We’ve had a few milestones, and while I won’t go into a tremendous amount of detail, I will put them out here (and may at some point come back and try to fill in some details).

1. Calen is starting to get his second molars… this may be why he’s been a little “testy” lately.
2. Calen has pee-pee’d on the potty… He’s not yet potty trained, but it is good that he shows interest and is excited by the prospect. Now we just need to pick a long weekend to try and close the deal.
3. Kylie is considering joining the military. Right now it’s between the Army (with the nice recruiter) or the Air Force (with the jerk recruiter). I’m going with her on Wednesday to visit both. It’s a scary prospect, and while we are certainly concerned for her safety, we would be proud for her to serve and protect our country and believe it could be a good experience for her. We’ll see how it ends up.
4. Mallory is playing soccer with her BFF next door (Piper). It’s amazing to think we are already at the stage where she’s beginning to start organized sports, and she’ll be in kindergarten this fall…

I’m sure there are lot’s of other things going on… but those are the ones that come to mind… Hopefully by making shorter more milestone driven posts, I can convince myself to make them more often.

A tornado (or “potato” for those of you that have been with us for a while) has come through my house!! That is the only explanation for my life passing before my eyes. Where does time go? And how do I get it back? Just 5 years ago, we gained a silly teenager that wore a Mighty Mouse t-shirt, no makeup and a ponytail 24/7. My baby girl carries on adult conversations and starts school in a year and a half. And my baby boy is…well, a boy…with attitude, I might add.
Kylie came home over the weekend, and we stayed up until 1:00 am just talking. I was so tired at church…but I didn’t care. I would sacrifice many hours of sleep for the real conversation we had. It was awesome! She and I are so different that sometimes we just don’t see eye to eye. But there are those times where I realize I love her so much that I could just burst and my heart could just break for her. And then there are times (like right this second) where I realize how much patience she has with me. I can’t imagine what life will be like when she only comes home for holidays and such.
Calen is my teddy bear. I hope and pray that he wants to cuddle with us until…I guess, until it just gets weird. His little smile and laugh make me want to squeeze the stuffing out him. He is such a lovable child. But he is also the most stubborn child (I have no idea where he gets that). He is refusing to talk. That’s right! Refusing! He’ll say “ball”, “block” and “book”. Hand him an empty cup and a bubble wand, and he will dip that wand in that cup and walk around saying “bubble” for hours. If he wants to slide, he’ll point and say “slide”. Pick up something and hand to him, he’ll even say “thanks”. But ask him say “dada”, “mama”, “milk”, “eat”, “more”, “up”, ANYTHING, and you get a head turn and a “mm…mm”, as in “no way, Jose”. Knowing what we know, that he can actually talk, we have tried to force the issue. He will be standing there, crying his eyes out, reaching for the cup of milk and all he has to do is say anything that remotely sounds like “milk”!…heck, even give me the sign that is merely a hand squeeze!…and the child will walk away empty-handed. Seriously? Yep. He would rather do without than ask for it. Now before you judge (you know you were), we don’t let him starve. We just pick our battles.
Now, where to start with Mallory? She is at “that” age. That age where you cannot believe what just came out of her mouth.
“You stepped on my foot, Mallory.” “I’m sorry, Mommy. I didn’t realize your foot was there.”
“What’s going on, Mallory?” “Well, apparently….”
“Daddy, I know it all cause I’m a smart cookie.”
But tonight, she took the cake. We were having a particularly bad night with her. She was overly tired and Calen just wasn’t doing exactly what she wanted (that never goes over well for some reason). So she was whisked off to her room for throwing a fit. I went in to say good night, and she started asking about our small group that we host in our home.
“Mommy, when are my friends coming over again.” “Tomorrow night.” “Why?” “Because they always come over on Tuesday night.” “Well, I miss you when you go upstairs.” “Well, honey, we adults go upstairs to do a bible study and learn about God while you play with your friends. Isn’t that fun?” At this point, she started getting tears in her eyes and puckered lips like when you’re trying really hard not to cry and says, “But mommy, when you guys go upstairs and leave me downstairs with my friends, I really miss you. I love you guys and I like to be with you.” And she reached out to Johnathan with one hand and put the other one around my neck and hugged me really tightly. Oh my. I couldn’t decide if I wanted to laugh or cry. I looked at Johnathan, and he said, “Yeah, I’m just going to sleep up here tonight.” Wow. I think I’m going to quit my job tomorrow.
The second part was really funny. Somehow she decided to ask us to teach her how to drive a car. I said, “Well, you’re not quite big enough to reach the pedals and see over the dashboard at the same time yet. When you are, we’ll teach you to drive.” “Mommy, how are you guys going to teach me to drive?” “With a lot of patience.” She put her hands over her mouth and started laughing, “Don’t tell me that!” Which really meant “don’t say that!”
There are tons of cute things that just aren’t coming to mind right now, but I’m sure when I wake up tomorrow, I’ll have some great stuff to talk about…like a good conversation with Mallory and/or Calen while they were home from college…and some cute things that my grandkids from Kylie are saying.