The day will come...

I want to freeze this day. This moment in time. 6:49 am to be exact. Me, in my blue butterfly pajamas. The two of you in your Underoos crawling in bed with me, stepping on the trunk to help hoist you up. You make a laughing leap aiming to land in my arms but you only make it halfway and you get enveloped in sheets and blankets. Your head pops up and one of you asks sweetly, “Is it wake-up time?” I think to myself no but I say, “It’s close enough, come over here and snuggle with me.” You climb the rest of the way to my arms and squeeze in close. It takes more squirming than I imagined, but we finally all get comfy. You excitedly show off the pajamas you picked out, as if I had never seen them before. As if I wasn’t there last night when you chose them. I tickle your belly and call you silly. You tell me that you’re not silly and what your name really is. We tickle and laugh till we’re all out of breath and then cozy up for a few more precious, fleeting moments of cuddling. We sing our silly messy hair song and I am wishing we could stay like this forever. Cuddly. Affectionate. But, I know that the day is coming that you will no longer welcome my hugs and kisses, morning cuddles and incessant “I love yous.”
It breaks my heart that someday you will no longer want my affections. I don’t know what will cause this shift and I am secretly praying it doesn’t happen. Ever. I pray that it will be just a phase and you realize that in times when there are no answers, my arms can hold you and comfort you. That even when I’m too mad to talk calmly, I am always willing to give a loving hug. That no matter what, I always want to wrap you in my arms and give you all my love.
As you are reading this, a few years from now, you are probably in those resistant years when you ask me to stop. But I won’t stop. I will keep giving my hugs and kisses. I will keep saying “I love you.” Even if you yell, “Eewww!” Even if you feel embarrassed. Even if you wipe your face after I kiss it. Even when you tower a foot over me, I will never stop wrapping my arms around you and planting a big smooch on your cheek. Just like this morning. Just like when you were little. So you might as well just give in, my sweet boys, and get over here and give your mother a kiss.

Balloon Festival!

We had a wonderful time at the Plano Balloon Festival on Saturday night where we gathered with some friends and family to celebrate Kyle's third birthday. Even Nanny made the trek to see the hot air balloons up close and be there for the birthday celebration! Go Nanny! Before we got there, Barrett told Papa, "If you get in one, you will pop it!" I think they were very suprised about how big they were.







Let's take a closer look at Emma...nice. Oh and yes, she does have a shiner (she had a run-in with some playground equipment. I think the playground won, but I haven't seen it yet)









The birthday boy on his daddy's shoulders looking at the balloons. It reminds me of this Isaac Newton quote: "If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants."

I can't wait to experience this next year of his life as his mother. I love seeing the world through his eyes.

Happy Birthday, Kyle!

Dear Kyle,
Happy birthday, buddy! You are 3 years old today. I often forget that you are the age you are because you are so smart and emotionally mature for a boy who is just turning three. You also have a great sense of humor, whether you’re telling a joke or just getting a kick out of life, you are always cracking up laughing. When you laugh really hard, you remind us of Snoopy laughing and we can’t help but to howl along. And when you’re not giggling, you’re smiling. What a truly amazing gift you have to be able to find joy and spread happiness. You are generous and great at sharing, and yet, you do not allow others to take advantage of you. A lot of grown-ups, including myself, could learn a thing or two from you! I also admire your gratitude and appreciation for little things. When I asked you what you wanted for your birthday this year, you excitedly said you wanted a birthday card. That’s all you wanted. I melted and then asked you if you wanted anything else. You said you would like a birthday card and a squishy ball. I am so proud of you and happy to be your mommy! I love you more than words can express.
Love,
Mommy

Some Kyle tidbits:
You usually eat your veggies before your meat, I think you may prefer them.

You still love to sleep with books at night…books and Sock Monkey.

You have gone through about 200 band-aids this year alone!


Here' the birthday morning picture. He had already removed his pajamas by the time I knew he was awake and went in to take the pic. He has the two books he slept with, If You Take a Mouse to the Movies, and I Love You Stinky Face.

NewYork

Cody and I just spent 8 days without mexican food in New York City and the Niagara Falls area. We had a great time and look forward to taking the kids there someday in the not so near future. New York City is such a unique place with soooo much to see. We had plans to get up early each day to go to the Today show but everyday we were so exhausted from the day before that we couldn't get our hineys out of bed...pretty pathetic. I have lots of newfound respect for those people who actually do get up and have so much energy at that hour.
We were in Manhattan for less than an hour when I spotted Francis McDormand from Fargo (Marge) walking down the sidewalk right in front of us. It was also very cool to see places that I studied in architecture school, and places we've seen so many times in movies and TV.
When we went to the top of the Empire State Building we spotted a rooftop that had plants and seating. So we figured out where it was on our map and went there that night. It was an amazing, chic rooftop bar with (obviously) an amazing view of the Empire State Building. They provided red robes to keep warm so we all kind of looked like weird, yet festive monks.
Some pictures...There were so many but here's the gist:

We took the Staten Island Ferry to and fro one night before dinner. Lady Liberty is an American treasure.


We did the Liberty Island tour, too


We had some frozen hot chocolate at Serendipity. Cody wants me to make it clear that he only went because he was with me. I guess he doesn't want to give up his man-card.


Eating hot dogs at the Yankee game (To our Red Sox and Rangers friends and family-we just went as tourists and we were absolutely miserable the whole time. The game was a bore and we were not standing in the asiles at the end hoping to see Jeter beat a Yankee record.) What can I say for our behavior other than "When in Rome..."



Cody's BIG moment at FAO Schwartz


Niagara Falls was truly amazing. We saw the falls from the Ontario side-gorgeous!


Niagara Falls


Oot and Aboot in Toronno (as the local guy I talked to at a coffee shop said it.) We took a day trip to Toronto during the Toronto Film Festival. While there we saw Neil Patrick Harris, Owen Wilson, Ashley Simpson, and Howie Mandel who came into the Starbucks we were sitting at. I got some papparazzi-like pictures.

Kyle-isms

While I am feeling a bit guilty about the fact that this post is all about Kyle, I think I am feeling more guilty about the fact that I will be missing his first day of preschool. I sure hope my mom takes some good pictures for me.



Barrett is at Grandma and Papa's for the first part of our trip to New York. So yesterday and today it's been really quiet with just us and Kyle. But it's fun to see his little brain working and hear the stuff he comes up with. Here's a few quotes from the past couple of days.

The first one was when we were on our way to meet Grandma so he and Barrett were talking in the backseat when I heard this.
Barrett: "You have to listen to me, I am your father."
Kyle: "You're not my father...Mommy is!"

Yesterday, Kyle said, "Mommy, I need a Band-aid, I have a boo boo!" I asked if it was bleeding and where it was. He said, "Riiight here. It's small so you can only see it with a microscope."

This morning when he was coloring I asked him where the blue marker was. Kyle looked around and said, "Here it is! I dropped it on a porpoise."

And then we all went to get Cody and Kyle haircuts before our trip. Kyle went first and immediatly got a lollipop when he was finished. Then, we watched Daddy get this haircut. Kyle said, "Daddy, if you sit really still, you get a lollipop!"

I already miss Barrett and I am going to miss Kyle too. But Cody and I will have a wonderful, no dishes, no diapers 8 days on our vacation! Thank you Mom, Cindy and Stacy for taking care of the boys while we're gone! We'll be checking in!

Homemade Tic-Tac-Toe board

The boys love doing crafts (and all the verbal praise that comes with them). One morning Barrett asked to do a craft and so I went to my craft drawer and found popsicle sticks, and bag of black and white buttons, and magnets. My tic-tac-toe board was conceived! The boys (ages 2 and 4) did very well at this and loved playing with the buttons. The magnets keep the game pieces from slipping around and getting lost. Now they are learning the game and most importantly, practicing taking turns!





On a somewhat related note, I know some of my friends have considered homeschooling. I wasnted to pass along my friend Danielle's blog. She homeschools and posts a lot of interesting stuff about it.

Outtakes

A friend of mine suggested I post some outtakes from a photo session with my kids, so here goes. Hope this makes you feel better. I get LOTS of these...
(These are straight out of camera, no editing.)

Here I have caught them BOTH with their eyes closed--nice.


Doing everything but following mommy's directions...Oh so many of these.


Awww, poor Kyle. Why is he crying? Because I fell off the thing I was standing on and landed on his finger. I accidently hit the button.


And this one is probably the most typical kind of outtake...one brother trying to be sweet while the other one doesn't want to be touched.

I am often asked....

"How do you get your kids to cooperate for pictures?" The short answer is: I don't. But if I think about it a little longer I can come up with a few things I do in an attempt to get them to do what I want like bribery offering fruit snacks or marshmallows for boys who follow directions. When it comes to photographing my own kids, though, I always seem to get out of sweet, conversational photographer mode and go directly into impatient mommy mode. I think this is why it's universally more difficult to take pictures of your own kids than it is to have someone else (besides their parent) take them. They have figured out how to tune out Mommy's voice, but they still listen to people they don't know as well.
When I am in photographer mode, I don't use bribes or get impatient. There's no bargaining with kids. Depending on the age, I ask questions, play games, act silly, sing songs. I also do a little bit of shooting them while they do what THEY want to do. This often captures their personality the most, although it's not going to be a perfectly poised and smiling for the camera type shot either. Doing this also gives their little cheeks a break from all that smiling and makes them feel like they are getting to make some choices. I just wish I could remember to do this with my own kids.
Despite my bad mommy moments, we managed to get a couple cute shots.