Happy 34 Months G3!

Sometimes when I wake up in the morning, before opening my eyes, I forget where I am. As in, where I am in my life...what age, what house, what bed. And then I think of when I was a child, and how long ago that was. I think back to post-college years, even though they seem like just yesterday, I realize how much passage of time has occurred, and I feel heavily nostalgic. Sometimes I can't believe I am as old as I am--it rattles me a bit. Sometimes I feel like in this early morning place between sleep and life that I am scrambling to understand things that I'm not meant to understand. Then I think of coffee...and what's on the day's agenda, and I shake it off and hop out of bed to begin my day.

Yesterday was Mother's Day and I intended to write this post then, but of course, time flew by and it just didn't happen. And Saturday was your "birthday"--34 months! And it all kind of ties together, the whole passage of time thing going unbelievable fast. I sometimes wonder if I'm going to blink and find myself in my 50's with adult children and memories of the days of babies and toddlers eons away...and I think no no no!! Its a lot of work being a mom to a little one...but when your little one looks like this its hard not to fall in love again every day.

Now that I've gotten the sentimental part out of the way, lets move on to what was a big part of this month...GABE BEHAVING BADLY!! Specifically, we had a problem with hitting, actually we are still dealing with it, although it's much improved. I know its something kids go through; I also know it is something that was picked up by example from another child. It is something that's horribly embarrassing--especially at a birthday party full of kids/parents you don't know that well, and your child is the evil one hitting babies on the leg with blocks and spending more time being reprimanded than having fun! I have always prided the fact that you, Gabey, are generally kind towards other children, especially children you don't know well, but such was not the case recently!!

We tried some tactics to combat it, mostly by constantly talking about it, and punishing you accordingly. Your teacher gave me some great advice: hitting is not a run-of-the-mill offense, and thus should not get a run-of-the-mill punishment (aka, Time Out.) It makes sense, and so we decided that hitting would result in losing your beloved monster trucks for the rest of the day (or until lunchtime if it was the morning.) It sunk in pretty fast...you definitly have a bit of an impulse control issue...its almost as if you get so upset you can't help yourself. But you're getting better. And, let's throw out a big apology to any and all children who've suffered your wrath. It is so important to me to teach you to treat other's with kindness...I hate, hate, hate all the trends and news stories of kids being bullied these days. Having been on the opposite side (thank you Bus 37 full of neanderthal children who created the Hate Lindsay Association--yes it's funny now but it wasn't then!!) I can honestly say that more than being smart in school or good at sports I wish for you to have friends and be a confident enough person that you don't fall prey to bullies...but not so confident that you become one!!

Other exciting times of this past month...we've spent a lot of time at Grammy and Grandad's (as mentioned) and you love, love, love going there. I have noticed lately that you do say "I wanna go home" or "I wanna see my bed" a lot, and it kind of warms my heart. You also got to spend a whole day at Grammy Sharon's while Daddy was out of town and I took a personal day from my job as a mom (hahaha, yeah right!) and you enjoy going there for many different reasons. I like that your grandparents are so different--you get a nice, well-rounded experience as a grandchild! Grammy Sharon likes to spoil you rotten of course, but she also spends a lot of time teaching you things. When I went to pick you up a few weeks ago, you were eating a white chocolate carrot, a sugar wafer, and a Drumstick! It kind of reminded me of going to my dad's parents' house and eating TastyKakes and ice cream with sprinkles!! A typical afternoon with Grammy and Grandad Flock is spent outside, watering the garden, helping the barn, and walking the pond in search of frogs (and snakes!) And of course snacking!

You've had a growth in appetite just this week, eating large quanities of everything you can...but rest assured, tonight you let us know you STILL hold your status as The World's Pickiest Child. Foolishly we offered you Chinese food...just rice, steamed broccoli, and duck sauce. All things you have eaten (and liked) before. Cue meltdown, spoon chucked across room, consequential time-out and replacement dinner of bread and butter...as Dad and I happily slurped down our meals. Chinese is a rarity in this house...kid, you don't know what you're missing!

Overall, another busy month behind us, another busy one ahead. April is over, May is almost half way through, and soon it will be June. Why is it the winters drag on FOREVER but the warm months fly by so fast you can barely keep track. Really? It's already May 10th, and when we get back from visiting CeeCee at the beach, it will be closer to Memorial Day than Mother's Day. Stop and smell the roses is good advice, and something I try so very hard to do but damn it, there are just not enough hours in the day, days in the week, or weeks in the month (the spring, summer and fall ones, that is!)

Looking forward to our annual vacation with Grammy, "Grammy Sue", and Cee Cee and Shawn. In reality, we have about 1 more year of this before we will have to plan around your school schedule...crap!!! Once again...where is time going, why is it going so fast, and how do I slow it down? I do know one thing: I have decided to start making digital photobooks (as opposed to ordering prints, which I stopped doing about 2 years ago.) I figured with the blog, Facebook, uploading them to Kodak, saving them on CDs...did I really need prints too? And the answer is, yes I do. "Digital scrapbooking" is opening up a whole new world of creativity for me, and I am feverishly creating pages for the last couple years--this will be my vacation project...whoo hoo! I don't know why I always feel like such a...dork (??) for being so obsessed with documenting our lives. I guess because I wonder if maybe someday you'll wake up, and think about your childhood, or your own child will ask about it, or you will want to show your future wife the pictures of your life growing up...(okay, who am I kidding, you know I will be that crazy mother-in-law who makes your wife sit for hours and peruse every. damn. moment. with me:)

But even if no one treasures it but me, it'll be enough. Because let's face it--its all about YOU (and me and Daddy, but we're just the supporting cast.) And you are everything I treasure about my life, and the reason behind most of the decisions I make, no matter how big or small.

So, happy Mother's Day to me. Thanks kiddo. Couldn't ask for a better person to be my kid...please remember that when you're 14 and want to dye your hair black, pierce your eyebrow and get a tattoo!

xoxoxoxo