Mater

Big boy underwear have been purchased.

Yesterday both boys wore a pair for half an hour. It was just a trial run, a demo if you will.

Chris's parents are coming to visit this week and Chris and I are sneaking away for a couple of days next weekend, so I don't want to begin to truly tackle this whole adventure until we have a couple quiet weeks to devote to being shut in the house naked! (The boys that is, not me!)

And just because the picture of Grayson's feet above reminded me of this story I just had to share it:

Last night Chris and I were headed to bed. I went ahead of Chris in to our room and layed down. He came in and told me that I had to come and look at something. I walked in to the hallway and Chris pointed out two little pajamaed feet sticking out from under the gate put up in the boy's doorway. There was about four inches of space between the floor and the bottom of the gate. Grayson had stuck his feet through the bottom of the gate, laid down on the floor, and fallen fast asleep. It reminded me so much of a scene out of the Wizard of Oz where all you could see were the wicked witch's feet! Chris carried him to his bed, and beyond one little grunt from Grayson there were no complaints!

For REAL This Time!

I am back and better than ever!

Oh my lanta, life is nutso.

It feels so good to be back in the land of blogdom again. I am sorry for my absence on here.

I really don't know where to even begin - so I will just give a quick run down of life as it stands here in Minnesota at the moment.

We have been living here now for about a month and a half. The time has flown.

People have asked me how it feels to be back in Minnesota, and I tell them that I still don't know if it has sunk in that I am! I am such a busy little Mama with my brood of three that I think I could be living in a cardboard box in Timbuktu and not really know the difference!

It has been amazing though to see my family more often. We have had quite a few opportunities already to get together for dinners, cookouts, playdates, and sleepovers. That has been such a huge blessing and is truly a dream come true.

Our house in Virginia is officially no longer ours. We closed on it the end of April and now another young family with two small boys is living there. Just yesterday Grayson saw a video of himself playing in our old living room and he said he wanted to go there. He was trying to put himself through the computer screen to make it happen!

We met this past Sunday for dinner with our current landlord and a friend of his who is a real estate agent. We had a great night out and enjoyed getting to know both of them a little more. Sometime in the near future Chris and I will be contacting her to start the whole process of looking for a home.

It seems like an awesome time to buy. There are so many homes for sale, and the prices and interest rates are so great - so we are filled with anticipation about our next dwelling! We are really enjoying this cozy little rental of ours. We've made it pretty comfortable and functional, and it truly does feel like a little home for right now. At the same time though, part of me does feel like I'm not truly settled. Perhaps that's due to the fact that I am living with only six pairs of underwear since the rest of mine are stored in a box somewhere in the multiples that we still have packed up!

Don't fret, I do laundry every day.

:)

We did have a mouse in our house this past weekend. Update: We no longer have a mouse in our house now. Good job Chris.

There was a wild cat on our porch yesterday morning. I thought Kodiak had come back from the grave. When I opened the front door to get the mail I heard this hissing. I looked over and that crazy beast was showing it's teeth to me. I called animal control. This woman came out and attempted to catch it. It jumped over the ledge of our porch and went and hid under our van. She stuck a can of food out for it and told me to honk the horn really loud the next time I drive the car and then she left. Ummm thanks so much.

Adelyn has started rocking. She gets that little toosh up in the air, lifts herself up on her hands and starts shaking what the good Lord gave her. She is a wild little cookie. She has found her voice and the ability to spit. She likes to combine the two when she is eating. She will be nine months old in a few days. I hate putting her to sleep at night. It truly makes me sad to put her in her crib at night and know that I won't see her for 12 whole hours.

Ethan is growing up. His new phrase lately is to say "yep!" "Ethan, did you have a good night sleep?" "Yep!" Ethan takes a nap in our bed during the day. We have found that the two of them sleeping apart is much more beneficial than trying to get them both quiet in the same room during the day. The other day I came upstairs and saw Ethan in the doorway waiting for me after his nap. I noticed that he had Sharpie marker drawn under his nose. I glanced over at our office area which we have set up in our bedroom, but didn't see any major mess, so I didn't think much of it. That evening after the boys had gone to bed, Chris and I were paying bills. I noticed that a few our bills were decorated with all kinds of colors. Green, red, pink, blue, yellow. The little stink bug had used highlighters to color a masterpiece on our bills, and then he had put the caps back on all of them and put them back in the right place again!

Grayson is growing up too. He has started to show some interest in using the bathroom, so I think soon we will attempt to begin the whole potty training adventure. (If anyone has any advice when it comes to potty training two at a time please let me know! I am thinking about looking in to the potty training in one day phenomenon, so let me know if you've heard good things or bad things about that! Thanks! )

I have signed up to run a 5k in August. I know it's not really a huge deal, but I have never run any type of race before in my life and I just really hope to start running and stick with it. I figured that by going ahead and signing up for something I would have to keep training! It just feels good to be doing something for ME. I don't often enough take time to work toward goals for myself, and this is something that I can easily be in control of, so I'm doing it!

Wednesday nights have become our family picnic night since we moved here. There are so many beautiful parks here in St Cloud right along the Mississippi River. We have enjoyed exploring many of them. We are certainly seeing this city through different eyes now than we did seven years ago before children! We may postpone our picnic to tomorrow night though due to today being a bit windy. Picky aren't we?

I don't know where to stop this post - so I'll wrap it up with a few recent pictures!

Mom enjoying some snuggle time with three of her grandkids.



Grayson John who will soon be two and a half!



Ethan and Adelyn. I love the display of sibling love in this picture!



My little peanut enjoying some time outside.



Ethan helping me make cookies. Or at least helping me eat the chocolate chips!



My little G man helping make cookies too.



My three.



My brother and I with our babies (although in the pic I'm holding his and he's holding mine!).

The new laptop is on the way!

I will return shortly.

I miss the blogging world!

Seen Better Days

My computer that is.

My little netbook has kicked the bucket.

Passed on.

Bid farewell.

Six feet under.

Kaput.

So - in the meantime I have the use of our big beast of a computer that sits up in our bedroom. I can't get up here much during the day due to three little tykes who seem to need my attention. My little man E also naps in here, so that time is also out.

All that to say, I probably won't be making too many frequent appearances until

A. I clone myself.
B. My children instantaneously mature and no longer need my services.
C. We get a new laptop.

I'm thinking C is the most likely outcome....just not sure when.

The Boys Made it Clear...

they were leaving without me.

"Where are you headed?" I asked them.

"Out!" was Grayson's response.

"Going to work!" squeaked Ethan.

Tough Questions

After naps this afternoon the kids and I headed out to run a few errands and enjoy the sunshine after some rain this morning. We pulled in to the parking lot at the park and I spotted a man leaning against the side of the building. No car in sight. Just standing there smoking a cigarette. I just had an unsettled feeling in my gut. From the back seat I heard commentary of "Play here!" "This park! This park!" We had played at this same park a few days earlier and they had loved it. They recognized it.

However, I just couldn't bring myself to unload three children out of the car and ignore that little voice telling me to drive away.

Was that man any danger to me or my children? Probably not. Do I know for sure? No.

So we drove away. As we were leaving the park I told the boys that I just didn't feel comfortable playing at that park that day without Daddy being there with us and we would find another park.

Grayson then said to me "Man scary?" It was just out of the blue. I hadn't even at that point mentioned anything to them about that man, but I guess he had perhaps sensed it too.

Just the other day Chris and I were commenting on how the boys have never yet had to experience anyone who has done them wrong, even anyone who has ever been mean to them. They are very trusting, very friendly boys, and they have never met a stranger.

I took the opportunity today though to give the stranger talk. We talked about how you have to be careful around people you don't know. I told them that most people are very, very nice - but just like dogs (we had the nice dog/mean dog talk a few days ago!), there are some nice people and some people that aren't so nice.

I hated giving that talk.

I hated looking in my rear view mirror and seeing these precious little faces with their eyes open wide, looking out the window, soaking in all that I was telling them, trying to process it.

So many questions followed...

Some people nice?

Some people mean?

Be careful?

Ethan even sensed my heart as we had this conversation. "Mommy sad?" he asked me.

Oh precious children. I wish I could just always keep you in this protected place. This place where you don't ever have to fear, to question, to be guarded. I love your freedom, your love for people, your trusting hearts.

I feel so inadequate sometimes as I cautiously and carefully raise you up in to men, and Adelyn in to a woman. Trying to give you a realistic view of this world, but also protecting and holding on to your incredible innocence.