goodbye forever

Jon has officially bid his twenties farewell. I feel lucky that I still have a couple more good years before that happens to me.

I'm sure most people can relate- I remember vividly thinking that 30 was so old. But now that Jon is there and I am so close, I don't necessarily feel that way anymore. Is 30 the new 20? I sure hope so.

Unlike my counterpart, I don't have a natural abilty to make up some sort of funny, catchy rhyme to honor and celebrate this exciting event. So some reminiscing of our relationship will have to do.

I remember the first time I saw him. We were at a party at Alicia's house. It had to have been the fall of 1993 or so. He was playing in his rock band on the patio (this was before Joe was the drummer). I loved his long hair and cool clothes and thought he was way cute. If you ask him- he doesn't even remember me at this party, which is precisely how things went for the next few years- we went to a lot of the same parties. I even went to his 16th birthday party at his house and he didn't realize it until years later when he saw me in a picture taken at that party.

Moving on- I finally caught his eye and he asked me out. We went on our first date in March of 1996. We saw a movie, ate Nerds and he tried to hold my hand, it was really sweet.

Those early times of young love are really fun to think back on. We had some great times, with great friends. Jon is still the sweet, considerate, talented, creative, hard-working person I fell in love with all those years ago.

We liked being cheesy back then, Jon, so here's a fresh dose. Loves.

it's snow fun

A video from the weekend of fun with our visitors. Some comments and funny things to watch for:

• No, Maryn is not wearing oven mitts- those are her snow mittens.
• Jonas is super sleepy the whole time, poor baby.
• Jon's trademark feature makes a few appearances (some of you will know of what I speak).
• The last line on the tape is the funniest- wait for it!

my birthday boys

I wanted to document some of the things Seth has been saying over the past few days surrounding his birthday. He seemed to think that turning five was going to mean huge, immediate changes. You'll see what I mean....

"Mom, tomorrow when I'm five, what am I going to look like? What is my voice going to sound like?"
When I explained that he wasn't going to change overnight and that he grows a little bit every day, his response was "How am I ever going to get big, then?"

"So now that I'm five, I get to stop going to preschool and start going to kindergarten, right?"
This wasn't helped by the fact that we went on two school tours yesterday as I'm trying to pick which school Seth will be going to in August. He just doesn't understand why he doesn't get to go to kindergarten right now.

"Mom, now that I'm five, I can ride my bike somewhere by myself, right? Like to the store or something?"
I don't know where this came from.


Jonas had a birthday too, the day after Seth. He is such a sweet little boy. He's been taking tentative steps for a few weeks now. He is very good at playing independently, but he also loves to try and do exactly what his siblings are doing. He continues to not be a very good eater. He's showing the same signs of milk allergy that Maryn did at this age, so I am less than thrilled about that. He loves to climb and uses this skill to get into as many things as possible. I think he will be the first of my children to craw out of his crib. The only time he will sit still is when I read a book to him. His favorite is Good Morning, Good Night.
He says a few words...at least I think he does. When he's upset he yells something that sounds like "Mom!". He says "Da-da" when Jon comes home each day, and he waves and says something that sounds like "Hi!".

One last note, with all these birthdays- Maryn can't understand why it's not her birthday too. Luckily, Grandma B brought her a present when she brought presents for the boys- a Care Bear blanket and pillows that she loves! (pic to come)

And more pics and video to come of our weekend visitors. We had a fun, fun time with Papa, Grandma, Scotty and Rach. We love you!

Jon's new video

Jon finished this today. The theme here (he says) is the chaos and order of domestic life with children. Enjoy friends and family!

a little late...

This meme has been going around for a while. Many people have "tagged" me but I'm just now getting around to participating. Sorry, I should be better about keeping up with the blog-o-shere.

What is his name? Jon (formally Jonathan Walter)
How long have we been married? 7 1/2 years. Seriously, where did the time go?
How old is he? In his twenties for 14 more days.
Who eats more? Um.....I'm embarrased to report that we both eat about the same amount. I remember there was a time when I couldn't finish a Chipotle burrito by myself, but those days are long gone.
Who said I love you first? It went like this- we were standing on the driveway to my house and Jon said "I'm going to say something, but you don't have to respond if you don't want to." Just in case you're wondering, I did respond in agreement.
Who is taller? He's about six feet tall, I measure up at about five feet, eight inches.
Who sings better? Those of you who know us, know this answer. Jon is way more muscially talented than I am. I enjoying singing (lately it's pretty much been hymns on Sunday or songs to my kids), but Jon has an awesome singing voice- regular or rockstar.
Whose temper is worse? We both have a temper. The difference between us is Jon tends to get mad and then get over it fairly quickly, whereas I have trouble letting things go and therefore stay mad longer.
Who is smarter? This question is like the previous one- relative to the situation. Jon has a very creative mind which is useful in his chosen field of study and contributes to his musical talent. I have a very un-creative, linear mind which was helpful in my chosen field of study but quite annoying in the real world.
Who mows the lawn? We have never had a lawn. By the time we do, I think we'll have Seth mow it.
Who pays the bills? I organize the finances in our house but currently, Jon is the only one bringing home the money to pay the bills.
Who does the dishes? Both of us. Pretty much every night, we work together until the kitchen is clean.
Who cooks dinner? I really hate cooking- every aspect from the menu planning to the grocery shopping to the actual execution with children crying under my feet. I dread dinner time. Because he knows this- Jon will usually cook 2-3 times per week. And he is a fabulous cook. He comes up with dishes by just throwing together ingredients (which is something I cannot do).
Who drives when you are together? I also hate driving. (Since we moved here, I have backed up into a parked car on 2 different occasions. Plus with the snow and ice....I really, really hate it.) So Jon always drives. (Although, when we moved out here, I did drive our van 75% of the way. So I can drive, I just don't like to.)
Who is more stubborn? We both are at times, but I think my times are more often.
Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? Jon, no question. (See above answer about not staying mad very long.)
Who has more friends? We have a lot of the same friends. In general, Jon is better at maintaining relationships with friends. So since moving here, I have had to try and be more like him in this way.
Who wears the pants in the family? This is a really dumb question. We both wear pants.

my little boys are growing up

(Seth with Bear, age 6 months)

If any of you have known Seth since he was a baby, you know that "Bear" is very important to him. Because he never took a pacifier, holding Bear was the only thing that would help him go to sleep. Seth's first word was not "Mama" or "Dada", it was "Bear". Bear has been loved almost to death. Many trips to the washing machine after being thrown up and slobbered on has left his fur matted and the integrity of his stuffing severely compromised. Bear has never had a name, but recently (in the past few months) Seth decided to name him "Tickle" (no clue why). This morning he said to me-
"Mom, I don't think I need to sleep with Tickle anymore. I'm going to give him to Jonas."
Sure enough, when I put Jonas in his bed tonight, Tickle was there. It made me a little bit sad, my first little baby boy will be 5 in just a few days! I really can't believe it.

My second little baby boy will be one year old the day after his brother turns 5. Jonas is also growing up so quickly. As I have mentioned before, we have two very steep staircases in our house. Just yesterday morning, I was talking to my friends about how well Jonas has learned to navigate those staircases. He has only fallen down once, right when he was learning to climb and then only a few stairs onto the carpeted floor. Well, yesterday afternoon we fell down the entire staircase onto the concrete floor of our basement. When I picked him up, he was bleeding profusely from both his mouth and nose. The doctor said that he completely lacerated his frenum and might have broken his nose. But she assured me that both of these problems are not treatable and will heal on their own. In addition to these injuries, he currently has a bruised bump, black eye and small cut under his eye from when Seth threw a toy at his face earlier in the week. So now these newest injuries of another bump on the forehead, fat lip and possible broken nose makes me the mother of a tiny Rocky Balboa look-a-like.
The way he's acting today, you'd think nothing happened to him. Truth is, his face actually looks one hundred percent better today than it did last night, so that's why this picture doesn't look so bad.

I just want them to slow down!

princess p

We've had a bit of a regression with Maryn's potty training. She hasn't been able to "make it" soon enough, if you know what I mean. So on the day that Jon was making a video, we were trying to praise her a bit--plus she looks so cute!