A Day For The Ducks

Ducks Unlimited is a national, not-for-profit organization focusing on waterfowl and wetlands conservation. Every year, in conjunction with the Missouri Department of Conservation, they hold Wetlands For Kids Day at the August A Busch Wildlife Center in St. Charles, MO. It's my Dad's "baby" per say as he's responsible for the coordination of efforts to pull it all together.

Since it's always held the first weekend of April, we hope and pray for nice, warm weather and we're never sure what we're going to get. This past week we had rain and cold weather up until Friday - we were holding our breath that the meteorologists on all of the local TV stations were going to be right with their forecasts of SUNNY and 60s for Saturday. Thankfully, they were right! We had a fantastic day on Saturday! From what we could tell…..the BIGGEST crowd that they’ve EVER had – but that’s what happens when every parent in St. Louis and St. Charles County decides that they are going to conquer the cabin fever and get their kids out of the house for the day and enjoy the weather.




They boys, despite having started our day at the Pediatrician’s office for a tumble out of bed by Jack and Mason being under the weather from a stomach bug, still had a great time. Temporary tattoos, geese in the lake, seeing snakes, turtles, big giant catfish and birds of prey were just a few of the activities that we enjoyed while we were there.



Thanks, Bear for another great Wetlands For Kids Day! We had fun at your party!

~ Jack & Mason

1,2,3,4.....25 Times!!! Ah ha ha ha ha!

Okay, so as many of you know, we have been in the process of potty training Jack since the end of January. Well....I think that we've tamed the beast and can call ourselves successful at this challenge of parenthood. But now....it's kind of become funny.

Jack is now keeping track of how many times that he's pooped in the potty. Last night.....25 times!!! I could hear Tim from the bathroom last night with Jack saying "25 Times! Way to go buddy!" and was just picturing The Count from Sesame Street saying "25 Times! Ah ha ha ha ha!" and the thunder rolling! He's shooting for 100 times - we'll see how long it takes him to get there but since he's really only been counting for about 2 1/2 weeks and is already up to 25, it may not take him too long to get there! Oh well....what ever works for Jack....works for Tim and I too!

Happy Birthday, Aunt Tricia!

Aunt Tricia turns (gasp!) 30 years old today!

Happy Birthday, Aunt Tricia!

We all love you!!!

Lib, Tim, Jack & Mason

And The Walls Come Tumblin' Down!

We are really into the throes of the remodel. The walls have come down inside between the family room and living room and Tim and David made use of the nice weather last week and took down the brick on the exterior of the house where the new patio slider and windows will be installed. This week we should have more progress inside as the 1/2 wall should take shape and the fireplace will be framed in and then it's time for DRYWALL!!

The more we talk about this, the more excited I am getting. Now if I could only have it finished NOW!

Oh well.....it will be beautiful and worth every ounce of dust and dirt that we are living with in the process.

I have created an online collection that I keep uploading our pictures to - bookmark it and check back now and then to see how we're doing!

http://www.jackandmasonsmom.shutterfly.com/

Marching For Babies

The boys and I will be participating in the March Of Dimes March for Babies on April 26th in honor of Julia Grace who became an angel of God on 3/25/08.

The Mom's group that I am a part of has formed a team called Julia's Grace and we will all be wearing tshirts and raising money to go to March Of Dimes. We will all be walking in our respective cities.

Heaven Gained An Angel Yesterday

Since Jack’s birth, I have been a part of a wonderful group of Moms on the Internet. Some people may not understand how a group of complete strangers could be so close, but we are. We are 200 women with young children who all experience the same trials & tribulations of parenthood and when one of us falls, we all fall together.

Yesterday, a good friends daughter, who was born at 23 ½ wks and weighed less than a pound at birth became another one of Gods angels. We were all shocked and full of disbelief when her Mom posted yesterday on our board that Julia Grace had passed away.

She had been doing so well! Julia Grace had proven all the Doctors and nurses wrong and had grown to a whopping 6 lbs 14 oz and had passed the 40 wk mark last week! She was transferred to a Children’s Hospital in preparation of moving her forward in her progression of going home to be with her family. All of us on our board were anxiously awaiting news of a successful surgical procedure yesterday to place a tracheotomy and remove her breathing tube and instead received the devastating news that the night before, something happened and baby Julia gave up her fight.

I may have never met Julia Grace or her Mother in person but feel as though I have lost a part of my heart and my family. The death of a child is a loss for everyone who’s life they have touched and for those who they were never able to meet.

Julia Grace, you will be missed.

"Perhaps they are not stars, but the souls of our lost loved ones shining down upon us to let us know they are alright" - Anon.

I'm A Big Boy Now!

Okay, so we've tackled the potty training and succeeded. We've ditched the highchair for a booster seat at the table with Mommy & Daddy so now it was time for the BIG step. A Big Boy Bed! I think it was partially Tim's and my wanting to hold on to that one thing that kept us thinking that Jack was a baby still - the crib. But when my father so nicely said "Elizabeth, you can't send him to college in a crib you know?" that I just bit the bullet and did it.

In one weekend, I dropped $450 on all of the STUFF that we needed, sheets, matress pad, blanket, bed rails and mattress set. Daddy picked up the mattress on Friday and yesterday was the big day!

The crib came down and the big boy bed went up! Bedtime went off without a hitch and he slept all night long without any issue.

My baby's not a baby anymore!

He Ate The WHOLE Thing!

Last night as we were leaving Kindercare, the boys stopped at the cracker basket to get their nightly crackers for the long 3 minute ride to our house. Well, instead of crackers there were apples in the basket (they were out of crackers) so Jack took one and started eating it. Well, I wasn't sure about Mason eating a whole apple but to avoid a major breakdown before we even walked out the door, I just gave him the smallest apple out of the basket.

I kept an eye on him from my mirror in the car on the way home and he seemed okay with it so I let him be. Well after about 30 minutes of working at it once we got home....the boy at the WHOLE apple - and I mean the WHOLE freakin apple, skin, flesh, core, seeds and all! Tim and I were laughing so hard. When he finished he handed Tim this little tiny speck of an apple and said "Done" and walked away.

It totally blew our dinner last night as neither of them really ate a whole lot but they had just both eaten an entire apple - Jack worked around the core, unlike his little brother.

Hippity Hoppity Easter's On It's Way!

Sunday was the Annual Claymont Easter Egg Hunt. Yes, it was in the upper 40’s and sunny here and the boys were in their winter coats but that didn’t stop us, or anyone else with children in the neighborhood for that matter. The signs all week said the Easter Egg Hunt started 3pm SHARP so that’s what time we headed up to the “spot” for the festivities. Only to find out that it was at 4pm that the Egg Hunts started, so we had to kill a whole hour with the boys. They had the customary petting zoo and snacks so that, along with a walk down the street was enough for us to make it to 4:00.

Mason was in the first grouping, “Birth to 2 ½”. Tim and I laughed because that’s not really a good age grouping but who cares. Mason was one of about 5 kids doing the hunting. Okay, so it’s not a hunt, it’s more of an Easter Egg PICKUP as they just lay the eggs in the grass. It took a few eggs for Mason to get the concept of walk, pick up the egg and put it in my basket and move on to the next colorful orb laying on the ground and repeat. But…once he realized that the eggs had CANDY in them he was hot on the trail. We scored about 10 eggs in his round.

Jack was next. VERY ANXIOUSLY awaiting his age group “2 ½ to Kindergarten”, he stood on the sidelines with Daddy waiting for the “on your mark, get set, go!” and he was OFF! It looked like a stampede as all these children scrambled to pick up eggs that were scattered all over the grass. Jack was a pro at it! He scooped up eggs as Tim, Mason & I cheered him on from the sidelines. When all was said and done he had picked up about 15 eggs filled with candy (oh joy!).

The boys emptied their eggs and handed them back in to survey their winnings and gloat in their accomplishment. We hopped back into the stroller and on “Thunder”, Jack’s bike and headed home. Another Claymont Easter Egg Hunt was in the history books.

It's A Bird! It's A Plane! It's A SUPER SLEEPER!

A good night’s sleep is something that neither Tim or I have had since, um…….let’s see…….October 19, 2004? Well……okay, well we may have gotten a few nights when Jack was an infant and he was sleeping through the night but then I got pregnant again, and that insomnia kicked in and I never got my full sleep filled nights back, until recently.

Mason is (or will be) 23 months on 3/23 and I am pleased to say that he has become a “Super Sleeper” as Tim and I so proudly refer to him every morning! He’s down for the count at 8:30pm every night and is sleeping, most of the time without so much as a peep 6:30am!!!!! We almost don’t know what to do with ourselves now! Having a full night of uninterrupted sleep is such a blessing to have back. I’ve forgotten what it was like. In some ways I miss my middle of the night rendezvous’ with him because those were such wonderful times to snuggle up with him when I was getting him to go back to sleep and because I know that it means that he’s getting bigger and is not a “baby” anymore but then I think about the lack of sleep induced fog that we would function under on those days following rough night and don’t miss that for anything in the world.

Just one more step towards being an independent little boy…….it’s hard to believe that he’s almost TWO!

UPDATE - As I posted this yesterday, I thought that I might jinx myself by saying what a good sleeper Mason's become and I think I did just that. Last night was a HORRIBLE night for all of us - the boys were both up multiple times and Tim and I got very little sleep - waking up this morning was HARD TO DO. Hopefully it was just a fluke and we'll be back to SUPER SLEEPERS tonight.

Pass The Kleenex... Please!

We are currently running at about 25% in our house - which is not good. Tim's just getting through ANOTHER round of antibiotics for a dreaded sinus infection that he's continually gotten this winter, Jack has had an ear infection and some sort of upper respiratory bug and now I've got some sort of respiratory bug too! Mason is the only "healthy" one in our house (Knocking on wood).

I'm so ready for Spring time it's not even funny. We have literally circulated the germs in our house all Winter long. I don't think we've had a week were at least ONE of us has not been sick! It's so frustrating and we TRY our hardest not to spread it to each other but we obviously are not doing a very good job at it.

ACHOO! Please pass the kleenex......................

Spring Sprang (well for at least 48 hours!)

We had THE MOST beautiful weather this past weekend!!! 60's on Saturday and upper 70's on Sunday. We had the boys out as much as physically possible to shake off some of the cabin feaver that had been building up for the past few weeks. They were able to ride their bikes, shoot their air rockets off, go for a few walks, and we even took a trip to the "orange park" down the street and to the Museum of Transportation on Sunday.






Today..........30's, rain and 4-8" of fresh snow is in the forcast for tomorrow! UGH! I'm so ready for Spring!

To You They May Be Hills... To Us They're MOUNTAINS!

Woo Hoo for Jack Henry! He's got this potty training thing down....well....almost! If it wasn't for the suggestion of his teacher, Ms. Meredith, we'd still be battling it at home but once those undies went on it only took about 2 weeks to go without a tinkle accident at all! He even can go through the night without wetting his pull up!

It was the pooping that took awhile to conquer. Once we got him, shall I say....REGULAR with the help of Miralax things started to change. "MMMMMM.....I LOVE Miralax, Mom!" was the comment that Jack made! (I wanted to record him and send it to the Miralax people as a suggestion for advertising because I would gather that people who are familiar with the stuff wouldn't say they love it but not my Jack!) Then we had to deal with the poop accidents because he was "afraid" to sit on the potty to poop. I don't know why, he just seemed to be. Call it a control thing or whatever but he just didn't want to do it! Finally it came to a bribe thing. "You poop on the potty like a big boy and Mommy and Daddy will buy you a present!" Even his Moots (my Mom) added to the incentive.

Every morning and every night, we ask repeatedly "Do you have to Poop?" only to get the "No!" and then 15 minutes later he'd come to us telling us that he was poopy! So I resorted then to the books as well. "Where's The Poop?" and that seemed to be the nudge that he needed. About a week ago, it was a Friday night, Tim and I both knew that Jack had not pooped at all and that we were bound for a poop that night. I watched him and waited until I saw that stance or cue from him that was the indication that he had to go. As soon as I saw it I said "Jack do you need to poop?" and when he said "No" I said , let's go sit on the potty and scooped him up and headed for the bathroom ASAP.

He sat down and after a few strained faces, HE WENT! Hip Hip Hooray! You would have thought that he had conquered Mt. Everest with the cheering that we did! We were so proud of him and wanted him to feel the same way! We even called Moots to let her know and put in the request for the special "poop present" that Jack had been promised (The Dinoco King Helicopter from the movie CARS)

Now, I'm not saying that from there on out it's been smooth sailing - we've had our bumps and setbacks but I think he gets it now. Last night, we were due for another poop session and it was not to be had. Bedtime rolled around and Jack was in bed and lights were about to be turned out when he said "Daddy, I need to go potty" in his cute shy voice. Thinking that it was a ploy to delay bedtime, Tim at first hesitated, but then thought differently hoping to head off any further delays. So they walked down the hallway to the bathroom. As I sat in the darkness of the bedroom with Mason, sending him off to a hopefully peaceful nights sleep, I could hear talking and then a loud cheer come from the boys' bathroom. I KNEW what had happened! He had gone poop - again!

About 5 minutes later, I look down the hallway to see the image of my pajama clad son, marching down the hallway, head held high, shoulders back and VERY proudly he whispers to me "Mom, I went poop in the potty!". Daddy hoisted him into bed, he curled up into his sleep position and that was it - it was time to turn in for the night. Mission accomplished on all fronts! He had conquered the mountain!

Potty training has been such an adventure for us! I never in a million years thought that it would be THIS difficult and I only can THINK about what it's going to be like to train the beast (or should I say VERY STUBBORN HEADED) that is our son Mason - he will be his own force to be reconed with.

So, to some, our successes may be small hils that we have climbed but to Tim and I, and especially Jack - they are mountains!

A Whole Lot Of Magic At......

Sunday, in an effort to get the boys out of the house and cure a case of boredom for Caroline, my 14 year old niece, who is in town visiting, Tim and I decided that it was time for a trip to The Magic House, one of St. Louis awesome Children's Museums. We had never taken the boys and it had been YEARS since we had been ourselves so we were all excited about what we were going to do and see there. We had a BLAST!

Will You Be Our Valentine?

Happy Valentine's Day!

~ Love Jack & Mason

Motor Mania

Saturday we took a trip up to the Parkway Early Childhood Service Center for a Parents As Teachers activity called MOTOR MANIA! It basically was a 3 hour event to allow your children to romp, play and explore in the comfort of a LARGE and open space. The boys had a blast!

They had a room with all sorts of "Winter" activites: Shoveling snow, throwing snowballs, ice skating and washing mittens.

Another room had "Animal" activities: a pig collage, playdough, feeding the elephants pasta and bean bag tosses.

We spent 2 full hours there and when we came home we all were tired and worn out but had TONS of fun!

What Kind Of World Do You Want?

WhatkindofWORLDdoyouwant.com is the first video community that gives back!

We are all connected to one another through our actions. Each person has the ability to make a difference. This is one of the messages of the Five For Fighting video "World."

Tell the world what kind of world you want and raise money for charity by making and uploading a video of yourself, your friends or your family--whomever and whatever--answering the question, "What Kind Of World Do You Want?"

Or, you can raise money for charities that John Ondrasik of Five For Fighting has personally selected. Watch any clip on this site and money will go to the charity listed with that video. Please see below for the updated list of charities and contributions per views.

The Silence Was.....Deafening!

Sunday was an odd day. Because of the 8” of snow that we had gotten 3 days before, as the temperatures rose and it became warmer and warmer, it became foggier and foggier. Looking outside it was almost eerie with fog so thick you could cut it with a knife.

12:15am, I’m sound asleep in bed when all of a sudden……………BRRRRRUMP…..and the house became completely silent……AND VERY VERY DARK! We had lost our power. It wasn’t storming out or anything so the reason behind it was a complete mystery. I reached over to tap Tim on the shoulder, or to at least find out if he was next to me only to find cold, unused sheets. I sat up in bed, threw the covers off of me and started heading towards the hallway whispering “Tim!”. To hear him respond “I’m getting a flashlight!” I asked if he knew what had caused the power to go out and he didn’t know.

We called in to AmerenUE, our local Power Company, to report the outage. I was not optimistic of a quick restore as for some strange reason, they listed off about 13 zip codes in our area that were experiencing outages as well and ours wasn’t listed at all – we were the first reporting outage. Tim and I grabbed flashlights, cell phones (for alarms) and climbed back into bed to settle in until one of the boys woke up. As I lay in bed, I could hear Tim’s rhythmic breathing lulling himself off to sleep and then it hit me…..the silence of our house without power was, well - deafening!

We normally have hepafilters and the drone of the intercom in the air in our room at night and the boys have a hepafilter and their CD player going all night long as well. Instead….the drone was gone, the hum was not there, nor were the beautiful lullabies that play my children to sleep, there was only silence – silence of a sleeping household. The silence of two busy boys resting and regaining their energy for another day. The silence of a tired father who works too much trying to get some much needed rest. The silence of life stopping on a dime until it was time to start again.

AND I COULDN'T SLEEP!!!!!

Instead, I lay in bed listening to Tim’s snoring until I heard the whimper, and then a scream from Mason as he woke up and was sitting in his crib, in the dark, wondering himself what was wrong and why were things so quiet? I quickly went into the boys room hoping to avoid Jack waking up too, grabbed Mason, and headed back to our room to lie down in our bed with him to go back to sleep.

As I lay there again, this time with Mason in the crook of my right arm, and then Tim next to him, I was slowly sent off to sleep by the sound of my husband AND my son’s snoring. Ahhhh……what a wonderful sound. Much better than the deafening dead silence of the darkness.

Only to be woken up again by the BRRRRUMMMMMPPPP.......beep.....as the power kicked back on 2 hours later as mysteriously as it had gone off.

Early Dismissal

An early day home from work & school yesterday due to our second snow storm of the season (we got a total of 8"). We arrived home and the boys wanted to play out in the snow. I was reluctant to do it because I would much rather stay in the warm comfort of the house but then I came to the realization that I've played in the snow before and know how much fun it is but the boys really haven't. They've only really played in it one other time.

So I sucked it up, changed into my jeans, boots, warm coat, baseball cap and gloves and suited the boys up. I swear it took me longer to get them both dressed than we were outside and asked Jack twice before we went out if he had to go potty.We headed out in the snow and had so much fun! I pulled the boys around the house in the sled that Tim had bought when we had our last snow and then we just hung out in the back going down our little hill and having a good time. Eventually the mittens came off and hands started to get cold so we headed in to warm up and have dinner.

It was fun. Just me and my boys doing what kids do best - enjoying life to the fullest!