…..Or….

In which Mommy wanted to impress, but it just really doesn’t work out that way.

You know, there are so many truly awesome blogs out there where mommies are constantly popping post after fabulous post showing what appears to be perfect little toddler and preschoolers creating perfect little projects while learning perfect little lessons about life.

Heck, some of the kids are not even toddlers yet.

(It’s all amazing how much little kids are capable of when given the chance to truly succeed!)

Recently, having read everything I could get my hands on about teaching my up-&-coming toddler, I was beyond impressed and filled to the brim with creative ideas. So. I went out and bought the trays and the gadgets and created all the homemade whatsits to store in the perfect playroom.  The scene was set, the supplies were here, and the earth was his oyster…or something like that.

Visions of this bloggy photo perfection I’d seen in other preschool blogs were hovering all around me.

That’s right, folks.  Forget sugar plums.  Visions of smiling, happy kids (not even 3 years old yet) pouring beeds, cutting out papers, reciting their state capitals, and dot-markering the letter A for Alligator danced in my head.

In some of those more extreme visions, my toddler would excitedly - but carefully – explore the wonders of the art world and be hailed as the next Rembrandt by his 5th birthday….

Art would be his calling.

Through art, he would fulfill all of mommy’s desires to be an artist.

Oh yes.  I said it.

Mommy’s desires.

(See, I cannot draw worth a lick.  It sucks.  I’d be a millionaire on Cafepress if I could JUST DRAW dang it).

Early art training would easily solve that.

Right?

(We call the above masterpiece, “Paper Turkey in the Straw”.)

Then, after it was all said and done, I would upload my 107 photos and blog happily about each activity we accomplished along with what pertinent area of development it corresponded with.

All of my photos would be perfect and my readers would then oooohhh and ahhhh over what a fantabulous mom I had suddenly turned into.

It was all soooo very simple.

………………………………

Now.  I could stop these photos right here and happily let you think that I finally DID fulfill this mommy-teaching-a-wild-2-year-old-lessons-everyday thing.

And for 9.5 seconds I silently pondered if that would be the right thing to do or not.

But then reality hit and I remembered something.

I’m not. that. mom.

You know the one.  The one with the educational blog posts we all admire and drool over when we are out there in bloggy land gathering the most absitively posilutely fabulous tips on lapbooking for tots, tot schooling, and all around tot learning goodness.

I’m not her.  I’m not anyone else.  I’m just… me…… a doofus mom haphazardly documenting this runaway train called “growth” in my not-so-little-anymore firstborn child- both the good parts and the bad.   With a 2 year old and a newborn, there are some days when I do good to put my pants on when I get out of bed.

Heck, there are some days when I do good to even FIND my pants.

I truly want the best for my son, just like you all out there want the best for your kids.  Yet sometimes….somedays…(and I’m loathe to admit this)…Seseme Street is the best I can manage.  One day I’ll get it all together, but until then, I’ll close my computer, stop daydreaming, and remember that our life is our life.  It’s far from perfect, but it is fun.

Fortunately, my son is coming along just fine despite my faults.

And the perfect art lesson shown at the start of this post?
Here are the photos showing real life near the end of that art lesson….

————–

And considering that Michelangelo got his big break in ceiling artwork, I may have a genius on my hands afterall…

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…just follow the signs  —>>

(Can you tell which sign Little Jack contributed to the wall?)

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Back in November 2009, my husband and I finally began working on our 3rd bedroom (or, as it was better known, our “junk room”) that we hadn’t touched since we bought the house in March 2006.

Using leftover neutral khaki & a soft light blue paint from other paint jobs in the house – along with an inspiration photo found on the internet – I went to work creating a themed playroom for Jack-Evan. The beautiful light pine laminate floor we have been installing throughout the house also found a home in this room (BUH BYE, dirty shaggy brown carpet from the 80s!).

We didn’t completely finish it until just before Maggie was born in May (thank goodness for that horrid nesting instinct, huh?) but I’m not sure how we lived without it now! I love that Jack has a wonderful, safe place to play. Better yet, I love that all of his toys are stored in ONE place and they all have a specific home. He can easily see what he wants to play with, and when it’s taken down a noticeable void is left, which makes cleaning up so much quicker. We still have a lidded “toybox” in the living room to round up stray toys that have been brought out during the day, but it’s small and stylish (and doesn’t even look like it contains toys).

Since we only have 3 bedrooms, Jack-Evan and his any future brothers will inherit this room and the girls will inherit the nursery by our room that Jack currently resides in.

Generated by Facebook Photo Fetcher

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“Pictures taken on June 17 of each year (our wedding anniversary).

Each year we take our photo on our front porch in this exact spot. We try to keep it “candid” as far as clothing goes…just sorta a snapshot of what our lives look like at each anniversary. ”

Generated by Facebook Photo Fetcher

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I’ve always loved aprons.

I suppose it’s because they remind me of my Grandmother, who passed away in 2000 at the age of 87.   She raised 9 children during the 1940s-1960s, and never wore pants in her life!  As with many women from that period, she also wore aprons quite frequently as well – even up through the end of her life.  There is just something so nostalgic and homey about aprons that give me a sense of peace.

I’m not really an apron-holic like some, but I do adore looking at them and have always longed to have a retro one (or 5) of my own!   I have 2 modern chef type aprons that were given to me over the past 5 years, but none that I had bought of my own liking.

So, after much debate, I decided to blow a small bit of spending money on 2 homemade aprons from Etsy that I had been drooling over.  And boy were they ever worth it!   The craftsmanship on both are wonderful – especially my full aprons.  Those ladies sure did take their time, and put a lot of love into crafting these garments.

The first one is a little half pink & brown ruffly apron, with cute cats and a small pocket on it.  I like to wear this one for cleaning as it doesn’t offer shirt protection when cooking.

And the second one is (in my retro opinion!), to die for!  It’s a blue full apron, with a slip over neck and thick tie.  It has a pale blue background with contrasting yellow flowers, yellow sash, and a yellow pocket.   Although “handmade”, it’s crafted by a sheer professional.  All of the seems are perfectly sewn and the edges are even beautifully serged for a nice finished look.

I wear this one for cooking and anything else that comes up.  My husband even loves it!  It’s just simply an all around fun apron to wear.

Sometimes I get lazy and go for a couple weeks without home cooking something, but I then get back into the swing of things and go on cooking binges – and for the past month, I’ve been in a cooking & cleaning mode and have been wearing this little apron to pieces.  It just takes much of the monotany out of housework!  It’s like a morning perk-me-up without the Starbucks label.

One thing I’ve noticed since I’ve started wearing these new aprons, Jack-Evan absolutely loves to look at them, marvel at the patterns, and hang on to them.  He follows me around sometimes and stands up, holding on to my knees, and hids under the hem of the apron and giggles his head off.  Sometimes I get so caught up in standing there playing peekaboo with him, I let the banana pancakes burn.  It’s the cutest thing eva, I tell you.  Just the experience of my little man enjoying the apron in such a way makes me glad to be wearing it.

Who knows, one day when he’s 80, he might find himself looking back in the far recessed corners of his memories, and begin to feel nostostalgic for a little old apron clad woman standing in the kitchen that he once called Mum Mum.

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….this is what tearing up your front yard will get ya!

I suppose this fellow got a little mad at us for hammering in on his outdoor habitat so he marched into ours to pay us back.  He was found the other night crawling around in our foyer, just after dusk.  We had been working out in the front yard all day, digging flower beds, painting, and building the arbor and had just come in to get out of the rain that was starting.

 Thankfully I discovered him before he discovered Jack-Evan!

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…died yesterday.  

I had him longer than I had Kevin – Napolean has been with me ever since the summer of 2005, and Kevin became his ferret’y dad when we married a year later.

He loved playing with his bell toy, snuggling in warm rags, and bouncing around the room. He had this little plastic squeaky toy shaped like a little man in a blue coat that he would drag around the house with him. When excited, he would make a chucking/kissing type of noise, and when he was upset he would hiss.

Shoulder rides were his favorite thing (besides his little blue man), and he was good at giving kisses. He would even jump in my arms from the floor when I reached down towards him.

He was a good, funny little guy and my heart is broken that he’s gone.

Although we didn’t know it until a few months ago, Napolean had kept a huge secret from us his whole life – he was actually a girl. It took a sharp eyed neighbor to fill us in. We tried calling him a her for a while, but old habits die hard – and we finally decided that Napolean(a) would forever and always be a “he” to us. I’m sure he really didn’t mind.

His nicknames included “Poley”, “Snicky Nicky” and the occassional “Snickelodeon”.

His cage is forever empty now, and his food dish is sitting there on top, never to be replenished again.

The little jingle bell wooden toy that hung in his cage these past 3 years will be going into my memory box.  It’s hard – I keep thinking I hear his jingle bell rattling like he does, then it will hit me that he’s no longer there to rattle it.  I cried for hours last night.  Kevin said he even shed a small tear on his way home from work after I told him.  

We’re about to bury him in the backyard.  We made him a coffin out of Kevin’s size 14 shoe box, and wrapped Napolean up in a nice dish towel. 

He’ll be buried with his water bottle, and the little blue man that he loved so much in life.

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(Voiced by 7 month old Jack-Evan, Typed by Mommy)

Tonight my mommy told me that her and daddy were going on this thing called a date.
It sounded scary so I grabbed mommy’s necklace so she couldn’t get away. 
She had never been away from me, so I wasn’t sure she could handle it. 
Mommy knew I was worried though, and explained to me what a date is.

Let me tell all of you so you can know too.

You see, when two people love each other, they get married.
After a  while they suddenly realize they no longer spend as much
time together anymore. At least, that’s what she said.

I’m don’t really believe that part because I’m with mommy all the time and we
see my daddy quite often.   Adults are very confusing!

And as mommy continued to explain to me what a date was, I became even
more convinced that adults are confusing.

Mommy said that people get dressed up when they go on dates.

I thought my mommy looked just fine in her sweatpants and tshirt?

Next, you drive with your date to a restaraunt.

I wanted to ask why was it a special thing to eat?  We eat every day.
(But I kept my mouth shut)

Then, the man holds the door open for the lady…

…and pays for dinner.

Again, I wanted to ask mommy why was this special.  
Isn’t daddy’s money her money already?

After ordering a little coffee to go with your creamer…

You pig out daintily munch on your meal while talking with your honey.

(Mommy said women daintily munch on food while on dates, but I’ve seen
mommy eat and I know she’s not dainty…)

After the meal, you are supposed to talk about everything, nothing, and a little
in between as long as the subject doesn’t revolve around home and children.

(HA!  I happen to know mommy called Grammy at least 2 times to check on me) 

After this thing called “a date” is over, you are refreshed and in love all over again.

At least…that’s what my mommy said.

I don’t know if I’m ready for dates yet…but…

I am glad they came back home to me!

THE END

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….we’re taking our dog PupPup to their clinic be neutered. It’s pretty nice – they offer it for only $50. Our main vet cost over $200! His appointment is at 8:00, and we’ll be picking him back up this evening at 5 pm. He wasn’t allowed to eat or drink anything after 6 pm last night, poor fellow. He has no clue what’s about to happen. I just hope it isn’t too painful.

In the meanwhile, we’ll be helping my dad clean his yard up – tons of family folks are coming for thanksgiving! Mom is the “matriarch” of her siblings….her 8 siblings…and we’re a very close family. I love when all of us get together, even though I am the youngest one of the “first-grandchild generation” that lives in SC. Almost all of my cousins are at least 8 years older than me….one of them is 44, I believe…and all of the others are at least 8 years younger than me. I’ve always felt like a baby around the older ones and a big, protective sister around the others. But such is life.

Afterwards, we’ll be leaving Jack-Evan with my mom and dad at 5 pm while Kevin and I take the SUV to pick up PupPup. He’ll need to be able to lay down in the back, so we have to remove the baby car seat base to make room to let the seat down.

If I didn’t have a baby, we’d also be headed to the Kelly Clarkson and Reba Macintire concert in Charlotte, North Carolina tonight at 8 pm. Kevin was the 10th Caller on a local radio station trivia contest and won two tickets this past Wednesday (they’re worth around a hundred bucks each).  He was so excited when he told me!  But after deliberating about 3.6 seconds, I knew I wouldn’t be able to leave my baby for that long yet. We’d be gone round trip about 7 hours! Kevin even offered to let me go alone with a girlfriend, saying he would like to see me go have fun for my birthday (Dec. 1), but I passed that up too. I just can’t fathom being away from Jack-Evan yet. In my mind, I know he’d be fine for that amount of time since he’s now accepts sippy cups and baby food, but in my heart, I knew it wasn’t him I was worried about – it was ME. I’d probably have a massive meltdown being away from him. It’s. Just. Not. Doable.  No way, no how.  Maybe when he turns 26 or something, but at just 6 months old?  nope.  Not even the fun of a power vocal duo concert could draw me away from my sweet little baby.  Plus, what if he decides not to take the sippy cup?  What if he just wants good ol’ fashioned mommy cuddles?  What if he starts crying and I’m not there to sooth him?  What if he says MumMum and I can’t hear his calls? what if he turns his head around justso in that way he does that’s so cute, looking for me, and doesn’t see me? What if he thinks I abandoned him?  His reasoning skills and sense of time isn’t too well developed ya know.  I just couldn’t bare it if one ounce of him missed me.  I just couldn’t bare it if one ounce of ME missed him.  He’s my little poopie head, you know.

Anyway, I’m making myself cry, silly sentimental momma that I am.  And I’m not even going anywhere!  Just the thought of being that far away sends me into emotional meltdown.

Luckily I have an understanding husband.  He found someone at work to gift the tickets to, and hasn’t said anything more about it.  He’s quite the nice guy.

So I better go.  Keep PupPup in your thoughts!

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Three Pumpkins full of seeds:  $15.23

Portraits of a tiny Lion:  $48.99

New Baby to take trick o’ treating:  $20k

Knowing that you’re married to a man
who will do anything for the woman he loves? 

Priceless.

———————

NOTE:  This photo was taken on Oct. 29, 2006
at our church’s Fall Festival.
We had been married for 4 months.

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