Happy Birthday Buddy!

My Wonderful Guy,

I almost cannot comprehend how it is possible you are 4-years-old today. You and I are such a team and it breaks my heart to know that our whole days together are closing fast. In August you will start preschool at the "big school" and you are so excited. I am going to miss you but I cannot wait to watch you bloom!

You have the sweetest, most sensitive soul. You are very susceptible to picking up tension and when people are unhappy. You are a crier, like me. Sorry about that. I hope that you will continue to grow in your ability to use words to express your feelings, but you feel every emotion to the extreme and that is hard. The upside to your big feelings is your propensity for snuggling. Your love language is definitely physical touch and you give the best hugs/snuggles/high fives/wrestles I can imagine.

I love being in awe of your memory. It should probably stop surprising me but it hasn't yet. The things you pick up and remember is astounding. I am going to take some credit for that as well. You spout out some pretty impressive knowledge for just-turning-four and I am thrilled that you love to learn.

This past year you have grown to write your name and draw people but it takes a lot of coaxing and a lot of affirmations to get it done. You just have more important things to do with your time besides drawing and that's okay. Really. You've shown me you can and that's what's important. That's how you and I work though, you decide when you will or won't do something and I just go along for the ride.

You know all your letters, their sounds, the vowels and their two sounds and you're starting to sound things out. I am sure you're going to be a reader, your favorite activity besides animals is paging through books and telling yourself the stories.

My favorite thing in the world is that you still love walruses so much. I never would have ever thought that my 20 month old would have zeroed in on the walrus, but you did. Penguins are giving the walrus a run for their money but it's because penguin books and toys are so much easier to come by! You love them both though and tell everyone that. I know that I went overboard on you (Ant)Arctic Birthday Party, but I couldn't help myself. You have such a unique interest and I want to celebrate that. I am sure there will be super commercial parties in our future, but man I love the creativity of your theme this year.

You came downstairs this morning to see the Arctic land your dad and I created last night while you slept. "I love this birthday party!" And you kept saying it. "This is the best birthday party I've ever seen." And it was little boy, because it was the perfect party to celebrate you. 

When I ask you what you want to be when you grow up you say "A Penguin Doctor" or a "Zoo Doctor." I would not be one bit surprised if that came true. You love animals and science. You have a thirst for knowledge and a tender heart so of course a caring profession makes sense.

On Mother's Day, you came and gave me a hug and said, "I am glad I am your boy." Well, I am too. And I am glad I am your mom. Happiest of birthdays to you buddy! 4 is going to be a great year, I just know it! I love you and you are awesome.

Love, Mom

This Is All I've Got Today

First off, thank you for your prayers. Henry, my father's Godfather passed away early this morning. Even though we have known for a week now that it was very likely, it doesn't make it any easier. He was a very dear man and I am sad. I am however glad that he wasn't in pain, he wasn't alone and he is now at peace. That is something to be thankful for certainly.

In much much happier news, I have to tell you that I got my Backyard BBQ Scentsy warmer today. 

It was billed as a "Father's Day" bundle. And I get it, dads like to grill. Makes sense. But oh.my.cute. I just love it. This warmer sold out in a week and I totally get it. I am kind of whatever on the wax that came with it. The Man scents aren't my favorite. (Well I totally dig Bonfire Beach so 1/3.) 

I don't usually do the whole "warmers for different seasons thing." We don't have holiday warmers that we rotate in and out. If I am being honest, we do have a Christmas penguin warmer, but if you think C would ever let that be unplugged from his room, that's just not true. I don't even usually buy warmers these days. But this little grill is going in my red kitchen for the summer months. Because I love it. And it really is the brightest spot in my day so I am just going to enjoy it. 

Today was my last normal school day!! We did "cooking." Which in preschool speak means we made Chex Mix and Muddy Buddies/Puppy Chow. And we watched Doc McStuffins. And played outside. I brought my A-Game the rest of the year, and I will on Thursday again. But today... they got my C-Game. 

Ignore the apostrophe that has no place there. Trust the sentiment. I wanted a clean version. That's how I say it in my head too. Look at all the Fs I give. 

I will go out with a bang on Thursday. Mark my words. And I will have the blog posts (yes plural) to tell you all about C's (Ant)Arctic Birthday Party. Because you guys, my guy is going to be 4-years-old. 

7QT: Randoms and a Prayer Request

one. I don't know, it may be because I am left-handed, but since we bought our Dyson Ball with wedding money in 2010 I have been annoyed by the cord. It never wraps correctly and I always had to twist the end around the entire bunch of cord to get it to stay. Even with the clip thing.

It's because I am doing it wrong. I twisted the cord opposite of the way I normally do and it ended with the plug coming down, instead of up like it usually did. Game changer. It's probably something that I have done "left-handed" which is my dad's snarky-with-love way of saying that I am doing something not exactly correct. I also stir and slice bread loaves "left-handed."

two. My girl who has never been much of a snuggler has slowly come around to snuggling. It's awesome. She comes in for hugs and kisses. She goes out of her way to come sit with me. Just the best.

three. C brought home one of those siezure-inducing blinking led light balls from school yesterday. They learned about space and I guess it was a star or a meteor or something. I'm not sure. In a weak parenting moment, we didn't take it away last night when he was asleep. The situation has been remedied but not before we had to deal with the blinking this morning.

four. After some frustrating moments of people waking up too early I bought the Teach Me Time clock as recommended by a friend. Last night was C's first night with the clock. He somehow was playing with the clock before he fell asleep and reset the time on it so that it wouldn't turn green until 9:00. (I wish!) But when Husband went into his room he was just waiting for it to turn green so maybe this will actually work? I hope so.

five. Last night we were real life grown ups and went out to dinner with our friends. We had delicious food and a wonderful chat. So great!! It is a rare event so we were all very proud of ourselves!

six. And apparently we are on a roll because we are hosting my friend over tonight for a pizza party. We are also putting her to work on some decorations but there will be good chats and food with the work so it balances out I think.

seven.  I am going to make a long story real short here and say that my dad's Godfather has been in the hospital this week and has moved to a hospice care facility. If you could spare a prayer for him for peace and comfort that would be amazing. He has no remaining blood relatives and we are his family. It makes me incredibly sad to think of this world without him.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend! Linkin' Up with Kelly today!

Mom-Day

Week in and week out I hang with my kiddos. And they like that. But they LIVE for Saturdays. In our house, Saturdays are better known as "Dad-Day!" They are revered. The kids deeply look forward to their special mornings with their dad and it's basically the best!

So Mondays are kind of hard. Dad goes to work and people are generally disappointed in the prospect of another five days of "real life." Then Mom-Days were born! Mom-Days take the place of boring humdrum Mondays you see. They also, theoretically, make the prospect of Dad going to work slightly less horrible. This does not always work in actuality.

On this Mom-Day we made muffins. In the spirit of open and honest blogging, we make Mom-Day muffins weekly. C gets to pick which kind and today it was banana nut. I was a little surprised by this choice as we had banana muffins last week but I abide by the picks of my dude.

We listened to music and played all sorts of games. Including dump a package of index cards all over the kitchen floor, penguin family and reading stories. Only the true classics at our house.

We played outside. It is cool spring but dry the past few days which is great. So of course we went outside. We planted some flowers and found a worm. We ran. We jumped.

It was fun. Fresh air rocks. 

But then. oh my gosh everybody, the FedEx man came. With a VERY important package. The Penguin Pinata for C's birthday party. 

It currently is living on top of our fridge. (As seen in the photo.) The discussion of making sure we are really gentle with it until the party has been had. We have been watching pinata videos on YouTube to make sure that he understands that the penguin will be broken open at the party. Verdict is still out on how that is going to go down but we'll keep prepping him for it. 

Fun fact: did you know that a few weeks ago the biggest penguin habitat opened at the Detroit Zoo? The Polk Penguin Conservation Center is huge. And pretty sweet. I am pretty sure we have watched the YouTubes a bajillion times and my nearly four-year-old's biggest dream right now besides "Christmas at Disney World" is "The 'Troit Zoo." 

Well after watching more 'Troit Zoo penguin building YouTube videos with our lunch, we played and snuggled, then we went up for rest time. BOTH kids slept which is very unusual these days. 

They woke up only shortly before Dad came home and Mom-Day ended. So all in all, a pretty darn successful day.

I am going to really miss our low-key Mom-Days in the fall. But the preschool schedule is nice, we have Wednesdays off. So I am sure we will fill it with all kinds of fun!

The Thank You Book

If you've been here a few times you probably know that we love Mo Willems. The man can seriously almost do no wrong. (Except for the fold out spread in Knuffle Bunny Free... that was just dumb.)

So it goes without saying that we are big Elephant Piggie fans. It's a series of 25 books. The final book, The Thank You Book was released on May 3. I had it preordered and it came as promised that day. But I didn't open the box.

I couldn't really bring myself to do it. It just seemed so final.

Kind of like this.

But today I gave it and opened the box. And I read the book. And it was good. Piggie thanks everyone who is important to their stories and it is a cute little retrospective for children. (And me.) I may have gotten a little teary as I finished. Elephant Gerald and Piggie are stand up characters who have taught my boy how to wait, recognize when he was cranky, share, make friends, deal with disappointments and other important life lessons. 

My heart is sad that Elephant and Piggie are saying goodbye as characters but I am so glad that there are 25 books in my home that I can go to anytime and hang out with them. 

So as one of the readers, I have to give a big thank you to you Elephant Gerald and Piggie right back double. We love you always.

Hello Friday! We've Been Waiting For You!

one. Let's talk for a minute about tree helicopters. We have a giant silver maple in our yard. As you probably know, in the spring, maple trees drop all their helicopters. As such, our yard in the spring looks like this:

Only a lot, a lot more. Every year, they drop right on or near C's birthday. We have in the past had water parties with swimming for his birthday because that is one of his favorite things. The helicopters don't preclude that of course but they make it annoying. But it has rained every year on his birthday. 

This year we planned an indoor party just because we know it will rain. It just will. It rained the day he was born. It rained when he turned one, two and three. It's going to rain. 

BUT all the helicopters dropped this week!!! Like right now! Two weeks out! So on the off chance that it doesn't rain, which is slim, the kids can at least run around outside and play without a bajillion helicopters all over. Assuming we sweep/mow/rake before then of course. (We will.) 

two. Grace and Frankie. Oh my gosh. Do you have Netflix? I love this show. I love that there was a commercial on during The Good Wife finale for this show. We finished the second season last night and it is brilliant. Super interesting look at people and life. So very funny. I am quite certain that it wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea but I totally dig it. 

three. This article.  Which basically states that people don't appreciate Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead enough. It's true. They don't. But I do, We quote this movie all the time. Seriously. It's true movie love. And has just become mandatory Friday night viewing. 

four. I am embarrassed to admit that I have lived here for almost six years and have never gotten a library card. My Minnesota library card still works just fine for ebooks and Husband had one for here. But his expired and C has been asking to go to the library. So we are going to try to go get one today. I am not quite sure what two forms of ID they want (and I think it's hilarious that they care that much because even the New York public library just requires a driver's license) so wish me luck. 

five. So the warmer of the month for Scentsy is this camper. Consultants can get the warmer and scent of the month early and I was going to un-enroll for the warmer because I don't camp and I don't really know anyone who does. Well, my mistake, I wound up with the thing anyway! 

And then the warmer earned itself a cult following and sold out in 1 day. Now it is backordered until June and people still keep buying them! So as luck would have it, another consultant bought mine from me. That makes me happy because it is going to someone who wants it and I get my money back. Everyone wins. Well I will for sure when it arrives to the consultant tomorrow and is in one piece. But things are looking good. 

six. We are at the inside out/backwards clothing stage. C cannot be bothered to take the time to put his clothes on correctly. But at least he's dressed? Let's hear it for small victories! 

seven. In bad news, the strawberry patch we've gone to for the past few years is no longer letting children under sixth grade come to pick. AND you can't just show up, you have to make reservations. SO... I am in the market for a new strawberry patch. It's just majorly lame because C has been talking about it already and my kids just LOVE strawberries. 

Happy Weekend Friends! Linkin' Up with Kelly this fine day. 

Good Days

The sun is shining! It is wet outside from last night's rain but the sun is shining and I love it!

Yesterday C had his last soccer class of the session. I really dig this class. The uniform is too too cute and the games they play really teach soccer skills without any real competition. I am not opposed to competition by any means, but this is definitely the kind of 3-year-old soccer I prefer. When he's a little older, and he wants to, I will sign him up for "running in a swarm up and down the field or maybe playing with grass" soccer.

Getting his certificate

M on the other hand, would already be involved in soccer should there be a team she could join at 18-months-old. She LOVES sports and the hardest hour of her week was watching the other kids not play soccer. Every week I would let her out of the stroller and she would grab C's ball and run and kick it. The coach even commented how good she is. "She just got more kicks than some of the kids who actually take the class!" And it's true.

She also throws really well and she can jump already. I don't know what age jumping is actually supposed to occur but it seems ridiculously early to me. I think it's great but on some level I just want her to slow down! I didn't say she could get so big!

Today was our field trip. All the kids practiced saying "May I please have a chocolate fudge sundae?" before we left. 2/3 said their sentence and paid with no problem. I had put the exact amount needed into a baggie for each of them so it would be easy, but we have one super shy kiddo and she wouldn't say a word or hand over the money. But we kind of knew that going in since she wouldn't even practice.

They ate their ice cream, while wearing crowns and then they played for a good long time. It was a super fun field trip. We don't have many of the indoor playground places in this area. The closest one to us is Chick-Fil-A but we really only have one location (that isn't in a mall) and it is always SO CROWDED. I have never taken my kids there even though they have all sorts of special program and things for kids. I would go back to Burger King for sure because it was WAY not crowded and the kids had a really good time.

I feel like May is going really fast! And I have so much to do still!