Who is Always Ready for a Swim?

Jumping (and smiling) to Daddy without any help


So happy in the water

We took J for a swim at the YMCA last night. I had not seen him in the pool in awhile since Dave has been the one taking him on Saturday mornings. He is doing really well! Hopefully, he won't have to spend any time this summer getting comfortable with the water again since he has been going throughout the year.

The Dating Years :)

Today marks the sixth anniversary of our first date..."our" meaning Dave and me! :) Both of us have held onto this special date (not sure if other people do this) and usually celebrate it at the restaurant where it all began...Outback. Instead, tonight we are going to a Mystery Dinner with some friends of ours, Ryan and Beth, from church. They asked our family to be their family's mystery guest at their Life Group meeting (dinner) tonight, and we thought it would be another great way to meet people from the church!

Happy Birthday, Grammie!

Today we dedicate our post to my mom (a.k.a Grammie) as she celebrates her birthday! We aren't there to celebrate with her, but we hope her day is very special! Let me begin by saying we appreciate the way she cares so much about everything going on in our life...we do tend to ramble on about us..and never grows tired of hearing every detail of J's life! Even more, she gives so much to each one of her grandsons and is truly the heart of our family! We have a few photos to share in honor of Grammie on her birthday. :)

New School ???

Dave and I found out last month that we had to make a decision about whether or not we want to keep J at his current school for next year. Dave really wanted me to make this decision for a variety of reasons. Originally, I thought I would only leave him at this school for a year to gain some independence from Mommy and enjoy being around other children, but we have had such a good experience that it left me unsure of exactly what to do! I know that the longer we stay may make a new transition later more difficult. So, I started praying, talking to other moms & teacher friends, and visiting other preschools in the area. There are so many factors for us moms to think about in this decision or at least this mom! Overall, I definitely want J to be prepared for kindergarten in three years, yet, these first few years should be all about learning through play. I sneak in times to work with him at home on concepts, but sometimes outside people can be more effective. Most importantly, I really want J's first lessons to be taken straight from the book inspired by the greatest teacher of all time-Jesus Christ.

I also want a place where they love our little boy, and I feel totally comfortable leaving him. I started reflecting on the positives/negatives of where he is right now and this is what I came up with that made me make my final decision: he loves his teachers and they are moving up with his class, they sincerely love him for who he is, teachers offer feedback about him when I ask, it offers structure and socialization, they share stories from the Bible, he is learning academic concepts always through art, play, etc., versus a place where he could probably be learning even more academics, gives assessments, offers elaborate crafts (ha!), the classes are offered more days or longer days. I was going back and forth about these things for days.

Finally, it came to me that I was really becoming preoccupied with all of these details of a school; though, I know so many things are important during the formative years of J's life, but the most important thing right now is that we (Dave and I) teach him about obedience and respect. I heard a pastor say one time that if we don't teach our children to submit to us, they will never submit to our Heavenly Father. So, I put aside all of those silly details about a school, and, well, can you guess what we decided??? He is staying right where he is...still not sure why I created such a long post about it. I will post some pics to make up for it! :)

Here's what J has been doing while I have been thinking about this school thing...

Right When You Think You Have Them Figured Out...They CHANGE!

We had a busy but fun weekend! We went to see my parents and celebrate their February birthdays. It is pretty relaxing there for Dave and me because almost always there is a grandparent, aunt, cousin, etc. that will entertain J! Yes, we aren't ashamed to admit that we like to have a little break sometimes! So, this weekend, J always had someone there to play with him, make him laugh, prepare him a meal fit for a king, etc.!
Today has been a day of relaxing for J and me. I did a few things around the house while he played. He is going through this stage where he doesn't really want to play too much with Dave or me-another part of his new found independence (see earlier post: Mommy vs. Toddler). I guess it is better than him being needy and not playing by himself at all. Also, on the bright side, he still loves playing with other kids and familiar adults. I really miss the days of racing cars on the kitchen floor or putting puzzles together! :( Hopefully, those days will return. He is also becoming a little obsessed with tv which really doesn't work to his advantage since I limit his tv time. This has always worked well for us, because when I give him time to watch his show, he'll sit down and watch the entire program while I get other things done. Lately, he constantly wants to watch Barney or Mickey Mouse, and I can't seem to distract him for long with other things unless we physically aren't here. He does still love his trucks, buses, cars, etc. so that helps. Oh well, these toddlers are always changing!

Another Fun Friday

Another week comes to an end, and we have been busy with our usual activities. Today was a MOPS day, and we listened to a speaker talk about the five love languages of children based on Gary Chapman's book. Dave and I have gone through the study for adults and found it very helpful in our marriage. The 5 love languages for children are the same as adults (quality time, receiving gifts, physical touch, acts of service, words of affirmation). I have already tried to figure out J's, but it won't be totally clear until around age 5. J had a great time in MOPPETS! His teachers had previously told me that he loves music time and gets really excited about doing the motions to every song! Today, they told me that he was dancing like they had ever seen before..so much like his Daddy! :) We had lunch at Chic-fil-A with my friend, Kelley, and her two year old son. We hadn't been in about two weeks and Miss Lida, the older lady who works in there, was so happy to see the boys. She had our table set up with a little parfait for each one of us! She loves watching the boys grow up and kind of spoils both of them by letting them help her sweep when there aren't many people or giving them little treats. People like Miss Lida make me love it here! We let the boys play for a little while in the play area. J loves it in there, but won't really climb on anything unless we go with him. He'll climb up a few steps, and then he comes right back down! He loves the buttons and spin toys! He is very different on the playground as he'll climb higher than I am comfortable with at times. Well, today was little different...he threw his cautious side to the wind...climbed up to the top (I just watched)...down the slide...smiling the whole time! I was so proud of him, and we even called Dave at work to tell him! I guess J had such a good time today that taking a nap wasn't on his agenda! It was on my agenda. Urgh!!!


My new haircut

Mommy vs. Toddler

Today was the first day in J's life where he has battled me on what he wanted to wear. I have always picked out his clothes, but today he didn't want to wear what I picked out. He wanted to wear his too big anteater shirt, while I wanted him to wear his warm sweatshirt with cute buttons and a little collar. J won. After all, the anteater shirt is ok, it matches his pants, and we aren't going anywhere. So, now I have a husband who is putting an end to certain outfits and a child who has an opinion about it, also. This is just great for Mommy.