Are you Two or a 13-year Old Girl?

I'm starting to believe that my two-year old could give a teenage girl a run for her money with his constant mood swings and melt-downs.  He changes his mind faster than I can keep up.

I'll give you an example: when I was trying to get Walker to take a nap today- he had to have covers; then before they settled was in full on hysterics "NO!!!  I DON'T WANT COVERS!!"

As I clutched at the air, trying to take the offending covers away before they hit his little body it was back to "I WAN' 'EM MOM!"

And, on to repeat with the night light, and the animals he keeps by his side when sleeping, and so on and so forth...

Repeat this for awhile, then disappear downstairs with a warning to stay in bed and listening to the footsteps warning me that the little man is making his way to the stair top.  Hear that sweet little voice telling me, I wanna sleep right here, mom.  Tell him- go ahead, and be met with hysterics again.  Tack on, then sleep in your bed and it's more hysterics.

Repeat again.

And again, cause ignoring him doesn't work.  He just comes down "painting" with the lint brush and a cup of water telling me that "I AWAKE mom!" 

Tell me, are teenage girls easier?  Can you at least reason with them?  Do they make it to the bathroom on time- we are on our third outfit of the day as Walker first decided to welcome my new (steal of a deal garage sale pick-up) rug by dropping his pants and peeing all over it, and then decided that peeing while "painting" was a fun pastime also. 






We nixed nap time today.

Catching Up

Sign- This was my sign to get to the beach!  (At eleven o'clock in the morning.)

Inequality- It's funny how different these two are to me already.  I hear so often that Conner looks exactly like Walker.  I suppose that's true, but Conner just looks like Conner to me.  The same way Walker looks like Walker and not his dad. :)

Contrast:

4 days old

2 1/2 months old

Water

My two favorite bodies of water

 Lake Windover

Lake Superior

A Boy and His Bike

(Hands)

Rule of Thirds

My littlest brother isn't so little anymore!

Texture

I enjoyed this.

Texture: the visual and especially tactile quality of a surface

Huh

I thought we were on texture today- not sunflare... 

Here's one from my archives.

Beauty

I forgot to post yesterday.

Emotion

Are you tired of seeing my kids in these pictures yet?

Time out is not his favorite.  

(Excuse the baggie in the bottom shot.)

We are celebrating the end of Aaron's school year.  It will be so nice to have him home and able to be with us for the summer.  It has been a looooooooooong year with school, studying and work taking up all of his time.  This is the first summer in three years that Aaron is not taking classes and we intend to enjoy it!

My mantra can now be "one more year" instead of "just two years."

It's not easy.  But I'm blessed and thankful to have a husband who is willing to work hard to put our family in a better place.  We don't know where we will end up once he's done with school, but we know that we'll be here for at least one more year. 

Bold

There were a few things that said bold to me today:

A turtle crossing a busy road

My son going down a slide by himself

The same son sneaking bites of brownies.

Twice.

But I didn't get pictures of any of those.  And as I sat thinking about what to use for this challenge, it inspired me.  I have been redecorating my house.  Kelli was giving me all kinds of ideas on how to use the space I have and it motivated me to make this house mine. 

I am making a reading nook in my upstairs hallway and I had picked up this chair at a garage sale last weekend. 

 It needs to be painted and then it will go into my reading area for Walker (and someday soon, Conner).  I have been debating what color to paint it but thinking about the word bold made me decide to go for it.

Here it is with the start of one coat.  This, for me, is bold:



What Makes Me Smile

 His smiles.  I can enjoy the newborn stage but I really like each stage after it!

Mr Personality.  I love his spunk and attitude.

All Alone

I've got to come back to this one!

Silhouette

I'm going back through my photos for this one.  I'm getting excited to be able to spend time here again this summer.

My Shadow

One of my shadows

Shadow #2 

"Mom hold you"     "Cwoser"    "Mom come too?!"

Excuse the quality of this photo, but this is what I see most of the day!

Reflection

I have several pictures for this but as I'm currently having issues (read shattered lens, camera not reading through cable to upload pictures) I will add them later. 

For now- can you find the reflection(s) in this shot? 

Soft

I don't think I need words for these.

Street

As I mentioned, I was out of town this weekend. 

I got to go and see this street again:

The trees are taller, and fuller but it is still the street of my childhood.

Another view:

Potholes, washboards and all!

I haven't given up!

I've been out of town and I will catch up on posting the last few days of the photo challenge as soon as I get a chance today.

Strangers

When Conner was born there were so many cases of RSV around here that they closed the maternity wing of the hospital to all children, siblings or not.  This meant that Walker did not get to meet Conner until we took him home.  This is their first meeting. 

They did not stay strangers for very long!  Walker loves being a big brother and gives Conner countless kisses and hugs everyday.  I love to watch the two of them together, Walker is great at coaxing those great big smiles from Conner and Conner doesn't seem to mind the loud, sometimes rough treatment. 

Day 2 Movement

I went back through my pictures for this one.  Walker's first time experiencing mud puddles.

This one is from today- a daily sight around here.

Busy, Busy

In addition to Walker's birthday party, we also had Conner's baptism last week.

Walker has been refusing to be in pictures lately so this is our family portrait from the evening.

He's close to 15 pounds and I wasn't sure the dress would fit but it went on without any problems.  My mother made it out of her wedding dress, it's the same one that Walker wore.

Conner was perfectly content throughout the service, Walker, not so much...

There's definitely a sense of peace that comes with knowing your children are baptised.  We pray they will always keep their faith.

May Photo Challenge Day 1

I'm doing the May Photo Challenge as created by Mindi.

Here is my attempt at bokeh.

Quick Post

Walker stealing the candy off the cake as we sang happy birthday...

This was my attempt at being creative with the cake- don't mind the truck that was too big!  We've had another busy week here with the birthday party, dr appointments, playdates and a baptism coming up.  I'm looking forward to relaxing next week!

Two

 Remember this guy?  Now he's this guy:

Two years old and full of personality.  Happy birthday Walker!

I See Myself in You

Two nights ago, as we completed our bedtime routine of reading one story before shutting off the light and rocking for a little while, you told me that you were going to hold on to your Archie comic.    I love reading too and am often not ready to put down a good book.  But that is not what made me see myself in you...  No, that came about ten minutes later as you insisted you had to go to the potty again.

We got off the rocking chair and I followed you out of the room and around the corner into the bathroom. 

Followed you as you held that Archie comic open, in front of your face, and watched you "read" it as you walked.

I distinctly remember doing the same thing as I cleaned dishes off the table many, many times.

Of all the things I could pass on to you, a love of reading is one I'm absolutely going to encourage.  Read on dear son, read on.

But remember, the book will still be there after you complete your current task.  It's okay (and I'd actually recommend this) to look up once in awhile.

My Boys

In the past year I've learned that it takes about a month for me to adjust to a new schedule or change in our life.  And that has been true for bringing this sweet little man home.  He'll be six weeks on Monday and it's only been in the past week that I've really ventured out with my boys.   

We were actually out five days by ourselves.  For a homebody like me, that's impressive! 

Walker loves his little brother.  He's a big help, always sharing his toys and giving kisses.  We found out what we were having this time and although I wasn't sure if I really wanted to do that, I was so excited to learn we'd have two boys close in age.  One to throw and one to catch as my Aunt Sandy has put it. 

My hope is that they become and remain good friends.  There's nothing like that sibling bond.  

Conner

We welcomed Conner Jeffery into our lives on March 5th.   He was 12 days overdue but once he decided to make his enterance, he came quickly- all 10 pounds 1 ounces of beautiful baby boy. 

People tell me again that he looks like Aaron (or Walker), and while I know that's true, everytime I look at him I just see Conner. 

He's the perfect addition to our family.

I'm Not SuperMom

With all of the cool ideas out there on the blogosphere and pinterest, it's easy to feel like you're not enough.

Not crafty enough
Not clean enough
Not organized enough


Not doing enough with your kids
Not teaching them enough
Not creating enough

Not ...  You get where I'm going, right?

I was having a bit of a hard time not feeling good enough when I realized- I need to give myself a break.  I'm not super mom and you know what?  That's okay. 

I will never be the one who has an immaculate house all the time.  I will not be the one who does her dishes right away.  I will not be the one who is completely organized.  There will be days when I decide on what's for dinner a half hour after I should have started it.  There will be days that I have a hard time getting out of my pajama's. 

There will be days that I will be glad they are over because I didn't have much energy for playing.  And there will be days that I waste too much time looking for things to do instead of just doing something- anything!

But I'm not beating myself up for it anymore. 

I'm not supermom. 

I am a mother who does the best she can. :)