Kids Say...

Corinne has been potty-trained since she turned two. Lately she has been wetting her pants a little on a pretty regular basis.

Me: "Corinne, why are you tee-teeing in your pants? That's what babies do. Two-years olds don't tee-tee in their pants, so why do you?"

Corinne: "Because I'm three."

Guess I should have specified that they don't tee-tee in their pants either.

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Nolan asked me a while back if the beach was real. That prompted me book us a beach trip asap. In October, we pull into the condo we rented in Isle of Palms, SC and the kids anxiously get out of the car and head to the door. Nolan walks straight in and opens the sliding door and walks out onto the balcony overlooking the ocean. He spreads his arms wide, lifts his chin up and says, "Hellllllllll-O California!" I feel quite certain that he thinks that is where we were for the next 3 days. :)

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Corinne was going through this little dollar store board book that has tons of animals in it. She was asking me about what each animal "does".

Rin: "Mom, what does this lion do?"

Me: "He roars and he can claw and bite you."

Rin: "Mom, what does this crab do?"

Me: "He can pinch you."

We get to a picture of a wolf and Corinne's eyes get really big and she gets a very serious look on her face. "That's a wolf... he blows houses down."

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Nolan: "Mom, if you die when I'm 6, I can drive your car around because I know how to drive... and I could use all of your credit cards. Wouldn't that be awesome?!?"

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I told Landry we need to name our owl. She said, "I did. His name is Mr. Hooters. You know, after the restaurant."

We have since changed his name to Bobby... Bobby Hooters.

Corinne is 3!!!

This post is long overdue. Corinne has been 3 for almost two months now. Unfortunately, our computer is so packed with photos and videos that we can't upload any new ones. I spend a good bit of time sifting through the photos on the computer and trying to weed them out without getting too sentimental. It is kind of ridiculous, really. I will have about 12 shots of the same activity, each shot only slightly different than the one before, but I still can't manage to whittle it down to just the best 2 or 3 of the bunch. Ok, on with the birthday story!

This year we decided that instead of spending $300 on a birthday party that only lasts 2 hours, we would spend $300 on a family event that lasted an entire day. We headed up to Great Wolf Lodge in Concord, NC. If you aren't familiar with GWL, it's and indoor water park attached to a Disney-like hotel. Since we are only 25 minutes away, it is advertised ALL of the time on TV here. So, the kids were completely familiar with it before we ever stepped foot on the property. When we told them we were going, they were all beyond thrilled and woke-up every morning with "Is today the day we are going to Great Wolf Lodge?" Most of the time the answer was no. On the day that we finally said "YES", the kids were on cloud 9. Unfortunately I won't have any pictures to show you from this fun outing b/c I didn't want to bring my big SLR camera inside of a water park to be left unattended for several hours. Instead, I decided to break out my old digital camera. After taking two pictures with it I quickly remembered why I don't use it anymore. Someday I will take the time to try to transfer those pictures to my computer... when I can part with the pictures that are taking up all the space. (We have two external hard drives, but for some reason it's just hard for me to part with the original ones.)

We had a fabulous time swimming and sliding and jumping and getting huge buckets of water poured on us. For a break we went to Concord Mills and let Corinne pick out some birthday presents from the Disney store, including a back pack and lunch bag for school (sniff, sniff). After that we got some yogurt from Yogurt Mountain. I have never seen so many toppings for yogurt. They even had Fruity Pebbles!!! We were all pretty tired by the time we got back to the lodge, but we told the kids we would go back to the park and we did! We closed it down at 9 and had a great time doing it. :) We got there when it opened the next morning and were worn out by lunch. The kids have asked to go back several times since we went. It was truly a great way to spend time with our family.

Since Corinne didn't have a party, my friend wanted to know if I wanted to invite a few people to her neighborhood pool in honor of Corinne's birthday. Of course, this turned out to be a real-deal birthday party. I just couldn't resist. Corinne ended up celebrating her birthday for at least a full week. She still says, "Are we going to my birthday party again today?" I wish we appreciated the gift of a birthday as we are getting older as we did when we were kids...

Corinne, I love you more every single day. Your personality has really bloomed in these past 6 months. I love your bear hugs and sweet kisses on the cheek. I love that you make me give you 3, then 5, then 7 hugs and kisses every night. I cringe at your independence because I know that in a blink of the eye you will be heading off to kindergarten... then high school... then college. You are the baby of our family and, as much as you insist that you are my "BIG girl", you will ALWAYS be my baby girl. I love, love, love you. -Mom

Kids Say...

My kids go to a Christian school and they start each day with the Bible. Nolan is soaking up so much and often uses the lesson from that day to help him work out certain frustrating situations. As he's talking it out, he usually begins with "The Bible says..." Lately he seems to be rewriting the Bible and is making me wonder if we should get a tuition refund. Here are two of Nolan's "Bible verses".

"The Bible says, 'Only listen to God and your mom and dad. Never listen to childrens, girls, or people who bully you up and hit you.' Matthew 6:26"

"The Bible says, 'Santa is real, you just can't see him because he comes when you are sleeping.' Matthew 20:80:60"

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We spent Easter with the in-laws this year. The kids love this because there are always several egg hunts that go on when we are there. This year we even went to Brian's parents' church and hunted eggs there. Each child came back with a basket over-flowing with plastic eggs. When we went to pack everything up to head home, the baskets (still filled with eggs) got put on top of all of our other luggage. We stopped at our favorite produce stand on the way home to pick-up some strawberries. Brian opened the back of the van and out came two of the baskets and all of the eggs they were holding. Pastel eggs were rolling all over the parking lot as Brian and two other men at the produce stand went chasing after them. Landry, sitting in the third row seat, looked out her window and let out a huge laugh. "Looks who's having an Easter hunt now, Dad!"

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A couple of days ago Nolan actually ate all of his lunch without complaint. Then he drank his whole cup of juice. He was looking a little queasy and lethargic. He took his shirt off and came over to me rubbing his distended belly. "Look, Mom. My belly is getting big......... like Dad's." When Brian came home Nolan told him that soon they would be able to "bump bellies". :)

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Nolan is the Big 0-5!

It's funny how an hour can creep by but 5 years seems to escape in a millisecond. Nolan turned 5 in April and it was a little strange for me. The only thing I can figure out is that I equate "little ones" with being under 5... pre-Kindergarten. The week leading up to Nolan's big day, it occurred to me that 2 out of 3 of my children weren't so "little" anymore. As much as I love and appreciate the gift of their growth, I also yearn to slow it down for a moment.

Turning 5 was nothing but sweetness for Nolan. He was so excited that he pretty much told every stranger we encountered that his birthday was around the corner and he was "going to be 5 already". In fact, we had his birthday party 5 days before his actual birthday, which obviously means he got 5 extra days of being 5. Our conversations went a little like this:

Me: "Nolan, you're not quite 5 yet bud. You won't be 5 until your actual birthday."

Nolan: "Why did I have a party if I'm not 5? I'm 5."

Point taken. He won that argument. Mom dried up her tears and relented to the fact that her "baby boy" was now 5.

Nolan's party of choice was a basketball party. When asked what all he wanted to do at his basketball party, he answered, "play basketball". I admit, that was a little bit of a dumb question. I just couldn't picture a lot of 4 and 5 year olds playing basketball for two hours. Thankfully I wrong. They loved it! Of course, there was a lot of freeze tag, freeze dance, pin the tail on the donkey, and some plain ol' running all over the place too, but mostly basketball. He scored some great gifts, including a Nintendo DSi XL. I'm embarrassed to say that I like it as much as he does. Glad they didn't have those when I was a kid or I would have been very unproductive.

On Nolan's actual birthday, he got to bring a snack and drink of his choice to share with his class. Of course, he picked donuts with white icing and sprinkles from Lowe's Foods. His beverage of choice was cherry Juicy Juice. He has wanted it for so long and I just wouldn't buy it because I've never liked cherry flavored things. He loved it. :)

Nolan, every day I watch you grow. You have made me one proud mama. You have the kindest heart, the best intentions, a great sense of humor, and you are ridiculously cute. I'm pretty sure no one has ever loved me as much as you do. I am so thankful that you are my son. You are a great big and little brother and have matured so much in this past year. You're manners are impeccable and your smile is infectious. Don't you ever forget how much I love you. - Mom

The Boy That Brings Me Dandellions

I can't tell you how many things I love about spring. The promise of warmer temperatures, the time I get to spend with my kids during their week-long break, the bounty of blooms on the trees and sprouting from the ground, the bright little weed that litters yards. THAT'S RIGHT! I love the weed that lawn manicurists everywhere loathe. The dandellion. Those little cirlcles of sunshine are covering lawns across the country right now. Even better, the perfect spheres of snowy seeds are calling little ones to make a wish. Of course, I haven't always thought of these "weeds" as my favorite wild flower. My love of the dandellion is a newly created one.

I love pulling up to pick my son up from school. He's standing in line looking anxiously for HIS mom. The second he spots me, he gets this huge smile across his face. He starts waving the sweetest little wave. Then he calls to his teacher, "I see my mom!" I love the fact that he can be away from me for 3 hours and 45 minutes and he gives me a reaction that I would expect after a week-long separation. I push the button that opens the door for him on my Mom-Mobile, he hops in, slides in between the two front seats and slips a beautiful yellow flower in my drink holder. He goes back and gets buckled. For some reason I don't think he knows that he just made my day. Or maybe he does. And maybe that's why, when I arrive early to pick him up and get to watch him make the walk from the playground to the car line, I see him step out of line (breaking the rules) to grab the first dandellion he sees. Sometimes he throws it down and pursues one he sees a little further away. I can only imagine that he must think it is better than the first one he chose. Sometimes he even gives me two or three. Who would have thought that I wouldn't be awaiting roses or orchids from a man, but rather the gift of a weed from a boy? As if I needed one, it's just one more reason to love this time of year.

We were walking out of Rin's preschool the other day and Nolan stopped amongst a spot of grass overflowing with dandellions. He told his baby sister to come pick some for mom. She picks a few pansies (oops!) then heads to help her brother make a bouquet. We load up in the car and they both put their flowers in my drink holder. Nolan says, "Here Mom. Here are some flowers. I wanted to give them to you because that's what I always do. How about we put them in some water and make them grow?" I couldn't help but smile and tell him that I would do that as soon as we got home. I also took a moment to tell him how sweet he is and how much it means to me that he cares about me enough to bring me flowers. "Yep, I do" he says. "I love my sweet mom." And there you have it. For all the things the dandellions don't say, the boy does.

1/11/11... Can't believe my first born is 7!!!

Landry's long-awaited 7th birthday rolled around this year. I have always viewed "7" as the time when a little girl transitions into a big girl. In other words, I was not the one who was "long-awaiting" this milestone.

Just because the date sounded so cool, we had planned Landry's party to be held on her actual birthday this year. We were going to have it at Logan's for a little girls night out. She and her friends were going to sit at their own table and order their own food. I had a friend make up some really cute invitations (check her out at www.paperlicious.com) and it was the talk of all of her friends. They were sooooo excited to get to pretend to be older than they were. The day just couldn't get here fast enough... Then the dreaded and unpredictable January weather had a big birthday surprise in store for Landry. Not only did she have a white Christmas, but she also had a white birthday! Most little kids I know are thrilled to wake-up and see the ground covered with 6 inches of snow. On January 10th, Landry walked down the steps with a crushed look on her face. She could see out of our side-light windows that the weather man finally got it right. The snow was here and there was no sign of stopping. She was fighting back tears and she said, "I prayed this wouldn't happen." As the day wore on and the 6 inches of snow was now covered with and inch of ice, it was clear that we would not be crunching on peanuts the next day. Long story short, we postponed the party until a week later on the 18th. We made the best of a day trapped in the house and celebrated the heck out of Landry's big day. We were VERY low on just about every pantry staple you can think of, but I scrounged up just enough flour to make chocolate chip birthday cookies. Landry got a super-sized one which she was thrilled about just because Nolan and Corinne didn't get one that big. :) Now, time to put the candles in. Oh, no. Candles were another thing we were running low on. Brian was digging around and came up with a 3 and a 4 candle. He also found two regular candles. Two minutes later, the math cake was born. Best cake ever!

Even though Landry woke-up the morning before her party throwing-up, she managed to make a rapid recovery and be the star of the show by party time. It was the funniest thing to see these little girls all dolled up and ordering their own food. They had a great time and it was pretty fun for us parents to watch from a distance (and enjoy a kid-free meal). I was so proud when the girls all bowed their heads and Landry said the blessing. We didn't even have to tell them to. Even better, one little girl went and grabbed their waitress from where she was taking another table's order and asked her to come pray with them. :) The pictures follow.

And since I write this blog to be a sort of scrapbook for my kids, I have one more thing to say. Landry, I love you so much. I know you are in a hurry to grow-up, but your mom is desperately seeking a way to push the slow-motion button. I know it will only be a moment before you are old enough to be on your own, but you will always be my precious first-born and you will always be my LITTLE girl. I adore you and I look forward to wishing you many more happy birthdays.

Kids Say...

So many funny things, so little time to write them down...

Nolan around mid-December as we pull into Target for at least the 3rd time that week: "Awww, man! Target again?!? Why do moms always take their kids to stores all of the time?"

Me: "Well, buddy, there's a lot of shopping and running around to do this time of year."

Nolan: "When I grow up to be a dad, I'm never going to bring my kids to a whole bunch of stores."

I quietly think to myself, "And that's the reason moms have to go to all of the stores."

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Nolan is sitting up in his chair while I am kneeling down tying his shoes. He puts his hand on the back of my head and rubs my hair. I look up and he has the saddest face and says, "I'm going to miss you when you die."

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Nolan has been blessed/cursed with curly hair. I love it, but in my effort to grow it out, he is becoming a little irritated. He asked me the other day if I would cut his curls off and make his hair look like Daddy's. I said we would soon, but asked if I could flat-iron it first just to see what it looked like. When we came downstairs Landry said, "Nolan! You look just like Justin Bieber!" Nolan starts singing "Baby, baby, baby, ohhhhhhh..." Landry raises her eyebrows and says, "But you sure don't sing like him." :)