Thursday, October 29, 2009

Mollie Jane's ballet



Mollie Jane has been in ballet since September and adores it. She is all about her ballet bag, her bun, and her leotards and ballet skirt. We had two observation weeks so Jackson, Smith and I observed. It is so precious. They circle up and start with a prayer. They play pieces from all the classical ballets. Mollie Jane walks around on the dance floor pointing her toes, leaping, holding her neck up like she has a heavy necklace on, stretching her arms, galloping with her partner, standing on her toes holding the bar, and of course her famous first position.
A couple of weeks ago I rented a "Muppets Show" VHS at the library. My kids love the Muppets and it reminds Jason and I of our childhood when we would watch the show on TV and it was such a huge deal when it came on. It was randomly a Muppet Show where Rudolf Nureyev, a famous Russian male ballet dancer hosts the show. Both kids were so funny but they kept asking over and over again, "Mommy why do boys do ballet?" Oh Dear! I tried to explain why boys do ballet the best I could although I was not real sure myself. So when we were at dance Jackson leans over and says "Mommy I think only about 18 boys in the world do ballet." Then he says "I am not one of them Mommy." Then Jackson leans over again and says "I don't think Sissy really knows what she is doing." I had to laugh. Mollie Jane has the biggest smile on her face the whole class but is the only three year old and the other girls are five or almost five. Our big girl is really the same height or taller than the other girls but I did notice the teacher calling her name out a lot. The good news is Mollie Jane is having a blast and doesn't know she's clueless.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Jackson's first offical gradecard and conference


Jackson's first official grade card and he got all A's. It is only first grade so we are not too overly proud but he loves it and is doing great. It was just so funny to sit at his conference and hear Mr. Beckman's remarks on Jackson.
-Mr. Beckman has never seen a male first grader with penmanship as meticulous and precise as Jackson. This is so funny because Jason's handwriting is literally illegible and mine is not too much better.
-Jackson is very mild mannered.
-Jackson is very serious and all business.
-Jackson is slow at his work (but thankfully not a problem slow) and wants to take his time to get it all done "right" as Jackson says.
-Jackson is also clueless and sometimes daydreams and if he gets his name on the "sad face" list on the board he never knows why.
-Jackson has been on the "sad face" list a few times but not for behavior reasons only because he didn't pay attention enough to complete every workbook page which was either verbally said or written on the board.
-He has lots of friends.
-Mr Beckman says he can tell Jackson gets upset and frustrated if Mr. Beckman leaves the room and the kids get rowdy and start breaking the rules.

Mr. Beckman really know our first born. Jason and I just laugh at this all business serious side of Jackson. Many traits he gets from Jason and I but many traits we are like where in the world did that come from??

Friday, October 23, 2009

Pumpkin Carving




I went up to eat lunch with Jackson at school and then we did pumpkin carving with his class. I brought Jackson "Wendy's" for lunch and you would have thought he was the new "rock star" of his class. Jackson thought he was way cool and all his friends wanted to see his lunch (as if they had never eaten at Wendy's before). I then helped Mr. Beckman get all the supplies ready and set up the pumpkins. Jackson says "Mommy, you are kind of going to help Mr. Beckman be the teacher today aren't you." He just cracks me up and I am loving that he is so into me being at his school because I don't think that will be the case in ten years or so. I am eating it up now. I told Jackson when I was done that I would come outside and watch him at recess. You could tell he was so excited about that and then he paused for a minute and said "Mommy since you used to be a kindergarten teacher you can stand with all the teachers at recess." I suffered through the cold recess and it brought back some unpleasant memories of years of cold recess duty. Thankfully Mr. Beckman blew the whistle and we all filed in (with Mollie Jane at the end of the line trying to act like the other kids) to carve the pumpkins. I really despise carving pumpkins and have always called the stuff inside the pumpkin "buggers." So I was thrilled my kids got to do it this year but we didn't have to do it in our kitchen. Mollie Jane, Smith and I all attended. It was a little crazy with the other ones up there. Mollie Jane fit right in and acted like she was in first grade. Smith just hung out in the Bijourn and kicked on a blanket in the corner of the room (my sweet poor third child). The kids in his class were so funny. Jackson, Mollie Jane and his partner carved their pumpkin and made it look like a vampire. Jackson handling the carving knife made me a little nervous and I probably took over a few too many times. Our vampire pumpkin turned out cute and it was a fun day.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Smith is four months old




Our big sweet boy is four months old. What a month it has been.
Here are the highlights.
-We started cereal at night. He eats cereal but in between bites he insists on sucking his thumb. He makes a huge mess doing it.
-He is still a great sleeper. He is a tummy sleeper and has learned to flip over and his back and gets extremely ticked when he does this. There was a week or so where this was really a problem in the middle of the night but he is back to his "good sleeping self."
-He loves his bath and the kids now refer to bath time for Smith as "kick mania" as he wildly kicks his feet and slaps his hands around and splashes water everywhere.
-He is sitting in the mega saucer and has good trunk control. He is starting to grab at the toys.
-He is grabbing with his hands and the other day flung my side salad across Wendy's.
-He drools constantly (we call him Brutus).
-He is wearing 6-12 month clothing and it fits him in length great but he is our "skinny guy."
-He is a babbler and does some crazy talking.
-He usually goes down between 8-10 pm and wakes up between 8-10am. Whenever he gets up he is usually up about 2 hours or so and then goes back down for a nap and sleeps 3 hours or so. He really kind of does this all day until it is time for bed.
-He is still not a big fan of the car but getting much better now that he sucks his thumb and can play with some toys. My Mom is convinced that he hates his car seat because he has big "balls." (If you weren't aware he has hydroseal??? or something along that medical term where he has a little extra fluid in that area) It is supposedly not harmful but we are just watching it. Poor guy.
-The highlight of this month was getting to meet the "original Smith" A dear friend of ours father is named Smith and he is such a remarkable godly man. He was so honored that we named our big man "Smith" and we were touched that they came up for a visit.

Sunday, October 11, 2009

The true picture of a single Mom

Thank the Lord I don't have any pictures for this blog. Clearly, Jason being gone for 4 1/2 weeks is not healthy for me. I decided to go to the mall as I had a couple of returns. I took Smith in the "Baby Bijorn" (cauz he still hates his car seat). We first headed to Old Navy and Mollie Jane and I both used the potty. We left the Old Navy and proceded to walk literally the whole mall. We decided we would have a major treat for lunch and go to Chick Fill A. We ate our meal in the lovely food court and I am trying to juggle Smith, help Mollie Jane finish her meal, clean up, and gather all our items. A lady walks over to me and says "Maum, I don't want you to be alarmed, it is really no big deal, it happens to all of us but you have toilet paper hanging out of your jeans. Literally it was down to my calf (nice) and I had cruised the whole mall. I thought to myself, I should have just stayed home. AHHHHH!
The next day, I am cooking Mollie Jane lunch and the extra lovely part of this event is that I am still in my bathrobe. Why you ask? Because I was having a lazy cleaning day at home and thankfully our dear friends the Paul and Cindy Teas took Jackson to school that day for me so we hadn't left the house. I started to cook a quesidilla for Mollie Jane and walked outside and was fiddling in the garage and the back yard with Mollie Jane. I forgot about the quesidilla and came back into the house with the smoke dectors going off and our alarm system going off. I got it all turned off and I couldn't believe it but Baby Smith slept through the whole thing. I was airing out the house when I heard sirens and then it dawned on me that the alarm probably triggered the fire dept. Yep! Three very kind and very attractive fire fighters jumped out of their truck with their full gear. I realized that I did not have time to go put something else on and so I greeted them in my front yard in my bath robe. At this point, just about every neighbor on my street was standing in their front yard trying to figure out what was going on with the sirens. Yet, more importantly why was Alison Brawner still in her bathrobe at 1:30? I am sure I was a sight trying to explain that I had just burnt my lunch. Mollie Jane says "That was awesome Mommy" when I walked back inside and Baby Smith slept through all that noise and ruckus once again. I think it was after that 24 hour period I was done being a single Mom and realized probably no one could love me or put up with my serious flaws besides sweet Jason. I think it will be important for my kids to know as the read this lovely entry years from now that their Mom functions much better when their Dad is around.

Friday, October 09, 2009

Boy Do I need Help!


We have gone 5 weekends and 4 weeks with Jason gone. We are pumped for his return. I have decided that I need help. I don't know what I would have done without help from so many precious family and friends these past several weeks. Our dear friends the Frechs have been awesome to help me out with the kids several times and offering support. Jason's sweet sister Jill has a ton on her plate, a new baby due in November, a million people to see while she was in town, the cutest truckload (literally) of precious gifts to pack up, moving stress, etc... and she came down for a day to help me out. Then there are my parents, where do I start. My Mom came down to help me out for a week. They have so much going on these next several weeks (of course my Mom down plays all they have going on). Mom cleaned and carted the kids around and cooked some great meals. It was a big treat for this busy Mom and kids to go out to some fun dinners and lunches. I was so grateful that I was able to work many days while she was here. We were so sad to see her leave but understood she had to go. The day after she got home she had a huge party at her house. Then a week after that she and my Dad left to go on their "retirement trip of a lifetime" to Africa for 3 weeks. I am sure her life would have been way less stressful if she would have just stayed home and got herself ready. But in my Mom and Dad's typical servant fashion, they helped me out. My precious sister flew in from Washington DC with my sweet 7 month old niece to also help. She and my Mom's flights overlapped so we all got to have lunch together. My sister was left with four children way too many times to count while I worked. She handled the chaos like a pro. She also cleaned up a storm and hauled a literal truckload of brush out of my backyard. We almost had to figure out how to work the lawnmower but thankfully awesome Troy & Devon from our church came and mowed. My Dad said when he heard our "backyard overhaul" that he was sure that the "Glass women had never worked that hard." He might have been right. My sister did some serious manual labor. Jackson had so much fun as my sister and Mom both brought McDonald's lunch up to school on different days. They both got to see his school and meet the famous "Mr. Beckman." I was very said to see my sister go. I felt that our roles were reversed while she was here and she was "my big sister" bailing me out and giving me some much needed morale support. Our sweet neighbors, Paul and Cindy Teas, watched the kids for me so I could go work and then have taken Jackson to school several days for me. What a blessing they are and how lucky we are that they so genuinely love my kids. "Aunt Nat" and "Aunt Shawna" as my kids affectionately call them have been so gracious to call and keep me sane and grounded. They also watched the kids so I could work. The sweet Flannery family treated us all to a fun crazy night at Chuck E Cheese. My dear friend Emily who has four children (a set of 7 month twins) is hounding me, trying to help us out. Seriously, she is so busy and I am touched that she actually is trying to make time to help us out. My sweet friend Melissa is also hounding me and has a more than full plate as well but seemed determined also to help out our crazy family.
All that to say.... I think we have officially made it. We have had a few bumps along the way these last four and a half weeks. I am overwhelmed with the support system of family and friends that we have.
I have to remind myself the main purpose of blogging is so that my children someday have an account of our crazy but fun life we lead. So I guess, I want them to know how grateful I am for those individuals who love and support us. It is my prayer that we continue to spend time with these amazing friends and family members and that their "servant-like" attitudes will rub off on my children. It is my goal as a mom that my children learn what it is like to serve others and to learn gratefulness when they have been served. I have truly been served these past several weeks and I am soooo grateful.