Our handsome Tyler on Christmas Eve
Such a happy boy. Always smiling!
Oh Patches, you're so silly! Erik just HAD to set this one up. :)
Nia & Guh visited while they were in Michigan. Evan loves his Nia!
We celebrated New Year's Eve with our fellow friends with kiddos. The kids had a blast playing, eating snacks, watching a movie, and sipping "fizzy juice." Such a cute picture of Evan & Lily on their first supervised date.
Evan & the boys. Most of our friends have boys. Which is good, because apparently Anderson's only produce boys! ;) Lily & Gwen (new baby) are the only girls in our group!
Proud to say we made it 'til midnight! Even though the kids were up late with us, they still woke at the same time the next day....*sigh*
......In 2014.......
While the days seem long with the boys sometimes....ok, well, all the time.....my personal focus for 2014 is to be PRESENT in my life, Erik's life, and the boys lives. Life was busy with one kid. Then life got busier when I was pregnant. Now life is stuck in high gear and is FLYING by every day. Working from home I always thought that would give me more time to do things. But that is sooo not the case. If I had to give myself a "title", it would be "Manager of Multi-Tasking Chaos." I often find myself running around the house in my pajamas at 2:00 in the afternoon (sometimes even after dropping Evan at school in my pajamas, thinking that no one will know if I throw a coat on over them). I usually have the Baby Bjorn on, Tyler bouncing around in it and talking to himself, my headphones in, cell phone in my pocket, phone on mute (if I'm not talking), while I participate in a work conference call, doing laundry, cleaning the floors and cooking dinner all at the same time. Oh wait.....Tyler's hungry now. Take off the Bjorn, keep headphones and phone on, sit down and feed Tyler while on the call, hoping the call participants can't hear Tyler slurping away in the background. Phew! I'm tired just typing about it, and that was just a recap of 2:00-3:00 in the afternoon.
Life isn't going to slow down. There will always be work, emails, calls, kid activities, dinner, a dirty house, laundry to fold, floor boards to clean, bills to pay, drawers to organize, toilets to scrub. But what I'm focusing on this year is knowing that those things will never go away. What WILL go away are the Green Bears to find, diapers to change (ok, that one's not so bad), snuggles on the couch, forts to build, "twinkle twinkle little star's" at night, block castles, picnics in the family room, and "mommy I need you's." That's why in 2014, my focus is on being PRESENT in my life and for Erik and my boys. Seems so easy, but if you really think about it, it can be hard!
The biggest reason I keep this blog is to give myself the opportunity to reflect on the wonderful memories happening RIGHT NOW in my family. I'm grateful to live in a society with easy access to cameras and media to help me capture all these moments for Erik & I and for Evan & Tyler to look back on when they are older. Evan actually recently became interested in the blog books I've printed and often asks if he can read the book that "baby Evan" is in. *heart melting!*
2014 is off to a great start. Evan loves his pre-school and still goes 3 days a week. On his days home we try to do one activity a day out of the house (library, moms club event, or outdoor play (pending weather), and the rest of the day I work to keep this busy boy entertained. While I believe Evan has really benefited from daycare and now early pre-school, it also sometimes has a downside because he is used to having planned activities throughout the day. So when he's home, I do my best to keep up with him and keep him occupied. He's not one to sit still for long! But he's super social, speaks in paragraphs very well (he often talks better than some adults!) and is eager to learn. His teacher told me that she loves having Evan as a student because of his real excitement to learn.
Over the last few weeks I've kept a list in my phone of "Evan conversations" we've had.
At Erik's office open house, we received 2 nice race cars. Evan got one, and we put another in storage for Tyler when he's old enough to play with it. Well, Evan already broke part of his car (although it still works just fine), but Evan has been trying to convince Erik & I that HE should take Tyler's car and that Tyler can take Evan's broken car. In the picture below, Tyler was bouncing in his jumpy while I was getting ready for the day. Evan walks in with his broken car, sets it on the bouncy and says "Look mom, this car is as big as Tyler. He's too small to play with it. So I can borrow his big blue race car and he can borrow mine." I said "Evan, why would Tyler want the broken car?" Evan says "I don't know mom, but it's broken and he wants it."
In other "conversations with Evan":
- "If we eat all the chips, our tummy will get fat." He spent that week learning about good foods and bad foods. He will also tell us that we can "eat just a little" of a "bad" food and still be ok. Looks like I have a nutritionist in the house now!
- "Mom, your phone is honking. You have to call Daddy."
- Driving one day, I honked the horn at someone making a "bad choice." Evan says "But mom, I don't have a car to turn on and honk. I have a 'p-tend' car. It's in the garage."
- Turning on a movie for Evan one night: "I need a pillow and a blanket so I can snuggle up."
- "When I was a baby...." Evan often likes to start sentences this way to tell us of things he did when he was a baby, usually in reference to something that Tyler is doing.
- When he sees something scary on TV (like a commercial or something; I don't keep horror movies on in the house!); Evan will often say "I think this is too old for me."
- "I'm being too crazy in the house so I need to watch a show and calm down." HA! At least I know he listens to me!
- And my latest favorite....."I had that when I was growing up." Again, usually in reference to something that Tyler is playing with.
Moving on now to Tyler.....Tyler is 5 months old! I hope to snap his 5 month old picture before he turns 6 months old. :)
Tyler has found his voice. And he loves to hear it! Hmm....must get that from Erik (hehe). I know I've said it before, but I have to say it again. Tyler is a WONDERFUL, easy going baby. He goes with the flow. He's SUPER happy, smiley and has the sweetest laugh (more like a giggle) in the world! The girls at the gym daycare nicknamed him "Angel Baby." He eats and sleeps well, loves to play, and is great at entertaining himself.
He's getting better at sitting up, still using the Bumbo to support him and we pulled out the exersaucers and he enjoys feeling his feet under him. No rolling over yet, but I'm not going to rush having him mobile. I know what I'm in store for!
Sweet Baby T, chillin' in the Bumbo
Great Grandma Ellis came for a visit and met her newest Great Grandbaby!
"You mean to tell me that you live in a state where it's warm AND there is sunshine during the winter!? NO WAY!"
Treats with Great Grandma
Tyler LOVES the water. And he LOVES chewing on this duck in the tub!
"Handsome? Who, me?"
Tyler's first date with his future girlfriend Gwen. It was a wild day! Gwen was impressed with Tyler's ability to bat at the toys in the bouncy. Tyler admired how beautiful Gwen looked sleeping on the floor.
Hi sweet boy!
A few weeks ago we were snowed-in and didn't leave the house for 3 days. It was a loonnggg 3 days for mommy! Since it was too cold to play outside, we broght the snow inside and had fun with it! Lucy was so confused. Thankfully the only yellow snow we had was from Evan painting it...not a confused Lucy...
Evan's "snow cookie" complete with sprinkles
Yes, this picture is fuzzy. And Tyler has crazy eyes. But both are because Evan spun him around way too fast in this when I wasn't looking!
We've gone through lots of hot chocolate K-Cups in this house! And peppermint marshmallows (mommy's fav!)
Another indoor activity for our snowy days
When we finally caught a break in the weather (with a 40 degree day!), I immediately bundled up the boys and took them outside for some REAL Vitamin D. Tyler loves his hat!
Evan loves to read. Not just his books, but he loves to read Erik's books. He carried this book around for a few days. The title "chaos" has a lot of meaning with Evan holding it! This picture is super cute though because all on his own, Evan climbed up into our bed and laid down to read just how Erik does every night. He loves his Daddy!
What better way to end a long day inside than with movie night! Tyler hogged all the popcorn.
Evan tucked in his new, big boy bed!
Happy 2014 everyone! Cheers to a wonderful year ahead!
Hugs,
Manager of Anderson Household Chaos
PS: the title of this blog post is a saying from Little Einsteins....the show song has been stuck in my head all day!
