Here I go again...

This weekend I've been in a fighting match.  A fight against foot pain.  So far Loratab and I are winning the battle of the bunion correction pain.   Unfortunately  the pin that is fixing my hammer toe in my pinkie toe is holding out the winner of the most painful thing I've yet to experience.  On Thurs night at it's peak my mom giving a pep talk said to remember that it is all for the best and when it is all over you'll be thankful you did it.  I told her I'll have to think about that tomorrow  I'm in too much pain to think about that now.  

Mutual Adoration

It's well known that the girls have always adored Aaron.  What you may not know is how much this little guy adores his sisters.  The other day, while driving I glanced back and noticed Aaron and Emily calmly holding hands in the back seat.  I giggled and Emily said "What, Aaron asked to hold my hand".  Each day after we send Jane off on the bus I read a story, rock and put Aaron down for a nap.  Before I leave the room he says "Nap... Emi, Jane home"  I reply "Yes Aaron, Emily and Jane will be home after your nap."   When they are home he wants to be right with them.  He's so sad when he gets kicked out the big girls rooms so they can play without little boys hands grabbing everything.  One night he was particularly attached to Emily but Emily wanted to finish something in her room.  Whenever she tried to slip away he started to cry and reached out to her, hugged her and held on to her ever so tight.  It melted her heart and she stayed and played.  The rest of the night he would not let her out of his sight.

Now that Emily wears glasses I notice Aaron walking around proudly sporting yellow glasses that have been floating around with the dress up clothes for a couple of years.  It's obvious he wants to be just like his sisters.  Like the other day when I was doing Jane's hair.  There's always a few howls associated with Jane's sensitive scalp.  The next thing I see is Aaron taking the brush off the counter and walking away combing his wispy blond hair saying "Aaawwwa...Aaawwwa" as if he has lots of knots in his own hair.


I admire this adoration and am so proud of the love that exists between my children.  



 

No kids are beghter than mine!!!

I've learned after 10+ years of Bart being away at Sundance to be pretty chill about my birthday! 

This year in particular I was really happy keeping it low key.  I kept forgetting it was my Birthday but my kids did not.

During Breakfast Emily got mad at Jane over something and Jane said "We can't fight today we need to be nice it's mommy's birthday"


Around 10:30 my sister Ally called and she and William sang Happy Birthday to me over the phone.  Jane and Aaron were in the back seat giggling thinking it was so funny.    Aaron totally made my day when later that evening as we were driving home on the freeway.  Out of nowhere he busts out singing Happy Birthday to mommy and sang that line the rest of the way home to me.

A little bit before dinner Jane and Emily announced that they wanted me to open presents.  Jane presented me with a half wrapped (she ran out of wrapping paper) box. I opened it to find a bunch of cut out crayon portraits of me, a few pictures of dot paint flowers that she did at school, and a paper full of Leaves and other treasures she went and found outside.  I told her this was going to be my happy box and whenever I wanted to be happy I would open it up and look at the things inside.

Emily then gave me this note along with a bottle of lotion that Bart and the kids had bought for me.  She told me that she spent her entire "free time" writing it.  I was in love.  Especially how she spelled Better (beghter) told me I was pritter than a rose and the part "You the B-day girl".  

I'll tell you what I'm one lucky mom to have such thoughtful kids!!

The list

Aaron is by far my most expensive kid.   How can that be?  He's not enrolled in anything and he's even out of diapers.  Well my tactile Aaron who my mom says "He thinks with his hands"  has caused me a lot of grief and money in just the last 72 hours.  I'm decided to start a list of things Aaron breaks so that in the future when he can get a  job he can pay me back.  

1.  I left a package of LED lights on the counter for a second while I put away some cleaning supplies, Aaron got into the box and broke 2 of them= $12.00
2.  Aaron decided to give my phone a shower= If it can be fixed $150.  If not $500.00
3.  The girls were busily folding laundry and Aaron noticed me putting the stools up onto the bar.  He knows that's a sign that I'm about to vacuum. He says "me vacuum".  He plugs the central vaccuum into the wall, turns it on walks over to the girls and sucks up one of Bart's socks.  It's jammed in there pretty good.  Hopefully Bart has a genius idea to get it out otherwise we take it to the vaccuum store= $50-60 to get it unclogged.
4.  Aaron was  "helping" me make smoothies.  His favorite job was to turn on the blender.  He turns it on before I have it in tight and it somehow it warps to the blade= replacement part $14- $44

This weekend has been particularly bad!!!!!

 Some other memorable mishaps from the past year. .

5.  somehow while Emily was showering he unrolled an entire roll of toliet paper down the drain and clogged it= roto rooter man $70.00
6. I'm pretty sure he threw away the spare key to the pilot= replacement key $92.00
7.  Immediately after refilling my labeller.  I carelessly put it down and got busy doing something else.  I came back into the laundry room to discover it completely dissembled with the new tape refill completely unraveled= $10.00
8.  Bosch mixer parts disappeared= replacements $25

I'm thinking of putting a sticky note on him that says "Yes mom I am so sweet, endearing and wonderful but please remember to keep me in sight at all times or your bank account will suffer" 

Aaron should have come out with a tag around his ankle saying "Warning... prone to destroy... May require some eyes in the back of your head" 

Just looking at these pictures melts my heart.  I'm so in love with this sweet boy!!!

The Woes of online shopping

 I did most of my Christmas shopping online this year.    We kept the UPS driver busy but it was so less stressful than fighting the crowds.    I'd do it again in a heartbeat but I've learned a valuable lesson about knock off toys.

Jane loves to play with barbies so Emily decided she wanted to give Jane the frozen characters including Olaf for Christmas.  We got on amazon and started shopping.  Just when I was about to purchase the dolls separately I noticed this great 2 for 1 deal with Anna and Elsa together.    We quickly snatched it up, wrapped it and waited for the big reveal.

Jane was ecstatic when she opened the present.   After the jumping and celebration was over she looked closer at the dolls and said "This doesn't really look like Elsa and she doesn't have a cape"  I mumbled something about sure it does and we moved on the the next present.

Last Tuesday Jane came down in tears.  "Look what Aaron did mom".  This wasn't the first time Aaron had popped a leg or head off a Barbie but it was the first time the parts could not be put back together due to it being cheaply glued together.  

 Jane was so distraught and I knew it was more my fault for buying such cheap toys knowing Aaron the Destroyer lives here.   Once Jane was safely on the bus off to school I told Aaron he needed to go buy Jane another Anna and Elsa.   At the store I was amazed that he was totally focused on getting Jane an Elsa and Anna and didn't care or ask for toys for himself.  We found the "Disney" Brand ones on the shelf quickly paid for them and was back in the car in a flash.  All the way home Aaron held the 2 boxes and looked at them saying "Jane--Anna"  "Jane--- Elsa".    It was priceless when Jane ran through the door after school.  Aaron in full speed ran to meet her at the door saying "Jane, Jane, Elsa, Elsa".  He took her hand and led her to the table where they were sitting so proud to replace them.    Jane picked up the boxes and said "Oh they are so pretty and they even have shoes". 
 

 On a side note can you tell which one came from a knock off China toy store and looks a little Asian? 

A New Pair of Eyes!!

6 year old JANE

Jane is so proud that her birthday is the day after Christmas.  She even told me to wrap her present in Christmas paper.  The night before her birthday she asked me "what time was I  born" so I told her her birth story and said "Around 10AM".  The next morning she continued to ask me what time it was to see if she had officially turned 6 yet.   She got so giddy when I told her it was after 10 and she was now 6.   The next day we invited cousins to come play with us at Trafalga and then join us for pizza and cake at our house.  Bart decided only the best for Jane so he ordered 5 Papa John's pizza's to go.  Jane also wanted a simple chocolate cake this year with the rainbow sprinkles on top that her Primary teacher gave her a while back that went with a lesson. 

 

I love every ounce of my feisty stubborn Jane.  (Although I often wish I wasn't the one that had to deal with her tempers.)   I have no doubt she'll become a very successful adult.  Ally told me the other day "Jane should be a doctor.  She's a go getter, really smart, stubborn and has quite the temper".    My favorite parts of 6 year old Jane is that she hasn't outgrown that extreme excitement about the little things and shows it so readily.    I hope she always does.   I also love that she still needs a lot of  tender affection and isn't against crawling up into my lap when she needs to be rocked to help her calm down.