Thankful for Levi

With just two days until Thanksgiving I am truly trying to be grateful for the blessings that I have.  One of those blessings is Levi.  Levi can be the happiest little boy you have ever seen.  His smile can light up a dark room and bring joy to any ones heart.  He can also be the whinniest little boy you have ever seen as well.  But I'm going to focus on the good stuff. lol  I love his little face and his beautiful blue eyes.  I love how he can walk out of his room in the morning and say "good mornin' mommy".  I love how he came up with the "daddy, that's a funny word".  I love that every time I give him fluoride drop he gets so excited and says "that's yucky".

I love how active he is.  Watching Levi trying to keep up with his big brother is so cute.  The fact that he can peddle a trike one year earlier than his brother is very impressive.  He is just so determined to keep up with his big brother in everything. 

I love that he came up with Arianna's nick name, Nana. Even though it wasn't on purpose just sheer lack of pronunciation I still love it. I think it so funny that he still calls her baby instead of Nana most of the time. 

Levi has no fear what so ever!!  Just this morning Levi and Elliot were jumping off the couch into blankets saying "I'm going to kill myself".  NOT because they actually want to kill themselves. Just because anytime they do something crazy I tell them they are going to kill themselves by doing that act.  I do wish he would have some fear instead of telling me "mom, this isn't a good idea".  Quickly followed by him doing whatever might hurt him. 

I love that he can be kind.  He LOVES to cuddle.  Before I had Arianna, I would hold Levi every morning while watching cartoons.  Now I take my cuddle time when I can.  He love to give hugs and kisses.  I love that he helps Arianna up when she falls down. I love it when he shears with Elliot. 

I also enjoy watching him grow up.  I already miss his mispronunciations of words.  Such as yogurt, he used to call it O-gurt.  I would actually have him say yo then gurt and when we would try to put them together it still came out O-gurt. 

I am so grateful for this crazy cute, whining, funny, smiley, lovable little by named Levi.  Mommy loves you Levi!

Thankful for Elliot

Since this is the week of Thanksgiving I have decided that I should write what I'm thankful for.  I figured I could start my list with my kids from oldest to youngest. 

I am so thankful that I have a wonderful, funny, silly, outgoing, energetic, curious, fun loving boy named Elliot.  Elliot has the most wonderful heart and I love him so much.  I love how caring he can be.  Elliot will help Arianna play with toys, help Levi learn new things..."Levi say the days of the week.. Monday, Tuesday...."  I love that he is so curious but wish it wasn't always snakes.  He can sit for a 1/2 hour to and hour watching snake videos with Casey and just be mesmerized! Then following the videos get asked 20 question about the snakes like...Do anacondas bite you or just squeeze you? If a black mamba and a cobra fought who would win? Why do snakes have fangs? All very valid questions..

I also love how silly he can be, his laugh is infections. He and Levi like to make up fake words and call them funny words.  I also love how he jokes with all of his family by calling his uncles girl names.  Such as calling uncle Tim-Timberlina and Casey-Cassie. 

I love how when he gets done from preschool he runs to me calling me mommy and gives me a big hug.  Even though he doesn't want me to help out in Pre-school because pre-school is for kids and not for Mommy.  I love how he comes out in the morning and says how he got good sleep.  I also find humor in all of his "don't never' comments.  Such as "you don't never put Arianna in the over" "you don't never put Arianna in a snakes mouth" 

I am grateful for this boy I named Elliot and how wonderful of a little man he has become.  Even more than that, I'm grateful God allowed me to be his mommy. 

Naps, they aren't just for kids

Nap time is one of those glorious things that happen each day that you look forward too right when you wake up.  Thats if the nap time goes according to plan....  In my imagination my children would play wonderfully all day long.  Get along great, learn lots, say funny things and when it was time for nap and bed time they would be like... ok mommy we will go to sleep, love you.  That would be the end of it.  No running out of their rooms. No "I have to go potty" for the um-teenth time.  No, I'm afraid of Goliath or any other thing.  Just go to bed, and sleep...

I wish there was a manual that came with each child that instructed you to do ABC if XYZ happens.  Bed time used to be the only time I had to actually fight with my kids to go down.  Now I'm the lucky one where I get to fight two times a day.  But its a battle worth fighting! 

Nap time for a stay at home mom is like your own little me time. It gives you a little time with out the kids while being able to get a few things down that would take 3xs as long if the kids were up.  Or catch up on anything at all you want to do.  Read a book, write a letter, watch a show, do a craft, do some deep cleaning or my favorite sometimes...sleep!  Its my one time in my day where I feel like I can take a break and relax. 

I'm not saying I don't love my kids, I do more than life itself.  I just wish they would understand how important nap time is for the both of us.  One day, I'll inform them of how hard they made nap and bed time.  But for now, I'll concentrate on how much I love their little smiling faces and the funny reasons why they can't go to sleep. 

Catching up

A lot has happened since I wrote last.  I know I should do a better job of keeping up with this so I have a record of what happens... I'll do a better job.  Ok, I'll rephrase that... I'll try and do a better job.

In a blur...  Elliot started Pre-school and is doing great!!!!  He loves show and tell and really seems to enjoy going.  Except today, he threw a fit about not wanting to go until we get there and see all of his friends.  "MOMMY!  I NEED TO HURRY AND SEE MY FRIENDS!!!" 

We went trick-or-treating and the kids had a BLAST!!!!  Somehow going around one full block, door to door with a 4 year old and a two year old takes one hour.  No joke, one FULL hour.  They made bank on their candy and had a great time until they got scared at one house.  I really with I could of had a video tape of this.  Lets just set it up...  Its about 6 pm (its dark now at 6) the boys walk up to the door and ring the door bell.  Someone opens the door and fog rushes out making it hard to see.  A figure pokes their head out with a scary mask on and says BOO!  No joke, Elliot takes one look at this figure and starts booking down the stairs and heading for the street.  Casey catches his and the lady takes off the mask and says hi.  Levi on the other hand is trying to climb my legs as I'm trying to tell him its just a lady.  Every house after that we got asked the question,   "are we going to get scared?"  Lucky for us aunt Tiffy was able to join us with our trick-or-treating. 

Arianna has started crawling.  I still can't believe I haven't typed something up since she started crawling!!! It feels like she has been doing this forever.  She goes where ever she wants to go and gets into almost anything she wants to. Her favorite thing to do is to change the volume on the stereo.  Boy does she get excited when the volume goes WAY up.  You will call her name and she will just look at you and smile. 

Levi has decided that saying naughty words is the new cool thing to do.  I know they aren't real naughty words but coming out of a little two year old I don't really care for them.  He will try any way he can to work in the word stupid and shut up.  He could be singing the ABC's and some how stupid makes its way into the song.  I even went as far as to touch his mouth with a bar of soap... BACK FIRE!!  Not only did I get reprimanded by Elliot for doing something so terrible to his brother but I also was informed by Levi that its not nice to put soap in peoples mouths.  We are still working on this......daily... hourly...by the minute


We got family pictures done!!!  I have been wanting to do this forever!!!  The lady that took them for us was wonderful.  She did such a great job and I truly love the pictures.  The process in which getting the pictures wasn't as beautiful as the pictures but I'll take it. 

First snow of the year just fell today!  You had better believe my two crazy boys were out in full gear by 8 am.  Elliot informed me it was Christmas since there was snow!  He as a little saddened that it wasn't Christmas but was still happy that there was snow to play in. 

Potty training....  is probably one of my least favorite things to do.  I want so badly for Levi to get this but he just is so stubborn!  We are to the point were if he wears underpants or doesn't have a diaper on he will go to the bathroom 80% of the time.  The other 20% ends up on the floor, chair, couch, bed you name it, its been soiled.  He also has the bladder the size of a chipmunk.  This boy will go to the bathroom and not even 30 min later have to go again.  I just happy that we have gotten past the point of crying when we say its time to go potty. Now he is trying on his own. 

So I think I'm pretty caught up as of now.  I'll try and keep this more up-to-date so I have a record for myself.