Interview with Monkey Monk on his 4th birthday!

1. What is your favorite color? Blue and red and purple and green. Mostly I like red and the color of the dog. Brown on the dog.
2. What is your favorite toy? A dump truck and a balloon. (he doesn't own a dump truck by the way.)
3. What is your favorite fruit? Squash. I like apples I think. I think I like apples.
4. What is your favorite tv show? Scooby dooby where are you.
5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Peanut butter and macaroni and cheese.
6. What is your favorite thing to wear? Spiderman clothes. A spiderman shirt.
7. What is your favorite game? The racecar game. (Daddy says he means Mario Kart.)
8. What is your favorite snack? Apple straws.
9. What is your favorite animal? Tigers.
10. What is your favorite song? Rudolph the red nosed reindeer had a shiny nose.
11. What is your favorite book? a tree book that can tell you all about leafs. (which he also does not own.)
12. Who is your best friend? Eli. (Who moved away.) He actually kicked me one time.
13. What is your favorite cereal? Marshmallow cereal
14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Play on my monkey bars.
15. What is your favorite drink? Lemon juice.(WHAT? Who let him drink lemon juice????)
16. What is your favorite holiday? Halloween.
17. What is your favorite thing to sleep with at night? Rudolph the red nosed reindeer.
18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Pancakes.
19. What do you want to be when you grow up? A person. "What kind of a person?" I want to be a teenager. What’s a teenager?
20. What’s the grossest food ever? Squash.
21. What do you wish for? I wish tooth fairy to get my tooth out me. My head.
22. What is your best memory? Riding on a helicopter. “You’ve never been on a helicopter.” When I was a baby I did.

Growing Boys

So I'm terrible at posting. I think I begin every post that way... Anyway, both boys had doctor's appointments this week and both were weighed and measured so I thought I'd post on just how big my boys are!

First up is our little Bruiser! His dr appt was at his Hematologist's. Of course that was a two hour long appointment. When they asked me if I could stay longer so they could mix up his immunizations I almost cried. Then I turned her down and said next time I come they need to have it ready because I would have been there another two hours waiting with two little boys who aren't made for sitting quietly. Anyway, my baby weighs 23lbs and his 30" tall! He is really thinning out with all the running around and craziness that has become his life. He and Monk ran around in circles chasing each other for an easy 20 minutes at top speeds today.

And that brings me to Monk, whose appointment was 8 minutes in and out. I deserved that. What a sigh of relief! Dr. Beck says that Monk is brilliant and can't believe how smart he is for being three. He also says my boy is really mature in that he can hold a long conversation with a stranger and knows what he's talking about. "I'll bet he thinks he knows everything." Yup, doc, how right you are. And... my Monk weighs 34lbs! and is 40" tall. He's shot right up there too.

Monk's New Room!

When we first found out our little monk was coming I knew that I wanted to make a cool little Hawaiian nursery for him. However, we in between moving and moving and moving a house fire and the small fact that all Hawaiian crib bedding was $300+, it just didn't happen.

When we moved into our home now (almost 2 years!) my mom and I found some really cute dinosaur bedding at an amazing price so I did a dinosaur room for him. Unfortunately, I'm terrible at picking out paint colors and they were a lot darker than I wanted and I just haven't enjoyed his room. Selfishly, I decorate for me and not for my boys. Anyway, for want of a project, I shopped for months and finally found some bedding I could afford. I wanted a quilt and not a comforter because the insides bunch up when I wash it.




That was in February. Now that it is June I FINALLY painted. I found some inspiration on line and used a projector from a friend and many hours later VOILA! I am so in love with the bright colors (and an excuse to use turquoise). I may not be much of an artist, heaven knows I keep looking at it thinking of all the stuff I need to fix, but I LOVE love love his room.

Next in the plan is a white beach table for next to his bed, a beach chair with an umbrella and I need to make a grass skirt for his bed skirt and valance. Love the accessories!

I thought you were three...

OH how I love this little boy. He continually impressed me with his brilliance. Sometimes he humbles me too....

Monk: Momma, what's this on your necklace, is it teeth?
Me: Yeah, well, it's supposed to be.
Monk: What kind of teeth is it?
Me: I don't know, maybe a shark tooth?
Monk: Noooo! Shark teeth are triangles and this is not a triangle.
Me: My bad......

Cat Scan #2

Oh what's another reason to skip out on church early?? This morning my Bruiser woke up with a little knot on his forehead. I thought it looked like a glorified bug bite but since we were in a hurry as we always are on Sundays I put it on a back burner so I could focus on shoes for all and finishing my mascara.

So church. I teach my little class of adorable girls who were happy when I finished the lesson so they could draw princesses. Then in between classes and I went to pick up Bruiser from nursery and Monk from primary. On my way out the Nursery teacher told me Bruiser's bump had grown and that the husband had him so I basically walked out on her, found the family, saw the huge bump that changed my baby's profile and called the ER Hematology department at Nationwide.

A half hour later Monk is with our friends (Thank you so much for taking him. It made things so soooo much easier) and I'm at a tiny hospital. I check in as my husband drove home to get Bruiser's factor from our fridge. I liked this hospital because it was small and not busy. I was actually greeted by the ER dr who said, "Oh, umm... did Nationwide call you? I thought you might want to go to a different hospital." So I said, "Do you have a CT Scanner?" "yes". "Then let's get started." He seemed really uncertain but a lot of people, doctors included don't know much about hemophilia or the rarer Hemophilia my baby has. He seemed better when I told him how we do things.

So while they got the CT ready we did the regular temperature, ears, eyes, etc. My baby weighs 22.5 lbs by the way :) Bruiser was perfect. He giggled and played even though he was ridiculously tired and hungry. He pretended to call Daddy on my cell phone then was elated when daddy showed up with his medicine. Right after he got there we went to the CT and my Bruiser was so perfect. he didn't cry or fuss. His eyes got HUGE when the machine started though. It literally took less than a minute. The technician told me that Bruiser was the best child she'd ever had. Well of course he was!

Results took another 5-10 minutes but in the end: NO BLEEDS. Not even on the hard ginormous bump on his head. The doc had no idea what it was. Maybe a bug bite that got out of control, maybe something different. So he gave us some Benedryl just in case and gave us some papers on bug bites and head trauma because it could have been either.

I'm so grateful that we've never had to give my baby factor. It stinks that we have to go to the ER for things that we'd normally "just keep an eye on" for Monk. But we can't take any chances. This time around I was definitely more confident and knew exactly what to do. Because I had that attitude the doctor respected me and listened to me a whole lot more. We could have been there a lot longer if I had hobnobbed around. Hopefully the Lord will keep blessing us in the way that Bruiser doesn't need a factor injection. but when the time comes I know that we'll be ready and it won't be as scary.

Humbling Confession

So today Monk got into the ball pit and threw out the balls. They were all over the floor so I asked him to pick them up. He came up with excuse after excuse.

-I don't know how.
-I don't want to.
-I'm too tired.

Since he wouldn't do it I told him he could either pick up the balls or go to bed since he was so sleepy. Since he still wouldn't I followed through and picked him up and put him to bed and yelled at him to stay put. As soon as I closed the door he said he had to use the bathroom. SO frustrating! That's always what he says and irritates me so I told him he could stay put. After screaming he had to go for a couple more minutes my patience was up so I yelled at him to just go potty and come back.

He did, I made him go back to bed and a few minutes later he had calmed down enough to clean up his mess and all was well.

After lunch he told me his pants were wet and I asked him why.

"I had to pee and wasn't fast enough and you were yelling."
"Oh."

Yeah I felt bad. Not so much because I made him wait to go potty because he always uses that as an excuse when he's in time out, but more because I yelled at him and I remember in my family classes at school this quote, "Once you yell, you are the one that's wrong." So I'm going to try harder to be calmer with them.

But it's really hard sometimes...

Precious Time

"Life offers you two precious gifts--one is time, the other freedom of choice, the freedom to buy with your time what you will." - Elder Richard L. Evans

I first read this quote on one of my friends FaceBook pages and I've been thinking about it the last couple of weeks. Some might think that since I stay at home with my boys I have all kinds of time to do whatever I want. The truth is that there is always something that needs to be done or someone wanting me.

Another truth is that I have been really selfish with my time. Some mornings I've strapped my boys at the table for breakfast & would spend as much time as I could get playing stupid FB games looking for quiet. I didn't realize how much time those games could take up!

I haven't felt like I've been at my best and when Monk asked me to sit down with him for a movie I told him I was busy which is pretty inexcusable. So I decided a change was in order. I deleted all of my games.

I've always been pretty in touch with my mortality. Maybe I'm set to die young; who knows! My time has always seemed so finite to me and moments here are so precious. I've been that way since I've been with my husband. I think because at that moment I realized just how much I had to lose. Now I have my boys and there's so much in my life.

Anyway, dumb games became kind of my hobby. I thought that when I deleted them that I would miss them or feel like vegging out to play and I actually feel less stress, haha! It's all silly really but I do know that I don't want to waste my time when there is so much to enjoy right in my living room. And I've been looking forward to spending time with my boys. Especially now that there is some incredible weather! YAY for 80 degrees!

Kitty-Less

After 6 months of Cabo, Big Poppa finally came home and took his kitties back. Boy are we grateful! Let's just say we're not pet people. We're happy they're gone but we did love the little buggers. Here's a little tribute:

Discipline Issues

Last week our little Monk was sick. Nothing serious. He just had a high fever for two days which made him very cuddly and sleepy. So for two days he was this sweet sweet angel that I got to cuddle and love on. Now he's not sick anymore and it's like all the naughty he was holding back being sick is coming out in concentrated doses.

He is not listening, yelling at me, saying words that are illegal in our house (stupid, hate) and throwing temper tantrums. He's normally very polite and has taken to demanding I get him this or that. It's felt very exhausting.

This little blog is about sticking to your guns. As we all know, children can turn off the naughty switch and turn on the angel switch faster than we can blink. Monk is at the age now where he remembers his behaviors, knows better and is starting to understand consequences.

Yesterday, D had a meeting out of town and we decided to go along. I took the boys to the grocery store and took them to this little bakery/deli. Monk started out by being rude in the store and yelling. When we got to the restaurant, they had these ginormous cupcakes that Monk thought were ice cream and he really wanted one. I thought, "No big deal. They're cheap, they look good." So I told him he could have one after he ate a sandwich. Right? Because you have to eat something good for you first. Well, then came the fit and stomping of the feet and after two minutes I had enough and got our food to go.

All the rest of yesterday he wanted his cupcake so bad. D was going to give it to him but I put my Mommy foot down. I told Monk that he could not have his cupcake because when we were in the store he threw a fit by screaming and stomping his feet and not listening to Mommy. So all yesterday, he did not get that stinkin cupcake. This morning he asked to eat it for breakfast and I said, "You can have it after you eat lunch if you're a good boy." And he said, "OK Mommy." YAAAAAY! He was so sweet. I felt like he learned a lesson.

I feel like I did something right in the parenting world by sticking to my guns and not moving (daddy either). I also was pretty specific when I told him how he threw a fit. I've realized lately that Monk understands better when I take the time to explain things.

I do feel some guilt because I really yelled at him the car after the store because he was being really rude. And I know that just yelling at him did nothing except make my voice ugly. So I'm going to try telling him next time, "You do not talk to Mommy like that. When you can talk to Mommy like a nice boy, I will answer you." Then I'll just ignore him until he's polite again. What's he going to do, yell? He was already doing that.

That might seem pretty cold fish next to D who's answer was to smack him in the mouth. I'm not against spankings all together, but I felt inspired and sometimes my inspirations are answers to prayers so we're going to try this new way.

PS. The cupcakes were really dry.

Health Nuts

My husband is a member of the Chamber of Commerce in our little town, so whenever they have an event, he signs us up. This time around it's a 12 Week Health Contest. We went to one of the three gyms and got stats for our weight, BMI and fat percentage. Then we're told how much weight we have to lose to get to our ideal body fat. In the 12 weeks, we get points according to workouts, reaching our goals and spending money at local businesses.

So D and I went over to get weighed. I won't share his stats but I was a little surprised by mine. I normally weigh about 126 but since their scale is 4lbs off, it put me at 122lbs. Then they subtracted two lbs for clothes, which is pretty generous. So my starting weight is 120lbs. I feel like I should put that in "quotations". To be at my goal fat percentage for my height, gender and build (they put athletic or regular), I need to lose 3lbs so I can have 23% body fat.

Three lbs will be easy to lose in 3 months. Mostly I just wanted to be healthier. We're not much for veggies and I have a love affair with chocolate. So I decided to put us on Weight Watchers. It's a good diet because it's more about portion control and once we lose a certain amount it won't let us keep losing. Last time I weighed 117 was before I got pregnant with Cole and I got too many "you're too skinny" and "your cheeks are gaunt" comments. Apparently skinny is not a good look on me. I decided to adjust my diet so I count points during the week but don't pay much attention during the weekend. Which I really love because I love to eat.

This has caused a little stress in my marriage because D gets 35 points a day. 35! I get 20. So basically he doesn't have to do too much counting and what he has to eat at lunch is nearly my entire daily allotment. Grrr... But D and I have decided to try and do little video workouts together for the spirit of the competition. I'm hoping there are some fabulous prizes for this thing that makes all the cookies I'm giving up worth it!

Pet Peeves

So I haven't updated in a while. I seem to have lost my camera cord and I have lots of fun pictures that are stuck. One of these days I'll get around to ordering one off of ebay.

I was filling out one of those silly little questionnaires on Facebook and it asked what my pet peeves are and I simply wrote, "many". Since then, I have decided that I like the word 'peeve' and I have been trying to think of specifics. I have thought of a few, so, (ahem), here it goes:

1. Girls who wear super tiny shorts, a big hoody and uggs. Then complain that they are cold. Are you cold or aren't you? And if you're not smart enough to wear pants in winter with snow on the ground, I don't want to hear it.


2. Fanatics. People who are so obsessed and absorbed by some of their own lifestyle choices that they are no longer a credible source of information. I'm a young mom, so most this goes out to all the woman who only use cloth diapers, breastfeed for two years and thinks any food that isn't organic will kill you. Just because you breastfed longer than I did, DEFINITELY does not make your children smarter than mine. I know this, because I've seen your children. Also, I do not want to see your naked boob in public. I know that it is natural. So is pooping. But I don't want to see you do that either.

Now don't get me wrong. I believe "breast is best" and I feed my babies healthy food, etc. But some people become sycophants. They come off as though any mom who doesn't mother their way is a bad mom. That is where we have a problem. And I don't care if you breastfeed in public. But at least use a blanket.

3. If you don't agree with me you're attacking me. UGH! GEEZ! That is so ridiculous. I'm allowed to disagree. One example is that my husband and I don't drink alcohol for religious reasons. That does not mean that just because you drink I think you're a bad person and I'm better than you. It's not about you at all. It's about ME trying to do what I think is best for ME. Also, if it comes up in conversation that I don't drink, it doesn't mean I'm trying to convert you or get you to have a life style change. If you are in a disagreement, playing the martyr isn't going "win". Just accept people have a difference of opinions and it's OK


4. Wet socks and when the back of my pants get drenched when it's raining. It's uncomfortable.


5. Not using spellchecker. I'm talking resumes and professional settings. Grr... Ok, maybe I mean e-mails and Facebook a little bit. AT LEAST re-read what you write because there are times when I have no clue what your status update is. No matter HOW many times I read it. I mostly mean resumes. Whenever I was hiring, I threw out the resumes of people who didn't take the time make it legible. (On a funny side note, when I was hiring on-site night managers, I got a resume from a woman who spent more time telling me what kind of apartment she wanted than she did her qualifications. What's that sound? My shredder.)



Wow, that was really hard. I don't get mad too easily and I tend to find most stupid things people do funny. Like the other day when someone said, "I hate negative people." And spent 5 minutes elaborating. I hope you find the irony in that too and it makes you laugh. Or roll your eyes. Life is better when you just roll with the punches but the above five things I mentioned are the ones that get to me.

home sweet home

After Christmas I decided to take a trip with my dad to visit my Grandma in TN. Sans children. Christmas was so perfect and my children were such a pleasure to be around that I had a really hard time leaving. Thankfully my husband pushed me to go because he knew I needed it.

First of all, I had the best time with my grandma. She gave me baking lessons and we went out to eat and went shopping and chatted and looked through pictures and the whole time was wonderful.

Here's what I realized life would be like without my children:
1. No noise. It was so soooooo quiet.

2. No big bags. I needed a wallet and a cell phone.

3. When I went into a store all I had to do was get out of the car and go inside. No unloading carseats. (PS. Not my kid.)

4. The only person to clean up after was me!


All of this was nice but it also meant no cuddles, no hugs and kisses, no sweet baby sounds, no tiny hands to hold and my arms felt very empty. HOW I MISSED MY BABIES!

Needless to say I was very ready to be home and love on all three of my boys again. Monk ran right up to me with lots of kisses and a big "I love you" and Bruise WALKED TO ME. Yes, three steps in a row. My big men! Glad I went but there's definitely no place like my home.

Baby, It's cold INSIDE

Welcome to home ownership. I guess I can't say we haven't already been introduced since a couple of months after we moved in last year we had a water line break. I woke up one morning and thought, "Wow the floors are cold." I looked at the thermostat and it said 53 degrees. CRAP. So the man called our buddy Dave who came over as soon as he could that day to work on our furnace.
He figured out what the problem was pretty fast. We needed a new motor and he ordered one for us and fixed what we had the best he could so we'd be warm enough through the night. That evening we saw that it wasn't going to last us very long at all. We got a space heater in our room and laid Bruiser on the floor in a fleece blanket pallet and we put Monk between us. All our bags were ready so in the morning all we had to do was get dressed and head out.
It was really rough night's sleep with the boys. Oy.
We woke up to 42 degrees outside our bedroom. Packed up. Took the boys to breakfast at McDonald's and spent the night with my parents. In their warm warm house. Our part didn't come until late and Dave couldn't get over to fix it right away so we had to spend another night with my folks. Sunday Dave could fix it but something else was wrong and he thought it was the circuit board. So another night in Findlay.
The next day it still wasn't working so Dave suggested another guy who came and figured out that one of the brand new parts we were sold was bad.
Yeah. That meant we had to pay a guy after hours money because we were sold a bad new part. The company is refunding our money and is going to see if they can foot some of the bill for us. I hope so because I'll be very angry and possibly start naming names.
Gratefully, we are back in our warm warm home for Christmas! We are so grateful for family who can help take care of us when we're out.
Thanks everyone!

CatScans, Birthdays and Parties!

Well we have definitely been a very busy little family. I start out by saying this so I have an excuse for not updating in so long.



First, Bruiser had his first ER appointment. He fell inTO our bathtub and hit his head and his eye a day before his birthday. Normally that's not a big deal, but since he's a bruiser we had to rush off to the hospital and get a catscan to make sure there was no internal bleeding. I called the Hemophilia Center on our to let them know what was going on. The nurse told me that the ER people would resist a catscan but that I had to be very aggressive. She also called the ER ahead of time and gave them instructions. They're so wonderful! I brought our factor with us because normally we would inject him first thing. It turned out that getting a catscan was faster than putting a team together to give Bruiser his IV then his factor. When we got into the catscan room they wrapped by little baby up like a tiny blue burrito and Daddy got to help hold him. He only moved during two of the pictures so it was all over in just a couple minutes. Catscans are cool by the way. I got to see his brain and eye balls and grey matter and all kinds of awesomeness. Oh, and Bruiser was, fine and dandy. The ER doc came to see us and I got a very distinct impression that he had googled Hemophilia right before he came in. Or WebMD. I wanted to ask him which one. He was doing well until, "At least he doesn't have Hemophilia A, that's Christmas Disease. That's way worse." And I thought, "WHAT!?" He also really did not want to give Bruiser his factor but since he had no bleeding I was fine with that. Until a lot later when I remembered he said to look out for 'delayed bleeding'. If he knew that was a possibility why didn't he give my child factor? I'm grateful that the experiences I'm having now I can learn from when they haven't been serious. Anyway, Bruiser looked like a tough guy his first birthday.


AND my sweet little boy on his 1st birthday! You are almost walking! You rip through my house in your walker and can stand up by yourself for 4 or 5 seconds at a time (which is excellent). You are still a great eater. You really really like to get into stuff and play. You have two new words which are 'kitty' and 'uh oh'. Eleven pounds ago you were my newborn angel and now you're such a big man. Sometimes you just love to be held so you can watch what's going on in the world around you. We love you so much.





I had a birthday too, although mine aren't really important anymore. We went to Bob Evans and the mall so Monk could ride on the train. He had so much fun. I love watching him get so excited.




Finally, the husband and I went to his company party. It was a nice excuse to get all dressed up. They paid for a hotel so our boys went to my parents' house for the night which was so wonderful! We had a great time.

Parenthood is defined as...

Loving someone so fiercely who sometimes (often) makes your life HARD. Parenting is not easy. And I don't care if someone takes offense to my little definition up there. You're lying to yourself if having a child doesn't make your life harder. Sweeter, yes. Harder, most definitely. It's so amazing that I love my little boys fiercely, desperately and so fully even though there are days like today where even my body hurts.

First, they woke up too early this morning and Monk was cranky from the get go. He begged me over and over for a movie. So I let him watch one then I put the two of them in the bath since I knew I wanted to get their pictures taken. Washing his hair is awful! He screams and cries so loudly! I didn't even get soap in his eyes. That took a while and finally I had enough of his whining. Although I did teach him the difference between his "monk voice" and his "whining voice". We also practiced some animal voices.

I laid Bruiser down who went right to sleep but Monk was NOT having it. I laid down with him for a few minutes because I was tired and I think the rest of the day would have been easier if I had stayed long enough for him to fall asleep. I just don't like to do that because it's a terrible habit to get into.

He's going through a rough phase where he doesn't want to listen. He just wants to go off and do what (or have Mommy do) whatever he wants. He's also outgrowing naps but still needs them. AUGH.


A bit later we went to get our pictures taken at Sears. I brought my dad and my favorite CJ along thinking that it would be fun and easy. It was not either of those things. Monk threw a fit the entire time beforehand and was in one of those contrary moods. "Oh Monk, you're so handsome." "I NOT SO HANDSOME!" He yelled about everything. The picture ladies worked miracles because she had him laughing so loud and giggling in no time and I did get ONE, maybe two good shots out of the whole thing. After that he was back to being yelling. The three of us adults were exhausted by the time we were finally finished. CJ is second guessing having children I think...

So a million fits later, I pick up my husband who was out running errands and hanging out with his best friend. Maybe I cried a little because the day was just so HARD HARD HARD HARD HARD. But he gave me my birthday present nearly 3 weeks early and they are the most comfortable and soft pair of silk jammies from Victorias Secret ever! I don't even care that he spent an ungodly amount on them. Then he bought me ice cream. The boys fell asleep in their car seats and we were home where I could take a long hot shower to work the knots in my shoulders out from the stress, shave my legs so I didn't mar my new jammies with bristly legs and be luxuriously comfortable. Sigh.

And even though today kind of sucked and was HARD HARD HARD, I keep thinking about how when I laid down with Monk he said, "I like you Momma. I like you beautiful eyes." And it's no wonder I'm not mad at him and that I love him as much as I do. Maybe tomorrow will be wonderful :)

11 months!

And I'm only 1 day late of getting this up! Our little Bruiser is 11 months old. He just seems so tiny. He's so my baby and I have a hard time imagining him getting bigger. He got his top two teeth in this month. He can do so much.

Right now Bruiser can hold on to the edge of something and walk. I don't see him do it very often, but don't be fooled. Once I walked in on him and he's FAST. Blew me away for a second because I had never seen him do it before. He can also clap and play peek-a-boo which is probably the cutest thing I've ever seen. Bruiser is also a master of sound effects. I can't even begin to describe, or mimic, the sounds he makes with his mouth. It's so funny. I'll take a video and post.

Bruiser loves his baths but has taken to standing up in them which is a big danger even though I'm sitting right next to him. He's taken a few spills and gets really angry. A funny thing about my little man is that he gets MAD. Full on fists clenched- face red- vein bursting mad and a grunt that goes back to cave man days. Can you believe this coming from my peaceful sweet boy?

He also really loves his toys more and more and can easily keep himself entertained for hours. Sometimes I just take them both upstairs and read my book while they play. His favorite though is the mouse and keyboard that's hooked up to our TV. I have to hide them now or he changes our movies. Silly man.

By the way, he can climb stairs. Scary for a bruiser baby's mom, right? He also has the greatest big brother in the world. When Bruiser starts up the stairs and I don't see, Monk calls for me and sits right in front of him so he can't go up farther. I never taught him to do that! Monk also makes sure to always shut the toilet lid so Bruiser doesn't try to touch the toilet. What amazing little boys I have.

I'm always stopped by people who want to tell me how beautiful my little guy is and "Oh what eyelashes!" "Look at those eyes!" and all the adults who watch him say he is the cuddliest baby they've ever seen. And he is so completely precious.

It's an Honor!

My Monkey Monk has turned 3. As in THREE. THREE YEARS OLD! He's gone through so many changed this year. He talks a lot and is so smart. We can have long conversations about anything. He really observant and remembers things from months and months ago. Most of it I was already starting to forget.

Monk is so sweet and so affectionate. He likes to cuddle and give hugs and kisses and he always wants to hold hands. I always feel so loved. He really loves movies and would probably watch TV all day if I let him. Which I don't, so we end up in his room a lot. He's really good at playing with his little brother. He looks out for him and lets me know when Bruiser is getting near the stairs. (Guess what, Bruiser can climb stairs!)

He likes to get his hair cut and do all the things Mommy and Daddy do. He loves playing with other kids, of course boys. He just jumps right in without any thought at all and before you blink they're all running around chasing each other.

I just love him so much. He's this light that makes every day better. I never know what he's going to say because he's a little parrot and only has to hear you say something once before he says it himself. And he's observant so what he says is a mix of me and a mix of him.

Dear Monkey. My life is so much better with you here. I am so honored that I get to be your Mommy. We adore every thing about you from your crooked little toenails to your crazy professor head of hair. We love you more than anyone was able to tell us we could. And I have never been more grateful that families are forever. Love you babyboy.

Poopy Monologue

‎"I poop! I poop mama! I made a snake! I made it wike a snake for you! I don't want to eat my poop. Yuck. Oh, I not all done. I haf to poop again. I poopin. Poop Poop Poop. Faster faster faster. This seat is bouncy. It's soft. Good idea. Now I make a pretzel for you. It's a poop pretzel. It's not pretend. A poopy pretzel."

I feel this way:

The recent suicides and abuse of homosexuals has really been laying down heavy on my mind lately. I feel for those people and their families. It is never ok to be unkind. I am grateful to my church that above all else, teaches to love one another.

BIG NEWS

And no, I'm not pregnant. However, I'm really excited for May 2011 because I will have two new nieces/nephews! Babies are so wonderful!

Our big exciting news is..... Monk is potty trained! 100%! We've been working on it for a while, but he wasn't really interested. It was more, "If I think about it and am not doing anything better, maybe I'll do it for a special treat." But now he's looking super cute in his Batman underwear. He doesn't even wet during his naps (when I get him to lie down) or during bed time. I'm so proud. Of course, when in public he demands his "pwivacy" and won't let me in the stall with him. I try to watch through the crack to make sure he's not touching the toilet bowl or anything. EW.



Bruiser is 10 months now and I didn't get around to posting for 9 months so let's see.... At 9 months he was ever so peaceful and crawling like a breakdancing champion. He was very very fast. He was also a bottomless pit. I'm talking waffles for breakfast and a whole PB&J for lunch. Hungry little hippo.



At 10 months our little Bruiser is crawling normally, not eating so much (and by not so much, I mean he only eats a little more than Monk does.) He pulls himself up on EVERYTHING. Mostly me and the furniture, but also the walls. He's teething something fierce so I find big puddles of drool all over the floor but it just make me laugh. He is so peaceful and such a joy. He finds more things funny now and laughs a lot at Monk.



More on my Monkey Monk: He is SMART. And INDEPENDENT. He likes superheroes, trains, dragons and Scooby Doo. He loves to eat corn dogs and fruit. And he is unendingly sweet. He's very obedient and affectionate and pretty much perfect.



My boys are so wonderful! I'm looking forward to the end of this year because we have lots of Halloween activities and Monk's birthday and holidays and Bruiser turns 1! I love watching my boys grow up.