Change of the seasons.

I do not like winter!                                                                                                  12/8/2011

Sometimes I wonder why I never moved somewhere warmer when I was single. I really do not like winter. I don't like it being cold, I don’t like snow, I don’t like having to wear a bunch of clothes. Plus, it affects my mood a lot. I get the winter blues big time. I love working on my gardens and playing outside with the boys, all of which cannot be done in the winter. I suppose that I could go outside and play with the boys still, but that just goes back to me not liking the cold. At least this year had been a very manageable winter so far. There has been very little snow and the temperatures have not been really cold. A lot of people say they want a ‘white Christmas’, not this girl. I would be very happy if it did not snow all winter long. Although, I think that would be terrible for the enviroment.

Eli is awesome.

So much to talk about!                                                                                                      12/5/2011
I feel bad that I have not been updating as much as I want to because there have been so many things to tell. First I want to talk about Eli, it seems that he has grown up sooooo much within the past couple weeks. He is talking so much, and so good! If he wants something, he can actually ask for it, he is even saying please when asking for stuff. Not a lot, but we are working on that. It is funny when he wants me to do something but does not know how to ask. For example, I have a tin of buttons sitting on top of the china cabinet. They are just used buttons that were cut off clothes. It was something that my Great-Grandma Brotherton had collected for me. When she babysat me, I loved to play with the buttons. Well, Eli loves to play with them now too. So, when he wants to play with the buttons he will come find me and take my hand. If I am sitting down, he will tell me “up mommy”. I get up and he holds my hand, walks me over to the china cabinet, points to the top, and says “buttons”. The first couple times I let him play with the whole tin of buttons, but that was always a huge mess, now I give him about 4-5 buttons to play with. The funny part is that I have no idea where the buttons end up. I know when I do a good cleaning of the house (behind furniture) I will find a lot of buttons lol.
He is also currently obsessed with my bottles of nail polish. I left them out one day when Aidan painted my toenails (will explain that later) and Eli found them and has been playing with them ever since. I have realized that it good for him though. When he plays with them, I will ask him what color they are, it seems to have really helped him with learning his colors. He will take about 5-10 bottles and carry them around in a bucket, they move them from the bucket into a tin, then move them into some other container he can find.
For some reason he keeps calling Derek, Gabe. I think he does this because it is easier for him to say. So I have started trying to get him to call Derek, O’Flynn. He seems to like trying to say that better, but he has only done it a couple times, so we will see how that works out.

It's been a fun week.

What an amazing week at our house!                                                                11/7/2011

This week started with Halloween on Monday. Eli was dressed up as a dragon, and Aidan was the Green Lantern. It was such a nice night for trick or treating. My dad came over and helped take Aidan around the neighborhood. They seemed to have a very good time. I tried to take Eli to a few houses, but he did not seem too interested. First, we went to our neighbor's Jeff and Sandy. Eli insisted on getting one of the smaller pumpkins from our porch and taking it over there with us. We tried to take it away from him but he screamed, so we just let him take it along. Then we went to our other neighbor's house, and they have a rock driveway. Instead of wanting candy he wanted to collect rocks out of their driveway. He put about 10 rocks in his bucket and wanted to leave. After a few more unsuccessful attempts, we called it quits on Eli.

On Tuesday we all helped rake leaves in the back yard and made a huge pile for the boys to jump in, I mean all the boys lol. It was one of the first times that all of the boys got to hang out together. They seemed to have a lot of fun. We took some really fun pictures, everyone seems to think they are photoshopped, but they are not.

Wednesday, Aidan showed me something that one of his friends from school made him. He pulled it out of his bag and I noticed it was a 'cootie catcher'. One of those oragami things that you use your fingers to work. The best part was that he kept calling it a 'pootie catcher'! Then, on Wednesday night Dan and I went to the boys hockey game. They ended up losing, which was 5 in a row for the team. Gabe did not play, but Derek had a good game.

Thursday evening Derek and Gabe left for games in New York for three days, and Aidan went to his moms. I was so bored!  You would think that I would enjoy having time to myself, but that really did not happen. I tried to get laundry and cleaning done while they were gone, I somewhat succeeded in that task lol.

Chuck-a-Puck.

Aidan won a hockey stick!                                                                                              10/29/2011

During the second intermission for the home hockey games there is an event called 'chuck-a-puck'. You pay a dollar for a puck, then throw that puck onto the ice and try to get it to land on a target. Cathy had bought some pucks for Aidan to throw on the ice last night. The first puck he threw actually hit the glass, bounced back, and hit a guy in the face! The guy was nice enough to pick up the puck and toss it back on the ice. Aidan then threw the rest of his pucks out onto the ice. When he was done he was upset because he said that he did not win anything. I asked him how he knew for sure, and he said that he watched each puck and they didn't land on a target. A few minutes later, while Cathy and Aidan were gone getting popcorn, they announced the winners. Aidan's name was called, but we had no idea what he had won. When him and Cathy came back he was carrying a hockey stick that was signed by all the Michigan Warriors, it was the main target! He was so excited! 

He asked me to help him find Derek and Gabe's name on the stick, because they all looked like scribble to him. I told him it would be easiest to find Derek's name because of the O in his last name. Then Aidan asked me what a O looked like in cursive writing lol. I told him it pretty much looks like a regular O, he found it and got even more excited. We had Gabe help us find his signature. When he pointed it out Aidan asked where his number was (each player put their number next to their name). Gabe explained that he used to be number 29 so he accidentally put that number instead of 30, his Warriors number. It was really hard to see, especially because he added the number right into the signature. The stick also has pink tape around the handle, last night was 'Breast Cancer Awareness Night' at the game. We will be hanging the stick in his room. I am so happy that he was able to win such an awesome prize, now he will have something to remember this year forever.

One less 'toof'.

Aidan lost on of his front teeth!                                                                           10/27/2011

Aidan came home from school the other day with his hand covering his mouth. At first I thought that he was covering his nose, like something in the house was stinky. Then he started to tell me that something exciting happened at school that day. While he was talking with his hand over his mouth I noticed that he was talking funny. Then he reached in his pocket and took out a tiny envelope that had his tooth in it. Apparently he pulled his tooth out while he was at school earlier that day. He was so excited and I was so proud of him. The cutest part was that he told me not to message Dan to tell him, Aidan wanted to show Dan himself. I thought that was so precious that he was so excited about what he had done that he wanted to tell his dad himself. The next morning Aidan woke up to find that the Tooth Fairy had left him a dollar for his tooth. He was so happy, he came running downstairs to tell me. "Mara, look what I got for my tooth!" I was worried that Aidan would be disappointed that he only got a dollar, but he was not. It is amazing to me how the minds of children work. I hope that he is always happy and content with the things that are given to him. 

It's all about the cookies.

We need more cookie dough!                                                    10/26/2011
Last night Dan was eating some cookies, not the cookies that I made, but the cookies that Derek's dad made. So, I was teasing him that he would prefer to eat those cookies instead of the cookies that I made. Up until that point Gabe had not realized that I had even made cookies. I explained to him that I had cooked all the cookie dough that was in the freezer. Gabes reaction to that was priceless! He had this look on his face that his entire world just ended and said, "There is no cookie dough left?!" When I told him 'no' I though he was going to cry. He jumped up so fast and ran to the freezer to check (I guess he did not believe me). When he came back he was so sad, I told him I would buy more cookie dough and not cook it all next time. That seemed to make him happier. The fact that I cooked all the cookies did not stop him (or my other boys) from eating all of them. I cooked about 30 cookies, and they were all gone within about 4 days. I will never forget the look on his face when he realized what had happened. I instantly started laughing, it is so funny how the smallest things can seem like such a big deal at that moment.

The Hockey Life.

Last nights hockey game was a lot of fun!                                             10/21/2011

I was not sure how much I would enjoy it since neither of the boys were playing, but it was a good time still. I am not used to having a goalie, so I was surprised when I got to the game to see Gabe wearing his uniform. I guess that makes the most sense though, have him ready in case the other goalie gets injured. He was such a good teammate too! He stood by the door that the players enter through when they come off the ice onto the bench, and he patted each teammate on the back every time :) I know it must have been hard for Derek to have to sit out. His shoulder is currently injured, so he is not able to practice or play for about a week. There is another game tonight, and Gabe is supposed to start. I really hope that he does because I really want to see him play.

I never thought I would get into hockey as much as I have within the last couple months. It is amazing how different it is to watch a sport when you know some the players. It is amazing how much you can care for someone when they have only lived with you for a short time, especially when you never knew them before that! When Ryan left it was very hard for me. He was home with Eli and I all day, it was nice to have someone older than 2-years-old to talk to during the day. I have think about what is best for him though. He loves to play hockey, so he needed to go somewhere he could do that.

Eli is counting.

I am so proud of Eli today!                                                                       10/18/2011
We have been working on counting everyday for the last month or more, and today we counted up to 7! He did have a small mistake, he called number six, three. Still, it feels so good as a mom when you realize all the work you have been doing pays off. I learned that he is most likely to count if we are using objects that he enjoys to play with. He has been playing with some medium size pebbles lately, I can not get the kid to put them down lol. So, when we started working on counting today, we used those pebbles. He seemed more willing to count those with me, instead of the blocks or balls we have been using in the past. Next goal: get him to not say 'purple' every time I ask him what color something is :)