Do You Want Fries With That?

RECAP

A few months ago:
"Mom, when is it my birthday?"
"Not for a long time."
"Mom, when is it my birthday?"
"No really, like a lot of days away, it's not worth asking."
"Mom, when is it my birthday?"
"Not until summer."
"Mom, when is it my birthday?"
"Not until after we go swimming, and don't ask until we do go swimming"
"Ohhh ok, so after we go swimming it will be my birthday?"  (mostly, we still had to review in there, but mostly the battles were much shorter)
"Yes."
....
"Do I get a cake?"
"Yes, what do you want your cake to be?"
"A hamburger."
"Really?"
"Yup"
"Ummmm, ok."

About a month ago:
We go swimming....
"Come on Reid, let's go make a birthday countdown chain."  (so that if he asks, I tell him to go count the chain)

He had fun taking a chain off each night, and got excited each time he got to a new color.

About a week ago:
"Hey Reid, what kind of cake do you want for your birthday?"
"A cheese burger."
"So you still want that, huh?"
"Yes."

Monday morning (party on Saturday):
"G - how hard do you think it is to make a hamburger birthday cake?  I've looked at it on pinterest and there are some ideas there."
"I think we could do it.... I can come help.  How's Friday?"  (and by help, she did it all!!!)
"YOU ARE THE BEST!"

Today (Friday):
I woke up at 7am and baked 2 cake mixes, into 3 round cakes (2 confetti and 1 chocolate).
10am G shows up and we start to work.
Make a bun colored frosting and set aside some others for other colors.  And here's how it went.

Started with the flatter of the two confetti cakes, covered it completely with bun colored frosting.
Then drizzled red and yellow on just the sides.
Then we cut the rounded top off the chocolate layer cake, cuz well, meat isn't usually round on top.
Added the chocolate layer.  (we opted to not frost the chocolate layer because it gives a nice texture to the "meat patty")
After we added the chocolate layer, we filled in spots that needed more "ketchup and mustard".
Added red and brown (cocoa powder) to the yellow frosting and make the cheese color.  It was so realistic is kinda grossed me out to look at it.

Added ruffly green frosting for the lettuce.

For the tomatoes - we sorted the red fruit gummies out of this, flattened them, and stuck them around the edge.
To give the top bun a more lifted look, we actually covered the whole cake with green frosting and flattened gummies.

Added the second confetti cake layer.

Putting frosting on the top was tricky.
So we put wax paper pieces in between the gummy candy and the cake layer while we frosted the top. 
She had to get it mostly smooth and covered everywhere, then we removed the wax paper.

Then used water to smooth the top.

She did awesome... totally looks like a bun.

Added small white sprinkles to the top for the added touch.

It looks AWESOME and Reid really likes it and can't wait to eat it at his party tomorrow.    Thanks so much G!!!!!

Amid moving (just a couple miles away), Daddy going to be out of town 6 out of the next 8 weeks, and vacation in the middle of that.  I don't have time to do much for his birthday.  We're doing a really chill birthday party at the pool with watermelon, and you guessed it French fries!   So this will be a fun way to remember his 4th birthday and I hope it feels like a special one for him, and he knows how much I absolute adore him!

Happy Birthday Reid!

Geek or Jock?

Found a fun helmet at a garage sale and all of the sudden he can ride by himself?  Before we were always having to hold on to the back of the seat. 
(Bonus: Now I don't get dirty looks from the neighbors for letting my child ride his bike helmet-less.  :)

One night he just walked over and pulled it out, and perused it a few pages at a time.... Circuit Diagrams already?  Really?

Appendages

I realized I never really 'updated' about my arm.  It took about 3 full months to reach "clinically healed".  I'd been doing physical/occupational therapy for ~6 weeks over an 8 week period at that point.  The doctor was able to twist, turn, shake my arm and I had no pain.  The X-ray showed that my bone was starting to grow back.  He estimated a full recovery in about 6-7 months post injury.

As for me... I'm good.  I can do all daily routines again.  It took about 3 months for me to feel like I was back to normal.  However, carrying a child in my left arm and some things that require a lot of manipulation, pushing a stroller with just my left hand, are still hard.  Although, I can do them, just not for very long.  The scars are looking really good.

Mentally, I am still pretty freaked out.  I still can't carry Reid while walking without a little fear creepy up in my throat.  Weston, I can mostly carry, and walk just fine... but still no putting them on my shoulders!  And stairs, well, let's just say, between a broken leg 10 years ago, a super sprained foot 1.5 years ago due to stairs, and me having "small bones" I don't EVER rush down the stairs.  For me there is always time to take it slow.

About once a month, I still need to do a good rub on the scar tissue.  It's still building up and probably will for up to two years.  When the scar tissue builds up, I have more pain because the scar tissue pulls on my muscles/ligaments/tendons, etc.  So I just have to give myself a deep arm massage, and I'm mostly pain free again.

I was very surprised how hard the trial was, but I am so grateful for the love and support I've gotten.  I'm so very grateful for the recovery and our super cool bodies that are self-healing!


The Battle Scars:

What 18 months old looks like the second time...

Weston turns 18 months old in less than a week.  His time with us is flying, except at church.  Sometime around 16 months, I could just tell he's ready for more than keeping quiet for 3 hours or wandering the halls.  We are very excited for nursery to start, so he can have lots of interaction and playing with toys time.

I am loving and still being surprised at how different two boys can be.  Some major recaps of Weston's life.

- Sleeps all night long.  Once his teeth came in, I rarely hear a noise from him until morning
 - Got his teeth in the order of: Bottom right center, top left center, then the following bottom and top teeth to give him four.  Then it looked as of the bottom right one was going to come in for forever, and he was so darn cranky, then one night I noticed he had  a bottom left and top left molar broken through!  The right molars weren't far behind.  The next four teeth are kind of a blur, but by 16 months he has all four top and bottom teeth, and molars.  We are still waiting on canines.
 - Runs everywhere, especially after big brother

- Is trying to WALK down the stairs... he is super fast on his belly, but he likes to be like everyone else.
- He says: uh-oh, whoa, yay! (sometimes with clapping), yeah yeah, Da-ddy, Mom-y, no, hi, bye,  buh-boo (peek-a-boo) and then tries to repeat almost anything we say that is 3 syllables or less
- He loves to say BYE, and wave really big.  Any car leaving or person passing us, clearly need a "BYE!" accompanied by a large arm wave and opening and closing hand
- LOVES to read books and make animal sounds
- Still loves to play cars, especially right next to big brother
- Learning how to push toy trains along their tracks (instead of just destroying the tracks)
- Uses pacifier for bed time and church only (although, he is really sneaky and goes and gets it out of his crib often)
- Climbs on tables as much as possible
- Often goes digging in the trash can... I have to careful watch him, so he doesn't eat any of it.
- Healthy eater  (when he's not throwing his food)
- LOVES sweets: after Reid who didn't like sweets, this kid is a pro at conning anyone into giving him dessert, and he DOESN'T stop... he loves the sugar!
- Loves to dance.  Any music anywhere, he's dancing.
- He's VERY ticklish... and he loves being tickled
- Loves to be held and cuddled while drinking milk and/or watching TV, he rarely will sit by himself (this makes for jealous sibling rivalry)
- Is a thrower.  I'm wondering if we have a soccer player (Reid) and a baseball player (Weston) in our family, because wow, they very much do one or the other.
- Has just started showing interest in coloring


Things that are different with the 2nd one:
- When he screams because he doesn't get what he wants, I am much more calm
- He is tricky, he wins over the hearts of everyone by being SO SNUGGLY!, but then when he is hungry and I try to make dinner, he will stand at my feet and scream because he needs snuggling
- We are much bigger suckers for the cute stuff.  When I go get him out of his crib, he usually puts down his pacifier and elephant and monkey stuffed animal blanket things.  On occasion, he'll hold on to one of them, and just give you this "please I can keep holding him" look, and he wins everytime

The oh so loved monkey (and blue elephant) that he loves to carry around

- All the bad things that brother does, he immediately mimicks
 - Is easier in some ways because it is was big brother does, so he automatically does it too.  It's kinda nice.

But regardless of any struggles or pains, we love having him.  His smile is infectious.  His laugh is too much to take. Reid does enjoy having a playmate, while it is often one-sided, there are multiple times I LOVE to hear them giggling together, and I confess to even letting them get away with something they shouldn't do a little longer, just because they are bonding and having fun together.  Weston is so tender and gentle, he's much kinder to the dogs, and will some day be a great big brother to some one else.

Because who doesn't love a bum in the air sleeping pic (I actually think he was awake and was hiding)

The Moments of a 2 year old

This was also written in August:

 Reid turning 3 made me realize how much I have a preschooler and not a toddler!  So before I forget I want to document some precious moments:
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He loves to sing.  A song he must of learned in nursery (at church) is:  "Row Row your boat, Gently down the street, Merrily Merrily life ... a ... dream"
He also taught us a song with a monkey and crocodile.  Too fun!

A quote (misquote) from Iron Giant movie is: "I TOLD YOU, I'LL COME BACK TOMORROW, NOW STAY, no following (waving finger at you), good"  Then walks away, if you chase it becomes a game.

Reid says this all time, but I never find out what the idea is:  "Mommy, I have a idea"

I'm glad he's a sweetheart, he snuggles with me and hugs me and kisses me.  Sometimes he likes to play a kissing game, where we kiss then as we back up, we open our mouths really big... this is called BIG kisses.

He gets this angry look - kinda reminds me of my nephew and that scene in Star Wars right after Anakin's mother dies where he makes the evil eyes.  Sometimes Reid even gives me the crazy eyes, where they go side to side.

Reid loves to play a chasing game where he says "chase me" or "you get me" or "Reid get you".  We just run in circles around the house and laugh and laugh.

The other night, when Matt was at some church meeting, I tied a blanket around my neck so I had a cape, and he called me Super Grover, we proceeded to run around the house for about 20 minutes with our arms in the air like we were flying. 

Funnny words - sanwiounch (sandwich), forkhead (forehead), seghettis (spaghetti)

While Reid is taking pictures, he'll instruct you to "Say Cheese, show a happy smile"
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For his birthday we ate pizza and opened presents as a family.  Reid got a Big Thomas, a Buzz Lightyear rocketship, a toy computer, Cars puzzle, and 2 movies.

For a party, we did a combine party with one of his besties... she did a great job documenting it in this blog post.  It was a blast.  I actually felt like I got to have a blast at his party too!

One of the highlights for us was that we got floaties for Reid.  He loved being free in the pool!  He swam for about 3.5 hours that day.  Then he crashed on the couch before we could make it home.
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Just to show some of Reid's personalities here are some fun photos of the last year:

Reid really got into puzzles in the last 6 months.  He loves to sit there and do them.  (although that is getting harder with a mobile little brother)

My friend generously gave us a bike that is too small for her son.  Reid immediately accepted it and asks constantly to ride Reid's bike.  We've only been out a few times, but he's getting better.  Unfortunately he still learning that backwards means brakes, not go backwards.  :)

BROTHERS!  Ever since Weston learned to crawl, Reid has decided he likes Weston.  He wants to play with him or get him involved in his latest plot.  Sometimes they don't get along, but overall they are good.  I love how much they love each other!

No more Baby #2: 1 year old means Toddler time

Weston was 1 year old at the end of August.  Here is the post I wrote back then, but never quite finished: 

I can hardly believe it.  It flew by so fast. Regardless, I have slacked a little on the posting, so I need to write these things down before I forget.

Crawling - 7 mo 4 wk old
    He figured out how to get up on his hands and knees, then slow would do a couple crawl steps, then one day, he went more and more, and was across the room.  It was over at that point.

Teeth - 1st tooth 9 months old, 3 weeks later 2nd tooth.  The top two took their sweet time, they came in just shy of 11 months old.

Stairs - at 10 months old Mommy broke her arm, so we started practicing stairs because carrying him down the stairs was hard and scary.  By 11.5 months he had it down, just not reliably.  Now he's a pro.

Walking - 11.5 months he was taking 2 or 3 steps then sitting down.  I thought for sure he wouldn't walk by 1 because this was taking forever.  Well, we went on vacation and 1 week before his birthday he walked across Grandma's kitchen, and just kept going all night.

Talking - at 11 months, his big brother taught him the word "uh-oh" because Weston always throws his food on the floor and Reid always says "uh-oh".  It was cute, but I know it will become a game lately.  He still plays the game of making the same noises as you do and you both repeat it over and over.  He has starting saying "mamamamama" when he comes to me, so I know it's coming, but personally, I'm trying to teach him to stay "dada"

Weston is an absolute crack up.  If you give him any individual attention, he laughs... so LOUD.  It makes church hard, because I have to play with him and give attention but NOT too much or the whole room will know.

He thinks it's funny to shake his head no at anything.  He loves to have your nose rubbed into him while you are shaking your head, then he tries to do it back.  It's a fun game.

Now that he's walking, he's rarely holding still.  He loves to just go around and around the house.

Weston loves to sit on big furniture.  He'll sit on a couch and kinda squish and wiggle into it.  Making sure it's all comfy for him.

He loves the dogs, and is quite fascinated with them.  Sometimes he gives them a little too much love.

He's an expert diaper changing escaper.

Weston loves Reid.  They often wrestle and play.  Sometimes Weston will choose to follow Reid over me.  He's learned how to drive trains on their tracks and make car noises from his brother.  "Waaa waaa waaa"  It's hard to type, but it is cute.

8 months old - loving bean burritos!  (gotta have a food pic)

The magic of Daddy's lap, days before his 1st tooth broke through (almost 9 months old)

Can you see the water splashes?  He loves it!  (10 months old)

10 months old - trying to get monkey out of crib

11 months old, sadly is not documented well, it was all I could do to survive being a mom of two small kids with a recovering broken arm!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WESTON!  We sure love him, and are so grateful that we get to have him in our family.  He brings so much laughter and joy to my life!

Not so sure

Checking it out

Mmmm... I could get into this

Yup, I'm a fan!

Doing what I do best!... making a mess!

The clean up!  It was surprisingly hard to get the cake to wash down the tub.  :)

STATS
Weight: 20lbs  (10-25%)
Length:  30in  (50%)
Head Circ: 46cm  (50%)
(same percentages as Reid)

Becoming a Better Me

So a couple months ago (a.k.a. almost 6)  Julie B. Beck came and spoke to the women of our church.  She has now been released as the leader of the women's organization of our church called the Relief Society.

 It was a challenge for me to attend.  I was struggling with myself a lot and I was going through the trials of figuring out that Weston wasn't getting enough food.  I look back now and realize that I think I was in some postpartum depression... not heavy, but a little.  But I'm grateful for friends who invited me to go with them and made feel like someone cared if I was there.

While there, Julie B Beck said some things that just rang out in my head and heart, and I realized I wanted to change.   Here is what I heard:
1) We are living the dream.  We believe that before this life we chose to come here... we wanted to come here to this earth to have these trials and experiences.  Thus we are living the dream and we need to love it!

2) In our church we get assignments of other women to go visit once a month and share a lesson by the leaders of our church.  It's kinda like have two people assigned to be your friend.  Which sounds lame until you are in desperate need of help and you automatically have two people who are happy and willing to help you, because you are their assignment.  I think its the greatest thing ever.  She told us to focus more on the needs of our women versus visiting them with a lesson.
For instance in my case, the women assigned to me helped get me meals and someone to help me clean my house the week I came home with a broken arm.  They didn't have to do the work, they just made sure my needs were taken care of.  I am so grateful for that.
But on the flip side, I need to be better at being in tune with the women I am assigned to need.  I have one amazing friend here who just manages to always be more thoughtful and know exactly what you need.  So as I was trying to be better at this, my thought was, what would she do... (kinda like what would Jesus do)... and an idea came to mind, so I did it.

3) Generous thoughts are never unwelcome.  No one is ever going to dislike someone being generous to them.  So we should never ignore a generous thought.  This is a big change for me.
Over the last few years we've had some different circumstances that made me and Matt take on too much.  Then we took a step back and needed to evaluate what we were giving to others because we could see it was affecting us individually and our marriage.  Looking back some of the problem was our attitude, some of it what the way it all happened.  Either way we were bitter and didn't want to reach out to others very much. 
Since we moved we agreed as a couple we wanted to be better people.  We've met some amazing people in this world that I think so highly of, and I would like to try to be more like them.  So as I listened to a horrendous story of Sister Beck's (we call each other brother and sister in our church) talking about packing up hungry small children in a car because she felt she needed to help another... I realized that there are times I have ignored those generous thoughts, thinking that surely being a young mother is a hard thing and I couldn't drop everything to go help.  But really, I should!  The Lord needs us to help one another and we need to listen in the moments that he prompts us to do it... regardless of the small children and their struggles.
 That right there made me realize that I could be generous.  I could help others.  Because I too have received help.

I'm sharing this not to get pity thoughts or anything.  Mostly because this my journal for now and also because I want to let others know that this is hard, but we should try to help one another out and serve each other.  Because if we lighten others loads, our load will be lighten also, and we'll all make it together!  So starting in March of 2012 I vowed to be better, better to myself and to others.  I was going to stop feeling sorry for myself and starting looking at others and how I could help.  I'm still not perfect and still do not feel like I am very thoughtful all the time.  But I am trying, which is more than I was doing before.