I wish I had a superman costume...

Today we randomly came across a old school telephone booth with an actual working pay phone. I had little S stand inside then incredibly started wishing I had a superman costume to change him into to compelte the scene  This way at least he'll have proof of payphones and phone booths existing in his lifetime.

Easter 2014

This is little S's second Easter and the first time he really has gotten to participate in a egg hunt although his first Easter the bunny did leave some really large eggs and he got to take a bath with them; this year the bunny hid eggs all over the backyard!



Little S's Easter Basket - the basket is a Dragon Pail and could be used as a room trashcan it's that big at any rate we'll use it for tons of things I'm sure. He also received Cotton Tails (white cheese balls),  Orange M&M's, lollipops, a ruber ducky wearing bunny ears, two puzzles, a kite and several books.

M's Easter basket - Jelly beans, Peeps, snicker eggs and chocolate egg candies

My Easter gift - It's complicated for holidays sometimes because I'm Paleo and do not consume sugar or grain... I received a pink bunny from the Easter Bunny and a very nice card from M and little S.

Egg Hunt!

ready to take your calls

I loaned M my old headset from when I was working on the phones in a call center and Little S confiscated it for a trial run. The funnies thing about it was that he put it on.. grabbed the mute button and looked at us like well send the calls I'm ready. When M and I started laughing.. he grabbed his ear the one with the speaker and said.. "Hi Hi ya doing?" like he was really getting a call and having trouble hearing because of noisy cube neighbors.


we both looked at each other and cracked up.

Balloon fun

Little S and I both received mylar balloons from M for Valentine's Day. (I'm allergic to Latex so these are the only kind of balloons we can have in the house). Finally after nearly two weeks of trying the cats managed to chew through the ribbon holding one of my balloons to my chair in the kitchen.

This happy accident lead to a lot of learning and fun for little S. We had been holding him up and letting him push his balloon since he got it; however he had never been able to hold a balloon. I handed him the now freed balloon ribbon and he laughed and tried to jump high enough to put it back where it goes.

I would bring him the balloon in another room and he would run back with it to the kitchen and jump to put it back. The pictures below are a little blurry because he is doing the jumping thing to get the balloon back to where it was supposed to be.

This was one of those.. I love how the world works in your eyes little man, (and I adore you in overalls)  mommy moments.

Little S's first ride

He's been in a car, and taken an airplane ride but before today he had never been on a amusement ride or any mechanical ride.


While leaving a store we just happened into we found a Dumbo Ride and M surprised me by putting little S onto it and having him ride it twice. I don't know why it surprised me so much; whether it was the frivolous use of money, whether it was the spur of the moment act or whether it was the selfless act of letting his son do something fun while he watched. I was whole heartedly taken aback by this sweet gesture.

So here is little S riding Dumbo (Twice!!!)

Valentine's Day

Valentine's day for me is another time to help little S learn that he is loved and cherished; while carrying on a piece of my mom. Growing up we would come downstairs the morning of Valentine's day to find a package waiting on a decorated table with a red outfit or shirt something we could wear to school for valentine's day. This is now little S's second Valentine's day and the second time he has come downstairs to find presents and a new red shirt.


This is what the table looked like:

This is a close up of his 14th heart message of love:

Each of the first 14 days in February I leave a heart message and a heart chocolate on the table for him. Either his dad or I read to him what is written on the heart - each heart has a different thing I love about him written on it. Then I take the hearts and tape them to one of the two mirrors in the hallway so when he is lifted up to see himself his image is covered by all the things I love about him. I am trying to ensure that on some level when he sees himself in the mirror he sees how much he is loved, subconsciously if you are being held by someone who loves you and your image is covered in loving messages you have to know you are valued and supported. I want to subtly increase his self worth and teach him how much he means to me and the world. This is now the second time I have given him the fourteen hearts of love and the second time I have collected and saved the hearts so that they can be added to a scrap book. I want to be prepared if there is ever a time when he feels unloved or unwanted or under valued to be able to share the book of fourteen things I have loved about him since he has been born. If I do a good job and that time never comes then I will wait to give him the book at a different time, maybe at his wedding, the birth of his child, or should I die I want it there for him so he can always know how much his mommy loved him.

Because I want "bath" time to be fun he also had a Valentine's Day bath. This is red tinted water, white bubbles, and candy heart like containers. He loved playing with the containers washing the bubbles off them.

February 14th also happens to be International Give a Child a book day - So instead of a card I gave him this book about how a mommy loves her son. Little S was also given several books by from his god mother which you can see him reading below wearing his new red sweater,

Give a child a book day - Feb 14th

February fourteenth in addition to being Valentine's Day is also International Give a child a book day. This year to celebrate that tradition and carry on the lesson of giving back, saying thank you and helping others Little S and I decided to donate some new board books to a local hospital for their waiting rooms.



We went to our local Dollar store and chose all the board books we could find for both girls and boys that we could donate. The selection for boys was very limited and we ended up with two of the Spider man books, but this way little boys will not need to share.

This was our haul. Little S looked through them all when we got home just to make sure they were good books.

The next day I gathered all of his bathtub friendly books and ran him a reading bubble bath. He had a ton of fun reading (he doesn't actually read yet.. well not in English. he looks through the pages and talks through them or laughs at the pictures) He also liked to wash the bubbles off of the books in the running water.

I try to tie together the concept of what we are doing to a bath, lunch or event to help stick the idea. Kids learn better through action and play.

Invitation to play cardboard masterpiece

I have been feeling pretty guilty this week about the amount of time I am spending during our day on work. I work a twelve hour day from 2am to 2pm but normally there is downtime where I can take time to make and have breakfast with the men, make lunches for them, do some housework, and spend time with little S. For some reason this week between being needed more at work, his dad being gone on his days off and things around the house needing to be done; I feel like I have been letting little S down. He is a fabulous kid who I don't send  to day care so he has been having a lot of alone time playing with his toys and not a lot of me time.

I decided to make an effort to give him some invitations to play either with me or without me that are special for him.

This was super quick to put together - I grabbed one of the boxes from our Christmas in January day and opened it up. I wrote on a piece of paper.. Can you color the whole box? Mommy thinks you can. I then put it in the middle of the living room where we spend our day and added a box of washable crayons and washable pens, and his two easy grip crayons. The flat box would be great for kids of any size.

Little S caught a glimpse of this as his dad brought him downstairs for breakfast and couldn't wait to check it out. He refused to get into his high chair, refused his milk, he wanted nothing but to go check it out. So we postponed the breakfast which was getting cold on the table and I let him do his thing. I read to him what the paper said.. and showed him that he could use a color crayon on the cardboard or the paper. That's all it took and he was scribbling away. After a quick examination of what it was and how it worked he was hungry, and we had breakfast. After breakfast he went right back to playing with the pens. I knew the pens would be his favorite part we just started playing with them the other day and he loves putting the caps on and taking them back off. Since these are washable when he gets it all over his hands or face it comes off with a baby wipe.

I happen to get a delivery of our Amazon Subscription today that came in a larger box and thought he's really liked the flat box but he's small enough to get inside this box. I put the pens away and added the crayons to the box and then put him in it. SCORE one for mommy. This has been something he has enjoyed playing with for a week since I first gave it to him. He's scribbling on the sides and learning to close the box and likes the in and out process because it involves mommy lifting him both ways. This box has been a great toy and is still box shaped after a week.

Valentines Day is coming

Every year shortly after my birthday I decorate for Valentines Day. It's really a pretty nondenominational holiday about loving people and giving them chocolate. Little S helped with the decorations today.

Christmas in January

Little S has a wonderful godmother who spoiled him for Christmas. She sent him several items one of which was a 4 in 1 trike unfortunately his Omi and Opa had also sent one that was under the tree for him. After contacting and discussing it with his godmother I returned the second trike to Amazon and they gave me a gift certificate for the purchase amount.

I used the Amazon gift card to chose a few different things for him. His godmother and I both adore books so the first thing I chose was a book shelf in his size so his book collection would be more accessible to him. It had been stored in a milk crate which made some books harder to get to than others. This little book shelf also came in primary colors so it matches his desk.

I then chose for him a fly and go airplane that came with people and some luggage.

I was also able to get him some organic treats we wanted to try, and some wall decals for our hallway while still having enough left over to splurge on a Melissa and Doug mailbox set. It's age 4 but it was discounted and I wanted to grab it while I could for such a great price. I even managed to find a postal carrier book to go with it when it is time to be given.

His godmother and a close friend also spoiled me for my birthday and I was able to get a few more things for my bento lunches for little S. Those items are pictured below and include animal cookie cutters, silicone cup cake cups, and the alphabet cookie cutters. When all these items arrived on the same day it was like having Christmas in January.

A trip to the library

Sunday we took a trip to the library, little S and I. We spent more than an hour together while he played with the other kids, ran around, and played on the computers. He picked out a few books as soon as we got there and then enjoyed the time. There was this girl who had to be nearly 7 that approached him while he was playing in the toy kitchen and asked if she could play with him. I let her know he would love to play with her and that he is very little and is just learning to talk. She was so sweet with him and as I hovered near by he played with her and in his own way complimented her on her jewelry. She had on a necklace that he stopped and looked at then pointed to she told him what it was a picture of but I didn't overhear and he smiled at her. All that might seem very normal to most moms; to me it's amazing. My son is most of the time an only child and when his half brother and sister are here they are a lot older than him so he doesn't have a lot of time playing with kids near his age or that are strangers. I hovered nearby to ensure he was playing nicely but also gave him some space to play with other kids.  I didn't know if she was going to really play with him or just take over where he was playing, when he went to touch the necklace I got really worried would he pull it, would she scream, would she push him, I didn't know how the parents would react to my son touching their daughter, and I couldn't have been more amazed. The little girl was so sweet and kind to him, she told him about her necklace and didn't freak out that he was touching it, her dad who looked up didn't give it two seconds of thought likely because she was calm, and my son just smiled at her and let the necklace go. He just had a  connection with this stranger who took the time to let him get to know something about her with patience and grace, and it touched my heart. Honestly it still brings tears to my eyes. 

This little wonder that I brought into the world after ten months of putting him together just experienced another human connection and I couldn't have been more thankful for this little girl. He wasn't bullied, teased or pushed aside because he couldn't talk or didn't know how to share very well, she cared for him and was tender and calm and sweet. They played together a few more minutes before he went to explore something new and realized our library has a ton of computers.

We found a computer in a quiet area and i let him bang on their keys for a while, and almost lol stopped him in time from rebooting their system. He even let his OCD out... someone had left two books on the couch near where I sat down so he could play some more in the kitchen area, he grabbed the books and put them away. I don't mean he shoved them wherever. He literally took them to where that book went. He put one book in section 9 and the other book in section 4, three books back from the front. It was like he had memorized where all the books were when we chose the books as soon as we got to the library and put them back where he remembered them being. It was such a him move I laughed. 

We had a great time and he left under protest. I don't want to overload him and I wanted to keep to our schedule for dinner; also leaving while you still want more is a great way to ensure he'll want to come back and do it again. 

We checked out eight books, two that he chose and six that mommy chose with the next  letter of the week in mind. He fell asleep on the five minute drive home so I call that a successful outing. 

Christmas Memories

This is the first Christmas that we have had all three kids together. The last time we had the big kids near this holiday little S was still incubating and although provided presents he wasn't a huge presence yet. I wanted to make sure it was as memorable as possible for all of us.

Dad and daughter sprinkled Reindeer food all over the snow out front. H had made a bag of reindeer food in school to help guide the reindeer. It was oats and red glitter in a bag that H decorated to look like a reindeer.

I and H made some almond joy cookie bars so we could put them out on a plate that night for Santa along with a glass of milk.

We all staked out a place in the living room and because we were switching cars around little S had his car seat inside and chose that as his chair.

Some of little S's gifts included a new 4 in 1 tricycle from his Omi and Opa, a talking bear from his godmother, and a shopping cart from Neil and Nash.

Santa came and left little S a desk/art easel and a discovery kid laptop so that he has a desk right next to mommy's and his very own computer.

I was actually a little surprised that little S wasn't into presents as much as I thought he would be; he really lost interest after the second one. After talking my disappointment over with my wonderful sister it seems that really he just isn't big enough yet to get that presents are things that are for him. He's still happy with knowing Mommy will make sure he has fun and everything he needs.