Saturday, January 30, 2010

This is Why Some Mothers Eat Their Young

There is no way to prepare for motherhood. You can have all the babysitting experience, you can read all the books, but in the end no amount of babysitting or book reading can really teach how to be a mom. Nothing can ever prepare you for the absolute, intense, jump in front of a bus, hold yourself back from possibly hurting the other kid in church nursery for making your kid cry, irrational crazy love you will experience. And no one can also help you understand the all I want to do is get my kids to do normal activities like sleep through the (flippin') night, wear pants, choose a snack or let me go to the bathroom by myself with out an absolute fit (either by them or me). No one can tell you that you will uncontrolablly love your kids and then at the same time they may literally drive you nuts. And on any given day you will probably feel both emotions, most likely back to back.
In my house we have hit a great stage. Luke is crawling, he loves to sit and play with blocks and his trucks, and he jabbers all the time. He loves to dance and sing and if he is fussy while you change his diaper or you're trying to give him the last few bites of food, you simply have to sing the ABC's or Twinkle Twinkle or just belt out La La La and he is mesmerized. Harper loves to pretend, either by dressing up and having a tea party or by simply telling you a little story about her "pet" mouse or bunny or birdie. She is extremely vocal; she loves to talk and sing (she basically runs a commentary on her daily activities). She is independent; she want to dress herself and "choose" everything, from what barrette she'll wear to what snack she'll eat.
What all this means on a day to day basis: Luke is into EVERYTHING! And he is a fast little thing. He particularly likes to pull and chew on cords and remote controls. He is very loud (something he learned from his sister) and he hasn't quite learned the sitting to crawling move, so when he's tired of sitting he fusses until someone moves him to his belly, or he falls backwards hitting his head which leads to crying. Harper, although she likes to choose, can not make a decision. It takes minutes and minutes and most likely some crying to decide her outfit for the day or the video she wants to watch, really everything. She is also very loud and she talks about everything. Her favorite questions these days are "What are you doing?" or "What happened?" and she will ask you these two questions repeatedly, even if given an answer, she'll continue to ask, and ask, and ask. Oh did I mention she is really stubborn? She actually turned down M&M's the other day simply on principle because she wanted to eat them out of the bag and I wanted to put them in a snack cup.
SO like I said before; uncontrollable love and total irritation.
My two silly kids.
They are seriously funny. I laugh at both of them daily.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

The Many Sides of Harper

Somewhere in the last few months of craziness my Harper has become a little girl. She is sweet and silly and crazy. She loves to play and pretend, and joke. She is the coolest 2 year old ever. Once again I totally recognize that I am completely biased.
Our little girl in her new favorite skirt from Uncle Ty and Auntie Claire.

Screaming. She is very loud.
SUPER excited about her new Dora the Explorer back pack, Dora and Boots dolls.
Dressing up in her Grammy's boots
On her birthday

My Deej!

Harper is obsessed with her uncle DJ. From the moment he walks in the door she is wrangling him into playing hide-and-seek, pushing her on the swing, coloring, reading books, watching a movie with her, etc., etc., etc. Amazingly, D.J. complies. Not only does he comply, but he buys her movies and then comes over on a Saturday morning to watch them with her. He comes by on his lunch break when he hasn't seen her in a few days, just to say "hi." They love each other. It is terribly cute and wonderful to see.




Totally biased, but...





I know that everyone believes that their kids are wonderful and adorable and blah, blah, blah, but seriously, I might have the most beautiful boy in the world.

Friday, January 8, 2010

Have you seen St. Louis?

We've been traveling. A lot. Starting at the end of June we went to Denver to celebrate our cousin, Nicole's wedding, our brother Zach's wedding and so Jeff could study and take his Step II Boards. We were there 5 weeks. After returning to Saint Louis for only a few weeks, the kids and I left for the OC (that's Orange County, California) to meet my new Nephew, Rex Elias who was born August 10th and to have some good hang out time with the fam. Once again, we returned, but only for a week or so and then left again for Denver, to stay for another month while Jeff did an away rotation at CU Denver. At the end of this time the kids and I once again boarded a plane and flew to California (Fresno this time) to watch my beautiful friend Jill get married. While I went to the wedding Grandma Karen, Papa Dean and Aunt Lyn took the kids "Trick or Treating." Harper was an elephant, Luke was a fish. We came back to St. Louis, but of course left within a couple of weeks to go to Denver, so Jeff could have his first two interviews for Residency (General Surgery). The first at CU Denver and then at St. Joe's Hospital. We celebrated Thanksgiving with the family and then Jeff and I headed off to Minnesota to attend his next two interviews at the Mayo Clinic and University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. It was a great time together (kid free, thank you to my wonderful Mom in law who watched our kids for a couple days!). I then came back to Denver while Jeff went off to do more interviews. When interviews were over (for the moment) we met back up in St. Louis; where we "lived" for 10 days until our holiday travels began. Once again, I was off to Denver with the kids (Luke has been on more planes than most adults) and Jeff was off to interviews; first to Wake Forest in North Carolina and then off to Cleveland Clinic. Jeff met us in Denver and the following day we left for California. We spent Christmas with my mom, sisters and many kids under the age of 6! And despite a few toys Harper received with way too many pieces (thank you mom and Dean!) Christmas was wonderful. We returned to Denver on the 28th and spent New Year's with the Van Eps. We FINALLY came home on the 4th and we have absolutely NO plans to leave again until we know where we are moving to for these next 5-7 years. So, if you would like to visit us, come on by 4421 Miami St...we WILL be home!