A Lovely Morning for Good Sleepers

We recently took a weekend trip to Leavenworth. It's a cute little German town a couple hours outside of Seattle. There are rivers and hiking as well as wine tasting, etc. Something for everyone. We rented a cabin near Fish Lake with the Forrester Clan and enjoy some beautiful weather. The kids bunked downstairs near an Aunt and Uncle, while the rest of us were settled in upstairs. The great thing about The Capt and The Kid is that they are great sleepers at home. All is quiet by 7-7:30 and they are usually good for 12 hours. Traveling, not so much! They have a hard time settling down and for some God awful reason they can't stay asleep past 6:30! This trip was no exception. What occured the first morning with Uncle Colin was just priceless! I padded downstairs the first morning to find they were up at their usual traveling hour. Uncle Colin listened to them in their room for at least an hour. He commented that they were so quiet and happily talking and giggling together that he figured we must be with them trying to let everyone sleep. Okay moms, if your kids were quietly in their rooms together, would you think this was a good thing? Yeah. So as soon as he said they sounded happy AND quiet, I knew it was not good. They were happy and quiet because The Captain woke up and brought a whole bucket of red vines into the bedroom for he and his brother to share for "having a good sleep." I would be happy and quiet too if I got to eat red vines all to myself for an hour! What can you do thought, right? That's awsome.

snapshots

There are some moments amongst the chaos that I would like to freeze in time. Here is one from this week.
At 7am the other morning I laid in bed and listened to the kids waking up. The Kid was calling "mama." At some point when I don't answer he will start yelling, "Heidi!" The Captain usually wakes up talking. What a suprise! When he hears the Kid he goes into his room...."Hi Buddy, did you have a good sleep?" The Kid: "yeah" The Captain: "Okay, stay right here and don't cry, Promise? Don't cry I'll be right back. Promise you won't cry?" I just laid in bed and listened to this. For some reason I just find it cute. What can I say, I'm their mom!

Barney

This one is for Anne. She liked this little story so much, she thought I should share.
So Th Capt gets TV time. A little in the mornings, a little in the afternoons (in lieu of a nap, ie mommy's sanity break.) and a show before bed if it's been a good day. He sometimes chooses not to watch and if it's a nice day we tend to go outside to play in the sandbox anyway. So. The other morning he's in watching Sprout and a while later he comes to me crying. And I mean the tears were streaming and he was just sobbing. I thought, "oh my god what happened?" So I ask, "what happened?" He tells me, "Mom, I love Barney! Boohoohoowaaah!" Wait. You love Barney. That is why you are crying like you will never see the light of day? You love Barney. I didn't say any of this out loud. Only in my head. Instead I say, "Aw, Barney's a good guy huh? He loves you too buddy." And really he is a good guy. Maybe a little weird but his show does send a good message. (yes, I've watched several. So, anyway, whenever the Capt. watches Barney he always, without fail, hugs and kisses the TV for the "I love you" song at the end. This kid really Loves Barney! So feeling bad and generous I take him to the toy store to find his very own loveable Barney for his very own. AND he sings the "I love you" song. For at least three days afterwards The Capt dragged Barney everywhere and at least twice a day told me, "thank you so much for getting me Barney, Mom." "Awww, you're welcome Bud." I say while chuckling in my head.

Kevin

So this is a conversation the Captain and I had a few days ago. It's still hard to explain without crying. Because I just laugh too damn much every time!

Capt: Mom, where's Kevin?
Me: I don't know. Who is Kevin?
Capt: No no, where is Kevin?
Me: I don't know. Where IS Kevin?
Capt: NO! Kevin mom. You know, Kevin!
Me: No. I don't know. You mean Kevin from Sprout? On the birthday show?
Capt: No, not the guy. Kevin. You know. Up in the clouds.
Me: (laughing so hard I'm pretty sure I might pee my pants.) Ooooh! You mean Heaven!
Capt: Yeah, Kevin, Heaven. Where is it?
Me: Um, yeah it's up in the sky waaay past the clouds.
Capt: Oh, okay.

We are not a religious family so we don't talk about Heaven or God or anything like that yet. We do have a book called Ten Little Fish and since the only thing that rhymes with Seven is Heaven, that is where the 7th fish goes. Hm, maybe the fish COULD go with Kevin from the birthday show. He seems pretty fun.

The Box

A box is never just a box at our house. Sometimes I think we like getting things just for the size of the box! WE've had spaceships, trains, caves, tents and other creative adventures with our boxes. Many time I just give the Capt and the Kid washable markers and let them go at it. In fact I think the Kid thinks boxes are strictly for coloring on. The latest box came from our Radio Flyer wagon. I liked the box because it meant I could put the wagon together by myself without having additional "help." Our boxes also last for days and sometimes weeks, just not necessarily in the same form. The newest box started out as a puppet theatre. I cut a hole near the top on one side for the puppets and a hole near the bottom for the puppet master. We all took turns in the box and in the audience. The next day the puppet show became an "old dog house" before getting crashed and smashed upon. By the next day the box was in several pieces that were perfect for the Kid to sit on and color all around himself.
In the afternoon it was cut up into even smaller pieces by the Captain who like to just cut with scissors. The smaller the pieces the better. Our boxes slowly and secretly end up in the recycling bin. If either kid were to see the box dumped into the container, well, they'd cry. We love our magical boxes.

World Hemophlia Day/ What Is Normal?

What is Normal?
I ask this because there are many times in a mom's life when you wonder if your kid is normal. They do things or don't do things and you quiz other moms and pediatricians to find out "Is this normal?" William is our second son and he has Hemophilia. This is a severe bleeding disorder that doesn't allow the blood to clot. Our first son Jack, is unaffected but also quite unique. Let's start with that one. When the time came for him to go head down in the womb, I felt him do a complete sommersault. While pregnant I always said that if he is as active out of the womb as in I was going to be in trouble! I am. He did everything ahead of schedule. I never worried if he was "normal" or on track in his development. In fact I couldn't keep up with reading those "baby's first year" books because he'd already done it by the time the month came around. He crawled and pulled to standing at 6 months and walked at 9. He talked at 12 months and was negotiating at 1820months. I always thought he was different than the other babies his age but never wondered if he was "abnormal." I was just trying to keep up! His personality matches his development. He is now 3. He never had stranger anxiety and is prett y much an ambassador for Friendly. He talks to anyone who will listen and will question, argue, or negotiate any chance he gets. People who meet Jack rarely forget him. You can't help liking him. (Unless your his mom and are tired.) He is challenging, spirited, precocious, and "active-alert." You get the picture. When I was pregnant with our second baby (cause we weren't busy enough with the first!) we really, in all honesty, wanted a girl but not for the usual reasons. Jack is such a big personality we thought being his little brother was just going to suck! Who could keep up with him? Always being "Jack's little brother." And we couldn't imagine having another one like him! So when the doctor told us it's another boy we were a little worried. Well, who knew we'd have two boys unique and normal in their own ways. It will be 1 year in May when we found out our little one, Will, (who was 5 months old at the time) had severe Hemophilia A, factor viii deficient. This means his blood can't clot. We found out when we discovered an abnormally large bruise on his chest. Blood tests and an overnight at Childrens hospita l confirmed it. It also means he looks like an abuse victim lots of time because, as we tell our 3 year old, "Will has hemophilia and bruises easily." Everyday toddler wear and tear leaves him with purple, bumpy legs. Will is now 15 months old and is cute as a button. His little personality is sweet, silly, and snuggly. He's very curious and ALL bo y. He loves to climb, explore, throw balls, run. You name it, he'll do it! So what is normal? In our house, normal means having an overactive, always thinking, non stop talking preschooler and a physical, athletic, risk taking hemophiliac in the house. Normal is what we make it. With Jack, normal means explaining why it's not okay to unscrew the hinges on the bedroom door. With Will normal is heading to childrens hospital to be infused with factor after getting a head bonk. This might not be normal for other families but it's just a usual everday at our house!
by Heidi whose mantra is: You will not be given more than you can handle!

The Garden

Over teh last couple of weeks The Capt and I have decided on and planned out a raised vegetable garden. He picked out the seeds: Lettuce, carrots, peas and catus. (this is known to everyone else as cucumber.) He calls it this because the picture on the seed packet is an illustration of cucumbers and not an actual picture. So to him it's a cactus because it's green, "prickly" and has little yellow flowers on it. If you tell him otherwise he will argue with him. So I just humor the child. We then took the gang to Home Depot and bought wood and garden soil. We now have a 4x4 rasied garden. 2 weeks ago we were able to plant the seeds. We also picked out marigolds to help keep pests away. In 2 other containers we planted tomato plants and chives. A few days ago we were finally able to see some little sprouts popping out of the dirt! Today I showed the Capt. how the tomato flowers are going to turn into tomatoes and that we can cut the chives with scissors and eat them. He really liked this and plucked several chives to nibble on. Tonight I made myself a big salad. The Capt wanted one too. I told him he could go out and cut some chives for it. Who knew this would be so exciting. My crazy little vegatrian sat and ate a SALAD with carrots and chives and dressing on it! Oh, and croutons of course. He also eats the whites of hard boiled eggs "but not the yolks because that's where the baby chicks hatch from." I pretty much left that one alone.