I do It!!

Well we have reached the moment that my mom always said we would reach with Sam. The "I do it" chapter of his sweet little life. My mom & dad say that when I was this age, my favorite words were "I do it all my byself." Well, I am glad that Sam seems to be smarter than his mama:) and is saying not that, but he does have quite a handle on the phrase "I do it." I am so thankful he is independent and eager to explore, learn and experience new things all by himself, but in the same breath it makes me a little sad, that the days of "needing" mama for virutally everything is coming to a close. I mean, trust me, I have plenty of "needing" mama to get me through, but hearing him tell me the words that he would rather do it on his own is surreal. I feel like the last two years have zoomed by. I just didn't think it would come so quickly. But, it's here and it's here in full bloom. Just yesterday morning, he was challenging us about getting into his seat for breakfast and wasn't going to go willingly. Rob and I told him that if he didn't want to eat breakfast joyfully with the rest of the family that he was going to have to sit on the stairs, until he could come back with a "happy heart." Well, this usually works very effectively, but we usually have to place him on the stairs ourselves, but not this "I do it" morning. He looked straight at us and said, "Ok...I do it." He marched his little fanny right over to the stairs by himself to "get it together" all my byself. It actually made me giggle a little and smile at the thought of him wanting to discipline himself. Whatever floats his boat, right?? He waited for us to come get him and talk about the occurence and then he seemed to be fine. He challenges us daily and quite honestly pushes us right up to the edge on patience and keeps me prayerful ALOT. You gotta love the little things!!

And Then There Were POPSICLES!!

This last Tuesday was more like a Monday for so many reasons. For some reason the kids woke up extra early, which kind of seems to get things off to an irregular start and then from there things just got more crazy and chaotic! First I got Katie down for a nap around 9:15 and as soon as Sam and I were getting into our morning activities, we had an entourage of people show up at the house. First it was the power company, who were coming to try and find our electric problem that seemed to buried deep in the earth somewhere, but they didn't know where?? We had been with about 40% voltage power for 5 days or so and they couldn't explain it. After the power company arrived and gave the doorbell a good couple of rings the landscaping crew showed up to figure out why our front sprinkler system keeps flooding, still another unknown problem, that they were going to try and figure out by digging deep in the earth. Oh and by the way, all of this is going on right outside Kate's window. Next, the street cleaners decide today is the day they are going to give our culdesac a good thorough cleaning. They do this by blasting a huge "firefighter" powered hose right onto the pavement to clean off the beautiful red clay that gathers due to all the construction in the neighborhood. By now, I am just waiting for Kate to start crying because it sounds like a war zone in our front yard. Through all of this, Sam and I are outside watching all the big trucks and water flying by. He is loving it:) I don't have power because the power company has shut down all power to look for the problem, so therefore I do not have a monitor to hear if Katie even is crying, so we decide we better head in so we can hear her. Well, about the time we got back in, you guessed it, the doorbell rang again, and YES, I have a very obvious sign on my front door, that says, "Please don't ring bell, Nap in Progress." Doesn't Matter. The power guys says that he is going to turn the power back on and that was great however, I left the lights on in Kate's room so.....Here comes the power and Katie is Up!! Anyhow, this was just the morning and for some reason the rest of the day, just didn't go smoothly or I should say as I would have liked, for those of you who know me and my schedule, you know what I am talking about. As the late afternoon arrived, I could tell that I was going to need to come up with something clever to keep my sanity and keep the kids peaceful. Tuesday nights are Rob's night to go ride his bike, so I decided after an early dinner we would stroll the neighborhood and eat popsicles. Good idea, right?? The kids thought so and that's all that matters, but the mess they made was of massive proportions. I so enjoyed watching their faces and giggling as the popsicle melted all over their hands and as Kate dropped it down her dress. Both of their faces were stained and stayed stained for another 24 hours even after a really good bath. After I hosed them down and the stroller, we had a huge bubble bath, read books and headed straight for bed. They didn't make a peep!! So, when in need of a good laugh and a fun way to pass the time, go straight to the freezer and bring out the Popsicles!!

A Mother's Day So Special...

Learning From Big Brother

I found this picture tonight as I was trying my best to go through the thousands of pictures I have saved over the last few years and get them saved to disc and put away into a safe place. This is truly an undertaking, but I must get started. I just love this picture, because it pretty much says it all...I mean look at the smile that Katie has as Sam is teaching her all about dialing a cell phone!! It is an old phone and no it doesn't work, unless I believe he were to dial 911, but I think we are safe for the moment. We have been astounded the last few weeks at how much Kate is learning from Sam and how much she watches his every move. She mimics his noises, words and actions (some of which are not so cute)...but nonetheless it is amazing how quickly they learn. I am having to be so careful in my disciplining strategies with both of them, because I know that they are both so aware of when the other gets away with something. I really think that Sam gets a real kick out of my saying "no touch" to Kate as she reaches for the dog bowl or starts heading for the stereo receiver. Somewhere in that little mind of his, he is thinking, "I sure am glad it's not me for the moment." He has always been the one who has to put just one finger on something to test the boundaries and from the looks of things, I think that Kate will be giving him a run for his money. I know for a fact, they will both be giving me a run for mine!!