Back to Responsibility……

Really, I feel like I am beating my head against the wall with my oldest. He doesn’t care, I know he is not an adult and doesn’t have a true concept of cost but when you can’t remember where you IPOD is I feel like I am going to explode with frustration!!!

Am I over indulging him with things that are past his age? Should I have waited, I guess it’s always hindsight at this point but something has to give….. We are going to a library system, he gets to “checkout” his things for a while to see if that helps. I feel mean but who cares (right). We will see how it goes.

Play Dates…

Are just as much for mommies as they are for kids! It was nice to have an adult to “chat” with and get to know these mom’s better. We have been so lucky to be invited over to a couple of our friends house this last couple of weeks to have super fun play dates.

First Payne’s sweet friend Lucy invited us over after preschool.  They had so much fun playing in her very cool kitchen with the coolest play food I had ever laid eyes on, her mom saved her play food from when she was little and it was in pristine condition. The highlight of the play date for Payne was when we had lunch and Lucy’s mom let Payne cut his sandwich out with cookie cutters, he has been asking to do it every time we have sandwiches:)

(Lucy and Payne at Payne’s fourth birthday)

Payne has loved Lucy from the first day of preschool and I am so glad that he has her there to make his day better! She is such a cutie pie and they have so many funny little things in common ( like, they both collect pez and share a love of chocolate milk) I know they are four but I hope it is destiny! LOL

Our second play date was just down the street with with a sassy little girl that we are glad to see all of the time, Ms Sydney. Payne and Syd have been friends for a couple of years now and they are really funny together! Both Sydney and Payne are a little strong willed but Payne lets her have the reins for the most part and he follows her lead. I am glad that he has such a cute friend in the neighborhood and she is someone I know will keep him in line;)

(Payne and Sydney, Payne’s fourth birthday) Don’t you love her dark brown eyes?!? She is so adorable.

Thanks Ladies for such great times!!

Circles…

For the last three days I feel like all I do is walk around in circles.  It started Wednesday night when I was giving Payne a bath and decided to clean the bathroom while he was occupied. This sparked a cleaning frenzy, I just kept going. By midnight you could have eaten off of my floors! But then Thing 1 and Thing 2 awake the next morning and cause havoc on my house. Of course since I put so much time and effort into the clean I wanted it to remain semi-sanitary for more than an hour so…. I follow, pick up, throw away, put away and do it again. Lets hope I don’t care by tomorrow afternoon cause I am starting to feel dizzy! :)

Snow Canyon.......

sand toys, a MUST

sand castles, a MUST

being burried, a MUST

                                                       
                                                     some really cute kids, a MUST!

Snow Canyon WE LOVE YOU!!!!! You have provided us hours of cheap fun this weekend and no matter how much sand we have in our hair we can't wait to see you again.                                                     

Nice to meet you;)

The other night Mr. Strate and I were at dinner. I had ordered a wonderful pecan chicken breast with steamed veggies. As I ohhed and ahhed over it he decided that he had to try some to which he ohhed and ahhed. As "we" finished off my dinner I looked at him and said I didn't know you .

A- Liked pecans
B- Liked steamed veggie (there was quite and assortment)
C- Liked Cranberry Chuttney

He said, "HI, I'm Mr. Strate". Its nice to meet you!!

Sometimes I feel like I am living with a stranger, but I tell you if I would have suggested that at home I am sure he would have given me the "really" look.

Happy “Thanks” Patrick’s

That is what Payne has been calling it for the last two days! I just smile cause really he will only be 4 once.

We celebrated tonight with breakfast dinner of green pancakes, green milk and bacon, not to Irish but lots of fun!

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Hope you had a festive day and didn’t forget to wear your green (not even while in the bath)

Let just say he was a LITTLE obsessed :)

raNdOm

-Today I declared my favorite color slate grey, I recently painted one wall in Payne’s room slate grey and now I can't get enough!

-I started making all the beds every morning since I have been staying home and I LOVE IT! Before it was hit and miss. When I walk past it calms me, in the sea of toys there is some order.

(not my bed but doesn’t it look inviting?) Pottery Barn

-I beg my husband to make chocolate chip cookies (his are better than mine) just so I can eat the dough before he puts the chips in. I know “salmonella” but it is my weakness.

-I have always hated vacuuming!!! The smell gives me a headache (you know from the dust that filters in the air) for me the worst time to vacuum is in the morning when your house is warm from the sun filtering in and that smell (ugh…) I have assigned that job to Mr. Strate but I usually end up doing it:( Actually I feel like it is all I do lately!

-I dream of re-decorating our house in WHITES AND CREAMS!! I know it’s  a crazy thought with two boys, a dog and a husband but after following a few of these blogs. I am not sure what their style is called but it calls to me! I want to live at their houses. They seem so peaceful and clean!

http://www.theletteredcottage.net/

http://adashofhumblepie.blogspot.com/

http://feathersinmynest.blogspot.com/

move over Snow White…

(Christmas ‘08, he is singing when my prince comes)

For about the last year and a half  now Payne has been madly in LOVE with Snow White. For Christmas (‘08) he begged for a Snow White dress (as you can see I gave in). He wore this as much as we would allow and watched the movie over and over.

(picture courtesy of Payne)

BUT now Alice has stolen his heart! He wants to watch the movie 8 times a day. He has asked to go see the movie in the theater again every day since we first saw it. He tells us what characters we are when he is “pretending” to be Alice.
thankfully I am the white queen (I must be nice) LOL and our dog is now named after her cat. He even sings the songs!

Over all he does have a thing for princesses' which concerns our dad but I just tell his that he just has really good taste in girls;)

my little tEchIE

he just can’t get enough.

Payne is constantly asking Wylie if he can borrower his I-Pod and with much hesitation Wylie agrees. It blows my mind that he knows how to navigate around the apps and switch between music and games and such. He LOVES that thing. He keeps asking me if he can get one for his birthday, mind you that he will only be 5! I am concerned that he is to young but he plays with that more than his leapster (i guess that is for the birds) ha ha. We will see how generous I am feeling in October:)

i loVe you!

Right now the best part of being Payne’s mom is the unsolicited I LOVE YOU’S! He will just come up to me and say “I love you mom!” be still my heart. It really is the best.  Yesterday however I got a written message. How my baby is growing up.

biRthdAY FUN!

I was very lucky this year to ceLeBrAtE with of my fAvoriTE people.

The boys and I started out the day at Color me Mine and painted our hearts out! I was fun to see what they picked and how they painted their pieces. Wylie is very artistic and choose to paint a picture on his plate. I am always impressed by his patience and skill.

After that we met up with my sister to have lunch and catch a movie. It was so nice of her to invite me out to lunch since we don’t get to see each other much and we invited her to join us to watch Alice in Wonderland, which we all loVeD!

My sweet friend Nicole asked if her and her husband could join us for dinner at our favorite “birthday” dinner place. I am so glad that they did, they are a lot of fUn to be with. We had a delicious dinner and then headed to rent “the time travelers wife” that was an adventure all in it’s self. After two red box’s and an expensive trip to blockbuster we were off to watch the movie.

I continued my celebration the next day scrapbooking with my favorite ladies. We enjoyed wonderful dessert pizza Julie made for my birthday treat (she is the diva of desserts). Lana made us laugh with her funny jokes and Nicole is always full of good conversation. I had a wOndERfuL birthday thanks to my favorite people:)

just what we NEEDED!

 

Fresh air, sunshine, a little warmth and some exercise. After our 18th episode of SpongeBob, 80th game of tetras and lots of lounging around our house, I suggested that we take our dog to the dog park. So we put on our gear and headed out the door.  During our walk it was nice to see Wylie guide the way and give Payne lessons in breaking sticks. It gives me hope that they will be better friends soon.

We hope you enjoyed the little bit of sun today too:)

32……

Yesterday I celebrated my 32nd birthday. I can honestly say, I cant believe I am 32. It’s not really a bad thing but in my head I still see myself as mid-twenties.

I have a thing with numbers, when I turned 19 I thought I was going to loose my mind. All the responsibilities that I was going to take on, a job and college but still living at home (if only things were so simple now). Life made a quick change and I was going to become a mother? Talk about pressure, I had a lot to accomplish quickly. I wouldn’t change a thing. I truly believe the events in my life have changed me, all for the better.   My 25th birthday came along, I had just married the man I adore but again the expectations of what I need to accomplish (is this just me?) Now 32, I feel like I am not sure what comes next, I wish I could freeze time. My kids are at a great age, I have a strong marriage and  I am blessed to be where I am, where I always hoped I would be as an “adult” (maybe with one more little person in my life, dressed in pink of course) but I am in a good place! Welcome 32, I hope we have a good year:)

a little confidence….

 

My sweet Wylie comes in this morning wearing a very interesting outfit, not anything I wouldn’t approve of but interesting. I ask him if other kids dress like this and he says sometime and then he said “it doesn’t matter if they did, I like it” I was impressed.  This lead us to another conversation about his size, for a sixth grader his is quite small and he proceeds to tell me that some kids at school call him midget  (my heart sunk). I asked if that made him feel bad? He said no, they  like me for who I am.  I hope that as he enters a world of not so nice kids next year, aka JR HIGH, he caries that attitude with him and he remains confident with his decisions and stays true to himself.

7 years….

Today, Mr. Strate and I have been married 7 years!! How time flies when you are having fun:)  We decided to celebrate early  and in segments due to the busy week at work he was going to have. Friday a movie and a little dinner on Sunday at our favorite restaurant, the Porcupine. Tonight we went and watched our beloved Ute's get slaughtered:( Thank you LOVE for making this a great life, I look forward to what the future has in store for us.  Here’s to the next 7!    

Struggling :(

Payne is struggling with preschool and this bReAks my heart! We decided since Payne stayed home with my mom everyday that we would enroll him in preschool this year  to work on his socialization skills. By nature I think he is a very shy person and that is ok but being with my mom and not around other kids amplified it (in my opinion). He was never really excited about the idea from the beginning. I shrugged this off as “it’s a change and he will adjust”. He did ok at first but around the Holidays with so many breaks, I would take him and he would melt down in my car. I had to leave to get to work and that was that, I felt bad. But now that I am home I have been able to take him in and see what he does there.

I believe that he goes to one of the best preschools in the area and the teachers are amazing!  So I know that is not how he is treated. I think it truly stresses him out to be left with people he doesn’t know well.  He has his ROCK Lucy but she wasn’t there today and I think that didn’t help. I told Payne that I was going to leave after story, about 30 min. into the day and he kept asking me to stay longer, I was firm that if I came in I had to leave after story. At free play, he only want to play with me, so I kept asking other kids if they wanted to join in, he was ok with that.
At story he sat close and looked at me with pure pleasure in his eyes. I knew I had to leave and break his heart and this I did. It was not pretty, I leaned down to say good bye and his eyes teared up and he held onto my arm as tight as he could. His teacher suggested that I draw a heart on his hand to remind him that I love him and will be back soon and he drew one on my hand. So I said good bye and, the heart helping a little but there were still tears. I had to leave, I can’t go to school everyday all day. That would defeat the purpose. So today I leave with as many tears in my eyes as him and I am sorry!!

Responsibility

Today Wylie came home from his weekend at his dads. I ask him the same questions, did you have a good weekend, did you do anything fun, did you miss me… you get the idea. He proceeded to tell me about his weekend and finished with “oh yeah we ( him and his step-brother) bet Super Mario for the Wii”. I asked if he had taken his game to his dad’s or was it Cole’s? He said he rented it, I knew right then he was not being 100% truthful with me. I asked him where his game was, I haven’t seen it around for awhile. He responds with "don’ know”. Which made my blood boil, the fact that I spend ridicules amounts of money on his entertainment and that is what I get. I sent him on a search for it, of course he can’t find it because I know it is at his dad’s.  I don’t mind that he takes his stuff there, it is his stuff after all, BUT please bring it back!! Dismissing the fact he is lying to me, I try to make a responsibility lesson out of this. I have a knack for going overboard on stuff like this but I don’t think he realizes how much his stuff costs. So I take inventory of all of the games, play systems, etc… and say to him I could have stayed home for a whole month with out pay if I hadn’t bought all of this STUFF!! I threaten that we will go to the neighbors after school and ask them if they have it and he say’s “we don’t need to involve them with this” (really, involve) LOL. He finally comes clean that it is his game at his dad’s and he didn't want to tell me cause he was afraid that I would be mad!! OMG. I think my response would have been nicer if he would have told me the truth!

if he wasn’t so damn cute!

(Halloween 2009, a nerdy football player?)

This leads me to the Responsibility issue, at first I wanted to believe him, that he wouldn’t lie to me and he really doesn’t know. But this is the ONLY issue have with this kid. Overall he is WONDERFUL, he is smart, funny, polite, respectful, giving, caring he is so many things that I am truly grateful for but he needs some serious help with responsibility. He will tell me the day before he has a report due, homework, a spelling test, oh yeah I have this or that. He can never remember where he has left something or if he did something I asked. So how do I re-enforce responsibility?? HELP:)