Over the Weekend

We are loving this warm weather (minus the tornadoes!). This time of the year, we are at home a lot. So it's been nice to enjoy the house, be outside & have no plans!

We are without a sofa right now, so I used our living room as a craft room one night (which seemed like a great idea until I had to spend an hour scrapping tiny paint splatters off our hardwoods). Jake freaks out wanting to help paint anytime he sees a paintbrush. So I got down a painting kit which was a birthday gift that I had hidden out of sight from him. I don't know what he was more excited about, the paint or the fact that he was painting a Toy Story picture. (Don't think I'm THAT mean of a mom. I do let him paint, but it's usually with Crayola magic paint which looks clear until you put it on the magic paper.)

Very excited. I have no idea why I laid down paper for his painting, but not for mine. Where do I think he gets paint splattering from?

Jake outside the movie theater under the Lorax poster, which was the first movie he saw! (Granddad forgot to take a picture the night they took him to see the movie, so they went back a few days later to take his picture with the poster for his memory book. How sweet is that!)

On Saturday, Robbie kept Jake entertained outside while I cleaned inside. He rode his bike, played basketball, played with his batman cave.

I love when he tries to ride fast & leans forward

 He was pretty quite for a while, and this is where we found him. Typical guy. In other potty training news, we have recently completed one more piece of the puzzle! Jake will now potty on an adult size potty. Now the only thing left to accomplish is standing up to pee. I did not realize that potty training was not just getting your kid to pee in a pot. It also means getting them to poop in the pot, not pee in their sleep, use the restroom on a normal size toilet AND (if you have a boy) stand & pee. It has taken us months & we have setbacks at times. We've tried to accomplish the steps one at a time, without pushing Jake. I've tried to remind myself that there is no potty trophy for mom's at the end of this race, so to not fall into the "I did it in 1 day" trap.

Playing with his Vtech tablet

Robbie went for a bike ride at Oak Mountain with some co-workers Saturday afternoon. My friend Julie's husband was out of town that night, and since I knew Robbie would be late getting home from his ride, Jake & I headed over to Julie's for dinner. Julie's little boy Jude is 11 months younger than Jake. They have so much fun playing together! I love to watch it. The way Jude looks up to Jake is the same way Jake looks up to my friend Amanda's little boy Beck, who is about a year older than Jake.  

Enjoying some ice cream & brownie after dinner

A little watching of Bob the Builder while the mom's finish up!

Sweet friends hugging as we left

 Sunday afternoon we worked in Jake's room. Jake is obsessed with tools, so of course he had to help which makes everything take twice as long.

He loved the tape measure

Having a hard time sharing it with Dad

Pouting when it's Dad's turn to use it

Excited once he has it back!

It's always fun standing on a ladder trying to work while having a toy dancing on the same step as you.

 Sunday night, we cooked dinner & ate outside.

Playing football with Daddy

His football stance

Grilling with Dad

He likes to ride his bike crazy

Which usually ends with this. (Which on a side note, when do kids start wearing helmets? Do they have to wear one if they are just riding a tricycle? I thought that they started wearing them once they started riding a bike [not a tricycle], but seeing how many times Jake wrecks, maybe I should go ahead & get him one? Also note - many of his falls are very dramatic [like the one above]. He does not go fast enough & is not high enough to have a bad wreck. He just likes falling off acting like he had one.)

 Good night!

(Trying to convince mom & dad to let him sleep in their room)

Trying to stay on track

While I was gone on a trip, Robbie & Jake had a little one-on-one bonding time.It included building a fort in the bonus room. Who doesn't have a childhood memory of building a fort out of blankets? One of my favorite memories.

Jake in his fort (evidently forts now come with flat screen tv's)

 Santa brought Jake some bubble bath for Christmas. Jake LOVES the bubbles.

Jake's hair has gotten wayyyyy to long. If I had waited a little longer, I think he could have donated to Locks of Love.

Before...

...After (I actually wanted it shorter, but he was loosing it & I was ready to throw in the chips)

 Over the weekend, the Bush's watched Jake Saturday night so Robbie & I could have date night. While he was at the Bush's, they took him to his first movie. They went to see The Lorax. They said Jake did good. He was a little scared at the beginning, but once it got started, he enjoyed it. And they kept him still with popcorn & a drink. I'm so glad he enjoyed it!

On Monday, Jake & I went to the park at the end of our street. Jake started running out of the garage once I started opening it. He got a little too excited & didn't wait for the door to raise enough. He ran straight into it. He was running at full force, so he hit it pretty hard and it knocked him down. I felt so bad for him. He was crying some pretty big alligator tears. I comforted him & checked him out. I asked him if he still wanted to go to the park & he said yes. So he dried his tears, got on his bike & we headed to the park. I thought it was going to leave a black eye, but it instead left a little scab.

I was trying to take a picture of his haircut and every time he would smile, he would wink. The only time this happens though is when he would 'smile' for the camera.

I love our park. It is never crowded and I feel like it is perfect for Jake's age. There are 2 things on the playground that make me nervous & Jake normally avoids them. (They have a toddler version of each, so that keeps him content.) One of them is a climbing station of pegs to a slide platform. Usually Jake gets halfway up & then just climbs down. (Which is fine with me. You can reduce my mommy points, but I want Jake to be scared of some things! It helps keep me sane.) But this time, he didn't stop halfway up. I got up to stand under him, just in case he fell, but I wasn't going to risk helping him (because then he would have wanted to do it 100 more times [again, reduce more points]). To my surprise, he kept trying. He started say "I think I can, I think I can". He kept saying it until he got to the top & climbed over to the platform. I was impressed & proud. (And I just hope that he doesn't try it again for a while.)

The BEST news of the week though is the arrival of....

Elizabeth Behrens Evans

Born March 7, 2012

 

Elizabeth & big brother Grant

How cute is this picture?!?!

My best friend Stephanie had a baby girl! Stephanie & I were both pregnant with Grant & Jake at the same time (our due dates were 2 days apart). So I've missed being pregant with Steph again, but I'm sooooooo excited to spoil this little girl rotten! I am so happy for Stephanie & Jonathan and big brother Grant. Elizabeth is a perfect additional to their family. This is such a precious family & I just can't wait to meet Elizabeth in person & hold this sweet baby.

Hello / Good-bye February

I cannot believe that it has been over a month since I updated the blog & I didn't update it once during the month of February. February was actually a slower month for us. I do so much better multi-tasking when our schedule is full! It's like if I give myself a little time, I just get lazy & fall behind. Time to get back on track! Here is what all was going on February:

• I had to go to a board meeting in Chattanooga for just the day. My friend Julie watched Jake for me. Julie has a little boy Jude who is 11 months younger than Jake. I swear they could be brothers. They both have straight blond hair. Jude is Jake's mini-me! Jake had a lot of fun playing with Jude & even cried when Robbie came to pick him up. I love it that Jake loves playing with the children of mine & Robbie's friends!
• I had a FABULOUS girl's weekend in Point Clear. My 2 best friends from college & I all agreed to forgo birthday & Christmas gifts for each other & the kids and instead spend that money on a weekend get-a-way. Best idea!! We had a great time. We went to the Grand Hotel & Spa in Point Clear, AL. We got there on Friday and had such a great time catching up. It was so nice to go to dinner & not be interrupted every 5 minutes or have to cut up someones food. On Saturday we had a delicious brunch, massages at the spa. We shopped in downtown Fairhope, got manicures/pedicures and then had dinner reservations at an amazing restaurant. It was wonderful to not be on a schedule around naps or appointments. We just did as we pleased. We talked, laughed, relaxed, reminisced, and just had an all around great time. I highly suggest that all women take time out to do this with your girlfriends. As wives/moms we get so consumed with our spouses, children, responsibilities, etc... we forget to take time out for ourselves and for friendships. We were having so much fun in fact, we completely forgot to even take 1 picture. 
• I've had to go to Chattanooga a few times this month. On one of my trips back, my car broke down about 40 miles outside Chattanooga. Boo! All kinds of random functions starting going out as I was driving down the interstate. Even my speedometer! The car was still running though, so I just kept going & just prayed I was going somewhere around the speed limit. It evidently did brake down, but the sweet men at the AL Welcome Center north of Fort Payne jumped me off. That got the car back going, so I kept heading south towards Birmingham. Somehow, God was looking out for us & the car managed to make it back down to Birmingham (after a few more jumps along the way). (That would have been one expensive towing fee!) One alternator later (and much thinner wallets for us) the Envoy is back ready to go!
• We have worked on the house. We finally ordered a sofa for the living room & a table for the dining room. We have got to make some progress. I'm tired of every delivery person asking if we just moved in. I just feel so overwhelmed. This house is a different style than what I've had before and is larger than what I'm used to decorating. I feel so overwhelmed I don't know where to start, so I just do nothing. I am having commitment problems with anything being hung on the walls, painting furniture, etc... I know I need to just look at it as a work in progress, but I can't. Once I start, I want to complete it all at once & then be done. And then never change it.
• We took Jake to his first college basketball game in Auburn. We met our friends Gary & Summer (with their kids Henry (4) & Owen (2)), Brett & Tricia (with their kids Cole (5) & John Gregory (6 mths)) and Doug & Katherine (Alex (2.5) & soon-to-be in July FINALLY a girl for our group!!) for the game. A nice big group! The boys all liked the game (except John Gregory when everyone would cheer) and we managed to make it through only accidentally kicking the people in front of us a thousand times. After the game, we all went over to Summer & Gary's new house for dinner & to hang out. Jake had so much fun playing with the boys. I love getting to see our Auburn friends outside of football season! 

3 Year Checkup

Jake had his 3-year checkup on January 26. (Yes a month after his actual birthday. That's what happens when your birthday falls on a holiday!). He weighs 44 pounds & is 41-42" (he wouldn't stand still) inches tall.  They checked his eye sight & he got a clean bill of health. They tried checking his hearing, but he refused to cooperate with the earphones on his head, so we can only assume his hearing is fine. We went through his list of milestones with his new pediatrician and everything is right on track.  Except.... when they asked me how much milk he was drinking a day. It is funny, before Jake was born & almost every day up until his 2nd birthday, I checked with my doctor, baby books & BabyCenter.com making sure everything I gave Jake was exact. I guess after 2, he stopped needing so many "special" requests. Early on, his doctor agreed that low fat milk was fine for Jake, so we've been giving him that. Jake LOVES milk. It never accrued to me to check to see how much milk to give him.. He loves it & it is low fat, so we just went with it. So when his pediatrician asked me how much milk did we give him a day. Strike 1- I didn't even know. I quickly added up in my head that it was probably at least 4 sippy cups a day. Then the doctor asked me how large were those sippy cups. Strike 2- I have no idea how many onces are in his sippy cup. I just had to give her a measurement with my hands. She said that was probably too much milk to be giving Jake. Anything over 16 onces is just extra calories (no extra nutrition), so we had to cut Jake back to only 2 sippy cups of milk a day. I can't believe my child is a milkaholic. Other than that, we had a clean bill of health! 

Things I want to remember about this time in his life...

• The way he talks. I love the way he pronounces things. Like calling a razor a "lazor". I love when he tells me about his day. He likes to tell me about his teacher Mrs. Michelle, his friend Carson & playing on the playground. I love having conversions with him. I love how he repeats things we say to him. I was painting some wood & he saw me. He said "You are painting mommy! Good job. I'm so proud of you!" Sometimes he will tell us to "calm down!" and ask us "do you understand?".
• Whenever you do something that makes him happy he will say "Best day ever!!". At least once a day it is the best day ever. It is usually followed up with tears though just as soon as he doesn't get something he wants.
• How much closer he is becoming to Robbie. He gets so excited when Robbie gets home from work. It is now a toss up 50/50 on if he chooses mommy or daddy. It used to always be mommy. I love the way that they bond over sports. Jake actually likes watching it with Robbie & loves playing any kind of ball with him. Jake is becoming less of "mommy's boy" & more of "daddy's pal".
• But his heart still belongs to mommy. He'll curl up in my lap & tell me "I love you so much". It completely melts my heart.
• He is starting to say his own prayers. For the longest time, we would just pray them for him. The other night, I asked him if he wanted to say the pray before bed. This was his prayer "God, [mumbling of some things I couldn't understand] mommy, daddy, race cars, Amen".
• His interest in God. He loves to talk about God. Especially God & Jonah (thanks Veggie Tales!). He will tell us that Jesus loves children and how nice God is. He was staying with my parents one night & early in the morning before everyone got up, my mom was in the den reading her Bible. Jake walked in & asked her what she was doing. Mom said reading the Bible. Jake said "oh, you're learning about God".
• He loves to sing. I could listen to him sing all day. Even when it is past his bedtime. That sweet little voice.

I've got to start writing this stuff down as I think of it. He will do it & I will think to myself 'I need to jot that down'. Of course I forget, and then I sit down to write on the blog (my unofficial babybook) & I can't remember anything. I sound like such a broken record, but I do feel like it just keeps getting better. We definitely have our challenges each day in which I wonder how much I could get for him off eBay (just kidding). But the good times far outweigh the tough times. I love this precious time in his life and daily thank God that his plan was so much better than mine.