Ahh…Spring!

Today my heart is singing a song of praise to the Lord for the hope of Spring.

Ben and I dread the winters here in the Pacific Northwest to be quite honest. They are wet, dark and dreary, with little hope of snow days. It got even worse when we decided to have children. Winter of 2009 I was pregnant and throwing up constantly. Winter of 2010 the boys got their first flu, constant ear infections and were horrible sleepers (oh and we passed that flu along to our family, who were throwing up on Christmas Day). Winter of 2011 we renovated our bathroom in the midst of the boys having sinus infections, ear infections, and you guessed it, being horrible sleepers. But, we faired much better this winter than usual in the Morris household; for some reason one bout of the flu, bronchitis, a major cold, and a kitchen renovation didn’t seem that bad. Is it a perspective change? Or perhaps that the boys can finally sleep pretty good? Regardless, when Ben and I flipped the calendar to March, we were ecstatic—we made it through another winter!

Then we had this week. Let’s be honest, I’ve had much better weeks. While I was looking forward to a week of putting final touches on the kitchen project, instead I’ve been spending a lot of time dealing with sick boys, while being sick myself. After a couple of days of Sam having a bunch of odd symptoms (saying his mouth hurt, on-and-off again temp, rosy cheeks, nausea, cuddling way too much) I decided to take him in to the doctor, feeling like something was “off.” I’m so thankful for God-given motherly instincts, because sure enough, he has strep throat. According to the doctor, it’s highly contagious, so we were just waiting for Seth to get it. So begins my day today:

4:15: waking up groggy with my own cold, I hear Seth crying/coughing/moaning. I get him to the kitchen sink in time for him to throw up. Poor baby. He has strep. (who would have thought nausea would be a symptom of strep?) I’m too out-of-it to make a lucid decision, so have to ask for Ben’s opinion on what to give him/how to start antibiotics. We decide to wait until after breakfast, in hopes of getting some food in his tummy first. Thankfully he goes back to sleep.

7:45: force myself out of bed for some quiet devotion time before the kids get up.

7:50: Sam decides mom doesn’t need that time, he’s up. I give him books in his bed in hopes of that quiet time.

7:55: Seth wakes up moaning again. Ugh. I’m sick, tired, and no quiet time.

8-9: cuddle with boys who both obviously don’t feel well. Neither do I.

9:00: leave a message for Seth’s dr. in hopes of getting antibiotics over the phone for him without an appointment.

9:05: call my dr. in hopes of an afternoon appointment for me, so that Ben can watch the kids. The only appointment open is for 9:30. Great.

9:15: by a miracle, we are all on the way to my dr. Both boys are not happy. Seth’s only eaten half a banana and I’m hoping that’s enough food to get the antibiotics (which are in my pocket) to stay in his tummy.

9:30: of course, now, the boys’ dr. finally calls me back asking questions about his condition. I quickly try to answer, but not quick enough. My name is called. The nurse gives me a dirty look for being on my phone as I drag two 2 year olds into my appointment: just what every doctor’s office wants. Luckily they are so cute stomping down the hallway in their rain boots that she gives a little smile as I hang up and explain to her my situation.

But in all this, today it was easy to be thankful. We made it through the doctor’s appointment, through Sam screaming that he didn’t want to poop on the toilet at the doctor’s office, through multiple bouts of diarrhea as a side effect from the antibiotics (all in the toilet!), through fevers, and another throw-up, and lots of tears.

We made it through because of the hope of Spring. Sun shined down on our pale faces as we lounged on a blanket listening to the birds sing. The boys were trying to imitate their songs. Every room had a window opened, filling my home with the sweet aroma of fresh air. In the midst of walking around inspecting all my plants and seeing various sprouts popping up through the soil, I even got the lawn mowed and the trees sprayed. I felt my mind and body awaken in anticipation of the growing season.

God did a fantastic job in creating the seasons. He knew just what He was doing, and the hope that it instills in humans. Thank you God for the hope of Spring. Sammy is just as excited about spring as I am :) Check out the socks (Seth’s even pointing at them for me!), and the necklace…silly boys  Sammy (again) sporting the two hat look. They’ve been really into drawing this week and even drew their first stick figures (with our guidance)

Spring means fire-pit season—Ben’s favorite nightly activity. They had a “guys night” by the fire tonight.

Update: 2.75

I’ve been ruminating this post in my head for a while, but have been held back by one thing: kitchen renovation. It has completely consumed our life these past few weeks (actually months, but who’s counting). But today I’m breathing a sigh of relief and refusing to do anything kitchen—because we’re almost done! (Who am I kidding? I started this post over a week ago, and am just now finishing it!) Countertop is finished, painting 90% finished, and backsplash is 90% finished. We LOVE it, but truth be told, I’m totally burnt out on house construction and ready for it to be over. I’m tired of using every spare moment to work on the kitchen, thus causing all my other chores to back up. Not to mention the extra chores that the renovation has caused like the layer of sawdust the covers every inch of our house, or the extra laundry from our work clothes or rags, or the scrubbing of the carpet from all the stains created. All that said, however, I can’t wait to completely finish and post pictures of the renovation—because it’s gorgeous!

Now to the real reason of the post: my boys growing up. How can it be that Seth and Sam are 3 months away from their third birthday? They are so grown up now. Here’s what those little twins of mine are up to these days: (the picture below is of them in their fort eating popcorn: Seth, Sam)

-Pretending, pretending, and more pretending. They will spend hours on an elaborate imaginative trip with their stuffed animals, backpacks packed (with blocks for clothes), going to the couch (the car), driving to various places (usually Dufur or Lakeview), to do various things (usually a football or basketball game). When I asked them how long they would be gone, Sam replied, “Four days,” while Seth, “Two weeks.”

-One of their favorite things to pretend is playing music. Our wooden train tracks are guitars or drumsticks, while their aircraft carriers are the drums (yes, this makes a loud noise). Their pegs are trumpets. My favorite song they’ve made up is one in which they belt out, “I don’t want to sing, I don’t want to sing…”

-Basketball is still huge in the house, with the addition of fouling each other—HARD. Like plowing each other over. I made the rule they can only do that when Ben is watching as the ref. They also play defense with their arms out and shuffle their feet while squatting down…pretty good form actually. And they fall down on purpose lots. Because apparently that’s what they’ve picked up from watching uncle Caleb’s games: fouls, defense, and falling down.

-We’re entering into the questions phase (thankfully not “why” yet, but other questions). I feel like I hear, “What’s dat mama?” and “What you doin?” a million times a day. They want to know what every sound is and where it comes from. They always want to know where I am and what I’m doing. They want to know how everything works. It’s cute, and good—but also very mentally exhausting for me.

-They know almost every letter in the alphabet. They can spell and recognize both their names. They can also spell “mom,” “dad,” “stop,” and “go.” They want to know what all our family member’s names start with, and have almost all those memorized. They love to learn and are very curious.

-They completely get themselves dressed each morning.

-They love doing art projects, coloring, cooking with mama, playing trains, doing puzzles, wrestling with daddy, taking baths and most of all, playing outside. They are very earnest in all they do.

-Word of the month: college. Not sure where they got it from? Maybe college basketball? They use it in very funny ways, but never correctly. “This is my college house.” “The ball is college.” Hum…

-In general, they get along pretty good. However, they have entered into quite a selfish stage. When one boy says, “I want to play with ____,” I’ll see the other run to try to get to it first. If one is wearing a certain shirt, the other one wants it. I spend a lot of my day saying, “Don’t covet what your brother’s playing with.” “Why don’t you ask for a turn in five minutes?” and most of all: “Stop being so selfish.”

Sam:

• Lots of funny expressions and voices. 
• Likes to mimic and tease.
• Laughs a lot and thrives on touches and attention. 
• When he’s happy, he’s very happy. When he’s sad, he’s very sad.
• Tends to be a bit of a liar (can you say that about your kids?). Yep, he will lie, exaggerate, etc.
• More social than Seth; usually plays with people of any age and has lots of friends.
• Doozy comments of the month: when asked what he wanted for his birthday present (and after Seth had replied, “A basketball"), Sam told us that he wanted “his present to be bigger than Seth’s.” Are you kidding me? Ben and I’s jaws dropped, and we stumbled to tell him to not say selfish things like that and to want good things for his brother too. Second comment: as Seth was stressing out trying to find something, Sam told him, “Don’t worry about it. It’s in the drawer.”

Seth:

• This month we discovered Seth has been struggling with acid reflux; we are not sure for how long and are wondering if some of his sleep problems have been attributed to it. He’s been on medicine for a couple weeks now and is doing better.
• Has been struggling with what I call a “countenance problem.” In kid language: a poopy attitude…just being whiny and discontented. In hindsight, we believe that this may be attributed to his tummy hurting a lot. It seems to be getting better with the medicine.
• Loves to cuddle, especially with his mama!
• Is a potty training champ, and hasn’t had an accident in over a month. The great part about it is that he does it all on his own without me having to remind him.
• Is a “door nazi,” i.e. always wants to be the only one opening and shutting the door. It drives me crazy.
• Doozy comments of the month: when he was sad that Ben was going to a Blazer game without him, and I told him that we’d take him to a game soon, Seth seriously said, “Yeah, when I become a man.” And on the same night, as he was pretending to play guitar, he told me, “I the big (meaning biggest) guitar player in the world.” Where do they get these ideas?

Just The Mom’s

This year for Christmas, my sister and I gave my mom tickets for “Beauty and the Beast” on Broadway. And, after much anticipation, we got to watch the play this weekend! Just the three of us—no kids and no husbands—headed downtown for a quiet lunch and pure enjoyment of a musical.

After the play (which was wonderful!), we celebrated Aidah’s four-year old birthday. I can’t believe she’s four already! Aidah’s really into Robin Hood, so my parents made her a Robin Hood outfit and bought her a bow and arrow, which was a big hit with all the kids. It sure was nice to have a weekend hanging out with the Ruda family!

  Aidah trying out the new equipmentSammy having a blast with his Papa

Surprise for Daddy

Ben and I have made it a point to never celebrate Valentine’s Day. Call us silly, but we just didn’t want to be forced into a Hallmark Holiday. Everyone has to protest something, right? Some people it’s Wall Street, and us, it’s V-day. So, it was a perfect time for the boys and I to have a little surprise for Ben.

We made very special Valentine’s, that were created in several phases. Phase one: with friends Brock and Jayden they finger painted/sponge stamped big pieces of construction paper. Next I cut the painted murals into smaller hearts. Then the boys and I glued them onto red heart dollies and Seth and Sam decorated them with stickers. We even got festive and added glitter. Finally I glued a smaller picture of the boys in the middle of the hearts of them posing next to the chalkboard with “Happy V-day, love Seth and Sam” written on it. Everything was purchased from the dollar tree, and the stamps I just cut out of sponges that I had on hand. Probably under $5 for about 15 cards.

Then I planned a very special menu for us: shrimp stuffed tilapia and asparagus wrapped in bacon; for dessert I made Oreo balls and chocolate covered strawberries (Ben’s favorites).

When Valentine’s Day arrived, we first delivered treats and Valentines to our neighbors. When I told the boys that we were going to do this, Seth asked, “We get treats too-like Halloween?” I can’t believe he remembered that far back! It was hard to describe that no, this was not the same process as Halloween. We were only GIVING the gifts. Then to complicate matters, Seth and Sam received beautiful Valentines the mail from their cousins, Miriam and Aidah. Seth and Sam thought they had to give THOSE Valentines to the neighbors. “No, no boys. We RECEIVED these cards. So we keep them.” Very complicated, as one can imagine.

After delivering and chatting a bit too long, we rushed into the house, I threw a movie on for the boys so that I could make the special dinner. Plus, the plan was that we would be all dressed up for Ben. So, with dinner cooking I threw on his favorite dress, curled my hair, put on make-up, slapped dress shirts on the boys, and decorated the table. When Ben opened the door, Seth and Sam yelled, “Happy Valentine’s Day,” and handed him their cards. He then saw me, and the candle-lit table and smelled the scrumptious dinner—oh it was magical!

It’s a funny thing about being a homemaker…for some reason purposing to do special events like this is difficult (at least for me!). It’s much easier to piddle through the days on a slow routine. But I tell you what, the joy of doing a surprise like this for the man of your house is PRICELESS. Later Ben told me with a huge grin that he felt “like the king of his castle.” And he should—because he is. And I should do things like this more often. Because not only did it make his day, it made mine. It was so fun to have a special dinner as family and break out of the routine.

And even though we’ll probably never forget it, I even documented it through pictures (surprise, surprise):

Phase 1 of cards: making collages with Brock and Jayden Sam, Seth

Phase 2 of card making: stickers and glitter

I couldn’t decide which photo I like best, so we did cards with both

Seriously, how cute are their expressions in this one!

Even the boys got to eat on adult plates. And I pulled out the wine glasses for Ben’s Pepsi and my water :) High class if I do say so myself.

The BIG moment

Me and my boys: pure joy!  Ben even let me take family photos because he was so thankful :)

Happy Valentine’s Day! Love, Sam, Mommy, and Seth

Weekends

Weekends are something we really cherish in the Morris household. Most of the time we love to be home, all together, cuddling in bed when we first wake up, eating a slow breakfast (that always includes bacon), playing lots with daddy, doing a few home projects—just relaxing. But sometimes we love to get away for the weekend, especially when it includes seeing much-loved family. And that’s what we did last weekend: the boys and I picked Ben up from work on Friday afternoon and we drove over to Maupin to see Caleb play a basketball game. That night we sent Seth and Sam home with Ben’s parents to Dufur, and Ben and I stayed with Nate and Holly, sans kids. Woo hoo! I wonder how many times we commented, “It’s just so quiet!” It was quite magical to be able to stay up late playing games, and not have to worry about being tired in the morning when the kids wake you up (we slept in until 9:30). 

We all met up in Dufur on Saturday afternoon for another basketball game. Luckily the boys weren’t alone with grandparents that night, because they got the inevitable cold (we seriously get sick any time we’re on a trip) and woke up just about every hour that night. Ben was my knight-in-shining-armor and slept on the floor between them so I could get some sleep. Then on Sunday the whole family got to watch the Superbowl together at Nate and Holly’s house. Besides the colds, it was a wonderful weekend!

Here were a few highlights:

-Seth and Sam playing on the court after Caleb’s games. I watched Sammy line up perfectly on the free throw line, take a few dribbles and shoot—just like Caleb. I also got to help Seth share his basketball with another little boy; and although he shed a quiet, crocodile-sized tear, he still gave it to the boy. I was so proud!

-Watching Levi play the drums in the pep band…Seth and Sam have been doing a lot of drumming now just like uncle Levi!

-No potty accidents the entire weekend! I think it is now safe to say we’re potty trained!

-Sammy yelling out during a Superbowl commercial (that contained a girl in only a towel), “NAKEY GIRLS!” Yep, that’s why we don’t watch many commercials around here.

-Watching Seth and Sam play with Nate and Holly’s dog, Gracie. They just love her.

-Having a break from the boys. Thanks grandparents!

Seth’s all ready to go for the weekend. The box is his boat.

Seth and Sam with grandparents at the games, sporting their Ranger colors.

Chillin’ with daddy during the Superbowl. Can you tell we have colds now?

The boys and Gracie

Uncle NayNay being the boys’ horse. What amazing uncles they have! (Seth, Sam)

Rare family photo. Unfortunately Ben is the only one looking good…seriously, horrible angle for my chin(s) and just as unfortunate, this is Sam’s new “cheese” smile.

Out for a walk around Nate and Holly’s house. The Deschutes River in below in the canyon.

It was a beautiful evening. Coming from living in the city, sometimes it just so nice to see lots of open spaces.

That’s last weekend in a nutshell. This weekend Ben and I got crazy and decided to completely demolish our kitchen countertop in hopes of replacing it by this weekend—because we’re having company this weekend. Isn’t this what you want your kitchen to look like when you have company coming in 5 days?

I’m a little stressed, but am hopeful that with the time crunch, maybe, just maybe we’ll get it done quickly. Yesterday I got A LOT of satisfaction from destroying the old tiles and saying goodbye to the final 80’s look in our house:

And Seth and Sam have been having tons of fun playing in the HUGE box that Daddy’s new tile saw came in (have you ever noticed that men have to get a new tool for every project?) So far it has been a boat, a car, a place to play instruments, a house, a football field, something to use tools on…to name a few. Even Wesley, the boy I watch a couple days a week, got to play in it this morning. I’m planning on milking this box for all it’s worth as a toy!

 

Dump Trucks

Isn’t it every boys dream to see one of these up close?

Well, lucky for Seth and Sam, their daddy works here at good ol’ Daimler Trucks:

And lucky for us, we happened to bring Ben lunch one day that this amazing dump truck was displayed. And even luckier for us, although Ben forgot to tell me to bring my camera, a kind, retired gentlemen who lives in the area happened to be there taking pictures and offered to email us a few of the kids. In fact, he ended up burning us a CD of about 20 pictures and bringing it by the office for Ben. What a blessing!

The Odd Thing

Every child has one, right? That thing they are weirdly obsessed with for only God knows why.

For Seth and Sam, it’s alarms. Fire alarms and carbon monoxide alarms. It all started when they called them the beepers. Despite several warnings not to touch “the beepers", they inevitably did, causing a loud and startling beeping sound. This caused them to always stay far from the beeper, which unfortunately is plugged in next to our dining room table. Then, it turned into a full blown fear of the beeper. Every once and a while one of the boys would suddenly run screaming and crying to me, always pointing back to the beeper. Despite continual reassurances that it cannot hurt them, they were stilled scared. Most kids are scared of dogs, loud noises, heck, even water—but this?

One night after one of these silly outbursts, I rashly told the boys that when they are scared to just point at the alarm, and say, “No, no beeper. No beep. You don’t hurt me.” Well, that stuck. So now while they have mostly conquered their fear of the beeper, we hear some pretty funny conversation with this object.

The fear turned into an odd noticing of alarms every where we go. I kid you not: Seth especially points out the fire alarm in every single house we visit. Oh, and every single restaurant. And every store. Perhaps he is destined to be a fire fighter. Regardless, I feel much safer knowing that the boys are ever vigilant in fire safety.

On a completely different note, I have another basketball story. The boys are starting to recognize letters quite well. And in the Morris household, the “B” stands for “buzzer” (what they call the scoreboard from basketball games). No, not boy, baby, ball, or block: buzzer. Maybe it’s more surprising that it doesn’t stand for basketball, or in the theme of this post “beeper.”