Oliver and Company

  There are many sides to my role as a mother and as of last week I added one more to my title, that of "dream squelcher". Here's how it came to be. . .

Carson came home from school over the top excited about raising money for "Pennies for Patients" and in detail explained how it was helping those with cancer. But the majority of his enthusiasm was directed towards the pizza party reward for the class raising the most money. Let me just say here that there could be a whole other post on my dislike for handing out rewards for every little accomplishment, especially one service based (as was the case here). However, I skipped the lecture and downgraded to a "that's nice". Carson then proceeded to ask for money to take to school, so we raided the change jar and let him take several dollars worth. Unsatisfied he asked for more. I then offered a list of several chores he could do to earn additional money and he half heartedly agreed. After about 30 minutes he could see that this was a bad idea, he was losing valuable daylight in the backyard and the money wasn't coming fast enough. I paid him for the time spent working and he was off to his bedroom. I considered the matter closed and moved onto making dinner. About an hour later Carson emerges from his room with a business plan and product pricing sheet in hand and announces he'll be setting up a store in his bedroom selling things to whatever strangers might happen upon our house that night. He reassures me that all the money will be for a good cause and he won't keep any for himself. Biting my lip to keep from laughing out loud I try to let him down gently by telling him I love all of his big ideas but I don't think this one is going to work out. He pulls out the big guns and starts sobbing and accusing me of not wanting to help sick people, hating all of his ideas and that he never gets to eat pizza. He's off to his room once again, this time to sniffle and think of all the ways in which I stifle his creativity while he waits for Dad to get home.

This blog serves as both a means for maintaining contact with distant family and friends as well as a family journal. Other than capturing the cute and naughty behaviors of child #3 I've neglected the rest of us. So here is a little catch up on what we've been doing over the last few months.

Aunt Suzi came from Utah and spent Christmas with us. The boys loved having her here and it was nice to have another girl in the house.  We asked her to stay but for some reason the air mattress in the living room and sharing a bathroom with two little boys with bad aim just wasn't convincing enough. It was also nice to spend time with Nick's brother Mark who has been away at training for the Army.

With the start of the new year Carson began playing YMCA basketball. It was a lot of skills to grasp all at once but he has made huge strides and enjoys practicing and playing with his friends. Best of all is that he constantly asks if we can turn on a college basketball game, Nick and I couldn't be more proud!

Spencer and Nick traveled to San Francisco at the beginning of this month for a visit with Spencer's hand surgeon. We had noticed that his right hand (the 2nd surgery done) just didn't seem right. Turned out that his little finger is dislocated due to weak ligaments and will require another surgery, most likely this year sometime. Even rarer than the birth defect itself is this weak tissue result after surgery so our doctor is currently conferring with other professionals on the best way to proceed. What can we say, he is one special kid with one special set of hands! The best news of all is that it doesn't bother him and won't for a long while until his hands are full grown. In fact he has recently learned to ride a bike (with training wheels) and got his first experience with learning to ski with Dad. He loved being on the slopes and riding the chair lift, he had to be dragged back to the car after 6 hours.

Jamison continues to keep us busy and smiling with all his new tricks. At nearly 11 months he is over walking and onto running and climbing. In fact just yesterday he climbed out of his crib in the morning. Now granted the mattress was not on the lowest setting but still the rails reached up to his chest level. You can be sure less than an hour later the mattress was down as low as it could go and Jamison wailed about it during both of his naps. Some of my favorite (safer) tricks are folding his arms for a prayer and waving madly as Carson leaves on the bus and as Dad walks in the door after work. For fun one day in January we put a pedometer on Jamison to prove my point that he never stops moving. After 15 minutes he had taken nearly 400 steps. . . at 10 months!

Nick and I are just trying to keep up with these three and life in general. Nick did get to go out for a few duck hunts with his Dad this winter. And I got a trip alone to Utah to meet my newest niece (Jana and Anthony's first) Zoe at the beginning of January. Nick gets double points for watching the boys while the pukies were making the rounds. He himself got sick  while I was gone but he didn't tell me until after I got home so it wouldn't ruin my trip. . . he's great I know! He and I both just signed up to run the Seattle Rock and Roll 1/2 marathon in June. My original goal was to run a marathon in between each child (which I did after Carson) but I never took into account that with more than one child I wouldn't have the time to train for one. So after Spencer I tried a triathlon and now after Jamison a 1/2 is about all I can squeeze in. I've promised myself I will do at least one more marathon in my lifetime. . .

Last night's conversation over dinner . . .

Carson: Mom, do you know some kids in my class have crushes?

Me: What does that mean when you have a crush?

Carson: It means you love them so bad.

Spencer: I have that kind of soda.

Carson: (rolling his eyes) We're not talking about that Spencer.

Spencer: (With a little mischievousness and complete honesty) I crush Jamison!

We then proceed with a whole conversation about how old you have to be to have a girl friend and I find myself campaigning for group dating, just being friends and a whole lot of "after your mission".

Carson: Do you have a crush on anyone mom?

Me: Yes

Carson: (wide eyed and very giggly) WHO?

Me: Can't you guess?

Carson: (SO giggly now) No, tell me!

Me: Dad

Both boys are dying of laughter and threaten to tell Nick when he gets home from work. Of course I play along and beg them not to tell because I'll be so embarrassed! Just then Nick comes home.

Carson: Guess what Dad? Mom has a crush on you!

Nick: Oh yeah well, I have a crush on mom.

And now they've both lost it and are in a fit of laughter.

Want to know what Jamison (and as a result me) do all day?

Put dishes away and take them back out again, and then put them away again only to find them rearranged once again. The same could said of DVD's, books, laundry. Not toys though, this kid is disinterested in actually playing with anything that looks like it ought to be played with.

 Play nicely with one brother and torture the other (I'm not really sure what game this is but I think Jamison won). Unfortunately the two that don't get along are the ones who are home together all day.

Splashing in the potty is my least favorite activity and it seems TP is always on the shoppping list these days. The words "SHUT THE DOOR!" is currently the top phrase of 2010.

And a trail of destruction is what he leaves behind. Independence, stubborness, early mobility and pure cuteness make for a very full day!

Jamison was determined to get one more milestone in before 2010. He's only 9 months old but he's got two big brothers to keep up with. Walking is all fine and good but really I would love it if he could master consistently sleeping through the night.  If only you could make New Year's resolutions for your children. . .

He's had stranger anxiety since he was 3 months old. We can only go out on a date after 7 pm when he's already asleep, he even cries when Grandma and Grandpa hold him. But wait what's this? He's all smiles for Hardware Store Santa? Santa is the one guy all little kids cry for at some point in their lives. Carson will even tell you that sitting on Santa's lap gives him the creeps (but he REALLY likes the toys so he toughs it out). Chalk it up to the "wonders" of the Christmas season.

How is it that even a young six year old knows that if you are gonna lick finger and write on the back of your dirty car it needs to mean and offensive to others. I mean really where did he learn this? For once I can say with complete certainty he has NEVER observed this behavior from us. And I'm 99% sure it wasn't from the media or friends, so what does that leave? Instincts?

And if you ask said 6 year old he would tell you it was on "accident". Apparently lying is instinctual as well.

I love to shop and what I love even more is getting a good deal. In my book anything less than 60% off doesn't constitute a deal. However, I try to be level headed about it and not snatch up useless things we don't need or won't really use. But sometimes I just get swept up in the excitement of a sale and the potential savings.  So with it being the Christmas season I've had my eye on several blogs and websites looking for any interesting sales/deals/discount codes that would fit the boys' wish lists this year. So "Cyber Monday" comes rolling around and I see that Amazon will be having 3 Lego deals later in the day and my adrenaline starts pumping. First my boys love Lego's and second they are NEVER more than 20% off. So I set my mental alarm clock to check back at 4pm when the said deal would start.  3:50 pm I fire up the computer and wait for the deal to begin. 3:59 pm I start to get really excited wondering which set it will be and how much I will save. 4:00 pm an Indiana Jones Lego set pops up and I lean in closer to the computer to get a better look. 4:01 the allotted number of sets at the super price are gone. What the? Well I've got two more chances But no the next set is gone as well. The final Lego set (a Star Wars one nonetheless) will begin at 5 pm. So I putz around the kitchen for a while, keep Jamison out of all things dangerous and pretend to be an engaged mom. 4:55 I put Jamison in the "Johnny Jump Up" (snagging this last deal will require two hands and full concentration). 4:58 I decide my game plan will be to hit the "add to cart" button immediately and check later to see what it is that I just can't live without. 5:00 pm hideous looking General Grievous set pops up and I hit "add to cart". But what?  how did it sell out in 5 seconds? Is my reaction time really that slow? I then realize I've just been cyber trampled . . . some woman on the other side of the world has just thrown an elbow, pushed me to the ground and grabbed the last item on the shelf. It happens every Black Friday in Wal-Mart’s around the country but now it can happen from the comfort of your home. Well little boy in Japan I hope you enjoy your 60% off General Grievous Lego set on Christmas morning, your mom has some lightning fast reflexes.

We've got a new family hobby its called geocaching. In a nutshell it is (as described by Wikipedia)  "an outdoor activity in which the participants use a GPS to hide and seek containers (called "geocaches" or "caches") anywhere in the world. A typical cache is a small waterproof container containing a logbook. Larger containers can also contain items for trading, usually toys or trinkets of little value."

For example today after Nick looked online and found some geocache coordinates and clues we went to a local park and had to find a brick with writing on it. After locating the brick we found the coordinates of the cache by doing some basic math of adding and multiplying using the words and characters on the brick. Nick punched the coordinates into the GPS and handed it to Carson who led the way on a short hike through the woods until we were at the spot of the coordinates. We then searched around the trunks of some big mossy maple trees until we found the cache. We opened it up took a small treasure, left two for the next seekers, signed the log book and hiked back to the park.

Here's the beauty of it all, it's a family activity interesting for all ages, allows us to be outdoors and exercising and costs nothing (once you've made the initial GPS purchase). The best part is the boys LOVE it and are so excited to find the cache. I look forward to many more adventures in geocaching as the boys get older.

In 20 years these two will be the "Amazing Race" dream team

These 3 rank pretty high on my gratitude list. . .

And I'm pretty fond of this one as well. . .

What a lucky girl I am!

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. 

-John Fitzgerald Kennedy