Ok ok... so I missed them

Long time .... no see..  The Rumers went on a real vacation!  Sam and I had our first vacation all by ourselves.  We slept and ate and played outside.... and I missed the boys terribly.  It took a couple days for a real live meltdown, but I did not like not seeing them.  (Sam has pointed out that I will have to get better at it for when I travel for work.  I pointed out that atleast both boys will be at home with their Daddy and not separated, out of their routine.... not that their grandparents aren't FULLY capable)  It was very quiet and more than a little strange and we kept seeing things that I wished the boys could see.  It didn't help that on Monday the phone at the cabin rang and it was Becky saying that Patrick had a fever and was sick.  I especially did not like being 4+ hours away from my sick baby. (He stayed home the next day and was back to school on Wednesday and back to normal on Thursday...easy peasy.  Sam was not going to be pleased if we had to leave....)

SOAP BOX ALERT:  I absolutely believe that married parents need to take time to take care of their relationship and relax and just take a moment for themselves.  I think it is important for the boys to have the time for some independence, and know that their parents value their relationship.  I'm not saying that we are going to do it every other week, every month or shoot - probably at best only once a year.  We really do like our children and being surrounded by their quirkiness - but someone might have unleashed their own (and their friends) insecurities on me about leaving my children and it's been on my mind.  I think taking a week to work on my relationship with their dad is better than a life time of being shuffled from house to house because I didn't.  Just a thought.

I insisted on calling morning and night to check in on the boys.  Bebe would report how Patrick slept and ate, he ate better than he slept.... B&B finally got to here him wail one night, not that that is a good thing.  Both said they had never heard him cry!  Oh he cries all right.  Poor baby.  We tried a couple times to talk to him but he would just stare the phone curiously.  William would get on the phone and very quickly tell me about his adventures and then just as quickly get off the phone saying I love you BYE!!  So funny.  I go back and forth between thinking he's so big and then that he's still so little.  Just can't make my mind.  And that's probably the point of this age... and the root of many many tantrums.

In light of a meltdown, Sam let us leave a little early and come to my parent's house on Thursday afternoon after some fun shopping. (we bought the coolest train car prints for the boys)  I was so excited to smooch all over William's face.  Of course he ran to Daddy to get a hug first... stinker.  But then he snuggled with me all night long.  Even asked at the dinner table if I would watch Dora and snuggle (best way to get out of dishes ever! haha)  Love that sweet boy.  He's been quite the Momma's boy all day Friday and for the most part, I'm totally ok with that.

He's so neat.  His pretending has taken a new deeper turn in the story making and he's very insistent and demanding on the stories.  He is REALLY specific about where you stand and how you play.  William got lucky and Daddy had to replace the HVAC outside box thing (unlucky for the Kennedy's) and there was a huge box.  That was immediately turned into a house with a door and a window.  He and I would get in there (me just barely) and we'd hide from the monsters (Daddy & Mima)!!!  Really so much fun playing him.  Later, pieces of the box were used to make a 'truckrocketsleigh'.  Seriously.  That was what I made.  We only got as far as the four wheels though -  he didn't like I how I was planning to make the seat, threw a tantrum, and we changed plans to go outside and ride bikes.  I really could just watch him all day, complete with an always on video camera.  He says the funniest things.  "No you can't go in the mud, I have to rescue you" - Uncle K just came and told us...

I'm anxious to snuggle with Patrick tomorrow.  I'm sure I will be in awe of how big he has grown in just a week, and I bet his two most recent teeth are halfway out of his gums now looking like real teeth.  He might even have more hair on his head.  And I cannot wait to snuggle, nurse him, and put him to bed.  I hope he hasn't decided to wean just because I was gone all week.  I pumped every morning so the boobs wouldn't get the wrong idea... I know it's silly, and I need to let him decide, and I will.  But I will be so sad if he puts the kibosh on that special time.  Guess I'll find out soon enough...

Doing this on my Dad's super cool IPAD with keyboard stand thing... so no pictures.  But honestly, there aren't any new pictures of the boys.  Only of Sam and I and waterfalls.  haha!  

Loves.

Little Swashbucklers

Sam and I are going on a much needed vacation next week, so I figured I better do my February duty and squeeze in a blog before we leave.  I know you are all DYING to know what the boys have been up to. Haha!!  At the very least, I need to document SOMETHING,  since this blog is acting as their baby books…  I never got William’s all the way filled out and we didn’t even buy one for Patrick.  Oh the mommy shame!! LOL

Patrick has made us oh so proud by deciding to finally sleep through the night after weeks and weeks of Sam getting up to comfort him back down.  I suppose, in the end, we really did kind of do the Elizabeth Pantley No Cry Sleep Solution, just adapted our way (ie – no real schedule to any of it) but it worked.  Every night it would be a little longer and a little easier to get him back to sleep and then one night he slept all the way through until 4:30 or so, and then went back down again.  It’s wonderful.  Granted, it’s not that way every night, but gone are the days of getting up every hour… unless he’s cutting teeth.

 

Which he totally did!!!  Sweet boy has two more top teeth that have FINALLY broken through!  That means we are up to six and as soon as those two come down and look like real teeth – he won’t be so snaggly smiled any more!! Haha!!  He loves brushing his mouth 'full' of teeth - he beats William to the bathroom every time.  I’m sure he will love having the extra teeth to bite into all of his food with – the kid is a bottomless pit.   Seriously though, most nights he eats more than William does!!  He’s a bit more deliberate (SLOW) with his eating though.. so maybe that’s why.  William is in such a hurry to get back to being busy!

Little known fact - I am an expert pipe works builder.  

I know it is well documented that William has a rough time in the mornings and sometimes even with bedtime.  We got the bright idea, well Sam says it was all his idea, earlier this week to make a chart so he would know what was expected and we could give him stickers/checkmarks/surprise/SOMETHING to get him on board.  Turns out I had a little extra time on Monday and got them made and sent off to Fedex to be printed/laminated.  THE BEST $7 WE HAVE SPENT IN A LONG TIME.  The kid is JUST like his Momma and will do just about anything to get a check mark!!  He will get dressed by himself, brush his teeth, follow directions, etc if it means he gets a sticker!  Granted, this morning wasn’t quite so easy and he was 3 stickers short… but, honestly, that is still an improvement.  And the arguing about going to school has disappeared!  No tantrums about going to his class or anything.  I swear it’s related!  Or atleast I hope so because we are enjoying the trend!

Patrick has learned how to cross his fingers.  It’s so cute to watch how proud he is of it and does it over and over and over again!  He also REALLY likes giving ‘knucks’.  He goes back and forth between everyone around and makes the exploding noise, without exploding his hand – we’re still working on that one.  Haha!  He is growing up much too fast and is much too smart.  I know it’s because he has a model to watch constantly, but still, must too fast.  He follows directions so well and wants to be big so badly.  This Momma just isn’t ready yet.

We might be crazy, but Sunday morning we decided it made perfect sense to get both boys pirate swords.  We had to repeat SEVERAL times that we do not swing swords in the  car and not to hit Patrick in the face...  Both boys had a great time playing with them though and I'm sure we put on quite the show in the front yard.  William takes his pirate-ing very seriously.   Patrick preferred to hold the sword by the blade, we never could convince him that the handle was better!  A friend at work now knows where I live (not that I was hiding it) because he happened to be driving by during the sword fight. Oh my!

Obviously, today is Valentine’s day.  It started early for me making Pink Heart pancakes (I made the batter last night to save some time).  Wouldn’t you know that I was the only one who ate them?!  William took two bites, sans syrup, with his hands and was done.  Sam wasn’t hungry at 6am and Patrick only wanted boobs.  I’m not going to lie, my feelings were more than a little hurt, but RPM during lunch fixed all that.  William kept switching puzzles with Patrick, since he slept in a little more, and that was funny.  He couldn’t decide whether he wanted the house or the train, and then he wanted to know if where the fire truck was that I got the hat from… silly boy.  Always full of questions.  (His version of why is “tell me ‘bout it”)  I had big plans for a pizza picnic, lots of movie snuggling, and extra special homemade pink heart cookies.  Life had other ideas that kept the event a little more lackluster than I had intended.  But that's why you get for making plans and having expectations with small children.  haha!  This is Sam’s and my 10^th (crazy) Valentine’s day and we’ve had pizza every one of them, except the one year the in-laws wanted to cook us filets.   Rumers don’t say no to steak, so we skipped the tradition that year.  Haha. 

So here’s to a day full of love, hopefully just like every other day.  But there only fun cookies today.

PS.. Because I want to remember this.  Currently, I am William's best friend and Daddy is Tatrick's.  "You're my best friend Mommy"  melt heart into little puddle, unless he's only saying this to get me to stop holding Patrick and pick him up, then I melt a little less.

Loves!

Precious Moments

haha - I totally had a Precious Moments bible when I was little and I LOOOVED it.  Bet it's floating around somewhere in the attic....  But that's not the point at all.  About three weeks ago we had our first professional family photos taken by the super amazing wonderfully talent Kate Whitmore, who I totally want to be friends with.  She's kind of adorable and the best kind of fun.  I wasn't quite sure what would come out of us playing in a deserted lot in Phenix City and I certainly couldn't have predicted that some of the most beautiful moments with our children would be frozen forever as result.  

Everybody yell AHHHHHHHHHH!

Not quite as carefree as his brother

Hilbert & Walter go everywhere with us

The KNOCKDOWN hug

Knockdown hug looked like fun...

Those eyes.  That face.  Sweet boy.

 Patrick finally decided to have some fun

Love Walter

I will treasure these forever.  And, much to Sam's chagrin, they will be printed extra large and plastered all over every open space of wall I can find.

Now go to katewhitmore.com and get your own :)

Loves!!!