All in the Details

When I laid the track for the new train board, I told Zachary I also wanted to create a construction site in the middle and a pond on the side for the people in the house. He got very exited and said we could do a park at the end and a garden near the house. Oh and the pool. That boy is dying for a pool (that is a diving board PS). I love it! Such creativity! Maybe he does like art after all!

He also wanted to help.

Hmmmmmmm. I really like to have full control over my crafts. Really like it. But I do really like being a good mom as well. I was so torn.

So I summoned up my good mom-ness and said of course he could help. He should help! It is his table after all. I even made Alex take us all to Michael's on the way to dinner to get paint. Alex has never been in a Michael's and claims they depress him. I offered him some Lexapro and told him to put the baby in the basket and get a move on.

Back home Zach and I started with the brown for the construction site. That was great. My little man and I working together, doing art, I wanted to swoon. I had already painted the pool and pond the night before (I could not help myself) so I started painting the fish while he finished the site. But of course he wanted to paint fish too. I held my breath and gave him a red paint brush. The first couple of strokes I had to take some deep breathes and tell myself  "this is his table, this is his table, that is totally fine, don't crush his spirit". But soon it was evident he was going to try to paint the entire pond red as he kept spreading his red "fish" bigger and bigger, saying it was oil (where did he get that??) until finally I snapped. I had to tell him to "stop, stop you are going to ruin it!".

And cue terrible mom feeling. Seriously? I just told my baby that he was going to ruin some piece of particle board painted with cheap acrylic paint.

But he was.

Thank the good sweet Lord Zach is much more like Alex than me and he was not the least bit concerned about my comment. I, of course. felt terrible and told him that he was an excellent artist but Mommy really, really wanted to paint the fish herself. He just shrugged and asked if he could paint the park.

 Go for it baby, but do stay in the lines.

Cars over Trains

The Christmas after Zach turned two Santa brought him a train table complete with huge rail lines inter crossing and weaving all over a table. You can see his excitement in this video. However, that excitement quickly waned. And I mean within 1 month or so. Sure, every time a friend would come over he would get all excited again, but he really never took to the whole driving the train on the track thing, had zero patience for putting the rails together and mainly wanted to smash it apart.

I finally got fed up and took all the pieces off the table last Christmas replacing it with his PlayMobil house that his Auntie Tami and Uncle Dave got him and some random Little People accessories. He liked it better but the table would still become a junk station for everything in his room.

Cut to this year when James has really started it like cars and trucks. He makes the "uhhhhh-huuuhhh" driving sound and drives them (usually on himself) but often on the floor. I decided to flip the train table top over and make a road so the boys could drive their cars on it. I wanted to paint a track on there then, while searching on Pinterest, I noticed they had track tape and wondered, if they had track tape, could I just find a track already created for me? Thanks to Etsy (my second best friend behind Pinterest) sure enough people make vinyl tracks. Technically they are for wall decorations, but I emailed the designer and asked her to remove the trucks and scale it for my table.

In a word - perfect.

I could not love it more and the second I popped it on the table both boys started driving all over it.

Finally! A use for that table. It only took 2 years.

Swimming

This summer both boys enjoyed swimming out at their grandparents many weekends. Zach has been taking swim lessons so he does his version of swimming which includes throwing himself in the water and thrashing about. Both boys love the water which is a blessing and a curse. They both also have zero fear of the water.

 James really liked to crawl all over the steps and try to drown himself. Luckily he was thwarted.

What a difference a year makes

I have been drafting this email for months and today I realized I just need to post it and summarize later. So here goes:

A year ago my second baby boy was born and I had no idea that he would be the newest love of my life. Or that he would be the spitting image of his brother (sans hair).We took him to breakfast, just Alex and I and he loved to play peek a boo with his dad around the water pitcher. He is bald as a tennis ball and I adore every second of him.

A year in the life:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Libary

When James was home with his nanny Morena before he could go to school with Zach they would go to the library reading time every Tuesday and Thursday. She would walk him there. In the heat. It is not that far but I would not walk it. And James loved it. He loves all music so she said he would dance and clap his hands and come home with stamps on his hands for "doing a good job".

Zach has been wanting to go to "James' library" since he heard about it. Now that Morena gets the boys from school and stays with them until I get home, they all go to the library to play on the computer and read books. However he did not have a library card to take books home.

He asked last time they were there and was told he needed a parent to sign. He has, of course, been telling Alex and I about it ever since. "I need a parent, Mommy, not a nanny, a parent, to go get me a library card." He was not all that disturbed about the delay, just really wanted to relay the rules to us. So helpful.

So a couple weeks ago I took a morning off from work to go to storytime and get Zach a library card. I was super excited! This was going to be a fun morning with my boys! Reading books; listening to music, so, so great.

It was a complete nightmare.

When I have told my stay at home mom friends this story they all immediately make a face and start shaking their heads when I get to the part about me taking off work for story time. Why? Because it is jam packed with nannies and their charges. I mean packed. Also Zach decided he was tired or overhwhelmed and didn't want to dance or sing or listen. Then one of his friends from school showed up but didn't recongize Zach and seemed terrified to talk to him which sent my chatter box into a spiral of "Why didn't he want to talk to me, Mommy?" It is very hard to explain to non-shy children why a shy child won't/can't talk to them. I feel it is the undisclosed side of shyness. But I digress.

All this time while I am trying to comfort Zach, get him to get off my lap and do something, James is trying to crawl away from me and up and on everyone and everything. I am literally pulling him by his legs across the carpet back to me.

I had to get the hell out of there. It had been 10 minutes.

But before we could go there was the little matter of the library card. Zach immediately spotted a Cars 2 book he wanted to check out, and the one right next to it (he could get 2) and we were off to the very high-tech book scanner to check out his books.

He was so thrilled! He read them on the way home and then again that night. And he loves his library card.

Go, Go Gadget

The other day Alex said that I was "really into gadgets" and I was highly offended. What did he mean, "into gadgets"?? He mumbled something about "really liking small electronic things". I, of course made a face and said he could not BE more wrong and he obviously did not know me at all. AT ALL! In typical Alex manner he just shrugged and walked off.


Fast forward to last week when I discovered the gift my friend Charldean had given me for my birthday. It is a portable iPhone charger. I keep forgetting to charge my phone at night and remembered this when I was panicked about my phone dying when I need to call someone. Urgently. 


I charged it up and it worked like a charm! It gave me just enough juice to get out of the red zone and you just recharge it by plugging it into the USB port of your computer. I love it and will be giving these as my standard gift from now on. You are having a baby? Here is your Mophie charger. You got a new job? Enjoy the Mophie! 

Some might call it an small electronic thing. 


http://www.mophie.com/product-p/2025_jpu-reserve-2.htm

Up in the Air

This video makes me want another baby. Can you even stand it? Those huge eyes; that enormous chin! I used to watch this video at work when I was still nursing and I thought he was so animated.

Animated like a beached wale.

But I do still adore this video. I am still so in love with this little boy of mine I can't even stand it.

Not so much my profile and kissing noises. Gross, my apologies on that.