Perspective

Some days I feel like a SuperMom - where I show my kids tons of love, make them scrumptous meals, have a clean house, everyone takes their naps and goes to bed on time, and we're happy.

Then there are the days when nobody listens to me, Preston is yelling and disobedient, Taylor is nonstop fussy, the house is a pig sty, and no one is very happy.

This last few days have sort of been like the latter example.

Then tonight I read an article by a mom who's son has a disease that will cause him to die before he turns 3 years old.  He is 18 months old right now. I saw this photo of them in the New York Times article...

 I thought my goodness, that little boy looks so much like our little Taylor.

It really put things into perspective for me today.  The article talked about loving our children NOW.  Did I love my children today, now?  Not so much.  I spent a lot of time being upset that Preston wasn't obeying me and that I had to get after him so much.

And then after reading that article, all I wanted to do was go into my boys' bedrooms and pick them up out of their beds and hold them.

So anyway.  A little perspective for you.

In other news, Will went to Mt Rainier with my Dad the other day and took this panoramic. Beautiful.

Questions, Question, Questions.

A while back, when our Preston was probably only 6 months old or so, I remember hearing my friend Grace give a talk in church where she had mentioned her youngest going through a total "question phase".  She said that she started to tune a lot of it out and just give random answers.

One day, her son asked her "Mommy, why are there so many bunnies?" and she just answered, "I don't know, just because."  At the time, their uncle was visiting and he came over and said, "Well, the reason that there are so many bunnies is because they reproduce very often and they are pretty low on the food chain and therefore they supply themselves as food to a lot of the bigger animals..." and yadda yadda yadda.  I remember Grace saying that she felt bad that she didn't stop and take more time to answer and explain in detail all the answers to her little son's questions, and she was grateful to Uncle "Bob" that day who did.

I thought it was such a cute little story, and it always stuck in my head.  And I also thought that when Preston was old enough one day to start asking why the sky is blue, why the grass is green, or why there are so many bunnies - I would be sure to take the time to answer him.

Well folks, that day has come.

I can tell you that even though I try really hard to always answer Preston's questions and explain things the best that I can (I don't baby things down for him too much, but just tell him the real answers in a simple way), today I just wanted. Them. To. Stop.

I took the boys on a double-stroller walk this morning. Our route usually takes us a little over an hour, and since today was the first day all week where it wasn't raining, I was really excited to take advantage of it and go for a walk.  My clever plan was that Taylor would fall asleep in the stroller and take his morning nap, and Preston would just play with his toys so that I could enjoy the outdoors and have some time to breath some fresh air and clear my head.

However, that did not happen.

Preston talked the entire time. I'm not exaggerating.  It went something like this, and this was after he'd already been talking to about 25 minutes....

"Momma, what that sign say?" 

"It says left turn ahead"


"Momma, what THAT sign say?"

"Speed limit 25."

"What THAT sign say?"

"Slow down, curve ahead."

Walk a little more, as Preston is jabbering about who knows what.

"Where are the dogs?" (we passed a house where there are usually dogs out, and today they were not).

"I don't know."

"Where those dogs are, Momma?"

"I don't know.  Inside their house."

We pass a dirt road.

"What that road is?"

"A dirt road."

"Why it all dirty, Momma?"

"Because it's made of dirt."

Walk another few feet.

"Where the blueberries go momma?" (referring to the wild blackberries)

"They're all gone."

"Who ate them momma?"

"Probably the birds and the animals."

Walk some more.  A car passes us.


"What that car is?"

"A red car."

"No it's a STINKY car!"

"Oh okay, a stinky car."


"Where's he going?"

"I don't know."


"What's he doing Momma?"

"Probably going to his house."

At this point, I just want him to stop talking so I can enjoy some peace and quiet for 2 minutes.

"Preston, you sure talk a lot."

"I HAVE to talk!"

"You know, you don't always have to talk. You can be quiet too."

"No, I HAVE to talk!"


We walk some more.

"Momma there's Herbie!!"

"Oh yes, there he is." (referring to a parked blue VW bug)

"What's he doing?"

"He's sleeping."

"He's not sleeping."

"Oh okay then why did you ask me."


"He's sitting in da grass."

We walk some more.  We pass an old tractor that looks like "Frank" in the movie Cars.

"Momma, what's Frank doing?"

At this point, I try ignoring him, hoping that he would stop asking questions. But it doesn't work, instead he asked me what Frank was doing 9 more times. I counted.

We pass a house with a big boat parked out front.

"Momma what's that boat doing?!!"

"I don't know. Sitting.  Okay guess what - it's time to be quiet because Momma wants to think."

"What you want to think about Momma?"


I laughed out loud.  And then I gave up and just accepted that he wasn't going to stop. He talked nonstop for the rest of our walk all the way home, which was 65 minutes long. Hopefully I got all his questions answered.

Life Lately

Ah, life lately...

It's been grand.

Someone has decided that he just HAS to feed himself.

While cute it is, clean it is not.  And I'm learning to be okay with that.  I'd rather him eat and be messy, than refuse food and go hungry and clean.

Preston got new shoes. Lightening McQueen shoes.  And for those other deal-savvy mommies, you can get said shoes at Payless right now for $9.99 or their BOGO deal which is "buy one get one half off", so we actually got his shoes for $4.99.  And they have Toy Story and girl ones too. I can't tell you what the girl ones were though, since I don't have girls, I rarely pay attention to the girl stuff.  Preston also still loves cars and trains.  You know - the usual.  It's been raining a lot here lately though, and so we've been stuck indoors.  My poor outdoor-loving boys have been a little cooped up.

Taylor has been going through some sort of phase.  Yes teething is part of it, but the rest I don't know.  If I leave the room, he cries. If I'm not holding him, he cries. If I'm not within sight or crawling distance, he cries.  If I go upstairs for something and leave him downstairs, he sobs and sobs and sobs. I'll think something is wrong so I come running back down, only to find him just sitting on the floor crying.  He has been ultra MEGA clingy.  I have been exhausted trying to take care of his needs.  Oh, and he also won't eat.  Unless he feeds himself, but because he's new to it, he really doesn't get a whole lot into his mouth.  So he goes hungry.  I have figured out that if I can force the first bite into his mouth, he gets a taste of it and then lets me feed him a few bites.  Oh Taylor, Taylor, Taylor.  At least he's past the teething fevers.  Last week for 2 days straight he was between 100 - 103 degrees.

Jenni (me) got a new phone, which is really smart.  And I think the smart phone might be outsmarting me because I still haven't quite figured it out yet.  But at least I am not using a Razor from 2007 anymore. And for those interested in knowing, I accidentally dropped my Razor in the toilet of an Arby's restroom while trying to talk on it and, well, you know what, at the same time.  Will had no idea our phone conversation would be cut short with a sudden splash into the toilet.  I was multi-tasking because it was midnight, I was tired and was driving home from Portland with our new car.

Will has been one busy man.  I think it would be safe to say that he is officially a Renaissance man.  Not only is he husband to me, father to our boys, but he is a project coordinator for a very busy company for about 10 or 12 hours a day, and the other "free" hours he is trying to work with our lender and contractors to get everything done to close on this house we are trying to buy.  We hardly see him.  In fact, 2 nights ago he never came to bed.  He had so much work to do that had to be done before the morning, that he literally worked through the night - thanks to the companionship of reruns of The Office on Netflix and his laptop. I stayed up as late as I could helping him scan documents, but anything further than that I couldn't do.  I felt so bad for him. :( 

And I promise I'm not trying to complain because I know there are lots of people out there who watch their spouses serve in the military for months at a time, or have spouses who have to take jobs out of state for months at a time, or have to be gone to go to school for months at a time....but having Will gone and so busy has been hard on me.  It's just that I love having him around so much, and not having that has been a hard adjustment.  And it only gets busier as we will start the actual remodeling projects on the house after it closes.  I keep telling myself that it's just temporary and I can get through this.  But I do have to hand it to all the single moms out there who do this for year and years - it is one hard job.  

We hope to close on the house by Oct. 31st. Our "fixer upper project" will probably take from Nov 1st - Feb 1st, at least to get it move-in ready.

And something new I learned this past week - I had absolutely no idea banks were so incredibly nosy when it comes to loaning you money for a home. Wow.  They really do want to know about everything.

The good news to all of this stress, is 6 months from now we will be in a new home for us that we own.  We will be a LOT closer to Will's job so he won't have to commute so many hours any more - which will in turn make him a lot happier and us too. I will have an album finished and ready to release.  So these are all good things - but just lots and lots of hard work to achieve.  Thanks for all the love and support you give our family.

What I Love Most About Babies

What do I love most about baby bodies?

These cute little miniature chunky wobbly legs!

They are the funnest when the little guy is not quite walking yet, but holding onto things and prancing around.

 And I love it when I'm helping him get ready for a bath and look down and see how little his legs and feet are compared to mine, while all the while he's wiggling and prancing. It's adorable. And the chub rolls are so fun and sweet too.

I love me some baby legs!

Just Another Day

Just another day at the Thomas house...

Taylor got stuck in the dirty laundry basket

And the boys had some crazy fun in the bathtub after completely getting dirty from dinner.  Taylor that is. He insisted on feeding himself.  Let's just say he had it in his hair, ears, and everywhere else.

The poor little guy is a little pale-faced from having diahrrea all day long.  I have no clue why he has it, but he does, and he's not happy about it.  Would you be?