Feeling maudlin tonight.  Or maybe just over tired?  I'm not sure why. It was a good day, which means I should have no reason to be "down." The boys were both wonderful pretty much all day, I got a little bit done around the house, although not as much as I wanted to. Maybe if I sit here long enough, I'll figure it out.

So. Let's write.

Aiden's learning how to share much better this week. He still flips out if Parker touches his letter magnets on the table, but most other things he's getting pretty good with. Yesterday we were sharing the car track set we gave him for his birthday. Aiden had two cars and Parker had two. And they took turns saying "Go!" for the cars to race down the track. It was so much fun to play with them.

Hmm. Feeling a little better now. :)

Parker loves dancing. Any time music comes on, he's right there to bounce to the beat. He's pretty good at it too, for a one-year-old. He swings his arms and shakes his little diaper, and just recently he started spinning. I think Aiden taught him how. He copies just about everything Big Brother does these days.

:) :)

Parker is a climber. Yesterday he climbed onto the dining room table, and into the dishwasher (at separate times of course). Today, he climbed into his high chair. Yeah, that kid is giving me gray hair.

Aiden is spelling all sorts of words now. The memorization powers that boy has are incredible. At the end of the month, I'm borrowing a book from my mom about how to teach your child to read, and we're going to start that. I'm soooo excited, I can hardly wait.

:) :) :)

Ok, I feel better. See? Writing helps.

Three years as a Mommy

My oldest son gave me a new name three years ago today. Mommy. He was born at 7.04pm on Tuesday, Feb. 5th, 2008. Three years old now. Wow.

He's grown so much in that time. I mean, he started to roll, then crawl, then walk, and he's finally starting to talk. Amazing. I wish his childhood would slow down just a little, because I want to enjoy the entire thing, and I feel like I have a hard time doing that when it goes so fast.

I love rocking him and singing the bedtime songs. He barely fits in my lap anymore, he's so huge, but we still do it every night. And the script never varies. We sing "Elmo, Big Bird and Snuffy Song" and then he tries to add in Cookie Monster, and Mommy says no, Cookie Monster doesn't sing that song. Then he points out the door and says "donkey-horse" and Mommy says the donkey-horse is out in the playroom. He shakes his head while saying "poke tail" meaning we don't want the donkey-horse to poke with his tail while Aiden is sleeping, so that's why donkey-horse isn't in bed.

Then we sing The Goodnight Song (aka Michael Card's "He Grants Sleep to Those that He Loves") and after that we do the donkey-horse bit again. Same words, same inflections.

Then we pray, and Aiden has the same list of people and places every night. Occasionally it grows, when he learns a new name or falls in love with another of my friends, but they get added on and the rest stays the same. Then we pray, and Aiden finishes with his amen, then he says "eyes" meaning he kept his eyes closed (sometimes he does, sometimes he doesn't lol). Then he gets in bed and Mommy sits next to him, and puts on the four blankets, starting with them over his head and then saying, "Whoops, sorry!" and taking them off.

I wrote all this down not because I think the world at large needs to know about the bedtime rituals my oldest son and I have. Instead, I did it so that someday, when he's asking me for the car keys (if we're still using cars at that time lol), or packing up all his stuff that he needs for college, or waiting at the end of an aisle for the woman he loves to come down and join her life to his, I can look at this and think to myself about the precious, special moments that I had with him, that were just mine and his. This way, I can remember the sweet smell of his hair as it rested against my cheek, as we rocked back and forth in the dim room, and feel his baby hands touching my face one more time.

Happy 3rd birthday, my angel. I love you always and forever,
Your Mommy

The Experiment

So yesterday I decided that I wanted to use up the last of the potatoes before they wrinkled themselves into my garbage can. Now what better way than to make potato chips, right? I've been craving salt and vinegar (my favorite flavor) kettle cooked chips. Mmm, there goes the drool. Sorry 'bout that.

Anyway, I wanted to try something new. So I put on the oil, sliced 'em up nice and thin (The Husband got an amazing knife from Cutco that I highly recommend, and no I'm not getting paid to say that) and started deep frying.

Three burned fingers later, I had potato chips! But, silly me, I didn't think through it enough to realize that if you put vinegar on a crisp chip, it gets soggy. D'oh! So I had soggy salt and vinegar chips. They still tasted good, and satisfied my craving. And now I know for next time, soak the chips in vinegar first, then fry them. Of course, I'll still end up with burned hands. When the book you're reading says things like, "Warning! Hot oil burns!" and, "Use caution when placing chips in hot oil!" several times throughout the recipe, you maybe oughta listen. And by you, I mean me. I got distracted by the pushing going on in the living room and didn't pay attention to pulling my hand out of the kettle before the droplets landed on it. Nice red mark.

Oh, and cleaning oil off your stove? Not fun. Not fun at all. :-P