The Things You Never Want to Forget

In every walk of life there are the things we could all do without such as the valleys in a marriage, the mars of college it took to get that degree, or cringing in the dentist chair in order to ensure your teeth are clean and cavity/gingivitis free.  The same is very much true in parenting and motherhood.  We could most certainly do without contractions and the recovery time after giving birth, which, by the way no one feels the need to mention before hand...  If you ask me at least half of child birthing classes should be dedicated to "What to Expect After Giving Birth and Oh Yeah, Don't Look Down After That Baby is Born!". I can't speak for anyone else, but I could do without the lack of sleep, the child testing phases (that come around multiple times), the throw your self on the floor and thrash around like you are having turrets episodes that can occur on a whim and at any location, the blow out diapers and of course my all time favorite, the whining stage...  While these things are not fun to say the least and may discourage you from ever wanting to have children, I can tell you that it is well worth it in the long run.  You can't have the good without the bad.  So while these are the things that relish forgeting as time marches on there are so many joyous, heart melting things that I NEVER want to slip my mind.  Hence the reason for this blog... 

Lincoln's imagination is running wild and his creativity is at it's peak.  He has a story for everything and loves to have me tell him stories in return.  Some of his favorite stories right now are from my childhood.  He loves to hear about when I got the Chicken Pox at Bekah's house and how Uncle Aaron got them after me.  And he insists that I leave no detail out of the story.  If I skip over a detail he is quick to remind me.  He also loves the story of when Uncle Aaron was sleep walking and peed on our Super Nintendo...  

In the last few months he has loved playing "Rock, Paper, Scissors"  He still doesn't quite get the concept that you have to make your choice a head of time and stick with it...

He is very curious and the other day he was asking me why the sun wasn't out yet.  I responded with, "I don't know?  Maybe you should ask the sun?"  To which he very quickly said, "Mama!  You're silly!  The sun isn't a person!"

Yesterday he found remnants of a contact paper roll and was using it as a map.  He was making things up left and right about what was on the map and how the map was indicating where the "Silly Car" was.  The "Silly Car" has been missing from his car collection for quite some time now.  This new map however held the key to it's whereabouts.  By the end of the night it was determined that the "Silly Car" was located around the number 7 and that she must be at Cody's house...  In case you are wondering, she is still missing...

Lincoln is such a sweet heart and I hope that he never loses that spirit.  Not that I don't want him to be manly, but he has such a tender heart.  He is constantly telling me how much he loves me and that he wants to make me happy.  At times he makes it sound as if I beat or abuse him!  For example when he gets time-outs at daycare he has consequences at home.  When he has had a day of multiple time outs he often comes home and tells me, "Mama, I am going to go to bed and tomorrow I am going to make you so happy!"  He is quite the encourager as well.  He is constantly cheering Brooklyn on when she is trying something new (which little Miss Independent does quite frequently).

Brooklyn is a sassy pants!  She knows what she wants, just how she wants it and she is determined to do it on her own if at all possible.  She is also my risk taker.  She will pretty much try anything and go anywhere.  It's a little scary!  She is quite the chatter box and her vocabulary amazes me.  I don't recall Lincoln taking quite this much at this age, but then again it could have slipped my mind (if only I had started blogging sooner!)  If you tell Brooklyn no or take something from her she flips out.  She is quite dramatic.  I suspect the teen years to be noteworthy and "adventurous" for all of us...  Her willingness to try anything has helped Lincoln to step outside his comfort zone a little.

Her newest thing is giving hugs.  She LOVES to give hugs, it is so adorable.  She also recently started saying she was "sorry" for various things.  There is no shortage of love for her her brother either.  If he is not present she is asking about him.   

      

Love these kids to pieces :-)

Brooklyn was hanging out in her old car seat at our yard sale!

Lincoln and I went to the Olympic Club to have lunch and see "The Croods"

Brooklyn wearing her WSU shirt from The Cummins!

Sharing a smoothie...  It went smoothie at first... lol  Then the bickering and arguing set in and it was back to separate cups!

Little Miss Independent had to drink out of the bottle all by herself.

Staying cool by running the hose down the slide!

I caught Lincoln in the shower with Brooklyn's tea cups on his ears.  He was pretending they were his ear muffs that he wears when he mows the lawn with Josh.  He was going through a whole scenario where he was mowing then all of the sudden he was "weed whacking."

Nothing is safe anymore with this climber on the prowl ..  Nope, not even the smoothie Lincoln left at the table!

My little reader!  She absolutely loves books!  For the longest time she called them "gooks".  She will sit in her crib in the morning for 20 min plus with a few books and be perfectly content.  I cannot wait to read chapter books to her.    

While they bicker and both deliberately push one anothers' buttons at times, for the most part they get along really well and are good about sharing.  

Both the kids adore Thor and Morgan.  Thankfully Thor and Morgan are very tolerant of their activities...

She insisted on clipping her own toe nails.  Well, she went through the motions anyway...  Operator errors will need to be addressed in the future!

Both kids went though a few day phase where they were fascinated by these hair bands...

Lincoln asked if he could paint my toe nails...  It's a work in progress :-)

Brooklyn was in the tub before I could get her shirt off!

Here is the "map" Lincoln was using to find his missing car...