Growing Up

Today, I am officially a mom. I have been considering a lot today the moment one actually becomes one. A mom that is. Its true, when my son was born I became his mother. But it wasn’t until today I officially became his mom.

I sent my baby to his first day of school. Pre-school, actually. And for only 3 hours. But I sent him away none the less. And it wasn’t anything like I expected.

I expected him to be excited about dressing up in his brand new clothes for school.

He wasn’t.

I expected him to miss me (even just a little)

He didn’t. In fact, he couldn’t leave me at the door fast enough.

I expected there to be a few tears. (From me, not him). But I managed to keep it together.

And I expected him to be the cutest little (almost) 4 year old there…

(Well…, I guess ONE thing was EXACTLY as I expected!) How did I get so lucky to have such a handsome little boy???

I also expected to be excited about the three hours of afternoon peace and quiet I had planned for myself. (I had myself a delicious broccoli cheese bread bowl at Panera, and window shopped at Home Goods.)

But the truth is…I missed my little Buddy. Even though I would have ordered him lunch at Panera and he wouldn’t have eaten three bites. And he would have begged incessantly at Home Goods to get out of the cart and play with the toys. But I missed that too.

When I picked him up, I asked him what he did in preschool today. Here are just a few of the things he told me:

“I just went on a bear hunt, and played and played and played, and had fun!”

“I sang songs and danced, and played with my friends.”

When I asked him what his favorite part of preschool was he responded:

“Washing my hands! I touched my shoes, and they are dirty, so I had to wash my hands. And then we had a snack. I had milk, and a granola bar, and just some cookies!”

He also told me they read “Brown Bear, Brown Bear”, and he has been singing “The cat came back the very next day…” all afternoon.

So its official. I am a mom. A school mom.

The boy had a fantastic time, and can’t wait to go back again tomorrow.

I miss him already.

Interruption and 3 stories

I interrupt my ruminations to share a little story. A sad story. And a sweet story. And then maybe, to make my sister laugh, a funny story.

SAD STORY:

My sister and her husband have a dog. Mocha. She is a large, (I mean large) chocolate lab with the bluest eyes you’ve ever seen. I remember meeting her for the first time when she was a puppy. She could make a dog lover out of anyone.

Last night Mocha was outside jumping and barking at some of the neighbor dogs. All of a sudden the barking stopped and the yelping started. And their sweet dog dragged herself back into the house…because her back legs wouldn’t move.

They (Mocha’s parents) immediately called the emergency vet and took her in. They think that Mocha was jumping up in the backyard by the fence. By the fence where she has worn a compacted trail of snow. And that snow has been freezing and melting and freezing again. And it is now ice. So they think she was jumping up and when she was trying to land, slipped, and landed on her back.

The x-rays showed no broken bones. But they think the trauma has caused swelling and compression on her spinal cord. Ibuprofen and steroids might take the swelling down and give Mocha the use of her legs back. it might not. And if THAT is the case, (as in, the medicines don’t help) well……

So right now it’s a “wait and see”. So we’ll see. Poor Mocha. (and poor Ed and Rachel.)

Hang in there.

SWEET STORY:

I was talking with my sister and Miles overheard me talking about Mocha and picked up that she was hurt. After I hung up the phone he asked me.

“Mommy…Mocha okay?”

“No, Mocha has an owie.”

“Why?”

“She slipped on the ice and hurt her back, and now she can’t run and jump and play.”

“Oh…Mommy…I know…Mocha needs a go a doctor.”

“Yes, they took her to a doctor. But sometimes doctors can’t fix all of the owies.”

“Oh…Mommy…I know! I haf a say a pwayer! yeah…I say a pwayer, then Mocha be happy.”

Oh my…he is just the sweetest little thing.

I love you Ed and Rachel and Mocha…

STORY TO MAKE MY SISTER LAUGH:

He is a sweet little bugger. (emphasis on the bugger.)

Yesterday we were playing in the living room and he knocked over our guitar hero guitar, and it landed sharply on the top of my foot. It HURT!! but I only cried a little. I “played it up” and pretended to be hurt.

Miles: “uh-oh…sorry mom. I kiss it better.”

Mom: Thanks, I feel better.

Miles: No mom, you need a doctor. I know!!! I a doctor! I go get my tools!

And this is how he returned…

Sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words

P.S.

…I exclaimed “ a saw??!! you’re going to saw my foot?!”

He thought about it. very mischievously. for about one whole minute. then said “Ok mom, but just for pretend.”

Gee. Thanks.

P.P.S. I almost peed my pants. It was THAT funny.

Cowboy Butts

Drive Me Nuts!

Especially when it belongs to my little skinny-bummed 3 year old.

Just a smattering of what my little cowboy is saying these days:

Mom: Miles…who’s your best friend?

Miles: Um…DADDY!!!

Mom: What about Mom? Is she your best friend too?

Miles: Nooooooo mom. You a GIRL!!

Driving in the car yesterday, I had to turn down the music, because I heard this coming from the back seat.

Miles: twees(trees), fwowers, pumpkins, more twees, wabbits, mommy, daddy, pwe-school, my tweats (treats), my cowboy shoes, elephants, monkeys, gorillas, my undies dwy (dry), I wuv seals, I wuv giraffes, I wuv polar bears…..

and on and on and on he went. So I finally asked him why he was saying all those words. And he replied with the OBVIOUS…

“MOM! I’m FANKFUL!!!!!!!”

(Oh…Of course that’s what he meant. How could I not have known???!!!)

Turns out they talked about Thanksgiving at Pre-school, and those are all of the things he is Thankful for. I am also especially grateful for his dry undies. :)

Mom: Miles, eat your dinner so you’ll be big and strong like Daddy.

Miles: No…not wike Daddy…big wike Josh and Joey! (some of his buddies from our ward)

And the classic:

Mom: Miles…what do you want for lunch?

Miles: Not Poop! That’s Yucky! No…that’s GWOSS!!!

Who knew the boy loved cows?

Several weeks ago I started doing a little preschool for Miles everyday at home. Our first unit was all about the short "a" sound, as in apple. So we learned about Allie the Alligator, Johnny Appleseed, did some fun apple stamping crafts, and read all kinds of fun books. One of my favorite books from that unit was called "How To Make an Apple Pie and See the World," by Marjorie Priceman. The premise of the book is that a little girl heads to the market to buy the ingredients for an apple pie...only the market is closed. So she sets out on an adventure around the world gathering the ingredients she needs. And Miles' favorite part of the story was when she headed to Vermont to milk a cow. (The milk is then churned into butter...in case you were wondering.)

So tonight, I was starting our bed time routine. Story was read, prayer was said, and he asked for a drink of milk before bed. I obliged and brought him his little cup. And then Oh MY OH MY!!! I never expected such a meltdown. Over something as silly as a glass of milk.

After some serious time spent calming the little guy down, he was finally able to articulate why he was so upset.

"No mom...I wanted to milk my own cow!!!"

Oh, he is just the cutest little thing. But there's just one problem.....

I found myself promising I would actually take him to milk a cow. Seriously. I think I am in BIG trouble. BIG BIG trouble. Where in the world am I going to get a cow?

Halloweeeeeeeeen

Happy Halloween!

From Woody, (who REA LLY wanted to be Buzz Lightyear), and the rest of the Romer clan.
We hit up the ward Trunk or Treat last night. Our conversation on the way home went something like this:

Mom: Hey Miles, are you going to share some of your candy with Mom?

Miles: No.

Mom: Please??

Miles: No. Not EVER! NEVER,NEVER,NEVER,NEVER!

The kid is wise beyond his years. He knew if he only said “never, never” I would still try to swipe some chocolatey goodness out of his basket. but FOUR "never"s.....and I knew he meant business.

If you happen to be in the neighborhood, go ahead and swing on by. We'll be giving out some ALL of these:

This just happens to be my most favorite score from Rite-Aid of ALL TIME!!! My husband doubted me. He said it was impossible. But then I showed him this….

You see that? You see all those zeros? Well, that’s because I paid ZERO dollars and ZERO cents for 60 KING SIZE CANDY BARS!! WOWZERS!

I’m sure the parents on my street will just be thrilled!!

Just now I told Miles we could go to the neighbors house to show off his costume, and they would probably give him some more candy.

Then I said… “Are you spoiled or WHAT!???”

Miles responded with a resounding “WHAT!!!!”

Silly boy.

Happy Halloween!!!

CORRECTION:

*****It was pointed out to me by my loving husband that, in fact, not ALL 60 candybars were completely free. I DID, afterall, spend $0.95 cents on a slew of coupons to buy my candy. So, it was more like I bought one candy bar for 95 cents, and then got 59 for free. My apologies!

Also...my astute cousin pointed out to me that there were in fact, NOT 60 candy bars pictured. And I admit, Mike did take several to work with him for the other residents on-call tonight. As for the other missing candy, I can neither confirm or deny their disappearance into my fridge, freezer, belly, and other various hiding spots around my home. :)*****

Secrets

Miles and I have a little bed time routine. After the bathing and the teeth brushing, the pajama wearing and the story telling, the song singing (Rocky Mountain High, and Country Road are his current faves) and the praying, and finally the hugging and the kissing, I usually lean over and tell Miles I have a “secret”.

Then he whispers back “Mom..what’s your secret?” But it sounds more like “Mom wat you secet?”

And I whisper “I LOVE YOU!!!”

He thinks its great. Our bedtime routine pretty much goes like that every night. So you can imagine my surprise tonight when he beat me to the punch. After hugs and kisses, he grabbed my cheeks with his little hands, brushed my hair back from my ear and whispered:

“Mom…I haf a secet”

So I whispered “You do? What is it?” (already starting to get choked up. Hearing my little guy tell me he loves me in his soft whisper voice gets me every time.)

And then he sweetly whispered back “Mom……I want to go to Chucky Cheeses.”

Oh, he kills me.

And because every post needs a picture (or 7), I thought I would share why it is nearly IMPOSSIBLE for me to update my Etsy shop. Miles, just channeling his inner Mr. T.

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For those of you who have been waiting…(all 3 of you!), I have a SLEW of new products to list. Soon. I’m getting there. I promise.

I’m Twee!

Oh, this boy of mine. I could just eat him up. I can’t hold him enough. I can’t hug him enough. I can’t kiss him enough. There are just not enough hours in the day.

It’s a pretty big day for my little man. But I’ll let him tell you himself.

That’s right. My little munchkin is Three. And he’s pretty darn excited about it.

I am astounded at how much he has learned and progressed this year. Some days I wish I could stop the hands of the clock from tick tocking the time away. But mostly, I am trying to enjoy every single second of my time with this sweet as can be little boy. Because he won’t be little much longer.

I want to remember his silly knock knock jokes

I want to remember his “mean” face, when he exclaims “Mommy, we Pirates! ARGH!”

I never want to forget the way he exclaims “HI FWIEND!!”, to everyone we pass.

Sometimes I wish I could stop that clock. But mostly I feel so blessed to be sharing that time with this child of mine. I never dreamed he would teach me so much about life and love. I never dreamed it would be from him the Lord would teach me patience, charity, and selflessness.

If I could keep him here, just like this, forever, I don’t think I would. I love this stage of life we are enjoying together, but I am excited about the new experiences the future holds for him and for me. Because every year…It just keeps getting better.

Love you little man

Happy Birthday!

Conversations with Miles

I recently got myself a J-O-B. As in a paying gig. Heaven knows I do more than my fair share of work here at home, sans paycheck.

When I officially accepted the position, Mike said "Congratulations! Are you so excited you can go and talk to adults?"

Ummmmm. No.

Why would I want to talk to adults when I get days and days full of gems like these?:


Miles: "Hey Mom, knock knock....who's there...Mommy Womer (Romer), that's who!!! Ha ha mom. I so funny!"

During prayers last night after "Bless Nana and Papa", he said "and puhwease bless Papa's golf balls."
Seriously. So Dad, if you get a hole in one...you know who to thank.

At the store while I was checking out:

Miles: "Hey mom, I have mem mem's puh-wease!!! (M&M's please)
Mom: No, not right now. But thank you for asking nicely
Miles: Mom...you want Miles be happy?
Mom: yes...I want you to be happy
Miles: Okay. 'cause mem mems make me SO SO Happy!!

With phrases like this, you can't blame me for preferring to talk to the little guy.

By George, I think we’ve got….uhhhh…..Never Mind

I sat down this afternoon to write. Write a REAL post. Like, with real words, and real sentences, and real paragraphs. It’s been awhile since I’ve done that.

So, like I said, I sat down to write a post. One I know you would have been ENTHRALLED in reading. Because it was all about the amazing bladder and bowel control my son has been exhibiting.

I know what you are thinking.

“Did she just say ‘BOWEL CONTROL’ on her BLOG??!!”

Enthralling, No?

But Seriously…I have been so proud. And I was just thinking as I had finished my post, how glad I was that diapers were behind us, and Buzz and Woody undies riddled his dresser drawers.

I should have known better.

At that precise moment, I looked out my window to see Miles playing baseball with some of the neighborhood boys. And there he was, running the bases in his khaki shorts, with the not-so-inconspicuous evidence of a little boy who enjoys running the bases more than going inside to use the potty. He really didn’t even mind. In fact, I don’t think I have ever seen a happier child playing ball whilst his shorts were the opposite of dry.

There was nothing I could do but to

DELETEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

And that is what happened to my original post.

(But, in his defense, this was the only accident in several days.)

So I think it’s still safe to say:

By George, I think we’ve got it!!

En Vogue

Fashionable Hair Accessories

A MUST for every little.....boy?

hmmm....not sure how his dad will feel about this. But personally, I have been laughing about it all day.

Randomness

Naughty chair time, Nap time, or Potty time?

Trick question. It’s all three. Miles fell asleep while on time-out. He also pooped in his diaper before he fell asleep. But I wasn’t surprised because he ALWAYS goes #2 when he is relegated to the naughty chair. ALWAYS. I think its his way of getting back at me.

The little guy is also very mindful of my camera. He loves the darn thing. And now he has perfected his very own, trademarked, Zoolander like, model pose. When seeing a photograph of himself tickles his fancy, he climbs up to the table, strikes his pose, and say’s “Mom….Cheese!” Then he just sits there and waits patiently while I click away.

After an 8 month break, I finally sat down at my sewing machine. It seems everyone in my ward is having a baby. I have had 3 baby showers in the last 2 weeks. So I have been digging into my scrap piles and have been whipping up some soft, minky, blankey goodness. Currently working on 3 more of these…but for boys.

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This was a custom order for a little girl’s birthday, and I LOVE it. If only I had a little girl to wear it. But I don’t, so I have to live vicariously through everyone else. This watch band will soon be available in single and double stranded bracelets in a variety of colors in the Shop. They would make a perfect addition to a little girls Easter basket, if you ask me!