It’s been a while since I’ve written about the milestones my boys have achieved lately. I used to be so good (obsessed maybe? no, not me!) about writing them all down – and then, well, then life really started getting good!
I used to document every new food, every new tooth, every lost tooth, every new word, every new activity, literally everything. But that was all before… before what you ask?… before two very active boys who run around all day with so much energy. All that “perfect mom” crap (yes, sorry – no such thing!) was before they could walk or run or talk! It’s when I had time because they both napped (on good days even at the same time – how in the world did I ever manage that?!), or I didn’t have to “prepare” dinner because I just pulled it out of the freezer and popped it in the oven (thanks Mr Schwans guy – who we no longer have). I had time because there was no school, hence no homework and spelling tests or reading logs. I had time because I wasn’t starting a business (yep, that’s a biggy). Don’t get me wrong – I love my boys and reading with them and cooking them dinner, but priorities shift – as they should – and my time gets dispersed differently these days.
There was a time when my life revolved around taking care of the boys and making sure I kept their baby books up to date. Honestly, and I know this was the case with my parents and my baby book too, Brayden’s is not so much complete as it is full of little post-it notes and scrap pieces of paper with little scribbles. On the plus side, I know where each of their baby books are! I could go get them and show them to you at any time. Really, I can – in fact, I can see them right now from where I’m sitting. Yes, they may not be complete, but they’re not lost or packed away!
So what’s my point to all this rambling today? Milestones. In a nutshell.
Zackery’s in First Grade (I’m pretty sure there is a post back there somewhere that mentions this). He’s doing awesome with his reading, which is his favorite thing to do (when it comes to school work – Lego’s still trump everything). We just got his report card on Friday and Will and I were very proud of him! Speaking of Lego’s, he might only be six, but he’s more at a twelve-year-old level. Take them away from him (which I did), and he’s devastated.
Zackery has also lost several teeth recently, the last two he pulled out himself (picture me doing the eebie-jeebie dance when I saw him do it the first time at the dinner table, and the second one I didn’t even know was loose – yet he brought it home from school in a nice little envelope from the nurse). Brave boy!
He’s playing soccer again this Spring; had his first game of the season on Saturday and his team did really great. A complete 180 degree shift from their first game last season. There are some new kids on his team, but most of them stayed on from last season. The biggest improvement is they actually go after the ball, and I don’t think I saw anyone (from their team) use their hands! Aside from it being freee-eee-eee-zing due to our wonderful Northern Nevada wind (it literally took me two days to warm up afterwards), it was a great game.
Brayden is no longer in a crib – I think since (gosh, this is bad… I honestly can’t remember!) the summer maybe? It was a spontaneous decision, at midnight, brought on by the stomach flu and not wanting to have to clean every rung or spindle of puke-covered wood and metal. So, at midnight, Will disassembled the crib, put it in the garage and we threw his mattress on the floor (with clean sheets of course) and a giant towel next to him for “just in case.”
Just before Thanksgiving (I think… again – so bad), we got him a “real” big boy bed (a.k.a. a twin-sized mattress to replace the crib mattress he had been sleeping on). We rearranged their room so Brayden would be less likely to fall off his new normal sized, normal height bed (we often would find him on the floor with just his head on his mattress, sleeping soundly, but I can imagine not so comfortably).
Even more recently (this is only the second week!), Brayden has stopped taking naps at school. We stopped giving him naps at home months ago. I would try when it was just him and I during the week, and most times I could get him down, but it was taking longer and longer and he was sleeping less and less, or I would just have to wake him up in time to go pick up Zackery from school. On the weekends forget it. If Daddy or Zackery were home there was no way a nap was happening – too much other exciting stuff was going on that he didn’t want to miss out on. So home naps have been absent for a while.
We came to the no-nap-at-school decision because on the days he was at preschool (still three days a week), it would take me an hour (sometimes more), and a lot of misery (both he and I) before he was actually asleep and good to go for the night. His teachers at school said he was always the last one to fall asleep, so I knew he wasn’t that tired and we could probably cut out his school naps so he would go to bed better at night. It’s turned out to be a wonderful choice (why didn’t I do this earlier???). He gets to go into the older classroom and have an extra outside recess while his Zebra classmates nap. Definitely a win-win-win!
Okay, I don’t really know where I’m going from here, but I think I am somewhat caught up with the BIG milestones. Expect another long post like this sometime again in the future – don’t know exactly when, but at some point I can see one.
I might not have all the time in the world to do everything I want when it comes to writing things down and keeping track, but I do my best (and that’s all anyone can ever do – including YOU!).
Happy April Fools
With Love & Mommy Hugs,