My Favorite Time of Day

I'm a night owl. I just can't make myself go to bed early when there are so many things that I can do when I finally have some time to myself. However, once I finally do get to bed I love sleeping in and since sleeping in isn't possible very often, I've never been much of a morning person.

I've always been a little tired and grouchy in the mornings. My morning grumpiness even earned me the nickname "Hornet" from the time I was a little girl until I graduated from high school. My dad would always say that it was best to avoid me any time before 10 am.

However, mornings are now my favorite time of day.


See my little tiny share of the bed between the boys?

Mornings are for fuzzy baby hair and rumpled bed head.


Holden always wakes up with fuzzy hair and reminds me of a little baby bird :)

Mornings are for excited babbling and brothers "wrestling"



Mornings are about hugs and smiles and cuddles.



For my little guys mornings are all about the possibilities that each new day holds. They always wake up with big smiles, eager to start the day. It's a precious time and I'm going to enjoy it. With or without sleep.

Shopping With The Boys

Normally, I don't take the boys to the mall. We usually stick to Safeway or Target and that's a chore that I never really look forward to! On the rare occasions that we do end up at the mall, I would never even think about trying anything on. Well, this evening I was reminded why that is.

The boys and I are in Tennessee right now and I agreed to take my 11 year old sister to the mall while our mom was getting her hair done. The boys were great while we ate dinner in the food court. Then Aiden got a little wild, running through a department store while pushing Holden in the stroller, making up karate type dances to music playing in the shoe store and then Holden started screaming to be held...

With my sister pushing Aiden in the stroller and me carrying Holden on my hip, it was calm enough for me to think that it might be a good idea to try on some cute summer dresses at Wet Seal.

All four of us filed into a dressing room and it started out really well. Mandy held Holden and Aiden sat quietly on the bench. It wasn't until I was trying on the last dress, that Aiden got bored. That's when he decided to open the dressing room door and scream,

"Look at my mommy! She's NAKED! Look at my NAKED mommy!!!"

I peered out the door and there were 2 teenage boys sitting outside the dressing rooms. My sister started cracking up. This made Aiden laugh and he kept shouting for everyone to look at his naked mommy.

Just to state a fact. I was never naked in the dressing room. And when he was yelling that I was, I was still wearing the dress that I had been trying on. I don't think I will be trying on anything else unless someone is watching the boys outside the dressing room!

Who wouldn't want to go shopping with these little guys?!

A Little Bit of CUTEness

I know that my pictures are a little bit repetitive, but I just LOVE how much my boys like being with one another.

I knew that Aiden was going to be a great big brother from the moment I told him that he was going to have a little brother or sister. He's always been such a sweet little boy. He told me this morning, "Did you know that I'm a helper? It's my job to help people. I will help Holden with anything that he needs." Precious.



Aiden adoring Holden



Holden adoring Aiden



I love these boys!

Things Are Getting Ready to be a Lot More Interesting

Look who is staring to crawl!



I sat Holden on the floor with some toys while I made breakfast for Aiden this morning. One of the toys he wanted was a litte out of reach and he managed to get onto his knees and crawl a few paces to get it. But then he wasn't sure what to do because he hasn't learned to get back into a sitting position from his stomach.

Holden seemed pretty proud!



Aiden was so excited. He shouted, "Mommy! Holden just crawled!" and he spent the rest of the day trying to teach him how to crawl faster. It was precious.

Slugs and Slime

I recently found out about a nature center near us that offers weekly activities for preschoolers. As soon as I saw the Slugs and Slime program I knew that Aiden would love it.

This was our first program at this nature center so I had no idea what to expect. When we got there, our group of about 12 children and 8 parents was led into a classroom. Everyone sat on the floor around the instructor who showed us some different slimy creatures and explained why they were slimy. All of the children were able to hold worms, look at fish, and pet a tree frog. When the teacher asked questions, I was so surprised (and very proud) that Aiden wasn't too shy to call out the answers.

After we listened to a book about a silly slug, we went for a half mile hike in the woods to look for slimy creatures. The kids were all so excited to find big "juicy" worms under rocks and logs and took turns passing them around.





When we went back into the classroom, each child was given two cups which the instructor filled with two different types of liquid (polyvinyl alcohol and borax).



They poured both cups into a ziplock baggie, mixed the liquid together, and instantly had a bag of their own slime to take home!



Aiden loved his slime!



I loved how this nature center was set up. It is very child friendly and the staff really wants to get all of the children involved. We had a really good time, got some exercise, and learned a little bit too!

An Interview With Aiden

I'm slowly trying to catch up with my blog reading and I saw this cute little interview on Mel's blog (We both have May 2006 babies) and wanted to share what Aiden had to say.

Aiden's First Interview:

What is something that mommy always says to you?
Go to the bathroom.

What makes mommy happy?
When I be nice.

What makes mommy sad?
Going to Ari's house. (Last night Aiden was really upset when I told him that it was bedtime. He told me that he wanted to go live with his friend Ari and her mommy. I spent a couple of minutes explaining how sad that made me.)

How does mommy make you laugh?
Tickle me.

How old is your mommy?
A million or four.

How tall is your mommy?
14. (That's his favorite number right now.)

What is your mommy really good at?
Cooking.

What does your mommy do for a job?
Stay home with us.

What is mommy's favorite food?
Chicken. Um.. no. I mean shrimp. (We've been eating at Buffalo Wild Wings a lot lately and he knows that's my favorite food but recently he's started asking to go to Red Lobster and he's trying to remind me how much I like shrimp!)

What makes mommy proud of you?
Being good.

How do you know your mommy loves you?
I just know because you're my goodest mommy ever. Do you know that?

Where is mommy's favorite place to go?
You want to go to Red Lobster. Do you? (We're taking him to eat at Red Lobster on his birthday.)

Let's Try This Again....

Things have been crazy around here lately and I've been so overwhelmed that just the thought of blogging has seemed like a chore. I was trying so hard to follow all of the blogging rules: making sure I had something written everyday, posting at the same time every day, etc. that I got completely burned out. So after this super long break I've decided to come back and blog without worrying about all the "rules".

So why have things been crazy?

Well #1: I was supposed to be getting my masters degree this weekend. And that's not happening. It's too much drama to get into but hopefully everything will work out and I will finish in August. I'm really bummed about the whole situation...

And then there's Holden. He is absolutely adorable and I love him to pieces but he is such a handful. He and Aiden (when he was a baby) are like night and day.

• Holden will be 8 months old on May 8 and he still isn't sleeping through the night. On good nights he only gets up twice but at least twice a week he's up 4 or 5 times... I'm exhausted!

• Holden still isn't eating baby food... I've tried rice cereal, oatmeal, bananas, apples, pears. Nothing. He swallows the first bite and then spits every other bite out. I got this pamphlet in the mail the other day saying that it's time to add more texture to his food. His pediatrician assured me that he was getting everything he needs from breastfeeding, but I can't help worrying a little.

• Holden got his first two teeth at the same time on April 15. And he has been biting me like crazy! And not just little nips. He actually draws blood. I cringe the entire time I'm feeding him. He refuses to take a bottle and he won't eat food so I don't really know what to do.
  

Being a stay at home mom is so much harder than I had imagined, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. And as crazy as things can get sometimes I feel really lucky that I am able to spend this much time with my boys.