Just Venting

Some weeks I feel like I am on top of the parenting game and things are going really well, and then there are weeks like this one and the past one...and many, many, more....where I'm pretty sure I can't do anything right and I'm failing motherhood.

I sort of want to rip my hair out and cry.  Well, let's be honest, I've already cried.

This oldest son of mine is such a challenge for me.  He is still peeing in his pants, regularly.  He hits his brother, regularly.  He has taken up spitting.  Can a nearly 4 year old know how to lie?  Because I'm pretty sure mine does.  He doesn't obey.  He threw an alarming large tantrum Monday night. Wow...out of control!

I resort to counting and threatening and sometimes things get really ugly, like today, and I yell and grab with more force than is necessary or kind.  I hate that.  I feel horrible every time I do it.  It doesn't change his behavior or help the situation.  Aghh!!

Any advice from your wise women?  Any help on me not losing it?  Is it just a stage or phase or is my child really messed up?  Should I be seeking therapy for he (and I)?  Blah.....

Hopefully this week ends soon.  I need a break.

Boy Where Does the Time Go?!

I guess I somehow got behind again on this little old bloggy blog.  Somehow I kept thinking there wasn't much that happened recently and then I upload photos and go "oh yeah, that was kind of a big deal."  Or maybe not even a big deal but surely more pictures than I thought I had.

So, to recap:

Lynda and her family came to visit.  We took the boys to our ward party one night while Lynda and Jason had a date night.  They loved it.  Can't you tell by the look on Josh's face?

We also took a little trip to the weird Swetsville zoo in our neighboring town.  Such a weird place.  But I do kind of love it.

It's just a bunch of crazy metal statues some guy makes.  They are pretty cool and fun to see.  My boys probably liked this gross sand box more though.

Isaac wanted to ride the train and touch everything, which you are not supposed to do, so that was fun for me.  "Isaac stop touching.  Keep your hands off.  Do I need to take you to the car?"  

Ben gets so rosy every time he's out in the sun. He is such a sweaty hot bodied little boy.  I think I would be miserable if I were him but he doesn't seem bothered by the pool of sweat he is constantly in.  Yuck.  

Jacob snapped this photo the other day of Ben licking the pick in a book.  Jacob thought it was hilarious. Just don't tell the library...it's one of their books after all.

Ben and Isaac have been loving all things with wheels lately.  It's all they want to do.  There will be more photos of that coming up.  Just wait for it...

This is the quilt I made for Jacob's sister's new little baby girl.  She was born last Sunday and I still haven't been able to see her.  My boys and I come down with colds.  It's pretty crappy timing if you ask me.  I can't wait to hold that tiny little newborn.  So cute!  I also really like how this quilt turned out.

More of Lynda's visit (these photos are in totally random order and I don't have the patience to change them up).  They arrived to our house on Matt's 16th birthday.  We went out to dinner and than I had made a cake and Jacob made some homemade ice cream.  We also played clue that night.  Jacob won, I was sad.  I love clue and I love winning at clue.  It was still fun...I guess.  :)

Matt was a good sport to play so much with Isaac.  Isaac sure loved Josh and Matt.  With the arrival of our new niece Isaac has been talking a lot about babies.  He thinks we should have one.  He'd like to name it Josh or Matt if it's a boy.  I asked him what he we name it if we happened to have a girl.  He said it should be named "Mommy or digger or something like that."  He also mentioned it would be okay to name a girl Aunt Sarah or the name of Sarah's new baby (London, by the way).  I guess if we have another baby we are all set in the name department!

Ben really loved his cousins too.  He was delighted to be involved in older kid kind of play.  Or at least to be near older kid kind of play.

We recently purchased a bike for Isaac to use as a "strider" kind of bike, you know, the pedal-less ones.  I found this weird bike at goodwill for 4 dollars.  Can't beat the price!  I took the pedals off and Isaac cried.  He thinks he's capable enough to just hop on and ride away off into the sunset without any practice at all.  I advised him that this bike was purchased as a means to learn balance and then when he has that down we'd get him an appropriate sized, new bike with wheels.  He was consoled by that at all.  He tried to ride his friends bike tonight and I asked him how it went.  He said it was no good.  He doesn't have the balance yet.  Maybe the bemoaning his lost pedals will end.  Mostly he only cried one day and then decided he loves this bike.  He still is eager to move on to pedals though.

Ben is a crazy man!  He is not yet two and has mastered this little scooter.  It's crazy.  And a little scary.  He likes to start at the top of the downhill driveway and take it full speed.  When he first figured it out his response was giggles and big smiles followed closely with "mo, mo.  again, again."  I took some video of the two of them on their scooter and bike but I'm not sure how to upload it.  I'll post it when I figure that out.

Jacob is a good man and a good dad.  He likes to have a family party every time we reach certain milestones in paying off our house.  We recently celebrated one such milestone with dinner and a movie.  I wanted Chinese take out and Isaac wanted Cafe Rio.  Jacob didn't care.  I tried and tried to convince Isaac (which I still can't believe, he gets his love of Cafe Rio from me after all) that Chinese would be delicious but he was having none of it.  So, Jacob and I decided happy kids was more important than the food.  Cafe Rio it was!  I picked it up while the boys got everything ready for the movie.  Such a fun night!  Thanks Jacob!

And Isaac successfully made it through his 2nd movie.  He's not big on any sort of show with any type of conflict.  He did mention that he might prefer to watch a movie during the day.  He was pretty tired by the time the movie was over.  It really wasn't that much later than he normally goes to bed.  Funny kid!

"What is this?" you ask.  Well so did I.  I was checking on Isaac the other night before bed and saw this on his floor.  He had removed the bandaids from his knee and put them on this book like that.  I asked what it was all about and he kind of grinned and giggled.  I think he thought he was going to be in trouble so I asked if he was just being silly.  He said he was and that he was pretending the eyes of the owl were ponds (they kind of make a bowl shaped out of the pages of the book) and the bandaids were bridges.  I thought it was so funny.  I laughed right along with him.  

And as a side note, I think he stayed up later making ponds and  bandaid bridges than he did watching the previously mentioned movie.  Just sayin'.

Major Photo Catch Up

This is going to be mostly pictures with just a bit of commentary so I can finally catch up with all the photos that have been sitting on my cameras.  These are also probably totally random.  What can ya do?

This is a little embarrassing but a very realistic and accurate view of what my house typically looks like before the big end of the day clean up.  It's pure disaster.  This particular evening after dinner they were riding the broom like a horse.

And also trying to pull each on the broom.

Jacob and I both love when Ben finds a book and a blanket and sets down to read.  Cuteness abounds.

This is also a recent favorite game.  Not sure why it came to be.  Ben sits on whatever bag with a strap he can find and calls it his car.  He pretends to steer and honks the horn with a little "beep, beep."  I guess the straps are a must to act as seat belts.  Clever boys.

And of course emptying the big toy bin provides lots of fun both in toys and an empty bin.

Ben had corn on the cob in Oregon for the first time and wanted nothing to do with the cob.  I had to cut the corn off the cob.  I was pleased to see him figure it out and REALLY enjoy it once we got home.  Seriously, he will gnaw at the cob until every last kernel is off.

This is a random picture of the progress on the LDS temple that is being built not far from our house.  So exciting!

Ben won't touch anything with bread like texture, including pizza.  This was the face he pulled while I tried to get him to taste it.  Later that week he actually ate tortilla and a little slice of homemade bread.  Maybe we are moving to new place where he won't be so picky.  I can only hope.

Trying to put daddy's pants on one morning.  Ignore the embarrassing mess in our bedroom.  It was clean few days later.  You see, I have a system.  I clean one room a day, this day was not the day for our bedroom.  And, let's be honest, it's the room that often gets neglected because "who sees my bedroom?"  Hmm....I guess you all do now.

This was our "Family Fun Day" that began with our annual trip to the county fair.  It was a good time as always.  This year we were there in the morning and saw the old, antique tractor parade.  The boys loved that.  We also saw some fun horse race of some kind.  We saw the junior division, a bunch of kids racing their horse and trying to put flags in a bucket or something.  I enjoyed that a lot.

We also rode the trolley for part of our fun day.  Ben's face was pure awesomeness.  He settled down but at first he was so wide eyed and nervous looking.  They both really loved it.  We ride the trolley a couple of times each year and it's always a good time.

Isaac had his 6 month cleaning this week.  Jacob took him.  I'm glad he snapped a picture since I never did of his first dentist appointment 6 months ago.  So there it is.

Ben climbs the walls.  Literally.

Last week I took the boys to a park that has a farm.  We loved these turkeys.

I think this water pump was the boys favorite part of the whole trip.

In an empty silo.

Ponies.

Pigs.

Goats.

More matching cuteness.

Water balloons!  So much fun for these boys this summer.

"Build a track that looks like a car mom."  Done.

I guess I'm all about the matching lately.  They are just too adorable.  And this series of pictures made me laugh.  It shows their little personalities perfectly.

Ben loves to copy Isaac in all things.

And then we had some more water fun in our back yard.  I bought this little splash pad type set up at Target for pretty cheap and I sure love it.  It's great for when I don't feel like packing everything up and going to an actual park.

These boys have also really been into fort building and "car" building with my couch cushions.  I probably should not allow it as much as I do but they love it and it gives me a few minutes peace and quiet.

We also recently did back yard s'mores.  All the boys wanted to match in BYU shirts.  Okay.  Let's do that.

Ben ended up with a whole marshmallow stuck to his shirt which then ended up on his face as I took the shirt off to clean it off.  You can tell he loved that.

Phew!  Officially caught up on blogging!