Right Now

This blog has been on the total back burner lately. Not sure why, but I feel like there is nothing to blog about, yet at the same time there is so much to blog about I don't know where to begin. So then I just end up reading other peoples' blogs instead of writing on mine.

Watching Clifford with their friend Eli

Today I read some old entries from this blog and had fun flash backs and realized how grateful I am to have this to document the little things that I would probably never remember anyway. Then I though that I should do some kid updating so I can read back and remember the fun little things that are going on in life right now.

The kids are at super fun ages and stages and I am realizing that everyone has been right and babies do actually grow up to be little kids and it all happens so ridiculously fast. I am just clinging on to every second of their precious little lives. How they smell and look and walk and talk. How they breathe really heavy as they concentrate and how they interact so innocently with each other and strangers. How they are sneakier and more stinker-ish than I thought and how their sweetness just flows so deep within them. I am in awe that I get to call them mine for this time on earth. Seriously, somebody stop me!

Blowing bubbles for baby Nolan

Joe and I always say that Veda is the most independent yet also the neediest kid we have ever encountered. Good grief. She is a girl through and through when it comes to doing it her way and by herself. She will work so hard at getting dressed and if I watch her and she is doing it backwards or wrong it takes everything in me to not fix it. Because if I even slowly inch closer to her with the idea of helping her she will flip a cork. Often times I just have to walk away. Sometimes I forget about her new found independence and as we walk in the door I will immediately help take her jacket off. She gets so upset that I have to put it back on and then she will take it off herself. Loving her work ethic, but when we are in a rush out the door, which is, oh.... almost every single time we are heading anywhere, having her get dressed, get her shoes on and also buckle herself just isn't realistic. So there I am, going back and forth in my head about encouraging her independence and praising her job well done, and just taking authority and letting her know that, "Honey we are in a hurry, mommy has got to help you." Kind of a lose, lose.  This super independent girl is also super capable of being so co-dependant it makes no sense. "Mom, swing with me. Push me. Go up the ladder with me. Let's run to the cave. Push me high from my back. From my front. Push me on my bike. Run next to me." And this is so different from my four year old son who would happily have me dress him everyday as he is as limp as a noodle and who also entertains himself with a stick in the backyard for hours on end with no care in the world as to where I am or what I am doing. But I will say these opposites seem to attract because they (usually) genuinely enjoy each other's company.

Silas literally made his bed (fort) and slept in it. 

Veda is working on saying her R's properly. Water once was Wat-o and is now Watrrrr (semi rolling her R..definitely over pronouncing.) My turn was once 'my tune', is now 'my trrrrn'. Super cute and yet a little bitter sweet that she is no longer a baby with her speech  being proof. But she still is obsessed with things not being scary (the vacuum, the blender, anything loud) so whenever I bust out something loud she immediately says, "Dats not ska-wy" So we still got that cute no-R's-pronounced word to hear every day.

Silas' signature move these days is peeing outside. It was cute and fun(ny) the first few times, but now ... I don't know. I feel like he pees outside more than in the toilet. Economical, I guess. But it looks something like: I just got the kids buckled in and we are driving for one minute and Silas has to go potty RIGHT NOW and insists that I pull over. So I pull  into a side street or a parking lot and let him go potty outside. Can you see how this gets obnoxious? I get it, peeing outside is a little more exciting than the usual toilet, but I'm ready for this phase to be over.

Biking on the street. 

There has also been a little graduation in his world. He no longer sleeps on the floor (which I am sad about and hope he goes back to it), he sleeps on his mattress that is off of his bed and on the floor. And the mattress cannot have any sheets on it. Which, yea, that's kind of gross. But a battle that I  tried fighting and realized was fruitless. There he sleeps with his blankets on a bare mattress with a fan blowing an inch from his face.

And, as you all probably know, the kids are really into nudity. And if I won't allow that (like when they play outside) they settle for playing in their undies. The neighbors must think I never dress my kids. Today Silas peed off the deck and the next thing I know I look over and Veda's undies are at her ankles and she is also peeing off the deck. I didn't get my camera out in time, but I was wishing another adult was there to laugh with me. So innocent.

Birthday cake!

So anyway, that is where we are right now. Every day is a fun new adventure and I am loving this phase of life. It (usually) brings a smile to my face when I see the potty chair full of pee, markers scattered all over the kitchen table, a little kid in our bed at sunrise or realize that Silas has had hockey tape on his arm for days (in place of a band-aide). Because that means I'm living life with the richness that children bring and am incredibly blessed to be a mom.