An overdue update

I started this blog as a way for the boys to read stories about themselves when they got older, stories that I would inevitable forget, because life is busy and sometimes the day-to-day stories can get lost. I have not written in a while and I hope to do a little better this year.

March 11, 2016

My boys are ALL boy so much of the time.... that is it utterly exhausting. (If you are not sure what "ALL Boy" translates too, please come over and babysit my children for meJ.) While they love each other fiercely they are also each other’s biggest competition. Everyday someone is faster, stronger, taller, eating breakfast faster, putting on shoes sooner, getting dressed by themselves better, playing star wars better, better batter/catcher/runner, made more baskets/rebounds/points, …. The list goes on! The “friendly competition” at any time during the day can turn from friendly to ‘death-match’ in about .2 seconds. And as crazy as it sounds ends almost as quickly as it starts, each one gets a few jabs and then it’s over….and they are back playing the same thing that started the fight in the first place. It is very bazaar, but as I have written about boys (starting from a very young age) are very bazaar!

The boys are too friendly for their own good, if you have met them, you know this! They ‘know’ everyone and love everyone like it is their lifelong friend. If they meet you they don’t forget you. So when we pass an older women at Target and Jake shouts out “Hi Ellen!” I turn around puzzled, until “Ellen” comes over to talk to us and tells us how she is so-and-so’s grandmas from school. They will shout out “Bye Scott!”, “Hi Trent!” and seem to want to be friends with the kids in their classes’ parents just as much as the little kids.

As you can read it is undeniable that I am proud of my boys, like any mother is proud of her children.  These little kid moments, as I am noticeable more aware, are all to fleeting. I write them down not to boast, but to remember.  I want to remember as much about their lives as I can, because their lives have brought so much happiness and purpose to mine! Along with many wrinkles, as of lately! J

This weekend we laid to rest the boys Great-Grandpa Jim. The boys lovingly referred to him as Papa Jim and we hated to have to say good bye. The wisdom my Jake has of topics that are hard to grasp is odd, yet incredible. While explaining to the boys what happened to Papa Jim on the way to school one day Jake put it simply: “Papa Jim’s body was too tired for this earth anymore, but no one’s body is ever to tired in Heaven, so that is where he will be now. Its actually not sad, is really GREAT, he was so good that he gets to make it to talk to Jesus!”

Jake has always been interested in church and the talk of Heaven. Jimmy, has different interests and not that he doesn’t like church but he would rather be outside playing ball or getting muddy. However at the wake for Papa Jim, Jimmy loudly shouted out to the roof of the church, after talking about Heaven and angels, “Papa Jim, Please fly over me! Papa Jim please watch me in heaven, be MY angel!”

Papa Jim I tried to tell you when we got to say good bye to you a few weeks ago, as you cried hoping that they boys would remember you, that they most certainly will remember you. And that they will always love you! Be our Angel Papa Jim, watch over my boys….all three of them!

My Boys,

Jake is now five and a half years old and will start kindergarten next year. He has grown from a ‘little’ boy to a kid in the past year and seeing photos side-by-side blows my mind that it was ONLY a year ago. He continues to be my old soul, his intellectual ability, attention to detail, drive to complete the task at hand, and how can figure out how to fix just about anything astounds me. He speaks with the clarity of an adult and has the wit of one too. He is stubborn and hard headed (which is usually more frustrating than not to mommy), but has a caring heart far above his years. He is more than ready for kindergarten…..I just hope his kindergarten teacher is ready for him! J

Jimmy is now three and a half years old and will be devastated next year when Jake starts kindergarten and the school bus drives away with his brother on it and leaves him behind. Jimmy is my live wire, he truly has an infectious, and explosive personality.  His vocabulary is impressive mainly because he never stops talking! He is so incredibly ornery, but his smile and little dimples get him out of most trouble! His teachers at school really are saints for not only teaching him on a day-to-day basis, but loving him like they do. I call him my “sour patch kid” he goes from saying or doing one pain-in-the-ass thing to the next but then will turn around and give you that smile of his, or the best compliment you could hear, and you fall in love. At the end of every day he is filthy and has a couple new bruises, he is tougher than nails and a tornado of trouble. But when he curls up to me at night, after his bath and the tired sets in, he phases back into a little boy, for a short time and I love it!