Heart Strings

"The best gifts are tied with heartstrings."




My Valentine's with their Valentine's. And that's a wrap. Goodbye February.

My STAR

Kekoa's STAR week is coming up - the special week in which one student is chosen to be in the spotlight. In the note regarding his impending debut as STAR, his teacher sent home the following message:

"Kekoa is in a wonderful class!! I would have no problem letting my child play with any of them!! They are all good kids and treat each other so nicely!! Kekoa was trying to help a friend get a coat off today, it was so nice!!:)Desi"

Nothing makes a mother's heart go pitter patter like a note like that. And yes, I do realize that not all notes that come from the teacher will be quite this nice, but it's a good place to start.

Two Peas

Two peas, no princess. Yet. Gavyn is still in the shameless flirting stage of a 3, near 4-year-old. Kekoa now gets embarrassed at even the slightest mention of the word "girl". The following photo sequence was taken Sunday evening just prior to the "Toby Singing" video. It encapsalates everything I love about these boys right now. It demonstrates the "everywhere Kekoa is, there Gavyn is" bond they've cemented in the last couple of months. These two are super duper close and that makes for one happy Mom.

Set Scene:

Aunt Michelle had a birthday party for Grandma M. at her house Sunday afternoon. As usual, we are the last to leave. The boys are throwing unreasonable resistance in the path of their parents (some people call these "fits") in a last ditch effort to avoid the trauma of having to go home. Craig sets the boys on the counter to make the task of putting their shoes on a little easier. All the while there is much weeping and gnashing of teeth. Everyone's attention focuses on the hysterics of the two distraught peas and a ground root effort is made to distract them from their wailing with grand gestures and teasing from the captive audience. This leads to embarrassment and smiles which these boys are desperate to hide so Kekoa throws his arms around Gavyn and they bury their faces in each others arms in order to mask the smiles from the observers. "We are not smiling. We are crying. We are in great distress. Really, we are not smiling."




Remember how I mentioned awhile ago that when Kekoa is unsure, he cups his face in his hands? Well, apparently he still does that.



Their cries of distress soon gave way to awe as they watched Toby and his family perform.



What a perfect way to end our lovely evening. I do love me some peas.

Toby Sings

For all you dog lovers out there. A family that sings together stays together. Or something like that.

This is Craig's sister and her family singing with their dog, Toby, on Sunday evening. This dog has skillz, I tell ya. Not that I'm trying to compete with this or anything.

The Long Winter

Notice anything unusual about this house?



We see this every Sunday morning and I finally remembered my camera to take a picture before they melted. Hey, I'm being optimistic. Don't ask me how they managed it, but I find it highly entertaining.

On a Roll

I dropped the ball (BIG time!) on Valentine's Day this year. We did absolutely nothing special or out of the ordinary on the 14th. Which means, we ate out twice. At lunch, the boys were introduced to fortune cookies and Chinese animal years where they were more than slightly amused on discovering Kekoa's a monkey and Gavyn's a dog. I think, though, that I'm ok considering my boys really don't know when the actual day is. And since then, I've decided to make February the month of the Valentine. Which means that breakfast yesterday morning was cinnamon rolls in a heart shaped pan. I think they taste sweeter somehow? Regardless, they were warm and went nicely with a glass of milk. Thank you Pillsbury Dough Boy.



Has anyone else noticed I've managed to post every day for a week? I'm on a roll. Heh.

Wisdom

These two little boys are "tight". Yes, they fight. But most of the time they get along. I have noticed in the last week just how close they've become. Everywhere one is. There's the other. Last night I overheard the following conversation.



Gavyn: Why?

Kekoa: Because that's the way God made it.



How simple. It's interesting how God chooses to speak to us. This time through my children. Ok. I'm listening.

Just When

Just when I start thinking I'm creative, someone else comes along and blows me out of the water. This is the cookie Kekoa brought home from the Valentine's party:



And then the wonderful, spectacular, amazing, stupendous woman that watches our boys goes and sends home this delicious red velvet cake balls:



Gavyn made the one with the flowers specifically for Daddy.

Sweet Treats

Each child brings home a snack bucket when it's his/her turn to take treats. This child is then responsible for the class's treat time for the week. It sounded like a bit much at first, but I've found I kind of like it. I don't usually forget it's Kekoa's turn and once my week is done, I don't have to worry about it for awhile. Healthy snacks are encouraged. But what fun is that? I balance it out by half the week being healthy and half being sweets.



One of my favorite things about being a Mom is making their birthday cakes and making homemade sweet treats for them to take to school. I know. I know. I'm one of those Mom's. But I honestly, truly love making the homemade goodies. Give me another few elementary years. That may change. But for now, I'm liking it.

Sucker!

Lots of things this post could be about. Like how I'm a sucker for orange but once I discovered these suckers were "Made in China" I just didn't have the heart to take them back. Get it. Heart. Heh.

Or about how that I'm a sucker for this little boys recent cute. When he and Daddy drop me off at work, he has to have hugs and kisses. On the mouth. And he looks so entirely adorable when he puckers up those little lips and sticks his chin out towards me that it's all I can do to keep from eating him up.

So about that not buying things "Made in China". It's going well. I've had a few minor set backs, but for the most part I've been returning things if I don't pay attention and find out later they were manufactured in said country. The set backs include an orange dress that I haven't taken the tags off of (so I still have a chance to redeem myself when I take my "Made in China" sunglasses back to T.J. Maxx this week). Other set backs include a special sized battery made by Energizer that I couldn't find in Duracell or any other brand and just didn't feel like making a special trip to Interstate Battery just so I could buy something made in a different country. So I had Craig buy it instead. That kind of counts, doesn't it? Then there's these heart suckers I bought at Wal-Mart for a buck and the Valentine's box that came with Kekoa's valentines. One thing I did not expect was how much this little resolution was going to hamper my clothes shopping. I think my wallet is going to thank me for this one.

Little Boy Things

My baby isn't so much of a baby anymore. He's starting to talk about friends at school. Aidan seems to be the playmate of choice these days. I was relieved to see (at least from his school picture) that Aidan appears to be an angelic looking little blonde boy. And, yes, I know looks can be deceiving, but for now I'm going to believe he's as sweet as he looks in his picture. This year, Kekoa wrote out all his Valentine's himself. Really? How is that possible? Wasn't it just yesterday I was holding him on the couch at not even a week old and sobbing about how quickly my baby was growing up? I blame it on the post partum. Having visions of him graduating and leaving me in an empty nest. I know. I'm dramatic like that.

My Mexican Souveniers

If you're interested in seeing all the pictures we had taken, here's a slideshow. I was impressed with what they did.

Taking the Lead

*beginning of sap* I love it when my favorite dance partner takes the lead. He's so fun. Sometimes I forget to acknowledge that. I couldn't have picked a better person to spend the rest of my life with. *end of sap*

Our Great Grandma

Many childhood memories for me were generated from my Grandma's house. For instance? These plates.



Grandma only had two of them with matching glasses and we used to fight over who got to use them at mealtime. Because? With 15 grandkids, two plates were just not enough to go around. Now that my boys visit their Great Grandma's house and there's only two of them, life is simpler. They don't have to fight over who gets the plate. But everytime I set the table with these, it brings a smile and warm, fond memories of a simpler time. A time when the biggest problems we had were identifying who got to use the "diving moose" plates at mealtime. Our parents on the other hand had a much bigger problem. How do you get a good picture of all those kids at one time? Say cheese!

HUG

This book has been Gavyn's favorite for the past little while - HUG by Jez Alborough. It's about a little monkey named Bobo who's looking for someone to hug. We role play with it. He runs in the other room and pretends to cry like the little monkey (Bobo) and then I'm supposed to be the Momma and come and find him running with arms outstretched exclaiming, "Bobo!" He smiles jumps up and exclaims, "Mommy!" - just like in the book and then we finish it off with a good old fashioned monkey hug. I really, really like being the Mommy of a 3 year old.

Read My Lips

We love you, Aunt Heidi. Thanks for the package in the mail. XOXOXOXO

p.s. Kekoa's review of the gummy sharks you sent, "They're not so great." Thought you'd get a kick out of that. Gavyn wouldn't eat them, either, so they must not be very good because he'll eat anything sweet.

Baby Fever?

I hadn't felt the effects of baby fever in quite some time. Enter baby shower on Saturday. Gotta admit. Felt little twinges of "I wouldn't mind having another baby." Maybe the cake was spiked. Kekoa told me yesterday, "Mommy, I want you and Daddy to get married again so you can have another baby." This on heels of him telling me a couple of weeks back, "Mommy, let's have a baby Malia." Turns out he wants a baby sister. Not sure how to put in an order for that without adopting.

On the topic of baby showers, I gave in and had not one, but two pieces of cake. What is it about baby showers and cake? Fear and trembling of what I'll look like in a swimsuit wasn't even enough to inspire resistance. *sigh* I'm gonna be good from here on out. Hold me to it. Less than five days and counting.