Just for fun...

So I realize that I just put forth a whole lot of effort for two little clips, but I thought they were cute. I wanted to learn how to upload a video onto my blog. I realize that these clips won't make it into my soon-to-be blog book, but I have a feeling some of you will enjoy them.


In a previous post, I mentioned the kids having a "moment" at night. This is one of the many moments that keeps replaying itself night after night...

It doesn't seem to get old...

I'm going to show this to the kids when they're teanagers - they'll need to see that they used to love each other!




Since it's Chistian's birthday tomorrow, I looked for a clip that showcased my main man. When JD would leave for the bus in the morning, Christian didn't want his bro to leave him so he'd promptly chase him each and every morning. Most mornings were like this one. Christian loved wearing his sister's "clicky" shoes. It didn't seem to bother him that it was the middle of January in Michigan (brrr...). You'll notice that Camryn is decked out in her "Belle" dress at 8:30 in the morning eating string cheese...doesn't it feel good knowing you're a better mom than I?

Creativity Only Comes at Night...

Nighttime is a funny time around these parts. Once Joel senses the clock is approaching 7 pm, he gets excited: Alone time for Mom & Dad! I have to admit that I do too. There is this atmosphere in our house of a race being lost by some kid, "Hurry, hurry Camryn, JD is winning!" Or, "The person who gets ready for bed first, gets to snuggle with Mom the longest!" The latter usually being the true motivator. It's kind of cute actually. I love the fact that JD and Camryn fight over who gets to win the longest snuggles from Mom or Dad.

Inevitably, Camryn gets to bed first and once her book is read and she burrows into bed, she wraps her arms around my neck and refuses to let go. She pulls me down so that I'm practically laying on top of her, wraps her arms around me and then whispers in my ear, "Tell me a story Mommy." I hate that my first reaction is, "Ugh, why do I have to do this...I just want to go downstairs and hang out with Joel." Since my prime motivation for most things is guilt, I usually give in and say, "OK." This is how a typical story goes:

Mom: "Once upon a time, there was a beautiful girl named ____________."
(I wait for Camryn to give me a name).

Camryn: "Ummm," (as if in deep thought)...she'll pick one of 3 names:
"Gabby", "Ballerina Zoe" or "Princess Fairytopia."

Mom: "OK, and Ballerina Zoe lived a beautiful land called ____________."
(I wait for Camryn to give me a place).

Camryn: "Ummm," (as if in deep thought)...then she'll usually say Fairytopia.

At this point I proceed with a very creative rendition of the adventures of Ballerina Zoe, or Gabby or Princess Fairytopia in the land of Fairytopia. By this point, JD has hopped into bed and is intently listening to Mom's fable:

JD: "Mom, will you snuggle with me."

Mom: "Yes, for a little bit." Again, motivated by guilt.
I say this while I'm trying to figure out a sneeky way to break free of Camryn's death grip around my neck.

As I continue on with my tale, it inevitably turns towards potty talk. As I begin prompting my kids for more plot to the story, they both head down the "poop, pee and gas" track. I usually cut them off by saying something very motherly like, "Cut the potty talk," or, "I'm done if you keep it up." Last night however, I decided to go with it. The story quickly turned from a nice little bedtime story to a platform for JD and Camryn to make each other giggle with potty words:

Camryn: "And then she pooped out of her eye!"
(both laughing hysterically)

JD: "And then she gased and her head blew off and poop flew all over the place."
(again, both laughing hysterically)

Now I allowed them to morph my innocent fable for a bit longer until I couldn't stand it any longer and I said, "And then she gased and it blew up the whole world!" Whoa, that was it, JD about lost it. He was laughing so hard he said, "Mom, I think I peed a little bit!" Anyway, as you may have guessed, I'm sure I opened up a can of worms with that story, but it was pretty funny. Some people just shouldn't have kids.

Spotlight of the Month: JD

The Lego Meister!

Since my primary motivation for blogging is to have a family journal, I decided to spotlight a member of my family (extended included - watch out!) each month. Don't worry, I won't use names if you don't want me to. Anyway, I thought I'd start with my oldest, my little "Sugar Baby." That would be JD:

I can't believe it, but JD is nearly 7 1/2!. I can distinctly recall those
first few months after JD joined our family of two. I had no idea
what I was doing! JD has been my (our) experiment ever since!

Anyone that knows JD is keenly aware of the fact that this kid loves Legos! He is so creative! Sometimes this kid amazes Joel and me with his imaginative use of objects around him. I'd like to think that I helped foster his imagination, but I think he was just born that way. Actually, I will take credit for a little bit of it - I played Legos with him for hours on end! We lived in Arizona when he was introduced to the infinite world of Legos. Since there weren't any kids around his age, I became his only playmate. We built all sorts of things together, but his favorite item to engineer was and continues to be ships.

He used to build the most ingenious little ships! I wish I could have kept every single one, but we would have depleted our Lego supply years ago! He would get so frustrated in the early years. In fact, I used to get so frustrated listening to him cry every time his ship would fall apart. He hadn't mastered the art of making stable connections. Once he would finish crying over his destroyed ship, I would show him how to rebuild the base to make it more stable. Through the last 5 or so years, he had gone from single brick "ships" to elaborate masterpieces!

In fact, he won a Lego contest in the summer of 2007. He, with friend Annie, won the most "Sophisticated" award: It was a ship (of course) with a removable ship and working elevator! His taste has moved into the realm of Star Wars Shipbuilding.

The first ship we purchased for JD's startup collection was Anakin's "something, something" (that's mom-talk) ship - it's yellow, that's all I know...oh, and I dust it a lot. He blew me away when he put the whole thing together without any help. He has since built quite a collection for himself. When I asked him how many ships he has right now on his "big white shelf," he said, "There are too many to count Mom!" That should tell you something!

Joel and JD bond through Legos: They have built a couple of JD's huge ships together. In fact, Joel started a collection of his own. For his birthday he bought the Millenium Falcon. For Christmas he bought himself the Death Star. I don't get it!

Anyway, Joel and I fully support and are very proud of JD's desire to create and collect. Legos get a nod from this family!