Mom of Boys Fail

The other day shopping I felt like getting my boys some superheroes, for no particular reason except, I thought it would be fun for them to have since we really don't have that many..yet. They named me ironman right away, which I have no problem with considering I really like ironman. So, for the next couple days I was always ironman. I found myself making sandwiches as ironman, driving the car with ironman at the wheel, tucking the boys in as ironman, and for Josh he wouldn't follow mom's directions, but he would listen to ironman, so I proceeded. One morning Josh came into our room in the morning he and handed me ironman. Then spiderman and ironman spark up a conversation. Josh as spiderman: hi, ironman. Ironman: Oh hi, spiderman. Spiderman: shoes. Ironman: Oh yeah! We have the same shoes!! Pause. Spiderman was looking at me, and Sam was looking at me and said: Um…superheroes don't talk about their shoes. Haha!! We laughed for a while about this, and I could hear myself saying this line over and over in my head. I have rolled with the punches when it comes to being a mom with all boys. The dirty hands, and muddy feet, the jumping off of couches and tables, playing superheroes, jumping in puddles right a long with them, but I must say this is the first time I relapsed pretty obviously that I grew up with a lot of sisters, and played only Barbies.

Milestones

It has been a busy couple of weeks, with a lot of new transitions. The biggest one, perhaps, is Kaj starting school. He is only going on Tuesday and Thursday for the morning, but it is definitely strange not having him around. I have to leave my house at 8:45, and drive him there, I am usually dressed but gross, and Josh and Rowan are in the pajamas, but at least Kaj is always dressed, hair combed, and ready to go, I walk Kaj inside-it only takes a moment, but by the time I get back Josh is in tears realizing he, once again, will not be joining Kaj at school. Kaj has told him he can go when he is 3 many times, but Josh does not want to wait till he is 3. Sweet kid. I am trying to come up with some special mom and Josh things to do while Kaj is in school so far I have: "Go get doughnuts" on the list, and "practice a letter" which with Josh's very short attention span would be over as soon as it begins, so I am looking into other ideas. Kaj really likes his teacher Miss Mindy, who is so hard no to like. She is quite amazing with the kids, and I am very excited for Kaj to have her as his teacher. He has a small class of only 8 kids, and I am just appreciating that everything about it so far. The first day I dropped him off I half expected Kaj to be apprehensive, but he was like," You will pick me up?" to which I was like: "H no!" really though, I said, "Yes, I will pick you up." And he looked back at the puzzles he was working on, and that was it. I was glad that it was so easy for him. The other thing going on with Kaj is that he will also be starting a speech group to help his articulation. I am also very happy about this for him too, after his evaluation they explained that technically he was still borderline, but the speech therapist, after talking to me about what I would like to do, was able to sign him up based on her "professional opinion." She said that Kaj is very bright, and that not being understand would start to get very frustrating to him, if he isn't already. I want him to be a lot more understood by the time he goes to kindergarten. So, now Kaj will have Tuesdays, Thursday, and Fridays where he will be gone for part of the day, and that will start in a week. 

In other news Rowan had his 9 month check up. 9 months?? I know, I know. He does not seem that old to me. He is still totally punky, and kinda lagging behind in some areas, not to the point where I worry, because I feel like he will be fine, and get there when he wants to get there. What I am talking about is crawling and sitting up. His brothers were crawling by 6 months, and Josh was full on trying to go up and down stairs, however, I am not trying to rush this little guy. He is very wiggly, and bounds toward the floor when I am holding him as if he wouldn't crash on to his face, and this is one of the reasons why I feel like when he is moving this one is going to keep me running. So, I say take your time. I have to say it- this face. I also realize how often I goo over him, but he is just a handsome little boy! He is also so a happy one. I seriously love to see him smile at everyone. He has this adorable smirky, squinty eyed, two teeth thing really working for him. 

And, of course, the latest with Josh, he..uh started making hats.. for his guys..out of play dough, and he is really excited about the prospects of this, obviously. Yeah, so basically the boys were playing with the play dough, and Josh suddenly exclaimed "Hats, momma!" And, of course, there were hats in many different shapes and sizes for his guys. Haha! So as usual, Josh is hilarious! I know that I am extremely biased, but he is such a cool kid. He makes every day fun for everyone. Life without Josh would be lacking so much. He is a smile. So, all in all, everything is good with our family. There have been some unexpected things going on with our house- like our garage broke, and the lights were buzzing, and our landlord isn't too awesome, but two-thirds of those things have been resolved, and everything else will work out, and be just fine. 

I am one lucky mom. 

Family and Bend in the Summer

And days later the boys are wondering where Mor Mor and Pappy are. This morning Josh ran in our room in the morning asking where "Pappay" is ( how Josh now says it-so funny), and in the afternoon asking where Mor Mor is. That is the only sad thing for me to hear after a very sweet and fun weekend. At least my parents know they are contradicting the phrase: "out of sight, out of mind," with the boys, and are more a long the lines of, "in mind, and when are we going to Mor Mor and Pappy's house? Can we go now?" ever popular phrases. Needles to say, the weekend was a success. My parents arrived on Friday afternoon, and after a little rest-(dad rested, mom and I did not) we went to the River Rim Park and walked to the creek/pond. This is definitely something I frequently do with the boys, but it is just really enjoyable. It is a great park, and I just bring their bikes, they practice riding, and we usually hit the market for a treat, and then the pond, but we were ready to hear from Sam anytime so we went to the pond, and Pappy was able to show off his skipping rocks skills. Quite impressive. I really mean that. Sam got home later than we had originally planned that night, so we ordered pizza, and then I went with mom and dad to the ever so awesome Chocolate Element while Sam worked on some notes for work. It was a really fun night. This Chocolate Element place is delicious, it has a coffee house feel to it, where it is very casual, but has a full bar- which is obviously the real reason why we went- (ha!) and after the server told us how he also worked for Apple, we were sold for life! It really is fun place to  take anyone who comes to visit. 

Saturday was going to be on the rainy side. We debated on what to do- downtown area, or still go on a hike even if we get rained on? "6 to 1 half a dozen of the other." I don't mind the rain, in fact, I really like it, but the boys? You never know. So we opted to go on a short hike to Tumalo Falls since my dad hadn't seen it, and then go get fish tacos for lunch. It worked out perfectly, the hike up to the falls is pretty short, you walk for 5 minutes- 10 minutes if you want to  lallygag and really take your time, and you are there. Its really pretty, and you can make it longer if you would like. Just as we had made it back down, it started to rain. We went to lunch at Parilla, a place we just found out about, and then went home to take a rest, and nap the boys. I went with my mom to the trail run I love. It is the 3 mile loop at Farewall Bend Park by the Deschutes River,  it so pretty! I don't think I could ever get sick of it. My mom really enjoyed it, and it was so nice to do that with just her and I. When we got back we headed back out with everyone again so we can ride on the surreys down at Old Mill. 

Why I love these somewhat awkward group bicycles is beyond me…well, actually I think it may be because they are actually AWESOME! They are so fun, and so funny to ride around on together. It is the best way to see the Old Mill area by far. You can easily ride around for an hour, and another nice thing is the kids love it. We were a sight to been seen that day, while we had a lot of people smiling as we passed, and others requesting to take our picture…it may have been because the boys were so cute or because my parents were there. We may never know.

We went to dinner to Pilot Butte for burgers, which tasted amazing that night, and then came home to hang. Sunday we enjoyed some relaxing, but made some food for a BBQ we went to that night. I was so happy that my parents had the next morning to hang out for a bit before they left  for Portland, because we took that opportunity to go on another hike to Benham Falls, one that was recommended for small kids, and it was so beautiful! It was right along the river, the sun was just coming out, and I was so glad that we decided to end the trip that way. 

I was so happy that my parents were able to come visit us this summer. It was such a great time. I really do miss living close to family, and enjoying there company on a regular basis. I miss my kids seeing their grandparents, and living near them, and understanding how much they are loved by them. However, it is really nice to spend time with just them and our family, I really value that time so much. I   know they enjoyed themselves too, and am pretty sure they will come back.

And, of course, the high light of the trip. Mom and I…got hydro flasks. Well worth the trip right there.