POP Night

It's hard for me to believe that my little man is about to start the second grade. Wow! Seems like just yesterday I was waddling around the ER with him in utero! It was entertaining how many people asked me "when are you going on maternity leave" in the last few weeks. Apparently, I looked as if I were going to give birth any moment!! My response was always "when my water breaks or I have to push." Maybe it was a bit of an exaggeration, but suffice it to say, I had no intention of wasting one moment of my maternity leave at home by my fat self. In fact, I worked on Wednesday, saw my doctor on Thursday afternoon, went in to the hospital on Thursday evening, had Lane Friday morning and went home Saturday afternoon. Oh, and since I can't stand to lose, I had him at church on Sunday evening. (My mother took me to church at the same church for the first time when I was 9 days old. Nothing would suit me but to take Lane when he was 2 days old.)

That tiny 2 day-old infant has transformed into this boy at what seems like warp-speed! He's far too cool to have his picture taken and is constantly clowning --- anything to make his friends laugh and everyone is his friend. I don't know how, but apparently, the entire school knows who Lane is. They might not know me from Adam, but they know Lane. Chances are if they do know me, it's as "Lane's Momma." He loves to hear his friends say "Lane, you're so funny." I know what you're thinking. He does not get that from me ---- I promise!! I hardly spoke until I was 14 years old!! I have witnesses to support my story.

Tonight was POP night at school. We were able to go, drop off Lane's school supplies, meet his teacher and have a brief orientation. Lane is really excited about school. He was totally jazzed about buying his school supplies, but moreover, I think he can't wait to get back to his friends. He's already making arrangements as to who he's going to play with on the playground.

It's truly hard to see them growing up so quickly, but it's such a blessing too. I enjoy being witness to the loving, creative, smart boy I'm watching him become. It's my hope that he will grow into a man who can be both tough and tender. Mothering him is such a gift. I am tremendously thankful for my sweet little (or not so little) boys

Cake Creating

Today, I'm doing my best to create a birthday cake for my step-daughter who turns 15 tomorrow (wow!). If memory serves me correctly, my first birthday cake was a "6" that I made for her 6th birthday (bet you had that one figured out). Gosh, that seems like just yesterday! Hopefully, my cake-decorating skills have evolved a bit since that time. I've at least learned a thing or two about how to approach things but the end result is usually just dumb luck.

This is my first cake since my blogging adventure has begun, so I thought my readers might enjoy being taken along for the ride. I've taken photos of the process thus far. Honestly, the hardest part about making cakes for me is keeping my children out of them! Wish me luck with that!!

Pic 1 is two 9" rounds that I baked (from a mix, don't go thinking I'm one of those "scratch" bakers), cooled, leveled and stacked.

Pic 2 is the cake-to-be with its crumb coating.

and

Pic 3 is the cake after being introduced to the cake plate. Don't worry, I didn't ice the cake directly on my countertop. There's wax paper under there!

Next step, more contemplation about what exactly this creation is going to end up looking like and a trip to the store for the appropriate supplies. Come back soon to see how she's coming along....

Big Brother's Also a Water Lover

As you can see, gills evidently run in the family. Lane was just a few months older than Cohen when he learned to swim. In the pool is one of the rare times when Lane does actually want to be photographed.

My Littlest Swimmer

I am amazed at how comfortable Cohen is in the water. I'm not at all surprised that he can swim alone, but he is totally unafraid. He doesn't think twice about jumping in to the "deep end" over and over and over again and he loves every minute of it. Can you tell?

A Story About Everything

Sometimes I think I have a story about everything. Perhaps I do. Indicators are favorable since I'm about to blog about spinach pizza.

I have to begin with a little history on myself since I'm not sure if you're a reader who's known me my entire life, just a little while or maybe even not at all. I'm a beauty queen has-been. My mom entered me into my first "pageant" when I was 3 or 4 years old. I think they called it an "Easter Parade" and my mom didn't actually tell me that it was any kind of competition. All I knew was that I was going to get to dress up in my pretty Easter dress and show it off to a bunch of people. Lo and behold, I won the "pageant" and the rest is history. Actually a melt down when I missed nap-time almost ended my pageant career. I did a few little local pageants (no Toddlers & Tiaras kind of stuff) and always enjoyed myself but one particular pageant held rehearsals in the afternoon before the competition that evening. It was too much for my little sleepy head to take and by the time it was my turn to take the stage that evening, I was in full meltdown mode! My poor mom vowed that she would never again enter me into a pageant until I was old enough to ask to enter myself. She kept this vow and I was out of the pageant limelight until I decided I wanted to enter a pageant when I was 12. Bless my momma's heart for supporting me at that age too! It seems every child goes through an awkward stage some time between childhood and adolescence. 12 years of age was definitely mine! I was the ugliest little thing. Perhaps it was a sort of "Ugly Duckling" story of sorts because with a little time and experience, I began to do rather well and actually captured a couple titles when I was 16.

As that wee little pageant girl I had the opportunity to meet Miss Arkansas on stage one night. She was easily the biggest celebrity I had ever encountered in my 4 years of life and I was smitten. She was the epitome of glamour and grace and I never forgot it. From that point on, it was my goal to compete in the Miss Arkansas pageant. As that little girl, I'm sure I wanted to BE Miss Arkansas, but as I grew, the dream evolved and I decided I would be thrilled just to be able to say that I did well enough to win a preliminary that would allow me to take the Miss Arkansas stage. Quite a few years passed after that night on stage with Miss Arkansas, but I did finally realize that dream -- two years in a row, in fact.

So, what on earth does all this terribly long story have to do with spinach pizza? I admit I was an atypical pageant girl. I ate and I liked it -- a lot. I've always been a grocery girl. Then a skinny grocery girl, but still a grocery girl. Of course, when you're competing, you have to keep things to a dull roar so that you don't embarrass your director when you take the stage in your swimsuit. Very little food is consumed during the week of Miss Arkansas. Not that it's an eating disorder convention or anything like that. Don't buy into that stereotype! You have to keep a handle on things, but there is no mass exodus to the ladies' room after dinner. Truly, the week is so busy that even if you weren't conscious of your intake, it would still be substantially less than a week kicking around at home. By then end of a day, after practice and activities and prelims we were exhausted and starving. The wonderful people of Hot Springs were great to provide us with snacks each night after competition. I'm sure it's the only way some of us were able to stay alive. I remember having chips and salsa one night, sandwiches one night... but we were all jazzed about the night we knew we were getting Cici's pizza. Yum!

So, here's where you should know something else about me. I'm persnickety about food. I really like food, but tomatoes, onions, peppers, certain things like that are a no-go! I'll just go hungry... sorry. So back to the Miss Arkansas pizza. It arrives. It's a beautiful moment until I realize that the two choices are -- veggie and spinach. Whatttttt!!?? Oh, and I was so hungry! So hungry that I tried one little piece of the spinach. I was instantly hooked. Who knew? That day, it became, hands-down, my absolute favorite pizza of all time. Still is to this day. So I had some for supper and it just made me want to share.

THAT Time of Day

It's undeniable. It's definitely that time of day. If you're a mom, you know exactly what I'm talking about. The time when it's painfully obvious that it's time for your toddler to take a nap. Your normally sweet, loving, obedient (well, at least for the most part) child morphs into a steamroller of destruction and defiance. It's enough to make even the most experienced of moms cringe. The slightest offense leads to total meltdown. Big brother locked him out of the bathroom. How dare he want privacy!! He's asked to walk 15 steps and throw his paper plate in the trash. "You DO IT!!" is his gentle response. Yep, no doubt. No other solution. The world will cease to exist unless this 3 year old gets a NAP. Then there's a tougher mom-choice to make --- nap with him or tackle the "to do list." It may not be an age-old struggle, but it certainly is one in my mind. Can you guess what normally wins??

What'd You Say?

After I've been blogging for a while, if you follow you're sure to make at least 2 observations. #1 -- I love photos and love to share them. #2 -- I'll probably have 3 pictures of Cohen for every 1 picture of Lane. I'm sure there's a name for the phenomenon, but there is some change that occurs in children (at least boys) around 6/7 years of age. They suddenly become too cool to be kissed/to kiss Mom, Grandma or any of those other icky girl-type people and they are also far too cool to be photographed unless they are making a face, holding rabbit ears behind someone else's head or playing some sport.

It is par for the course for me to delete 80% of the photos I take of Lane because he has contorted his face into some shape that makes him unrecognizable as the boy I gave birth to. Imagine my surprise this afternoon when I was outside taking photos of Cohen on the mower and heard from behind me "Hey, Mom take a picture of me!" Huh? What? I turned to find Lane standing, ready to be photographed with one hand propped on the basketball goal. Just when you think you have them figured out....

Redneck Recreation

So, it's a sunny Sunday afternoon after weeks of uncharacteristic rains and cool temperatures. Of course that means the grass has been loving it and growing like crazy. We're not the kind of people who live in the suburbs with our perfectly manicured lawn that we water religiously through July and August, so our grass is usually a little brown and crunchy this time of year. Hey, it cuts down on water use and mowing frequency, so it's really a green thing to do, right?

Cohen is definitely an all-boy kind of boy. He loves playing baseball (or any kind of ball for that matter), digging worms, fishing, working on stuff and driving anything he can. Today's afternoon activity was a little "redneck recreation" -- riding the lawnmower with daddy. He has actually fallen asleep riding the lawn tractor at times. The vibrations just lulled him right on out! Not so, today. He's full of energy and ready for a swim!

We Pass the Funniest Things on to Our Children

As I said in my last post, I am not at all reluctant to laugh at myself. This evening, I had just finished cooking supper and was plating Cohen's food. I told him that we needed to make him a drink, so he began to look for a sippy cup in his drawer.

It's true that kids say the darnedest things, but have you ever noticed they do the darnedest things too? This evening I caught Cohen doing one of those things only to realize that he had learned it from ME!

Back to Cohen in the cup drawer... I watched him as he found a cup, unscrewed the lid, said to me "Let me smell it" and proceeded to sniff the inside of the cup! That's cute enough on it's own, but then I realized. I totally do that!!!

This might be a great time to tell you that I'm totally neurotic. Ever noticed how glasses from the dishwasher don't always come out clean? There's nothing worse than preparing yourself a nice cool drink without paying a whole lot of attention only to discover the yick in the glass as you turn it up to take a big drink!! Bleh! So I sniff cups. Neurotic habit --- and apparently my child has witnessed this ritual and made it his own.

I Want Piiiiiiizzzzaaaa!

I love to share funny stories. I'm not even above embarrassing myself to make someone else laugh. Laughter is a beautiful sound (Trust me. I know. I just took my little one on a "trip to Tickle Town.")

Earlier this week, Lane, Cohen and I were discussing our lunch plans. I asked them if they would rather have jambalaya (with an explanation of what it was -- sausage, rice, etc...) or pizza. No surprise -- they chose pizza. As I began to get lunch ready, I noticed that my oldest, Lane was holding one of those generic, black combs. We're not much of a comb-using kind of family, so I asked him where he got the comb. I was terribly afraid that he was going to answer "Somebody gave it to me on the bus" or "I found it on the floor." Luckily, that was not the case. He said that he had found it in the bathroom. Thinking that this might be a good "teachable moment," I continued our conversation by asking Lane if he knew he shouldn't ever use someone else's comb or brush (I know, great kitchen conversation). He replyied that he did and that he knew you could catch lice from such activity. At about this point in the conversation, Cohen, my 3 yo, re-entered the kitchen and began listening half-heartedly to our discussion. To further confirm Lane's understanding of the whole icky matter, I went on to ask if he knew what lice were. Lane replied "they're bugs that live in your hair!" Evidently, the only word that Cohen had really honed in on in our talk was "lice." Suddenly, he was quite upset with me and my failure to honor his lunch requests. He loudy objected "I don't want lice!!! I want pizza!!" I guarantee that my laughter quickly turned an ordinary lunch into a magical mommy moment!

Another of my favorites

I just couldn't resist posting another of my favorite pictures from my photo session with Graci. Aaaah, don't you just love those eyes!? Photography is definitely one of my favorite pasttimes. There's nothing in the world like capturing those precious moments!

Cohen Can Swim Alone!

No doubt, you can tell from this pic that Cohen loves the pool. He is one bronze baby! Both he and Lane have been water babies since birth and learned to swim alone at age 3. Cohen is 3yrs 2months old and can swim alone. Thanks, boys, for saving me money on swim lessons! Now, if we could just get a break in this strange onslaught of rain in July/Aug...

I really recommend what I call those "floaty suits" to give your little ones confidence in the water. My boys swam in these from age 2-3. I favor the suits that have multiple pieces of floatation material in the front and back rather than just one or two. The suits with multiple pieces are more expensive, but seem to allow more freedom of movement and the suits fit better so that they don't just float up around their neck. If you purchase one of these suits, don't dismiss it if your child struggles the first time or two he/she wears it. Even though they provide flotation, your little one has to learn how to position himself in the water and transfer their weight so that they aren't "floating" face down in the water. The more relaxed they are in the water, the faster they'll master this skill. Let them take things at their own pace with a lot of encouragement and you'll be having pool fun in no time!