Happy Birthday My Sweet Little Man!

When do things start seeming real? Time is just passing so quickly for me. I sometimes feel as though I am just flying by my own life and merely waving in the distance. Little man turned 3 today and I am just in disbelief. Of course at many times, these past three years have felt like the longest years of my life, but I blinked and here we are.

Landen continues to have a larger than life personality. It is amazing how much he has grown this past year. My life has suddenly gotten so much easier because he is so much more independent. With that independence also comes that strong-willed personality he has had since he was a baby. The boy came out screaming and he will still let you know exactly what his feelings are at any time or place. He is also still extremely loving and sweet. He hugs and kisses on all of us all the time. Just the other day I hit my elbow on something and yelled "Ouch!" he ran over hugged me and asked "are you ok Mommy?" He had such a tone of empathy and sweetness it made me feel instantly ok. When our fish died a couple of weeks ago Ashley started crying and again he ran over to her. He started hugging on her and said, "It is ok Ashley, I am here for you." I am not making that up or embellishing the story. He really said exactly that. I couldn't believe it and my tears started rolling. Not over the silly fish, but over my little boy getting to be so big.

He also continues to be a clown and makes us laugh all the time. At school he is also quite the personality. He loves all of his friends and his teacher has told me that all the kids claim him as their "favorite" friend. Today for his birthday he told me that all of his friends gave him a birthday hug and he just beamed. Well, I could obviously go on and on about my baby boy, he is truly one of the loves of my life and I am so lucky to have him (wildness and all).

Last year in his special birthday post I listed his favorite things. As I read over the list I was a little shocked at how much he has stayed the same in some of his likes, but I thought it would be fun to do the list again. As my mommy memory disintegrates daily, I need these yearly reminders.

Favorite color: Last year he was a pink and purple man, he has moved on to green. I think J is very happy about this.

Favorite food: Nuggets and french fries. If a restaurant does not have these items he will loudly proclaim his displeasure. Luckily, he will eat the "all veggie" nuggets at home, so at least I can fool him into healthiness sometimes. He also loves oranges, hot dogs, muffins, cinnamon rolls, donuts and anything sweet. Eating is still not his strong point. He will literally go two or three days without eating anything.

Favorite Drink: Sadly, if he had a choice it would be Dr. Pepper. He may not look a thing like me, but he obviously inherited my fine taste in beverages.

Favorite toys: He loves trains, cars and trucks. Playing on the computer is also a big thing for him to do. He also loves drawing, doing play-doh, cutting paper, building with Legos and taking things apart.

Favorite parent: Last year it was Daddy, this year it is me. That's right ME! My brainwashing worked.

Favorite books: He has two books in particular that he loves, a train book and a fire truck book. I can't stand either one of them because it is just a bunch of pictures labeled and he insists on telling me each one. It is torture after reading it a thousand times (at least!)

Favorite movie/tv show: He watches tv this year, which is a big thing for him. The only thing he asks to watch is Caillou but he will watch most things that Ashley watches.

Favorite household chore: Ok, so he doesn't really have a favorite one, he likes them all. He is my neat freak, which is just fine with me. He hates things to be messy, out of place or dirty.

He is still about as "all-boy" as you can possibly ask for. He is really into sports right now and told me the other day that he wants to be a "sportsman" when he grows up. I asked what that is and he said "I would play football, soccer, baseball, golf, basketball and hockey every day all day."

Another Day

I really appreciate all of you that write and tell me you miss my silly stories. I do plan to get back into my blog as school starts slowing down. As many of you may know I will not be returning to preschool teaching after this school year. I have enjoyed teaching but found that having a job really interferes with my blogging time and that can not continue.

So, what brings me back to my good ol' blog today? First of all, I changed my background and was forced to look at my outdated post. I got tired of drooling at some other friends' cute blog backgrounds and finally changed mine. I also decided to return to my blog's original name of "BonBons and BooBoos." I grew tired of the other title (again!) and it won't fit our lives for much longer. J finishes his third year in just a couple of months. Hallelujah! l also figure my life is better reflected with a combo of sweet things and sour things these days, hence the reason for my original title, BonBons and BooBoos.

Right now we are on the sweet side of things around here. A little something sweet called Spring Break. Until this year I actually found Spring Break to be more on the sour side. In the past it meant an entire week without planned activities or school for the children, but this year I benefit from some time off too so, it is definitely sweet. The odd thing is, I have managed to fill up virtually every minute with some sort of something. Even with maintaining our hectic life, I am still enjoying not having to have little A at school by 7:30. Yes people you read that correctly, 7:30. If you think you have a hard time making it to preschool by 9, just wait.

In other news, little A has started soccer and most likely will be stopping soccer come the end of the season. I knew she probably wouldn't like it but I want her to try things. I never tried new things as a kid and really regret it now as an adult. Little A is lot like me as a child. "Diva" comes to mind. She told me the following after practice a couple of weeks ago:

(mind you the temperature outside was a mere 80 this night of practice)

Little A: "It was too hot out there, I was sweating. I hate sweating. I hate being too cold, I hate being too hot. I want to be just perfect and when I have to play soccer I don't feel perfect."

She is also not very aggressive, and some of these girls have obviously had professional training at pushing other kids around. Bottom line, soccer is not the sport for her. We will continue to stick with dance and piano both of which she loves.

Little man continues to charm and frustrate me on a minute by minute basis. He is really excited to be starting soccer himself come this summer. He will also be turning three next week. No more toddlers around here, which makes me a little sad but a whole lot more happy. I do best with the preschool to 4th grade age. I am already dreading that post-fourth grade period.

As for me and the hubby, we are moving right along. J decided he did not have enough of the two months of surgery he just finished, so did another month of surgery elective. We are hoping this gives him a better perspective on picking a specialty in two weeks. Surgery is a brutal schedule. He wakes up every day around 4:30 am to be at the hospital and ready to round with his residents by 6:00 am. Most nights he gets home around 7:30 to 8 pm. That makes for about a 14 hour "normal day." This does not include his call nights, which vary from each specific surgery specialty. For awhile he took call every third night. That means every other day he would continue to wake up at 4:30 am and then work straight through until about 3 pm the NEXT day. He would then come home, sleep and then be up again at 4:30 am the next day. He also has to work on weekends. Weekends are a little better because he can usually be done by early afternoon, unless he has call which means a full day and a night of a weekend. Basically, you work non-stop with little to no sleep ever. I have no idea how he is functioning.

A lot of people have asked me what he wants to do and what the process looks like from here. I am still a little unsure on all those details. What I do know for sure is he has to pick his specialty now because he has to do an away rotation in his chosen specialty. This gives him a better competitive edge when applying to residency programs. This means he will move away to another city for about a month. Just another one of those fun hurdles in this crazy process. The good news is, he really only has several more real months of school left. Most of fourth year is spent doing electives and interviewing for residencies. That means a lot more time off and a lot less school stress. In

I wish I had a more cohesive post but with my sporadic updates it is hard to do anything else but update. Hopefully, my posts will start coming closer to together. To end on a high note, here are some pictures to enjoy....

My little leprechaun in her green today!

She doesn't like playing soccer but she likes her cute jersey. The name of her team is Rock Stars which I find to be much better than some other team names. Not to name any of them but Hamsters do come to mind.

Her second year to attend the Daddy Daughter Dance. Daddy and Daughter both had the best time.

This post seems to include a lot of stuff about little A but not much about little man. Don't worry he will get his special time next week on his big day. I did want to point out something he is really good at. When J was cleaning out his car a couple of weeks ago little man insisted he vacuum the entire car by himself and he did a good job leaving nothing untouched.

While Landen vacuumed J's car, little A made us some lunch. All on her own doing with absolutely no asking or assistance from me. Notice the half piece of top bread missing. Each person's lunch had this missing. She must be aware of some new trend. These kids are really turning out to be useful.