The Three-nager Awakens

Ellie 10 Months

10 month old Ellie can pull herself up, walk along the couch, wave hi and bye, clap her hands, blow kisses, babble nonsense, and dance. She has 5 teeth. She mimics everything we do. She is a giant sweetheart!

She and Boston have a love hate relationship. They are either best friends or annoying the crap out of each other. They were playing a few days ago, and she crawled close to the stairs, so I got after her. Ellie, don't go by the stairs! As I said it, Boston poked his head out from the closet and said, no, mom, that's robin. And I'm batman. Fine. Robin. Dont go by the stairs. 

Ellie is starting to hold her own with Boston. Usually he is the one who freaks out when she gets close to his toys. Now, she'll let him have it if he takes hers. Good for you Ellie bean!

Her nicknames are Jelly, jelly bean, Ellie bean, and sweet heart. Sometimes when we get crazy, we sing peanut butter Ellie time, and Boston thinks it's pretty funny. Now its the song I hear through the vent every morning. Either that, or jingle bells. Lucky us! 

Here's A Trick...To Take Your Mind Off That Pain

Life in December gets turned up a couple notches of crazy, flipped upside down and then spun a couple cycles in the washer. With all the extra traditions and things we want to do, and with Jeff being gone, its just pure madness. Kinda like smash-your-finger-in-the-car-door kind of madness in fact. Intrigued? Let me explain...

One of my young women asked to interview me for a school project. Why not? The project was centered around service. She was really vaugue about it and I didn't think much of it, until I showed up to the school to a gym full of people, a full blown ceremony with a painted portrait and profile of myself on the wall. Holy smokes, I'm glad I didn't come in my Jammie's! Which was in fact what she told me to wear when she invited me. There was a program, speakers, the full sha-bang followed by a dinner. Wow, and I thought this was just a little 9th grade project. 

Waking up the next morning I felt pretty crappy. After giving my tonsils a looksie, and rolling my eyes; Ugh, seriously, this stupid cold again? I swear our family has passed the sore throat cold around and around and around. Guess it's my turn again. After popping some pills (only the legal kind) I got the kids ready for a play-date at Chelsey and Jacks house. Upon getting home I went from yucky to awful. I was trying to decide whether to go up to Heber for Jeff's wrestling tournament, or go to my moms. Man I didn't feel good. I ended up choosing neither and hanging on the couch. Sorry Jeff! I'll sleep it off and feel better. After the kids were in bed, I sat down with a movie and could almost literally feel my body temp rising. Holy crap, how hot is it in here? After finally deciding to be an adult, I took my temperature and got a whopping 102.5. I haven't had a fever like that in I don't know how long. White spots on the tonsils, seriously? Cmon, why? For the love! 

Are you wondering when im going to get to the point? Here it is. 

Let's just say the strep throat is the worst. I don't ever remember it being so bad as a kid. Not just the throat, but the body aches! The pain killers didn't do squat! (Am I being dramatic? Maybe a little hehe) My mom took the kids, and babied me all day. Nothing like having mommy around when you're sick, know what I mean? So at the end of the day, I went to take the kids out to the car to go home and see Jeff. I get Ellie in the car, give her a bottle, shut the door, and stars. Wait, what? Yeah, you read right. Stars. Where did they come from? They're so beautiful....Pain! Pain! PAIN! Say what?! My freaking finger is still inside the car! The rest of my body is outside the car! And my finger is inside! How did this happen!? Wincing, my immediate response was to pull my finger out. I yanked that sucker out and tried to gain balance as the world around me spun. My brain was screaming PAIN! I didn't think at the time that opening the door to relieve my finger would be an option, because, PAIN! 

Somewhere in all those thoughts that formed in my head was the scene from the movie 'Major Payne.'  The Major comes upon a man that has been shot, kneels beside him and asks him if he'd like him to show the man a trick to take his mind off of the pain. He then proceeds to break his finger. 

This was exactly the same scenario, with the car door being Payne, except, it did not ask my permission. My focus was no longer on my throat, my body aches, my fever, but on my pulsating-ly painful finger. I felt shooting pain all the way through my arm. The tears automatically poured out of my face, and as I drove home I sobbed like a baby. 

Poor Boston in his car seat kept saying mom, you fill better? I want you fill better, mom! Mom you need cocoa to fill better! And me in my severely poor and lowly state could not stop sobbing long enough to muster a response to the poor kid, because....PAIN! 

That night lying in bed I cried. I begged Jeff for more ibuprofen because I could not sleep. My finger was aching up a storm, my throat was on fire and I figured my body had been run over by my car somewhere at the same time it tried to bite off my finger. I had soaked through my clothes and sheets as my fever broke, or it's possible I should have borrowed some of Boston's Thomas underwear....I guess we'll never know. FYI He didn't give me any more pain meds. 

To stop this story from heading down a dark path, I did get better...the symptoms went away, and I can now say that after several weeks with a sausage for a finger, the swelling has gone down and the pain is gone. At this point my nail and the blood scab underneath can be lifted from the rest of my finger. I'm just starting to prepare for full take-off. 

Are you wondering what the point of the service school project story was? A few days later I ran into said girl at Target who mentioned she was also on antibiotics for strep. You've got to be kidding me! I guess service doesn't always pay off kids! 

1 hour after the incident

     

3 weeks after the incident

   

Revenge of the Three-nager

Well, well, well. Lookie what we have here. An almost 3 year old going on 13. I'm so not ready for the terrible 3's. I've heard that 3 is so much worse than 2. Well...we might almost be there as I sit here at the computer desk, with a child that is throwing me attitude over not wanting to take a nap in the room next door. "I don't wanna take a nap, you understand?!" Yes, that just came soaring out of my son's mouth right before he slammed the door. Yes, you read right. He slammed the door. (I may or may not have slammed the door once or twice during the ugly potty training era) Whoops. So here I sit, with a 'threenager' on my hands, dreading the fact that the napping phase might possibly be over, thus ending my small window of free time. My sanity break. My get-everything-done-that-i-possibly-can-in-an-hour-and-a-half-without-whining-crying-begging-children-crawling-all-over-me time. My watch-anything-other-than-mickey-mouse-clubhouse-or-paw-patrol-without-getting-interupted-five-zillion-times break.

Mom, I take a nap in a second, ok? - Boston just sticks his head out of his door to fill me in on the latest. Yeah right! 5 seconds later, "Mom, I had a good nap. I'm a happy boy." You've got to be kidding me. Ugh. The never ending battles. I need a drink. No, you don't. I want pizza! No, we just ate dinner. I want daddy to tuck me in (Jeff walks over, Boston has a fit) no, I want mom to tuck me in! I want a different 'blanklet'. I give him a different blanket. No, I want my that one blanklet! (The one he had in the first place) I need to go potty. (I take him into the potty, and Boston flips out.) I don't want to go potty! Mom, I want my Jake boat in my room. (I bring his boat down) Mom, I don't want my Jake boat in my room! (I take his jake boat back upstairs) Mom, I want my Jake boat! SERIOUSLY PEOPLE! Someone up there has their feet up, eating popcorn, and cracking up as they watch my life. 'Look, Boston is about to push the last button, check this out!' 'How many plates will she break today?'

He has found out that the longer his prayers are, the more time he has before he goes to bed. Tonight he literally thanked Heavenly Father for every single piece of clothing he owns. Thank you for dat one dinosaur shirt, and for my blue shirt got messy yesterday, and for my Mickey Mouse shirt, and for dat one train shirt, and for my pa-choo (paw patrol) Jammie's, and my hipball (football) Jammie's, and for santa Jammie's, and my Boston hat, and my puppy dog hat etc, etc, ETC! Squeeze-it Grandma and Fishy Grandma are mentioned at least 3 times each, as well as Papa, Grandpa, mommy, daddy, Ellie and Boston, and after that list he ends with 'thank you for everybody,' to make sure he doesn't leave anyone out. The other night we were laughing pretty hard when he said 'thank you for dat one castle guy, I cannot find him. He is hiding.' Another time, he had started his prayer, but kept getting distracted asking for water and other things. Jeff started counting, and after he said 'one,' Boston said 'thank you for one,' and we all busted up laughing. So now, every prayer he is thankful for 'one.' He also takes it down to the basics. Thank you for the table, and that wall, and dat one door, for my chair, for my plate, and my spoon, and that one yellow fork, and my cup......Seriously. Five minutes pass and the food is getting cold, and he is still going. The more I think, the less irritated I get, and realize what a good example he is. There are a lot of things in life I take for granted! 

Are you tired of reading yet? I'm practically just getting started...

The other day as we were wrapping some gifts, he picked up a game that had a picture of a boy playing said game on the back of the box. He looked at me and asked, 'This game for white kids, mom?' Haha, WHAT? How the heck do you even know that the boy is white? Oh geez. Nope, that game is for all kids, buddy. Wow. 

He insists on being a dog. Throw me a goggy snack, mom! Mom, I want you to put my seral (cereal) on the floor so I can eat like a gog. Look, mom, I'm a gog. I'm being really funny, mom. Other favorite phrases of Boston include: You got be kiddin me! What the heck? You are crazy. Ellie, you can not. (Ellie CAN NOT do a lot of things...touch Boston, touch his toys, his juice, his food, etc) Mom, my freakin pants are driving me nuts.(He can't get the button on his jeans snapped after going potty. It 'drives him nuts') Yes SIR! (He calls me sir...i guess i run a tight ship around here!) Welcome lady! (I have no idea where this came from. He'll randomly say it to me and then cracks up for the next ten minutes. I don't get it....) HAPPY BOY! (he yells this when he is in time out and decides he's ready to be happy again) My absolute favorite phrase is when I tuck him in at night after an hour of negotiating. He'll say, "What about hugs and kisses?" After a big squeeze-my-guts-out-hug, and a slobbery kiss, I tell him I love him, and he says, I love you too, mom, have a good night mom. After every mistake I make during the day, at least at the end of it, I know he still loves me. I guess no matter how bad it gets, I can know that the good times out-weigh the bad. Bring on the Three-nager!
(You want to know what he is currently doing as I finish? He is standing half naked with the toilet brush and is banging it on the side of the shower yelling, Drums! Drums! Drums!) 

First Letter to Santa

I held his hand and helped him write out the words.
He came up with everything we wrote!

puppy gog Boston

Didn't say a word...

creepy photo bomb

Look at that innocent face!

Look, socks, mom!

Mom, lets make silly faces

Poor little band-aid burned face

Play-doh with some friends

Fell asleep standing at the door telling me he wasn't tired

Costco buddies!

Halloween Train

Doctors office - double ear infection. Ouch!

Halloween crafts

Matching colors

Baby Marcus - Newest Cousin!

Meet our newest cousin baby Marcus! Born August 11th 2015 to Ashley and Justin. We were watching inside out a few days ago, and Boston said 'that's baby Marcus, mom,' when it shows the baby seeing the parents. Haha!  So fun getting so many cousins to play with!

Thanksgiving