Water Babies

It was 87 degrees today and this was a little of what we did to cool off.

The little things

There are those little moments throughout the day that make me smile.

I'm not fond of the way my back hurts because of two little toddlers that insist on sneaking in at night to sleep with mommy and daddy. But I do love how they fight over who gets to sleep next to me. And I love that I am woken up by my head being placed in a headlock and Harrison whispering, "hug, kiss mamma."

I love listening to toddler conversation that goes something like this:

"Gotta hold my hand Har. Lets walk Har. Gotta watch for cars and be careful Har."

After lunch prayer, I love how William has to say, "Amen Mamma, Amen Harry, Amen Belle." And of-course at dinner, "amen daddy." And I love that William knows how to ask for blessing and that Harrison is learning and bows his head.

It's those little moments throughout the day that make everything so perfect. My heart melts with how sweet these little guys are.

Oh the mess

So I had a bright idea for a project today...colorful cookies. We had fun making them with the boys cookie cutters but it was a bit messy to clean up. The boys really had fun cutting the shapes out and placing them on the cookie pans (with no help from mamma). They actually did a very good job.

The finished project (of the ones that actually turned out to look like the cookie cutter :))

Lets Play

I really feel like I haven't spent any time with the boys lately. So today after the gym, we went and had a picnic lunch and played at a new park. We all really enjoyed ourselves.

Dolphins

After being down and out since last Wednesday night with a horrible migraine, I was feeling ok by Sunday. I still felt a bit sluggish after all the shots but we took a nice drive to Santa Barbara and spent some time at the beach. It was a lot colder in Santa Barbara than it was at home. It was nice because there were tons of dolphins swimming close to shore. You can see some of them on this video but I did a horrible job at zooming in. Hope you enjoy! I love that we live somewhere where we get to witness the beauty of nature like this without seeking it out.

Sleepy eater

Rainy days

It's raining outside today. Hopefully that means those ugly rattlesnakes are hiding. We had a busy morning planned. William had Karate and I had to go to the doctor to get my holter (heart monitor) off. The offices were close to each other but we had 1.5 hours in between appointments that I figured I would take the boys to ChuckECheese in the middle. Well William knew I had to go to the doctor and that changed his whole attitude at karate. He is three years old and he associates the doctor with me leaving him. I know he is afraid that I am going to be gone like when I was in the hospital. So he had a hard time at karate. He didn't throw a temper tantrum but he did hold on to me for dear life and was sobbing that he didn't want to go to karate or even ChuckECheese.

He unwillingly went into karate and afterwards was happy about it. The instructor "wanted to offer" me "parenting advice." Now usually I am open to advice or suggestions but then there are times where I would like to punch someone in the mouth for their thoughts :) She said, "you shouldn't give him a choice. Make him understand you are the one making the decisions." I had to explain to her that he was upset thinking I was going to leave him since he knew I had a doctor's appointment. He was scared. He typically doesn't break down like this. And like I said, he broke down, he wasn't throwing a temper tantrum. Then she went on to disagree with me and said, "oh no, this is how 3 year olds act. They want to be decision makers. This is about him making the decision, not about your doctor's appt." Well that is where non-parents make me mad. How does she know what he is thinking? Yes I agree 3 year olds want to be decision makers but he is also scared I am going to leave him. And everyone parents differently. I think back to the parenting class we went to a few months ago and they made the same point (children like to make decisions). Give them choices (as we do) but make sure one of the choices is one that you want and then they think they made that decision. In this case, William did not want karate, ChuckECheese, to go with me to the doctor, or anything for that matter. He just wanted to hold onto me. She just kept going on about how I had to be stern and tell him what he was going to do. I just love when adults without children offer parenting advice.

The afternoon did get better. We had fun at ChuckECheese.

Now we are home and I am going to try to get these little guys to take a nap. I know I am stretching it but oh, it would be so nice if they did :)