Second Child Syndrom

We all say we'll treat our kids the same and although we love them the same, it is hard to really treat them equally. When Kylie was Jayden's age I would do mommy preschool with her where I planned out all sorts of craft projects and activities. I would sit down with her to do worksheets and the alphabet until she recognized and could write all her letters by age three and learned how to read at age four. She was a little sponge, she loved to learn and I loved spending that time with her. I am now stricken with guilt as Jayden is getting ready to start kindergarten and doesn't even recognize all his letters. I try to make myself feel better by saying that he just doesn't have an interest or attention span to sit down and do "mommy preschool", but the truth is I just haven't made the time. This past week I dusted off the old workbooks and sat down with him and it made me both happy and sad to see that he LOVED learning. Happy because I'm glad he actually enjoys learning and sad because it's something I should have been doing all along. It also made me sad because I realized how much I have underestimated him. I thought he only recognized a handful of letters and numbers but he actually can recognize and write most all of them and I had no idea. (I was also totally caught off gaurd a couple of months ago when Jayden wrote the letters b-o-x and said, "mom, this spells box". Thankfully television has been picking up where I've been slacking off.). I guess it's never too late to change and make up for lost time. I really am going to miss Jayden when he goes to Kindergarten, that little guy definately knows how to put a smile on my face. He has his little phrases that I never get tired of hearing. My favorites are: "good news" and "bad news" if something is cool or lame (like when we were hiking, "good news guys, I found a ditch!"; "definately" and "totally" (like when we were at a restraunt and he refused to go in the bathroom with me because "that is defwinately a gowls bafroom and I am totally not going in there!"; "in real life" (like when I tell him to go potty before we leave but apparently he "already went potty in real life"); "sweety" and "gentleman" (like when they're playing mom and dad he always refers to Kylie as his sweety and says things like "here you go fweety" or when he holds the garage door open for me and says "I am your gentelman, mom"). It also cracks me up to play the wii with him. He can totally kick my pigou (Chinese for butt) on all the games, it's rather emberassing. I keep telling myself that I need to stop going easy on him so that he can learn that it's okay to lose and still be a good sport. So I step up my game, but even then he still kicks my trash. He has gotten pretty good at giving consolation, though. If he beats me he'll say things like, "it's okay if you lose, you still have pwetty eyes", or it's okay if you lose, you still look bootiful". Oh my little man, you always know how to melt my heart!

He's Still Got It

Go big or go home, that is some serious air

Ever seen a Chinaman fly?

I totally fell in love with Jason on the slopes. Some of my favorite memories from our dating days are when Jason would take me snowboarding. I had never been before and as much as he wanted to go tear it up on the slopes, he was so patient to spend all day teaching me. I hated it my first time, but every time I would fall down I would hop back up with a big smile on my face to try and impress him because I knew how much he loved the sport. Even though we went all the time I still never got really good, but we had so much fun together. I have memories of us driving up to the resort listening to the cassett tape "They Might Be Giants" because there was no radio reception and good old "Euzer" didn't have a CD player, and memories of hanging out all day on the mountain with friends then going hot tubbing afterwards and eating at Cafe Rio because we were all starving, memories of going night boarding at Brighton, memories of staying in cabins with friends at Park City and Kamas, memories of kissing on the lift, memories of Jason helping me off the lift because I always seemed to fall and then they had to stop the lift to wait for me to move out of the way and just memories of watching Jason hit those jumps and thinking he was the cutest Chinaman I had ever seen. The last time we went together was when Kylie was about 8 months old, then we moved down to AZ and I haven't been since. Jason still goes every year but never takes pictures, because apparently that is too girly. This past weekend a group of guys from the ward went up to Sunrise and I'm glad somebody realized it wasn't too nerdy to take pictures. It's been 6 years since I've seen him in action on the mountain and the pictures made me fall in love all over again!

The Bangs


I had forgotten what it was like to be a kid and get so excited about the simple things in life. To be so excited about something that you lose sleep over it. To be so excited about something that you tell everyone you know because that's all you can think about. Kylie has now reminded me what that was like. You would think she would be this excited about something like going to Disneyland or having a birthday, but no the source of all the excitement was simple: she was getting bangs. She decided one night before going to bed that she wanted bangs, I told her that I would cut them for her the next day after school. That night she came out of her room like three times because she was so excited that she couldn't sleep. When I went to bed that night there was a note waiting for me on my nightstand that said: "Mom don't forget to cut Kylie's baings". She told all her friends, teachers and principal at school that she would be getting bangs. It was so cute how excited she got over something so simple. I was worried that it would be a little anti-climatic once I actually cut them, but she loved them. The only problem with bangs is that I actually have to style it otherwise they are always in her eyes. As much as I wish I was one of "those moms" (ahem-Marcee) that wakes up at 6AM to bathe my kids, curl their hair, cook them breakfast, practice the piano (if we had a piano and they actually knew how to play it), pack them healthy lunches, etc., the reality is I'm not. A typical morning is us rolling out of bed 20 minutes before it's time to leave, I wet Kylie's hair down with a spray bottle then throw it back in a pony tail while she's eating cold cereal, then I grab her lunch out of the fridge with the soggy sandwich from making it the night before because I'm too lazy to wake up five minutes earlier to make it. But the morning of the big bang debut we woke up extra early to blow dry her hair and curl it. It looked so cute, maybe just maybe I'll do it more often.

P.S.

He is on a roll. We're so sad that our ward split and Kylie's sweet teacher (the one I mentioned earlier) won't be her teacher anymore and since her husband is out of town we invited her over for dinner tonight. As she goes to leave, Jayden wraps his arms around her to give her hug. Then as if in slow motion, he reaches his hand back and smacks her in the bum. Yes, my son full on spanked sweet little Grandma Garrison.

Full Moon

I apologize to anyone who happened to be walking behind me at church today right after sacrament meeting when Jayden decided to pull down my skirt and everything underneath to expose my pasty white booty for all to see (sorry, no picture will accompany this post. I'm sure the mental image burned in your mind will more than suffice).

Four Months

It's funny because those first several weeks and months just flew by but now I can't even remember what life was like without him, so four months seems like forever ago. We've finally got our groove down, he's in such a great schedule. He's in bed between 7 or 7:30 and wakes up between 6 or 7 to eat then goes back to sleep for an hour or so. When I put him down he's so sweet to just lay there and drift off to sleep on his own. He never cries and sometimes I go in after about 15 or 20 minutes and he's just laying there with his little eyes wide open just blowing bubbles. He takes great naps now and is such a sweetheart. I quit nursing right after he turned 3 months, it was a little sad but my life is much easier now. At his check-up he weighed 15 lbs 3 oz (50%), was 26 1/4 in long (85%) and his head was 16 1/2 cm (45%). He spends most of the day smacking on his little hands and sticking his tongue out, and my lips pretty much spend most of the day attached to his soft chubby cheeks and I can't stop squeezing his squishy little body. It's sort of an obsession of mine and I can't get enough, not even close.

Happy Love Day

Once again I forgot to bring my camera to Kylie's class party, but there was lots of candy, lots of valentines, a few crafts and lots of smiles. I've been slacking off on my room motherly duties, so it's a good thing the other room moms are picking up the slack. Jayden had a party too and according to him, they had "cupcakes, cookies, milk and that's all". Quite the party if you ask me. Friday night Jason was sweet and brought home rosese for me then we had sort of a "Mormons gone wild" Valentines party at our house. Some friends in our ward started a neighborhood game night where we rotate houses and it was our turn to host this time around. Thank goodness I could count on the local dollar store to supply all my party needs. From high quality lingerie to the dollar store's version of Ralph Lauren's Polo brand cologne for men, there were some highly sought after prizes to get those Valentine sparks a flyin'. We had close to 30 people here and I don't know about everyone else, but I had fun learning a little too much information about everyone. I wish I would have taken some pictures of our fun night. Note to self: next time we host a party, hire a baby-sitter to watch the kids upstairs. We let them invite some of their friends over for a kids party upstairs and they had a little too much fun running amuck. There was water all over the floor from Kylie giving everyone spa treatments and I think I slept on a dozen popcorn kernals last night. It also didn't help when Kylie came down and discovered the dollar store lingerie and wanted to run around showing her friends (sorry Chels, I hope Brayden wasn't too scarred). Well, fun was had by all and the real holiday hadn't even started. Jayden had a T-ball game this morning and while they were gone Kylie decorated the table then we made a Valentine's breakfast for the boys. We had a little impromptu Valentine party with games, crafts and even a sweetheart's ball, which didn't last long because Jason fell asleep on the couch and the kids kept fighting despite my constant reminder that you're not allowed to fight on Valentine's day. Love is shown in many different ways, right??

Meet the Latest Additions

(Jayden in complete disbelief as he realizes Fluffy is eating the fish)

(Jayden freaking out because Kylie is allowing this to take place)

My poor deprived kids...since I'm such a mean mom and still haven't given in and gotten them a pet, they've had to resort to extreme measures. Meet the newest pets in our family...Fluffy, Jack and Zachary B. (and the mechanical fish, but I can't remember their names). So far this has kept everyone happy and Kylie thinks they are soooo lucky because they have 5 pets and most everyone has only 1. We also have a pet moth, Sarah, but she comes and goes. Whenever they see a moth they think it's the one and only Sarah and get so excited. They especially love waking up and finding that she chose to sleep in their room that night. Sometimes we would find dead moths and they would be crushed, but when another moth would show up then they just figured she had been sleeping. The kids treat the stuffed animals like real pets and I'm always finding water bowls around the house. But it doesn't even compare to the new "sister" in the family, Reyna. She is the doll that Kylie got for Christmas last year and when I was a couple months pregnant with Maddox she decided that Reyna was a real baby and that we should treat her like one. I thought this would last a week or two and die down, but no. We have been going about 11 months strong now. I am only allowed to carry Reyna like a real baby and if she catches me treating her as anything less than human than she'll get so hurt and say "real moms don't do that!" I also need to periodically move her around the house throughout the day so that when Kylie comes home she's not in the same place as when she left for school. She has her own carseat and has come on every family vacation. She has been blessed in family prayers. She has been put in time out for "fighting". She has had her toe nails painted. She has her own crib, but usually sleeps with Kylie (unless she is being too loud, then she has to go out). She wears Kylie's baby dresses and comes with us to church. She sits in her high chair at family dinners and does pretty much everything else the family does. I guess now I know what it's like to have 4 kids!

Perfection

A couple of weeks ago we had an awesome presentation for our YW about body image and how women are portrayed in the media. It really got me thinking, especially when Kylie came home the other day and said, "I wish my thighs were as skinny as Emma's". I was shocked. That was something I never thought I would hear out of my 6 year old's mouth. Then a few days later I asked Jayden if he liked his new teacher at school and he said, "no, her stomach is too fat". Once again, I was totally shocked. Even at such young ages, they can already sense the pressure to be "perfect". The more I thought about it, the more I realized that there is nothing "perfect" about the size zero image that is being portrayed. It's more than just being happy with who you are and loving yourself despite your imperfections (because heaven knows I'm not in love with my love handles), to me it's more about not denying yourself of a fulfilling life while on your quest for a perfect body. It's learning to love life and live it to the fullest. When I die (not trying to be morbid here, it's just a fact of life), I don't want people to come to my viewing and say, "wow, now that's a girl who lived off bean sprouts and had a permanent residence at the gym". No, instead I want people to look at me and say, "now that's a girl who really enjoyed life". I want them to look at my "not size zero" body and think of all those birthday cakes I enjoyed, all the pounds of cookie dough I ate while baking cookies with my kids, all the pizza I consumed during family movie nights, all the bean burritos and Fettucini Alfredo I devoured while on dates with Jason and all the donuts I ate while doing donut runs with Jayden. I want them to look at all the freckles and my far from perfect skin and think of all the memorable family vacations we took to the beach and all the days spent out in the sun playing at the park or swimming in the pool with the kids. I want them to look at the bags under my eyes and think of all the nights I lost out on beauty sleep because I was up with a crying baby or sick kids or just stayed up way too late watching TV and movies with Jason. I want them to look at the wrinkles on my face and think of all those years I spent laughing. I want them to see my scars and think of all the wild and crazy things I did--ha, ha! Who am I kidding, I'm such a whimp. But I may have a few battle wounds from my wilder snowboarding, motorcycle riding (riding, not driving) days :). I want them to look at my non-washboard abs and think how grateful I was to be able to give birth to my beautiful children. I want them to look at my not so perfectly manicured nails and realize that I would much rather have had Kylie give me a pedicure during one of our "girl parties" than have it done by a professional. I want them to look at my flat chest and realize, oh wait...I'm still hoping for my implants some day, so let's just not go there. I mostly just want them to look at me and remember that I loved unconditionally, laughed uncontrollably and lived undeniably. Perfection is overrated.

Caution: Never ride a bike in open toed shoes


(Yes those are my toes and not my fingers. Yes I am aware that my toes are freakishly long.)

I blame the beautiful 78 degree weather as the reason why I ignored this age old advice about not riding bikes in flip flops. I took the kids for a bike ride and had stopped to help Jayden get started on his bike. While the bike was balanced between my legs, the wheel turned and as the bike fell down the metal brake handle stabbed me right between my toes. I wasn't sure how bad it was, all I knew was that it was bleeding lots. As we were riding home Jayden felt so bad and thought it was his fault. He kept saying "I so horry, I will make you a cawd!" I kept telling him it wasn't his fault, but he was determined that it wouldn't have happened if I hadn't been helping him, poor kid. Kylie was so worried about me and by the time we got home she was sobbing and told me that she had already said two prayers for me. Jayden asked me if I would give him a "date dollar" (our latest incentive program) if he said a prayer. After I said no he tried to sweeten the pot by throwing in the offer to sing to me also for a date dollar. I tried to convince Jason that I didn't need to go in, but he ignored me after you could see all the way to the fatty tissue in my foot. Kylie was still sobbing as we took them to our friend's house (thanks Alisa!), so I had to stay strong for her, but inside I was cringing. I am the first to admit that I have a low pain tolerance, and I'm sure the doctors could tell I was weak sauce from the minute I hobbled through the door. They sent me home with a prescription for Vicadin. Jason, being the ever so sweet and sensitive husband, was trying his best not to laugh at me when they gave me the numbing shots (I'm pretty sure the nurse was trying not to laugh too). So what if I looked funny because I put my jacket over my head and was biting the collar while groaning in pain. I didn't want to see it and I didn't want them to see me. I was trying to find my happy place under there. They gave me 4 shots right inside my cut and it KILLED! I'm sure they've stitched up 5 year olds that were braver than I was. I don't know how I ever survived childbirth three times. I managed to hobble out of there with all my appendages intact. I tried to convince the doctor to tell Jason that I wasn't allowed to cook or clean for atleast a week, but he wasn't buying it. Good thing I've whined enough that Jason's offered to do it on his own. I even got breakfast in bed and a sweet note on a tray, compliments of Kylie and Jayden (thanks guys!). You better believe I'm going to milk it for all it's worth! So the moral of the story is, never ride your bike in open toed shoes.