To Be Continued...

DNA will be continued at www.putnamdnas.blogspot.com Thanks for following our boys!

Working 5 to 530

Judy hired Spencer to watch her dog for 3 days while she was in Co. He had to let the dog out, give the dog food, water and a treat, and take the dog for a walk. And everytime he gave the dog a treat there was a note that he could have a treat (licorice) too! Before we got there the first day Spencer told me that he needed "a day off from work so (he) could play Wii." He was already tired before he started! I hope that's not how we sound! The 2nd day when we actually got to take Bootsy for a nice walk he laughed and laughed that that dog had to pee on every tree and hydrant and mailbox we passed. And today, when he didn't have to go take care of Bootsy anymore? He was sad. And worried. He asked about Bootsy 3 times. Turns out he liked working as much as he liked "being boss". That's right. I did let him be boss for an afternoon: "It was fun! I got to cut the pizza!!"

Make It Worth It!

On Monday afternoon I received a call from Spencer's school that he had a stomach ache and needed to be picked up. I raced around to find coverage and be the mom who gets there fast to get her sick kid. But when I got there my sick kid jumped up from his floor mat and started telling me about the pretzels and cookies he had saved from his lunch. Does your stomach hurt? I asked him feeling his forehead. "A little" he told me as he raced out the door. When we got in the car he started begging for the pretzels, the cookies, an apple, to play outside... Spencer, you're sick. I'm not sick! Well your school called to tell me that you were sick. I'm not sick! I just missed you a little. Do you think you can pick me up early tomorrow? So we talked about other ways he could be close to me while I'm at work...a card, a letter, a phonecall... Can I go outside and play when we get home? No, I just picked you up sick. I'm not sick. Well, I left work to pick you up sick and now you're going to have to be sick. No outside. I can do whatever I want. What? What did you just say to me? Do you want to say that again? I can do whatever I want he said looking me straight in the eyes. I hope that was worth it Spencer because now you're going to go into your room and sit on your bed when we get home. It was worth it! A minute of silence.... Mom? What Spencer? What does "worth it" mean?

Spencer, the love machine

Spencer. Spencer. Spencer. ...is also thrilled to be outside. We've played soccer non-stop for 2 days. He's a pretty good goalie. He'd rather play football he tells me, as he tackles the soccer ball to the ground. He's always diving on his knees or rolling his body up in a ball and throwing himself on the grass head first. He's adjusting to his new school just fine. He's learning about the planets. Every now and then I send homework with math problems and they all come back right. Academics seem to come pretty easy for him right now. Although he's going to a school at a church, his attitude has been a little challenging lately. He looks you cold in the eye and says NO, or he tries to dictate how things are going to go. It's forced David and I this wk to really come down pretty hard on the boundaries, which often makes us feel bad, but it does work and it seems like we're turning the corner. He's been having a couple of accidents in his pants. At first I attributed them to the funeral - he picked up more than I thought he would and since he adores his cousins, he worried when he heard about mine. But I think he just gets so busy he can't stop or be bothered to go to the bathroom. Yesterday he didn't wear any underwear and he told me it was because "it was a special day today, mom!" Funny how he sees things. What he's liking most about his school is his new girlfriend Abby. She's apparently giddy about him too. She's started wearing dresses in the morning and she drew this picture of the two of them hugging. "The hearts are so you know (they) love each other." He's a player, that boy. He told me he was saving his kisses for his girlfriend. He also told me he kisses his girlfriend at school. What?? It's very serious. She's come over to our house with her family and this past wkend we went over to theirs for dinner (where Reid threw up promptly at the dinner table, we think from his cake the night before :( ) Everything he says is so matter of fact. When I came home from Atlanta, Spencer asked me if I could see him up in the plane. I told him I couldn't because it was so high up and everything below looked really small. "Well," he paused "you should have brought your magnifying glasses." This morning it was thundering as I dropped him off at school. I heard him counting "one-seven, two-seven, three-seven, four-seven, five-seven." When he explained to me that he was counting between lightening I explained to him that he should be counting "one-one thousand" and he quickly informed me that he was "trying to count to a thousand!! one-seven, two-seven, three-seven..." I promised him next wkend we would pick a day when he could be boss. I explained that that meant he'd have to drive us places, clean, cook dinner and take care of Reid. He told me he couldn't do any of that but he could definately still be boss. We'll see how that one plays out... For now, I'm just getting all the hugs and kisses in that I can (already in the hallway, outside of his classroom where no one can see him). Cuz you know he's going to be 6 "soon" and 6 is big enough to do whatever he wants!

First trip to the beach: 2011!

The (little) boys and I took our first trip to the beach on Sunday morning. Spencer proudly led us on his bike and Reid was more than happy to take a wagon ride along the road where he could point out all the cars and trucks that drove by. He wanted out when we got to the boardwalk though! He was so excited to be there! Here's a closer look at that face! We explored the beach for a bit Spencer got to throw some rocks and the boys both had a drink and snack I felt giddy just thinking about summer again. Here's Reid's face when I told him it was time to leave

but here it is when I let him pull the wagon a bit!

Here's a closer up of that one too!

If I had all the money in the world, I wouldn't buy a bigger house or a fancier car. I'd stay home during the summers and play on the beach with my boys.

Reid: the cake, the 2

First things first. Daddy's cake for Reid. We debated over Thomas cakes, Curious George cakes, truck cakes, Lightening McQueen cakes... In the end, Thomas won out. Grandma was Daddy's assistant this time and she has now born witness to the work and love Daddy puts into his boys bdays! Here's Thomas! A chocolate cake in the front w/a coal car, log car, present car and animal car. Connected with twizzlers on a track of wafers and crumbled cookies! There's something on this train for every sweet tooth! Reid loved his cake. I thought I was videotaping him walking into the kitchen with us singing to him but turns out I wasn't. So, this is the closest thing I have to his reaction (although if I videotape him looking at a pic on the computer I may get close to reinacting it - he was screaming at it with excitement when I uploaded it!) Give the boy his cake! Is it real? Closer please! Got his hands on a tire. And there's the tongue again... Diggin in! Forget the fork! Mikey Likey! Reid celebrated his birthday with his best friend and brother, Spencer, us, Grandma and Grampa, Michele and Ron and his buddy Kayla! Who gave him a bath after cake! Yeyh! Reid got into the presents: Curious George and a puzzle book from the Whitmores, a shape sorter and James train that goes by itself from Grandma and Grampa, Lightening McQueen cars that fit on his Thomas track and Car cups from Tia, an outfit and Thomas tent from Nana and Grampa, and magnatiles from us. He was moving from gift to gift making new sounds at all of them to make sure each of us saw them.

I've got the chair picture that officially makes him 2.

Man he looks big in these all of the sudden. No time to feel sad - here comes the deliberate tongue pose again!

Reid's loving the outdoors now that it's warmer. He drives around the back yard in his coupe

He loves going to daycare, mostly to play with Sam but baby Eva's there too and apparently is fond of him! :) Sleep has been rough - he's definately been growing (right out of his clothes) but cousin Alli had no problems getting him to sleep on her lap one night

And tonight we moved him into a toddler bed. He curled right up and passed out. Even though he's not climbing out of the crib and the voice of many generations says WAIT! he seems to do so much better with an offering of independance.

I have many mixed emotions about his birthday this year - because he's my last and because I know how special this all is, and have been reminded how fragile it all is.

Both reasons make me want to just squeeze him and never let him go.

That goes for both my boys.

2 and 5. Wow.

Reid turns 2...

Started the day with a birthday song. He didn't know what that was about. He clapped. Then he rolled himself onto his tummy and buried his head in the mattress so I couldn't see him anymore.

Got up for pancakes...

Unfortunately had to go to work...but on his 2 yr birthday he graduated from his diaper bag to Spencer's old Bob the Builder bag. He's starting to like Bob a lot. And I like that he can roll his own stuff now!

Tried to think of a dinner that would excite him but the rest of us weren't thrilled at the thought of eating just banana's for dinner so we went to Friendlys. Reid had his first whole meal there, not shared scraps from someone elses.

As you can see, he liked it.

After dinner, the staff came to sing to him. He was curious about it at first and had a quirky little smile on his face. Then they got too close and he teared up. The relationship was healed quickly with an offering of birthday sorbet. Mmmm, mmmm, mmmm.

Will post more after his celebration this wkend. Happy birthday baby Reid!

In Memory

Tuesday morning I flew to Atlanta for work. If you know me, you know I'm not a big fan of flying. That's only gotten worse since getting married and having kids because now it's not so much falling from the sky that I worry about as it is not making it home to them. On Monday night I squeezed my boys extra tight and I told them I loved them over and over in hopes that if anything did happen, they would remember. But it wasn't me that didn't return home this week. My cousin Nicholas was in a horrible accident on Tuesday, and on Thursday, he died. My mind jumps back and forth to the childhood Nick that I remember. From the Nick I use to babysit to the tenderhearted man I saw cry like a baby when he watched his wife walk down the aisle. It jumps to his son who he loved so much to the facebook status updates I've read over the year about his happy little family. It stops at the parents who lost their son, something now I could never imagine. He was a man doing everything right. And this was the definition of tragedy. Though I'm writing because I want to find words for that, I'm realizing that I can't. Life isn't about words, it's about actions. In Nicks death, 6 lives today were saved. Today, I can only pass on here to my boys what we have all been so hurtfully reminded of this week: Life isn't certain. Hug eachother more often and hug eachother tighter. Live life prepared. Nicholas left us all more responsible for that.

That's a wrap

I'm happy to say that Reid's doing great. His hearing does seem to be improved. The tubes aren't all magical - he still has a hole in his chin. Such a baby. And such a big boy all at the same time (he's watching cartoons here). Actually got the house cleaned this weekend. We let the kids run amuck in it for a little bit and quickly realized they were going to trash it again so we locked them in this little square while we enjoyed it for a few minutes. They thought it was awesome. They even wanted to invite more people over to put in the small space with them. Spencer's school had a Princess/Warrior party on Saturday. ("I'm so excited about this party I couldn't sleep lastnight" Spencer said) In true fashion we didn't think about how to dress him until about an hour before. Fortunately we had a lot of cardboard in the house and Daddy crafted up a shield, sword and helmet. I asked Spencer to decorate his shield and you can't see it well but there's a picture of a person saving someone and the word SOT. I asked him what SOT meant and he said it means "when you think about something and search for it."

Despite his excitement he clammed up a bit when we got into the gymnasium. There were costume accessories and craft stations and bean bag tosses, face painting, etc. Took him a bit to get out and move but he eventually found his comfort zone at the bubble machine.

Across from Reid is Spencer's new friend Sunny. You know, his cousin.

Reid also found his comfort zone....dancing with the princesses. In the blue dress is Spencer's new teacher Mrs Audrey.

And in the red dress is Spencer's new girlfriend Abby.

Abby and fam came over later for a play date which Spencer was sooo excited about. He was sleeptalking and walking that night.

Admist the games in the gym was a station for building...made with empty food boxes. Poor, poor Reid couldn't understand why there were no Cheez-its or cereal or chips in anything here. Didn't keep him from checking inside every box!

The party ended with a parade and a story and a whole room full of confetti dump. I'm still picking it out of things.

Sunday we tried something new and went bowling. While we waited for our lane we hit the bar to grab a drink and catch the crazy March Madness game. Reid was crazy, crazy about the car commercials on the big screen. We weren't drinking him people, I swear.

Bowling was fun. Spencer kicked my butt.

and Reid maintained all of the balls.

And here we are. Sunday again.