Month: April 2007

About halfway through his 2 minute time-out, Logan started to get more worked up than usual. I didn’t think much about, and I didn’t go check on him. I always set the timer for 2 minutes and then ignore him until it beeps. My attention loving boy hates to be ignored, so it’s pretty effective. I walked into the dining room after his time ended, and that is what I found. I started cracking up, despite his pathetic cries. I told him not to go anywhere (I think he was thinking, “duh, mom. I’m stuck!”) And I took some pictures. My boy is a monkey even during timeout!

To answer some of your questions in the comments…

Staci asked “have y’all found a church that you love yet?” Yes, we have! We feel so incredibly blessed to have found it. I blogged about driving past it back in October, and we have been going there ever since. We placed membership (well, I guess not officially since I haven’t turned in the little form, but we are going to) and we really feel at home there. God is so good!

Juli Beth asked, “So, is it a frequent thing that you get complaints from your home owner’s association?” Ha! I would like to say no…and I guess it really depends on your definition of frequent. Let’s just say that we have had complaints for our yard-when we moved in, there was a big dead spot that we had to resod. Then, we got a complaint when our tree was trimmed to only 7 feet instead of 8. They are a little bit psycho. One neighbor got a letter about their bird house.

And JB asked if we are coming to the PRCC reunion. Right now, we aren’t planning on it. April is really busy for us, and it falls on the weekend following my dad’s trip to the states. But, we might be convinced to go if we thought enough other people were going.

Maggie asked, “okay so you are a WAY nicer mom than I am… what is with the gloves???” Cindi actually hit the nail on the head-he was an astronaut. He also wanted his jacket and a maroon toboggan hat, but I drew the line there, but I decided the gloves were not worth the fight. Oh, and that is his NASA backpack I made him for Halloween, so he was in full astronaut mode that morning. He is a crazy imaginative (and very strong-willed) boy. Choose your battles….choose your battles…that’s my mantra a lot of days!

We had a really fun Easter weekend! Derek’s parents arrived on Friday evening to spend the weekend with us. When they got here, we put them right to work. Our yard was in serious need of attention (so much so that we got a notice in the mail from our homeowners association…which is actually nothing new for us.) Derek and his dad did yard work on Friday evening while Janelle and I planned our big project for the weekend…painting the boys’ room!

Saturday morning was…well, cold. I really wanted it to snow here, but it wasn’t quite that cold. It sure did feel like winter though! Reggie and Derek took the boys down to our neighborhood park for the easter egg hunt. They had a great time! They each have their own way of hunting eggs. Logan likes to open them up first to see if he likes the candy inside. Connor is very particular about his eggs-he will trip over them because he has his eyes on one particular egg across the way.

The boys waiting for the hunt to begin.

The boys after the hunt.

After that, Derek and Reggie took the boys to NASA-no pictures from that little adventure, but as always they had a great time.

All the while, Janelle and I worked on the room. First, we painted two coats of asparagus green on the upper half of the walls (the bottom half was already green.) Then we took a lunch and Lowe’s break to get the rest of the paint. We had the guys help us a little to get everything “squared” away….pun intended…and this is what we did!

I love it so much! As far as I can tell, the boys love it, too. Connor gave me a spontaneous hug and told me it was for painting his room so nice. Of course in the next breath he said he wanted another border on his wall…remember what he did to the last one? No way will I ever make that mistake again!

Anyway, more pictures of the room.

I spy a kid…

The finished product called from some paint ballet.

This morning we went to church, finished up painting, had a yummy ham lunch, and said goodbye to Reggie and Janelle. It was a really fun and busy weekend! Happy Easter!

The Scene:
The boys and I are in the backyard. I decide to grab my camera and snap some pictures of the boys. The boys decide to play with easter eggs in the sandbox.

“Logan, do NOT throw that egg at mommy, please.”

And this is the look he gives me.
“aw, ma. Don’t worry. I was just messin’ with ya.”

He makes is hard to discipline, because he is always giving me that look when he knows he’s up to something.

When I was a kid, one of the things I most looked forward to was the freedom of being a grown up. I couldn’t wait for the day that I could buy my own Lucky Charms, eat sweets at any time, drink as many Coke’s as I wanted, stay up as late as I wanted, and go to the gas station car wash

In some ways, all my grown up dreams have come true. I did buy Lucky Charms the other day. I try to keep them hidden from the kids, partly because, just like my mom, I don’t want them eating sugar for breakfast. But mostly because I love them so much and I want them all. I drink one coke or less a day, but occasionally I feel like drinking two and I do. Just this morning I had a sliver of a chocolate brownie for breakfast along with my Lucky Charms and coffee. For the past two weeks I have been staying up until midnight. I always regret it the next morning, but I do it anyway.

And that leads me to the gas station car wash.

I loved going through those as a kid, but it only happened a handful of times during my childhood. I am pretty sure my mom lost a side mirror in one of those, and plus they are sort of expensive and really don’t do as good of a job. But that didn’t squelch my love for the big, blue brush, the foamy soap, the super powered jets and dryer, and the confusion of trying to figure out if the car is moving or the brushes are moving.

Now that I am a grown up, I indulge in the gas station car wash. It’s not like I go all the time-maybe once every two months or so. Connor loves it just as much as I do. Logan, on the other hand, is not so fond of the car wash. The first time we went through, he cried some. Nothing too major, I just talked to him, rubbed his leg, and tried to keep him from getting too hysterical. The second time he went, he cried a little harder, with more “I really don’t like this” urgency. The third time-ok, I know you all are wondering why I took him through it a third time. This is over a span of the past six months. And I really thought if he just went a few more times, he would realize that nothing is going to happen. Anyway, the third time, he started crying in the line. He was hysterical. I even tried taking him out of his carseat to hold him, but that just made him even madder. It was seriously so sad, and I felt horrible that I took him through there for a third time. Now the car wash indulgence will be reserved for only Connor and I.

The other night, we went to the gas station for gas only. We decided to go to Sonic for some dinner. Sonic and the gas station are right next to each other, and you have to drive through the parking lot, right past the car wash to get to sonic. Logan started to get a little stressed, and we all assured him he weren’t going to the car wash. We pulled into our spot at Sonic, and Logan freaked out. He was absolutely hysterical and inconsolable. After several minutes, we got him calmed down and figured out that he thought we were at the car wash!

I have officially scarred kid for life.
I wonder if his car wash panic attacks will continue into adulthood, just like my car wash love spanned my lifetime.