Love Love Love

"No one could have told me how hard it was going to be to be a parent" this is a thought that I have had often since Jase turned about 1 year old. And no one can know what each person goes through if they aren't in their home on a daily basis. Being a stay at home mother is one of the easiest and HARDEST things I have ever done or will ever do. I have never had my patience tested like this or felt so much joy from anything. I hope to never judge any parent again by they way their child is behaving. With this said, Jase is so much better and I have so much less anxiety when going out and worrying about when (not if) he was going to freak out. Now I have Zach who cries a lot and lets everyone know if he is not happy. So I go armed with these tasty organic lollipops and fruitabu and some gum (for Jase) and pacifier (for Zach). I try not to get sidetracked by looking at all the new stuff on the shelves and reading all the labels in the Natural foods section. I have to move fast which I don't always do but when I do the experience can be enjoyable. I have to make sure the time frame is doable as well. I have to plan activities fairly early in the morning or I run the risk of Zach getting really, really, really upset with me until we get home. So many mom's group activities are avoided because of this. I had Zach go to one nap a day a LONG time ago so that I would not have to stay at home all day long while each child took their naps from 10am-4pm. I would have never done it with Jase and I would have been disappointed in any other parent that would do that to their child. But for mommy's sanity I went against what I believed at first and luckily he took a super long nap that added up to the quantity of two (or three) naps all in one right in the middle of the day when Jase would be sleeping. Speaking of Jase's sleeping. He is having a hard time falling asleep for his nap and if he does fall asleep it takes him till 10pm to fall asleep. Luckily he does stay in his room and read books and plays with his trains for at least two hours so then I can have some time to myself and to do laundry and dishes. If he doesn't nap then he is able to fall right to sleep but first I have to remind him that he didn't nap and is very tired and needs to stay in bed and if he gets out I will throw Thomas in the garbage. It works because he does not want Thomas to go in the garbage. This is my ammo for many things that I want from him. :)



Zach pulling on his train toy and actually pulled it through the house. He isn't as wild as Jase Jase never pulled a toy across the floor like it was supposed to be pulled. It was usually thrown or ignored. I loved this picture of him because it captures his sweet nature. Which he does have when he isn't crying. He has always loved to lay his head on your shoulder randomly but he loves to hug our necks on purpose and gives kisses often without being asked. It's like he craves them and needs them. I love it!!!

The boys investigating the potty that we have had for over a year without use. Jase is not potty trained and we have randomly mentioned it to him over the last year. Initially he freaked out so bad it was as if we were torturing him with hot needles when we put him on the toilet. When we ask him if he wants to wear big boy underwear he says "put the big boy underwear away!" and if we ask him if he wants to sit on the potty he says "no thank you mommy!" For Christmas he got a DVD that he already had so I exchanged it for a potty DVD where this little girl talks about her younger brother being potty trained. Well that night after watching it we pulled out the potty (which he's too big for) and he wanted to sit on it (with his clothes on). This is huge because before he would totally cry and lose his mind if we mentioned the potty. So now it hangs out in his room to get him used to seeing it. It's still a long time from now that I think he will be potty trained. He much rather wear his diaper for sure. Maybe by this summer I will have him run naked and do that tactic. This DVD has his interest so we hope that it will encourage him a little.

Jase didn't want Zach to mess with his potty so I pulled out another potty that I had and he liked that.

It snowed here in Middle Georgia which is a rare occasion. The boys loved it but it was wet! Here is Zach tasting it on his glove.

Must have been some dirt in it.

Going back for more.

Zach loves umbrella's and knows how to hold them. I saw the neighbor lady with an umbrella and I thought it was genius so we all pulled out our umbrellas so shield us from the wet snow.

Jase mostly played with his umbrella because it has Thomas as a handle.

Not too many pictures of me so here is one from the snow. Jason had the camera so there wasn't one of him. Of course now I wish there was one of us both and one of all of us.

Our humble abode. You can see the track marks in the yard from Jason having a hay day on the golf cart.

Jase loves to read books still and now that he can sit still for longer than three seconds he likes to sit on the couch with us.

I just love this mischievous look on his face.

I was playing with my camera and trying to figure it out a little but my subjects had to be really still. So my dad was trying to hold Jase still for me.

When it was snowing Jason tried to build a snowman for/with the boys. Jase was in total disapproval and was screaming and crying. We don't know why because he can not communicate that type of thought so we can only speculate that he didn't like the snow to be rolling off the ground into a ball. Jason had the snowman halfway built and Jase came rushing over screaming and knocked it over. The next day before the snow melted my mother built three snowmen in the shade of the backyard for Jase to enjoy for the next few days. He did want to kick them over but here he is helping put the nose on the one on the back porch.

For the last couple weekends we have been wanting to do a treasure hunt with the boys. I could not find treasure chests to save my life so I bought some boxes to paint. Jason spray painted them and I added the skull and crossbones. Jason made up the map and it worked out to be a Valentine's treasure hunt.

Off we go to find the clues along the way.

Zach with a fruitabu in his mouth and umbrella in hands (it was not raining or snowing). Jase wanted to wear my mother's scarf.

First clue was in the mailbox...what could it be??

Lollipops!

Now to the second clue which were some fruit snacks.

They thought it was fun.

Wait a second...Jase had to check the map to make sure we were going in the right direction.

I see some treasure chests hiding.

Fun presents inside. Look Abuelita!

Jase had to take a moment to look at his new books. These are the best books ever! It's the Tag Junior system and he loves them and I highly recommend them to your toddler/preschooler. This is what he does in the mornings before we come to get him and during nap time and also at night before he goes to sleep. What a good, smart boy!

Taking a break to eat lollipops and enjoy the gifts.

Look mommy, no hands!

Off he goes with his new Caterpillar.

Abuelito loves his grandchildren. (Jase is now 38 months and Zach is 16 months)