Rj's Celebration of 31 years.

Me:  What do you want to do for your birthday?
Russ:  Absolutely nothing.
Me:  What do you want to eat for your birthday?
Russ:  I do not care.
Me:  Do you want cake, pie, ice cream anything special?
Russ:  Meh.

 I swear,  I'm the freakin birthday queen.  I do not get this ambivalence toward birthday preferences... I mean seriously a whole month/week/day to have the power to dictate what we do, what we eat, what we consumer for dessert.  But I obliged to his desire to not have desires:)  Because that's what he wanted.  I planned NOTHING.  I did post ridiculous and FUN and handsome photos of him for 20 days.  I did enable him to go have real brother time with Will in St. Louis, friend time with good ol' friends from Fairbury days, and more "do whatever you want to do" time.  But I swear this guy is pretty darn easy.  We started this morning with some yummo pancakes and chilling out watching a movie.   Lucky for all of us Russell eventually decided that he wanted to get out of the house today.

So we did our favorite pastime....  hiking.

Aylen was able to hike a bit on his own, which I can't turn my Momma future brain off.  Ohemgee...the hikes we will have with our boys!  the adventures!  the camping!  I can't wait!  We finally got to climb an area we had been admiring for a bit of time now.  It was all going pretty well, until the END.  

Aylen learning why cacti are not good to touch.

Usually when you think of the end it is THE tallest point of the mountain, or just flippin amazing or SOMETHING.  But the end of this was hike was sub par.  I could see it in Russell's eyes.  We had to get to the top of the mountain.  If I know Russell at all, this is the best birthday present.  Going OFF the beaten path, HIKING, finding your way in nature--yes please.  So with a toddler on his shoulders and a baby on my back we found our way down Rabbit Mountain.  A tid nerve-wracking at parts...a little paranoid that I would not only fall and make my baby tumble down with me, but also that I'd land flat on an awesome patch of Cacti that decorated the mountain.  Lucky for all of us we avoided any of those scenarios.  

My reward for conquering the mountain was to go find me some water.  We stopped at this spot in Lyons and it was the perfect end to the perfect day.  Freezing cold water on our feet, amazing sunlight through the trees, and awesome Autumn leaves with the family.

Happy Birthday Russell John. 
Love you like you love Chai right now.

 -Momma 

I seriously have met the SOCK MONSTER.

The one, the only SOCK MONSTER lives in this house.

No joke.

29, can't get enough of EATING socks.  Playing with socks.  Tossing them around.

Watch yo' socks fool around this kid.

Love,

Momma

Aylen's skool

The other night I asked Aylen to come get the mail with me.  Also, I asked him if he would turn on the light for outside since it was really dark.  Immediately, Aylen hollered out, "Skool".  He ran away and I was a little confused.  He showed up with his STOOL aka skool.  He used it to turn on the light for outside.  And then continued to hold it all the way to the mailbox.  It was so freakin cute and funny!  Notice (how could you not) my handsome, shirtless husband :)

I just can't help but hope that Aylen doesn't have the attachment to the "skool" like I had and continue to have.  It's not by accident that we have um like...8 "skools" in this house.  5ft.31/4in. requires some skools use.  Oh and it's not by accident either that I happened to marry a 6ft.2in. man either;)

Love,
Momma

Finding Patience

Oh deary me....the last couple days have been very challenging with Aylen John. He is in the phase of constantly hitting, scratching, tugging, pulling, and slapping Ryker. He has hit him with the flash light, smooshed him countless times and head butted him. It has gotten to the point that I just almost don't trust Aylen around Ryker. I try to stop the behavior before it happens but it is so hard. It usually starts as a sweet hug or sharing a toy.

I have done the 2 minute time out on the stairs, in his room, in the corner. I have talked gently, explained my feelings, tried to articulate Ryker's feelings. I've texted friends and spoke in depth with Russ about it. And early today, I got really frustrated and even angry at Aylen. I had spent some quality one and one time with Aylen this morning and it was like we couldn't catch a break with him. He was in time out more than he was wasn't. I told Russ that I was so completely frustrated. I decided that Aylen need to take a nap, even if it was 2 hours earlier than Normal. After having him try laying down for 15 minutes without him, I went in and rocked him for awhile. His poor eyes had cried so hard they were puffy. He was completely upset about taking a nap. After rocking for a couple minutes, he completely passed out. It's amazing how something so little and precious and can cause so much emotion in me (for the good and for the bad).

As I sit here rocking Aylen for over an hour now (haven't done this in forever) I've been googling the heck out of this. I know that my frustration came out too loud this am. I just felt like nothing was working...and it is my hot button to see others getting hurt. I knew I needed some more options.

So I found these two articles:
http://www.thekidcounselor.com/articles/10-things-not-to-say-to-your-kids
http://www.janetlansbury.com/2012/09/biting-hitting-kicking-and-other-challenging-toddler-behavior

I like them.
Great reminders.

I feel bad raising my voice to Aylen. I also know that we both are learning how this toddler thing is supposed to go.

So here's to us AJ figuring out the road ahead of us...

Love you little guy,
Momma

Come Play with Me...

Oh Aylen John.  Cute, strong willed little man.  He got some grandparent time in this last weekend, and luckily I got myself a NEW camera and had my friend Sarah here to take lots of pics.  So follow us through our weekend....

 BLOCKS...omg.  Parents played this again, and again, and again with Aylen John.

Kinect... Hah!  I got great friends who are willing to look completely goofy and play with me!

Grandpa's Pancakes...finally Ryker was able to enjoy these.  I know he looks like he might not be enjoying them, but it was because Grandma wiped his nose right before the picture.  Seriously, after my Dad retires he will be selling these pancakes in some Bed and breakfast that my parents start in the Mountains.  I know it.

Lucky boys...who have awesome Grandparents that take them swimming for hours at the Rec Center all.by.themselves.

Carousel of Happiness...  I kid you not that is the name of it.  Go there.  Nederland.  You are instantly Happier.

 Ride with Grandma...Ryker rode on Grandma the whole time.  He enjoyed it.  Alot.

Stuck on Grandpa...pretty sure that my Dad left Aylen's side to go to the bathroom, take 1 shower, and sleep at night.  Otherwise they two were stuck together all.weekend.long.  

 

 Meeting Auntie Sarah...finally...it was so great for me to see.  Love these two, and love that they could meet each other.

 Bout time I get treated with respect- Ryker...finally he was trusted enough to be given the Ipad to play with by Grandma.  HE LOVED it. 

 Pancake Helper Extraordinaire...
AJ held the spatula and took extensive notes on how to make the best pancakes in the world.  I have hired AJ to produce these pancakes on Sunday in honor of Russell's birthday.

 Pumpkin Patch Visit...Grandma and Grandpa hooked AJ up with tickets to ride the car ride that he had to get off because it was super duper scary, pumpkins hand picked by AJ, a SUCKER, and lots of fun.

Awesome weekend, it was.  Russ was hanging in St.Louis with Uncle Will which was really nice for the bros to bro it up.  We had such an awesome time here.  

Love me some family and some bffs.
-Momma

SMEK

 This past weekend my best friend Sarah was able to Colorado (big ups to her family and friends who took care of her nieces and nephew).  It was such an important visit because of several reasons.  One reason being that Sarah had yet to meet Ryker.  And being that my best friends that I refer to as SMEK are my sisters, this was a long overdo visit.  Also, my friend Sarah is pretty much the most selfless person you can ever meet and has been going through the rockiest time ever the past few years.  That coincided with me giving birth to AJ, moving to Colorado, starting news job, giving birth to Ryker, etc.  I was always a phone call away, but I felt like  I needed to be by Sarah and give her a hug and take care of her.  Finally, I feel like I was able to do that this past weekend.

Luckily my other best friend Kellen lives near by so she was able to here.  Sadly, our final piece Erin was stuck in Nebraska.  MISS you Ern!  These besties and I have been friends since 6th grade.  We have survived a horrible significant other(s), crazy college times, different morals, different high schools, all of us in 4 different states and at points countries, fights, feelings of massive frustration, other friends, and anything else you can come up with it.  BUT we have conquered all and still remain the best of friends.  I seriously feel so lucky to have these ladies in my life.  We all have lived completely separate lives from each other and built long lasting relationships with other partners and girlfriends, and yet still held on to the amazingness of our SMEK bond.

When we talk to each other, email, write letters, facebook we most always say..MLA.  Kellen and I were discussing this and remembering back to its origin.  Kellen and I had gone to a basketball camp and the coach there was preaching to us the importance of letting family and friends know that you love and appreciate them.  It was one of the stellar speeches that you left feeling like you wanted to climb to the tallest mountain and scream to the world's population that YOU LOVED YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY.  I love you man.  Seriously.  After high school and college we all spread out to various states and even countries.  Kellen attached the M-to LA to signify how much we really did Miss each other!  So now after every call, lots of texts, letters, and emails we let each other know because we do MISS, LOVE, and APPRECIATE each other. I do not know how I would have survived some of my times without my ladies.  MUAH! LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH.  And miss you.  AND Appreciate you!

Love,
Me