9-22-09

Eli: With a grin from ear to ear and a face filled with nothing but pure delight he yells out to me, "Mommy! I walking bastard!!! Yook, I walking bastard!!"

Tiff: (With a smile equal in size) "Yay! Yes, you are walking backwards!"

I love this kid, but speech therapy might be a bit overdue. :)

HOTS for ARIEL!

Eli has been obsessed with Princesses and Barbies and anything 'pink' for awhile now. We are not really sure why since we have a house full of boys and boy things. Every time we go to the Dr.'s office despite the nurse's push for a Spider-man or Batman sticker... he insists on Barbie! When we go to the store and he can pick out any fruit snacks he wants... he wants Barbie or Tinkerbell! (By the way, Connor gets SO embarrassed by this and refuses to eat them!) When I took him to pick out big boy underpants... he wanted Little Mermaid and Tinkerbell. And I have to admit, I was starting to get a bit worried about my kid's sexuality.

Then Eli found a book on the bookshelf a couple days ago. A few years back my mom sent a pack of four Disney board books to the kids and one of them was this Little Mermaid one... which until now, has been relatively untouched. Eli recently found it and has spent hours looking through it. He keeps it open to the very last page where Ariel and Eric get married and are kissing. He drags it in and out of the car, all around the house, and I even woke up this morning to see he had pulled it back off his bookshelf last night, opened it to the last page and had slept with it next to his pillow like that!

Yesterday while looking at the book, Eli started saying, "That E-yie," and pointing to Eric (the prince)who is kissing Ariel. Which was then followed by "I want to kiss her, Mommy!" I tried to discourage this idea by trying to convince him she was not a princess and was in fact a fish. He didn't go for it... and only became very insulted I would say such a thing! But he must have told me a hundred times that day that he wanted to kiss her... and I was sick of it! :)

So I asked him, "How old are you Eli?"

To which he said "Free!"(three).

I then tried to explain to that three year-old that he had to wait until he was 16 to even THINK about kissing a girl.

He responded by insisting, "I SIC- TEEN, MOMMY!" The more I tried to tell him otherwise, the louder he repeated himself!

A few days previous to this he was eating a bowl of Marshmallow Mateys. Innocent enough, right? I caught him picking out two marshmallows. He pointed to one and said, "incess" (princess) and pointed to the other and said "E-yie" (Eli). Then he proceeded to roll play the two marshmallows were kissing!

Once again, I am really starting to worry about this kid... but for the exact opposite reason! He is only three and already GIRL CRAZY!!

Lesson Learned!

Before I make this post I would like to state that I am not a perfect person. (As you all well know!) That being said, I'd also like to state that although I am not perfect... I do strive to do what is right. I promise! But I am also a "what you see is what you get" kind of person. I don't pretend to be perfect. Unfortunately this is one of those times...

I think I might be in some serious trouble. Yesterday I took Eli to the hospital for a post surgery check-up. (BTW-- turned out he is doing great and is in the clear!) As I circled the parking lot for a good ten minutes, looking for any parking space within a mile radius of the hospital-- I was loosing my patience, and fast! I was going to be late because there was no stinkin' place to park! I finally saw a man walk to his truck. I quickly circled back around and waited a good 2-3 minutes for him to get situated. I had waited a couple car lengths away to politely allow him proper room to back out. But just then someone else must have spotted this truck backing out. They quickly reversed and sped around the other side of the circle, pulled up right behind the truck, and proceeded to STEAL my spot. I could not believe it! I felt like I was in an episode of Seinfeld. I clearly had been waiting for it! The person looked right at me to which I shook my head at him in disgust and just may have said out loud what an ass I thought he was! As he was halfway pulled into the spot this man gestures to me like "Were you waiting for this spot?", to which I nodded my head yes. He then (unhappily but still politely) backed out and allowed me to pull in. As he drove past me I waved gratefully, but felt rather stupid as I had just acted like such a brat when he obviously did not intentionally take my spot. Just as I was feeling quite sheepish, I saw it! The man I just may have cussed out was wearing a black shirt with a white collar. Yup, you guessed it... he was a "Father"... a priest... a holy man. Only this, would happen to me! I am pretty sure that qualifies me for a "go straight to hell, do not pass Go, do not collect $200" card. The moral of the story: Do not call 'men of cloth' bad words... you will regret it! I know I sure do!!!

Busted!

Tiffany: Connor, what type of lunch meat do you want me to buy for your lunch?

Connor: Salami! You know that kind that is the best kind in the whole world?

Tiffany: ??? So you mean regular salami then?

Connor: No! You know the kind! The kind that Dad always sneaks and eats on Sunday afternoons when you take your nap?

HA! BUSTED! :)

So, I buy deli meats for lunches. (Seth included.) But it is expensive at practically 10 bucks a pound. Yet it seems to be Seth's favorite thing to snack on. That is an expensive snack ( if you ask me)! And we are not talking one or two slices here... we are talking I go to the fridge the next morning to make a lunch for our son... and it is all gone! It is rather annoying. So I am constantly telling Seth lunch meat is NOT a snack... to which he more than often claims he is not eating!

But the truth is out. Apparently while I am sleeping... Seth is devouring this lunch meat like it is the greatest stuff on the earth! I love you, Sweetie! :)

Eli's surgery

Here we go again!

Sweet Eli after they brought him out to me.

When he woke up he wanted me to get in bed with him... so we laid there all day and watched a million Max and Ruby's... his favorite!

Eli up and about. Nothing can keep him down!

Eli went in for surgery last week to get his tonsils and his adenoids removed. He was not getting enough air in while he was sleeping because of thick adenoids and swollen tonsils that were blocking his air way... and after many sleepless nights for Eli, as well as Mom and Dad (for fear he would stop breathing altogether!) we videoed him and took it to the ENT. He said he had sleep apnea... I never knew a 3 year old could have that! This was a more major surgery... they thought Eli would need to be seen over night and said it was a 10-14 day recovery. But Eli has recovered like a champ! (so far). He was up and walking around with in a couple hours and eating popsicles and ice cream. They let us leave that afternoon about 8 hours later. The hardest part of it all was denying Eli real food for the first week. He quickly got sick of popsicles, ice cream, yogurt and pudding and was screaming and crying for "real food". After the first day Eli never really complained of any pain. And after a couple days we stopped giving him the pain meds altogether even though we still had two more refills... because it never seemed to matter for him... and it sure made for one crabby, tired, drugged up child. We are still not in the clear with foods like chips and popcorn... he has another week or so til he can do that. Dehydration is another common concern because they say often kids don't like to drink because it hurts them. But since Eli seemed to not have any pain... he has been drinking like an camel! He LOVES his apple juice and loves that he has been able to drink as much as he wants of it! (Weening him off of it after all this is going to be the hard part!) It is now a little over a week later since the surgery and I would say he has been back to "normal" for several days now. It has made a big difference in his snoring and breathing and we are very glad we made the choice we did to get them removed. The ENT said his tonsils were HUGE after he took them out. Even bigger than he thought. :)

Second Grade

1st day of second grade!

Connor in his classroom... you can tell he is THRILLED to have his mom there and taking pictures. :)

Connor getting off the bus. Connor will be a bus rider this year since we switched schools.

Today was Connor's first day of the second grade at Lakeshore Elementary. Go Leopards! I have such high hopes for you Connor-boy! The sky is the limit. I hope you will always strive to do your best and stand for truth and right as you reach for those stars. I am so proud to be your mom. Your dad gave you a special father's blessing last night. As I watched you sit in the chair, head bowed, and arms folded-- in nothing but your undies-- I wanted to freeze time. I wanted you to stay that sweet, little boy forever. Sometimes I make the mistake of thinking you are so grown because you are the oldest. It is my prayer that you will always be able to see the potential that your mom, dad and Heavenly Father see in you! We love you! XOXO

The big 3-0!

In my defense I will just state that I had just awakened from a 3 hour nap! What? It was my birthday! And since I am thirty now... I get worn out so much easier! :)

So, this is 30?? I spent a lot of time this year worrying and grieving over the thought of turning 30. It is something that I never, EVER thought would actually happen. Maybe for everyone else, but not for me. I vividly remember thinking as a teenager that 30-year olds were OLD! Or worse yet... they were "MOMS!". They wore "mom" clothes and had "mom" hair cuts, and drove "mom" cars, and did boring "mom" stuff like sitting in the living room while exchanging crock pot recipes with a friend over herbal tea. This seems to be my destiny now because I am 30. I am officially old. I am officially a "mom". Some of you may have thought giving birth to a child made you a mom... but you are wrong! That makes you a Mother. Being 30 makes you a "mom". Mehhh.... it's not so bad... so far. :) I truly believe growing old is a beautiful thing... just as long as it is not me. Maybe if I take better care of myself... then I can ward off being old for a bit longer. That, and if I suddenly win the lotto. Then I can finally hire that stylist/ personal trainer/ personal chef/plastic surgeon, that will help me look and feel more hip... and less momish! Or, I could start out simple and just trade in the mini-van for... well, just about anything! But I happen to love my mini-van. It must be because I am 30. So maybe I'll just accept my fate and get "Mom" tatted on my arm... or would that make me hip? I don't even know anymore.