).

hmmm....

I have been meaning to put some stuff on the blog, but haven't gotten around to it. Now, I am too tired to actually write about each thing, so, this is have to be enough. :)
Easter/Conference:
Lucas loved finding his eggs, but once he realized there was candy in them, he had to stop at each egg and open it before moving on. But then of course opening it, led to eating it. So his breakfast that day consisted of chocolate, jelly beans and peeps. Who wouldn't love that for breakfast?


(ignore my make-up-less face, it was first thing in the morning)
Fun with Friends:
Lucas has really grown close to his friends, he loves them! Every week we do "Toddler Time", it is kind of like preschool. Lucas looks forward to it all week, and when it is time to go, he literally runs out the door yelling his friends names. The other day the kids did finger painting with pudding. Most people don't know this, but Lucas does not like being messy. He gets it from me. :) When ever his hands are too dirty for comfort while eating, he will insist on being "done" until we can wash his hands and then he will try it again, or he will ask us to help him so he doesn't have to get messy. One day in Nursery they had cookies with frosting, Lucas had 2 bites then insisted on his hands being wiped off. One of the leaders in the class mentioned it to us when we picked him up, and said "your son is obsessed with clean hands. He does not like being messy." Of course while saying this, he was laughing pretty hard - what kid doesn't like to get dirty? Just me and Lucas I guess. Anyway, Lucas did not want to do finger painting, so instead he would dip one finger in at a time and he just enjoyed eating the pudding. What a goof. Then this week we went with some more friends to the Gale Museum in South Jordan. I had never been, and was pretty excited since it was free! There is a section there for kids to play with some toys, and the kids just loved it!!



Baby Stuff:
I am so excited to have a girl! I love my boy, and I would love to have more boys. But, boys don't get to have "cute/girlie" things. I am loving getting stuff ready for our little Ladybug. I did a post a while ago about the bows I made for baby, but now I needed somewhere to put them. So, I made a wall hanger for them. I still don't know what I am going to do with the headbands, but at least I have somewhere (cute) to put the clips and bows. I have the room all set up, I know it is a little early, but I have been nesting, and really I couldn't wait since the girl stuff is so cute! Here are a few pictures of her half of the kids room and of the hair-clip hanger. The hanger was so easy. I just got a board from DI, for a buck, and then mod podged paper on it, and painted the frame and mod podged some paper on the frame. Then, I just hot glued some random ribbon strips at different angles across the board. The ribbon is what holds the clips. Super easy and I think it is pretty cute!