Ronan Ronan Ronan...why do you torment me so?!

i think i've had a break through...perhaps...but i'm not sure. today we were at the park for a playdate with a bunch of wonderful moms...i was really looking forward to the day out since we'd been home alone for days with sicknesses trying to clean the house before the inlaws arrival. anyways, it's also spring break so z has been home and no bible study, no anything. ok so moving along....we went to the park. after being there for aproximately three point two seconds when ro was throwing pricker balls...well of course some random kid walked by at the exact time and got hit in the head. now the kid did not scream or cry...just looked stunned at ronan. so i go running after ronan and he books it. so i'm running after him screaming that he needs to come back and say sorry. so i catch him and tell him he needs to say sorry. he starts bawling....i do the pleading and all that..."ronan please just say sorry..." "please say sorry or we'll have to go home"...."i'm going to call oma and opa and tell them they can't come"....i even fake called oma on my cell....but he just refused. so i dragged him to the car did some disciplinary things...still nothing. buckled him in the car seat....still nothing....finally i he calmed down and said he'd say sorry. so off we went to find the boy. as soon as we got to him i sat ronan down in front of the boy and ro started freaking out again....refusing to say sorry. i swear i was going to lose it. and all my poor friends are looking at me with that helpless look of 'hey, it's ok, he's crazy...it's not you'. :) love my friends. but i seriously wanted to strangle the child. meanwhile the boy is looking at me like i'm crazy....i introduce myself and tell him ronan's name. the boy says "i did the right thing i just walked away". of course you did kid...of course you did. finally my dear friend melissa arrived and sensing that i was seconds away from throwing ronan down the river (you know that out of your mind laugh you start having when you are bordering on a breakdown??? yea that cackle was coming forth from my lips) . well she nicely stepped in and asked if she could hold ronan for a while till he said he would say sorry. so she did...gosh i love that girl. anyways, after about ten minutes of rocking and softly talking, ronan went to say sorry to the boy. then he came running to me for a big hug. oh that boy. i love him fiercly.
so since this time i've been pondering my son...and i think i've had a breakthrough...i think ronan freaks out from the attention. granted he is stubborn as a mule...but i think he just shuts down with that many people around looking at him while i'm yelling. and of course my yelling probably isn't helping him either. but when melissa removed him from the attention and sat calmly with him until he was ready to say sorry...he responded. this happened one other time before when i wanted him to say thank you. but the more ben and i forced him to say sorry, with the people watching, the more he freaked. and he almost ALWAYS says thank you for EVERYTHING! but it was the same attention thing...so we'll see. i'm going to try this again in the future and see if i can calmly remove him and soothe him till he relinquishes. i know sometimes this won't be convenient, but well...each child needs their own parental tweaks. one thing about ronan is that he's no really ever intentionally mean to other kids. he gets along well and is sweet. the whole throwing thing was not intentional, it was accidental. he's never hit or bitten another child. he's a good kid that reserves his crappy behavior for his family....(hmm..sounds like me)
SOOO...if you're child gets accidentally pegged with a pricker ball by ronan...bear with me, it might take a while for an apology from ro...but he is only two...and we're working on it...together.

Handsome Zander

this has to be one of the most hilarious conversations i've ever had....today at bible study one of the leaders came up to me and asked if i was zander's mom. at first i panicked...do i say no and run? but zander, well, he's generally good so i admit my offspring....and she tells me how handsome zander is....'he is such a handsome boy! i was thinking to myself how i would love to meet his father!' ....wow....what do i say to that.... umm...no, he looks like me. but i nicely say "yes, his father was blonde as a kid" and well, i'm ugly then huh? geez.....hahahah...it was so awkward it was hilarious. but she did continue on to say some really nice things about him that makes a mother proud. but wow...so funny....had to share! hahahahha...still laughing.

Milk and Sleeping

Since Ronan got sick a week or so ago, some of his personality was shown. that boy does NOT want to be alone when he's sick. and that means sleeping...every night for the last week or so, he's crawled up into his brothers bed to sleep with him. now we're just putting him to bed with zander. zander swears that ronan keeps him from having bad dreams...he even told his friend noah that if he let his little brother isaiah sleep with him, he wouldn't have nightmares. :) so far they've actually been sleeping and zander has finally conceded to let ronan play with his hair. i wish i could sneak in there and take a picture of them sleeping together.

little jade has had a struggle this last week with switching over to milk. she was on soy formula due to a possible allergy when she was just a few weeks old. her whole head broke out in a rash while on milk formula. so when we switched her to whole milk at a year, well....we were met with crying fits. not fun. for two nights right after dinner she started just bawling uncontrollably and scrunching up like her stomach was bothering her. it was very unnerving cause jade is not a big crier. so the doctor and my mom said to switch her back to her normal formula and wait till she was done with her cold and then try carton soy. almost 24 hours later she was fine. sooo...who knows. she has eaten cheese, yogurt, and a few other dairies with little to no effects. (btw i'm watching new moon while writing this so it could be full of typos and other mismatched thoughts!) today we went to get jade's blood drawn to test for milk allergy and anemia. she may still be too young to show a positive to the milk allergy but at least if she does test positive then i'll know. anyways, her veins were too small and the lady at the lab poked until i though i was going to puke. so she sent us over to the hospital lab where they were able to get it no problem. but by then jade was freaking out cause she knew they were going to hurt her! i had to lay on top of her to keep her still while they drew the blood. it was AWFUL! my little baby screamed and screamed and just looked so sad and distressed. awful awful awful. even the boys were upset by her crying and kept coming over and trying to comfort her! poor things....

we're almost done with the kitchen stuff. still have to do the backsplash and some painting...but it's useable and that's good!

i also did some pictures for a friend of mine recently and here's some of the better ones.

happy st.patty's day!!!!

Jade's Birthday with GeeGee and Papaw

tonight we celebrated Jade's birthday with GeeGee and Papaw (my mom and dad). as usual my mom made an amazing cake! and it was soooo good. chocolate cake with homemade buttercream frosting! fabulous! they got jade some fun gifts and jade loved it! lots of toys with balls and she liked that. but keeping the boys off of it was hard....:) big thank you to kate and neil for the cute little doll for jade and all the easter goodies for the boys too! that helped a lot today!

so tonight i cooked them all dinner and then we had cake and ice cream. jade was adorable with the cake. she started out very dainty and eating each little bite perfectly with one little finger. then she started double fisting it and throwing it all over. it was absolutely adorable. so here's the cutest little girl ever eating her fabulous cake! thanks again mom and dad for the presents and the yummy cake!

a pic of jade

here's the pic i took of jade today outside and then an edited version. i'm learning photoshop!

Jade's 1st Birthday!

Yesterday was Jade's first birthday! i still can't wrap my head around it! She lights up the room every time she enters it. she laughs uncontrollably and has inherited my weird honking laugh. she loves having an audience and does what she can to make you giggle with her! she loves her brothers fiercly but also knows how to cry quickly to get them in trouble. she loves her daddy and would do anything to get near him. and she loves to tuck her head onto your shoulder to give you cuddles. baby girl, i love you!

for her bday we opened presents when she first got up and went to lunch with gee gee and papaw. we won't be having cake till we celebrate with gee gee and papaw on saturday. so i'll have those pictures then. but here's just a few!

Larissa Versus Home Depot

so the other night i told ben i would go to home depot for him to get the last needed supplies for the kitchen. i thought it would be a quick trip but i should have known better. he gave me a written list so i'd know what to get. but needless to say i didn't understand ANY of it. so i start with one employee who helps me find the first item, the the second employee finds the second item....then they start laughing. then i had to try to lug two pieces of plywood onto a cart to get them cut. but first i have to go take all my items in my cart and switch it to get a rolley cart thing. then go back and get the plywood. more laughing from people but not more help! so i get the plywood cut, have to go get more items, more help. all in all six different employees help me. and let me back track and state that i called ben at least five times during this time to ask for clarification of what he ment. so i'm not really letting him work. not to mention that i've now been there for over an hour. the trip was supposed to be quick! there were only six items on the list! then to make matters worse as i'm checking out the cashier says to me "it was kind of mean for your husband to send you by yourself." thanks...but i volunteered. but do you think the dumb boy offers to help me take my giant pieces of plywood to the car? umm...no. so off i go to the parking lot to load these pieces into the back of my van...myself....nice. and i noticed something while i was in home depot. there are only men in there. AND if there are women, they are not alone. oh no, i saw three women 'pairs'! they are smart to know not to go to home depot alone. and i know this for a fact because i ran into a lady i know to be single and she was there with a friend who i happen to know is married. even she was smart enough to bring a friend! don't go there alone...

also, tonight i got a rare treat to catch up with an old friend! grace hardt who ben and i worked with at gull lake and her hubby and little boy were in san diego visiting. they were trying to come for the nice warm weather but i think they got shafted on that. anyways, we met tonight for dinner at red robin! it was fun to rehash times with silly boys at gull lake when grace and i shared a house. i think her hubby found out some fun stories! :)

here's a picture of grace and i together with our little ones! jade really like elias!

kitchen remodel

btw...ben started the kitchen remodel yesterday. two days down and he's over 1/2 way done. i'm so not loving having everything a mess but i know it will be worth it in the end. but i'm also sick and so is zander and jade...so i'm just a pile of crabbo-ness having to be gone all weekend so he can work. and oh yea, it's been pouring all weekend! :( i did NOT move to cali for all this rain!!!!

Ice Skating Helmets?!

saturday i took zander to his first ice skating class. i was NOT prepared for the humor going through my mind at the sight i saw. first off there was seven hundred people trying to get on the ice for the seven scheduled classes at the same time. and most of them were little kids. so yes, ten minutes of your 30 minute class was spent waiting to get them on the ice. nice. then i saw it...kids....with helmets. bike helmets. oh lordy i almost peed my pants. these kids are learning to basically wiggle their little feet across the ice. there is no speed skating, jumping, or throwing the kids...nope...they are spending most of the time on their butts. but please, put helmets on them?! and yet they have little thing gloves on...last time i checked the biggest injuries were caused by getting your fingers run over by the blades!!!! so maybe you should have put your kids in hockey gloves. NOT BIKE HELMETS! in the midwest they throw kids out on lakes to ice skate...they're not worried about head injuries, not even the fact that they could fall through the ice....nope...they're normal not these nut job cali moms. :)
secondly....i am utterly and miserably depressed. i do not know whats going on with me, but the thought of my baby girl turning one is just killer to me. i am so emotional about it! i start bawling every time i think about it! my baby, my little girl...my last child...is leaving the baby stage. her little cuddly squishy time is disappearing quickly. i just can't take it. :( sooo stinkin' sad...she's also taking steps by herself now. just a few but usually she gets so excited she just launches herself at you. that makes me sad too. almost walking....ugh...too emotional. gotta stop talking now...

My little hockey player

For those of you who know zander, he's been obsessed with playing hockey for as long as i can remember. well we finally signed him up to learn how to skate. so tonight ben took him to the kroc center to try skating before his actual class. he absolutely LOVED it! as you can see below, he actually did some skating without holding onto the sides. ben said he fell some, but it didn't seem to bother him. he was so excited that well...he neglected to tell ben how badly he had to pee. suddenly he looked at daddy and said 'i have to pee NOW!'. you always know it's too late when that happens....so z went running, and by the time ben caught up with zander he was standing by the toliet with his pants down, but his underwear still on; peeing....
but other than that he really enjoyed himself and is excited to start his class on saturday.

sibling love

jade is finally at a stage where she is tougher and able to play with the boys more. i love watching their interactions together. today while the boys were in the bath jade stood at the edge of the tub and splashed them. hey all giggled uncontrollably. jade was soaked from head to toe. then after that the boys always run to their rooms and hide under their towels and pretend to be rocks. jade came crawling in and started trying to find the boys. she loved the game and the boys were cracking up. then she did the cutest thing and crawled in between the boys and curled up like she was under a towel just like them. i loved watching the whole thing. then later in the day another heart melting moment....jade crawled up to zander and laid her head on his arm and nuzzled him till he acknowledged her and hugged her. sooo stinking cute.
but my favorite moment from today was going to lunch with my mom at carls jr. after we ate we went outside to the outdoor eating area and with my lovely boys who are drawn to dirt, we found a snail colony. all the blades of grass were covered in snails! so there are the boys picking up every signle one. and one of them was laying eggs. zander thoroughly loved that one. i love that my boys and their gee gee are fascinated with nature and that my mom is there to help teach them about it. but i'm sure everyone in the drive thru line at carls jr thought we were insane.