The Cookie Monster

I know that I have discussed Shepherd's love for play dough in previous post; he spends hours each week playing with it. He rolls out the play dough and cuts out shapes with these little metal Christmas cookie cutters. One afternoon, I got the brilliant idea that we would make gingerbread cookies. I figured this was one craft project that he would love! We would roll out the dough and he could use the same cookie cutters to make the gingerbread cookies. I got everything ready while he was napping and brought him to the table and my little boy turned into a cookie monster. Instead of making cookies out of the dough, he sprawled on the table and tried to shove as much cookie dough down his mouth as possible. I was shocked! I tried getting him down from the table but he was determined to get the dough. He started screaming and the only thing I could do was put him in his high chair and cut out gingerbread men as fast as possible. Here are some pictures of him after he calmed down and ate a lot of cookie dough.

Shepherd was finally happy to eat the cooked gingerbread cookies!

A week later, I got together with some girlfriends to make gingerbread houses. We had such a fun time! I did learn my lesson from the gingerbread men incident, and did things a little differently. 1. I fed Shepherd his lunch at about 10:45am 2. I brought his portable high chair so I could restrain the cookie monster, he did not get to sit at the table with the rest of the kids 3. Since he already had his lunch, I let him decorate or should I say eat, all of the cookies he wanted.

Happy Cookie Monster!

Yum! Yum! Yum!

Friends about to make gingerbread houses!

Favorite Weekend of the Year

The first weekend in December is my favorite weekend of the year! It is the kickoff to the Christmas season in the little town of Siloam Springs. I am involved in a mom's group called Mothering Matters and we have our annual fundraiser, the first Friday in December. We put on a Christmas tour of homes and I have always enjoyed this event. We select about five local homes that get decorated for Christmas and allow the town to tour each home for a small fee. This one event raises enough money to cover the annual childcare cost of Mothering Matters. I usually have to work the second half of the night, so Taylor rushes home from work on Friday so we have enough time to walk through each home. I love taking pictures of the decorations and getting fun Christmas ideas.

Saturday morning, the Heritage League, host a breakfast with Santa. Families gather at our community building and eat breakfast, take pictures with Santa, and do fun Christmas crafts. We missed the breakfast this year because Taylor wanted to take me to Tulsa to pick out my Christmas present from a jewelry store. This was a much better way to spend a Saturday morning, and I was thrilled! I am so lucky to have such a thoughtful and sweet husband.

Then finally on Saturday night, the entire town gathers for the annual Christmas parade. The night begins with the high school choir singing Christmas carols, the mayor prays over our town, and then there is a countdown and all of the Christmas lights turn on for the first time. It feels magical! The parade is a typical small town parade with homemade floats and local marching bands. We bundled up this year and enjoyed the parade with good friends, while drinking hot chocolate.

Shepherd and Taylor bundled up for the parade

Here is a picture of downtown right when the lights came on.
It is hard to see in the picture.

A cold baby!

Family picture at the parade

Thanksgiving 2010

This year for thanksgiving we traveled down to Velma, OK and spent several days with my mother-in-law, Janice. We had a very relaxing and easy Thanksgiving. We ate a yummy meal, played games, and enjoyed good conversation. I didn't take a lot of pictures but here are a few:

Our little family on Thanksgiving 2010

Here is a picture from Thanksgiving 2009, look how much Shepherd has changed!

Here is a picture of Shepherd with his 2nd cousins, Morgan and Roxie, in 2009

Here is a picture of the same little ones, a year later.

All of Taylor's cousins 2010

All of the kids!

Tornado in the House

Last week, Taylor and I felt like we were living with a human tornado. Shepherd went through a week long phase that rocked our world!!! He was seriously on a mission for destruction. He was absolutely crazy and neither of us could keep up with the boy. He would walk into the kitchen and in just a few minutes, the cabinets would all be emptied on the floor. I was in the bathroom washing my hands and before I could catch him, he put ornaments in the toilet, giggling as they shattered. He found a roll of Elmo wrapping paper that was stored under the bed, and tore apart the entire roll of paper in less than five minutes! The list goes on and on!! Taylor asked me one evening how I was able to handle this all day long, I let him know my secret. When I would get frustrated, I just tried to imagine Shep has a huge, teenage boy that did not want me to kiss and cuddle him. This allowed me to enjoy the stage he is in. Shepherd is not normally like this, and thankfully he has since calmed down. We do not know what got into him, but at the same time, he had a huge language growth spurt. Last week he started repeating everything you say. Shepherd has been a little behind on his speech, but after last week, he has caught up! He will now either say or attempt to say every word you ask him to repeat! He also started saying things like, "Cookie please, thank you." I am not sure if you can categorize that as a sentence, but I was thrilled! I guess last week Shepherd had a major developmental growth spurt, and we got to experience the bad with the good.

The step stool is one of Shepherd's favorite toys

Crazy Cousins!

Sawyer, my nephew, came for a visit while his brother was being born. Sawyer, Shepherd and Jack (my other nephew) had such a fun time playing together. These cousins will all be in the same grade and they are a bunch of cute and crazy boys. If will be so much fun to see these little guys grow up together. Here are some pictures from our visit:

Playing before bed time

Aunt Mel Mel reading to the boys right before Beau is born.

Fun in the tub!

Shepherd and Sawyer driving the car.

Jack & Sawyer now in the car

Exhausted after a long day of playing. They were watching Toy Story.

We went to the Drive Thru Safari Zoo, and yes all three boys are in my lap.

Shepherd trying to climb out of the car to get to the animals.

Please notice the sign in the background. Oops!

At the petting zoo

Ellie and Sawyer are best buds!

Cute baby monkey!

The Lemur loved Shepherd

He really wanted to eat Shepherd's shoes

Shepherd and Sawyer so excited to get all of the Toy Story toys

Last Hour of the Day

The winter weather has arrived in Northwest Arkansas and it has added a dilemma to my day. The mornings are great for Shepherd! He is in a really good mood and we try to do something fun every morning. Currently, Shepherd takes one afternoon nap a day from 12:30p-4:00p, YES, he is a great sleeper. But the last hour of our day, is the most difficult hour. From 4:00pm-5:00p, Shepherd is ready to go and is quite the terror. When the weather was nice, we would go outside and enjoy playing with the neighborhood kids. But as the cold weather has moved in, I am constantly looking for activities to fill this last hour.

We tried playing with shaving cream. As you can see, he started off happy!

Shepherd is now not as excited about this project.

Now he is unhappy, this was the last picture I got before he started screaming because he did not want the messy shaving cream on himself. (Activity=FAIL)

We then tried coloring with markers and stickers. As you can see, the fun was short lived. (Activity=FAIL)

I then let him play with some orange stickers that were left over from our garage sale. He had a blast and put them all over the house. Then the time came for me to take the stickers out of his hair. I am sure you can imagine how that went! (Activity=FAIL)

We then attempted to go to the library for the last hour of the day. One afternoon, the library was showing a movie and serving popcorn to the kids. Shepherd loved watching the movie and eating the popcorn. I also let him pick out some movies and books to take home. I was so proud of myself, I successfully found an activity that filled our last hour of the day with a happy, positive experience. Then things turned for the worse.

When I was checking out at the library, Shepherd saw the DVD's that he picked out. He had a total meltdown. He wanted to hold the movies, and not just hold the movies, he wanted to get out the shiny DVD's. Even though the library DVD's are thoroughly scratched, I could not allow my child to add more scratches in front of the nice, but firm, Librarian. I had to carry a screaming child out of the library and he cried the entire way home. When we got home, he decided continue his meltdown and throw himself down on the concrete entryway outside our house. By this point, it was about 5:15pm and I understood that the child was starving, but I felt like such a failure. Our fun afternoon adventure turned into a nightmare. (Activity=FAIL)

When I walked in our home, I just dropped the bag of movies on the ground and walked away. I was too tired to keep fighting.

Here is a picture of "post-tantrum" Shepherd enjoying his Library goodies

On the more positive note, I have recently discovered that Shepherd adores crayons and playdough. Both have been excellent activities for the dreaded hour of our day. Shepherd is quite the artist and can spend over an hour sitting in his high chair coloring pictures of Bob & Larry or playing with his playdough. Sometimes I feel guilty for letting him sit in one spot for so long, but I continue to ask him if he wants to get down, and he shakes his head no. He does not slow down very often, so I guess a little art time is okay.

It takes time to figure out what makes your child happy. They grow and change so quickly, I am sure his preferences will be totally different next month. Motherhood is a continual learning curve and I know that Shepherd teaches me just as many lessons as I teach him. I am lucky to be his mommy!

Where did November go?

What happened to November? November flew by and I cannot believe that Christmas is only two and a half weeks away! We had a very exciting and also frightening November.

Beau Rockland Aichele, my adorable nephew, arrived on 11/10/10, he was born at 9:56am weighing 8lbs 11oz. This was the exciting part of our month! The delivery process was smooth and perfect!

Here is the Big Brother/Little Brother outfits that my other sister Dana made for Beau and Sawyer! They are so cute!

Melanie and Clint welcoming Beau into the world

Look at that little angel sleeping! I made that hat for Shepherd, but he never got to wear it. What was I thinking making a stocking cap for a spring baby???

I got to keep Beau's big brother, Sawyer, for several days while Melanie and Clint recovered from the birth. Shepherd just loved having his cousin around. It was so nice watching the two of them play together and it made me realize how much fun Shepherd is going to have when his new brother arrives. (Okay, so it might be a little rough during the adjustment period)

The frightening event in November happened on 11/20, when we received a dreaded text message that said, "Dad is hurt, call me." Taylor and I were on a Saturday afternoon date, at the movie theater, when we got the message. We called my mother immediately and found out that my father had fallen off of a ladder and he knew something was broken. We immediately drove to my parent's house and rushed my mom to the hospital. At 11pm that night, the doctors decided that he broke his pelvis and things were a lot worse than they expected. An ambulance transported him to Little Rock so he could see a specialist. I notified my church to add my dad to the prayer chain and had my friends praying for him. The last thing our family wanted was for my dad to have surgery. There is a lot of risk with surgery on the pelvis because that is the area where many of your vital organs are stored. Early the following morning I got an update saying that he was going to need surgery and could be in the hospital for up to two weeks, I kept praying! Then at 10am, I got another call saying that the doctor decided the break in his pelvis did not need surgery and he was going to come home that evening!!! Wow! God answered our prayers! My father is still recovering and has endured a lot of pain, but things could have been so much worse. I am so thankful that God listens and answers our prayers.