angels and demons

My husband has been out of town the past two days for work. It's something I've gotten used to, especially because I appreciate his job, and the fact that it allows me to stay home with our kids.

HOWEVER:

Our 2.5 year old son is going through a "Daddy" phase right now. So much so, in fact, that he refuses to go to sleep for me. He lays down like the beautiful little angel baby he is, says, "Night night! See you mana [tomorrow]!" and goes straight to bed whenever Daddy puts him to bed. When Daddy has to stay late or, God forbid, go out of town for multiple days, bedtime becomes a wrestling match. A struggle between two of the strongest wills you will ever meet.

I don't understand why this happens. I don't do anything different. I give him the same bath. We brush teeth with his Snoopy tooth brush, read a story, sometimes two. And when it comes time for me to shut the lights and say Good night, my little angel turns into something so scary I can't even google a picture to fit a description. Let me just say it involves him laying on the floor, banging his heels into the hardwood and screaming at the top of his lungs. Somehow this doesn't wake his sister.

Tonight, though, I'm proud of myself, because he only went to bed 30 minutes late, watched a little bit of the movie Up, his Daddy will get 4 nights of putting both of them to bed while I take a solo trip to San Francisco to see my best girlfriend from childhood and recharge my Mommy batteries. (Should I mention said child refused to kiss me good night? :( )

having so much fun

For a little backstory, let me start by saying Shepherd is in preschool. It's real preschool, at a church, for 2-3 year olds, and it has done a world of good for him. He's made friends, become [semi] conversational, can count to 10, and sing his ABCs. That's much more than he could do last September, when his vocabulary consisted mostly of "truck" and "Daddy."

Because of this, we've had a lot of fun opportunities like visiting the Spring House Dairy Farm last week:

Petting the Babies

Shepherd, Zoey, and Me

Bottlefeeding a baby!

The "school" year is almost over, but they have camp over the summer one day a week. Zoey gets to go too! It will be so nice to get some time to myself to do whatever I want--errands, cleaning, working out (I hope!), dr. appointments.

The month of May has been so busy for us, and we're ready to start slowing down soon!

short & sweet

Shepherd has a play cellphone that has a record/playback feature on it. He has always liked it when I record myself saying, "Mommy loves Shepherd!" After Zoey was born, I started recording, "Mommy loves Shepherd and Zoey!" of course. ;) 

Today, after we fingerpainted, played choo choos, played car ramp, watched Up!, did somersaults, read stories, and did everything else you can do after the 28379th rainy day in a row, we got the phone out. Shepherd figured out the record button and recorded, "Love Mommy Zoey!" in it. With a little coaching, I got him to say, "I love you, Mommy!" 

<3 There are no words.

if i'm lyin i'm cryin--a walmart experience.

title of this blog post compliments of mater:

and Cars 2. I'd like to thank Disney Pixar for releasing the new merchandise this month, of which I've already bought two shirts, picked up and put back down 2 pairs of pajamas, and only thought about a lunch box. What?! He doesn't need a lunch box! He already has one. Sheesh.

Anyhoo... While Shepherd was at preschool today, [aside from shopping at the Disney Store], Zoey and I took some stuff back to Walmart--including a pair of Lightning McQueen rain boots. As we were leaving the store, I dropped the cart back with the greeter instead of taking it to my car. To be nice, I said, "I'm just going to leave this here with you!" She looked at me quizzically and said, "THE BABY?!" I said, "Nope, just the cart..." To which she replied, "Oh good, I thought you were leaving the baby!"

W.T.F.

Only in Walmart.