Wordless Wednesday: The Little Things

Ever since I began following Layla Grace and her family's heartbreaking story, I have begun noticing my two year old a little more each and every day.  Sure, he is right smack-dab in the middle of the "terribles" and he tends to exert most of his energy lately by throwing himself on the kitchen floor and screaming his little blond head off.  Or by hitting and kicking mommy, daddy, or sissy.  Or by whacking the dog with daddy's brewing utensils (don't ask)... well, you get the picture.  These are not the easiest years of his life... for him or for those around him.  But recently I've begun noticing the unique little quirks about this little guy that I somehow have lost sight of in the middle of all of that.  

This photo was taken a couple weeks ago at a family wedding.  Everything about it screams Jake.  His hands neatly folded behind his back.  The way he attentively studies the other children out on the dance floor, wondering - hmm.... that looks like fun, when would be the right time to join in?  It's like an open portal into his personality.

Truth is, even though he has his not-so-good moments, he is mine.  And he is healthy.  And I love with all of my heart.  And I refuse to ever again take a moment with him for granted.  

Please take a moment to pray for Layla Grace and her family.  You can also follow their harrowing journey on Facebook and Twitter.

Wordless Wednesday

This is the time of year when my husband begins yearning for warmer weather and.... disc golfing.  He is an avid disc golfer - like so many others he began in college and has never looked back since! During the short period of time that we lived in the city between my workplace and his, we made frequent trips to Buck Creek State Park with the kiddos.  It was an expansive and welcoming green space that was a major saving grace for a 4-person family cramped in a little apartment.

One can only imagine my husband's joy when he discovered that the park was installing a disc golf course on the outskirts of the premises!  He anxiously waited until the first opportunity of the year (we had to bundle the kids up in order to go, but hey, it was for a good cause).  And during that first trip out discing at Buck Creek, daddy couldn't resist setting up this photo op.  Our youngest, Jake, was about 7 months old when this photo was taken... daddy couldn't have been more proud.

Twice the Fun

August has been a busy month for our family for the past couple of years. It is Fair season (which equals craziness at work for me), back-to-school season, and Alan and Jake's birthdays are almost back-to-back smack-dap in the middle of all of everything else that is going on! Our little Jakey-boy turned TWO on August 16th. Mommy had to work :( , but he and Daddy spent the afternoon at a wonderful vintage baseball game at the Willowtree Inn in Tipp City. Jake had a great time and we celebrated a couple days later at his baseball-themed birthday party. I thought I would share a few photos of his b-day festivities.





Happy Birthday Jakey, I can't believe you are two - it seems like just yesterday we were holding you in our arms and calling you our little "miracle." We love you so much!

They're Heeeeeere....

The Terrible-Twos have made and early, and unwelcome appearance in our household in the form of a Jakey-Monster. Our cute, angelic, easy-going little boy has turned into a frustrated, tantrum-throwing monster overnight. I've written a post on this ugly topic on EverythingMom I'm not sure what it is about this stage of development that exhausts and stresses me so much! You can give me a screaming infant that stays up all night and I'll be as happy as a peach.... but a toddler yelling "NOOOO!" or "MOMMAAAA!" a hundred times a day makes me feel the need to check my blood pressure!

You can click here to check out the post. Keep us in your thoughts as we push our way through this tough phase! :)

How to Survive a Seven-Hour Baseball Game... with Kids in Tow

Hubby and I had been planning a special trip to watch our beloved Cincinnati Reds for quite some time... and Monday (Memorial Day) was THE big day! The forecast called for a "chance" of a pop-up thunderstorm, which in Ohio weather-language means "85% chance nothing will happen" so we took the bet and carted both of the kiddos down to Cincy. Neither of us had a clue, mind you, as to how the kids might act and/or if they would both make it until the end of the game. Jake is typically pretty laid back - however - the starting time for the game was 1:10 = 10 minutes AFTER Jake usually goes down for a nap. So we were going to go with the flow and hope that he didn't turn into a sleep-deprived monster by the sixth inning!

Without boring any anti-sports fans out there, I will say that the first inning was very exciting! The Reds scored 5 unearned runs by the end of it - pretty impressive if you ask me - and we were there to witness it! Our seats weren't bad either... which proved to be a blessing when the sky above us darkened in the fifth inning and rain started coming down (we were under the overhang.) Drats! Blah! Ugh! Now what do we do with two figgity kids who have missed their nap? Jake was already getting to the "slap-happy" point (as we like to call it in our household) - you know, the point when you are past exhaustion and don't actually know what you're doing? He was there - big time. The dude behind us knows this all too well after having his knee angrily slapped multiple times by our Jakey boy. Our sweet, innocent little boy began wailing on any vulnerable victim in his sight... the men in front of him, beside him, and of course, behind him. So with the threat of a long rain delay looming and still 4 1/2 innings of baseball left in the game, Al and I had to switch to survival mode. Here is how we (and our little troopers) made it to the end of the game without sacrificing our sanity:

We headed straight for the food - after the lines died down. The Great American Ball Park now has $1 concession stands - would have been the BEST THING EVER if Marissa wouldn't have begged for cotton candy ($4.50) and a soft pretzel (also $4.50) which when combined cost more than all of our other food - Ugh. At any rate - eating kept the kids occupied for almost 45 minutes - SCORE!

I then spotted a slew of gumball and other toy machines. Which, at first thought, might seem like a bad idea to go stand by, but actually it was quite the opposite! Marissa was allowed to pick out one toy machine to put her quarters in - the small little bauble that came out kept her occupied for another 20 minutes or so while Jake tried like crazy to figure out how people were getting the gumballs out of the gumball machine - it was too cute to watch!

We spent the rest of the two-hour rain delay walking around the stadium and checking out different views of the baseball field. Jake loved this - but Marissa could have cared less. She may have asked "Can we go home now?" about 10 times by that point.

Once the rain let up a bit, we made our way back to our seats (which thankfully, were still pretty dry) and watched the field crew roll up the tarp. I tell you what, I never thought that it would elicit such joy and excitement from Marissa! Holy cow did she think that was fun to watch. We were relieved when the game started 20 minutes later - but we still had all of those innings to get through and by this time - well, it was almost din-din time for the kids. But Al and I made sure we kept the kids involved and interested in the game by doing what parents do best and exaggerated everything. We danced everytime a song came on, we roared "Charge!" everytime we were cued to, we pointed out our favorite players to the kids (Adam, we love you man!) and we let Marissa run down to the Reds' dugout to try and catch a ball at the end of every inning.

By the time the game was finally over, the kiddos had made it through a two-hour car ride, five hours of baseball and 2 hours worth of a rain delay and were to say the least, POOPED! Jake fell asleep 5 minutes after he was buckled in. Marissa, being the stubborn mule that she is, kept herself awake by playing her Leapster the entire way home.






I guess when all is said and done, it pays to get creative to pass the time and to let your kids know that you are there to have fun with them - even if the game doesn't go quite as planned. If you learn to "go with the flow" your kids will be likely to adapt right along with you... :)















Jake, a born & bred Reds fan couldn't take his eyes off of the game!
















Family Photo by the dugout.

Getting Rid of the Guilt - Week 2 + Binky Update

Binky Update
This past week, Al and I have been on a mission to begin weaning Jakey from his obsessive need for his "bink-bink." We started slowly by asking Jake to please pull his "binky out" in the event that he still had it in his mouth when he woke up in the a.m. Then, we hid it out of plain view until naptime. He was allowed to have it for naptime, car rides, and bedtime over the weekend. Then, while I was gone during the week (awesome conference I will blog about here later...) Alan took it up a notch and eliminated "binky-time" during car rides. So when I picked the kiddos up from the sitter's house yesterday, I expected Jakey to sit still in his car seat while I buckled him in, just like a perfect little angel, without so much as one request for his binky... but no.... I was mistaken. I couldn't even make it INTO the sitter's front door before he was frantically searching in his diaper bag for the stupid thing! ugh. Two steps forward, one step back I suppose. Of course, if Al had picked him up, the turn of events would probably have been different, but oh well. We'll keep working on it, and of course I will post some updates as we try to make some progress!

Getting Rid of the Guilt - Week 2
While I was out of town at the CYFAR (Children Youth and Families at Risk) Conference with colleague and friend Tricia, who is one of the most intuitive people I know by the way, we took a lovely Water Taxi ride across Baltimore's Inner Harbor. Of course, being the mommy that I am, I made the comment to her about how selfish and guilty I sometimes felt doing things without Jake and Marissa. To add insult to injury, this trip was a business trip - Tricia and I were presenting a workshop at the conference and here I was, away from my entire family and enjoying Baltimore without them... and.... gasp..... Having Fun Without Them due to work! Tricia just smiled at me and said "No, you just think that it might be more fun if they were here." So true! And yet, I still feel guilty whenever I have fun without the kiddos. My totally unscientific theory is that this stems from all of us parents wanting our children to experience the things we couldn't experience when we were younger. (Case in point - I never traveled further east of Indianapolis until I was 20 years old.) We want them to see all that there is to see of the world and experience it's many fascinating differences, to revel in all that the world and it's people have to offer. I can not wait until the day Alan and I can pack up the kids in our minivan and drive cross country - out to the Grand Canyon, Rocky Mountains, the great Mississippi and more! Isn't that what it is what it is all about, after all? .... exploring the unknown with your family by your side? But that was not the case on this trip, and I think I've come to terms with that. Our children need to understand that while family time is what binds us all together, the time that we spend apart also plays an important role in shaping us as individuals and enriching our lives. I couldn't help but think after I returned home last night that Marissa would not have been old enough to appreciate the beautiful small-town charm of Baltimore and Jake wouldn't have even remembered a bit of the trip anyway. So after putting everything into perspective - no more travel-apart guilt for me. No, sir. It's honestly okay for me to have fun without the family, they will all have plenty of their own traveling adventures in the years ahead. :)

Getting Rid of the Guilt - Week 1

As a working mommy, I often find myself being a little well, lax, on certain issues the pop up with our kiddos from time to time. Why do I find myself giving in to things a little too often? Probably because 1) I am physically, emotionally, and intellectually exhausted each day after I come home from work, 2) I honestly find it hard to concentrate on the kiddos' various issues long enough to efficiently deal with them! and 3) I feel a twinge of guilt everything I look into my children's faces, knowing that I choose to be away from them at least eight hours out of each day Monday - Friday. It is because of the latter reason that I am now on a personal mission to "get rid of the guilt" over the next few weeks.

This week, I'm going to break down and force myself to come to terms with the fact that my Jakey boy is no longer the infant he used to be and must.... I mean MUST be broken of the needy relationship he has with his pacifier. I recently browsed through some of our latest photos on the 'puter and he has that darn red binky in his mouth in almost every single one. I never had this issue with my daughter - she refused a pacifier even at a very early age. And so I would catch myself thinking snide things about parents who carted their older children around with binkies protruding from their mouths. And now I find myself being that parent!... and feeling like a complete hypocrit in the process. But this weaning thing needs to be done in baby steps... for mommy AND Jakey's sake. :( He has an extreme tendency to become very attached to many things that he comes across... I mean, the child sleeps with THREE blankies, THREE stuffed animals, and his binky for goodness sake!!! So.... this weekend will be the dawn of a new "day" for us and Jakey will be starting the weaning process from his beloved "bink-bink."


Wish us both some luck!!








One of the few recent photos of Jakey without his "bink-bink."

Warning: Garage Sale-'n May Suck the Life Out of You!

This past weekend, Al (hubby) and I thought we would be adventurous and explore uncharted territory by hosting a garage sale during the craziness that is the Tipp City community garage sale day! Adventurous, yes - crazy, definitely! We were very fortunate, however, that we did not have a mob of people in and out of our garage all day long - we were spared due to being the only sale on our street :)

While I do not have photos of the garage sale itself, I do have a couple shots of Marissa's lemonade stand. She was quite possible the best salesperson I've ever seen! Garage sale shoppers couldn't even make it a third of the way down our driveway without her sprinting toward them and begging *ahem* asking them if they would like some lemonade. She also had the (genius) idea of putting her gumball machine on the table as well. All in all she made almost $20 total in less than two hours. Now that's what I call workin' it! And you gotta admit - who can resist a five-year-old selling lemonade that is passionate about what she does? :)




* This last photo was my view for most of the day - me stuck in the garage while Jake frolicked in the yard. :)

While we did make quite a bit of money (Marissa wasn't the only one who made out like a bandit!) it was hard work. I felt like I had been hit by a mac truck Sunday morning and I think Jakey boy felt the same... he showed it by sleeping a total of 7 hours during the day and waking up with a runny nose - poor thing. I think we'll sit next year out.... or just let Marissa do her specialty: offer the suckers... uh... garage saler's, some refreshments. :)