J Funny

So yesterday we were at speech and as they are doing his evaluation there's a picture of a stove. He said "oven" and the lady said, "No what's on top that your mommy uses to cook things?" and my kid replies (with lots of enthusiasm) "THE MICROWAVE!" Yep. That's right kid.

Pictures!

Just a few random photos from my new iPhone. I love the camera! Very awesome! Notice J is rarely in a photo because the boy won't. sit. still!!! I tried. It's a losing battle. :)

Feeling Out of Touch!

This week has totally flown by and my blog has been pretty much neglected. We had lots of fun with my niece being here and I'll post pictures when I'm not too lazy to walk downstairs and get my camera and upload them. Nothing else too exciting has happened. We finished up rock climbing and dance this week so starting next week all we'll have is t-ball practice and games. Of course then we're adding in speech therapy for J next week and M wants to do a cheer clinic with some friends in July. My family will be up for the 4th of July and we're keeping my niece and nephew for the night so they can do fireworks with us. Matt and I are planning some weekend things here and there throughout the rest of summer (including his HS reunion!) so we're looking forward to that.

I got my new iPhone 4 finally and it's totally awesome. I love being able to text again! I've been lost without my phonebook and contact list for the past 2 weeks! I felt so 1990. lol. Now I'm just waiting to buy accessories for it when they hit the stores.

The kids have been kind of a handful lately. I'm getting more and more ready to send them back to school! It seems like if we're not constantly doing something they complain they have nothing to do. I guess that's just a sign they're getting older. So we're keeping busy!

Nothing else too exciting to report. We've been busy, but we're hanging in there. Waiting for some good news from a good friend about an upcoming birth! Hopefully tomorrow is the day! So exciting!

Bonus Child For the Week!

Yesterday we went to my hometown to visit my parents and family for the day and we came back with an extra kid! Not one of those whiny 4 or 5 year old kids (ahem, like mine) that can be a royal pain in the butt, but my wonderful 12 year old niece who is super helpful and my kids adore! We're taking the whole crew (and grandma!) to see Toy Story later this afternoon and then out to dinner. We have a busy week ahead but I love having my niece here and I may never give her back. ;) As an extra bonus, I traded so Matt and I can go out of town for a weekend in July! I think I really get the better end of this deal though. Sorry sis. :)

Leapster Love

Dear Leap Frog,

I must admit I was a bit apprehensive of giving my 4 year old a Leapster and have had it stashed in the closet for a very long time simply because he's not the most careful child. I was terrified it would get dropped, thrown, hit or destroyed in some other way. Not in my wildest imagination did I imagine he would actually sit down and play with it for an extended period of time. Never. But tonight he sat on my bedroom floor and played Batman while I folded and put away the massive laundry pile that was in my bedroom. That's 30 straight minutes of peace and quiet where I was able to do something that very desperately needed to get done. I guess what I'm trying to say is thank you. Even if he never touches it again (unlikely since he's played with it quite a bit so far) it was worth every penny for just those 30 minutes where my child was a normal kid sitting down and focusing on something. It gives me some hope.

Sincerely,

A Very Happy Mom

J Update

We're going on 3 weeks now of sleeping through the night in this house! I am pretty sure that's a world record around here. I was seriously beginning to question whether or not it would ever actually happen, but here we are! We had to put a bell on his door for the first couple weeks (week 1 was a nightmare) and he would get to put a sticker on his sticker chart if he slept through the night. After 5 nights he would get a 'sleep reward' that he wanted. Just something small, but enough to keep him motivated. After the first week we were able to take off the bell and just rely on the honor system and he's done great! Even when we were gone he earned his rewards and slept really good.

On the flip side, the doctor we've been seeing with him for the sleep issues did an evaluation on him last time we were in and then matched it up with the questions she had me answer about him and it seems he's got some serious issues we'll have to keep working on. The big problems that came up were aggression, hyperactivity, attention span and properly communicating without getting frustrated. She seems to think there's a very high probability that he has some ADHD symptoms and we need to work on some structured activities with him and keep a close eye on it. At this point she said we mostly need to help him work on skills that will help develop his ability to stop and evaluate things a little more. He also is getting evaluated for speech issues which we know he needs. It's mostly all just a lot of work for mom and dad but we're willing to do it!

I'm so happy we have the sleep issue under control now and can move on to helping him with some of these other issues. He's such a sweet boy and I've seen the improvements in a few other boys who have seen this doctor and I believe she knows what she's doing. Hopefully this coming school year he'll be more prepared and we'll have him on the right path.

Driveway Pizza

J was very insistent that he did not want a big birthday party this year and that was fine by me! That means I didn't have to plan and pay for a big party as soon as we got home. All he wanted was driveway pizza. Now for those of you normal people who don't do driveway pizza, it's where we all sit on the driveway on a summer evening and pretty much eat pizza straight out of the box. It's not rare on any summer night to drive down our street and see this, but tonight we were calling it J's birthday. Tonight we even used plates! Star Wars plates!

We had to come inside for cake. It was just a little too windy for the candles.

There were a few presents to open. He scored some awesome Stars Wars stuff and a Nerf gun!

The awesome Star Wars cake. The Litesabers even light up! Very cool!

This is the entertainment portion of the party. The kids had a blast. I almost felt like I needed to tip Corey for providing this service. :) I made him a painkiller instead. I must admit I'm getting pretty good at making them!

Poor J even had 4 shots on the day of his driveway pizza celebration but he toughed it out and stayed outside until 9 PM. Then as soon as he got inside he laid down on the couch and I think he was asleep before his head ever hit the pillow. We had a fun night though!

Pictures!

Picture time! Ok this is after the swim into White Bay.

Another one at White Bay.
Our pet for the week. These little geckos are awesome. They just eat all the bugs, they don't bite and they're kind of cute. This one lived with us for the week.

Don't let this picture fool you. White Bay is a bustling place when all the boats are anchored off shore. This was right as we were all leaving.
Cooper island. This is pretty much the only thing on Cooper Island. We had a fabulous lunch there though.
I think this was Francis Bay. I pretty much laid on the beach all morning while my husband ventured off with his camera.
Annaberg ruins.

The beauty of this island never ceases to amaze me. It truly is paradise. Even with the wild donkeys, pigs and roosters that wake you up at the crack of dawn. It's amazing. It was kind of hazy the first few days so the pictures definitely show it, but my husband had lost most of his motivation by the time the haze cleared later in the week.

Trip Report!

This trip to the islands was even better than the last! I honestly didn't even think that was possible. We picked better flights this time to maximize our time on the island and it worked perfectly. We arrived around dinner time, checked into our villa and headed to Skinny Legs. It's one of our favorite spots in the whole world. We hadn't bought bug spray yet so we pretty much got eaten alive, but it was worth it to be back to a place we love, surrounded by good people, with good food and strong drinks. Perfection. Over the next few days we did a whole lot of nothing. We spent our days laying around on the beach, snorkeling, reading, sunbathing, swimming, sleeping, drinking and eating things I haven't eaten in a LONG time. Like PBJ sandwiches. Yum. And Key Lime pie. Double yum.

We did a boat trip through the BVI on Wednesday where we snorkeled and toured The Baths at Virgin Gorda, had lunch on Cooper Island and had a world famous Painkiller on Jost Van Dyke. The Baths were much more of a challenge than we thought it would be. There was lots of climbing over and through rocks, jumping into water over a rock that you had to slide over and pretty much pray you didn't hit your head, crab walking and Army crawling through some seriously tight spaces and then climbing up to the top of the rocks. It was fun and a great challenge but I had no idea that's what we signed up for. White Bay on Jost Van Dyke has some of the most beautiful water I've ever seen. It's certainly more of a 'party beach' than we're used to but our visit to the Soggy Dollar Bar was fun. I must say I was a little nervous about this whole snorkeling and swimming thing. I am scared to death of water and get motion sick on boats, but the motion sickness patches worked really well and I decided to face my fear and just go for it. I snorkeled just as well as anyone else that day (even better than someone else...woohoo!) and did the swim into the bay without trouble and made the swim out with a t-shirt and cup in hand. I would say that's pretty darn good for someone who didn't know if I would ever be brave enough to venture off the boat!

Of course I've already posted about my Kenny experience so I'll save you all the details of hearing that again. But it was still awesome. Just in case you forgot. ;) One detail I forgot to mention about it though was that I was completely incapable of eating my meal that night! My stomach was literally in knots and for the first (and probably last) time ever I couldn't finish the best burger in the whole world. It felt so wrong.

One of our other favorite spots is I-Scream. It's the best $8 ice cream you'll ever eat. In fact it's the only place I'm willing to pay that much for ice cream! And of course we made our trip to Uncle Joe's BBQ. There's something to be said about island BBQ. Uncle Joe's is something I crave like crazy sometimes. There's no replacement either. It's very unique.

A new thing we discovered on this trip is Trinidad Charlie Hot Sauce. We're now obsessed and will be ordering it for home. Pour some on a Skinny Legs burger and it's just heaven on a bun.

We flew into Kansas City Saturday night but since we had slept on our flights we weren't ready for bed yet so I texted Heather to find some good bars in town. We definitely sent our vacation out in style! Sunday we drove home so we could help J celebrate his birthday. This was the first time I remember coming home where the transition went very smoothly. Normally the kids are either a disaster because they feel the need to push their limits with us, or they pretend we don't exist for a few days to punish us for leaving them. This time it was like we weren't even gone! Things just kind of fell into place again. Fabulous!

Pictures will follow soon but that's the husband's department so I have to wait to see them too. :) Back to reality now. We have a busy week ahead!

Happy Birthday To My Big Boy!

Four years ago this sweet little baby came into our lives. I can't believe how fast the time has flown by. Maybe it's because I already had a baby at home and I was just trying to survive, but that first year flew right on by. I remember just holding him and praying he would never get bigger because baby J was so unbelievably sweet. M never really wanted to be held or rocked as a baby so I didn't complain (much) that J wanted to be carried all the time. I just stuck him in the Baby Bjorn and we went. Now he's 44 inches tall and weighs 45 lbs so carrying him has become nearly impossible for me. He's still my sweet and cuddly boy though. My big 4 year old no longer even resembles a baby. He's a big kid now. As much as it pains me to see him get so big, it's also so great to see the person he's becoming as he grows. Happy Birthday to my little man!!

First Birthday:

Second Birthday:

Third Birthday:

Since turning 3:

In the last year J has done lots of fun things! He's stayed multiple nights with grandma. He's been on a few airplanes. He's taken trips to fun places like Las Vegas and Dallas. He's made lots of new friends doing things like going to school and playing t-ball. He's learned many new skills like cutting, tracing lines, letter recognition and how to spell his name. He's learning how to play t-ball, do some rock climbing and swim. His interests change sometimes daily and right now he really loves Star Wars and Batman.

Some Favorite Things-

Favorite Color: Yellow

Favorite Toy: Batman and Star Wars toys

Favorite tv show: Inspector Gadget

Favorite movie: Batman

Favorite animal: Tiger

Best friend: Tristen

Favorite thing to do: Swim at the outdoor pool

Favorite vacation: Fuddrucker's (apparently the city doesn't matter as long as they have a Fuddrucker's)

Favorite Song: Twinkle Twinkle

Favorite Game: Hokey Pokey

Favorite outside activity: Go for a walk

Favorite inside activity: Playing Star Wars

What kind of birthday cake do you want: Star Wars

Favorite FIeld Trip: Tanganiyka Wildlife Park

Favorite Teacher: Mrs. B (the only teacher he's had the last two years obviously)

I look forward to yet another year of firsts with my big boy. Happy 4th Birthday!

Not Normally...

I wouldn't normally type up a blog post while on vacation, but this is no normal circumstance. You see today, completely randomly, I decided to straighten my hair and put on makeup and real clothes before heading out to dinner. Normally, that's not what happens. Normally I would throw on a dress over my dripping wet swimsuit with no makeup and wet hair and we'd head down to Skinny Legs. Now Skinny Legs is nothing fancy (obviously with the wet swimsuit and such being ok) but we love it there. We eat most meals there while we're here. Normally, it's just a burger, a few drinks and 100 mosquito bites and we're out of there. But today was not normal. Today, by some random cosmic coincidence, Kenny Chesney was also having a few drinks and 100 mosquito bites courtesy of Skinny Legs. I heard his voice first, without seeing him and knew instantly it was him. Of course he happened to be on the phone most of the time upset about something to do with NSR, but that doesn't matter. What matters is that I got to see Kenny this summer after all and it made this trip even more amazing. Oh and I just happened to be dressed in real clothes, sober, with my makeup on and my hair done. Thank God for random coincidences I guess. :) It may not have been a 'normal' day around here, but it was pretty damn fantastic.

Happy Anniversary

Today Matt and I have been married 8 years. It's been an amazing ride so far and we're just getting started. I couldn't ask for a better husband and partner in life. He's my best friend in this world and I feel so very lucky to have him by my side through everything. Celebrating our anniversary in paradise this year is a great way to start yet another year together!

Today is also my parents' anniversary and I know they don't read this, but happy anniversary mom and dad! This marks year number 49 for them! One more year until the big 5-0!

The New Big Boy Room

I have to admit that this transition was HARD for me. My sweet little innocent boy had been sleeping in this too cute room with cars, trucks, stop signs and just all over cuteness. Apparently that wasn't working for him anymore so he wanted to 'upgrade' to a big boy room. First came the wall stickers with scary Star Wars guys. Then I added the dark curtains so he would quit getting up with the sun. Then he was the one who got cursed with the awful flu first so I needed an extra set of sheets for his bed (didn't want to ruin the ones I knew I was going to sell) so I went to Target just to get the sheets. I came home with the comforter and stuffed Yoda too. He is in love with his new room. That damn ugly Yoda may be his favorite thing in the whole world. How he sleeps in there is beyond me, but the great thing is... HE SLEEPS IN HIS ROOM ALL NIGHT LONG! 4 years later and the boy is finally sleeping through the night. It's a miracle!

Random Swimming Pictures

I had too many pictures to get posted so I have a few auto posts set up since we're gone. We went swimming at the Y Memorial Day and my nephew C came along. The kids had a blast!

And some of our neighbors who have a fabulous pool have been out of town this past week so we've been taking advantage of the extra pool time. The kids have had so much fun swimming with their friends. J just jumps right off the diving board and swims to the side. The first few times he scared me to death but he really does swim very well!