Near and Far

Something big happened this week. Levi changed on us and even though we knew the change was coming, it still feels very odd. He's an army kid, so change is an inevitable part of his life. His friends move, his dad travels a lot, he's had more address than Ross and I each had our entire pre-married lives, but this change is different. This change means that to most he is no longer a four year old little boy. He is now a preschooler. Why is it that once a child is in school, we identify them by their class grade instead of their age? Up until they begin school, children are identified by their life age. It starts at birth when we classify them overly specifically like, "Little Boy is 13 months 3 weeks and 5 days old!" But once "Little Boy" begins attending school it changes into, "Little Boy is a kindergartener!" And we continue to do this until people are finished with school no matter the level of education. When I gave birth to Levi, I d...

Something big happened this week. Levi changed on us and even though we knew the change was coming, it still feels very odd. He's an army kid, so change is an inevitable part of his life. His friends move, his dad travels a lot, he's had more address than Ross and I each had our entire pre-married lives, but this change is different. This change means that to most he is no longer a four year old little boy. He is now a preschooler. Why is it that once a child is in school, we identify them by their class grade instead of their age? Up until they begin school, children are identified by their life age. It starts at birth when we classify them overly specifically like, "Little Boy is 13 months 3 weeks and 5 days old!" But once "Little Boy" begins attending school it changes into, "Little Boy is a kindergartener!" And we continue to do this until people are finished with school no matter the level of education. When I gave birth to Levi, I d...

Adulting. An action verb that is technically not an actual word, but it should be. It is used almost daily in our household. Ross and I use it in both positive and negative tones, but mainly negative. Adulting is proving to be both awesome and extremely tiring. Adulting with children. As adults (really parents), we are to teach our offspring how to survive day to day while we ourselves are attempting to survive day to day. The first four years of having children is basically teaching them survival skills that will truly stay with them throughout their lives. What I have discovered is that the basics of saying please and thank you, sharing things, having good table manners, and waiting our turn is used WAY more than anything I EVER learned in any math class. Essentially, I am responsible for teaching my boys more important life skills in the first four years of their life than what they will gain in the following 13 years of school. Parent Adulting is tough. Adulting with Pr...

About a year ago I blogged about things that came out of my then 2 year old toddler's mouth. He still says some of the most random, hilarious, and infuriating things, but now I'm discovering that I say some phrases that I NEVER expected to say. Never, ever expected to say. "Gentle love! We love our brother gently!"                   - I know this is a battle that I will possibly never win, but whatever we can do to get Cam to his second birthday. "Let go of Cameron's neck!" "We do NOT put straws found in the Target parking lot in our mouths." "How many more screws did you swallow?!"                     -He swallowed one and threw it up pretty quickly and was fine afterwards. I, on the other hand, was not. "Why are you eating leaves out of the tree?" "I heard you when you said that you like to wear your underwear backwards and inside out, but your butt is not fully covered w...

Everyone has a life experience or two (or more) that completely changed them. Changed them as personaly, emotionally, mentally, physically, and about any other way a person can be changed. For me it happened three years ago at 2:30 am on March 23, 2012. I woke up not feeling well. I was nine months pregnant so waking up not feeling well had become a very common occurrence. This time it was different. For about two hours I got up and went to the bathroom until it felt like the cramping was getting closer. I attempted to wake Ross up in the calmest and quietest way I could, but when you nudge a future dad and say "I need you to wake up and help me time these contractions", they don't seem to stay calm.  We called my doctors office to see what to do next, even though the contractions weren't regular and were still more than 5 minutes apart. We were those  first time parents. LABOR IS SCARY! My doctor was on a mission trip in Haiti, so his partner returned ...

For years now my mom, sister-in-law, and grandma have gotten together to go Christmas shopping in Oklahoma City. I missed out on going with them the three Christmas' we lived in New York, but was always taunted by the Cheesecake Factory picture :) Since we are back in OK I was able to join in on the shopping fun for a day this year. The event as a whole has not changed much over the years (except that now we are buying for a LOT more kiddos), but this was the first year to ever take kids along. I learned a few things both about shopping with kids and about my insane two year old. I have been told that Levi resembles Ralphy from "A Christmas Story" a few times lately. He's blond, round faced, blue-eyed, and has an ornery look most of the time. I get the resemblance for sure, but there are moments when I'm terrified that he may really be Ralphy. Levi looks oddly similar at times. Every Christmas Eve I try to take in the movie "A Christmas Story" a...