Have A Little Valentine With Your Sugar

Valentine's Day has never been my favorite holiday, or even time of the year. I am usually ready for winter to be done by now, and cabin fever starts to take hold. However, having a fabulously involved son, who eats, sleeps and drinks fun and celebration, has helped encourage me to suck it up a little, and get involved. And let me tell you...involved, it is.

It has become as exciting as Christmas around here. Every morning, Chase wakes up with the roosters and runs to his mailbox. There, he retrieves a "sweet" surprise, left by Mom and Dad from the night before. When I say sweet, I mean suh-weeeeet.



Monday, a treat. Tuesday, a treat. Wednesday, love letters written by Mom and Dad, accompanied by a treat. Thursday, a treat. Friday will be stickers, and a treat. Saturday...we're skipping Saturday. Sunday, wait for it, wait for it...a treat.



Some of the other "sweet" things we've been up to? Monday night, a "love-ly" Family Home Evening, topped off with a heart shaped treat that had doubled as an object lesson. Tuesday, Chase woke up to a "heart attack" in his bedroom.

Wednesday, Chase had a play date here, with a friend from his kindergarten class. For an activity, we made adorable "ice cream" treats (a sugar cone, topped with two pink meringue cookies, held together by melted chocolate chips). ADORABLE!! These really turned out cute. The boys were equally cute WITH them. They wrote each other a nice note, exchanged them, then dropped them in the bottom of their ice cream cones before assembly. Why no picture, you ask? They were devoured before I remembered to snap a picture.

Let's continue. Today, we made homemade V-alien-tine cards for him to hand out during his class Valentine's party tomorrow. These were sooooo fun to make together.



Tomorrow, I am turning him loose with the camera, with the assignment of taking a picture of everything he sees that is a heart, looks like a heart, or can be made into a heart. Sunday morning, our final destination, we are having heart shaped pancakes and muffins for breakfast, heart shaped sandwiches and cheese for lunch, and individual heart shaped pizzas for dinner, with heart shaped brownies for dessert.

Not a bad way to celebrate my least favorite of holidays. This has been quite the week long heart, and sugar fest. By the time Valentine's Day officially comes, we will have one, highly energized cherub, with one mean sugar rush, and hopefully even less cavities. But more importantly, he will hopefully be more aware that he is one, loved boy.

Happy Valentine's!

100

Today was 100 day at school today.

Wow. 100. Seems like we started just yesterday.

To kick off 100 day, Chase awakened to 100 paper hearts taped around his bed. I would go in and take a picture to share, but I can hear that my squirt is not completely out yet. I would set off 100 more questions, accompanied by the need for 100 more goodnight hugs and kisses.




For math today, each child was asked to bring 100 small items, to be compared, and weighed.

Chase is 100% my carbon copy...which makes him 100% competitive.

He was 100% sure he wanted to take the heaviest small items.

He chose...100 batteries.




You can be sure he was reminded 100 times to make sure those 100 batteries came home with him today.

It was only a slight exaggeration when I mentioned that that was about $100 worth of hardware...to add to the dramatic effect.

He almost changed his mind when he put them in his "pack-pack", causing it to weigh a near 100 pounds. He then said, it would be worth the struggle.



His after-school-report-to-mom-of-all-things-awesome was delivered at about 100 decibels. He said they did about 100 of the bestest, most fun activities for their fabulous 100 day.

Only one negative. He thought 100 meant the end of kindergarten. He thought 100 days was all he signed up for. He was planning on moving up to the first grade for tomorrow. Thank goodness that's not true. He handled the news pretty well when his teacher set him straight. I won't overwhelm him by breaking it to him, that he has about 100...thousand more.

Oh, I love you 100 times to the moon and back, Chaser Beans. I feel 100 times more blessed now, since I have been chosen to be your mom. Thank goodness you don't really get to move on in 100 days. Time marches on too fast as it is.


PS I know what you all are thinking. Who has 100 batteries laying around their house? We had 104 to be exact. Thanks to Sam's Club, even such staples as batteries have made it onto my "food storage" shelves. Won't I be your favorite in a crisis?

PPS Sorry about the 100 changes to the background of my blog. There are about 100 million choices of cute blog backs out there. The closer I get to 100, the harder time I seem to have making up my mind.

Webbles Wobble, But...

I have impeccable timing.

Normal, to a six year old, is pretty relative. I guess normal fits under the umbrella with the mood that your beloved child wakes up with in the morning. Normal can shift with the wind, with who gets to go first, with who has the biggest treat, with who won and who lost. In other words, who really knows what is "normal" to these fabulously unpredictable little people.

Last week could possibly be classified as an abnormal week for a small child. It started with Mom ousting the family pet. It ended with Chase's kindergarten teacher teaching for her last day on Friday. Oh, the resiliency of babes. He has weathered any sadness that may, or may not, have been caused by the parting Pepper. He said a very fond, sincere thank you and goodbye to his wonderful teacher, who he loved. He pulled himself up by the boot straps and mustered up the courage to be happy to go back to school today, thankful that his new teacher is really nice...'cause that's all that matters. What a champ.

Do I over dramatize? Uh, yes! Truthfully, this kid hasn't been phased in the least. It's called Slight of Hand. The Art of Distraction. Good tricks for the trade. Okay, so I am being dramatic yet again. Seriously, kids are amazing. They have such an ability to bounce right back, and pick up where they left off. I was just feeling a little guilty timing it in such a way that both of these events took place at the same time. Just a little.

Webbles wobble, but they don't fall down. Tough as nails, I tell ya. That is, until you bring out an Emory board. Chase and I were sharing a mattress during an overnight stay with my brother and fam. I woke up first, and was filing my nails when Chase woke up. His eyes popped open, blinked a few times to put them in focus, then went WIDE.

"Yeek. I DO NOT like to shave my fingernails. When that thing touches my nails, it makes my nerves nervous!"

We all have our kryptonite, I guess.

Mother of the Year

Well, I did it again. I have earned myself some more stripes. I have put myself and all my maternal glory out there...again.

I sold our puppy on Monday. I know. That right there tips the scale in my favor. It was a hard and painful decision to make, and an even harder one to carry out. We really love that dog. And just so it doesn't appear that we have fallen victim to a horribly dramatic act resembling a mid-life crisis, I have to say that this has been in the works for a couple of months. Chase, amazingly, did not shed one tear. I cried the WHOLE time her new family took her to their car. The husband said, "She's going to have a hard time tonight." I cried even harder as I concurred, gushing about how I will miss my nightly routines with Pepper. It wasn't until I was done with my blubber-fest that I noticed the sheepish expression on his face. I didn't have to wonder long about the reason. He hesitantly told me that he had been talking about..the dog. Dang. That spontaneous disclosure will get you every time.

If there is any good news trapped in this monstrous act, Chase took the "band-aid ripping" way better than I did. Like I said, I have been preparing him for this for a while. I reminded him that she was going to be very well taken care of, very happy, and very loved. He was even further relieved when asking me if we had had Pepper sealed to us, that I was able to answer no.

Chase took great comfort in the fact that she was going to a good home. I think I actually may have done too good of a job building up her new family. That night, in his prayers, Chase blessed Pepper and expressed his gratitude that her new family was going to be good to her. There was a painfully long pause before he added, "We are a good family, too...kinda." I'm racking up the points, aren't I. That was a good place for me to insert a good pep talk and a big hug. Sigh.

It's a good thing that children as resilient as they are. This parenting stuff is such a crap-shoot. I am sure it won't take long until I am at it again.

I do have to mention that I am back in my favorite son's good graces again. Already this week, he has told me how glad he is that I am home, I am the best cook ever, I am beautiful, and he his so happy for me now that my tummy is as small as his . I just hope he is this kind and forgiving when he is in therapy. Poor kid.

Dad-Dad-Daddy-O

The week after I went to Provo to help my sister with her new baby, I was able to turn around and head up to my home town in Washington State to help my parents. I have to say, though, that for me, it wasn't all about the help. It was just flat out amazing to get to there on the front lines with my parents; to get to see for myself how they are doing. And, I must add, they are doing pretty fabulous.

I regretfully, yet not surprisingly, did not get any more pictures than the one above. Sigh. This picture was taken in Seattle, just before we headed home to Moses Lake. Love the bags and tired face I am sporting. My dad, on the other hand...doesn't he look GREAT!?! We hit the ground running and got right to work. We were so busy every day, doing everything, but feeling like we accomplished nothing. But, they do at least, have very shiny cabinets, walls, doors, and floorboards. I had to be good for something!

I was able to be there for nearly two weeks. It was hard to be away from home for that long, but still a necessary trip. For me, at least.

My time with my parents has reaffirmed a few things for me:

They are amazing people

They have the faith to move mountains

Man, do I love them

It's hard to see people you love go through something hard

I will never be too old to be homesick and need my parents around!!

Thank you for being so strong for us, Mom and Dad. I am in complete awe of your strength, and faith. I have learned so much from watching you two for the past 5 months. You are amazing companions to each other, and faithful servants to the Lord. We love you.

Snips, Snails, and Burps

Ah, the world of boys. Almost needs no explanation. Almost.

As a brand new, inexperienced, and naive mother, I was wisely told that the world of boys, is like no other. I have had so much to look forward to. I was also warned that I should expect to be good and grossed out at least once a day. At first, I thought that just meant that when approached by a little mop-top, with a closed fist, excitedly asking you to hold out your hand...you should resist with every ounce of your being. Just don't do it.

With time, I have nearly willingly stretched the definition of "grossed out" to encompass a plethora of categories. Some, but by far not all, of these categories include: smells, sounds, bathtubs, outside objects, objects placed in mouth, outside objects placed in mouth, and of course, hand placement.

I have come to accept, and sometimes enjoy, all things that classically make my son a very typical boy. I have not, however, been able to get a good grasp on the ability to stop apologizing to a room I have just entered, for anything that my handsome harry may or may not do or say in the course of the time that we will be in said room. With what seems to be great fortune, many of the most blatant and startling gross out moments have happened within the walls of our own home.

Case in point. As Chase and I were playing a game together the other day, we were also enjoying an exorbitant amount of the burps. I know. I know. But Moms should be allowed some gross out moments, too, I should think. We found ourselves philosophising on why we thought a good burp was so necessary to one's survival and comfort. After one particular, and quite resounding blast, I said,

"Well, that was about a 10 on the Richter scale. I bet that felt good to relieve all that pressure."

With complete sincerity, Chase closed his eyes and dreamily said,

"Oh, yeah. And the best part of that burp...I got to taste my Cream of Wheat again. Hmmm. Yum."

bleck I barf Heart gag Boys.

I know. What can I say. My generosity astounds me, too.

Diving In

The hardest part about blogging after being away from the blogging world for such a long time is...blogging. There is always the "looming" post that you feel you should make before any other posts can butt their way in. In the attempt to stave off said post, the gap between posts seems to grow. So, I am just diving in. No order. No reason. Just a post.

On the way home from Provo last night (one of two reasons for the three week gap in posts), Chase and I were having a delightful little chat about this, and that. As we hit Brigham City, Chase mentioned to me that he had seen a water part somewhere "way back there", and it looked pretty fun. I asked him why he hadn't shown it to me "way back there". He reminded me that I had been talking on the cell phone when it went by...and he didn't want to interrupt me. Nice boy. A first. But, nice.

He continued to describe all of the fun things that he had seen in this water world. He said that he even thinks he saw a waterfall ride with a log, or something like that. Pretty good eyeballing, seeing that everything is covered in snow, and frozen. Anyway, I was enjoying our chat and kept the discussion going. He excitedly told me that he thinks that this would make a really fun Mom and Son date. I happily concurred. I decided to match his enthusiasm while asking,

"And do you know what is going to be extra fun about that?"

"No! What!?!"

"I am even skinnier this summer than last summer! I will be able to..."

"Fit in the log?"

Pphtt...no. What I was GOING to say was "buy a new swimsuit." I suppose, however, that I will become relatively happy with fitting more comfortably and looking more proportionately beautiful in...a log.