Rediscovering

This has been a great week full of fun and activity. And somewhere in the midst of that, I have had the luck and blessing to rediscover why I love being a mom. Yes, I admit-- I have always found myself somewhere in the middle of loving my life as a mom and being completely frustrated, which I'm sure is true of many moms. I completely love and appreciate my boys, but I was often confronted with a complete lack of patience, creativity, and energy. Not all of the time, but enough for it to always bother me.

Somehow, in someway, all of that has changed this week. I am always grateful for my month as a stay at home mom, but part of me always dreaded it, too. Not because I didn't want to spend time with them, but because I had no idea what to do with all of our time. It would completely overwhelm me. Suddenly, I am full of ideas, full of energy, and totally loving every second of what we have done this week. Maybe it comes from finding happiness and not living with a sense of frustration for past mistakes and lost dreams, or maybe it comes from finally finding confidence in what I can do as their mother. Either way, it is the best gift I could receive. I feel like I have rediscovered my boys and figured out a little more of how to do this mom thing a little better.

Now. We are off to the park. :)

How I Made a Garbage Truck

It was fun building a garbage truck! We had to screw a lot of stuff together. Here is the movie I made! by Pacey

Gagey-isms

Gage is a master at saying words the wrong way, and I am always saying I need to write them down in his baby book. I'm sure there are a few in there, but I figure this is a good place to record his own renditions of words. I have probably let him say them the wrong way for way too long, and Jon is making me correct him since he is going to kindergarten (the picture is of him at registration) in the fall. He should probably learn the right way. I think it is me holding on to one of the last threads of his "babyhood." He is growing up! And some of these are already fixed-- no need to worry.

Okay, so here's the list. I will remember what I can now, and then update as he "mis-speaks." :)

fra-ssert=dessert
fra-mote=remote
wabanna=banana and has recently morphed into bee-anna
squib=squid
My heart is beeping.=My heart is beating.
hook=hood
gwub=glove
plugger=the electrical plug on an item or the actual outlet
boice=voice
ca-no-ca-nut=coconut
ba-na-hind=behind

Just writing these down made me laugh out loud!

New Family Challenges

It has been interesting over the last 10 months since we have all been living together to see what it is going to take to figure out this blended family thing and how to do it well. We were talking just last night about how we didn't realize just how hard it would really be. I think we both knew it would be challenging, but until you really get into the thick of it, I don't think you could really imagine just how challenging.

I can see how, if we just blindly went through it, things could get really messy pretty quickly. Pacey and Gage are still so small and need so much hands-on parenting that if we both went along according to our own agenda with them, they would be confused and we would both be frustrated. What I have liked is that we have stayed pretty aware of what is going on. If something does not work well with the way we handle things with all three of the kids, we have talked about it and worked together to figure out how to better handle situations. I like that we are co-parenting and communicating. I think that will make this a fulfilling challenge, rather than one that makes us want to bang our heads against the wall. Or we may still bang our heads against the wall, but at least we would be working together. :)

Gage and His iPod

I couldn't resist getting a clip of the sweetly singing Gage this morning. My goal this summer is to update this blog more frequently and make it more of a habit. Enjoy!

December Wintergreen Trip

I know this is a little late, but in December we took all three kids to Wintergreen.  After an event-filled 35 minute drive from the hotel to the resort, which included several stops along the mountain roads, one of which included Pacey throwing up, we spent a few hours in the morning tubing, which for the boys, was the hit of the day.  Gage was not interested in learning to ski, but Pacey and I took a snowboarding lesson together.  He was quite brave and picked it up pretty quickly!  We learned a bit about taking small ones skiing/snowboarding, but in all, it was a great day.  We came home exhausted and happy with lots of stories to tell... "Remember when we had to stop along a curvy mountain road in Charlottesville, so Pacey could throw up at the end of someone's driveway?" Ya, I'm sure that will be part of family folklore for many years to come!  

Check out the pictures in Picasa.

And here is a sample video of tubing.

Pacey's Bike Riding Adventure

Since the weekend was so nice, I decided it was finally time to get the training wheels off of Pacey's bike and get him up on two wheels.  With the promise of a new bike, he was ready to go. I took the training wheels off, and with two quick times across the front yard with me holding the seat he was off and on his own.  By the end of the day Sunday, he was doing "tricks" and taking his feet off of the pedals.  Sigh.  :)  So shortly into the future, we will be bike shopping! Enjoy the video!