Let me just say (not for the first time and probably not for the last) I cannot imagine being a single mom. Brian has been gone for training in LA for almost two weeks. I'm not sure who misses who the most. Brian has been so sad without his boys and daughter (and wife, he assures me). He keeps asking me how the kids (still feels really weird not to say "the boys") are changing and is worried they will "be different kids" when he returns. He talks to them 2-3 times each day. The boys also miss him a bunch. Jake has been keeping a calendar on our blackboard and "x"ing one day off each night. There were a lot of distractions, however. My mom was here to help for the entire time (Thank you from the bottom of my heart, Ma!), then all my sisters came to visit for a long weekend. Aunt Kiri stayed on for another 3 days and, baseball fan and "Boy Mom Extraordinare" that she is, she entertained Jake immensely. Tanner just keeps repeating "Dada! Dada!" loudly and often, especially when he notices Brian's car out front or when he sees my cell phone. Faith, obviously, is still too young to notice, but let me tell ya... I NOTICE, especially at 12, 3, and 5AM when she wants to eat and I am the only one to get up with her! (To be fair, my mom has been WONDERFUL and has taken her quite a bit in the wee hours, but it's just not the same as having Brian here to do the duty!). I have never been without him for this long- in our six years together. It has definitely been a challenge and I miss him like crazy. So, it's a toss up. He misses us; we miss him. All I know is that we are all counting the hours until our family is together again and remembering how blessed we are to only have had to do two weeks apart.
Tanner and Jake. Brothers. Boys. They are both just a mess right now. Tanner fell, not once, not twice, but three times over Easter Weekend. He is now sporting a large bump on the noggin', scrapes and cuts on his nose, ear and lip, and the last vestiges on the splinter infestation on his legs and feet. Jake has various scrapes, cuts and bruises and currently sports no less that three bandaids on various fingers. My point is this, they are boys, they fall down, they get scrapes, they get cuts. I realize that Marisa is in a foriegn land here and doesn't understand how the male mind works, so I am going to lay down some education here for the female readers.
Scars are how men (and boys) measure life. If you don't have scars, it means that you are not trying hard enough. If you can jump down from the fifth step and not get hurt, then it goes without saying that you HAVE to try from the sixth! If you can ride down the street at breakneck speed and make it unscathed, then of course you need to see if you can do it with no hands, duh! There is no failure (or sucess) that can't be measured with damaged flesh in the world of boys.
The boys are just being boys. They love their little sister and maybe Faith can help Marisa just realize that they are boys and that's how they do things. See this scar here on my elbow? This is from when I got thrown off the horse when I was five. This scar on my leg? This is when I fell out of the tree.......
As you can see....Easter...big friggin deal at the Alan household. Hidden Springs holds it's own Easter Egg hunt for the kids in the community. The photo above is of the hunt just for the toddlers/preschoolers. There were four other hunts about this size (50 or so kids) as well, scattered throughout the community. Both of the boys had a very good time. The weather was amazing, temps into the mid 80's, adding the element of MELTED easter chocolate to the festivities as the eggs were laid out in the meadow beforehand in the sun.
It is so interesting to see how you fall on the parental spectrum....from one end, the parents who were griping that the hunt was supposed to start at 2:30 and it was 2:32 for pete's sake...as well as the starter, who refused to give the go ahead until the two children (preshoolers mind you!) who were on the lawn moved back to the sidewalk...to the other end, the parents who apparently didn't follow the logic thru that if you brought 12 eggs per child to be hidden that was how many you should take, and who also didn't listen to the aforementioned starter lady, who said (via megaphone) to try to limit your child to his/her 12 eggs so that everyone could find some and left with their kids holding buckets that had to have 30-40 eggs in them. We watched it all with amusement: Jake got his 12 eggs, Tanner was happy just picking up discarded pieces of other kids eggs, so we just let him have his fun.
There were treats galore and Jake got to see the Easter Bunny. We decided not to subject Tanner to the Easter Bunny as he is just getting over his Santa Claus trauma. A good time was had by all. BUT, BUT, BUT...
Of course this was not enough. We also had to have an Easter Egg hunt at our house the next day. There were presents (from the Easter Bunny known as "Grandma Mary" and "Auntie Sue"), more eggs (MANY more than the allotment of 12 from the prior day) and more candy as well. We took a picture of Jakes candy bowl (not dish...bowl) and I debated posting that... but to be honest, it makes me feel like a bad parent.....Happy Easter.
Faith is one month old already, she just had her first Easter, she is starting to stay awake more often and seems more alert, she is growing up ALREADY!
She is doing really well. She is starting to sleep in stretches more (3-4 hours at a time at night now), which is making things a little easier on Marisa. I have the late shift and the early shift and Marisa gets the in between at night. She passes the time watching TV shows on DVD in the bonus room while she feeds Faith, I watch ESPN news (thank god it's baseball season!)
I am still trying to adjust to a little girl. The diaper gets wet in a totally different place and when I go to clean her up, there is still a pause while I get the logistics straightened out, but she has truly found a place in our lives, hearts, and home. She is well loved by her brothers and is the hit of all the visitors to the house. Both Nikko and Shannon were just here and I think they were as taken in by her as we are.
Happy one month b-day Faith (or "Fafey" as Jake calls her). Slow down, don't grow up so fast....there's really no rush....
