2 Squared Is Not 4. It's Just More 2.

I ran down the street chasing my child in my pajamas this morning, as in all the way onto the next street, and with the little old retired baptist preacher who lives across from us (and who was already in his collared shirt and pressed jeans for the day at 6:00am) watching us.  I thought for a moment how embarrassed I was.  Then I decided no - you know what?  I am a boy mom!  I am a 2 year old boy mom and these pajamas were on sale at JCrew outlet and are fall / winter fabulous and I am gonna catch that kid so hear me roar!

And I caught that kid even though, Shel Silverstein, the sidewalk ending poses no real predicament to an escaped toddler.  And when I caught that kid I scooped him up with his little legs flailing and all his free will squashed like a pancake and I marched him back home with pride.

Until.

Until I discovered once home that some random piece of laundry - I suppose the thermal shirt I had layered under my pajama sweater the day before - was hanging out from underneath.  

(A note on the sweater: I took my cues from the mannequin because, quite frankly, she seemed to have it all together and if she wears a sweater for pajamas and I wear a sweater for pajamas then maybe - just MAYBE - I will be like her.  Calm.  Skinny.  Not running.)

So, I could tell you I haven't posted here in months because I am full time working mama of a high maintenance clone, or I could tell you the truth:  I am a princess trapped in a frat house.  Please find me and return me to Nordstrom. 

Sure, hot chocolate is fine.  Let me just get a towel and another towel and follow you around like a hawk since you decide to pour your cup out wherever you are standing or sitting the second you decide you're finished.  

No.  I didn't want all that on the shelves.

Nope.  Didn't want that stuff on those shelves, either.

See?  I told you clothes were cool.

Yes, your form is amazing.  Yes, I'll announce you.  Yes, I want the instant replay.

Yes.  You are PRECIOUS.  No, in fact, I don't care that you don't want to hear it. 

Thank You Notes

Thank you, South Texas, for forcing me to spend money to make it Autumn. 

Thank you, random coloring pages given to us by some man at the Farmer's Market dressed in green and leaves and twigs for being in my car when the candy store said they didn't have any tissue paper and I know they did.

P.S. Thank you, self, for not cleaning out the car.

Thank you, Oma and Opa, for watching Jonah so I could go out with a man named Howard.  We had a nice time.  I think we'll go out sometime again.

Thank you, Jonah, for being on a COMPLETELY different diet than I am.

Really, it's so fun to drink a protein shake and plea bargain with you to eat one bite of anything breaded, cheesed, buttered, and sugared.

Thank you, Jonah, for saying, "Home" instead of "um," and "OK" like an adult, but in really odd places in the conversation.

Thank you, Jesus, for friends.

Thank you, Howard, for teaching Sunday School and allowing me to learn so much from you.  Today your lesson made me realize that while we often try to remind ourselves that suffering will work out in the end, we can also take a step back and realize that God didn't have to include us in this story at all.  So the fact that we're in the middle of it means we're in it.  That in and of itself may not be immediately fun, but is a profound blessing.

Thank you, Nonna and Bearpaw for these precious boots that were made for walkin to church (well, to the car that drove us to church and then the walk from the car to the building).

Thank you, Lord, for our jobs, our town, our family, our friends, Jonah's teachers, 

and Fall (or the opportunity to copy your Northeastern work).

Where the Wild Things Went

Jonah and I camped and kayaked on the Guadalupe this weekend thanks to kind friends extending an invite and more kind friends loaning us gear!  My little camper did so well!!!  I can't believe it!  We had SO much fun hiking, kayaking, setting up camp, making s'mores, playing football with big boys, and sweating our ever loving souls right out of our bodies.  The best part (besides all the tender "Hi Momma" moments) was waking up to trees and birds.  I quote Jonah upon waking: "Twees?  Biwds?"  It made my heart so happy.

These were the days I dreamt of when I opened that blue cupcake two years ago.  As much fun as we had, he was thrilled to be back at preschool this morning and ran to his teacher!  

And so we move from bouquets of wild flowers to bouquets of sharpened pencils...ahhhh.  Both so sweet!! 

Happy Birtday.

I am taking a break from party planning to jot down some memories from this week.

Yes, I idolize my child and he is at the center of my life and we hang images of him throughout our home to honor him and sing praise songs to him every day.  Why do you ask?

So, back to my break from Jonah to tell you about Jonah.  He started preschool this week and we couldn't be happier with how it's going.  He loves it, and we love it so much that if he didn't we would second guess him before the school.  It's that good.  

Aside from trying to solve the mystery about who Abigail is and why he should be nice to her, I heard the sweetest recollection from him about his day.  Last night as I was putting him to bed I was going through the events of the day with him (he loves this and gets really still and pays close attention) and when I got to the review of snack time and the lesson at school, he pointed to himself and said, "My name Jonah."  Then he pointed to me and said, "My name Mama."  

MELT ME.

They've been talking about names and family this week and I hadn't even brought that up in our review of the day.  I think Mamas and Papas are the best teachers, so to hear that he is learning and growing even though we're apart during the day washed me over with peace.

I'm prepared for the peace to be fleeting if his made-up girlfriend Abigail dumps him tomorrow.

Howard and I aren't back at work yet so I've been working a little on decorating my classroom and a lot on Jonah's birthday party (ies).  It helps to work out the missing of him.  I'm about to go make 'healthy' cookies for his school party tomorrow but before I do, you have to know that I was working so hard on this chalkboard sign this morning.  I got carried away and had so much fun representing all the things Jonah likes.  Howard even so sweetly surprised me with my favorite lunch because he saw the sweat I am pouring into a 2 year old's birthday party where he'll only care about the M&Ms.

I was proud and took pics.

Before the addition of Larry the Cucumber:

Larry was added:

I went and did some other things and walked back through the kitchen again, and it hit me. 

I misspelled "Birthday."

I MISSPELLED "BIRTHDAY."

I'm not redoing it.  

Jonah tells people all the time "Happy Birtday" as a sign of affection.  So there you go, Jo.  Happy Birtday.  

It's probably best you have other teachers in your young life, after all.

Big Hug, Summer!

The day is done and summer too.

So much we saw and did (and threw).

A trip to Tulsa and twice to the beach, to the pool and swim lessons where we learned to kick feet.

Frozen yogurt and cookies and popcorn galore.  Every day was an occasion.  Don't forget s'mores!

Lots of firsts this summer did see, like riding rides at the toddler park and the start of climbing trees.

Now it's off to school, but when our days are through, we'll meet again for playtime, for snuggles, and for YOU.

(In case the above wasn't clear, the snuggles are for Jonah - not you, the reader.  Please don't come to our house asking for snuggles.  That would be really weird. Thanks.)

Now & Later Lasagna

Ingredients:

1 lb mild Italian sausage

1 16 oz jar Tomato Basil Pasta sauce (I like HEB brand)

1 package oven-ready lasagna noodles

1 package sliced mozzarella 

1 package grated Italian blend cheese

Supplies:

Ramekins or non-paper oven safe cupcake liners and muffin pan

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven to 350 and line muffin tin with non-paper cupcake liners (I used Reynolds foil liners).

2. Brown and drain the sausage.  Keep in pan and set aside.

3. Add a spoonful of sauce to the bottom of each liner.  Add the rest of the jar to the sausage and stir over warm until heated through.  Cover and set aside.

4.  Break up noodles and start layering noodle, 1/4 mozzerella slice, grated cheese, sausage mixture, until all ingredients but a little grated cheese are used up.

5. Top with remaining grated cheese and bake for 30 min at 350.

6. Serve some now and freeze the rest!  Reheat later in the oven or pop out of liner to microwave.

A Dance at the Dienger

Today we visited the newly restored café in town, the Dienger, and had a ball...quite literally.  After being drawn to a particular "pitching hat" in the men's clothing section, Jo and I found an excellent book (a Mark Twain board book adaptation), exchanged warm hellos with friends, and then made our way to the bakery counter where Jonah picked out a chocolate croissant (decisively, I might add - it's genetic), and then proceeded to take both of my hands in his.  Flustered from trying to order and pay and keep my almost two-year old from practicing batting swings on the glass display windows, the glass serving pitchers, the glass trinkets and doo dads, and the glass everything all of a sudden seemed to be made of, I decided to divert my attention from the cash register all onto him, because, after all, if he's taking both of my hands he might have a sticker poking him or have just made a mess somewhere, or have seen an important dog or airplane.  

But no.

It wasn't about a mess

or a dog 

or a plane.

He took my hands because he wanted to dance.  Yes, dance.  Not the silly way we dance to the seasons song on Baby Einstein - no - actually dance.

He held my hands in his and said "dance, mm hmm," and he led me in a ballroom like sway right there in the middle of the Dienger, right in the middle of our order, right in the middle of a wonderful life.

Same Song 42nd Verse

I've written this post before.  It's the one where I lament about my lack of time and energy and mental clarity but also say I wouldn't trade anything for the intentionally spilled milk at the end of a long, thematic learning day including an astronaut suit and a matching cookie from the bakery even if it means changing my clothes and the sheets just when I thought I was about to punch out my timecard after a 12 hour shift and 1 private bathroom break and the pool being closed because someone (I will hunt you and I will find you, and then I will lecture you) brought glass into it and it shattered and I got the sweetest hugs and heard the sweetest mispronunciation of words and felt a huge victory at figuring out "baby toes" means a request for "Veggie Tales" and a huge defeat at learning vegetables think the people of Ninevah slapped each other with fish and trying to read the correct version of Jonah to my son of the same name and feeling defeated that my not-even-two year old had a much stronger preference for Jamberry but remembering my swelling pride in the achievements he reached earlier in the day and wanting a break but not wanting to be away but feeling like I'm never alone because I'm never alone, and trying to lose the baby weight from aforementioned almost two year old and wondering if I should start faking a late-announced pregnancy and sudden birth and carry around a baby doll to act like it's baby weight from a more recent baby but knowing that plan derails when said baby doll doesn't get any bigger, or move, or gets left in the hatchback while I run into HEB for the FOURTH time since Sunday and we still are low on milk and I wonder how is that even mathematically, physically possible but figure it's due to the fact that I can't start using my new planner until Friday so I have things written down on my phone and my old planner and August dates in my new one and no, you may not throw a real baseball down the stairs and yes, I am sure we will get a dog someday because we all seem to need something else to take care of and we might as well test out those awesome vinyl floors we are saving up to get because I decided I love real wood too much to put hand scraped Tobacco Road Acacia in a track house that is storing what was originally the genius idea of Christmas in July to make the fall semester easier on Santa but is now a bunch of Amazon boxes of Daniel Tiger paraphernalia when I am the only one here now who likes Daniel Tiger.

Yes. It's that post.

Summer 2015: June Edition

June is almost over and one of my many summer plans was to blog more, but I am a slow learner when it comes to life and time with a toddler!

Our precious mess has been on the go.  We have had some really tough challenges in this stage and a whole lot of fun.  It's like I always say:  parenting is just intense.  It's intense highs and intense lows - it's everything, intensified. Because you're dealing with a person! 

Per usual, my photo situation is hard to access because of computer overload issues.  I'll include what I can get to.

We've had a magical Boerne summer so far.  We've hit up Longhorn, Jonah danced till he dropped at the German band concert, we ate gourmet popcorn and watched The Lego Movie in the park, we've been to the pool every day we've been here and it's open (and not storming), we've ruined and fixed one car in the heavy rains we've had, are group swim class drop outs and semi-private lesson victors, said goodbye to dear friends, we've been to McKenna Children's Museum, the La Cantera playground, Chik Fil A, and lots of Library days, we've read, read, read,  blown 1.4 million bubbles, patted 19 dogs, counted 17 windmills (and watched the DVD about them an equal number of times), thrown 72.5 two-year-old size tantrums, discovered the joy of a flashlight, eaten frozen yogurt, had an absolute blast visiting the "beesh" with Oma and Opa, (I) listened to a great audio book from the library, made plans to write a book about how life is (probably) still worth living without wood floors, and, lest you have been living under a rock and think teachers don't do anything in the summer, done some school work.