A New Honor

Friday morning I went to the school assembly so I could see Jackson get another Merit badge.  He was so eager to get it.  I love that their school recognizes every day, small things  such as helping a friend or having their uniform on and shirt tucked in, by giving them merits. When they have 100 merits they get a badge that shows how hard they work every day.

It was also the last day of school for our friends and neighbors the Thielmans.  I knew they would recognize them as well. We’re going to miss them!

What I didn’t know was that Jackson and Miller would be student of the week!  I was beyond surprised! Jackson has been Student of the Week quite a few times.  Every time we make a big deal about it because it is a big deal!  He and his class mates have been really good and are continuing to learn and grow even in the heat and with just a few days of school left.

Miller’s class doesn’t choose a student of the week.  The Art teacher, who is also substituting in his class this week, chose him for her student of the week.  She said that every time he sees her work he tells her he really, really, really likes her paintings.  I can totally hear him saying that.

We are so proud of these guys!

Six more days of school!

Miller’s Big News

We have a new reader in our house.

He’s kinda awesome!

Lucky #13

Today is our 13th wedding anniversary.  I can hardly believe that it has been so long.

Looking back on it, I think of how unprepared we were for marriage.  We both had our own ideas and way of doing things and it took some adjustment.

For heaven’s sake, look how young we were!

As Allen likes to say… We’ve been married for 12 good years.  The first year was our adjustment year!

Thankfully we were both serious about the forever thing because there have been plenty of times we could have given up!

We are always telling our boys that if you want to get better at anything you have to practice and work hard.  That is just what we are doing with our marriage…practicing and working hard for it.

Now that we have been at this for a while I can say it is so much more than what I ever hoped for.  It is richer, fuller and messier than I ever dreamed.

Happy Anniversary Allen

Stick People

Remember when we lived in a “normal” place and Jackson practiced his stick people drawing with chalk on our driveway?

He wore holes in many pairs of jeans in that driveway

Miller doesn’t have that kind of driveway to learn on.  He makes do with what we do have.

He signed it with an “M” on the right of the legs.

I needed this

Warning!!!  GRAPHIC POST!!!
Being Miller’s mother is a challenge.  He can make me tear my hair out one minute and have me loving on him the next.
As you know he has been in underwear for a couple of months.  Each and every time he has pooped for those months I have been cleaning it out of the underwear.  Yep, every single time!! 
Yes, I am bitter about it.
Ok he has been in the potty twice.  But still!
However, today he told me he needed to potty and look what he did.

Thank you Jesus!
I know I still have a lot more dirty underwear to clean up, but a little sign of progress!
Here is a funny poop story.  My friend, who shall remain nameless, was here with her child who is also being potty trained.  Her child had a #2 accident and I told her I’d go throw it in the washer on a quick wash.  So I do it, but on the way to the washer, I stop by the toilet and flip the undies inside out so the poop plops in.Then I just pop them in the washer.  I do this every day.  Sometimes  3 times.  So when the undies are clean I give them to her.  She goes home thinking I am awesome.  She has 3 kids and had been washing them out some other way.  A few days later, her child has another accident and she puts the undies in the washer.  Yeah she didn’t stop by the toilet to do the poop plop.  She opens her washer after the cycle is finished and there is poop all over her washer.  OOps!  She now knows!  Plop the poop.

P.S. My camera got sand in it and broke.  I don’t like carrying my nice camera around here because of the sand, so my pictures may be few and far between!  Or maybe not…

Every once in a while

Since moving here we have had the opportunity to dress up for a few events.
Last week was a Gala for the opening of the new airport.  We were there with a about 1500 of our closest friends here in the Bahamas.
We had lots of fun because most of the friends that we have made here were invited.  I was just happy to be the guest of an invitee (Allen).
The invitations really set the tone for a memorable evening, and we were not let down one bit.

 
Lenny Kravitz was the surprise entertainer and even though we are old and left before it was over, we still loved being there!
Here is a video of the concert.

He did it!

This weekend was the weekend we were going to try taking off the training wheels.  We had tried a couple of other times, but as soon as he fell once he wanted them back on. My expectation that it was going to be a couple of weeks of wailing, crashing and me having to hold firm that he was ready to take off the training wheels.

As it turns out he was so ready.

Like I ran behind him for about 15 steps and then let go and he went about 20 feet.

The hardest part was starting.  He was used to getting on and pedaling.  He quickly figured out that he has to keep a foot on the ground and push off as he pedals.

 

Having Aunt Chele here was so helpful.  She gets right in there and helps out when we need her.

We have a big flat empty parking lot near our house that is perfect for riding bikes.

The hardest part was keeping him away from the 3 light posts in the parking lot.  He was like a magnet.

He looks so big on that bike.  We told him we would get him a new bigger bike when he learns to ride a two wheeler.  My smart sister realized that learning to ride a bike on a small bike would be easier than riding a bigger bike.

Looks like someone else needs a bigger bike too.  Just kidding.  That’s impressive.

Miller took this picture.  He kept telling us to sat cheese.  As in “say cheese clouds” then he’d take a picture of the clouds.

Someone turned two and a half on Sunday.

Now he is working on his skids.  Lord help us!

Milestones

It's hard to keep up with Jackson's milestones these days. I notice new words, questions(all day long),he is asking what words say, and beginning to read signs and environmental print. I know these are important milestones, but it's not as easy to see as a new tooth or a first word.

It is easy to take these things for granted, but all it takes is a look around the pediatrician's office to know that these are a big deal. We aren't guaranteed anything and it is pretty important to thank God for the gifts we are given.

That being said, here is the latest milestone brought to you by the 3 and a half year old in our house! If you can't read the green words I added to the pictures, you can click on them to make them bigger.




Now I will put on my Early Childhood teacher hat and tell you that drawing a person is a BIG FAT DEAL! The typical child won't include a body for quite a while and that's perfectly normal.

The interesting thing is that a friend of his started drawing people a couple of months ago. I thought I should see if Jackson could do it. UM- no! So I kind of forgot about it. Then yesterday we were outside and I had drawn a circle with chalk on the driveway, and I said, "Let's make this into a face." And BOOM! He did it. Hair, ams, legs, eyes, nose, mouth! A couple of months ago, he just wasn't ready. Lesson re-learned!

Clearly

I realize that every mom thinks that her children are spectacular and smart and cute and just plain amazing. I get it. We are designed to think that so that we will put up with all the other not so endearing things they do. But this? I mean this is beyond a mom thinking her son is special or advanced. My pediatrician likes to say "clearly" a lot. She has said in the past that this baby is "clearly" very advanced physically. She is right, and I know it because I live with him everyday, but "clearly" I was not expecting this.

Let me back up and tell you this--
For the last several weeks I have been working in the yard to get leaves cleaned up and the yard ready for summer. Jackson usually plays outside and sometimes Miller does too. He especially likes crawling over to the leaves and attempting to eat them before I can stick my dirty hands in his mouth and pry them out. So a couple of weeks ago, I was finishing up in the back yard, and Jackson and I were dragging the bags of leaves out to the curb when we came back from the side of the house and saw this jaw dropping exhibit. Allen looked out the window at the same time. He grabbed the camera and captured this.








He is way up there. So "clearly" we have a strong boy on our hands. As you know from before, Jackson has been labeled as "abnormally strong" by my friend Kelly. So what does all this mean?

Next year I am going to be telling y'all about how many Diet Cokes I had while my "clearly" physically advanced sons clean the yard!

Oh, just so you don't have to do the math, he was 7 and a half months old when he did this and "clearly" I shouldn't leave him in the backyard alone, even for a second, even if his dad is watching through the window, because next time he will "clearly" be over the fence!

Where has the week gone?

Happy Easter! I can hardly believe that I haven't blogged in a week. I'm not sure where the week went. We are still impatiently waiting for Spring to arrive.

After several days of being clean and dry, Jackson regressed some in his potty training and it seems like he will never get it. I know he will, but it just gets old, you know! We stress that he is Big Boy and talk about all the things that big boys do. Babies can't...

So after a monring of many accidents (that I don't really think were accidents at all) he came in the room like this.



In case you fail to notice all the details he is:
1) Wearing rain boots
2) Wearing a rain hat
3) Wearing his backpack--probably preparing to run away to a place where big boys can wear diapers!
4) Has a Paci in his mouth
5) Has a Paci in his hand
6) Has wet pants--AGAIN!
Oh! And he is holding a Pull Up that we have for bedtime.

Nice!

What is today?

Do you know what day it is?

Today is the day after Allen finished presenting his final project for his Masters. When he started we had one child and figured life was not going to get any easier for a while, so he should go ahead and get started. Good, rational thinking at its finest. We knew life wasn't going to get easier, but we never expected it to get so much harder.
Through it Allen has slaved away and little by little finished one assignment after another. He is a testament to plugging away. He may have to tweak his final paper some, if his professor asks him to, but he is theoretically DONE!
If you read this blog then you probably know me and likely him too. Please take a second to give him a pat on the back in the comments. I'll make sure he reads them all!
Way to go Allen! Now you can go back to JUST working 12 hour days!

Mirror, mirror

Mirror, Mirror on the floor, who's the fairest of them all?









Why, of course, it is Miller!