Happy Birthday B!

Dearest Benjamin,

Today you are three. How? When? Where did the time go? It seems just last year I went into labor Thanksgiving night. A labor that last 37 hours, ended in a c-section - all of which was not apart of my plans! However, the outcome was a healthy 7lb 8oz 20 inch baby of pure love. And since that day you have rocked my world! You made me a mama and taught me so much about what life is about.

In three short years you have come so far! This year you learned to talk, really talk. With the help of First Steps and Miss Sarah, she worked with you every week for an hour. We played games, working on word sounds, and putting sounds together to form words. In just 6 short months of therapy you went from saying 10 words to having over 100! You are very smart and have an incredible memory according to Miss Sarah. You know how to get to grandma's house and you've known this for over a year!

Here are some memorable events or funny things you say and do:

• You have an imaginary lion, well, make that 2 lions. Mama rarrr and Dada rarrr. It all started when your over-active imagination thought there was a lion in your room. Instead of making it something scary, you turned it into a pet. When asked what the lion's name was, you said Mama rarr. Soon after Mamma rarr meet Dada rarr. I have sometimes heard of a baby rarr, so I guess we will see where that goes! You also have two pretend girlfriends; Tinina and Carnina. I think they are Mexican twins. 
• Speaking of imaginations, you love to pretend that you are in a boat and the waves are rough. You also catch fish!  
• You LOVE trains, riding your balance bike, digging for worms, cooking, going to pump gas. I know, only you would love going to the gas station.
• Monkey and you have become inseparable. Monkey goes everywhere with you, to grandma's to the store, you don't let him out of your sight. 
• You wake up Sis in the mornings with a "cock-a-doodle-doo" I'm sure she loves it. 
• You have been potty trained since you were 27 months old! We still need to work on night time potty training, but during the day and even during naps you are dry! 
• You call grandma "grrr" and grandpa "papaw or pop-pop" You can now say Jenny and Emmy. Meredith is still Sis and probably will always be Sis. Andrew is baby. I'm still Mama and Daddy is Dada. 
• You play the harmonica, and actually, you are pretty good. 
• You will chose fruit over anything. Grapefruit is currently a favorite.Vegetables are a close second. Sometimes you will eat chicken. You love cheese, especially goat cheese. You love Greek yogurt.You maybe allergic to peanuts and walnuts, we are going to get you tested.  
• You are skinny, dark brown hair and the darkest brown eyes I have ever seen. I call them oreo eyes because they are so dark! You are still in size 2T, the pants are getting short, but the 3T pants fall off of you. You are hanging out at the 35 percentile, weighing in at 31 pounds and 38 inches tall. 
• You still love to snuggle and before Sis and Andrew get up, you sit in my lap and we watch Curious George. 
• You went from a crib, to a toddler bed, to a twin bed this year. You are loving your big boy bed! Sometimes I lay down with you and you lay on your side facing me, with one arm draped around my neck. Pure sweetness. 

Benjamin, you have a loving, sweet personality with a touch of curiosity and adventure. Never change that. You are a gentleman by opening doors and saying, "ladies first." You comfort Sis when she is crying by sitting next to her and putting your arm around her and saying, "oh, sis." You talk about how you are going to play cars and trains with Andrew when he gets bigger.

So little man, on your third birthday, my wish for you is to grow and learn and keep this wonderful personality of yours. Never lose your sense of adventure, your wild imagination, your good hugs you give, and always know that your Mama will love you forever, as long as I'm living, my baby you'll be.

Love Forever and Always, to the Moon and Back, to Infinity and Beyond,
Mama.

Too much

We live in a disposable society where not only do we throw out an incredible amount of 'stuff'; we also collect an incredible amount of stuff.

And this stuff is getting overwhelming. I'm not sure if it's the impending winter, with long days and nights spent inside our cozy 3 bedroom home, or the fact that with three kids comes a lot of stuff. And stuff that we could do without.

I started realizing how much 'stuff' we have when I discovered the bed bug in the boys' room. With that we had to pack up everything into black plastic bags. We were only allowed to keep out what we really needed: clothes for the next few days, a blanket for each child, a few toys, etc. When we were allowed to unpack, we did so slowly, after a week of living with just what we needed, I quickly found that some of that 'stuff' that was packed in those black bags, wasn't really missed. Of course, there were times when there was that one thing that I went looking for in the sea of black bags, but for the most part, we didn't miss the stuff. As we unpacked, we went through our clothes and items to figure out what we really needed. I surfed through the wealth of organizing information online and found an extremely helpful tip with clothes: 'pretend you are going on a month long vacation and pack enough clothes for that month.' Most of us probably have a few outfits that we wear all the time, these are the ones that we feel the most comfortable in. So I went through my clothes and donated ones that I didn't want/need. I was amazed at how much room my little closet actually had!

Of course life gets crazy and that's about as far as I got with cleaning out the 'stuff.' However, it's time to get real again! On the list to clean out:

• kid's toys; seriously they have too much! And half they don't even play with!
• school stuff from Alan and I
• kitchen; I do a pretty good job of keeping the kitchen clutter down, but there are some extra sets of dishes, and 'stuff' that is just taking up space. 
• those rubbermaid totes in the workshop area, they are all labeled, but I really need to go through them. 
• Alan has some climbing gear and 'stuff' he want to sell. 

Since money is tight, selling this 'stuff' is a good idea, so a yard sale and listing stuff on Craig's list is in the plans. 

I feel better, knowing that we don't have so much stuff. And it makes keeping the house straight a bit easier too. For me, simple is better. 

Watching our garden grow

This is the best picture I could get if our garden. I didn't really think our garden was big, until I tried taking a picture and couldn't get it all in!

Our garden contains: multiple types of peppers, variety of tomatoes (about 15 plants), cucumbers, strawberries, raspberries, herbs, squash, and zucchini. It had eggplants until Mr. Rabbit came to dine!

Watermelon sorbet

Simple. Refreshing. Cold.

Plus just 3 simple ingredients:
4 cups watermelon
1 cup water
1/2 cup sugar

In a saucepan combine sugar and water, stir until sugar dissolves. Let cool for about 5 min.

Put watermelon in blender and add the sugar water. Blend until smooth. Pour into a 9x13 pan and freeze. Not sure how long it needs to freeze since I made it in the morning and served it after dinner.


When its time to serve, I found it helpful to let it stand before attempting to chisel this block of watermelon ice! It's delicious and the kiddos loved it! I have heard of adding a bit of vodka to help it not freeze so hard, but people frown upon giving kids alcohol...so, let it sit and it gets all slushy like.


Happy summer y'all!

Back in the lanes

Walk out of the locker room and the smell of chlorine hits you in the face. Ahhhh....I love that smell. Call me crazy, but I guess its because it brings back so many memories of my BC (before children) life. I loved racing in triathlons and was pretty decent at it. My first triathlon, an Olympic distance (0.93 mile swim, 25 mile bike, and a 6.2 mile run) I came seconds (literally)  from breaking three hours. My time 3:00:01 all because some gels fell out of my racing shirt pocket during the run and I went back for them! agghh! 


Anyhow, I went swimming today at the YMCA. Just getting the kids from the car into the gym was a workout. I put Andrew in the sling (plus carried the diaper bag and gym bag), Meredith in the umbrella stroller and Benjamin helped push the stroller. Of course there weren't any close parking spots (I firmly before that next to the handicap spots, should be parent parking for small children. Seriously, try to get 3 kids under 3 inside a building!) so it took us about 10-15 minutes to actually get inside the gym. Took Meredith and Andrew to the Infant room...Meredith begins to scream, Benjamin looks suspicious, like he knows whats going on. Benjamin put the death grip on my finger and we walk down the hall to the toddler room. His eyes big, my finger now completely white. We say hello to the teacher and the hand off goes very smoothly, no tears. I stood back and watched as he quickly got interested in all the toys. I dart out of site and get changed to go swim. 


swim suit - check
swim cap - check
goggles - check
kick board - check


I think I remember how to do this! The water felt great and my technique...not too shabby for not being able to swim, in forever. I swam 1,300 meters and even remembered some drills to work on. I could have kept swimming all day, but little babies have a 2 hour time limit that they can be in the childcare. And since it took me approximately 20 minutes just to get them to their room and I still had to shower, my time was closing in. 


As I was trying to remember the combination to my lock, a lady stopped and asked, "are you on a swim team?" I thought, really lady I am so out of shape, you think I'm on a swim team???


I told her no and she asked if I was a good swimmer. "I'm ok, I used to be much better."
"Oh, then maybe you can help me." Is she really asking me for advice?  


She proceeds to tell me how she gets out of breath when beginning her swim, but after awhile she breaths fine.

"Oh yeah, I felt that way today; it's my first day back in the water after having a baby. It's like running a race, you start out too fast because of the adrenaline pumping. Just tell yourself to slow down."

She said she never thought of it that way, but I was probably right. She told me she was getting ready to do her first triathlon. And asked if I had any advice for race day.

I said, "have fun."

We talked 'triathlon talk' for awhile. It was so good to talk to another adult, and even better that the conversation didn't revolve around diapers, milk supply, teething, time outs, toddler beds, etc.

Who knows, maybe I'll go dig up some of those ole' triathlon racing plans and "have fun"

*********************************************************************************
In other news: yesterday this little charmer turned four months:

Not really sure where the time has gone, but it's quickly flying by.

Spreading our roots

As crazy as it is, Benjamin will be three years old this year! I swear it was just yesterday that labor began after Thanksgiving dinner! How time is quickly flying. As he turns three this year, we are quickly realizing that he will need to go to school. As much as I want my baby boy to stay home with me forever, I know he needs to spread those little wings and enter the big scary world of kindergarten when he turns five. Which, hello is two years away!!!  Que panic attack!

We have two choices for schools, public or private. There are positives and negatives to each. The reality, we cannot afford private schools. So that leaves us with public schools. The schools system in Jefferson County has 'good' schools and not so good schools. To get into those 'good' schools you have to live in the area of that school. I've known people who move each time their son/daughter goes onto elementary, middle and high schools so that they can get into that 'good' school. I'm not sure I'm up for that much moving around. 

And it's not just about the schools, though, it is what is getting us thinking. We also want some room to stretch out. Granted we have a nice size back yard, a perfect little house, and awesome neighbors, but a little breathing room would be nice too. An acre or two, a small home similar to ours now, Alan would die for a garage with a workshop, and I would love to have a large garden where we can grow enough food to freeze/can for winter. Because lets face it, these Vaesa kids LOVE to eat. And the grocery bill is getting more and more expensive! We are obviously in the 'looking' phase of this process, and looking at Oldham or Nelson County. So if you live in either of those counties, please let me know what you like and don't like about where you are.

Backyard provides hours of swinging for the little Lady

Our backyard to great for riding a scooter down the big hill!

So begins the search of our next home...I really can't imagine leaving here, our first home, where we remodeled pretty much every room, where babies were brought home to, where babies learned to walk, run, and begun to ride bikes. All in three short years. But I've gotten quite attached.

Life with 3u3