Looking Back At 2013

Yeah, it’s been quiet in here. I’ll work on that. I’ve spent some of 2013 strengthening my relationships, and forgiving those who have hurt me. Letting go of having everyone like me was a good step forward too. But this year was a really good year for me.

Here are the highlights from 2013.

 

Hoping 2014 is amazing for my family- and yours!

Valentine’s Day Crafts

I was determined not to buy valentines this year for Elijah to hand out. We had enough leftover valentines for Miles to hand out to his preschool classmates. I wanted to make something handmade. My good friend Casual Perfect hand makes hers every year, I just needed to settle on something that wouldn’t be overwhelming.

Today was craft day! We first needed to construct Elijah’s valentine box. His teacher sent home some suggestions, but I searched Pinterest to get some inspiration. We settled on making a robot, figuring that it would simply be boxes covered in aluminum foil. I instructed Elijah to decide on shapes, and how the valentines would make it in and out of the box.

He designed it, I assisted with cutting the box, and he assembled it. Here’s the finished project. The head flops back (think Terrance & Philip) to retrieve the valentines.

Next up, were the actual valentines. Again, I drew inspiration from Pinterest. I found cute felt owl stickers at the craft store, along with a glow in the dark bracelets. I rarely let the kids eat the crappy candy that comes with their valentines, so I knew our valentines were’t going to have them.

I made a template for Elijah to see what I thought it should look like, and he finished them. Well, they aren’t finished yet, but we still have time. 🙂

<disclaimer: Elijah does like getting crafty, he was keen on the project. Just in case you thought I was a crazy lady forcing my kids to do crafts>

 

Kids Rock

The third weekend is October has meant it’s time for the Denver Marathon. When it was announced that this year would be the inaugural Rock N Roll Denver Marathon, I was excited. Geoff participated in a Rock N Roll Marathon in San Diego (2005) and liked the feel of it. I knew if my friend Cristina was looking for another relay partner, I’d volunteer myself.

We asked Elijah if he’d like to run in the Kids Rock race, the day prior to the marathon. He seemed keen, and we put off signing him up. This worked to our advantage because Mile High Mamas offered free entry for the first 50 kids to use their code. Sweet!

Friday afternoon we drove downtown to pick up our race packets, and check out the fitness expo. My kids will go anywhere when people are handing out free snacks. Even better, my kids will return said snacks if they have too much sugar in them (that’s you Yakult.)

Elijah woke this morning with a croup-sounding cough, but had no other complaints. We decided to let him eat his breakfast and chill out before we would see if he would be up for running. He wanted to go, so we grabbed everything we needed and headed downtown.


Pre-race photo

We made our way to Civic Center Park, and found where we needed to wait for the Kindergarten division to start. I was nervous, because we had only 30 minutes from us parking to find the race start. I didn’t need to worry, when we got there at 9:20 for his 9:45 start, they were only finishing the 3rd graders. We still had 2nd & 1st to go through. Elijah made friends with another Kindie waiting to race, and eventually it was time for him to warm up with all the Kindergarteners. Miles & I found a spot to watch the half mile race, and waited anxiously for him to start. Daddy waited near the start line to encourage Elijah and then joined us once Elijah got going.


The start line


The home stretch


The finish line

It was exciting to cheer for my boy, and he worked hard. He was thrilled to receive his first medal, and fill up his goodie bag before joining us at the end of the corrals. Geoff said Elijah was sure to ask them if the stuff had sugar in it before taking it. 🙂 That’s my boy!

At the end of the corrals, his fans were there to greet him, Daddy, Mommy, Miles, Cristina & Eric.

It certainly was a good day for running. My kid rocks!


Elijah shows off his medal

October Flies By

Realized yesterday that I hadn’t blogged in weeks. And it’s not because I’ve been crazy busy, rather that life has been calm and relatively uneventful.

Miles & the bully update: haven’t seen the kid go near Miles since Miles stood up to him. I did scour Elijah’s school directory, and discovered the boy is in Kindergarten. Thanks to everyone who gave support and comments on the issue.

Miles & speech therapy: If you could pray for it to move along a little quicker, that would be great. Right now he’s only seeing the speech therapist twice a month, but obviously that is not going to cut it. His teacher Ms. Kim said I should expect to hear from the Child Find people around mid-November, to discuss the evaluations. We’re continuing to help him as best we can at home.

We’re off to Nick’s Garden Center today for a preschool field trip. Elijah has no school today so he’s crashing the field trip. Also on today’s agenda is to make some progress on Elijah’s costume.

Yesterday was the 7th anniversary of losing Dad. I listened to 60s music and Motown. I still really miss him.

Now you are up to date.

Battles On The Playground

I really didn’t think that bullying was going to become an issue. Naive on my part, I’m sure. But to be able to witness it, and fight the urge to jump in to my kids defense has been hard.

We haven’t even really talked about it, or played through scenarios on how to handle it.

When Miles & I come to school to pick Elijah up, we always stay and play a little on the playground. There are two play structures, one for small kids and one for bigger kids. They are separated by a blacktop, so I can’t watch both areas at the same time. Which is okay, both boys want to be on the bigger play structure.

On Monday, an older boy, probably first grade, maybe second grade, saw Miles playing and confronted him. He mocked Miles’ t-shirt, called him a baby and laughed saying he wears diapers. Miles defended himself, but ultimately ran to Elijah to tell him what the boy said. Elijah proceeded to get in the kid’s face and say, “my brother is not a baby, he’s 3. He doesn’t wear diapers”. The kid blew him off, and I told Miles just ignore him, play somewhere else.

Wednesday afternoon, it was a repeat of Monday. He saw Miles, mocked his clothes, and called him a baby. This time, Miles gave him the evil eye and said “I hate you. You’re a meanie” The kid didn’t have a response, but he looked in Miles’ direction, Miles reminded him, I hate you. The boy retorted with “don’t call me a meanie. If I see you on this playground again and you say you hate me and I’m a meanie, I’m gonna tell your mom”.

The kid was called away, and I told Miles, if you don’t want to be near that kid, just move away, play somewhere else.

I can’t wrap my mind around why this boy is going out of his way to pick on Miles. I’m trying to walk the line between letting my kids fight their own battles, and being a helicopter mom.

I open it up to you dear readers, any advice you can give, any similar experiences, please share it with me.

School Days

We’ve entered into a new phase of parenthood, having two kids in school. Now it’s only a few days a week, a few hours a week, but it’s a start. The start, to more than a decade of schooling for them.

Miles has only been 2 days, and he has already declared that “school is a little bit stupid”. While we have had no breakdowns during the checking in and out of preschool, when he is away from there, he expresses his desire not to go back. I guess that means I need to have a conversation with his teacher.

Elijah started Kindergarten, and he seems to really like Mr. Candelarie. But his start to school hasn’t been uneventful, I got a call from the school nurse on his 3rd day of school. He’s fine, and it added a humorous anecdote to Mr. Candelarie’s memoirs (so he told me).

Meanwhile, I spent my free time on Monday going to the gym and taking my sweet time strolling down the aisles of Target in quiet. Reading as many labels as I wanted, not having to visit the toy section, and just moving along at a slow pace. It was lovely!

Moving Along

Don’t really have anything concrete to write about, but felt I should touch base with y’all.

Summer feels like it has arrived in Colorado. Elijah will complete preschool in two weeks. He is eager to start kindergarten, as much as Miles is eager to start preschool. It’s no wonder they don’t just live for today, their mother is constantly looking ahead!

We were lucky enough to check out the Children’s Museum last week (write up on Mile High Mamas). They have a new exhibit on bubbles, and with free passes I got on Twitter, we can go back a few times this summer and play again.

The boys got a new sandbox in the backyard, which has been a huge blessing to me (and them too). It allows me to find some quiet time, and it allows them to get creative.

I have started my gardening projects for the summer, another tomato plant and some green beans.
Lola 2

My beginner garden box

Now you are up to date. Hoping to sneak in a quick camping trip before the bigger one with the inlaws at the end of June.

Now get outside and don’t forget the sunscreen!

Sports

Elijah wants to learn how to play baseball. It sent a wave of fear inside me. Baseball is expensive! Especially if it’s not something he will enjoy. Also, I am not keen on a big commitment level when we already have to work Saturdays around Daddy’s running schedule.

My brother & I never got involved in organized sports until we were much older. And then when money got tight, we couldn’t continue on.

Trails (our rec center) offers some short classes on a few sports. I may see if Elijah would be interested in learning soccer skills. Then if he really digs it, we can go from there.

I just wish Miles could participate too. Seems he can’t partake in a lot of the classes Elijah does. So I’m stuck finding Miles his own activity, and resulting in more running around for Mommy.

How do other parents do it?

Spring Break

The snowstorm that flew in Tuesday night cancelled school for Elijah on Wednesday. This was the first time he had a snow day, his school usually doesn’t call them. It also meant it cancelled his field trip to the fire station. He didn’t seem too broken up about it, as I assured him that his teacher would try to reschedule.

The ear infections went away on their own, without the need for antibiotics (yay!). We celebrated by taking a trip to the zoo on Friday. We aimed to hit the places we missed on the last visit, namely Bird World and the red panda. The morning was a success, the weather was perfect, and while there were a lot of school groups there, we didn’t feel crowded out.

Penguins


Now that Elijah is officially on Spring Break, I’d like to visit a few other sites in and around town. This week, I’m keen to check out Littleton Historical Museum. I got that tip from my twitter friend @NotAHandBag. I’m taking suggestions from you guys as somewhere else we should visit, preferably someplace cheap.

Now get out and enjoy that spring weather!

Not A Nervous Mom

I’ve tried to be a laid back kind of mom. I don’t like to call the doctor over every little thing. My kids have been fortunate enough to never visit an emergency room.

But last night when both kids were up several times complaining of ears hurting, I grew mildly concerned. They’ve had a wet cough all week to boot. I checked their temperatures first thing this morning, and they were sitting around 100 degrees.

“Hey Daddy, that water in Miles’ ear must have leaked out some ear wax.”

“Uh, ear wax doesn’t leak out”, he told me.

My kids have never had an ear infections, and I wasn’t sure how to go about treating it. So we took them into the doctor. Both kids have ear infections. Sigh. Well, at least that made the co-pay worthwhile. I hate paying for an appt to be told “They’re fine”. We’ve got ear drops, and antibiotics on standby.

Here’s hoping both boys get well soon.

I’m taking tips on how to make the kids more comfortable, if you have any.