Monday, May 14, 2012
Guess what size shoes I just bought for this cutie?
What's in a name
If you've been around this family for long, you might remember back in the day that both Benjamin and Sofia had their very own blogs. They posted endearing comments like, "what is this slop my Mom is trying to feed me?" and, "you'll never believe what happened to me at the doctor today!" Like I said endearing, and charming, and frankly, it was a lot of work. Poor Sofia had second-child syndrome bad. I was just too tired to type her remarks, so we decided a family blog would be better. But then everyone had a blog, and I mean everyone! And Jackson is a common name. So we were trying to think of a suitable blog name, and while I think it's cute (not really) that we're the Jackson 5, we weren't at the time, and we knew we might not always be just 5. So many names were discussed and tossed, and finally, we decided to settle on a tribute to the awesome red minivan we had just acquired. And by awesome, I mean, I NEVER wanted a minivan. I wanted a gremlin. Then, when I realized that was stoopid, I decided a suburban was more my cup of tea. BUT, the reason we got the van was to hold people and not have to spend $150 to fill the gas tank. (Which we did spend filling the truck one fateful Saturday). So now I am the self-proclaimed hottie in the red van. Which I think I rock. This is where you just nod your head and say, "yup Hails, you make that van look good.... and no, it doesn't smell like there is fast food under your seats."
Nipples
Come on over to the Jackson house. I'll give you a bowl of nipples. Ya know, cuz nothing curbs an appetite like a bowl of nipples. Orange nipples.
Of course I meant "Cheese Nips!" Get your mind out of the gutter. There is never a dull moment with Sofia!
Of course I meant "Cheese Nips!" Get your mind out of the gutter. There is never a dull moment with Sofia!
Friday, May 11, 2012
Little bit of sugar, LOTS of spice!
Sugar and spice... lots of spice and spunk and everything that makes life fun. Living with Sofia is living by the seat of your pants. I love this girl! She makes everything great. And her big brother thinks so too. Rewind about a month ago. Ben was sick with an ear infection. My sweet, sweet friend comes up from Temecula to take Sofia so that Lily and I can take Ben to urgent care. On our way to the doctor, Ben says to me, "Mom, I miss Fia." "Why do you miss her honey, she's only been gone about ten minutes." "Fia makes everything fun." And that's it. Fia makes everything fun... and funny.
I've had a full two days to think about what I could say about Fia. She is the child that found a sharpie and wrote all over everything and let Ben write all over her. She has spilled glitter all over the house, covered the bathroom in toothpaste, eaten a toilet "sausage," and taken an enormous #2 behind an ice cream store. She has been a part of the funniest things I've ever seen and the most embarrassing parenting moments ever! And I love her to death for it.
At 4, Sofia is a pro at: winking, rolling her eyes, crossing her eyes, putting her hands on her hips and sarcastically muttering, "seriously," waking up Lily the moment she goes down for a nap, giving awesome cuddles and hugs, and randomly telling me she loves me. She hates to clean up ANYTHING and insists all tasks are too hard, she loves to write, draw and color and is learning to read. She still sings off-key, but she is doing so much better than she used to, and she hates it when the singers get the words wrong (she makes up and changes the words to just about every song.) She is my pickiest eater, but she loves salsa and pretty much all Mexican food. She has cheerleader moves and facial expressions - Aunt Alicia would be proud. She will be THE girl to know in High School... and it scares me.
This isn't a new picture, but it speaks volumes about my little girl who just couldn't wait to be a part of this world and give Ben a run for his money.
I've had a full two days to think about what I could say about Fia. She is the child that found a sharpie and wrote all over everything and let Ben write all over her. She has spilled glitter all over the house, covered the bathroom in toothpaste, eaten a toilet "sausage," and taken an enormous #2 behind an ice cream store. She has been a part of the funniest things I've ever seen and the most embarrassing parenting moments ever! And I love her to death for it.
At 4, Sofia is a pro at: winking, rolling her eyes, crossing her eyes, putting her hands on her hips and sarcastically muttering, "seriously," waking up Lily the moment she goes down for a nap, giving awesome cuddles and hugs, and randomly telling me she loves me. She hates to clean up ANYTHING and insists all tasks are too hard, she loves to write, draw and color and is learning to read. She still sings off-key, but she is doing so much better than she used to, and she hates it when the singers get the words wrong (she makes up and changes the words to just about every song.) She is my pickiest eater, but she loves salsa and pretty much all Mexican food. She has cheerleader moves and facial expressions - Aunt Alicia would be proud. She will be THE girl to know in High School... and it scares me.
This isn't a new picture, but it speaks volumes about my little girl who just couldn't wait to be a part of this world and give Ben a run for his money.
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Our Great Dane
I was thinking today about my kids. Surprising, right? Not really considering I am absorbed in a world where a ring from a vending machine can grant super-powers, and where my five year old is attempting to save $45,000 to buy Noisy Boy. But what I was thinking is that even though my kids are surrounded by people that know them and love them, the person who knows them BEST, is me. Pretty cool.
One of my favorite people in the entire world is my Benjamin. He is so often misunderstood, and I don't help that since our relationship is sometimes bipolar. He is the first miracle I was ever a witness to, and a part of. He is the thorn in my side and he is one of my very best friends. He comforts me; he'll rub my back or my shoulder and he's not afraid to cuddle his mommy.
I joke with some friends that Ben is like a great dane. To say he is big is kind of an understatement. At 5 years old, he is 47 and a half inches tall. To put that in perspective, the height marker for the 100th percentile for his age is 46 inches. We were at Chuck E. Cheese last week and Ben was taller than a 7 year old. He wears size 2 shoes. Technically, he could probably wear a size 1, but if I buy a size 1, it'll be too small in a month or so. Last week the kids made Mother's Day cards at preschool. Ben's hand print cutouts didn't fit in the envelope... everyone else's did.
So my boy is big. And I love it. But I hate it. The pediatrician told me at his 4-year check up that it would make other adults, especially, expect Ben to behave like a child of his size, so a five or six year old. See, the thing about Ben that gets me every time is his temper. My temper. The difference is that I had a 27 year head start at learning to control it. And other adults, and me, have a hard time with Ben's temper. The thing that also comes with the temper are the tantrums. And a 50 pound five year old is hard to wrestle with. But I digress. MY boy is big and beautiful.
His shortcomings are my shortcomings, so I am automatically endeared to him. We are both vulnerable in the same ways, so it's hard for me to share here some of things he struggles with, because we both do. Ben takes most everything personally. If you accidentally knock over his drink at dinner, it must have been a personal attack. I am not so sensitive, but watch out if I see you whispering to someone... I will automatically think that something dastardly is going on and that I am the victim. Ben is the same way. I love that he cares so much, but I also wish that we both could be happy being ourselves and not care what other people think. Along with being sensitive to what people do to him, Ben is sensitive on behalf of other people. He is defensive about the people he loves, and I've learned especially that means his sisters. (Though he'll only tell you he loves Lily, he is tender about his Fia too)
Benjamin is passionate. He gets discouraged when things aren't easy for him. He has more patience learning physical things. He learned to inline skate in less than a week. He runs fast, jumps high, likes scoring goals, making baskets and being the goalie. He gets sweaty. He has a killer smile, but he usually looks serious when he's playing sports. He is a natural athlete. I had to tell him that he would never be able to sign autographs if he didn't learn to write his name. We've put numbers on jerseys to help him learn.
He loves everything boyish... Nerf guns, sports, sticks, cars, monster trucks, motorcycles, robots, dinosaurs, Legos, riding his bike and scooter and building blocks. But, he also likes music, dancing, looking for shells at the beach and cooking.
I am in love with my boy. I feel more than privileged to get to help guide him and teach him even during those times when I am frustrated with him.
One of my favorite people in the entire world is my Benjamin. He is so often misunderstood, and I don't help that since our relationship is sometimes bipolar. He is the first miracle I was ever a witness to, and a part of. He is the thorn in my side and he is one of my very best friends. He comforts me; he'll rub my back or my shoulder and he's not afraid to cuddle his mommy.
I joke with some friends that Ben is like a great dane. To say he is big is kind of an understatement. At 5 years old, he is 47 and a half inches tall. To put that in perspective, the height marker for the 100th percentile for his age is 46 inches. We were at Chuck E. Cheese last week and Ben was taller than a 7 year old. He wears size 2 shoes. Technically, he could probably wear a size 1, but if I buy a size 1, it'll be too small in a month or so. Last week the kids made Mother's Day cards at preschool. Ben's hand print cutouts didn't fit in the envelope... everyone else's did.
So my boy is big. And I love it. But I hate it. The pediatrician told me at his 4-year check up that it would make other adults, especially, expect Ben to behave like a child of his size, so a five or six year old. See, the thing about Ben that gets me every time is his temper. My temper. The difference is that I had a 27 year head start at learning to control it. And other adults, and me, have a hard time with Ben's temper. The thing that also comes with the temper are the tantrums. And a 50 pound five year old is hard to wrestle with. But I digress. MY boy is big and beautiful.
His shortcomings are my shortcomings, so I am automatically endeared to him. We are both vulnerable in the same ways, so it's hard for me to share here some of things he struggles with, because we both do. Ben takes most everything personally. If you accidentally knock over his drink at dinner, it must have been a personal attack. I am not so sensitive, but watch out if I see you whispering to someone... I will automatically think that something dastardly is going on and that I am the victim. Ben is the same way. I love that he cares so much, but I also wish that we both could be happy being ourselves and not care what other people think. Along with being sensitive to what people do to him, Ben is sensitive on behalf of other people. He is defensive about the people he loves, and I've learned especially that means his sisters. (Though he'll only tell you he loves Lily, he is tender about his Fia too)
Benjamin is passionate. He gets discouraged when things aren't easy for him. He has more patience learning physical things. He learned to inline skate in less than a week. He runs fast, jumps high, likes scoring goals, making baskets and being the goalie. He gets sweaty. He has a killer smile, but he usually looks serious when he's playing sports. He is a natural athlete. I had to tell him that he would never be able to sign autographs if he didn't learn to write his name. We've put numbers on jerseys to help him learn.
He loves everything boyish... Nerf guns, sports, sticks, cars, monster trucks, motorcycles, robots, dinosaurs, Legos, riding his bike and scooter and building blocks. But, he also likes music, dancing, looking for shells at the beach and cooking.
I am in love with my boy. I feel more than privileged to get to help guide him and teach him even during those times when I am frustrated with him.
I'm calling a "do over"
I've been inspired to start blogging again, and since in the past I've been really quite horrible at it, I am simply calling elementary school playground "do over". That's it. The past is the past and there is some line from The Lion King about it, but my kids don't particularly care for that flick, so I can't quote it. Someone somewhere knows what I'm talking about.
Sunday, November 28, 2010
We're bad bloggers!
What can I say? I guess I should say that it isn't really a "we" issue with the blogging.... it's a "me" issue. I don't particularly know where all of my time goes, but between laundry and trying to tame the kiddos and keep the house somewhat clean and keep up with my new calling and help with preschool, there isn't much time left over for even changing my facebook status, so the blog goes by the wayside.
Life is good, but always busy. Ben and Sofia are growing like weeds. Ben alone has grown three inches in the past 7 months - we only know because we all cheered the day he hit 40 inches and could go on Thunder Mountain Railroad at Disneyland. Sofia is talking more and more and some days that's a bad thing. She has a tendency to punish Ben and that leads to more arguements between the two. When they get along they are as cute as can be - it just doesn't usually last too long.
Charles is busy with work and trying to do some side jobs since there is so much uncertainty in the job market lately. I am the new Relief Society President in my ward, so I think that pretty much sums up what my life is about lately.
We are tring hard to keep our perspective and enjoy life as we live it. We hope you're all well too!
Life is good, but always busy. Ben and Sofia are growing like weeds. Ben alone has grown three inches in the past 7 months - we only know because we all cheered the day he hit 40 inches and could go on Thunder Mountain Railroad at Disneyland. Sofia is talking more and more and some days that's a bad thing. She has a tendency to punish Ben and that leads to more arguements between the two. When they get along they are as cute as can be - it just doesn't usually last too long.
Charles is busy with work and trying to do some side jobs since there is so much uncertainty in the job market lately. I am the new Relief Society President in my ward, so I think that pretty much sums up what my life is about lately.
We are tring hard to keep our perspective and enjoy life as we live it. We hope you're all well too!
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