Our "Bumpins"

I'm the mom that loves the idea of being fun and crafty and gives up kudos to fellow mama's who "Pin" kid-craft ideas and actually go through with them. Sure, I Google fun things to do with a two-year-old, but have I actually done any of them? Sure.

Like the time I filled a big bowl with uncooked rice and let Ryker explore in it. It's what those supermoms call a "Sensory Activity". He got a kick out of it.... for two minutes, and it took his parents 30 to clean it up and hunt down the last bits from under the stove and fridge.

Or the other day when we collected fall leaves and I wrapped them up in saran and put them in a book to flatten them and save for a craft I would find on Pinterest. I would be excited about the idea of the craft and then forget we put the leaves in the book. Two minutes later Ryker found the leaves in the book and then crumpled them up in his little fist. I found them later in the bubble dispenser of his plastic push mower.

Yesterday, I decided it was time to carve our Daddy, Mommy, Baby "Bumpins... Scerred". (Scary pumpkins or Jack-o-Lanterns)

Like most things like this, the idea of it sounds way more awesome than the actual process.

Ryker didn't love the feeling of it on his hands, but liked to use the scoop... For 10 minutes. I spent the next three hours cleaning out and carving our family of pumpkins and then roasting the seeds, which I'm totally addicted to and eating for breakfast as I write this. 

The plan was to clean them out and get them ready for us to carve when daddy got home from work. So I cleaned them out and then decided to move the process along and went ahead and carved the mommy pumpkin. Ryker came back in at some point and wanted his hand traced on his little pumpkin, which looks super cute! So I went ahead and carved it out. And then, being completely and totally over the mess and the family-fun activity, I went ahead and carved Bry's and got them the hell out of the house.

Later that night when it got dark, we bundled up, lit them up and oooh'ed and awww'ed at them for two seconds before heading back in. 

I must say they look pretty awesome.

10.24.13

Two

It's not so much that he just turned two, it's the wrapping my head around the speed of time that does me in.

I have the greatest kid ever. I know, I know everyone thinks their kid is the greatest... but really, mine is the best. It's been so long since I've written about our moments that it feels overwhelming to think about where to start.

How about with last night when we were all hanging out on the living room floor - Bry and I sitting together watching TV through Ryker playing with his trucks, dinosaurs or trains. When he saw the love, he decided he needed to get in on it and came over to sit between us. Then he moved to the end beside me, with daddy's arm around mommy and both of us with our arm wrapped around him. He couldn't stop coming in for a hug for the next half hour or so. Not a baby cuddle, but a grown up hug accompanied with a pat on the back or on the shoulder and then pulling away and looking into our eyes with his head tilted, almost like he was consoling us. He gives the BEST hugs.

The three of us were playing catch with a little foam basketball he got from his cousins for his birthday (that overnight, our dog Bella has chewed to pieces) in the living room and he would clap his hands twice and then open them up ready for the "catch" as if to say, "Over here, I'm open". It's the awesome things like that where you wonder, where did he pick that up? 

Then there are the things that you know exactly where he picked them up from. Like the word, fuck for example, which he repeated for the first time this past weekend after I closed the umbrella on my finger.

I remember writing about the nights that Bryon and I would creep into his room and watch him sleep on our way to bed, refusing to ever let him actually sleep with us. We couldn't possibly go against all of the bullshit baby book rules and create bad sleeping habits! And now, most nights when he makes a peep or calls for us, one of us gets up to bring him in between us.

"We're good parents," Bryon said one night. And you know what... We totally are. That kid is so loved and he so knows it. 

The instant you realize how quickly he's growing up hits you like a train and it's everything you can do to hang on to every little man moment. It's not that I think to myself, I'm not going to be able to do this when he's 10... and that's going to be tomorrow.

22.10.13