I’m reminded by people {my mother mostly} that these are the best days of my life; the midnight wake-ups, the diapers, the tantrums. Well I found it hard to find the joy in it all today. By noon the children had declared victory and I was waving a white flag.

Between potty training and timeouts this boy has me running on empty. I feel like the only words coming out of my mouth are, “do you have to go peepee?” and “NOooooo!”

I constantly struggle with the concept of spanking. I just don’t know if these timeouts are actually working. The very idea of spanking Timmy can bring me to tears but I turn around and there he is toy hammering Grace’s head!

Folding laundry is a family affair. They both think they are being very helpful.

He tells me he’s folding the clothes as he very carefully rolls them into a ball and piles them on the table. If Timmy is doing something, there’s Grace right behind him.

Me and Timmy were in a stand off over food today. His choice of foods he will actually eat has narrowed down to peanut butter on a spoon and gummy bears. It’s very frustrating. I’m pretty sure my Dad is laughing at me when he hears me struggling over his food issues. He says I was the same way and that all kids are the same. Timmy skipped breakfast all together because the waffles and strawberries were “yucky” and so was his water?! Lunch he took a bite of his grilled cheese and spit it out but did eat the strawberries from breakfast. By dinner time he was starving so he ate allllll of his fish sticks and even asked for more “chicken” 🙂

Nap time is a nightmare. He kicks and screams so much that I’m afraid he’s going to hurt himself. I’ve tried going without naps but he ends up passing out around 5:30 and then he’s wide awake at 3am. Today he actually kicked down his gate but didn’t dare come out of his room. I guess he could sense that I was on the edge. Smart move. He eventually fell asleep and for 3 hours.

Terrible twos are no joke and it really makes you question your parenting skills, but by the end of the day I felt accomplished. We had a lot of fun in the sprinkler, the laundry did eventually get folded, the house was mostly in order and everyone was fed and bathed.

Being mom to these two busy babies is an honor and a privilege but it is not without it’s hardwork and challenges. It’s giving of your whole self, the whole time. And when you get a moment alone, you sit and wonder if you’re doing it right.

I hope I am.

Happiness is watching these two play together.

Timmy’s latest sentence is, “Mommy I want to show you.” Then he will show exactly where I should sit by say “chair” and point.

So much happened today:

There were cowboy and cowgirl sheriffs.

Timmy said I looked pretty with the hat on.

Sweetest was when he was trying to put the hat on Grace.

Then there was a tea party.

Perfecting the flute {cover your ears}.

There was a little off-roading.

Snack break! She would eat them if Timmy ate them.

And then you catch the sweetest moment of Timmy just standing by Grace’s side patting her head. She would sit and watch him play and every so often he would come over give her a kiss and pat her head.

Nothing like it. Sibling love.

This age is hitting me hard. All of a sudden my baby isn’t so babyish anymore. She’s crawling around like she owns the place. Standing up like it’s no big deal and even letting go and standing on her own.

She’s like a piranha with these 6 teeth! She’s still biting me when she nurses and it’s so painful. When I yell at her she laughs.

She holds her own with Timmy, if anything the tables have turned and she’s the one beating him up. She’s very quick to turn around and slap you in the face.

Her hair is starting to really come in and she’s thinned out so much since she started crawling. When you look in her eyes it’s like looking at Tim, they have the exact same eyes.

She still loves bathtime and she is the ultimate mamas girl although I think that she’s getting better about that in the last few days. There were times when I couldn’t even walk out of the room without her screaming and no one else could hold her. It was all mommy, all the time. Just yesterday though when Tim came home from work she started wiggling to get down and she crawled all the way to the front door to give him a kiss just like Timmy does. Soooo sweet. That’s her newest trick giving kisses with all puckered up lips.

She loves truck and trains {I wonder why} and she looks at books like she really reading them.

Food has been a real struggle to the point where I was starting to get nervous. This week has been so different though. She suddenly is very interested in whatever you are eating. Tonight Tim was eating jello and she was twisting her neck around to look at it instead of nursing. She loves blueberries and sweet peas but hates anything banana. It’s so gross to her that she shivers when it gets near her.

Her facial expressions are so classic. She has the pouty lip down pat and she uses it to her advantage. It’s so sad and so funny at the same time. When she laughs it is the absolute best sound, she has such a girly giggle. Her tongue is out ALL the time like a mini Miley.

“Mama” “Dada” and “byebye” are what she’s talking about. Pretty sure that’s all Timmy’s doing. First thing he asks me when he wakes up is if we are going byebye.

Biggest milestone has to be the crib. It is official that she is napping in her crib everyday as of 3 days ago lol but still a huge deal in this house. She also is going to bed the same time as Timmy in her crib. Last night she did not make a peep about being put to bed. However she’s waking up every night at midnight to eat and then I let her stay in our bed. Even those 3 hours of alone time for me are a gift and I’ll take it. I spend most of those 3 hours staring at the monitor…

I guess it’s time to start planning her first birthday. It makes me very sad. It really does feel like yesterday I was dressing her in her little pink bear outfit to come home from the hospital.

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Enough pictures? See what I’m saying about being present? I have to out this camera down!

I love how pictures can really freeze memories but I struggle with being truly present or being the one behind the camera all the time.

I really should have just been soaking in the simple fun of hanging out in the yard and playing in the sprinkler but on the other hand I got some awesome pictures! :)))

We bought Timmy an old school sprinkler but he didn’t quite understand that he was suppose to run through it so Daddy had to show him….

To me these pictures scream Best Dad Award. Timmy was hysterical laughing. He now totally loves this sprinkler just as we did when we were kids. Best $4 we have spent.

Grace on the other hand, not a fan. The girl screamed bloody murder when the water hit her. I even turned it down really low and she was not that interested.

So for my little diva I put out a plastic shower curtain and wet it down and me and her played there and watched Timmy and Daddy get all wet.

“Mommy, Mommy! Where’s my hat?”

Apparently you need a cowboy hat to ride a horse.

“Gracie you want to pet my cow?”

“Come on cow, EAT!”

A boy and his {cow}.

Seems like lately yelling is my only volume. It’s such a bad habit but this boy does one shockingly naughty thing after another. Some days it feels like nothing I say is getting through to him and then he gives me this little gem of sanity…

I’m standing in the kitchen watching him play outside. He comes in starts walking towards me and THEN, he stops in his tracks turns around and shuts the door without being told.

Sounds silly but not if you’ve been telling him to shut the door for what feels like his whole life.

Now to the next lesson – making sand into a ball does not make it a rock. I’ve been handed these “rocks” twice already and now there’s sand everywhere.

See mommy it’s a ROCK!

A lot of this weeks focus was on behavior. Terrible two’s have hit an all time high. Timmy is hitting and talking back. I’m not gonna lie, I have no clue what to do about it. Right now I’m doing time out but he does it so much that I find myself too exhausted to follow thru every time.

On a positive note, new manners he’s picked up are “I’m sorry” and “God bless you” when someone sneezes. It’s adorable.

This week there was a lot of reading going on. We started with going to the library and picking up some theme related books. I want to start doing this with every new week. Each day we read a couple of verses about Holy Week from the Read and Learn Bible. This is my favorite so far of all the children’s Bibles.

We really talked a lot about Jesus’ cross and it was really sweet to hear him point out his cross projects around the house.

First was a egg carton cross. You need an18 count egg carton so that it’s big enough for the cross and then some paint. I thought this was a great project and Timmy really enjoyed it.

We also made a cross with Timmy’s hand going down in purple paint and Gracie’s handprints going across. I did this on canvas so it might become permanent decoration in this house.

I made a bunny mask out of a paper plate, construction paper and pipe cleaners. Then we hopped around the house like bunnies. Now he wants to hop everywhere. And when he went to see the Easter bunny, first thing he said was “Bunny hop hop” so I think he got this lesson.

I love handprint/footprint anything of my babies so we made footprint carrots for an Easter decoration. I’m in love with it and the kids got a kick out of me painting their feet. Wipes have become a staple with paint supplies, makes clean up very quick and easy.

Timmy also did some circle painting with plastic Easter eggs.

His masterpiece:

I brought out the safety scissors and was excited to see some progress. There were definitely cuts in this paper. I don’t think he’s ready to cut lines but he has made big improvements since a couple of weeks ago.

He also worked on lacing beads which eventually {like everything else} turned into lassoing beads. He is all about being a cowboy. You even hear him saying “Yeehaw!”

He took coloring to new level and decided he was going to use his feet instead of his hands.

It’s 4:30 am Easter morning, I better go check to see if that Easter bunny made it to our house yet!

All day I hear…

“Mommy come on play choo choo train!”

“Mommy come on build a castle!”

“Come on Mommy!!!!!”

How do I say no to that? But how do I say yes to it every time and ever get anything else done in this house. I really feel so guilty to pass on playtime so here we are 8 am playing trains.

I’m a little overwhelmed to find out Timmy has asthma but relieved that we finally know why he is always sick.

Now he’s on a nebulizer every 6 hours for a week and then they are going to re-evaluate. He is terrified of the machine. He cried then I cried, it was a mess. I think he thinks we are trying to poison him. This mornings treatment went easier because I let him hold a gummy bear until it was over and then let him eat it.

They also changed his allergy medicine. I feel so bad loading him up with all this medicine. The good thing is the nebulizer works instantly and last night was probably his first cough free night in months.

UPDATE: tonight’s treatment went so well. He held the mouth piece himself and almost finished the whole thing. Brought daddy to tears. I can’t imagine {and I don’t want to} what it must be like to have a child that is seriously sick. Seeing Timmy using this machine gives me an eerie feeling. It reminds me to thank God for these healthy babies and to say a prayer the parents who are praying for their babies to get well.

Sometimes just doing the simple, ordinary things can make life feel so peaceful. {at least for me it does}

I found these two sleepy heads all snuggled up this morning.

When we went to water the garden we were very surprised to see a big yellow flower.

And I’m sad to report that we buzzed Timmy’s hair. No more sweet curls but I think it’s better for this hot weather.

And he got his first lollipop!

Then we went to the park and I just can’t stand how big he is. I couldn’t believe that next to me on the swings was my own son.

He is crazy about slides. This child is fearless and I can’t wait until I can take him on big kid rides to show him what it’s all about.

Then it was home for lunch and naptime. Even mommy napped!!

After we went to the library to check out some Easter books and a homeschooling guide. Timmy stole a train book from another kid and I felt bad but there was no way Timmy was giving up that book.

Yesterday we got a surprise visitor..MEMAW!! Timmy was so excited. Seeing them play together at the park was the best. Timmy left her high and dry though on the big kid slide lol.

Gracie tested out the swings again.

So pretty much we’ve been doing just everyday things and sometimes those are the sweetest times.