dear children

dear c

ideally my notes to you are to tell you how much i love you, how great you are and all of the fun things you've been up to these past few weeks. ideally. but realistically, sometimes you're a punk and more often than not the last few weeks so i'll start by saying that yes, i love you dearly, you are great and you have been up to a lot of fun things but this post is about your great "punkness" and how you can single handily make me want to throw my head through a wall.

i'm pretty sure this is how you feel about me most of the time so we're probably even...

if we were to theme the month it would easily be titled the month of "why" because that is your response to everything i say whether it's a request, a demand, a simple statement, a compliment, even a matter of fact and you don't simply say "why" you say "wwhhyeeeeee" in the most annoying, nasally, whiny voice that has ever come out of a human mouth.

"you're going to be late for school so hurry and eat"

"wwhhyeeeeee?"

"pick up your jammies and throw them in the laundry room"

"wwhhyeeeeee?"

"change your shoes before you ride your bike so you don't ruin them"

"wwhhyeeeeee?"

"it's time for bed"

"wwhhyeeeeee?"

throw. head. through. wall.

every single time you get dressed you DO NOT put on your underwear or socks that i have laid out on the bed for you. every single time. and every single time i say "put on your underwear and socks" and what do you think you say? .... you got it. one might ask why i still lay out your clothes and my response is that if i do not, you will deliberately choose one of the shirts that i refuse to let you wear out in public, put your hat on crooked and go commando without a second thought.

i'm sure the fact that you're adjusting to school, being a cool kindergartner and having to follow rules all day is not helping the situation. our main focus has been for you to maintain your "green crayon" status at school and i must say that i'm very proud of the limited number of times you've come home with a "yellow crayon" of which one time i'm pretty sure was not a legitimate "yellow crayon" ... you're teacher screwed up but i have to take her side because life's not always fair. you're trying hard and i know this is not easy for you ... it's a lot more fun to poke people and make annoying sounds in their face and not follow directions, trust me, i know and wish it was okay for me to do the same all day long too.

most frustrating for me is not so much your oppositional behavior but your apparent inability to be held accountable for anything at all. you will blame the sandwich if your shirt is stained, it is brooklyn's fault for being in your way when you push, if you are acting inappropriately and i ask what the deal is you'll blame it on the fact that you don't like school or that someone woke you up before you were done sleeping. this behavior could become a true character flaw. one that i'm determined you will not develop because if there's one thing that will surely make me loathe another person, it is their inability to hold themselves accountable.

on a more positive note, you made sure everyone knew that i forgot to buckle baby in his stroller the day he fell out and when he woke up with sad scrapes and bruises on his face you offered a great deal of knowledge.

"that thing on his head will go away. i seen it on tv ... it will go away after four days ... it's called neosporin"

i love you buddy ... we're two peas in a pod i suppose so as long as you turn out as good as i did, i'll be happy *wink*

dear sissy

september is the month of your birth. you'll be four years old this month and that is simply crazy to me. four going on sixteen. i'm so excited that you are a girlie girl because i did not find my true girlie side until you were old enough to demand to wear a dress or a skirt and look so lovely with a big flower in your hair.

recently i have this intense desire to find the prettiest of dresses to buy for you and to take pictures of you each and every time you're dressed for the day. you're so beautiful. you know this too ... you make all sorts of funny faces when you're looking in the mirror and when you asked me recently if i thought everyone at school would think you looked cute i realized we needed to focus a lot more on the importance of inner beauty. you will always be beautiful on the outside and i do feel it's important to take pride in the way you look but who we are on the inside is what makes a happy and confident person. so now rather then telling you how cute you look we are trying to stress how smart you are, what a good example you are and how you are such a great friend to everyone. it's not that these things aren't true, it's just that we want you to believe they're true (a little reverse psychology i guess).

you are such a story teller. my gosh. i mean, really, sometimes you just ramble on and on about who-knows-what half of which is never true and it's hilarious. yesterday when i picked you up from school i asked how your day went.

"guess what we had for a snack today"

"what?"

"cookies and muffins!"

"really?"

"yeah, and sauce like applesauce and banana sauce .. like the sauce was in them and that's all we had except blueberry muffins too. isn't that crazy!? ... and we sang the newest song ever, it was so cute, we had to sing c'mon loa and we had a bear hunt but it wasn't real, it was just pretend like a teddy bear and we sang a new cat song i'm skat the cat, i'm big and fat, i can change colors just like that .. it was so funny. do you know what a hexagon is?"

"what is it?"

"it's a hexagon and a circle and a shape and a square and a heart and a diamond .. i'm skat the cat, i'm big and fat ...."

dance class started again this month and you're so excited to share the experience with your dear friend berkley. you ask every day if you have dance ... a week must be such a long time to a three year old.

you spend your days asking me for a snack, showing me the same dance moves over and over again and how wonderfully you can point your toes .. "can i have snack?" .. "is it time for a snack?" .. "i'm starving so i need a snack"

luvs ...

dear baby

you'll be five months old this month .. my perfect little baby. we went in for your four month check up and the dr. walked in the room and said, "i don't need to ask how he's doing" .. you weighed 17.5 pounds which is more than double your birth weight (typically an infant is expected to double their birth weight by six months). nevertheless, you're constantly referred to as "chubs" because cayden gets upset if we call you fatty (it's not nice).

you've expanded your diet some this month and you clearly haven't missed many meals. here you are enjoying your first taste of pears which you seemed to enjoy immensely.



you giggle and talk and love to play with your toys. you're holding your own bottle which i don't like one bit .. i'm not ready for any self sufficiency. you still make the sweetest little sounds as you're enjoying your bottle and your hair is starting to grow back in. you love to cuddle with me in bed and i soak those moments in as much as i can.

sometimes you'll show a little attitude but usually only when you're tired or hungry. when these little outbursts happen it's quite funny because i dare say you're a little dramatic. you don't complain often but when you do, you make up for those times when you're on your best behavior and i'm pretty sure if someone were to walk by our house during one of these fits they might be inclined to notify the authorities because something awful is surely going on inside that house.

you are one of my most favorite people in the whole world and i'm certain i'll always feel this way ... you'll never talk back or disobey me, right?

iluvyousomuch