Author: A Mama's Blog

Our Easter

We had a wonderful Easter. It snowed the night before, and even though the sun came out on Sunday, it stayed pretty chilly.

Ryan and Cole’s cousins and aunt are in town visiting with Grandma and Grandpa. Ryan and Cole just adore them. They are older- 11, 10, and 6. Ryan tries his hardest to keep up with them. We all went to an early church service. Then we went over to Grandma’s house for brunch and an indoor Easter egg hunt, courtesy of the cousins. They hid plastic eggs all around the house and Ryan and Cole were thrilled to find them. Every time Ryan spotted an egg, he had to come running in, get Joe, and lead him to the egg.

Ryan also told me the night before since it was snowing, that the Easter Bunny and Santa are friends, and the Easter Bunny needed something to ride on. He reasoned that Santa was loaning the Easter Bunny his sleigh. In the morning he said he had heard a bell ringing, and he just knew it was the Easter Bunny’s sleigh. 🙂

After brunch, we all hung around and the kids played. Then we took Ryan and Cole home for naps, since they were fading fast. I actually forgot to make them their Easter baskets the night before (we were working on income taxes- fun I know.) So I was able to bide a little time by reading a note the Easter Bunny had left for Ryan and Cole. The poor Easter Bunny’s sleigh had broken down, and it had to be fixed. So the Easter Bunny promised he would have their Easter baskets here after their naps. Ryan tried to stay up because he wanted to pet the Easter Bunny, but sleep finally won out.

The Easter Bunny delivered, and when Ryan and Cole woke up, they were happy to see they had their baskets, and an extra present- some play construction cones. We went back over to Grandma’s house, where the boys put on their coats and had a real Easter Egg hunt outside (again, thanks to the cousins, who had hid mroe eggs outside). Then we had Easter dinner, which of course was delicious.

I love taking pictures of the boys finding their eggs, and ended up with way more of Cole this year than of Ryan. But they all had so much fun. We’ll see if the Easter Bunny returns Santa’s sleigh to him in time for Santa to use it. Here are a few pictures:

Tags easter egg hunt with kids, Easter Sunday

Fun Stuff Little Pumpkin Sweet Pea Designs

Winner of the T-Shirt Giveaway

Post author By A Mama's Blog
Post date March 22, 2008
3 Comments on Winner of the T-Shirt Giveaway

Thank you to everyone who visited my new blog site, and left a comment, entering yourself in the T-shirt giveaway. I also want to thank the following blog owners for including the giveaway on their blogs:

Laura at Laura Williams Musings

Amy at Crunchy Domestic Goddess

Eliza at The Life of a Home Mom

Kailani at An Island Review

Without further delay, the winner (determined by random.org) of the What Happens at Grandma’s Stays at Grandma’s Toddler T-shirt from my online store, Little Pumpkin Sweet Pea Designs, is:

SASSYFRAZZ!

Congratulations and I’ll be e-mailing you.

Thanks again to everyone who visited the new site, and I hope you will come back often.

Happy Easter!

Mothering Parenting Ryan

No Safe “Secrets”

Ryan is participating in a language development study. He was a participant about two years ago, before he was talking. A few weeks ago the research team contacted me and said they wanted to have some of the original children participate in their latest round of research, and asked if we would consider having Ryan participate again.

The research involves having Ryan wear a vest, with a slot for a special recording device. It is about the size of an iPod. It records for 16 hours a day and will pick up everything within a 6 foot radius of the child, to “hear” what the child hears, and then determines what the child says.

It is a little odd on recording days, because I am very mindful that anything and everything I say will be recorded. The researchers assured us that they have heard it all- even awful, drug out fights between parents. Fortunately Joe and I haven’t had one of those yet on recording day, but it does keep you on your toes.

Today was a recording day, and I felt well enough to go to work. The boys went to day care. I stayed a few extra hours at work to catch up, and honestly I was kind of glad I didn’t have the “pressure” of dealing with the recorder.

All went well, until the last half hour before Ryan went to bed. I called him downstairs to help me pick up toys. Normally he fights tooth and nail when it is time to pick up toys. But tonight he didn’t even fuss. Bonus I thought…when the recorder’s computer plays back our recording, they aren’t going to have anything on me. They will probably think I am a wonderful mother!

WRONG, big double WRONG! As Ryan sat down on the floor to start picking up his very first toy, which was a block, he asked in a crystal clear, perfect voice, which even a crappy recorder would pick up, “Mommy, why do you say MotherF****R when you step on these?”

Oh my God! If that recorder had a screen, it would have seen me turn about 10 shades of red! The worst part is I admit it, I did say that word *once*- I swear, just like Ryan said- exactly ONCE when I stepped on a block, pointy corner side tearing into my foot. It was like six months ago.

I can’t believe he remembered the incident, AND remembered the f-bomb word clear as a bell, and WHY did he choose to ask me about it tonight, of all nights since the six months ago it had happened? It is like he just KNEW everything he was saying was being recorded, and this was the “perfect” time, to ask me about that word.

I tried to recover- I mumbled something like “we don’t use that word Ryan,” but really there wasn’t anything I could say to fully recover after that gem he dropped.

I am sure I will be known forever now as the mommy who uses the f-word in front of her children. If the researchers haven’t heard that before, they have now. I can imagine this hip group of language scientists sitting around in the college town, analyzing their data when one of them perks up and calls their colleagues in to hear the latest fight between parents, or the “secret” that the my four year old just gave up.

Oh well, I am sure hoping that this isn’t the first time they have heard something like this. After I got over the initial embarrassment, I did have a good laugh over it and told Joe. He had a really good laugh over it (at my expense). In hindsight I should have said something like, “we don’t use that word Ryan, and I’ll have to talk to your dad about the words he uses.” 🙂

Hopefully our next recording session in a month won’t be so “interesting,” and no other “secrets” I thought were long forgotten will be exposed.

Tags child cursing, child repeating cuss words in public, child repeating swear words, child swearing

Activities Cole Parenting Ryan

Bath Time Funnies

During the past week, two really funny things happened, (while the boys were taking their baths) but I was too sick to blog them, so here they are:

Joe was giving the boys a bath. At one point, the boys started fighting over a toy. Joe said he looked at Ryan, who was holding Cole’s arm, mouth open, and was ready to chomp down on it. Ryan never bites, so I am not sure why he was doing this, but Joe stopped him and told him we don’t do that. He added if he saw him doing that again, there was going to be trouble.

At that point Joe said Cole got a huge smile on his face, crinkled up his nose and said, “Trouble.” He knew his brother was getting in trouble.

The second incident Joe said Ryan and Cole were playing, when Ryan got very serious and said in almost a whisper to Cole, “No one messes with the king. You never mess with the king, Coley.” We can only assume that Ryan heard a Burger King commercial or something, and now he believes he is the King who is not to be messed with.

I told Joe he had better start taking the camcorder in the bathroom so he has it on hand to tape these interactions. Of course, as soon as the boys saw the camcorder, they would cease their funny material. I guess we really shouldn’t mess with the king. 🙂

Family & Friends Health Household

Still Sick

Despite my best efforts of resting and taking it easy, I am still sick with a cold I just cannot shake. I started feeling better on Wednesday, but then on Thursday came down with this terrible cold. I have had a sinus headache since then, with a cough, runny nose, and today a sore throat.

My wonderful husband and his parents watched the boys yesterday, and I literally stayed in bed and slept for the entire day. I thought if I could just get some extra rest, I would feel better. No luck. Today I rested again, and missed a party I wanted to go to. Instead, Joe and I made a Costco run, and that just completely wiped me out. Joe finally told me about something a co-worker gave him last week, when he had the same cold. It is called Mucinex, and it breaks up mucus in your chest. Joe said he did feel a lot better after taking one that day at work.

I am usually not a big “pill” person, but I have tried every natural remedy I can think of, and it hasn’t helped. My wonderful husband, went to Target and got me some, and I have to say it seems like it is working. I still have a slight sinus headache, but it is much better, and my nose isn’t constantly running now. I hope this means the worst is over, and I will finally stop coming down with new symptoms with this horrible cold.

We got a change in the weather, and it is really snowing hard. I think it is supposed to keep snowing through tomorrow, so needless to say, the boys and I are staying home tomorrow. My wonderful husband (can you tell how much I appreciated him this weekend?) helped with a ton of housework this weekend, so with the exception of one bathroom, the house is clean, the laundry is done, and there is food in the fridge. I plan on taking it easy again tomorrow. Any healing vibes you can send my way, will be greatly appreciated.