25 Things I know about Myself

Okay, I've seen this done on other blogs and thought I would give it a try for myself.

1. I'm 32 years young.
2. I was born in and have lived all my life in California.
3. I am a quarter japanese.
4. I love being outside.
5. I believe in fate and I'm a hopeless romantic. Favorite symbol I wear..a heart.
5. I met my hubby when I was 18. He was my floor RA in my freshman dorm. He was 20.
6. I hate to be hot and I melt in weather over 80.
6. I always lose weight in the summer because I can't eat when it's hot.
7. I love to drink pretty drinks (non-alcoholic or alcoholic)
8. I enjoy being social and being with my family/friends and I also love to be by myself.
9. Pink Tulips are my favorite flower and Lavender is my favorite scent.
10. I live for the beach...the ocean is my calming place.
11. I have a weakness for chocolate especially chocolate chip cookies.
12. I'm totally emotional and incrediably sentimental.
13. Biggest weakness: being overly emotional, procrastination, over reacting and staying motivated to finish a project that I started.
14. Love to read.
15. Not religious but spiritual. I believe in Heaven, life after death, guardian angels and ghosts.
16. Favorite foods: mexican and japanese
17. Favorite vacation involves a beach, good book and a tropical drink. Loved Tahiti. Want to go again.
18. Love all things french. Also loved Paris and would give anything to go again soon.
19. Name of our home...Lavender Creek.
20. Love and hate to fly.
21. Want to visit all 50 states.
22. Lucky number 3, E is my favorite Letter, favorite color is green.
23. Have three amazing Cavalier King Charles Spaniels
24. Love being a mommy and can't wait to bring our daughter home from Russia.
25. Someday I want to learn to sing, cook and sew.

Loving the lazy summer days

I love the summer months. Our routine quickly changes...school is out, hubby being a teacher is off and the schedule has so much room for wiggliness. One afternoon this week we enjoyed hanging out with a dear friend who just recently had her own first little baby boy. Our boys were down for "quiet time" for the hour (since neither naps) which gave us a great relaxing time to sit and chat and enjoy the yummy goodies she brought and to talk about babies, one of my favorite topics before my little monkeys came down.

The weather has been so nice we have been outside a lot...playing in the sprinklers, going for walks around the block, even visiting the park. This past weekend, we had a lovely time visiting the park with friends. I belong to a local playgroup for each of my boys based on age. It's been such a great opportunity to meet friends and talk about all things related to parenting, relationships, you name it. This past Sat one of our playgroups, put on a lovely "Art in the Park" day for all the families. The boys loved the bubbles, and playing with playdough and painting on easels. They even had a light breakfast, an amazing balloon artist, favors for the kids and even a station for getting a tattoo. My nephew is also in the playgroup so we got the extra treat of being with him. He is such a doll, so happy and loving. He is a little under 2 and absolutely adores BW. Whatever BW does his little cousin is right there with him. He discovered holding hands and BW got a real kick out of walking up and down with his younger cousin holding his hand. It was so sweet.

A Fairy Garden is born

The weather has been so beautiful here for the last 3 weeks...summer is really in full swing. The boys and I decided to take a break from unpacking and took a trip to the flower nursery. I wanted to plant an herb garden right outside my kitchen. Well, once at the nursery I spied a mini garden of colorful, beautiful flowers they had set in the middle of the nursery. I couldn't help but admire all the lovely colors and the different heights they had used and how nice it came out. So we decide to add some pretty flowers to our herb garden. We picked out Lavender, Cosmos, Snap dragons, Labilia, Peppermint, Cilantro, Oregeno, and a variety of Basil and some other pretty pink, purple, yellow and white flowers. We also found a beautiful bird house and Bubba picked out a very cute frog made out of broken colorful ceramic tiles to add to the garden.

Since it was too hot to plant when we got home the kids ran through the sprinklers instead and we started planting the garden after dinner. BW was very excited to plant and helped me lay out the flowers and dig the holes. Bubba tired quickly and went off to bed and since it was still light out BW and I stayed out till 8pm to work and then he too went in leaving me to quietly plant in the growing darkness. Which was quite nice. The sky was so clear that night that hubby saw a shooting star or meteor, he's not sure which.

The next morning the boys were so excited to come out and see the finished garden that we didn't eat breakfast until very late that morning. The garden came out splendidly and looked quite right for a fairy. So we set up our beautiful bird house in hopes a fairy will come and help us tend our flowers and have a place to rest when she is tired. The boys everyday go out to water the garden and BW checks the birdhouse to see if he has caught sight of the fairy yet.

What to do.....

Hmmm....what to do when your younger child is clearly giving up his nap but he is so cranky by dinner time that it feels like you want to run screaming from the house rather than sit on pins and needles with a kid who will blow up over the littlest thing. I'm on the fence. BW gave up his nap almost at this age it was really in late Aug/Sept not June. But who is keeping track of these things really? Not me. I thought he was an early exception and was hoping that with Bubba we would at least make it through his 3rd birthday and even longer. Both boys ironically were awesome nappers...3 hours everyday like clockwork right after lunch. I had 3 hours to take a reprieve, get something done...whatever I needed. And then one day no nap and pretty soon it was more no naps during the week then napping. I still put my oldest down for rest time in his room but I'm lucky if he makes it 45 mins before he is downstairs again with me. The thought now of only getting a 45 min break from both is sounding difficult. It's going to be a really hard adjustment for me (can you tell) because I have come to depend on those 3 hour naps for so looong. (whine, whine, whine...I know)

So I'm still trying to be really disciplined and make sure I put Bubba down right after lunch as that is generally when he is the most tired and then if he does take a nap get him up by 3pm so that he will go to sleep by 8pm and not 10pm. Because I have noticed if lately he gets up by 4pm which is what he used to do (1pm-4pm) then he has a hard time falling asleep now at 8pm. Instead he will climb out of bed and turn his light on in his room and talk to himself, play with his stuffed toys, etc. We have a video monitor in the kitchen so we see him when we are doing evening chores and even though he doesn't scream for us to come up I still feel bad that he is awake that long.

Anyone else go through this?? Any other suggestions to try??

Dinner Conversations

I'm easily impressed. We were sitting at the table tonite eating dinner when BW announces his fork is too small and he needs a bigger fork a grown up fork because he is big too...right mom? Absolutely I say. He gets up and goes to the pantry grabs a fork and comes out. He stops and says, "look at that." Pointing to the pantry door (we have a frosted glass pantry door) he says, "did you notice how the color changes on this side of the door?" He opens the door looks on the otherside of the door closes the door and looks on the front side and then looks up at the ceiling. "Notice how the light is hitting the door and changing the color on this side of the door?" In the same moment and out of the blue Bubba holds up his milk and says "milk comes from cows." My hubby (science teacher) nudges me...he's talking about refracted light...very impressive. I reply..."yeah but Bubba knows milk comes from cows.. who taught him that?...my 2 year old is a genius."

It's been a long time

Where has the time gone?? These past few months have been busy with packing, finishing up another year of preschool and moving. Yes...we have moved. It's been a long road....18 months of decisions but finally our home is finished!! We spent memorial day weekend in our new home. The boys and our dogs are adjusting very well. No problems at bedtime..no waking up in the night. Now me on the other hand...I was so exhausted from moving all day that my legs were restless and I was overtired but very wound up and throw in new mattresses and I was having a very hard time unwinding. I remember sitting on my bedroom floor in the dark while my hubby snored thinking I would give anything to sneak downstairs, get in my car and drive the few blocks to my old house to crawl into my old bed (still set up) and go to sleep. Ugh!

The next morning I asked Boy Wonder what he thought of his new home and he said he loved it. Loved the new big backyard, his new room..it is all his favorites. I then asked Bubba how he liked his new room and he said, "I want to go home." I hear ya kid. But it's been 2 weeks now and we are slowly getting back into our routine and our things are slowly finding their place here and we are settling in.