The Magic of Grandma..

My mom has this ability to calm. It’s a gift that she’s had as long as I can remember
She knows exactly when, how and what to do to calm, soothe, or take away even the most stubborn problem or complaint. All my life she’s been the united nations of all situations. Always able to quiet and re-direct things gone awry. She knows what to say at the precise moment you need to hear it. She knows when to show up when you wish she was there. Just sitting next to her growing up was soothing. Our friends growing up thought so too. We liked to hang out with Mom. She was safe, and open, and never judgmental. Everyone loved her. Especially me. She always gave me strength.
I was young when I had Ali. (Just 22). I didn’t have much support, and I was often tired from a busy schedule of work, school and raising a toddler. She always knew when I needed to sit and talk. Ali was always thrilled to go with Grandma, and I was grateful. Mom knew when to call, and she knew what to say even if I hadn’t said a word. Magic?. Or Inspiration?
Megan spent the first three months of her life with colic. She would scream and grunt and cry for hours. I spent my days alternating walking the carpet thin and nursing her every hour. All while trying to meet the demands of my energetic 3 year old, working full time, going to school, and buying a new house. I spent a lot of time at Mom’s house then. It was a place of refuge. I didn’t trust anyone else with Megan while she was colic. I was afraid that they might not have the patients for her constant crying. I knew I could go and be relieved from my howling baby by someone who without a second thought could take her from my arms and know exactly how to soothe and calm her. She had the Magic touch. .. Grandma was always safe, she was my hero. She always knew how to give Ali that special attention that I worried she was missing with a demanding baby too. Mom picked up where I needed a lift.
I bring this up because it happened again the other night.. Again, she inspired me with her ability to know when to jump in. Her ability to soothe and calm even the most ornery of beings. Yes, My Mathew. Lately he’s been such a bear. He either has the worst attachment issues I’ve ever seen or he’s the most spoiled 1 year old I’ve ever raised. At certain times of the day he demands to be held for long periods of time, nothing else will suffice. And when I can’t hold him (because you know, I have to be a Mom to my other two, and clean the house, among other things…..)He hangs on my pant legs wailing until he’s picked up again. And trust me, he doesn’t back down. He went for 20 minutes straight while I tried to get the kids ready for school. It was very unnerving.
He also freaks out when anyone new comes around. Even if he is playing nicely he’ll run crying to Anthony or I and practically climbing up our legs plead “hold you, Hold you”. He doesn’t go to too many other people willingly.
We went to my parent’s house for Megan’s birthday and Mathew had been particularly stubborn in his needing to be held all day.. My mom could tell I was exhausted. I needed a break but didn’t want to burden anyone else with his crying. Without a second thought she took him from my arms, screaming, and walked outside with him. When I peeked a few minutes later, I saw that Grandma’s magic had worked again. I sat able to eat my dinner in peace for 15 whole minutes. He was calm. He was happy. She had done it again.
She has a magic soul. Call it a gift, I call it a purpose.. She is a healer, a comforter. She does it beautifully She is amazing. I love her so much, and I know that my kids are especially attached to her. We are so lucky to have her in our lives. She gives us strength. She inspires us, and makes us laugh. I dont' know what I would do without such a strong woman in my life.
Everyone should be so lucky as to have the Magic touch of grandma.


Added to note:
Tonight, Mom showed up at my door.
“You said that when you’re stressed you like to bake?” And As I stood confused she
brought in with her a giant bag of Sugar, Flour, chocolate chips, oatmeal, raisins, eggs, and shortening!
This is my Mom. Knowing exactly what I needed.

Magic!

More Birthday

Since my parents didn't get to see Megan last week for her Birthday, They had a little party for her tonight.

She'd asked for "ponies" and she got them! 4 sets to be exact! She loved every one of them.
We had cake and ice-cream

and because the weather is FINALLY bright and sunny, the kids got to play outside for most of the evening.

It was no surprise to find Megan running through the sprinkler .
This is the first of MANY MANY soaked days to come.. My Dad's Birthday is Tomorrow.
The girls made him cards, and Megan even wrapped up a tennis ball and fake flower for him to open. (She's so sweet).

oh Honey!

Mattie fell down today.......

OUCH!

Poor Baby!

He fell right before his nap. I was so worried about him that I checked on him four times while he was sleeping.

Ewwww a Worm

Mattie pushing his truck across the yard. While cleaning up the backyard today I came across a giant night crawler. I picked it up to show Mattie and he stepped back completely un-impressed. I set it back on the ground and he watched it from a few feet back as it moved along the cement. I said "look Mattie, A worm!" He looked at it, frowned and said "Ewww. Nu-oooooh".. I guess he doesn’t have the affection for Slimy like Megan’s does.

I picked it up with a popsicle stick to see if he’d hold it. He just stepped back repeating “no”. I put it down and went back to work but when I turned around he was debating the stick approach. In the end he decided against it, and just decided to watch it burrow itself into the ground.

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Meg loves her new baby doll that she got from us for her Birthday. She’s been taking care of her like a good little mommy, tucking her into the baby crib last night and changing her “poopie diaper” this morning. She took her to school for show and tell, and carried her around in the baby sling that Aunt Angie made for her. She’s such a sweet heart

Happy Birthday to you!

Its Megan's Official Birthday today.
She requested Breakfast in bed today. Puff pancakes of course, because that is her favorite. I served them up on the "I'm Special Today" plate. She doesn't usually eat breakfast so after three bites she was done and it was time to put on her fancy new dress.
She'd requested Pink cupcakes with princess rings on them to take to school. When I asked her about the boys in her class she shrugged "I don't care" , and didn't give it a second thought.

That's so Megan. When she makes her mind up, thats about all that matters.

.After we picked her up from school we went to lunch at IHOP, (her choice). We got ice cream and did a little shopping. She got new clothes for her dolls, and a new gymnastics leotard.

Ex will be here in the next little bit to pick the girls up. I think she's had a pretty good birthday so far.

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Its also MEGAN'S birthday today.....

Go over and wish her a happy birthday.

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When I walked Megan into her class her Teacher was hovering over something. I looked closer and she was pulling the shells out of an incubator full of baby chicks that had literally just hatched!

When the kids came in they were all giddy and excited all of them squeezing in to take a look..

These hatched yesterday.

The Kindergarten gets eggs from a local farmer every year as part of their Farm animal week.. I remember When Ali's class had them when she was in Kindergarten.

What does the Cow say?

Another day.

Megan’s had Eczema for most of her life, yet she hardly ever complains about it. She’ll scratch, and ask for lotion but has never really complained that it was unbearable. We can usually manage it with creams, lotions or cortisone cream. Her Dermatologist prescribed an ointment for her to use when its breaking out more than usual, but according to our Pharmacy one tube of the stuff cost over three hundred dollars! Our new fabulous insurance is demanding a pre-authorization to fill it. So the past few weeks while we’ve been trying to get her prescription, the creams, lotions, and cortisone cream is not cutting it, and my poor little girl told me she was miserable. I made my own concoction of Vaseline and cortisone cream and rubbed it all over her arms and legs last night.. That seemed to at least help for now. I hope this isn’t a precursor to how it’s going to be this summer, because that seems to be the season she breaks out the most. I guess we’ll see.

So in other news, Ali’s teacher had her first baby yesterday. They were supposed to throw her a little party this Thursday but she went out early. Ali was so excited but is really disappointed that her teacher will be not be there. I made her Teacher a darling pink and brown wood plaque as a baby gift. I used cute brown and pink scrap paper and pink paint then used rub ons to put "SShh, Baby sleeping" on one side. On the opposite side I put brown circle dots and a border through the middle that said "sweet tiny one" in pink. If you can't tell she had a girl.. I covered it with modge podge and used a fun pink and brown ribbon to hang it. It was my first attempt using modge podge and so I hope it wasn't too tacky. I forgot to take a picture of it before we gave it to her. We also picked out a darling mint green baby dress for her. Ali was very excited to give them to her. We’ve really been fortunate to have had great Teachers every year thus far. Ali is doing great, and Megan is too. Megan was reading the note that I was writing last night. I was so impressed. Smart little cookie she is.

When I was tucking the girls in last night and rubbing the goo on Megan’s legs, I told them a few short stories.. Just random things that came to mind.. The girls LOVE when I do that, and Ali kept saying “encore, encore!” I thought that was so cute. Megan begged for “just one more”. They’re so funny, they don’t even mind if I repeat stories from my childhood 20 times, they still giggle, and ask for more.
I told them about the time my friend and I ate ice cream cones in the back of my mom's comfortable. I was very animated in describing to them how in the back of a comfortable your hair flies forward covering your face. I then gestured and grimaced my face as I re-enacted how we looked covered in ice cream and hair by the time we'd gotten to our destination. The girls thought that was hilarious. Megan wanted me to retell that one three times!
I really hope that I can remember stories like that of the girls lives. Then maybe in twenty years they'll be tucking there kids in telling there own stories.

More from Meg's party

Megan only wanted 5 candles, because it really wasn't her birthday and she wasn't 6 yet.

Mathew loves pushing his lawn mower around the yard. He also loves to push his cars around .. He pushes them across the yard on his knees, making the vroom sound as he goes. He loves when birds land in the yard or in one of the trees . He makes the big mouth and shouts "lirlies, lirlies" when they land nearby.

Money

I wanted to do something with the girls that would encourage them to do things more willingly, and to be more aware of their attitudes. I decided to start a money program using fake money and giving it out to the girls when I saw that they were doing things that I felt deserved some positive reinforcement. playing nicely together, cleaning up their messes, SHARING....... We've done it for two weeks now and so far I like the results. I need to probably reinforce a little more often to try and get the positive mode going. When they've earned $100 they get to buy something from My Store. I put together a box full of misc items and toys from the dollar store. Megan picked out a jump rope. It took Ali 20 minutes to decide what she wanted to buy. It was really funny to see so much turmoil making a decision between swimming goggles and index cards.. Who knew index cards were such a hot comadate?

Megan's New Dress

I just the love this dress. She looked so cute today.. Three different people at church complimented on how cute she looked today..

Mattie spent the entire time in nursery for the very first time today. I worried about him the entire time and I hate to admit this, but I almost went and got him twice because I felt weird not having him with me. It felt awefully lonely without him snuggling his blanket in my arms..

The Nursery leader said that it took him over an hour to warm up, but as long as he had his blankie he was okay. Hopefully next time will be easier..

We were freezing cold waking to and from the church. It made me very ornery at our vehicle situation. We're going on 10 months on one vehicle now. It wouldn't be so bad if we weren't still paying on Taylor's car while it sits useless in the driveway. I HATE being stuck at home and I hate having to arrange going to the grocery store in the few short minutes that our schedules don't overlap so that I can pick up eggs! I hate not having the freedom, I feel like its been taken away from me. I've ALWAYS been so dang independent. this has really been a trial for me.

okay enough venting for now..

overall.. a boring, but average Sunday.

Slumber Party....

The party ....... There really wasn't a theme to her party, she just wanted a "slumber party"

80%% of their time was spent outside jumping on the trampoline 10 % dressing up and 10% of the time was spent eating cake, opening presents, and making Darling Princess plaques (see below)
This one was Mia's. (obviously! Darh)..... But they all pretty much looked the same. (Mostly because I am a really bad Mom and I re-attached half of their stickers and touched up their paint jobs so that they didn't look so gaudy Smothered in decorations The Modge Podge is still a bit wet too but you get the gist)...

Happy Birthday Party to Megan........

Drama Time

Ali had her final play today for Drama at school. She Did a great job and looked perfect on stage. I must say she was the most beautiful girl up there..
The play was called "The Brementon Rappers". I'm not really sure what it was about because all I could really make out was the handful of kids dressed up as different animals on stage making 'rapper' like gestures. Ali was a Narrator. I DID understand what she was saying but couldnt put the rest of it together..

Here she is on stage... ..

Told you she was beautiful......

Grandma, Aunt Stephanie, and Megan.......

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(for anyone interested......... behold... 'THE EX')

The post stage giddiness

Mattie waiting patiently .......

New stuff!

The weather was so beautiful this weekend.

We were very lucky because Grandma and Papa got the kids a trampoline.

something they've wanted for a very long time.

Mathew Helped put it together..

(don't mind Taylors droopy pants.. he still hasn't recovered from his "skater" days.

I'm kind of okay with that.....) Mattie was especially loving his blankie that day...He dragged it around the backyard with him again.. (can we say super soak wash cycle?)
(oh, and don't mind the nasty grass......... we're working on that)

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Mattie had a Wonderful time testing it out.. especially since the girls weren't home yet to compete for jump time.
He totally got the jumping part..


We've spent quite a bit of time outside.
Mattie has spent the last few weeks digging with us in the garden, and one of his favorite places has been the wheelbarrow full of dirt. He climbs in and sits forever happily playing.

So we decided to fill his sandbox.

He thought that was pretty cool.

He's spent hours in it..



When the girls got home last night we took them out to show them the trampoline..
True to form, Ali did a dramatic scream and Megan jumped right on without saying a word.



Today Ali taught Mattie how to Say "Awesome", and "cool!". He says them both clear as a bell. and now he walks around pointing at things saying "awesome"
Its Almost as cute as his insistince on giving everyone "five" and "bones".

Megan has been counting the days until her Birthday every morning. She is So excited to

whats been going on around here.....

Playing Dress upworking in the garden
Eating Frogs..........yum

This is Matties Signature move lately.. a full bend at the waste and a full body fake laugh as he comes up. He's such a ham!

Bath time.... you know, to wash all that frog out of his mouth.....

Climbing up the stairs with his blankie for nap time.. I Love how he drags it with him everywhere. I had to traumatize him the other day by throwing it in the washing machine while he was still awake.. it was very traumatic. He'd drug it around with him in the backyard, and well having a dog you can imagine what he picked up....

The girls reading the "friend" together


enjoying the sunshine..