reunited & my random child

Follow up from the girl’s trip....

Christine and I raced home Sunday morning from our trip in Jax so I would be able to attend my nephew's 1st birthday party.  We rolled into the ATL around 1:00, which meant nap time. Perfect. Although all I wanted was Parker to come running into my arms full of hugs and kisses and sweet relief that I was finally home, I knew I still had to shower and get ready, so him being asleep when I got home was great!  Then... I got to wake him up and surprise him with my return.  I'm so happy Matt had his camera out and captured this sweet moment between a boy and his momma...

Ahhh... Heaven!!! That little boy of mine swung his little arms around me so fast and wouldn't let go.  BEST.FEELING.EVER. He was giggling with excitement and he was completely shocked I was actually home.  To sum of the rest of the day.... I had a 2 year old attached to me like an appendage.  And guess what… I loved every bit of it!
Matt did an awesome job all weekend, and didn't complain once about me being gone.  That makes it so much easier.  Parker had a much-needed Daddy time.  However, on Sunday evening as I was snuggling my boy I smelled something... his breath smelled like sour milk. Yuck. So, I asked Matt... "Honey, did you remember to brush his teeth while I was gone?".... I think you all can guess his reply... EWWWWW!!! Hey, I'm glad my boy at least got fed, bathed, and played with. 

Joey's 1st birthday was a huge success. 

Erica and Mike did an awesome job, and Parker had a blast!

Needless to say, it was hard dropping Parker off Monday morning after being home with him the entire week before.  He had a hard time too adjusting on Monday morning.  Poor guy hadn't cried in forever when I dropped him off, but that week off really messed him up.  Thank God for his teacher, who knew I was obviously upset having to leave him so distressed, so she emailed me this picture of him happily painting a rock.  Ok, lets be honest, he doesn't look too happy in this picture, but hey, at least he wasn't still crying!  I am happy to report that he hasn't cried since that day at drop off, so he has recoverd.

Photo Dump of the last couple weeks...



My kid. So random.



Again. So Random. No pants. No Diaper.  Just chillin in bucket. Totally normal, right. 



At Daddy's baseball game. L.O.V.E.



Papa & Grandma bought him a sandbox and tent. He is OBSESSED!
I love how my Dad even made him a sign.



Fun at Papa and Grandma's house
(p.s. he can't say "Grandma" so he just calls her ma-ma).
Whatevs. My mom and I are basically the same person.



SB13 Baby

Heaven

After months of planning, my bestest friend and I drove down to Jacksonville, FL Thursday morning to visit our great friend, Ali J. Who, by the way, lives ON Jax beach.  So fun! A road trip with my best friend, and a weekend on the beach, who could ask for more?!  So, Thursday FINALLY came, and I dropped my little munchkin off at Nannie and Poppie's house.  It was baby Joey's actual 1st birthday this day, so I was eager to snap a few sweet pics of the boys before I headed out of town.  Soon after I left, I got a really sweet video of the boys from my amazing mother-in-law. 

Christine and I hit the road around 9:30, and really had a great time driving down to FL.  We jammed out to some OLD SCHOOL music from all my old CDS and chatted all the way down.  It was a blast.  Although there was basically no silence the whole way down, Christine and I are the types of friends that there is never any awkward silences.  If it is silent, which is typically isn't with us, it is okay and there is by no means any awkwardness, which nice on road trips. 

Annnddd... Were off!

We made it to Jax around 3:00, and headed right out to the beach and waited for Ali J to get off work.

Ahhhhhhhh.....

Once Ali got off work, we all got ready together (like old times - so fun) and head out to a nice (and expensive) dinner.  It was relaxing and just what we needed. 

The next day we all  Christine and I got up super early (UGH!) and sat around until it was beach time! Finially, we woke up Ali J, and the 3 of us headed out and put our toes in the sand for a few hours and then headed back in to get ready for "our big night out". 

Kate and Kayla also live in Jax, so we a had a mini Pope HS reunion

We had a long night out, and it was fun, but super exhausting.  My only wish was to sleep in while we were here.  That did not happen.  Matt called at 8:30 and my snuggle buddy Christine and I were up ever since. Thanks Matt.  Oh well, to the beach we went...

Later that night, we had a low key night and went out for some dinner and drinks....

Overall, it was an amazing weekend with my girls.  But by Sunday I was more than ready to get home to my boys.  That will be a post for another day.  Until then...

spring is here...

This past week was my spring break from work.  It was an awesome week to say the least.  I'm going to break my week into 2 posts though or this post would be forever long.  The first part of the week I soaked up every single moment with my boy because I knew I would be leaving him for a few days when I went on my girl’s trip.  We spent about every waking moment outside.  We went to the park, played with the neighborhood kids, had a playdate with the Beahm's, went to the zoo with Aunt Lala & Charlie, went on lunch dates, got icecream, went shopping, and even broke out the baby pool.  Here are a few pics I captured....

Presh

Of course, we even had to bring the art outside for P to get some inspiration

Taking a snack break from our neighborhood kickball game

Checking out the big kids...



Parker & Charlie checking out the Panda's

Parker saying "shhhhh, bears night night". So freaking cute!




 

Carter took Parker on a jeep joy ride while I got some much needed catch-up time with Ash.

Not sure why our drink buckets are in there, but what-eves, the kid is having a blast.
He is so random somethimes!

Parker and I had such a great time together and I cannot wait until summer time.  If you have to be a working mom like I do, then being a teacher is seriously the best of both worlds. Only 28 more days til summer break, but who's counting?!!

A Vent from Momma Bear...

Yesterday when we got home from school we did what we do on every nice day…. Went outside to play with neighborhood kids.  On most days, we pull up and the kids are already outside running to our car begging for Parker to come out and play.  Our house is kind of the “go to house” at times and the kids like to come in garage and bring out all of Parker’s toys (basketball hoop, bike, car, golf clubs, bubbles, chalk) and play with them.  Totally fine and I actually prefer it that way.  We live in kid filled cul-de-sac and most of the kids are a little older.  The age ranges of the kids that come out to play are from 2 to 7 years old.  Unfortunately, the two other 2 year olds don’t go outside much, so Parker is usually the youngest.  For the most part, the older kids are really great with him and include him as much as possible.  I totally understand when they don’t want to play him though, I mean he can’t communicate like they do and he physically can’t do everything they want to do.  So, I want to be clear that I completely get that and it doesn’t bother me.  What does bother me though is what occurred yesterday.  One of the boys (age 4) and one of the girls (age 4 or 5 I think) were tossing this huge ball back and forth.  At one point Parker tried to join in on the fun and pick up the ball.  The girl yelled “no, you can’t play with us”.  I didn’t think too much of it because like I said, sometimes the older kids just don’t want Parker in on their game.  I get it.  However, at one point in the “game” Parker merely walked by (he wasn’t going for the ball or anything).  I’m pretty sure he was actually walking by to pick up a stick.  Out of nowhere the little girl yells to the other little boy “Don’t let Parker touch the ball. Whatever you do NOT let him get near it.” She said with a devilish laugh and in such a mean-spirited tone.  Um, excuse me? What I wanted to say is that he isn’t interested in playing your stupid game and how dare you talk to him that way when just 5 minutes ago you were playing with ALL of his toys; however, I held my tongue and calmly replied to her “Now that isn’t very nice of you”.  I was so pissed.  I scooped up Parker and took him in side while he kicked and screamed the whole way in.  He wasn’t upset at what she said because honestly he didn’t understand what she meant by it, but he was mad at me for taking him away from the outside world.  As I got inside, Matt was calling. I told him what just occurred and his response was, Amy, come on, she is like 5.  Yeah, that is the whole point.  She IS FIVE… she knows the difference between what is mean and what is nice.  She said it in such a mean-spirited way, and that is what made me so angry.  I’m sorry, don’t come over to my house and play with all of Parker’s toys, and then when he even comes close to what you are playing with tell the other kids not to let him touch the damn ball.  Am I crazy??!!!  I guess this is my mamma bear in me, and my claws are coming out!  Oh dear, what the hell am I going to do when he enters grade school?  And even worse, the dreaded middle school years.  They are seriously going to have to institutionalize and de-claw me if anyone is mean to my sweet boy.  Kids are just mean.  I can only hope to raise Parker in way where he is nice to everyone, and take other’s mean-ness with a grain of salt.  I feel better now that I’ve vented, and I’m pretty sure my other momma friends would feel the same way.  Am I wrong? Am I really just a crazy momma bear? 

Fyi... the "mean girl" is not in this photo.

VJ is the oldest (and sweetest) kid... He is very protective of Parker.
Too bad he wasn't out there yesterday to stand up for P.

Picture from last summer, but it gets my point across of how he includes Parker :)

Easter Weekend

We had a wonderful Easter weekend with friends and family.  We started on Saturday by meeting our friends, The Kingman’s and the Reich’s, for a little petting zoo, egg hunt, and playground time.  Here are some pictures from the Mt. Bethel’s Easter extravaganza….

Anndddd their OFF!



Matt: "Parker, hug the goat".  Result - Goat bit Parker. Note to self. Don't tell your child to hug a wild animal!



Love love love his little eager stance here!

My kid is the most tactile little boy. He loves to feel everything. 

Gah! That happiness gives me so much purpose.

Mama, can I go yet???

On Sunday morning, we got up around 8 a.m. (thank you Parker for sleeping in ;) and P had his Easter basket waiting for him (thank you daddy for putting it together last night since I passed out with Parker around 8:30 J).  Here is a video of Parker rummaging through his basket.  WARNING: This video will be extremely boring for anyone who is not immediate family.

Oh, I also want to take this time to post the video of Parker opening his present from Aunt Cindy. I just love my Aunt Cindy, and she is so sweet to think of Parker on every holiday!

Sunday afternoon we headed over to Matt’s parent house for egg hunt number #3 for Parker.  Then, we headed over to my parent’s house for egg hunt #4.  By then, both Parker and I were totally over hunting for eggs!  Here are some shots taken from his grandparent’s houses….



Parker got an awful haircut on Saturday, so we disguised it with a cool mohawk....

Love this one of the boys

Cousin hugs

I heart my little family. Truly blessed.

Sticker time with Nannie

Checking out his new books from Grandma & Papa

He loves for his Grandma to read to him. However, he never lets me finish a book.

In front of Papa's cross. Very appropriate.

Pointing out all the "geese" to Dada

High Maintenance?

Friday was Parker's Easter party and egg hunt at school.  He was so dang excited... all week when I asked him was happening on Friday he excitedly replied "par-tay".  It definitely made for an easy drop off because he just couldn't wait to party and go on an egg hunt.  His teacher, Ms. Tessa, sounded awful when I dropped him off that morning, so it wasn't a surprise when I went to pick him up and she wasn't there.  When I got there that afternoon all the kids were outside playing.  Parker ran over to me, hugged me, and then ran back out to the play yard.  I was shocked because usually when I pick him up the first thing he says is "back"... and he immediately puts whatever he is playing with back where it belongs and tells me "let’s go!" Well not this day.  He wanted to stay and play! So while he was playing with all the other kids I got a chance to talk to one of the other Kindercare teachers who took over for Ms. Tessa when she left early due to sickness.  I was worried about how my little guy did when Tessa left for the day, but the other teacher said he did great.  She also told me that Ms. Tessa even texted her asking how Parker was doing.  How stinking sweet is that?! His teacher leaves work sick, and she knows my boy so well that she was worried enough to text and find out how he was doing.  As I continued my conversation with the other teacher I was told that Ms. Tessa favors Parker over all the other kids. The teacher proceeded to tell me that Ms. Tessa and Parker have a special bond and she loves my boy so much because she has seen him grow so much in her class.  I mean, when he came to her, he was practically a mute and a very clingy mute at that.  Now he loves on her, only goes to HER, and talks up a storm (well comparably from where he was at back in November).  I'm pretty proud of him too.  And I'm so thankful for the bond he and Ms. Tessa have.  Melts my heart big time.  I mean, what parent wouldn't want their child "favored"?!!?!  In addition to leaving sick and texting to ask about Parker, Ms. Tessa also sent me this adorable picture of Parker during the school egg hunt.

Then today came. Another example of my how my boy is sort of "high maintenance" at school.  Kindercare is set up a little different than most daycares.  The room I walk in to drop him off is sectioned off into 3 different rooms with 3 different teachers.  My son, like most 2 year olds, is a creature of habit.  He knows Ms. Tessa's section is to the left, but when we walked in this morning nobody was in there.  My heart soon went into panic mommy-mode.  I'm thinking, oh sh#*, Ms. Tessa must be out sick again. Parker must have been thinking the same thing, because he starts to freak out.  Ms. Gloria, the teacher in the other section is here and asks for Parker to join her class. Again, he freaks! So, what does Ms. Gloria do? Says "never mind, we'll just pack up my class and bring them to Parker". Omg, my kid is now forcing the other kids to "play by his rules". How embarrassing.  I assured Ms. Gloria that it's okay, he can just join her class in her section, but before I knew it, all 8 or so kids were packing up their stuff, moving the breakfast cart, and heading our way.  I was still worried about how Parker would react knowing that Ms. Tessa wasn't there, but he was okay knowing that everyone was coming over to "his turf". I kindly thanked Ms. Gloria, gave my little boy a kiss on the head and headed out the door.  God Please Help Me.