- Owen plays Cl@sh of Cl@ns.  He started his own clan and has 23 people in it, including some middle schoolers at his school, his friends in his class, and the neighbor down the street.  I find this very characteristic of Owen.

- I locked Hannah in the car last night.  It was only a matter of time- I know moms manage to do this all the time.  I am going to blame it on my clicker- the remote keeps locking automatically while I'm buckling Hannah's seat belt.  This has never happened to Aaron and he thinks it's my imagination or that I'm bumping it or something.
Anyhow, after Owen's soccer practice, I loaded her in the car.  I put the keys in the door pocket,  buckled her car seat up and then shut the door.  Immediately I tried to open the door back, realizing where my keys were, but it had locked.  SHOOT.  I immediately called AAA, but since my head was banging on the car window while I was moaning "nooo...", someone stopped to ask what my problem was.  As soon as word got out, we drew a crowd.  At this point, Hannah had been oblivious inside the car, but once the kids started crowding around her telling her to unlock her own door, she got flustered and started crying.
After 20 minutes or so, I had convinced an upset 3 year old to unbuckle the top part of her seat belt and wiggle one arm out of the strap.  Then I finally got her to grab the keys and push the button and WA LAH, the car was opened!  I let her out and she was the hero.  She saved the day and she was so proud.  They thought that deserved ice cream and I did too.
Is it bad that during this time I was thinking that homework was not going to get done that night?  I mean, it takes a whole night to get all the homework done and feed the kids and get them bathed and in bed (AP was out of town).  Soccer is already a chunk of our night gone.  But we managed.  All is well in the Peterson household.

Birthday Season

This one is 2 years old, was in my draft folder also, albeit unfinished.  Posting anyway. 6/22/14

We are at the tail end of birthday season.

Asher's party is in a few days and then it'll be over til next year.  Every year I love planning the details of the 3 birthdays, and this year was no exception.  Except everyone else was messing with my chi.    First we have the-man-who-is-never-home and his never-ending, always-changing schedule.  It was really hard to pin down when he would be in town to celebrate all 3 events.  Once I had some dates I started giving the kids options and it quickly became apparent that this would be a low-maintenance year.  Aaron decided he was going to return his father's day gift (clothes, admittedly very lame) and put the money towards a new tv for his birthday.  And he didn't want to have any friends over because it is a lot of work to have people over.  Fine, celebrate your own bad self then.  I planned a dinner and dessert (which he doesn't even like) for the night before his birthday, and then he wanted to go out to dinner with his friend.  Luckily his friend cancelled, and he was forced to sit in a chair and let us celebrate him.  Mmmmkay.

Next is Owen, who is so high-maintenance he just can't help himself.  He wanted a waterpark birthday with his best friend, we said ok.  It really wasn't in the budget however for Hannah and I to pay $80 to sit in the kiddy pool at the waterpark, so we decided it would be a guys outing.  But that left me out completely, and that was hard for me.  I spent his birthday shopping with Hannah, relaxing, cleaning.  She and I got into my bed to snuggle and read and watch tv that evening and when I got up later I saw I had missed some text messages.  Aaron told me they were at a restaurant and were going to have them bring out chocolate cake for him and that we should join them.  But I had missed it.  I turned and put away the birthday cake I had just put on the table.  I didn't even sing to him on his birthday.  He's growing up.

Somewhere in the weeks leading up to his birthday I realized his years at home were half over.  What the heck?  How is that possible?  It's painful.  9 summers gone, 9 summers left.  It dawned on me that if I would've held him back in kindergarten, I would have an extra year with him in our home.  Darn it, I sure thought of that one too late. Same with his brother. I look at pictures of them and the golden years of childhood are slipping by so quickly.  Their chubby cheeks are thinning out, their soft skin growing hairy and tough.  Their innocence has been captured the past year as I have had them at home. But even as I celebrated another year passing, I realized I was soon putting them back in school, and suddenly I needed to put the brakes on.  Ouch is about all I have to say about that.

Owen needed a new bike, and we promised Asher could have Owen's.  We knew his birthday was the time to get it, so we asked the grandparents to chip in and of course they took care of it.  Happy boy.

All this time Asher is building up to his golden birthday, God bless him.  Minnesota boys.  I had never heard of golden birthdays, but of course Aaron told him all about it and he was totally on that train. We gave him a few options and he voted for a party with friends.  So we scheduled it for when Aaron would be in town, which left us with a totally free day on his actual birthday. So we did what we have become good at- went to a waterpark.

Dreaming

So I thought I should get with the sports-loving program and get my kids to a tv to watch the World Cup, which meant going to a restaurant and buying a meal and eating bad food, which could've paid for my month of cable.  But oh look!  Friends are going too, so even better for me, we meet and watch a good game (until it was a bad game) and go home crushed. But I see my son in the backyard with the soccer ball and the trees are the goalposts and he is Zusi or Ronaldo or whoever with his arms up in the air, all by himself,  dreaming about his big moment and game-winning goal and time freezes and I wish his childhood would freeze too.  Worth it.  It always is.

Saturday

This is from 2012- nearly 2 years ago.  It has been in my draft folder and I decided to post. 6/22/14


It's 9:15 am (or something) on Saturday morning.  I've been up for hours, but am still unshowered and in my pajamas.  There are 2 kids swirling around me, the other has already escaped into the neighborhood. I'm so glad God is faithful to work on my character development, but wow, on a Saturday?

At 8:17 I'm making pancakes and there's at knock at the door.  She's wearing scrubs and holding Turkish soccer jerseys.  She walks in without making eye contact and immediately starts talking. "Oh hey, I have the stuff for the kids..." as if it's completely normal to see her at this hour and I know exactly what she's talking about.

Thing is- it is and I do.  But it's noteworthy.

I turn back to my pancakes and call the boys up.  They don't listen.  I yell.  They don't listen.  I tell them there are gifts upstairs and they come.  They demand breakfast and syrup and forks and I'm trying to make a smoothie and the blender is stuck...

She starts handing out clothing while reading a note about sizes.  Pretty soon she's handing out checks and money.  How can I vascillate so quickly between annoyance and gratitude? I offer her breakfast.

She gets a call from Gramps.  He's in pain and she needs to come home.  "I need to get home right away.  Something's wrong with Gramps!"  And then she pours syrup on her plate.  I pour myself some coffee.  She eats and leaves and I survey the wake.  I marvel that my husband is still in the shower, feeling no need to come out and: A).  Help me or B). See what his mom is (was) here for.  I need to make more pancakes, the kids are begging for video games.  I say no, argument ensues.  Hannah is screaming to get down from the table, although she has syrup in her hair and all over her arms.  She's been eating syrup with her fingers.

Right now it's calmer, although I can hear Aaron trying to break open the office door.  Last night Asher decided to experiment with door locks.  He thought we could pick it open with a hanger.  He was wrong.  Asher and I also had a lesson on how not to scream at someone who's talking on the phone, which was earned while I was discussing Urgent Care options with Gigi on the phone.  So I sent him into my room with my cell phone and told him call Aaron in the kitchen as a little lesson.  Then I proceeded to bang on the door and ask for popsicles while he was trying to detail his birthday list to Papa.  He loved playing me by yelling, "Shut UP!" and slamming the door in my face.  For the record, I've never done that.

Wow.  Saturday.

Brain Freeze

We pulled into church at 9:10 am.  The service started in 5 minutes so we were sort of early, but it would take every second to get everyone to their classes.  Suddenly Owen put down his book and snapped to attention.  "Uh, mom....I don't have any shoes!"  "Actually... I don't either," piped up Asher.

Really?  I understood that since Owen likes to keep a closet in the back seat, he assumed there were shoes back there.  Asher's reasoning I can't really explain, except that he's often out to lunch, leaving shoes in weird places, losing shoes, toys, etc.  But still, how do BOTH my boys leave the house without shoes?  Do I really need to remind them that in this country we wear shoes in public?
 
My options- take my kids to church barefoot, which my church would actually tolerate.  I would get some laughs.  My kids usually check their shoes at the door of kids church anyways. But on principal alone (and a touch of southern manners), I kept driving, right through the parking lot and towards home.  I didn't say much, I just turned the sermon I was listening to back on.  Fittingly, it was about parenting. That probably saved their bums.

Let's see, what else do I need to say as we leave the house?  Are you wearing underwear?  Definitely need to check that.  Do you have shoes on?  Is your clothing clean?  Are you carrying any weaponry?  Are there any dead animals in your pocket?  I need to write this down.

QOTD

We were doing a short devotional this morning, and the topic was letting God give you peace in your thought life.  Asher's contribution: "When I have bad thoughts I just think about birthday cake."

Totally serious and said with a straight-face.

Right on, little dude, excellent strategy.

Peace Under Fire

So this afternoon Owen wanted to make a fire in the backyard. This activity is on my list of "things I don't do," so I quickly said so and told him to wait til his dad got home. Except I must've left a smidge of hope there because Owen kept up his petitions until I started to re-think my position. First, is it cold out? Nope. A rarity. Is is windy? No. Sunny? Yes. Do I have time? Yes, dinner will take an hour in the oven, so I can start it now and go outside (must stay true to my nature by consulting the to-do list). Still trying to sway him, I told Owen that our fire pit was in the trash but if he wanted to dig a hole in the yard, put rocks/pavers around it and find the wood for it, he could go right ahead and make his own fire pit. See how hopeful I was that this thing would materialize?

He was unflinchingly committed. I looked outside 5 minutes later and he is digging long-forgotten pavers out of a flower bed with his shovel.

Darn.

Well, I figured this might happen so I went out to help. And we actually did it. Made a fire-pit, built a fire and made s'mores at 4:15 on a Thursday afternoon. If that's not homeschooling at its finest, I don't know what is.

When I came in later I looked at the house. Disaster comes to mind. But it was one of those fine days that I realized that peace will have to come before perfection. I had been outside and enjoyed the fresh air and the kids, and we were all at peace when Papa came home and dinner time arrived. The house was not in peace, but it rarely is. I noticed something else though: I wasn't exhausted. There are some days where I am SO on a mission to get the house in order, have the kids do their chores, get dinner on the table, etc that I am an exhausted wreck even if the house is decent. And because I'm not happy...well you know how the saying goes. No one else is either. I decided my to-do list is exhausting me and I've got to find a way to cut that cord. Not sure how we will escape being featured on the next episode of "Hoarders" if I do that, but for now, baby steps...

Snapshots

Yesterday I was watching Owen and made a note to drink him in. He was riding his skateboard across the street, holding a rope and twirling it like a lasso. I don't really think he was trying to lasso anything, but the act of twirling it looked pretty fun.

All day he's been experimenting with that rope. He first asked for one so he could put it in a tree and climb up the rope into the tree. The only reason he wants to do that is because they climbed a rope up a rock face on the north shore, and his mind is like a steel trap. He successfully climbed a tree with it. Then he used it on their pull-up bar in their room. It broke; he found another one. Aaron showed them how to attach it to their zippers and pull their brother around by the zipper. Hmmm....

I think he is at the perfect age of boyhood and i want to remember him this way. He lost both his front teeth this week and today he has a new toothless smile. I've been waiting for him to lose his 2 front teeth, because to me, it's the perfect picture of boyhood.

Asher. Sweet Asher. They both got their hair cut short yesterday and it is so cute. He is growing up so fast. He is super sweet to Hannah. Tonight she was particularly upset and I kept asking for him to get me things- wipes, pacifier, etc. Each time I asked for something his eyes would light up, like he was thinking, "Yeah! That will make her happy!" He really takes good care of her. Owen does too. Today he watched her for over half an hour in exchange for some computer time. It was a great trade.

Asher is my dreamer. He can be found in la-la land fairly often. I have to remind him to do things often because he gets distracted by...everything. His great ideas, other things he wants to do, his brother... He prays for the same things every night: a pool, a playdate with his friend Liam, his grandparents. He snuggles with me every morning before the rest of the family gets up and drops into bed quickly each night. I love you Asher Sam.

Hannah is definitely 16 months. She is busy. Tonight we were having a particularly long and boring night and I opened up my craft drawer. I let her play with some buttons and things and turned to my phone. When I looked back up she had opened a container of glitter and it was everywhere. While I cleaned that up she opened another one.

But she is super sweet. She blows kisses, she waves. She points to dogs excitedly, and loves looking at books. She is great at wrestling with the boys. I went to KC this weekend with a friend and she definitely became Papa's girl. I heard she held her own with the fellas quite well.

...sorry- pics won't load. Will try again later!

Sweet Hannah's Birthday

1st Birthday

Hannah having a snack before the party. Yes she's eating on the floor. That's where she hangs out most of the time.

Here she is watching a movie waiting for her guests to arrive. Love the ipad.

I'll give you a little smile, but that's all you're gonna get!