Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Happy New Year!!!!

Well, I fell off the face of the...blog for a couple of weeks but I'm back!! We are finally relaxing and taking full advantage of our family time together! We rushed home to Ohio one day after Ben finished comps for my cousin's BEAUTIFUL wedding, ran around like chickens with our heads cut off for the next week and then drove home this past Sunday for some peace and quiet. So far we've grocery shopped (Whoo-hoo!) and gone to the Brookfield Zoo where we renewed our membership (thank you Great Grandma Frazier!!!), played, played some more, relaxed....
I'll have some Christmas pictures to post soon but honestly, I'm too lazy to download them at the moment:) Hey, at least I'm honest! I was just on facebook reading people's comments about the New Year and how everyone's glad for a new year to begin because maybe this was a tough year for some people. It was a tough year for us in many ways and to be honest again, I am very thankful for a fresh new year. This past year was challenging, draining, stressful but full of growth. I have been trying to think of a New Year's resolution but can't come up with anything yet! For now I'm just going to enjoy my family, my FINALLY relaxed husband and two beautiful, growing-too-fast little boys....

Friday, December 12, 2008

Conversation with Samuel yesterday:

S: Why aren't you eating, mommy?
M: Because I finished my lunch and my tummy is full.
S: Why is your tummy full?
M: Because I ate my lunch!
S: Why did you eat your lunch?
M: Because I was hungry.
S: Why were you hungry?
M: Because it was lunchtime.
S: Why was it lunchtime?
M: Because it just was!

And this conversation was happening while sleep-deprived mommy was struggling to stay awake at the table while the WORLD'S SLOWEST EATER finished his lunch! Why was I sleep deprived, you ask? Because Z has been terribly ill this week! He was so cranky on Sunday and I just thought he was grumpy until he woke up from nap and didn't want to do anything but lie in my arms. And then he got a fever that lasted for the next 4 1/2 days ranging from 100-104! He stopped eating, sleeping and pretty much cried ALL night long for the next 3 nights. I was finally able to get him into the dr. on Tuesday and he had some 'gitis virus that caused white sores in his throat and some severely swollen glands in his neck. Poor, poor baby. He lost 1 1/2 pounds and his buddha belly:(
The good new is that he is finally on the mend! Last night was his (and my) first full night's sleep since Saturday! I am just praying with all my might that no one else gets it, especially Ben, who is currently taking the 4th of 6 comprehensive exams. My poor hubby has had a grueling week (or several months) also and is so tired but we are counting down the days. 4 1/2 days left until break!!! Family time! Freedom! Rejuvenation! Let it come...

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Pictures and Silly boys!

I just came from cooking with pretend food with the boys. They were making some very gross, er, interesting combinations such as a special drink with strawberries, lemons, chocolate and the secret ingredient that all special drinks need.....hamburger! Well, needless to say, I'm not quite sure that the boys are ready to take over dinner duty yet:)

I embarked on the hair cutting journey with Samuel and Zakkai yesterday. Their hair grows WAY too fast for my liking! So I usually put them in their booster seat and put in a movie that they rarely get to see. I started with Zakkai and put him in front of a farm animal movie that held his attention for all of 2 minutes of the hair cut...ahem, that's beside the point! When some baby chicks flashed up on the screen, Zakkai gasped and said, very excitedly, "Chicken Nuggets!!" Well, little one, you have no idea.. He's a funny boy, though. He jabbers constantly and picks up A LOT of words/phrases from Samuel (good or bad?) He says a lot of things in a sing-songy voice. So a one syllable word can have about three syllables! I love how he says tree. He sing-songs "tre-ee" and believe me, he LOVES our tree!

Samuel is getting VERY imaginative! There's this dinosaur in a display case at Target (have I mentioned that I love that store?!) that, if you push a button, stomps and roars, etc. So Samuel must've had dinosaurs on the brain because later in the day as I was making dinner, he comes flying around the corner with eyes as big as saucers and exclaimed, "Mommy! There's a dinosaur in the kitchen! And it's eating our food!!" I came to discover later, through a friend's questioning, that it was a small, red dinosaur because everyone knows that the best dinosaurs are small red ones!

And last night at dinner, Zakkai was having trouble eating his pizza for some reason and Samuel was very worried about him (You okay, buddy?) and kept inspecting his pizza to make sure it didn't have hard bites. So he takes a big gulp of water and said, "Mommy, I just took a BIG drink of water to make my back feel better because it had pizza in it.." Ben and I just looked at each other, not even sure how to respond to that quaint bit of 3 year old logic! Our silly boy:)

And last but not least, the boys and I also embarked on a photo shoot yesterday, after the haircuts. It was a lot of fun and I am sharing a sneak preview with you! We also had to take a family picture for something so I included of those, too. I happen to like my family:)






Our little man


Before hair cut!

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Tagged!

I got tagged....before Thanksgiving (oops!) and got so busy getting ready to travel that I forgot to do it! Shame on me! I am supposed to:


1. Choose the 4th picture folder on my computer


2. Choose the 4th picture


3. Explain the picture


4. Tag 4 people to do the same!

This is my sister Danielle and her daughter Jasmine holding Samuel, who was 3 weeks old. We had made our first trip home to Ohio to introduce our little son to our families! Danielle was in town at the same time and it was so nice for her to meet him!

Alright, I did it! The only problem is....I don't have 4 people to tag because either they've already been tagged or they don't have a blog.... The only person I can think of to tag is:

Emily Shipley!! Oh, aren't you lucky!!

Thanksgiving, Tantrums and Trees!

Zakkai being silly in the car! If you look closely, you can see his eye:)
A Zakkai-tantrum

Checkin' out the new Christmas lights....naked


"Helping" decorate the tree and get ornaments out


The real tree decorator:)
Well, we're back from our crazy-busy Thanksgiving and more tired than ever! I envy those who feel refreshed after that "break!" The boys had a great time staying with their Auntie K and Uncle Tim. They didn't want to leave!! We had a lot of fun staying at their new house, even though Ben had to study most of the time:(
The boys are busy-bees! Zakkai is into EVERYTHING and I have to keep my eagle mommy-eye on him. He throws tantrums now over the smallest little things. He gently throws himself to the ground and works himself up to screaming and tears and it goes on...and on....and on...and sometimes he might even stop in the middle to smile or laugh but then remembers what he was supposed to be doing and cries again:) I know I've learned a lot as a parent because it doesn't stress me out, in fact I think it's funny because it's so ridiculous! I don't show him that, of course! He is definitely coming up on TWO.
Samuel's still my train-crazy boy. He has his eye on some new trains these days that he wants to add to his insane collection. When we get toy catalogs in the mail, he really enjoys studying them while he eats breakfast at the table. He was VERY excited to decorate our little Christmas tree last night! The boys helping haul up our bins from the basement and "helped" pull out and break, er, hand us the ornaments. They love the lights that I decorated the windows with so much that they can't stay away! I was trying to get them dressed this morning and they came running out naked and climbed in the wagon to gawk over the lights;) I think celebrating with them will be a lot of fun this year. Not just with the presents (because most everyone I know is poor anyways!) and the decorations but also with traditions and teaching them about baby Jesus and spending a lot of time together as a family.





Followers