Mommy Musings

I have a confession to make - there are times that I am content to be a lazy parent. Times when I am so tired at the end of the day that I am willing to skip parts of our nightly routine if it means the kids will be in bed sooner. Luckily, my precious daughter will not allow my laziness to take hold. On these nights (typically when my husband is out of town), Alexa picks out a book and crawls into bed, surveys her room and suddenly exclaims, "Oh no! We 'ascot' to clean up!" (PS - ascot translates into forgot) She will then jump out of bed, assign our duties ("Mommy, you put away the books and I'll clean up the ponies") and begin singing her clean up song as she puts away everything in her room. I overcome the temptation to tell her, "it's ok, we can skip cleaning up just this once," as I have learned (albeit the hard way) that three year olds do not fully comprehend the phrase "just this once."

For example, once (also while Billy was out of town), I told Alexa we could eat our waffles at the coffee table, but 'just this once.' She does not ask to eat any of her meals at the coffee table, unless of course, we are having waffles, and then she always states, "and we'll eat them at the little table like we did yesterday!" (Yesterday is apparently a very long day, considering anything we have ever done in the past was done yesterday to Alexa)

We have now lived in South Carolina long enough for Alexa to begin picking up a 'southern drawl'. Making her mama proud, I have heard "y'all" cross her lips on numerous occasions! Of course, when your children expand their vocabulary, you often learn a little more than you wanted to know about your own speech patterns. Apparently, I begin many of my sentences (especially when answering a question) with "well." Alexa has picked this up and added her southern drawl, so when I ask her to do something, I often hear answers such as, "whale...I just playing right now."

I've also realized I should be kinder to my dog. There's nothing like hearing your three year old scold, "Chance! Knock it off!" to make that point sink in. (note the photo of my "two" dogs - be sure to notice that Chance now accessorizes!)

I also never realized how similar certain words sound. While watching 102 Dalmatians (with Glenn Close), Alexa suddenly exclaimed, "Mommy, that white puppy is named pawpaw!"

I explained that I didn't think there was a puppy named pawpaw in the movie, but she was adamant that the girl on the movie had called the puppy pawpaw. I walked into the room to see what she was talking about and couldn't help but laugh when I realized the pup was named 'oddball.' Those of you who know her Pawpaw, feel free to have fun with that one!

Sorry for the lack of blogging in January - the month went by both quickly and slowly. Slowly, because Billy was in Ft. McCoy, WI for most of the month, and quickly, because when he is out of town, I feel like the days are over before I've accomplished everything I intended to do! Thus, blogging was pushed to the end of the to do list.

Our littlest guy is still just that - little. At his January weight check, he was 13 lb 7 oz and 25" long. It was at that visit while expressing my concerns about his size and his lack of interest in baby foods that the doctor told me about an organization called Baby Net that specializes in early intervention services. They evaluated Brody on January 26th and I found out this week that he qualifies for assistance. Most likely a speech therapist will start working with him on how to eat, although he has made huge improvements on his own over the last week!


He finally started taking his thumb out of his mouth on his own and opening his mouth for the spoon. Although he is not trying to crawl yet, if we put him on his hands and knees, he can keep himself up for a few seconds! Also, if we pull him into a stand, he can support his own weight while holding my fingers. And, as you can tell from the photos, he LOVES bath time!!



He's still a very snuggly, happy baby! I was rocking him last night, thinking of all the little things I'll miss when my baby reaches his toddler years. I think what I'll miss the most is walking in his room in the mornings or after a nap, peering over the edge of the crib, and seeing that precious little face suddenly break into a huge grin...so sweet, and so innocent...

February should be a fun month for us! Halmoni, Komo, and Komobu (Billy's mom, sister, and brother-in-law) are all coming to visit! They arrive Tuesday and stay until Sunday! They'll even get to go with Alexa to her preschool Valentine's Day party. I'm sure we'll have lots of fun photos from their visit to post soon!


We actually had our Valentine's Day yesterday. Mom sent the kids a gift pack which arrived yesterday, and the surprises Billy had purchased also arrived yesterday. You'll see below Alexa loves her dress from Grandma and her bear from Daddy. Although I don't have a photo, I was also spoiled with a beautiful heart necklace from my wonderful husband!




When Billy returned from his three week work trip to Ft. McCoy, we took the kids to the children's museum - I think daddy wanted to go because they had a winter exhibit - as you can see from the photos, South Carolina has their own 'alpine slide!'

Here are some more photos from the museum and one of my little runner!

My future hockey star

Alexa's Igloo

Snowmobiling in the museumOur Camel Ride
Brody in the Desert
My future cross-country star