Nicer Prego Pics

Just to show you how behind I am on blogging, here's some pictures taken by my friend Miss L, back in April, around 38 weeks.
She's an aspiring photographer, who I happen to think is doing quite well.
I know, well maybe, I believe one day I'll look back and miss my big tummy and be thankful pictures were taken of me being so large. I certainly enjoy the great pics of the kiddos.

K4 Graduation Day

Jim and I were both commenting on how we don't remember there being so many graduation ceremonies when we were growing up. I didn't have a graduation for Kindergarten. There was one for high school and that was it! My parents gave me a goal to reach for and graduating with my diploma (and lots of scholarships to back it up) was the goal.

Now, did I totally milk it after that? Of course! I had a graduation party for my AA degree, my Bachelor's and then of course for my Master's. Guess I had to make up for feeling jilted somehow.

But that's just it, I never felt jilted, like I should have had a ceremony to recognize passing a grade, instead of all of them.

So how do I feel about there being a little ceremony for my sweet, crazy beautiful, wildly intelligent, precious little girl who graduated from the K4 class?

Absolutely! Why wouldn't there be? Most of it is for the parents anyway, right?

Well, thankfully there was because it was the tearful reminder that this summer is it for me spending loads of time with her. Soon I will be waking myself up early to go tiptoe-ing into her room to wake her up and encourage her to get dressed, eat, brush her teeth, brush her hair, go to the bathroom and remind her to not forget her lunch and backpack, 5 days a week! Yikes!

She actually surprised me this summer. My mom said it would happen, but Katherine being my first child and all, I needed to witness it myself. Mom said the summer before she starts her Kindergarten year, she will mature so much that she'll want to spend time with other kids and she'll show me that she's ready for school. Last year she was not. I know that for a fact. She was still very clingy and unsure. But this year, this summer, she's been wanting to spend another week at vacation bible school, even if she's not sure there will be friends there she knows. She didn't even want to drive by the church last year to check it out.

There's always the side of myself that will find something wrong in my actions to explain why the change in her behavior, like, we had another baby and I don't get to spend as much time with her as I did so why wouldn't she want to go elsewhere? At least she's getting attention, from someone.

Damn mommy-guilt!

She was the one that was begging me each day to teach her after I bought the home-schooling curriculum for her Pre-Kindergarten year. She would sit still, stay interested, would do her workbook pages and I had glorious visions of home-schooling her. She had no desire to leave our comfy home and loved the attention I was able to give her. But, first trimester bouts of extreme sleepiness had me longing for the nap time we were using for teaching, and the second trimester awakened the planning beast within and the third trimester was back to napping and preparing for a third one. I also took on the responsibility of co-managing a group of 70 women (BIG learning experience there) and accepted a part-time job at our church.

Extra time to teach? Where was it? It was slipping through my fingertips along with my one-on-one time with my soon-to-be Kindergartener.

I can logically think about the change in her behavior and pinpoint it to her maturing, but I'll always wonder if I messed up somewhere. There's a really good chance, someday, I'll look back and know that the sequence of events in our family's lives were divinely planned and part of all of us growing together, but my heart longs for her still wanting to cling to my side and learn from me. Protected. Unhurt. Naive. Tender.

No surprise here, Kindergarten is going to be hard for me. Really hard. K3 was hard on me but she'll be fine. She'll flourish. She'll take calculated baby steps away from here, with a glance back now and then. She's my careful one. The one I'm having to learn first from.

Congratulations my sweet little Graduate!

Monster trucks & Princesses

He can be such a good sport, sometimes. They were off to the ball, first, then Monster Truck Jam.


Some good old fashion dress-up and dancing fun.

Mr. J's Fan Club

One morning while Jim was home after Brandon's birth, he noticed it was quiet. He's been around our two long enough to know that when it gets quiet you better go start looking for them.

Thankfully, this is what he found...
They were watching our neighbor, Mr. J. mow the grass. He could walk outside to get the mail, or even drive into his driveway and our kids would be mesmerized by it.
Mr. J., you have two official members of your fan club. Meet the President and Vice-President. The Treasurer is en route. He needs to learn how to crawl first.

Stranger among us

Nathan tickled us the other day. He saw and was studying this picture of Jim and I. It was taken the day after we got engaged, April 2001.

Nathan then asked, "What's that guy's name?"

Chilly children

Our A/C is potentially on the fritz. It's been acting up a little.

No thanks to pregnancy hormones causing the boss-lady to be extremely warm those last few weeks before giving birth.

Unfortunately, it was the children who had to pay the ultimate price. These pictures were taken the week before Brandon was born.
I do remember saying to Jim one time, "They'll be alright. At least they can put more clothes on. God help the neighbors if the opposite is our next option."

Interesting choice of weapon

Nathan found this lying on the coffee table days after we got back from the hospital. The tried and true, blue-blooded boy in him turned it into a gun, was pointing it at us around corners and was shouting, "Pow! Pow! I'll Pow you mama!"
Here, he's starting to realize by our reactions that what he's turned into a weapon this time is a little different than the average toy-turned-into-a-gun.
I'm terribly sorry, son. You're giving me too much "ammo" to avoid writing about all of your antics.

(If you're not sure what this is, email me)

Bubble bath 2.5 years later

Some things just don't change very much.

January 2009

June 2011

Potty training part deux

Potty training Part one was not a success.

I gave birth to a male chauvinist 2.5 years ago. He was showing signs of it before he knew the difference between girls and boys.

You see back in November, when his dad was finished with him at the end of the 10 days he painstakingly spent training the little fella, Nathan would go to the bathroom for daddy, no problem. But as soon as daddy went back to work, it was nothing but turmoil between mother and son.

It was back in March I decided that my relationship with him was more important than him being potty trained at 2 years, 5 months. Here's what I wrote then...
"I have officially taken a potty-training sabbatical and will revisit it when he actually shows an interest. I've lowered my standards enough to be okay with Kindergarten peer-pressure finally being the attention-grabber he's been needing."

So, let's try it again...
-6 months later
-he's more mature
-I'm more strict
-And I'm a mother tired of wiping man-size/adult-smelling poops off a squirmy hiney 5 times bigger than his brother's when I know he's PERFECTLY CAPABLE of going on the potty if he WANTED TO!

So, today was T minus zero days and sister was here to eagerly help him pick out which pair of underwear he wanted.

Good luck to us all.

Kitchen reno - J&K style

Our kitchen is finally renovated!

I had to look all the way back to March of 2008, but this is what our kitchen used to look like...
It had a small flower pattern wallpaper with darker flower border surrounding the door openings.

I think it took next to forever to get the wallpaper off, because we lived with parts of the kitchen stripped of wallpaper for longer than we care to admit.
In January 2010, we had my mom come over to watch the kids so me, Jim and his dad could paint the kitchen. When she showed up and saw the ET-like Haz-Mat action going on, her jaw dropped and she said, "I thought you said you were doing some minor renovations to the kitchen?" We were, it was just painting, but some drywall had to be repaired first, which meant sanding, which meant tenting off the whole kitchen and kitchenware so as not to spread the dust. Oh yeah, and since we were at it, Papa had some clear varnish left over so why not add a clear coat onto all the door facings to spruce them up. Simple stuff, you know?
The painting turned out well. I like the color and the walls are repaired from the wallpaper stripping action. The countertops, with the flower wallpaper, looked fine, but after we painted the lighter yellow on the walls, they started to have a pink/peach hue. Not good.
It only took a week or so for me to be convinced the countertops had to go, but sometimes life happens and you must wait for the right time. The middle of November 2010 was the right time. We had child care for a whole day, we had the countertops paid for and we had all the tools needed. Let's go.

The countertops had to be removed and extra wallpaper had to be replaced. (Please remind me of how much I hate wallpaper if I ever decide to put it up.)

The grandparents stopped by that evening for supper and brought the kids home. Did you know how tiring it is at Bamah's house? She can wear a person out!
The sink side still needed to be attached, so they stayed a little longer to help with kids and construction work. Nathan offered his services also.
Jim and I managed to get that side attached, with no pipes leaking, cleaned up in preparation for little people wandering around the next morning and eventually got to bed by 11pm. Wow! What a day!

We chose a granite-looking countertop, which went well with the hardware we already had.
Added a hint of glass tile above the back splash,
a new valance I sewed out of a tablecloth from Target,
some new lighting,
and a couple of cute kids as props.
And voila! Our kitchen is renovated and updated to represent this century! I am very pleased with it and love the changes.

First smile

June 2, 2011
4 weeks old
Brandon's first official and intentional smile

I awoke to his baby grunting, slight wimpering and tooting. Picked him up, gently cradled his head and back in my hands and arms facing me and started quietly singing "Good Morning", (Singing in the Rain version)

Good morning, good morning

We talked the whole night through
Good morning, good morning to you

Good morning, good morning
It's great to stay up late
Good morning, good morning to you

He stared into my eyes. His eyes slowly moved from my eyes to my mouth and around the circumference of my face. Taking it all in. What his mother looks like.

My warmth, touch, smell, sound.
And then it happened...
He smiled!



At me!
How is it something so simple, innocent and seemingly benign can make my heart nearly jump out of it's cozy cavity.
For an instant, all was right with the world.