My little independent stubborn smartie-pants

Oh, Declan.

Every day you try my patience. To quote a friend from earlier today, "Sometimes I lose my shit with you, but I LOVE it!"

You are equal parts stubborn, defiant independent, sweet, smart, and funny.  The things that come out of your mouth make me burst out loud laughing, then the next minute I have to threaten you with time out. 

You still won't potty train. WHY, OH, WHY!? You will be 4 in 6 weeks. We've officially been trying to train (on and off) for like a year.  Seriously. 

But oh, you are so sweet.  You call me pretty and tell me you love me when I least expect it. You share your last peanut butter cracker, and when Cash dropped his chocolate chip cookie on the floor at Meijer the other day and Dad refused to pick it up, you sweetly gave Cash your last 2 bites of your cookie.   I truly do not know what to do with you, and yet, I would not know what to do without you.

You are so smart.  You know your numbers almost as well as Cash. You can count and add all sorts of combinations on your fingers. You told me the other day that something was 10 units (I guess you get that from UmiZoomi!).  When we were talking about Beaver Island you mentioned that it was 50,000 away. 50,000 what, I don't know.... but I'm sure you do!

You love to read. You love to play on the iPad. You love to play Memory and kids Sequence.  You are so giving. When your size 8 boots crapped out on you (I'm pretty sure you were supposed to be wearing at least 10's...), you wanted to save them to give to Evie since she is walking now.

You are a natural at skiing. You are fearless. And just last week, I had to take you to the ER to get a staple in your head. No joke.   Just so we are clear, you have had ear tubes. Dislocated elbow. Broken arm. And now a staple in your head. You are three. And Dad and I have resigned ourselves to the fact that we will probably average at least one major hospital visit per year until you are well into your twenties.

Mom and Dad love you, Declan. We love you so much (million, zillion, billion, trillion, brillion).  Although you will (we predict) always take the path of most resistance, I know you will be do such wonderful things in your life. And we can't wait to see what those are.

Cashy, my Junior Kindergartener

Oh Cash.  My sweet, kind, giving, ultra-hilarious Cash.

You astound me every day. You started school last September and have embraced it full-throttle ever since. Your teacher is Miss Rachelle, and you are at New Branches Charter school, which we loooove. You have learned all your letters and how to write them. Many, many songs (even had your first-ever concert for holiday songs) show off your knowledge of months, colors, days, sounds, animals, etc. You get excited to learn new popcorn words every week ("T-H-E THE! (with a clap)"), get actual popcorn or a pickle (random!) on Fridays, and participate in things like family movie night and the book fair.

You are so giving. For Christmas we adopted a family instead of doing gifts for our immediate family. You were so happy to shop for presents for the 10 y/o boy and the 4 y/o girl who didn't have any presents. Now you are doing chores for your allowance, and dividing your money between saving, spending, and giving.  So anxious to start with the giving and so matter of fact that it's just the right thing to do since our family is so blessed. This is one thing that makes us so.proud of you.

You are hilarious. Always joking and being silly. You've started threatening us, but you have a high-pitched voice and (I think) you are kidding, so it makes us laugh. Yesterday we were sledding and there was a big hill, small plateau, and another big hill.  On the last run before ending (it was -10 windchill... brrrrr!) we did the first hill. I tried to call it quits and skip the second hill, and you were having none of that.  You said, "Weeellll... if you don't do the last hill with me, then we can't come back!"  I laughed, and said, "Well, we can't have that!" and off we went... down the second hill.

You made me laugh this morning in the car when asking how far it was to Andrea's house and I told you five minutes. You said, "hiiive?" and I said, "No, fiiiive." You followed this with, "HIIIVE?  That's not even a number!" You knew that wasn't what I said, but continued with being silly, and I laughed. 

You are also super smart.  When we had your first-ever parent/teacher conference you were above and beyond the rest of the class, and you excel in all you do. You are even using similes!  You told Auntie Kristyn that you were going to, "Run as fast as a dolphin can swim!"  Huh?? Where did you learn that?!

You started breakdancing.  You are the smallest and youngest and express yourself so amazingly.  We'll start breakdancing again in a few days (if we ever stop having snow days!). And you are so.so.so. creative.  Now that you have learned how to use scissors and tape, and have a never-ending supply of white paper and markers, you make anything and everything.  Such things, as included in the pictures attached, would be a sled, snow, a sled for Walter the Farting Dog, and a picture of you and Daddy holding hands.  You make people gifts all the time (such as a purse for me - white paper all taped together except one side, signs to wear around your neck, and hats).

I could go on and on. I'm hoping to remember some funny things you've said over the last 9 months so I can document them.  We just love you so much, Cash. Million, billion, zillion, grillion (our fave), tillion.

 



New Year's Resolution?

Oh my goodness.   I haven't posted since March 2013.  It's now JANUARY 2014!  Eek!  #fail. Wait, a hashtag doesn't do anything unless I use it in Twitter?  Golly, there's a revelation...

How am I supposed to cover 9 months in one post? Guess I'll gloss over it, then backtrack in more detail?

I'm SOOO glad my last post was the one on skiing.  Nathan and I agree it was the best day of our whole almost 10 year marriage.  We are actually taking them skiing again next weekend and the boys want to go on the big hills, not just the bunny hills. 

Cash finished out the summer at Andreas and started school in the fall!  I'll do another post on that all by itself. Let's just say he is excelling and getting smarter and bigger than ever!  At his 5 year check up I asked his doctor about his excessive intake of food and she noted that he grew 7 inches over the last year!  No wonder we can barely keep him in clothes and shoes.  On the bright side, Declan is getting some barely-used hand-me-downs.

Declan is in his final year at Andreas.  He will start pre-school next fall, although we aren't sure where yet since he's not old enough for Young Fives. Deck is also growinggrowinggrowing... so handsome and as smart as his brother.  If only he would take to being fully potty-trained.  It's our only complaint of our very independent child. He's almost 4 years old and just.won't.go.in.the.potty.

Nathan was on the cusp of starting his own business as he was fed up at Moss. Right before he quit, he was aggressively pursued at Custer.  When he asked them how they heard of him, they said, "Oh everyone knows who you are."  HUH?  He was thrilled to receive a very lucrative offer, and off he went.... and loves it! He's much happier and enjoying new challenges (and mama's enjoying the new pay that comes with it!).

As for me, I have been at my current role at Amway about 9 months. Although I enjoy it, my boss keeps talking about moving me out of my current role as I am being "wasted" in this one.  A great compliment, but I'll stick it out awhile longer.  I also decided to go back to school (eek!) for my Master's in Management. It will take several years, but Amway is footing most of the deal, so I didn't want to waste this opportunity.  So far I have two classes down, and 11 to go.  A's in both of them, but I might break that streak with my next class: Managerial Economics.

So that's that for now.  I'm going to try (this is the New Year's Resolution part) for a blog post every other week.  Or at least 26 by the end of the year.