Summer 2010

This year has already been a very very busy year for us (can't you tell from my lack of blogging lately?).  I went back to work early in the beginning of the year, and Ron followed suit again shortly thereafter.  Brayden is now with a sitter for a few hours a day, and is really doing well with that.  He is having a lot of fun with his new friends, and the only thing he doesn't thoroughly enjoy is getting up early in the morning with Mommy to get ready to go.  He grumbles, re-snuggles into his pillows and acts like he does not even hear me!!!

Of course with all of that going on, Ron has just finished another season of the Babe Ruth prep league, regular season team and the all star teams.  His coaching was awesome this year, and he was even awarded for the 2011 Ray Angle Awward for Babe Ruth!  He was very proud, and it was VERY hard for me to keep it a secret for two weeks!  Me...keeping a secret!  I know~but I did it folks! Brayden of course had the time of his life again this season with his own little uniform to match the big kids, and he had tons of little kids to play with at each and every game we attended.  We even got to go out of town for All star championships this year and have a nice 4 days in a hotel room...it was baseball for the boys, and LUXURY for Momma!  I truly enjoyed having this time with both of my boys as the days seem to get shorter and shorter as of late.

I have not really been doing much of anything except working (which I LOVE my job), and trying to keep up with and support Rons endeavors with baseball this summer.  Of course, the usual has taken place....Bray and Mommy time, playtime, pool time, and not much else.  We have spent weeks eating out, avoiding cleaning and laundry, and just relaxing with each other at each special moment we can.  I am going to start blogging again more regularly, as I have had an interesting last year and need to reflect on it in some ways.  Hope you are all enjoying your nice hot summer as well!  Will be back shortly with some pics and stories.

Our dear sweet Shadow...

Our dear Shadow of 15 years passed away the second week of March. She peacefully went in her sleep and we buried her at Stateline along with all of the other family dogs. It was very heartbreaking for Ron and I and our family and friends that loved her as well. Bacca and Brayden actually handled it very well.
Brayden asked me {about a week later}..."Mommy, where's Shadow?" I was honest and told him that sometimes when animals get sick, their isnt enough medicine to make them better and that animals dont live as long as poeple do, and that she passed away and went to heaven". He said "Well...when Shadow comes back Bacca will be happy!" I then had to really explain that going to Heaven meant she would not be coming back , and that she was dead, and she is no longer in pain, and is with God and our other family in heaven with our guardian angels" {he knows this from our prayers at night, so I went with that}. He walked away and started playing again with his play phone when I breathed a sigh of relief until I heard him say to his caller "Hi Shadow, its me...Brayden...how are you? Oh, really? Wow, yeah, uh huh, ok...bye!!!! He came running up to me and said very excitedly "Mommy!!!!!!!! I talked to Shadow and she is happy in heaven, and they gave her a band aid, and she is jumping on the trampoline and bounce house!!!" I got all excited with him, and when he walked away....I sobbed! It's amazing though that he embraced something I thought would devastate him.

Shadow {Pretty girl}...was a part of our family since 1997.  We got Bacca  a year later.  She was our little escape artist..she would dig under or climb over any fence we had.  She would "sass" you when you talked to her, and she loved whip cream, peanut butter and ice chips.  She never growled, never nipped, she was the sweetest happiest dog ever!  She would constantly give kisses and loved to play and run and frolic as many dogs do.  She had such an adventurous life, and loved riding in the car on our many road trips with her.  She would swim in our pool and hop around like a frog when we played rough with her...she would have me in stitches half the time.  She was such a wonderful part of our family.  Burying her was emotional, but in a good way.  The last few years arthritis plagued her and she slowly became miserable.  She would just sleep, eat and go potty. I felt relieved that is now in Heaven and no longer in pain.  There is true solice in that.  I hope her soul is still with us, and that she knows just how much we loved her!!!

We will greatly miss her!!! So...we are giving Bacca lots of love and attention right now! We love you pretty girl!

Update...long overdue

Well, I'll admit it...I feel like the long lost blogger these days.  I keep thinking "Oooh, Ill need to blog about that", except, I typically don't have time to do it these days anymore. 

This Momma has gone from Stay at home Mommy Status to back to work Mommy.  I received an offer for a career I just could not say no too.  I am now an Assistant Executive Director for Emeritus Senior Living.  I love it!  It does require a lot of my time and concentration, but it is also pushing me to go back to school this year as well to pursue my Bachelors in Business, then I plan to work on a Maters after that.  Needless to say, my home decor and furniture rehab projects have gone by the wayside {as well as cleaning my house lately!} lol.  The only I dislike about the whole thing is when I get home from work Brayden says to me "Mommy, are you done with work so you can spend time with me now?"  It breaks my heart, but it also motivates me to get on the floor and play when all I want to do is sleep for an hour or two! lol.

Brayden is growing as fast ever!  He is definitely going to be taller than me...and maybe Ron too!  He is counting, learning all of his letters, numbers, and is slowly working on reading right now.  He speaks so well for his age, and is constantly making us giggle with his remarks and personality.  He loves being home during the day with Daddy, and is learning everything he can about dinosaurs right now...{c/o: Dino Dan}.  I must say I am quite impressed with the names of the ones he knows currently...half of them I CANT pronounce...and he can!  All in all, he is a wonderful little guy.  I need to make an effort to document everything I can so Ill never forget these moments in his life.

Daddy is still at that Fire Department.  He loves it.  He was awarded First Responder this year at the banquet, received his EMT state certification, and just had his 1 year anniversary there last week.  During that week he was privileged enough to be able to assist in the delivery of a baby on the ambulance and received his first EMT First Responder Stork pin, and an article in the local newspaper!!!  He is also getting ready to start coaching Babe Ruth Baseball again this year and is gearing up for a whole summer full of all that it will entail!

I promise to get everyone caught up here in the next coming weeks.  Stay tuned!!!

Plex...

If you know my child, you know that he has a serious friendship with his Yo Gabba friends.  Tonight I went to see my nephew and have a dinner with his cub scouts at this school.  When I left, Brayden told me "I very miss you Mommy"...meaning he would miss me while I was gone {aweeee}.

When I got home, he was upstairs, he came down asking Daddy who was here.  Daddy said he didn't know...so I hid around the corner and popped out thinking he would be all excited to see me {you know, because he was going to miss me so much while I was gone}....and Brayden just plainly looked at me and said "Oh, I thought Plex was here".

Oooohhhh...well okay then!!!  Guess the Mommy novelty thing is running thin these days.

Doe re me...

Lastnight as we were getting ready for bed, Brayden came running into the bathroom with the extension from the vacuum using it like a microphone singing his little heart out!  He threw me for a loop when I heard him sing {and pretty on key} "Doe Re Me Fa So La Tee Doe"

I used to sing that to him about a year or more ago over and over again as he played the piano so he would start to recognize keys and notes.  He loved when I sang that to him, but never repeated it, and had not attempted it until lastnight.  I cannot believe he even remembered that!  I told Ron this was my baseball moment...that my child is singing, and loves it, and is actually good at it.  When I was pregnant I used to say that I was going to have a little boy that loved singing as much as I do, my little Josh Groban...haha!  I was so proud of my peanut lastnight, my heart swelled a little bit. 

Honestly...if he never enjoyed singing at all, I wouldnt mind, but since its been such a big part of my life, I kind of hoped he would love it, or at least be able to do it well.  I just thought it was really special, and very cool.  Mommy was impressed Bray!

O R E O

The other night Brayden and Daddy decided to have Oreo's together.  Daddy taught Brayden how to dunk his cookies in milk, and Brayden could'nt have loved it more!  He dunked and ate oreo's and dunked some more.  His face, fingers and shirt were covered with drippy crumbling oreo goodness.  It was certainly a Daddy and Brayden moment to remember.  I sat on the couch giggling at them both and snapping pictures of course.  I love moments that are simple and perfect like this.

My little flying monkey...

For the last few years, I have really been wanting to make Brayden a Flying Monkey costume from the Wizard of Oz.  I wasn't quite sure how I would pull it off exactly, but knew I wanted to try making this for him.  This year, this Momma was on a mission to get it done.  I searched everywhere for grayish/blue furry fabric so I could match the monkey exactly to the old movie.  I could not find it anywhere.  {sigh}

I finally settled on some white furry fabric and decided it would still look cute even so!  Next, I searched for really cool feathers so I could hand make the wings for the costume.  I bought 6 bags of feathers, ended up only needing two of them...so I'll just hope that I need them for something else soon!!!

I started making his costume on Saturday, October 30th...yes I am a huge procrastinator.  I cut, and sewed and cut {ran and bought another yard of fur}, and continued sewing for most of the day!  I finished Halloween Day at about 2pm...phew!

I will add that although Brayden DID end up liking his costume, that on Saturday he was trying on the suit before it was finished and got fur in his mouth.  He immediately started dry heaving, and yelling "get it off me, I don't like it anymore...fur is not my favorite snack!"  I'm not even kidding...this dramatic little child of mine ;-)

Thankfully by Sunday, he was ready and raring to go putting his costume on.  He was so excited, and looked like such a soft little monkey, I just wanted to pet him!  ha!

I added some fishing wire to his tail so it would wag as he walked, and the wings turned out so cute...even if they did require me sitting gluing each one on one by one for over 4 hours!!! Gotta love hot glue gun burns though right?  Well...they were totally worth it, he looked adorable.  I am so happy with how this whole costume turned out!  Most importantly...he had a blast trick or treating.  He kept telling people "thank you" and "Happy Halloween", and even knocked on one door screaming "Hello, Lakewood Fire Department!!!"  He's a hoot!

Happy Halloween 2010 Brayden...or....Flying Monkey I should say!