Not Nine

He is not nine. Not my first baby.

But he is. It doesn't seem possible that I've been his mom for nine entire years. He loves to hear the story of when he was born, how it had snowed more that a foot and how we were up all night. Then when we dozed off and he started crying Adam and I had that moment where we realized we were really parents and we had to take care of this little human.

It's so awesome to watch him grow and change and develop. He's such a cool little person. He does great in school and chatters away about the smallest things. He makes friends easily. He's sensitive and sweet and funny. He loves computers and video games and anything technological. He is steadfast that he wants to be a YouTuber when he grows up. He is still a picky eater and still small for his age (something he is aware of and a little sensitive about). He is full of energy and fun!  He loves his little brother and always wants to be affectionate to him, even when AJ resists! He wants a little sister, which breaks my heart just a little!

He had a great birthday (I'm late posting this, of course. His birthday was January 28). Friday, I took a long lunch and drove down to have lunch with him at school. The school is about a 40 minute drive from work (since traffic wasn't an issue) but the look on his face when he was me made it well worth the time! He knew I was coming, of course, but boy was he excited!

Might have to zoom--Running to me with his arms out

Happy to see me--or the McDonalds I brought with me

Saturday we did our usual errands and let Tyler pick where we ate lunch. He chose Arni's because he loves their cheese fries. It poured rain all day, but that didn't stop us. Both boys needed new shoes, so we stopped at Target after lunch. AJ got yet another pair of Paw Patrol shoes (in a size 12!) and Tyler got his first pair of (SOB) big boy shoes in a size 1. I know most kids his age have probably passed this milestone before the age of 9, but not my little guy!

Posing with Target Dog (in their old shoes)

I spent the afternoon running around like mad trying to find his birthday gifts. I succeeded, but it took 7 stores and paying $15 more for one item than I would have paid if I'd ordered the darn thing online, but oh well!

Sunday was his actual birthday. I baked chocolate cupcakes with chocolate frosting (and letter candies and sprinkles, per Tyler). We let him pick dinner and he wanted to order pizza. He got two new games for his Nintendo Switch, a game for his DS (see above note about loving video games), plus Monopoly Pokemon (see note about paying $15 too much), a Minecraft hat, several game pieces for his Monopoly Gamer board game (which is actually a pretty fun game), and a gift card(that's from us, Michelle, Angie, and her finacee Jon). He was thrilled with everything, of course!

Loot!

Wonder what he wished for? And AJ being cute even blurry.

All smiles

Opening said loot

The boys love their board games. We have at least 4 versions of Monopoly alone

 I could tell he felt special all weekend and loved every second of it and that just makes my heart melt! I just love these boys more than I could ever have imagined possible!!!

Oh, I must include a couple random AJ pictures...He's been going through a phase of skipping his nap (yes he still naps at 5 years old. Because he can and because he is cranky by 7:30 if he doesn't!  The kid also wakes up at like 5 am most days, which is annoying, but he just seems to have his own schedule)--anyway, he keeps falling asleep before bedtime. Photo evidence:

Fell asleep sitting up

Mid-bounce? Not really. He was actually pouting and fell asleep.

And so my baby turned nine. We aren't talking about what number comes next. I still have three hundred and fifty-odd days before I have to think of that. We are also not thinking about how I registered AJ for Kindergarten recently...

It's fall...right?

It sure doesn't feel like November!!  It's been in the 70's here lately!  The kids enjoyed trick or treating without the usual worries about layering under their costumes!  In fact, I wore a light jacket and wound up SWEATING!

Ready to go!

Check out their tails!

Bucket ready!

AJ was totally into it this year

Tyler's head got a little crooked here

AJ kept tripping, I think he fell 3 times!

Aren't they so cute??  AJ wore last year's rejected costume (last year he was terrified and refused to go out, this year he's been obsessed with it for weeks)--Marshall from Paw Patrol. Unfortunately, a year went buy and I couldn't find his hat, so several people confused him for a cow.  Tyler was Yoshi from Mario.

 What else is new? Work is getting ready to get super busy. We took the house off the market--did I mention we'd listed?  Well, we did, for a month or two. We didn't get too much activity. A few people didn't like that the interstate runs behind our house (even though there is a sound barrier wall and the yard is huge). One couple was very interested, but after dragging their feet for two weeks, ultimately decided to pass. Keeping a house filled with 4 adults, 2 kids, 2 dogs, and 2 cats show ready all the time is tough and a pain, so with that coupled with the fact that the weather is turning and the holidays are coming, we decided to call it quits until the spring. Hopefully we'll have better luck then.

Not much else going on.  Adam and I are frantically trying to do extra to come up with our Christmas fund. He's working Ebay and I'm doing some at home transcription work. We're keeping busy!

Forcefully Four

October 12th is here again already! My not-so-little AJ-Bug is four years old today!  I can't believe it!

He is going to wake up from his nap any minute, so we're going with bullets here!  Here's what AJ is like at FOUR!

• He's my rough-and-tumble boy!  He's constantly jumping, rolling, bouncing and taking risks. I see ER visits in our future. So far, no major injuries, but he did dislocate a bone or tendon in his elbow a few weeks ago--and it was just a minor fall! Luckily the immediate care doc figured it out quickly and within minutes he was saying it didn't hurt one bit!
• He's talking a lot these days--and MOST of it makes sense! He still has some speech issues, namely he can't say "l" sounds and a few others.  It's cute to hear him talk, but I hope it works itself out eventually so he doesn't have issues in school.
• He is an EATER!  Sometimes we have to MAKE him stop eating! I wish he'd eat some veggies, but he loves fruit and he eats way more meat than Tyler ever has! We have a lot more things to choose from with AJ.
• He is definitely not a laid back child. He has quite a defiant streak that we are struggling with lately. He will completely ignore instructions, or do something again that you've just told him not to. We are doing our best to be consistent and stop these behaviors, but it's rough sometimes!
• That said, when he's good, he's so good and sweet! 
• His favorite thing in the whole wide world is to be TICKLED! Seriously, it's my part time job.
• His favorite book is "The Book With No Pictures". It's hilarious and he knows it by heart and can recite it.
• He likes to watch Paw Patrol, Blaze, and Loud House.
• He loves to play board games. We've been playing a lot of Chutes and Ladders and Candyland, along with a few others. He is getting at least 4 new games for his birthday!
• His best "buddy" is our old fat cat Tippy. He just adores her.

Tyler's on fall break, so I took a few days off work. Adam will be off tomorrow and Friday too. Mom and I took the kids to Conner Prairie (a living history museum) and had a good time. As predicted, he woke up and after some tickles is now playing with a birthday gift, so I'll leave you with some photos of his birthday cuteness!

In a covered wagon

Me and my boys!

Aw he looked down!

Paddling a canoe

Tyler taking a turn

My Tyler-man

Fall Flies!

Fall is flying by!  We have been really busy lately and time is really getting away from me!  I'm sure my update posts are boring to everyone who is not me, but I like to remember what was going on.  This blog has become like a diary to me, and I'm okay with it.  Someday I'd love for it to be more, or to do another blog that has a different purpose, but until I come up with that idea (any suggestions? LOL), on we go!

So!  We left off after week one of Tyler's fall break.  Week two, Adam and I worked while my mom had the kids.  Tyler got to have some of his favorite lunches (Gaga's homemade potato soup and rice and Chinese food) and they even came up to work one day so I could show off my boys and have lunch with them!

Fooling people with that sweet face since 2012

Turned out blurry, but so cute, working hard! I think he liked my background ;-)

He's actually looking at the camera for once! Bonus glimpse of my magnet collection

Cuties!  Tyler insists he wants to work here someday!

Next up was Halloween!  Tyler picked out his costume--he wanted to be a ninja.  He later specified that he was not a bad ninja, he was a protector ninja.  I got AJ a costume too, selecting Marshall from Paw Patrol-If you don't know, Paw Patrol is a kids TV show with a group of dogs that help out their town, Marshall is the Dalmatian fire dog.  When we had passed by the costume section a few times, I had asked AJ what he wanted to be and he said "No" a lot.  I didn't think that much of it.  Then I bought the costume and suggested that he try it on.  Nope, he wasn't interested, in fact he was very UN-interested.  I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best, but come Halloween night, he had an almighty fit and seemed truly scared of it, so that was that.  He stayed home with Aunt Chall and Gaga while I took Tyler out and Adam manned the front door.  Maybe next year!

Ninja Protector Tyler!

Only treats for this kid!

That's the goings-on with the kiddos!  For me, work has been pretty busy, since I'm helping fill in for a coworker that quit.  The work is very different and both challenging (in the good way) and intimidating.  I'm trying to decide if I want to pursue the position myself, although I've applied for it before.  Adam and I took the plunge and bought a used pickup truck for his ebay business. Let's see, what else.  Oh, I think I've mentioned here that my friend and I were working on a book together.  Well, we "officially" finished the first real complete draft.  We each sent it to a couple of friends for feedback, so we are anxiously waiting for their reactions.  One of my friends is a published author (check out her book "Fragments" by Tracy Bull on Amazon, it's really incredible) so she's been giving up some advice on publishing and the option of putting it out there as an Ebook.  We're considering everything.  An ebook is certainly the easier, less complicated route, but I know my friend is leaning toward the more traditional publishing route.  So we'll see where that goes, still a lot of work ahead.

So that's it!  I want to apologize for not being as good of a commenter as I usually am.  The computer I usually comment on is no longer an option and I'm really bad at commenting on my phone.  But I'm still reading! I hope a few people are still reading here too!

Three's CraZee!

My BABY turned THREE on Monday!  I didn't get a post up, due to the fact we were off enjoying a few days off as a family.  Tyler is on Fall Break for two weeks, so Adam and I took Monday through Wednesday off work.  But more about that in the next post-now all about AJ!

So what is AJ like at 3 years old? He is wild and silly and loud!  He's definitely more willful than Tyler, he definitely knows the word "no" and we're working hard on getting him to understand that he isn't allowed to tell us know when we ask him to do something!  He makes us all laugh though, he's truly such a character!  His favorite thing in the WORLD is to be tickled!!  He's constantly asking to be tickled and then saying "Again!" over and over!  He really can't get enough!

Tyler and AJ are really very different kiddos.  Physically, Tyler looks more like me, and AJ resembles Adam.  His hair is pin-straight, just like Adam, although it's lighter in color than his daddy.  He's also got daddy's double "swirl" in the back of his hair, which makes haircuts a challenge!  He's big for his age, while Tyler has been on the more petite size since about a year old--In fact, AJ is only 5 inches shorter and 10 lbs lighter than his big brother!  He's more rough-and-tumble than Tyler was, more confidant and physically active.  He loves to run and jump and climb and keep us on our toes!  Tyler was such an advanced talker, and while AJ definitely makes himself heard, it often pretty tough to understand him!  It all means something to him, but sometimes we're left shrugging!  Tyler is actually pretty good at translating for us!  I'm not worried about his speech at this point, he's come a long way, but it's different for us to have a child that doesn't speak as clearly as Tyler did!  My favorite word from AJ?  Chocolate!  It sounds like "Twacwate"!

AJ's likes and dislikes at 3:  He loves cartoons, particularly Paw Patrol, Bubble Guppies, Blaze and the Monster Machine, and Team Umi Zoomi.  They are all on Nick Jr and he got a lot of toys from  Blaze and Paw Patrol for his birthday and he's having oodles of fun with them.  He's got a great imagination, he is always acting out little scenes with them.  He still loves playing with his Thomas trains, but he doesn't watch the shows very often any more.  He likes to read, though he prefers to sit on his own and look at books over sitting and reading them together. He has to be in the mood to sit still to do that, and it doesn't happen often!  He loves to be outside and free to run around.  Food wise, he's less picky than Tyler by far!  He loves pretty much all fruit, especially strawberries and cuties.  He loves chicken nuggets and pizza and sausage links with scrambled eggs and toast, and macaroni and cheese with applesauce (I always make applesauce when I make kraft mac n cheese and now he can't have one without the other!).  He only tolerates drinking milk, so much so that we started strictly giving him juice only if it's thinned by half with water.  He doesn't like a lot of vegetables, so we're working on that, but he ate a bunch of cooked broccoli at a buffet last week and we were thrilled.  He doesn't really care for cake or ice cream, so his preferred treats are cookies, especially Oreos, or candy, especially m&ms.

Dislikes: Bedtime!  He usually says "Aw!" or whines a bit, and he's actually been acting scared when I try to put him down, so we're working through that.  He also gets absolutely PETRIFIED by the most random things, like Barbie commercials or the movie Frozen!

We celebrated AJ's birthday with a small family party in the backyard.  We grilled out hamburgers, hot dogs, and sausage.  We also made scalloped potatoes and had lots of fruit and veggies, chips, and cookies and cupcakes for dessert.  The weather was gorgeous, warm but with a nice breeze and sunny.  AJ had a great time running around the yard with Tyler and Toby and Lizzy (his cousins)--we usually make him stay close to the patio, but we let him roam and he was loving it.

I can't believe my little rainbow baby is a big three year old boy.  The time has gone so quickly!  He's got such a great little personality and I can't remember what life was like without him! 

Here are a few pictures from the party!  Love that little bugaboo!

Hipster wears his hat backwards

Aunt Chall on the far left, Dad, Aunt G and "Uncle" Jon

This pic killed me, he's shrugging his shoulders up like "Aw, for me?"

Presents!

Not overly impressed with cupcakes

Tyler hanging out in a tree