I promise, most days of the challenge won’t be sporting two blog posts, but I wanted to go ahead and put up the end of today’s video and… my boys have news as well.
The boys got awards today!
Zach got Most Improved and his class voted on awards and he got Most Compassionate, Most Likely to be Injured or Bruised, and History Lover. Ryan got an award for having the highest Math scores in his class.
I’m feeling super proud of my big boys at the moment.
Edit like this… is a set of simple picture only photo editing tutorials. If you need something more clearly explained, or you have a question feel free to comment with it. I used Photoshop CS3 to complete this edit.
Of course Ryan has to be difficult.
Our house came down with a stomach bug last week. Everyone got sick. It was… gross. Ryan however did not. Ryan, who has the constitution of an ox, generally does not catch most sickies that the rest of us get, so I figured we were all good now.
Oh no. Ryan just wanted his own sick time it seems. I got called Wednesday afternoon to come and get him from school. He had already thrown up twice, and then he threw up two more times while I was waiting on him. The nurse told him just to leave all his stuff in his class, she’d rather he didn’t walk all the way back across the school to get it. Got the boy home – no more pukes, or sick feelings AT ALL. Yet, since he got sent home for throwing up he couldn’t go back yesterday. Yesterday, with a bored Ryan, was a very, very long day.
Spencer is my younger brother, and Mason is named after him as a nod to their almost shared birthdays; March 23rd and 25th. I told him if Mason was a boy they could share middle names, I kinda didn’t think I’d actually get lucky enough for another boy. But nope. He’s a boy. He has all the parts to prove it.
You might be wondering how one can be a “Spencer,” please, let me explain.
As a baby, toddler, young child (lets be honest, he’s 20 and this still applies) Spencer was the child you weren’t expecting. Cute, chubby cheeks, sweetest little angelic smile, loving, and could destroy a room in under two minutes all while laughing and saying he loves you. But no, there’s more. Even little he looked for adventure and had to explore everything. And touch everything. And taste everything. Sweetest child ever, but you couldn’t have him out of your sight for a second or all heck would break loose. (If you’re curious how I know all of this – I’m six years older than Spencer)
Inspired by this pin:
After Pablo Picasso's "Hands with Bouquet" – Artrageous Afternoon
Bella and I were scrolling through Pinterest one day last week when we saw that pin and Bella decided that she just had to make it. Well, I couldn’t help her do a craft for ME so we decided to make it for my mom from her and Mason. Here’s our spin on it.
We stuck with supplies that we had sitting around the house. For the hands/arms we used brown paper bags and colored pencils. They’re held down with double sided tape and some Elmer’s Craft Bond glue. The background is glossy heavy picture printer paper painted with the only three paint colors I could find (yellow, white, and red). The flowers were made from scraps of silver wrapping paper and pink tissue paper glued down to circles of cardstock. Then they got a coating of gold and clear glitter spray paint. (The background also got a coating of clear glitter spray paint) The stems of the flowers were made with green plaid washi tape I had laying around. The frame had been sitting packed away forever. The flowers are held down with hot glue on the background and where they meet with the frame.
My mom loved it and said that it is very “Bella-esque.”
Feel free to pin this: http://pinterest.com/pin/177540410282910837/
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Sometimes being a mom is hard.
When you have to deal with four puking kids, laundry, dinner, & cleaning the house on two hours of sleep the night before it seems even harder. When you have to comfort one child, while cooking, cleaning dishes, and trying to keep the crying baby who so wants to be held happy, then it can just feel impossible. At moments like this all I want is for my kids to at least be big enough to help or keep themselves happy for just five dang minutes.
Then I have to remind myself that I shouldn’t be wishing this time away. They won’t be little forever. It’s at times like that that I have to sit and remind myself of all the great small things about being a mom. Not the cleaning up one year old pukes. But the way that Mason only really quiets when upset by nursing and having his fingers jammed into my mouth. The way that Bella comes and gets into bed with me every morning and the very first thing that she does is rub her cold feet on me to warm them up. How Zach still lets me climb into his bed at bedtime. The way he’ll hold me close and tell me about his day. How there is nothing Ryan loves more than to cuddle on the couch and watch Merlin or Doctor Who with me.
For some time, they’re going to think that they are too big for all of that. I know that deep down they won’t ever be too big for that, but I also know that that phase will one day happen, and even though I know it won’t last forever it’ll still break my heart a little each day.
So today I will take the hard and sometimes frustrating little things that go with these kids, because when these little things pass it’ll be much too late.
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